Chapter 9

“Man, I feel like I’m gonna get caught again.”

Alpaca.

He was a streamer who maintained an average of 10,000 viewers, hit a peak of 30,000 viewers on the opening day of Assassin’s Dawn’s new release, and even now, a week later, was still maintaining 20,000 viewers.

And he was one of the streamers people would look for first whenever a new Assassin’s Dawn game came out.

This was because he had been uploading story summaries of the series from the past, review videos, and recommendation videos for games that were good for beginners to get into.

Such was Alpaca, who had been continuing a challenge of assassinating with just his bare hands since opening day.

[That little rat was hiding there! Kuhaha!]

“Ah shit, got caught…”

Swoosh!

A dagger flew instantly toward his forehead, and his screen, which had been stuck to the ceiling, went black.

After respawning, Alpaca walked trudgingly back to the guild and said.

“Phew, if I just catch Drake, District 4 will be finished, but it’s not easy. There are too many organization members, and it would be nice to know for sure where exactly Drake is within his stronghold.”

The Rulers.

The secret society that managed District 4 of Alteon, meaning the main villains of the game, were composed of one person per district. The Queen, the Tower Master, the head of the King’s faction, and Drake, the boss of the Dissemblers.

These were characterized as mid-boss level existences that had similar assassination difficulty to each other, but were a dimension higher than even the figures of the Royal district, which had the highest difficulty compared to other districts.

Among them, Drake, the boss of the Dissemblers, had a total of 10 strongholds in District 4 and would randomly appear in one of them.

This was now the fourth time he’d been caught.

His accumulated reputation was precarious. From the next time, he might not be able to buy location information from the guild.

Alpaca purchased Drake’s location information from the guild.

“Hmm, the theater. Sigh, where in the theater is he hiding this time? I need to succeed this time.”

Alpaca was gradually accumulating fatigue and let out a deep sigh.

And he let out another sigh because of the donation that followed.

[If it’s the theater, just go hack-and-slash. There are people doing hack-and-slash play with bare hands, so why are you struggling so much?]

“Thank you for the 10,000 won donation. What hack-and-slash nonsense are you talking about? Where would such a person exist…”

-For real lol

-You have to say things that make sense.

[It’s real though, probably gonna clear it soon?]

“Drake is absolutely impossible to catch in the first place. Other NPCs might be possible, but the Rulers were especially made with the developers putting their all into it, so it’s impossible.”

Alpaca was a user who liked assassination play.

That didn’t mean he hated hack-and-slash. Combat was also part of Assassin’s Dawn after all.

It’s just that his skills were a bit lacking for this work.

[Haven’t you seen the community?]

“Ah. Someone’s doing it in the community? If that succeeds, I’ll serve that person as my master, learn from them, and do a stream marathon until I clear Drake with hack-and-slash!”

A stream marathon was content where you don’t turn off the broadcast until achieving a certain goal.

If your skills were good, it would end in a few hours, but if not?

[LOL that statement.]

“Yes~ Absolutely impossible. Thank you for the donation. So sweet.”

A few people in the chat seemed to be seriously mocking him, but Alpaca brushed it off as nothing serious.

“Ah, of course if that person who cleared it is a pro, I won’t do the marathon.”

He knew busy pros didn’t have time to play other games, but he added one more line because he was scared for no reason.

-Scared???

-LOL

-Alpaca admitting defeat!

-Just go out and die, hyung.

* * *

30 minutes before Alpaca made his reckless marathon statement.

Seo-jun was entering an alley where organization members were, in order to learn Drake’s whereabouts.

“Come, come here and let’s have an honest conversation.”

“I’ll follow for now. Whatever.”

This was because he’d seen a chat saying that if they fought in broad daylight, the guards would be dispatched and it would become troublesome.

Splash splash.

As he entered the alley, a mysterious musty smell and the smell of stagnant water that hadn’t evaporated tormented his nose.

“Good that you listen well.”

“Right, exactly. Hey! First take out everything you have. Including the wallet you stole earlier.”

As Seo-jun followed them deeper in, two more organization members appeared and surrounded Seo-jun front and back in the narrow alley.

-He did 13-vs-1, so this level is a piece of cake

-For real lol

-But doesn’t Nameless have no weapons at all? How’s he planning to fight in that situation.

-How’s he gonna get Drake’s info in the first place? lol. He has no reputation so he can’t use the information guild, and to find organization traitors he has to do all the related sub-quests and actions

“Hmm?”

Seo-jun seemed to discover something strange while scrolling through the chat and paused the game for a moment.

“Guys, is catching these guys’ organization difficult? Does it take a long time?”

-No, but it’s catching a Ruler, how would that be easy????

-Seriously that lol

“What’s a Ruler?”

-Kyah!!!!

-This is what a streamer should be like, newbies, are you watching?

-Reminds me of ‘what’s parrying’…

Chats from Best Defense is Winter Yellowtail Defense, White Horse Bullet User, and Public Toilet Brick Theft King appeared in order.

[‘No Way’ donated 1,000 won!]

[You said you’d catch it without even knowing what a Ruler is?]

“Please explain.”

Actually, Seo-jun knew about Drake. Not just Drake, but he’d learned other basic information while looking at the community.

This was because he’d recognized the need to know to some degree in order to lead the broadcast.

Meeting Dissembler organization members in the market had been coincidence though.

There were two strategies for clearing Drake that he’d grasped yesterday.

The first was to raise his reputation by performing various assassination missions until he gained enough trust that people would believe he could kill Drake, then buy information from organizations like Alteon’s Liberation or guilds.

The second was to perform sub-quests that create a safe information trading environment where identities couldn’t be specified, then buy Drake’s location from Dissembler organization members.

The important element here was that both required considering the information provider’s safety concerns to obtain information.

Then couldn’t there be other methods?

Community users thought so.

Since it was a game with such high freedom after all.

Seo-jun thought the same while reading information posts. Just his direction was different.

‘Couldn’t I just beat up organization members so badly they can’t think about consequences?’

If that doesn’t work, he could just follow the strategy guide.

Once he knew the location, catching him would be nothing.

“Hmm, so I need to obtain information? And that’s difficult. Plus catching him is also difficult.”

-Yeah

-You’re not planning to postpone it until tomorrow, are you?

-Looking at strategy guides is forbidden

“Come on, guys. I don’t do takebacks or anything like that.”

The chat window was flooded with ‘lol’s. As he always felt, viewers were happiest when streamers were in difficult situations.

Seo-jun thought this as he resumed the paused game.

“Hey, hey, the kid got scared because of your faces.”

“Right, why didn’t you get our permission before doing business here. Huh?”

The Dissembler organization members giggled and exchanged trivial jokes with each other.

Seo-jun asked them.

“Do you guys know where Drake is?”

“Boss? We know. So what? Why would we obediently…”

And when the answer he wanted came out, he cut off the organization member’s words.

“Then that’s enough.”

“?”

“Just get beaten up first. Everyone talks when they get hit.”

“What are you talking about! Guys, kill him!”

The organization members drew daggers from their pockets. And immediately rushed at Seo-jun.

Seo-jun first kicked off the wall to go up and jumped over the organization members in front.

Getting attacked from front and back in a narrow street was more troublesome than expected.

After that, he dodged the rushing organization member’s dagger, then grabbed his arm and slammed him down.

Urgh.

[Dissembler Organization Member’s Basic Dagger]

The organization member dropped his sword and Seo-jun snatched the dagger floating in the air.

-How did he catch that?

-Reaction speed is insane

Having obtained a weapon, Seo-jun began quickly cleaning up the mobs.

Clang!

“Urgh!”

Clang!

“Kugh.”

Clang!

In an instant, everyone except the organization member who said he knew the boss’s location had died.

“Parrying really is convenient.”

-Wow

-He was right to be a master!

-Hack-and-slash looks fun

-People thinking ‘should I try it too?’ wake up from your dreams hehe

The remaining organization member also rushed at Seo-jun but.

Clang!

He collapsed next to his comrades’ corpses and fell into a groggy state.

Seo-jun slowly approached the fallen, terrified organization member and asked.

“Where is Drake?”

Viewers began mocking his antics.

-As if that would work lol

-For real lol

The organization member trembled without saying anything.

Seo-jun waited until he recovered.

“You think I’d tell you that!”

And when he got up again.

Clang!

The organization member fell in the same position.

“Where is Drake?”

-??? New type of torture?

-Wake up from your dreams lol

“You think I’d tell you that!”

The organization member regained his energy and shouted.

Clang!

So Seo-jun gave him another parry.

“Where is Drake?”

-LMAO

-Real madness lol

Viewers couldn’t understand his actions, but Seo-jun felt that each time the organization member fell into a groggy state, his reactions dropped a little.

“Oh. This gradually weakens him.”

-Where exactly are you going with this.

-What are you looking at, sir.

-No matter how much you run that hopeful circuit, he won’t spill information. Hurry up and go look at the strategy guide

And after incapacitating him once more and waiting for him to get up, the organization member’s reaction changed so clearly that even viewers could notice.

So Seo-jun asked him.

“Where is Drake?”

“That… that’s!”

The organization member began running away while avoiding the answer, and Seo-jun quickly approached him.

Then the organization member swung his dagger recklessly, and when Seo-jun incapacitated him once more.

The groggy enemy began to open his mouth.

-???

-Does this make sense?

-MovieSoft is clearly something else lol. They made this route while claiming to discourage hack-and-slash play.

-Is this normal, learning about games on a newbie broadcast?

“13th Street’s biggest theater. He’s there, so… please stop…”

“Oh. This actually works. But where is Drake?”

But the organization member showed no reaction.

“Well, no particular reaction. Does he have a seizure or something?”

-You’re a demon lol

-Doesn’t the streamer have talent for game sense too? Finding new routes like this

[‘You’re That Kind of Guy’ donated 1,000 won!]

[Etor, so this is the kind of guy you fought so hard to stop]

-Etor reevaluation lol

-He died in the line of duty…

Seo-jun left the chattering viewers alone and opened the map.

“Hmm. But this dagger is too short and inconvenient. Isn’t there something better?”

In Assassin’s Dawn, there were no weapons that couldn’t be used.

The fruit knife from the market fruit store, the darts and glass bottles in taverns, the pins at bowling alleys—everything could become weapons.

-Make some money and buy proper weapons.

-If you buy wire it’s super fun, you can be a Spider-Man

-Pickpocketing?

“Hmm, I think… Oh. This would be good.”

Seo-jun looked around and found something good, swinging it around.

[Rusty Pipe]

“This length is just right. Now that I’ve got a weapon too, I’ll go to 13th Street.”

13th Street was the cultural district.

And the biggest theater in the cultural district was the White Lotus Theater, located about 3 blocks from the market.

It essentially implied that even the biggest theater was under the influence of the gang called Dissemblers.

Seo-jun quickly arrived at the White Lotus Theater.

People wandering around the vicinity with excessive armament for guards came into view.

‘There’s no way to know where Drake is.’

He thought they’d really deployed organization members densely.

Well, it didn’t matter.

Because he wasn’t planning to assassinate anyway.

And viewers hadn’t come to watch assassination either.

“Sorry, but the performance is over…”

Crash!

Seo-jun approached the main entrance without warning and struck down with his pipe, breaking the main entrance’s glass.

Then, as an organization member drew his machete, Seo-jun quickly swung his pipe to deal damage.

The HP didn’t even drop by a tenth.

‘Not even close.’

He had no choice but to wait until the machete was swung.

Clang!

He read the trajectory and deflected it.

-Wow!

-It’s amazing every time I see it, how does he never fail? Lol

Tap tap tap tap!

Other organization members began joining after hearing the commotion.

But.

Every time Seo-jun swung his pipe, a clear sound was heard.

Seo-jun processed the organization members one by one while heading toward the entrance stairs.

That was the most convenient place to deal with organization members coming down.

Eventually.

Organization members piled up endlessly on the stairs.

Occasionally, external patrol teams would ambush from behind, but since Seo-jun grasped their approach by sound, he easily dealt with them too.

The number of enemies piled up like that was 30.

“There were 30 people in a theater this size, jeez, the developers went too far. How are you supposed to do assassination?”

Seo-jun, newly shocked by the difficulty the developers had envisioned, leisurely entered the theater.

-????

-Is that something you should say?

-Wow, what did I just see? It’s so absurd I can only laugh in disbelief

-This guy is the real deal…!

As Seo-jun entered the theater, loud laughter was heard from the stage.

His opponent was waiting for Seo-jun at the very center of the stage.

-When I saw this scene on other streamers’ broadcasts where they got caught trying to assassinate, this scene was fucking scary, but why is it only funny now? Lol

-Ah lmao. So can Drake do 1-vs-30? Can he catch Etor? lol

Drake, boss of the Dissemblers.

Befitting the boss of a despicable gang, as soon as Seo-jun approached, he immediately threw a knife.

“Die!”

A small, thin throwing knife flying in an instant.

Clang!

Seo-jun immediately swung his pipe to deflect the flying dagger.

-He deflected that instead of dodging again???

-How did he do that

-What an insane reaction speed

“Don’t react after seeing it flying—if you watch the enemy’s fingertips and predict, it becomes quite easy.”

The closer Seo-jun got, the more knives flew.

The rapid-fire speed gradually increased, and when he was about halfway there, Drake began throwing with both hands simultaneously.

But Seo-jun deflected them all.

With a pipe.

-He deflects flying things well too lmao. What can’t he deflect?

-Viewers

-Ah right. He can’t deflect viewers lol

Seo-jun reached right in front of Drake in an instant like that.