Chapter 58
“The Heavenly Demon….”
“Give it a rest, you bastard.”
Just as Dangso’s shout drew the eyes of those around them, the player sitting next to him smacked Dangso upside the head.
“Keuk.”
“I told you to beg for it, not randomly sing its praises!”
“How is that singing praises!”
“The Heavenly Demon’s return isn’t praising it? Huh?”
Hmm.
As far as Seojun could tell, the player who seemed to be Dangso’s companion was quite sensible.
He seemed like the first normal player Seojun had met since starting For the Sake of Chivalry.
‘Thinking this way kind of makes me feel like I shouldn’t keep playing this game….’
I never expected this kind of game.
He glanced above the head of the player who had made such a reasonable comment. The nickname was Mumyeong.
It was the same nickname he’d used back in Assassin’s Dawn.
-Did he just randomly start praising him? LOL
-Mumyeong? The guild master was Mumyeong too
-Isn’t Mumyeong the universal rule for assassins?
It was the universal rule indeed.
“Ugh. You can’t even beg properly, just get lost to the Demonic Cult.”
“Mumyeong! Don’t abandon me!”
“Shut up.”
“I don’t want to go to the Demonic Cult, I tell you! Convince this fellow, will you!”
Dangso pointed a finger at Seojun, and Seojun’s eyes met Mumyeong’s, whose gaze had followed the finger.
“Hello, Lord Heavenly Demon. I’m Mumyeong. My faction is the Unorthodox.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“So, are you going to take this bastard, I mean this kid, to the Demonic Cult?”
“That’s right.”
There was no contract signed or collateral taken, so even if Dangso refused to honor the bet, there was no way to force him.
But seeing him trying to convince Mumyeong like this, it seemed he had no intention of running away after all.
“Oh really? Then take him away quickly.”
He wasn’t even trying to convince him.
Dangso looked up at Mumyeong with a face full of betrayal.
“You! Didn’t you say you’d convince him!”
“When did I ever? You shouldn’t have made that kind of bet. Huh? You reaped what you sowed.”
That was true.
“Ha! Have you no loyalty?”
“Yeah, none.”
Dangso stood up, grabbed Mumyeong by the collar, and started shaking him.
-Why would he convince him? LOL
-I’d abandon him too
-Dangso’s still a useful fighter, yet they’re not holding onto him
Honestly, Seojun had expected Dangso to just run away.
Even if he ran and saw Seojun again, he could just ignore him and that would be that.
Sure, since so many people had seen it, people who knew about it would tease him, but that was all.
“Stop shaking me.”
“I don’t want to?”
“If you hadn’t stupidly insisted it was cheating, huh? Does that level of skill look like cheating to you? Huh?”
“Fine! I get it, so just convince him!”
“Ugh. You just don’t get it. Do you really want to die? Just like that, really.”
“Fine. Come at me one-on-one.”
“Challenging you right now.”
The collar-grabbing fight quickly escalated into a brawl.
Fences appeared around them.
A transparent barrier rose, preventing others from entering, and people began gathering to watch.
“Anyway, you all are surprisingly accepting of the bet’s outcome.”
Seojun also began spectating the fight.
-Of course!
-Honor’s at stake
-The game’s name is For the Sake of Chivalry, you have to keep a bet
-Chivalry my ass. Then what the hell have I been playing all this time? LOL
-It’s so dead here that everyone knows each other’s names, so you can’t not honor the bet LOL
The one-on-one duel ended with Mumyeong’s victory.
According to what people said, Mumyeong was actually lower-ranked and the matchup was unfavorable for him, yet the opposite outcome occurred.
People offered various explanations, such as that going to the Demonic Cult was just that shocking, or that his mental state had shattered.
Was the Demonic Cult really that bad?
Dangso stared up at the ceiling with a hollow expression, and Mumyeong came over to Seojun to speak.
“I’d appreciate it if you could take this kid out of here soon.”
I’m not sure how you want me to take him out.
Dangso came up and said.
“Lord Heavenly Demon, I’ll stay with the Unorthodox Faction and gather information. So if you’ll rescind the bet, I guarantee the Demonic Cult will win!”
Seojun once again inwardly marveled.
Indeed, this guy can talk normally just fine.
“Yeah, I just kicked you from the chat room.”
Seems his stupidity hasn’t changed.
Not that I had any intention of granting his request, but to say that right to my face.
“By the way, Lord Heavenly Demon.”
Mumyeong, having kicked Dangso out, looked at him solemnly.
“What?”
“The Demonic Cult winning will be difficult.”
Why the sudden look of keeping me in check?
I know that already.
* * *
“Well, now that it’s come to this, I think it turned out for the best!”
Now that he was finally going to the Demonic Cult and no longer needed to beg Seojun, Dangso’s tone returned to its original state.
They had left the village and were heading toward the Demonic Cult.
There was no particular reason Seojun had to go along, but since he had plenty of time, he accompanied him.
“Now I’ll try aiming for the Demonic Cult’s first victory!”
That won’t work. Impossible.
“It’s a shame I can’t aim for the top 16 now, but if I help bring about the Demonic Cult’s first win, that’s not so bad either, right?”
Not ‘not so bad’, it’s impossible, I’m telling you.
They arrived at the arena.
“Baek Wi-gang isn’t here.”
“Well, of course not, since the NPC from the raid is Baek Wi-gang, how could he be here?”
Instead, there was a different NPC.
Dangso went over to it, demonstrated, and switched his faction to the Demonic Cult.
“But seriously, isn’t the Grandmaster totally overpowered?”
“…….”
“Could I see your quest window just once…?”
* * *
Word began to spread that someone had cleared the Orthodox Faction’s content in three minutes.
It started in the chat room where the Orthodox Faction’s rankers gathered, [Eo-ujeong] (Orthodox will win anyway).
-Guys, someone cleared our faction in 3 minutes?
-A speedrun route got discovered?
-Ah. Damn, the Unorthodox bastards are gonna pull ahead right from the start.
-Don’t worry. The route isn’t normal, seems unrealistic.
-Really? Then I’ll ignore it. Share info on the Demonic Cult route planners, please.
-Still impressive though.
They had immediate pressing matters to attend to, so they didn’t pay much attention.
The Unorthodox Faction’s chat room, [Wijeongcheoksapa], tried to come up with trait builds to utilize that route, but concluded that fighting after completely depleting internal energy would take even longer to finish the fight, and lost interest.
Overall, the reactions were ordinary.
But it was different in the Newbie Association, where people were busy fighting.
[The Orthodox Faction 3-minute route has appeared.]
==
(Clip)
==
-Wow, so that method existed
-For skilled Demonic Cult players, it might be worth trying
-I think I’d get stuck right from the part where you have to stab your sword into the wall and land on it, lol
-Oh. They actually did it? Where did all the people who were insulting him earlier go?
One reason Seojun had been insulted was that he’d made statements that seemed absurd.
But now that those statements had been proven to make sense after all.
[The guys who were calling him a scammer just a few minutes ago]
==
(Screenshot)
(Screenshot)
(Screenshot)
Where did they go?
==
-Wow, they were vicious with their insults
-Look at this baseless slander
-The idiots who were ragging on the guy who cleared it in 3 minutes about it being 4 minutes LOL
└For real, 4 minutes wasn’t a lie, it was just being modest
└Shouldn’t they get banned?
└Blocking is the answer!
-They’re the type to call the raid a scam too.
Since even normal sensible people who said they should wait for proof were insulted, the backlash was fierce.
[You repeating parrots, there’s nothing special in the quest window or the item window]
-Looks like the Grandmaster title is real too. He’s clearing everything they’re telling him to clear on stream right now?
-I think this much proves it
-The title category has Superlative Master and Master along with Grandmaster, see
-See, you shouldn’t jump to insulting people so rashly
-Is the Demonic Cult winning possible?
└Fanboying should be within reason. What win?
└Look at this guy only showing up for comments like this, LOL. Hey, do you still think it’s a scam? Huh? You 3-minute curry bastard who got proven wrong about the 3 minutes
└3-minute curry LOL
└The 3-minute curry squad guys are so stupid, I swear.
└I found the screenshot of that guy insulting him. He’s 3-minute curry squad for sure lol
The comment telling him to fanboy within reason was soon deleted. However, the term “3-minute curry squad” began to spread widely.
[Justice prevails!]
[Come out right now, you 3-minute curry squad members who were dissing Lord Heavenly Demon.]
[The scam was your lives, you know.]
[Shortest washas-been controversy, 3-minute curry!]
Just like that, the short-lived controversy came to an end without Seojun even knowing about it.
* * *
Seojun added Dangso as a friend.
He’s stupid and likes attention so he acts out, but the kid is nice.
That was the viewers’ assessment, and Seojun didn’t think much of it.
After that, he looked around at the people running various battlefields.
When he visited the Newbie Association site, he realized there had been quite a lot of people who had been bashing him.
Actually, up until then, Seojun had only been aware of Dangso questioning him. But seeing it resolve itself, he laughed along with the viewers.
And after ending the stream, he went on iTube to gather information on how the last battlefield had gone.
[Here, the Orthodox Faction’s choice leads them to victory!]
Thanks to a streamer who entertainingly compiled and commentated on the battlefield situation, earning hundreds of thousands to millions of views each time, he was able to enjoyably watch it.
The following day’s battlefield game type was a capture war.
Since capture wars were originally the most popular and basic mode, they took up the most days.
And while people were curious about how much Fame he’d gotten for achieving a time in the three-minute range the previous day, Seojun did not reveal it.
“I’ll be keeping my Fame private from now on.”
Having seen the previous day’s controversy, he’d decided to hide information as much as possible.
It could also lead to people comparing him to others.
Fame influences contribution, but it also acts as a Matchmaking Rating, or MMR.
MMR refers to the score that serves as the basis for game matchmaking.
Higher Fame means you get matched with high-ranked players, and lower Fame means you get matched with lower-ranked players.
Later on, Seojun was also invited to the Demonic Cult’s group chat room.
Dangso, who had joined the Demonic Cult, had been playing around in there that day and invited Seojun.
[Let’s at least get 2nd] [999+]
It was a pitiful sight.
How could the chat room title be aiming for 2nd place?
There were about 60-something users in there.
-Lord Heavenly Demon, your 3-minute record was amazing, you’re our hope
-We believe in you
-If we get 2nd this battlefield, it’s totally possible we’ll actually worship you as the Heavenly Demon
-For real, lol
-Guys… stop it. We’re too pathetic as it is…
The atmosphere was cheerful and easygoing.
Perhaps because they were all so looked down upon, the camaraderie among them inside the chat room, at least, seemed stronger than in other factions.
Not sure about in the actual game though.
From what he’d heard, purple dye and underwear sold especially well in the Demonic Cult.
Seojun continued his winning streak the next day, and the day after that as well.
Even though his trait build was clearly evaluated as one meant for stomping newbies, he kept winning effortlessly.
Even though some had opined that as the Fame gap gradually widened and he began getting matched against players of a certain level, he would no longer be able to stomp with his build.
Day 6.
The clock hand pointed to 7, and the map came up.
-It was escort today. Just found out.
-Is this a mode only in the battlefield, seeing it for the first time?
-Yeah
-They say if you play the game, they’ll hire you at a courier agency!
-A game mode effectively made for bandits
-Today for sure, we need to match against the Unorthodox Faction, for real
Seojun spoke.
“If it’s escort, it really does seem fitting to do it with the Unorthodox Faction.”
Game Mode: Escort.
The defending faction must help the courier agency transport the goods or escort a dignitary to their destination, while the attacking faction must steal or damage those goods.
Here, a courier agency can simply be thought of as a post office, and the goods as parcels.
And there is one group that always appears whenever an escort mission departs.
The Nokrim bandits.
Where do escort missions take place?
Mostly in the mountains.
And in the mountains, there are bandits.
“Yes, but no matter what, I won’t be on the attacking side.”
I can’t give up the victory bonus.
Seojun didn’t underestimate the veterans.
[The escort mission will begin in 1 minute.]
Still, in order to encounter bandits, he chose a region in the Unorthodox Faction’s reception area and opted to play on the defending side.
“Hello.”
“Hello.”
“Alright. Let’s have a good game.”
Seojun was summoned to the starting point.
He could see his teammates.
Each team in Escort consists of three members.
“Huh? Crazy. It’s the guild master. Hello.”
Then someone who recognized him appeared.
-A viewer?
-Who are you, did you snipe him?
-I’m jealous of the viewverticipation
Viewverticipation.
Short for viewer participation.
Normally, when a streamer decides to do viewer participation games, they pick people from among the viewers to play together, but sometimes they would meet randomly by coincidence.
Seojun hesitated for a moment.
Whether to use casual speech or polite speech.
With viewers he used polite speech, but with people he met in-game, he had been speaking in the Heavenly Demon’s tone as much as possible.
But to meet a viewer in-game.
While Seojun was lost in that dilemma, a female teammate who didn’t know him asked.
“Is he a famous person?”
“Yes. He’s the greatest output of Assassin’s Dawn, and also the Slayer of Shin Ha-yeon and the true Heavenly Demon!”
Hearing that, Seojun decided to use casual speech, talking down to them.
“Hold your tongue.”
Please.
-LOL
-Slayer of Shin Ha-yeon, you crazy bastard LOL
-This might be a bit controversial
-Her fans are going to come protest lol
-That statement is unrelated to the streamer’s viewers
-Quick cutting ties, damn
The female teammate’s eyes widened.
“Oh. Is he really that amazing? But it looks like that person is telling you to shut up?”
Then his viewer answered.
“It’s a reward.”
-Ah, right, it’s a reward lol
-LOL
-Even telling me to shut up is great
-Either way, he’s going to carry the game, so if he says shut up, you shut up
-For real, lol
-Like streamer, like viewer lol
How on earth is it “like streamer, like viewer”?
I really have no idea.
Seojun pushed his question aside, let out a sigh, and said.
“Let’s just play the game.”