Chapter 43

Shin Ha-yeon.

He had a connection with her before.

Though it wasn’t exactly a good connection.

‘I didn’t expect her to notice.’

Actually, he knew she’d probably figure it out to some extent.

But since he thought there was no possibility of meeting her in real life, he just provoked her that one time.

But then.

“When’s your next examination scheduled?”

“Probably the same day next month? Regular checkups are once a month.”

“I see. Thanks for letting me know.”

If there’s a chance they’ll meet, he should avoid it.

“Why do you ask?”

“Just something.”

“I see. But why did you come here, hyung? Sure, you’re better skilled than me, but we come here because we spend so much time in capsules for work. You don’t stream for very long either.”

A streamer is just a regular person.

What business would there be to come to a research center, not even a hospital?

Lee Dong-soo had asked about this reason earlier, but Oh Ji-hye had blocked him.

“Hmm, I’ll tell you later. Let’s eat first.”

He’s hungry.

“Sounds good. I know a delicious place nearby. Can I recommend it?”

“Sure.”

“I’ve come to this Korea University area often because of the research center. I know the good restaurants… Oh. You went to Korea University, right, hyung?”

The research center was built near Korea University.

Lee Dong-soo looked embarrassed, and Seo-jun nodded.

“Haha. Still, this will probably be your first time at this place, hyung?”

“I guess so. But by any chance, is the place we’re going for food a lamb skewer restaurant?”

“Ah.”

* * *

Seo-jun explained the situation to Lee Dong-soo.

Starting from the story about his low synchronization rate to the fact that he was aiming for LOS, a streamer tournament.

“Wow. You have that kind of story? No, goal? Anyway, I had no idea you had something like that. Amazing. To definitely participate in the tournament, you need more viewers, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Hyung, then For the Murim was also targeting this timing? Crazy, that gives me goosebumps.”

Lee Dong-soo said this while watching the lamb skewers rotating according to the grill moving left and right.

“What are you talking about? By the way, did you watch yesterday’s stream?”

Seo-jun asked with a surprised expression.

“Of course. I always catch up through archives if nothing else. I’ve donated a few times too.”

He has that much free time, huh.

And donations?

“What’s your Travel ID?”

Seo-jun became curious about Lee Dong-soo’s activities.

Wouldn’t resentment build up when he gets beaten up like that every morning?

“Uh… that’s a secret.”

“I’ll give you VIP role in my channel.”

On Travel, streamers can give VIP status to a few special viewers.

Usually, they give VIP to fellow streamers since giving it to regular viewers could create an appearance of discrimination.

VIP allows chatting without being affected by chat modes (like slow mode, subscriber-only chat, follower-only chat).

And during streams, VIPs appear at the top of the viewer classification, making it easy to check if they’re watching during the broadcast.

“No, I don’t want it. You’re trying to investigate me, aren’t you?”

Lee Dong-soo opened his eyes slyly, and Seo-jun felt disappointed.

Sharp instincts.

“How did you know?”

“I don’t get caught that easily. Hehe. So hyung, choosing For the Murim as your second game was because of the battlefield, right? That’s really crazy.”

Lee Dong-soo pulled out one fully cooked lamb skewer and used chopsticks to push the meat off.

Seo-jun followed suit and removed the meat.

“Battlefield?”

“Yes.”

“What’s that?”

“Yes…?”

“What is this ‘battlefield’?”

“You don’t know about the battlefield?”

“No.”

“Yet you’re playing For the Murim?”

Seo-jun calmly ate his meat while Lee Dong-soo momentarily looked incredulous before recalling Seo-jun’s past streams.

Looking at his track record so far.

It’s entirely plausible!

Lee Dong-soo, who understood instantly, started thinking.

“Ah, you wouldn’t have known. The thing is, starting today, For the Murim is opening an event called the battlefield, and it’s incredibly popular.”

“Really?”

“Basically, during the period when the battlefield is open, almost all For the Murim users’ attention is focused on it. Even users from other games show interest.”

“To that extent?”

“Yes, it runs for the next three weeks, but anyway, during the time when the battlefield is open, whatever you do won’t draw much attention unless you participate in the battlefield.”

Hedidn’t know this.

Seo-jun thought while dipping his lamb in spices.

“Then conversely, if you perform well in the battlefield, attention would be focused there?”

“That’s right.”

“So what exactly is this battlefield?”

“The battlefield is, well, simply put, it’s a game mode where each faction fights over territory. The faction occupying land with higher scores when the period ends wins.”

“Higher scores?”

“Yes, not all land has the same value. Anyway, it gets complicated if we go into details. I don’t know much either since I’ve never really participated.”

Seo-jun fell into contemplation after hearing this.

The battlefield starting today.

‘Was this why Eve Paymo recommended For the Murim?’

The timing was perfect.

If Seo-jun participated in the battlefield, that is.

“Oh. And you can build contribution points in the battlefield, and the top 16 get invited to an official tournament hosted by MovieSoft, so people’s attention focuses on them.”

“Hmm, top 16…”

Seo-jun fell into contemplation.

If he didn’t participate in the battlefield, it would go against his goal of maximizing viewer count before LOS opened.

Based on Lee Dong-soo’s explanation alone, it would be better to look for a different game.

But on the other hand, if he participated in the battlefield and didn’t achieve significant results?

It might be better not to participate at all.

From what he heard, it seemed like a short-term large-scale competitive content, and probably the competition and ranking among individual users as well as factions would be intense.

Considering that his current broadcasting concept and greatest asset was his skill, this kind of content where rankings were directly and intuitively assigned to individuals was troublesome.

If he was going to do it, he had to be the best.

‘Even just listening, it sounds fierce…’

Lee Dong-soo opened his phone and entered a chat room while Seo-jun was contemplating.

[BanditKing]: Is it very hard to get into the top 16 in the battlefield?

[OnlyOneWon]: Yeah, it’s ridiculous. You need to plan strategies well, have luck, and most importantly, the rankers manipulate matchmaking lol

[NamgungFamilyWaitress]: It is difficult

[OnlyOneWon]: Why, are you doing the battlefield too?

[NamgungFamilyWaitress]: Bandit, you should come to the orthodox faction too lol

[OnlyOneWon]: Lmao

[BanditKing]: Then what do you need to do to get into the top 16?

[OnlyOneWon]: You have to be fucking good. Honestly, if you have that, strategy and everything else follows.

[BanditKing]: I see. Thanks

Lee Dong-soo closed the chat room.

And he thought.

Was Seo-jun’s skill at the level of ‘fucking good’ that OnlyOneWon mentioned?

The answer was.

Yes.

“I think you could do it with your skill, hyung?”

He was someone who beat Shin Ha-yeon and showed incredible skill!

When he didn’t know about the low synchronization rate, he had seriously thought about appealing to the coach somehow to scout him.

Even though he wasn’t the team owner.

“I don’t know though.”

But Seo-jun’s answer was unexpected.

“It might be different if it were purely sword skill competition, but it’s a game.”

“Ah, really?”

Seo-jun was confident he could never lose even once if all games were like Training Hall.

But most games had countless factors beyond sword skill that determined victory, and if he faced people who utilized these to their limits while he only knew them superficially, that gap in sword skill might be bridged.

The example that came to mind was Shin Ha-yeon from seven years ago.

‘That’s why it was fun though.’

Of course, he had never lost.

At least, that’s what he thought.

Anyway! The battlefield seemed like it would be very troublesome.

It would be better to choose a different game…

“Then you’re not doing it? That’s too bad, it seemed like it would be fun. In the last event tournament, I think the winner got 30 million won in prize money?”

…Decision made.

He should try participating once.

There’s no need to avoid it anyway.

“Let’s hurry up and finish eating.”

It’s definitely not because of the prize money.

* * *

-Hello~

-Hi!!!

-Seo-jun, hiii~~

-Is this that unknown’s room?

-Greetings

As soon as Seo-jun started streaming, the viewer count instantly surpassed 2,000.

The viewer count kept climbing steadily, and despite the black screen, countless people’s chats streamed by.

‘They said the influence from Training Hall would continue until today.’

Seo-jun waited for a moment, then turned on the screen and greeted everyone.

“Hello, everyone.”

-Hi hi

-Hello Seo-jun!

-Hello hello

-??? Something seems different?

-Not reality?

-Seems like it

-The streamer is sitting in a chair right now anyway

-Don’t tell me it’s a PC game???

People noticed immediately.

“Yes, that’s right. This is my room.”

Seo-jun slightly moved his chair to the side so the computer camera could film the back area.

Though there was only a bed visible in front of the computer camera.

Seo-jun moved his chair back into the screen and spoke.

“I’m starting here today. I’ll begin For the Murim in a bit.”

-Communication? Too good

-Can’t resist real chat

-Let’s play PC games!

[‘SoWhat’ donated 5,000 won!]

[What are you going to do in reality?]

-For real, just leave the lobby lol

-Obviously PC games

-Kick out the PC addicts! Mods!

“Thank you for the donation, SoWhat. You asked a good question.”

Seo-jun paused briefly and adjusted the streaming screen.

The cam video that had filled the screen shrank and moved to the bottom right, and the computer screen appeared on the streaming display.

“That’s right, it’s a roulette.”

On the screen was a roulette site that commonly appeared when searching for roulettes in browsers.

-???

-What are you trying to do

-The streamer isn’t usually like this…

-Gasp! Gambling addiction

-Deciding faction?

Seo-jun read the chat and chuckled.

“No. Not gambling addiction. And I’m not deciding faction either. I already decided on my faction.”

-???

-Oppa always does this. We’re breaking up!

-I still haven’t forgotten the trauma of skipping Christina’s quest. You never know what will happen when the streamer does whatever he wants

-Was that even traumatic enough to call it trauma lol

-Reflect the viewers’ opinions! Reflect them!

-Why are you deciding your faction however you want?

Seo-jun read through the chat with a pleased smile.

Fortunately, the viewers played along well.

It was worth being arbitrary all the time.

“Anyway, everyone, I’m thinking of participating in the battlefield.”

-So?

-Are there any For the Murim streamers who don’t do the battlefield lol

-Didn’t you obviously know about it?

Unfortunately, he hadn’t.

But after coming home, he had gathered information about the battlefield.

And the more he learned, the more the battlefield seemed like an attractive event.

It seemed fun. Probably would have participated even without prize money.

‘If it works out, good. If not, whatever.’

Somehow the prize money had been pushed to the back.

“It’s not that, but I’m thinking of making promises while doing the battlefield. Wouldn’t that be fun?”

So Seo-jun was thinking of adding another element of fun to his broadcast.

-What promises?

-Suddenly?

-Yeah, it would be fun

-What’s the content

“I’m going to decide the content with you all from now on.”

There were many possible promise contents.

It could be related to faction rankings, or set according to individual contribution rankings.

Occupying a certain region by the end, or making a faction quit.

Anyway, there were various options.

-Hmm, what would be good?

-Leaving this kind of thing to us lol

-Then you brought the roulette to decide promises?

“The roulette is for deciding the penalty if I fail the promise.”

Because penalties are naturally essential for promises.

But then.

Even though they hadn’t decided on promises yet, opinions started pouring out.

-Penalty? Lol. You’re screwed

-My mouth is watering at the word penalty lmao

-Let’s make him use cat speech for a month

-Bald head experience incoming lol

-Crossdressing and going to clubs to film reactions

-How about wearing a magical girl costume and dancing in front of the main gate of the university the streamer attends? What do you think?

Seo-jun’s eyes, which had never flinched even in countless brutal battlefields of his previous life, trembled slightly for a moment.

Maybe he shouldn’t do this.

He seemed to have underestimated the viewers too much.