Aggro Hunter 11

In the meantime, Bae Sinhyo had gone through a successful debut match and was being treated as a ‘god-tier rookie’ by people.

“Ugh, god-tier? Are they insane? With that build?”

He didn’t want to admit it, but Bae Sinhyo had star quality from his appearance alone. Blazing red hair and eyes, a towering height of 192cm, a muscular body…… It was enough to capture attention at a glance.

Foreign fans constantly shouted ‘Oh my god! So sexy guy!’ when they saw Bae Sinhyo. His thick eyebrows, intense gaze, and chiseled jaw seemed to be incredibly handsome by their standards.

Pyeonghwa pouted at the reactions calling him handsome. When they used to hang out together, he was the one who received more compliments on his looks…… Bae Sinhyo was the guy who scared both adults and kids.

But now that appearance combined with being the team’s youngest member became his selling point, and with the title of genius who joined a first-division team at the youngest age added on top, people’s interest couldn’t help but pour in.

—Today is Golden Ball’s Bae Sinhyo’s debut match! Wow, such an intense gaze. Believe it or not, he’s only sixteen! A second-year high school student.

—I came from watching Bae Sinhyo practice before the match. Everyone can look forward to it. I could see why the coach called him a genius.

—Huh, but Bae Sinhyo only has weapons as items? What’s going on with this?

<Last On> had a stat adjustment system, so unlike reality, the difference in power between Awakeners wasn’t significant. Skills that could be used during matches were also limited to three, and they needed to be registered in advance before use.

The only way to raise individual stats was to receive buffs from equipment items. That’s why it was standard for pro players to be plastered with expensive equipment from head to toe.

Bae Sinhyo came out to his debut match bare-bodied. A large guandao was all he had. The team couldn’t escape criticism for pushing marketing too hard to promote their rookie player.

However, once the match started and Bae Sinhyo’s appearance pressuring opponents with his innate physicality was revealed, public opinion flipped.

Bae Sinhyo was an unrefined, raw player. Because he didn’t calculate in his head and relied solely on instinctive senses, his reaction speed was faster than other players.

Despite his large frame, his movements weren’t sluggish. He detected danger and dodged nimbly, and didn’t just stop at avoiding but continued with linked actions.

All his revealed skills were destructive attack skills. The blazing flame effects were flashy and fun to watch.

Public opinion was mostly positive, with reactions like ‘Golden Ball has reason to be confident’, ‘If I had a god-tier rookie like that, I’d want to show him off too’, ‘It’s been a while since an interesting player appeared’.

[404NotPax: Why’s he so clunky?]

Pyeonghwa left a comment on Bae Sinhyo’s play video with an indifferent face.

From the next match onward, he wore expensive equipment items like other players and produced even greater results, but to Pyeonghwa’s eyes, it only felt frustrating.

[404NotPax: Ah so fuckinggg frustrating lol there’s a reason why Hunter-origin players do well]

The structure of virtual reality games borrowed from existing games, but there was a big difference in that you had to move directly.

Even if stats were adjusted similarly by the system, people who had fought a lot like Hunters were overwhelmingly superior in skill proficiency and combat sense.

That said, not all Hunters showed exceptional performance in <Last On>. <Last On> wasn’t a game where killing opponents was everything—analysis and strategy were important.

Existing PC gamers were skilled at the psychological warfare unique to games, and their level of reading the overall picture, making judgments, and applying abilities was high. Gamers called this ability ‘brain-sical’, a portmanteau of brain and physical.

[404NotPax: Are you really from a gaming high school? You don’t have even 1% brain-sical tsk tsk Why are you wearing that head? Fucking ignorant muscle monster]

Bae Sinhyo didn’t show the strengths that could be seen in PC gamers. Of course. Even before, the reason he was called a genius wasn’t brain-sical but his innate physicality.

Things like instantaneous reaction speed, accurate and clean targeting, perfect mouse control, and the ability to create better plays with just instinctive sense.

It seemed like he was trying to rely on physicality in virtual reality games too, but apparently there was a big difference from moving directly.

For someone who used to tremble in fear of fighting, he was doing decently, but everything about Bae Sinhyo looked annoying to Pyeonghwa’s eyes.

“Ugh, no brain-sical, no physicality either… How is he worse than when I first saw him?”

The Golden Ball team was on an upward trajectory, but regardless of match wins and losses, the synergy was better when Bae Sinhyo wasn’t there. If they really had to utilize Bae Sinhyo, the only option was to fill the rest of the team members with people who could adjust to his impulsive actions.

But the proud first-division pro players wouldn’t kill their own plays and accommodate a newcomer from one to ten. Raising their individual value would be more important than the team’s growth.

Ah, except for one person.

“I’ve been thinking this for a while, but why are they using Yoon Gyeom as a dealer?”

Pyeonghwa tilted his head while looking at Golden Ball’s pro gamer, ‘Yoon Gyeom’.

Yoon Gyeom was an A-rank Hunter who was drafted to clear an S-rank Gate, lost one leg, and retired. He was also one of the first players recruited when last year’s <Last On> pro league was created.

Thanks to his severed leg being perfectly restored in the virtual reality world, he flew high during the first season of the Last On Korea Championship (LOCK). He even made it into the top 3 players with promising futures.

But with last year’s huge success, countless talents flocked to <Last On> this year. In a situation where everyone, whether pro or amateur, was doing all sorts of attention-seeking acts to gain popularity, Yoon Gyeom, the introvert among introverts, was naturally pushed out of everyone’s attention.

If someone had a quiet personality, their gameplay should at least stand out, but that wasn’t the case either. He had the advantage of being handsome, but didn’t receive much attention.

Recently, Yoon Gyeom sat on the bench and occasionally appeared in matches. Rumors circulated that he would retire after this summer league of the Korea Championship, but no one tried to stop him. Cold comments dominated saying his form had dropped because of his age, so he should leave.

However, <Last On> was an Awakener-exclusive game, so age didn’t affect it as much as PC games or sports. There were even pro teams abroad composed of elderly people over sixty.

Pyeonghwa thought it wasn’t because of age, but because he was wearing clothes that didn’t fit, so nothing he did was interesting.

“Tsk, if they used this ahjussi as Bae Sinhyo’s supporter, it would be perfect…… No, why should I tell them? I’ll never tell them.”

First of all, the problem was that Yoon Gyeom kept trying to be a dealer in the game just because he was a dealer when he was a Hunter. In reality, you only have one life so of course you should be cautious, but a dealer in games sometimes had to take risks and set up kill opportunities.

Yoon Gyeom moved thinking ‘who is dangerous’, not ‘who can I kill’. Since he himself lost his leg in a Gate, that caution was probably doubled.

Yoon Gyeom was sensitive to his teammates’ conditions and skilled at positioning. He was fairly smart and responded calmly to unexpected situations. He was someone who suited the deal support or support position better than dealer.

He was so quiet that even he himself seemed unaware of his own value, but Pyeonghwa thought he also had qualities as a commander.

Of course, he had no intention of telling him. People have to pioneer their own lives. Pyeonghwa’s head was burning with only thoughts of revenge against Bae Sinhyo, so he didn’t have time to worry about other people.

[404NotPax: How many times has the team died when Fucking-shinhyo shows off? Remove Fucking-shinhyo ffs]

[404NotPax: Doesn’t he know he’s a troll why’s he getting annoyed? Team atmosphere went to shit because of Fucking-shinhyo]

[404NotPax: Geum Hyeon-suk’s judgment has dropped Golden Ball needs a coach replacement tsk tsk Don’t you see it squeaking every time you put in Fucking-shinhyo? If they go to the league finals they’ll 100% get screwed]

[Your community usage has been restricted due to violation of service operation policies. Please contact customer service for details.]

After leaving comments on every Bae Sinhyo-related post, he got blocked from the game community in just two days.

A few comments weren’t enough to vent his anger. Creating a new account was easier than eating cold porridge for Pyeonghwa.

Duplicate nicknames weren’t allowed, but if he cleanly erased the traces of the blocked account as if it had never existed from the beginning, he could use the same nickname.

Pyeonghwa intended to brand the nickname ‘404NotPax’ into Bae Sinhyo. He wanted to make him exactly like his current state, where just hearing the name would give him a rage disease.

Regular comment levels wouldn’t do. Pyeonghwa spent an entire day writing a lengthy analysis post and uploaded it to the bulletin board.