Chapter 87

As soon as the surroundings changed, Seo-jun checked his teammates through the interface.

As expected.

“I knew this would happen.”

None of the teammates had nicknames he recognized.

He’d expected it, but unluckily, it turned out to be the worst possible outcome among his expectations.

-??

-What?

-3 vs 1?????

-Is the game difficulty level for real? Telling him to beat 3 rankers lol

-Seriously what is this?

-This looks difficult

“It’s probably because of the fame point difference.”

Seo-jun briefly explained before looking at his teammates.

What level were they?

Average?

Or upper-tier where quite a few players were distributed?

They weren’t rankers.

As usual, they examined the team composition while greeting each other.

“Hello.”

“Yes.”

“Nice to meet you. But the enemy nicknames look familiar—what’s up with that?”

One of them seemed quick to assess the situation, having already checked the enemy nicknames.

“Hello.”

Seo-jun responded before examining his teammates’ traits.

Tank.

Damage dealer.

Damage dealer.

The tank had chosen Absorption Technique.

Not the time-limited Absorption Technique that Seo-jun had picked, but the type that absorbed enemy health to survive.

One of the damage dealers had chosen palm technique traits.

The last one was a close-range fighter who had picked a fist technique called Asura Fist.

“How should we strategize? Just casually go 1-3?”

“Everyone, the enemies are 3 rankers. And Heavenly Demon-nim? Are you the rank 1 Heavenly Demon-nim?”

He caught on quickly.

“Yes, that’s right.”

The one who had quickly informed everyone of the situation was the user who had brought a tank.

Strategy, huh.

“Wow. What do we do?”

“I can’t get a read on how the enemies will approach.”

“If we just follow the standard…”

Seo-jun looked at the chat window while lost in thought.

-This round you really need to carry your teammates lol

-Fortunately he picked Heavenly Demon Divine Art. Looking at the enemies, there’s an Absorption Technique counter

-What counters Heavenly Demon Divine Art?

-Nothing. That itself is the counter. It’s trash lol

Heavenly Demon Divine Art wasn’t good.

He was talking about the actual martial art, not the game traits.

Anyway.

Seo-jun lifted his head and spoke.

His thoughts were quickly organized.

“I’ll go to the center alone. You all go to the side strongholds.”

As a streamer, he couldn’t avoid this kind of fight.

-Overreaching?

-Don’t you need teammate help?

-Let’s go!

No.

Rather than help, they might even be a hindrance.

* * *

The teammates scattered to the side strongholds following Seo-jun’s words, and he headed to the center with the warrior NPCs.

“How do you guys think the enemies will approach?”

-Don’t know

-Looking at the enemy composition, they’ll probably group up

-They need to level up too, so center is definitely the priority

-Do they really think only the streamer will go?

The standard strategy was to send 3 people to the center and 1 to the sides, prioritizing the center while taking one side stronghold but focusing on the center.

If they chose the standard strategy and the enemies sent 4 people to the center, they just had to hold out until the user who went to the sides could return.

Since users who went to the sides usually picked movement speed traits, they could take the opposite stronghold too.

The moment you capture 2 strongholds, considering the experience gained and the damage you can deal to the enemy fortress, the center side with 3 people would be advantageous as long as they didn’t die.

Of course, all of this was meaningless strategy to Seo-jun.

“Winning is enough.”

-The streamer’s strategy: Win the fight. Capture the strongholds. Victory!

-Strategic Heavenly Demon

-I really want to tell him not to talk nonsense, but after seeing yesterday’s insane performance…

-I seriously think he can win 3 vs 1. It doesn’t make sense but

Even though they’d learned swordplay through the game, the players’ skill level was quite high.

Or was it because they learned through the game?

As he’d said before, virtual reality was the best environment for experiencing real combat.

It didn’t hurt, and you didn’t die.

‘Kids do thousands, tens of thousands of swings to avoid dying in real combat.’

That’s why more of them survive.

Conversely, if you survive in real combat, you can skip those tens of thousands of swings.

‘Well. Those tens of thousands of swings aren’t just to survive real combat.’

Regardless.

Seo-jun locked eyes with the three rankers in front of him.

One seemed to be a regular user who had gone elsewhere.

3 vs 1, huh.

“A bit burdensome. What’s burdensome, you ask? The attention you’ll all pour on me after I win this.”

-Ah LOL this crazy bastard is at it again LMAO

-His mouth is running again LOL

-Looks like they heard him? LMAOO Their expressions turned sour

It was somewhat sad to collect so many ‘lol’s today too.

He was being serious.

“Save that for after you win.”

Now that they’d gradually figured out how Seo-jun spoke, it seemed like everyone understood?

The enemy didn’t waver and immediately drew their weapons and charged.

Or maybe they acknowledged he was a skilled opponent.

Their shoulders were tense for having come 3 vs 1.

“This time will be difficult.”

The first user to charge was OnlyOneWon from Beggar’s Sect.

Since he was a tank, he seemed to intend to engage first, but he didn’t come in too deep for that approach.

He was being cautious of the sword energy critical hits.

In conquest battles, most martial art traits require leveling up to use, but one feature of Heavenly Demon Divine Art was that it was always active, like Green Forest.

The two following behind began moving to surround Seo-jun.

The fact that Heavenly Demon Divine Art’s effects were always active meant the debuffs were too.

The slow Seo-jun—if he was surrounded and attacked, they judged he wouldn’t be able to dodge or demonstrate his dull sword.

NamgungFamilyWaitress.

A ranker he’d fought the day before.

The martial art traits he’d chosen was Imperial Sword Form.

A traits that gained power the more you got ahead through fast leveling.

Its feature was applying pressure debuffs when deploying martial arts.

In other words, they planned to make the already slow him even slower.

All three didn’t have martial arts available yet, but that didn’t change the fact that swords and a staff were flying at him right now.

They absolutely wouldn’t mix in heavy attacks in case he parried.

That was effective too.

A sword lightly grazed over his ducked head.

At the same time, another sword was drawing a line from top to bottom toward Seo-jun from the side.

He twisted his body.

Then a staff approached from the opposite side.

Their coordination was natural, as if they’d all fought together before.

Scrape.

He calmly dodged without losing balance or wavering.

Even so, his slow speed forced him to allow some attacks.

Heavenly Killing Star slashed Seo-jun’s arm shallowly with his sword and shouted.

“Nice!”

Seo-jun looked at Heavenly Killing Star with disbelief while dodging the relentless incoming attacks.

-Look at him getting happy

-He couldn’t land a single hit yesterday, so of course

-As an Orthodox member, I’m embarrassed about ganging up…

-The final boss is supposed to be ganged up on lol. That’s natural, so no need to be embarrassed

Seo-jun’s eyes moved rapidly, scanning the surroundings.

He kept retreating while deflecting and dodging swords, so he hadn’t been surrounded yet, but it was close.

“I’ll block him, so close in!”

When he blocked the sword aimed at his neck from the left, OnlyOneWon swung his staff wide.

A movement that accepted being attacked.

Seo-jun’s sword glowed.

When he infused sword energy, the enemy’s eyes trembled, but there was no hesitation in his movement.

Rather, he infused internal energy into his staff too.

The intention was obvious.

“Fine, I’ll take it.”

Seo-jun’s sword filled with sword energy clashed with OnlyOneWon’s staff.

“What the hell was that?”

Though they’d only clashed sword energy, OnlyOneWon’s health dropped by about a fifth due to Heavenly Demon Divine Art’s traits.

After that, there was no follow-up attack from the sides.

‘As expected. Instead of attacking, they secured the rear.’

-He got surrounded after all

-Honestly, 3 vs 1 isn’t that disadvantageous, so I thought he could win, but it does look difficult

-Why isn’t it that disadvantageous?

That it wasn’t so disadvantageous was correct.

For example, when someone with a power level of 3 fights three people with power levels of 1 each, what would the result be?

The sum of power levels is the same, and since the other side has numbers, you might think the 1s would win.

‘Surprisingly, the person with 3 isn’t at a huge disadvantage.’

Because when three people with power level 1 gather, their combined power doesn’t become 3.

If there were formation techniques, it could become 5 instead of 3, but.

“Unfortunately, For the Murim doesn’t have those.”

Actually, only Seo-jun thought this way—3 vs 1 was absolutely advantageous for the 3.

However, people’s expectations had risen so high due to Seo-jun’s performance the day before.

In that case, he had to show them.

“Unfortunately? What are you talking about?”

“Don’t get dragged in. He’s talking to the viewers.”

With Seo-jun perfectly surrounded, attacks came from all directions.

Unlike when they attacked sequentially from the front and both sides, being surrounded meant the enemies had more space to use, so attacks sometimes came simultaneously.

Seo-jun looked at Heavenly Killing Star positioned on his right and spoke.

“Don’t you think I let myself get surrounded on purpose?”

Seo-jun displayed various techniques while dodging, and his health gradually began to decrease.

His speed made some attacks unavoidable.

“Acting tough even while getting hit.”

Scrape.

A sword stabbed from behind scraped his side.

Right.

These guys weren’t rankers for nothing, and they’d experienced group combat enough that their coordination was quite good.

-T_T How do we handle this

-If he gets hit just a couple more times, he’ll lose

-No matter how much you say group combat isn’t that disadvantageous, if they coordinate well, there’s nothing you can do

-Is the streamer finally getting schooled? LMAO

-So happy about this lol

But it wasn’t without flaws.

“You guys got hit too, didn’t you?”

Seo-jun pointed his sword at their health bars while making light movements.

If his health was critical, the three enemies had about half or a third remaining.

NamgungFamilyWaitress looked at Seo-jun with a disgusted expression and bit his lip.

He couldn’t understand the skill of Seo-jun, who had managed to counterattack between all this.

“You are impressive. If your speed had been just a little faster or if you’d decided to purely dodge from the beginning, you probably wouldn’t have been hit once.”

“Maybe so.”

“From now on, don’t force attacks! Or change your traits!”

Clang!

Seo-jun’s sword met the sword of Waitress on the right, and then OnlyOneWon charged in.

‘Heavenly Killing Star in the back is…’

The coordination is slow!

Seo-jun’s eyes lit up as he pushed away NamgungFamilyWaitress’s sword while simultaneously kicking OnlyOneWon, who was approaching from the left.

Then, using his right foot as an axis, he spun his body 180 degrees while swinging his arm along with the rotation.

His head turned first, allowing him to check behind him, and when Seo-jun saw Heavenly Killing Star, he grinned.

Heavenly Killing Star was preparing an attack, and it was definitely a heavy attack.

“I was waiting for this.”

His head arrived first, followed by his upper body and left foot turning in sequence.

Finally.

His arm slowly extended.

Clang!

Sword met sword perpendicularly, revealing the weakness of heavy attacks.

Heavenly Killing Star’s mouth gaped open in bewilderment.

‘This weakness is why he hasn’t been using it until now, but he gradually gained confidence as his rear attacks succeeded.’

An opportunity arose.

As Seo-jun lifted his foot, someone behind him shouted.

“Dodge!”

Heavenly Demon Lord Step.

‘Also known as just a passive effect.’

While rankers rarely had opportunities to face this effect, they still seemed to sense the danger.

Heavenly Killing Star tried to distance himself from Seo-jun as soon as he recovered from the stagger, leaning his body back.

‘Too late.’

Thud!

When Seo-jun stomped his foot, the ground caved in and dark blue energy waves spread in all directions.

‘The effect is decent.’

Since not much internal energy had accumulated, this attack didn’t reduce Heavenly Killing Star’s health by much.

But the stagger was incomparably longer than when parried.

-Insane lmao

-Are we seeing a comeback here?

-How did he know there was a heavy attack coming from behind? Lol

-Is he really not using hacks?

-He must have deliberately reduced their health beforehand for this moment LOL

Without hesitation, Seo-jun raised his sword and formed sword energy.

“Now. It’s 1 vs 2.”