Master Swordsman’s Stream - Chapter 9

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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 9

“Man, I’ve got a feeling this is gonna get caught again.”
Alpaca.
He was a streamer maintaining an average of ten thousand viewers, who had peaked at thirty thousand on the opening day of Assassination Order: Dawn and was still holding steady at twenty thousand a week later.
And he was one of the first streamers people sought out whenever a new Assassination Order: Dawn title dropped.
He’d built a reputation for uploading story recaps of past series, review videos, and recommendations of great entry-level titles for newcomers.
Alpaca had been running a challenge to assassinate enemies barehanded since the opening day.

[So the little rat was there! Kahahaha!]

“Ah, crap, got caught……”
Whoosh!
A dagger flew straight at his brow and his screen, hanging from the ceiling, went black.
After respawning, Alpaca trudged toward the guild while muttering.
“Phew, once I get Drake, Sector 4 is done, but it’s not easy. There are too many organization members, and it’d be nice to know for sure where Drake is inside their hideout.”
The Rulers.
The crime syndicates managing Sector 4 of Altheon—in other words, the game’s major villains—were composed of one member per district: the Queen, the Tower Master, the leader of the Royal Faction, and Drake, the boss of the Dissembler.
These were characteristic of mid-boss-tier enemies whose assassination difficulty was comparable to each other, yet one tier higher even than the functionaries of the Royal District, the highest-difficulty zone in the game.
Among them, Drake, the boss of the Dissembler, maintained a total of ten hideouts across Sector 4 and appeared randomly at one of them.
He’d already been discovered four times.
The accumulated Reputation was looking precarious. Starting next time, he might not be able to buy location information from the guild.
Alpaca purchased Drake’s location information from the guild.
“Hmm, a theater. Sigh, which part of the theater is he hiding in this time? I’ve gotta pull this off.”
Alpaca felt fatigue mounting and exhaled deeply.
And then came a donation, prompting another sigh.

[If it’s the theater, just go Rampage. I’ve seen people do full-on Rampage runs barehanded, so why are you struggling so much?]

“Thanks for the ten thousand won. Rampage? Where do people like that exist……”

-lol real
-You should say things that make sense.

[I’m serious though, sounds like you might clear it soon?]

“Actually, Drake’s impossible to catch. If it were any other NPC, maybe, but the Rulers especially—the makers really went all out on them, so it’s impossible.”
Alpaca was a user who loved Assassination playstyle.
That didn’t mean he hated Rampage. Combat was part of Assassination Order: Dawn, after all.
It was just that his skill fell a bit short for this title.

[You haven’t checked the Community?]

“Oh, someone’s doing it on the Community? If they pull it off, I’ll bow down and make them my teacher, get their guidance, and Stream Until Goal right here until I clear Drake with Rampage!”
Stream Until Goal was content where you didn’t turn off the broadcast until you achieved a certain objective.
If you were skilled enough, you’d wrap it up in a few hours, but if not?

[ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ That statement.]

“Yeah~ there’s definitely no way. Thanks for the donation. Sweet deal.”
A few people in chat seemed to be genuinely laughing at him, but Alpaca brushed it off lightly.
“Of course, if the person who clears it is a pro, I won’t do the Stream Until Goal.”
He knew busy pros didn’t have time for other games, but he threw in that extra bit out of nervousness.

-Nervous???
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Go get ’em, Alpaca!
-Just go get a life, hyung.

* * *

Thirty minutes before Alpaca made that reckless Stream Until Goal declaration.
Seo Jun was heading into an alley where organization members hung out, seeking information about Drake’s whereabouts.
“Come on, let’s have a sincere talk here.”
“Fine, whatever.”
He’d read in chat that guards would dispatch if they fought in broad daylight, which would be annoying.
Squelch-squelch.
As he entered the alley, an indescribable
musty stench and the reek of stagnant water assailed his nose.
“Nice that you listen to reason.”
“Yeah, right. Hey! Hand over everything you’ve got. Including that wallet you stole earlier.”
As Seo Jun followed deeper in, two more organization members appeared and flanked him front and back in the cramped alley.

-I beat 13-to-1 before, this should be nothing
-lol
-Wait, doesn’t the Nameless One not have any weapons? How’s he gonna fight?
-How’s he even gonna get Drake info anyway? ㅋㅋㅋㅋ No Reputation to use the info guild, and to find a traitor in the organization he’d need to do all the related Sub Quests and actions

“Hmm?”
Seo Jun was scrolling through chat when he noticed something odd and paused the game.
“Is catching their organization hard? Does it take a long time?”

-Wait, then wouldn’t catching the Rulers be easy????
-lol

“What’s a Ruler?”

-Damn!!!!!
-THIS is what a channel owner should be like, rookies, take notes
-Reminds me of “what’s Parrying”……

Chat from Winter Big Yellowtail, White Horse Patient, and Brick Extortion King scrolled up in sequence.

[‘No’님 has donated 1,000 won!]
[You said you’d catch them without even knowing what Rulers are?]

“Could you explain?”
Truth be told, Seo Jun knew about Drake. He’d absorbed basic information, not just about Drake but about many other things, by reading the Community.
He’d realized he needed to know at least that much to carry the broadcast properly.
Running into a Dissembler organization member at the Market had been a coincidence, though.
Yesterday’s Drake Strategy Guide had outlined two approaches.
The first was to raise your Reputation by completing multiple Assassination tasks until you had enough confidence to kill Drake, then buy information from organizations like Gaebang or guilds in Altheon.
The second was to perform a Sub Quest that created a safe information exchange environment where neither party could identify the other, then buy Drake’s location from a Dissembler organization member.
The crucial element in both was that you had to account for the information provider’s Aftereffects to obtain the information.
But then, weren’t there other methods possible?
That’s what Community users thought.
Given how high the game’s degree of freedom was.
Seo Jun had the same thought while reading the strategy posts. But his approach was different.
‘What if you just beat the organization members so badly they can’t even think about Aftereffects?’
If that didn’t work, he’d follow the Strategy Guide.
Once he knew the location, catching him would be child’s play.
“So basically I need to get information, which is hard. And catching him is hard too.”

-Yeah
-You’re not gonna put it off until tomorrow, right?
-No looking at Strategy Guides

“Pssh. I don’t flip-flop like that.”
Chat flooded with ‘ㅋㅋㅋ’. He felt it every time—viewers enjoyed it most when a streamer was in a tight spot.
Seo Jun resumed the paused game.
“Hey, hey, didn’t our faces scare the kid?”
“Yeah, why’d you do business without getting our permission? Huh?”
The Dissembler organization members chuckled and tossed around their stupid jokes with each other.
Seo Jun asked them directly.
“Do you know where your Drake is?”
“The boss? Yeah, we know. But? Why would we just tell you……”
And as soon as the answer he wanted came, he cut the member off.
“That’s all I need.”
“?”
“Just gotta beat you. I’ve heard people spill when you beat them.”
“What the hell! Hey guys, kill him!”
The organization members drew daggers from their belts. And immediately rushed at Seo Jun.
Seo Jun first pushed off the wall and leapt over the organization members in front of him.
Being attacked from both sides in a cramped space is more annoying than you’d think.
After that, he dodged a rushing member’s dagger, grabbed his arm, and threw him hard against the ground.
Crack.

[Dissembler Member’s Basic Dagger]

The member lost his grip on the blade, and Seo Jun snatched the tumbling dagger from the air.

-How the hell did he catch that?
-His reaction speed is insane

Armed with a weapon, Seo Jun quickly started clearing the mobs.
Clang!
“Ugh!”
Clang!
“Hack.”
Clang!
In an instant, all except the organization member who said he knew the boss’s location had dropped dead.
“Yeah, Parrying works pretty well.”

-Damn!
-He really is skilled!
-The Rampage looks fun
-People thinking “maybe I should try” just had their dreams crushed ㅎㅎ

The remaining member charged at Seo Jun as well, but.
Clang!
He collapsed beside his comrades’ corpses, falling into a Groggy State.
Seo Jun approached the downed, terrified member slowly and asked.
“Where’s Drake?”
Viewers began to laugh at his behavior.

-That won’t work ㅋㅋㅋ
-lol

The member trembled without uttering a word.
Seo Jun waited for him to recover.
“You really think I’d tell you?!”
And once he stood up again.
Clang!
The member dropped to the same spot.
“Where’s Drake?”

-??? Some new kind of interrogation?
-Wake up ㅋㅋㅋ

“You really think I’d tell you?!”
The member gathered himself and shouted again.
Clang!
So Seo Jun hit him with Parrying once more.
“Where’s Drake?”

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Genuine madness ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Viewers couldn’t understand his behavior, but Seo Jun noticed that with each fall into a Groggy State, the member’s response degraded slightly.
“Oh. This is weakening gradually.”

-Where’s this going.
-What are you looking at, Teacher.
-All that delusional thinking won’t get him to spill. Go check the Strategy Guide already

And after incapacitating him once more and waiting for him to rise, the member’s response had changed so markedly that viewers could finally notice.
So Seo Jun asked him again.
“Where’s Drake?”
“That……that—”
The member began to flee, evading his answer, and Seo Jun quickly closed in.
Then the member swung his dagger wildly in desperation, and when Seo Jun incapacitated him once more.
The stunned enemy opened his mouth.

-???
-This doesn’t make sense
-The game designers are crazy ㅋㅋㅋㅋ They said to discourage Rampage playstyles but then made routes like this.
-Is this normal for a newbie broadcast? Learning the game from this?

“13th Street. The biggest theater there. That’s where he is, so please… stop……”

“Oh, this really works. But where exactly is Drake?”
But the member gave no response.
“Doesn’t seem to have much of a reaction anymore. Does he go into shock or something?”

-He’s a demon ㅋㅋㅋ
-Room owner, you might have a talent for game design too. Finding new routes like this ㄷㄷ

[‘YoureThisKindofGuy’님 has donated 1,000 won!]
[Ethor, so that’s why you fought so hard to stop him]

-Ethor reevaluation ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-So he died in the line of duty……

Seo Jun opened his map, ignoring whether viewers chatted or stayed silent.
“Anyway, this dagger’s too short and inconvenient. Is there anything better?”
In Assassination Order: Dawn, there were no weapons you couldn’t use.
The knife from a fruit vendor at the Market, darts and glass bottles at a bar, bowling pins—all of them could be weapons.

-Make some money and get better gear.
-Wire is so good, Spy X Man style executions are possible
-Pickpocket?

“Hmm, I’ll… oh, this looks good.”
Seo Jun glanced around, found something promising, and swung it a few times to test it.

[Rusted Pipe]

“Perfect length. Now that I’ve got a weapon, let me head over to 13th Street.”
13th Street was the Cultural District.
And the largest theater in the Cultural District was Baeklyon Theater, about three blocks from the Market.
It essentially hinted that even the largest theater was under the influence of a gang called the Dissembler.
Seo Jun arrived at Baeklyon Theater quickly.
People loitering nearby with equipment levels excessive for mere security guards came into view.
‘There’s no way to know where Drake is.’
He thought it was quite dense how they’d stationed the organization members.
But it didn’t matter.
Because he wasn’t here to assassinate.
And the viewers weren’t here to watch an assassination either.
“Sorry, but the show is over……”
Crash!
Without warning, Seo Jun approached the front entrance and brought the pipe down, shattering the glass doors.
An organization member drew his Machete, and Seo Jun quickly swung the pipe to land a hit.
His HP hadn’t lost even a tenth.
‘That’s nowhere near enough.’
He had no choice but to wait until the member swung his Machete.
Clang!
Then he read the arc and blocked it.

-Damn!
-Every time I watch it’s amazing, how do you pull off perfect blocks every time? ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Tap-tap-tap-tap!
Hearing the commotion, other organization members began to converge.
But.
Every time Seo Jun swung the pipe, a clear ring sounded.
Seo Jun methodically processed the organization members, moving toward the entrance stairs.
That position was easier for dealing with members coming down.
In the end.
The stairs became piled high with organization members.
Occasionally a rear patrol team would ambush from outside, but Seo Jun could hear their approach and dealt with them just as easily.
By then, the number of defeated enemies had reached thirty.
“With thirty guys in a theater this size, honestly, the producers went overboard. How am I supposed to assassinate?”
Clicking his tongue at the difficulty level the producers had apparently intended, Seo Jun entered the theater interior with ease.

-????
-That should be your line?
-Wow, what did we just watch? I’m so speechless I can only laugh ㅋㅋㅋ
-He’s real…!

As Seo Jun entered the theater, a crazed laugh echoed from the stage.
His opponent was waiting for him at the very center of the stage.

-I saw this scene in another streamer’s room when they got caught trying to assassinate, and it was SO scary then, why is it funny now? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Ah ㅋㅋ So that’s why Drake can handle 1v30, why he can beat Ethor ㅋㅋ

Drake, boss of the Dissembler.
True to form for a contemptible gang boss, the moment Seo Jun drew near, he hurled a blade.
“Die!”
A small, thin Throwing Knife flew at him in an instant.
Ting!
Seo Jun immediately swung the pipe to deflect the incoming blade.

-He didn’t even dodge and just batted it away???
-How did he do that
-His reaction speed is insane

“Don’t react to what’s coming at you—predict based on where the attacker’s hands are, and it becomes fairly simple.”
As Seo Jun drew closer, the number of incoming knives multiplied.
The firing rate increased gradually, and midway through, he started hurling from both hands simultaneously.
But Seo Jun deflected every single one.
With the pipe.

-He’s batting them all away ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ What can’t you bat away?
-Viewers
-Right, you can’t bat away viewers ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Seo Jun reached Drake in mere moments.

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