Master Swordsman’s Stream - Chapter 57

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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 57

What is the purpose of users who participate in the Battleground?
Since the Battleground is a game event, it offers enormous rewards simply for participating.
Game events are designed to draw large crowds of people.
More players mean more vibrancy and growth, which makes the experience more enjoyable.
The rewards perfectly align with this goal.
Even if you don’t perform well, just participating earns you rewards—costumes, farming materials, whatever items people want.
Or titles that serve no purpose but feel good to own.
Then, is the reward itself why people join the Battleground?
Can useful or satisfying items truly be called the driving force of the Battleground?
‘Maybe. Maybe not.’
At seven o’clock.
Seo Jun—a top ranker of Salmak and a gaming friend of Dang So—thought to himself under his streaming nickname.
Without rewards, a game feels like negligence, not just disappointment.
It’s no accident that the Battle Pass became one of gaming’s biggest business model successes.
The Battle Pass rewards players with in-game items for completing gameplay and specific challenges.
One reason the Battle Pass succeeded was its short-term goals and clear rewards tied to playtime.
That’s how crucial rewards are.
But is that all?
‘No. Sure, there are bonus rewards based on contribution, but the top rankers wouldn’t grind this hard just for the difference between 16th place and below.’
Seo Jun was one of the people who devised strategy for his faction in every Battleground.
In other words, he was an expert when it came to the Battleground.
From his perspective, one of the biggest reasons people participated was pride.
‘Top 16 is an extreme minority. Most rankers don’t even pay attention to it. They know it’s unreachable. And yet…….’
They grind hard anyway.
The reason? Pride.
The Battleground is competition between factions.
By now, you should see where this is going.
If you lose in the Battleground.
From everywhere—Nohyeop and beyond—until the next Battleground, you face endless mockery and ridicule from the opposing faction’s players!
‘Absolutely not.’
Even when your favorite sports team loses, people mock you and it infuriates you—but in the Battleground, you’re the actual team member who competed.
Can anyone endure that level of ridicule hitting them directly?
If you lose and the Battleground ends, you can’t play any games for a while.
People laugh with that knowing smirk whenever you meet.
But if he wins in the game.
‘We lost the Battleground, but at least we won this game. Pfft, feels good to win.’
If you lose at the game.
‘We lost this too.’
Those are the kinds of reactions that come up.
‘There’s nothing you can do. It’s galling.’
Of course, the flipside is that if they win, those same things are available to them too.
That’s why the rankers unite with one mind, devising strategy and cooperating for their faction’s championship.
Just looking at this chat room shows how serious they all are.

[Wipjung Chuksa Faction] [999+]

The name means a faction that purges hypocritical sects—true to its meaning.
This chat room, the faction’s headquarters, was so active that unread notifications maxed out within just minutes since he’d last checked.
Eighty members.
The elite among the elite gathered here.
To understand why they gathered, you need to understand how the Battleground system works.
Most users simply play the game, you could say.
They don’t coordinate with other players of the same faction or sync their movements.
Or rather, it’s more accurate to say they can’t—it’s too difficult and nearly impossible in practice.
Then the Battleground would ultimately be content where victory is decided by the actions and luck of unspecified masses. But fortunately, that wasn’t the case.
The reason lay in Reputation Points.
Without Reputation Points, even if these eighty people united perfectly, they’d simply be eighty people.
But Reputation Points exist, and that’s how they coordinate as a collective once the mid-game hits, producing meaningful results.
For example, if all of them accumulated Reputation Points and then converged on one enemy region to assault it, the attack points in that region would necessarily exceed defense points, and the region would fall under their faction’s control.
‘Of course, the enemies won’t just sit idle.’
The Jeong Faction and Demonic Cult both have their own elite chat rooms filled with rankers.

-Let’s all focus on farming Reputation Points.
-I’m heading to Jeong for the Raid today
-Anyone want to gather intel on Demonic Cult?
-Looking for people to map routes together for Nok Rim later
-This is my first time—where do I get info?
-Go to Nohyeop

Seo Jun was currently combing through multiple websites, gathering information about the Raid.
‘Most of the rankers are probably doing what I’m doing.’
He turned his attention to Nohyeop, currently the most active hub.

[Streamer fighting the Demonic Cult (link)]
[Wipjung Chuksa is Dang So, Jeong Faction is Namgoong]
[Current Battleground streamers. (Updated constantly)]
[That fraud from yesterday, the Celestial Master. The Demonic Cult guys could cover for him]

The Celestial Master?
As someone who’d tried the Demonic Cult test earlier this morning for the first time in a while, he found interest in that streamer.
And after searching on YouTube, he even discovered that the streamer used the same nickname in a previous game.
‘Anyway.’
Seo Jun clicked on the post that piqued his curiosity.

[That fraud from yesterday, the Celestial Master. The Demonic Cult guys could cover for him]
==
That fraud made a vow during his stream—Demonic Cult wins the championship or places in the top 16. Penalty: wearing a Magical Girl Costume if he fails.
This is day 2 of the Battleground. He’s someone who’s never once played a ranked game before.
From the Demonic Cult’s perspective, it’s treasure.
Nobody promised them they’d win, but suddenly a guy shows up making that vow, haha.
==

-100% he fails and gets the penalty stream
-The guy’s a huge bluffer
-A noob who’s never even done ranked makes this vow?? That’s seriously arrogant
-Could be possible. He got a pretty high Reputation score yesterday
└That’s because he farmed newbies
└But it’s only day one?
-Why do you talk like it’s already confirmed he’s a fraud? We haven’t verified anything. Please, let’s get our honor back.
└Fraud or not, he’s definitely arrogant
└Your streamer threw down the gauntlet first anyway lol
└And his reckless words are popping up again!!!! (link)

“If you make a vow, you make it. What’s the issue?” Seo Jun muttered as he scrolled through the comments, frowning.
“What reckless words?”

==
Streamer Jin, who cleared it in 17 minutes on her first run.
Saying she can finish the Raid in under four minutes.
Hahahaha.
==

-Honestly pissed right now
-Four minutes my ass.
-Demonic Cult guys probably gonna swarm saying “Our Celestial Master can do that?” lol
└For real
└People spouting bullshit like that but still have devoted fans
-Shin Ha-yeon won and now she’s really showing off, huh?
-Have you even watched her stream before saying that?
└Yeah, I’m about to watch and spam her chat now

“Geez, why’d you say something like that,” Seo Jun said.
The guy naturally attracted backlash.
“Even if it’s possible, just keep quiet about it.”
A thought suddenly occurred to him.
A true superstar drives both fans and haters crazy.
But no.
It was obvious he didn’t know the community was already starting to hate him.
“Is the chat going crazy because of these people?”
Since he was planning to head to the Demonic Cult region, he clicked into Seo Jun’s stream, which he hadn’t been watching.
Fortunately, the chat was locked to followers only, so it stayed clean.
But then a problem occurred. It happened because of a donation that came through just as he entered.
“What’s this guy doing,” Seo Jun said.
Sigh.
This was how he’d come to find Dang So.

No idea what he’s basing that confidence on.
“So what now? You’re really going to the Demonic Cult?”
“Dude. I’m saying I won’t lose the bet.”
Yeah, sure you won’t.
“Why’d you even make a bet like that in the first place?”
Every ranker matters. What’s this about?
He at least took comfort in the fact that Dang So was heading to the Demonic Cult.
Having more rankers join the Demonic Cult wasn’t a problem. Even if they doubled, it wouldn’t worry him.
“Go well.”
A vote had already started in the chat room.

[Dang So must accept the consequences of his bet!]

[Disagree — 10%]

Ninety percent in favor.

“I’m telling you, I’m not going!”
“What’re you saying.”
“Listen here. That fraud’s Build focuses on Internal Power recovery, so even if he exhausts his reserves, it shouldn’t be a major problem, right?”
“But.”
“However, this guy needs to catch enemies quickly. But if he lacks Internal Power, he won’t be able to make up the damage, will he?”
Sharp analysis, actually.
It confirmed what he’d suspected—Dang So looked foolish on the surface but had solid game sense.
But.
“Stop talking and just go to the Demonic Cult.”
“Why though.”
Seo Jun had already seen Seo Jun’s previous plays.
YouTube had them well-organized.
The fight was about to start.
“Look, you see how fast that NPC’s HP drops. He won’t clear it in time. He won’t clear it, I’m telling you—wait, huh?”
The moment Seo Jun gave up on dodging, the enemy’s health began draining rapidly.
“I knew it.”
…
Seo Jun on screen had caught Namgoong Cheon with ease.
The time: under three minutes.
Record-breaking.
The chat room erupted.

-Three minutes?????

-Does anyone have three-minute clears in the Raid?
-The actual top players aiming for top 16 don’t usually share their times
-Four minutes is already record-breaking lol
-Looks like we found the fastest route for Jeong this run lol Has anyone thought of how to use this?
-Even if we go up that fast, without Internal Power we’ll spend forever just wearing down Namgoong Cheon’s health. We don’t have the Absorption Technique
-Looks like everyone was watching lol

The chat room immediately dove into analysis.

“Three minutes.”

[So I guess I should go to the Demonic Cult then?]

Pfft.

“Damn.”
“What am I gonna do. I really don’t want to go to the Demonic Cult again.”
At last, Dang So’s unshakeable persona cracked.
It was that serious. Going to the Demonic Cult was.
But it wasn’t his problem.
Seo Jun had already lost interest in the dejected Dang So.
He had something far more interesting on his mind.
‘I wonder what those trolls on Nohyeop are gonna say now.’

* * *

Seo Jun ran two more games back-to-back.

Reputation Points were distributed after calculating the standard deviation of records across factions.
Records were relative, after all.
“Three minutes on all three runs—that should work.”
His first run had the fastest time.
He’d taken it easier on the subsequent runs.
Three minutes was apparently record-breaking anyway.
Once out of the game, Seo Jun headed back to where he’d been.
“I wonder if he’s still here. He didn’t run off, did he?”
What if Dang So couldn’t accept the bet and bolted?
“A lot of rankers are watching right now?”
Current viewers: eight thousand.
‘This is the Battleground effect.’
He’d made the right call starting right at seven and posting his times immediately.
In reality, most of the new viewers had flooded in specifically to mock him—but Seo Jun didn’t know that.

-Seo Jun, would you consider joining Jeong? We’ll treat you well. Championship is guaranteed.

-Come on over to us
-What kind of treatment are you talking about
-Don’t steal the faction leader from the Demonic Cult
-ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
-What about Assassination, Salmak!

Recruitment chats poured in one after another.

“No, everyone—the Demonic Cult’s going to win the championship. Why would I go anywhere else?”
Obviously he didn’t mean it.
He knew as well as anyone that the Demonic Cult wouldn’t win.
The reason was simple: too few rankers.
The regular user count was also lower, though not dramatically.
Most casual players just enjoyed the game at their own pace, prioritizing fun over results.
“I’m serious though.”
Most laughed it off, but some chats appeared to believe him.
Seo Jun chuckled awkwardly as he read them.
Don’t actually believe me.
After some brief interaction, he returned to his original spot.
Then, just as he arrived, the chat—which had been full of laughing emojis—suddenly filled with keystroke after keystroke.

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-Is this a plea?
-This is hilarious lol

Because Dang So was on his knees beside his original chair.

“The Celestial Master has arrived!”
Seo Jun listened to Dang So’s courteous greeting and thought.
“The Celestial Master returns! All hail the Celestial Master!”
The previous character would’ve been better.

—————
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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