Master Swordsman’s Stream - Chapter 99

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

Episode 99

[This doesn’t make sense.]
[They definitely did something fishy!]
[The video software company really is pushing Sword God! There’s no other explanation!!!!]
[It’s a bug… I’m telling you.]

There are five stages of human emotion in accepting death.
Stage 1: Denial.
It’s the stage where you simply can’t accept the facts.

[The Jeong Faction guys all losing it together is hilarious ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

-Currently in Stage 1: Reality Denial!
-Even in Sword God’s chat room they’re going crazy ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-You killed the Jeong Faction, Seo Jun!
└That’s literally true lmao ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Stage 2 is anger.

[Dammit, I’m so pissed]
==
Why did they attack the Jeong Faction first? Why did they attack the Jeong Faction first? Why did they attack the Jeong Faction first? Why did they attack the Jeong Faction first?
What’s our fault? What’s our fault? What’s our fault? What’s our fault?
I’m so pissed
==

-Stage 2 is here
-Next up is bargaining ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-You pampered Jeong Faction brats, this is the taste of the Demonic Cult!
-Probably gonna be like “Just this once, please, video software company…” ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Stage 3: Bargaining.

[Just this once… I predicted this correctly.]

This isn’t right.

[What was the result when the Demonic Cult got stomped last time?]
==
In the end they got a faction power-up, right? That’s how people started coming back to them.
But we got stomped too?
So then.
Should we gather the cohesion of our prestigious Jeong Faction and shout for a power-up?
==

-Haha, they’re actually trying to bargain like this ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Are they actually going crazy? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Last time it was actually a problem, but you guys just got wrecked ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Stage 4: Depression.

[Can you really call it balanced when we can’t stop one Sword God…?]
[No one’s been joining the Guild for a while.]
[It’s really over…]

The final Stage 5: Acceptance was easily resolved thanks to Seo Jun.

[Live Sword God broadcast: Declared he’d create as many companions as possible for the lonely Jeong Faction.]
==
Now it’s Sapha’s turn, right?
==

-Sword God incoming!
-Haha, yeah. I can’t die alone either.
-Sapha, you should get a taste of this too ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-At this point just let the Demonic Cult win
-He approaches
-Nothing left but full assault!

* * *

The Demonic Cult and Sapha inevitably clashed.
Results from Day 17.
The Demonic Cult’s attack succeeded.
Three territories remained.
Results from Day 18.
The Demonic Cult’s attack succeeded.
Two territories remained.
After the final Day 19 concluded, the Demonic Cult’s players thought:

[Why are we so strong?]
[We started out just wanting to crush the Jeong Faction, but are we actually gonna win this?]

Victory drew near.
Sapha was desperately trying to stop it.

[Sword God just doesn’t lose!]
==
How do you even stop him? I think if we beat him just once, we could stop them.
==

It was a credible argument.
In the end, if Seo Jun lost even once, people thought they could check the momentum of the surging Demonic Cult.
The exact number of players was unclear, but the consensus was that they were roughly even.
If one side had a meaningful numerical advantage, there would be posts about getting matched against AI, but no such posts had appeared.

[Sapha’s in trouble ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
[That’s how we felt]
[Just steamroll them!]

And then a post was made for Seo Jun, who had not lost even once.

[Sword God]

“What’s this?”
Seo Jun read the message from Lee Geon-yeong and entered Nohyeop to check the post.
Apparently someone had edited a video of his gameplay.
Upon entering the post, Seo Jun immediately played the video.
The screen is black, and silence holds for about three seconds.
Then the sound of clashing swords breaks the stillness.
Clang!
Clang clang!
Another sword clash.
And again it clashes.
The period between each clash quickens progressively, building tension.
Whoooosh!
The screen suddenly flares bright.
At the same time, the video’s viewpoint shows someone.
A sword blocking the opponent’s opening move.
It was the viewpoint of the person holding that sword.
The scene cuts rapidly—now the opponent’s blade is rushing in.
The viewpoint’s owner blocks it lightly.
The background changes again, and now the opponent’s neck is being cut.
Following that, he parries a downward strike from above and dodges an attack from the side, extending an arm.
Then, robes fluttering, he lands before the opponent.
From that moment, a faint club-beat soundtrack grows clearer and louder, becoming crystal clear.
“Oh.”
What Seo Jun was watching was a montage—multiple battle scenes from his own fights stitched together by someone.
When Lee Geon-yeong watched this video, he felt both jealous that he hadn’t made it first and impressed by the editor’s skill, superior to his own.
They really did make it well.
“Wait, are these scenes in reverse order?”
Come to think of it, the first scene shown was today’s moment when he fought two of Sapha’s rankers simultaneously.
The next clip was yesterday’s fight.
The day before that. Three days ago.
“Yeah, that’s it.”
And now Seo Jun was facing three Jeong Faction rankers alone for the first time.
The music grew increasingly tense, signaling the approach of a climax.
Suddenly, through editing, time slows, and Seo Jun turns his body.
To parry the strike from Cheon Sal-seong, attacking from behind.
And immediately, thanks to the roll, just as Cheon Sal-seong stiffens, Seo Jun raises his blade in front of him.
The screen shifts to show Cheon Sal-seong’s viewpoint, looking at Seo Jun.
Seo Jun’s cold, expressionless eyes enlarge, and as if to hide those eyes, his blade and sword energy descend, cleaving the screen in half.
Ssshhhhh!
As the screen fades to black,

[Sword God Mad Movie]

The title appears, and the video officially begins.
Seo Jun watched with a feeling as if he were replaying past moments.
Countless one-on-one duels.
In them, his sword was slow yet swift.
It was footage of battles, but the editor captured it well from the opponent’s viewpoint.
The decisive moment with Baek Ho.
The sword spins dizzily, and the moment it nearly touches the target, it bounces off—that instant is captured.
Seo Jun facing Namgoong Cheon.
And the scene of him driving his blade into the wall to climb up and catch Namgoong Cheon appears in quick succession.
His first use of For the Guild with Rampage Mode.
And then.
Him battling the Assassination Guild emerging from the shadows.
After that, him defeating the rulers.
“The last one is Etorne.”
The video ends with the fight against Etorne, the tutorial boss of the Assassination Guild’s prologue.
The video was posted on Nohyeop. Moreover, it held the number one spot in the Top Ten with confidence.
It was thanks to the quality and because Nohyeop was ablaze with the fervor of the battleground.
And the title of the post and video that claimed that number one spot was:
Sword God.
A former alias.
Seo Jun scratched his cheek awkwardly.
“How did they figure that out?”
The nickname and concept he uses in For the Guild is Sword God.
But this person had given Seo Jun the name Sword God.
Someone wouldn’t have titled a video made with this much care carelessly.
Which meant that in this editor’s eyes, Sword God suited Seo Jun better.
“Did they not watch the livestream?”
If they’d watched the livestream, it would’ve been hard not to judge ‘Oh, this guy is definitely Sword God’ after seeing him speak so disrespectfully.
If they watched the livestream and still gave him the title Sword God,
Then it’s like… someone’s saying that all this deliberately Sword God-like behavior is no different from my true self?
Anyway.
“I never thought I’d hear the title Sword God here.”
It wasn’t bad, though.
Was this destiny?
Seo Jun checked the comments.
The best comment appeared first at the top.

-Sword God is perfect for him ㅋㅋ

Hmm. That didn’t sit right with him either.
Right.
Seo Jun, accepting a fate he couldn’t escape no matter what, nodded and checked the next best comment.
It was a reply to the first best comment.

└But “Sword God” really does suit him perfectly too?

The like counts on both comments were nearly identical, and dislikes were almost nonexistent.
It meant both titles suited him equally.
The Sword God camp’s argument went like this:

└He’s literally a god of swords ㅋㅋㅋ
└Check the Training Ground. He cleared every game with swordsmanship skill
└I’ve never seen him use a weapon other than a sword
└He used a pipe though, newbie
└ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Murder weapon pipe ㅋㅋㅋ

And the Sword God camp’s argument was:

└Honestly thinking about his usual personality, Sword God fits
└For real ㅋㅋ
└Sword God sounds too cool. Go with Sword God!
└One thing’s for sure—that guy could never be from the Jeong Faction ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└Even if he was born into the Jeong Faction, he’d probably leave and join the Demonic Cult to become Sword God ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ And like the battleground, he’d probably invade the central plains. In that sense, Sword God is perfect

His mood soured again.
His personality in the stream was clearly manufactured—not a single gram of his true self went into it.
And yet, for some reason, his mood was still irritated.
But watching how the top-ranked post on the Adventure Top Ten had naturally sparked discussion about him in the comments gave him a strange sense of satisfaction.
Even considering the battleground and the special circumstances behind the rise, it wasn’t easy for people to naturally discuss someone in the comments.
The greatest beneficiary of this battleground, no matter what anyone said, was Seo Jun.
He had carved his name into the minds of everyone playing For the Guild.
Now.
He just had to finish the finale well.
“Tomorrow is…”
The time to see the end of a twenty-day race.

[Ah, call me Sword God]

-Sword God camp
-Sword God camp
-Sword God, I’m telling you!
-Can’t it just be Sword God and Jeong Faction?

Seo Jun let out a quiet laugh, turned off his phone, and went to sleep.

* * *

It was shocking.
For the Indie Game Development Company Monster, which had marked Seo Jun as a prospect, the fact that he’d exceeded twenty thousand viewers was utterly shocking.
“A record high.”
The term itself means a newly achieved high price.
And Seo Jun had achieved that record high.
“Base viewership exceeding twenty thousand in recent broadcasts?”
Insane.
Just how many people is he dragging along?
He barely scraped into ten thousand before, and now that he’s doing duels and fully ramping up the battleground, he’s been gathering an enormous number of people.
In short.
Seo Jun’s value had skyrocketed.
Dammit.
At this point, there was only one thing they could say.
“We should’ve bought back then.”
This is impossible now.
After the battleground ends and the bubble deflates a bit with time, the viewer count will naturally gravitate back toward baseline.
Of course it’ll be higher than before, but right now the valuation was too inflated.
Even accounting for the special circumstances, it was inflated to an uncomfortable degree.
And by the time the streamer’s evaluated at a proper value and the bubble fully bursts, the advertisement will have already gone out.
“At least we have plenty of other candidates lined up…”
But.
“Right? Huh? CEO?”
What are you doing?
Why are you staring a hole through that skyrocketed stream’s video on the monitor?
Why are you typing in comments?
Let me see what you’re saying…
Something about the Demonic Cult being invincible?
“CEO?”
“Oh… huh?”
“What should we do? Try a different combination?”
“What are you talking about? We absolutely have to scout him. No matter the cost.”
“But sir, that’s the maximum price point…”
“Just buy! Buy stocks, sell stocks, I don’t care! Buy! That guy’s a lock. The Demonic Cult will win!”
What are you saying, CEO?
Did you join the Demonic Cult?
“Let’s skyrocket like the Demonic Cult!”

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