Master Swordsman’s Stream - Chapter 93

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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 93

Seo Jun’s eyes gleamed as he watched the situation unfold with growing intrigue.

[Celestial Demon 14: What happens if we lose Gansu?]

He wasn’t ignorant of the answer, but there was no harm in confirming it properly.
Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei.
Once Hebei falls, it’s over. Today’s assault is on Shaanxi.
‘If things flow this way.’
On the fourteenth day, Shaanxi will become Demon Sect territory, but if the Orthodox Sect seizes Gansu, Shaanxi becomes isolated—cut off from its connection to Demon Sect lands.
It becomes an inland island surrounded by land.
And why is that a problem?

[Sam Jang Ro: Tomorrow, other Demon Sect users won’t be able to reinforce Shaanxi. Only those who attempted to attack Shaanxi even once yesterday can continue playing in that region.]

The personnel who can defend the isolated Shaanxi are limited to those who attacked it at least once before.
The connection is severed, so the conditions change accordingly.
Even so, users who attacked Shaanxi won’t be permanently trapped there, but it’s evident that defending will become extraordinarily difficult.

[Sam Jang Ro: Shanxi, which borders Hebei directly, is something the Orthodox Sect will definitely defend at any cost, no matter how many Rankers they have to deploy. That’s why I was planning to commit everything tomorrow, but if the connection gets severed here, we’ll struggle to both defend Shaanxi and attack Shanxi.]
[Sam Jang Ro: But if we try to prevent the connection from being cut at all costs here, both the Orthodox and Unorthodox Sects will catch on to our objective.]
[Sam Jang Ro: Still, if we just manage to defend Gansu today, the situation is manageable. The problem is.]
[Sam Jang Ro: It’s going to be tough. I regret wasting those soldiers we threw at the Unorthodox Sect earlier. I should’ve saved them if I’d known.]

Currently, the Orthodox Sect held military superiority.
The reason was simple: Seo Jun had already attacked.
The Demon Sect had already deployed fifteen operatives, including Dang So, while the Orthodox Sect—after failing once with three operatives and holding them back—had conserved those three operatives’ remaining attempts.
‘High Prestige Points become poison in situations like this.’
As a result, the Demon Sect had over-committed to Shaanxi, making it difficult to defend Gansu.
If the Orthodox Sect had tried to defend Shaanxi instead of attacking Gansu right now, the forces would have been perfectly balanced.
But the Orthodox Sect had exploited this weakness expertly.

[Sam Jang Ro: We need to change strategy.]

Change strategy, they said.
Seo Jun shifted his attention from the personal chat to the group channel.

-Need to decide quick.
-Defending Gansu looks impossible. More of them will just show up if we go there.
-Even with fewer people, we can win if we win bigger!
-Only possible if Celestial Demon has like 60 people to spare.
-What if we switch and target Unorthodox Sect first? Check the viability of attacking their territories like Shaanxi.
-What about forming a Dedicated Force instead?
-That won’t work.

A Dedicated Force.
‘Are they saying we should have all the remaining Rankers attack Shaanxi once each and just push through to the end?’
Looking at the continuing discussion, that seemed to be it.

-Won’t work because regular users need support too. Can’t do it if we’re surrounded.
-And in a total offensive, not just regular users but regular Rankers get worn out too. Some people already finished their four attempts today.
-Holding positions and buying time there is pointless. The overall battlefield timeline is too tight.

Ultimately, if they can’t seize the Headquarters, everything is for nothing.
Switching strategies now was another matter entirely. Unlike other forces, which had methodically seized strategic regions to claim favorable positions,
the Demon Sect had invested solely in this strategy and had already ceded good territories for inferior ones, putting them at a disadvantage from the start.
Pivoting toward the Unorthodox Sect seemed like the only viable option.
If today’s attack succeeded, if they could end it within a few days, there was no reason to fixate on the Orthodox Sect.
Ultimately, the reason they’d hidden the goal of targeting the Headquarters was to prevent the remaining factions from preparing defenses while one faction was under assault.
‘It changes this fast.’
Now, a Choice had to be made.
As quickly as possible.
‘Watching from the sidelines today was the right call.’
Seo Jun thought this and sent a message to Sam Jang Ro.

[Celestial Demon 14: Let’s intentionally leak our objective to the Unorthodox Sect and use them instead.]
[Sam Jang Ro: Pardon?]

Sam Jang Ro initially seemed confused by what he meant, but after hearing his detailed explanation, he reacted quite positively.

[Sam Jang Ro: Hmm. Seems like it might actually work?]
[Sam Jang Ro: Give me a moment.]

After a brief pause, another message arrived.

[Sam Jang Ro: I told Ma Noe Ja and he says let’s try it. Let’s go!]

Ma Noe Ja, who wasn’t a manager, had been told to play a character—descendant of the Jeol-gal house, expelled from his clan and joining the Demon Sect.
That wasn’t the point though.
Ma Noe Ja was one of the people who, alongside Sam Jang Ro, drew up the broader strategy.
Which meant,

[Celestial Demon 14: Then contact the Unorthodox Sect right away.]

His opinion was adopted (sort of).

* * *

Red marks appeared and vanished across numerous territories, but some persisted—regions that didn’t disappear.
The Orthodox Sect territory Seo Jun had seized the day before.
And the sites where Orthodox Sect Rankers had been massively deployed today.
Currently, Gansu was densely packed with Rankers.
‘Orthodox Sect with about forty?’
The Orthodox Sect had initially deployed around ten, but as the Demon Sect defended, they sent more, and when the Demon Sect added reinforcements to match, the Orthodox Sect committed all remaining personnel here.
The Demon Sect had deployed as many as they could to counter.
‘Demon Sect is short about ten people.’
By tomorrow, losing Gansu was nearly certain, and so the thirteenth day ended.
The next day.
Seo Jun opened the community forum while preparing his broadcast.
By now, it had become quite a natural routine.
Given that his livelihood depended on attention, it was useful to stay informed.
Besides, it was simply entertaining.

[Day 13 War Summary]
[What happens when your retreat is cut off?]
[Orthodox Sect’s Counterattack!]
[Can’t stop the Celestial Demon, so cut off supplies instead, Orthodox Sect lol lol]
[Don’t worry, Demon Sect brothers. The Celestial Demon will handle everything today. We just have to follow.]
[But Demon Sect finally showed their true colors.]
[Orthodox Sect must be breathing easier.]
[The fact that Celestial Demon counts as fourteen people has actually been working against them.]
[Wish the broadcast had gone longer yesterday so we could’ve seen Bang Ju flustered lol.]

Even though the broadcast was brief yesterday and a whole day has passed, his name keeps appearing.
Bang Ju’s words suddenly came to mind.
The users here. They’re obsessed with the strong.
What gamer wouldn’t like a skilled player? But for Cooperation, the atmosphere is uniquely particular, isn’t it?
Seo Jun thought this and clicked on an interesting post.

[But Demon Sect finally showed their true colors.]
==
Look at how desperately Demon Sect tried to defend Gansu to keep the connection intact.
That proves they’re after the Headquarters, right? lol
This Celestial Demon guy—pretending not to align with Demon Sect while secretly following their orders, the cunning bastard.
==

That was a fair assessment.
The fact that the Demon Sect had tried to defend Gansu with all remaining forces meant the connection was crucial, making it easy to infer they were targeting the Headquarters.
And the person who made that path was Seo Jun himself, and since he’d been pretending not to cooperate all along, calling him cunning was technically accurate, even if the tone was off.
However,
Seo Jun smiled at the comments.
Were these all Demon Sect members?

-Ah well. The Celestial Demon must be giving orders to the Demon Sect. And it’s not cunning, it’s smart. Just correcting that.
-No manners toward the Celestial Demon. Who do you think you are?
-Bang Ju just moved forward and cut through anyone blocking the way. The Demon Sect adapted their strategy accordingly.

Wrong again.
He clicked on the next post.

[Orthodox Sect must be breathing easier.]
==
If we’d managed to block the connection yesterday, today we’d be in a total offensive right in front of the Headquarters where Hebei is, right?
But that’s a problem even if we win.
Because if Orthodox Sect and Demon Sect engage in a total offensive, the Unorthodox Sect will quietly snap up other territories.
Demon Sect has been struggling so much you probably haven’t felt it, but anyway, this is a Three-Way Conflict.
If two fight at full strength, the third gets the Fisherman’s Profit and wins the Three-Way Conflict!
So Demon Sect would be insane. Why target the enemy Headquarters like that? What are they trying to gain?
Or is there some grudge against the Orthodox Sect?
==

It was a well-analyzed post, and the first reply was this:

-Yep

Those two characters seemed to contain a lot of implicit meaning. Something like resignation?
Now, it was time to start the broadcast.
Seo Jun entered the Capsule.
He closed his eyes and opened them—the world transformed.
He immediately entered his personal channel and adjusted the streaming settings.
The broadcast title was,

[Victory for the Demon Sect is Inevitable]

People might want to see what he’d say after taking a hit like this, but he chose the same title as yesterday.

[Beginning stream.]

* * *

“Ah. Someone donating to ask if I’m stuck in Shaanxi with them and scared, wanting a hug? Thank you for the donation. You’re banned.”

-lolololol
-100K won hug request cut!
-Lately so many people trying to pay to get banned.
-Where do they think they’re putting their hands lol
-Post this to the controversy tab. Feeding donation fraud lol

Of course, he wasn’t actually banning anyone.
Surely no one would pin something like this to the controversy tab?

[‘Yah’ donated 10,000 won!]
[What are you doing today?]

Finally, the donation he’d been waiting for arrived.
A question about what he’d do going forward.
The reason he’d been waiting for this question was simple.
‘Because of the Regular Users who can play in Shaanxi.’
Regular Users were uncontrollable variables, impossible to calculate into plans—so they were treated as constants.
But with proper unity, they could become a major force.
The condition was that they had to be capable of being utilized in response to the constantly changing territorial situation.
It wasn’t about popularity or communication. It was about leadership.
But if the objective was simple enough that leadership wasn’t even necessary?
That was the first trap laid.
“Hmm, you seem curious about my plans. Are you perhaps a spy?”
Seo Jun opened with that.

-A spy? Catch them!
-Lol definitely Orthodox Sect here doing T-Bagging

T-Bagging.
The act of winning against an opponent, moving next to them, and crouching repeatedly to provoke them.
Another word for it was poor sportsmanship.

[‘Not Me’ donated 10,000 won!]
[I’m actually in Shaanxi following you and just want to copy what you do.]

The donor seemed wronged.
But Seo Jun knew the truth: the person laughing behind that donation was Sam Jang Ro.
“Really? Why do you want to copy me?”
Seo Jun asked despite knowing the answer.
The viewers answered for them.

-Lol I’m following too
-Because I want to be with everyone
-From the Demon Sect perspective, can’t help it

[‘With Bang Ju’ donated 10,000 won!]
[Getting trapped in Shaanxi after attacking together is the biggest achievement of my 25 years of life!]

Seo Jun checked the donor ID. This one wasn’t Sam Jang Ro—it was a regular viewer.

-For real lol
-For real lol
-For real lol
-Is this how soldiers feel following their lord into deadly territory!!!!

“Is that so? I’m going to stream late today, so wait for me then.”
Messages of understanding flood in from Demon Sect users.
Orthodox Sect users ask if he’s scared.
As Seo Jun exchanges back-and-forth and reminds them a few more times, the time runs out.
“It’s 7 o’clock. Let’s see the results first.”
The results of yesterday’s battles begin to reflect on the map.
Gansu is taken by the Orthodox Sect. No surprises there.
However, the Demon Sect’s fierce resistance consumed much of the Orthodox Sect’s forces, and the green territory of the Unorthodox Sect, who seized the opportunity, expanded.
Tiny miniatures representing each faction appear above the territories and fight.
After the fight’s outcome emerges, the region becomes colored in the victorious faction’s hue.
“Unorthodox Sect has accumulated quite evenly.”
This is why direct confrontation shouldn’t happen.
Yesterday’s fight between the Demon and Orthodox Sects could be called near-total warfare, and only the Unorthodox Sect reaped the benefits.
“Huh? Orthodox Sect is making their move right away.”
Red marks immediately appear on the redeployed map.
In Shaanxi, where he is.
It wouldn’t be the Demon Sect, so it’s definitely the Orthodox Sect.
But then,

[Achilles Gun]
[Orthodox Sect Doctrine]
[7777]
[Ramyeon Tastes Good]
.
.
.

Remarkably, that number was fourteen.
Seo Jun’s eyes narrowed slightly.
The intention became clear.
“They’re definitely going to reclaim Shaanxi for sure.”
The reason for deploying this many, this exact same number, all at once.
Probably to say: we’ll expend this much here, so don’t bother defending Shaanxi, go make gains elsewhere.
‘It’s not even possible to block anyway, right? It’s not like you’re actually trapped with no other choice.’
In other words,
“It’s both a concession and a provocation.”
A provocation saying: be satisfied here and withdraw from Shaanxi.
Seo Jun smiled.
He didn’t know who came up with it.
‘But they’ll regret it.’

-Boss, they’re being cocky. Let’s destroy them?
-Just give the order, sir! We’ll defend!
-Are they looking down on us Regular Users? We can definitely take them!
-Well… they kind of have the right to?
-True enough
-How about we just leave Shaanxi?

He didn’t expect this reaction from the start.
“Let’s take our time, everyone. Attacking first is what the weak do.”
Seo Jun took no action.
He ignored the chat asking why he wasn’t attacking now if he’s been doing it every time at 7, and spoke at his leisure.

—————
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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