Your Opponent Was Me
"But her opponent is me!"
"What... What is this? Seriously!" Gyeong-sik couldn't believe what was happening. How could the katana user he had run into in the waiting room be a master skilled enough to push him into a corner like this? Logically, it made absolutely no sense.
As far as he knew, the only player who could wield a katana with this level of mastery was 'Samurai,' a player who resided in Grandmaster. And crucially, Samurai was a guy.
The player swinging her blade before him, long blonde hair fluttering, was a girl. When they had briefly spoken in the waiting room, she had a distinctly female voice. Unless she was using some kind of voice-modulation software...
"Ugh!" Gyeong-sik gasped, ducking his head. A few strands of hair that failed to escape the trajectory of her blade were cleanly sheared off. He couldn't afford to let his guard down for even a fraction of a second. The moment he lost focus, his head would roll. This was not an opponent he could trade blows with while letting his mind wander.
Although Gyeong-sik had dropped to Diamond due to various streaming-related distractions, he was still a man who had once stood on the very threshold of Grandmaster. And in his estimation, the woman before him was...
'At least Grandmaster. Maybe even higher.'
Even after reaching this conclusion, he let out a hollow laugh at the sheer absurdity of it. Grandmaster? It wasn't like Grandmasters grew on trees. How could he run into a player with GM-level skills in a low-Diamond lobby? And a female katana user, at that? Every single descriptor felt completely mismatched.
Yet, Gyeong-sik knew better than anyone that this absurd reality was unfolding right before his eyes.
After a fierce exchange of blows, they backed away, falling into a tense standoff. Gyeong-sik unconsciously swallowed hard.
'What is this insane pressure...?'
He couldn't bring himself to take even a single step forward. A chilling sensation washed over him, whispering that the slightest mistake would cost him his head. This suffocating pressure was a feeling he had only experienced back when he was at his peak rating. That alone was more than enough proof of his opponent's skill.
He had already taken the worse end of their first trade. If the match dragged on like this, he would slowly be chipped away to a guaranteed defeat. The solution in a situation like this was simple: charge in by any means necessary and force a breakthrough. Standing still would only result in a slow death.
But that was easier said than done. In every simulation Gyeong-sik ran in his head, initiating the attack only led to his demise.
His head flying off, an arm severed, his trump card blocked...
"Sigh..."
Just as he let out a sigh at the hopeless situation, Gyeong-sik stared forward and doubted his own eyes.
'Is she... smiling?'
The girl, who was loosely holding her katana, suddenly curled the corners of her lips upward. At first, he thought it was just some form of BM or a taunt, but the smile was far too pure and bright for that. It was the genuine joy of a warrior who had finally met a worthy opponent after a long time.
An involuntary smile, born from the sheer thrill of the battle.
With her lips still curved in that smile, the girl suddenly pulled her arm back, adopting a peculiar stance with the tip of her blade leveled right at her own sternum.
'She's coming!'
She lunged forward at a speed Gyeong-sik could barely react to. It was a strike like a flash of lightning! He managed to catch a glimpse of her movement and block the initial blow, but his rushed defense threw him completely off balance.
"Ah."
I'm dead.
That was his immediate thought the moment the cold steel pierced him.
His chat was probably in absolute shambles right now. The player they had all mocked alongside him had turned out to be an absolute monster.
For the first time since the match began, Gyeong-sik finally tore his eyes away from the screen to look at his chat.
DiaScrubSlayer: Gyeongsik, wake up! You're the pride of us Diamond scrubs!
GM_Dreamer: The peak GM Jeong Gyeongsik is dead... Only the washed-up, hardstuck Diamond scrub Gyeongsik remains.
SmurfHunter: Wait, why is the opponent so good?? Is that a smurf?
LobbyDodger: Ah lol if someone didn't dodge earlier, he would've gotten carried.
NoSimpZone: So those match history stats weren't just boosted by simps?
SurprisePikachu: Who knew she'd actually be this cracked~
LossStreak: If he loses this, how many losses in a row is that?
KatanaLover: Wait, isn't she that katana user Samurai said was really good?
From a content perspective, this was actually a pretty good narrative arc. It was an instinct honed over years of streaming. But before he was a streamer, Gyeong-sik was a gamer.
"My rank points..." he muttered under his breath.
It was a cry of pure, unadulterated despair from the very depths of Jeong Gyeong-sik's soul.
GoldenSamuraiFan: Geummisa! Geummisa! Geummisa! Geummisa! Geummisa!
AsteriaPro: Has she proven herself yet again... Has she proven herself yet again...
KatanaAssociation: The Asteria Katana Association hereby recognizes BlondeBeautifulGirlSamurai as our honorary president.
BladeMaster: Why is she so good, fr
NoonaSimp: Noona smiling in the middle of the fight was so sexy, hnnngh...
ThrustGod: How did she do that last thrust? The other guy couldn't even react.
"Hmm..."
It had been a fairly long fight. Perhaps because she had exerted herself properly for the first time in a while, her shoulders felt a bit stiff, prompting her to stretch. It was fascinating how she could feel such sensations when her physical body wasn't under any actual strain in virtual reality.
While it hadn't been a neck-and-neck struggle, there was no denying that the fight itself had been quite engaging. As she kept winning and her matchmaking rating climbed, the caliber of her opponents was naturally rising.
Her recent opponent, 'UniverseStrongestGyeongsik,' possessed a level of veteran skill that belied his childish username. It was clear he had played Asteria for a very long time; every single movement in combat was steeped in experience.
Of course, even that wealth of experience couldn't compare to her own, which was why she had been able to read his plays in real-time. Still, it had been a while since she had enjoyed swinging her sword this much. He was certainly highly skilled—good enough that he would be flawless if he patched up a few of his weaknesses.
Feeling refreshed by the satisfying battle, she glanced toward the corner of her screen.
"Three matches left."
The current match was practically over. That brought her placement match record to 7 wins and 0 losses. If she won just three more games, she would finish her placements with a perfect record, and it looked like she would reach that milestone today.
'I don't think I'll lose, either.'
While she couldn't guarantee she would win every single game she played in the future, she felt confident about the next three. By now, she had a solid grasp of how much the difficulty of her opponents scaled with each victory.
'I should be able to breeze straight through to Master.'
With that thought, she looked at her chat and engaged in some light banter with her viewers.
The game was already heavily tilted in their favor, and the opposing team quickly surrendered. Thanks to that, she saved some time.
She returned to the lobby to queue up for the next match.
"We won. Moving on to the next game—"
She cut herself off and froze. Her stream screen was stuttering as if lagging. The chat, which had been scrolling at a steady pace, suddenly ground to a halt.
Had something gone wrong? She peered at her broadcast monitor with a puzzled expression.
User1: Hello hello hello hello hello
KatanaSimp: Is this the stream of the Blonde Beautiful Girl Samurai?
RaidLeader: Incoming raid~ Incoming raid~ Incoming raid~
GyeongsikFan: She's gorgeous haha... Can you cook?
ViewerA: Came here from Gyeongsik's stream ^^
CuriousCat: Is she Japanese?
LagSpike: What's with the sudden lag;;
AsteriaPro: Ah, so the opponent really was Gyeongsik? I thought it was an imposter.
ChatSpammer: We're being raided lololol
Like water bursting through a dam, a torrential flood of messages suddenly overwhelmed the chat.
"W-what's going on?"
The chat was flying by so fast she could barely read it. The brief stutter in her stream was undoubtedly caused by this sudden surge of traffic.
"Six hundred...?"
Indeed, her viewer count, which had been hovering around three hundred throughout the stream, had suddenly doubled. Where on earth had all these people come from?
The answer quickly revealed itself as she scanned the rapidly scrolling chat.
"Ah, so the person from earlier was a streamer. UniverseStrongestGyeongsik."
BabyGyeongsik: Isn't our Gyeongsik cute?
SwitchPolice: Wait, you stream on Switch and don't know Gyeongsik? Haha...
GyeongsikStan: You can't stream on Switch if you don't know Gyeongsik.
Gatekeeper: Who said you could stream here!
MemeLord: These guys never change their script lololol
"Ah, so to stream on Switch, you have to get Gyeongsik's permission? I didn't know there was a rule like that. No? It's just a joke? Ah..."
In truth, she hadn't taken it seriously either. She had merely assumed it was some sort of streamer hazing ritual or platform culture. But it seemed it wasn't even that—just a bit of mischievous teasing from the viewers.
As she was exchanging light banter with the newcomers, a notification popped up.
"Thank you for the 1,000 Won donation. A word to Gyeongsik... let's see."
What would be a witty response that was playful without being outright rude? She didn't have to ponder for long. A casual answer would do.
"Gyeongsik is quite good. I'm still unranked since I haven't finished my placements, so I'm not really in a position to judge, but he's definitely the best player I've faced so far."
She paused, a playful glint in her eyes.
"However..."
"I was just better, so I won. Don't feel too bad about it. After all, your opponent was me."
You played well, but I played better.
That was essentially what she meant.