The Veteran Swordmaster’s Stream (Novel) - Chapter 56
Chapter 56
Seo-jun climbed over the railing.
And he walked toward the stairs leading down.
He enjoyed a bit of leisure.
“Kyah. The sunset view is killer.”
The view of the ancient wuxia city center, gazed upon from the top of the pleasure house implemented by Movie Soft, was quite atmospheric.
It was a feeling that made him want to drink white liquor for the first time in a while.
-So relaxed.
-He has plenty of time lolololol
-Since there are no enemies on the 12th floor, he can just go straight down.
Clack.
Clack.
Seo-jun walked down the empty stairs where there were no enemies. And he rested the sword he originally had over his shoulder.
“Internal energy recovery is indeed very slow.”
Compared to when the Great Art of Absorbing Stars was active, it did not even fill up to one-twentieth.
No wonder people said that the strategy of reaching the enemy commander by using minimal resources was important.
Of course, it was all within his calculations.
Clack.
Seo-jun arrived on the 11th floor.
A sense of déjà vu washed over him.
Sprawled Demonic Sect members.
Scorched walls and sword marks.
Faint noises.
‘And once I turn this corner.’
Crackle.
‘Here it comes.’
Instead of swinging his sword, Seo-jun immediately dodged backward.
Just before turning the corner, in front of Seo-jun who had stepped back, an NPC appeared, thrusting an extremely swift sword as lightning energy flashed.
Boom!
The emitting lightning energy scorched the place it passed through, and the sword lodged into the wall along the path where Seo-jun had been.
“Namgung Cheon has appeared.”
He made eye contact with a giant old man in blue garments who was looking down at him.
After scanning Seo-jun up and down in a short moment to confirm his identity, the old man immediately pulled out the sword embedded in the wall and swung it.
“If I kill you, this war will be our victory as well. Hahaha!”
Since it was a basic attack without internal energy infused, Seo-jun countered it.
And at that moment, the Great Art of Absorbing Stars was activated, and Seo-jun’s internal energy began to fill up.
-Yeah, even if you kill the streamer, you guys can’t beat the Demonic Sect.
-What are you talking about, don’t you know Eo-Woo-Jeong?
-Anyway, the victory goes to the Orthodox Faction?
-But if you kill the streamer, we get to see something good!
-King Magical Girl!
Slash!
Namgung Cheon’s sword was thin and long.
Also, because his build itself was larger, Namgung Cheon’s arms were also longer than Seo-jun’s.
Yet, his speed was not slow either. The lightning energy, a characteristic of their martial arts, added rapid speed.
In a hallway where he could not dodge to either side, Namgung Cheon approached while swinging his sword at Seo-jun.
Seo-jun backed away while dodging the sword.
However, he did not just keep dodging.
‘I have no choice but to attack while getting hit, even by attacks I could dodge.’
Why?
It was because he had a time limit.
And.
The sword grazed Seo-jun’s left arm, reducing his health.
Right after that, however, Seo-jun slashed Namgung Cheon’s shoulder and took a step back.
His lost health recovered.
‘It doesn’t matter if I get hit.’
For his trait, it was actually much more advantageous to fight by exchanging blows with each other.
“Fortunately, he’s an NPC, so he keeps rushing in without thinking much.”
Clang!
The moment their swords clashed and he was pushed back, hard on the heels of Seo-jun’s words,
Lightning energy gathered on Namgung Cheon’s sword.
-The speed of lightning energy gathering is crazy fast.
-The preparation is so fast.
-Isn’t that because of the sword he obtained in a faction quest in the past?
-Thunder God Sword?
-Yeah.
The speed of the Heavenly Lightning Divine Sword unleashed by Namgung Cheon was much faster than that of ordinary players. It was to the extent of having no long preparation period.
The reason was that a few years ago, the Namgung Clan players had succeeded in a faction-related quest to obtain a treasure for Namgung Cheon.
In For Chivalry, there were naturally other contents besides the Battleground, and those contents were interlocked with the Battleground.
Not only simple quests, but also the faction relationship charts that changed as the story progressed and the growing NPCs were likewise interlocked to show stronger appearances on the Battleground.
The Thunder God Sword possessed by Namgung Cheon not only accepted lightning energy well but also harbored it, so the gathering speed was on a different level.
‘The game company must have adjusted the balance between factions on their own anyway.’
He focused on winning right now.
An extremely swift thrust aiming for Seo-jun’s heart was unleashed.
‘My internal energy…’
It had recovered enough to be infused into his sword a few times.
Seo-jun slightly twisted his body to avoid his vital points.
Staaab!
Although his health was heavily depleted due to the sword pierced into his chest, he could sufficiently handle it.
Smiling, Seo-jun also thrust his sword infused with sword qi.
Toward the enemy’s vital point.
“Heh. My health is filling up.”
He thought it would have been fun if such a martial art existed in his past life.
-That’s scary lolololol
-Is he seriously smiling with a sword stabbed in him?
-It would be perfect if he bled from the corner of his mouth right now, but since it’s a game, too bad.
-The Great Art of Absorbing Stars is so OP.
-This is literally a berserker…
“Now I really have no time.”
It was tight.
Instead of backing away any further, Seo-jun actually stepped forward.
For a chaotic melee of slashing and getting slashed.
It was a decision made with no choice due to his lack of internal energy.
Because he fought with his internal energy completely depleted from the start, he could not use highly damaging sword qi often.
Therefore, he had to squeeze in more basic attacks in a short amount of time.
Slash.
If the enemy slashed him.
Slash.
He also slashed the enemy.
Once more.
An exchange of blows that could never take place if it were reality continued.
Once again.
More than half of Seo-jun’s health was shaved off at once, only to recover again.
It was like a dangerous tightrope walk. If he made a mistake, he would fall immediately.
“Khahaha! You are struggling desperately!”
Shouting, Namgung Cheon raised his sword high up.
He could feel the NPC’s excitement.
Seo-jun also began to get excited along with him.
Was it because he had never experienced this kind of battle before, or was it simply because it was so thrilling?
-His madness is insane.
-Wait, is he dodging all his vital points in the midst of this?
-Still, the streamer’s health is going down.
Crackle.
Lightning energy gathered on Namgung Cheon’s sword.
It would strike down as an afterimage in an instant.
“Not right in front of me.”
Clang!
Seo-jun immediately infused sword qi into his sword, spun it around, and threw it. The gathering was interrupted.
Since only sword qi could counter sword qi, and there was no special martial art to shoot sword qi in the traits Seo-jun had selected, he had thrown it as an improvisation.
Interrupted from gathering, Namgung Cheon’s sword was swung without sword qi.
Seo-jun took the hit directly. His health dropped to a precarious level.
It was to the extent that he might actually die if he made a single mistake.
However, even the time to dodge or parry was a waste.
He moved his body and swung his arms first.
The sword he had thrown just now was falling after hitting the ceiling.
Seo-jun caught the sword falling along its path just like that and completed his attack.
Slash!
??
-No, what is this lolol
-Wow lolol
-What did I just see?
-No, holy shit lolol this is absurd lolololol
Seo-jun stepped even deeper inside.
The extreme close-quarters combat led to faster attacks.
He successfully landed attacks infused with sword qi repeatedly.
The enemy’s health decreased to a noticeable degree.
As the damage grew stronger, Seo-jun’s recovery amount also increased.
After repeating this process a few times.
“Guh.”
Namgung Cheon collapsed, and the Great Art of Absorbing Stars, which had been breathing vitality into Seo-jun while simultaneously tightening around his neck, deactivated.
“It doesn’t hurt.”
-Kyah!
-Insane!
-Yesssssss I believed in you.
-4 minutes? What a joke. 4 minutes? What a joke. 4 minutes? What a joke. 4 minutes? What a joke.
-The streamer was humble! The streamer was humble! The streamer was humble!
-Stop thinking about copying the rankers’ routes!
With a smile, Seo-jun looked at his palm.
Blood was pooled in his palm.
And there were wounds all over his body.
Even though it was virtual reality, he didn’t know how long it had been since he fought while getting slashed like this.
When a few seconds passed, the red blood vanished as if evaporating, and all of Seo-jun’s wounds healed.
Seo-jun soon adjusted the settings to turn the camera to the front.
Making eye contact as if looking at someone, Seo-jun spoke.
“Now then, you should come to the Demonic Sect, right?”
The identity of that ‘someone’ was obvious.
His record was 3 minutes 1 second.
Since it was a record far faster than even the 4-minute range.
-Gotta come, right?
-The Sect Leader personally proselytizing lolololol
-Why did that punk Dang So make the bet?
-Anyway, this Battleground is ruined for him lol. Serves him right after picking so many fights.
***
A little while ago.
Dang So sat in the spot where Seo-jun had disappeared.
And he opened several internet windows.
One was Seo-jun’s stream, and the others were sites like No-Hyeop and group chatrooms where they could collect information.
“It’s obvious that I will win the bet, but I should give him a look for now. Huhuhu.”
Here, “giving him a look” did not mean calling off the bet out of consideration for Seo-jun’s circumstances, but rather meant watching his stream.
Of course, even if it weren’t for the bet, Seo-jun’s stream was one of the streams that rankers were paying close attention to.
On top of becoming a hot topic by obtaining the title of Great Grandmaster the day before, he had played the game immediately at 7 o’clock when the Battleground started, so they could not help but watch.
“What are you saying? What were you going to do if you lost when you made that kind of bet?”
Dang So’s head turned toward the direction where the sound came from the screen.
“That guy is a fraud, so there’s no way I will lose.”
Confirming the identity, Dang So said confidently.
The counterpart was a fellow ranker of the Unorthodox Faction.
“Personally, I don’t think that person is a fraud.”
“Why is that?”
“In the first place, how and what did he even cheat on?”
“A hidden quest?”
“If you thought it was a hidden quest, you could have just asked him to open his quest log window and show it on the stream earlier, you idiot.”
“Oh. I should have checked that.”
“If you lose the bet and go to the Demonic Sect, it’ll be a total disaster. Every single ranker like you is so precious.”
Dang So’s colleague let out a sigh.
On the Battleground, if one continued a winning streak, an immense amount of reputation points could be gathered due to bonuses.
The rankers who gathered such a large amount of reputation points soon became the combat power of the faction.
This was because they could stack up a lot of offense and defense points as their reputation points were high.
Normally, once the game passed the mid-stage, these rankers’ offense and defense points became significant.
Right now, since not many reputation points had accumulated, he was merely an ordinary User 1.
From the moment they accumulated a lot of reputation points through winning streaks, every single ranker became an important resource.
Among them, Dang So, who was at the very top, seemed surprisingly foolish, but he was quick to judge situations and his skills ranked at least within the top four in the Unorthodox Faction, so even if he was unlikable, he absolutely had to win the bet.
“Were you watching the stream too?”
“Yeah. Most of the Demonic Sect and Unorthodox Faction users fighting against the Orthodox Faction were probably watching his stream. They must have seen everything, even you making that foolish bet.”
“Ha. Do not worry.”
Dang So snorted.
“How could he possibly make it in under 4 minutes with that kind of build?”
“Why not? He might succeed.”
Dang So said flatly.
“I did not look down on his skills. But what’s impossible is impossible.”
“Sigh.”
Without saying any more, his colleague sat opposite him and turned on the stream.
‘Anyway, if that Tang guy wins the bet, a ranker-level would come to the Unorthodox Faction.’
And one with amazing skills who was highly desperate for the Battleground, at that.
He knew.
Just what Seo-jun had staked on the Battleground.
The problem was.
‘Why in the world am I so anxious?’
Amidst such worries, the 1-minute waiting time passed, and Seo-jun’s game began.
“Ho. Is he immediately breaking the wall and going outside? What is he trying to do? Scouting in the second round too?”
Dang So said.
“There’s no way.”
His colleague also said.
On the screen, Seo-jun went outside after breaking the wall.
And he looked up.
A sense of anxiety crept over him.
The corners of Dang So’s mouth, who had been smiling the entire time, also went down slightly.
Before long, he reached the top all at once.
“……18 seconds?”
“……”
“……”
“We’re screwed.”
“Haha. You can’t say he succeeded yet. He used up all his internal energy, so isn’t it possible he won’t be able to defeat the NPC……”
“Hey.”
“……”
“Just pack your bags.”