I Regressed, But the World Isn’t Destroyed - Chapter 82



Only Noblemtl

Episode 82 [Iron Fist] – EVO Held (1)

Evolution Champions Battle, or EVO for short, was the world’s largest fighting game esports event.

In terms of phase, the only thing that can be compared to EVO is the individual world championships that exist for each game.

However, EVO is not limited to individual games, but is an overwhelmingly world-class competition in terms of scale, with over 10 events taking place.

‘I didn’t know the opening ceremony would be this big.’

Inside the players’ waiting room.

Lee Do-hyeok looked at the large display device relaying the outside situation and was inwardly amazed.

A large LED display that fills one side of the stadium.

Numerous LED beams decorated the sky.

“There are so many people here.”

“Haha, that’s right. In fact, EVO is bigger than the Iron Fist World Championships.”

“After all, it’s not a single-event based competition.”

Anatole and Beyond’s words in turn.

As it turned out, it was Lee Do-hyeok who ended up waiting with them after the greeting.

From Lee Do-hyeok’s perspective, it was surprising that the world’s largest fighting game tournament was held on this scale, but from the other two’s perspective, it didn’t seem that surprising.

This year’s EVO will be held at the Las Vegas Convention Center, which has been renovated and can now accommodate up to 65,000 people.

But that huge place is packed to the brim, without a single empty seat.

[Current viewers: 921,325]

In addition, there are approximately 900,000 viewers participating through online streaming.

Including the on-site staff, there were over a million people watching the EVO opening ceremony.

This is an incredibly surprising number considering that this is just the opening performance audience before the competition even started.

‘I heard that almost half of the crowd there were Iron Fist fans.’

Currently, Iron Fist holds the hegemony of the world of fighting games. And it is said to be a pretty overwhelming difference.

Iron Fist isn’t the only game that’s popular worldwide, but the combined player counts of the top 5 most popular fighting games are similar to Iron Fist.

‘There’s a reason why I-Top is getting so many views these days.’

His iTube views have been skyrocketing day by day recently.

In particular, the video of Monster, which has been a hot topic in the community day after day, as well as the video of Iron Fist, which has recently been attracting an incredible number of overseas viewers, received a good response.

Since the last story hidden mode was opened following Kwabna, the number of views for the videos of Iron Fist that were uploaded so far has been increasing significantly.

Overall, the number of views increased by about 100,000 to 200,000.

Even after watching all the uploaded Api videos, the number of views for the Ulpa videos also increased as people started watching them.

‘It was all thanks to Api’s worldwide popularity that it became so popular.’

It was not for nothing that Kim Yun-seong insisted that foreign voice actors should be purchased and used along with English or Spanish subtitles.

Anyway-

The opening ceremony is slowly coming to an end.

The spectacular opening performance was currently in full swing.

Just a little while ago, when the opening ceremony singer was announced, the players started to get excited and it seemed like it was quite a famous singer.

Of course, it was Lee Do-hyeok. Of course, I didn’t know who he was even though I saw his name.

Still, seeing that people were surprised regardless of nationality, it seemed like he was a singer with a global fandom.

“Did you know? That singer was originally a gamer, and rumor has it that he’s skilled…”

I heard that Anatole is also a fan of that singer.

That’s probably why I keep talking about things I didn’t even ask about.

Beyond was not paying much attention to Anatol, who was talking to himself, as if he was used to seeing this.

“hmm….”

The performance started like that.

The song is definitely good.

Somehow, the melody felt familiar, as if I had heard it somewhere before.

If he’s heard it, it probably isn’t a popular song.

-♩ ♪ ? ♬

The song of the popular singer that even made Anatol hum along (not pleasant to hear, of course) seemed to be coming to an end.

The lyrics and melody of the chorus flow out.

At that moment, the singer’s face appeared in close-up, filling the entire screen.

“… Huh?”

Until just a moment ago, Lee Do-hyuk was not paying attention to the screen and was not thinking about anything.

His eyes opened wide.

‘He’s…?’

The singer’s face seen through the screen.

I heard Anatole talking excitedly earlier that he became a world-class pop star when his first album reached number one on the Billboard album charts as soon as it was released.

Because that face looked somehow familiar.

[-

“Buffer, tell me one more verse of buff.”

]

[-

“I told you not to call me that.”

]

[-

“Swoop. Bard… talking back?!”

]

[-

“… … ”

]

[-

“Ah, if you’re not satisfied, try hunting aliens without tanking.”

]

[-

“Big. Ah, ahh.”

]

The effect of ‘Babel’ is only limited to interpretation, but the time the suicide squad spent together was long enough to transcend nationality and understand the hidden meanings contained in various memes.

That’s why there was a hunter who, when Lee Do-hyeok called him a buff guy, would go on and on about how successful he was in his younger days.

Although, whenever that hunter said something like that, Lee Do-hyuk would respond with, “Hey, Hey. Keep quiet and stop buffing quickly.”, so within the suicide squad, he was just called a buff guy… .

Hazel, a supporter who may not be a hero, but was capable enough to be part of humanity’s last suicide squad.

It was definitely her.

* * *

After the opening ceremony.

“Iron Fist players. The draw for the group will begin in 5 minutes. Please enter in the order I told you earlier.”

The staff came to the players’ waiting room and announced the start of the draw.

Unlike in the past, where anyone could participate by simply paying the entry fee, the current system grants participation qualification by awarding points to players who have performed well in major competitions other than EVO.

Accordingly, the participating players are assigned seeds from 1 to 4.

After being divided into groups and going through preliminary rounds, those who make it through the preliminary rounds play in a round of 16 tournament.

Each group is assigned one player seeded 1 to 4.

This was to prevent players with top skills or popularity from being pushed into the group of death and being eliminated en masse in the early stages.

[Lee Do-hyeok – 4th seed]

In the case of Lee Do-hyeok, who entered EVO through a streamer competition, he was naturally seeded 4th.

Famous gamers like Anatole, Beyond, and Tsuki were the number 1 seeds.

And among the players seeded 1st, the first to start the draw was Kwabna, the winner of the last tournament.

[The group that player Kwabna is in is… Group D!]

Kwabna, who was selected for Group D.

He once again launched a wide-ranging provocation in an interview following the draw.

[Who do you want to meet? If it were up to me, I’d rather fight against everyone else one by one. Why bother dividing into groups when I’m going to win anyway?]

The ability to take on all the participating players one by one without any analysis or strategy.

-lol

-That’s Kwabnaji!

-GOAT

-There’s nothing wrong with that. There’s never going to be a player who can beat him. -fuck him -Doesn’t he know what respect is for other players?

-Respect? Why should Kwabna respect the weaklings who couldn’t even win a single set against him?

In the early days, Kwabna was criticized for being a guy who talked too much trash without showing anything, but that’s a story of the past.

Besides, strictly speaking, not all of what Kwabna has said so far has been trash talking.

He said, “I entered the tournament because there are a lot of strong guys, but there is no one who looks stronger than me,” and yet he won the first world tournament he entered, and since then, true to his words, “I still don’t see anyone who can be my opponent,” he has won every tournament he entered.

It was Kwabna who showed an overwhelming difference, not just in words.

In addition, Kwabna shows off his unique and fiery playing style.

Kwabna has long been a superstar with a fandom that goes beyond his many haters.

“I’ll go first.”

“… Me too.”

Beyond, Anatole, Tsuki, and others have finished drawing.

How much more time has passed?

“You can follow me and enter.”

A staff member came to find Lee Do-hyeok and informed him that he had to enter.

The draws for the 1st to 3rd seeds have already been completed, and most of the draws for the 4th seeds have also been completed.

Following Lee Do-hyeok, only those who qualified for participation in a similar event-style competition were included.

“hmm.”

So it’s Lee Do-hyeok’s turn.

[Group H]

The position chosen by Lee Do-hyeok was Group H.

“hmm…!”

“Phew.”

“… Yokatta.”

From a corner of the waiting room where they were watching, these sounds were heard.

Group H is a group that does not overlap with any of Anatole, Tsuki, or Beyond.

[Gatak / Akuma / Jade / Lee Do-hyuk]

“…Fuck.”

But one nearby person let out this curse word:

Anyway, aside from that, the players’ waiting room didn’t really react to the results of Lee Do-hyeok’s draw.

Lee Do-hyeok, who has been ranked 1st on the Asian server with a 100% win rate for the past few weeks and has not come down.

Rumors about him spread here and there, but they were limited to a few people who had the quickest knowledge.

Moreover, even among those who heard the story about Lee Do-hyeok, the prevailing opinion was that it was clearly a somewhat exaggerated rumor.

“I heard that player Lee Do-hyeok is no joke.”

“It’s just a ranked game. I mean, do you think the pros were serious about it?”

Even if the winning rate is 100%, in the end, a ranked match is a ranked match.

A lot of pros see ranked games as just a stage for maintaining form, learning characters, and checking compatibility.

The places where pros really show their power are internal scrimmages, official competitions, or even scrimmages between clubs.

That’s why most of the pros who heard rumors about Lee Do-hyeok only thought of him as a ‘person of interest’.

“In Group H, you will be competing against India’s Ghatak, fellow Korean Akuma, and the US’ Jade.”

As before, interviews were conducted after the draw.

The announcer in charge of the event asked Lee Do-hyeok a question.

“How do you feel about avoiding Group D?”

“Group D?”

“Yes. You almost ended up in the same group as Kwabna, the previous tournament winner.”

When Lee Do-hyeok drew the lottery, there were only four spots left.

One of them was Group D, which Kwabna belonged to.

“Hmm… Kwabna? Is that it?”

The announcer paused after hearing Lee Do-hyeok’s answer.

A situation where simultaneous interpretation is being done using a smart device.

But the problem is that the meaning is not conveyed clearly.

Just when I was about to ask what he was talking about.

“Well, that’s fortunate. If I had beaten Kwabna in the group stage, the competition would have been less fun to watch….”

Lee Do-hyeok continued speaking.

Unlike the previous statement, this time there was no need for the announcer to ask a question again.

The meaning of what Lee Do-hyeok was trying to convey was accurate.

It was a slightly loose explanation, ‘Hmm… Kwabna… Is that it?’

-wow

-LOL

-Another trash talker appears after Kwabna.

-Who is he? Korean?

-Hmm, is that right? Hmm, is that right? Hmm, is that right?

-Wow, Dohyuk sensei, you’re already calling me ‘Lee Dohyuk’

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-Hmm… Akumada…!

-Flaw ON

-What the heck is that hmm?

-wwww

– It’s been a while since Koreans were the best gamers. Anatol is just so-so these days.

It was a chat window where all the languages ​​of the world were mixed together.

* * *

Ps …

Kwabna laughed as if he was in awe.

How is it that guys like that appear in every competition?

There are always people who talk big without any skills and say things like their goal is Kwabna, and Kwabna will kneel before me.

‘It’s a face I don’t even remember.’

This time, it’s someone I’ve never heard of before.

Although Kwabna was Kwabna, that didn’t mean he had no interest in his rivals.

People like Russia’s Gulov, Korea’s Anatol, and America’s Nick Jackson.

Kwabna also knew well those who had once threatened him, even briefly.

Of course, the other players were considered worse than training dummy players.

Anyway, even that Kwabna is remembered quite fondly by some high-level players.

He even hoped that one day they would grow up and be able to fight on equal terms with him.

Although he did not live up to those expectations, he decided to leave the Iron Fist world after this tournament due to the gap between them and himself growing wider day by day.

“I heard you’re a Korean streamer.”

“what?”

“That guy just now. He’s ranked #1 on the Asian server. And his win rate is….”

His agent, who was talking about information about Lee Do-hyeok next to him.

Kwabna clicked his tongue at him.

“… Tsk. Do I have to worry about those guys too?”

At those words, the agent kept his mouth shut.

Actually, that wasn’t wrong.

It didn’t matter to Kwabna whether he was number one on the server or not.

What’s so great about something like that?

Kwabna is not the #1 player on the server rankings, but has defeated all the best Iron Fist players from each country and continent.

Such empty titles were of no importance to him.

‘The only thing that matters is whether you can entertain me or not.’

There used to be a few guys like that.

Some of the top players he remembers.

But now Kwabna no longer finds them amusing.

I just feel a sense of certainty about victory.

but…

“…hmm?”

Match 1 of Group A.

A match between 1st seed Tsuki and 2nd seed Wanted.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Oh my!

“Huh… Even though Wanted is the 2nd seed, they’re not the type of team to be pushed back that easily.”

The agent muttered something after seeing that.

But Kwabna didn’t care what the agent said.

Instead, I’m just focusing on Tsuki’s play that fills the screen.

Isn’t it possible that spiritual abilities are inherited through blood?

Kwabna had thought like that before too.

Looking back, it was because he liked this ‘feeling’.

Of course, if I think about it, there was something vaguely good about that feeling, and now that I no longer believe in superstitions, I don’t think about it anymore.

But just a moment ago, Kwabna felt something ominous.

No, it’s more like a feeling of discomfort rather than ominousness…

And then suddenly the thought of my great-grandmother came to mind, or more precisely, the strange words she had left for him.

‘Beware of the lightning-cutting ninja.’

-Phase, straight!

The character that 2 Seed Wanted took out was the brain god type character, Seishu.

Wanted quickly catches up to Tsuki with his Brain God Step and unleashes his Ultimate Lightning Strike.

Bam! Bam!

However, Tsuki blocks it lightly with one hand and cuts off Wanted’s arm with the ninja sword he was holding in his other hand.

The sight looked like it was cutting through lightning.

Moreover, the character he is dealing with is a ninja named Hattori.

“… … .”

Was it that guy?

Shh.

Kwabna smiled, showing his teeth, as if he was finally starting to get interested.