Chapter 26

Thwack!

A blue boxing glove slammed into Lee Dong-soo’s face.

Thwack thwack!

Consecutive punches buried into his abdomen in rapid succession.

“Ugh.”

Lee Dong-soo staggered for a moment, clutching his waist, then regained his composure and raised his guard.

Though people around were watching him get beaten with keen interest, only the enemy in front of him mattered.

“Boss, is this kid really preparing to be a combat sports athlete? Why’s he so weak?”

Opening!

Seo-jun, standing in front of him, turned his head sideways toward the gym owner.

Normally, attacking at this timing would be poor sportsmanship, but Dong-soo had already been thoroughly influenced by Seo-jun after getting beaten up the previous day.

Practice like it’s real combat!

“Hyaaaah!”

A straight punch.

Though he hadn’t learned much, Dong-soo’s punch shot forward with proper form.

Perfect timing, perfect stance, a distracted opponent.

It was an attack that could work at least once against a careless opponent, but unfortunately, his opponent was Seo-jun.

Even while looking sideways, Seo-jun lightly dodged and countered with a one-two punch combination.

Ohhh!

Exclamations erupted from the surrounding crowd.

“Ahhhhh! Damn it.”

In the end, Dong-soo collapsed, clutching his stomach.

“Hey! You stinging nettle bastard! I told you to go easy! And that kid isn’t preparing to be an athlete! Come here.”

The gym owner shouted while approaching the ring.

He grabbed the rope and swung his leg over to catch Seo-jun.

Sensing killing intent, Seo-jun headed to the opposite side of the gym owner and prepared to exit the ring.

“Oh, really? He did seem to have talent though.”

The gym owner, halfway over the rope, saw Seo-jun preparing to leave and gave up on catching him.

“Ugh. This little… Ah. My back.”

“Then is this kid just like the best fighter at his school or something?”

Seo-jun downgraded his assessment of Lee Dong-soo from athlete-in-training to just a high schooler who could fight a bit.

Despite this misunderstanding, the gym owner didn’t reveal Lee Dong-soo’s identity because Lee Dong-soo had asked him not to.

Lee Dong-soo was embarrassed to reveal his identity to Seo-jun.

‘If I’d at least won in the game, I could have proudly revealed who I am.’

After getting thoroughly educated by Seo-jun the previous day, he’d gone into the company building and launched Assassin’s Dawn with his stream turned off.

He finally managed to catch tutorial Etor after more than fifteen attempts and was shocked.

Losing in reality was somewhat understandable, but losing in games wasn’t supposed to happen.

Who was he?

A player on the world’s second-strongest team!

“Hey. Instead of fighting, go study at school.”

“Come on. Are you good at studying, hyung?”

“Yeah.”

“What kind of confidence makes you answer so immediately like that?”

Dong-soo grumbled as he got up and put his hands behind his back to stretch his spine.

“Dong-soo. That guy goes to Korea University.”

The gym owner’s voice came from beside him.

“Ah, shit! Don’t lie to me. The world’s really unfair.”

“Well, you work hard and things happen.”

Seo-jun shrugged.

“Tch. I’m good at games so I don’t need to study.”

Dong-soo finished speaking while dusting off his hands, then quickly raised his guard.

“Really?”

At the same time, Seo-jun’s fist approached at high speed.

Dong-soo, now accustomed to this harassment, had been prepared from the start.

It was truly professional-level adaptability.

“Yes. I caught Etor, Drake, and Richard yesterday following hyung’s example.”

Of course, when he tried to follow Seo-jun by taking on the challenge with a pipe, he died to Drake six times.

Richard Neville was four times.

Through those weak points, Lee Dong-soo came to acknowledge Seo-jun’s skill.

This person was somehow different.

But the moment he acknowledged that fact, his competitive spirit wasn’t crushed. Rather, it grew stronger.

Whoosh!

He barely dodged again.

“Oh? Then why don’t you try challenging to become a pro gamer.”

Seo-jun spoke without much thought, and Lee Dong-soo sighed.

‘I’m already a pro.’

Today he planned to challenge the Tower Master.

He had no idea how Seo-jun had cut lightning or managed sound play, but he planned to tackle it head-on.

Because he could feel his skills improving as he continued following this person named Jin Seo-jun.

Same with sparring.

‘Is this why Ha-yeon-noona keeps challenging the unknown in Training Hall?’

His desire for improvement was stimulated.

“Hyung.”

“Yeah?”

“Are you going to catch the Queen in today’s broadcast?”

The Queen was what they called the last remaining ruler of Assassin’s Dawn.

“Why?”

“Just wondering.”

“Probably?”

There was no more small talk after that.

Lee Dong-soo concentrated on trying to land at least one hit somehow.

Seo-jun chatted with the people around while accommodating him.

Thwack!

But Dong-soo couldn’t stop imagining some being overlapping with Seo-jun.

A being that fought while leisurely conversing with people nearby.

The subject of widespread rumors about being a new type of AI created by Surface.

‘No way… This hyung isn’t the 10th level unknown, is he? No, that’s going too far.’

Even Shin Ha-yeon keeps challenging that.

* * *

Seo-jun sat in a cafe waiting for Team Leader Kim Yoon-chan while watching Alpaca’s stream.

[Ugh. Please, I don’t want to see that Drake anymore. Blegh!]

-LMAO

-It’s only been 22 hours since you started streaming, Alpaca, stop exaggerating

– ㅡㅅㅡ

-Hang in there!

[You guys find this boring too. It must be hard to watch, right?]

-I slept and came back so I’m not tired at all lol

-This is the New Year’s waiting room

-Wasn’t it the World Cup waiting room?

-He can’t turn off the stream until the world ends, what are you all talking about lol

-Don’t mention ending the stream. You chose to be the eternal streamer. Endure with evil and stubbornness.

[What evil stubbornness. I never chose this.]

[‘Some Idiot’ made a big 1,000 won donation!]

[???: If someone succeeds at that, I’ll serve that person as my master, learn from them, and do a stream marathon with hack-and-slash until…]

Alpaca quickly closed the donation and kicked the viewer who sent it.

[I said if you sent that donation one more time, it would be a permanent ban, right?]

-LMAO

-Instant ban

-Just now his speed was Nameless-level. Wow

-Use that reflexes to catch Drake, Alpaca

[Oh! The capsule access restriction appeared after 9 hours. Hehe.]

Capsules had access time limits.

This was Surface’s measure to prevent people from overworking their real bodies by getting addicted to games.

Users had to take mandatory breaks—if playtime exceeded 3 hours, they couldn’t reconnect for half the time they’d been connected.

And if connection time exceeded 9 hours, the capsule would forcibly shut down.

Alpaca had been fighting Drake for a total of 18 hours since starting at noon the previous day, excluding the 4 hours and 30 minutes of break time.

‘I feel sorry for no reason.’

Seo-jun looked at his watch.

The current time was 10:30.

Soon it would be appointment time.

[I’m going out now, so I’ll play one ad in the meantime. You know this is the first ad in 9 hours, right?]

An advertisement appeared on Seo-jun’s Travel screen.

‘Advertisements.’

Streamers partnered with Travel had various additional income sources, and advertisements were one of them.

These ads were different from the ones paid for by game companies.

They appeared within Travel when entering streams for the first time or during streams, and income came in based on the number of viewers watching the ad.

Streamers could play these ads at will.

But if you inserted ads too frequently, viewer numbers would decrease.

So streamers usually preferred playing them briefly during situation changes like Alpaca was doing, or during break times like bathroom visits.

“The partner streamer requirements are lower than I thought…”

To become a partner streamer, you needed to meet: 700 minutes of total live streaming time in the past 30 days, 7 streaming days, an average of 10 concurrent viewers, and 30+ followers.

The other three requirements had been met long ago, but one thing was holding him back.

Days.

“It’s not something I can do anything about right now.”

Once he hired an editor, expenses would start occurring, so he couldn’t help but be more concerned about each income source.

[I’ll… sleep and then do an eternal stream with assassination afterward. I guess I’m getting old. I’m incredibly sleepy now that I’m out. Yawn. Just once. Please forgive me just this once.]

Alpaca was talking with half-closed eyes.

Soon the stream turned off.

The viewers seemed understanding too.

* * *

A little later.

“Hello. I’m Kim Yoon-chan, who contacted you.”

“I’m streamer Jin Seo-jun.”

Seo-jun stood up and shook hands with Kim Yoon-chan.

Kim Yoon-chan wore comfortable but neat, unruffled clothing.

It seemed like MovieSoft being a foreign company showed.

“First, I apologize for contacting you so suddenly. This was an urgent matter.”

“No, it’s fine.”

“Still, let me apologize once more. If Seo-jun-nim can’t see us, we’d be in quite a difficult situation, so we had to make contact somehow. We sent quite a lot, didn’t we? Hehe.”

That’s an understatement.

Literally every possible contact method had been mobilized.

“Well, I was just a bit surprised. But what exactly is the problem…”

Seo-jun had an ominous thought.

Was there some situation where he’d done something wrong and had to pay compensation?

Let’s see, among father’s acquaintances there was a lawyer…

“Haha, well, the thing is, we came to see you because of the Cosmos Fragments that Seo-jun-nim is currently working on.”

“Cosmos Fragments?”

“Yes. When you collect all the Cosmos Fragments, an easter egg related to our next project appears, and we have a teaser video that needs to be released at that timing… but it’s not ready yet.”

Ah.

So basically.

“You’re asking me to delay defeating the Rulers for a little while?”

Seo-jun smiled leisurely.

This was a situation where he absolutely had the upper hand.

“Yes, that’s right. Of course, we plan to show our sincerity so you won’t feel shortchanged. It should take about 6 days to make.”

Kim Yoon-chan smiled slyly.

Geez, talking about “sincerity” makes it sound like he’s committing a crime, man.

“Hmm…”

Anyway, the game company couldn’t force him.

Seo-jun began thinking carefully.

‘Usually when they say teaser video…’

It means a video that intentionally hides information to arouse curiosity for promotional purposes.

‘It probably doesn’t absolutely require my cooperation.’

With about 3,000 people currently, at most a little bait being revealed in Korea probably wouldn’t have much impact on MovieSoft, which operates in the global market.

Rather, even if Seo-jun didn’t cooperate, they could turn this setback into an opportunity and create effects beyond a teaser video.

They were a corporation, not an individual.

But it could be unexpectedly important, so he’d need to hear the proposal to gauge it.

No more, no less, just right.

Seo-jun was thinking of cooperating willingly.

“So what is this sincerity you mentioned?”

“Ahem, well, the thing is. If you delay the Queen strategy for about 6 days, we’ll specially give Seo-jun-nim beta test rights for our next project. It won’t be more than a year until beta.”

What?

“And we’re thinking of creating an event item bundle related to Seo-jun-nim for the DLC and next project.”

What’s this?

Why are you giving me so much?

If it had been before, maybe not, but for Seo-jun who was planning to be a proper streamer, these were incredibly good conditions.

“What’s the cost?”

“Only delaying catching the ruler by 6 days. That’s all.”

Seo-jun looked at Kim Yoon-chan with a bewildered expression.

Isn’t this guy a scammer?

“Uh…”

The conditions Kim Yoon-chan proposed weren’t immediately necessary, but for him, it would be strange to refuse when there was nothing to lose.

“You’ll accept the proposal, right?”

Seo-jun couldn’t answer immediately.

He’d caught a case of suspicion.

“Haha. Didn’t I say so? The conditions were wrong.”

Then, slightly awkward Korean was heard.

A middle-aged foreigner who had entered the cafe at the same time as Kim Yoon-chan but sat at a nearby table at some distance approached them and cheerfully offered to shake hands with Seo-jun.

“Nice to meet you. Seo-jun. I’m Eve Paymo from MovieSoft Korea.”

Kim Yoon-chan’s boss.

Right.

He must be planning to adjust the conditions.

Probably adding quid pro quo.

As long as it wasn’t too unreasonable a request, Seo-jun was thinking of accepting the proposal.

Rather, now that the other party was demanding something, he felt relieved.

“We’ll also give you advertising.”

And at Eve Paymo’s following words, Seo-jun’s eyes filled with bewilderment again.

“Pardon?”

Huh.

He never even thought of this kind of advertising.

“You mean game advertising, right?”

“That’s right. Is there any game among our company’s games that you want? We’ll accommodate anything. Seo-jun just needs to play the game.”

A piece of paper was handed to Seo-jun.

Eve Paymo grinned and said.

“Ah. We’re thinking of at least a thousand per unit.”

So the sucker got multiplied?

What the hell is this really?