Master Swordsman’s Stream - Chapter 110

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 110

[Achievement: Magnificent Ascent!]

At the base of the Garbage Mound, after testing his footing a few times, Seo Jun naturally figured it out.
Where to place his next step for stable support.
How low to crouch.
Where to center his weight.
“Is this difficult?”
It wasn’t impossible.
Hadn’t the achievement just appeared?
They must have included it because any person could do it.

-Tae-woo just lol don’t ask
-Why does that manager make everything look so easy?lololol
-Isn’t he using Light Footwork?lololololololol
-Heavenly Demon’s Dominion! (on the garbage heap)
-lololololol

Light Footwork, my foot.
Seo Jun turned his head, glanced at Tae-woo’s chat, and spoke to him.
“You’re saying it’s hard?”
“Hey!”

-lololololololol why are you being toxic in a Cooperative Game you absolute madman lololololol
-Why would he even be friends with that guy lololololol
-He’s definitely a pack mule

“I’m not a pack mule! Ha!”
Tae-woo began climbing the garbage hill.
This time, he didn’t carefully search for footholds—instead he charged ahead just like Seo Jun.
He must have concluded that was the secret after watching Seo Jun.
Thud.
Tae-woo’s doll avatar tumbled forward without ceremony and slid down into the garbage heap.
Whoooosh.
“Ouch.”

-lololololol
-Manager… short and punchy lololol
-Help him out

“Help you out?”
“No way! Don’t come down! I’ll crawl up myself!”
“Understood. I’ll help. Well.”
“Stop!”
“Let me come down to your position and back up a few times—my route might have been different, so maybe that’ll help.”
Tae-woo, crawling up on all fours, lifted his head to look at Seo Jun.
Step.
Step.
Seo Jun descended with long, unhurried strides, as if he wasn’t paying any attention to his center of balance at all.
In truth he was paying attention—but when had he ever been awkward with his body?
The ground beneath him shifted slightly, but he never fell.
It was intentional, anyway.
And then Seo Jun passed Tae-woo and climbed back up.
Tae-woo stared up in bewilderment at Seo Jun’s retreating form as he ascended again.
“I told you not to come back down for exactly this reason……”
By the time Tae-woo finally crawled all the way to the summit, Seo Jun had passed him and come back down a total of three times.

-lololololololol oh I get the broadcast concept now
-I mean, sure, tightrope walkers exist in this world, but this manager makes everything look easy lololololol
-lololol The Cooperators and Assassination Guild streamers experiencing firsthand what the users feel lol

But Tae-woo’s ordeal was far from over.
Neither was Kim Section Chief’s.

* * *

Once both had reached the summit, narration began to play.

[Damn it. Why did you climb up here?]
[Good vantage point from up high. Plus, it’s closest to the Discharge Outlet. And most importantly, the protagonist of our game was supposed to come here too.]
[Right……. That makes sense. But still, the Discharge Outlet looks pretty high up.]

He surveys the surroundings.
Then Seo Jun’s character noticed a hook on the garbage tower, grabbed it with both hands, and pulled with all his strength.
Rip.
The garbage at the corner crumbled away, and Seo Jun’s character was able to retrieve a long rope.

[What’s that?]
[Hook Rope. The protagonist’s item.]
[Ah. That one? But why are there two? There was only one in the game.]
[Maybe. It means our coming here wasn’t an accident.]

It was suggestive.
Seo Jun’s character handed a Hook Rope to Tae-woo, then began to swing the hook.
Target: the Discharge Outlet.
Whoosh!
But the rope was too short, and the hook didn’t reach—instead it snapped back like a wire, coiling around Seo Jun.

[How did you……. do that? That’s pretty cool.]
[It just worked?]
[Yeah? Let me try once……. What, it works for me too? Hah. This really isn’t a dream, is it?]
[Let’s drop the dream talk, yeah? This isn’t a dream. You know that.]
[Right. I know. I got it. So what do we do now?]
[I don’t know either…… But.]
[But?]
[To get any lead at all…… Maybe I need to meet the protagonist of this game. The fact that the rope still exists means the game hasn’t even started yet.]
[That does seem reasonable. We didn’t finish the game either.]
[……]
[……]

“If I were in the same situation, I’d probably find the protagonist first. Or maybe the final boss.”
Though the final boss was obviously going to be far away.

-The manager is 100% going to smash the final boss’s head in
-No the manager IS the final boss
-???
-Just call him the final boss
-lololololololololol real talk lol
-Whenever he gets possessed by anything, he’s gonna be unbeatable lol

That was when it happened.

[By the way, why did the Waste Processing Plant suddenly light up like that?]
[That’s……]

Ziiiiing!
The front gate, massive as a sluice, swung open.
And befitting the enormous gate, an intimidating toy rolled in with blinding headlights and engine roar.
“Looks like a Tutorial Boss.”
At the same time, Seo Jun’s vision returned to normal as he exited the cut scene.
From the narration that followed, he learned this much:
Garbage Compressor.
A vehicle that collects garbage and crushes it repeatedly into a single dense mass.
While in reality this vehicle was much like a truck and could dramatically reduce garbage volume, the in-game appearance was somewhat different from reality.
Actually, very different.
A garbage-compression robot? A toy?
“If it sweeps you up and you get crushed, your character dies. And then”—
Seo Jun pointed at the front of the compression robot.
“—once it collects you and shoves you in the body and presses down, you’re done.”
A rectangular torso and head, with two arms connected to rake-like, long, threatening blades at the front.
For the administrators and game developers of this sector, it was an idea-only creation.

[Why is that thing here?! We never implemented it graphically!]
[Does it even make sense that we’re here?]

“True, it doesn’t make sense. Fortunately, those arms aren’t separated, so it can’t move side to side.”
The robot’s arms were one solid piece.
Like a person with fingers interlaced and glued together.
The problem was that instead of hands, they were rake-like equipment, but in any case, the machine’s arms could only move forward and back.

[Ugh! It saw us!]
[Run!]
[Wait. Didn’t you set up some kind of weakness or something?]
[I can’t remember!]

“This just means it’s not the right time to engage it yet. I’ll let you know later.”
Though chat was flooding with questions about why he understood the game so well, this much was obvious.
Dazzling headlights blazed from the compression robot, beginning to illuminate them.
And in that moment, the toy’s eyes embedded in its head switched
from (^ ^) to ( /).
“It’s angry.”
“It’s mad.”
Seo Jun and Tae-woo spoke simultaneously, and the compression robot immediately began to charge at them.
It couldn’t climb the garbage hill—it had wheels instead of legs.
So the compression robot raised its massive arms and brought them down hard on the garbage hill with a crash.
Then it opened the lid on its torso, swept the garbage into its body, sealed it shut.
With grinding, crunching sounds, the garbage was instantly compressed, then spat out the back as the robot struck the garbage hill again.
Crash!
The vibration reached even those standing on top, and the height of the hill decreased.
In this urgent moment as the hill was being carved away, the next tutorial stage appeared.
“Jump to the next hill. A Double Jump?”
Green markers appeared—one on the neighboring peak, and another in the empty air between peaks.
“Hey. Looks like you’re right about the Double Jump.”
“How do I do a Double Jump?”
Tae-woo had played many games—surely he’d know.
Fortunately, being a tutorial, the garbage hill seemed precarious but not about to collapse immediately.
“It’s like Light Skill?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s in other games too.”
“It exists, but it varies from game to game. Usually, when you try to push off into the air, a platform automatically generates under your feet, and you jump from that. But……”
“So then.”
Let me just try it.
“I’ll go first.”
Seo Jun powered off with his legs and leaped into the air.
The moment he jumped, he felt his jump power increase dramatically.
Maybe it was the toy body. His physical specs were high.
Thanks to the long airtime, Seo Jun was able to focus on the sensation in his feet while suspended in the air.
‘Something catches at my feet.’
A platform?
But the angle was slightly off.
If he kicked off like this, he’d shoot toward the garbage hill like a rocket headfirst.
Seo Jun figured out how to fine-tune the platform and timed his Double Jump in that brief moment.
In matters of sensation, Seo Jun simply couldn’t fail.
If he moved his legs without applying enough force to push off the air, the angle adjusted microscopically.
Swoosh.
Clean landing.
Seo Jun landed successfully, kicking up garbage beneath his feet.
“Phew. That was harder than expected.”
The difficulty was surprisingly higher than Light Skill.

-And he nailed it on the first try
-Double Jumps come up a lot and most people are decent at them, but it’s rare for someone to pull it off on their first attempt
-What did you expect from him lol keep succeeding
-The thing is, jump power and angle-change speed vary per game, so even if you’re used to Double Jumps, if you don’t adapt to the game’s specs, you usually fail lololol
-Like that?

Tae-woo was shouting and sprinting.
But from the moment Seo Jun saw his footing slip at the start, he knew what would happen.
“Huh?”
He didn’t need to watch—the outcome was obvious.
But to his surprise, Tae-woo actually pulled off the Double Jump properly and landed below Seo Jun’s peak.
About halfway up.
“See that? Recovering even after a bad jump.”
Tae-woo began to climb.
“Nice work.”
Seo Jun gave a thumbs up and offered praise.
Tae-woo was delighted by this unexpected response from a friend who rarely gave compliments.
“Everyone see that? The Heavenly Demon himself approves.”
And then.
Tae-woo noticed Seo Jun’s smile had turned meaningful.
Suddenly he felt uneasy.
The hand that had been giving a thumbs up now opened wide, waving goodbye.
And then.
Crash!
A giant blade suddenly fell from the sky in front of Tae-woo’s face, blocking his view.
A blade?
Why?
Oh, right.
“Hey! You didn’t mean to—”
The compression robot’s rake blade.
Tae-woo, having landed at the midway point, let out a final cry and was swept up into the garbage heap.
Well.
That’s dead. No question.
Seo Jun offered his condolences……
Not really.

* * *

The Streaming he was currently running was an advertisement.
An advertisement had to catch people’s eyes and sell the product attractively.
So.
“Oh no, looks like I’m on my own now. You guys wanna make a bet—can I take it down solo or not?”

-Kills your friend in a Cooperative Game and announces solo lololol
-This is an advertisement?lololol
-Scary how innocent he looks. And meanwhile he’s eyeing the monetization angle—total monster lololol
-If you think about how fast the manager’s brain works, he might’ve killed him on purpose to find the monetization angle lololololololol
-But doesn’t it seem impossible?

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————