Chapter 37 : Placement Test
Chapter 37: Placement Test
—Catastrophic win streak ㄷㄷ
—He’s doing a 10-win streak lol crazy
—This is why they call him Hackphysical Hackphysical
‘Catastrophic win streak.’
It was an expression that appeared when one didn’t stop at simply winning three or four times, but continued stacking victories beyond a certain standard.
Though there was no firm standard point for exactly where it started, users generally said someone was on a catastrophic win streak when they dyed an entire page of a match history search site with victories.
Like, say, the current Baek Woohyun.
[20 minutes ago] Victory (PVP ‘Duel’ / Regular Game) 1:0
[18 minutes ago] Victory (PVP ‘Duel’ / Regular Game) 2:0
[3 minutes ago] Victory (PVP ‘Duel’ / Regular Game) 2:0
[1 minute ago] Victory (PVP ‘Duel’ / Regular Game) 2:0
Baek Woohyun had played a total of ten games and won them all.
Moreover, four of them didn’t even start a second round because opponents surrendered.
Meaning four out of ten people felt such an overwhelming gap they gave up facing him at all.
It was a result clearly showing how his strength appeared to ordinary users.
—10-win restriction seems meaningless?
—entering ranked in twenty minutes lol
—wonder if win streaks are possible in ranked too
Thus, the time it took Baek Woohyun to achieve 10 regular game victories and satisfy the ranked game restriction condition was merely about twenty minutes.
It was time made possible because he’d claimed victory in as short as one minute per round—because it ended in a single round if opponents surrendered—or at most within two to three minutes.
Considering ordinary users repeatedly won and lost and usually took about an hour, he’d reduced it to essentially a third.
It also meant he’d effortlessly achieved so-called ‘speedrun’ level speed.
‘······But what’s truly monstrous isn’t a 20-minute 10-win streak record.’
Jeong Nayeon swallowed dryly while watching Baek Woohyun in the video.
He, having just finished the tenth battle, was changing settings to ranked game—even his calm actions felt terrifying to her.
It was an impression she felt because she was reasonably stagnant water who’d enjoyed Reverse Planet for quite a long time.
However, as she’d thought earlier, the reason she felt he was monstrous was absolutely not because he’d set a win streak record in a short time.
Because while 10-win streak records themselves were rare, they weren’t completely nonexistent, plus it was a regular game, and pros occasionally showed ranked game speedruns too.
What saddled her with the impression ‘monster’ was Baek Woohyun’s combat itself to the end.
‘Absolutely can’t win.’
No matter what struggles opponents made, whatever supernatural abilities they used, Baek Woohyun’s appearance of ‘naturally’ smashing opponents with an indifferent face was rather close to fear.
Like water flowing from top to bottom, watching combat proceed as if it naturally should be that way made chills rise!
It felt even more desperate having tried it directly.
That no matter what, one absolutely couldn’t win.
“······.”
“······.”
“···Impressive, isn’t it.”
“···Yes, uh— really, there’s nothing else to say. It’s impressive.”
—is this really not crazy
—how the hell does that even work??
—feeling a wall for real;
And she wasn’t the only one who felt such impressions.
It clearly showed that Cha Seongcheol and some viewers were also overwhelmed by Baek Woohyun’s combat.
Well, since they too had experience playing Reverse Planet, it was natural after making the hypothesis ‘what if it were me?’ then realizing themselves being torn apart without any recourse.
Unable to beat Baek Woohyun even in imagination and recalling defeat, they naturally couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by his strength.
“I’m indeed looking forward to seeing what kind of performance Hackphysical will show in ranked.”
“Still, since it’s placement tests, won’t it be similar to now for a while?”
“That’s likely for now, but—”
Cha Seongcheol, who’d trailed off, gave a bitter smile.
“Anyway, sniping is easier in ranked than regular games. They’re definitely trying right now, so I think we need to watch a bit more to see how it goes.”
—ah geez, snipers stop
—when broadcasters do ranked there are so many sniper bugs
—looking at viewer count it’s 100% there
—the fact they think it’s fun in their own way is legend lol
Sniping meant the act of matching at the same timing as that user to meet a desired opponent in PVP—though occasionally there were rare opposite cases.
Usually it often targeted personal broadcasters showing matching through their broadcasts, and to viewers watching broadcasts, those doing such things were despised as ‘sniper bugs.’
Because those sniping often did strange gameplay interfering with broadcast content.
What would have been just one passing user if they’d played normally—they threw games on purpose, only followed the broadcaster around, or did ‘broadcast play’ relaying location while watching the broadcast, so they couldn’t help but get cursed.
—but isn’t Hackphysical sniping suicde?*
—courageous behavior right ㅇㅇ;;
—it’s basically coming to lose
—that level is anger control disorder ㅇㅈ
However, viewers who would normally rise like a swarm and curse those sniping showed somehow lukewarm reactions this time.
Probably because they too had watched Baek Woohyun’s strength together, so it didn’t seem like anything would change just because he was sniped.
Moreover, it was ‘Duel’ mode which was 1v1—maybe if it were a PVP mode with other teammates.
Since it was a PVP mode where sniper bugs couldn’t do sniper bug-like shit even if they tried, viewers’ reactions were relatively mild unlike usual.
“Sniping···.”
Actually sniping wasn’t very relatable to Jeong Nayeon either.
Because her broadcast was small scale, so there weren’t viewers worth sniping.
She’d coincidentally been with viewers during games a few times, but since it was literally coincidence, they didn’t particularly throw games maliciously either.
Not having experienced it directly and only occasionally encountering it on broadcasts, she thought ‘Hmm···. Is it that level?’
“Then we need to keep watching for now. How much snipers can do.”
“Honestly I don’t know if I should say this, but personally I hope they work hard. If they’re sniping, they must be confident in their own skills too.”
—for real lol
—if you’re not confident don’t snipe
—if you snipe and get wrecked you look pathetic
—no skill but··· sniping?!
[Successfully matched to PVP ‘Duel’ mode game]
[Moving to arena]
While Jeong Nayeon and Cha Seongcheol exchanged conversation, the game matching Baek Woohyun was running was caught.
The battle preparation room that now felt familiar blurred and disappeared, and what took its place was a cemetery with a gloomy atmosphere.
Like previous arenas, this too was an arena composed by adjusting part of Zone 11: Cemetery to fit ‘Duel’ mode.
—”Oh, got it!”
—”···?”
Had words become seeds?
The moment the enemy player on the arena’s opposite side discovered Baek Woohyun, they shouted with a bright face. It clearly looked like they recognized and called out to him.
Though Baek Woohyun, who’d lived a life completely unrelated to the word sniping, made a puzzled expression seeing the opponent’s reaction.
“Could this be—”
“Seems like a sniper?”
—sniper from the first ranked lol
—what to do? they’re skilled;;
—matching physicality passes but how’s the skill
—if they surrender after this, really gotta crack their head
“I did mention sniping, but I didn’t know there’d be a sniper from the first round. Huh, really.”
Cha Seongcheol muttered with a hollow laugh.
Though he’d said sniping was easy in ranked games since clear MMR existed, who knew they’d meet a sniper from the very first round?
However, at the sniper player’s following words, even Cha Seongcheol was left speechless.
—”Watch well, hyungnims! Educating the hacker begins!”
“Uh, well—”
“Not a sniper for nothing.”
—hacker bullshit lol
—snipers really are idiots lol
—they’re like that even though it’s not the game company ㄷㄷ
—eyes closed ears covered anyway a hacker! Geez··· pathetic
‘ahniwemohe’ donated ‘1000 won’!
[Fact) average sniper bug intelligence]
Jeong Nayeon and viewers looked at the enemy player pathetically with one heart and mind.
To spout such nonsense in a situation where even the development side’s Operations Manager, albeit the Korean branch, had come and declared ‘not a hacker.’
As one viewer said, wasn’t it like closing eyes and covering ears insisting only what they believed was right?
‘That person will be preserved in the community.’
Even without that, the first ranked game opponent being the first person to successfully snipe was drawing attention, yet they babbled about hackers and whatnot?
Jeong Nayeon could guarantee that sniper bug would be included if today’s broadcast story came up in Reverse Planet communities.
And that most of that content would be criticism of the sniper bug.
‘No, I should preserve them.’
If the bait was quietly buried, she even had the will to step up and preserve them herself.
For her, a community specter, creating bait through floating clone jutsu was very easy.
If really difficult, she just needed to unseal the forbidden technique high-nickname clone jutsu.
Since it was quite a dangerous technique, Jeong Nayeon hoped it wouldn’t go that far.
—”······.”
Baek Woohyun in the screen did his own business without caring at all what the enemy player said.
Like he’d continuously done before, meaning he examined the opponent before combat started and obtained information needed for combat.
For him it was behavior done habitually without particular intention, but from the sniping position such behavior seemed to be received quite differently.
Seeing the enemy player whose face stiffened hard summon blue lightning in both hands.
Jjijik!
—”Let’s see how long you can ignore me!”
[Time remaining until first round start – 10 seconds]
“This opponent uses lightning attribute supernatural ability. Just looking at the precursor phenomenon, it seems like Thunder Dragon or Thunder God build.”
“Lightning attribute supernatural ability···. Whichever build, it’ll be quite tricky to control since it’s too fast, the opponent user must be reasonably confident in their physicality too.”
“That’s why they stepped up saying they’d educate the hacker, right? Though they’re not a hacker, and won’t educate either.”
—what is this, Holy Roman Empire or something
—curious what kind of guts~
—hacker(not) education(can’t)
—acknowledge that challenging spirit is thorough
Cha Seongcheol, Jeong Nayeon, and viewers disregarded the enemy player the same.
Because in their view, the moron still going on about hackers posed no threat to Baek Woohyun at all.
Rather they were even feeling slight anticipation.
What kind of performance Baek Woohyun would show against an enemy player who called him a hacker.
‘These days Woohyun might not care much, but— no, he’ll probably smash more thoroughly after all.’
Jeong Nayeon, recalling the Baek Woohyun she’d seen before, thought so inwardly.
He wouldn’t care enough to step up and do something, but if there was such an opportunity, he’d smash more thoroughly than usual.
Like right now.
[3 seconds]
[2 seconds]
[1 second]
[First round, start!]
—”[Thunder God Descent]!”
Simultaneously with the first round start, the enemy player shouted a skill name, and with a kureureung! thunder sound ringing out, soon their body was covered in blue lightning.
True to the skill name, it was an appearance like a lightning god dwelled in the body.
“If it’s [Thunder God Descent]— it’s Thunder God build. Honestly I thought it’d be Thunder Dragon build, so it’s a bit unexpected?”
“Doesn’t it mean they’re reasonably confident in close combat too? Well··· I don’t know how long that confidence will last before Hackphysical though.”
—isn’t it a looks build
—Blue Lightning ripoff lol
—if used well it’s strong but··· hmm···
—whatever build is strong if used well;
Thunder God build was one of representative builds created for those who wanted to engage in close combat while using supernatural abilities.
Not an extreme build that invested in close combat enough to pick [Perfect Being], but still should it be said it felt like it invested far more compared to other builds?
Based on the self-buff supernatural ability skill called [Thunder God Descent] the enemy player used, one added various physical ability enhancement Core Elements to raise close combat ability, and additionally used lightning attribute supernatural ability skills.
A kind of hybrid build that obtained both close combat through physical ability enhancement and long-range restraint through supernatural ability use.
However, like all hybrid builds, Thunder God build also received evaluations of being half-baked.
Since builds trying to catch multiple functions at once originally received all-rounder praise if used well but were ignored as miscellaneous if used poorly, it was unavoidable.
The builder who created the build from the start had even written in the description ‘It’s strong if used well. If used well.’
Therefore, the enemy player using Thunder God build itself meant they had considerable confidence in their physicality.
—”Education let’s go!”
Tat!