Chapter 97

-Damn

-Wow LMAOO

-Heavenly Demon is just a genius. A streaming genius lmao

-So fucking cool

-Ah, getting pumped with excitement

-For real, Heavenly Demon is a crazy bastard LOL

The chat in Navigator’s room, who had been thief-streaming Seo-jun’s stream, started exploding with incredible firepower.

‘So that’s why you asked me to thief-stream.’

The day before, Seo-jun had asked him to thief-stream if he ended up streaming today.

‘Crazy!’

Had he predicted this angle?

He tried to maintain an objective perspective, but he couldn’t suppress the excitement rising from deep within his heart.

And he wasn’t even a Demonic Cult member!

Most of all, his handsome appearance played a huge role.

Streamers usually angle themselves to face viewers when communicating, so Seo-jun’s handsome face and his calm, almost arrogant expression looking down were captured perfectly in the frame.

The result?

-Oh Demonic Cult! Oh Demonic Cult! Oh Demonic Cult! Oh Demonic Cult! Oh Demonic Cult! Oh Demonic Cult! Oh Demonic Cult!

-The Orthodox faction is totally screwed lol

-Demonic Cult, rise up!

-For real, I have no confidence in winning, fuck LOL. Going straight to crush the Orthodox faction

-Such a handsome bastard. A bastard who’s great with swords. Usually talks like a gem but comes through when it matters. A bastard with Christina. Just a cool bastard.

A legendary scene from this battlefield had been born.

Was he really about to become a major corporation already!

Seo-jun’s stream had 20,000 viewers packed in.

If Navigator hadn’t been streaming, it might have exceeded 30,000.

He’d almost hit major corporation status.

It was unfortunate, but because Navigator was streaming, it ultimately stopped at 20,000.

However, thanks to his stream, over 100,000 people got to see more of Seo-jun’s stream, so it was beneficial.

Seo-jun had said it himself.

His personal highest viewer count was less important than the Demonic Cult’s victory.

To push back the Orthodox faction with pure force, they needed not just rankers but also try-hard players and even casual players who only played one round—everyone’s help.

“Ah! Seo-jun-nim has declared war! Any users from the Demonic Cult or Orthodox faction who heard this should hurry and rush over! Now the structure has truly been established! All that’s left is a test of strength!”

It was unclear which faction’s users would participate more, Demonic Cult or Orthodox.

Actually, was it really unclear?

After seeing a scene like that, whose morale would be higher and whose participation rate would be greater was obvious—not just to Navigator.

“The Demonic Cult has slightly more rankers! And moreover…”

Regular players? The Orthodox faction had more, but would that hold true today?

And.

“In the end, even if everyone else except Seo-jun-nim has a 50% win rate or the Orthodox faction is slightly favored, if Seo-jun-nim wins everything, it’s all meaningless!”

It all came back to this.

The conclusion of this battlefield.

The Orthodox faction had said,

“We must stop Heavenly Demon! If Orthodox faction players want to defend their home base, you must defeat Heavenly Demon in the game! Absolutely! He’s not even the final boss, what is this!”

Strictly speaking, Heavenly Demon was the hero attacking, and the Orthodox faction was the demon king who had won every time.

The Demonic Cult was the underdog.

A minority that had never won once and always came in near last place.

At least their chat room title was even ‘At Least 2nd Place.’

But.

For those who had been watching Seo-jun’s streams, and for anyone who saw that calm, looking-down expression today, it would be impossible to distinguish who the real demon king was.

-Real final boss presence lol

-The name itself is Heavenly Demon lol The demon king personified

-Yes! This is what Heavenly Demon should be! This is what the Demonic Cult should be!

-I wanted exactly this

-Hah, for real the Orthodox faction bastards are screwed lmao. And tomorrow it’s the Unorthodox faction, just wait!

* * *

[Han Ji-min: Wow. Did you just see that?]

[Lee Geon-yeong: Yes.]

[Han Ji-min: Boss really enjoys games incredibly well lol. Must be so fun.]

[Han Ji-min: At this level, was he really Heavenly Demon in a past life? Lmao]

Han Ji-min made a comment that would give Seo-jun qi deviation if he heard it.

Fortunately, though they were in the same chat room as Seo-jun, they would continue chattering like this going forward.

That comment was destined to be pushed up and buried unless Seo-jun came up to check for something special.

[Lee Geon-yeong: For real.]

[Lee Geon-yeong: Wow, if we win the battlefield like this, it’ll be legendary.]

[Han Ji-min: Then should we do what we can do?]

[Lee Geon-yeong: Cheering?]

Hmm.

Han Ji-min made a sour expression for a moment.

Her eyes looking at the monitor seemed to have discovered something absurd.

[Han Ji-min: That’s what viewer Public Toilet Brick Theft King should do.]

[Lee Geon-yeong: …]

[Lee Geon-yeong: Please don’t mention that nickname…]

[Han Ji-min: You were chatting just fine on the stream yesterday]

[Han Ji-min: Do you know your nickname stands out incredibly well?]

Especially since Seo-jun gave him VIP despite his protests, it was even more visible.

[Han Ji-min: Anyway, let’s make shorts right now]

Shorts don’t make money.

Videos under a minute are hard to monetize with ads.

If you make the ad itself into a short, that’s different, but setting that aside.

Shorts are mostly used for promotion.

Because they have that much reach.

[Han Ji-min: So we need to let more people know. How the battlefield is progressing right now. The fact that there’s a possibility of the Demonic Cult winning.]

They weren’t just looking at today.

Beyond that, after making the Orthodox faction defect.

Seeing the Demonic Cult’s victory, Seo-jun’s editors began moving.

* * *

How did the Demonic Cult lose their home base again?

Right.

The memory comes back.

Back when the Orthodox faction was in their prime.

When the Unorthodox faction was also in their prime.

Actually, it was just the Demonic Cult’s worst period, so relatively those two were in their prime—when MovieSoft received endless complaints from Demonic Cult players.

Back then, the Demonic Cult was suffering from a terrible shortage of manpower.

The reason was the worst balance patch.

The Demonic Cult’s performance was so bad that they couldn’t stop users from leaving.

-Thanks to you, I was able to escape from evil demonic arts!

-Until now I’d been playing with my eyes closed. Now that I’ve finally opened them, I’m leaving for the Orthodox faction.

-I’ll never play Demonic Cult again! This trashy, vulgar faction!

Only about 20 proper skilled players remained.

Everyone else was so devoted that other factions were convinced they must have been fanatics in past lives.

That was several years ago.

And why was that again?

Ah.

Heavenly Demon.

The user whose nickname was the actual Heavenly Demon—not Heavenly Demon2 or Heavenly Demon3.

That user was the main culprit behind the Demonic Cult nerfs.

Ranking 1st, overwhelming rank games to the point where people wondered if it was Shin Ha-yeon.

Of course, it wasn’t Shin Ha-yeon.

She mostly only played on her main account, and Heavenly Demon’s avatar was male, not female, with a completely different build.

Someone of Shin Ha-yeon’s skill level could show excellent ability with a different build avatar.

It’s quite difficult, so while buffed bandit users occasionally get called crazy, it’s possible for pros.

Still, there was expert analysis that their styles were different.

The parties involved also denied it.

Due to various opinions like that, it was confirmed that the user called Heavenly Demon who existed in the past wasn’t her.

There are many masters in the wild.

But there aren’t many as overwhelming as Heavenly Demon.

So MovieSoft nerfed the Demonic Cult in response to the dominant Heavenly Demon’s activity at that time.

But that was so excessive it had a fatal impact on regular users.

Additionally, around when that battlefield started, Heavenly Demon quit the game—whether due to the excessive nerfs or pro gaming life, nobody knew.

The Demonic Cult became a laughingstock and gradually surrendered territory to the Unorthodox and Orthodox factions.

-Hey lol Orthodox faction. Want to try eliminating the Demonic Cult? Aren’t you curious?

-Today only we’re allies! Unorthodox faction!

As a result of this blatant collusion, they were driven from the battlefield.

How much MovieSoft was cursed at that time.

Demonic Cult users spent over a month spamming communities, unable to understand why they’d been nerfed this much because of Heavenly Demon.

But now Heavenly Killing Star thinks,

‘You were wrong, MovieSoft.’

People in the know initially suspected that the current Heavenly Demon14 might be that same Heavenly Demon from back then.

But Heavenly Demon’s ID was still searchable and remained, and Seo-jun couldn’t be a pro gamer with a side account, so they dropped their suspicions.

Up to that point was fine.

‘You were wrong, MovieSoft!’

They didn’t know that the 14th Heavenly Demon was an even worse bastard than Heavenly Demon.

After receiving tremendous criticism, MovieSoft adjusted the Demonic Cult to at least function like human beings, but they left Heavenly Demon Divine Art alone.

Saying the performance was too good.

Demonic Cult bastards protested in unison that unless you were a top-level pro gamer, that technique was unusable, but MovieSoft stubbornly maintained their position.

Heavenly Killing Star now thinks again,

‘You shouldn’t have been stubborn—you should have nerfed it more!’

MovieSoft was wrong.

Heavenly Demon Divine Art shouldn’t be buffed—it should be nerfed even more.

“Block him! Please!”

A worse bastard had appeared.

The original Heavenly Demon who flashed briefly for a few months and disappeared without even doing battlefields?

He’ll acknowledge the quick reflexes and preparation that got that rare nickname!

The skill too—well, Heavenly Killing Star was young then and wasn’t a ranker, so he never fought directly, but they were probably decent.

But compared to the true Heavenly Demon born in the 14th generation?

“Please, someone just win once.”

Heavenly Killing Star prayed while looking at the map.

Who would get matched against Heavenly Demon was unknown.

Roughly 60 Demonic Cult rankers.

Roughly 80 Orthodox faction rankers.

These two forces were currently clashing with everything they had.

The Demonic Cult bastards were charging in all at once as if they’d all been injected with adrenaline, so the Orthodox faction had to respond by throwing everyone in.

Now the option of stepping back without fighting and later playing regular users for wins was off the table.

Since the Demonic Cult had a slight advantage when purely considering all rankers winning.

In other words, they were fighting, but they had to satisfy one of two conditions.

Either achieve overwhelmingly more victories in fights excluding Heavenly Demon, or beat Heavenly Demon.

Currently, most rankers had finished their third match.

And Seo-jun was on a 3-win streak.

Of course, you have to see the losses to know for sure.

“5 days left. Just hold out today and tomorrow. If the Demonic Cult can’t catch us within two days, they won’t be able to catch the Unorthodox faction.”

The Demonic Cult were definitely crazy bastards, so if victory slipped away, they might spend all remaining time trying to eliminate the Orthodox faction out of spite.

But if that happened, both the Demonic Cult and Orthodox faction would fail to win anyway.

In the end, if they could just hold out for two days, the Orthodox faction could claim a moral victory after giving the Demonic Cult a big middle finger.