The Veteran Swordmaster’s Stream (Novel) - Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Lee Dong-soo finished running for thirty minutes and walked over to the director.

“Dong-soo.”

“Yes.”

“I will tell you what you need to be careful of when sparring. Sparring is strictly to check your skills and improve your abilities, not to knock down your opponent.”

Dong-soo looked up at the director and thought.

If he had been born in the past, he would have definitely been a bandit leader.

“……So, make sure to show respect and don’t get excited. You shouldn’t go all out either. Huh? Are you listening?”

“Ah? Yes. Of course.”

Actually, he did not hear a single thing.

‘Well, I can just think of it as a practice match.’

Although Lee Dong-soo was still young, he possessed sportsmanship fitting for a professional athlete.

Though he occasionally had childish thoughts.

“Now then, let’s start once those two over there finish. In the meantime, it would be good for you to think about the techniques you want to practice in sparring beforehand. Although you haven’t learned much yet.”

“Yes, I understand!”

“Alright, good!”

The director ruffled Lee Dong-soo’s hair and said.

“But have you decided who you will spar with?”

The martial arts athletes who attended this place also liked games.

After virtual reality games came out, the field of combat sports was predicted to be the first to die out, but as the popularity of virtual reality rose, a phenomenon occurred where the popularity of combat sports rose along with it.

The battles in games with flashy skills and the primitive, blood-splattering battles of reality were complementary goods rather than substitutes.

And above all, virtual reality games were simply fun for combat sports athletes as well.

Therefore, Lee Dong-soo could not help but be popular within the gym.

Among men, a guy who was simply good at games was a god.

But an 18-year-old pro gamer with great sociability who sat in the second place in the world for the most popular game?

It was harder not to become close.

So the director did not particularly worry.

“Decide without pressure. Everyone will go easy on you.”

In sparring, the opponent was more important than anything else.

If the opponent did not coordinate properly, one might get nothing out of sparring, and the risk of injury was also high.

And what if the opponent had much higher skills and a nasty personality?

Bam! Bam!

Sparring was in full swing in the direction they were looking.

The director watched contentedly and gave a resigned smile.

Jin Seo-jun.

That crazy bastard had come after a long time and was thoroughly crushing a green sprout.

‘He came to relieve stress again. I told them to just avoid him.’

Watching the rookie, who was once full of confidence to make his professional debut soon, get toyed with by Seo-jun, the director recalled the past.

He should have realized it when a handsome high school student, who looked exactly like his father, trotted up and spouted nonsense unsuited for his face, saying, ‘Please teach me modern martial arts.’

That he was a crazy bastard.

If Lee Dong-soo was a cute younger brother whom the athletes wanted to play around with, then that guy was indeed…

A nettle.

The director nodded to himself, thinking that he had found an extremely appropriate metaphor.

If you touch him, you get stung. With a natural talent whose origin was unknown.

No, even if you just stay still, he comes over and stings you himself.

Today alone, he had come after a long time, and instead of exercising as he was supposed to, he had loitered around the athletes and given uninvited advice, eventually getting into a fight with an ignorant rookie.

‘The guys who knew better should have stopped him. That bastard Seo-jun doesn’t know moderation.’

The director glared at the other athletes who had not stopped the rookie.

They were looking at the ring with excited eyes, as if watching a fire across the river.

‘I’ll have to comfort him a bit today.’

The director let out a sigh and turned to look beside him.

And seeing Lee Dong-soo’s gaze fixed on Seo-jun, he began to feel a sense of anxiety.

Not that.

‘You won’t gain anything even if you get beaten up by him.’

No matter how much Seo-jun gave uninvited advice and toyed with others with his outstanding skills, there was only one reason why they did not kick him out of the gym.

It was because, strangely, the performances of the athletes who accepted his advice improved.

‘It’s not because that bastard Seo-jun’s father is a pushover who registered his entire family at the gym, nor is it to bring that guy into this world someday.’

Yes. That was right.

Come to think of it, didn’t even a nettle have poisonous thorns on its stems and leaves, but once the poisonous thorns were removed, it became a plant rich in nutrients and versatile in uses?

To the athletes, Seo-jun was a useful existence.

But to the current Lee Dong-soo, Seo-jun was simply the nettle itself. A raw state with its thorns not yet removed.

Although that bastard Seo-jun knew the line and had never picked on other ordinary people besides the athletes first, that was strictly when he wasn’t provoked first.

“Can’t I do it with that hyung?”

In the end, the words that should never have come out of Lee Dong-soo’s mouth did.

The director deliberately averted his eyes and pointed at someone else.

“Ah, that hyung?”

The director spoke in a voice like a crawling ant.

“No. Where are you pointing? It’s completely different.”

Lee Dong-soo scratched his head in embarrassment.

“Just that hyung sparring over there. I’m seeing him for the first time, so is it rude if I ask him?”

“Uh! That’s right. That is a truly rude and unreasonable request. Let’s ask a hyung you know. Or I can just do it for you.”

It had been a long time since he had even held the mitts, and now he was about to end up sparring.

The director let out a sigh of relief inwardly, thinking it was still a relief.

Meanwhile, Lee Dong-soo felt a deep sense of regret.

Because even Shin Ha-yeon had admired that streamer named Jin Seo-jun after watching his video.

‘For Min-hyun hyung to make such a fuss and Ha-yeon nuna to admire him to that extent?’

Lee Dong-soo could not accept this.

In any case, he was planning to install Dawn of the Assassins this afternoon and replicate Seo-jun’s play exactly.

It was because Park Min-hyun was a teammate he acknowledged, and Shin Ha-yeon was an object of admiration for him.

The very fact that they acknowledged someone else was displeasing to him.

Yet, to miss the chance to personally suppress his opponent in reality like this, without even needing to play the game.

“Well, it can’t be helped.”

Since they say it’s rude.

“Then please do it, director.”

Lee Dong-soo quickly shook off his feelings and prepared for sparring, extending the movements he had learned for two weeks.

The director smiled warmly, brought the protective gear, and corrected his posture.

The heartwarming atmosphere continued.

Until that guy came, that is.

Someone approached them.

Recognizing his identity, the director let out a groan and looked up at the ring.

The rookie stared into space with a dazed look, as if in shock.

And the terrifying guy took off his headgear with a calm and indifferent face, looking as though he had not even broken a sweat.

“Hi. I heard what you said earlier, do you want to spar with me?”

The director could hear the sound of his plan to secure a pro gamer customer base through Lee Dong-soo crumbling.

“Oh? I’d love to. You’re Seo-jun hyung, right?”

“How did you know my name?”

“I watched your stream. Ah, it’s okay if I call you hyung, right?”

Seo-jun did not know the influence of the joint stream would be this much. For someone to recognize him immediately.

“Well, sure.”

“What about resting?”

“Let’s do it right away.”

The two went up to the ring.

“But hyung, you’re good at the game, though not as good as me.”

“Right. But… who are you?”

Lee Dong-soo provoked Seo-jun.

However, it did not have much of an effect on Seo-jun. It was because he did not even know who Lee Dong-soo was in the first place.

Though he wouldn’t have thought much of it even if he had known.

Lee Dong-soo was momentarily shocked and wondered if Seo-jun had counter-provoked him, but he burned with fighting spirit as he reminded himself of the fact that Seo-jun had only started the game three days ago.

“I will tell you after I win. You will probably consider it an honor later.”

“Okay. Then, here I come?”

Seo-jun threw a jab at the same time he finished speaking, and Lee Dong-soo thought as a punch slammed into his face.

‘You said we had to show respect in sparring…’

Thud!

That day.

Dawn of the Assassins was added to the game library of Lee Dong-soo, who realized that it was impossible in reality.

***

Seo-jun and his father, Jin Ha-jun, were returning home from the gym together.

The two lived next door to each other, precisely in Ha-jun’s building.

The reason was because of his wife, who wanted to hold onto her son who was trying to become independent as soon as he became an adult.

The two found a compromise, and it eventually concluded with Ha-jun offering the next-door apartment at half price.

Naturally, the opinion of Ha-jun, the landlord, was not reflected.

“Seo-jun, you should have gone easy on him earlier. Looking at his body, he seemed like an ordinary person.”

Just how many athletes had his son made quit up until now?

He was cold-hearted indeed.

“It’s fine. Seeing how he stepped, he was as talented as a decent combat sports athlete, so he must be in the middle of building up his body.”

In the end, Lee Dong-soo was unable to reveal to Seo-jun that he was a professional gamer.

“Is that so? Is the stream going well?”

“Yes.”

“Your dad, well, since they say it’s safe now, I don’t oppose it fiercely like your mom does. But isn’t streaming not doing very well?”

Ha-jun had heard from Tae-woo.

That for a streamer starting out for the first time, it was difficult to secure even a single viewer.

“If your dad were to give you a tip, try playing Stellarcraft. Lately, PC games are gaining popularity again, so you can grab that blue ocean. What do you think?”

For reference, Ha-jun was a diedie PC gamer.

It was not that he recommended it because he feared it would be dangerous if his son used the capsule.

And it was even less true that PC games were gaining popularity.

“Is that really popular?”

“Ah, whatever. So, how many people are watching you?”

“Well, the last time I checked, it was 440 people. Probably if I turn on the stream today…”

Ha-jun was surprised by the fact that there were 440 viewers.

“Since I have 3,000 followers, I think at least 1,500 people will come in.”

“Cough.”

Ha-jun spat out the coffee he was drinking at the number which was much higher than expected.

“Why is it so high?”

“Well, I was lucky.”

Seo-jun’s number of followers had increased to 1,000 immediately after finishing the joint stream.

Considering it was originally in the 400s, it had doubled.

However, Lee Su-han extracted only the core parts and uploaded the video as an iTube Short,

and as that Short video rose to 15th place on the trending videos in the game category, Seo-jun’s follower count rose by another 2,000 people.

It was a clear demonstration of iTube’s influence.

“Just how lucky were you… You didn’t attract people’s attention by doing something bizarre, did you? If you did, your mom will take away your capsule immediately.”

Ha-jun trembled.

“Do you think I would do that?”

“Well, that’s true, but…”

Still, wasn’t 3,000 people too much for someone who had just started not long ago?

***

One thousand people was actually the minimum that Seo-jun and Tae-woo had anticipated.

Before starting the stream, Seo-jun opened the community for a moment.

Due to the aftermath of yesterday’s joint stream, the community was occupied all day by posts related to him and Alpaca.

Seo-jun set the timeframe to the beginning of the joint stream and began to look through.

[About Seo-jun, who is appearing now]

[About the grain appearing on Alpaca’s stream right now.]

[The greatest sucker of all time who bet 250,000 points on real-time 1% lololol]

-Blew away years’ worth of memories just like that, what an idiot lolol

-Real beast’s heart

-It’s JoAm lololol

– (best) If that hits, I will grill and eat meat in the middle of Myeongdong on Christmas Eve.

└Isn’t this an old best comment pledge? The person who said they would sing next to you and the person who said they would play the tambourine, come out quickly.

└I’ll sing the song.

└I shall take charge of the tambourine.

Seo-jun scrolled down to check the replies uploaded after time had passed.

└??????????????? Why did it actually hit? Why????

└Don’t delete your comment.

└Guys, I think we are screwed.

└Someone made 25 million points, but someone else is about to do a humiliation play in Myeongdong lolol

[Richard Neville Matchless Strategy Guide]

-(best) Oh? lol If you analyze the video and try it a few times, you’ll probably break the armor and catch Richard in no time?

└ + Just came back from trying it, succeeded in breaking the armor on my 10th attempt but my head was split open by Richard immediately after. Give up on that.

└Which means Seo-jun challenged it on his first try and destroyed all of them in one go?

└That’s why it makes no sense, seriously. Wait, but why am I the best comment?

└You got taxidermied.

[What on earth is the grain that there’s even an exclusive skill for it?]

[Someone who will catch a Ruler instead of me and check?]

[How did Seo-jun find the grain? It seriously makes no sense]

[Flex Warning) The owner of the real-time 25 million points (is me lolol)]

[Spot Weakness Unlock Condition Prediction]

[Ah fuck, Seo-jun is fucking handsome. Unfollowed immediately.]

Every single one of them was a post that had received more than 30 upvotes.

Posts criticizing Seo-jun for his lack of popularity no longer appeared.

At least within this community, the majority of people had come to know Seo-jun.

However.

-lololol Seo-jun, look at this

Following the link sent by Tae-woo, a post that had received downvotes and had been blinded (hidden) was visible.

When Seo-jun clicked to view the content.

[Why Streamer Seo-jun is a Hack User]

Although it was written seriously and at length, the summary was that the reason for seeing the grain during the stream was inaccurate, and no other person who could see it had appeared.

It was a claim that Seo-jun was at least a game developer associate or a hacker.

Of course, it had received a bomb of downvotes as it made no sense and the content of the post was hidden, but checking the link sent by Tae-woo, he could confirm that a few more posts with a similar tone had been uploaded.

Seo-jun burst out laughing.

‘Yeah, once you get famous, you’ll get criticized for other things~.’

Because he remembered Tae-woo’s words saying that.

And on second thought, the idea of being a game associate seemed somewhat plausible.

Seo-jun smiled as he logged into the Dawn of the Assassins homepage, submitted a self-report, and entered the capsule.

And after writing the stream title, he started streaming.

[I. Have turned myself in.]

‘Does this mean I’m doing an explanation stream only three days into streaming?’

It was a silly thought.

Since it was not an actual explanation stream.

‘How many people will come in?’

The corners of Seo-jun’s mouth crept up in anticipation.

[Viewers: 400]

Not even a few seconds had passed since it started, but 400 people had already entered.

[Viewers: 700]

[Viewers: 1,300]

[Viewers: 1,500]

Had about a minute passed?

Looking at the numbers that easily exceeded the minimum he and Tae-woo had anticipated in an instant, and the chat window scrolling up rapidly, Seo-jun greeted.

“Teu-ha. Hello.”