Master Swordsman’s Stream - Chapter 304

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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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Chapter 304

Seo Jun held the front line in place while he waited for the two Darahn nobles to create the forged identification and bring it back.
The two of them moved together. One person could have done it, but they went anyway.
“What if I just push through while you’re gone? Right, everyone?”
Of course, even if they left, there was still time before things became urgent—but shouldn’t he keep watch anyway?
“Or else.”
Seo Jun recalled that person.
A hero from Darahn, affiliated with the Guild.
“The Recluse Ava must be watching, I imagine.”
He was certain of it.
The moment Seo Jun muttered this, a figure appeared in the distant landscape, exactly as he’d anticipated.
“Please stop talking like you’re from Astheros! Hello there.”
“Hello.”
Not a professional player. An amateur.
A female streamer—that’s why she’d called herself a sister.
Ava was a woman to begin with.
“Hello there, sister.”
“Ugh.”
Seo Jun chuckled.
Her character concept was amusing.
There hadn’t been a single participant who played along like this before.
“Since it’ll take a bit of time for them to arrive, how about we chat in the meantime, sister?”
“That sounds fine.”
“Though for a proper conversation, I think we should close the physical distance a bit, don’t you?”
“I’ll have to politely decline that.”
Seo Jun realized that Ava didn’t know his movement speed.
If she did, she would’ve stayed much farther away.
“I understand. Then, might you tell me how far along you are in your quest?”
“I’ll have to politely decline that as well.”
There was nothing more to ask.
Seo Jun shrugged and fell silent.
About three minutes passed before she spoke to him again.
“So Kael is taking Darahn’s citizens hostage to negotiate. Usually Astheros just plays defense, doesn’t it?”
Seo Jun let out a quiet laugh.
“Went through a rebellious phase, you see. Ah.”
“Oh.”
“I’ve fallen from grace.”
“… Your smile is quite refreshing.”
“It’s the sense of liberation.”
“Really?”
“It was just a concept.”
“I see.”
Even as they exchanged idle banter, she was trying to probe Seo Jun as thoroughly as possible.
So Seo Jun remained perfectly still, without the slightest movement.
He wouldn’t give her any clues.
Whoosh!
And in order to take his measure, she launched a single, light skill his way.
It seemed she wanted to gauge his health at least.
A small cone-shaped mass of mana came flying at high speed with targeting magic, and Seo Jun immediately drew his sword and struck downward from above.
At the most ordinary speed possible.
That orb was a homing spell—if you didn’t destroy it, it would chase you indefinitely.
“What are you doing?”
“I thought it might work this way. If not…”
“If not?”
“I sincerely apologize!”
Her instinct was spot-on.
Seo Jun had no desire to fight right now.
In fact, he didn’t want to engage until he’d resolved the last remaining issue.
The reason was simple: he couldn’t kill anyone.
The probability that his opponent would deduce this was low.
But if they kept fighting, she would inevitably figure it out, no matter how oblivious she might be.
“I’m truly sorry!!”
Seo Jun resheathed his sword in the scabbard at his waist.
“I hope you’ll be careful, sister.”
“Understood. Ah—notification: two participants have arrived in Atura.”
The Thief Guild, as expected.
“You arrived quickly.”
Besides, the nobles must have requested the forged identification from the Thief Guild, so she’d know that too.
“Yes. It seems Darahn will avoid ruin after all.”
“Then let us stand together and protect Darahn from the assault of the wicked.”
“…”
“Shall we go to our destination together?”
“…”
Is this person really not a psychopath?
He could feel that look in her eyes.
Seo Jun observed the two professional players approaching from the distance, then added one final remark.
“I may not actually be the black mask you think I am. Do consider that possibility.”

* * *

The Recluse Ava, wearing the Inpimyunggu mask, watched the shrunken figure of Kael walking leisurely toward Darahn with a slight smile on her face.
Then she let out a scoff.
“As if he could possibly not be the black mask.”
From her perspective, Seo Jun was definitely the black mask.
Based on the information she’d gathered, Seo Jun was anything but altruistic.
Multiple related incidents were unfolding in different locations.
While Darahn had finished the quest fastest, regardless—
He’d come to Darahn anyway.
‘The possibility that he’s involved in Darahn’s quest?’
Almost none.
Because this was something only she and one other Darahn participant—absent from this location—had been conducting.
Though they would need help now.
“But if he heard something in Train? I heard he ranked first in that quest and received his reward.”
The sharp-minded American professional player and Darahn noble, Sheon, asked her the question, and she answered.
“I didn’t get a chance to mention this earlier because things were rushed, but do you know Shin-geom?”
“Yes.”
“Shin-geom apparently made a disturbance in Train.”
“A disturbance?”
“Yes. He apparently saw through a relic that Kael is the black mask and caused quite a scene.”
The advantage of being a Guild-affiliated participant is that you can access most information that flows through the Guild’s intelligence network spanning the entire continent at minimal cost.
Of course, only those at an administrative level or above could access information with such ease and minimal expense—
A member at the bottom of the organization couldn’t possibly be a hero.
Though new heroes could emerge, none had so far.
Among the fifty participants in this History Book, there was only one directly affiliated Guild administrator.
And that was her.
“Ah… If Shin-geom said it, then 99%…”
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
“Seo Jun likely knows too. That we wouldn’t believe him anyway.”
“He would’ve accepted all of that. Then why didn’t he kill us? Fighting should have broken out the moment we got the identification.”
“It’s because we managed our distance well, that’s all. We ensured no combat would occur.”
“Hmm.”
“Now it’s Darahn’s turn to mobilize. You’ll help, won’t you?”
“Of course.”
“Let’s move. To stop that one person.”
The first battle between a regular hero and the black mask.
“Even if we can’t kill him this time—”
The faction that achieves victory will gain advantage.
“But where should we go? Where is this portal that needs to be destroyed?”
“Sheon’s domain.”
“What?”
“Let’s go. The last remaining person is there as well.”

* * *

“I’ve entered Darahn.”
Seo Jun used the Teleportation Magic Circle in Atura’s Darahn sector.
The fee was 5 Points.
The normal price was about 2 Points, but since Seo Jun was in an illegal entry state, an additional surcharge had been applied.
The destination was the domain of Cabero.
The domain of participant Sheon.

[Khahaha! So they actually willingly gave you forged identification! You madman! You absolute madman! Hahaha!]

Seo Jun felt as though the AI was venting everything it wanted to say through this fragment.
‘Must be my imagination.’
It wasn’t just his imagination.

-Is that AI actually cursing in real time ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-I’d curse too ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-The calculations keep hitting errors
-This is something the AI couldn’t predict
-Did you see how he casually threatened them? Bang Ju is just the god of tyranny ㅋㅋㅋ

[So now your identity is completely exposed! It couldn’t be otherwise! I’ve set limits on you, so it’s not my place to say this, but you can’t even kill them anymore. What are you going to do now?!]

“What am I going to do? Well, now that I’m in Darahn, explain the actual situation properly, would you? I understand I’m supposed to stop them from destroying the portal, but how exactly am I supposed to do that?”
He’d said he’d explain the detailed situation once Seo Jun entered Darahn.
Getting in had been the problem in the first place.
That’s how the quest was designed.
‘Usually the black mask doesn’t face this many barriers in gameplay.’
Normally, the black mask starts with significant advantage and continues playing under favorable conditions. In any quest.
But it seemed like that wasn’t the case for Seo Jun, he felt that strange sense again.
It must just be his imagination.
Maybe this History Book is just unusually difficult.

[Right, listen. From Cabero, head north and you’ll find a large mountain. I’ve hidden a portal there and have already dispatched Hounds through it. But it seems they’ve been discovered. By that Guild faction.]

Hounds are the term for otherworldly monsters.
Everything in that world is directly or indirectly connected to the body of this fragment and can only move by its will.
In that sense, Hounds—hunting dogs—was an apt name.
“So?”

[If it were only that, it’d be fine, but they captured the Hounds and conducted experiments. And now they’re on guard against my body’s power.]

“So the Thief Guild did that?”

[Yes. And they extracted power from the Hounds and stored it, then created a bomb that releases it—one with destructive force enough to close the portal.]

“Hmm. So you want me to stop them from capturing more Hounds?”

[Exactly. The Hounds have excellent stealth, but soon they’ll complete development of a device that can detect and track my energy.]

That would be next cycle.
Seo Jun nodded and organized his thoughts.
Seo Jun had to obstruct them. Prevent them from capturing all the Hounds.
But Seo Jun couldn’t kill them.
It meant he had to win through sharp psychological maneuvering, forcing them not to meet their quota by any means necessary.
‘Obstruction. Psychological warfare. Hounds. Four people.’
The balance should work out, right?
“Then let’s move on to talking about what happens if I fail.”

[What do you want to know?]

“What’s the penalty if I fail?”

[Hahaha! Are you scared of failing?]

Don’t waste time with useless talk—just tell him straight. He’d clearly grabbed his collar about this earlier.
It still wasn’t enough.

[Don’t worry too much. I won’t abandon a young one like you. Still, you’ll have to pay a price.]

Just a balance-adjustment nerf as the penalty, then?
Seo Jun made his deduction from the conversation and began moving northward.
“This one’s going to be quite difficult, everyone. But it seems there’s a way forward.”
And following after him, three more participants arrived in Cabero, received their equipment and quests, and—
Day 8 came to an end.

* * *

The next day, at noon.
“The outline is becoming clear! The seemingly mundane missing persons quests in villages, the monster-hunting quests, the merchant escort quests that appear to participants—they might all be connected to the otherworldly portal! Participants must redouble their efforts!”
Bang Ju’s stream before the start of Day 9 was filled with excitement.
“And! In Cabero, Darahn! Two factions are about to clash! Of course, one can’t kill, and the other won’t die. Who do you think will win!”

-Why won’t Bang Ju die? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Bang Ju just doesn’t die through sheer skill
-ㅋㅋㅋ So now Bang Ju can’t kill and just has to drive them away ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Gotta win the mind games hard
-Is that possible?
-Bang Ju can do it. He said there’s a way
-Impossible. How could there be a way?
-Please just once let the pros notice Bang Ju can’t kill people and test his character ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Please!!!
-I’d love to see him deal with that ㅋㅋㅋ
-You know what? Most people probably already realize Bang Ju’s skills are superior. They’re probably wondering why they’re not dead ㅋㅋㅋ
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

And so.
When the time came, participants began logging into Pangea.

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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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