Master Swordsman’s Stream - Chapter 341

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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 341

The arrow fell.
The moment it touched the ground, the arrow transformed into an Item Block.
The Slayer leader picked it up in a daze, his eyes fixed on the spot where the hand had vanished.
He felt movement nearby. But his eyes had automatically tracked the falling arrow, and he’d lost sight of the attacker.
“Trying to get me to hit you?”
“You said you were out of arrows.”
The answer came from a distance.
Just two short phrases, yet the source of the voice seemed to shift.
The opponent was moving, presumably.
Quite leisurely, at that.
“Heh.”
The Slayer leader’s chin dropped.
Even in the darkness, the arrow resting in his left palm was visible to him.
“Hehehehe.”
Involuntary laughter kept spilling from his lips.
“Hehehehehehe.”
What did it mean to hand an opponent a weapon?
Was it honorable?
Sportsmanship?
No.
The malice here was simple.
“Hehehehehehe.”
Provocation.
A taunt saying you’ll never hit me.
Anyone unfamiliar with Seo Jun would take it that way. But for the leader of the Hunting team, who had analyzed Seo Jun like a madman?
“So this is how it feels.”
Watching from a third-party perspective in videos had been refreshing and entertaining.
He’d thought: why not just dodge?
But experiencing it firsthand…
‘It’s worse than I thought.’
The Slayer team leader wiped his lips.
He suppressed the giddy laughter threatening to bubble up again.
“What was that?”
The opponent had moved again. Relentless.
No—judging by the footsteps, he’d never stopped moving.
“I won’t shoot.”
He was a leader.
He had to maintain his composure and not follow the footsteps of those who had fallen before Seo Jun.
Otherwise, in their next confrontation, Seo Jun would exploit that weakness mercilessly.
Whoosh!
He loaded the arrow and fired high, aiming at the ceiling.
The crossbow shot, and the arrow flew high past the clutter between him and the players, landing far away.
If it hit the ceiling, it would come back down—he could reuse it.
It was his decision. A quick surrender.
“Now either kill me or—”
But then.
Whoosh.
The footsteps vanished, and a hand emerged from the side again.
It opened wide.
As if to show him.
This time, too, the hand held an object.
The object fell and transformed into an Item Block—and it was an arrow.
“Hehehehe. Hehehehehehe. Hehehehe.”
Had it been nearby all along?
‘I’m losing it.’
He gathered himself and, out of sheer spite, picked up the arrow and threw it back to where he’d shot the previous one.
Pfft!
“Hmm?”
“What do you mean ‘hmm’?”
Just as he forced a smile to scratch an itch—
This time, a hand erupted in front of his face.
To see an opponent in the dark, you must concentrate and keep your composure.
But that had shattered long ago.
The hand opened.
Another item fell.
And the man vanished again.
“…”
“…”
He didn’t pick up the item immediately.
‘This is… the feeling is really…’
Meanwhile, his teammates’ voices came through—very quietly, just in case they interfered at all.
At that volume, unless they were right beside him, he wouldn’t pick up the radio signal.

[What’s happening? Did he run?]
[It’s taking a while.]
[He might still be fighting. Keep your voice down.]
[Is the leader really that different? We were done in an instant.]
[Don’t be creepy. But the commander is definitely something else.]

“Right. He’s definitely something else.”
A hand shot out, and his face burned.
Being mocked while his own teammates hyped him up nearby, and the enemy listening right beside him doing the mocking.
And more arrows falling.
He was generally a gentle man.
So while his actions were vicious, he didn’t usually provoke opponents or hurt their feelings during games.
What he wanted was proof—that he could win, that he could hunt anything.
But this?
This was really.
“Man, I really can’t take this.”
“What’s wrong?”
Experiencing it firsthand made him feel very.
Very filthy.
And the moment he grabbed the arrow, loaded it in one swift motion, and aimed at Seo Jun vanishing into the darkness—
Pfft!
The enemy’s crossbow fired.
“What?”
His health, already at half, plummeted to the brink of death.
“Why? Wasn’t I supposed to try?”
“Oh, my teammates just arrived.”
“…! You—”
That finally made him snap, and he pulled the trigger, but—
Clang.
It’s caught.
The arrow is caught.
‘Is he laughing?’
And with Seo Jun now close, he couldn’t evade the blade that sang through the air, and so his life ended.
And he respawned in the Bunker they’d constructed.
“In the end…”
“Hah…”
As the mood grew naturally solemn, he opened the boxes in the Bunker with glowing eyes and shouted:
“Revenge! We must have revenge! By any means!”
The Slayer team leader, who never used any word but “Hunting,” had turned dark.

* * *

The users of Last hadn’t shown enthusiastic reactions even as Seo Jun beat Slayer.
It was certainly brilliant strategy and movement.

[Play only possible by mapping all the shadowed areas and knowing exactly how they conceal movement in each situation.]
[Theoretically possible, but absolutely impossible unless you’re actually an assassin.]
[Yet it happened.]
[Incredible skill. Insane. Of course.]

So attention did focus on him.
But until then, they’d been watching Seo Jun with sideways glances.
No matter what anyone said, Seo Jun was the one who’d destroyed their hope—the Veteran team—from the start.
But then.

[Slayer’s Greatest Humiliation!]

When Seo Jun began psychologically tormenting the Slayer team leader.
That somehow began amusing the Last users.

[There’s a saying: when arrows run out, the first arrow shot returns with a mysterious hand. I quite enjoy this tale.]

Seo Jun’s favorability soared.
The leader of the enemy who had dominated them, doing ungentlemanly things in a gentlemanly manner, was now being utterly violated.
Quite brutally.
Yes.

[There’s no violence at all, but if that’s not violence, what is?]
[Hahahahahaha these guys are amazing]
[Korea is a reliable ally.]

How could they resist cheering for Seo Jun?
Even if he was the enemy.
And so Seo Jun became a hero of Last.
Briefly.

* * *

“Bu-ja and Tae-woo, collect the corpses. Jo Am, please search quickly—are there any boxes that haven’t been farmed yet?”
The team arrived. Seo Jun had finished searching the Basement with Jo Am.
They’d ascended to ground level with Bu-ja and then connected the radio to Baek Do-yul’s party.
“Are you finished?”

[Yes. We’re heading back.]

“Thank you. We’re departing now too. Let’s regroup, confirm our resource status, and move to the next Tier farming area.”
Tier 1 Farming Area.
Access was unrestricted, but without one essential item, proper farming was impossible.
A Gas Mask.
Crafted from special cloth and filters obtained in the Tier 0 Farming Area, this item was absolutely necessary to farm items in the Tier 1 Farming Area.
And Seo Jun intended to progress methodically through each tier toward the final one.
There were only three tiers of Farming Areas.
If you divided minerals by acquisition difficulty, it was the same.
Only three tiers of craftable weapons existed.
Of course, special weapons could be obtained through NPC faction raids.
But Seo Jun wanted Tier 4.
He revealed this goal to Baek Do-yul and the others after reuniting at the Bunker.
“You didn’t mention that before we started!”
“No. But you can’t resist the Frying Pan, right?”
Seo Jun dodged Baek Do-yul’s sharp glare and drew out his teammates’ enthusiasm.
His teammates surely couldn’t resist.
“That’s right!”
“Of course! We have to go for it!”
“Hehehehe. Teach us the martial art that uses the Frying Pan! I want to learn it too!”
There was a reason they reacted this way.
The Crafting Station could be upgraded from Tier 1 onward as resources were gathered.
To Tier 2.
Then Tier 3.
Higher tiers meant higher-grade materials and higher-grade weapons.
But the Tier 4 Crafting Station wasn’t part of natural team progression.
It existed beyond the result—that’s where Tier 4 was.
The reason was simple.
Upgrading the Crafting Station required an enormous amount of resources.
Excessively enormous.
It was inefficient.
And what Tier 4 items could you get?
Purely frivolous things.
They weren’t much help during raids for defense or siege, but they were uselessly overpowered.
For example, a Telescope that let you identify who built an enemy base.
The Frying Pan was one of those too.
But.
“It’s worth it.”
“No, it’s not.”
“It is, though?”
“Why!”
“It blocks bullets.”
That the Frying Pan, the ultimate melee weapon, could block bullets was basic knowledge to gamers.
Of course, in Last, the Frying Pan eventually broke too.
“No, it’s just cookware! Low melee damage anyway!”
In reality, it was an old gaming tradition—when bullets hit a frying pan, it blocked a few hits. It was never intended for that purpose.
“But it does block?”
“That was when there were no rifles! Once rifles weren’t in the game, the battle was decided, so it blocked by default. But once we reach Tier 4…”
Every possible weapon would have appeared.
Moreover, just to go to Tier 4, they’d be forced to hoard resources beyond a certain threshold, making them most vulnerable during that period.
Enemy teams wouldn’t spare resources to climb to Tier 4.
Instead, they’d maintain high specs by consuming resources and engage in a war of attrition.
So there was no reason to expose yourself to a vulnerable period just to reach Tier 4.
Especially not for a single Frying Pan.
“I thought you’d object.”
“It’s too much of a loss. Really.”
“Our teammates…?”
“Wait!”
Baek Do-yul blocked Seo Jun’s continued use of the Fanatic’s Call of Response.
For him, wrong was wrong.
If he’d been warned upfront, they could’ve negotiated and found compromise.
He could see it too—that a Frying Pan would be quite useful for Seo Jun.
But growing weak to obtain it was putting the cart before the horse.
“If I just had the Frying Pan, I could do everything?”
A scoundrel pushing now, arriving without warning.
‘Everything? What everything? Like you’re some superhuman…’
Well, wasn’t he?
Still!
“Give the commander a sword? Then he’s invulnerable.”
“Ah… O Geomsin…”
“What should we call the Frying Pan technique! Tell us!”
As Seo Jun listened to endless worship that no amount of blocking could suppress, he watched Baek Do-yul quietly.
Curious what choice he’d make.
It was clear he was thinking, searching for grounds to object.
Soon Baek Do-yul pulled a Crossbow from his item window and declared:
“Fine! I’ll accept the Frying Pan’s necessity if I catch all the arrows I shoot barehanded! Come on!”
“…?”
“Why? If I fail even once, I’ll never accept it. The Frying Pan isn’t worth that sacrifice. Seo Jun, take this wager. This bet.”
“Sure. Alright, let’s go.”
Seo Jun and Baek Do-yul stepped outside the Bunker for a moment.
One minute later.
Baek Do-yul returned muttering.
“It can’t break… it can’t break…”
And they departed for the Tier 1 Farming Area.

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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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