Swordmanship Veteran's Game Stream Chapter 161
【Read only at hivetoons.org】
“No. Why now of all times?”
Pado asked, forgetting to close his mouth. He must have been dumbfounded.
Of course, Seo-jun had something to say.
“That's because I can't see the chat.”
Pado immediately understood, but then tilted his head again, wondering if this was right, while Seo-jun ignored him and spoke.
“Now. Go ahead and explain.”
- No, lol, why now of all times! Why are you so brazenly doing this now? lol
- Doing a tutorial in front of everyone? Streamer, stop being so consistent...
- Have some tact for once...
- But I guess he now knows how precious we are? lol
- The streamer was always like this. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
Well, since he had never done it before, he needed a bit of a guide.
Even if he knew what the skill was like, he had to properly adjust to the sensation.
A few lines of the viewers' chat popping up now and then would have been enough, but since he could not see it.
[Good. Listen well, descendant. My, no, our secret technique is unfolded based on shadows. Imagine the shadow covering your entire body.]
Shadow Secret Technique.
Seo-jun used the skill before the minions had even arrived.
The shadow on the floor climbed up Seo-jun's body and dyed it dark.
His body was covered in shadows, and Seo-jun felt a sensation of being connected to something.
[In that state, try moving only your body to the side. It will be slightly faster than usual.]
- It's so hilarious how they're both gritting their teeth and talking informally to each other lol
- Why is the streamer like this even to an AI? lol
- But Pado is just watching from a distance lol
Seo-jun moved to the side.
Then, the overlapping bodies split apart.
A body made of shadow remained standing exactly where Seo-jun had been.
Although a new body was created, his vision did not change.
'At this rate, I won't be able to send it far out of my sight to fight.'
Besides, the duration was not that long anyway.
On top of that, the shadow body had a certain amount of health, so the opponent could quickly desummon it.
[Now, try moving your clone. If you move the way you normally do, only your own body will move. Visualize. Visualize that you can control the clone in front of you, making it walk and swing its arms just like you.]
This sensation must have indeed been connected to the clone.
It was unfamiliar and foreign.
He had once heard that physically challenged people who spent a long time in virtual reality were good at playing Zen.
He wondered if such talk came about because it involved moving with unfamiliar sensations.
Moving another body felt like having a third arm or leg.
If anything, it was even more intense than that, which was the difference.
The original shadow tilted its head and rolled its neck.
He did not feel any sensation of movement.
He could only confirm with his eyes that the clone was moving.
That made it feel even more foreign.
[Minions are spawning.]
Soon, the clone sank downward, traveled along the ground to Seo-jun's feet, and returned to its original position.
A shadow formed under Seo-jun's feet once again.
“Is there nothing else to keep in mind?”
[The shadow splits your consciousness...]
“No, not that kind of stuff.”
What it was saying was obviously about the hero's concept and story, which Seo-jun considered a useless feature.
Even though such talk was the very reason the dialogue mode had been added.
At least in The League, the developers and Seo-jun might have been completely incompatible.
[Ugh. If you want, you can swap positions with your shadow. However, the enemy can notice that as well, so be careful. And shadow practitioners have a mission...]
As the AI tried to speak useless words again, Seo-jun brought up the interface.
“Where does a punk who hasn't even been created for ten years get the nerve to speak so informally...”
Just as Seo-jun spoke—purely for the broadcast, of course—Pado began to move.
“Hahaha! That was a good show. Shall we start the laning phase now?”
Seo-jun smiled brightly.
- Was that the reason he talked down to it? lol
- A boomer through and through lol
- But he's not wrong lol
- If you think about the heroes of The League, it's true they haven't even been around for ten years, right?
The minions approached and began to fight the enemy minions, forming a formation.
Seo-jun watched Pado beyond them.
After waiting for a moment, he confirmed on the interface at the bottom of his vision that the skill's cooldown had finished.
Zen's weapons were the assassin blades in both hands.
The design was similar to the assassin blades he had equipped in Dawn of the Assassins.
The opponent's hero was Tally the Chaser.
‘Was it a representative counter to Zen?’
A counter meant being at a disadvantage in terms of compatibility.
As if he had not picked second for nothing, Pado took advantage of that benefit and confidently brought out the counter-pick.
“I'm sorry about the last accident.”
“Ah. That accident...”
“It was completely unintentional. Wind Sword-nim up there in the top lane is bad at driving.”
He did not believe him.
“I guess we have to finish our unfinished fight here. The frying pan champion.”
“...Fine! Let's do this! I'll do my best.”
A shadow climbed up and covered Seo-jun's body.
[Shadow Secret Technique]
Then, the shadow-covered body rushed forward, while another body took position in the original spot.
Pado could not tell whether it was a clone or not.
Systematically, it was completely impossible to distinguish Zen's clone until it either expired or was destroyed by taking a certain amount of damage.
Although it could be inferred from the movements.
‘That is Seo-jun-nim.’
Pado was sure it was the real body.
The approaching movement was natural.
A moment ago, Pado had closely watched Seo-jun use his skill.
The reason he did not interfere then was to properly check his proficiency. Not that he would have gained anything by interfering anyway.
The way Seo-jun moved his clone as observed back then was clearly that of a beginner doing it for the first time.
‘Though the possibility that even that was an act is not zero.’
At least he knew that Seo-jun was the type of person who acted first and thought later.
Looking back, he had never planned things out in Ground Zero either.
Therefore, there was no need to be deeply suspicious. There really was no scheme.
‘Arrogance... no, that's not it.’
He simply did not bother preparing because he was confident in his own skills.
‘It was like that back then too.’
This was a fact he had learned while properly checking up on his opponent after Ground Zero.
Pado readjusted his grip on the sickle-like weapons, the dual kamas. They were Tally's main weapons.
Cords were connected to the handles, making it possible to attack at a free range.
“You know I'm a counter, right?”
Pado swung his arm and naturally let go. The kama became a weight hanging on the cord, drawing a semi-circle.
Seo-jun did not answer.
“For your information, the clone can speak too.”
The shadow paused as it approached, and the kama cut through the air, passing in front of Seo-jun.
At that moment, Pado spun his body along with the kama, closing in on Seo-jun.
And seeing this, Seo-jun closed the distance even further instead.
As if he had anticipated this, Pado pulled and caught the cord while spinning the kama, narrowing its range.
The assassin blade emerging from Seo-jun's right arm clashed with the kama.
At the same time, the shadow's mouth opened.
“Oh. The clone really can speak. Should I have done more of the tutorial?”
Having successfully defended, Seo-jun aimed for Pado's flank with the assassin blade in his other hand.
“Stop pretending to be a clone. That's the real body.”
Even though it was only a dark silhouette, he could tell that Seo-jun was smiling.
Pado did not try to block or avoid Seo-jun's incoming attack.
Of course, it was right to be careful because attacks from Zen's real body could deal additional damage after the technique ended.
And Tally had a mark as well.
In the lore, the two were heroes from the same school.
Tally carved a mark on the opponent every time she attacked with the kama.
The mark, which could stack up to three times and naturally vanished after a certain period, increased the damage taken while active on the opponent's body.
But that was not what was truly important.
Having been attacked, Seo-jun let out a meaningful sigh.
“I told you I'm a counter, Seo-jun-nim.”
'Not that there is any way he doesn't know.'
The kama and the assassin blade pierced each other's bodies, and their health decreased.
A mark of two kamas facing each other appeared over Seo-jun's head.
The true terror of the mark lay in Tally's skill.
The skill of Tally the Chaser.
It was a skill that allowed teleporting behind the opponent by consuming one mark placed on them.
Furthermore, this mark could be generated on jungle monsters and minions as well, and the skill was charge-based, currently stackable up to three times, equal to the number of marks.
Seo-jun announced the remaining duration of the Shadow Secret Technique.
“That's nice. I should easily be able to stack three marks, right?”
Pado smiled and aimed at Seo-jun with his kama.
A pure clash of physical mechanics began without any intervention from other skills.
Assassin blade and kama.
Naturally, the kama had the advantage.
Unlike a typical kama, Tally's kama could also be swung while hanging from a cord.
On the other hand, the assassin blade was a weapon specialized not for open combat, but for concealing and launching surprise attacks.
The assassin blade deflected the spinning kama and penetrated deeper.
Pado tried to trade attacks this time as well to land a hit, but the distance was too close for him to swing his arm.
Seo-jun, who only needed to thrust, successfully landed his attack.
Making a quick judgment, Pado tried to slash Seo-jun's body from bottom to top at close range with the kama in his left hand.
However, Seo-jun spun his body, blocking Pado's upward slash with his left hand, and used the momentum of the spin to slash Pado's cheek horizontally with his right hand.
In the midst of the extreme close-quarters combat, Pado, completely ignoring defense, successfully landed an attack on Seo-jun.
The marks became two.
Seo-jun swapped positions with his original shadow.
'I lost up to this point.'
It was physical mechanics that transcended weapon compatibility.
Pado was also a Challenger-tier player, but this couldn't be helped.
Perhaps some of Pado's fans expected him to win even in a fight like this, but Pado had completely given up on that front.
'I might have dropped from Challenger because I played around too much, but anyway, I didn't request bans and pick second for nothing when I said I'd draw out his full power.'
As the shadows blinked and their positions instantaneously swapped, Pado's vision shifted immediately as well.
The location was behind the returned Seo-jun.
Zen's basic trading method was to create a shadow, have the real body go in to deal damage, and then pull back if things got dangerous.
This was because the damage dealt by the real body while using the skill could yield additional damage.
And Tally was at a relative advantage because she could neutralize this with a skill.
'He will definitely look back, knowing this!'
The strike after pursuit dealt additional damage. Plus, since one mark was active, it was more than enough to make up for the loss.
Seo-jun would try to turn around and block it here, but even Seo-jun would not easily block a strike following Mark Pursuit.
Since his body would enter a stealth state for one second after teleporting.
Pado thought so and moved as soon as his vision shifted, but surprisingly, Seo-jun, whose back he had taken, stood still.
Pado easily landed the blow and stared at the shadow whose health had dropped to the same level as Pado's.
And at that moment, the shadow, whose health had plummeted, was desummoned.
The thing Pado had firmly believed to be the real body was actually Seo-jun's skill.
A clone that would have vanished soon even if left alone.
He turned his gaze toward the center of the lane where they had been fighting a moment ago.
Seo-jun was standing there, the shadow having vanished.
“I told you it was a skill.”
“It was really a clone?”
Pado replayed the movements of the clone that had just dueled him in his mind.
And he came to a conclusion.
Seo-jun had definitely prepared Zen beforehand.
If so, it led to the conclusion that even his talk about the tutorial was a calculated act.
“Wow. Isn't that too insidious?”
Although he was hardly one to talk after banning two heroes and picking second, he had still done his best to face him with all his might.
‘Did he really do that on his first try?’
Pado fell into a state of uncertainty.
Seo-jun chuckled and spoke.
“Now that you know, take a few more hits, will you?”
Their positions were currently reversed. Thus, instead of heading toward the turret behind him, Pado absolutely had to return to his original spot, but the problem was that Seo-jun was standing there and would not just leave him alone.
Since Pado had been fighting Seo-jun's clone up until now, Seo-jun's current health had not been depleted by a single hit.
‘I won't die, but this loss is too heavy.’
Pado had no choice but to get as much help as possible in future fights. He had originally wanted to try on his own, but he decided it was indeed impossible.
“Welcome. We have to swap places.”
He clenched and unclenched his hands, recalling the sensation from a moment ago.
‘This seems quite doable, just as I thought.’
What Seo-jun was thinking of currently could be explained simply in a single word.
Seo-jun was aiming for that.