Master Swordsman’s Stream - Chapter 32

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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 32

His mobility was compromised.
The enemy knew his location, but he didn’t know theirs.
Decidedly disadvantageous.
There weren’t many ways to break out of this.
‘Hide, or.’
Draw them in.
Seo Jun slipped into an Alley where foot traffic was sparse, moving at an unhurried pace.
In that instant, the shadow beneath his feet transformed into a hand—a reaching, clawing hand that shot up and seized his ankle.
Had he not stopped his momentum immediately, he would’ve fallen flat.
Seo Jun spoke with a note of bewilderment.
“Uh, how many seconds does the Binding last, exactly?”
It was a skill that players used from the Assassination Squad’s arsenal.
Naturally, he’d never used it himself, so he didn’t know the finer details.
“Remember this, Nameless: excessive order obstructs individual growth.”
A voice came from behind.
Before a chat message could even scroll up offering intel, a menacing Axe blade swept horizontally toward Seo Jun’s head.
He jerked his head down, dodging clean.
With his ankle still bound, he couldn’t pivot his body.
An assassin wielding an Axe?
Not even a barbarian warrior.
Whoosh!
The Axe cleaved through the empty space where his head had been, then crashed into the brick wall—red bricks cracking and crumbling.
“The binding broke.”
Seo Jun rotated his body immediately, grabbed the assassin’s head with both hands, and drove it into the wall just as hard.
Stun Status applied.
“You won’t—”
Normally, when a Stun Status hits, an NPC just staggers for a few seconds. But mid-Quest, it seems that once you land a Stun, the NPCs don’t wake back up.
‘Fair trade.’
Seo Jun advanced deeper into the Alley.

-Where are you going, Lord?
-Wouldn’t a narrow space actually be worse?
-How would mere sparrows and finches comprehend the hearts of geese and swans? Tsk, tsk, tsk.
-You don’t know either, lol
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

As Seo Jun ventured deeper, he glanced upward.
An assassin on the rooftop behind him, hood pulled low so only nose and mouth were visible, had Seo Jun lined up in their bowstring.
“Figured as much.”
Looking forward, another assassin was already leaping down at him.
An Assassin’s Blade jutting from the back of the hand, fluttering sleeves catching the air—like an eagle in descent.
“First things first.”
Parry the falling blade.
How?
Match the sword’s tip—its absolute point—to your timing with perfect precision.
Crackle.
Shadow-hands reformed like vines, crawling up his leg to bind his ankle again.
Seo Jun ignored it, keeping his focus on the blade’s edge.
‘Direct the force perpendicular.’
Gripping the sword in both hands, he lifted it high behind his head, then swung.
Clang!
Perfect contact.
Blade-thin precision—he’d struck the exact point.

-Oh
-How is he that good
-Born for Parrying, this one

Click, click, click.
The faint sound of a bowstring drawing taut.
Since this is virtual reality, each person’s sensory acuity is essentially uniform—in theory.
The reason being, the stimulus signals transmit directly to the brain, not through the individual’s sensory organs.
Which means Seo Jun, with his lower Synchronization Rate, might actually perceive sounds worse than most.
Yet Seo Jun catches the faintest sounds better than anyone else.
There’s one reason why.
He knows which sounds demand his attention.
Whistle!
The Arrow loosed in an instant. Seo Jun tilted his head sideways, evading.
The arrowhead grazed his cheek, shallow but sharp, then embedded itself in the floor.
Crackle.
The shadow-hands released and vanished.
He moved again.
“This never ends.”
For Seo Jun, who’d endured far worse, it was nothing. But to the viewers, it looked like a catastrophe unfolding.

-For real
-Terrifying, absolutely terrifying
-I’m confident I’d die on the first hit if I were him.
-Lord, hurry and catch the Assassination Squad so we can fail the Quest!

The stench hit his nostrils.
The space narrowed steadily.
Attacks came faster.
Seo Jun threw a Dagger he’d looted from one of the assassins toward the rooftop, but they dodged swiftly.
Hitting a vigilant NPC was no trivial task.
‘Can’t increase the Dagger’s velocity.’
And he couldn’t climb upward either.
The Parkour skill was locked due to the leg injury penalty.
“Dead end.”
Seo Jun stared at the brick wall blocking his path forward.
He’d reached a true corner.
No way forward.
The enemies realized it too. They emerged slowly, deliberately, their presence suffocating.
“Give up, Nameless.”
From the shadows on the ground and walls. From atop the brick wall behind him. From the second-floor perch.
Three archers on the rooftop had Seo Jun in their sights.
They all stood before him, weapons ready, waiting for the order from the assassin who had stepped forward to speak.

-Cornered…
-Ugh!
-Now that’s what assassins do!!!!! You dog of the Covenant, blinded by Christina’s beauty—go die!
-Assassin! Assemble!
-Did the Assassination Squad set up an ambush?

Seo Jun read the chat and let out a short laugh.
An ambush? Hardly.
“I came here on purpose, everyone.”
Roughly dozens of assassins had him surrounded.
The most troublesome were the archers on the roof.
The leader-looking assassin stepped closer to Seo Jun.
“Chaos blooms from ignorance within us—confusion, fear. People hate responsibility and dread stepping outside. Chaos is the unknown. That’s why people seek Order. They want to be controlled by something that protects them. But—”
Click.
An Assassin’s Blade extended from his sleeve.
“That method will make people careless. They’ll sink into comfortable lives, lose all possibility. They’ll live like livestock eating from a trough. So—”
Fair enough.
Like a game character, he was remarkably extreme.
The moment the speech ended, the assassin signaled, and Arrows flew.
“Die!”
Seo Jun lunged forward.
Thud, thud, thud.
Three Arrows embedded themselves where he’d just stood.
He rushed the nearest assassin, Parried their strike, snatched the Smoke Bomb from their belt, and triggered it immediately.
Boom!
Dense fog engulfed his form.
A brief lull fell.
Or so the assassins thought they had one.
“Aargh!”
“Ughhh.”
“Where is he?!”
The Alley was narrow, but wide enough for several to walk abreast.
Which meant Seo Jun had room to move freely.
While the rooftop archers fumbled, unable to find their target, their bowstrings wavering, something came flying through the smoke.
Screech!
Three Throwing Knives, hurled at the archers’ shoulders—dispatched before the fog even rose, their positions already memorized.
‘Done.’
Three screams echoed.
‘The most troublesome ones are handled.’
Now it was his turn.
Within the fog, only the heads and shoulders of nearby figures were partially visible.
And for Seo Jun, that was more than enough.
He began knocking out assassins.
Thud!
Even when another assassin spotted him, Seo Jun simply vanished elsewhere.
Thud!
Another assassin’s head met wall, and they dropped unconscious.

-Seo Jun… I’m getting dizzy…
-Something appears, drops, appears again, and drops—what’s happening?
-Wait, only Lord isn’t affected by the smoke?
-Nah, you can see his silhouette fine. The screen’s just moving so fast it’s hard to track.

By the time the Smoke Bomb’s effect faded, over a third of the assassins lay unconscious.
Seo Jun waved with a smile.
“There’s one more.”

-Finally, I can see him!
-But what’s that?
-Look at those hands, lol
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Is this serious?

In his hand was another Smoke Bomb.
Boom!
Thick fog filled the Alley again, and screams rang out.

-Is this a joke? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-The Assassination Squad <— Greatest bubble organization ever
-Their entire branch gets wiped by one guy ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Seo Jun is legitimately in a different league.
-They were all posturing and trying to gang up on him, and look at them now ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-How do assassins lose in a stealth battle? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Lord is definitely an assassin too!

Seo Jun dismantled every assassin in moments.
The Alley was packed with unconscious bodies.
A thought struck him then.
"This is what Chaos really is."
What else is Chaos, after all?

-For real lol
-Chaos incarnate
-Truly moved by the sight of the Assassination Squad becoming Chaos itself.
-Words and deeds aligned ㄷㄷ

[You have satisfied the conditions for the Hidden Quest "The Hunt".]
[Return to the Abandoned Factory and meet with Arthur.]

[You have satisfied the conditions for the Affinity Quest "Mercy".]
[Meet and speak with Christina.]

Notifications appeared.
"Oh, looks like I've caught all the assassins. Yeah, drawing out enemies really is the most reliable and convenient way. What? Of course it was intentional."
The number of assassins he'd just beaten was surprisingly high—and the Quest completed. Good.
Things went according to plan.
If even one assassin remained, especially a sniper, it would've been a real headache.
So now that the Quest is complete—
"Everyone, if I quit the game right now, does the Quest progress save?"
Seo Jun was thinking of ending the stream.
The timing felt perfect.

-????
-Right now, seriously?
-Are you out of your mind?
-No no no no no don't do it
-If you quit mid-Quest you have to start over for real
-If you restart that, honestly it's a pain. Just go to the Abandoned Factory and stream a bit longer.
-The Christina Affinity Quest only comes once. If you quit now, it's gone.

So transparent.
The Christina Quest is brand new—how would they know such details?
"Really? Then I'll just do it again next time. It's not even that hard."

-Seo Jun… are you seriously quitting?
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Everyone's insane!
-Seriously though?
-Hyung. Will I hold my breath again? If I die, you lose out.

The chat scrolled at breakneck speed.
But Seo Jun paid no mind and shouted—
"See you next time!"

* * *

Viewers left homeless flocked to the obvious place.

[What happens when you collect all Fragments of Order]
[Christina Affinity Quest outbreak!!!]
[ㅋㅋ If Seo Jun had shown the Christina Quest reward, we'd farm Fragments of Order, but since he didn't—]
-Don't → Can't

[Recklessness right there, damn demon]
[Who wants to go beat up the guy who kissed Christina's hand (1/9999)]
[Seo Jun, you bastard. If you're going to be handsome and popular in real life, at least leave gaming for us. Please.]
-For real lol
-This one's actually serious ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└Truth!
└It's just a concept, come on (OP)

[Assassins ㅋㅋㅋ Still can't get it together?]
-The Hidden Quest was meant to give players a taste of assassination, but academia agrees it was really to give the Assassination Squad a fair chance.

[Why the Assassination Squad keeps losing to the Covenant: they're a small business that can't even assassinate one person]
-Small business ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└Aren't you ashamed to compare them to small businesses? They're just common thugs.
└Info: The Covenant couldn't properly defeat them either.
└But at least the Covenant lost fairly, one-on-one.

[Breaking: Clip of Nameless's battle footage uploaded]
-Ah ㅋㅋ waiting till tomorrow was killing me, now I'm rewatching right away
-If you haven't seen the edited version, definitely watch. I haven't either but it's gonna be insane.
└For real lol

[This man—what will he be like in an online game?]

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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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