Master Swordsman’s Stream - Chapter 98

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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 98

“We bind the Orthodox Faction through the Demonic Cult and open up an overwhelming territorial gap!”
Seo Jun was now viewing the current game as a backdrop while providing commentary on the overall strategic structure.
He was in high spirits.
How long had it been since a battlefield unfolded this clearly?
The original battlefield is content that highlights split-second situational judgment, constantly shifting as both sides engage in intense mind games and betrayals.
But this battlefield was different.
The Orthodox Faction had grown complacent, but the Demonic Cult and the Unorthodox Faction had laid out a single grand strategy.
And that board had been laid out precisely, and now the two of them were clashing for their objectives.
There was no way it could be boring.
“By opening up that territorial gap, no matter how the fight between the Demonic Cult and the Orthodox Faction concludes, they ensure the Unorthodox Faction wins. That was the Unorthodox Faction’s grand strategy!”
The Demonic Cult’s part was simply to push forward.
But even within that, there were meticulous preparations, which I explained a moment ago.
That was why Seo Jun was now discussing the Unorthodox Faction.
“So even if the Orthodox Faction succeeds in defending today, the Demonic Cult would still have opportunities left—which is why the Unorthodox Faction left those territories unclaimed. Look at how the Unorthodox Faction has been leaving this region untouched.”
Seo Jun traced a line across a section of the map with his hand.
The path from the Demonic Cult’s base to the Unorthodox Faction’s headquarters.

—Why is that territory left?
—What’s going on?
—Unorthodox Faction! What are you doing?

Why would they suddenly leave that place unclaimed?
The viewers were curious, and Seo Jun continued with a detailed explanation.
“For example, suppose the Demonic Cult breaks the Orthodox Faction’s hold and then turns its eyes toward the Unorthodox Faction.”
Seo Jun’s voice quickened again.
“If they need to occupy four territories including the headquarters to defeat the Unorthodox Faction, and only three days remain on the battlefield, the Demonic Cult has no way forward. Right?”

—Yes
—That’s right
—If that were the case, the Demonic Cult wouldn’t have attacked in the first place

“They wouldn’t have attacked if those circumstances looked likely? That’s exactly right.”
If it looked like things might turn out that way, they would have shifted their strategic direction long ago.
And the Unorthodox Faction knew this too.
“That’s precisely why there are only three territories between the Demonic Cult’s base and the Unorthodox Faction’s headquarters—it’s no coincidence! The Unorthodox Faction left them deliberately!”
If the Unorthodox Faction had needed them to occupy five territories to threaten their headquarters immediately,
the Demonic Cult wouldn’t have attacked the Orthodox Faction today, with only five days left starting tomorrow.
If the Unorthodox Faction expanded that path from six territories today while the Demonic Cult was attacking the Orthodox Faction, the Demonic Cult couldn’t win even if they defeated the Orthodox Faction.
So why three?
“The Unorthodox Faction believed the Orthodox Faction could hold out for at least today and hoped the two would clash again tomorrow.”
If it were four, the Demonic Cult wouldn’t fight tomorrow.
With each passing day, the Unorthodox Faction’s territory would expand enormously, while the Demonic Cult and Orthodox Faction would each lose one more day to reclaim lost ground.
And after just two more days, a position would form that even the two of them combined couldn’t overturn.
“If the Orthodox Faction can hold for two days, the Unorthodox Faction’s championship is assured! So they devised their strategy on the premise that the Orthodox Faction would hold for at least that long!”
The Demonic Cult and the Unorthodox Faction had seized each other’s objectives as hostages and deliberately left possibilities open—converting uncertainty into a shared game board.
“They cooperated to set up this board. But in the final moment of judgment, they clashed against each other, and the match was decided.”
Who would prove right?

—Unorthodox Faction idiots
—Yeah, Orthodox Faction’s going to get crushed? You Demonic Cult blockheads
—Honestly, I think they’ll get pushed back
—Oh man! Oh man! Oh man! Oh man!
—Let’s bet, Demonic Cult bastards! I’m especially annoyed today

“But here’s the thing—if I were the Unorthodox Faction, I’d be pretty nervous.”

—Stay objective in your commentary!
—Seo Jun’s Orthodox Faction anyway, so why would he favor Unorthodox or Demonic over them?
—Seo Jun’s Orthodox Faction? Seo Jun’s a Demonic Cultist for sure!
—He even did a collab broadcast to promote Cheon Ma ㅋㅋㅋ He’s a henchman

Seo Jun wore a meaningful expression.
Could the Unorthodox Faction really afford to be this bold?
“Oh, and Seo Jun’s final game has just wrapped up. The result: victory! Is it truly impossible to stop the final boss Cheon Ma? And look—the Unorthodox Faction has made a decision!”
A red marker appeared on the path to the Unorthodox Faction’s headquarters that he’d mentioned earlier.
The Unorthodox Faction was attempting an attack.
The reason was obvious.

—Haha Unorthodox Faction senses trouble and starts playing it safe
—If you were going to do this, you should’ve just made it four territories instead of three ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

“Now if the Orthodox Faction succeeds in their defense, the Demonic Cult won’t be able to attack them tomorrow due to time constraints.”
The Unorthodox Faction had concluded the Demonic Cult would succeed in today’s attack and modified their strategy.
“For the Orthodox Faction, a lifeline has been thrown down. They just have to hold out today!”
Will they see a one-on-one between the Unorthodox Faction and the Demonic Cult?
Or will they witness the battlefield fall back into chaos?
All of this will be revealed tomorrow.

* * *

Seo Jun spoke while looking at the deactivated map.
At ten o’clock, the content closed.
“It’s over. The Unorthodox Faction extended their path after all. They seem to have about a day’s buffer now.”
The Unorthodox Faction’s choice was hardly surprising to Seo Jun, who believed the Demonic Cult would win, or to his viewers.

—Yeah
—Ah ㅋㅋ They don’t even need a day ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
—Why pointlessly extend the path instead of just falling back quickly ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
—Unorthodox Faction. Scared?

The result hadn’t come yet. You never know until you see it.
There were more high-rankers on the Demonic Cult side. And they seemed to have won more often.
But regular players were more numerous in the Orthodox Faction.
So Seo Jun knew that nothing was certain.
Still, usually if you believe you’re going to win, the odds of winning go up.
Really.
The Orthodox Faction actually looked half-defeated already.
“Ah, and is it true that the user ‘thisIsNotJianghu’ earlier played the Orthodox Faction’s game?”

—Yeah
—ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Seriously funny ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
—Overflowing with romance ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
—For the Alliance’s got crazy trolls
—Demonic Cult’s vanguard, Orthodox Faction’s thousand holy warriors, Unorthodox Faction’s unshakeable bulwark. The soul swells!

Seo Jun laughed along.
He probably did it on purpose.
Charitably called romance, less charitably called trolling.
Playing the game to eliminate the Orthodox Faction based on that objective.
But then.
Was only ‘thisIsNotJianghu’ behind it?
Could there really be not a single Unorthodox Faction user who participated?
That too, you’d only know if you saw it.
Anyway.
The point is something else. Seo Jun believed the Demonic Cult would have won one-on-one even without the Unorthodox Faction’s help.
Because he believed it that way.
That’s all.
Mm!
Viewers used that expression frequently, so Seo Jun tried it out once himself.
“See you tomorrow!”
With that, Seo Jun ended the broadcast.

* * *

The next day.
“Do you think we made the right call?”
Mu-myeong nodded at his colleague’s question.
“Yeah.”
“How do you know?”
“Instinct.”
Every instinct Mu-myeong possessed spoke the same language.
The enemy—the Demonic Cult—had seized momentum.
From the sparring onwards, the streamer Seo Jun has won game after game, occupying the Alliance for the Alliance, and thoroughly dominated.
There had always been overwhelmingly talented Irregulars like this.
Most of them had departed to what was now called the Heavenly Realm, a world of competitive players, and competed there.
But this Irregular that had emerged this time felt like something a whole dimension higher even than them.
The kind of mistake any human would normally make never appeared.
It felt like breathing through the peak moments of players in extreme Concentration—as if in perpetual flow state.
All while casually reading the chat and running their mouth.
Or trash-talking their opponents.
It seemed impossible, but since he was actually doing it, there was no grounds to complain.
‘At that level, they probably haven’t lost once.’
The problem was that people became obsessed with this genuinely incredible path he’d walked.
Already, not a single page had gone without the words Seo Jun, or Cheon Ma, or Proprietor appearing at least once.
Whether he ended broadcasts early or viewers got distracted by other topics,
even though the interest would eventually die down, Mu-myeong worried that this attention was exerting too much influence right now.
A shorts video uploaded to the streamer’s channel yesterday:

[Cheon Ma surveying 14,000,605 possible futures and finding the single scenario where the Demonic Cult wins!]

It was a video edited together with the clip Seo Jun had said at the start yesterday, alongside a summary of the battlefield situation.

—What’s For the Alliance doing???
—Oh, I used to be Demonic Cult
└They can win the championship now! Come back quick
—Maybe I should give it a shot? Do we actually have a shot at winning?
└Yeah, real good shot. Come on starting tomorrow. Watch streamer Seo Jun
—So Cheon Ma found the one path where the Demonic Cult can win!

New players, or those who hadn’t played much, were increasing in numbers—and that was only beneficial, never harmful.
And those benefits would start showing up from now on.
“Wow, mobilizing editors to suck users’ souls right in.”
Yesterday the Proprietor even did a broadcast tour.
No matter how he thought about it,
that guy played games absolutely terribly.

* * *

Day 17.
Public interest had reached its peak.
The structure of the battlefield had been revealed.
Since when the Unorthodox Faction and the Demonic Cult had been using each other.
The Demonic Cult and the Orthodox Faction had clashed.
And the Unorthodox Faction had shown themselves reversing their own strategy in a single day.
There was no way it could be boring.
Finally,
the streamer at the center of all this—Cheon Ma, or rather Seo Jun—was a streamer the Demonic Cult couldn’t possibly dislike.

[The fact that all of this became possible because of just one person is chilling ㄷㄷ]
==
First of all, the Demonic Cult even being in a strength competition is thanks to Cheon Ma.
And the strategy of coordinating a board with the Unorthodox Faction midway? That was also Cheon Ma’s idea (ask the Three Elders for details).
Basically all strategies came from Cheon Ma, and they only work because Cheon Ma exists.
The Demonic Cult—that mess.
==

—Any faction can have a user with good physicals. But a true leader who can bring a faction to championship? Only Cheon Ma
└Is there a Cheon Ma-level player in another faction? Seriously?
└I’m Orthodox Faction ㅋㅋ We don’t have one
└I’m ~~faction and ~~~ is special. But they’re not ~~
└That’s why you lost four straight to Cheon Ma? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└So does your faction have anyone at Cheon Ma’s level?
└Loser talk ㅋㅋ
—You haven’t won yet. Why are you being so annoying?

What about the other factions?

[Cheon Ma’s skill is confirmed. But acting like you’ve already won is pissing me off]
[Real talk, bet it all falls apart in 10 minutes ㅋㅋㅋ]
[Honestly the Orthodox Faction has the numbers]
[Don’t underestimate the power of an established school]
[Bring it on for two days, four days, all of it!]
[We’ll prove the Unorthodox Faction made the wrong choice]

While the Demonic Cult took flak, almost no one cursed Cheon Ma himself.
Minuscule numbers.
It was surprising, given that Seo Jun did provoke them pretty annoyingly.

[It starts in 1 minute!]

Seven o’clock arrived.
The battlefield map.
Across numerous territories, soldiers of three colors burst from the ground and clashed in combat.
Yet everyone’s complete focus was fixed on a single point.
Atop Habuk, miniatures of a red and a blue soldier began their fight.
They clashed swords, each drawing blood from the other.
The moment that would determine what came next.

[Demonic Cult bastards ㅋㅋㅋ Just make peace from here on and hold back the Unorthodox Faction]
[Orthodox Faction, are you falling behind? Why is this dragging on!]

And then.
Clang!
The one that fell was—

[?]
[For real?]
[Stream disconnect!!]
[ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
[……This is real?]
[This actually happened…]

The blue soldier’s neck is severed.
And Habuk turns red.
Simultaneously, the few remaining blue territories across the map fade to gray, losing their light.
With five days remaining, the Orthodox Faction—having lost their headquarters—were finally eliminated from the battlefield.

—————
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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