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 ga he had played since he was young.
A domain where he had never lost to anyone when taken to its extre.
He believed he could certainly overwhelm him here.
More than anything, the ga was the optimal tool to indirectly put the opponent down.
Especially among n, 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 ga.
‘What the hell. What happened?’
He wasn't rely flustered because he lost a single ga.
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 implent that into actual play.
If you understand the ga, 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 ga.
And the factor that allows one to properly execute that ‘proficiency and understanding’ in a real match is the speed of reaction.
When ga understanding and proficiency reach a certain point, it ultimately becos 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 imdiately 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 ga.
His controls seed sowhat familiar, but they weren't outstanding.
It felt like he was learning in real-ti.
In other words, Seo Seungbeom was not inferior at all in proficiency and understanding.
He was closer to overwhelming superiority.
If so, only one elent 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 imdiately 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 mont.
‘......Luck?’
One word crossed Seo Seungbeom's mind, but he imdiately 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 mont Seo Seungbeom's attack was confird as a middle kick, he countered with a mid-level grapple.
This ant only one thing.
Ryu Jinwoo's speed of reaction and judgnt were much faster than Seo Seungbeom's at that mont.
‘Damn it, that can't be. It's impossible.’
After that, Ryu Jinwoo succeeded in continuing his counterattack and ultimately claid 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 sa 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 seed 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 gas 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 mont Seo Seungbeom made his decision and perford the action, Ryu Jinwoo's reaction followed imdiately.
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 ti, 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 ti 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......”
Soone behind him spoke.
Using magic power? What does that an?
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 shimring 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 ant 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-ti.
“......”
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 ti.
***
“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 ti had passed since the ga ended, but the guy hadn't regained his senses.
The defeat seed to have been quite shocking.
‘See, that’s what you get for provoking , you idiot.’
If he had just left
to enjoy a light trip down mory lane, there would have been no problem.
The guy just asked for trouble himself.
‘But I feel like my skill is sohow 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 sotis determined the outco of a match.
Because of this, I ended up playing by calculating, morizing 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 ga 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 judgnt 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 rember hearing that shooting gas or fighting gas 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 ssage from Seol Hayun saying Do Haru's anger had subsided.
Just as I was contemplating how to pass the ti.
Whoosh-!
A sound of air being violently cut rang out.
The mont I glanced sideways, following the sound, I saw a fist approaching, seeming to cover my vision.
At the sa ti, 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 mbers hurriedly approached and said.
“Seungbeom, hey, hey! Be careful. There's a CCTV here!”
“You bastard, let go of !”
Thwack-!
“Aaaagh!”
Seo Seungbeom violently struck the face of the guy who tried to stop him.
The guy who was trying to intervene scread and fell to the floor like a KO’d character in a fighting ga.
Flicker- Fzzzt-
A rough current sparked over the bruise imprinted on his cheek.
‘Is he crazy?’
He was even hitting his own crew mbers, 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 mbers collectively rushed and held onto Seo Seungbeom.
As the magic power irregularly sparked from his body was transmitted through their wrists and arms, so 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 shimred 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 cald down, snarling with bloodshot eyes.
“You, you follow
outside. Don't even think about going anywhere else.”
He aggressively bared his teeth and glared at .
I gave him a shrug.
“I get that I should follow you out, but how about buying
a drink first?”
“What?”
“I’m thirsty after playing the ga. 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 ga and brought
here. You gave
a hard ti because I was supposedly bad, but you got absolutely thrashed in return. Your ntal 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 co outside for a mont so we can talk.”
He roughly exhaled and pointed outside with his thumb.
“......Follow .”
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 mont.
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 Tis activated for the first ti.
The basic passive of a ‘reporter’ that warns of an incident's premonition.
A simple fight wouldn't trigger a quest.
Was sothing 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.
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