Martial Arts Returnee’s Game Broadcast

Chapter 238

1.  

Min Woo-seong pointed out.

“I don’t think the disciples’ level is enough to meet the guild leader’s standards. How about giving them more basic training to meet the minimum requirements?”
[More than this?]

<SilentSwordsman’sTrueMind donated 10,000 won!>
If it’s more basic than this, I should just go die.

• Haha
• True
• This doesn’t even look like human beings
• Honestly, aren’t the highest difficulty monsters from the half-demon song a little stronger than these kids?
• Yeah
• So when are we doing the half-demon song?
• (Blocked message. Time remaining: 10:00)

Ha Eung Eung finally compromised with reality.

[It seems my standards were too high. I’ll have to give up some expectations, lower the bar, and focus on just getting them to barely pass.]

She wrote that in her notebook, but in truth, Ha Eung Eung knew it herself.
The pace was too fast for the disciples to keep up.
The goal was to push them hard enough that they wouldn’t get involved in any special treatment controversies.
Fortunately, the public perception of their lessons had settled into the belief that the poor kids were just being tortured by the evil trainees, and no jealous comments were visible.
But if she pushed them too hard, they would hit a breaking point.
She needed a more attainable, short-term goal.
As she pondered while looking at the ranking board, a familiar nickname caught her eye.
Eom Gil-dong.
The creator of the Silent Swordsman Catch-Up.
Physically weak, but somehow achieving high scores through wit and tenacity.

[Today’s collaboration goal is to beat Eom Gil-dong’s record. If you can’t surpass that, then the competition results are pretty much over, so prepare yourselves.]

If they couldn’t beat Eom Gil-dong, it would be the lowest score.
At least, Ha Eung Eung had decided that they would be trained hard until they surpassed his record.

• SilentSwordsman Official: If you can’t beat Eom Gil-dong, you’re not human.
• Haha, you may think Eom Gil-dong is weak, but to regular people, he’s really skilled.
• The strongest regular person, Eom Gil-dong, haha.
• Seriously, Eom Gil-dong beats Lee Hae-chan and Lee Da-hye, how will these disciples do?
• As expected, no one can surpass Eom Gil-dong’s record.

[Challenge Category - Monster Siege]
[RANK 10. K-CopyNinjaEomGilDong Final Record]
[Detailed Record]
[Time Record 585 sec / Killed 1916 Monsters / Killed 12 Elite Monsters]
[Death: Got caught in the assault route of a named monster, panicked, and was struck by a blind arrow, dying.]

[Challenge Category - Fireball Evasion Survival]
[RANK 08. K-CopyNinjaEomGilDong Final Record]
[Time Record 157 sec]
[Death: Let his guard down, thinking a 3-time Meteor Strike pattern wouldn’t appear, then bam.]

On the surface, the records looked easy enough.
In reality, the difficulty was unexpectedly high.

• Eom Gil-dong is insane.
• When did he set these records?
• Honestly, he deserves credit for his tenacity.
• In the monster siege, if you can’t sweep the monsters like Lu Bu, they pile up quickly and you get beat.
• Once you’re caught in it, you’re desperately running away.
• After experiencing the Demon King’s fireballs, you’ll understand why baseball pitchers are so highly valued.
• You can’t stand the two-handed fireball thrower who literally burns everything.
• The fireball that looks like it’s coming from the left suddenly shifts to the right with teleportation, splits, and explodes on both sides—ever been tricked like that?
• Just reading the chat is making me dizzy, haha.

Following the tradition of Silent Swordsman Catch-Up, the pattern gradually became more vicious with time!
If you fall behind even slightly, or if you don’t know what to do, the damage builds up, and you’re eventually cornered, failing helplessly.

[Challenge Category - Monster Siege]
[RANK 488985. Participant No. 213, Cha Ji-yeon]
[Time Record 42 sec / Killed 56 Monsters]
[Death: Surrounded by 50 monsters pouring out suddenly, beaten to death in a group lynching.]

[Challenge Category - Fireball Evasion Survival]
[RANK 421151. Participant No. 213, Cha Ji-yeon]
[Time Record 22 sec]
[Death: Got caught by a fireball lodged in the ground, coughing up dust, and was killed by follow-up attacks.]

While their avatars automatically regenerated their clothes, the disciples’ mental state was not so easily repaired.
For Cha Ji-yeon, who was at a standard average level, her performance was about as expected.
Ha Eung Eung also thought that was pretty typical.

‘This is the limit of an average person without internal energy.’

But then, there was one.
A disciple who stood out noticeably from the others.

[RANK 107702. Participant No. 100, Kim Hanna]
[RANK 92275. Hanna’s Rolling! ]
[RANK 85101. Hanna’s Hurts, Please Help]
[RANK 81009. Hanna Wants to Go Home...]
[RANK 80052. Teacher, Hanna just needs five minutes to lie down.]

Kim Hanna.
The Haenampa disciple who had saved Ha Eung Eung’s face with her excellent performance in the first round of the competition.
She had talent.
Talent in games.
Talent in martial arts.
Talent in entertainment.
She had talent in every field.

• Why is Kim Hanna so cute? Haha
• Don’t write messages to the Silent Swordsman on the ranking board, haha
• Watching her rankings rise so quickly is so satisfying.
• Is this what idol fans feel?
• It’s like I’m raising a fish, so proud of her.
• Hanna, grow up strong and eat the Silent Swordsman!
• From now on, Hanna’s my number one pick!
• When does the competition start? I might watch just to see Hanna.

Behind Kim Hanna, two other disciples were also gaining some popularity.

“Ah, is it hard there? You just have to feel it like this and do it like this!”
“I don’t know.”
“Huh? You can’t not know this.”
“I don’t know! I really don’t know! What are you saying, why are you the only one who understands? Are you just pretending to explain, or actually helping me?”
“Uhhh, teacher!! Jisu’s broken!!”

• Hahahaha
• What’s wrong with this kid?
• Can’t blame them, haha
• Watching this, I’d probably get so mad if Silent Swordsman asked me to do it, I’d rather go to punishment class
• Suddenly speeding up and losing the pitch, that’s really scary, haha
• So, Jisu’s the rap member of Haenampa Idols, right?
• Haenampa Idols, haha, look at that naming
• Are we running a baseball team here?

Participant No. 115.
The broken trainee, Ye Ji-su.

“Y-You need to roll three times to the left here…”

Whooosh!
Swoosh, roll… thud.

“No, no… cough, ugh. I need to run 15 meters forward…”

A disciple collapsed as if dead, coughing up dust mixed with sand.
A fireball then descended and finished off her attempt.

• Hahahaha
• Like a soldier rolling on the battlefield
• Why does it feel so real?
• Watching this, I can’t look because it makes me feel like crying...
• This is what happens when a regular person gets dragged to the battlefield.

Participant No. 213.
Cha Ji-yeon, full of determination but lacking results.

• Haenampa Idols Breakdown: Talented youngest Kim Hanna, the occasionally broken tone-deaf rapper Ye Ji-su, the regular sympathy vote Cha Ji-yeon
• Already got three picks, haha
• Remember these participant numbers: 100 Kim Hanna, 115 Ye Ji-su, 213 Cha Ji-yeon.

The viewers could distinguish between those who had potential and those who didn’t.
While the other disciples were trying their best, it was clear that no big results were expected.

‘Depending on how they acquire their Awakening abilities, some might have miraculous recoveries, but those chances are very rare.’

Still, there were some results from the training.
Kim Hanna had raised her rank from outside the top 100,000 to inside the top 1,000.
Cha Ji-yeon and Ye Ji-su had placed in the 11,000s and 12,000s respectively.
Other disciples had significantly improved, raising their ranks from the 20,000s to the 50,000s.
After repeatedly failing, they started to learn the patterns with their bodies and minds.
The bad habits of watching others carefully had disappeared.
The once innocent and reserved disciples had transformed into martial artists who weren’t afraid of getting dirty with dust and blood.

“Advance before the fireballs hit, advance before the fireballs hit, advance before the fireballs hit…”
“Is this Eom Gil-dong? How is it that a regular person with no Awakening is in the top ten? This is cheating, this doesn’t make sense…”

Although the states of Ye Ji-su and Cha Ji-yeon were far from great, their hard work today would surely lead to their achievements tomorrow.

‘Even when learning from an unskilled master, experiencing these harsh lessons helps them absorb any future teachings.’

This is how the training from unskilled masters in the martial world typically goes.
Once they’ve digested this kind of cruel training, they’ll be able to follow any future teachings with determination.
No matter how ruthless the judges of the competition program are, they can’t be worse than this.

“Guild leader, I think we should end today’s broadcast here.”
[Has it really been that long already?]
“It’s not that, it’s that the disciples are so scared of the harsh training that they’re running away. External communication is asking us to stop the broadcast from the training room…”

• Hahaha
• Time to run away
• Are the training levels worse than guerrilla training? Oops, haha, definitely running away

[It’s a pity. I was planning to train them in basic techniques and basic Qi training with the gatebreaking mode and the big forest time attack mode.]
“I’m sure if we did another basic training, the ones here would have all run away.”

Thanks to Min Woo-seong’s timely intervention, the disciples were able to escape just before collapsing live on the broadcast.

2.  

“The later part of the first round of judging will use Silent Swordsman Catch-Up Version 5.0! Participants will pass if they exceed the 100,000th rank! If they can surpass the 10,000th rank, it’s a perfect score!”

The Haenampa disciples, who had been pushed to beat Eom Gil-dong’s score, all turned their dark, dead eyes toward Ha Eung Eung in the special judge’s seat.

They said they had to beat the 1000th rank.
And surpassing the 10,000th rank would give them a perfect score.

“You’ve been caught! Before the exam task announcement, didn’t Silent Swordsman do the Silent Swordsman Catch-Up with his disciples in the training broadcast? This means the exam content has been leaked!”

The newly dispatched manager from Taebaek Entertainment, who had replaced the previous one who barely survived the first round, raised his voice.
Ha Eung Eung didn’t take the criticism personally or deny it but instead looked at her disciples.

Eyes filled with resentment, malice, or dead-fish-like lifelessness.
Ha Eung Eung nodded.
Any martial artist should be able to handle those eyes.

[In response to the criticism, I’d like to raise a point of dissatisfaction.]
“Oh, a protest from Special Judge Ha Eung Eung! Does she think the judging standards are too hard and picky?”
[Our Haenampa guild has been training through the Silent Swordsman Catch-Up, but if the standards are set this low, the training would have been meaningless.]
“Excuse me?”
[We’d like the cut-off for the perfect score to be above the 1,000th rank and the pass mark above the 10,000th rank.]
“Excuse me? No, excuse me?”
[If you have complaints, we’ll make it ten times harder. With these standards, it shouldn’t be hard to distinguish between talent and skill. What do you think?]

If the exam is too easy compared to what was prepared, just raise the difficulty to match it.
Cha Ji-yeon and Ye Ji-su, who had barely been aiming for a perfect score, expressed silent dissatisfaction, but Ha Eung Eung wasn’t the type to fall for that.
Among the Taebaek Entertainment manager and judges, whispers about how Ha Eung Eung was brutal or whether this was the level needed to be a human monster spread.
The judges suddenly realized something significant.
The Silent Swordsman had protested.
The person who had answered “No, that’s not possible” might just be torn into pieces by the Silent Swordsman.
Who was going to argue with him?
Them.

“……”
“……”
“……”

You say it.
No, why should I? You say it.
No way. I’m scared too.

Silent communication passed between them.
With sharp eye contact and nodding, Han Chae-rin sighed.

“Brother. Unfortunately, the announced grading standards cannot be changed.”
[Why not?]
“Your standards are too high. If we disqualify all the kids from the first round, how would we continue the competition?”

She turned around and looked at the Taebaek Entertainment manager.

“I understand that it might be uncomfortable for you that the Haenampa training task and the exam task coincided by chance.”

She continued.

“So, I’m giving you a choice. Either accept that the coincidence was just a fluke and follow the original grading standards, or change the standards to make it ten times harder, making it impossible for all participants to pass. What will you choose?”

All eyes from the participants and officials turned sharply to the Taebaek Entertainment manager.
One wrong word, and he was certain to get beaten!

“I’ll follow the original standards.”

The Taebaek Entertainment manager reluctantly accepted the original grading standards.