Chapter 53
“Seems even a fraud can dodge that well with skill.”
What’s with this guy?
Even in virtual reality, people don’t just pick fights out of nowhere.
Without reason, that is.
Unless it’s an enemy you come across during gameplay, of course.
Because beating an opponent gives you a momentary thrill, and the easiest way to savor it is to rub it in.
Anyway.
Seojun checked the ID of the one who had barged in.
‘Dangso.’
Given the surname Dang, the green-trimmed outfit, and the dagger thrown earlier, the guy was definitely from the Dang family.
“Excuse me, who are you?”
The swordsman spoke as he got to his feet.
Dangso approached them.
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“How dare you not know who I am.”
“I said I don’t know.”
“How vulgar.”
“?”
For a moment, it looked as though a question mark had popped up over the swordsman’s head.
As Seojun watched quietly, a thought was growing rapidly in his mind: I do not want to get involved in this conversation.
Putting Seojun’s thoughts aside, the two continued talking.
“C-Can’t you see my ID?”
“Dangso?”
“Yes.”
“What’s Dangso supposed to mean?”
What could it mean? It’s probably just a name.
Seojun had assumed as much.
“It means the Young Family Head of the Dang family.”
Dangso declared proudly, the swordsman let out an exclamation of admiration, and Seojun stared off into the distance.
Oh, so that’s what it meant.
Well, nicknames aren’t that important anyway, as long as you understand it yourself.
Seojun rationalized with some effort.
“And what does your name, the World’s Greatest Swordsman, mean? Tell me.”
“It doesn’t really mean anything.”
“I see.”
A brief silence settled after that.
Judgment was swift. This guy’s an idiot.
- Dangso that little shit is kinda famous lol he’s always trying to aggro
- He’s the one who wrote a call-out post yesterday
- Just ignore him lol
- Here’s the link (link)
Through the chat window, Seojun caught on to the identity of the one called Dangso.
This is what I like about it.
No need to search.
And maybe because Hyeob-eul-Uihayeo is a game full of veteran players, everyone seemed to know each other fairly well.
“So why did you suddenly throw that dagger?”
Seojun spoke to Dangso in the Heavenly Demon’s tone.
The Dang family is part of the unorthodox faction. In other words, enemies of the demon cult.
So being condescending looked like it’d be more fun.
And as it happened, the other guy was being condescending too.
Anyway, in Hyeob-eul-Uihayeo, maybe because there were so many peculiar people, there wasn’t really a culture of nitpicking speech.
Dangso raised his head haughtily.
“Heavenly Demon 14.”
“What.”
“I am a direct descendant and the Young Family Head of the Dang family, whereas you are nothing more than the fourteenth replacement, are you not? Refrain from speaking informally.”
What kind of a concept is he going for?
Seojun shook his head and played along.
“Are you proud to be the young head of a family classified as unorthodox for using poison?”
In his previous life, they hadn’t been classified as unorthodox, but the Dang family was still a target of rejection and contempt.
Because they used poison.
Hearing Seojun’s words, Dangso retorted as if it were nothing.
“What would a demon cult know?”
At that, Seojun suddenly found himself at a loss for words.
Is that why you have to join a major faction!
Ugh. I shouldn’t have played along with his concept.
“Anyway, Heavenly Demon 14.”
“Yes, speak.”
“What kind of fraud did you commit?”
“Fraud?”
“Yes, fraud. That Grandmaster title stuck right next to your nickname.”
As expected, he’s calling me out on the Grandmaster title.
“It’s not fraud?”
“What did you do to get it? Seeing you here like this, it’s not fake, so... I’m curious what sort of trick you used. Can you get Grandmaster from somewhere other than the demon cult’s trial?”
Dangso tilted his head.
- Everything’s on live stream, what’s with this guy lol
- Is he in denial?
- Info) On the community boards, half the comments actually think he pulled some kind of trick.
- That clueless bastard
The Travel replay would definitely still be there.
Seojun opened his mouth to get rid of the annoying pest.
“Yes, I committed fraud.”
And at the same time, Dangso spoke too.
“Then prove it... Wait, what? You admit it’s fraud?”
“Yes.”
“I knew it. I thought so. A predictable affair, heh. It makes no sense that I, who achieved the Transcendent level, would be surpassed by a martial arts novice like you who only knows basic techniques.”
I didn’t know there was a story like that.
Seojun silently closed his mouth and nodded in agreement.
Now go away.
The battlefield’s about to open.
- How can one attain eternal happiness?
- You must not argue with fools.
- I don’t think that’s true.
- Yes. You’re right.
- lol the coordination is on point here
But Dangso wasn’t quite as stupid as Seojun had hoped.
“Then how did you get Grandmaster? What about the Travel edits?”
“I hired a professional company for that. Grandmaster can only be obtained by joining the demon cult, so even if I told you, it would be useless to you.”
He was just vaguely stupid.
“Are you trying to kick me out? No, then that means Grandmaster is real, but that doesn’t make sense either. It doesn’t, I say.”
Yeah, it makes no sense.
Now leave.
Seojun had no particular desire to convince him.
“Fine. Prove it. Go in front of Baekwigang and prove it’s not fraud.”
“No.”
“Hmm, since you can’t prove it, you must be a fraud after all. Then my point is proven.”
Having made that declaration, Dangso turned his back and walked towards the door.
- Oh man, Dangso that bastard lol
- That’s proof?
- How did he get 13th place?
Seojun shrugged.
Since when does not proving something mean you can’t?
But after thinking about it, the battlefield was about to start anyway, and he had nothing to do in the spare time.
I’ll play along just a little.
“Saying his brain is damaged from eating too much poison... Tsk tsk, you all shouldn’t say things like that.”
- LOL
- Who on earth said that then?
- Here he goes again lol
- Insane taunting skills lol
- A verbal fighter
- I’m just amazed
Stomp.
Dangso’s footsteps heading for the door stopped.
And he turned his body around.
“Was that directed at me?”
“No.”
“It seemed like it was directed at me?”
“So what.”
“You!”
Daggers appeared in Dangso’s hands and flew at Seojun.
It’s really a game set in a world where people break out into sword dances the moment their eyes meet.
Just look at the level of these users.
Seojun clicked his tongue and deflected the daggers with the sword in his hand.
Clang!
He then followed up by launching his sword in a counterattack.
Swoosh!
The sword Seojun threw grazed Dangso’s cheek and flew past.
“How’s that? Do I still seem like a fraud?”
Gulp.
At the sight of what happened in an instant, Dangso’s Adam’s apple bobbed.
Seojun wore a benevolent smile and put his hands behind his back.
He was curious to see how an opponent who had lost the will to fight would act.
Dangso opened his mouth.
“Hah, couldn’t even hit me and you’re bluffing. The battlefield is about to open. Choose the borderlands of the unorthodox faction as your battlefield. I’ll expose your true identity there!”
Ah. So now it’s the battlefield.
Seojun let out an empty laugh, and Dangso exited the sparring hall, acting all high and mighty again.
Seojun didn’t stop him. Instead, he waved him off.
“Hmm, but I wasn’t planning on doing the unorthodox faction today.”
Nor did he have any intention of changing his original plan because of Dangso.
- You can do it though lol
- For real, his brain seems pickled in poison lol
- That guy’s a ranker and he doesn’t even know the day’s battlefield game mode?
The viewers were laughing.
Seojun also realized the reason.
“Ah, right. Today’s game mode is different from yesterday’s, isn’t it?”
- Yeah. Today is a raid lol.
- A mode only in battlefields where you fight NPCs of the opposing faction!
- Next is Escort!
That was it. Today’s battlefield game mode was not PvP.
And here he was talking about sniping and whatnot.
“The future of the Dang family looks very bright.”
He might only be the young head in his nickname, but by this point, the Dang family should probably sue him for defamation.
- So bright it’s blinding
- Whether too bright or too dark, it’s still not visible either way lol
- Easy to get confused lol
- This is the Dang family. We want to get rid of that little shit.
Then the swordsman, who had been quietly standing by, spoke.
“Yes! Almost 7 o’clock. Thanks to this, no more training.”
* * *
After returning to the village, Seojun tinkered with his traits.
Starting that morning, while listening to lectures at the university, he had read through each and every detailed description of the traits on his phone.
And then he adjusted them in the optimal direction.
The day before, he had been in a hurry, so he was taking losses in the finer details.
[Qi deviation comes faster, but the power of the Energy Absorption Art increases.]
[The art is released upon killing an enemy.]
These were the core traits that never changed.
A trait that makes you stronger in exchange for a higher penalty.
If he chose traits from other options, the power and penalty would be mitigated, and he could gain higher health and defense.
After setting the major branches, he went on to adjust the detailed traits.
[Sword energy damage dealt to enemies increases.]
[The amount of internal energy consumed decreases.]
[When stealing health from an enemy, movement speed increases for 3 seconds.]
.
.
.
And so on.
To summarize the detailed traits Seojun chose in one word.
- Just look at him never picking a single defensive option lol
- I get the build’s meaning, but its essence isn’t improved. It’s a glass cannon build.
- Will it even work later on?
A glass cannon build.
It’s so focused on offense that even allowing a single hit from the enemy could be fatal.
‘But I just need to refill my health after that.’
That’s what Seojun thought.
Just as he finished picking all his traits, it became 7 o’clock, the time the battlefield opened.
Seojun brought up the game window and opened the battlefield.
A map appeared, and icons in the regions where battles occurred kicked up dust clouds, briefly indicating that combat had taken place.
And the result shown after day and night had flipped was.
“First of all, we successfully defended everything.”
No different from the day before.
Meaning every faction successfully defended in every region.
Conversely, it meant no one had succeeded in attacking.
- Let’s check the streamer’s contribution
- Going by reputation, the streamer was 1st among those that were shown
- Should calculate contribution
In the battlefield, contribution is only publicly tallied and ranked after half the period has passed.
So until the rankings are compiled, people make guesses based on the contributions that streamers or rankers have voluntarily revealed.
That’s why they want him to reveal it, but.
“Why are you trying to see it already? It’s only the first day anyway.”
Seojun didn’t really want to reveal it.
His personality was more about getting things done rather than riding an emotional rollercoaster.
- Streamer, reveal your contribution immediately! Reveal it!
- You said you were aiming for 16th place lol, we need to plan strategies together
- I’m just curious
“But I can plan strategies without revealing it to you all, can’t I?”
- Fact check: banned
- Ah, they say they’ll plan it for us
- You guys are Bronze rank lol
- Ah, they say they can plan well anyway
- Just trust us!
- Streamer once said: I won’t get tutoring from a grade 7 on the college entrance exam (slightly paraphrased) - I said fact check: banned
And it wasn’t just Seojun; most people seriously aiming for 16th place don’t disclose their information.
Because there’s nothing to gain by revealing it.
What would he get out of it, checks and interference?
So the viewers seemed to understand.
“Alright, I’ll begin.”