Day 28: The 1v5 That Proved Everything
Without warning, the official Valowont channel on Nertube went live.
The channel had never streamed anything before, so every Valowont player who noticed it immediately had the same thought: a giant question mark.
The chat exploded with messages. Within ten minutes of the stream going live, more than thirty thousand people had piled in. That was when the black screen finally switched, and the Valowont director appeared.
"Hello, everyone. I am Kang Tae-won, director of Valowont."
He dipped his head in a polite bow. His sudden appearance only made the question marks in the viewers' heads grow larger.
"I realize turning on a stream out of nowhere must be startling. This time, however, I had no choice. There is one matter that requires a public explanation."
In no time the chat was wallpapered with the word "cheater." Director Kang Tae-won nodded as if the audience had guessed correctly.
"As all of you know, there is currently one player in Valowont surrounded by endless controversy."
"Countless players who enjoy Valowont have sent inquiries to Ryeiot. We conducted every investigation we could. In the end we uncovered only one fact: that player was not using hacks."
Not hacks. The moment those words left Director Kang Tae-won's mouth, the audience lost their minds. Some corners of chat even floated the wild theory that Ryeiot and the cheater had cut a financial deal.
Kang Tae-won glanced over the rampaging chat, then continued.
"Of course I know many of you will not believe it. Honestly, I can barely believe it myself. That is exactly why we arranged this broadcast today."
He paused for a single beat. Behind him the screen switched again.
Five men sat at their stations on the new feed.
The sudden appearance of the pro players from S1—widely regarded as the strongest roster in Valowont—left the viewers blinking in confusion. Director Kang nodded as if he understood the reaction perfectly.
"The Valowont nickname 'Apocalypse Heavenly Venerable' submitted a single request to Ryeiot. That request was to prove, through a one-versus-five match against a professional Valowont team, that they had never used anything as cheap as hacks."
Chat flooded with laughter. The idea that Ryeiot had booked S1 just for one cheater was too ridiculous not to laugh at.
The S1 pros who had been dragged in on short notice felt roughly the same way.
"Hyung, why do we have to put on this clown show?"
"We're already drowning in tournament prep."
"What can we do? Coach told us to."
"Come on, everyone, look on the bright side. Treat it like a one-game event. We're getting paid more for this than for winning a world championship, after all."
"That's the part I don't get."
Wontop, the youngest member of S1, scowled at the words of Derpo, the team's eldest.
"We're just dealing with one little cheater. Why is Daeseong itself moving on this?"
Daeseong. One of the top eight conglomerates currently ranked in the business world, with a sprawling web of subsidiaries. Rumors were already circulating that the only reason this event match had been arranged at all was because Daeseong had applied direct pressure.
That only made the S1 players more confused. A company that had never once shown interest in esports was suddenly pouring tens of billions into a special event for this particular cheater, of all people, and at this exact timing.
While the S1 roster was still pouring out complaints, a staffer's voice came through their headsets.
"Players, are you ready?"
Derpo opened his mouth to answer—only for Wontop to cut in with a distinctly sharp tone.
"So why isn't the cheater here yet?"
The rest of S1, Derpo included, frowned, but no one stopped the youngest. They were all irritated that Cheon Seo-ah, whose reputation was supposedly on the line, had not said a single word.
"Apocalypse Heavenly Venerable has already finished preparing."
What a ridiculous nickname, Wontop muttered inwardly.
Finished preparing, though…
All five S1 players glanced toward the Ryeiot broadcast feed. A hand-cam window was already open, showing a pair of delicate-looking hands.
"Pretty young, maybe? No—those don't even look like a guy's hands."
Someone muttered it, and the others nodded in agreement. From the name alone they had pictured a forty-something old fogey, but the hands on the hand-cam looked far more feminine than masculine—soft enough to belong to someone in their early twenties at most.
Still.
"Alright, everyone focus. Looking like we're getting jerked around by one cheater isn't a good look."
Derpo's words drew nods from the other four.
Of the countless people watching the event match Valowont had prepared, not a single one predicted Cheon Seo-ah's victory.
Or rather—none of them even tried. No matter how sophisticated the cheats, walking into a 1v5 against S1 was the same as admitting you had no intention of winning. And if the opponent truly was not a cheater, the match became even more impossible. Raw skill could never erase a numbers gap, and S1 was famous for the teamwork that had pulled them through reverse sweeps again and again.
The game that actually unfolded, however, delivered more than enough shock for every spectator watching.
A small cam in the corner transmitted every movement of Cheon Seo-ah's hands. The computer itself had been provided by Ryeiot, leaving zero opportunity to install any software. In other words, the player everyone had been calling a cheater was not one.
Cheon Seo-ah opened fire down an alley before the opponent even rounded the corner. At the exact same instant, the S1 pro who had just peeked dropped dead. There were wallbang headshots when no one was visible, calm skill usage that secured kills after suddenly meeting an enemy while holding a knife—every single clip would have been branded as hacks if it had happened in a ranked lobby.
Through this event match, however, the players arrived at one unshakable conclusion.
The user they had all believed was a cheater, Cheon Seo-ah, simply possessed monstrous skill.
And every pro-team scout watching the stream formed the exact same thought: We have to scout her no matter what it takes.
While the explanation broadcast continued, elsewhere—
"Hah. Who would ever look at that and think android?"
Blood Master sat at a massive round table, watching the stream with a dry chuckle.
The Cheon Seo-ah currently playing Valowont for the explanation stream was not the real one. It was merely an android modeled after her appearance. Or rather, a doll.
The proof of that sat right beside them.
"It isn't even that impressive a doll. Barely a six-hundred series."
The real Cheon Seo-ah sat in a seat prepared next to the great table, munching on the desserts spread out before her.
Inside the dimensional space she possessed lay countless treasures, spirit pills, and materials beyond numbering. Among them, the doll currently handling the explanation stream was designated No. 642—ranked at the very bottom of the six hundred sixty-six dolls she owned. Its movements were serviceable enough, but it could only act according to preset commands. In other words, everything it was showing on stream right now was the absolute limit of its performance.
Even after hearing that fact from Cheon Seo-ah herself, the nine villains still stared at the doll on the screen with eyes that refused to believe it. She might brush it off as nothing, yet Earth's current technology could never produce an android—let alone a doll—of that caliber.
While everyone was still marveling at the performance of one of Cheon Seo-ah's dolls, Geomma's eyes lit up. She sidled closer to her master.
"More importantly, young lady—"
"No."
Cheon Seo-ah answered without so much as glancing at the approaching Geomma. The swordswoman put on a wounded expression and performed a theatrical little "sob-sob" of tears.
Cheon Seo-ah's brow creased.
"I already told you last time I will not stream. Why on earth would I have to perform tricks for insignificant monke—ordinary people?"
"But! Your cute appearance paired with those dead eyes—that gap moe could farm so many juices from the viewers!"
"No. I will not. I said I will not."
Whiiing—.
At the flat refusal, Geomma's face drooped like a scolded puppy. Not that any amount of pitiful acting would ever sway Cheon Seo-ah.
Still unwilling to give up, Geomma tried again.
"Ah, is it because you don't want your face shown? Then a VTuber—!"
A chill raced up her spine. The air turned ice-cold in an instant. Even the eight other villains who had been watching the stream turned their eyes toward Geomma and Cheon Seo-ah.
"I. Said. No."
Gulp—.
Each syllable was enunciated with perfect clarity. Geomma swallowed dryly without meaning to. The moment her eyes met Cheon Seo-ah's, she felt as though she had been dropped into the middle of a vast and empty cosmos—a sky glittering with tens of thousands of beautiful stars. Except those were not stars. They were eyes. Tens of thousands of colossal pupils, each the size of a planet, all fixed upon her. Even for the Sword Demon, that vision was not something she could endure.
"I-I'm sorry."
The apology came from the heart. Only then did Cheon Seo-ah offer a gentle smile and stroke Geomma's hair.
"That's right. Forcing someone to do what they dislike is a bad thing."
"Yes…"
Geomma answered in a frightened little voice. The Proxy, who had been watching the entire exchange in silence, finally spoke.
"By the way, young lady—among the dolls you possess, how strong is the most powerful one?"
At the Proxy's question, curiosity flickered in every pair of eyes except Geomma's.