Chapter 9
“Ah, shit, I think I’m about to get caught again.”
Alpaca.
He was a streamer who averaged ten thousand viewers, hit a peak of thirty thousand on the first day of *Assassination Squad's Dawn*’s launch, and still maintained twenty thousand even a week later. Whenever a new *Assassination Squad's Dawn* title dropped, he was one of the streamers people sought out first. He’d been posting lore summaries for the series, review videos, and recommendation videos for beginners since way back.
This same Alpaca had been doing a barehanded assassination challenge since launch day.
[There you are, you rat! Hahaha!]
“Ah, shit, I got…”
Swoosh!
A dagger flew at his forehead in an instant, and his screen, stuck to the ceiling, went dark.
After respawning, Alpaca trudged toward the guild and spoke. “Sigh, if I can just take down Drake, Zone 4 is finished, but it’s not easy. There are way too many members, and it’d be great to know for sure where Drake is inside his hideout.”
The Rulers.
The secret society that controlled Zone 4 of Alteon—essentially the game’s main villains, one per zone—was composed of the Queen, the Magic Tower Lord, the Royal Faction Leader, and the Disassembler’s boss, ‘Drake’. While their assassination difficulty was similar to each other, the defining trait was that these were mid-boss level existences, a whole tier above the VIPs of the Royal Zone, which were otherwise the hardest compared to other zones.
Among them, the Disassembler’s boss Drake had a total of ten hideouts in Zone 4 and appeared randomly in one of them. At this point, he’d been exposed four times. His accumulated reputation was on thin ice. He might not be able to buy location info from the guild next time.
Alpaca bought Drake’s location from the guild.
“Mm, it’s the theater. Ha, I wonder where he’s hiding in the theater. I’ve got to pull it off this time.”
Fatigue gradually setting in, Alpaca heaved a deep sigh. Then he sighed again because of a donation that followed.
[If it’s the theater, just go musou, lol. There are people doing barehanded musou runs, so why are you struggling so much?]
“Thanks for the 10,000 won donation. What are you talking about, musou? Where would you find a person like that…”
- lol true lol
- You gotta make sense, man.
[It’s real, they’ll probably clear it soon?]
“You absolutely can’t catch Drake in the first place. Maybe other NPCs, but the Rulers especially were designed by the devs to be impossible—they’re on a whole other level.”
Alpaca was a player who loved assassination play. That didn’t mean he hated musou. Combat was part of *Assassination Squad's Dawn*, after all. It was just that his personal skill was a bit lacking in this installment.
[Haven’t you seen the community?]
“Ah. Is someone doing it on the community? If they pull that off, I’ll take that person as my teacher, learn, and do a streamathon until I clear Drake with a musou run!”
A streamathon was content where you don’t turn the broadcast off until you achieve a certain goal. If your skill was good, it’d be over in hours, but if not?
[lolololololol That statement.]
“Yep~ absolutely impossible. Thanks for the donation. Easy money.”
Although it seemed like a few people in chat were genuinely scoffing, Alpaca brushed it off as no big deal.
“Ah, of course, if the person who cleared it is a pro, I won’t do the streamathon.”
He knew busy pros didn’t have time to play other games, but he got a little scared and added that extra line anyway.
- Chicken???
- lololol
- Alpaca doing Alpaca things!
- Just go out and die, bro.
* * *
30 minutes before Alpaca’s rash streamathon remark.
Seojun was entering an alley where Disassembler members were, in order to learn of Drake’s whereabouts.
“Alright, come over here and let’s have a sincere chat.”
“Let’s just follow him. Whatever.”
It was because he’d read chat saying that if they fought out in the open, the city guard would show up and things would get annoying.
Splash, splash.
As soon as he stepped into the alley, a stale smell of unknown origin and the odor of stagnant, un-evaporated water assaulted his nose.
“Glad you listen well. Nice.”
“Yeah, really. Hey! Hand over everything you’ve got, right now. Including that wallet you stole earlier.”
As Seojun followed them deeper inside, two more members appeared and surrounded him front and back in the narrow alleyway.
- He already did 13v1, this is nothing, lol
- lol true lol
- But doesn’t Mumyeong not have any weapons? How’s he gonna fight in there?
- And how’s he gonna get Drake’s info anyway? lololol He doesn’t have the rep to use an info guild, and to find an org traitor you need to do all the related sub-quests and actions.
“Hm?”
Pausing the game as if he’d spotted something odd while scrolling through chat, Seojun spoke.
“Guys, is it hard to catch these org guys? Does it take long?”
- I mean, it’s catching a Ruler, you think it’d be easy????
- lol true lol
“What’s a Ruler?”
- Kyah!!!!
- This is what our streamer’s like! You see this, newbies?
- Reminds me of ‘What’s a parry?’…
Chat messages from ‘Winter Defense’, ‘White Horse Rider Patient’, and ‘Brick Snatcher King’ came up in order.
[‘Nah’ has donated 1,000 won!]
[You said you were gonna catch him without even knowing what a Ruler is?]
“Please explain.”
In truth, Seojun knew about Drake. Not just Drake, he’d also familiarized himself with other basic info by browsing the community. He had recognized the need to know a certain amount to lead the broadcast, after all. Meeting the Disassembler member in the market had been a coincidence, though.
There were two known strategies for Drake that he’d identified yesterday. The first was to carry out various assassination missions to raise his reputation enough to be trusted with killing Drake, then buy information from an org/guild like ‘Liberation of Alteon’. The second was to complete a sub-quest that created an environment for secure info trades where mutual identities couldn’t be specified, and then buy Drake’s location from a Disassembler member.
The crucial element here was that both required considering the informant’s safety to obtain the info. If that was the case, couldn’t there be another way? The community users thought so. Because the game had that high degree of freedom. Reading those info posts, Seojun thought the same. The direction was just different.
‘Wouldn’t it work if I beat the org members so badly they can’t even think about safety?’
If that didn’t work, he could just follow the guide. As long as he knew the location, catching him was nothing.
“Mm, so I need to get info, you mean? That’s the hard part. And catching him is hard too.”
- yep
- You’re not gonna postpone it to tomorrow, right?
- Looking up a guide is forbidden
“Shoo. I don’t do things like going back on my word.”
Chat was filled with ‘lololol’. As he felt every time, viewers enjoyed it most when the streamer was in a tight spot. Thinking so, Seojun resumed his paused game.
“Hey, hey, the kid got scared because of your ugly mugs.”
“Yeah, why did you do business without our permission?” “Right?”
The Disassembler members cackled, trading worthless jokes among themselves. Seojun asked them.
“Do you know where Drake is?”
“The Boss? We know. Why? You think we’d just willingly…”
And as the answer he wanted began to come out, he cut the member off.
“Then that’s all I need.”
“?”
“First, get hit. Everyone talks once they get hit.”
“What are you talking about! Guys, kill him!”
The members drew daggers from their coats. And immediately rushed at Seojun.
Seojun first kicked off the wall and went up, leaping over the members in front of him. Being ambushed front and back in a narrow street was more bothersome than one might think. Then, he dodged the dagger of a charging member, grabbed his arm, and slammed him down.
Cough!
[Disassembler Member's Basic Dagger]
The member dropped his blade, and Seojun snatched the dagger out of the air.
- How the hell did he catch that?
- Reaction speed insane
Having obtained a weapon, Seojun began quickly cleaning up the mobs.
Claaang!
“Cough!”
Claaang!
“Ugh.”
Claaang!
In an instant, all of them were dead except for the one member who’d said he knew the Boss’s location.
“Parrying really is comfortable, huh.”
- Kyah
- He really was a master!
- Musou looks fun
- Anyone thinking ‘Wanna try?’ better wake up lol
The remaining member also charged at Seojun, but.
Claaang!
He collapsed beside his comrades’ corpses, falling into a groggy state.
Seojun slowly approached the downed, terrified member and asked. “Where is Drake?”
At his bizarre actions, the viewers began to mock him.
- Like that’ll work lololol
- lol true lol
The member said nothing, only trembling. Seojun waited for him to recover.
“You think I’d tell you that!”
And when he got up again.
Claaang!
The member fell back in the exact same spot.
“Where is Drake?”
- ??? Is this a new interrogation method?
- Wake up lololol
“You think I’d tell you that!”
The member shouted after regaining his composure.
Claaang!
So Seojun delivered another parry.
“Where is Drake?”
- lololololololololol
- Real madness lololololol
The viewers couldn’t understand his actions, but Seojun could feel the member’s reactions dropping bit by bit every time he fell into the groggy state.
“Oh. This is gradually weakening.”
- Where are we even going with this?
- What are you seeing, teacher.
- No matter how much wishful thinking you do, he won’t spill info. Hurry up and go look up the guide.
And after disabling him one more time and waiting until he stood back up, the member’s response changed so markedly that even the viewers could notice. So Seojun asked him.
“Where is Drake?”
“Th-that… That is!”
The member evaded answering and began to flee, and Seojun swiftly approached him. Then, the member frantically swung his dagger, and when Seojun disabled him once more.
In his groggy state, the enemy started to open his mouth.
- ???
- Does this actually make sense?
- You crazy film-soft bastards lololol said you discouraged musou play and then made a route like this.
- Is it normal to be learning the game from a newbie’s stream?
“The biggest theater on 13th Street. It’s there… so please stop…”
“Oh. This really works. But where is Drake?”
But the member showed no reaction.
“Nope, no particular reaction. No convulsions or anything?”
- A demon lololol
- Doesn’t the streamer have talent for game sense too? Finding a new route like this is insane.
[‘YouAreThisKindOfGuy’ has donated 1,000 won!]
[Etor, so this is what you fought so hard to stop.]
- Etor re-evaluation lolololololol
- He died in the line of duty...
Leaving the viewers to chatter or not, Seojun pulled up the map.
“Hmm. Anyway, the dagger is too short and uncomfortable. Isn’t there anything good?”
In *Assassination Squad's Dawn*, there was no weapon that couldn’t be used. A paring knife from a market fruit stall, darts and glass bottles in a tavern, even a pin at a bowling alley—all could become weapons.
- Make some money and buy a weapon, man.
- Buying a wire is hilarious fun, you can do Spider-Xan stuff
- How about pickpocketing?
“Hmm, I think I’ll… Oh. This looks good.”
Seojun looked around, found something good, and swung it around with a whoosh whoosh.
[Rusty Pipe]
“This length is just perfect. So now that I’ve got a weapon, I’ll head to 13th Street.”
13th Street was the Street of Culture. And the biggest theater on the Street of Culture was the White Lotus Theater, located about three blocks away from the market. It practically implied that even the biggest theater was under the influence of a gang called the Disassembler.
Seojun quickly arrived at the White Lotus Theater. People who were excessively armed to be mere guards, loitering around the vicinity, came into view.
‘No way to know where Drake is.’
He thought they’d really packed the members in tightly. Well, it probably didn’t matter. Because he wasn’t here to assassinate. And the viewers hadn’t come to watch an assassination either.
“Sorry, but the performance is…”
Crash!
Without warning, Seojun approached the main entrance and swung the pipe down, shattering its glass.
At that, a member pulled out a machete, and Seojun quickly swung the pipe, scoring a hit. Not even one-tenth of HP was depleted.
‘Way too little.’
He had no choice but to wait until the member swung the machete. Then.
Claaang!
He read the trajectory and parried.
- Kyah!
- Amazing every time I see it, how the hell does he never fail? lolololol
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
Hearing the commotion, other members began joining in. However.
Each time Seojun swung the pipe, a clear, resonant sound rang out.
Picking off the members one by one, Seojun headed toward the stairs at the entrance. It was easier to deal with the members coming down from there. Eventually. Countless members piled up on the stairs. Occasionally, an external patrol squad would ambush from behind, but since Seojun detected their approach by sound, he dealt with them simply as well.
The number of downed enemies stacked up to thirty.
“To think there were thirty people in a theater this size, ugh, the devs are way too much. How am I supposed to assassinate anyone?”
Once again astounded by the difficulty the devs had envisioned, Seojun leisurely entered the theater.
- ????
- You’re one to talk?
- Wow, what did I just see? It’s so absurd I can only laugh.
- This guy is the real deal...!
When Seojun stepped inside the theater, a loud laugh rang out from the stage.
His opponent was waiting for him at the very center of the stage.
- When I saw this scene in another streamer’s channel where they got caught trying to assassinate, it was scary as hell, but why is it only funny now? lolololol
- Ah lolol so Drake, can you take on 1v30? Can you catch Etor? lolol
The Disassembler’s boss, Drake.
True to a cowardly gang boss, as soon as Seojun got close, he immediately threw his blade.
“Die!”
A small, thin throwing knife flying at him in an instant.
Clang!
Seojun immediately swung the pipe and deflected the incoming dagger.
- He didn’t dodge that either but deflected it???
- How’d he do that
- Reaction speed god-tier
“Don’t react after seeing it fly. Predict by looking at the enemy’s fingertips. It’s pretty easy.”
The closer Seojun approached, the more knives flew at him. The rate of fire gradually increased, and by the time he was halfway there, Drake began throwing with both hands simultaneously. But Seojun deflected them all. With a pipe.
- He’s even deflecting projectiles lolololol is there anything he can’t deflect?
- Viewers.
- Ah, right. Can’t deflect viewers lolololol
Like that, Seojun reached right in front of Drake in the blink of an eye.