It’s not that kind of malicious broadcast

-Vroom!

A sequence of movements, as precise as if measured with a ruler, seamlessly continued in a disciplined chain of attacks. Each move forced the opponent into the next anticipated position, where another prediction-based attack followed.

It was a simple but effective strategy—a fight by someone who knew how to ascend the steps to victory one bit at a time.

It seemed as if Lee Yena, who usually appeared to be half a step away from reality and would rush in recklessly when a fight broke out, might have been intentionally disguising her true nature. Her cold, relentless sequence of attacks was almost machine-like in its precision.

Just imagining being on the receiving end of that dagger made it hard to breathe.

Having experienced it personally, he knew better than anyone. Right now, the Warrior on the other side must have felt like he was sinking into a quagmire, with each stroke whittling away his health, pressing down on him painfully.

One moment of concentration loss while enduring this would allow Lee Yena to exploit the opportunity, strike a fatal blow, and retreat quickly. Being at the mercy of her movements was infuriatingly frustrating.

Yet, the reason he regretted not having a rating ID capable of sniping those targeting her was not purely out of a competitive spirit.

He wanted to attribute it to his competitiveness, but deceiving himself was harder than he thought. Revan washed down the bitter feeling rising from his chest with a gulp of water.

Next, he sliced a piece of grilled and seasoned chicken breast steak, spiced with pepper and paprika, and put it in his mouth. Though it somewhat improved his mood, it was hard to concentrate on the food.

His mind was already immersed in the game on screen. The game was of high caliber—a delight to watch.

How seriously Orthodox took the request to play a couple of matches while waiting for the queue to pop was evident, as he was already in his ninth game. He even recruited other GP members with high solo rank MMR to join.

This wasn’t an unusual event. Professional gamers were often close to broadcasting and sometimes participated in ranked games with teammates or interacted with fans through personal broadcasts, depending on club policies.

However, it was rare for World Series champion team members to queue together en masse, especially on the last day of the season.

Other players who were watching began naturally queuing up one by one as well—thanks to the successive clashes, the last day of the season became a festival for everyone.

KoK-related communities were buzzing without exception, and some sites experienced severe lag due to the massive influx of users. That level of excitement was understandable given the high-quality gameplay.

-Vroom!

Unable to withstand the pressure, the Warrior swung his axe wide. It was a desperate attempt to shake off the rogue clinging to him like a mosquito. No matter what happened afterward, the attack was a plea for the rogue to get away.

Such an attack, however, was bound to fail.

The axe blade aiming at his waist didn’t seem too difficult to dodge. There wouldn’t even be a need to use a survival skill. A quick retreat of about three steps would be more than enough to evade it, and stepping back about two and a half steps would allow dodging by the slimmest of margins—

At that moment, the screen reflecting the rogue’s first-person perspective was filled with the sight of dark brown soil. Following that, the view moved rapidly to a disorienting degree, the warrior’s legs briefly coming into sight—

—Thunk!

With a dull impact sound signaling a successful counterattack, a dagger wedged into the opponent’s abdominal armor appeared on the screen.

“Dodging low and… countering?”

Even though he hadn’t taken his eyes off the screen for a moment, it took a brief second to comprehend the situation.

However, upon careful consideration—the meaning behind the movement from a moment ago was clear. Lee Yena had deeply bent forward as if falling to dodge the mid-level attack aimed at her waist and simultaneously drove in.

Had the height been slightly off, the axe would have lodged neatly into her bowed head—a reckless maneuver. Moreover, despite succeeding, the fact that nearly half her stamina had evaporated showed how strenuous the move had been.

It wasn’t the kind of move someone in the lead, having accrued advantages through meticulous combat planning, would casually throw out. Yet, at the same time, Revan thought he could hear Lee Yena’s voice.

“I do it because they won’t expect it,” she seemed to be saying.

Anyway, it was a game worth watching. If only they could have enjoyed it together… Such thoughts swirled in Revan’s head as Lee Yena fully committed to her attack, thrusting it into the opponent’s abdomen.

The view twisted upward. With the last sight being the warrior’s chin, now bearing dagger handle-shaped stubble, the massive figure fell like a log.

In that instant, yet another pro gamer, whom the community shouldn’t look at for a while, was born.

“No reason to care… but still.”

Fortunately, there hadn’t been any strange taunts. Perhaps due to focusing on the game, the habitual disdain for warriors had momentarily ceased.

Revan had not been alone in his nervousness, fearing she might slay another pro gamer and say something like, “It’s because you pick that kind of character. Pros aren’t a big deal.”

“Stamina battle, indeed. Ugh, in reality, stamina recovers too slowly. Why don’t they put in command moves like this for keyboard and mouse? VR is cheating. We should all boycott for fairness.”

Yet, it seemed there was some principle that required hating something. Breathing heavily, Lee Yena poured her disdain on VR instead, as a substitute for hating any character.

Well, it had already been several hours since the previous day.

Complaining a bit about VR was nothing unusual. Despite taking breaks during queue times, the journey had been quite exhausting physically.

Griping about when the VR, which could be played with just brainwaves, would be released was a common catchphrase among KoK broadcasters, especially when they were dead tired.

It was a little strange that a keyboard and mouse were required, as if the gamer was in their 40s—but that wasn’t a problem.

《Ha, ha.》

『Oh wow oh wow oh wow oh wow』

『VR is the best? VR is the best? VR is the best? VR is the best? VR is the best? VR is the best?』

『Please sprint』

『Wow, insane』

『The screen doesn’t even matter, upvote for Abungi』

『Guys, try listening with your eyes closed, it’s awesome』

『He’s collecting all the pro tags, damn LOLOLOL amazing』

『GetDevoured! King Devoured! God Devoured! Emperor Devoured!』

『The mind games were insane, for real』

『Damn, the physical skill is crazy LOLOLOL』

『Wow』

『Galaxy, please release that idiot, damn you’ve now lost to a girl』

『Freaking impressive』

『How did you avoid that??』

『I want to see it in third person, seriously』

This time, even the viewers were quite satisfied.

“Tsk.”

The one truly growing discontented was Revan himself. Even after watching such gameplay, some people were more focused on mere heavy breathing. Really, they didn’t even deserve to watch the broadcast.

“Haaa… phew. Well, shall we go again? Ah, sweat… it’s sticky. Um, after this round, I’ll quickly take a shower. Ah, queue… queue, will it catch without me? Should I queue now? Hm… should I take off my clothes in advance?”

…Truly, it was just like that.

* * * *

=Victory!=

The ninth game. The eighth win.

A 13-point gap with the first place.

Thanks to the sudden surge in enthusiasm from the pro gamers, there was enough time. It was fortunate. It seemed to be all thanks to the GP players joining en masse. Perhaps I should send them a gift later.

The only issue was… stamina.

Was it a bit too much? I could feel my body getting heavy even while I was taking off the VR equipment.

It was unimaginable to get tired after just this much gaming – but sitting in front of a keyboard and mouse versus directly moving your body consumed a different level of stamina.

The thought flashed through my mind that maybe having ample time left meant nothing. If I couldn’t achieve it in a game or two, continuing VR would really be overexerting myself. My entire body had been aching for the past hour.

A shower with warm water might help a bit. It should.

“Well then, I’m going to take a shower. Please wait a moment.”

With a farewell message, I started the queue and inserted a coin into the keyboard’s Enter key so that it would accept automatically… I moved my heavy body to the bathroom.

…I’m tired.

I stared blankly at the face reflected in the bathroom mirror for a moment. A face I was now well familiar with. Not something to be startled by, nor something newly deemed pretty.

The dark circles under my eyes caught my attention first.

I was indeed tired. Even as I thought that, a small smile formed on my lips.

I turned on the hot water at the strongest pressure. Feeling the strong water jets beating against my chest, I slowly bowed my head with my eyes closed.

I hadn’t even achieved first place yet, but for some reason, I already felt refreshed.

Still, it seemed alright.

Suddenly, that thought came to me.