Master Swordsman’s Stream - Chapter 170

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 170

Seo Jun was taken aback.
I am the Assassin of Joseon.
His former manager of the streaming channel.
Why former? Because when he fought against Pado, he took responsibility and was stripped of his manager position for one week.
Of course, in exchange.

[The Assassin of Joseon has been stripped of manager duties for one week. Instead, we’re promoting you to VIP status in our channel. What’s the responsibility in this, you ask? Well, we did issue a disciplinary measure, after all.]

-Lmao so a week off without work, watching the channel owner’s broadcast from the premium seats? That’s actually great
-Assassin! Assassin! Assassin! Assassin!
-Is this performative discipline? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Totally shameless ㅋㅋㅋ

[Oh, and anyone who got chat-banned by the Assassin of Joseon—we’ll unban you. However.]

-However?
-What kind of reward?
-Yeah, if you messed up, you should compensate

[I’ll personally give you a one-week ban.]

-Whoa!
-Cut the chaos! Cut the chaos! Cut the chaos! Cut the chaos!
-This is how Travel should be run!
-Since when is there a law like this?
-It’s always been at the channel owner’s discretion ㅋㅋㅋ
-Wait, isn’t that actually a reward?
-Yeah it is ㅋㅋ

That was the situation.
So the Assassin was Seo Jun’s former manager and current VIP.
The Assassin could be considered quite close to Seo Jun.
They’d chat occasionally through private messages and he was one of the viewers who showed up to watch his broadcast every single day.
If someone asked Seo Jun who his closest viewer was after the Brick Extortion King, Seo Jun would naturally pick the Assassin.
The reason Seo Jun was quite startled was.

[30 million points! Are you insane?]
[Wait, individuals can accumulate that much?]
[How many does the current number one have?]

Travel ranks users by the number of Channel Points they hold.
Of course, it’s possible to keep this private.
But most people don’t.
Channel Points are a currency with no value unless others know you have them.
If it were strength in a typical fantasy world, hiding it might improve your chances of survival.
If it were money, hiding it lets you live without envy.
If it were honor, hiding it might help you avoid bothersome situations.
But Channel Points?
‘Completely useless and as for envy, well….’
I mean.
‘Thinking about what viewers do, there probably are some who genuinely envy….’
But it’s possible.
Anyway.
Unless something’s wrong, there’s no real reason to hide them. Normally.
And yet, after acquiring 25 million points, the Assassin of Joseon hid his Channel Points.
And when Seo Jun asked why, the Assassin answered like this:

-Channel owner! Obviously first place is you anyway. Everyone knows it. ㅎㅎ

In other words.
Mystique or whatever you’d call it.
‘And I heard he participates in all kinds of betting….’
Travel displays point betting happening in real-time.
It’s a system where you can see ongoing point betting and jump directly to that channel—point-obsessed viewers hunt for these opportunities.
After Seo Jun’s stream ended, the Assassin was exactly that type of user, he’d heard.

[Is there more?]
[Isn’t it pretty famous how that user hunted down betting matches and went for upset bets?]
[After earning 25 million points, he went dark, but the consensus was he’s definitely number one on the ranking since it’d be hard to lose all that. But 30 million?!]

5 million.
No small number.
Most people struggle to accumulate even 100,000.
If someone has 500,000, people immediately ask if they’ve been watching for years.
Yet in that span, he accumulated 5 million more.
This was what startled Seo Jun.

-Insane Assassin ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-This is our manager!
-He’s the average viewer of the channel owner’s stream ㅋㅋ
-You call ranking number one average? Your intelligence is below average? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Oof

“Wow. Once 30 million points are locked in, the bar doesn’t decrease at all.”

[Wealth Gap] – 99%

For that to drop to 98%, the total points across other teams would need to exceed 300,000.

[Hahaha. So with zero analysis, you’re just blindly betting on Seo Jun, is that it?]
[That user earned 25 million points all at once during a collaboration broadcast between Alpaca and Seo Jun. He’s a viewer of Seo Jun’s.]
[So he earned 25 million thanks to Seo Jun, rolled those profits to gain another 5 million, and now he’s putting all of it down on Seo Jun? You can only pull off something like this if you’re a genuine fan.]
[Whoa! The Wealth Gap maintains its dignity!]
[Even if total points balance out, one person putting down 30 million points? Nobody can beat that.]

What would be the point of beating it anyway.
That’s what Seo Jun thought, but apparently the viewers didn’t.

-Real talk ㅋㅋ
-They’re saying that’s the average Geomsin fan! ㅋㅋ
-That bastard’s an assassin. He’s not a Geomsin fan, he’s a fan of the Nameless Master! ㅋ
-The Assassin God!
-Dude ㅋㅋ I’m betting that no single team will get even 5 million points before this is over
-But we’re sitting on 30 million! Whoa!

[Hahaha. Anyway, let’s wrap up the betting discussion here.]

[Understood. So! For the next ten days, each team gets a period to build teamwork or train. What’s the biggest feature during that time?]

Bang Joo answered.

[Honestly, the biggest thing is that we get to play.]

An answer that, no matter how you looked at it, seemed thoughtless—Bang Joo seemed to have taken ownership of delivering those.

[I see!]
[Just kidding. Actually, there’s nothing special. Would we really expose our real strategy?]
[Right, right.]
[Still, I’m a bit curious.]
[About what?]
[Well, which team’s audience will perform best during that practice period. Hehehehe.]
[I’m curious about that too. Hehehehe.]

Bang Joo and Arin smiled wickedly.

[This is a complete pride battle! Streamers should compete by viewer numbers, after all!]
[Exactly! Let’s see who does the five-person collaboration best! Who makes it most fun! We’ll have to watch!]
[Yes! So let’s wrap up the scrim like this!]

-Setting them against each other ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Can’t resist a viewer number competition ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-So if viewer numbers are high, is there a reward?
-You get the warm regard of the casters and commentators

[Until now……]

The broadcast ended.
Seo Jun closed the window in front and looked straight ahead.
His teammates’ heads all turned toward Seo Jun at once.
“Wow, Seo Jun—who was that viewer?”
“Krkrkrkr. Having connections with Travel’s richest person!”
A remark befitting Ha Yun-ho, the networking expert. He was laughing while waving a carrot.
Just do one thing.
“Kr. The Assassin of Joseon—long time no see. By the way, Seo Jun, even your viewers are out of reach!”
“It’s not out of reach, it’s bait… Ahem.”
Rumi cleared her throat. Seo Jun nodded.
It’s excessive bait, honestly.
“Right. Should we ask him? What he’s thinking? He’s in my chat right now.”
The Assassin was quiet. Normally, if he started chatting and was getting all the spotlight in his channel, there’d be nothing strange about it, but.
“Assassin?”
Seo Jun opened a private message window.
He displayed it on stream.

[Hello, channel owner!]

“But why did you bet? And how did you come up with another 5 million points?”
Thanks to the Assassin of Joseon putting down 30 million points, Seo Jun’s team had regained its dignity.
Of course, that was all.
Seo Jun simply found the situation funny.

[What do you mean why! This is at least a several-times return investment!]

-This is trust ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-He already made 25 million points. He’s just trusting!
-The Assassin here is just good at investing ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Whether he’s good at investing or not, we’ll find out eventually
-This isn’t investing, it’s gambling, you idiots!
-In the nation’s arena, investing = gambling anyway, so it’s investing ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

“I see.”
He nodded.
“And the 5 million points?”

[Well, I have a decent amount to work with. I’d go around betting 250,000 points on high-probability upset bets. And then it snowballed! I don’t even know myself!]

-Points breeding more points
-Wait, is the Assassin actually good at investing?????
-The luck is crazy
-So jealous damn

Though rare, such people do exist.
Seo Jun nodded once more.
“Really envious.”
“Rumi, what about you?”
“With those points alone, I could almost control Ha Yun-ho, get Kim Tae-woo to do a horror broadcast, and honestly the uses are endless.”
“Ah!”
Right.
Points weren’t useless after all.
Everyone had gotten so obsessed with point betting that they’d forgotten—at least for streamers, it was a usable currency.
“Assassin?”

[Yes?]

“I promise I’ll win the championship and multiply your investment several times over. In exchange, would you be okay with a small commission? I get to use it however I want.”
The answer came fast.

[Sounds good! My hands are honestly shaking right now, you know? I put in almost all my points ㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

-If they’re not shaking, you’re not human
-30 million points means you can cause absolute chaos on Travel ㅋㅋㅋㅋ how crazy is that ㅋㅋㅋ
-Real beast’s heart ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[But hearing you say that now, it’s reassuring. I believe in you! Let’s go win!]

“Yes. I got it. Others should bet on me too. You won’t regret it.”
Seo Jun spoke with resolve.
And he looked at his teammates.
His teammates felt a chill.
And Ha Yun-ho, his expression stiff, started waving the carrot with both hands in desperation from that moment on.
“But what’s been up with you since yesterday, Yun-ho?”
“Leave him be. It’s not the first time he’s doing something weird. Bet he’s trying to get some advertising in Carrot Nation or something.”
Seo Jun and Ha Yun-ho’s eyes met.
Ha Yun-ho looked nervously at Seo Jun and forced an awkward smile.
So Seo Jun naturally pretended not to know and asked back.
“Carrot Nation? The secondhand marketplace platform?”
If Seo Jun realized Ha Yun-ho understood what he was actually doing, Ha Yun-ho might just give up on himself and yell at him to run away.
Seo Jun naturally raised Ha Yun-ho’s training intensity another notch in his mind as he stood up.
“Alright then, everyone, let’s meet in the real world tomorrow.”
It’s time to closely assess each member’s capabilities.
“Nice!”
“Should be fun.”
“Finally!”

* * *

“Huh? Hello!”
Rumi waved. Where she was looking, Wind Sword and Alpaca stood.
“Why are you two waiting in the Underground Parking Lot?”
“We thought it’d be better to gather together and head out, so we were waiting.”
Alpaca spoke.
“I see! Hey! Come on! What are you doing sitting in the car!”
Rumi shouted at Ha Yun-ho, who wasn’t getting out of the car.
Ha Yun-ho got out of the car with a face that screamed he didn’t want to go, then walked toward them.
“Sigh. Maybe more people is better. Yeah. Think positively. When you think about it, it’s karma. It’s karma for ignoring my signal.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Ugh. Never mind. Hello, Alpaca, Wind Sword.”
“Hello.”
“I’ll take the lead. Let’s go.”
“Yes.”
“To hell.”
“Huh?”
Ha Yun-ho grabbed the elevator without another word.
Beep.

[Floor 4.]

The floor number changes.
“Do you think there’ll be state-of-the-art equipment?”
“Or maybe it’s a traditional dojo? If it’s Lee Dong-su….”
Ha Yun-ho listened to his teammates’ conversation, chuckling inwardly as he exited the elevator and led them to that familiar place.
“Here we are.”
Alpaca followed Ha Yun-ho, surveying the surroundings.
It was an ordinary gym.
‘What’s that?’
Ha Yun-ho walked toward a space separated by glass, apparently for different use.
At a glance, there seemed to be a lot of people in there.
And the moment they entered that space.
Men lined up on both sides and bowed in unison.
“Welcome!”
What is this?
Scary.
Where’s Lee Dong-su? Why are these guys here?
And.
Kim Tae-woo, watching this spectacle from afar, thought.
‘This guy’s a repeat offender.’
Back then.
He wondered if even the cafeteria incident might have been orchestrated.

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