[General] Honestly, if you think Eugene rigged the match, upvote this post, lol

<Insert meme of Eugene and Dice dominating at the top>

Anyway, since they rigged the match, they should take full responsibility and play all 14 remaining games without a break, LOL.

[All Comments] [Newest First]

• I support this, lol.

• This is so f***ing true, hahaha!

• Why do they get all the highlights and smash everything while we only get two matches and are left with nothing? What am I, some useless jobless loser?
  ㄴHey, man...
  ㄴIf I were Eugene, I'd skip too, lol.
  ㄴI'm also a jobless loser, but I don’t want to be associated with you, man.
  ㄴIsn't everyone here jobless? Why's everyone pretending they’re not? Am I the only real loser?

 

• Petition to make Eugene and Dice play every game (1/9999)
  ㄴI approve!
  ㄴHaha, hurry up and make them play every single game!
  ㄴGuys, my head’s spinning, so I ordered some pork hock. So sad, haha.
  ㄴYou're all losing it, LOL.

 

• They think they can make the games fun and just back out? Not happening!
  ㄴFor real.
  ㄴI’m now addicted to explosions. You can’t leave me hanging!
  ㄴI watched that cargo ship blow up with my mouth wide open, LOL.
  ㄴIs there anyone who wasn't shocked by that?

 

• They gave us an amazing opening match and then ran off, LOL.
  ㄴI can already hear the sound of disappointment for the rest of the matches.

 

• If the Icarus main channel edits the first two matches, they’ll easily hit 10 million views in no time, lol.
  ㄴThey could totally do that in a day.
  ㄴIt's crazy how possible that is, lol.

 

• So, I started following Eugene because of this tournament. Was last year’s KSM like this too?
  ㄴNope.
  ㄴLast year was just average fun, lol.
  ㄴVegan diet vs Pizza, chicken, and MSG overload, lol.
  ㄴLOL, was it that bad? Damn!
  ㄴNewbies are adorable.

 

[General] If these guys perform well in the next two matches, they might just get top seed in the first set.

<Image of Eugene and Dice's points tally>

Eugene has already racked up over 40 points with consecutive first-place finishes, and Dice got 17 points in one match by wiping out 11 players and taking second place. She’s insane, LOL.

It’s best to assume they’re not playing this Sunday.

[All Comments] [Newest First]

• Yeah, that makes sense, LOL.

• No, it’s definitely match-fixing, lol. If not, make them play another game!

• These people are absolutely nuts, hahaha!

 

• Who the hell serves steak as an appetizer and then just leaves the course unfinished? These guys are insane, LOL.
  ㄴWhat, didn’t you order the full course?
  ㄴNow that you say it, I totally get it, LOL.
  ㄴI'm dying of laughter, LOL.
  ㄴIf you’re upset, maybe the other dishes should’ve tried harder, lol.

 

• Honestly, it doesn't matter. If they’re good, they can just win the event match!
  ㄴYeah, they’ll stick the landing immediately, lol.
  ㄴTrue, they could host a fan meeting without even playing the match.
  ㄴTo be fair, at this point, they should double the event matches.
  ㄴWe already get three or four per set, what more do you want, lol?
  ㄴThere are 2 million people waiting for them, they should definitely add more matches!

 

• The top players should advance first, lol.

 

• Unpopular opinion: I wasn’t expecting much anyway.
  ㄴFor real, lol.
  ㄴOnly the haters are making a fuss; they were bound to advance anyway.
  ㄴIt was impressive, but also, yeah, no surprise, lol.

 

• Crazy players… Crazy players… Crazy players…

 

• As expected from Eugene's pupil, she’s causing quite a scene, lol.
  ㄴIs Blooming next, lol?
  ㄴSuddenly, I’m hyped!
  ㄴBlooming's like, "What the hell’s happening?"
  ㄴFact: It’s only her coach and senior who are nuts.

 

• Breaking news: The next match is starting.
  ㄴThey’re rushing in like maniacs, lol.
  ㄴLet’s goooooo!

 

“──For the first time in the country, and in history, Eugene has secured the pre-selection ticket in the third KSM match’s first cycle! A top predator who appeared like a comet, outpacing everyone faster than anyone else, she has claimed the first ticket to the Asia preliminaries!”

The prediction wasn’t wrong.

As soon as the fourth match ended successfully, Eugene grabbed the opportunity to aim for an even higher place.

It happened just 2 hours and 20 minutes after the tournament began.

“This concludes the first cycle of KSM! After a 10-minute break, we will introduce the event match and the participant recommendations!”

The number 100 floating in the air changed to 99, and the applause followed. Then, people began to leave like a receding tide, going to the restroom in reality or planning to grab some cyber snacks during the break.

The seven-digit number on the ceiling, which represented the number of viewers, was changing in real-time. By now, the viewership had surpassed 3 million. Drawing these numbers from just Korea alone, not the entire world, was proof that the Dark Zone’s popularity had skyrocketed.

The players who had completed all four matches returned to the central stage one by one, just like before the KSM started. A total of 100 people. They sat in the identical chairs that had appeared, engaging in various conversations.

“Where’s Dice, where’s Dice?!”

“Hey, who told you to blow up everything in sight?!”

“Waaaah───!”

Correction.

It wasn’t exactly a conversation—it was more like a scolding. Or maybe even punishment. Something along those lines.

It all started with Summit from TK1. Cheesenyang's female character sprinted over, jumped, and wrapped her arm around Dice’s neck, pulling her to the ground. On top of her piled even more cute girl avatars, making them look like a sandwich being made in real-time.

While she screamed her lungs out, Eugene was calmly observing from the side. Unfortunately for Dice, she seemed to have developed a taste for explosions after the second match, pulling the same stunt in the fourth match.

At the California Gas Storage site—where Eugene had gone berserk with a fire axe—Dice had sniped and blown up a kiloliter-sized gas tank from afar, using high-explosive incendiary rounds, which usually wouldn’t explode until the game’s final moments.

The fourth match ended in just 14 minutes.

By the time people were stacked on top of each other, it was hard to tell who the victims and perpetrators were anymore. A hand desperately reached out from between the cute avatars toward Eugene, but hey—it was karma.

Their eyes met.

“Ah, uh… Please, feel free to keep watching!”

“Haha.”

Though the base crumbled, there weren’t many casualties in the first match. And really, who could take down Eugene? After only a few matches, nearly 80 people had already witnessed her terrifying skills.

Meanwhile, Dice was running around blowing up all the carefully laid strategies from last year. It would’ve been strange not to see her get punished.

“Waaaah!”

“I swear, I’ll toss you into the sea and turn you into hotpot! Dieee!”

“Kill her! Kill her! Kill her! Kill her!”

“Hold your shin out!”

It took two minutes.

That’s how long it took for Dice to get completely flattened.

The whole thing was a chaotic mess. The players, a little more relieved now, started returning to their seats. Blooming, who poked at Dice’s thigh with her finger to check if she was still alive, was sitting next to her. It was a total disaster.

“Come on, get up.”

“Nnghh….”

With a slither, Blooming coiled her tail around Dice’s legs, dragged her forward a little, then wrapped the tail around her waist and shoulders, lifting her up and gently placing her back on the chair. The players around them watched the whole thing with fascination, as if it was an annual event by now.

Anyway, Eugene had something to ask Dice.

“What exactly is this event match?”

“Didn’t you hear during the briefing?”

“I’m more interested in personal experiences. I can guess, but…”

It was a kind of obstacle race that could host up to 520 participants at once.

However, everyone participated as deformed SD-style characters. Viewers could decide whether to participate while the draw was ongoing, and there were five matches in total. The overall winner would receive a bonus of 3 KSM points.

The 100 participants were split into groups of 20, making five rooms. So, the maximum number of participants for this event would be around 13,000. With four matches spread across Saturday and Sunday, viewers had to beat odds of roughly 1:200 to get in.

But that wasn’t the most important part.

Dice pinpointed the key issue perfectly as she continued speaking.

“Well, last year, I wasn’t that famous. But if I talk about those who were popular back then… It was chaos. Each match took about 20 minutes, and some players couldn’t even move an inch for 15 minutes.”

“Oh my.”

“You, Eugene… I bet you’re just going to bulldoze through everyone, right?”

“Well, if there’s a crowd, I’m not sure.”

After all, nothing is scarier than a mob.

The explanation wasn’t over yet.

“Other than that, the game is just designed for messing with other players. You can grab people, slip on something like slime on the ground… If you set your mind to it, you can endlessly bully someone.”

“This sounds… oddly fitting.”

“…Yeah, I was one of the victims.”

Of course.

Next came some brief explanations about the map gimmicks.

“There are giant fans, toy hammers, slime floors, speed boost panels, trampolines… It’s more fun to experience it for yourself than to explain.”

As they chatted, time quickly flew by.

The draw began.

“And now, we will start the event match draw! Who among you will be the lucky 2,500 players selected and assigned to different rooms? If you win, your wristband will light up pink!”

A soft pink light began to glow in spots throughout the audience. Those who were selected cheered excitedly, shaking their bodies in delight.

The map was chosen, and the 100 players were split up. Dice, having performed just as well as Eugene, couldn’t be on the same team. With a pop, LD transformed into SD form, turning the tall avatars into short, stubby characters. The background music shifted.

Even their voices sounded cuter than before.

Just as Eugene was sizing up the players she’d be playing with for the next match…

“Uh, why does everyone look so serious?”

“Hehe.”

Nineteen.

Plus the 500 others who had spawned around them.

All of them were staring at Eugene with strange looks in their eyes.

“And now, let’s move to the map! Do your best this round! Either run hard enough to beat everyone, or grab someone and drag them down with you! It’s your choice! Let’s count down! 3! 2! 1! Go───!”

It looked like this event match would be a thorny path for Eugene.

Probably.

This translation preserves the gaming and military lingo, the humor, and the chaotic energy of the scene, while staying true to the original tone. Let me know if there’s anything you’d like to tweak!

 

“There are way too many people…”

No, it wasn’t just that. It was downright packed.

There are plenty of ways to describe a crowd—words like “bustling” or “chaotic” can instantly give people a sense of the situation. But here... where I was standing, those words didn’t even come close. Packed. That’s the best word to describe the current situation, even though it’s not usually used to describe crowds of people.

One line of 25 players—there were 20 such lines in total. Even though they were spaced out, with only about 50 cm between them, it might as well have been no space at all. At least the view was cute, since they were all SD avatars of adorable girls.

As I glanced to the side…

“...?”

Even here, the looks were strange.

Turning my head in the other direction? Same thing.

Everyone was staring at me.

Gulp.

I nervously swallowed and checked the horizon.

The brightly colored obstacles, the map, the levels… The finish line stood majestically at the end, looking impossibly far away.

As I tensed up and got ready to bolt—

-[Alert: The match is starting!]

“Get her!”

“It’s the snake tail, snake tail!”

“Don’t let her escape, aaah!”

“Just let me touch the tail once───!”

“Oh my god, why are there so many of them!?”

Escape? No chance.

As soon as the match began, I was hit with 30 bullets coming at me all at once, instantly turning me into the next Dice.