The Veteran Swordmaster’s Stream (Novel) - Chapter 20
Chapter 20
Behind Movie Soft’s decision to develop this work—on which the company’s survival was staked—in Korea rather than at the headquarters that had developed the previous series, there was Yves Paimo.
He was a famous game developer scouted from the outside by the company, which had been walking the path of decline after failing to adapt as it transitioned into the era of capsules.
Sitting in the position of the company’s CCO and the president of the Korean branch, he made the bold decision to come directly to Korea—which had previously only undergone localization—and develop the game, based on the fact that Korea’s capsule penetration rate was the highest in the world and its consumers were sensitive to trends.
Although there was a lot of talk from the start, as the work progressed, he was confident of this series’ success and was even preparing the next title to expand upon it later.
And as the success of Shadows in the City was confirmed on the first day of its release, the project for the next title began in a swift and decisive manner.
Quite literally, a smooth path lay stretched out before him, but.
There was a problem.
Specifically, the picture he was drawing was in danger of going awry from the very start.
By a single streamer, that was.
Kim Yoon-chan, who had been summoned to the president’s office early in the morning, opened his mouth cautiously.
“See, I told you I had a bad feeling about this…”
“Quiet. Hurry up and explain. Why was Spot Weakness unlocked already!”
Yves Paimo—
“Hahaha. I know, right? I also didn’t think I would be read.”
Kim Yoon-chan wore a bright smile, and Yves Paimo’s curiosity was piqued.
“What do you mean, read?”
“Boss. We estimated the period for users to unlock Spot Weakness to be at least a month, right?”
“Honestly, it wouldn’t be strange if it took half a year instead of a month. How could it be easy for someone to accidentally touch a grain, destroy a weapon, have that recorded, and then shared with people?”
“True. Even if someone took the lead and tried to find the grain, it would really take at least a month, at the very minimum.”
“And there is also the fact that our game has too many other things to do to spend time on Spot Weakness.”
Yves Paimo took pride in the assassination system of Shadows in the City that he had created.
“That’s also true. Who would have nothing better to do than search for a grain that destroys a weapon when there are so many other things to do? Especially when they have to rely on luck.”
It was content that only veterans—who would feel as if thorns were growing in their mouths if there was something they hadn’t tried in this game after completing all the challenges—would target.
In fact, it was true that Musou and the grain were designed for them.
“Exactly. So why was Spot Weakness unlocked just a week after release?”
The unlocking of Spot Weakness itself was not the problem.
The problem was the fact that by obtaining Spot Weakness, one would be able to pierce the heavy armor of Richard Neville, one of the Rulers, and defeat him in a Musou play.
The reason lay in the Fragment of Order given when a Ruler was defeated in a Musou style.
They had hidden Easter eggs for the next title here and there, and the Fragment of Order was one of them.
It was a short quest related to the next title that could be proceeded with once all the fragments were gathered.
And the release of a teaser video to generate interest, timed to burst when public attention was drawn.
It was the natural and effective next-title promotion method that he had drawn.
The problem was that the possibility of all Fragments of Order being gathered had opened up while the teaser video was not even ready yet.
“Well, as for the reason it was unlocked, as I said just now, it’s because it was read.”
Yves Paimo suppressed the urge to give that nonchalant and cheerful Kim Yoon-chan a good smack.
“Stop beating around the bush and explain it properly.”
“Yes, sir.”
Kim Yoon-chan sent a clip to Yves Paimo.
It was a video from his collaboration stream with Alpaca.
“Hmm? Clean.”
“Right? This is a recreation by that streamer named Seo-jun of what someone else discovered.”
“Indeed. He is highly skilled, isn’t he?”
“And the next video shows that streamer finding the grain and destroying it.”
“What?”
Yves Paimo, thinking he had misheard, asked back.
“He found the grain? That streamer?”
“Yes.”
After watching the second video where the shield and sword were destroyed, Yves Paimo looked at Kim Yoon-chan with wide eyes.
“No, how… does this make sense? Isn’t it just that he had a bug and the Spot Weakness skill was just there for him?”
It was a video so absurd that even Yves Paimo, who used to boast that there were no bugs in his game, brought up the possibility of a bug.
“No. We checked that a long time ago.”
“Then…”
“Speaking as someone who watched the entire collaboration stream and became a fan of streamer Seo-jun, I think he read the regularity. I wonder if it makes sense to read the sword path created by the AI and teammates being torn apart after seeing at most two examples, but what can we do when he says so himself.”
I didn’t ask you about becoming his fan.
“Then what do we do?”
“About what?”
“How much time did we set aside for making the teaser video of our next title?”
“A month.”
“What if we start working overtime from today and do it as quickly as possible?”
“One week…?”
“Then what is the probability that that streamer will collect all the Fragments of Order within that time?”
“It’s a relief that I can say this for sure, it’s 100%.”
It’s not a relief, you bastard.
“Well, it’s not like the teaser video absolutely must be released immediately, right?”
“Then the picture won’t come together, the picture!”
Yves Paimo habitually pressed his temples as he sought a solution to the matter.
Although not everything in the world goes according to plan, this was truly unexpected.
It could be considered minor, but he did not want the project for the next title to go awry from the very beginning.
“Oh? He just started his broadcast. Do you want to watch it together?”
For a moment, Yves Paimo suppressed the urge to throw the file folder on his desk and said politely.
“Get out! And I told you not to watch broadcasts during working hours!”
“Yes, sir!”
“Sigh…”
He shouldn’t have created the Fragments of Order in the first place.
If only someone hadn’t said that it would be good to allocate at least one Easter egg to Musou-related content, even if just for the Musou players.
Come to think of it, the person who made that remark was also Kim Yoon-chan, wasn’t it?
With a heavy heart, Yves Paimo kept replaying Seo-jun’s video.
How on earth did he do it?
And he contacted Kim Yoon-chan through the company messenger to receive another video.
Namely, the video that neutralized Richard Neville’s heavy armor in one go.
‘He defeated a Ruler without having Spot Weakness?’
This is a bit…
Cool.
Should I say it was a feast for the eyes.
Even after that, plenty of videos related to Seo-jun were uploaded.
Particularly, when finding Drake’s location, Yves Paimo could not wipe a pleased smile off his face.
This was because the route Seo-jun found was exactly one of Yves Paimo’s ideas.
‘So it was revealed in this way.’
He felt a sense of reward.
To enjoy the game, into which they had poured their souls, in his own way.
And the user being surprised while saying, ‘This works too?’
All of these were the sights he had hoped for while creating the open world.
Yves Paimo watched it several times in admiration, and then stealthily pressed the follow button.
***
“Hello, everyone.”
Seo-jun greeted them while waving his hand lightly.
`- Seo-ha`
`- Seo-ha`
`- Why is the stream title like this?`
`- Seo-ha!`
`[1,700 Viewers]`
The rapidly scrolling chat window.
The fire-power close to 2,000 people was definitely on a different level.
He had heard that his room originally had a lot of chats compared to the number of viewers.
As the number of viewers increased, the speed at which chats went up became incomparably faster than before.
And so.
“Now, I Am Joseon’s Assassin-nim, Great Yellowtail-nim, and Patient on a White Horse-nim, you’ve all entered, right?”
At those words of Seo-jun, chats marked with a sword next to their nicknames appeared.
`- Yes!`
`- Yes. I will do my best.`
`- Just leave it to me. I, Jo-Am, the owner of those 25 million points, will manage it thoroughly.`
`- Only troublemaking nicknames have gathered`
`- How are the managers’ names Great Yellowtail, Patient, and Assassin lololol`
They were people who had watched Seo-jun’s broadcast since the first day.
Looking at their past chat logs, they had not caused any trouble, unlike what their nicknames suggested, and they had enjoyed watching his broadcast without missing a single one, so Seo-jun asked them to be chat managers, and they gladly accepted.
For reference, Brick Extortion King had not replied yet.
“Those people have agreed to act as managers from now on and cut out chats that violate the chat rules. Thank you.”
In the meantime, I Am Joseon’s Assassin used points to add special effects to his chat.
Is this the dignity of the wealthy.
“And since chat rules have been created for my room, please read through them roughly.”
`- Wow, I’m jealous of the managers.`
`- Give me an armband too.`
`- I want to wear a sword too.`
`- !rules`
`- !rules`
`- !rules`
Chats to check the rules went up.
1. Please only talk about things related to the broadcast.
2. If you see a bothersome chat, don’t fight in the chat window, but send a whisper to a manager.
3. You know what you shouldn’t do, right?
Chat rules on Travel were different for each streamer, with no standardized criteria.
Some people wrote them strictly, while others just wrote, ‘Please don’t speak informally.’
To the extent that someone would even write greetings along with wishes to have fun before leaving.
And the chat rules Seo-jun drew up were concise.
This was because Seo-jun preferred a free communication atmosphere.
`- Summary) Figure it out sensibly`
`- Got it`
`- What is it that we shouldn’t do?`
“What shouldn’t you do? You know roughly. Still, unless it’s exceptionally severe, you won’t even get a warning.”
He had already finished speaking with the managers.
`- Real lol`
`- If you write it down in detail, there are always people who dodge the rules to troll, and when they get banned, they get angry asking why they were banned when they followed the rules.`
`[‘ㅇㅇ’ donated 10,000 won!]`
`[Are you not hiring a helper for stream settings?]`
If they had just typed it in chat, he would have let it go, but since they donated, he had no choice but to respond.
“…Thank you. I’m not hiring anyone for that.”
Although it would be nice to have someone to help with the broadcast settings, he suspected the motive behind deliberately including the word ‘settings’ in the sentence.
`- lololololololol`
`- He grit his teeth lol`
`- Thnk yu`
`- The world’s first tech-illiterate streamer. But his skills are insane.`
`- So what is the stream title?`
`- You’re playing Dawn of the Assassins today too, right?`
`- Please do regular assassinations too.`
`- Let’s go Musou!`
`- Show us more Spot Weakness. I want to get the skill too.`
Since he hadn’t properly started yet, the chat content was all over the place.
Seo-jun slowly built up the hype to proceed.
“Ah, the stream title? Well, there are quite a few people who have doubts about how I found the grain. So, since it seems to be my fault for not explaining it properly, I am sorry first of all.”
`- He doesn’t look sorry at all.`
`- Jeez. At least bow your head lolol`
“But I’m not a hacker. Nor am I involved in game development.”
`- Why is he talking about hacks.`
`- In fact, he uses the ‘insanely good’ hack (hahaha)`
`- But is there anyone who seriously believes the nonsense that a college student is a developer for Movie Soft?`
`- So how did you actually find the grain? I’m curious`
Seo-jun nodded as if sympathizing while looking at the chat.
“To get straight to the point, the rule of the grain that I figured out is that it connects the parts that wear out the most when using that equipment into multiple trajectories to make it easy to split.”
It was far from a real-life weakness, but he thought this was the rule the creator had in mind, and he was spot on.
`- ??? I still don’t get it even after hearing it?`
`- What, are you a blacksmith? How would you know that?`
`- Just how smart is he shiver`
“Well, I was going to prove this properly today, but since I’ve already obtained Spot Weakness, if I do anything, people will just say it’s because I hacked the capsule, right?”
`[‘Travel Historian’ donated 10,000 won!]`
`[Hacking controversies are a long-standing tradition of our stream.]`
`- Real lol`
`- He’s suspected because his skills are just that good`
`- A long-standing tradition (4th day of streaming)`
He gave his thanks for the donation.
“So I reported it.”
Seo-jun’s face suddenly turned serious.
`- ?????`
`- What?`
`- Why a report all of a sudden.`
“Myself.”
Seo-jun brought up the Dawn of the Assassins inquiry history window he had prepared.
`[Report Hack] [I think I used a hack without even realizing it. Can you check it for me?]`
`- lolololol is he crazy?`
`- So that’s why he said ‘I turned myself in’ lolololol`
`- Ah lol the game company will prove it for him!`
“Now then, since the explanation is finished, let’s get straight into the game.”
Seo-jun stretched, returning to an innocent expression as if he had never been serious.
`- lololololol is this the attitude of someone doing an apology stream?`
`- Truly a quiet lunatic`
`- He’s a stream genius lolol`
“Now, for today’s stream… let’s see, a mission has come in? Thank you, Dawn of the Assassins Creator.”
Seo-jun skillfully adjusted the stream settings and accepted the mission.
Then, a window popped up in the top left of the stream screen.
`[Clear when facing the Magic Tower Master without using Spot Weakness — Mission Reward: 1,000,000 won]`
It was a donation he could take home if he succeeded in the mission.
`- Wow, one million won shiver`
`- Oh wow`
`- But is there anything to use Spot Weakness on for the Magic Tower Master? He doesn’t have equipment`
`- Isn’t it talking about magic?`
`- Then does magic split too? Seeing that they know this, are they really the creator? By any chance?`
It was an enormous amount from the very first mission.
He had been planning to go to the Magic Tower anyway.
“Right. Are you really the creator?”
`- As if it would really be them`
`- Why is the streamer so naive lolololol`