Chapter 136

Seo-jun was receiving the most intense attention among all the participants appearing on LOS.

He had shown off Kael’s 4-second Judgment Sword and Eric’s insane prediction shots, but these plays hadn’t received much attention.

More precisely, while they had attracted momentary interest, people simply thought “oh, he’s that good” or “that’s possible” and moved on.

However, the situation changed when another issue was added to that skill level.

Synchronization rate 10.

This number, which Seo-jun had casually revealed just to put people down, had created a much bigger impact than expected and became a long-lasting topic of discussion.

The reason was simple.

Generally, people’s synchronization rates average around 60, distributed between 50 and 70.

So ‘generally speaking,’ everyone acknowledges that synchronization rates don’t make bad skills good or good skills bad.

Furthermore, at least up to between 80 and 90, they consider the influence to exist but be minimal.

But what about 100?

Of course, there are bronze users overseas with rates over 100, so it’s not absolute, but it’s established theory that extremely high synchronization rates almost always mean good performance.

They adapt quickly, learn fast, and build proficiency. They climb to higher places. They enter the world of professionals more easily.

That’s right.

Absolutely high synchronization rates are considered to have great meaning. It’s just that there are so few of them.

That’s why there had been people curious about Seo-jun’s synchronization rate from the beginning.

Wondering if it might be that high.

But when they looked, it was exactly the opposite.

Moreover, it was a case that had never appeared before.

An extremely low number.

[10?! 10?! Is this even a possible number?]

It made sense.

There was even evidence.

But people who saw it and still couldn’t believe it even inquired with Surface.

Of course.

[He said he can’t reveal it.]

Personal information was precious.

So they started trying to figure out if Seo-jun had any reason to lie about having a low synchronization rate.

For attention?

He’d already become a successful streamer with 20,000 viewers watching, so if he stirred up controversy here and it turned out to be a lie, he’d only suffer losses. He wasn’t someone with nothing to lose.

Looking at how streamers with a lot to lose had still caused incidents and accidents until now, it was proven that humans aren’t rational beings.

But LeagueCommunity users thought Seo-jun wouldn’t be unaware of even that.

Outright lying to gather attention was a completely different level of problem.

So the opinion that Seo-jun was just trolling remained voiced by only a minority.

Then what was left?

A lot.

The synchronization rate uselessness theory.

[Actually, even if it’s extremely low at 10, maybe there’s no big difference?]

-Even with good and bad capsules right now, you can feel the reverse effect, but you’re saying 10 would be fine?

-For real, if it’s this low it’s definitely significant

It was completely destroyed.

[Then is it time to bring up the Seo-jun trash theory?]

-Warning) This hypothesis disappeared after getting hit by the 4-second Judgment Sword.

-Does the Heavenly Demon look like a weakling to you?

└Wow, weakling!

-Yeah, even League Challenger Spoon lost

It was completely destroyed.

And the next theory emerged.

The real-world levitation theory.

[This bastard probably really flies around in real life, right? Like literally lol in virtual reality he can’t fly around because his synchronization rate is low]

It was a hypothesis made somewhat meaningless by Spoon’s random nonsense, but you could sort of understand what it meant.

To put it simply, ‘He could show even crazier movements in real life, and what we’ve seen so far was the weakened version!’

This had some merit to it.

-With a rate of 10, it’s possible

-He really might have lived in some organization…

-Ah LOL he’s a murim person lmao

-Shouldn’t we have made him an athlete? Seems like a national loss

There was someone who said the right answer.

But neither the person who wrote that comment nor the countless people who glimpsed it while scrolling knew it was the truth.

So they fell into a mystery.

How exactly someone with synchronization rate 10 like Seo-jun played games, how he was so good, and exactly how much it affected his performance.

Three days wasn’t long enough to find answers to all those questions.

And the management team, considering this, placed Seo-jun, who had drawn so much attention, first in the lineup.

And.

[Not buying.]

[Probably better not to buy.]

That’s how Ha Yoon-ho and Tae-woo ended up speaking simultaneously.

-LOL

-Are friends mercilessly trashing him? Lmao

-They’re not buying the streamer?

-If it’s Tae-woo, he’s probably sick of getting beaten up at home by the room leader! This is certain

-For real lol I installed CCTV in their house and he’s always getting beaten up

* * *

Tae-woo had answered Navigator’s question immediately, then realized someone had answered at the same time and quickly looked to see who it was.

Ha Yoon-ho.

The two quickly exchanged thoughts. And grasped each other’s intentions.

‘You too, hyung?’

‘Yeah, me too.’

The two grinned.

And Tae-woo sent a private message to Ha Yoon-ho.

The fact that this entire process took less than a second would have surprised Seo-jun if he’d known.

-I’ll handle the personal stuff. Hyung, you go ahead with what you prepared about his skills as planned

-Got it

Anyway, since only faces showed in the current video chat, probably not many people would catch this process.

While there wasn’t a problem, stealth was still key to this kind of scheming.

That’s right.

Scheming.

‘I didn’t know hyung would also target him, but for now we need to cooperate.’

Unfortunately, it couldn’t be helped.

Navigator spoke.

[Ah! We got immediate responses. From both of you! Seo-jun’s current position is mid and his group is A. Could I ask what aspects concern you? Kim Tae-woo-nim first. I think most viewers know you and the player are close friends. Why wouldn’t you buy such a close friend?]

As expected.

Tae-woo erased the list of Seo-jun’s skill weaknesses he’d prepared in his mind. Ha Yoon-ho would say that.

They’d agreed on that. In less than a second.

What he had to do now was agitation and fabrication.

This pre-tournament show, currently watched by 200,000 people on just the official account, was a place to share the team captains’ thoughts.

To use for tomorrow’s auction.

So he became bold.

[It’s precisely because of that reason.]

[Pardon?]

[Well, since we’re friends, there are various memories I know that make me hesitate to pick Seo-jun for the team.]

Their goal.

Trash Seo-jun as much as possible to reduce competition.

Cases of saying you won’t buy and then buying happen often anyway, so no matter how much he criticized now, it didn’t matter.

‘Criticizing might be a bit dangerous though.’

Anyway.

‘What should I talk about.’

There was plenty to say. Because Seo-jun was such a weird guy.

Tae-woo recalled his memories and decided to talk about how Seo-jun had behaved during the school sports competition.

[I see. Could you tell us a little about what that is?]

[In our first year of high school, there was an inter-class competition. Back then, Seo-jun acted like he had no concept of teamwork. You know how we all practice together during PE class or in the morning? He didn’t participate in the games at all.]

Actually, Seo-jun hadn’t participated because he’d win for sure if he joined anyway.

Instead, he’d said he would teach them, but anyway, this could be seen as lacking teamwork.

[Ah, I see?]

[On top of that, he’s good at playing politics. He divides teams well and tries to manipulate them as he pleases.]

Seo-jun, who had watched games from outside and coached, had figured out who made mistakes in each game and informed all the class friends about these facts to convince them.

And he’d taken only that friend to the Room of Spirit and Time after school.

And when the sports competition ended later, they realized.

That Seo-jun had somehow found bullshit excuses to take each of them there at least once!

[Hahaha……]

[His personality is also dogmatic. He insists he’s always right!]

Actually, Seo-jun was always right.

Thanks to that training and guidance, their class had won the sports competition championship.

‘It was fun.’

Memories came flooding back.

Their class friends had united thanks to Seo-jun as their common enemy.

They’d built camaraderie and cooperation.

‘Now that I think about it, maybe I romanticized the past a bit. Fun, my ass.’

Physical pain is easily forgotten, leaving only the intense memory of victory.

Anyway, what mattered was that their team had won.

That’s why Seo-jun should be bought.

[Viewers, please keep in mind that even though this looks like badmouthing a participant, these two are close friends who even live together. This level of intensity isn’t really anything, right?]

Navigator added appropriate additional explanation.

[Now. Then we can’t help but hear from Ha Yoon-ho-nim as well.]

* * *

-This is so like Tae-woo lol

-He’s definitely buying him, right?

-What roommate and classmate says lol the credibility is solid!

-But would he really have no teamwork? Lol. He wouldn’t act like that in official competitions

-We’ll know if it was bullshit or sincere when we see tomorrow’s auction lmao

Ha Yoon-ho briefly cleared his throat.

If Tae-woo had scattered useless information, he needed to properly trash him.

‘Even if just the two of us compete, I don’t know how high it’ll go, but anyway it’s better to exclude other competitors as much as possible.’

Ha Yoon-ho had known from the start that Tae-woo was targeting him.

[I think it’s a bit ambiguous, to be precise.]

[Is that so?]

[Yes. In the friendly match I held a few days ago, Seo-jun-nim beat Spoon-nim but couldn’t win the game. There weren’t additional kills in laning either. It wasn’t overwhelming. Moreover, for the past three days, he’s only played the same two heroes he’d done before.]

Seo-jun had intentionally only played two heroes to appear meaningful. Of course, there was also the advantage of reduced strategy exposure.

And Ha Yoon-ho brought this up.

[One thing LOS requires from A-tiers is playmaking. Leading games to victory and creating reversals, that sort of thing.]

[You’re saying he lacks proof in league matches!]

[Yes. And his synchronization rate is too low. There might be other heroes he can’t play well. Right now, not knowing how it’ll work out, I think Seo-jun-nim has risk.]

[Ah. That aspect definitely can’t be ignored, can it?]

[Of course, if he didn’t have these risks, I think he definitely could have been top merchandise even among A-tiers. Up to 500 points even.]

Each team captain is given 1,000 points minus the average bid price for team captains.

Ha Yoon-ho therefore had the most ammunition. Of course, since the auction merchandise order was randomly determined, point situations would vary depending on circumstances.

[Then at what price would you go for him?]

[If it’s within 200 points, I think I’d try for him once too.]

[I see. Then shall we hear other team captains’ opinions? Rain-nim! How did it sound to you, Rain-nim?]

Streamer Rain was one of two female streamers among the six team captains.

[Huh? Oh. Ah. He’s really handsome.]

[……]

[Ah! I don’t mean anything else, I was just genuinely impressed. Looking at the photo, I couldn’t help myself.]

[……]

[Um, my main position is also mid, you know? So I probably won’t have a chance to pick Seo-jun-nim, so I didn’t really think… Navigator-nim? Why aren’t you answering? Navigator-nim?]

-…

-Wait, where did I put my spear?

-Looking for people to raid Seo-jun’s room

-He really keeps making us feel deprived

-Damn, I just hate the world now

[I suddenly hate the world too…… Hehe. Then how about you, Mental-nim?]

Navigator regained his smile and spoke, and Mental, a late-30s corporate streamer of the same E-grade as Ha Yoon-ho, replied with his indifferent voice.

[Uh…… Um…… Yeah. I guess I was the only one planning to buy him?]

[What?]

[Don’t we absolutely have to buy him?]

[Oh my!]

Navigator’s energy went up as he got the reaction he’d expected.

Mental was a team captain who, unlike other team captains who modified strategies according to auction situations, made many impulsive decisions based on instinct.

He also often bought merchandise he’d fixated on at tremendous prices.

So there was a saying that the auction’s biggest variable wasn’t the merchandise order but Mental’s intuition.

And he had picked Seo-jun.

[Are you serious?]

[Haha. Everyone saying they won’t buy him made me feel even more certain. I think we definitely need to bring Seo-jun to our team.]

[I see!]

-Mental-hyung… is this kid the next victim? LOL

-Why does he get more certain when everyone says they won’t buy lmao

-This is insane

-You can’t break Mental’s stubbornness, give up

-He’s in his 40s, so he might be stubborn!

-He’s late 30s but you’re casually fabricating lol

With the declaration of participation from the variable incarnate, Tae-woo maintained his composure outwardly with effort.

‘Shit. I went through all that trouble setting up the stage, but why did that hyung have to bite! Then how much will I have to spend tomorrow.’

Meanwhile, Ha Yoon-ho resolved inwardly.

‘Right. Whatever it costs, let’s give it a shot.’