Chapter 262

「After that match, I think a lot of people might call that excessive humility.」

「You never know how things will turn out.」

The announcer covered her mouth with her cue sheet and burst into a bright laugh at Do-Jin’s answer.

└ What the hell is funny about that? None of the women around me ever make that kind of face...

└ It’s not FUNNY funny. It’s entertaining. His face is just... entertaining, you know.

└ My face is entertaining too.

└ There is a difference between making someone smile and looking like you accidentally made them snort, dude.

After calming herself down, the announcer wrapped up the small talk and moved into questions about the actual match.

「Today you showed a style that hardly felt like a typical mage. You closed distance aggressively against Hex, who is a lancer. It was honestly shocking to watch.」

「Thank you.」

「I imagine that was possible because of your trademark fast chanting. Honestly, calling it fast almost feels wrong. Your casting time looked practically nonexistent. And you did all that while wearing C-grade gear, which probably made it even more unbelievable for viewers.」

As the compliments came in rapid succession, Do-Jin just nodded, since he didn’t really have anything else to say.

「Here is a question many mage players watching right now are dying to ask. How were you able to cast magic at that speed with a C-grade setup?」

「Hmm... I guess it comes down to solid fundamentals. Mastery of your main spells, level, stats, traits. When your base specs are strong enough, you can overcome weaker gear setups. Of course, when you combine all that with good equipment, the synergy becomes even stronger.」

「Ah... that sounds like the answer from someone who scored perfect on the college entrance exam. I can almost hear viewers groaning in disappointment from here.」

「What can I do? The hanger matters, too, not just the clothes. Equipment is something you wear, but the real core is still the player. Sure, you can perform better with it, but your fundamentals need to be solid first.」

「That is a brutally honest reality check...」

The chat instantly filled with reactions.

└ Fuck... how am I supposed to live when I am a shitty hanger in both real life and virtual reality?

└ Just give up. Life gets easier that way.

└ What kind of answer is that? If he does not want to share tips, he should just say so. ‘Get higher stats and special traits,’ my ass. Selfish bastard.

└ What the hell is this idiot even saying? The methods have been out there forever.

└ What methods?

└ Do-Jin’s achievements are his Status Window. If you stack insane accomplishments like the ones he shows on his channel, you might eventually reach that level too.

└ Exactly, lol. There is no magical get-strong-instantly trick, you dumb fucks. Do-Jin started with the same damn Status Window as everyone else and climbed all the way up there on his own.

└ Player levels will keep rising, and everyone will get more traits eventually. Maybe one day everyone will reach Do-Jin’s level. But by the time we catch up, that guy will already be miles ahead again.

The first match and the winner’s interview wrapped up. After that, the next matches rolled forward, but the impact Do-Jin had just dropped on everyone was so massive that the following games barely got any real attention.

The Tier 1 matches were supposed to be showcases of insane skill and flashy plays, yet to viewers, everything suddenly felt dull by comparison. Tier 2 and Tier 3 didn’t even stand a chance. Those games only pulled in attention from the specific streamers’ fanbases cheering them on.

Tier 4, however, was a different story. That bracket didn’t win people over with skill. It won with pure chaotic comedy, and somehow it managed to shock viewers even more than Do-Jin’s match.

└ What the fuck did I just watch?

└ Why the hell did that girl just blow herself up?

And the person who caused the biggest shock of all turned out to be someone connected to Do-Jin, the streamer Kaa’ang. She had once received guidance from Do-Jin, and in the very first match of the Tier 4 bracket she unleashed her trademark move, the infamous self-destruct spell.

After learning from Do-Jin, she had at least reached the point where she could handle monsters decently in PvE. But in PvP against another player, her nerves were shot and she made a massive mistake.

└ But why did the one who blew herself up win?

└ Holy fuck, lol. Accidentally self-destructing mid-cast was already legendary, but the opponent running in without even a single point of magic defense and dying in the blast is even more legendary.

└ Believe it or not, that self-destruct mage is actually Do-Jin’s disciple.

└ Stop talking out of your ass.

└ It’s real. She even did a collab stream with Do-Jin before and learned a bunch of stuff from him, lol. (link attached)

Unbelievably, though, Kaa’ang ended up winning. Even though she blew herself up, her own magic resistance was high enough that she didn’t take lethal damage from her spell.

Her opponent, on the other hand, had charged in recklessly without putting up any magic defense against a mage, only to get caught in the blast and blown apart. For a brief moment, this clip shot up to the number one trending post on Lotranet, casually pushing Do-Jin’s match video out of the top spot.

└ Kaa’ang really achieved “the student surpasses the master” in the dumbest way possible... It’s nothing to be proud of.

└ A streamer you would feel embarrassed to introduce anywhere.

└ She is single-handedly dragging down the reputation Do-Jin built for Korean gamers, holy shit.

After getting roasted nonstop by her viewers, Kaa’ang finally snapped and dropped her legendary line, “A win is a win!” With that, Day One of Colosseum L came to an end.

Although Do-Jin didn’t have a match scheduled the next day, the hype didn’t die down at all. His well-known allies, Tanto and Theresa, were stepping into the arena.

「Right now, he’s more famously known as Do-Jin’s teammate, but Tanto has always been a top-tier rogue! The match starts and Tanto immediately enters stealth! But his opponent is a fellow Japanese who happens to be a ranger, a class specialized in stealth detection! Haviya is setting traps, and... wait! Tanto opens with an ambush right from the start!」

「Looks like he figured he would be revealed anyway, so he is using the stealth bonus to strike first! Haviya tries to create distance. This kind of mobility trade usually... oh! Tanto predicted Haviya’s escape path and threw a dagger in advance! It landed perfectly, like a work of art!」

Tanto shut the match down cleanly without much trouble. Theresa, however, wasn’t as lucky. She lost to the very first opponent she faced.

└ I guess PvE and PvP really are completely different beasts.

└ The tank from Do-Jin’s party is only this good? LOL. That tells you everything about the party leader’s level, right?

└ Jesus Christ, why do idiots like this one even exist? She held out pretty damn well, you moron.

└ How many tanks do you think could survive twenty minutes against Kraus like that? A Spirit Knight is fucking broken against melee classes to begin with.

└ Against melee? Lol. Kraus is just straight-up busted. If Do-Jin wasn’t in this tournament, he would basically be the top favorite.

└ Whether Do-Jin is here or not, Kraus has always been a contender. He barely streams, but people who have watched him for years already know this guy is legit cracked.

The Spirit Knight Kraus had pressured Theresa relentlessly for a full twenty minutes without allowing a single meaningful hit to land, and that overwhelming performance instantly turned him into a new source of hope for people who hated Do-Jin.

└ Now Kraus is the only one we can believe in.

└ I admit Do-Jin is insane, yeah. But Kraus looks even more fucking ridiculous.

└ Do-Jin keeps dodging around like a hyper kid, but Kraus just tanks everything head-on. If their attack power is equal, Kraus should win, right?

└ Dear Lord Kraus, please smash those Do-Jin fanboys’ noses flat and shut them up.

The haters simply wanted to see Do-Jin lose. Nothing else mattered.

└ Damn, the passion from these guys is fucking insane.

└ Why do they hate Do-Jin that much anyway?

└ You think there is some deep reason? Well, maybe there is. They probably look at their own lives and sigh, so they lash out like that.

The hate came in faster and more aggressively as the tournament went on. Ironically, all that toxicity actually helped the event. The Do-Jin versus Kraus narrative was building tension and eventually caught fire.

As they both secured another win each, their inevitable clash in the next round was decided. When the day finally arrived, the commentator’s voice was practically ripping through the air with excitement.

「Colosseum L keeps getting hotter every single day! I am your commentator, Ji Yeon-woo, and from what I can see here, the concurrent viewer count is insane! Over one and a half million people are watching on the official broadcast channel alone! The number keeps climbing in real time! That tells you just how much hype today’s opening match is getting!」

「That’s right. Today’s first match will be Do-Jin versus Kraus. The tournament has now reached the quarterfinals, and with the rules switching to a best-of-three format, we are expecting an absolute war!」

「Do-Jin is already as famous as it gets. No explanation needed there. But Kraus, who wasn’t widely known before, is something else. He has shown completely overwhelming performances on his way here.」

「Honestly, you have to wonder why he was never this famous before! His performance has been incredible so far.」

The audience was just as heated as the casters.

└ After the first match I thought this whole thing would be a boring Do-Jin stomp, but holy shit is this matchup insane.

└ You crazy fuckers, stop ordering fried chicken already. The delivery guys cannot keep up.

└ What is this, the World Cup or something? Why is fried chicken delivery down? Wait, why the hell did my local place shut off deliveries?

└ Kraus! Kraus! Kraus! Kraus!

└ Today is the day Do-Jin gets his ass handed to him! Today is the day Do-Jin gets his ass handed to him! Today is the day Do-Jin gets his ass handed to him!

└ Seriously, what the hell is wrong with those people.

└ Just ignore them. Being haters is basically their whole fucking personality.

└ Putting them aside though, Kraus looks cool as hell. Hard not to root for him, honestly.

└ He has a totally different vibe from Do-Jin. In his last match he didn’t even move a single step and still crushed his opponent.

└ That spirit fusion shit is straight-up broken.

└ This has to be a hidden class. It looks like some crazy mix between a knight and a spirit summoner.

As the tension kept rising, the commentator’s voice rang out again.

「One of the biggest points of interest today: Do-Jin has fought every match so far wearing C-grade equipment. Will he make the same choice again?」

「All thirty-two players in Tier 1 are monsters in their own right, but Kraus is widely considered a powerhouse on the same level as Do-Jin. Maybe today we finally see something different.」

「Not just us, but everyone watching is curious. And now we get our answer! Player specs are about to be revealed!」

[Kraus]

Tier: 1

Level: 190

Equipped Gear: Lv. 190 A

「Kraus looks exactly the same as he has throughout the tournament. The only difference today is that he is facing Do-Jin, whose level sits in the same range, which means there is no equipment downgrade caused by a level penalty.」

「Then what about Do-Jin...」

The caster’s eyes suddenly widened mid-sentence.

[Do-Jin]

Tier: 1

Level: 190+

Equipped Gear: Lv. 170 C

「No change at all! Do-Jin has not adjusted a single thing. It looks like he genuinely does not give a damn who his opponent is!」

「Since he is fighting someone in the same level range this time, the gap created by his self-imposed equipment penalty is even larger than before. Is he really going to be okay?」

└ A real crazy bastard never backs the fuck down.

└ If he suddenly switched to higher-grade gear here, his whole pride would fall apart, lol.

└ Pride is not the problem. If he loses here, the amount of mockery he will have to eat is going to be insane.

└ And there goes the three hundred million prize money too, lol.

└ He already knows he is going to lose, so he is setting up the gear excuse in advance. That shit is hard to watch.

└ Three hundred million probably means nothing to Do-Jin anyway. The guy makes ridiculous money already.

└ The match is starting. Stop complaining and just watch.

Do-Jin and Kraus stepped onto the stage and waited for the start without exchanging a single word.

As the countdown began, Do-Jin quietly watched his opponent while letting his thoughts settle.

I never expected to meet Kraus here.

He was a handsome young man with blond hair that looked as if it had been forged from molten gold. Do-Jin remembered him as one of the absolute top-tier rankers from the future. In time, Kraus would become famous as the contractor of the Spirit King.

Maybe he has already made that contract.

In LOST, the title Spirit King simply referred to an extremely powerful tier of spirit, but that still made it a terrifying advantage.

It doesn’t matter if he still has something hidden up his sleeve.

Even if Kraus had already bonded with a spirit on that level, Do-Jin never doubted his own victory. After all, he had already seen every one of his abilities in the future.

「Three... two... one... The match begins!」

The moment the match started, a violent spray of water burst from Kraus, and a colossal giant rose into existence from that water. It was his signature technique, a fusion with his contracted spirit.

He looked as if he were wearing the giant like armor, a towering mass of churning current wrapped around his body. Its scale dwarfed anything he had shown earlier in the tournament. As Kraus moved, the spirit form mirrored him and swung its massive blade forward.

Just as I thought. Do-Jin grinned.

Behind him, dozens of spheres of lightning formed all at once, crackling with energy. About one second later, thick steam swallowed the entire arena.

「Collision! They’ve clashed head-on!」