Swordmanship Veteran's Game Stream Chapter 168

【Read only at hivetoons.org】

The world spun busier than expected.

"Everyone is so diligent."

What kind of work did the people who came out at this hour do?

Ha Yun-ho thought as he looked beyond the car window.

Numerous cars starting their day along the Han River boulevard, and people waking up their bodies with exercise in the park.

It was a fascinating sight.

He had never even thought of such a thing.

At the latest, he would stream until 4 or 5 AM in the morning before going to sleep.

Normally, he went to sleep a bit earlier and slept in late.

In other words, this time of day was a time when he had never been awake during his past few years as a streamer.

As a result, he had forgotten the fact that so many people were waking up their mornings early.

"Well, it's not congested."

After all, it was not the typical rush hour.

Then, why were the people moving now doing so?

Because they had to move early due to the nature of their work?

Or because they were doing self-development?

It would be quite funny yet sad if it was because they hated traffic during rush hour.

There seemed to be something to it.

"In any case, the important thing is."

That he felt refreshed.

It was not simply because he was going to meet Lee Dong-soo.

Yesterday, he had gone to sleep about three hours earlier than usual and woke up seven hours earlier today.

'Thinking about it like this, I really slept a hell of a lot normally.'

Since everyone around him lived that way, he had thought it was normal to go to sleep at dawn and wake up at 12 or 1 PM the next day, but it was not.

Though some said even six hours was on the shorter side for a sufficient deep sleep, his body felt light and refreshed anyway.

"Should I move my streaming schedule forward and wake up early from now on?"

He needed to think about his health.

Though he was not in his thirties, it was said that if one felt old before even reaching their thirties, it was simply because they were in poor health, and Ha Yun-ho was exactly in that state.

Even so, it might end up as a short-lived resolution.

However, for now, because of the tournament preparation, he would easily pass three days.

And if he did it with other people, a seven-day resolution would stretch to a month.

Once a habit was formed like that, it could even last a year.

What would he do after waking up so early?

"Seo-jun seems to like working out, so it'll be nice to get a bit closer to him."

Wouldn't there be nothing bad about it?

Before he knew it, he had arrived.

The travel time was also reasonable, around twenty minutes.

"Wow, they are using two floors of the building?"

The gym seen through the glass from the outside looked sizeable even at a glance.

It seemed they were leasing two floors of a fairly large building.

"Underground parking, nice."

Having sorted out the parking, he rode the elevator up.

"He told me to come to the fourth floor, right."

He was told that generally, the third floor was for general members, and while the fourth floor wasn't completely devoid of general members, it had a somewhat different character.

'What on earth kind of place is it?'

Watching the floor number displayed above the elevator change, Ha Yun-ho imagined.

'It must have incredible facilities, right?'

It was famous that each team had its own exclusive fitness center.

An exclusive facility capable of caring for everything from one's physical condition in reality to one's state upon connecting to virtual reality.

However, if Lee Dong-soo had left that place behind to seek out this one, it was certain that there was something special about it.

Perhaps there was a custom machine on the level of an urban legend, far more expensive than the 100-million-won capsule that was the championship prize.

Or, unexpectedly in search of an analog vibe, there might be a martial arts dojo.

Wasn't it well-known that martial arts came to exert far more influence after the advent of virtual reality?

And that was a special quality that even professional clubs found difficult to prepare.

Because of that, Ha Yun-ho was full of anticipation.

Then, he arrived at the fourth floor, the doors opened, and he stepped out of the elevator.

The facility that came into view at a glance was clean.

All kinds of equipment (Ha Yun-ho did not know much about working out, so he did not know their purposes) were lined up in neat rows and columns, and quite a few people were already visible.

He also saw a young man working out very, really very hard.

'I feel like I've seen that person on a stream somewhere...'

And there was no special something he had anticipated.

Except for a certain sound echoing through the space, that was.

Moving a bit further, a space separated by a glass wall for a different purpose appeared.

The size of that space was as large as the gym, and a crowd of rings and people—no, big brothers—were gathered there.

Regardless of their actual age, with a visual like that, they were definitely big brothers. It was impossible for them not to be big brothers.

Ha Yun-ho, who was trying to gauge the situation from beyond the glass wall without approaching for a moment, realized that the person on the ring was handsome.

Those distinct features and the fit of his clothes, recognizable at a glance, made it possible to identify him even from slightly far away.

'He really looks exactly the same in reality. I adjusted mine just a little. A tinyyyyy bit.'

Pricked by his conscience and because of offline broadcasts, he had really only adjusted it a tiny bit.

Anyway, who was he sparring with since early morning?

After realizing it was Seo-jun, he drew closer and walked inside.

The true nature of the sound was the sound of someone being beaten by Seo-jun. Stepping inside the space, it echoed even louder.

The opponent seemed to be preparing to become a professional combat sports athlete.

Where was Lee Dong-soo? He had definitely said they would meet today.

It was when Ha Yun-ho was looking around.

Some mountain bandit approached him with a husky voice.

"Are you that bastard's—no, Seo-jun's fellow streamer?"

"Ah! Yes, that is correct."

The mountain bandit's gaze shifted toward the autograph paper and pen held in Ha Yun-ho's hand.

Then, it returned to him, looking at him with pity.

Why did he look at him with such pity that it was instantly recognizable?

The mountain bandit started to say something, but stopped and turned his head.

"Well... Never mind. Hey, you bastard! Your colleague is here! Stop it!"

"Ah. Thank you, Director. Hello, Yun-ho."

However, Seo-jun did not stop.

"I told you to stop! No, those hands are a hundred times more precious than yours!"

"What do you mean they are more precious than mine?"

What did he mean by precious hands?

The opponent must have been a martial arts athlete indeed.

The person facing Seo-jun collapsed on his back as soon as those words came out.

"Phew. I barely held on today as well. Without passing out."

He actually went as far as passing out.

"Twenty-four clean hits, you did well."

"Even though I couldn't land a single hit?"

"When the number of times I got beat up during those three minutes was twenty-four?"

"Well, you did well."

What on earth was this out-of-this-world conversation?

Ha Yun-ho approached where Seo-jun was.

Seo-jun welcomed Ha Yun-ho while leaning on the ring.

"Arriving early is highly desirable. As expected of the team leader."

"Haha. I won't get cursed at just because I arrived first, right?"

At Ha Yun-ho's words, Seo-jun gave a gentle smile, and...

The person lying down next to him just laughed.

"Hehehe. Hehehe. Hehehehe."

What was that, so unpleasant.

It felt like he was mocking, or perhaps he had simply lost his mind.

"They won't curse at you, though?"

"Of course. Who would dislike it when the team leader is setting an example by coming to train in advance?"

That guy kept laughing.

"By the way, where is Lee Dong-soo?"

Ha Yun-ho was finally able to ask Seo-jun what he was curious about.

Never mind the facilities or anything else.

If only he could meet Lee Dong-soo!

Only then did Seo-jun step back slightly. And he said.

"Ah, let me introduce you. This is Lee Dong-soo."

Seo-jun pointed to the person who was lying down next to him, and as that person who had lost his mind got up and took off his headgear, a familiar face appeared.

"Hehehe. Hello, Yun-ho hyung! I'm Coach Lee Dong-soo! Welcome. You really made the right choice in coming..."

The person who had been getting beaten up since earlier was Lee Dong-soo?

Seo-jun smiled brightly toward the confused Ha Yun-ho.

"I will take it easy on you today."

Wasn't the coach supposed to be Lee Dong-soo?

"Yun-ho hyung. We are comrades from now on."

What on earth was going on?

Eventually, Seo-jun stepped down from the ring.

"We are training together..."

"No, I mean, we are doing it together..."

"No, seriously, I'm telling you we are doing it together!"

Seeing his teammates, who had all turned into fools together, Ha Yun-ho closed his eyes tightly.

He could speak no further.

Seo-jun was watching him. If he pushed any further, he would surely get beaten up even more next time.

Seo-jun had intentionally shown a terrifying sight of sparring with other people after training ended today, as if displaying it for him to see.

He had silently ordered Ha Yun-ho to keep his mouth shut.

Since the other big brothers there were completely peaceful, was it just a daily occurrence?

In any case, it was scary.

Thus, Ha Yun-ho only hoped that his teammates would get the hint.

"To think we have the chance to train with none other than that Lee Dong-soo!"

"It's a bit annoying that you, Yun-ho, met him first, but since you are the team leader, I'll allow it! It means we will get to meet him eventually too, right?"

"No matter how much work is piled up, I, Wind Sword, will always show up on time! From now on, no matter what happens, I will wake up at exactly 6 AM every single day and set off!"

Even though he was currently in virtual reality, his entire body ached. His arms felt as if they were throbbing and tingling.

It was phantom pain. Seriously.

High-intensity training for athletes? Ha Yun-ho could confidently say that it was nothing compared to the training he did today.

To be precise, they were *receiving* the training together.

"Ah. How many times are you going to say that? We are planning to receive it properly anyway, so stop talking."

"Right. Is it something like a sense of duty as the team leader?"

"Can't I just start going from tomorrow too?"

Deciding that conversation was impossible, Ha Yun-ho immediately pulled out an item in the lobby.

It was a carrot doll.

And he grabbed and shook it.

It was a distress signal of his, judged on the basis that Seo-jun, who was weak to such memes or jokes, would at least not understand it.

-Why is Ha Yun-ho acting like an idiot over there? kkkkkkkkkkk

-Why the sudden carrot? kkkk

-It's so freaking funny seeing him shake the carrot so soulessly kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

Seo-jun watched Ha Yun-ho shake the carrot diligently.

'Was his body perhaps a bit too comfortable?'

He should have been pushed harder so that he wouldn't even have such thoughts.

In Seo-jun's view, the first step to improving one's skills was to more clearly perceive the sensation of moving one's physical body in reality.

In his past life, there was a training method of swinging the sword extremely slowly.

Swinging it fast and accurately was harder than swinging it lightly.

And swinging it infinitely slowly yet without a single tremor was several times harder than swinging it fast and accurately.

There was only one reason to perform that training.

To zoom in on the body's movements at a slow speed and inspect every single one of them.

'I don't even expect that much, but even a simple repetitive exercise would be fine.'

They had to try perceiving the movements of their bodies.

He could see that they hadn't even achieved that.

Wouldn't it be good to raise their basic physical stamina on top of that? Thus, what he had assigned was simple repetitive exercise.

Just by paying attention to keeping the posture correct, a similar effect could be produced.

Of course, it was true that it was a bit excessive, both objectively and by Ha Yun-ho's subjective standard.

'It was insufficient.'

Seo-jun's subjective standard did not think so.

"Then, let us disband now! Fighting for tomorrow's match as well!"

Ha Yun-ho stayed behind until the absolute very end to shake the carrot before ending his broadcast.

Tae-woo was waiting for Seo-jun, who stepped out of the capsule.

As usual, on the verge of spilling snack crumbs.

"What is it? Why are you waiting?"

Actually, it was fine. He could just make him clean up.

"Did you order chicken?"

He should tell him to clean up while eating.

"I ordered it. No, but why do I have to be the one ordering it every single time? Huh?"

"You should be glad I don't tell you to go pick up the takeout just to save on delivery fees."

Tae-woo was quick to be convinced this time as well.

"Hey. But do you have a strategy for tomorrow?"

What strategy was he suddenly talking about?

"I discussed it a bit with my team."

"Our team reached a conclusion."

"To pry information out of you."

"While facing our team, you guys must have made some sort of strategy on where to attack. Tell me a bit about that."

"Just because. You guys are going to win even without doing that anyway, aren't you?"

"So let me know. We are a weak team to begin with, so we need a lot of information."

"Was your record 0 wins and 2 losses?"

"Yeah. And if we lose tomorrow, it's 3 losses. Still, regardless of tomorrow's match, I'm asking because I feel like we need to understand the perspective of the teams facing us. So help me out a bit."

"Our team's strategy is to make the enemy mid laner rage quit. That way, we can win the game easily."

"Just as I said yesterday, my target is you, Tae-woo."

Tae-woo swore with his eyes for a moment before speaking.

"That's my line, you bastard!"