I Became a 6★ Gacha Character

352 - Side Story - Streamer Kim Seok-Hyun

TL/Editor: raei

Schedule: 5/week

Illustrations: Posted in discord

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When it comes to Heroes Chronicle, two names always come up.

Han Se-ah, who shot to world number one thanks to her innate 6★ tank, and Kim Seok-hyun, who clawed his way to second place through sheer talent.

"Look here. Don't try to block at this point. Instead, let it slide off the blade - see how that keeps your stance?"

On screen, a man swings a sword while explaining. A rusty, chipped bone sword flies at him with force, but he easily deflects it with his steel blade.

Even in the swampy terrain, he gains the upper hand through swordsmanship alone. After deflecting a sword aimed at his neck, he swiftly severs the skeleton's spine.

Compared to orcs, these enemies are much tougher. Yet they die just as easily to the blade, making them seem almost pathetically simple.

However, the viewers know from experience how difficult these seemingly easy actions are to actually perform.

-What the hell are we supposed to be looking at lololol

-Yo teach, the pace is too fast ffs what is this sword master bullsh*t

-Most people can't even do that "deflecting" part to begin with lmao

-This guy's streams haven't changed at all since before he made it big

-So basically dodge everything, block everything, deflect everything, then just wail on them til you win

People love seeing a superhuman easily overcome obstacles. Han Se-ah's viewer count proves this, but people's tastes aren't limited to just one thing.

Kim Seok-hyun's streams, which are completely different from Han Se-ah's, also attract a whopping 160,000 viewers for good reason.

It's due to men's romantic notions about bloody swordsmanship. In the chat, which seems devoid of female viewers, sweaty discussions about cold steel weapons and swordsmanship manuals are actively exchanged.

"When your stance crumbles like this, you'll usually have to step forward to regain balance. That's when you thrust right here!"

Well, Kim Seok-hyun has been this way as a streamer since before Heroes Chronicle began.

Streamer Kim Seok-hyun

Average viewers: 46

Main content: Playing niche medieval dueling games

While others enjoyed flashy action and satisfying impact, Kim Seok-hyun preferred dueling games where you slowly swing a longsword with a single click. Games approaching realism, where you can't even swing your sword if there's an obstacle in its path as you move from left to right and right to left.

Horizontal slashes, vertical slashes, gripping the blade to strike with the pommel, raising guards and breaking them with short kicks. Powerful overhead strikes with halberds that can only be used in open spaces, breaking guards with hooks, heavily armored fighters with tower shields, and spear-wielders jabbing from behind.

Those slow, rock-paper-scissors-like medieval dueling games. Not only did his streams have few viewers, but even the real-time player count for these niche games rarely exceeded a thousand.

When others discussed overpowered new classes, Kim Seok-hyun debated the overpowered nature of halberds. When others talked about new raid bosses, Kim Seok-hyun analyzed the balance between sword-and-buckler fighters and polearms. And when others speculated about virtual reality games, Kim Seok-hyun started thinking which weapons to use.

"Ah, you're asking which weapon is best for melee warrior beginners? Well, the standard and most versatile choice would be the longsword..."

But there was something neither Kim Seok-hyun himself, nor the small group of niche enthusiasts who dominated his stream chat knew... That Kim Seok-hyun had more talent for swinging a sword with his body than with a keyboard and mouse.

His first opponent was a goblin on the first floor. Goblins attacking from front and back posed an insurmountable wall for most players, but Kim Seok-hyun effortlessly beheaded two of them with a single worn sword borrowed from the Adventurers' Guild.

Horned foxes, goblins, horned wolves, kobolds, then charging helmeted deer and stealthy moss wolves ambushing from behind. Rolling on the ground and struggling at times, but never truly blocked, he carved his way through the fantasy world with a single sword, stimulating viewers' romantic notions in a different way.

As a result, Kim Seok-hyun became a big-time streamer, a household name when it came to Heroes Chronicle.

"Hey, Kim! Lost in thought about swordsmanship again? Quit it and let's head back!"

"Yeah, I'm dying from the stench of these rotting corpses. Let's go grab a cold beer."

And his popularity clearly included his companions as well.

4★ 'Forester' Luis

4★ 'Explorer' Emmitt

4★ 'Pious' Antonios

4★ 'Raven Feather' Kane

A delicate balance that draws both jealousy for having no 3-stars and mockery for not encountering any 5-stars.

For an average person, a total of 16 stars would be considered incredible luck. But considering other streamers rerolled tutorials aiming for 5★ companions, the party composition seemed oddly low.

Add to that the sweaty all-male party without a single female companion, which became another cult factor in their popularity.

"Come on, Antonios. How about having a drink just for today?"

"How could I enjoy alcohol in the face of this carnage?"

"Man, you sure know how to ruin the mood."

Luis the sensitive archer who's opened up to his companions, Emmitt the carefree drinker of a mage, Antonios strict with himself but considerate to others, and Kane the near-silent assassin cliché.

Today too, these smelly men who hunted undead on the 35th floor trudge towards the safe zone to wet their beards with beer foam.

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Raei Translations

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After battling filthy undead who rejected the Goddess's providence, an ice-cold beer that burns your throat is a must. Of course, whether the opponents are goblins, orcs, or giant cave bugs, crying out for beer is the mage Emmitt's longstanding habit.

"Ahh~ That's the stuff!"

"Just listening to you, I'd think you were being tortured rather than drinking beer."

"Shut it, you're too young to understand this taste!"

Unaware of viewers gossiping that he's more like a tall dwarf than a mage, Emmitt slams down his mug with a clang and exclaims with satisfaction, beer foam coating his beard.

Luis, who nags at the sight, is a tall, lanky youth. Antonios, who drinks water instead of alcohol, is somewhere between a church brother and uncle. Even Kane, who silently sips his liquor, is starting to show wrinkles around his eyes.

Including Kim Seok-hyun, it's a party of middle-aged men with an average age pushing 40. But Kim Seok-hyun's viewers gave up on hopes for lovely female companions long ago.

After all, Kim Seok-hyun's stream has always been a gathering place for ghosts obsessed with hardcore PVP. Even if the viewer count jumped from tens to hundreds of thousands, the essence remains unchanged. There's a reason loyal viewers stick around when a male streamer only brings male companions.

"Ah, a mission? Hmm... Win 10:1 with a broken longsword. I wonder if I can do this without the others noticing. Maybe they'll let me if I say it's sword training."

A chat sub, a 3,500 hours rotten water with a fluorescent pink avatar, is already throwing out missions left and right.

The NEET who diligently participated in viewer games before the virtual reality game began is a 2,400-hour longsword fetishist in 1:1 honor duel games. Most of the notorious viewers have clocked over 1,000 hours in games classified as trash.

While viewers in other streams cry out for "eye candy" and regress to infancy, the lunatics flocking to Kim Seok-hyun's room are exposure-loving freaks who pant while watching him maintain a blood-soaked longsword, loving leather panties more than armor.

So their recent interest is just one thing:

-How long you gonna stay on floor 35 let's break through to 40 alreadyyyy

-Ain't the stone dwarf-made sword good?

-Looks like stone dwarves are a race blatantly based on dwarves, gotta change equipment right?

-Ah lol I was getting attached to the current gear but can't resist that different race craftsmanship

-Changing the shield to an enchanted one first would broaden combat options way more I think

Right when most netizens were going crazy over half-naked harpy delinquents, all sorts of artists' sites were flooded with lewd drawings of harpies falling and corrupting, wrapped in tentacles. But that's none of their concern.

What's a flying fat blob compared to a pristine blade yearning to be soiled with monster blood and a sword more slender than a peerless beauty, forged by the hands of a different race?

"Ah, the stone dwarves? Yeah, I've seen them... Honestly, it's a shame there's no multiplayer. Han Se-ah seems more interested in alchemists, being a mage and all. If I could, I'd love to donate about a million won and get a custom sword made."

-A mil for one sword... is that expensive?

-Who cares, even decorative swords at home cost tens of millions

-lol There are plenty of people who burn tens of billions on game equipment, you can't spare a million for a sword forged by a different race artisan just for you? Are you a mage?

-Here we go with the mage hate again lololol

-As always, those damn ranged clickers have terrible manners tsk tsk

"Anyway, thanks to those who went ahead, we can roughly plan our strategy. Deal with those doppelganger mass-produced trees on the 35th floor, take out the dark mage hiding in the underground basin... then rush straight to the stone dwarves to get all new equipment."

The ghost king of the maniacs, whose average viewers increased a thousand, ten thousand fold, and whose one-on-one with an orc warrior hit the trending rankings in the game category and reached 10 million views for the first time, takes the mug Emmitt hands him and gulps down the cold beer.

With one hand on his beer mug and the other fiddling with the sword hilt at his waist, he ponders whether a lich made entirely of bones can be cut by a sword.

Another day for the blade-obsessed freaks draws to a close with an old man's beer burp.

Author's Note [raei: hmm might start including these if they're interesting]

For Honors, Mordhau, Chivalry... These days it's War Haven. f*cking spear users jabbing from afar and running away.