Master Swordsman’s Stream - Chapter 8

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 8

The next day.
Before starting his broadcast, Seo Jun checked the Assassin’s Creed: Dusk Community.
Looking at the top 30 posts, most of them were about major streamers and game information.
The post Joseon Assassin had written yesterday was……
‘Found it.’
Flipping back to page two, he saw many related posts in the top 30.

[Why Mu-myeong’s 30-view video is fabricated]
[Why Mu-myeong’s video is legendary]
[Pros didn’t choose not to Parry—they couldn’t]
[Why do people read so much into Musou anyway?]

The posts had high view counts and plenty of comments. Fighting had clearly broken out in the threads.

-But if a staff deals damage when slashing with it, why does it do damage?
└ You’ve never played Assassin’s Creed, have you?
└ Yeah
└ Let me explain. The staff is made of iron.
└ So?
└ It’s infection damage
└ Stop spouting nonsense. The staff has a blade-like thing embedded in it. It’s meant to be used when you can’t draw the sword inside it. He just never drew it completely.

Comments like these were everywhere.
But that was all.
‘It really does get buried fast.’
Scroll up just a little, and people were already engrossed in heated debate on another topic.
In the community Seo Jun visited, eye-catching new topics were constantly being thrown out. Because of this, staying visible without constantly supplying fresh content was nearly impossible.
Seo Jun looked through other posts.
Not long after, he noticed a post that caught his eye.

[Repost) Why the new 10th Tier AI is absolutely annoying]

‘But this is the Assassin’s Creed: Dusk Community. Why would Training Ground stuff come up here?’
Seo Jun didn’t know much, but famous incidents tended to be mentioned regardless of the community’s theme. Since most people already knew about them, they got upvoted easily.
The Training Ground was a place anyone starting in virtual reality passed through at least once—a warm-up space favored by many. For five years, Shin Ha-yeon’s 10th Tier AI had held its throne, frustrating other pros, and had earned a reputation as an impenetrable fortress.
Someone had beaten such an AI without revealing their identity, and at this point, if the entire community wasn’t buzzing about it, that would be strange.
Seo Jun clicked on the post. When he opened it, he saw it had been copied directly from another community.

====
You all know the 10th Tier AI changed, right?
A few days ago, during a broadcast where former pro Gamjeon’s routine was to turn on the Training Ground before starting the game and challenge Shin Ha-yeon, suddenly some random guy appeared instead of Shin Ha-yeon—and everyone went crazy.
His name is Unknown. A private user.
So everyone’s focused on Unknown’s identity, but I want to focus on his personality.
Because my hyung gave me a video of him fighting Unknown.
This is that video. He got permission to upload it.
(Video of fighting the 10th Tier AI)
When you watch this, his skill is beyond question, but more than that, you can see how vicious this bastard is.
Sometimes he deliberately turns his head and blocks the sword.
His personality is insane.
He wants to show that he can block even without looking, so even while fighting well, he turns his head—and my hyung said he got absolutely furious because of this.
What did the AI ever do to deserve this?
You can see the intent behind uploading this data.
His personality is trash.
And when the sword dropped, Shin Ha-yeon would wait for him to pick it back up, right? This Unknown is different.
The moment the sword drops, it’s over. He rushes over and steps on it first, then taps it with his sword to mock it, or throws it far away.
Makes you wonder if that’s why he set his information to private lolololol
The creepier fact is that when people used to register a 10th Tier AI, the AI would have them fight the previous 10th Tier AI for hours to gather data on how to mimic that person.
That’s how they collect data.
Why this is creepy is that this time
Unknown collected such data while fighting Shin Ha-yeon, who’s been reigning for five years
Dodging, turning his head, all of it—lolololol
By the way, my hyung is convinced Unknown is absolutely not human and is some kind of new form of AlphaGo created by some pro project team haha.
(original post link)
====

-Shin Ha-yeon didn’t stream ranked matches yesterday either lololol
└ Far as I can tell, she’s definitely at the Training Ground. It’s well-known she regularly does data updates to keep her throne at the Training Ground safe.
-Her personality’s insane lololololol
└ Real talk lol. That’s actually considered an honorable position so other masters were respectful about it. But she kept her profile private and pulled this lololololol

Seo Jun felt a vague sense of injustice.
‘It just kind of happened when I was fooling around and blocking with Tae….’
Updating data was more tedious than he’d thought. It was just repeating combat over and over.
And before he knew it, he’d become the guy with a bad personality.

-Just watched the video—is this Mu-myeong?
└ Stop mentioning that retard.
└ Cut it out with the brain rot!

It was Joseon Assassin again. Does he have some kind of sixth sense?
‘Pretty sharp instinct.
Hmm.’
After checking each comment one by one, Seo Jun felt a slight regret. He hadn’t expected this much attention.
But.
‘Anything gained suddenly isn’t good.’
He knew this from his previous life’s experience.
Unprepared power is poison.
And.
‘I just need to grow every single day.’
Seo Jun stretched, then entered the capsule to prepare for his broadcast.

[Followers: 432]

More people had hit follow than he expected. But of those, only 6 had actually watched his live stream.
How much would it grow?

[Starting stream]

Seo Jun clicked on the City of Assassin’s Creed: Dusk’s icon.
The screen faded to black, and buildings that lay far below the earth rapidly approached and descended into view above him.

* * *

“Boom!”
As soon as Seo Jun started the broadcast, the chat window and viewer count began climbing.

-Seo Ha!
-Is this the famous Mu-myeong broadcast?
-I was waiting
-Bang on
-Wow so it wasn’t some fake broadcast haha

“No, I’m not the Joseon Assassin’s broadcast. And for the record, I didn’t pay him off either.”

-lololololol
-Preemptive strike on the drama lololol
-Is this the composure of a day-two streamer?

Just as he began interacting, a fanfare-like sound blared.

[‘ReallyWhatDoIDo’ donated 10,000 won!]
[I watched your video and tried to fight Etor but can’t catch him. What do I do? I really wanted to ask so I just kept waiting for your broadcast!]

His first donation.
“Oh. Thanks for the donation. Um, how do you catch Etor? Just hit one spot. That’s how I got it.”

-Whoa, I didn’t know that.
-As someone who watched yesterday, don’t ask him anything lololololol
-Only the channel owner can ask questions here.
-Throwing away ten grand lololololololol

Seo Jun, reading the chat about throwing away ten grand, suddenly came to his senses and gave advice.
“If I have to give a tip, aiming for vital points seems better. NPCs don’t panic much when hit elsewhere, but vital points throw them off balance a lot. Though the damage is all pretty similar, honestly.”
Seo Jun continued chatting naturally afterward, buying time for more viewers to come in.

[‘Finally’ donated 1,000 won!]
[I… can… breathe…]

“Ah, uh, congratulations?”
Confusion flickered across Seo Jun’s face. Was this a new meme?

-Congratulations lolol
-Is that the guy from the 30-view post yesterday?

After that brief interaction time before formally starting the broadcast, Seo Jun checked his viewer count.

[Viewers: 327]

He’d expected maybe around 100, but far more viewers had come to watch.
‘Think everyone who was coming has arrived by now.’
Seo Jun felt the need to stop the small talk and start gaming. It was a game stream, after all.
But Seo Jun didn’t know exactly what to do.
With another game, he could just follow instructions, but Assassin’s Creed: Dusk was an open world game.
A normal player would just naturally learn by wandering around, but as a streamer, Seo Jun needed something to show his viewers immediately.
“So, what should I do now?”
At his question, chat flooded in with suggestions.

-Show us Musou.
-Finally getting verified?
-What’s even to verify with these guys.

Those who had come through the community wanted to see combat.

-Just look around. If you want something, you can take on assassination contracts with the Guild to earn money, or you can shoplift, or just tour the city. It’s an open world!
-If you want to push the story, you need to resolve assassination requests—go around the city districts and assassinate important figures.

Someone had typed detailed chat explaining the game.
By the username, it was the same person who’d explained things in detail during his first broadcast.
“Hmm. If I want to see the story, I use this Signal Stone, right?”
The Signal Stone’s description read:

[A tool infused with magical power that allows contact with the Assassin’s Guild.]

-Yeah or you can go to a tavern.
-Amazing fact) Wherever you go, Christina is always there.

Seo Jun recalled the basic information he’d looked up yesterday.
The city that served as the setting for this work was called Altheon.
Altheon blended the beautiful architectural styles of old Europe with the advantages of modern crowded streets—an ideal city.
This Altheon was divided into four districts in total.
The city center where the royal palace stood, the northwestern section with the Mage Tower, the upper-class streets of the northeast, and finally the rest where common people lived.
Security ranked: Royal Quarter > Mage Tower > Nobility > Commons, and assassination difficulty was the same.
Players could take missions suited to whichever district they visited through the Guild, and it was actually possible to assassinate indiscriminately without taking requests.
Even the Guild itself.
“Let me start by warming up with a little shoplifting.”
In his past life or this one, he’d never actually picked pockets before. So he was curious.

-Avoiding fights because you’re worried your skill will show? lololol
-Yeah try it. If you get caught, the guards come running right away
-Go to the market

Seo Jun opened the map.
“Wow, the city’s really big.”
The Market was in the center of the 4th District where the common people lived.
It would appear if he just walked a bit from where he was currently standing.
Seo Jun looked around the city streets, marveling constantly, and the viewers loved his reactions.
Arriving at the Market.
Seo Jun melted naturally into the crowd. Like a shadow.
And he deliberately bumped into people, moving his arms discreetly.
“Oops!”
Swish.
“Hey, watch where you’re going!”
Swish.
“Oh dear, are you alright, lad?”
Swish.
Before long, Seo Jun’s pockets held three wallets.
“I tried incorporating Geum Nasu’s Subtle Technique, and it’s pretty easy.”

-The channel owner shoplifts suspiciously well lololol
-Wait did you hone these control skills in real life? Are you from some back alley?
-Says he’s from the Martial World.
-So this isn’t a Musou stream, it’s a thief stream lololololol
-But usually getting caught shoplifting and chased by guards is the fun part――

Seo Jun looked at the chat with a proud expression.
“This should be enough that I won’t starve anywhere, right?”

-At that level you’d be building skyscrapers in Gangnam lololololol

That was when it happened.
“Hey, hey, come here.”
Seo Jun turned his head to find the source of the voice.
Where Seo Jun looked was a shadowed corner of the market.
Two figures slipped out from the darkness.
“Yeah, you. Looks like you’ve been up to something fun. But if you want to do business in this market, you’re gonna need to get permission from us!”
Seo Jun looked between the two of them with an exasperated expression.
“Wow. So I shoplift and instead of getting caught by guards, I get shaken down by thugs? What kind of game is this?”
He felt speechless.

-Real talk lololololol freedom level too high
-Gangnam skyscraper forget about it lol instant cut!
-Finally gonna see Musou? Let’s wipe them all out.

“Hmm, can you eliminate their organization from the game?”
Seo Jun’s mind was already working. What if he tied this incident to his broadcast?

-Yeah
-If you take out the boss, the market gets cleaned up.
-Assassin’s Creed rocks!

Seo Jun grinned widely.
“Really? Then today’s broadcast goal is taking out their organization.”
The goal was set, and the viewers began getting excited about his declaration.

-Ooh, making a noir film?
-Take out the Dissembler? lololol
-You’re verifying your skill against the Dissembler? Can’t handle this.

It made sense. The ones who’d called him over wore mask marks branded on their shoulders—they were members of the Dissembler organization.
And the Dissembler’s boss was a mid-boss of sorts in the game, the ruler of the 4th District.

-The channel owner casually doesn’t even know what the Dissembler is lololololol
-Let’s go.
-Let’s doitcake.
-A crazy alpha guy who’ll take down a gang just to shoplift
-Man, first time watching and the stream is so fun lololololol

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————