Chapter 26 - Chapter 26

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Translator: 8uhl

Chapter: 26

Chapter Title: Sparring with a Pro Gamer

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Pow!

A blue boxing glove slammed into Lee Dong-soo's face.

Pow! Pow!

A flurry of punches followed, digging into his gut.

"Guhk."

Lee Dong-soo clutched his side for a moment, staggering, before snapping back to attention and raising his guard.

The people around watched his beatdown with keen interest, but to him, only the enemy right in front of him mattered.

"Is this really the guy your gym master's prepping as a fighter? What's with the wobbling?"

An opening!

Seo-jun, standing before him, turned his head sideways toward the gym master.

Normally, attacking at that timing would be bad manners.

But Lee Dong-soo had already been thoroughly seasoned by Seo-jun the day before, taking hit after hit.

Treat practice like the real thing!

"Haaap!"

A straight punch.

He hadn't learned much yet, but his form was solid as the fist shot out.

Perfect timing, perfect stance, a distracted opponent.

It was the kind of attack that could land on a careless foe at least once.

But his opponent just happened to be Seo-jun.

He dodged it effortlessly—even while looking away—then countered with a one-two punch.

Ooooh!

Admiring exclamations erupted from the crowd.

"Aaaagh! Damn it."

In the end, Lee Dong-soo collapsed, clutching his stomach.

"Hey! You little prickly bastard! I told you to go easy! And he's not some fighter trainee! You're the one who came here."

The gym master yelled as he headed toward the ring.

He grabbed the ropes to pull himself up and over, aiming to nab Seo-jun.

Seo-jun sensed the hostility and moved to the opposite side, preparing to hop down from the ring.

"Oh, really? He seemed talented enough."

The gym master, halfway over the ropes, saw Seo-jun gearing up to leave and gave up on grabbing him.

"Argh. That guy... Ugh. My back."

"Well, then he's just the toughest scrapper at his school or something?"

Seo-jun downgraded his assessment of Lee Dong-soo from fighter trainee to brawling high schooler.

Despite the misunderstanding, the gym master didn't reveal Lee Dong-soo's true identity.

Because Lee Dong-soo had begged him not to.

Lee Dong-soo was too embarrassed to tell Seo-jun who he really was.

'If only I'd beaten him at least once in the game, I could've revealed it proudly.'

After getting thoroughly schooled by Seo-jun the day before, he'd gone back to the company dorms, turned off streaming, and jumped into Assassin's Dawn.

And after over fifteen attempts, he'd finally taken down Etore in the tutorial—and was left in shock.

Losing in real life was somewhat understandable, but losing in-game? No way.

Who was he?

A player from the world's second-strongest team!

"Hey. Instead of fighting, go study at school."

"Sheesh. Does hyung study well?"

"Yeah."

"What makes him answer so confidently like that?"

Lee Dong-soo grumbled as he stood, slapping his hands behind his back and arching his waist.

"Dong-soo. That guy's headed to Korea University."

The gym master's voice came from the side.

"Holy shit! Don't bullshit me. The world's so unfair."

"Eh, just worked hard at it."

Seo-jun shrugged.

"Tch. I don't need to study 'cause I'm good at games."

Lee Dong-soo dusted off his hands, then swiftly raised his guard again.

"Oh yeah?"

At the same time, Seo-jun's fist closed in at blinding speed.

Now accustomed to this torment, Lee Dong-soo had prepared well in advance.

A true pro's adaptability.

"Yeah. Yesterday, I took down Etore, Drake, and even Richard following your lead."

Of course, he'd tried imitating Seo-jun by grabbing a pipe and challenging Drake—only to die six times.

Richard Neville took four deaths.

In the end, Lee Dong-soo had no choice but to acknowledge Seo-jun's skill.

This guy was something else.

But the moment he admitted it, his competitive fire didn't dim—it blazed hotter.

Whoosh!

He barely dodged again.

"Oh? Then try going pro gamer sometime."

Seo-jun said it offhand, and Lee Dong-soo sighed inwardly.

'I already am.'

Today, he planned to challenge the Magic Tower Lord.

He had no clue how to split lightning or pull off that sound play, but he'd smash into it head-on.

Because imitating this Jin Seo-jun guy was making him feel his skills improve firsthand.

Sparring was proof enough.

'Is this why Ha-yeon noona keeps challenging Unknown in the Training Ground?'

His drive for self-improvement surged.

"Hyung."

"Yeah?"

"You going for the Queen on today's stream?"

Queen was the nickname for the last ruler remaining in Assassin's Dawn.

"Why?"

"Reasons."

"Maybe?"

Chit-chat ended there.

Lee Dong-soo focused utterly on landing even one hit.

Seo-jun chatted casually with the onlookers while handling it effortlessly.

Pow!

But Lee Dong-soo couldn't stop imagining Seo-jun overlapping with some other figure.

A being who fought while leisurely conversing with people nearby.

The rumored next-gen AI from Surface.

'Nah, no way... This hyung isn't Unknown at Stage 10, right? That's too far-fetched.'

Even Shin Ha-yeon kept challenging him nonstop.

Seo-jun sat in the cafe, waiting for Team Leader Kim Yoon-chan while tuning into Alpaca's stream.

Alpaca quickly closed the dono and kicked the viewer who'd sent it.

The capsule had a time limit.

Surface's measure to prevent users from overtaxing their real bodies by getting lost in the game.

If playtime exceeded three hours, you couldn't log back in for half that duration—forcing a break.

And past nine hours? Forced shutdown.

Alpaca had started at noon the day before and, excluding a 4.5-hour break, had been battling Drake for a total of 18 hours.

'Kinda feel bad now.'

Seo-jun glanced at his watch.

It was 10:30 now.

Appointment time soon.

An ad popped up on Seo-jun's Travel screen.

'An ad, huh.'

Affiliated streamers on Travel got multiple revenue streams, one being ads.

Unlike game company promos, these were Travel-internal: playing on first entry or mid-stream, earning based on views.

Streamers could trigger them freely.

But overuse dropped viewers, so most—like Alpaca—timed them for transitions or bathroom breaks.

"Affiliate requirements are lower than I thought..."

To affiliate: 700 minutes total live time, 7 live days, avg. 10 concurrent viewers, 30+ followers in last 30 days.

He'd cleared three already, but days were the snag.

"Can't rush that one."

Hiring an editor soon meant expenses, so every revenue source mattered more.

Alpaca spoke with half-lidded eyes.

The stream ended soon after.

Viewers seemed understanding.

A short while later.

"Hello. I'm Kim Yoon-chan, the one who contacted you about the streamer."

"Streamer Jin Seo-jun."

Seo-jun stood and shook hands with Kim Yoon-chan.

Kim Yoon-chan wore neat, casual clothes—comfortable but put-together.

Probably because Movie Soft was a foreign firm.

"Sorry for the sudden contact. It was urgent."

"No worries."

"Still, apologies again. If we couldn't reach you, we'd be in a real bind. Had to try everything. Sent a ton, huh? Heh heh."

I knew it.

He'd pulled out all the stops to get in touch.

"Eh, just caught me off guard. But seriously, what's the issue...?"

An ominous thought crossed Seo-jun's mind.

Nothing bad like compensation for screwing up, right?

Lemme think—Dad knows a lawyer...

"Hahaha, well, it's about the Fragment of Order you're collecting."

"Fragment of Order?"

"Yes. Collecting them all triggers an Easter egg tied to our next game. We have a teaser video timed for that... but it's not ready yet."

Ah.

Got it.

"So you're asking me to hold off on the Ruler a bit?"

Seo-jun flashed a relaxed smile.

He held all the cards here.

"Exactly. We'll make it worth your while, of course. About six days should do it."

Kim Yoon-chan grinned slyly.

Guy sounds like a mob boss with that "sincerity" talk.

"Hmm..."

The game company couldn't force him anyway.

Seo-jun pondered carefully.

'Teaser videos are usually...'

Promo clips that tease info to spark curiosity.

'They don't need my cooperation that badly.'

His 3,000 viewers max would just sprinkle minor hype in Korea—no biggie for global Movie Soft.

If he refused, they could spin it into something bigger than a teaser.

They were a corporation, after all.

But it might matter more than he thought, so best hear the offer first.

If it was just right—not too much, not too little.

He'd happily cooperate.

"So, what exactly is this sincerity?"

"Ahem, well. Delay the Queen clear by six days, and we'll give you special beta access for the next game. Won't be over a year till beta."

What?

"Plus, we'll make event item bundles tied to you for the DLC and sequel."

Jackpot?

They're offering all this?

It was killer for someone like him gearing up to stream seriously.

"What's the catch?"

"Just delay taking down the Ruler by six days. That's it."

Seo-jun stared at Kim Yoon-chan in disbelief.

This guy's a scammer, right?

"Uh..."

The terms weren't urgent needs, but refusing them would be weird—no loss for him.

"You'll take the deal, right?"

Seo-jun couldn't answer right away.

Paranoia kicked in.

"Hahaha. Told you the offer was off."

Then came slightly accented Korean.

The middle-aged foreigner who'd entered the cafe with Kim Yoon-chan—but sat spaced apart—approached and offered Seo-jun a friendly handshake.

"Nice to meet you, Seo-jun. I'm Yves Paymo from Movie Soft Korea."

Kim Yoon-chan's boss.

Figures.

Here to negotiate.

Probably adding strings.

As long as it wasn't too outrageous, Seo-jun was open.

Actually, him asking for something felt reassuring.

"We'll throw in ads too."

Seo-jun's eyes widened in fresh disbelief at Yves Paymo's follow-up.

"Pardon?"

Whoa.

Never even considered ads.

"Game ads, you mean?"

"Yes. Any of our games you want? We'll match it. You just play them."

A paper was slid in front of Seo-jun.

Yves Paymo grinned.

"Oh. Minimum rate: 10 million."

So the jackpot got duplicated?

What the hell is this?

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Read 404 more chapters ahead on NovelDex!

https://noveldex.io/series/master-swordsmans-stream

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━