Master Swordsman’s Stream - Chapter 302

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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 302

“So I just speak as usual, then? Hey, answer me.”
As Seo Jun spoke, he began moving toward Cresit’s Smithy.
It was best to upgrade your stats whenever you could.

[Yes, if you wish it, you can speak with me anytime. But…]

“What.”

[You have no manners.]

“Hahaha.”
Seo Jun covered his mouth with his hand and gave a fake cough.
He hadn’t expected to get called out like this here, and it threw him off balance.
He’d thought the AI would simply let him respond without worrying about his tone.
‘Come to think of it, even Cardinal Lain used to nag me about my speech.’
A Fragment of Otherworld was certainly a transcendent being.
And if Seo Jun fell behind here in this conversation, there was no telling when he might lose control to it, or what other troublesome situations might arise.
That’s how the setting was designed. Being dragged around against his will should happen only at minimum—exclusively through Quests.
So then.
‘Either I take the lead, or it’s hard to set up a Hidden Mastermind instead. That makes me the one in control.’
Seo Jun smiled warmly.
“Does something displease you, brother?”

[Can’t you gauge the extent of my power? You seemed clever enough among humans, yet apparently not. That calm attitude is admirable, but it’s excessive.]

The voice carried mockery.
But Seo Jun sensed that this mockery didn’t come from genuine composure, and he let out a dry laugh.
“Because you’re clever, you know this, don’t you, brother?”

[Know what?]

“That you have no option but me right now. Isn’t that correct?”
Strictly speaking, the AI had no other options.
And that fact wouldn’t change even if the AI was this Fragment of Otherworld or whatever it was.
So there had to be another reason.

[Hahahaha! What kind of being do you think I am, boy? I who consumed entire worlds starting from the tiniest scrap of an apple! And I am the one who shall rule this world too!]

Grandiose.
The voice was laughing.
Seo Jun laughed grandiosely as well.
“Hahahaha! But isn’t brother merely a shabby Fragment at best?”
He could feel the Bluffing. The AI implemented even such details meticulously.

-This guy’s having a test of wills with an NPC now lmaooooo
-His personality is seriously legendary lmaooooo
-This guy was born to be a Streamer. Definitely raised to have both skill and personality for it lmaooooo

[You speak so because you don’t know how transcendent my true body is. Even I, merely a Fragment, grant you such tremendous power. Do you truly not know? If you’re dissatisfied, perhaps I should reclaim that power?]

“Brother.”

[What is it, boy.]

“If you reclaim that power, I can just shut down all those Portals and whatnot without hesitation. So keep quiet and answer the questions I ask, yes?”
He’d never actually do it.
He was a participant in the Historical Record, after all, so he couldn’t completely ignore public opinion, could he?
The AI would know that too.
Wouldn’t it?
Would the AI really believe he could actually Troll it right now?
‘No way, surely not that far.’
In any case, given Seo Jun’s words, if the situation were truly dire for the Fragment of Otherworld, the only response it could make was—

[……]

Silence.
“You’ve tucked your tail, brother.”
Seo Jun laughed with satisfaction.

-Seizing the Initiative. Bangguang wins.
-For smooth information sharing lol, it’s all planned gameplay. Definitely not just a garbage personality lol

“Well then, now that you’ve adopted the proper attitude for conversation, just wait a moment. I need to purchase some items.”
The Destroyer’s Armor that grants Invincibility time, and the Destroyer’s Gauntlets that grant Health Leeching.
Seo Jun purchased both. Quickly.
“You’re not blocking this.”
He’d expected that balance restrictions would prevent the purchase, but why wasn’t it?
Was it fine to have these items?
What Seo Jun didn’t know was that the team leaders had set the system so that he could never touch them directly.
“But they made sure I couldn’t kill anyone anyway.”

[That’s unavoidable. My power has accumulated enough that if you began killing people, someone would observe an anomaly significant enough. You must be careful.]

“I see.”
Look at that. As soon as he seized the initiative first, everything became smooth.
“So I have a question.”
After that, Seo Jun moved his body onto the train heading to Asieres.
He couldn’t take the train to Daran.
Illegal entry?
Seo Jun knew all too well how thorough the inspections were when boarding a train for immigration.
Even if Seo Jun could somehow board secretly, he would absolutely have to cause a terrorist incident.
The Mask would keep his identity hidden, but the biggest problem was that the Heroes of Daran would then begin to intervene.
He had to think carefully about his situation where he couldn’t kill.

[What’s your question? Cooperator.]

Cooperator. A surprisingly acceptable term had slipped out.
If Seo Jun had acted submissive, that wouldn’t have matched with Kael anyway (it already didn’t match with Kael at all—the whole world was rationalizing that Kael had hit puberty), but the biggest issue was, as mentioned before, the attitude NPCs adopted toward him.
The advantage of a game with high freedom was that the game world changed according to what the player did, and the disadvantage was that the game world changed according to what the player did.
A dog’s behavior depends on its master?
An NPC’s behavior depends on the player.
This was a famous maxim among gamers that became well-known after the advancement into the Capsule Era with its tremendous technological progress.
So Seo Jun had preempted trouble with a bit of psychological sparring.
Probably.
It definitely wasn’t because his personality was rotten.

* * *

Once Seo Jun boarded the train heading to Asieres, he began asking in earnest what he was curious about.
“What’s your goal? I think it’s time I knew. I’ve already gotten pretty deep into this?”
It was time to grasp the full picture.

[Yes, you’ve waded in deep. You’ve already injured countless Heroes. When I read your memories, you were already in a confused state. No, you were broken.]

So that’s how it went.
‘Now that I think about it, I’ve already got five kills. Can’t take that back, can I?’
He was already in a fallen state. Kael was. Setting-wise.
‘Fortunately, speaking casually from the start connects the dots well.’

[Through your memories, I found the source of your rage. And I surveyed this world. This land is not worth you protecting. So cooperate with me.]

“Cooperate in what.”

[In you consuming this land.]

“So the goal is invasion after all?”

[Krahaha. That’s right. Once my true body properly connects to this land, it will awaken from its long slumber. War will commence.]

“Is connecting through that Portal the method?”

[Yes. I’ve hidden Portals throughout this Continent. It took considerable power and time to stabilize them so they could never be shut.]

“Can you tell me their locations?”

[Certainly.]

A Map System was added to Seo Jun’s interface. When he tapped the icon, a map of the Continent appeared, and markers for what were presumed to be Otherworldly Passages became visible, allowing him to confirm their positions.
“You’ve planted quite a few. So Daran is over there.”
The full map was probably a system that took the Hidden Mastermind into account.

[Two of them are already destroyed.]

“Two of them?”

[Yes. The ones who closed those Passages were so-called Heroes like yourself. And now more will begin targeting them. You must immediately prevent the group attempting to destroy the urgent Passage in Daran.]

“I’ll do just that.”
As they conversed, the train Seo Jun rode arrived at Asieres, and he entered the country without difficulty.
‘There are many ways to enter Daran.’
First, there was the simple method of crossing the border through the Field and conducting Illegal Entry.
The advantage of this method was its simplicity.
Just walk across the enormous land. Cross borders, move from city to city.
The disadvantage was that it took a very long time.
‘An extremely long time.’
Without a separate means of transportation, it was out of the question. And Seo Jun had no such means.
The second method of Illegal Entry was to sneak onto a train.
‘In that case, I’d have to commit terrorist acts at every station.’
It was extremely bothersome and laborious, but there was a way to avoid detection, though Seo Jun didn’t want to go that far.
There was a more convenient method.
‘Forged Identification.’
The advantage of Forged Identification created by the Thief Guild, a Guild you’d hate to miss out on for jobs like this, was that if you used the accompanying Disguise/Camouflage Item, you could move freely without getting caught most of the time.
The disadvantage was the price. A hundred Points.
‘Now that hunting is off the table and I’m about to get busy, I can’t spend Points carelessly.’
Besides, once he earned just a few more Points, he could buy the last remaining item. He had to save.
That was why he’d come to Asieres.
If he were going to purchase from the Thief Guild, he could just buy it on the Train and go straight to Daran.
So what was the last method left?
To obtain that Forged Identification from somewhere else.
From the nobles of Daran, the wielders of power.
“To Atura.”
Seo Jun used a Teleport Magic Circle to move to Atura, the disputed territory between Daran and Asieres.
While there were fierce clashes at the contact points in the early game, now that the story had entered its mid-phase, there were no Heroes patrolling Atura.
Quests didn’t even appear here.

[What are you thinking? Sneaking into Daran through Atura is nearly impossible. You won’t be able to use Teleport Magic Circles inside it, so you’ll have to walk.]

True to his transcendent nature, he grasped the general knowledge just from surveying it.
That said.
“Fragment.”

[What is it, boy.]

“Why are you curious?”

[Whether my cooperator is doing his job properly or not is an important matter.]

“Heh.”
He wondered if even the AI could feel curiosity.
Seo Jun decided to tell him the plan. The Viewers would be curious too.
“Buying Identification from the Thief Guild right now is too expensive, so I’m going to obtain Identification from the nobles of Daran instead, Fragment.”

[What? How does that make sense? I could create Identification at far less cost than you could afford, but why would I do that for you?]

Was it really curious?
That AI?
“It’s simple—can’t believe you don’t see it.”

[……]

“All right, I’ll tell you.”

[What is it.]

“First, burn their houses.”

[Surely you don’t mean……]

“Yes. Then they’ll give something, won’t they?”
Seo Jun stretched and began moving to push the front line.

[……]

The Fragment—no, the AI said nothing.

-Fragment’s confused? lmaooo

* * *

The Gorge of Atura.
This disputed territory—a vast canyon connecting Asieres and Daran—is where countless legends were born.
Combat-obsessed warlords, virtuous nobles, legendary arbiters—countless Heroes clashed here, and the front line always remained taut, like two equally matched men in a tug of war.
In fact, it had to remain taut.
Atura was a region where, if the front line collapsed, the entire nation could face Occupation.
So both countries poured in troops desperately, maintaining at least parity with their opponent.
Paradoxically, precisely because it was so vital, neither side could push the other back.
Story-wise that was the case, but for Daran’s Participants—especially the two Pros in the Council who manipulated or previewed Quests—it was just a region without particular importance as long as no Quests appeared.
But a Quest appeared.
And the two Players who confirmed it were left speechless. These were the ones who’d clashed with Seo Jun once before, lost a comrade, been defeated, and had since been diligently doing their own thing.
“…….”
“…….”
It wasn’t painful memories of losing a comrade that had stolen their words.

[Urgent Situation]
==
The front line of Atura has been critically breached.
Immediate restoration of the front line is required.
If delayed, the situation will become uncontrollable.

Objective: Restore the front line
Reward: None
Failure Consequence: Destruction of Daran
==

The Quest was official.
“Wh-what on earth is happening?”
Suddenly, their nation faced destruction.

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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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