Sangwoo headed to the Tekken corner. It was like an actual fighting match but with two arcade gaming consoles facing each other instead. There were many spectators, and unlike in other corners, there were two commentators.

“Yes, next player. Who could it be? Let’s check the application form… Oh my. Another computer science major student.”

“Are computer engineering students gathering here?”

“Come to think of it, we’re also computer engineers?”

The male student sitting across from Sangwoo looked older and had a good physique. He was wearing a baseball cap and a checkered shirt.

“Contestant, I see you chose Ed! He was just released today, right? I can’t believe you choose the rarest, most unskilled character.¹ Did your fingers slip?”

“Ed and Tristan…. How delicate. If there’s a commonality, it would be that they are combination characters.² If he can’t do the commando, they’ll be quite useless, right? Oh, oh, it’s starting.”

It took 10 seconds to figure out their techniques. Seeing how they were dealing with each other, it showed how much they understood the game. Sangwoo crushed five people, and his opponent, who was sitting there, made  a lot of useless moves and reacted slowly.

“Ah, ah! Low parry! Ed! Ed! Let’s crush the defender’s combo and kick it properly! A clean wave! Oh, oh, he’s going to make BnB out of him!”³

“That was reaaaaaally clean playing! Were there any other participants who showed this much experience today? I bet 500 won that we’re looking at the son of an arcade owner!”⁴

It had been too easy. When Sangwoo’s opponent stepped back while awkwardly scratching the back of his head, the next contestant arrived. He also wore a cap and he looked really young. Sangwoo chose the same character and started playing the game.

“Ed and Tristan again? Are you trying to say that you don’t even need new fighting power against an insect like that?”

“It could be that he only knows how to play two characters. Oh-ho! Look! He’s fuzzy guarding.”

“He got caught, he got caught. Wow… Challenging contestant, you’re flustered, aren’t you? Un-li-mi-ted-com-booooooooooooooooooos! You’ll be dismembered at this rate. It’s quite magnificent.”

The next game was easy as well. Sangwoo waved at Jihye, who was nearby, cheering for him. The next opponent and the one after that were also easily defeated. All of them were sloppy people who didn’t even know how to properly use combos and just recklessly pressed the buttons. Sangwoo beat 14 people in a row.

“I think the Tekken King was born today. At this rate, there won’t be a problem winning. Well, he just needs to endure for another 10 minutes. There is one contestant left. Will our Ed-Tristan student be able to defend his throne?”

“Here’s the final contestant. Is he from the cosplay club? His costume is unique, right? Oh-oh, looking at the application form, I realized that he’s not even an engineering student.”

Sangwoo got curious and peeked at his opponent. The person sitting across from him was wearing a red vest, a decorative white shirt, black suit pants and shoes, and a high necked cape on his back. He was wearing a goblin mask over his costume that seemed to be from medieval Europe.

‘What a strange guy.’

Sangwoo chose the same characters again without much thought.

“Sangchu oppa, fighting!”

Sangwoo raised his fist at Jihye’s support. However, at that moment, the opponent dashed forward and suddenly stopped. Since he quickly pulled an evading move, his character wasn’t thrown into the air, but his HP was severely reduced.

‘It’s not an easy opponent.’

“Wooooooooooooooooow! That was a razor-sharp attack. It seems like the opponent is good at using Rossi?”

“Rossi, you’re so good at this? Will this defending student be able to stop a new unskilled character like Ed? … I look forward to seeing this.”

The opposing character moved and jabbed without a break. It looked like the minor movements were distracting or that he was keeping at such a short distance where he wouldn’t get caught in the trap. His skill in measuring distance was rather careful and animalistic.

“He was about to kick the wall with his entire leg just now, right? The defending student clearly saw it.”

“Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, his hands got twisted while he was crawling through the challenger’s wind tunnel. It was his chance to knock out his opponent in one blow, though…”

“He made a mistake, but his fingers are still quick. Top, top, bottom, oh, how elusive. It’s hard to predict the pattern.”

He couldn’t try doing a combo because of the severe checks. Sangwoo changed his character in consideration of his opponent, who had a complex play style. A character that could send the enemy flying through the air in one shot walked into the screen. Sangwoo measured the angle to hit his opponent.

“Tristaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan pulls a Wind God Fist as soon as he enters! 4rp, 4rp, 4rp, he does it again, and again, oh, how persistent. A hit, he’s doing a double upper now!”

“Ae-ri-al-com-bo! Spinning Demon! Wind God Fist, Hell Sweep. How many on earth did he do? The combos won’t end! What grade is he in? Could you be a hoobae of mine?”

Footnotes:

1. The term used here is ‘mangkae’ or ‘망캐,’ which is a Korean term used in online games. It is an abbreviation of the terms 망하다 (to fail) and 캐릭터 (character), and refers to characters that are unskilled or weak, and/or have worse combat ability than regular characters
2. They are referring to characters that are the strongest if they do combo moves.
3. BnB stands for Bread and Butter and refers to a type of basic combination of moves.
4. 500 won is roughly 0.42 USD.