Chapter 29

“Alright then, let’s start the game.”

[Launching Assassin’s Dawn.]

A notification sound appeared.

The world was swallowed by darkness.

* * *

Seo-jun woke up in the marketplace.

“Now let’s go.”

Where to?

To the Assassins’ base.

“Hey. Try some fresh fruit here.”

“Hey. Don’t block the road and move aside! I’m in a hurry.”

“Mister. Please buy just one piece of candy.”

Seo-jun made his way through the marketplace toward the Sun Tavern.

It was a place he had never visited once from clearing the tutorial until catching the Tower Master, but over the past few days it had become a place Seo-jun stopped by at least once daily.

-Yeah, today’s no different either

-Those guys are totally incompetent lol

-They’re shit at getting work done

“I agree. These guys are terrible at their jobs.”

Seo-jun entered the Sun Tavern and naturally headed into the kitchen.

Then he opened the secret passage in the floor and went inside.

It was a secret location of the Assassins that could be accessed once you achieved a certain reputation level accumulated through assassinations.

“Nameless, what brings you here? Do you need a mission?”

-If you take a mission you can’t get Cosmos Fragments, right? Just don’t take missions lol

-For real, don’t know why but the guys who barely defeat Rulers were crying

-They barely killed them but nothing dropped so they rage quit lol

Several options appeared before Seo-jun.

He selected one of them.

“I want to deal with the Ruler now.”

“Sorry. That’s premature. Our preparations aren’t ready yet.”

-Here they go again lol

-They’ll probably never be ready.

-Honestly, if this were reality the branch chief would be lacking conscience. How can you finish all the work in just a few days?

-But this is a game

-Don’t tell me you’re not going to catch the Queen today because of this?

Christina giving the same answer for several days now.

“Well, can’t be helped.”

Seo-jun nodded.

-No!

-You weren’t this kind of person

-Being obedient?

“I’ll just kill her anyway. Did you think I’d wait?”

He grinned and drew a sword from his inventory.

It was a sword he’d bought for quite a hefty price from the Assassins’ exclusive shop.

-LOL

-This is our streamer

-Wait, if you were going to do this, why didn’t you kill her until now?

“Why didn’t I kill her until now? Just because. Since you guys kept asking me to kill her, I didn’t want to.”

Actually it was because of the contract, but he didn’t say that.

There weren’t any confidentiality clauses, but they had asked him to keep it secret if possible.

Seo-jun was the type to keep promises when asked.

-Bullshit, are you contrary?

“Shh. Please don’t curse.”

-This streamer does the opposite lol

-A streamer who doesn’t get swayed by viewers!

-Communication breakdown incarnate

“Come on. Where would you find a streamer who communicates as well as me?”

Seo-jun left behind the countless question marks rising in chat and exited the Sun Tavern, checking the map as he headed toward the city center where the palace was located.

He might be technologically challenged, but fortunately he wasn’t directionally challenged.

“Now everyone, please tell me about the palace.”

Seo-jun asked viewers about in-game information while walking.

So naturally and matter-of-factly.

-Did you leave it to us?

-Please do some prep work lol

-Don’t you know this is all Professor Seo-jun’s deep intention to help viewers review?

“I’m joking, I actually looked into it roughly.”

-Oh? What’s the occasion?

-Shh, the streamer is most entertaining when he doesn’t know things

-And it’s cool when he lightly breaks through that

Seo-jun traveled by jumping across rooftops.

This was the most convenient way.

In the distance, he could see the splendid palace at the city center.

Alberck Palace had a front length of 160m and height of 32m. Four stories total with 1,015 rooms, 2,038 doors, and 825 windows.

The Queen’s outdoor gallery surrounding Alberck, the enormous lake, and Alteon’s largest garden came into Seo-jun’s view.

“…And they say over 1,000 employees work there, with 300 guards called Royal Guards. Considering the windows and everything, the user who counted all this directly seems more impressive than the palace itself.”

-True lol

-Amazing in many ways lmao

-Time billionaire

-Time Bill Gates lol

Seo-jun came down from the tall building’s rooftop.

Then he walked toward Alberck.

Certainly, as he got closer to the palace, there seemed to be more guards around.

While making various small talk as he went, a donation rang out.

[‘Rigged Dice’ donated 10,000 won!]

[Seo-jun-nim, do you take missions or anything like that?]

Seo-jun stopped walking. Then he said,

“Thank you for the donation, Rigged Dice. What’s the mission content?”

-Streamer’s inner thoughts) How much did you budget, customer?

-Can’t resist missions

-Male trait) Weak to money

After waiting a moment, a donation came in.

[‘Rigged Dice’ donated 300,000 won!]

[Please catch the Queen once by infiltrating and assassinating! I want to see Seo-jun infiltrate!]

-Wow, 300k at once

-Why does he shoot first and ask questions later lol

-Shoot the money first, then the streamer will do the mission.

-But assassination by him? Might be interesting to see hehe

-What are you saying. If you assassinate, what about Cosmos Fragments? You can’t take it.

Various opinions about the mission content came up after that.

Infiltration and assassination.

Gameplay that Seo-jun had never done even once.

‘It would be fun to try though.’

The person who sent the donation seemed to be the viewer who was debating whether to start Assassin’s Dawn before the game began.

They probably wanted to see his infiltration gameplay.

[‘Rigged Dice’ donated 100,000 won!]

[Ah, come to think of it there are Cosmos Fragments! I’ll cancel the mission. And refund is fine.]

-Wow, big spender

-Even canceling the mission with 100k

-Wasn’t that the same guy from earlier? If it were me, I’d have just bought the game with that money lol

Seo-jun thought for a moment then said,

“I don’t know if it’ll work, but let’s try it once. Well. I can just infiltrate and wake her up right before assassinating.”

Then it would naturally switch to hack-and-slash, wouldn’t it?

Whether waking from sleep due to an alarm or an intruder directly waking them up, there’s no essential difference, “I should do the work for what I received. If it doesn’t work, I’ll die and do hack-and-slash.”

-This is my streamer

-Who the hell plays games like that lol

-Oh! Thank you!

After reading Rigged Dice’s chat, Seo-jun thought about assassination methods.

Since this was a game with countless ways to assassinate and infiltrate, there were also various methods to enter the palace and approach the Queen.

One-dimensionally infiltrating while avoiding Royal Guards’ eyes, stealing ballroom invitations, or becoming friends with nobles to get invited to the palace were all possible.

What was immediately possible was.

“I’ll just have to go in. Since I decided to assassinate, I need to get palace blueprints.”

Seo-jun used the signal stone to contact Christina, then went back to find the nearest Assassins base.

Similarly, this base also took the form of a tavern.

Seo-jun entered the secret location in the kitchen floor, then approached and sat in front of a hooded man.

“Be careful not to be devoured by chaos. True chaos doesn’t destroy cosmos.”

He was the Assassins member in charge of this district.

“Brother, what brings you here. Hehehe.”

[–> Trade goods.]

[–> Have a conversation.]

Options appeared.

Selecting the former would let him purchase Assassins equipment, while selecting the latter would just show useless small talk.

Seo-jun selected the former.

“I want to trade goods.”

“Good. Brother, you brought plenty of money, right?”

An interface appeared and Seo-jun clicked on blueprints in the category section.

The Assassins had collected blueprints of most buildings in Alteon.

Seo-jun scrolled down and found the palace blueprints.

“This is the most expensive.”

To purchase this, he needed reputation or money.

[Alberck Palace Blueprint]

[700 Assassins Reputation] [Exchange]

[3,000 Gold] [Exchange]

The palace blueprint was one of the most expensive items compared to other items, not just blueprints.

But Seo-jun had enough of both.

[Assassins Reputation – 3,427]

[Gold Held – 10,000]

His reputation had to be high since he’d caught three Rulers. Even though Seo-jun played without taking missions and received fewer rewards than usual.

As for money…

-Rich guy…

-Should I try pickpocketing too?

-30 minutes a day and you’ll be able to buy buildings. by Seo-jun.

Considering that 1,000 gold could get you the most expensive weapon available in shops, Seo-jun’s 10,000 gold was quite a lot.

And this gold wasn’t earned through pickpocketing.

Rather, money earned through mini-game elements was much more.

“Stop the slander please. I’ll buy it with reputation.”

Seo-jun pressed the exchange button next to reputation.

“Thank you, Nameless. Come again next time.”

He seemed happy to have sold an expensive item.

Is this an assassin or a merchant?

Seo-jun looked at the NPC with distaste then went outside.

“Alright then, let’s go.”

Seo-jun approached Alberck.

A different scene unfolded from before.

Because he had obtained the blueprint, the palace’s structure was displayed like a radar.

“Oh, there’s an item like this.”

-The streamer learned about this function after a week of gaming lol

-How does the new technology taste?

-If you buy X-ray vision you can also see enemy positions, how about it?

Seo-jun stood in front of the palace.

He could see Royal Guards standing watch.

“X-ray vision? No thanks. How hard could infiltration be?”

-LOL no taking back that statement, alright?

-Building karma on

-He won’t be good at assassination too, surely

-Planning to get caught a few times then go dark and beat them all up in hack-and-slash

“Alright then, here we go.”

The moment the guard’s gaze turned away briefly, Seo-jun lightly crossed over the iron bars.

The Queen’s outdoor gallery appeared immediately after crossing the bars.

The other sides had open parks or the natural moat of a lake, making this the best choice for approaching the palace interior.

Seo-jun focused on sounds.

The guards called the Royal Guards were spread throughout all of Alberck on patrol.

Step step.

Seo-jun moved forward while moving away from the sound’s source.

Since he knew the structure, he wouldn’t get lost.

Another thing to be wary of was the snipers on Alberck’s rooftop.

Seo-jun kept his body as low as possible, left the gallery, then climbed up the outer wall to the second floor and caught his breath on a balcony.

“Hmm. Pretty easy.”

-This is just the beginning lol

-Don’t get cocky now

Alberck Palace was structured like several maze-like complex buildings attached together.

This was because it had a history of multiple renovations and expansions.

And since the Queen’s quarters were at the very center of the maze-like palace, it wasn’t easy for players to approach without being detected.

Seo-jun put his ear to a window.

He could hear someone’s sleeping breath.

“Not here.”

Seo-jun climbed the wall again.

He was looking for an empty guest room.

“This one’s empty.”

Seo-jun carefully opened the balcony door and went inside.

-Lmao

-Busted

-This is why assassination is hard

-Even being careful, the sound was too loud.

Viewers were laughing.

Why?

And Seo-jun could immediately figure out the reason.

“What? What was that sound?”

A man’s voice coming from behind the guest room door.

He’d been caught by a Royal Guard.

Click.

The sound of a door handle turning from the other side.

-Get under the bed

-Into the closet go go

-Yeah, doing all that still gets you caught. Does palace assassination look easy to you now?

-Already entered alert state. NPCs here go on alert from just a little sound.

Alert state was a common system in stealth games.

It’s a system NPCs take when users make their presence known, and NPCs in this state circle around until they find the source of the sound.

And if palace NPCs don’t find the cause after time passes, they sound the alarm.

If that happens, it’s failure.

Seo-jun looked at the chat and instantly assessed the situation.

Hiding like this would still get him caught, and he couldn’t run away.

‘The difficulty really is high.’

In that case.

Creak.

-Caught

-First time failing? Lol

-Did assassination look easy to you?

Seo-jun drew a dagger from his inventory in the split second the door was opening.

And before the door fully opened, he identified the Royal Guard’s position.

It was at a speed close to instinct.

Then when the door was half open, he threw the dagger.

Guk.

With a short death rattle, the Royal Guard collapsed.

“What, this works? Assassination is easy too.”

Seo-jun grinned as if he’d never been tense and spoke.

-Thinking to throw a dagger in that moment is really amazing lol

-Going hack-and-slash again

-Stop killing and infiltrate quietly lol

-Is this assassination!?

Assassin’s Dawn has something called an ambush judgment.

If an NPC gets attacked at a vital point before confirming an enemy’s existence, it’s a one-hit kill judgment.

This is also a common system in assassination games.

The important point was that the Royal Guard died in one hit.

What this means is.

“But they didn’t see it, right?”

-Ah LOL

-But it was fast lol

-If ambush judgment triggered then it is assassination lmao

-For real, how is it hack-and-slash if the enemy doesn’t know? It’s assassination

-Ah lol if NPCs enter alert state, you just need to hit vital points before they see you

-Info) Surprisingly, assassinating enemies during infiltration is normal gameplay.

-But that wasn’t normal assassination lol