Chapter 68

Mid-point check.

The trends of each faction so far, which rankers had been defeated and what had happened.

What would happen going forward.

It was content where they invited notable figures to wait until 10 o’clock when rankings would be revealed, discussing how things would unfold from here.

Seo-jun turned on Navigator’s broadcast and pinned it to his screen.

He was getting skilled at the settings now.

Some viewers were even praising him for this.

It felt good for no reason.

[Now, yesterday the orthodox faction and unorthodox faction just threw light jabs at each other. Things will get more interesting from here on. The rankers have probably built up a decent amount of fame by now. The ammunition is ready!]

Currently, Navigator was making small talk before starting.

[Of course, people trying to get into the top 16 will still carefully consider which battlefield to fight on. Hehe.]

From Navigator’s mouth came the reason why he’d met some mid-level rankers a few times but hadn’t encountered any masters within the top 50.

Of course, just because each victory was important to them didn’t mean they wouldn’t join their respective factions’ strategies.

That would have been boring.

For the Murim had no culture of trying to win cheaply.

This too seemed to be helped by the fact that everyone was acquainted if you went back one connection.

[Anyway, you all know there’s a special reason I turned on the broadcast today, right? That’s because contribution rankings will be revealed today! People seem really curious about it right now…]

The main topic came up immediately. Enough viewers had gathered.

Who would take first place in contribution was just as important as which faction would win!

The ranking showed the top 200 people.

And after the ranking came out, the regions where those ranked people were playing their games would be revealed to everyone.

Interference would intensify and many upheavals would occur.

But no matter how much change happened, the person most likely to become the final victor was still the current first place.

[So today I’ve invited two people. First, OnlyOneWon-nim, who posted the fame estimation table on No-Honor!]

-Welcome

-It’s OnlyOneWon

-That beggar looks well-dressed in real life lol

-Don’t tell me he’s actually popular

-With that face, wouldn’t he be popular?

-Why T_T the streamer is also a loner

-You believe that? lol

[Hello, this is OnlyOneWon.]

[Yes, hello. Thank you for coming on.]

[Rather, thank you for inviting me.]

Currently, they were in Navigator’s studio.

OnlyOneWon’s real appearance was revealed.

“Everyone, what kind of person is he?”

It was Seo-jun’s first time seeing OnlyOneWon.

-Like Navigator, he’s a regular person who’s good at analysis

-He’s a notable figure

-He’s also a ranker but not enough to aim for top 16

-The brains of the orthodox faction

With the help of collective intelligence, Seo-jun learned about OnlyOneWon and focused on the broadcast again.

[OnlyOneWon-nim received the most recommendations among the fame estimation tables posted this morning.]

[Oh, really?]

[Yes. I think it’s probably because you wrote down all the detailed reasons for your estimates. As expected, people who play games well also analyze well.]

[Thank you.]

[Still, there’s no way there wouldn’t be opposing opinions, right? Not everyone can think the same way.]

[That’s right. What is it?]

[Oh, you don’t know? OnlyOneWon-nim, do you not read the comments on your posts?]

[No.]

[Why not?]

[If I’m not going to argue in the comments or try to persuade anyone, it’s more comfortable not to read them.]

[Ah, so you’re saying you just toss out your post to start a fire and then step back from that blaze? This is completely irresponsible pleasure…]

-LOL

-Hearing the explanation, he really is a bad guy lmao

-Huh? Come to think of it, the streamer’s Grand Master controversy also started with OnlyOneWon…

-Was he the culprit? Scary

Navigator was keeping the broadcast alive through witty banter and skilled hosting.

[Irresponsible pleasure, you say. If there’s a problem, I’ll immediately take down the post and write an apology.]

[I see. Then please continue enjoying that pleasure.]

[……]

[So what OnlyOneWon-nim received the most criticism for was this.]

[Yes.]

[It was about Heavenly Demon14.]

[Oh, really?]

Seo-jun was startled when his story suddenly came up.

It was an unexpected hook.

-Nice! Being mentioned on a live stream with 80,000 viewers!

-The streamer is world-class! The streamer is world-class! The streamer is world-class! The streamer is world-class! The streamer is world-class!

-OnlyOneWon ranked the streamer as first place

[Yes. Putting Heavenly Demon14-nim in first place was fine, but the main criticism was that the gap with second place was too large.]

[I see.]

[Actually, anyone who makes it into the rankings probably hasn’t lost once and would have obviously collected bonuses too.]

[Hmm. But do I really have to refute this? I’ll just accept that I was wrong…]

-Lmao the embodiment of “you’re right when you refute me”

-Look at him living life so comfortably

-Wise

-Is that why he chose beggar? Maybe all the fierce competition in the secular world is just meaningless

-True lol

Seo-jun’s face, small in the bottom left corner of the screen filled with Navigator’s stream, also bobbed up and down.

He nodded, thinking the analyst was smart.

[Ah, the comments are calling this contentment with poverty. Is this the dignity of Beggar’s Sect?]

[Hehe. Thank you.]

[Still, please tell us once. The reason I brought you here would disappear if you don’t.]

[Hmm.]

[What’s the reason you set the fame difference with second place so high, excluding consecutive win bonuses!]

[Well, first I’d like to lightly mention that Heavenly… I mean, Seo-jun-nim’s way of playing conquest battles is unique.]

[Yes.]

[It’s a playstyle that other rankers who need to recover stamina, internal energy, and health can’t easily do. Blocking at the entrance.]

[Ah! So you’re saying the demonic cult is advantageous?]

[Hmm…]

[Yes! Got it.]

-Master of hosting lol

-Almost put the guest in a difficult position

-Phew

-OnlyOneWon doesn’t say the demonic cult is good. He really only tells the truth lol

-Completely opposite of someone else selling drugs somewhere

[Now let’s call our next guest! This person is the representative one who said OnlyOneWon-nim was wrong. Heavenly Killing Star-nim!]

It was a nickname he’d heard somewhere.

Heavenly Killing Star was the star that governed death, and though someone who chose Heavenly Demon as his nickname shouldn’t talk, it was quite chuunibyou.

Seo-jun could only pull the identity from his memory after seeing the chat.

-Oh, a super master is coming on

-Not an analyst but he was first place in the last battlefield

-Wow Navigator’s connections

-Crazy

[Yes. As some of you may know, Heavenly Killing Star-nim is the former Champion!]

People called the person with first place in battlefield contribution the Champion until the next battlefield opened.

[In the last battlefield, he earned that position with truly outstanding skill and incredible sniping.]

Incredible sniping.

Incidentally, after rankings were revealed, sniping ability was one of the important qualities due to a system that actively encouraged sniping.

Sniping that involved bribing enemy team members was condemned though.

Of course, this wasn’t completely nonexistent either, they said.

[Heavenly Killing Star-nim, who do you expect will be highest?]

[Obviously…]

Seo-jun listened with interest to the words that followed.

The words of the last battlefield’s first place were worth that.

He would know about countless competitors Seo-jun didn’t know about and approximate numbers, and would have experience accumulated over several years.

Most importantly, unlike Seo-jun, he would know roughly his own fame amount.

[The highest person will be me. Not that streamer who chose the wrong role playing concept.]

Hmm.

Did he get his hopes up for nothing?

-???

-He’s provoking

-This is getting really interesting lol

-Trash talking begins

-Curious how the streamer will react

-His expression looks calm though?

Seo-jun just watched without saying much.

[Gasp! A wrong role playing concept, you say. Please refrain from provocations.]

[Haha. Sorry. But Heavenly Demon is bound to be the wrong concept.]

[Huh? Why?]

[Originally, when you say Heavenly Demon, it refers to someone who’s at the highest place and is like the strongest boss, right?]

[Yes, that’s right.]

[But from today, the start of real competition, he’ll lose to me right from the beginning, so how can he use the name Heavenly Demon? Don’t you think so?]

[Ah…]

He had a point.

If the Heavenly Demon loses, he’s not the Heavenly Demon.

Seo-jun giggled, thinking of the Heavenly Demon from his previous life.

But when he laughed, the viewers seemed to think differently.

-Gasp, the host seems pissed

-Crazy

-That laugh isn’t a real laugh

-Going straight to duel application????

-I’m scared…

-So cold.

Separate from his room’s people misunderstanding, Navigator’s chat room was laughing since this level of provocation always happened.

[Hahaha! Is that so?]

[Yes.]

[You seem confident?]

[If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have come on this show.]

[I want to state once again that Heavenly Killing Star-nim’s remarks have nothing to do with me.]

Navigator laughed and OnlyOneWon on the left shook his head.

The two seemed to be friends.

[Now then, before hearing Heavenly Killing Star-nim’s reasoning, let me first briefly explain fame to our viewers.]

Fame served as a system that matched people with similar high numbers together in games.

However, since those layers weren’t thick and uniform, it was impossible for only people of similar skill with lots of accumulated fame to be matched together.

So while sniping would be somewhat easier, anyway, at least this point wasn’t important in battlefields.

[The really important reason fame matters is that you can get attack points and contribution equal to that number, right OnlyOneWon-nim?]

[That’s correct.]

The number of Korean users who participated in battlefields even once approached 300,000, they said.

But the number of users who participated diligently every day was roughly 10,000 per faction. About 10% of the total.

This might feel small.

But these 30,000 people were users who came into capsules without fail every day for 21 days and played four games.

Virtual reality games had far more users than PC times and concurrent users increased.

But it didn’t grow proportionally to the increased user count.

The reason was that the fatigue from the game itself was much higher than PC times.

Accessibility was also lower.

‘Thanks to that, the streaming market for vicarious satisfaction grew tremendously.’

In this context, 30,000 core users was a sufficiently high number.

But more than half of these couldn’t even get the fame that rankers earned in a single day.

Fame gained from doing your part in one game was 30.

Assuming a 50% win rate.

The fame gained from winning 18 out of 36 games over the past 9 days was 540.

Of course, if you got lucky and won consecutively sometimes, more would accumulate.

[The consecutive win system settles and resets daily, and increases by 4 times starting from 2 consecutive wins. For example, with just 2 consecutive wins you get 50 fame before starting the next day, and with 4 consecutive wins you get an additional 200 for 250 fame total the next day.]

[Everyone will get this, so there’s no difference.]

[Yes. It’ll change tomorrow since tomorrow is another day when farming fame through consecutive wins is possible, but that’s how it is currently.]

[So the most important thing that creates the difference is the fame settled after games end.]

OnlyOneWon and Navigator’s conversation flowed smoothly.

It seemed prepared in advance.

-Clean explanation lol

-So that was the mechanism. I didn’t know

-You can live fine without knowing. Look at our streamer

-Typical case of the body being good so the brain gets to be lazy lol

-True lol