Chapter 26 – Day 26

Day 26

“Aaaargh-!”

Bang!

A man slammed the desk and went berserk.

“You damn hacker bastard!”

On the monitor in front of the man, Valorant was open, and on that screen, the word ‘DEFEAT’ was prominently displayed.

“Damn it, why the hell isn’t Riot catching that hacker!”

The man couldn’t understand.

The win rate of the user he encountered as an enemy in Valorant was 98.05%.

That’s in the immortal tier, which is called the celestial realm!
No, the opponent just achieved Mythic, the highest tier in Valorant, with their recent victory.

Does this even make sense?

Logically, to have such a win rate in the celestial realm, it’s impossible without cheating.
Honestly, I doubt even cheating could create such a win rate and tier.

“Shit, it’s all fucked up.”

The man muttered with his eyes wide open.

This can’t go on.
He absolutely couldn’t leave that cheating bastard alone.

With that thought, the man busily moved his hands.

“I’ll make this public.”

* * *

“Hmm.”

Cheon Seoa frowned and let out a low groan.

It was strange.
Something had become strange.

She first felt this strangeness two days ago.

As usual, Cheon Seoa was playing Valorant that day, but at some point, the game stopped working.

The moment a game was found, someone would always abandon it.

Thanks to that, the number of games she played in the past two days could be counted on both hands.

At first, she thought she had just started the game incorrectly, but…

“Is this what they call sniping?”

Seo-ah Cheon muttered, tilting her head.

But who on earth, why, and for what reason would someone snipe her?

She wasn’t even active as a professional, let alone being an internet broadcaster or streamer.

Just then, as Seo-ah Cheon was staring intently at the Valorant screen where rooms were exploding as soon as the game was caught,

“Is something wrong?”

Seo-ah Cheon’s door opened carefully, and Min-ho Kang poked his head in.

In Min-ho’s eyes, there was an undeniable fear flickering, and for good reason. For the past two days, Seo-ah’s presence had been seeping through the tightly closed door.

At first, that presence was quite faint, barely noticeable even to Min-ho unless he concentrated.
Recently, however, that presence had been growing, and now it seemed so unstable that it might explode at the slightest touch.

“It’s nothing.”

Seo-ah answered to Min-ho’s question from behind her.

However, Min-ho still couldn’t hide his anxious expression.

The eerie presence overflowing from Seo-ah had intensified even more.

If left alone like this, it seemed as if something big might happen.

At that, Min-ho gulped nervously and finally gathered the courage to speak again.

“If there’s anything troubling you, please tell me. I’m here to assist you, after all.”

“Hmm.”

At Min-ho’s words, Seo-ah thought for a moment and then nodded.

Indeed, rather than pondering alone like this, it might be more appropriate to get help from someone else to resolve this situation.

Cheon Seoa organized her thoughts like that.

“I can’t play the game.”

“What do you mean by that…?”

“It’s exactly as I said. As soon as I get into a room, it crashes, so I haven’t been able to play properly lately.”

….

At Cheon Seoa’s words, Kang Minho’s expression hardened.

Simultaneously.

‘Ah, shit. It finally happened.’

Kang Minho muttered inwardly.

To be honest, Kang Minho already knew why Cheon Seoa couldn’t play the game properly.

No, he couldn’t not know.

He had played games quite a bit in his younger days too.

Already, Cheon Seoa’s Valorant nickname was famous.

A monster among monsters who achieved a 98.05% win rate in the mythical tier, the highest of the high.

The problem was, the current evaluation of Cheon Seoa was not ‘a monster with overwhelming skills’, but simply a ‘hacker’.

‘Couldn’t you tone it down a bit?’

Honestly, even he would leave the game if Cheon Seoa was on the opposing team.
If they met as teammates, it would be an easy win without doing anything, but if they met as enemies, it would be a guaranteed loss a hundred times out of a hundred.

The only reason Cheon Seoa’s win rate wasn’t 100% was due to losses when she first started playing ranked games.

Thanks to mistakes that weren’t really mistakes because she wasn’t yet familiar with the game.

But even so.

‘How can I honestly say this?’

Kang Min-ho’s brow furrowed.

He couldn’t outright tell Cheon Seo-ah, ‘Miss, you can’t play the game because you’re being accused of being a nuclear scientist.’

No, he was afraid to say it.

Because he couldn’t predict how Cheon Seo-ah would react upon hearing those words.

Just as Kang Min-ho was pretending to ‘think of a reason’…

“K-Kang Min-ho!”

Bang-clatter-!

The front door opened, and Shin Dae-jin burst in with an urgent expression.

At this, question marks appeared in Kang Min-ho’s eyes.

Why is this guy coming in?
Didn’t he say he was going out to have fun since it was his day off?

While Kang Min-ho was thinking this….

“Ah, Miss.”

Belatedly realizing that Cheon Seo-ah was with Kang Min-ho, Shin Dae-jin bowed his head in embarrassment.

Cheon Seo-ah casually waved her hand at Shin Dae-jin’s greeting.

“Please leave now. I need to get back to my game.”

“Understood. I’ll do my best to find the reason as well.”

The conversation ended with those words.

Meanwhile, as soon as Cheon Seo-ah’s door closed firmly, Kang Min-ho turned to look at Shin Dae-jin.

“What’s going on?”

“A problem… A problem has erupted.”

“A problem?”

At Shin Daejin’s incoherent words, Kang Minho frowned.

“Explain it so I can understand…!”

“Shut up and just look at this!”

Shin Daejin, who shouted angrily, hurriedly thrust his smartphone forward.

On the screen of Shin Daejin’s smartphone was a post from a community….

“Ha, shit. As expected, it was as expected.”

Kang Minho muttered.

The post on Shin Daejin’s smartphone screen was targeting a specific individual.
And the specific individual that post was targeting was none other than Cheon Seoa.

Despite being text on a screen, the palpable anger and malice were evident in the lengthy post, but to summarize it, it went like this:

[This cheating bastard is muddying the waters of Valorant. Riot, ban this cheater’s account permanently right now.]

“The person this bastard is targeting, it’s definitely the young lady, right?”

To Shin Daejin’s question, Kang Minho nodded.

Ten out of ten, a hundred out of a hundred, it was definitely the young lady.

Especially seeing the words “98% win rate” scattered throughout the angry, long post.

“What should we do?”

Shin Daejin’s voice sank heavily.

Already, the comments on this sniper post have exceeded a thousand.
Not only that, the sniper post has spread to numerous communities, generating public opinion that goes beyond simply cursing Cheon Seoa, to the point of saying she should be killed.

At this rate, even the Seven Sword Emperors wouldn’t be able to easily suppress it.

But to tell Cheon Seoa honestly…

“It’s scary.”

“I agree.”

At Shin Daejin’s muttering, Kang Minho also nodded.

Even at this moment, it’s visible how much irritation has built up, ready to explode at the slightest touch, and in the midst of that, to inform her about the existence of this sniper post?

That would be like fanning the flames… no, pouring oil on a burning house.

Indeed…

“Should we report to the master?”

“We should. This is not something we can handle.”

Haa-.

Shin Daejin and Kang Minho ended their conversation like that. The two of them let out deep sighs.

* * *

Bang-!

“These bastard vermin!”

Nine villains seated around a large round table.

Among them, Blood Wolf Emperor, known for having the most volatile temper among the nine villains, slammed the table and burst out in anger.

However, he wasn’t the only one enraged.

The other eight villains sitting around the table might seem calm on the outside, but their insides were filled with boiling anger.

“Calm down. First…, we need to decide how to handle this situation.”

“Why don’t we just kill them all!”

“That’s the problem, because the young lady doesn’t want that. Besides, that malicious post has spread beyond Korea to overseas. By simple calculation, at least a million vermin are insulting the young lady. Is it possible to find and kill each and every one of them?”

Ugh….

At the agent’s sharp remark, the Blood Wolf Emperor groaned and slumped down.

So.

“What do you suggest we do?”

“Isn’t this the meeting to discuss that?”

To the Blood Wolf Emperor’s question, it was the Mara Monk who spoke this time.

The Mara Monk had his hands clasped together and his eyes closed.

At first glance, he looked like a compassionate high monk, but everyone gathered here knew.

When the Mara Monk took on this appearance, it meant he was struggling to suppress the anger boiling inside him.

“But wait. Why didn’t that bastard Seven Sword Emperor do anything until the situation got this bad?”

This time, the Blood Wolf Emperor picked on the Seven Sword Emperor.

However, not just the Blood Wolf Emperor, but several villains held the opinion that this was due to the Seven Sword Emperor’s poor management.

This was because the malicious post that became the cause of the current situation started in a Korean community.

And Korea was the Seven Sword Emperor’s territory.

“What the hell. Am I supposed to stare at the internet all day long?”

“You were the one who said you’d serve the young lady first! Then you should have handled this well in advance to prevent such things from happening!”

The Seven Sword Emperor and the Blood Wolf Emperor.
They began to raise their voices at each other.

No, it went beyond simply raising their voices….

Grrrr-.

The Blood Wolf Emperor suddenly took on the appearance of a human-blood wolf hybrid and let out a low growl.

Shing-.

The Seven Sword Emperor drew the seven swords, the Seven Desire Swords, positioned on his back, ready to swing them at any moment.

Just as their emotions escalated to the point where it wouldn’t be strange if they fought at any moment.

“Everyone, be quiet.”

Thud-.

A solemn yet beautiful voice resonated.

At that, the Blood Wolf Emperor and the Seven Sword Emperor, who had been growling continuously, and indeed all the other villains, turned their gazes towards the Sword Demon.

“Isn’t it a simple matter?”

The Sword Demon looked around at them, asking as if he truly couldn’t understand.

A simple matter?
How could this be a simple matter?
Even at this moment, public opinion criticizing the young lady was spreading.

Yet, he calls this situation a simple matter?
Had he gone completely mad?

In response to the villains’ stares, the Sword Demon smirked and said.

“It’s simple. We just need to show that the win rate the young lady created isn’t a hack.”

“What do you mean?”

“Internet broadcast.”

…!

At the Sword Demon’s blunt words, the eyes of the other eight villains widened.

Why hadn’t they thought of that?
If they used a live internet broadcast, they could certainly quell the current nuclear war public opinion in an instant.

No, it might even be possible to reverse that public opinion beyond just quelling it.

At the same time, a smug smile appeared on the Sword Demon’s lips, along with a sneer mocking the other eight villains who couldn’t think of such a simple method.