chapter_0025

25 – The answer will be revealed in 60 hours!

25 – The answer will be revealed in 60 hours!

… ─ Mugeon (Internet Broadcaster) Gallery ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ …

[This bastard’s toxicity is off the charts lol]

(cough1.clip)

(cough2.clip)

(thank_you_for_your_dedication.clip)

As far as I know, Mugeon never swears when streaming, only when playing with friends lol

(this_bastard.clip)

And now this Mugeon is spewing profanities lol

[Comments]

— Mugeon763: Where the hell did this guy come from lol

— Mugeon292: I’ve never laughed watching Mugeon’s stream before, but today I’m just dying laughing f*ck lol I’m wide awake now

– Mugeon744: Who knew getting sniped by a pro would be this fun

— Mugeon893: But this is no ordinary toxicity lol

–
Mugeon893: Did you see this guy play? He’s actually good

–
Mugeon114: Mugeon talking less = he’s doing well lol

… ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ …

… ─ Mugeon (Internet Broadcaster) Gallery ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ …

[This guy is ‘real’]

I’ve seen a lot of random snipers while watching streams for a long time

But I’ve never seen someone so obsessed with details like this guy

Usually most of them make boring games with the same mindless one-trick repertoire, you know?

Like constantly stealing kills

Or repeatedly team killing

Or playing support but not giving any heals or shields until the end of the game

But this guy is “real”

First, he stole kills and taunted, but when there was no reaction, he showed his skills and made Mugeon, who usually doesn’t care unless you’re really good, take notice

This alone is unbelievable

Those who don’t believe me, go watch the highlight pinned on Mugeon’s YouTube right now

The fact that the sniper almost kept up with that speed means he’s at least Master level, yeah

Anyway, after getting his attention like that, Mugeon started getting nervous

At first he took it lightly, but you can tell by how he frantically finished off with a pistol right after, afraid of losing a confirmed kill while clearing the hillside lodge

But then the sniper changed it up again

Instead of stealing kills, he only took healing items from corpses

-> He predicted Mugeon would obsess over kills -> Mugeon lost the mind game

This happened repeatedly within minutes, so even Mugeon was dumbfounded lol

[Comments]

— Mugeon105: So I wasn’t the only one who felt this way lol

— Mugeon864: There are different levels of sniping lol

– Mugeon864: Those who know streaming well snipe differently

— Mugeon949: Why do I feel like we’ll see this sniper on Ppajijik soon lol

–
Mugeon202: Why aren’t you turning on the stream

–
Mugeon842: For real lol

… ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ …

Sniping is a performance art.

The ultimate goal is to fluster the streamer and have fun laughing together with the viewers.

In other words, not to become famous myself, but for the entertainment of the stream. Even when sniping, a professional sniper’s excellent attitude is to do it without crossing the line.

And because this tightrope walking is ingrained in me, I didn’t act purely maliciously even though I sniped Mugeon.

Just enough to be fun.

You could say my goal was to do it until I received high praise.

[What the hell is with this bastard…]

So when I heard this one line from Mugeon, I achieved my modest goal.

— lololololol high praise

— High praise achieved

— First time except during internal matches, right? lol

Though I dislike him enough to criticize him internally every time, there was no reason to persistently harass him to the point of ruining the stream atmosphere.

Above all, I should probably start watching out for Mugeon’s viewers soon.

They may be laughing at my antics now, but fundamentally they’re on Mugeon’s side.

If Mugeon gets angry, they’ll secretly start sharpening their knives thinking “What’s with that person?”

Especially since Mugeon’s viewers, being from his pro days, often have strict standards, so if I keep acting up without reading the room, it’s only a matter of time before I get buried.

If you make a lot of enemies like that, some of those enemies will follow you for life.

When I was just an ordinary bedroom sniper, it didn’t matter how many enemies like that I had, but now I’m a proud employee of Parallel, the company established by the Boss.

If the Boss is evil, makes me work overtime every day in a black company, pays peanuts for salary and even delays payments, I could immediately open my mic and declare never to work for a company that starts with P and ends with L.

But Parallel is my lifelong workplace that I can’t let go of, where the best company welfare is sharing an office with the Boss.

So from here on, rather than being hated by people, the secret to longevity as a toxic employee is to appropriately back off and try to be likable.

Above all, from now on it doesn’t really matter if I win or lose the bet.

The reason I sniped today was to see Mugeon’s skills with my own eyes, and I made the bet and provoked him to draw out his true abilities.

[From now on I’ll play seriously. You seem quite skilled, so I shouldn’t go easy on you.]

— Whoa

— Mugeon’s pissed!

Let’s see just how good an ex-pro’s skills are.

Whether it’s an area I can catch up to.

Or if there really is a world that only they can see.

Just then, gunfire erupts nearby. Tudadadada.

Starting with that short burst of fire, the surroundings soon filled with gunshots in response.

There it is, this round’s hot spot.

I should join in too!

So I excitedly ran towards the gunfire and precisely shot the back of the head of someone visible just down the slope.

Bang!

{{Mugun is a famous anti-Momo >> (Head) Jangchung-dong Grandma Bossam}}

But the kill went to someone else’s name, not mine.

{{MovGun >> (Kill) Jangchung-dong Grandma Bossam}}

Wondering what happened, I turned my head to see Mugeon, who had caught up to me somehow, sliding past my side.

He even efficiently farmed the loot, then returned to my side with a majestic stride and said:

[Stealing tastes especially good. Have you been enjoying this all by yourself until now?]

You’re saying you willingly jumped into this mud pit?

… If that’s the case, I have no choice but to get serious too.

–

Among all the snipers Mugeon had encountered so far, MomoAnti was in the upper ranks in terms of both skill and psychological warfare.

He even gave the impression of knowing Mugeon well, as if he thoroughly understood how Mugeon would react to his various actions.

If MomoAnti’s prey had been someone mentally weak, they could have easily self-destructed from being swayed by the psychological warfare.

However, Mugeon is a pro.

He’s experienced much more mentally taxing situations in tournaments.

Above all, once the bet started, it was right to discard gentlemanly behavior.

Wasn’t Mugeon someone who did whatever it took to win during his active days, as long as it didn’t break the rules?

In other words, MomoAnti’s kill stealing was far from being bad manners.

He simply chose the best method to win the bet.

So there was no problem with Mugeon completely imitating that method.

Moreover, looking at the scoreboard in the upper right, the number of survivors was concerning.

–
– 35 Alive – –

Less than 10 minutes into the game, only 35 out of 90 players remained.

Squads were being wiped out at an unbelievably fast pace.

This is the pace of a normal game.

Even people who habitually play for survival and approach ranked games very calmly often just rush in recklessly in normal games.

Since their rank doesn’t change based on performance.

In other words, now is not the time to be picky.

You never know when the 35 survivors will become 10, or 5.

When the absolute numbers decrease, you can’t get kills even if you want to.

Be gentle because you’re a pro?

What nonsense.

Pro gamers are the most ruthless and greedy in the world when it comes to games, especially in competition.

Even Mugeon, who normally seems to have an ordinary nice personality, becomes a beast that only knows victory at times like this.

— lolololololol

— The game suddenly got dirty lol

— The other side started it first, right?

— This seems 100:0 lol

:: Anonymous donor has donated 1,000 Clouds! ::

:: As expected of a pro, even strategy absorption speed is pro level wow ::

How did Mugeon end up trading insults with Momo?

That was also because of a tournament.

In a tournament with prize money on the line, he got so caught up in trying to win that he unconsciously hurled insults at Momo who was messing up.

Though they apologized and became close friends afterwards, that’s how serious Mugeon was about the game.

— Let’s gooooo

— Stolen again lolololol

— Wow lol how did he steal that?

“Hmm.”

— He stole it this time!!

— Nice!!

— You’re both being so u-gly for real lol

“Nice.”

After about 15 minutes of fierce back-and-forth stealing from each other.

Finally, the safe zone had shrunk as much as possible, with barely any space left to hide.

3 survivors remaining.

Since Mugeon and MomoAnti were on the same squad, there was only one enemy left.

And only then did Mugeon press tab to check the scoreboard:

1p) MovGun – 13/0/3 – Damage dealt 4,201

3p) Mugeon is a famous Momo anti team – 13/0/3 – Damage dealt 4,024

— ?

— Whoa lol

— It’s a tie lol

— And there’s exactly one person left lol

By this point, viewers’ curiosity about MomoAnti was through the roof.

They wondered who on earth this person was to be able to engage in such a fierce mud fight with Mugeon.

I mean, if you hear about a brawl suddenly breaking out at a mud festival, you’d normally just listen and forget about it, but when one of the two people fighting is a pro, of course you’d be curious about who the other person is.

That anticipation from the viewers translated directly into mission donations.

:: Mission ::

:: Win the bet and hear his voice – 612,000 won ::

Mugeon felt the same way.

Who on earth was this sniper to be this good?

He didn’t seem to be a pro, but he was at the very top among amateurs.

He wanted to reveal his identity and then invite him to an internal match.

‘If I had known it would be like this, I shouldn’t have invited Signal Flare to this internal match.’

But since he already had plans, it would be fortunate if he could at least win the bet and get his contact info.

Then he could invite him anytime there was an open spot in the next internal match.

‘First I need to win the bet and then think about it.’

Mugeon fiddled with his sniper rifle while keeping an eye on MomoAnti.

— But wow, looks like he’s definitely not going to make the first move lol

— He’s probably waiting to follow up and finish off after Mugeon shoots first lol

As the viewers said, he was on standby in his cover position without any particular movement.

It seemed his plan was to aim for the side and steal the kill if Mugeon encountered the enemy first.

That’s not going to work.

Checking his inventory, he had 5 smoke grenades left.

This was enough to cover 2/3 of the shrunken battlefield with smoke, with some to spare.

Without hesitation, Mugeon started throwing smoke grenades towards where he estimated the enemy might be.

Soon a wide area was filled with smoke, making it impossible to tell where anything was.

— Whoa bro you’re a genius?

— Damn, now he can’t steal kills like this

— Bro now’s your chance gogogo

In this state, even if Mugeon finds the opponent first, it’s impossible for MomoAnti to steal the finishing blow.

Moreover, the weapon Mugeon is holding now is a bow he looted from a corpse earlier.

Since it doesn’t make a sound when fired, it becomes even harder to pinpoint where Mugeon and the enemy are fighting.

On top of that, if he uses Viper’s ultimate ability that just charged up, he can locate the enemy’s position even in the smoke.

Mugeon charges forward.

MomoAnti didn’t follow behind.

He did peek his head out from cover, but just stared blankly in Mugeon’s direction.

‘What’s going on? Did he give up?’

Before long, Mugeon rummaging through the smoke found the enemy.

One arrow hit the head. 2/3 of the shield was gone.

Soon the 2nd arrow also hit. With a clanging sound, the shield broke and the enemy’s remaining health was less than half.

Finally, just one more arrow to the body would end the bet in Mugeon’s victory.

At that moment—

Bang——!

The sharp sound of a single pistol shot rang out in the safe zone.

A rainbow-colored panel spun in the center of the screen, announcing the result of this game.

Mugeon immediately looked at the final kill log.

{{Mugun is a famous anti-Momo >> (Head)(Kill) Banpo Jayi Entrance Zone}}

Pistol icon. And a head marker.

The one who finished it off was still MomoAnti standing at the edge of the smoke’s range.

He had aimed precisely at the opponent’s head through the hazy smoke.

— Woahhhhhhh

— Wait what

— ????

— How did he hit that???

— Insane what the hell lololol

— ??????

— ??

— Huh

One viewer offered a plausible explanation.

:: Anonymous donor has donated 1,000 Clouds! ::

:: He must have seen the position through stream sniping lol ::

— Oh is that it?

— Ah

— Oh that makes sense lol

“No.”

However, Mugeon directly refuted that opinion.

“That wasn’t stream sniping just now.”

Even with stream sniping, they have different viewing angles, and there’s a broadcast delay of 3-5 seconds.

It wasn’t a situation where you could calculate that in a short time and land an instant headshot.

There should have been at least a few misses.

In other words, this was definitely skill. Or hacks.

“MomoAnti. Did you really shoot just by hearing footsteps?”

MomoAnti said:

[Sound, small map.]

Mugeon let out a sigh.

Since the minimap shows which direction Mugeon is looking in a teardrop shape, he deduced it while listening to the enemy’s footsteps.

But this was closer to luck than skill.

It’s possible to roughly estimate the position, but in Mugeon’s experience as a pro, it’s impossible to aim precisely for the head and hit in smoke where you can’t see anything.

“You were lucky. I lost.”

However, as if to say Mugeon’s perception was wrong, MomoAnti said:

[Negative. This is skill.]

In fact, Mugeon had been waiting for those words.

He was curious what kind of magic he had performed in the smoke, if it wasn’t hacks.

“… Then could I watch you play sometime? I’d like to invite you to an internal match.”

But the proposal he threw out, hoping to exchange contact info with him at the same time, was flatly rejected.

[Unnecessary. You can see.]

“? What do you mean by that?”

MomoAnti’s following words were full of riddles.

[Reason. Shown in 60 hours.]

Author’s Note (Afterword)

The next chapter will be uploaded in 60 hours!

… I shouldn’t say that, right?