A Swordsman’s Stream

Chapter 32

There were mobility restrictions.

The enemy knew his location, but he did not know the enemy’s.

It was truly a disadvantageous situation.

There were only a few ways to overcome this.

‘Either hide…’

Or lure the enemy.

Sojun slowly moved into an alley with fewer people.

At that moment, the shadow beneath his feet morphed into a hand-like shape and lunged forward, grabbing Sojun’s ankle.

If he hadn’t stopped immediately, he would have fallen.

Sojun, with a startled expression, said, “Uh, how many seconds does this bind last?”

It was a skill used by a player from the Assassin’s Dawn.

Of course, since Sojun had never used it, he didn’t know the specific details.

“Nameless, remember this. Excessive order stifles individual growth.”

A voice came from behind him. Before a message could relay the information to him, a threatening axe blade rushed horizontally toward Sojun’s head.

Sojun quickly ducked to avoid it.

With his ankle held, he couldn’t turn his body.

An assassin wielding an axe was unusual.

He wasn’t a barbarian warrior, after all.

Whoosh!

The axe, which had cut through the air where Sojun’s head had been, struck the wall, smashing the red bricks.

“My ankle is free.”

Sojun immediately spun his body, grabbing the assassin’s head and smashing it against the wall.

A stun effect was applied.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Normally, when stunned, they would only flinch for a few seconds, but since he was in the middle of a quest, nPCs didn’t wake up once stunned.

‘This should suffice.’

Sojun ventured deeper into the alley.

-Streamer-nim, where are you going?
-Isn’t narrow space more disadvantageous?
-How can sparrows and swallows understand the heart of a wild goose or a swan?
-You don’t know either, shut up
-Hahahahaha

Moving further inside, Sojun looked up.

An assassin with a hood pulled tight, showing only his nose and mouth, aimed at Sojun from the rooftop behind him.

“I thought so.”

He looked ahead to see another assassin jumping toward him.

The assassin’s wrist blades and fluttering sleeves resembled an eagle.

“For now…”

He parried the falling blade.

How?

By matching the tip of the blade precisely in time.

Screech.

The reformed shadow, now a vine, climbed up to grab his ankle again.

Sojun ignored it, focusing on the tip of his held blade.

‘Ensure the direction of the force applied is vertical.’

He held his sword with both hands, swung it from behind his head, and struck.

Clang!

It hit precisely.

He matched the exact position of a needle-thin blade.

-Oh
-How is he so good?
-A man born for parrying

A faint sound of a bowstring being pulled was heard.

In this virtual reality, individual senses varied little from person to person.

This was because the configured signals were transmitted directly to the brain, not to sensory organs.

Therefore, it’s possible that Sojun, with a low synch rate, might actually hear worse than others.

But Sojun detected faint sounds better than anyone.

For one reason.

He knew which sound among the incoming information to focus on.

Shoom!

The arrow was fired in an instant, and Sojun moved his head to avoid it.

The arrowhead grazed his cheek and embedded itself in the ground.

Screech.

The shadow binding his ankle disappeared.

Sojun moved again.

“This is endless.”

It wasn’t much for Sojun, who had faced far worse, but it appeared as a tremendous crisis to the viewers.

-Agreed
-So scary, so scary
-If it were me, I’d die at the first ambush.
-Streamer-nim, just kill the assassins and fail the quest quickly!

A foul smell hit his nose.

The space grew narrower.

Ambushes became more frequent.

Sojun hurled the dagger he had looted from the assassin towards the rooftop, but they swiftly evaded it.

Hitting a sufficiently wary NPC was a challenging task.

‘I can’t even speed up the dagger.’

He couldn’t climb up either.

His injured leg penalty had blocked his parkour skills.

“It’s blocked.”

Sojun looked at the wall obstructing his path.

He had finally reached a dead end.

He couldn’t move any further.

The enemies, aware of this, began to reveal themselves slowly and menacingly.

“Surrender, Nameless.”

They appeared from the shadows on the ground, the wall behind him, and the second floor.

On the rooftop, three assassins aimed their bows at Sojun.

They all stood in front of him, ready to attack, awaiting commands from the assassin attempting to converse with him.

– It’s a checkmate…
– Ugh!
– This is what an assassin does!!!!! May the streamer who captivated Christina, the dog of the Organization, die!
– Assassin! Assemble!
– Did the assassins herd him?

Sojun read the chat and let out a chuckle.

Herding, my foot.

“I came here on purpose, everyone.”

Roughly dozens of people surrounded Sojun.

The most troublesome of them were the snipers on the rooftop.

The assassin, who seemed to be the leader, took a step toward Sojun.

“Chaos is the fear and confusion that bloom from our ignorance. People don’t want to take responsibility and are afraid of going outside. Chaos is the unknown. Hence, people seek order. They desire to be controlled by someone who will protect them. However,”

Click.

An assassin’s knife sprung from his sleeve.

“That approach will make people careless. They’ll get caught up in a comfortable life and lose their potential. They’ll live no different from livestock fed with fodder. Therefore,”

I see.

As expected of an in-game character, he was extreme.

The moment the conversation ended, the assassin signaled, and arrows were shot.

“Die!”

Sojun moved forward.

Thud, thud, thud.

Three arrows struck where he had been standing.

Sojun dashed towards the nearest assassin, parried, grabbed the smoke grenade hanging from his pants, and immediately used it.

Bang!

A dense fog enveloped Sojun’s body.

A brief lull ensued.

Well, only the assassins were under the illusion of a lull.

“Argh!”

“Ugh.”

“Where are you!”

The alley was narrow but wide enough for several people to walk in a row.

This meant Sojun could move freely.

As the rooftop snipers hesitated, their bowstrings wavering, something flew through the fog.

Swish!

Before using the smoke grenade, Sojun had identified their positions. He threw three daggers at the snipers’ shoulders to subdue them.

‘Got it.’

Three screams were heard.

‘Now that I’ve dealt with the most troublesome ones,’

It was his time now.

In the mist, only people’s heads and shoulders were partially visible.

That was enough for Sojun.

He began knocking out the enemies.

Thud!

Even if another assassin spotted him, Sojun would disappear again.

Thud!

Another assassin collapsed after having their head struck against a wall.

– Sojun-hyung… I’m dizzy…

– Something’s appearing and falling, then falling again. What is this?

– Is the streamer the only one without the smoke?

– No, you can see the silhouettes clearly. It’s just that the screen moves so fast, it’s hard to keep track.

When the smoke grenade’s effect dissipated, more than a third of the assassins were knocked out.

Sojun then waved with a smile.

“There’s one more.”

– Finally, we can see!
– But what’s that?
– Look at his hand habits, lol
– Wow, is this real?

He had another smoke grenade in his hand.

Bang!

Again, dense fog filled the alley, and screams echoed.

– This is a comedy, lol
– The Assassin’s Guild 〈— the greatest bubble entity
– Getting wiped out by a single person, lol
– Sojun-hyung is definitely in a league of his own.
-The guys who were acting all tough just now, trying to gang up on him, got thrashed so bad, lololol
-How does an assassin get discovered while hiding, ROFLMAO
-The streamer is indeed an assassin!

Sojun swiftly took care of all the assassins. The alley was filled with the sprawled bodies of the assassins. He suddenly had this thought.

“This is chaos.”

What else could chaos be?

-For real, lol
-It’s pure chaos
-I was deeply impressed by the chaos the assassin squad created, becoming chaos themselves.
-Their actions matched their words, wow

『You have met the condition for the Hidden Quest ‘Hunt’』
『Return to the abandoned factory and meet Arthur』
『You have met the condition for the Favorability Quest ‘Mercy’』
『Meet and talk with Christina』

A notification popped up.

“Oh, you took care of all the assassins, huh. As expected, luring the enemies was the surest and easiest way. Right? Of course, it was intentional.”

Indeed, the sheer number of assassins caught earlier was remarkable, and it seemed the quest had been completed. It was fortunate that everything went as planned. If even one assassin armed as a sniper had remained, it would have been quite a headache.

Now that the quest was complete…

“Guys, if I turn off the game now, will the quest progress be saved?”

Sojun contemplated ending the streaming. The timing felt just right.

-????
-Why now of all times?
-Is he in his right mind?
-No, absolutely not
-If you cut off in the middle of a quest, you have to start over, really
-If you start over, it’s a hassle, just go to the abandoned factory and play a bit longer
-Christina’s quest only gives one chance. If you quit now, you lose it

It was too obvious.

The Christina quest had just been updated, so how would they know?

“Really? Then, we can just do it again next time, it’s not that hard.”

-Sojun-hyung… seriously flipping over here?
-lololol
-Everyone’s gone mad!
-Are you serious? For real?
-Hyung, I’m holding my breath again? If I die, you’re at a loss?

The comments scrolled by at a tremendous speed. But Sojun paid no heed and shouted.

“Tra-va!”

* * *

Bereft of home, the viewers had a predictable destination.

『What happens when all Fragment of Order are gathered』
『Christina favorability quest appears!!!』
『Oh, if Sojun had just shown the reward for Christina’s quest, I’d gather the Fragments of Order, but not showing it, so not gonna gather』

-Correction) it’s can’t rather than won’t

『Streamer-nim ends here, truly a demon』
『Anyone who kissed Christina’s hand, join me in going to wreck them (1/9999)』
『Jin Sojun, you bad guy. If you’re handsome and a social star, go have fun in real life. Let us enjoy the game, please.』

-For real, lol
-This one feels genuine lolol

└Truly!
└It’s just a persona, you guys (original poster)

『Assassin dudes, lol, they can’t get it together, can they?』

-The academic consensus is that the hidden quest was to let players feel how it is to be assassinated, not to give the assassin clan a chance to get beaten up.

『Why the assassin clan always loses to the Organization: they are a small-time operation failing at killing a single person.』

-Small-time operation lolol

└ Don’t you feel bad for the small-time operations? These guys are just a gang.

└ Info) The Organization dudes even failed to beat these guys properly.

└ But the Organization guys lost fair and square one-on-one.

『Breaking News) Nameless’ iTube video is up』

-Oh, I was so bored waiting until tomorrow, going to rewatch it now
-Anyone who hasn’t seen the edited video, you must watch it. Even I haven’t seen it yet, but it’ll be amazing.
└For real, lol

『This man, how would he fare in an online game?』