Chapter 102

After exiting the capsule, Seo-jun entered the My VR app.

Here, he could check messages from all games on his account.

And Seo-jun’s game message box was filled with numerous notifications.

People he had met as teammates and enemies in For the Murim.

Regardless of the outcome, they had all sent him friend requests, which Seo-jun had accepted.

As expected.

Networking—the mark of a veteran gamer.

If he fought in the battlefield just one more time, he felt like they’d probably dig up his entire family history.

And if that happened, they might even notice his biggest secret—that he had recalled his past life!

Seo-jun checked his messages, deliberately not recalling the fact that he kept begging people to figure it out, yet no one believed him.

[Heavenly Killing Star: I’ll definitely win next time!]

[Heavenly Killing Star: So let’s participate in the next battlefield too! You never know, I might give you another 12-win streak.]

It was Heavenly Killing Star, who kept challenging him despite continuous losses.

The former greatest under heaven and god of sniping.

Even while Seo-jun was attacking the Orthodox faction, he had timed his appearances to meet him twice, which made Seo-jun realize he had such abilities—quite impressive.

[Heavenly Demon14: Sure thing.]

Seo-jun replied like that and looked at the next message.

[OnlyOneWon: Please don’t come.]

He thinks they need to unify opinions since they’re on the same side.

[OnlyOneWon: I’m kidding. If you’re coming, please come to the Orthodox faction.]

[OnlyOneWon: Or don’t come at all.]

Seo-jun chuckled.

[Heavenly Demon14: I’m thinking of going Unorthodox next time. The Demonic Cult will have a hard time winning from now on.]

As soon as he sent the reply, OnlyOneWon read it and the “1” indicator disappeared.

Then the “typing” indicator appeared.

But no reply came.

He must be deep in thought.

It shouldn’t be that hard to respond to, should it?

Seo-jun moved on to the next one.

[ThirdElder: If there are 7 billion Heavenly Demon14 fans in the world, I would be one of them.

If there are 100 million Heavenly Demon14 fans in the world, I would still be one of them.

If there are 10 million Heavenly Demon14 fans in the world, I would still be one of them.

If there are 100 Heavenly Demon14 fans in the world, I would still be one of them.

If there is 1 Heavenly Demon14 fan in the world, that person would probably be me.

If there isn’t a single Heavenly Demon14 fan in the world, then I would no longer exist in this world.

Heavenly Demon14, my love.

Heavenly Demon14, my light.

Heavenly Demon14, my darkness.

Heavenly Demon14, my life.

Heavenly Demon14, my joy.

Heavenly Demon14, my sorrow.

Heavenly Demon14, my pain.]

After reading this with a sour expression, Seo-jun replied without a moment’s hesitation.

[Heavenly Demon14: If this had been posted during my stream, it would definitely be a ban.]

Many other people had also messaged him.

Those who had fought and lost to him.

Demonic Cult players who were happy about winning.

And.

[Tangso: This one would probably account for about 80% of the contribution, but this one can’t deny that you had about 10% contribution to the Demonic Cult’s victory!]

[Tangso: Well done!]

[Tangso: Next battlefield, I’ll…]

Seo-jun didn’t read any further.

He was doing self-promotion about how nobly he would lead the Demonic Cult to victory in the next battlefield.

That definitely means he wants to play games together in the next battlefield.

Knowing that much is enough.

The rest is all bullshit.

[Heavenly Demon14: I’ll think about it.]

[Tangso: Think? What’s there to think about?]

[Tangso: Don’t leave!]

[Tangso: Reply to me! I can see you’re online right now!]

He moved on to the next one.

[Navigator: Thank you for your hard work, Seo-jun-nim! Could I get a brief comment if possible?]

Looks like he’s trying to get a soundbite.

Seo-jun thought for a moment, then wrote a reply.

[Heavenly Demon14: It was enjoyable. I was satisfied with winning.]

[Heavenly Demon14: If I get an invitation from MovieSoft, I’ll return as the Heavenly Demon then.]

[Navigator: Thank you.]

This guy’s watching in real time too.

“MovieSoft will send an invitation, right?”

Players who make it into the top 16 of the battlefield get invited to event tournaments and such—he doesn’t know what it will be, but it should be as fun as the battlefield.

So if they invite him, he’ll go.

“But what happens to the Orthodox faction since they got eliminated first and don’t have anyone in the top 16?”

There were previous battlefields, so it’s not like there’ll be no one at all, but the numbers will probably be small.

Of course, that’s not something Seo-jun needs to worry about.

After sending replies to the last message, Seo-jun turned off his phone.

“It’s really over.”

For the Murim.

A fun game with a distinct character and unique personality in many ways.

The combat itself wasn’t particularly special, but the game-like interpretation of martial arts was interesting, and the competition between factions was enjoyable.

If there was one regret, it was that he didn’t get a chance to fight against pro gamers.

No matter how well For the Murim users wielded swords and utilized the martial arts system to its limits, pros are on a different level entirely.

Skill, instincts, intelligence—if any one of these is lacking, you can’t survive in the pro world.

“Well, it would be a bit much for pros to get into this.”

The battlefield content itself required communication to participate competitively from the start.

“The martial arts techniques are the problem.”

Games inevitably have entry barriers.

Each character’s skills and their characteristics, in-game systems, and countless details.

From a beginner’s perspective, these are truly daunting elements.

But surprisingly, these things can usually be learned naturally just by playing the game.

If you find the game fun, you’ll play it and watch related videos, and before you know it, you’ll be surprised to find yourself knowing all the skills of over 100 characters.

For the Murim is the same way.

If the rankers had only done moderate research into martial arts techniques.

Just moderate.

“There needs to be some limit.”

They got consumed by the concept.

They kept diving deeper into martial arts as if they were real martial artists, and to catch up with this, you’d have to invest an enormous amount of time.

They created a gap so deep that you couldn’t learn it just by casually enjoying the game.

It wasn’t for nothing that Lee Dong-soo, who was just playing casually, chose Green Forest.

Of course, this didn’t apply to him.

“Ah, that was fun.”

Seo-jun smiled.

“And I achieved my goal too.”

Today’s stream had finally hit 30,000 viewers.

Unlike iTube, which gives you a button when you reach certain subscriber milestones, this doesn’t give you any special rewards for hitting view counts, but this level should be enough recognition to definitely get picked for LOS.

“Though it’s a bubble.”

Now that he won’t be playing For the Murim anymore, it’s unknown how many people will stick around.

Still, the general consensus was that he’d maintain at least mid-tier streamer status for a while.

The impact isn’t going anywhere, and moreover, with For the Murim’s battlefield ending, it’s not like people will leave en masse.

“Tomorrow is a day off. The day after too.”

It’s absolutely not because he wants to rest.

Too many people can also be toxic. If he were to continue For the Murim immediately, that would be different, but he’s not.

A period is needed for only the people who will stick around to remain.

Looking at just short-term numbers, not taking a single day off would be best, but doing it this way will be better in the long run.

Most importantly, breaks are necessary too.

‘The people who are going to leave will all leave anyway.’

He has things to do tomorrow too.

* * *

Early the next morning.

After going to work out and returning, Seo-jun checked the announcement he’d posted on iTube.

[Taking a 2-day break. I think I’ve earned the right to be lazy.]

-Hyungnim, do you really want to die?

-The right to be lazy lol

-Now that the battlefield’s over, are we starting the random break pattern again?

└Remember when he went on break right before finishing the hidden quest in Assassin’s Dawn?

└PTSD incoming lol

└Better apologize quickly lol

-Streamer… I’m already cold… just open the door now

-This is the Heavenly Demon who led the Demonic Cult to victory???

-You guys made him lazy by donating so much yesterday, you should reflect

└I donated 100,000 won yesterday, can I get a refund if I ask the streamer nicely?

-What streamer takes breaks at times like this!! And for two days!

-This isn’t right, hyungnim. Give us your address ^^

After skimming through the over 1,000 comments, Seo-jun thought,

‘Pretty normal reaction.’

It wasn’t different from the chats that came up during streams.

The break announcement seemed well-written.

It was worth uploading it precisely at 6 AM to match the sleep time viewers usually mentioned.

Seo-jun nodded satisfactorily and closed the announcement, then opened his email.

His inbox was filled with new game advertising offers.

All scheduled for this week.

New releases all with timing set for this week.

They were quite appealing offers to do an advertisement before moving to the next game, but Seo-jun had to choose just one.

It was only natural since they were all competing products.

And the game Seo-jun initially selected was a 2-player cooperative game made by a development company called MONSTER.

The terms were the best.

20 million won.

‘MovieSoft gave 10 million won, but that was an exceptional situation.’

Usually, these were terms given to established streamers with 400,000-500,000 subscribers and steady 10,000-20,000 viewers.

Even though Seo-jun’s streaming currently had concentrated attention, his iTube was weak.

However, he didn’t choose this game because of the terms.

‘The game looked fun.’

He wasn’t hooked on the horror genre that the game company had asked about in their previous email.

It was only horror-themed—the actual genre was a 2-player cooperative action-adventure game.

That’s right.

Games where two or more players cooperate against a common enemy are usually called co-op games, and Seo-jun wanted to try this co-op game.

However, even though the advertising schedule was tightly set for 3 days from now, he hadn’t made a final decision yet.

[Han Ji-min: Boss! Please let me know who you’ll be doing the advertisement with! I’m curious!]

[Jin Seo-jun: Okay.]

Since it’s a co-op game, the collaborative partner is important, and MONSTER had contacted him saying they thought it would be fun if it were kept as a surprise.

They said they’d tell him if he was curious, but.

He had made it clear that no matter how close the deadline, Seo-jun would refuse if he didn’t like it, and they said they understood, so he just let it slide.

He figured they had their reasons for thinking it would be fine to keep it a secret.

“I should head out.”

The current time was 8 AM.

The meeting was at 4 PM, so he had 8 hours left, but as he was still a university student, he had to attend lectures.

So he got up.

“Huh? What are you doing?”

Coming out of his room, he found Tae-woo lying on the sofa in his outdoor clothes, looking at his phone.

Normally, Tae-woo would definitely be sleeping again by now from the aftereffects of being semi-forced to go to the gym because of Seo-jun, but seeing him awake surprised Seo-jun.

“Ah. I have something to go out for. Getting ready.”

“Really?”

Seo-jun moved on without thinking much of it.

No matter how much Tae-woo loved games, it’s not like he lived a life where he never left his blanket.

Click.

Seo-jun opened the front door and walked outside toward the bus stop, thinking,

‘There’s no way the streamer I’m collaborating with is him, right?’

The same ominous feeling struck him.

But Tae-woo was already prepared to go out, so the possibility seemed low.