Episode 5
[Viewers: 7]
Seo-jun checked the bottom of the broadcast screen. Somehow, the viewer count had gone up by three.
Maybe it was because of the title.
- I bet he dies right here
- Anyone wanna bet on how many deaths before the streamer gives up?
Just as he was thinking that, chats belittling him popped up.
But it didn't matter.
Looking down on him, ignoring him, teasing the streamer—it was all part of the viewers' fun.
As long as it didn't cross the line.
And he could just prove his skill.
"Who goes there!"
As Seo-jun approached the mansion, the two guards standing at the main gate drew their swords and started walking toward him.
"Don't worry. I've gotten the hang of it now."
- Got the hang of it. (First time playing today)
- Don't worry! (No one was worried)
- So falling off repeatedly earlier was you getting the hang of it? lol
Seo-jun decided to first gauge the speed of the guards and himself.
The moment he made up his mind, he closed the distance in an instant and lightly swung his staff.
"Take off that hood right no—"
Clang!
A light testing strike.
The guard blocked it without much trouble.
'Their level is quite high.'
And then followed the coordination from Guard 2, who was behind Seo-jun.
"Intruder!"
Seo-jun put strength into his toes. He swiftly lowered his stance, twisted his waist, and took in the enemy's movements. In that split second, he predicted.
Guard 2's eyes reflected the hooded figure.
Seo-jun intended to deflect Guard 2's sword away and then attack.
But.
Claaang!
The moment the swords met, a ripple effect washed over the background, and Guard 2 stumbled backwards before falling, entering a groggy state.
- Oh, got lucky lol
- You can parry in this?
- lol lucky
"Huh?"
Seo-jun hadn't fully grasped what happened, but he didn't miss the opportunity and rushed at Guard 2, thrusting his staff into the guard's neck.
His HP chunked away. As if he'd been instantly killed.
'What is this?'
Then, as Guard 1 approached, Seo-jun deflected his sword again, producing the same phenomenon.
Claaang!
- ???
- Damn, should've bought a lottery ticket lol
- Two parries in a row, insane
- What's so insane, it's just a fluke
Partly as an experiment, Seo-jun lightly struck the groggy guard.
But his health bar dropped by a huge chunk.
In the end, before he could even land two hits, the guard followed his friend to death.
Seo-jun asked the viewers to find out why.
"Guys, what's a parry?"
- You pulled that off without even knowing what parrying is? Damn talent
- I said it was luck, what talent lol
- Does parrying just happen by accident?
- So parrying is something a newbie can do?
- For real lol
"Don't fight. Can someone explain what a parry is?"
A brief silence, then the viewer who had told him about the Assassins' Dawn earlier started explaining.
- Parrying normally means deflecting an opponent's attack, but in this game, simply knocking it aside has no effect. If you deflect it perfectly perpendicular to the attack and at the perfect timing, the opponent goes into a groggy state. In a groggy state, they take a lot more damage. That's called a parry.
- Basically, parrying is the only hope for a musou-style play, but even ex-pros, confident in their mechanics, try to parry, fail, and end up running missions to gather assassination info lol
- But those guys are retired because they sucked.
Even ex-pros found it difficult?
Seo-jun recalled the Level 9 AI, the gatekeeper for pros.
If the skill level of retired pros was roughly similar to that.
'That makes sense.'
He understood immediately.
Perfectly deflecting meant perfectly predicting the enemy's attack and freely moving his body to the exact desired angle.
It would be difficult indeed.
For other people.
"Got it. But I find it easy?"
Seo-jun smiled and boldly entered the mansion through the main gate.
- That overflowing confidence is pissing me off lol
- Newbie, it was a fluke!!
- Nah, from what I see, those movements are no fluke. Something's up.
- Who the hell do you think you are lol
- Are parries a joke to you?
- Something's up my ass lol who are you lol
Chats poured in, mocking the one who'd noticed Seo-jun's skill in turn.
Seeing that, Seo-jun was reminded of his past life.
In his previous life, because of his lowly origins and lack of affiliation, even when he lightly defeated disciples of major sects, the great sects would always disparage the result.
The opponent had drunk the night before, they'd gone easy on him, they'd let their guard down.
They'd come up with excuses more shameful for a martial artist than a lack of skill, but Seo-jun had no background to call them out.
The great sects' goal was simply to gloss over everything and bury the matter.
Yet in that past life, he hadn't been hung up on it.
Instead, he proved himself to the end, and once he did, those sects then overly praised his achievements.
To justify their own defeat.
Of course, the chat window and his memories weren't the same.
But the essence was.
There was only one thing to do.
As Seo-jun entered through the main gate, five soldiers were blocking his path.
They had heard the guards' shouts earlier.
They must have had time to prepare, as they were equipped with shields and armor.
Seo-jun shot his staff toward the neck of the leftmost soldier with lightning speed.
That soldier was closest and slightly off-guard, making it difficult for him to react.
Thwack!
The soldier next to him reacted, knocking away the tip of Seo-jun's staff.
Seo-jun's outstretched right arm was pushed outward.
Then, the soldier Seo-jun had originally targeted brought his sword down from above.
'I've been waiting for this.'
Seo-jun immediately reversed his grip on the staff and raised it to be perpendicular to the descending soldier's sword.
Claaang!
Once again, the background rippled and the chat window lit up.
- ????
- What the?
Seo-jun saw the groggy soldier fall backwards onto his backside, drove his staff into the soldier's neck, confirmed his HP had worn down, and then rushed at the soldiers again.
Claaang!
Whether the game company had put in some kind of certification, their coordination was clean, but Seo-jun could see their gaps all too easily.
Claaang!
Movements anyone would admire.
Each attacked from different angles, but Seo-jun moved his staff without missing a single one.
"If you want to catch me, you should at least bring the Shaolin 108 Arhat Formation."
Claaang!
- ?? Is the streamer an old-timer?
- That's not the point, he just pulled off four parries in a row, holy shit lol
- So fucking sick. Wow, seriously...
- Still wondering who I am? Still wondering who I am? Still wondering who I am?
"D-damn it."
"Run!"
When Seo-jun had laid out four, the last soldier, now collapsed on the ground, shouted at the one still standing.
"Quick, call for backup... urk."
The staff pierced his neck.
Seo-jun had tested various ways of dealing damage to two of them while they were groggy, and this was the cleanest.
"That makes six down."
- Dude, what's the streamer do?
- Is he really a newbie???
- I was right. I was right. I was right. I was right. I was right.
"I am a newbie. You all saw earlier."
- No lol, how is a guy who couldn't even get over a rooftop properly so good at this
- For real, when he fell while climbing the rope, I thought I'd found a clueless newbie stream to baby, but turns out it's a sick veteran's stream.
- What are you guys talking about?
- Go watch the VOD.
- Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I?
"Uh, 'I am Joseon's Assassin', if you spam any more, it's a ban."
- Yes
- Laying down the law lol
- lol serves him right.
The viewer with the nickname "I am Joseon's Assassin" was the one who had recognized Seo-jun's skill a moment ago only to be mocked.
Scrolling up, aside from what he'd noticed, other viewers had been mocking him constantly.
That was, until Seo-jun executed his third parry.
"Alright, I understand, but if you guys start fighting among yourselves, I have no choice but to ban you."
- Yes
- y
- What's so scary about getting banned from a small stream?
A provocative chat suddenly popped up.
Small stream.
It was a term coined to compare streamers with many viewers to big corporations, and contrastingly, a stream with no viewers was likened to running a business out of a shabby shack.
- Go ahead and ban then lol
[lkiop1644 has been banned]
"There, done."
[Viewers: 6]
Seo-jun quickly cut that viewer off.
If he left a viewer like that unchecked because he was afraid of losing the view count, other viewers might start thinking this was the kind of stream where that's allowed, and a bad atmosphere could form.
He couldn't sell the future of his stream just because he didn't want to lose one person right now.
Though whether that future existed was uncertain.
- lol crazy reaction speed. Your mechanics really are great.
- Damn, I'm jealous of the first ban of the season!
Fortunately, the reaction wasn't bad. Joseon's Assassin typed in chat:
- Honestly, with this much talent, he'll probably blow up soon. The banned guy's gonna regret it later lol
- For real lol
Hmm.
If people were saying things like this, was he doing well?
This life, he hadn't had a proper social experience to know. And in his previous life, due to his origins, he rarely stepped into the spotlight and had lived a passive life, so he wasn't sure.
In the world of martial arts, background was incredibly important. No, it was the most important thing of all.
Depending on where he belonged, everything from the martial arts he could learn, to his status, and even the fame he could achieve, was more or less determined.
The food they ate, the martial arts they learned, their masters, experiences, the people they met.
All of it inevitably differed.
In such a world, he had been an orphan captured and brought from a foreign land.
Fortunately, an elder of the Murim Alliance from the Mount Hua Sect had taken him in.
And after recognizing his talent, took him to a place where orthodox prodigies were gathered.
At first, he was ignored.
But later, his talent—capable of vying for the title of best under heaven—stood out like a nail in a bag even there. His master tried to enroll him into the Mount Hua Sect, but due to the checks of other major sects who couldn't stand Mount Hua's power growing, he ended up unable to belong anywhere.
A martial artist who represented nothing and whom no one represented.
Yet, his talent alone pointed to the heavens.
The Lofty Sword God.
'In truth, I had no choice but to be lofty. Hmm. There was no one who lived as cautiously as I...'
That was when.
'Sa-hyung, please, stop spouting nonsense. Have you already forgotten how much we suffered because of the trouble you caused?'
He heard a hallucination. It happened sometimes.
Anyway.
Seo-jun was satisfied with the current situation.
The stream was more fun than he expected.
The game was fun too.
'It feels like venturing on a journey through the martial world I've never experienced before...'
Except.
'Sa-hyung, going secretly to the Namgung Family and flipping everything upside down isn't a journey through the martial world, is it? Huh?'
Seriously, it kept interrupting his sentiments.
Anyway, it was good.
- By the way, how are you so good at parrying?
- For real, do you have some newbie-only secret?
"Ah. But how hard is parrying exactly?"
- It's hard enough that the rotten old-timers from the previous series tried showing off their musou plays here, then at some point all vanished, leaving everyone to chant "Dosoom is an assassination masterpiece."
- Even ex-pros kept complaining the hitbox is too precise. They say you have to deflect it perfectly, so they fail about one in three times.
- No, dude, stop bringing up guys who retired cuz they sucked.
"I see."
- Hurry and tell us.
- gogo gogo
Seo-jun spoke honestly.
"That, you just remember your past life."
- ??
- Streamer lol level of mental state lol
"Or, you just see it and hit the sword perpendicularly."
- ???
- Oh come on, I didn't expect anything lol
- Didn't expect anything (was spamming gogo earlier)
Seo-jun couldn't hold back his laughter.
- Gaslighting and laughing lol
- Hey, is it fun to tease us? Hey, hey, stop that.
- If he doesn't stop, the streamer will parry you.
- lol
Laughing, Seo-jun thought.
'Seems like I really might be cut out for streaming?'
Interacting was more fun than he'd thought.
- So when are you gonna move?
- If you stay like this, they'll all swarm you.
"Ah, that..."
Tatatak
"This way!"
"Intruder here!"
The enemies had swarmed in.
Thirteen in total.
Everyone in the mansion except Eto had come.
The first two guards, the one who ran, the four killed, and the twelve now rushing in.
And Eto, one person.
The twenty enemies he'd identified at the beginning.
- Thirteen? They all swarmed, gg
- x
- He's a newbie, can't be helped. If you don't keep moving, they all swarm you eventually.
Seo-jun calmly spread his arms and waited until eight enemies had him surrounded.
- He's given up.
- Just die here, skip the tutorial fast, and go to the main game. Can't beat Eto anyway anyway.
Once completely surrounded, he stated his plan.
"Guys, I'll show you a 13-parry streak."
After that, only one chat appeared.
- bullshit