The Veteran Swordmaster’s Stream (Novel) - Chapter 77
Chapter 77
Was this map a forest?
Seo-jun was summoned inside a wooden cabin.
He looked around while waiting for the game to start.
Through the window, he could see a lush forest and an open field.
‘They said it would be hard to get matched after four wins. Is it starting now?’
In the first four matches, users with a much lower reputation score than him were inevitably matched, but after the fourth match, they were matched only with people of a somewhat similar level.
Because it was an additional game played by people who wanted to gain more reputation score regardless of their contribution score, and if they met users with much lower skill even after the fifth match, they could literally copy their contribution score.
Therefore, from the fifth match onward, if there were no users searching for matches at a similar level, they would end up waiting indefinitely.
And they could use this point to keep other rankers in check to prevent them from accumulating more contribution score through consecutive wins.
By not queueing up for matches.
However, there was a countermeasure against this.
If they did not queue up where he was, he could just go find them directly.
Though since they met users of a similar level, it was not as if he would always win.
Seo-jun was currently on a six-game winning streak.
And it took over ten minutes for this match to be found.
It was proof that the rankers were keeping him in check or avoiding him to that extent.
He did not know which of the two was the truth.
Maybe he would know if he peeked into the group chats of the Orthodox and Unorthodox factions?
At any rate, the opponent he met after ten minutes of waiting was.
[Heavenly Killing Star]
It was the Heavenly Killing Star, who was the cause and benefactor (?) of this event.
“We finally meet.”
He really came.
To think he would not accept the advice.
It was deplorable.
-Finally!!!!
-A duel between 1st and 2nd place
-All of this started from that guy’s Duel Challenge Letter
-Will the Heavenly Killing Star show something different!
-Let’s go!
-We traitorous bettors are only trusting the Heavenly Killing Star, T_T
-Let’s lose just once, a six-game winning streak is plenty
Oh right, there were points too, weren’t there?
Seo-jun raised his hand to adjust the broadcast settings and read the betting lists.
“It is really half and half. Is there no favorite or underdog at this rate?”
Amidst that, the part that caught his eye was the nickname of the user who had bet the most points on the side predicting his success.
I Am Joseon’s Assassin.
As the wealthiest point-rich user in Travel’s history, he placed 250,000 points, the maximum betting limit, on this prediction.
Actually, this was not something that happened only today.
Perhaps because his points were overflowing, it was said that he generously threw 250,000 points on every prediction.
Even in other streams.
-The guys who bet against him are seriously dead meat now
-What do you mean traitorous betting, lol
-Don’t you know even after watching until now? That Heavenly Killing Star or whatever will also get completely wrecked.
-Honestly, like this post if you think the room leader is now more famous than the former Number One Under Heaven, lol
-If he wins even this, he will become the most popular person in For Chivalry
-Practically confirmed as the Number One Under Heaven even without taking 1st place
-But why isn’t the room leader using the Heavenly Demon Descent Steps???
While they were chatting, the game started.
“Heavenly Demon Descent Steps? Shall I try using it once?”
The Heavenly Demon Descent Steps was a skill that appeared when a user who picked the Heavenly Demon Divine Art gathered more internal energy in their feet than during the Lightfoot Technique.
Seo-jun immediately concentrated his mind and gathered internal energy in his right foot.
Did they say he had to stomp?
Dark blue internal energy began to gather in Seo-jun’s foot as he raised his knee.
The longer he waited, the more internal energy was consumed, and the energy grew larger.
Gradually, he felt his foot growing heavier.
And the moment that sense of weight stopped increasing, Seo-jun stamped his foot down.
Kwaaaaang!
The wooden floor of the cabin was hollowed out with a roaring sound.
It was a crowd control skill that could inflict damage and stun if a user was nearby.
The skill users called the Heavenly Demon Descent Steps.
Although it was not difficult to dodge because the speed of gathering the minimum internal energy in the foot to activate it was a bit slow, it was an incredibly useful technique if used well since its range was quite wide.
-No, lol, we didn’t tell you to use it right now, lol
-He used up all his internal energy
-Why the innocent cabin, lol
It had the characteristic that its range and power increased in proportion to the amount of internal energy consumed.
“Hmm, I accidentally used almost all of it.”
Seo-jun was confident.
“But I’ve won without internal energy before, so it’ll be fine.”
-lol
-I believe in you
-Is this good news for the traitorous bettors?
-Honestly, he is 2nd place, so if he can’t defeat someone who used up all their internal energy…
-Always creating penalties for himself, lol. Just a consistent guy.
-At this rate, does he have a tendency to enjoy suffering…?
They were starting to slander him again.
However, correcting the misunderstanding was passed over for now. They wouldn’t believe it even if he corrected it anyway.
Seo-jun changed his way of speaking the moment he stepped out of the half-destroyed cabin’s door.
“Did you wait long?”
The Heavenly Killing Star was waiting in the open field.
“No. But what happened to that cabin?”
Seo-jun looked back at those words.
The exterior was also half-destroyed.
A sense of déjà vu, feeling similar to after finishing an assassination, was felt.
“I just tested my strength a bit.”
-Testing my strength my foot, lol
-It’s true though
-Why on earth is this a comedy stream instead of a skill stream, lol
The reaction was good.
Seo-jun felt proud as a streamer and turned his gaze straight ahead.
“You didn’t use up all your internal energy, did you?”
“Do not worry. I can defeat you even without that much.”
“Ha. Do you think I will fall like This is Not the Martial World hyung-nim?”
Seo-jun gave a gentle smile instead of an answer.
“I’ll make you regret it.”
“Good. Normally I play around a bit at first, but for you, I shall go all out right away.”
Seo-jun raised the tip of his sword and aimed it at the Heavenly Killing Star.
***
Gulp.
The Heavenly Killing Star swallowed his saliva at the unknown momentum.
Even though the enemy had merely aimed at him, his body automatically tensed up, and strength surged from his toes.
‘Am I nervous? Why?’
Why was he, who rarely lost in a one-on-one martial duel, nervous?
‘Defeating the other guys is certainly impressive, but I also win most of the time when I fight.’
His winning rate was 90%.
That was his martial duel winning rate in the last Battleground.
‘So it is worth trying.’
He finished his four matches as quickly as possible and then watched the stream of the enemy before him.
And his impression after watching the battle was, ‘He is good, but what if it were me?’
If it were me, I wouldn’t grip the sword like that.
If it were me, I would dodge to the right at that moment.
If it were me, I would widen the distance enough.
If it were me, I could counterattack.
It was not particularly unusual or unique to have such impressions.
‘Since it was something that always happened.’
Whenever he watched other people’s battles, these thoughts automatically surfaced in his head.
It was not as if he was conscious of it or had learned it.
It was not as if he had experience fighting since childhood either.
‘Just naturally.’
Automatically feeling intuition the instant he watched.
That was why it was a talent and he was called a genius.
Of course, even a genius was not born perfect and overwhelming from the start.
As experience accumulated, the flaws he could see increased.
And by overcoming countless snipers last season to take 1st place, he achieved immense growth.
Therefore, the Heavenly Killing Star took it for granted that he could see the flaws even while other rankers were helplessly losing.
He even thought, ‘Has the skill gap widened further?’
Thanks to that, the Heavenly Killing Star stood before Seo-jun with confidence.
“Going all out right away? Then that works for me.”
He knew how to utilize tension appropriately.
If the tension was excessive, he could lessen it. By talking lightly like now.
In this case, the moderately remaining tension would instead help him demonstrate his true skills better.
This was also an instinctive act.
“Understood. Then I shall yield the first attack.”
“Fine.”
The act of yielding the first attack meant looking down on the opponent as a subordinate.
However, he did not refuse.
It was better to secure victory or defeat and claim a larger pride than a minor ego.
“Then, I am also going all out.”
The Heavenly Killing Star spun his sword around playfully, and after speaking, adjusted his grip and charged.
The sect he chose was the Mount Hua Sect.
He chose the Twenty-Four Movement Plum Blossom Sword Technique as his trait.
The characteristic of the Twenty-Four Movement Plum Blossom Sword Technique was that each individual movement became a skill, and by linking those movements, one could use a movement with higher power.
In addition, through settings, one could receive correction for movements, or move directly by themselves to execute or select a movement.
This applied to all movements, but because the number of movements in the Twenty-Four Movement Plum Blossom Sword Technique was twenty-four, it felt exceptionally significant.
Receiving correction made it easy to use skills.
But.
Because even for the same movement, there was an application more suitable to be executed depending on the situation.
If one received correction for actions, the power was naturally halved, and it was easy for weaknesses to be detected.
Therefore, those who wanted to grow stronger discarded correction.
And they researched the movements.
As a side note, the one who helped the most at this time was Baek Wi-gang of the Demonic Sect, and because of this, the number of Peak First-rate users in the Mount Hua Sect was exceptionally higher than in other sects.
The Heavenly Killing Star executed a movement right from the start.
In a martial duel, there was no concept of level like in capture-the-base matches. A real sword fight taking place in a state where everything could be done at the maximum level.
This meant that he could directly link up to the final movement of the Plum Blossom Sword Technique, which would decide victory or defeat once executed.
His sword began to move in the form most familiar to his body.
The 1st movement.
Red energy was drawn out, covering the front.
The sword blade glinted and scattered internal energy to fiercely bite the enemy’s body.
This was not a very good choice.
Because even if he tried to settle the match with internal energy against the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, the outcome was decided.
[The divine art that stands above all cultivation methods.]
Although it was not used much due to the penalty, the single line describing the Heavenly Demon Divine Art could not be easily ignored.
Nevertheless, the reason he executed the movement was that he was confident he would win if the movement was not interrupted by directly touching the sword and if he continued to link it to higher movements.
Furthermore, the opponent had consumed almost all of his internal energy.
Even if he clashed now and took damage, it was fine.
In the end, as long as he linked to the higher movements, he would win.
As expected, a dark blue line was slowly drawn, erasing the red energies and slashing his body.
He did not dodge or block.
His health dropped a bit.
‘Indeed, seeing it in person, it’s even slower. And did he use up all the remaining internal energy?’
Thinking that this martial duel would end much more easily, he was executing the next movement.
Thud.
Before it even started, something caught his sword.
‘When did he get here?’
Because Seo-jun, who had approached right before his nose at some point, had blocked his sword.