The Veteran Swordmaster’s Stream (Novel) - Chapter 91

Chapter 91

If they lost this battle, the loss of the game would be certain.

It seemed obvious that even if they carried out guerrilla warfare or came up with other brilliant methods, that gap could not be overcome.

If their opponent was truly just Seo-jun alone, making it a genuine three-on-one, it might be one thing, but the fact that the game itself was a four-on-four was also despairing.

-Guys, you can win this time, right? Fighting

One of their teammates who was not a ranker typed in the chat, and JustOnePenny thought to himself.

Still, they are nice.

If it had been him, he probably would have cursed at them, asking why they were losing.

‘How can you not even win that?’

However, once one fought him, one would realize.

If a disadvantageous situation was about to occur due to his own speed, he would disrupt their momentum with sword qi at an exquisite timing.

On top of that, he blocked most attacks if they were within a certain distance.

Heavenly Killing Star thrusted his sword and shouted.

“Just get hit already!”

He absolutely never got hit by normal attacks.

Ah.

JustOnePenny regretted, wishing he hadn’t joined the match.

‘I desperately want to use a coordinated formation.’

Something like a sword formation used to deal with an absolute master.

It was desperately needed.

Clang!

It was an exchange of blows where all attacks came to nothing.

They wished he would get hit just a little, but as if determined, the enemy did not even attack, barely opening his mouth which used to pour out trash talk, and simply evaded.

“Pun-man, how much left for Berserk?”

“Probably…”

The experience accumulated daily returned as an extraordinary intuition.

Just as a skilled gamer would sometimes, out of nowhere, detect a radar signal and think, ‘Huh? I feel like an enemy is hiding here.’

“Soon.”

“I see.”

The game was lost.

“Are you going to play the next match?”

At JustOnePenny’s question, NamgungFamilyWaiter watched the movements of Heavenly Demon 14, who was approaching from the front and swinging his sword without a single change in expression.

His decision was quick.

“No, let’s tell the others to block him.”

***

The viewers watching Seo-jun’s stream could clearly hear the conversation of the Orthodox Faction rankers.

Since they hadn’t quietly whispered, nor had they conversed through chat.

[Anyway Orthodox Wins]

-Ah… Suddenly, I feel like fighting the Unorthodox Faction today?

Thus, one ranker said this.

Saying that he simply felt like it all of a sudden.

No one asked for the reason.

There was only a sudden influx of people who came to share a similar thought.

-Me too

-lol the Tang Clan bastards are all dead today. I’m going to deflect all their daggers

-I was already in a bad mood because I bumped into Green Forest while hiking yesterday

-Hey, you too?

-Me too!

-Honestly, we beat up the Demonic Sect too much haha

Seeing this, Bangju chuckled.

“Mhm. We did beat them up a lot.”

If one were to check the channels currently watched by those who typed those chats, it was obvious that a certain streamer would appear.

“Oh. Is Berserk Mode finally coming up?”

As seen on the stream, Seo-jun’s movements became fierce and his sword began to speed up.

The second reason why a three-on-one was not that advantageous.

Berserk Mode.

Since the design intention of the system was specifically to allow reversals in many-on-one fights, the outcome was as good as decided.

“There’s nothing more to see. Today’s Battleground is this.”

Of course, one must not forget that the statement ‘not that advantageous’ only applied when one’s skill was vastly superior to the opponents.

“Surely there’s no one who doesn’t know this?”

[Wijeongcheoksapa]

-I could do that too? It’s easy, you just have to hold out and you can win

-Ok, if that looks easy, you take charge of the Demonic Sect and the Heavenly Demon from now on

-Ah. It’s a shame that for this Battleground, I swore to teach those Orthodox bastards a lesson, so I can’t help it. What a pity

Bangju burst into laughter once again.

“They are all the same, anyway.”

Although he was not a ranker, he was invited to Anyway Orthodox Wins, Wijeongcheoksapa, and Anyway Demonic Wins (formerly At Least Second Place).

This was the result of the players’ consideration to make it easier for him to grasp the situation.

This was the advantage when a game became tryhard and everyone roughly knew each other.

And it was also the result of him not betraying their trust.

“By the way, he really is good.”

Physical reflexes, control skills, trash talk—the streamer lacked nothing.

Although the Battleground had officially begun and Bangju had to be busier than anyone else to grasp and record the movements of all factions,

at this very moment, perhaps because the attention of all rankers was focused on one place, he had plenty of leisure.

“Wow.”

Opening the map of the Battleground, he was astonished by the fact that there was not a single red dot.

It had been thirty minutes since it started, and while one or two players, or rankers playing solo, might start moving, no one was queuing for games.

The reason, of course, was that they were watching someone.

He suddenly became curious.

“How many viewers are there?”

The 18,000 viewers recorded during the collaborative stream the previous day were definitely thanks to Bangju’s help.

Because he had drawn immense attention and channeled a large number of viewers to broadcast Seo-jun’s stream, the wave flowing over there was correspondingly high.

However, looking at it the other way, one could see that 140,000 people still chose Bangju.

The reason was that viewers preferred to watch what they had already been watching.

It was a natural fact that not only viewers, but humans in general, simply liked what they were familiar with and did not easily accept new things.

For that reason, growing a channel’s viewer base was not easy.

If one wanted to rise, they had to continuously build recognition, show their face, and be exposed to others.

Then, right now.

what was the viewer count when he wasn’t there?

“Has it surpassed 10,000?”

The 10,000 viewers of a mid-sized streamer.

Although the definition of a mid-sized streamer was broad,

surpassing 10,000 viewers allowed one to proudly claim the title of a mid-sized streamer with a certain degree of influence on Travel.

Even though there was no official title.

“Oh?”

Confirming the viewer count, Bangju rejoiced as if it were his own achievement.

[Viewer Count – 13,000]

“He easily surpasses 10,000.”

Was it only temporary due to the Battleground?

Was it thanks to yesterday’s collaboration?

That was likely the case.

However,

Bangju scratched his cheek as he entered the Demonic Sect’s chatroom to examine their strategy.

This…

“By the time the Battleground ends…”

Won’t he hit 20,000?

***

[Victory]

Seo-jun stared at the text appearing before his eyes, then moved it aside.

The three-on-one match against the rankers had ended in an overwhelming victory.

He was curious about what kind of repercussion this result would cause.

-Kya, that victory was insane

-Strategy, combat power, he has it all.

-Why did you have to join the Demonic Sect, of all factions T_T

Seo-jun chuckled softly and exited the map. His vision flipped, and the original background returned.

If it had been a public channel, there was no telling what the waiting viewers might have done.

If they did something, he could simply switch the channel, and perhaps because the game required moving one’s body physically, there weren’t many trolls, but still.

still, there were bound to be those who left their sense of shame behind in their mother’s womb when they were born.

-Orthodox Faction got totally crushed, right? Orthodox Faction got totally crushed, right? Orthodox Faction got totally crushed, right?

-Losing even after attacking with three people lolol losing even after attacking with three people lolol

-Heavenly Killing Star characteristic: score vending machine

Perhaps because they were excited, there were many spamming chats.

Seo-jun opened the map to queue for the final game.

“Now. Let’s see who shows up this time.”

The viewer count was 13,000.

‘There must be many rankers watching right now, right?’

He became curious to see how they would cope after witnessing the defeat.

As Seo-jun started queuing for a game, a marker was once again displayed on the area he had been continuously playing in.

-Try blocking this lololol

-Tactical Heavenly Demon deployment!

-It’s really annoying to see the Demonic Sect guys getting so hyped

-Seriously, those Demonic Sect bastards

-What do you mean Demonic bastards? We are the Top Sect

-It’s really different this time, if you’re salty, try blocking it lololol

The Demonic Sect and the Orthodox Faction were fighting in the chat window. And the Orthodox Faction was losing in terms of numbers.

Because, naturally, the loser had no words.

[‘OrthodoxFactionSpokesman’ donated 10,000 won!]

[This game will be different.]

But a donation alert rang.

“Thank you for the donation. Although we don’t know how it will turn out.”

Seo-jun spoke with a smile.

“Isn’t finding a game the first priority?”

For on the map, only a single nickname remained displayed.

[Heavenly Demon 14]

-Ah

-No one is coming!

-No one

-I said no one is coming! lolol

-Are you seriously chickening out? lolololol

-Come on in, players. What? The player ran away?

***

[Anyway Orthodox Wins]

-Is there no one to go?

It was a single sentence that wounded their pride.

And JustOnePenny, who had sent that chat, looked around awkwardly.

Everyone seemed to have nothing in particular to say.

Fortunately, no one nagged him about losing that fight.

In any case, they would eventually have to deploy fourteen more rankers to restore the balance that had tilted due to Seo-jun’s victory.

The problem, if there was one, was that they had to assume all fourteen of those players would win, but anyway.

The Battleground was a team game.

-The Demonic Sect will likely be important from now on

‘True.’

With what kind of intention did Seo-jun move?

What was he looking forward to?

The streamer’s final game was matched.

There were no rankers.

And simultaneously, red markers popped up on the map.

‘The real start begins now.’

JustOnePenny shared opinions as much as possible while keeping his eyes on the Battleground map.

-The Unorthodox Faction guys and the Demonic Sect are attacking each other. In other regions

-Let’s also lightly poke at one of the Demonic Sect’s areas

The Orthodox Faction’s strategy was always the same.

The orthodox way.

A method of waiting for the enemy to move first before responding.

Because the Orthodox Faction possessed the strongest forces among the three factions, it was the most efficient orthodox strategy they could choose.

-Some Demonic Sect members are attacking the same region as the Heavenly Demon

-Should we defend?

JustOnePenny watched the situation and typed in the chat.

-Let’s give up on it and use those resources to take another place instead

-The Unorthodox Faction is also touching us

-Defend there

‘There are no unusual movements.’

It was just a level of probing here and there, conceding what needed to be conceded.

After testing the waters like that, the 12th day of the Battleground drew to a close.

The results would be released the next day.

‘Movie Soft, those malicious bastards.’

If the results came out immediately, players could prepare for tomorrow in advance, which might make the game boring, so they simply revealed it at the start of the next day.

To test their adaptability.

And because doing so induced many mistakes.

In fact, there were quite a few cases where teams lost the Battleground absurdly, so in terms of entertainment, it was a pass.

The next day.

JustOnePenny waited for 7 o’clock.

While keeping an eye on Seo-jun’s stream, which had turned on at 6:30.

[Anyway Demonic Wins]

It was Seo-jun’s stream title.

‘Wins, my foot.’

Laughing at the title, JustOnePenny entered the private channel to which he was invited.

Players gathered.

“Are you here?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you see today’s hotfix?”

A hotfix meant an emergency patch.

Normally, patches were scheduled regularly once a week, but if bugs or other errors surfaced, they had to patch even on non-regular days to fix them.

That was a hotfix.

“Yeah.”

“They said they adjusted the matchmaking system based on reputation scores, but it’s obviously targeting the Heavenly Demon, right?”

“It seems so.”

The problem, if any, was that they didn’t provide detailed explanations.

“Will it become a four-on-one? So they can block him somehow.”

JustOnePenny shook his head at his companion’s words.

Most people spoke like that companion, but JustOnePenny’s thoughts were different.

A three-on-one in a conquest mode made no sense balance-wise in the first place.

Many people were deluded because of Seo-jun’s victory.

From the perspective of a conquest mode victory rather than just a fight, in a three-on-one, the side with three is clearly at an advantage.

Yesterday, they had made mistakes and the enemy had simply responded well.

‘There’s no way Movie Soft doesn’t know this.’

So, if the matchmaking system was changed to be favorable to the Heavenly Demon…

“Hmm.”

It would get troublesome.

[I’m heading straight in today as well. Where am I going? Obviously the Orthodox Faction. Because I was in the Orthodox Faction in my past life.]

The sound flowing out of the stream rang in his ears, and JustOnePenny grabbed the back of his neck.

‘What on earth does that have to do with anything?’

Anyway.

[I’m going straight forward. Try blocking me, everyone in the Orthodox Faction.]

JustOnePenny, who had a strong premonition that how they blocked the Heavenly Demon would be the decisive factor in determining the direction of this Battleground, narrowed his eyes.

It was the official beginning of the Battleground.