novelraw Chapter 50 : Chapter 50
Chapter 50 : Chapter 50
Chapter 50: Speed of Reaction
The reason Seo Seungbeom brought Ryu Jinwoo to [Rooftop Fighters] was simple.
He was confident. Absolutely certain that he wouldn't lose.
It was a game he had played since he was young.
A domain where he had never lost to anyone when taken to its extreme.
He believed he could certainly overwhelm him here.
More than anything, the game was the optimal tool to indirectly put the opponent down.
Especially among men, a subtle pride battle is bound to be involved.
If he thoroughly crushed him once, the hierarchy would naturally be established afterward.
That was why he brought him here and perfectly set up the stage to humiliate him under the guise of a bet.
He thought so.
Until he lost the 4th game.
‘What the hell. What happened?’
He wasn't merely flustered because he lost a single game.
The core of gaming skill lies in three things:
The understanding to read the opponent's psychology.
The proficiency gained from repeated training.
And finally, the speed of reaction to implement that into actual play.
If you understand the game, you can predict what the opponent will do, and if you are proficient through repetitive play, you can make the appropriate response to that prediction.
Accumulating those appropriate responses leads to victory in a fighting game.
And the factor that allows one to properly execute that ‘proficiency and understanding’ in a real match is the speed of reaction.
When game understanding and proficiency reach a certain point, it ultimately becomes a battle of speed.
The area Seo Seungbeom was most confident in was exactly that.
Speed, as swift as the swordsmanship he wielded agilely, was his pride.
Even if the opponent read his moves and countered, he had the ability to immediately correct it and use the opponent's anticipation against them.
However, he was defeated by Ryu Jinwoo.
‘Why did I lose? What was lacking?’
Ryu Jinwoo, the opponent, didn't have a high level of understanding of [Rooftop Fighters].
The command errors and frequent mistakes seen intermittently clearly showed a low understanding of the game.
His controls seemed somewhat familiar, but they weren't outstanding.
It felt like he was learning in real-time.
In other words, Seo Seungbeom was not inferior at all in proficiency and understanding.
He was closer to overwhelming superiority.
If so, only one element of victory remained.
The speed of reaction.
‘......The feint I used was completely ineffective.’
In the final attack where he had cornered Ryu Jinwoo, Seo Seungbeom thought he had completely fooled him.
If you jump, the opponent naturally predicts an aerial attack.
Ryu Jinwoo also took an aerial defense stance in response.
However, the jump was a feint; Seo Seungbeom, who had taken a low jump, landed on the ground as is.
He threw out a low attack feint.
Ryu Jinwoo reacted immediately by taking a low defense.
Up to this point, it was within the expected range.
The problem was the middle kick, which was the real card.
The kick that followed swiftly after the aerial defense and the low defense should have been unstoppable.
Even if Seo Seungbeom himself were in Ryu Jinwoo's position, he wouldn't have been able to respond.
But the guy blocked it.
No, not just blocked it, he succeeded in a counter through a mid-level grapple.
As if he was clearly aware that a middle kick was coming in that fleeting moment.
‘......Luck?’
One word crossed Seo Seungbeom's mind, but he immediately denied it himself.
‘No. It's not luck.’
If Ryu Jinwoo had only defended, he might have dismissed it as luck.
But 'defense' and 'grapple' have completely different command inputs.
Ryu Jinwoo had purely reacted to all the feints in that brief instant.
He took an aerial defense for the jump feint.
He took a low defense for the low kick feint.
Finally, the moment Seo Seungbeom's attack was confirmed as a middle kick, he countered with a mid-level grapple.
This meant only one thing.
Ryu Jinwoo's speed of reaction and judgment were much faster than Seo Seungbeom's at that moment.
‘Damn it, that can't be. It's impossible.’
After that, Ryu Jinwoo succeeded in continuing his counterattack and ultimately claimed the victory.
“Wow, he managed to win one match, though.”
“Seungbeom went easy on him, didn't he? But that was chilling. How did he react to that middle kick?”
Genuine expressions of surprise erupted from the surroundings.
If Seo Seungbeom had been in the position of a spectator, he might have said the same thing.
But now, he was not in the position of a spectator.
His gaze turned to the side.
“We have to play the next round. Why are you dragging your feet?”
Clang-!
The guy forcefully pulled down the lever, and his eyes flashed, staring at Seo Seungbeom.
A gaze that seemed to pierce the target like a hawk watching its prey.
Seo Seungbeom felt his hair stand on end.
[NEW CHALLENGE!]
The cheerful sound rang out without fail.
The next match was proceeded.
Seo Seungbeom started mind games again.
High feint, grapple, reverse counter utilizing a special technique.
However, Ryu Jinwoo countered all of them as if showing off.
He wasn't anticipating Seo Seungbeom's next choice.
Just the moment Seo Seungbeom made his decision and performed the action, Ryu Jinwoo's reaction followed immediately.
Marvelous dynamic visual acuity and speed of reaction.
[Aaaagh!]
It wasn't long before Seo Seungbeom's character collapsed, clutching his stomach.
‘Score, 3:2.’
Clang-!
[NEW CHALLENGE!]
Once again.
[Aaaagh!]
This time, Ryu Jinwoo's character lifted Seo Seungbeom's character and threw him straight off the rooftop.
‘3:3.’
Clang—!
[NEW CHALLENGE!]
After that, it was a one-sided domination.
Seo Seungbeom forgot what he was even doing.
A punch flew.
A flurry of continuous kicks.
Followed by a grappling chain.
There was no time to block.
[PERFECT!]
He was defeated unilaterally without even landing a single hit on the opponent.
‘......4:3?’
His hands were trembling uncontrollably.
His chest felt tightly constricted, and he felt breathless.
Just as a strange feeling crossed him.
“S-Seungbeom! Are you okay? You're using too much magic power right now......”
Someone behind him spoke.
Using magic power? What does that mean?
Seo Seungbeom looked down at his hands.
Fzzzt—!
A current-like magic power flowed out.
‘Huh?’
He turned his head and saw his face reflected in the mirror on the wall.
A blue light was flashing and shimmering in his eyes.
“......Since when?”
“Huh? No, you started doing that around the sixth round, I think? Are you okay?”
“Then, I lost twice in this state?”
“Uh? Uh-huh....... Ri, right?”
He had unconsciously surrounded himself with magic power.
That meant his dynamic visual acuity, reaction speed, and hand speed had all increased by at least two stages.
Yet, he still lost.
He didn't even land a single hit in the end.
Ryu Jinwoo was reacting to all of Seo Seungbeom's moves in real-time.
“......”
Clang—!
[NEW CHALLENGE!]
“One round left.”
Ryu Jinwoo’s voice pierced his ears.
Seo Seungbeom stared blankly sideways, his mouth open.
“Why are you stalling? We have to play the last round.”
The final match began just like that.
[PERFECT!]
The cheerful voice announcing the one-sided defeat rang out for the last time.
***
“It can't be. There’s no way I couldn’t react. It must be a dream......”
Seo Seungbeom, still sitting in front of the arcade machine, mumbled to himself, clearly out of it.
Quite a bit of time had passed since the game ended, but the guy hadn't regained his senses.
The defeat seemed to have been quite shocking.
‘See, that’s what you get for provoking me, you idiot.’
If he had just left me to enjoy a light trip down memory lane, there would have been no problem.
The guy just asked for trouble himself.
‘But I feel like my skill is somehow higher than my original skill.’
I suddenly looked down at my hands.
In the past, I had to go through the process of ‘perceiving with the eyes, calculating with the brain, and transferring the result to the hands.’
That subtle delay sometimes determined the outcome of a match.
Because of this, I ended up playing by calculating, memorizing sequences, or reading the opponent's psychology, rather than relying purely on reaction speed.
In short, prediction.
It could be right, or it could be wrong.
But now it was different.
What I did while playing the game with Seo Seungbeom wasn't prediction.
It was instant reaction, bordering on prediction.
The feeling was that my fingertips reacted first, and then my brain followed with 'Ah, I just grappled.'
It felt as if the gap between judgment and execution had disappeared.
This must be possible because the dynamic visual acuity and reaction speed of this body, into which I was transmigrated in [Heroes Zero], are far superior to my real-world body.
‘Now that I think about it, I remember hearing that shooting games or fighting games are good for training dynamic visual acuity.’
Since I was already at the arcade, should I stay and play a bit more?
I still hadn't received a message from Seol Hayun saying Do Haru's anger had subsided.
Just as I was contemplating how to pass the time.
Whoosh-!
A sound of air being violently cut rang out.
The moment I glanced sideways, following the sound, I saw a fist approaching, seeming to cover my vision.
At the same time, my neck was snapped backward.
The fist shot past, grazing right in front of my nose.
“Oh, you dodged?”
I looked to the side and saw Seo Seungbeom, eyes wide with rage, having thrown the punch.
“Who told you to dodge? Huh? You son of a bitch.”
Fzzzt-!
Black power burst out onto the back of his hand as he gnashed his teeth.
A strength that erupted erratically, as if he had wrapped electricity around his fist.
The surroundings stirred.
One of the gang members hurriedly approached and said.
“Seungbeom, hey, hey! Be careful. There's a CCTV here!”
“You bastard, let go of me!”
Thwack-!
“Aaaagh!”
Seo Seungbeom violently struck the face of the guy who tried to stop him.
The guy who was trying to intervene screamed and fell to the floor like a KO’d character in a fighting game.
Flicker- Fzzzt-
A rough current sparked over the bruise imprinted on his cheek.
‘Is he crazy?’
He was even hitting his own crew members, seemingly blind with rage.
A shallow current grazed and seared the skin.
The surroundings were in an uproar.
“Hey, Seungbeom! Snap out of it! That’s Donghoon!”
“Grab him, grab him! He's lost it!”
The gang members collectively rushed and held onto Seo Seungbeom.
As the magic power irregularly sparked from his body was transmitted through their wrists and arms, some startled and let go, but then hung on again.
Seo Seungbeom's face was already contorted with fury.
His brown hair stood on end, veins protruded around his features, and blue currents shimmered over his skin.
The swordsmanship noble family he belonged to, the ‘Blue Thunder Family,’ was a family that controlled electrical magic power.
I had heard they specialized in speed, and he was certainly fast.
Even though it was a surprise attack, if I had been even slightly slower, I might have been hit directly before [Evasion Instinct] even activated.
“Hoo, hoo......”
As many people held him back, Seo Seungbeom finally paused, catching his breath.
Yet, he didn't seem truly calmed down, snarling with bloodshot eyes.
“You, you follow me outside. Don't even think about going anywhere else.”
He aggressively bared his teeth and glared at me.
I gave him a shrug.
“I get that I should follow you out, but how about buying me a drink first?”
“What?”
“I’m thirsty after playing the game. Go buy it with your money. Buy your guys' drinks too, or don't, I don't care. It was 11 drinks, right?”
“You bastard, don't you understand the situation right now?”
Seo Seungbeom glared with wide eyes and growled.
But in my eyes, he was just laughable.
“Understand the situation? Shall I summarize it?”
I ticked off points with my fingers.
“You suddenly asked to play a game and brought me here. You gave me a hard time because I was supposedly bad, but you got absolutely thrashed in return. Your mental state shattered, you even drew on your magic power, and when that didn't work, you suddenly resorted to punching people. Is anything wrong?”
“You, you......!”
Seo Seungbeom's lips trembled.
The way he just kept repeating 'you,' as if speechless, was quite comical.
After a long while, he grit his teeth, forcibly regulated his breathing, and completely subdued his magic power.
The blue light slowly extinguished, and his scattered hair calmly settled down again.
He had barely returned to a human-like appearance.
“Phew- Ryu Jinwoo. I'll buy you however many drinks you want. Just come outside for a moment so we can talk.”
He roughly exhaled and pointed outside with his thumb.
“......Follow me.”
Seo Seungbeom was trying hard to maintain his composure on the surface.
However, he couldn't control the trembling of his fingertips.
Unsuppressed current was irregularly sparking between his fingers.
And at that moment.
Ding-!
[‘Reporter’s Sense’ is activated.]
[A scent of an incident is felt in the alley next to the arcade. Head to the coverage location by following Seo Seungbeom.]
[Reward: 1,000 SP]
‘......Incident?’
The trait I gained upon joining Zero Times activated for the first time.
The basic passive of a ‘reporter’ that warns of an incident's premonition.
A simple fight wouldn't trigger a quest.
Was something else going to happen?
Whatever it was, it was worth checking out.
More importantly, I would receive 1,000SP just for following him.
‘Profit.’
Seo Seungbeom moved first, and I followed behind him.