I Regressed but the World Didn’t Fall Apart

Real, Real Beginners (1) – [Ultimate Fighter]

016.

“You can set it up over here.”

In the end, he had done it.

When Lee Dohyuk saw the capsule entering his room, one thought crossed his mind.

The price of a basic capsule was in the millions of won.

But for a high-spec full-dive game to run smoothly, and even to handle broadcasting, the price of a high-end capsule was several times that.

And that wasn’t all.

“They said it had additional personal optimization options.”

This was an option worth millions of won, only available for high-end capsules. It included features not present in the existing Jian capsules.

Perhaps the slight unease Lee Dohyuk felt when he first executed a full-dive was due to this.

“Installation is complete.”

“Thank you.”

But it didn’t end there.

After adding several recommended convenience features that Jian insisted would be essential for future broadcasts, the price skyrocketed once again.

In other words, the cost of one of those 2M machines came very close to two million won.

“…”

An expenditure exceeding two million won.

Moreover, Jian had purchased it with his credit card.

Given the hefty amount, Jian had to opt for a 12-month installment plan.

Of course, the card’s payment was expected to be covered by Lee Dohyuk, but that didn’t mean Jian wasn’t grateful for readily paying for the broadcasting capsule.

As the broadcasting revenue came in, not only would the installment be paid off, but ample gifts for his younger sibling would also need to be purchased.

Of course, Lee Dohyuk, who hadn’t even decided on his streamer name yet, was still unsure if he could succeed in broadcasting…

“It might be worth a shot, though.”

To be honest, he wasn’t entirely without confidence in succeeding in broadcasting.

There was Jian’s unwavering belief that he would undoubtedly succeed, and the offer to collaborate from Black Oak, a fairly successful streamer, also contributed to that thought.

But most of all, it was seeing the cheers pouring in during his game play yesterday that led him to think so.

“It wasn’t that difficult.”

Sizzle-

As Lee Dohyuk entered the capsule, he had that thought.

-Whoa;;

-Damn, his physique is insane

– Is the reaction speed real?

Viewers’ chats mainly cheering on his play.

From Yi Dohyuk’s perspective, it’s hard to understand.

Just with this level, they cheer this much?

Actually, there were occasional chats like that in yesterday’s chat box too.

-Hmm… Is that so.

Well, even though such chats were quickly suppressed by other viewers, Yi Dohyuk did sympathize with them to some extent.

The play he showed in [Eat Kills Two], it wasn’t impressive at all by Yi Dohyuk’s standards.

‘It’s closer to being disappointing in many ways.’

Of course, the excitement and satisfaction felt in battles were very fulfilling.

But at the same time, there was an inevitable sense of disappointment.

Unlike his hunter days fighting extraterrestrial beings, his physical abilities in [Eat Kills Two] were merely exceptional for an ordinary person.

Compared to the days when he fought with superhuman physical abilities, there was still something unfulfilled.

Hm-

And that’s why Yi Dohyuk ended up in the capsule now.

The current time is 3 p.m.

There were 5 hours left until the scheduled broadcast with Jian at 8 p.m.

“Is this how it’s done?”

If compared to an old PC, it’s like a white space similar to a desktop.

Yi Dohyuk, who was examining a few basic icons, reached out to the icon labeled “Full Dive.”

Like he saw Jian do it, he touched the icon twice and executed it.

Hm-

Upon the brief loading, Yi Dohyuk was greeted with a sense of reality.

“Oh.”

Yi Dohyuk let out a small gasp.

Certainly, it felt rewarding to spend money.

The discomfort he felt when using Jian’s sub-capsule yesterday was no longer present.

The effect of personal optimization.

“Start STAM.”

After finishing the body check, Yi Dohyuk immediately started STAM.

Beep, beep, beep.

It’s not that he hadn’t experienced virtual reality, nor that he hadn’t used such a game platform.

Yi Dohyuk opened the [Explore] window, applying various filters to find a game to play.

This time, in game mode rather than reality mode.

Even though it was a game mode, unlike [Eat Kills Two] where the character’s physical specs remained within ordinary levels, he was thinking of trying a game where he could utilize specs close to superhuman.

Perhaps in a different game, he could fulfill what he couldn’t with [Eat Kills Two].

“Wow.”

Thus, numerous games appeared before him.

The first thing that caught his eye was the star ratings and… prices displayed beside them.

Ido Hyuk paused for a moment.

The money needed to purchase the game wasn’t much, he thought he had it charged up, but it turned out the amount he had in mind was nowhere near enough.

Is it true that virtual reality games are just that, virtual reality games?

Among the games that caught his eye, there wasn’t a single one priced under $200.

Click-

In the end, Ido Hyuk had no choice but to use the price filter to find a game within his initial budget.

Starting from quirky games that seemed to be for kids, to games with noticeably outdated graphics that seemed to be from a long time ago, to models that somehow looked lacking.

By the time he realized there was a reason behind the low prices.

“Huh?”

There was one game that caught his eye.

[Ultimate Fighter FD]

“This… seems like that game I know?”

More precisely, it was the full-dive version of the arcade fighting game Ido Hyuk played in his childhood.

He distinctly remembered the character with a whirlwind coming out of his hands, the one with a sword releasing a slash, and even characters casting spells.

Probably, it would remain unchanged even in the full-dive version.

Upon examining the detailed page, it precisely met his desired criteria.

Watching the gameplay video confirmed it was a superhuman fighting game.

Moreover, the price was half of his budget, with a rating of 4.8, which was quite impressive.

Click-

[Purchase]

He went ahead and completed the purchase.

Then, he immediately launched the game.

“For a nickname… should I just go with anything?”

[HmGujungDungga]

Ido Hyuk simply used a few chat messages he saw yesterday as his nickname, without any particular meaning.

“I’ll skip the tutorial.”

Although there was a prompt for a tutorial to adapt to the game, Ido Hyuk turned off the notification.

Among gamers, there are those who meticulously read through tutorials, those who grasp only the essential information and move on, and those who find it bothersome and skip everything, learning through direct experience.

Ido Hyuk belonged to the latter group.

Apart from the tutorial, if we were to explain it in terms of the legendary League PC version he enjoyed in his childhood, he was the type to raise the proficiency of a new champion in regular games first before applying it to ranked games, rather than practicing in ranked games.

Having been talented not only in sports but also in games requiring quick reflexes and visual acuity, Ido Hyuk had developed such a habit since childhood.

“Wow!”

Anyway.

Ido Hyuk stepped into the waiting room and started moving his body.

Spontaneously, an exclamation escaped his lips.

A different sensation from just a while ago.

Swoosh-

Swish. Thwack!

Ido Hyuk ran around, throwing punches and kicks to check his senses.

“Definitely fast.”

This should be insufficient to be called a ‘superhuman’ by Yido-hyuk’s standards, but shouldn’t we consider it as exceeding the limits of a human?

Feels like an overall increase in physical abilities by about double.

Perhaps this is the maximum limit that ordinary people can adapt to.

If it gets any faster from here, it would be impossible to keep up with that speed using ordinary cognitive abilities.

“Alright.”

Having moved this much should be considered practical.

This isn’t even a real battle.

Since it’s just a game after all, Yido-hyuk’s mindset was to enjoy it lightly.

Swoosh. Swoosh.

He was about to jump straight into a ranked game.

An alert popped up saying that he couldn’t access the ranked game due to insufficient level.

Yido-hyuk reluctantly scrolled through the list of public rooms.

“This seems fine.”

He clicked on a room that caught his eye.

[1:1 Showdown, Only for True Beginners]

**

After the emergence of Full Dive, the game industry had expanded several times compared to the past.

Just by looking at the skyrocketing popularity of videos on YouTube, most of the videos in the gaming category dominated the scene.

The e-sports industry was also rapidly expanding its share, taking over the pie that traditional sports had held at an incredible pace, broadening its base.

The live streaming sector was also benefiting from this trend.

Even domestically, there were streamers with an average viewership of over 10,000, a far cry from the early days when there were only a few major companies in the field.

It was truly the era of internet superstars.

“Yes! Mission accomplished!”

However, even in such an era, one could classify Kumdun Girl as a fairly successful streamer.

Streamer name: Kumdun Girl.

A first-year broadcaster with a solid fandom of around 2,000 average viewers.

“Let’s eat well!”

-Burp-

-5,000 missions cleared-

-Easy peasy, hahahaha

-Did quite well

-Today’s missions are really rewarding

The reason she was able to gather that many viewers within a year of starting her broadcast was all thanks to her past experience.

Once a renowned game that had even world championships, Ultimate Fighter FD, Alpa.

Kumdun Girl was a former pro of Alpa, who used the nickname Sword Maiden during her pro days.

In a Full Dive pro scene where men dominated, she was a skilled player in the fighting game genre to the point of being active as a pro.

Although she was more famous for her looks than her skills, it wasn’t that her skills were lacking.

In fact, she was an extremely skilled player not only in Ultimate Fighter but also in the current popular one-on-one fighting game, Iron Fist.

But as Alpa’s popularity waned and consequently the popularity of the pro scene started to decline, she retired from the Alpa pro scene.

After declaring retirement, she didn’t jump into another pro scene of a fighting game but instead ventured into internet broadcasting.

There was no special reason.

She had simply shifted her focus from the intense world of professional gaming, where only victory mattered, to online broadcasting after retirement.

And she found success in the realm of online broadcasting as well.

Given her decent career in the professional scene, not at the top level but respectable, her beauty that made her more famous than her skills, and the fact that she was a “girl gamer who’s really good at competitive games,” it was only natural.

The main content of this dark girl was the Ultimate Fighter, which was like her roots, and Iron Fist, a trendy competitive game these days.

Today was a day to play Alpha, one of them.

But there’s a reason some games are doomed from the start.

“Huh? What’s this? 1800 points?”

– A doomed game, lol

– How do you even lose points down to -900?

– All the users must have quit, lol

– Feels like the queue is taking forever

In a ranked game, opponents with similar scores should be matched.

However, sometimes, when the queue takes too long, you end up getting matched with someone whose score difference is huge.

It’s what happens when high-ranked users like the dark girl have already found each other.

Still, she couldn’t just leave the game she got matched into.

[Victory!]

3 minutes later.

“Wow, a 3-minute match. This was so boring, it ended too quickly, right?”

– Yeah

– But the moves were pretty good

– I was dominating in the beginning, lol

– Doesn’t work against Gomhee though

– Seriously, how good is Pro Jamba

With such a huge gap in scores, the game ultimately ended in disappointment.

Even the viewers found it boring.

“Huh? 9 minutes waiting time for the next match? Oh, that’s too long.”

Even the estimated waiting time for the next game was 9 minutes.

At this rate, the broadcast’s energy was going downhill.

That’s when it happened.

[“SpiderGirl” has donated 1,000 won.]

“Should I do a viewer mission then? The queue is taking forever.”

[“SpiderGirl” has requested a 100,000 won mission.]

– 5 wins in a row for a viewer mission

Time left: 11:59

– Oh

– Let’s go for it

– Let’s pick a YouTube character

– Mission Directive

Even setting up missions.

Cheolji was a grateful fan who considered the entertainment value of the broadcast.

Moreover, the battlefield in Ultimate Fighter, where most light users have left and only hardcore, or rather rotten users remain, is like a kind of dungeon.

Rather than struggling to play against opponents of similar skill in a rank game where matchmaking is not working well, it is a place where all kinds of experts gather in the battlefield to feel excitement by mocking the underlings.

However, because everyone had such thoughts, that place, the battlefield of Ultimate Fighter, became a feast of rotten users deceiving (and no one being deceived).

“Phew. 5 consecutive wins? It could be tough to get 5 consecutive wins in the battlefield.”

– Overreacting.

– hahahaha, you got beaten by a high-level player last time.

– He was a beta tester.

– Yeah, later it was uploaded to YouTube.

– Even Geomi couldn’t beat the beta tester.

“Ah, was it because I wasn’t using my main character back then? The beta tester brought his main character. It won’t work. I’ll show them properly this time.”

Such a dungeon of evil spirits.

The Ultimate battlefield.

[1:1 Duel, Only for True Beginners in Ultimate Fighter]

In that place, the epitome of evil, Dark Maiden, threw down the gauntlet.

The map was the legendary 1:1 Duel.

Making all the dark spirits flustered, while at the same time luring them in with the magical words ‘True Beginners’ in the title.