A Swordsman’s Stream

Chapter 38

“From now on, I will show you why I am called the Heavenly Demon.”

Except for the term ‘This One’ the phrase was frequently used by his wicked friend from his previous life, who wasn’t much of a help. It seemed they had a good sense of historical accuracy.

“Is this really the time for that?”

No. 1 Swordsman Under Heaven shouted. There should be a limit to this kind of grandstanding!

“Watch your back… huh?”

His eyes widened as he stared at Sojun with a stunned expression. Instinctively, he clenched his hand.

“Wha… What?”

The enemy who had rushed toward Sojun after defeating him was equally confused. Three blades glinted, converging from different directions at a single point.

Why was the enemy now behind him?

“How did he evade that?”

“Be careful! He’s in a berserk state! Time’s up!”

Man-nyang shouted urgently.

“I know! But I lost sight of him!”

Having lost track of Sojun’s movements and already worn out from fighting No. 1 Swordsman Under Heaven, he had no way to react. As a result, he was quickly struck down by Sojun’s sword from behind and died.

『Defeated Bapchu』
『Enemy fortress HP –20』

“Damn it! Why is he so fast!”

Man-nyang attempted to escape the base pavilion by using lightness skill. The key to dealing with a berserk enemy was to hold out until the berserk state ended.

However, they hadn’t realized…

Sojun could predict their movements and acted before them.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Sojun intercepted Man-nyang and blocked his path. Naturally, the result was as expected; Sojun was faster, and he had even started earlier. Sojun’s robe, his standard attire, flapped violently.

Man-nyang gulped nervously. He had no confidence in escaping past Sojun. Meanwhile, Sojun pondered as he faced Man-nyang.

“Wasn’t it said that the enhanced speed during a berserk state was similar to when you used lightness skill?”

He suddenly grew curious.

“Hey everyone, how much faster does one get when using lightness skill in a berserk state?”

– Ordinary people couldn’t control their speed and would crash into walls, lol.
– Most only use lightness skill in a berserk state for chasing on straight paths.
– Heard that masters use it even during battles.

After reading the chat, Sojun adjusted his sword and said, “I see!”

The berserk state didn’t just make movement speed faster; it accelerated overall body movements. In game terms, attack speed also increased. But that wasn’t all.

“Who are you trying to save?”

Sojun spotted Chun-nyang, who was trying to revive a fallen comrade, behind Man-nyang. Instantly, he pressed down on his foot that was touching the ground.

*Crack!*

He smashed the wooden floor of the pavilion with tremendous force. His speed was astounding.

In the blink of an eye, he passed Man-nyang and slashed Chun-nyang’s body with his sword. Given Chun-nyang’s already low health, he died in one hit.

『Defeated Chun-nyang』
『Enemy fortress HP –20』

Even after slashing his foe, Sojun’s body didn’t stop. Instead, he seemed to fly towards the wall at breakneck speed.

‘I anticipated this.’

While half-floating in mid-air, Sojun twisted his body. Planting his sword into the wooden floor, he used the resultant force to momentarily slow down.

*Screech.*

‘Good thing it worked. I tried it because I thought it would affect the map.’

As expected, it worked. Once his speed was somewhat controlled, Sojun used lightness skill to return to his original position and slashed Man-nyang.

『Defeated Man-nyang』
『Enemy fortress HP –20』

In an instant, the fight was over. Few viewers fully understood the intricacies of Sojun’s technique. Nonetheless, they all recognized that Sojun had pulled off an incredibly complex maneuver.

– ????? Went away for a bit, and two people are dead.
– Wow!
– Is this Thunder Flash Technique, lol?
– Why does this guy keep performing stunts instead of playing the game? lololol
– I’ve been dedicated to martial arts for 8,000 hours, and I’ve learned to control recoil in berserk mode from this.
– I cannot forgive myself for doubting Sojun-nim and betting against our country. What should I do?
– This is patriotism! This is our country!
– It’s not the country, you bastard.

“What is this?”

The user, Man-nyang, who had become a corpse, looked back.

The single corpse had become two or rather three.

“You. Are you a smurf?”

Smurfing, an abbreviation for the term ‘smurf killing the poor’, is a term used mainly in the gaming world when a skilled player faces off against beginners.

Man-nyang was suspicious that Sojun was a malicious user who stayed in the beginner’s zone without joining any sect and kept matching against beginners.

Sojun tried to think about how one of his friends would respond in this situation.

‘Bow down, you insignificant beings.’

Ah.

Definitely a lunatic.

Sojun just gave a random answer.

“Bow to me. I am the Heavenly Demon.”

Man-nyang thought.

‘Crazy bastard.’

“Anyway, we won the game. Your fortress will soon be destroyed.”

Sojun looked at the chat window upon hearing those words, just in case there were rules he was unaware of.

– Really?
– The fortress does seem low on health.
– What’s the point? You have to kill in person to end the game.
– But mistaking him as a smurf is hilarious, though I can understand.

Fortunately, it did not seem to be the case.

“Anyway, let’s try a resurrection.”

The halted occupation gauge of the base began to rise again.
Sojun approached the No. 1 Swordsman Under Heaven and began to resurrect him.

“Oh, Heavenly Demon-nim! That was awesome. Amazingly awesome. I am in awe!”

– The commander was in awe, seriously? LOL
– Just stick to one thing, LOL
– Where does a loser of a 1v1 get off acting grand? For the next 10 minutes, no role-playing for you!

A green light surrounded the area and started gathering around the No. 1 Swordsman Under Heaven.

And above his body, a green timer began to fill.

“By the way, Heavenly Demon-nim, is this really your first match?”

“Yes.”

“No way, could we actually win this?”

『You are now occupying Base B.』
『Enemy Fortress Health -100』

Sojun realized that bases within the game were referred to as Base A, base B, and Base C.

Then, bad news was delivered.

『Blue Team: 0』 vs 『Red Team: 281』
『Our fortress has been destroyed』
『Players can no longer respawn now』

Hmm.

“If the fortress is destroyed while resurrecting, you can still complete the resurrection.”

The No. 1 Swordsman Under Heaven added more explanation.

“When the fortress is destroyed, players can resurrect one final time. I’m only able to because you were in the middle of resurrection. Otherwise, I would have come back at the destroyed fortress. However… One enemy player is quite skilled, so they are likely waiting near our fortress to finish the game quickly….”

『Baekho –〉 Dilla』
『Baekho –〉 Church to Youngho』

More bad news arrived.

“See? I told you.”

“Hmm, so the team members who just died can’t respawn anymore?”

“That’s right. In my opinion, the real smurf is that guy in the opposing team. He handled our team of three on his own.”

– That can’t be the standard, LOL
– 《〈 The guy who just fought 1v3
– But the streamer is worse than a smurf. Keeps playing his first game card to make people feel inferior.
– So, it was Baekho?
– Sojun-nim is more famous than we think.
– He’s still at it, LOL
– Jealous of the nickname.

It seemed that a user with the name Baekho was indeed a smurf.

From the chat, it seemed that smurfs weren’t a major issue in For Justice.

The reason was because, with a little playtime, players could quickly leave the beginner’s zone.

If staying in the beginner’s zone for a long time, such smurfs could wreck the game.

‘Regardless, smurfing is definitely not good.’

『’That Person’ donated 10,000 won!』
『Became somewhat famous defeating rankers in unofficial games. Also known as a Newbie Crusher.』

-LOL, was he a name-known?
-A smurf famous in “For Justice”.
-Heard he has high rank in other games too.

“Thank you for the 10,000 won donation. I see.”

Sojun offered his thanks without much thought. Beside him, the No. 1 Swordsman Under Heaven urged him on.

“Heavenly Demon-nim, let’s quickly move on to capture another stronghold.”

The First Sword grasped his sword right after being resurrected by Sojun.

However, Sojun did not budge.

“Why?”

Sojun looked at the First Sword Under Heaven with a genuinely puzzled expression.

“Ah… It’s because we need to capture strongholds in this game?”

“Isn’t the enemy fortress’ health continuously decreasing as long as we occupy this place anyway?”

“Well, yes, but…”

“Then, we just need to wait here.”

“If we stay here, the enemy will gather four people and come at us.”

“So what?”

“Pardon?”

– Hahahahaha
– Move, streamer, move!
– So lazy all the time

“No…”

The First Sword thought that if they were numerically disadvantaged, they should either roam the map to fight guerrilla battles or create some sort of variable, not just stay put!

“We’re fine. Do you think we’d lose because of this?”

– He definitely believes he can’t lose, lol
– As expected, if you have the skills, you don’t need to worry
– Named bully? He’s the greatest of all time in the history of assassins!
– Yeah, try beating Etor, Drake, the Tower Lord, the Knight King, and the Queen, lol!
– Add him to the assassins list

The viewers, having watched Sojun’s battles so far, did not doubt his victory. Even if the opponent was a known user who had defeated rankers.

Someone emerged from the bushes. An ID was displayed overhead. It was a user.

『Baekho』

Baekho prepared to slash diagonally with his sword. An enemy born in the ruined fortress spotted Baekho and got into a stance to parry.

In “For Justice”, if the parrying force was insufficient, the one parrying would be stunned. So, the enemy made a large movement.

“Right. Now.”

However, Baekho was an early-stage bully in “For Justice!”

For him, “For Justice” was just a way to kill time. He joined when he wanted to lightly toy with people while playing other games. Baekho swung his sword but smoothly retracted it halfway.

“What. What?”

It was a feint. He had never intended to put force into it. He only pretended to.

The enemy’s sword failed to control the rebound, and Baekho seized the opportunity to stab the unguarded enemy in the neck using sword aura.

The enemy looked bewildered.

“Goodbye.”

『Defeated Dilla』

Even though an attack came from behind him, he had known it from the start. Using Qinggong, he executed his martial art again. But it wasn’t really a martial art.

In Conquest, as players leveled up by contributing, they gained new skills. However, in beginner zones, available skills were limited; using sword aura was the extent of it.

Of course, as one joined a faction and honed their build, the combat would diversify, but he found it tedious. This was one reason he stayed here. He’d had enough of complex games from other ones. Here, he just wanted to bully without a thought.

“Kuhh.”

Without looking back, his sword aura, extended behind him, had pierced the enemy’s abdomen.

『Defeated Forever Church』

“Let’s wrap this up quickly.”

He checked the game interface. His three teammates were dead.

“What’s this?”

According to the kill log, all three were taken down by one person.

“Hmm. An intruding user? Another bully? Or just luck?”

He swiftly ran towards the center using Qinggong. Although leveling wasn’t hugely significant in the game, subtle differences in stats could not be ignored in high-level matches. The same went for skills.

“Well, it doesn’t matter, but if it’s another bully, that’d be fun.”

It wouldn’t be interesting if it was too easy.