The Heavenly Demon Helps Me Rank Up (1)

Han Seo-woo already knew what Hwaryeong was talking about? No, before that.

The fact that both Hwaryeong and Han Seo-woo had said the exact same thing meant that learning the principles and fundamentals was the true path to improving one's skill. Knowing that but keeping his mouth firmly shut? Did that make any sense? Huh?!

Was Han Seo-woo really that bad at talking? He seemed to speak fairly coherently during interviews. Ye-jun, who had never spoken with him directly, decided to trust Hyun-jin's words for now.

"Anyway, Hyun-jin. After hearing that explanation, do you think you could try it yourself?"

"I think I can manage. This is basic stuff, after all."

"Then give it a shot later and tell me how it went."

If applying what Hwaryeong taught actually improved their skills, they needed to inform the internal team players immediately. Unlike other top teams, XLG didn't have an overwhelming roster or ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠massive capital. Without seizing information like this first and putting it into practice, they wouldn't survive.

"I'll try it and report back tomorrow."

"Good. I'm counting on you."

Even after the conversation ended, Hyun-jin didn't leave his seat. He kept watching the broadcast screen. After the spoken lecture finished, Hwaryeong moved on to sparring with NyangNyang Fist Law and Dang So-il. Overwhelming two fairly skilled users wasn't easy even for a first-string pro like Lee Hyun-jin, yet Hwaryeong handled both of them with ridiculous ease.

"Man, Hwaryeong-nim is disgustingly good."

"Right? Those two are the kind of people who get called monsters anywhere else."

"I really hope she doesn't go pro. The thought of having to face someone like that in a tournament is nightmare fuel."

"Same here. If that person's on the enemy team, I wouldn't even know where to begin with the strategy."

The pair prayed that Hwaryeong's broadcast would blow up, then returned to their seats.

While Hwaryeong was busy toying with NyangNyang and Dang So-il, Enri was running her own broadcast. Today's content was Apis once again. She had recently declared that she would keep streaming Apis until she hit Diamond because she was completely hooked on climbing ranks.

The backlash wasn't particularly strong. Apis was the foundation that had made Enri successful in the first place, and her recent Apis streams had actually been fun. Even before meeting Hwaryeong, Enri would occasionally stream Apis. The game itself was incredibly popular, and Enri had always been fiercely competitive about climbing its ranked ladder, so she streamed it quite frequently.

There was solid entertainment value to it, too. Enri was a streamer who guaranteed basic fun on her own, and when Apis was involved, her tendency to become completely over-immersed proved fascinating to viewers.

The problem always started when she hit a losing streak. After dropping several games in a row and her expression began ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to darken, the entire broadcast atmosphere would crash to the floor. Viewers would start mocking her, which made Enri grumble even more, causing more people to leave. The remaining trolls would then mock her harder, creating a vicious cycle that made her Apis streams notorious for being extremely polarizing. Some people who genuinely liked Enri as a person even hoped she would stop playing Apis altogether.

But lately, ever since Enri started learning Apis from Hwaryeong, everything had changed. She no longer played without thinking. She still used full aim assist like before, but every single movement now carried some kind of reasoning behind it. Having learned how to solidify an advantage and how to reverse a disadvantage, Enri no longer suffered helpless defeats no matter the situation. Even when she lost, she could roughly guess why, so she no longer shook when viewers criticized her like she used to.

Enri had become someone who could display her charm whether she won or lost. Thanks to this change—or perhaps because she now had the clear goal of reaching Diamond—the number of viewers watching her Apis streams had been steadily increasing.

Of course, the increase in Enri's viewership had nothing to do with her actual tier. It was true her skills had improved and her win rate had risen dramatically, but the wall called Diamond was still incredibly high for her. In Apis's 1v1 mode, Diamond was a kind of hellscape. The demons who played thousands of games yet couldn't escape Diamond. The "trucks" who came down from Master to level new characters. The mysterious smurf accounts that occasionally climbed with insane win streaks. Diamond was the place you could only reach after breaking through all those obstacles.

When you considered that most people who reached Diamond only did so after failing promotion matches multiple times, honing their skills again and again before barely making it, it wasn't strange at all that Enri was stuck here.

"You! The one talking about snipers! Go stand facing the wall for ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ten minutes!"

Enri slapped a ten-minute timeout on the viewer who had said something useless, grumbled, and changed her stream title.

After delivering her warning, Enri gripped her spear with both hands and took a long, deep breath.

I can do this. I can do this. Who taught me? Hwaryeong! There's no way I'd lose to some Diamond-bound ghost!

After slowly hypnotizing herself, Enri only lifted her head a full second after hearing the queue pop.

The opponent was a red orc.

The red orc was a mana-based boxing character with a massive frame. Its movements were slower than other fist fighters, but it boasted high damage and recovery power. Performance-wise it was considered a strong pick, but its short range and sluggish movement made it a poor choice against a dragon hunter.

"Everyone?"

After shutting the viewers down with a single line, Enri accepted the match.

The moment she entered the game and checked the map, she let out an internal cheer. It was a lake stage. The muddy ground and water would inevitably slow movement, yet it always provided plenty of open space to swing a spear. Perfect. It was as if the heavens had handed Enri victory on a silver platter.

"What is it?"

Following the viewer's message, Enri checked the silently standing red orc's record. He was someone who had already pushed a different character to Master and was now leveling a new one. As she stared at the record window in blank shock, she swept her hair back and screamed.

In Apis, raising one character to a certain tier didn't automatically raise your others. Because character proficiency mattered so much, the system accounted for the fact that new characters would naturally perform worse. Of course, they didn't match true Master players against actual Iron players. Masters started queuing from Diamond 4, Diamonds from Platinum 4, and so on.

However, the developers had miscalculated one thing: even with low proficiency on a specific character, high-tier players still possessed fundamental skill. Especially those who had reached Master operated on an entirely different level. They were trucks that bulldozed through the Platinum and Diamond locals.

And Enri was the poor victim about to get run over.

"Shut up!"

It's still fine. He hasn't even played ten games on red orc yet. He probably doesn't even know how to pilot the character properly. If I just maintain the matchup advantage, I can win. I can do this. I just need to win. If I win, everything's fine. This will just be a funny story.

The instant the game began, Enri struck the red orc's thigh as it tried to close the distance. A small amount of damage accompanied by a brief stun. Not missing the opening, she retreated and successfully established spear range.

Ara had drilled the concept of distance into her so brutally that it was almost traumatic. Now Enri could naturally create proper spear distance without even thinking about it.

Having secured a favorable position, Enri didn't rush to attack. She simply chipped away persistently and mercilessly from range. She hadn't been idle during all those previous failures. After failing repeatedly and asking Ara for advice, she had learned one crucial thing: she must not get impatient. Impatience only led to more mistakes and brought zero benefits.

Stay calm. If I keep this up, I win. Don't think about ending the game. Think about running out the clock and winning on stamina difference.

Fortunately, the opposing red orc wasn't skilled with fist fighters. He kept trying to close the gap while eating spear hits, but as if he didn't understand his own character's toolkit, he was completely helpless against the spear Enri kept presenting. He showed occasional flashes of brilliance, but nothing strong enough to overcome the disadvantage.

Enri pursued a victory so stable it was almost cowardly, and at the end she finally saw the message she had been waiting for.

Let's not lose this momentum. She might even run into that same person again. Enri was about to leave the game and queue immediately when she froze at the sudden surge in viewers. It wasn't just a few hundred more. Nearly two thousand additional viewers had flooded in.

No matter how important a Diamond promotion match was, this was too much. When Enri had done her first Diamond promotion match, viewers had swarmed with the same "Enri's actually going to Diamond?!" energy, but this was already her fifth attempt. There was no reason for this kind of influx anymore.

"What's going on? Did a viewbot army just arrive?"

"Ah. So Hwaryeong turned her broadcast off."

She had watched up until the part where Hwaryeong was tormenting NyangNyang-nim and Dang So-il before starting her own stream. The lecture must have ended.

"What do I do? If they come to my stream right after watching Hwaryeong's, their eyes might rot..."

It was true that her skill was pathetic compared to Hwaryeong, but hearing it so bluntly still hurt.

"Yes. Queuing now."

Even a fairly large streamer like Enri was powerless before cold hard cash. The moment she obediently pressed queue, a match was found.

This opponent was a battle mage. One of Apis's few long-range characters, commonly called a "magic mosquito" by players. It was normally a difficult matchup for a dragon hunter with limited approach options, but what caught Enri's attention wasn't the character.

It was the opponent's name.

"Huh?"

That name was far too familiar to Enri.