Just Listen to Me (1)

"By the way. Were you serious about that?"

The chicken and beer were nearly gone when Hyung asked it, as if ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the thought ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had only just surfaced.

"About me being your manager."

"Dead serious."

"Ha... Well. Dreaming big still beats sitting around feeling sorry for yourself."

He dropped a bone picked clean of every last scrap of meat into the bag and wiped his lips, shining with grease.

"So you mean you're going to keep at the pro life."

"Obviously. Otherwise there's no reason to hire you as a manager."

"Hmm......"

Something strange moved through Hyung's eyes. I knew exactly what he was thinking. It was too obvious.

"Jaeha. Don't get hurt. Just listen. Honestly..."

"That I've got no talent?"

"Ghk."

I struck first, and he bit his tongue in a fluster.

"Born with a Constitution tied to physical ability, and the skill you awakened is Mage or Supporter. You scraped into Sky Epic as a trainee by wringing out an advantage you barely had, then walked out on your own two feet. A nobody who only just managed to hit Level 5."

"I wasn't going to put it quite like—haah. Fine. I'll say it straight. From the seat of an active coach."

Hyung cracked a fresh can of beer.

"In the league as it stands, the card called Shin Jaeha isn't very attractive."

"......"

"If you could be used as a multi-position, like a Spell Archer or a Paladin, maybe. But your Constitution and your skill don't talk to each other at all. You're neither one thing nor the other."

A player's Position falls into four broad categories: Warrior, Archer, Mage, and Supporter.

A Warrior fights up close on the front line. An Archer does the opposite, striking from range. A Mage pours out large-scale, high-firepower magic, or supports the other positions. A Supporter backs the team with buffs and heals, or with debuffs and curses. Within each of those, of course, the roles split finer still. Warriors alone include tanks, pure damage dealers, bruisers, and plenty besides—but those are small details.

Among them there also exist multi-positions: players who, for any number of reasons, can cover two or more roles at once. A Warrior's primary stats are Strength and Stamina. An Archer's are Agility and Stamina. A Mage's are Mana and Agility. A Supporter's are Luck and Mana. Awaken a healing skill with a physically inclined Constitution, and you can become a Paladin, Supporter and Warrior in one. Walk an archer's path with high Mana, and you can become a Spell Archer, Mage and Archer together. Even that, though, is only possible when the circumstances happen to line up.

"Your skill is... too vague."

The skill I had awakened upon becoming a Player: Gravity Field. Taken as a raw effect, it was quite useful—a skill that spread a field around the caster and sharply intensified gravity. The problem was the side effect. The caster, too, was crushed beneath that heightened gravity.

"Aside from diving into the middle of the enemy formation and tying their feet, there isn't a very efficient way to use it. And even that assumes you succeed. Raise the level of play even a little, and they'll deal with you before you ever get in. The match becomes four against five."

"Real gentle of you."

"...I'm telling you how it is."

If this had been before the regression, those words would have genuinely stung. But I knew better now. He was being that blunt because he meant it for my sake.

Half-hearted hope is a disaster.

Just like the representatives of our dimension, who had promised to bring victory next time and then vanished, without a word, into some other one. Hyung simply wanted me to turn my head quickly from a goal I could never reach. Stare all day at fruit you can't eat, and all you get is a watering mouth and an empty stomach.

"Jaeha. Let's leave Channel as something you enjoy. You're still young, and your head works pretty well, doesn't it? I'll help you—"

"Hyung."

But things were different now.

"Then how about a bet?"

The me of right now, at least, had enough skill to climb the tree and pick the fruit myself.

"A bet?"

"Yeah. If I can't reach Silver rank within a month, I'll drop every thought of going pro, just like you said, and start job hunting."

At terms that outrageous, Hyung only blinked.

"Silver rank...?"

"Yeah."

"Aren't you still unranked?"

"Forget unranked. I don't even have the level yet, so ranked matches haven't opened."

"Jaeha... Aigoo, our Jaeha..."

He let out a long sigh and seized me by the shoulders.

"Silver rank is no place to take lightly, you know... You do know KPL 2nd Division players average Silver to Gold?"

Ranks divide into ten tiers in all.

The average rank for the vast majority of players sat between Stones and Iron. Those with a bit of skill, or a talent they were born with, reached Bronze. And Silver was the rank attained by those among even that Bronze who possessed, if only slightly, the makings of a pro.

"Plenty of people in the high ranks don't go pro."

"That's because a tournament and a regular game aren't even in the same world. Even among players who hit Gold or Platinum on stats and skills alone, show up to the league and you'll find heaps of them whose real ability gets exposed, and they crash."

In short, even at the same rank, an ordinary player and a pro were fundamentally worlds apart in skill. Take that into account, and reaching Silver was still anything but easy. All the more so for a Level 6 whose ranked matches hadn't even opened, trying to do it in a single month.

"Forget Silver. Just reaching Bronze already puts you above average."

"So what. I'm not saying I'll invest a year. A month is doable."

"Hmm... true. There are things you only learn by running into them yourself..."

He was taking my failure as a given. A laugh kept threatening to leak out of me, but I swallowed it.

"So if you really don't hit Silver within a month, you drop it clean and start job hunting. That's right?"

"When have you ever seen me lie?"

A bet, by its nature, needs something wagered on both sides.

"In return, if I hit Silver, you grant me one request."

"A request? What is it?"

"Hehehe. I'll tell you when we get there. Where's the fun if I say it now?"

"Okay, that's creepy."

"Don't worry too much. It's nothing unreasonable."

"If that's all, then whatever. Okay."

The moment he agreed, I stood and loosened my body with a light stretch.

"Logging into Channel?"

"The bet's already started. I need to rush my level up and get ranked matches open."

"Hey, hey, you idiot. Don't you know logging into Channel after drinking is bad manners?"

"That was non-alcoholic beer."

"...For real? Oh. It really is."

I had deliberately picked up only non-alcoholic beer at the convenience store.

"Tch. No wonder it tasted so flat."

"These days that slightly flat beer actually suits me."

"Huh? What'd you say?"

"Nothing."

I turned the subject aside without a flicker and configured Channel.

Solo matches are better if I want to shine on my own... but if I want to raise my level fast, team matches are the way. Play it right, and I can even eat the experience that should have gone to my teammates.

I switched the setting from Solo to Team.

"I'm off."

I waved at Hyung, who was sucking the seasoning off his fingers one by one, a massive wooden club laid across my shoulder.

"...Hey, you're just leaving without cleaning up after you ate—"

Fwssh!

My vision flashed, and my body lifted clean off the ground.

"Hey, everyone! So good to see you~! Thanks for coming to Taeya's stream today!"

The crackling screen steadied, and a man appeared with his bangs grown so shaggy they hid his eyes completely. A relatively small frame, a thin build, skin whiter than most women. The half of his face left showing carried a strangely mysterious charm. His energy, though, was nothing like his looks.

"Was the outdoor stream fun yesterday? I really only go outside for once-a-year occasions, but yesterday's mission pushed me a bit."

"Anyway, next time I'm raising the mission fee for outdoor streams. Hongdae was so packed I thought I was gonna die."

"The corner of my room really is the best. Look, look—blood's circulating, nice and full."

A bright face and a gift for talk that ran dead against his appearance, and a mood all his own: that was how this Channel streamer had built his fandom.

Thirty thousand fans was no small number. Taeya's own charm had something to do with raising a broadcast of that size in so short a time. But the biggest factor, in the end—

—was the talent he possessed as a player.

Taeya's position was Assassin. A multi-position that could be fielded as either Warrior or Archer. Built on the class Dagger Rogue, he either shredded an opponent with nimble movement or intercepted a distant enemy by throwing his daggers. Class, multi-position, and on top of that tremendous skill and a silver tongue—there was no way the stream wouldn't grow. Rumors were even circulating that Eclipse, a KPL 1st Division team, was trying to sign him as a prospect trainee.

"Hyungs, noonas. Is talking to me no fun? I'm hurt."

Checking the reactions, Taeya smiled where they couldn't see.

They're dying for it. Heh.

Drag it out any longer and viewers would start dropping off. Teasing them ended here.

"All right. Since you reeeally want it, I'll play one match."

"You know the ironclad rule, right? First match of the day is always a normal game to warm up."

Taeya worked the system with practiced ease and set Channel to a normal match, team queue.

The moment he connected, his body flashed, and in an instant he was somewhere else.

When his vision returned, a grim landscape filled it.

"Underground Prison. Drew a brutal one right from the first match, tsk."

"Come on, who tryhards in a normal match? We're just playing for fun. For fun~."

Taeya grinned and watched the players coming in. A team match was five to a side by default.

"Ah... Underground Prison?"

"Ugh."

A man in sword and shield, a Warrior, entered, and after him a woman with a staff, a Mage. Right on their heels came another woman, apparently a Supporter. Taeya's position would be decided by whether the last one was a Warrior or an Archer.

"Who could it be, I wonder?"

He waited through a wide yawn. A moment later, light flashed, and the final player entered.

"...Huh?"

A man who twisted his mouth the instant he arrived and looked around.

"The hell. Why is this map up."

A sloppy hoodie and jeans. A dusting of yellowish powder clung to his clothes, as if he had been eating something fried until a moment ago. What stole the eye more ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠than any of that was the enormous club in one hand.

"Huh...?"

The word slipped out of Taeya before he could stop it.

The viewers had already written the man off as a troll—the word for a malicious player who deliberately refuses to cooperate and sabotages the team.

But in that moment, no one knew.

That this man, who looked like nothing at all—

"Underground Prison shouldn't even come up in this level ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bracket... Ah, whatever. I'll just play it."

—was about to turn today's stream into the greatest one it had ever seen.