Chapter 152

“Huh?”

Arin was flustered. She knew Seo-jun intended to play the villain role, but she hadn’t expected him to be this blatant about it.

Navigator, who had been watching Seo-jun’s actions in For the Murim, also thought this was pretty impressive.

As expected.

His skill at provoking both orthodox and unorthodox factions hadn’t gone anywhere.

He remembered the opinions that had come up in Assassin’s Dawn back then.

-Should we really be letting this bastard loose in multiplayer?

“Hahaha… That could be the case. Of course.”

Navigator turned his head to the side. Arin, sitting in the center, had malfunctioned again.

Arin was a veteran.

Yet Seo-jun had managed to fluster her twice now.

“Mm… We haven’t properly seen the other teams’ skills yet… No wait, that’s not right? The game is The League after all.”

Still, you could see the will to try to salvage the situation somewhat.

It was decent progression. This wouldn’t extinguish the fire, but people preferred when you spoke indirectly rather than being completely direct anyway.

After all, telling someone to their face “you’re ugly” is different from saying “your face shines so brilliantly that I can barely keep my eyes open to look at it,” isn’t it?

Fortunately, Seo-jun seemed to instinctively understand this too.

[Ah, what I meant was that everyone played so well today that I couldn’t pick just one team. Obviously.]

Seo-jun’s face on the video chat screen smiled as he spoke.

It was a friendly smile. And when combined with his handsome appearance?

-Lmao completely spilled everything then went “everyone played well” LOL

-That’s not what you meant, you just straight up said everyone’s trash lmao

-The demons from Satan’s Travel and the arrival of Lucifer hohoho

-Yeah, bet LeagueCommunity exploded lmao

-Demonic cult members! Sword God sect members! Rise up and go protect LeagueCommunity!

Nobody believed it.

That was natural.

However, Navigator and Arin both thought the same thing.

‘Nice!’

Right, this much was enough.

People could laugh and move on, and it would be easier to accept as a form of provocation and trash talking.

Seo-jun’s ability to control public opinion was truly natural.

He hadn’t been streaming for long and didn’t watch streams very often, yet look how instinctively he adjusted things.

Navigator was once again impressed and thought he truly had the qualities of a major corporation when…

[That’s why I’m most wary of myself.]

“Huh?”

[If I just don’t make any mistakes, it seems like our team will win the championship just like that.]

“You just said you were wary of all the teams…”

[Ah, what I meant was that they’re all so good it’s hard to pick just one team. I wasn’t saying those teams were something to be wary of.]

How can you say that?

If anything, that confirms it as ‘I didn’t pick them because their skills are all mediocre.’

‘As expected, Seo-jun-nim is Seo-jun-nim.’

Navigator remembered that day again.

The sight of Seo-jun achieving a 12-win streak after telling everyone to bring their remaining time.

* * *

LeagueCommunity.

A gaming community that made you reevaluate the saying of some sage that when five people gather, one of them is trash.

That saying could apply to any situation.

When doing group projects, when playing sports, even within companies.

However, it’s an undeniable fact that The League users truly proved that saying.

That means at least one out of every five League users is strange.

And LeagueCommunity is the largest gaming community.

What conclusion can you draw from combining these two facts?

At the very least, even if they’re not trash, there’s really an enormous amount of aggro.

This is a fact that everyone who uses LeagueCommunity acknowledges.

Other communities might not be like this, but this is the community for a game that established the 4-versus-1 formula.

And the scale is huge too. There’s no comparison.

The moment all the users on LeagueCommunity had their attention focused, the villain of this tournament appeared.

[Insane provocation lmao]

[Fucking alpha male LOL]

[How did he think to break it and deliver another hit? Lmao]

[Double the provocation!]

[Ah lol saying he’ll win]

The reaction was good.

Seo-jun’s statement was provocation directed at other teams.

But since trash talk was also considered part of the culture in this world, and similar karma had often accumulated in previous tournaments, it wasn’t a big problem.

However, since it was still aggro regardless, it didn’t end with just those reactions.

[Honestly, seeing the other A-tiers get wrecked gives you the answer]

[He’ll have to go S-tier by himself. The other A-tiers are too bad]

[If you watched today, even the fanboys have to admit it lol]

The problem with aggro was in posts like these.

They deliberately hyped up Seo-jun’s statement and team.

More precisely, they used Seo-jun as justification to elevate him that high and tear down other teams.

In other words, trolls had swarmed in.

If these posts got buried, it wouldn’t matter, but the moment even one of them got a lot of upvotes…

[Crossing the line?]

[The main event hasn’t even started yet and you’re already getting ahead of yourself?]

[No, fucking arrogant. A rookie. Are you even close with the other streamers?]

[Honestly, wasn’t he being too show-offy in the game too?]

Backlash erupted from the comparative reaction, sparking controversy.

It was pushback from fans supporting other teams.

But it wasn’t just fans there.

There were also people who had used Seo-jun as justification to tear down other teams.

For these people, which side they’re on doesn’t matter.

They just care about bashing others.

That’s why they jump from here to there, gleefully tearing down everyone.

So you could say Seo-jun was wrong for drawing aggro.

But these kinds of trolls would have appeared regardless of what was done, even if it hadn’t been Seo-jun’s statement.

The community users knew this well.

[Stop the trolling!]

[Honestly, I think it’s a pretty appropriate villain role, agree?]

[If someone with that skill, looks, and good personality was perfect? It would be too perfect. I see this as a balance patch]

[Ah lol just laugh a little!]

Now what mattered was who was better at swaying opinion. That’s what public opinion battles are like.

There are countless people in communities.

Smart people. People who sway others. People who get swayed.

It would be nice if you could deliver clear information or opinions to everyone, but people don’t read every single post.

In other words, what’s important for dealing with trolls is higher firepower.

Well, even if not, it would naturally die out. As it always does.

However, if the trolls took even a little longer to be subdued, fatigue would increase.

So.

Veterans in this area—Seo-jun’s viewers—began joining the battle.

[We’re just sorry, everyone!]

==

The streamer is really damn good at games, no wait, disgustingly good at games, but God only put in one teaspoon of character as compensation!

This person is naturally like this, so please forgive him just this once! LOL

==

Seo-jun’s viewers started apologizing. Not genuinely saying they were sorry, but making jokes and having fun appropriate to the situation.

Just that alone.

-Lmao he always was like that

-Look how the fan intentionally wrote ‘disgustingly good’ lmao you guys’ streamer is disgustingly good alright lol. Is it because he’s so damn good?

-Why are you bastards apologizing?

└Do you know how many controversies we’ve encountered? We realized apologies are the answer! (OP)

└For real lol

└This bastard treats aggro as his way of life LOL

└If his skills weren’t good, we would have buried him ourselves long ago. Hey LeagueCommunity bastards lmao

It was enough.

[Current reason why fans are apologizing on his behalf lol]

[Just an amazing bastard!]

[There’s a streamer who makes his own viewers apologize? Lol]

[We need this kind of character]

[Ah lol the demonic cult guys are so pitiful, I’ll let it slide just this once lmao]

Other streamers’ reactions were also posted at the right time.

[Breaking) Wave, burning with enthusiasm while smiling]

[Rain, despite the provocation, says ‘That’s cool.’ How far will Korea’s excessive lookism go!]

-Insane viewers lmao. How does “cool” lead to lookism?

-LOL. He is cool though, he’s handsome too lol

-Wow!

[E-tier Mental, competitive spirit ignited by Seo-jun’s statement, causing controversy. Viewer: ‘Is hyung even competition?’]

[Close friend streamer Kim Tae-woo of the currently controversial Jin ***-***: ‘Please curse that bastard out more!’ sparking waves.]

-LMAO

-Friend, get cursed at quickly!

-Ah lol they say if you get cursed at, you live long, so he’s telling his friend to live long!

Other streamers knew well that this didn’t need to be taken seriously.

Especially veterans sometimes responded by extracting fun from this kind of thing.

With this happening, the trolls lost power, and only after the public opinion battle ended did what happened today properly come into view for LeagueCommunity users.

[Guys. But Jin Seo-jun’s headshot rate is insane, right?]

==

30-40% would be really high. But this streamer only failed once. And that was because Wave blocked it with a frying pan. You know what the numbers show?

90% lmao

==

-He didn’t shoot a lot but that’s still genuinely insane lmao

└We couldn’t see the headshot rate because it was hidden by the frying pan lmao insane

-Is it 100% accuracy?

-Should we reevaluate Wave then? LOL. The only man who blocked a headshot. The man who had the qualification to challenge God LOL

[I just tried frying pan deflection with my friend and got hit by bullets in my arms, legs, torso, and face before throwing the frying pan. Is this normal?]

-Beep, normal

-Of course

-That was actually the first time openly blocking appeared in today’s play lol

[How the hell did he do dual wielding? Really curious]

[The pros need to try recreating this…]

[Everything is just ridiculous LOL]

And eventually, as Seo-jun originally intended.

[At this level, wasn’t he stating facts rather than provoking?]

==

No, wasn’t he actually being modest?

==

-For real lol

-Looking back, that seems right

-Seo-jun reevaluation complete in under 1 minute. Even 3-minute curry can’t beat that. Amazing!

[He really does have the highest chance of winning?]

[Still too early to talk about who would win but it’s damn exciting]

The structure was established.

[Seo-jun-nim’s winning will be difficult because I’m here. by Mental lmao]

[There are teammates so I dunno bout that]

[Anything can happen in League. Don’t be overconfident]

[Anyway, he said with his own mouth ‘If I just don’t make any mistakes, it seems like our team will win the championship just like that.’ Remember this karma, guys lmao]

* * *

Why do players want to be sold at low prices? So the team captain can invest more in other teammates and make the team stronger?

That’s part of it. That’s the most team-oriented answer.

But for individuals, especially lower-tier users, there was another reason.

Namely.

The pressure of having to live up to your price tag if you’re sold expensively.

In that sense, Rumi, who was an unsold item, thought the situation was better than last time.

No, she had thought so.

‘Ah! Why did the structure get established like this!’

[Even if he loses because of teammates, he’ll have to pay off his karma anyway, Seo-jun lmao]

[Just trust these bastards. Ha Yoon-ho, Windstorm Sword, Alpaca, Rumi!]

[Ha Yoon-ho’s team better not fight weak teams after provoking like that lmao]

Attention was focused. And karma was already starting to pour down.

On Seo-jun, and on them as Seo-jun’s teammates.

“No matter how much we get cursed at, I’d rather we fought weak teams and at least avoided total elimination…”

The problem was.

“Weak teams?”

“What do you mean by that, Rumi?”

“Since it’s come to this, let’s just keep pushing forward in this tournament.”

Currently, they were in a meeting with the broadcast off, deciding which teams they’d be grouped with.

And.

They were trying to fight strong teams no matter what.

“No, Seo-jun-nim. I get that you’re skilled and I know the provocation was for broadcast entertainment!”

“It probably wasn’t for broadcast entertainment…”

Alpaca muttered from the side, but Rumi ignored him and continued.

“But please, can’t we just group with weak teams?”

Why when we won! Why the hell are you guys having heated discussions about which team is strongest!

Let’s pick the team that’s easiest to handle!

‘Am I the only one worried? Just me?’

That was accurate.

Only Rumi was worried.

Noticing her concerns, Seo-jun spoke up.

“Don’t worry.”

“No, I’m not worried about Seo-jun-nim’s skills, I’m worried about my own skills… If I play badly and we lose, Seo-jun-nim might get cursed at…”

Of course, Seo-jun also knew what Rumi was worried about.

So Seo-jun said gently.

“Really, don’t worry. There’s no way you could play badly.”

In contrast.

Rumi, and the teammates beside her, had to feel an inexplicable chill at that moment.

No way you could play badly.

‘What does that mean?’

She couldn’t bring herself to ask.

Eventually.

After the meeting ended, the time for group selection arrived.