Master Swordsman’s Stream - Chapter 335

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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 335

Last has numerous Official Servers.
Official Servers refer to servers run by the game company in their pure, unmodded state.
They operate fairly, with no foul play whatsoever.
The Official Servers come with many options.
A server started yesterday. A server started a week ago. A freshly opened server.
A server that opens only during certain hours each day. A server that stays open around the clock.
And among all these Official Servers, something unexpected happened on one particular server in the Korean Channel.
A user on that server realized their base had been raided while they were logged out for a day, and the moment they entered, they armed themselves to the teeth.
They’d prepared their bedroom—where they always respawned—with weapons and supplies ready at hand.
Looking at the destroyed turrets and ransacked chests, the user shouted.
“Who the hell did this!”
On this server, which had been running for over twenty-five days, the teams that entered early had achieved most of their progress.
This user was no exception.
So, fully armed, they checked the device that tracked who’d broken through their door and identified the culprit.
“Oh ho! Slave of Jin, Number Three!”
Now that they had the nickname, they could sweep through the settlements quickly using vehicles.
They’d crafted high-level items that revealed who made what and who was on the maker’s team.
Even with a special Telescope, you could view those details from a distance.
Of course, most of these things could only be made late-game, when resources became plentiful and survival concerns faded as the server was winding down.
In short, luxury items.
Luxury items consumed resources inefficiently and enormously.
And often their effects weren’t strictly necessary.
That’s how they were designed—to be made only as the game neared its end.
Even in RPGs, you could only craft these items after leveling was complete, when you were jumping around town.
“Ha ha ha.”
The fully armed teammates who’d logged in after receiving the call laughed.
Or rather, they cheered.
“An event like this when the server’s almost over? Who sent us this gift!”
That’s right.
Last is a game without major objectives.
More precisely, Private Servers might have specific goals, but on Official Servers there’s nothing you’re obligated to do.
There’s no game victory condition.
You simply survive freely for thirty days.
Perhaps the goal, if you could call it that, was to fight brilliantly within those thirty days and defeat other teams for psychological satisfaction.
In that sense, the remaining players on a server nearing its end had nothing to do.
Why would they fight again when the server would be over in just a few days—same tired battles they’d done for weeks?
Or maybe gather resources?
When the server ends in a few days?
And then someone picked a fight with them.
“Come on, let’s go!”
It was like someone had lit a fire in dying embers.
The flames would burn bright before long fading, but oh, would they burn fiercely in that moment.
Four reckless raiders set out without even fixing their destroyed base.
And they began sweeping across the empty server systematically.
Soon, they found Slave of Jin, Number Three’s structure.
“What is this? I’ve never seen this building before.”
“Right? And wow. Ha ha ha ha. They built this with materials taken from our base? No wait, they must’ve raided a ton of other places too?”
The structure was a tower. A very thick tower.
There are people like this—those who seek romance.
The most efficient base? Why would we build that? What does efficiency win us?
I just want to build what I feel like building!
As the server enters its final stages, structures like this inevitably appear.
In the early or mid-game, they’d be swept away and destroyed during construction.
Still, this structure was particularly large and tall.
How did nobody stop this from being built?
No matter how empty the server is.
“Well, since we made those resources, it should be destroyed, right?”
A teammate who’d moved closer stopped the one about to pull out a Rocket Launcher.
“Wait!”
“What?”
“Look at this sign.”
The sign had exactly two lines written on it.

==
If you try to destroy it, you will die.
If you cannot climb the tower to the top, you will die.
==

“Ha! That’s hilarious! Let’s use all our explosives! It’s huge, but if we use everything we have it’s gotta collapse……”
Bang!
It seemed like they barely heard such a sound.
Crack!
The teammate holding the RPG died.
A Headshot—and one that pierced the Ballistic Helmet to land the killing blow.
“Where from? And why only one shot?”
Death wasn’t a big deal. Last was a game where you died constantly anyway.
That’s why you built bases.
“Phew, did they shoot from up there? It’s quite a distance, very precise. They’re not attacking again?”
“If we pull out another RPG… could they send us off in one shot again…?”
Bang!
Another sound like that seemed to echo.
Crack!
Another one died.
The remaining two looked at each other.
And simultaneously shouted.
“What is this! This is completely fun!”
“Right!”
“When did these guys show up!”
And they left their teammates’ corpses behind and entered the tower.
The others would loot them automatically anyway.
And an hour later.

[Never climb that tower. Don’t climb it. Don’t even get close. Never that tower……]

A post went up on the Last Community.
It was just a common creepypasta.

* * *

“Is it really confirmed to be his doing?”
It was only two posts.
Just urban legend entries that could pass as spam.
But Bear and Ryan didn’t overlook them.
They’d been watching Seo Jun like raptors tracking prey crawling beneath the sky, and they even watched in real-time as he and his team said they were logging into Last and turned off the broadcast.
Eyewitness accounts should have surfaced, but there were none.
Which made sense, really.
Last isn’t a game where the community typically becomes very active.
Moreover, there were so many servers. It might not even be the Korean Channel.
Still, they dug through the Korean community, and as a result found two posts presumed to be his handiwork.
Two days before the game started.
The two of them made final preparations.

[Yeah, that’s right.]

Their team consisted of ten people.
All of them were comrades who’d faced life and death together, and they showed enthusiasm for this new event appearing in their monotonous lives.
For soldiers, virtual reality and games were tools far too familiar, so there was no risk of them losing interest.

[It’s definitely scary.]
[Whoever shoots that well must be Seo Jun, right?]
[It says so in the post.]

The post’s content was simple.

==
If you don’t do what’s required at each floor while climbing the tower, you’ll die.
If you show off, you’ll die.
If you try any tricks when facing someone, you’ll die.
And if you die, you must return to the tower.
There’s a person playing the piano.
If you don’t return?
You’ll die.
==

[The post seems simple, but if you think about what it really means……]
[I can’t imagine how much the writer struggled and resisted. Yet they died repeatedly. I don’t know what the piano part means though.]
[Bear. Still, there doesn’t seem to be much information we can gather. Now all that’s left is actual experience, right?]

The former special forces operatives, who’d spent the last several hours receiving briefings on the game and the enemy, overflowed with confidence.
The eyes of all ten visible through the video call held leisure and certainty.
Among the ten, five had experienced Last before, and three played it regularly.
Most importantly, while Bear and Ryan had been on the island, all eight others had practiced, knowing they’d be deployed here.
They were former soldiers who understood that the better-prepared side claims victory.
Their opponent was already forming a team and playing the game—how could they afford any carelessness?

[Still, don’t let your guard down. Ryan and I will go practice more.]
[Understood.]
[I should get some practice in too.]
[Zebra, you too?]
[Yeah. Then let’s wrap this up.]

Among them was a man who, for this operation specifically, had taken the code name Zebra to match Bear and Ryan—one of the three who regularly played Last.
This skilled veteran-level player headed to practice on a server in the Korean Channel.
The source of the creepypasta.
Starting with nothing, he quickly acquired items by hunting down other farmed players with his superior skill.
And he headed toward the massive tower in question.
‘Let me try it first, then.’
Ignoring the creepypasta entirely.

* * *

Baek Do-yul headed to the Camping Ground to meet his team members for the first time the evening before the game started.
Not just any camping.
It was virtual reality camping.
So all he had to do was enter a Capsule like usual and accept the invitation.
“Come back safe. Ha ha ha ha ha.”
A colleague saw him off with a laugh.
It seemed funny to think about the people Baek Do-yul was about to meet.
Not that he was dismissing them. But it was hard not to laugh.
Whoever it was that said he’d gathered “the worst viewers in history”?
Streamer viewers, rich viewers, split-personality viewers, fanatic viewers, gimmick viewers, chatty viewers.
“Ha ha……”
Why had he handed all team authority to that person?
Regretting it now wouldn’t change anything.
Every time he’d asked, they’d said there was a way, that it would be fine, so he’d believed them.
‘What can I even do about it now?’
Baek Do-yul was in a state of mental and physical weakness.
He’d tried everything carefully, yet couldn’t find the flag for days.
But Seo Jun had raced around casually and found it immediately.
Baek Do-yul had learned this by watching the broadcast.
He’d originally thought Seo Jun had luckily found it beforehand and was mocking him. Seo Jun had only said he was lucky too.
But reality is sometimes crueler than that.
When the opponent’s single click proved more effective than all of his effort.
A person becomes discouraged.
‘No! I won’t be discouraged!’
Baek Do-yul entered a Capsule and sent Seo Jun a message.

[Baek Do-yul: Invite me, will you!]
[Seo Jun: Understood, Pro Baek Do-yul ㅎㅎ]

After much deliberation, Baek Do-yul arrived at one conclusion.
What if, within this game, he could claim Seo Jun’s influence?
What if he made the team members follow him rather than Seo Jun?
Last forces you to divide into Farming parties and Raid parties within the team and move accordingly.
If they preferred joining his party over Seo Jun’s, wouldn’t that be the first step toward his victory?
“Hello. I’m Baek Do-yul.”
He bowed to the team members sitting on the map at the Camping Ground.
“Hello!”
“Wow, thanks to the leader, I get to meet Pro Baek Do-yul too.”
“It’s truly an honor!”
Two women and four men were present, and their nicknames on the current map were set to obscure their identities.
There were Slaves of Jin, Numbers One through Five.
Why wasn’t the last person a slave?
To the confused Baek Do-yul, Seo Jun offered the final greeting.
“Welcome, everyone. Your commander has arrived.”
“Waaaah!”
“Commander!”
“Our leader!”
‘Commander, huh.’
Not a commander-slave, hopefully?
In any case, they went out of their way to praise Baek Do-yul, and thanks to that, he quickly blended into the team atmosphere.
And in a situation where they relied on Seo Jun, he felt encouraged about the feasibility of his plan to make them rely on him instead.
Soon, it was time to formulate strategy.
Official Servers have no defined game objective, but Private Servers are different.
Private Servers had various objectives to complete the game and become champions, and the broadcasters said they’d announce them at the start.
So each team had to consider all possibilities before the game began.
‘It feels weird to discuss this now, but what can you do.’
Baek Do-yul sighed internally and spoke.
“So, should we work out a strategy?”
“What?”
The Assassin of Joseon tilted their head.
“Why?”
“Ah, we’ve already decided on a strategy.”
“What is it? I wasn’t here, so……”
“Ah! I’ll tell you.”
“Okay.”
Did they find a good method while playing the game together?
Baek Do-yul regretted not joining earlier.
“Seven people gather resources! One person fights! Then we can win!”
“Exactly! We can win.”
“I concur.”

-Lol that’s real

“We have to build a tower……”
“Stop talking and build.”
Only then did Baek Do-yul realize something.
It had been impossible to sway them from the start.
A dark campground.
This place, where only the campfire illuminated the faces of those gathered around it, had already become a shrine of devotion.
Seo Jun, standing a step apart, broke into a satisfied smile and stepped forward.
“Ha ha, you all tell great jokes. Let’s draw up a real strategy.”

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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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