Chapter 99
[Ridiculous]
[It’s obvious they did something!]
[Movie Soft really is trying to push the Heavenly Demon! Otherwise this makes no sense!!!!]
[It’s a bug... I saw it.]
There are five stages of human emotion when accepting death.
Stage 1: Denial.
It’s just the stage of not accepting the truth.
[The Orthodox guys collectively losing it is hilarious LOL]
—Currently in Stage 1: Denial of reality!
—Even the Heavenly Demon’s room is a mess right now LOL
—Orthodox, you killed them, Seo-jun!
└He actually killed them LOL
Stage 2 is Anger.
[Damn, so pissed off]
==
Why did the Orthodox attack first? Why did the Orthodox attack first? Why did the Orthodox attack first? Why did the Orthodox attack first?
What sin did we commit? What sin did we commit? What sin did we commit? What sin did we commit?
So pissed off.
==
—Stage 2 has appeared
—Next is bargaining LOL
—Orthodox guys raised like greenhouse flowers, this is the taste of the Demonic Cult!
—Are they going to say “Please let us off just once, Movie Soft”? LOL
Stage 3: Bargaining.
[Please just once... predicted.]
This isn’t it.
[What was the result when the Demonic Cult got their base raided last time?]
==
They ended up getting a faction buff, right? So people barely came back.
But we got raided too?
So.
Let’s gather the unity of our prestigious Orthodox factions and shout for a buff?
==
—LOOOL, so they bargain like this LOL
—Are they really going crazy LOL
—Back then it was a real problem, you just got raided LOL
Stage 4: Depression.
[Can you call it balanced if we can’t stop one Heavenly Demon...?]
[I’m not logging into Hyeop for a while.]
[It’s really over...]
The final Stage 5: Acceptance was easily resolved thanks to Seo-jun.
[Live Heavenly Demon: Declares he’ll make companions for the Orthodox as quickly as possible since they must feel lonely.]
==
Now, Unorthodox. Time for a beating, right?
==
—Take that, Heavenly Demon!
—Yeah, damn. I can’t die alone.
—Unorthodox, you guys suffer too LOL
—Since it’s come to this, just let the Demonic Cult win.
—He is coming.
—All that’s left is a direct charge!
* * *
Naturally, the Demonic Cult and Unorthodox clashed.
Day 17 result.
The Demonic Cult’s attack succeeded.
3 regions remained.
Day 18 result.
The Demonic Cult’s attack succeeded.
2 regions remained.
After the final Day 19, the Demonic Cult’s users thought:
[Why are we this strong?]
[At first it was just “let’s take down the Orthodox,” but are we really going to win?]
Victory was right before their eyes.
The Unorthodox tried to stop them somehow.
[The Heavenly Demon just doesn’t lose the game!]
==
How on earth do we stop this guy? We could probably stop him if we beat him just once.
==
That was a credible statement.
Ultimately, many thought that if Seo-jun lost just once, they could stop the surging Demonic Cult.
The exact user count wasn’t known, but the prevailing opinion was that they were roughly equal.
If one side had a significantly larger number, they would see matchmaking with AI, but no such posts had come up.
[The Unorthodox look so delightful LOL]
[That’s how we felt]
[Keep pushing!]
And then, a post dedicated to Seo-jun, who had never lost even once, appeared.
[Sword God]
“What the, really?”
Seo-jun read Lee Geon-yeong’s message and entered the Hyeop community to check the post.
He heard that someone had edited a video of his gameplay.
Seo-jun clicked on the post and immediately played the visible video.
On the black screen, silence lasts for about 3 seconds.
Then the sound of swords clashing breaks the silence.
Clang!
Clang clang!
The swords clash once more.
And again.
The interval of sword clashes quickens urgently.
Whooosh!
The screen suddenly brightens.
At the same time, the video’s perspective shows someone.
A sword blocking the enemy’s technique.
It was the view of the one holding that sword.
The scene quickly switches, and this time enemy swords are approaching.
The owner of the perspective blocks them lightly.
The background changes again, and this time a scene of cutting an enemy’s neck appears.
Then, quickly blocking a downward sword strike, dodging an attack from the side, and stretching out an arm.
And landing in front of the enemy with clothes fluttering.
From then on, a faint background music with a dynamic club beat gradually grows louder, and the sound quality becomes clear.
“Oh.”
What Seo-jun was watching was a video someone had stitched together from countless battle scenes of his.
Lee Geon-yeong, upon seeing this video, had said enviously that he should have been the one to make it first, and at the same time praised its quality as better than his own.
Indeed, it was well made.
“Huh? Are these scenes in reverse order?”
Thinking about it, the very first scene was from today, when he fought 2-on-1 against Unorthodox rankers.
Next came yesterday’s fight.
Two days ago. Three days ago.
“Right.”
And now Seo-jun was facing three Orthodox rankers alone for the first time.
The music grows increasingly tense, as if signaling the climax is approaching.
Through editing, time slows momentarily as Seo-jun turns his body.
To parry the sword of Cheon Sal-seong attacking from behind.
And right after, thanks to a rolling step, as Seo-jun raises his sword in front of the stiffened Cheon Sal-seong...
The screen changes to show Seo-jun from Cheon Sal-seong’s perspective.
Seo-jun’s emotionless eyes zoom in, and as if to obscure those eyes, his sword, his sword energy descends, splitting the screen in half.
Swaaash!
And the screen turns black.
[Sword God MAD]
The text appears, and the video truly begins.
Seo-jun started watching, feeling as if he were reviewing his own gameplay.
Countless fights from one-on-one duels.
In them, Seo-jun’s sword was slow but fast.
It was a video only containing scenes, but it expressed them well from the enemy’s viewpoint.
The decisive moment with Baekho.
A scene where the sword spins and deflects right as it was about to hit the target.
Seo-jun confronting Namgung Cheon.
Scenes of him stabbing his sword into the wall and climbing appear in succession to catch Namgung Cheon.
The use of Berserk Mode during the first ‘For the Sake of Hyeop’ game.
And.
Even fighting the assassin squad emerging from the shadows.
After that, taking down the rulers.
“The last is Etorne.”
The video ends with the fight against the tutorial boss of the Assassin’s Dawn.
The video was posted on the Hyeop community, and it was proudly occupying first place in the top 10.
Thanks to its quality and the heated community due to the battlefield.
And the title of that first-place post and video was none other than.
Sword God.
His alias from his past life.
Seo-jun scratched his cheek awkwardly.
“How did they know?”
The nickname and concept he uses in ‘For the Sake of Hyeop’ is Heavenly Demon.
Yet this person gave Seo-jun the name Sword God.
They wouldn’t have titled it carelessly after putting this much effort into making the video.
Then it meant that, in the video editor’s eyes, the title Sword God suited Seo-jun better.
“Didn’t they watch the livestream?”
If they had watched the livestream, seeing his rude way of speaking, it would’ve been hard not to think, ‘Ah, this bastard really is the Heavenly Demon.’
If they gave him the title Sword God even after watching the livestream...
What would you call it, a feeling that someone is telling him that all the things he did deliberately to act like the Heavenly Demon are no different from who he really is?
Anyway.
“I never thought I’d hear the title Sword God here.”
It wasn’t so bad.
Is this also fate?
Seo-jun checked the comments.
The top best comment was visible first.
—He’s definitely the Heavenly Demon LOL
Oh. That made him feel bad too.
I see.
Seo-jun, accepting the fate he couldn’t avoid no matter what, nodded and checked the next best comment.
It was a reply to the first best comment.
└Sword God suits him damn well too.
The number of likes on the two comments was nearly identical, with almost no dislikes.
That meant both suited him equally.
The argument on the Sword God side went like this:
└He’s really just the god of the sword LOL
└Look at the sparring arena. He beat every game with his swordsmanship.
└I’ve never seen the streamer use any weapon other than a sword.
└There’s the pipe, newbie.
└LOL the pipe kill LOL
And the argument on the Heavenly Demon side:
└Just considering his usual personality, Heavenly Demon fits.
└For real LOL
└Sword God is too cool. Go with Heavenly Demon!
└The sure thing is, with that bastard’s personality, he’d never be Orthodox LOL
└Even if he were born in the Orthodox, he would’ve joined the Demonic Cult and taken the Heavenly Demon title LOL. Then he’d invade the Central Plains like the battlefield. In that sense, Heavenly Demon fits perfectly.
Again, he felt bad.
Clearly, the personality that came out on stream was all fabricated, with not a gram of his true self in it.
Still, for some reason, it made him feel bad.
However, seeing the natural discussion in the comments about him on the post that hit first place in Adventure’s Top Ten made him feel a sense of pride.
No matter how much it rose thanks to the battlefield and special circumstances, it wouldn’t be easy to naturally talk about him in the comments.
No matter what anyone said, the biggest beneficiary of this battlefield was Seo-jun.
Because he had imprinted his name on everyone playing ‘For the Sake of Hyeop.’
Now.
He just needed to finish well.
“Tomorrow.”
It’s time to see the end of the 20-day race.
[Ahh. Call him Sword God.]
—Sword Men
—Heavenly Men
—It’s Heavenly Demon!
—Can’t you just be Sword God and come to the Orthodox?
Seo-jun chuckled, turned off his phone, and went to sleep.
* * *
It was shocking.
From the standpoint of the indie game developer Monster that had Seo-jun in their sights, him surpassing 20,000 viewers was too shocking.
“New high.”
The term itself means a newly achieved high price.
And Seo-jun had achieved that new high.
“His recent broadcast baseline viewership is 20,000?”
Crazy.
How many people is he dragging around?
Someone who barely scraped 10,000 viewers started gathering an incredible crowd once they started duels and the battlefield in earnest.
In short.
Seo-jun’s value skyrocketed.
Damn.
At this point, there was only one thing they could say.
“We should’ve bought him back then.”
This is impossible.
Once the battlefield ends, the bubble pops a bit, and time passes, the viewer numbers will naturally return to their original place.
It’ll obviously be higher than before, but right now the face value is too high.
It was so high it was expensive even considering the special circumstances.
And by the time the bubble pops enough for the streamer to be valued properly, the advertising will already be out there afterward.
“It’s fortunate we have many other candidates lined up...”
But.
“Isn’t that right? Huh? Boss?”
What are you doing?
Why are you staring holes into the monitor watching the video of that skyrocketed streamer?
And why are you typing comments?
The content is, um.
Roughly, the Demonic Cult is invincible?
“Boss?”
“Ah... yeah?”
“What should we do? With a different lineup?”
“What are you talking about? We absolutely must recruit him. No matter how much money it takes.”
“Huh? That’s the upper limit...”
“Buy it! Buy stocks and everything! That one will work. The Demonic Cult will win!”
What are you talking about, boss?
Are you perhaps from the Demonic Cult?
“Let’s skyrocket like the Demonic Cult, let’s go!”