Descent of the Demon Master-Chapter 1043: In Training (3)

“Yu-Min hyung! You’ve been killing it lately!”

Park Yu-Min sheepishly smiled. “You think so?”

“I do! Should I say your movements have become god-like? It’s like you can spot an opening like nobody’s business!”

Park Yu-Min’s grin became even more awkward just then.

If he was being honest, Park Yu-Min had lost count of how many times he received praise during his time as a pro gamer. After all, hadn't he achieved some incredible, record-breaking feats before switching to a different game?

Whether it was the press or people related to the gaming industry… They couldn’t stop showering Park Yu-Min with praise and exaltation.

Despite his extensive experience, though, Park Yu-Min still never got used to being praised. One could say the “issue” was with his nature more than anything else.

Park Yu-Min awkwardly replied, “I just got lucky, that’s all.”

“Eii, luck can’t explain everything, you know? In that case, am I an unlucky idiot?” Choi Jeong-Wu cackled and cracked a joke. But that only led to Park Yu-Min sweating buckets and fidgeting. Choi Jeong-Wu’s grin became wry when he saw this reaction. “...Hyung, please don’t be serious all the time. I was only kidding, you know? Now I feel bad.”

“Oh, you were kidding?”

“…”

Choi Jeong-Wu stared in total confusion at Park Yu-Min.

‘How is Yu-Min hyung doing so well as a pro gamer with his personality?’

A pro gamer was… No, it didn’t have to be a pro gamer. Every person with a job title that started with the prefix “Pro” was, without exception, an avatar of the Greed of Victory.

An individual with a marshmallow-like personality could never become a pro gamer. Some pro gamers might look outwardly kind and soft-hearted, but in reality? They were more often than not ruthless and obstinate to a fault.

But Park Yu-Min really was a soft-hearted guy.

‘And that’s what’s so remarkable about hyung…’

It wasn’t as if Choi Jeong-Wu couldn’t understand it, though. After all, Park Yu-Min’s desire to win was shockingly strong for a dude with a kind heart.

What Choi Jeong-Wu couldn't wrap his head around was, though, how those two disparate personality traits could co-exist in one person.

“Geez. It’s a mystery of our times, alright,” Choi Jeong-Wu quietly muttered.

Park Yu-Min tilted his head. “Ng? Did you say something?”

“Nah, it’s nothing, hyung.” Choi Jeong-Wu urgently waved his hand.

‘Oh, well. Who cares what Yu-Min hyung’s personality is like? As long as he’s killing it in matches, it’s all good.’

When viewed in that regard, one could say Park Yu-Min was an excellent pro gamer. No, not just excellent, but a role model everyone should aspire to become!

Back when Park Yu-Min first showed up to the team’s practice area to take the entrance test, Choi Jeong-Wu wondered if he could even make it as a pro gamer. But the situation had completely turned around now.

Not only did Park Yu-Min take over the role of the team's key player soon after joining the team, but in less than half a season, he made the spot his own.

With how miraculous his story was, it was perhaps not a surprise to see a huge throng of spectators showing up wherever Park Yu-Min and his team competed.

‘Yup, it's like a TV show storyline.'

If random people on the street were stopped and asked to pick a pro gamer in the Galaxy Craft era with the largest fanbase, many would unhesitantly pick Park Yu-Min.

With his gentle facial features and shy personality, plus an uncharacteristically perfect control during live matches… There was no freaking way Park Yu-Min wouldn't be popular!

However, when the sun began setting on the Galaxy Craft era, it seemed Park Yu-Min would inevitably be consigned to gaming history, too. That should have been the natural course of life, yet here he was, making a storybook comeback with a different game!

Along the way, Park Yu-Min acquired new diehard fans. However, the ones who still reacted and cheered more viscerally than anyone had been his old fans, now old enough to be dads themselves.

The “dad” fans, forced to bury their youthful passion and fervor deep in their hearts and had to soothe their lonely souls with VODs of their favorite pro gamer’s glory days, heard the loud rumblings of the fading star’s comeback and flooded into the various tournament venues in their droves.

While the cheering reserved for other teams was laced with female fans’ higher-pitched but refreshingly enthusiastic voices, Park Yu-Min was usually greeted by raucous cheering filled with masculine roars.

Of course, that didn't mean Park Yu-Min had zero female fans. But it was still true that the split highly favored the men.

“You gotta have some more, hyung. All these food ‘tributes’ are meant for you, you know? Us wolfing them down without you kinda feels wrong.”

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Park Yu-Min shook his head. “Nah, I’m okay. You guys enjoy it.”

“Hyung, your fans prepared these for you, you know…”

“Mm, well… I guess I’ll have some, then.”

Park Yu-Min carefully sat on an empty chair by the dining table. Choi Jeong-Wu sneakily pushed a plate of the highest-quality jerky strips toward Park Yu-Min.

‘Geez. These people’s scales are on another level…’

The fan culture of the pro gaming scene had some similar aspects to the idol fan culture.

Gifts, usually called 'tributes' or 'drops', would often arrive in the team's shared lodging. Online communities like fan clubs would reach a consensus on what to buy, pool the members' money, then send the presents to their favorite esports team.

That was how it usually went, but Park Yu-Min's case was a little more… unique.

Unlike other pro gamers who received tributes from online fan communities, Park Yu-Min got stuff from individual fans. After all, many of his fans were old enough to have secured a firm financial foothold. They didn't need to go through the cumbersome process of pooling money with other fans.

If they wanted to gift something, they simply bought the stuff and sent it over. Maybe that was why the tributes Park Yu-Min received were a bit different in nature from what everyone else got.

Tributes from fan communities usually consisted of T-shirts with pro gamers' faces printed on them, towels, or charming little trinkets like photo frames. Some were also food like Korean beef or cakes with each gamer's favorite character as decorations. But Park Yu-Min's tributes, for some reason, seemed to overflow with “manliness”, for a lack of better description!

‘We ran out of places to store all the red ginseng tributes, right?’

Maybe because the fans figured stamina was crucial to a pro gamer, health-related foods like red ginseng and black garlic kept showing up in the team's HQ.

Of course, other gamers also received bottles of vitamins and other health supplements every now and then. Even then, anyone with eyes could see that the supplements meant for Park Yu-Min were way too manly! Heck, one of the fans even sent him a bottle of snake wine, of all things!

Every single one of these tributes overflowed with GigaChad vibes. These fans weren’t even playing on the same field as their peers anymore!

While other gamers received new mice as tributes so that they might play more competitively, Park Yu-Min received a brand-new cutting-edge PC. Naturally, he tried to return it, saying such a gift was too excessive. But the fan resolutely refused to take it back.

After recalling that event, Choi Jeong-Wu couldn’t help but chuckle to himself.

‘Ah, well. Makes sense that they are overjoyed with Yu-Min hyung…’

Even though Park Yu-Min was troubled by such an outpouring of fandom, he probably knew that all these gifts came from a place of goodwill.

‘I mean… Take me, for example.’

Although it was true their positions within the team weren’t the same, Choi Jeong-Wu still viewed Park Yu-Min not as a fellow team member but more like an idol. As a fan, he found it so cool and exciting to see his role model gunning for the top again in a different game and successfully doing so.

If only Choi Jeong-Wu wasn't on the same team as Park Yu-Min! He'd be in the audience seats and cheering his idol on in every match.

“Yu-Min hyung?”

Park Yu-Min stopped chewing on a strip of jerky when someone called out to him. “Ng?”

“The team director wants to speak to you in his office.”

“Ng? Okay, I’m coming.” Park Yu-Min hurriedly got up while trying to finish munching the jerky in his mouth.

***

“Hey, Yu-Min. Come on in. Take a seat,” said the team director, Oh Jin-Hyeong, with a bright smile. He pointed to an empty seat before his desk.

Park Yu-Min sheepishly bowed. “Thank you. Did you call for me, sir?”

“Yeah,” Oh Jin-Hyeong nodded, his content smile deepening.

‘Oh, my boy! You bundle of good fortune!’

Anyone who knew about how hard Park Yu-Min worked to get this far would have no choice but to dote on him. And the show of affection would be even more pronounced when the doting person was the director of the team Park Yu-Min competed for.

In such a case, it'd only be natural for the director's appreciation for his pro gamer to go through the proverbial roof!

‘And I didn't expect him to do so much like this, either.'

Running a pro gaming team required a lot of hands-on approach. A lot more than what it looked on the surface, at least.

Hitting macro goals was obviously important for a pro team, but ensuring that the pros remained ambitious and continued to improve themselves was just as crucial. A pro gaming team didn't just exist for one tournament season before disbanding, after all!

What Oh Jin-Hyeong wanted to see from Park Yu-Min was the latter aspect.

As the team's director, he knew better than anyone how hard Park Yu-Min trained. But that didn't surprise him. After all, Park Yu-Min was well-known for training for an inhuman length of time back in the Galaxy Craft days.

While most pro gamers trained like crazy, only to take a foot off their accelerator after achieving some success, Park Yu-Min didn't do that. No, he actually increased his training time after achieving fame! That was how much of a loon he was back then or now.

One of the main jobs of Park Yu-Min's former team coach was staying behind in the team's practice area until early dawn and dragging Park Yu-Min away from the computer before dumping him on a nearby bed. That should be a good-enough indicator of how committed Park Yu-Min was.

Talent was certainly important in order to become a top player. But one's earnestness and diligence should never be ignored, either. If the oldest pro in the team, who also happened to be a former star, trained harder than anyone else, others would have no choice but to learn from his example.

That was Oh Jin-Hyeong’s overall plan. And it proved a roaring success.

Other gamers saw Park Yu-Min training day and night and began increasing their training time, too. How could they kick back and relax when one of their own was improving at a breakneck pace through constant training?

Not only that, but…!

Oh Jin-Hyeong grinned deeply. “Let me ask you something, Yu-Min. The atmosphere within the team. It’s been pretty good lately, right?”

Park Yu-Min nodded. “Yes, director.”

“It’s all thanks to you, man.”

“Eiii, that can’t be true. It’s because everyone is working hard, you know.”

“I’m only saying this because it’s you, Yu-Min. You know how people grow soft once things start to go their way, right? But you are not like that. So, let me be honest with you. You’ve been doing great, Yu-Min. Really great! Thanks to you, I can sleep easy at night now.”

“Thank you for your kind words, director. I’ll work even harder from now on.”

Oh Jin-Hyeong grinned in satisfaction.

Park Yu-Min's resurgence led to the team's performance improving dramatically. Less than half a season ago, the team had been slipping in and out of the relegation zone. But now? It had reached the play-offs as if doing so was its rightful destiny.

If the team could maintain this form, winning the championship altogether would not be a distant dream anymore. As a matter of fact, Park Yu-Min’s presence in the team allowed them to realistically target the first-ever championship victory this year.

‘Accepting Yu-Min was the best decision ever.’

Not only did Park Yu-Min fulfill the expected role, but he even flawlessly pulled off other roles no one asked him to. The team's ranking was shooting up, and the fanbase was growing even faster. As a director, Oh Jin-Hyeong couldn't ask for more.

“I know it's not easy, but let's keep doing our best till the end, okay? Although... I'm usually not worried about you since you know how to take care of yourself, but… I gotta be honest, your current training schedule is worrying me a bit. You've grown a bit too old to endure such a schedule, right?”

“...But I’m still young, though?”

Oh Jin-Hyeong chuckled awkwardly. “Yeah, you are. There's no doubt about that. But you also know people in this industry don’t see you as a youngster anymore.”

Park Yu-Min wordlessly nodded. The team director was right. The average age of the pro gamers was on the younger side, after all.

“Rather than mess up your health by training too hard, let’s do it in moderation, Yu-Min. You get what I’m worried about, don’t you?”

“Yes, I do. Please don’t worry.”

Oh Jin-Hyeong smiled in satisfaction while nodding away. “Good. Good. Actually, I’ve called you in for a different topic. And that is…”

“Yes?”

“Well, the head office wants you to be in a commercial.”

“...I’m sorry?” Park Yu-Min’s eyes powerfully quaked just then. A commercial? “You mean like an… An advert?”

“Yup, an ad. An ad they want to air on free-to-air TV, not cable.”

Park Yu-Min’s hands began trembling next as he pointed to himself. “M-me? Why?”

Oh Jin-Hyeong chuckled slightly. “Why the surprise, Yu-Min? You’ve already shot a commercial before, haven’t you?”

Indeed, Park Yu-Min had done that. And the memories of that nightmare still vividly remained etched in his brain!

That hellish ad still got played during breaks in Park Yu-Min's matches to audience members in the stadiums even to this day. And it was a one-of-a-kind black mark in his history that he wanted to forget. Some people even posited that, to be acknowledged as Park Yu-Min's true fan, one must watch that ad till the end without dying of cringe!

“Yes, director. I’ve… shot a commercial before. Yes, I have…”

“C-calm down, Yu-Min! It's gonna be fine. Things will be different this time. They say we got ourselves a top-tier director for the shoot. And you, uh, probably won't have a ton of lines to memorize, either.”

“E-even so, I…”

“I’m telling you, it’ll be alright. The head office is serious about this whole thing. It’s gonna be fine, Yu-Min. And they said the actor you’ll be working with will be the best in the industry, too.”

“Urgh…” Park Yu-Min held his head and racked his brain for a few seconds. In the end, though… He dazedly nodded away. “I, uh, I’ll do it, sir.”

“Are you sure, Yu-Min?”

“You said I should, so… Please don’t ask me that.”

“Well, I was just, you know…” Oh Jin-Hyeong smiled awkwardly after noticing the cramped look on Park Yu-Min’s face.

Of course he knew all about that black mark in Park Yu-Min's history. Oh Jin-Hyeong cared a lot about Park Yu-Min, but even he couldn't force himself to sit through that advert. The cringe would always get to him to the point where his hands and feet would curl up, and his torso would start twisting uncomfortably. And he'd inadvertently slap the desk in embarrassment soon afterward!

“...I figured you’d be uncomfortable with the idea.”

“If I’m being honest…” Park Yu-Min sighed grandly. “...I really don’t wanna do it, sir. But, if I say no now, I think my juniors will have a tougher time getting opportunities to shoot ads themselves later. That’s why I gotta do this. To give the others a chance.”

“Oh…!” Oh Jin-Hyeong nodded slowly. He was freshly reminded of how caring Park Yu-Min was just then. “Thanks. Okay! I'll tell the head office that you're doing it.”

“Got it, sir.”

“Still, I hope the ad comes out okay this time…”

“Me too, sir. Me too.”

The two men groaned simultaneously.