Streamer Crazy About Slaughter - Chapter 132
Kang Hyuk raised the volume to the maximum while wearing his headset.
And soon came the voice.
“—Mr. Kang Hyuk, 1,000,000 won donation… Thank you. Ah, if you’re talking about support, it was during the captain’s match a few days ago… I really enjoyed the match. Honestly, when I saw you get an all-k*ll, I was a bit surprised. You were really good!”
The soft voice of Lin echoed, tickling Kang Hyuk’s ears as the volume increased.
He couldn’t help but break into a grin.
Kang Hyuk, unable to contain the corners of his mouth that were lifting, was listening intently to Lin’s voice when he suddenly felt a persistent gaze.
“…?”
Turning his head, he saw Min-seong beside him, pausing his Another World simulation and looking at Kang Hyuk as if in disbelief.
Feeling awkward, Kang Hyuk lowered the volume and took off his headset, asking, “What are you staring at, making me uncomfortable?”
“Ah, I was just thinking… you’re amazing, bro. Do you really like her that much?”
Min-seong’s expression turned meaningful as he smiled at Kang Hyuk. Kang Hyuk hurriedly turned to check the screen that Min-seong was looking at.
As expected, it was Lin’s broadcast that Kang Hyuk was watching.
Min-seong had also opened Lin’s broadcast on one side of his monitor.
“…Ah, d*mn.”
Kang Hyuk cursed under his breath, furrowing his brows. Seeing Kang Hyuk like this, Min-seong chuckled and took a relaxed pose.
“Hey, Hyuk. What kind of professional player casually donates to a streamer like that? You’re the team captain; acting so lightly might really hurt the team’s reputation~”
Donating to a streamer and hinting that he was a player was something Min-seong often did early on when he joined the G1 team.
Back then, Kang Hyuk had told Min-seong that if he was a player, he should act like one and maintain some weight in his actions.
More than a year had passed since he said that, but Min-seong never forgot and kept it in mind.
“Shut up. I mean, Lin… supported me. What was it… I mean, it’s fine to express gratitude like this.”
“Yeah~ sure you can.”
Min-seong waved his hand with a smirk, and although Kang Hyuk grimaced at the sight, he couldn’t retort due to his previous words to Min-seong.
“…Ah. The more I think about it, I should have participated in the captain’s match too. It’s so frustrating, you know?”
Then Min-seong pouted, expressing his disappointment about the last match.
“Hey, if you had gone out that day, we would have lost.”
“No, I meant as a vanguard, not the captain! If I had gone out as the vanguard, I could have beaten White Night and shown Lin my impressive side, don’t you think?”
“You’re making a dog laugh. What? You think you can beat White Night?”
“Don’t you remember the second match? Who finished off Silence and White Night?”
“Well, that was all about setting up the board. If White Night focused just on you, would they have died like that? They thought you were hopeless, so at the end, they bothered me, the ace, with White Night.”
They were bantering back and forth with trivial remarks, but in the end, it was entirely disadvantageous to Min-seong.
The mistakes in the first match and Kang Hyuk’s reverse all-k*ll in the captain’s match made a huge impact. Realizing he had no words to respond, Min-seong shook his head and said,
“Ha. Seriously… Anyway, if I get another chance at the captain’s match, I will definitely participate.”
“Captain’s match or what? You should be thinking about winning 2:0. You’re talking nonsense.”
“I don’t care! I want to be supported by Lin too!!”
By the end, Min-seong shouted as if he was seriously annoyed, but Kang Hyuk just smiled.
A few days ago, Lin watched his match. And in the end, her voice cheering him on and mentioning the reverse all-k*ll kept popping back into his mind.
It felt different from when he faced Lin with the other ID, “Gosu,” in Another World.
The person he thought was a monster. Thinking that such a skilled player acknowledged him made him feel good.
Then suddenly, Lin’s figure popped into his mind.
The silver-haired woman who had pierced her great sword into her chest with a bright smile, saying, “It was fun.”
“Of course… it was a character.”
Still, knowing that voice belonged to Lin made him imagine her appearance occasionally.
It was hard to picture her as ugly with that voice. Perhaps she was a woman with a graceful impression—someone who, unlike her in-game appearance, seemed gentle or rather shy.
“Ugh.”
Suddenly, as Min-seong looked at Kang Hyuk, who hadn’t answered, his expression turned disgusted as if he were imagining something, and he couldn’t take it anymore, standing up to leave.
“Dude… you really know how to make a person uncomfortable.”
Feeling awkward from that reaction, Kang Hyuk also stood up and headed to the capsule to practice.
***
—Diamond Tier.
It was a tier indicating the top or upper echelon in almost all games.
Since the concept of “diamond” was never used to belittle or insult, most famous games typically awarded a tier that lived up to the name of diamond.
In Another World, the diamond tier referred to the top 1% of overall users according to record sites.
Having users above the diamond tier among players meant that there were significantly fewer of them.
“…I’m a bit nervous.”
Before the hiatus, Serin had wrapped up her diamond tier promotion and finished her broadcast, so she knew that from this arena match onward, all opponents were going to be diamond tier users.
And that thinking lasted only until she logged into Another World after finishing the first part of the broadcast.
“Just until then.”
…
Swish!
With a strange noise, she dodged a dark teal dagger by a hair’s breadth, twisting her waist.
Clang!
Gripping the weighted part of the Crescent Moon Blade while parrying the daggers coming from angles that were hard to avoid, she jumped, quickly closing the distance.
Swish.
Releasing her grip on the blade part of the Crescent Moon Blade, she naturally pulled the black string and began to unleash her techniques.
—Shadow Crescent.
The rapidly launched Crescent Moon Blade moved like it was crawling across the Colosseum floor, presenting an unpredictable trajectory. The sharp point of the blade aimed for the opponent’s heart.
As the Crescent Moon Blade, which had been crawling along the ground, suddenly shot up, oddly enough, her opponent remained eerily composed.
There was no tension, nor any movements at all.
“Surely…”
At that moment, she truly doubted it.
Swoosh!
The Crescent Moon Blade shot forth, piercing toward her opponent.
Just when she thought the Crescent Moon Blade would hit, her opponent suddenly transformed into a burst of light and disappeared.
“Surely the Crescent Moon Blade hadn’t even gotten close yet.”
It was only when the Crescent Moon Blade reached the spot where her opponent had been and passed through the shimmering light that a hologram appeared.
—Victory!
“…No!!!”
At that sight, an instinctive whine escaped her lips.
“Is this really how it goes?!”
How could there be such a hollow victory?
*
—[Diamond Tier 5]
—42 LP → 53 LP
—Additional bonus LP due to continuous winning streak.
*
[Wow! The surrender timing was legendary!]
[It’s hilarious how DASHers are always caught off guard by manners ㅋㅋㅋ]
[The fifth tier does surrender faster than anyone else ㄷㄷㄷ]
[That surrender timing is truly legendary.]
[You don’t know the Yeti zone? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
[If this area feels hopeless, they’re the fastest to surrender ㅋㅋㅋ]
[They really are the fastest at giving up.]
[Once you reach diamond, demotion is practically impossible, so those kinds are everywhere ㅋㅋ]
[Why is Lin’s angry voice so cute? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
Even while watching the chat, a deep sigh escaped.
I hadn’t expected this from diamond tier players.
Far from expectations, it felt like a serious overreaction.
Most of the opponents I matched with had blatantly yielded the initiative, and the results were all utterly ridiculous.
The first opponent I faced didn’t hesitate to prepare a charging technique in plain sight and immediately surrendered after I parried it.
The next opponent pressed the surrender button just because I parried a few of their attacks.
Another opponent, like the last one, gave up at the moment they thought they might get attacked.
“Is this what the top 1 percent users are like… or rather, is this really how diamond tier players behave?”
If they were going to face off, shouldn’t they at least match up a little?
If this were the Black Ark world, where their lives were on the line, I wouldn’t blame them for running away like that.
It was a game; I couldn’t understand why they panicked and surrendered before even being hit.
Even if there’s a skill gap or they recognized me, I would expect them to at least try to match up a bit.
[It’s all due to the metrics, haha.]
[They’re all focused on ranking metrics lol.]
[From diamond tier onwards, attack success rates and defensive evasion stats get recorded one by one.]
[Why would they play with someone they can’t beat when it’ll just hurt their metrics?]
[To the DASHers, Lin herself is practically a natural disaster ㅋㅋ.]
[They’re just worried about their metrics getting messed up, so they give it a half-hearted effort and then skedaddle.]
[I’m a DASHer too, but I’m confident I’ll surrender faster when facing Lin. ㅎ]
[Next is Bronze, Silver, or Gold, right?]
I had already gone through five matches, and I was completely dissatisfied with the outcomes, which only fueled my annoyance.
The clear sound of our weapons clashing.
Or the heavy feeling of meeting each other’s weapons.
Those were the things I wanted to experience, but the users matched after reaching the diamond tier were just odd to describe.
—Ding ding ding!!
“Ms. Yoon Eunha has donated 1,000,000 won!!”
《You were so cool at the end, Lin!! Fight for Challenger!!!!!》
“Thank you again, Ms. Yoon Eunha, for another… 1,000,000 won donation. But… you really don’t have to donate anymore. The donations you’ve already given are already too much…”
The huge donation alert sound and the name of the donor, which had become familiar, made that phrase slip out reflexively.
‘Is this the fourth time today?’
That was probably the fourth donation already.
Each time, it was a donation of 1,000,000 won, and I couldn’t understand what the intent was.
Within just an hour of the broadcast starting, the donations from Ms. Eunha had already exceeded several million won, so I couldn’t help but be concerned. I wondered if there was some hidden meaning behind all these donations today.
After Kang Hyuk had donated a large sum at the start of the broadcast and left, Ms. Eunha had written her donation comments much more passionately than usual, making me question whether this was really the Eunha I knew.
—Ding!!
Just as I was thinking that, I quickly got matched for the next game.