[TS] Obsessed Gamer: The Ultimate Return – Chapter 180

Drip—

“They say something like that.”

Drip, drip, drip.

Sweat is trickling down.

I want to wipe away the stinging sweat in my eyes right now, but if I let go of my hands now, there’s no way to avoid an ugly end, so Baek Seong-an gritted his teeth.

“A healthy body harbors a healthy mind.”

Drip—

“Actually, according to a certain research study, doing cardio and strength training before gaming improves concentration. In other words, exercise is absolutely necessary for a professional gamer.”

What the hell kind of study is that?

That thought bubbled up to Baek Seong-an’s throat, but unfortunately, all that came out was a desperate scream.

“Yes! That’s it! More, more, more!”

“Ugh…!”

It’s heavy.

Freaking heavy.

It’s so heavy that I wonder if I’ve ever lifted such weight in my life.

“I’m dying!”

My arms are shaking.

It wouldn’t be weird if I lost strength right now.

“You won’t die. You can do more.”

Kim Ji-hoon, who abruptly transformed into a personal trainer, was cruel.

It was already well past bedtime, and Baek Seong-an was drowning in fatigue, yet Kim Ji-hoon rolled him over and over again without a shred of mercy.

In the fading consciousness, Baek Seong-an reflected on the time gone by.

‘How did it come to this?’

The place Kim Ji-hoon brought him to was the gym on the lower floor.

The only reason Baek Seong-an would go downstairs would be to occasionally use the sauna or bath for tiredness recovery or to relieve stress at a coin karaoke alone.

He had never even thought about the entrance to the 10th-floor gym.

So, the fact that Kim Ji-hoon took him to a gym was quite unexpected and random.

“Why are we here…?”

“No time, let’s start right away.”

And before he knew it, this was the situation.

Objectively speaking, Baek Seong-an’s physical condition wasn’t bad for a former pro gamer.

Compared to Seo Yeon-woo, who was downright petite, and Kim Jae-min, who was tall but scrawny, Baek Seong-an was of just the right build.

However,

The world is relative, after all.

“I can’t go on like this…!”

Watching Baek Seong-an gasp for breath, Kim Ji-hoon spoke in an unusually loud voice.

“One more!”

With a voice like that of a pack leader leading a hunt, Baek Seong-an mustered strength into his arms once again.

‘Wait, what?’

Perhaps he was momentarily dazed.

Baek Seong-an began to feel his strength draining from his arms.

“Ah!”

I’m going to die!

At the moment his instincts screamed for help, Kim Ji-hoon’s thick arms easily lifted the bench press bar that was pinning Baek Seong-an down.

‘…He lifted that with one hand?’

The weight of the bench press Baek Seong-an had been struggling with was about 50kg.

It was undoubtedly not a light weight, considering he almost got crushed by it.

‘He’s not human.’

Baek Seong-an shook his head.

Anyone with eyes could tell that Kim Ji-hoon worked out a lot.

But knowing it in theory and seeing it with your own eyes was an entirely different matter.

“Let’s take it easy.”

“Uh….”

Finally granted a moment of respite, Baek Seong-an exhaled in relief as he lay back and stared at the ceiling.

The white lights glimmered.

‘Hmm.’

As he looked at Baek Seong-an, Kim Ji-hoon quietly recalled the previous night.

“Why are you here…?”

When Kim Ji-hoon went to the gym for his evening exercise, Yujin was waiting outside.

“I have a favor to ask.”

“…Huh?”

At first, he couldn’t understand what she was saying.

She was waiting outside the gym out of the blue, and the word “favor” just confused him more.

“Help our mid not think about other things. You know what I mean?”

“Distracted.”

A word with many meanings.

Still, he could at least understand what Yujin was trying to say.

“…Sure.”

It could be seen as a command from the team owner, but to Kim Ji-hoon, Baek Seong-an had looked really pathetic yesterday, so he carved out some of his precious morning workout time.

Fortunately or unfortunately, it wasn’t necessary to wake someone who was fast asleep.

Just then, Baek Seong-an was awake.

“You’ve had a long break. Let’s get back to it.”

“What? I can’t do it!”

“You can.”

If he could scream that loud, he could definitely manage a few more sets.

Kim Ji-hoon knew that better than anyone.

“You can.”

With Kim Ji-hoon’s strong declaration, Baek Seong-an was reluctantly headed back to the equipment.

“Okay, lift your legs. You’ve got to work those legs.”

“Ugh….”

Amid the painful moments, Baek Seong-an felt the useless thoughts crowding his mind begin to fade away.

*

“Huff, haoof…!”

“More, more, more!”

“Uggghh!”

Kim Ji-hoon shouted, and Baek Seong-an responded.

Baek Seong-an knew in his mind.

Of course, a healthy body harbors a healthy mind, and building strength would never be a bad thing for a pro gamer.

In actual pro matches, as it got into more games, the battle of concentration and stamina became increasingly relevant.

But there’s a huge gap between knowing it in theory and putting it into practice.

Still, he hadn’t completely disregarded exercising.

With someone like Kim Ji-hoon, the fitness enthusiast, on the team, it’s true he had been stimulated subconsciously.

I should exercise.

I have to, but… when do I?

Thus, he made excuses for himself.

I need to schedule scrims.

I need to practice.

I have other things to do…

Baek Seong-an willingly admitted it.

He’d been just running away up until now.

‘Did I look that pathetic?’

It was obvious why Kim Ji-hoon suddenly acted this way.

It wasn’t just because Baek Seong-an showed a poor performance during the last scrim.

It was likely that the sight of Baek Seong-an looking dejected afterward was what he found pathetic.

‘…Right.’

Retirement? What was I even thinking?

I’ve become a pro gamer again after much struggle. It’s laughable to give up so easily.

‘Let’s give it another shot.’

Pro gamer.

But this time, I’m not going to give up halfway like before.

I’m going to grab everything I’ve got and dive in.

“One more!”

“Urahhh!”

With a mighty roar, Baek Seong-an pushed the leg press with all his might.

With the feeling of pushing away everything that had been binding him until now.

*

Hmm…

How many days has it been?

Time can be quite fickle, as it races ahead without warning if you lose focus for even a second.

Of course, there’s the issue of aging versus the degradation of abilities, but that’s not what I’m talking about right now…

Several days passed in a haze.

During that time, though, there wasn’t anything special on the schedule; it was mostly just long days filled with solo queue in the practice room.

‘At least it’s not completely different.’

In that time, Baek Seong-an managed to score 420 points and succeeded in getting promoted to Grand Master.

Whether it was just luck or whether something genuinely changed, he hit a streak of wins like crazy.

Kim Jae-min also finally reached the Master promotion match but unfortunately failed to get promoted.

He claimed something about bad team luck.

It was an odd bump in his morale after failing the promotion.

Well, it’s whatever, but…

‘It definitely feels different.’

Ever since that scrim with BLH a few days ago, Baek Seong-an’s condition had honestly been at a pathetic level.

So he asked Kim Ji-hoon a favor.

Make our pathetic mid player a bit more respectable.

‘It seems like that’s worked too well…’

The amount of protein supplement he had originally bought for team welfare to coax Kim Ji-hoon had increased.

It looks like I’ll have to order more.

Whether it was because of Kim Ji-hoon’s muscle philosophy or something else, it turned out this way.

‘Sometimes I get a strange feeling, but… it must just be my imagination.’

A good thing is a good thing, right?

As he was busy like any other day widening his champion pool in solo queue, Kim Ji-hoon came looking for him.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“I’ve settled on a nickname.”

“Really? What is it?”

After a long period of contemplation, Kim Ji-hoon finally revealed the nickname he had chosen.

Seeing the strangely reminiscent tone in his voice, he seemed genuinely proud of the nickname he’d come up with.

“It’s Trainer.”

“Huh?”

“Trainer? As in Trainer?”

“Yes. That’s right.”

“Uh… it’s good that you’ve settled on one, but there’s already a player with that nickname.”

To be fair, there’s already a pro player using the nickname Trainer in the domestic league.

The one who turned MYE LaLaLa into Jungler’s Slave and is famous in solo queue as the Top Lane Training Master.

MYE Trainer.

That’s the one.

Of course, in Legends of League, there are countless leagues and pros around the world, so sometimes nicknames do overlap.

But that only applies when the activity country and affiliated league are different; there’s never a case of overlapping nicknames in the same league.

“…Huh?”

As expected.

Kim Ji-hoon looked genuinely unaware, asking back like that.

How could he not know the nickname of a player currently active in the first division?

Shouldn’t he at least do a minimum search before settling on a nickname?

‘Well.’

It seems it would take Kim Ji-hoon a few more days to figure out a nickname.