“Player SIN, welcome. By any chance, are you that S-rank player from Space Craft Online?”

- Player_SIN: Yeah.

“You’ve received a message from our team’s Coach Oh Joon-hwan before, right?”

- Player_SIN: Choi Min-jae.

Choi Young-jun’s face lit up.

As expected, the one who had tried to recruit Player_SIN by sending a message was not Coach Oh Joon-hwan, but Coach Choi Min-jae.

There was no doubt now—this was the real Player_SIN.

“So, it really is you. Nice to meet you. You’re quite famous even among the pros for your skills.”

- Player_SIN: Yeah.

The casual tone was slightly irritating, but since personal streams always brought in all kinds of viewers, Choi Young-jun didn’t mind.

“That works out perfectly. My first opponent in the individual main tournament happens to be a Human player. Would you be willing to be my practice partner?”

- Ohhh, let’s go!
- Do it!
- It really must be the real Player SIN. That guy’s insanely good.
- So the rumors were true that pro teams were trying to recruit him. This dude’s on another level.
- Wow, even Twin Star tried to sign him? Damn.

The chat was exploding with excitement.

Choi Young-jun was also thrilled to have found some great content for today’s stream.

- Player_SIN: I actually wanted to watch you play.

“You can still do that after playing with me and reviewing the replay files, right?”

- Player_SIN: No, I mean your personal screen. If you allow me to watch the stream as a replay later, I’ll do it.

“Uh, I don’t enable replay registrations, though…”

Choi Young-jun’s expression became troubled.

These days, many professional gamers earned extra income through personal streams.

Pro teams were generally lenient about their players streaming during the off-season.

But there was a strict rule:

Never register stream replays.

If fans could watch a player’s gameplay anytime, their anticipation for official matches would inevitably decrease.

- Player_SIN: Sending me a recording of the stream is out of the question too?

“Hmm… that’s a bit difficult as well.”

Just as Choi Young-jun was hesitating—

- Player_SIN has gifted 10,000 star candies!

“Huh?!”

For a moment, Choi Young-jun couldn’t believe his eyes. Each star candy was worth 100 won. Naturally, the chat went wild.

- Holy crap, what?!
- Oh sh*t!
- Ohhhh!
- Whoa!
- Insane!
- Did he just drop a million won?!
- LOL, how much do you want? Hahaha.

“Wow, I really appreciate it, but…”

Just as he was about to finish his sentence—

- Player_SIN has gifted 10,000 star candies!

“Huh?!”

Choi Young-jun was utterly stunned.

- Player_SIN: Still not enough?

A viewer had just dropped 2 million won on the spot!

After much internal struggle, Choi Young-jun finally spoke.

“You won’t distribute the recording anywhere, right?”

- Player_SIN: I won’t. If it gets leaked, sue me.

“Urgh… Fine. I’ll do it. Anyway, thanks for the 20,000 star candies…”

Before he could even finish his sentence—

- Player_SIN has gifted 10,000 star candies!

“W-Whoa?!”

Not even 30 minutes into the stream, and he had already received 30,000 star candies.

Startled, Choi Young-jun jumped up from his seat and addressed Player_SIN with a flustered expression.

“Ah, you really didn’t have to go this far…”

- Player_SIN: It’s fine. It’s not that much.

The overwhelming presence of a wealthy, high-rolling viewer sent the chat into a frenzy.

- Whoa, this guy’s got serious presence… ;;

- Instantly dropped 3 million won, holy…

- That’s some serious gold spoon energy.

- You can tell at a glance. That kind of overwhelming presence is something no salaryman pretending to be rich could ever pull off.

- Wow, my entire month’s salary in just 30 minutes…

- Just admit he’s the boss.

- "How much is it really?" Damn…

- That’s twice my salary…

“Anyway, thank you so much. Shall we do a best-of-three match?”

- Player_SIN: Yeah.

“Alright, I’ll log in now. See you online.”

- Player_SIN: Okay.

- Player_SIN has left the chat.

‘An unexpected opportunity.’

Lee Shin, who had agreed to a best-of-three match with Choi Young-jun, closed his PaprikaTV stream and logged into Space Craft.

Hwang Byeong-cheol, Park Young-ho, Choi Young-jun.

Among the three players considered the strongest in the country, the only one Lee Shin knew nothing about was Choi Young-jun.

It was only natural. He was a rookie who had debuted while Lee Shin was away from the esports scene.

And now, that rookie was dominating the professional league, setting a new trend for the God Race.

‘I’ll take this chance to analyze him thoroughly.’

Winning or losing didn’t matter.

Since he was going to receive the recorded stream later, he planned to study every detail, including Choi Young-jun’s personal screen.

He logged in and met Choi Young-jun online.

- rush_joon: Good game.

- Player_SIN: Good game.

The first game began.

The map: "Memories of Blood."

‘Let’s start with a standard build.’

Lee Shin usually preferred an aggressive early-game playstyle, but this time, he decided to stretch the match as long as possible to analyze Choi Young-jun.

Thus, he opted for a One-Barracks Fast Expansion build.

After constructing a single barracks, he immediately started building a second base at the natural expansion. It was a strategy focused on securing resources for a long game.

Both players scouted each other without much trouble.

At 5 o’clock, a Disciple from Choi Young-jun’s faction entered Lee Shin’s base.

Meanwhile, Lee Shin’s construction robot had also infiltrated Choi Young-jun’s main base at 1 o’clock.

They began checking each other’s builds. The longer a worker unit stayed alive for scouting, the greater the advantage.

Choi Young-jun took things even further.

He didn’t produce a single Disciple and went straight for a fast expansion at his natural base. No defensive structures—completely wide open.

Lee Shin had at least trained two infantry units from his barracks, but Choi Young-jun had invested even less in defense.

1 o’clock and 5 o’clock.

Their bases were extremely close, yet Choi Young-jun was leaving himself defenseless.

That could only mean one thing.

"Come at me if you want."

If an attack came, he’d defend then. No need to prepare in advance.

Because he could hold it off anytime.

‘Is he underestimating me?’

Despite the hype calling him a top online player, it seemed like he only saw Lee Shin as a convenient warm-up opponent.

From the perspective of the player holding the highest win rate in the professional league, that attitude was understandable.

Lee Shin could see why.

But that didn’t stop him from getting annoyed.

‘Let’s wake him up.’

His plan to play a long, standard match disappeared in an instant.

“This is a great start.”

Choi Young-jun was at ease.

Because he hadn’t spent resources on defense, his tech tree was advancing smoothly.

But then—

The construction robot from Player_SIN, which had been wandering inside his main base, moved out to the natural expansion.

And then…

“Huh?”

The robot began constructing a Trench (a Human faction defensive structure where infantry can take cover and attack) right in front of the Grand Sanctuary being built at the expansion.

Not only that—

From the opponent’s main base, two infantry units and four construction robots suddenly rushed out.

It was a Cheese Rush.