One Man Army

Chapter 111 [Episode 57] Offline Competition 2

* * * *

Sang Hyuk received the notice for the offline preliminaries participation and laughed. In fact, Sang Hyuk originally intended to compete under the name Lone King.

Sang Hyuk was not a pervert who feels pleasure by hiding his identity while slaughtering the ordinary users. He had planned to take the top seed with the Lone King ID and easily participate in the tournament.

However, he just knew that this was not possible in an offline competition. Basically, for offline competition, he had to reveal his real identity.

Raon Soft had created a special server for the competition by copying the Main server’s user information and overlaying it on a special server so they knew the real identity of the participants.

So, Sang Hyuk was forced to join using Immortal as his identity. And of course it was impossible to re-register as the Immortal in Gladiator Hall and Hall of Mortality which he registered as the Lone King.

He was tackled in a place he could not think of, so he gave up trying to join as Lone King.

At this point, Sang Hyuk also thought to start by climbing from the bottom to the top by his skills and so he did not mention his guild name or give his self introduction.

He did not have any reason to hide how he looks like because it was already revealed to the public when his paid video was released, even though no one knew his name anyway.

“Yeah, this is better. Later, even as a semi-professional gamer, I will have to work as the Immortal.  I should be satisfied with the Lone King as a unique person who only works online until his identity is revealed.”

Sang Hyuk, who made sure of his position, thought he should not regret his choice.

He was planning to show what a Royal Roader is by winning the offline qualification as well as being undefeated in the record books. *

There were about ten days before the competition, so Sang Hyuk has been constantly preparing for the Hydra Hunting while steadily turning to the Gladiator Hall and Hall of Mortality. Of course, Sang Hyuk had the ability even without practice, but he did not underestimate it even just a little.

Time went fast and became the day when the offline qualification were held. Sang Hyuk was dressed in comfortable clothes and came down to parking lot to get to the super large DN(Dream Network) center that was in the broadcasting station.

Even though it was a comfortable clothes, it was a luxury brand from a department store and because it was charming in its own style, he did not look old-fashioned. Added to it the Mercedes Benz S-Class was the most important part.

Sang Hyuk drove his car to the DN center, which is an hour away. Fortunately, the traffic was not bad so he could arrive earlier than he thought. He arrived 20 minutes earlier than the time he was asked to, but the people at DN center were already flocking.

Sang Hyuk stood at one window and watched LGN’s (Live Gaming Network) staff preparing for the upcoming tournament.

“This competition…succeeded, right? In my memory, I remember that even after the pro-league was officially launched, it was opened a few more times again… was it about seven more times?”

In the past life, EL The Best One was held steadily at intervals of about five months. Especially because the first season was a big success, it was popular for a little over three years.

The first episode had been too long and Sang Hyuk was not in a position to be interested in it.

He did not even remember the winner.

“There’s going to be something happening in it and I think it became popular through it…. I do not remember the exact thing.”

Sang Hyuk tried to recall his memory again, but nothing came up.

The rules of the game were a bit different than the rules that Sang Hyuk knew.

But the basic framework itself is similar so he did not feel any discomfort.

Because it was LGN, which had experience holding several game leagues, so he decided to read the rules very carefully, but in the end, these four were the most important.

First, Magic Armor was disabled.

Second, after the five locations in each venue are chosen, both teams fight in each location, selected at random until the winner is determined. *

Third, this competition will be played only on the Gladiator Hall, ‘Way of Proof (1:1)’ and ‘Shadow Forest (3:3)’ and in the Hall of Mortality, only the ‘Skeleton Island Time Attack’ is used.

Fourth, the number of strengthening effects that can be applied to oneself or team members is limited to four.

First, Magic Armor was an item that most users did not have, it was right to disable it.

And the location part will become more versatile and elaborate later on, but procedurally, it is similar to the rule now.

The most interesting rule was the fourth one, later on it’s not only reinforcement effects, but also various other buffs will be restricted and their ban enforced.

But in conclusion it was for fun.

The viewers simply did not like the fact that some of the contestants was unilaterally favored because of an advantage in the number of items and skills.

The nature of the EL game did not allow for a perfect match, but at least there was a minimum framework.

“If it is limiting the reinforcement effects to four, then this is almost no limit.”

Sang Hyuk was known to be one of the best directors of his previous life, so he knew better than anyone.

“There are no duplicate application restrictions, and the game is finished after the Way of Proof Qualification and the Shadow Forest Qualification, so I can do both of them.”

He wanted to play at the Hall of Mortality too, but their time was overlapping.

* * * *

“Hey, Sangryul. I don’t know if this is right. If it is you, you’re definitely going to be in the 1,000th rank, nope 100th rank, so I don’t understand why you’d drop to 10,000th rank and get involved in this useless competition.”

Lee Jung Hwan, Choi Sangryul’s friend, still did not understand. He himself got into the 1,000th ranking and was exempted from the qualification, so he could not understand why Sangryul, who is much better than himself, wants to start from the bottom.

“Jung Hwan, I’ve told you many times. Impact! A newcomer like me who can be called a rookie needs an intense impact. The difference between people with and without drama is huge. In particular, the popularity at the pro-level is not simply determined by skill.”

Choi Sangryul was only 18 years old but his thoughts was totally different from the kids from his age. He had already made a very big picture.

In fact, his judgement was accurate. The world of pro gamers was not simply where everything was determined by skill.

Sangryul, who knew it well, had intended to start from the offline preliminaries which could be called the bottom in a deliberate attempt to make himself the main character of the drama.

“Sigh, you’re a lot smarter than me, so you’ll do well. Anyway, congratulation in advance for winning.”

“I don’t count the chickens before they’re hatched. It is offline contest, and it is possible to be crushed by an expert who hid their identity when I’m distracted. I have to be careful.”

Choi Sangryul was very careful and modest, unlike his age, because his personality was meticulous.

“You’re the expert in hiding your identity.”

Jung Hwan did not expect at all that Sangryul would be defeated in this offline contest. The Sangryul that he knew has great skill that even if he challenged the current rankers right away, he could get close to the top 10.

Control, Equipment, Level, Skills…. None of them was missing.

“It was best to think before you leap.”

Sangryul smiled and answered, and Jung Hwan shook his head as he smiled at Sangryul as he wanted to say that he couldn’t stop Sangryul.

In fact, although Sangryul said that, he had no idea that he would not win the offline preliminaries. The standard of offline preliminaries was rather low.

More than 99% of the participants were 10,000th rank users, but to Sangryul they were mere commoners.

“What is more important than winning is how do you win, right? I must certainly carve my three-syllable-name into the hearts of the people. So, even if is a recorded broadcasting, when I get on air, a boy like me can appeal to the audience”

Sangryul was thinking a lot. It was really different with his age.

But at this moment there was a person looking at Sangryul with a very interesting look.

The man who is looking for a win like Sangryul.

It was Sang Hyuk.

“Choi Sangryul! That kid was in this competition. Ah! Right. Now I remember. That kid was once the big hit as ‘The Best One’.” *

Sangryul has climbed dramatically from the bottom to the top in his previous life, and he has gained the attention of the viewers. And as a result, after getting a considerable fan base, he soon became a specialized pro-gamer and became very popular.

“And I met you a few years later.”

He still looked childish, but recognizable.

“Although he looked like that, he was a boy with about 10 frogs digging inside.” (TL note: He was like thoughtless boy, but actually thinking very deeply)

Sangryul had learned the Heavenly Dragon Card Deck from Sang Hyuk and had been listening well and playing a good dongsaeng (little brother/sister) until his rebuilt character reached the top. However, since he had gained what he wanted, he stabbed Sang Hyuk in the back.

Sangryul was such a person. *

“I think it would be more fun to meet the unexpected fate, nope, bad fate.” *

Sang Hyuk smiled at Choi Sangryul.

If there was no Sang Hyuk in this place, for Choi Sangryul the present life would have been almost identical to the previous timeline.

However, as Sang Hyuk intervened, the present timeline will be completely different.

“At this time, Choi Sangryul would be very proud of his skills right? Hehe, let me today show you how worthless your pride was.”

Sang Hyuk thought that someday he would give back the disrespectful treatment from Sangryul in his previous life, he did not know that the opportunity would come so early.

It was an offline preliminaries that he planned to do with a light heart, but an unexpected gift was waiting for Sang Hyuk.

This gift was of course…. will be received with thankful heart.

The offline competition started.

Like Choi Sangryul said, 99% of the applicant were regular users who lacked a lot of skills.

Therefore, the skilled applicants like Sang Hyuk and Choi Sangryul have defeated those people and rose to the top very easily.

The competition was very fierce because only 16 of the 1,000 players who participated in this offline qualifying tournament could go the final.

However, although the competition was intense the content of the game was not changed.

The skillful people began to stand out and LGN began to shoot mainly those skillful people.

Out of the 1,000 participants in the offline preliminaries, 940 participants are eliminated and only 64 remains.

The most prominent participants were five.

The one that seemed to be the best was ‘Crash’ Choi Sangryul. All opponents were literally crushed, and even those who were mentioned as candidates for the championship were smashed.

No matter who see it, the skill of ‘Crash’ Choi Sangryul was real.

And after that, Double Canon Jeon Changmin, Black Acorn and Jay, Free Sword Yang Jiryang, Momonoke Kaoru were following Choi Sangryul in ranking.

LGN predicted that one of these five would win. Of course, they thought that Choi Sangryul has the greatest possibility, so they took the best shots of him

LGN’s five winner candidates has showed not only strong, but powerful and destructive power in the preliminaries.

In this degree, it was the skill that possible to enter in the 1,000th rank for sure and even 100th rank.

“The winner is Choi Sangryul, right?”

Kim Jongwoo, who came late due to some urgent work that he had to solve to the DN Center, where the offline qualifying matches are held, has nodded his head as he looked over the preliminary results so far and the simple comments of his subordinates.

“I think so no matter how I see it.”

“Then make a good picture of Choi Sangryul. Maybe the ‘hook’ that we wanted could come up.”

“Yes, I am doing it without you saying it.”

“Okay, as expected you do it well without my nagging. Sunggyun, just believe and follow me. I’ll treat you well.”

Kim Jongwoo patted Shin Sunggyun’s shoulder lightly and smiled.

“But… The opponent that Choi Sangryul will meet in the 64th round is peculiar.”

“Huh? 64th?”

Kim Jongwoo, who listened to Shin Sunggyun’s words, looked at the battle list in his hand.

“Immortal? Immortal…. I’ve seen it somewhere…. Ah, the user with a very high level. Why him?”

Kim Jongwoo remembered that Immortal was the user he had passed himself.

“He cleaned up his matches up to now and never dies, not even once.”

“No death you said? So is he one of the champions?”

“Ah, but…. That’s a little subtle. No users that became his opponent could see him at all, even when I did a simple monitoring later on, only a very vague look was captured in our camera. I think he has an assassin-like job, but the problem is that all of his opponents have been killed in a single strike.”

“One strike? Even if you are an assassin user, is that possible? And if it was like that, you should put him in the final candidates, right?”

“Of course, if this is a normal skill. However, the level of the users he met was not very high. The analysts concluded that he was a user specializing in a surprise attack skill, and because he continued to meet the low-level users by good luck, so it was easy to win and get a winning streak….. So, for now I have excluded him from the finals.”

“Hmm… A lucky assassin user… But you don’t know, right. Even he is not one of the winning candidates, but make him one of the targets of interest. Ah! But he will meet Choi Sangryul in the 64th round anyway. So, his luck will be ended there.”

“Yes, his skill won’t be revealed properly, right. That’s way I didn’t put him in the finalist list.”

“Yeah, it’s a consumable guy anyway, so you don’t need to waste the manpower to keep following him.”

By Shin Sunggyu’s report, Kim Jongwoo nodded and replied.

It was as if a tree was so huge, that it would cover the whole world, one would not be able to recognize the tree itself.

They thought it was only by mere luck and didn’t recognize that it was by the power of Sang Hyuk’s great and terrible ability.

If they played the video and checked Sang Hyuk, no, the Immortal more thoroughly, they would have found that Immortal and the guildmaster of the One Guild to be the one and the same.

But it didn’t happen, so as a result Immortal became lucky and became a common user who advanced to the 64th round.

Chapter 111 [Episode 57] Offline Competition 2 – End