Chapter 53: The Final Push: Yu Sieun’s Grand Master Challenge.

Ranked games in Legend of Legacy operate on a seasonal system.

When one season, lasting about 10 months, ends, the players’ ranks are reset. Their match ratings remain, but the players had to go through the placement process again and start climbing the ranks when the new season started.

Of course, it’s possible to play ranked games even when the season has ended.

However, ranks achieved in the pre-season, which wasn’t the official season, weren’t recorded, and there was a tendency for users to not acknowledge them as legitimate goal achievements.

That was why the season end date was a deadline for people who were aiming to achieve a specific score or tier by then.

Now, several months after the 100,000 Q&A, Korea was looking towards early winter. There were only about 17 days left until the end of the season.

Now, Yu Sieun was undertaking this season’s final challenge to reach Grand Master.

Yu Sieun’s attitude towards the challenge was serious and earnest.

Recently, Yu Sieun had even given up her closed [TL Note: day off], which happened once a week, and had been playing solo ranked games. It was the level of determination of a repeater [TL Note: a student retaking the college entrance exam for the second time] who comes to a cram school even on holidays and studies all day.

Currently, the Grand Master promotion cut-off was 614 points.

Even if you took into account that the cut-off would gradually go up since it was the end of the season, it was unlikely that it would reach the 700s.

If Yu Sieun raised about 80 points from the highest score she had recently achieved, she would be able to reach Grand Master, even if she didn’t make the Grand Master cut-off.

Since Yu Sieun’s goal was to reach it, not make the cut-off, success was well within sight at this point.

But this beautiful hope was also the reason why Yu Sieun had fallen into a state of weakened mind and body without alcohol or crime.

Having gone through repeated losing streaks, Yu Sieun had fallen back to her hometown, so to speak, far from being within reach of achieving her goal in just two days.

It was enough to cause cracks to form in Yu Sieun’s heart, which had been worn down by the past few months of solo ranked games.

Even so, Yu Sieun stubbornly queued up for the next game, and ultimately finished the next game with a victory, restoring her score to the 300s before ending the broadcast.

She had been trapped in repeated losing streaks, but perhaps the fact that she had won in the last game had been a little helpful, as Yu Sieun’s voice when she ended the broadcast didn’t seem like that of someone who had fallen into an abyss of despair.

It did seem that her voice was quite fatigued, though.

After the broadcast ended, I entered a command into the chat window for now and unbanned a few of the viewers who had been attacked by Yu Sieun, who had been in a state of weakened mind and body earlier.

‘Huum….’

I didn’t leave my seat even after that simple process was over.

It was because I had realized that something had come up that was worth thinking about seriously.

If I said something like this I might sound like a psychopath who couldn’t empathize with other people’s pain, but the fact that Yu Sieun hadn’t achieved Grand Master yet and was playing solo ranked games all day wasn’t a bad thing for me.

The material for game videos was the broadcaster’s game play.

That is, Yu Sieun’s solo ranked hellscape that had been proceeding until now was like an oil field where material was springing up for the EunSiyu YouTube channel.

I would have taken countermeasures if the quality of the springing-up oil hadn’t been good, but the enjoyment contained in Yu Sieun’s desperate journey towards Grand Master had been sufficiently proven with the subscriber and video view counts, which had more than doubled over the past few months.

But now it was time to find alternative resources. It was because the season was ending. If the springing-up oil stopped, we would now have to run the broadcast and YouTube channel with a different engine.

Now, it would be best if Yu Sieun’s journey towards Grand Master ended with success.

The end of Yu Sieun’s efforts that she had built up until now becoming a failure wasn’t a good thing for anyone.

Yu Sieun, who would have to spend the pre-season in a state of weakened mind and body without achieving her goal.

The viewers, whose camera broadcast that Yu Sieun had declared a few months ago would go away.

The YouTube channel, where the flow of a series of videos would be cut off with an ambiguous ending.

In order to avoid making these pitiful people, Yu Sieun had to become a Grand Master ADC.

When Yu Sieun called me a little later, I had come to the conclusion that I would convey words containing those feelings to Yu Sieun.

“Eunsol-ah, hello…. How have you been today?”

Yu Sieun’s voice, who was conveying her first greeting, contained a fatigue that was a little thicker than when she had ended the broadcast earlier, probably because she hadn’t been hiding it.

“…Are you alright?”

“Yeah. Of course I’m alright. It’s just a game….”

I could immediately tell that Yu Sieun’s words were a lie.

I remembered Yu Sieun, who had been talking on the phone with an energetic voice when she had renewed her top rating a few days ago. The difference in tension from that time was too severe.

“If a person jumped from the fifth floor to the second floor of a building, they would die, but even if it’s just a game, there’s no way you’re alright after falling from a height of three floors. You have to tell me honestly without lying. It gets really hard if you go to the hospital late.”

“Eunsol, you again.”

“Hehe.”

It was a joke I had said in order to bring Yu Sieun’s energy back to life, but it seemed it hadn’t been very effective, as Yu Sieun sighed once again.

“Now I’m not even sure if I’m someone who can reach GM. I should have just ridden the momentum when I was at 540 points….”

“There’s still plenty of time left, so you can just ride the flow again. If you only raise 400 points, you’ll also be in a safe range for the GM cut-off.”

“Yeah, you’re right…”

Yu Sieun was still in a state where her strength had fallen, even with the words of comfort I had given her.

I had the thought that now might be a good time to convey the words that I had been thinking of, hearing that kind of voice from Yu Sieun.

“Unni, or why don’t you try doing what you were doing before for just a few days?”

“…Huh?”

“Like during the LoL Team Tournament. Should I call it a private lesson…? In my view, Unni can probably reach Grand Master if you just concentrate for about a week after turning off the broadcast.

If we proceed while turning on the broadcast too, it won’t be something completely without context, like the LoL Team Tournament, so I can come out for a little bit at times too.”

It seemed my suggestion was sudden for Yu Sieun, as no answer came back for a while.

She seemed to have fallen into worry.

I wondered what thoughts were passing through Yu Sieun’s head.

Whether it was the thousands of games she had played this season, or something about the effectiveness and reality of the suggestion that I had just given, I couldn’t know.

Yu Sieun, who had been making faint groans, returned an answer to me after about a minute, as if she was squeezing it out.

“…Okay. I’m asking you for help.”

It was the moment when a decision was made to transform the evening phone call into a place for a planning meeting.

I entrusted the judgment about the broad method to Yu Sieun, and Yu Sieun conveyed one of her opinions to me about that.

“I’m thinking of doing the games with the broadcast on for now. It’s not like I’m greatly affected by whether there’s a broadcast or not… Above all, it’s a pledge that I made on the broadcast, so I thought I should achieve it when the viewers are there.

I don’t know about if there are really only a few days left then, though.”

Yu Sieun added one more condition, that she would proceed with the Grand Master climb project with the broadcast turned on.

It was a condition for grasping the strands of the plan.

“Hmm, then I’ll have to go to Unni’s house directly.”

Many things had changed in the various conditions surrounding Yu Sieun and me during the time of the past 5 months since the 100,000 Subscriber Q&A.

The biggest change was the distance that Yu Sieun’s house and my house were separated by.

It had gotten farther.

While it had been in a location that I could get to easily by bus originally, it had become to the point where I couldn’t move with a light heart ever since Yu Sieun had moved residences.

But if Yu Sieun was proceeding with the broadcast, the form of a private lesson was only to meet in reality.

I still didn’t have a microphone.

My bank account had gotten thick to the point where I could invest in a decent microphone, but there was also a little bit of another reason mixed in the claims I was making that ‘I have to meet because I don’t have a microphone.’

“It’s also a chance for us to see each other for the first time in a while. It’s been about two months since we’ve seen each other in reality. I haven’t even been able to come over for the housewarming… I’m curious about Unni’s house.”

However, Yu Sieun, instead of readily accepting my suggestion, showed a reaction that seemed a little hesitant.

“U-, Um…. Alright.”

She had ultimately accepted, but it was the reaction of someone who had something they were worried about.

I got the thought that it was a burdensome suggestion, and I opened my mouth with the intention of presenting Yu Sieun with another alternative.

“If it doesn’t seem like it’ll work, I can just buy a microphone…”

“Ah, no. It’s not that.”

Yu Sieun was committing the serious crime of not saying the next words even while showing a sign that she was going to speak.

It took a few minutes of questioning until I could hear Yu Sieun’s next words.