Episode 24
The moment Seojun's sword precisely stabbed into the intersection.
A crackling sound erupted right before him.
It was an instant.
A blue current of lightning flowed into the sword in a flash.
The blue lightning was absorbed into Seojun's blade, turning white and forming upon it.
The sound of sparks sizzled close by, and the sword grew heavy, with a tingling sensation.
"Hup."
Seojun swung the sword.
Then, the white lightning that had gathered on the blade surged toward the wall with a deafening crack.
KWA-KA-KANG!
The lightning struck a bookshelf attached to the wall, lingering for about a second before vanishing.
Thud. Thud.
Crash!
Books hit the floor first, and the desk collapsed.
-Wow? ㄷㄷ
-Is he using magic just like that?
-What did he do? He didn't use Weakness Detection, right?
-There he goes again, doing something only he can pull off.
It was exactly as it seemed.
The clue to conquering the Mage Tower Lord.
'He really was the creator. As expected.'
Seojun smiled contentedly and leaned his body backward.
Crackle!
Lightning shot past above him in an instant.
Seojun again identified the minute intersection, stabbed his sword into it, then swung it toward the Mage Tower Lord.
White lightning flew at the Mage Tower Lord and struck his shield directly.
Clearly he could evade with teleportation, but the Mage Tower Lord didn’t; he withstood it in place.
Cracks appeared on the translucent spherical shield.
"Looks like it breaks even from your own magic."
Blue lightning traced lines through the air, and as if in answer, white lightning drew lines in return.
Attack and defense repeated, and the cracks in the shield grew larger until it finally shattered.
Immediately after, Seojun swung his sword toward the glass tube behind him, sending lightning.
"You insect!"
The Mage Tower Lord’s pupils dilated momentarily.
And from where he stood, he had no choice but to teleport away at last.
Clink.
The glass tube finally broke.
Then, a ring the size of a soccer ball inside began to glow and tremble.
The Mage Tower Lord, who had evaded to Seojun’s side, furrowed his brow.
And he began to glare at Seojun.
"Hah... You must have believed that destroying that would be the solution. But you’re mistaken. The core is merely a device that refines the infinite magical power drawn from the tower and sends it to me in an easily absorbable form."
Seojun shrugged and said,
"You’re flustered."
-For real lol
-Just from looking, it's resolved.
-Did he discover the identity of the infinite mana?
-Transformer ㄷㄷ
Despite Seojun’s taunt, the Mage Tower Lord did not waver and spoke his piece.
"Even without the core, I can still wield infinite mana. Rather, a greater amount of mana flows in, making my power even stronger. Since things have come to this, I'll use this power to end you quickly."
Blood vessels on the Mage Tower Lord’s face glowed blue as they began to surface.
"Why so long-winded?"
Seojun said, resting his sword on his shoulder.
-Look at him turning into an exposition machine. You’re flustered, aren’t you?
-It was a transformer after all.
-I think we can just hold out.
-Let’s go phase 3!
People experienced in the game quickly caught on.
The fact that if you survive for the time limit, the Mage Tower Lord would self-destruct on his own.
Seojun also noticed while reading the chat.
"The AI level is really low. He has no way to pierce the shield without using lightning. He insists on using lightning and digs his own grave."
-For real lol
-If he just used basic magic and shields, the streamer would be broke and the broadcast would end on its own when the time ran out lololol
"Well then... Die."
The Mage Tower Lord stretched out his hand.
As magic formed, the force that drew in the atmosphere felt far stronger than before.
And the Mage Tower Lord disappeared in an instant.
He reappeared behind Seojun.
"You insect."
BOOM!
Thunder roared and blue lines were drawn.
Hearing the sound, Seojun dodged to the right.
And just as he was about to plunge his sword into the lightning, the floor beside him rose up.
Seojun sharply altered the sword’s trajectory to shatter the rock, and the lightning vanished.
The Mage Tower Lord vanished again, reappearing this time in front of Seojun.
Seojun did not miss the Mage Tower Lord’s hand, swollen with veins.
BOOM!
The Mage Tower Lord’s spells began to rage fiercely.
Stronger and faster than before.
Amid the rain of magic, Seojun tried his utmost to find a pattern.
-The difficulty is truly insane.
-And the streamer dodging all of that too.
-Seriously, do you want us to play it like a musou or not?
-For real lol, put all this effort into making it, and then set the difficulty so insane no one can beat it.
"You’re right. I feel it every time too—the creator seems like a bit of a pervert."
Ice arrows flew past both sides of Seojun.
And at the same time, lightning struck from behind.
"And I don’t know how long I have to hold out, but it’s better to finish him off than let him self-destruct, right?"
As Seojun dodged to the side, he immediately stabbed his sword into the lightning.
The sword charged white.
-Don’t dodge while reading chat, you bastard.
-Lololololololololol
-In the middle of this, he declares he’ll finish it.
-The way the lightning forms on the sword really is cool.
White lightning shot from the tip of Seojun’s sword.
Simultaneously, blue lightning also flew in.
The two spells intersected in midair.
It was dangerous.
"You trusted your shield and just launched it blindly."
The shield that the Mage Tower Lord replenished shattered, and Seojun dodged the lightning.
Then, as if drawing a sword from its sheath, he stabbed the sword into the center of the spell and pulled it out again.
The lightning energy gathered once more.
'End it here.'
Now, while he was without a shield, was the opportunity.
KWA-KA-KANG!
Lightning struck from the tip of Seojun’s sword, and as expected, the Mage Tower Lord was no longer there.
He had teleported.
However.
"Keuheok."
A sound came from the right.
-???
-What happened?
-Why is a sword stuck in the Mage Tower Lord’s stomach?
-Crazy lololololol He predicted that.
"A mage’s body really is weak."
Seojun’s right hand was empty.
He had predicted the teleportation and, at the same time he launched the lightning, he had also thrown his sword.
Seojun approached and pulled the sword from the mage’s stomach.
Cough.
Thick blood poured from the Mage Tower Lord’s mouth.
Clutching his waist, the Mage Tower Lord raised his head and glared.
"You insect..."
"Shut up."
The tip of Seojun’s sword glowed, and the conquest of the Mage Tower Lord ended.
[The master of the mage tower, Duke, has been slain.]
[Acquired Fragment of Order (3/4).]
-Kyaa!
-Go back and watch the ending again. It’s insanely sick.
-From looking, he clearly lost his grip, right? He got lucky, right?
-Stop talking nonsense lol
-He kept dodging the lightning, so he threw the sword lolololololol
-Crazy.
"No guards coming this time either?"
Seojun surveyed the mage tower idly and said.
-Yeah yeah yeah
-Three overlords down!
-Another first clear!
"Then I’ll take the mission reward."
[Cleared the Mage Tower Lord without using Weakness Detection — Mission reward: 1,417,000 won]
Seojun pressed the success button for the mission, which had risen to 1.4 million won.
Then, the signature celebratory notification sounded, and the reward was delivered to Seojun in the form of a donation.
-Lololololololololol So much for a safe asset, it was a damn risky one.
-Just you wait.
-It would have been fun if there was betting too.
-Only the streamer is grinning ear to ear.
[User 'Bangju' has donated 100,000 won!]
[I enjoyed watching. So you just had to beat it with skill. ㄷㄷ]
"Ah, thank you, Bangju-nim, for the 100,000 won donation."
But the donation message had a somewhat meaningful nuance.
Looking at the chat, he understood why.
-Ah. It's the owner of that post.
-Bangju was watching too ㄷㄷ
-He's a famous analyst.
-He's a former pro from a trading card game.
-Bangju says you can beat it with skill.
-Bangju says Seojun's skill is on another level.
-Bangju says if Seojun were a pro, he would have won.
Seemed like he was a famous person.
Anyway, how far are they going to take this, guys?
Seojun shook his head.
"All right then, now I'll take my time and explore the mage tower. Since there’s no one to bother me."
-You killed them all, after all lololololol
-By the way, I want Weakness Detection too, it’s freakin' cool.
-You think you could cut through magic just with that?
-I don't even dream of the lightning lololol
Seojun looked around the map, chatted casually with viewers, and then descended.
And the moment he stepped out of the mage tower.
A cutscene played.
-Oh???
-I'm seeing this for the first time.
-Was there ever anything on this broadcast that wasn't a first? lolololol
* * *
Amid the multicolored light streaming through the stained glass.
Click-clack.
A woman wearing a hat pulled low, her violet hair flowing down to her shoulders, walked in.
The screen shifted to a man looking up at a mural, and then the woman stood beside him.
Both wore neat uniforms.
The man spoke first.
"What about Alteon?"
The man looking at the mural didn’t move his head.
"A friend took care of our job for us, it seems."
The woman’s beautiful voice was heard.
The violet-haired woman also looked up at the mural.
"Is everything taken care of?"
"No. Only the rotten branches. Three out of four."
-They’re talking about the streamer.
-Aren’t they the Order’s Guild?
-Saying "rotten branches" means it’s definitely the Order’s Guild.
The storyline of Assassin's Dawn, to put it briefly, is the fight between the Order’s Guild and the Assassin’s Guild.
Though it was rebooted with the capsule transition, the structure where the Assassin’s Guild assassinates the Order’s Guild—the evil of society—hasn’t changed.
The Assassin’s Guild pursues chaos, and the Order’s Guild pursues cosmos.
The Assassin’s Guild defines the Order’s Guild as oppression, and the Order’s Guild defines the Assassin’s Guild as indulgence.
Here, chaos isn’t simply a state of disorder, but rather a state of freedom that gives birth to order.
"Is it the Assassin’s Guild?"
A flat voice.
"Don't know. They didn’t assassinate in their usual way."
The woman’s voice tickled the ears.
-Kya lololololol
-Streamer. The creator says it's not an assassination?
-lolololololololololololol
-The creator officially says: what the streamer did is not an assassination.
-This might be a bit controversial?
The viewers seemed to be hung up on a strange point.
"Can we persuade them to join our side?"
This time, the woman spoke first.
"Don't know."
The man echoed the woman’s words, and,
"I’ll have to... go see for myself."
The woman let out a sigh and turned around. She seemed ready to leave again.
"You were planning to go anyway."
"Well, I suppose."
The woman briefly took off her hat and adjusted her hair.
At that moment, her face was revealed for a moment.
When a face of beauty rivaling Christina from the tutorial appeared on screen, the viewers stirred.
-That noona is coming to find us right now?
-Story-wise it’s definitely the Order’s Guild lololololol
-Should I abandon the Assassin’s Guild?
-Huh. I kind of like being oppressed.
-Is everyone crazy? No matter what, it’s Christina noona.
-So what kind of video is this?
-If it pisses you off that only the streamer sees stuff like this in the game, upvote lololololol
* * *
"In the end, he took down the Mage Tower Lord."
Yve Paimon laughed in disbelief.
It was funny how she herself had set the mission and now felt this way, but well—she just didn’t expect he’d take down the Mage Tower Lord so head-on.
To conquer the Mage Tower Lord in musou style, you had to neutralize the barrier.
Among the options, if you had the skill, the easiest method was to break through with Weakness Detection.
So she’d set the mission for the streamer, blocking the use of Weakness Detection and telling him to find the seams in the barrier.
But maybe his kinetic vision was equally superb—he found the seams in the lightning spell that were only visible for one second and countered it, clearing the fight. Without any help from a skill.
Lightning counter. Lightning reversal.
It was a system she’d put in because it was cool.
"Come to think of it, he took down the other overlords head-on too. Hmm, so now the cutscene’s out, next broadcast he’s bound to try collecting all the Fragments of Order..."
Truthfully, it wasn’t that Yve Paimon was some clueless idiot making all her employees work overtime, setting a mission during a stream to slay the overlords.
It was just,
She wanted to check.
That eye for finding seams.
And that skill that took down overlords consecutively for the first time.
Either way.
"I just need to win over that streamer."
Other players?
Honestly, it didn’t seem like anyone else would be able to collect them.
"Exactly one week, so..."
Yve Paimon called for Kim Yunchan with a satisfied expression.
"Hmm. What kind of gift should I...?"