Chapter 96

“This is actually working.”

ThirdElder said in bewilderment.

He really hadn’t expected they could push the Orthodox faction into such a defensive position.

Of course, pushing them into a defensive position itself was something they could just do. They could throw everything away and have an all-out war with the Orthodox faction.

But what mattered was speed.

Finishing as quickly as possible was important, and they had managed to bring in the Unorthodox faction successfully and were almost achieving their goal.

“Didn’t I tell you it would work!”

Tangso said from beside him.

“It’s not thanks to you.”

“What are you saying. Everything went well for the Demonic Cult because this one came.”

“Sure.”

ThirdElder nodded as if he understood.

The villain from the Unorthodox faction had come all the way here and was causing a ruckus.

At first it was nice having one more ranker added, but thinking about it now, would they be fine without someone like Tangso?

“Anyway, this is brutal. What a scary hyung.”

ThirdElder was currently watching two people fighting in the training ground along with BanditKing and Tangso.

BanditKing said.

“Still. Seo-jun-hyung does beat— I mean, teach well.”

The people fighting in the training ground were Seo-jun and Heavenly First Swordsman.

Seo-jun was beating up Swordsman under the pretext of training without even turning on his stream.

ThirdElder asked with a disgusted expression.

“He teaches well? That?”

“Uh…”

Isn’t that just a stress-relief punching bag for venting emotions?

ThirdElder glanced to the side.

BanditKing’s eyes had become slightly moist.

“That actually has quite a bit of effect…”

How do you know that?

For some reason, his eyes showed he didn’t want to know the answer himself.

ThirdElder couldn’t understand the whole story, but somehow felt a chilling sensation and shuddered.

Meanwhile, BanditKing—no, Lee Dong-soo—thought to himself.

‘Didn’t he say training him was for stream content?’

But right now he wasn’t even streaming.

Come to think of it, the gym too…

What a truly nasty personality.

However.

‘His skills are improving that’s for sure…’

Lee Dong-soo looked up at the sky in despair for a moment.

‘Same with me.’

There were several programs within the team that tested various physical conditions and skills internally.

Of course there were, since it was one of the top teams in the enormous virtual reality market.

And the test results had been steadily improving bit by bit recently, even if slightly.

-Is your body still growing?

-Your reaction speed is improving too

The coach and other staff attempted to analyze the cause.

When the coach asked if there was any particular reason he could think of, he mentioned Seo-jun.

-There’s a hyung I spar with who’s pretty skilled, so I’ve been practicing with him often.

-That streamer?

-Yes.

-You just fight and your skills improve?

-You saw him play games, didn’t you coach?

-That’s right? But you’re playing the same game now with him?

-Yes.

-Good! Free time!

Was it because he showed clear results?

As a coach, there was no reason to stop his interactions with Seo-jun if his skills were improving.

Free time was tiny and he still had to complete all the essential schedules, but thanks to that he was able to participate in the battlefield like this.

As a side note, Lee Dong-soo didn’t mention that he only gets beaten up all the time out of pride.

“Hmm. So that’s effective?”

“It’s effective but… uh… nevermind, yeah. Effective. Very.”

The lower the starting point, the greater the improvement rate.

They were witnessing Heavenly First Swordsman’s skills rapidly improving day by day in real time.

“Then should I ask him to train me too?”

Lee Dong-soo’s face turned to the side.

ThirdElder’s eyes were full of eagerness, and he shrank back at that look.

“That… wouldn’t be bad…”

Lee Dong-soo—his reason for continuing to get beaten was professional spirit.

His brain had gone on strike and couldn’t recognize the fact that he was learning something no matter how much Seo-jun beat him up.

But his body was admirably learning on its own just from getting hit, so he had no choice but to go get beaten up.

‘If there was no effect I’d avoid it.’

Most of all, Seo-jun hit well.

Painfully, but not lethally.

“Do you remember what Seo-jun-hyung did to that person last time?”

Lee Dong-soo decided to remind him of the price first.

“Mm. He told him to try parrying and beat him to death with strong attacks?”

For reference, Swordsman had never succeeded at parrying even once and just got beaten to death.

“So what about now?”

“Uh.”

ThirdElder’s gaze reached the front.

This time.

It was the opposite—he was telling him to try attacking strongly while he did the parrying.

‘Wow.’

For a moment ThirdElder was impressed.

Really no conscience.

After parrying, he mercilessly attacked Swordsman.

It was like giving immediate feedback saying ‘You failed, so you get hit,’ but come on, how is a regular user supposed to succeed against someone who fights 3 rankers at once!

Even Satan wouldn’t do that.

It’s amazing that skills improve despite all that.

“As expected.”

“Right?”

Lee Dong-soo and ThirdElder exchanged glances.

They were definitely thinking the same thing.

Imagining themselves in Swordsman’s position right now.

“Haha, would he really train me if I asked? He’s busy. So I just shouldn’t even ask.”

“…”

Lee Dong-soo could answer that much for certain.

He wasn’t someone who would dislike having more punching bags.

Of course, he had no intention of interfering with ThirdElder’s rationalization.

“Ha. You might as well learn from this one instead.”

Tangso, who had been listening to their conversation, spoke up.

The two naturally ignored him.

“Anyway, we might not be able to finish off the Orthodox faction today?”

Lee Dong-soo said to ThirdElder.

“Because of the Unorthodox faction.”

Yesterday Seo-jun had reached the point where he could attack the Orthodox faction’s stronghold, but he hadn’t engaged in full combat.

With Shaanxi taken, they were still disconnected, and the Unorthodox faction still had one region left before reaching the stronghold.

So he wanted to see the situation first before making a decision, but the Orthodox faction didn’t attack Shanxi and just defended.

With Shanxi lost, they ultimately couldn’t pull any other tricks, so it was basically saying ‘let’s just fight once’ without dragging out time.

So today the Orthodox faction’s stronghold would face both the Demonic Cult connected through reclaimed Shaanxi and the Unorthodox faction pushing in.

Yet the Orthodox faction showed an even more relaxed attitude than when they were being dragged around.

Because.

“The Orthodox faction trusts the Unorthodox faction.”

“Right.”

Why would the Orthodox faction trust the Unorthodox faction?

Obviously because the Unorthodox faction clearly wouldn’t attack.

“As expected, the Unorthodox faction is evil. Untrustworthy scoundrels.”

Hearing those words, ThirdElder looked at Lee Dong-soo with a bewildered expression. His gaze moved up to Lee Dong-soo’s head to reconfirm the ID.

[BanditKing]

The person who had been bandit-ing in Green Forest until just before the battlefield started should change his nickname if he’s going to say such things.

“Yes… well, they’re evil.”

“Compared to that, how upright and honorable we are.”

That’s also a bit…

ThirdElder shook his head.

* * *

One minute before 7 o’clock.

An enormous number of viewers had gathered in Seo-jun’s stream.

‘It might even hit 20,000?’

He seemed to have established himself as a symbolic figure who had pushed into the Orthodox faction.

-Are you really going to send the Orthodox faction packing?

-I couldn’t even sleep from excitement.

-Don’t come here! Don’t come, I’m telling you!

-The Orthodox faction is screwed lol

[‘Yeah’ donated 10,000 won!]

[No, this makes the game boring. If you guys abandon winning and play to destroy one faction like this, will the battlefield run well? This incident is kind of disappointing.]

“Thank you for the donation.”

It could be something to feel wronged or disappointed about.

When one faction harbors malice toward another faction and plays the game, the battlefield content quickly becomes boring.

So while it hadn’t become a major controversy yet, if the Orthodox faction really got eliminated from the battlefield, angry Orthodox faction people might cause controversy.

The Demonic Cult that led this would get criticized, and so would Seo-jun.

The way to avoid this was.

“No, who exactly abandoned winning? Didn’t you see the stream title?”

Tell the truth.

Because they really didn’t harbor malice.

[The Demonic Cult Will Win Anyway]

-True lol

-The stream title says it all!

-The streamer has had plans all along

-It’s been that title for days now

“And two ganging up on one?”

Seo-jun made an expression like he genuinely didn’t know what they were talking about.

Finally, 7 o’clock arrived.

-Go go go go

-Advance!

-I’ll watch over your final moments

As everyone expected, the Demonic Cult and Unorthodox faction reached right in front of the Orthodox faction’s stronghold.

It was truly a precarious situation like a candle in the wind, but strangely, the Orthodox faction’s stronghold showed no signs of battle indicators.

Instead, Unorthodox faction rankers started finding games at the meeting point between the Demonic Cult and Unorthodox faction.

Those expecting an all-out total war from factions charging in from the start were left with question marks.

-Huh? What are those Unorthodox faction guys doing

-Crazy

-As expected lol

-They’re betraying us now? Why?

-I knew this would happen.

Reactions were divided.

Seo-jun was on the side that saw it coming.

Probably those with a lot of battlefield experience would have expected the betrayal.

“The Unorthodox faction will want to keep suppressing the Orthodox faction through us. The best thing for the Unorthodox faction is if this standoff continues.”

In other words, the Unorthodox faction wanted the Orthodox faction to succeed in defending.

Because.

“They probably figured out what we’re going to do. After we eliminate the Orthodox faction, they’ll be our next target. The Demonic Cult’s strategy is to eliminate all enemy strongholds.”

Seo-jun revealed the Demonic Cult’s strategy.

There was no point in hiding it anymore.

-That was really it? lol

-I thought as much but you actually openly declared it lmao

-Everyone predicted it to some extent, but the fact that you really intended to push through like this is legendary lol

-Then why did the Unorthodox faction help you guys reach the Orthodox faction’s entrance?

-Explain for the newbies

“We cooperated for this from the beginning. We dragged them in knowing this would happen too.”

To summarize the situation.

The Demonic Cult had established a strategy of pushing strongholds.

But when they occupied Shaanxi, the Orthodox faction’s schemes caused delays.

Even with delays, they could still eliminate the Orthodox faction’s stronghold.

However, the longer it took to eliminate the Orthodox faction, the less time there would be to eliminate the Unorthodox faction’s stronghold.

So Seo-jun decided to bring in the Unorthodox faction.

At that time, the Unorthodox faction had occupied many regions, but it didn’t mean much.

When 2nd and 3rd place start checking 1st place, another 1st place emerges, and they have to check that new 1st place with another 3rd place.

Unless there was only one day left in the battlefield, as long as it wasn’t an overwhelming advantage, the standings could always be overturned.

That’s when the Demonic Cult suggested helping them target the Orthodox faction.

The Unorthodox faction probably realized to some extent what the Demonic Cult was aiming for then.

Eliminate the Orthodox faction, then eliminate the Unorthodox faction.

Even so, they cooperated because.

“Then they could definitely eliminate the Orthodox faction as a competitor. Also, with the game set up like this from now on, if the fallen Orthodox faction holds out.”

The Demonic Cult would fall with them.

“The Unorthodox faction would win.”

The Orthodox faction realized too late and is telling them to just try pushing through since they can’t overturn it anyway.

That was the current battlefield situation.

-Oh lol

-The battlefield is more complex than I thought

-So the Demonic Cult and Unorthodox faction read each other’s intentions and used each other

-Nice

-This is interesting lol. This is cooperation! This is battlefield!

-So what are you going to do now, Master?

After finishing the explanation, he saw a playful chat.

How to handle it.

Wasn’t the plan clear?

Still, they were asking because they wanted to hear it directly.

He thought it was a streamer’s duty to say what viewers wanted to hear.

“How to handle it? It’s simple. Today we catch the Orthodox faction.”

So Seo-jun opened his mouth in front of the 20,000 viewers who had grown by then.

“Starting tomorrow we’ll hit the Unorthodox faction. That’s it. So, once again.”

He grinned and said.

“The Demonic Cult will win anyway.”

As those words ended.

As if they had been waiting, red indicators appeared in Hebei, where the Orthodox faction’s stronghold was located.