I am Smart

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Cactus has started broadcasting.

—

Pazzk’s Cactus, with hundreds of thousands of followers. Within minutes of starting his stream, thousands of viewers tuned in.

Despite his emotional personality occasionally landing him in hot water, Cactus, along with San-deng, is undeniably one of the biggest Fiore streamers on Pazzk.

—

Sun-ha

Sun-ha

You look like crap again today, Cactus.

Turn on your camera!

Jung-ha (short for “middle school drop-out, incel”)

I really want to smack Cactus on the head.

—

… However, no matter how popular you are, if you’re boring, you’ll get roasted. The sad fate of a comedian-type male streamer.

One of the highlights of his stream is scolding and kicking out overly aggressive viewers from the start, but today, Cactus was different.

“Alright, everyone. Don’t get banned for being stupid again. Today, we have a collab.”

—

?

Oh

What’s with the energy?

A collab is rare.

Just play solo queue.

What kind of collab is this?

Camera!

San-deng?

Aren’t you going to record with him?

—

Most viewers from other male streamers welcomed the collab. However, Cactus’s viewers had a rather lukewarm reaction.

Cactus, whose life revolves solely around Fiore, abbreviated to ‘Fi-chang’. Many viewers were truly obsessed with Fiore due to his personality.

They feared that Cactus might play a game other than Fiore under the guise of a collab.

“What are you, San-deng~ You’re already scoring 100 points lower than me. Is there any need for me to take you along? Come on, hop into the Discord.”

Without a care, Cactus spoke.

Then, after the Discord connection sound, a voice came through.

[- Hello.]

A significantly immature-sounding girl’s voice.

—

??

What the…

It’s Moon Si-hyun.

Wow, what a voice.

?

Turn on the camera, Cactus!

If it’s a bear doll, I’m on board!

S-s-s-s-s-s-s

Wow!

Nice to meet you, Bear! Haha!

Finally a collab! Haha!

It worked, the Indian rain dance was successful! Hahaha!

—

That voice brightened up the dull broadcast in an instant.

As soon as they learned that the collaboration partner was Moon Si-hyun, the previously unsettling atmosphere flipped completely.

Cactus’s previously posted videos on YouTube. [The Mysterious Diamond Fighter Master], [Whoa!!!!!], [Revenge (Failure) Back Then].

In fact, videos featuring Moon Si-hyun as the central character had long surpassed the one million views mark.

She made Cactus laugh and cry, and although she had a very proper personality, she also committed unintentional acts of villainy at the end.

Videos she participated in have now reached legendary status that is mentioned every time people talk about Cactus’s YouTube.

Comments like ‘Cactus and Moon Si-hyun collab wish day 21’ have popped up repeatedly over time, changing only the number while receiving countless likes and occasionally surfacing at the top of the video.

“I’m Durang. So, don’t worry, our cute viewers. Nice to meet you, Si-hyun~ Please take care of me.”

[Yes, please take care of me.]

The two exchanged brief greetings while engaging in light conversation, a preparation phase for their respective audiences to gradually adapt to one another.

However, that time was relatively short. The viewers of both Moon Si-hyun and Cactus were friendly towards each other, and due to the nature of the game Fiore, there were many viewers who overlapped between their fanbases, allowing the atmosphere to quickly warm up.

After just a few minutes of searching for a game, Cactus checked the chat window for a moment to find topics to talk about.

—

Is Cactus finally breaking 300 points for the first time in his life?

Looks like Si-hyun is gonna carry!

Moon Si-hyun is definitely going to get a great score soon.

—

“Ah, what bus are you talking about? There’s only a 200-point difference now!”

—

Another bus rider, haha!

—

“You’ve been popping up since last time. Want to leave, you bastard? …… Oops!”

As soon as he spoke, Cactus was startled and covered his mouth.

He let out a vulgar curse from habit in response to one comment.

In that moment, he completely forgot that Moon Si-hyun was listening.

“Ugh. I’m sorry about the language, Si-hyun. I didn’t mean to.”

[No, it’s fine. You can relax. It’s just part of the show, right?]

A very gentle voice responded, seeming neither surprised nor offended.

“……”

The corners of Cactus’s mouth stretched all the way to his ears.

“Hehe. Yes, that’s right. It’s a concept, a concept. Still, I’ll try to control it a bit.”

—

Haha!

She’s cool!

Even without the camera, her expression shows.

Someone tell him to turn on the camera!

This isn’t even a concept, is it, sis?

Sis………

Why does she feel older?

Sis.

That voice is so nice.

I’m getting hosting vibes.

She seems way more mature than that guy.

—

Wait a minute, Cactus and the viewers were captivated by Moon Si-hyun’s mature voice and speech.

Then a donation notification went off.

—

ㅇㅇ donated 1000 won.

Please don’t mention that such a person secretly talks to dolls!

—

Gasp!

Oh my!

Oh no!

It’s a secret! Hahaha!

You guys are the worst! Hahaha!

You’re the worst, 10-year-old! Hahaha!

Hahahahahaha!

—

“……”

Cactus clamped his mouth shut at that remark. Yet, the corners of his mouth tried to rise again.

Even though Moon Si-hyun asked the viewers to keep it a secret, that hidden hobby had been entirely exposed.

Moon Si-hyun’s viewers even edited the video and spread it as support to her acquaintances.

Cactus happened to be one of those “acquaintances,” and at first, he couldn’t grasp the situation when he watched the video, only to later desperately stifle his laughter.

Moon Si-hyun’s image was gradually being established without her even realizing it.

“Let’s keep the chat respectful. Now, heh. I’ll queue up.”

[Yes. You’ll play Priest, right?]

“Yup!”

—

ㅇㅇ donated 1000 won.

10-year-old, turn on the camera!

—

“Ah. I completely forgot. Ugh, I’m sorry. I’ll turn it on now.”

Cactus made a clattering noise, and soon the camera turned on.

Usually, Cactus wore a short pajama set with a two-block haircut. But now—

—

Ah, crap!

?

Ugh!

So dirty;

What’s with the comma hairstyle?

What kind of outfit is that?

Did you finally get a shirt?

I’ve never seen your hairstyle change.

Did you dress up for the collab?

This concept is so bad.

—

“Why!! I just thought I’d doll up a bit. It felt awkward wearing pajamas while playing with a lady.”

Cactus muted Discord and spoke to the viewers.

However, unlike the angry tone, his mouth didn’t drop at all.

Information regarding Moon Si-hyun being a “good woman” had been widely circulated. It had often crossed Cactus’s eyes as he occasionally checked the community.

Half concept, half sincerity.

Cactus’s unnecessarily pretty smile dazzled under the lights.

“Si-hyun, I’ll carry you! You see my score, right?”

[Huh? …… Yes. Thank you. I appreciate it.]

—

?

??

What? Haha!

Why are you treating a 500 point player like this?

Aren’t you in the 200s?

She’s actually accepting this! Hahahaha!

—

*

—

—

Pazzk Minor Gallery

—

– But does Moon Si-hyun really not have a brain?

I like both, so I’m super excited, but seriously, aren’t we going to get roasted for a 1v1 collab with a VTuber?

– Cactus looks super ugly.

– You’d need a sense of crisis to pull such a stunt…

– If it was a 1v1 collab with San-deng, I’d be burning down the place.

No way, right? Haha!

No way, I’d have stomped him immediately.

– Bear Doll is a bit ambiguous to be a VTuber.

– Moon Si-hyun, Squirrel, Cactus, San-deng—viewers overlap a ton.

—

– But is it finally confirmed that Moon Si-hyun isn’t that smart?

(A photo of a cat looking down)

Yeah?

– Yeah.

– First time seeing someone who can’t lie like that since they were born.

– Just a total ditzy girl.

—

*

—

In the PVP game, Feast Over Legends, the terrain is divided between the Sky Realm and the Current Realm. To win, players must perform their given tasks better than their rivals.

In the 4v4 Sky Realm, the mission is to acquire descent points through randomly generated ‘Descend Objects.’

In the 2v2 Current Realm, the mission is to gain nirvana points by collecting randomly generated ‘Nirvana Objects’ to ascend to the Sky Realm.

The Sky Realm momentarily intrudes below through descent to obstruct the opponent’s growth in the Current Realm, while the Current Realm aims to gather nirvana objects as smoothly as possible.

Once a Current Realm player has filled the nirvana gauge, they will ascend to the Sky Realm, where a large scale brawl ensues over a powerful buff object in a chaotic 6v6 scuffle.

Thus, after several bloody battles, the side that destroys the opponent’s statue will claim victory.

That is the most basic formula.

One minute after the game started.

In the dense jungle, sounds of rustling leaves, insects, and birds could be heard all around.

The terrain of the Current Realm resembled an immersive martial arts world jungle, with black trees and dark green leaves and vines intertwined. There were several shallow rivers scattered about.

At the very center of the Current Realm, the highest area featured a wide and open circular space, the Central Plains of the Current Realm.

In that area, two pairs stood off against each other at each end.

The Central Plains is the most significant strategic point in the Current Realm.

All users in the Current Realm always gather in the Central Plains. This is a universal rule across all skill levels.

Once gathered in the Central Plains to claim the nirvana objects, they will engage in combat once more and then claim the nirvana objects to regroup and fight again.

Nirvana Objects spawn randomly either in the Central Plains or Current Realm, making the control of the Central Plains paramount.

Thus, as the skill levels rise, combinations capable of seizing strong early dominance become preferred.

Among these, the most powerful and renowned combination is, of course.

A pair of individuals dressed in tattered robes and shaman garments.

The Wizard and the Priestess. They stretched their wands and fingers toward the enemy. At the forefront, fireballs and mystical forces unleashed and flew.

The target was the opposing Fighter.

The Fighter skillfully dodged the fireball and the mystical force with minimal body movement.

However, the fireball unintentionally hit the Priest in the back.

“Puhahaha!”

The Priestess chuckled with a lighthearted voice. The Wizard also wore a leisurely grin.

Due to the Fiore’s balance adjustment system, if one plays in a duo, the opponent also gets matched with a duo.

Moreover, the win rate of the Priestess and Wizard stands at an impressive 70 percent. They rapidly rose to the mid-tier master ranks from newly created accounts.

The biggest feature of the Priestess and Wizard is their long range and powerful firepower. Their ability to control the battlefield is the strongest among Current Realm characters.

Because of that, there are frequent instances where a loss is confirmed before the opponent dares to engage.

Their strategy aimed to first seize the Central Plains, lock in their position, and leverage their advantage to achieve nirvana first.

The Priest, caught off guard by the fireball, had a puzzled expression as he glanced at the Fighter, appearing to say something. Though the system doesn’t allow voices to transmit, his lips clearly moved.

“I think they’re saying to back off.”

“Right. I guess the judgement is a bit late. I heard the Fighter is competent, but wasn’t he?”

If their assumption was correct, it was a reasonable judgement. It was strange that they had managed to endure until now. The Priest’s recovery was indeed a strong point, but it consumed significant mana.

The Fighter/Priest combination had short ranges and low firepower, so it was common to give up ground in the Central Plains to pull off ambushes from the jungle, or to wait for support from the Sky Realm.

However, the Fighter shook his head as he quietly listened to the Priest’s words and took another step toward the Central Plains.

Seeing this, the Priestess and Wizard clicked their tongues.

“How cocky.”

“Is he not going to bend?”

To them, it was extremely arrogant. He shouldn’t behave like that. His play deviated from the standard.

Typically, in a specific area of proficiency, the more skilled one becomes, the more the opponent’s ‘unreasonable plays’ feel arrogant and irritating.

The Wizard and Priestess again unleashed their skills.

.

.

.

Several minutes passed.

“……”

The lighthearted conversations between the Wizard and Priestess faded entirely.

The relaxed expressions on both sides began to stiffen. The reason was simple.

The Wizard missed his fireball.

One step forward, the Fighter approached.

The Priestess missed her mystical force.

One more step, the Fighter advanced.

Every time the skills missed, the distance was slowly closing in.

And as that happened, the Wizard and Priestess had to step back another step. They couldn’t allow any distance. That was the nature of ranged versus melee battles.

‘This is frustrating.’

The game felt off. It wasn’t proceeding as they wanted.

The pressure from a single Fighter was overwhelmingly intense.

Their duo had climbed here with one winning strategy.

1. Using strong firepower to drive away the enemy and seize the Central Plains.

2. Whittling down HP so that when the enemy from the Sky Realm descends, they would have a hard time entering, and easily wipe out the enemy’s Sky Realm when they descend.

3. With the gained dominance, they aim to push the game forward and achieve nirvana in a few minutes.

This was their continually upheld winning formula. But now, it was starting to crumble from the first assumption.

No matter how many skills they threw, the Fighter’s health didn’t budge.

‘Why? How?’

The discomfort of that cognitive dissonance crept up under their jaws.

The answer was simple. They simply hadn’t accepted it yet.

It was because the Fighter evaded all their skills.

The Fighter wasn’t supposed to evade anything, yet he succeeded in doing so. Furthermore, he continued to apply pressure during their re-use cooldowns to an extent that made them uncomfortable.

The Priest stood aloof at a distance beyond their effective range, only casting buffs on the Fighter.

‘You bastard, bus rider……’

The Priestess gritted her teeth as she threw her mystical force at the Fighter. This time it was also easily dodged. With that evasion, her body shined like sunlight.

The more she dodged, the faster she got, and the faster she got, the more she evaded. A positive feedback loop was formed by the Fighter’s passive abilities. Additionally, fueled by the Priest’s movement speed increase skill, he twisted his body at strange angles multiple times to dodge effortlessly.

…… This wasn’t how things were supposed to be. It was something they all knew inherently. A bead of cold sweat trickled down the faces of the Wizard and Priestess.

The existence of a single Fighter was distorting the original situation.

“Shit!”

Finally, the Wizard anxiously unleashed a magical wave toward the heavens.

– Whoosh!

The magic wave was suddenly breached by the Fighter, who darted forward, immediately charging toward them.

His speed was abnormally fast.

“What the!”

The two, caught off guard, unleashed their skills frantically.

However, the Fighter’s accumulated speed far exceeded their expectations.

Using rapid evasion maneuvers, the Fighter dodged a few skills before closing in on the nearest Priestess.

The melee began. The Priestess’s HP rapidly diminished. A sense of defeat enveloped the arena.

At that moment, the Wizard caught sight of an opening in the Fighter. It was an opening that came about due to the Priestess’s attention being drawn away.

The Wizard’s keen eyes didn’t miss it. Extending his staff, he unfolded a purple magic circle.

‘If I can just hit this, I can turn the situation around.’

Convinced he would land a hit due to the Fighter paying no mind to him, he was certain of the impact.

– Swoosh.

The purple magic circle flickered and then faded away.

“…… Huh?”

The Wizard’s pupils shook.

A faint message appeared in the center of the screen.

[Not enough mana.]

The Fighter instantly turned and charged toward the Wizard, kneeing him.

“Shit, was that intentional—”

With that, the Wizard’s face was pulverized.

[You were slain by the enemy.]

[Double kill for the enemy.]

And just like that, they were easily wiped out.

The situation they were meant to pursue had distorted dramatically.

—

Moon Si-hyun’s Comments (Sky Realm/Knight): ????????????????????

Ganeung (Sky Realm/Warrior): So what if that combination loses the power struggle in the Central Plains?

—

Early on, it was a major disaster. The most unwelcome news from the Sky Realm perspective.