A Swordsman's Stream

Chapter 120

Oh Jihye, the director of the Surface R&D center, was attentively observing the screen.

On the main monitor, she could see Sojun’s gameplay within the prime-quality capsule located a few meters away.

Next to it, another monitor was collecting Sojun’s physical responses in real-time.

These data points were recorded and sent to her whenever Sojun played games from the capsule at his home.

“Of course.”

When a user showed abnormal physical reactions, Surface was designed to detect it instantly.

For those who agreed to help create safer capsules, data would also be collected.

However, there was one person who had no choice but to hand over their data: Sojun.

Naturally, Oh Jihye didn’t have to check Sojun’s data personally.

“Anyway, if anything even slightly problematic happens, I’ll be informed.”

Despite that, she checked Sojun’s data daily.

Safety was partly a reason, but the primary motivation was pure curiosity.

“Truly fascinating.”

Sojun was currently engaged in a testing program known as a combat simulator.

The creator was her.

Sojun was confronting virtual opponents from all sides.

The program aimed to observe physical responses to the myriad of situations that could arise during combat.

Many virtual reality games involved direct physical combat.

Hence, she thought, why not design a program to replicate combat situations and see how one reacts rather than perform other exercises?

And she was amazed.

“Once again, it’s the best rating.”

Other reactions were not bad.

Numerous bodily metrics were at appropriate levels, and several brain wave responses were good compared to synchronization rate.

However, the in-game response time from noticing an attack to countering it was different.

『Response time: Best』

The figure that emerged could only occur in someone whose real-world reflexes were in the top 0.01%, who also had a high synchronization rate to transmit such reflexes without loss.

It was unlikely for Sojun, whose synchronization rate was low.

The standard was set such that if a person with low synchronization rate moved and blocked an attack as soon as they saw it, only then would they achieve the ‘best’ ranking; hence, it was physically improbable.

Yet, ‘best’ appeared.

“Let’s just verify it’s working properly one last time.”

Oh Jihye turned off the combat patterns by typing on the keyboard.

This simulator operated according to specific patterns.

The sole purpose of the patterns was to create complex, numerous situations while generating combat scenarios suitable for user reactions.

Oh Jihye disabled the patterns, and as randomness took over, the combat situation began to degrade.

Naturally. Every possible attack emerged randomly without context.

It wasn’t necessarily hard or easy; it was chaotic.

While it was challenging to witness a proper reaction, it had to be done this way against Sojun.

Oh Jihye turned off the program and awaited Sojun’s emergence while checking the final metrics.

『Response time: Great』

That was Sojun’s actual response time.

This figure, too, was near impossible given Sojun’s synchronization rate, indicating Sojun was utilizing his body with extreme efficiency.

Moreover, it meant his real-world physical specs were exceptionally outstanding.

So, what was the ‘best’ rating from before?

As Sojun emerged from the capsule, Oh Jihye spoke.

“Great job today. No anomalies detected in your body, and I lost once more. You know, you won, right?”

“Absolutely.”

It was because the pattern had been read.

In essence, Sojun wasn’t reacting after seeing; he had moved in advance, allowing the ‘best’ rating.

‘While the pattern serves a purpose, there must be intention.’

To divine the next attack with so many possibilities!

Even Oh Jihye, who simply provided the formula, couldn’t predict the outcome and just left the computation to the machine. Yet, the prediction was made.

She couldn’t help but admire it.

“Now, I’ll have to update the patterns again! Need to add more, significantly more variables.”

This was a subtle competition between Sojun and Oh Jihye.

Until now, no one besides Sojun had predicted the next attack, negating the need for updates.

Nonetheless, Oh Jihye, always updating, was quite competitive.

Sojun, too, had a non-conceding nature.

“Director, there are no other issues, right?”

“No.”

Oh Jihye, reviewing Sojun’s data daily, replied.

As mentioned, it wasn’t because of safety.

By observing when brain waves were emitted during gameplay, she could determine if a reaction was predictive or reactive, which she was curious about.

Sojun’s nearly foresight-like predictions!

In the past, aware of this talent, Oh Jihye had wished for Sojun to return to this world.

The problem was the cost.

‘He seemed to have prize money before, and his home seemed comfortable.’

Being able to purchase and actually purchasing were distinctly different.

Hence, she had baited a lure.

And Oh Jihye was confident.

She was sure that once he re-entered, he wouldn’t want to leave.

Her prediction was accurate, leaving Oh Jihye satisfied that pushing him was worthwhile.

“Ah, Sojun-nim. The announcement for the LoS participation application will be posted today.”

She had asked if Sojun could make it today for this reason.

“Today, huh?”

“Yes, and with your current viewer count, you might be guaranteed participation? Congrats!”

Oh Jihye was acquainted with a LoS official and planned to directly recommend Sojun unless he caused trouble during streaming.

Considering his past, they would certainly take interest.

Yet, he became successful as a streamer, removing the need for movement.

“Thank you.”

“But you know winning won’t be easy, right? Since it’s a team game.”

“Yeah, I know. I’ve tried it before.”

“Right. So here’s a tip: Try to hide a bit of your strength until the team is formed.”

“Huh? Why?”

Sojun displayed a puzzled expression.

“In LoS, the team leader forms the team by auctioning team members. But your likelihood of being a team leader is low, Sojun-nim.”

“Yes.”

Team leaders were chosen among longtime streamers with high recognition and complex dynamics.

Being relatively new, Sojun would be a last resort for the organizers to assign as a team leader.

“So you’ll probably be auctioned as an asset. In the past, those assets would try hard to boost their value.”

“Being acknowledged is nice, after all.”

“Yes, but people realized there was a big problem with being auctioned high right after the first tournament.”

The issue being the team leader’s points to auction other team members would be reduced, limiting their choices.

“The more expensive I am, the lower the chance of other expensive assets joining the team, right?”

“Yes, exactly. That’s why everyone tries to lower their worth. Just a bit of masking should be beneficial for you, Sojun-nim.”

Upon reflection, though, Sojun seemed unlikely to care.

His response left Oh Jihye incredulous, laughing helplessly.

“Yes, you see, I have the habit of revealing only 30% of my power, so it’ll be fine.”

“Doesn’t seem like it at all. Ah, and when will you reveal your gaming past? I’m curious.”

“Well, I wasn’t that famous. If you think about it, it was an initial period anyway.”

“You’d be surprised how many actually know! Much more than you think?”

“No way.”

Having prepared for streaming, Sojun was about to press the start button when he hit the back button instead.

He navigated to Travel.

Within there was the category for The League.

〈The League〉 – 1.185 million viewers

Over a million, nearly 4% viewership equivalent.

A mere streaming platform’s category matching the ratings of top variety shows indicates its substantial influence.

Unsurprisingly, numerous streamers flocked to this category.

“I heard there are easily ten thousand streamers, just by count?”

Moreover, major corporations frequently had multiple streams running.

Mid-sized companies were always densely packed as a standard.

The ecosystem was such.

The more viewers, the more streamers—a fiercely competitive ecosystem.

At last, Sojun was stepping into it.

He set the streaming category and pressed Start.

『Streaming has started』

-Soha
-sh
-Is the streamer here
-sh

Reflexively quick viewers who clicked upon receiving a notification quickly chatted greetings.

“Hello, nice to meet you all. Yes, today is The League.”

-New game ooo
-Wonder what kind of trolling he’ll show us today hahaha
-Rookie is gonna mess it all up
-If he gets Support, he’ll probably take all the minions for himself hahahahahaha
-No no, he’ll abandon his lane and wander to the wrong place

Spoiler-filled chatter surfaced.

However, this time he wasn’t a true newbie.

Thus, Sojun declared,

“Everyone, I’ve studied. I even chose a nickname already!”

Sojun launched The League.

-This isn’t right!
-Why do you keep making important decisions on your own?
-lol Streamers are supposed to use a roulette
-Is it Heavenly Demon? Tell me it’s Heavenly Demon?
-I’m so curious about what name you picked hahaha

He initially considered consulting the viewers about what to name himself.

After all, choosing a nickname was the hardest task!

This was a chance to employ the power of collective intelligence!

Then Han Jimin contacted him while he was checking his email yesterday.

Someone had purchased a League nickname for Sojun.

‘Wasn’t it 1 million won?’

Grateful, Sojun had checked and liked the nickname, so he entered the game after contacting them.

Acquiring a nickname was straightforward.

The moment the owner changed to another nickname, you create an ID using that name.

Thus obtained was,
『Sword God』

-Rare name… indeed?
-Whoa! Sword God!
-You bought it?
-How much does something like that cost hahaha
-Did you betray the Orthodox! You scoundrel!

Sojun immediately corrected himself—not regarding betrayal of the Orthodox.

“It wasn’t a purchase, a viewer kindly gifted it, so I decided to use it. Thank you again to the gifter.”

-Ah…
-You members of the Orthodox, you even won the championship, and yet you haven’t offered the Heavenly Demon nickname?
-Take a moment for reflection
-Either way, guess he’s wielding only a sword in this game hahaha
-Nickname says so, can’t be a mage, got it?
-Will he be a walker?

Not that he planned to only use sword-bearing characters.

But after so long, he was determined to select a familiar character today.

“Then, let’s get right into it. I don’t need a tutorial as I have studied up. Truly.”

The character was ready.

-Of course. Absolutely.
-No hesitation hahaha
-This is why tutorials should be mandatory hahaha
-Hey, wouldn’t he have done the tutorial while making the nickname yesterday!
-Do you trust the streamer? hahaha
-Haha, if he looked at the manual, would he be terrible with machines haha
-Troll on

Really, there was no need this time.

Meanwhile.

On the Adventure game community, the largest League community, a post appeared.

『Who is this guy, and why does he have 20,000 viewers? Never heard of him.』

TL’s Corner:
Wow, I thought Damned System had a long prologue, this one takes the cake, now, into the main game.