A Swordsman’s Stream

Chapter 26

**Thud!**

A blue boxing glove landed squarely on Lee Dongsu’s face.

**Thud! Thud!**

A rapid succession of punches followed, hitting his abdomen.

“Ugh!”

Lee Dongsu momentarily clutched his waist and staggered before regaining his composure and raising his guard.

Although those around were watching him getting hit with keen interest, the only thing that mattered to him was the opponent in front of him.

“Coach, is this guy really preparing to be an MMA fighter? Why is he so weak?”

An opening!

Sojun, who stood in front of him, turned his head toward the coach.

Normally, attacking at such a moment would be considered bad manners.

But Lee Dongsu had already been thoroughly influenced by Sojun after being hit repeatedly the previous day.

Practicing as if in a real match!

“Grah!”

A straight punch.

Although he hadn’t learned much, Lee Dongsu had gotten the stance down properly. He thrust his punch forward.

Right timing, perfect stance, an unguarded opponent.

It was an attack that could have landed on a less vigilant opponent.

Unfortunately, his opponent was Sojun.

Even while looking sideways, Sojun lightly dodged and countered with a one-two punch.

“Ohhh!”

Cheers erupted from the surrounding spectators.

“Damn it! Ugh!”

In the end, Lee Dongsu clutched his stomach and collapsed.

“Hey! You nettle-like kid! I told you to go easy! And he’s not a fighter in training! Come here.”

The coach shouted as he approached the ring.

He grabbed the rope and swung his leg over to catch Sojun.

Sensing the coach’s aggression, Sojun moved to the opposite side of the ring, ready to climb down.

“Oh, really? He seemed talented though.”

Seeing that Sojun was ready to climb down, the coach gave up trying to catch him, still halfway over the ropes.

“Argh, this kid! My back!”

“So, he’s just a high school kid who fights well?”

Sojun downgraded his assessment of Lee Dongsu from a fighter in training to just a tough high school kid.

Despite this misunderstanding, the coach didn’t reveal Lee Dongsu’s true identity.

Because Lee Dongsu had asked him not to.

Lee Dongsu found it embarrassing to reveal his true self to Sojun.

‘If only I had beaten him in the game, I could have proudly revealed my identity.’

After being thoroughly schooled by Sojun the previous day, he’d gone back to the office and shut down his streaming to attempt the Assassin’s Dawn quest.

And after more than fifteen attempts, he finally defeated Etor in the tutorial and was in shock.

Losing in real life was somewhat understandable, but losing in the game was not.

Who was he?

A player on the second strongest team in the world!

“Hey, instead of fighting, go study.”

“Just my luck. Hyung, do you study well?”

“Sure.”

“What kind of confidence is that to answer so quickly?”

Lee Dongsu grumbled as he got up and stretched his back by placing his hands on his lower back.

“Dongsu, he’s attending Korea University.”

The coach’s voice came from the side.

“Ugh, don’t give me that! So unfair.”

“Well, it just came from working hard.”

Sojun shrugged his shoulders.

“Well, I’m good at games, so I don’t need to study.”

Lee Dongsu dusted off his hands and quickly raised his guard again.

“Really?”

Sojun’s fist approached rapidly.

Now accustomed to this harassment, Lee Dongsu was already prepared.

It was indeed a professional adaptive response.

“Yes, I even followed hyung yesterday and caught Etor, Drake, and Richard.”

Of course, he had attempted to follow Sojun’s lead by wielding a pipe and had died six times to Drake.

And four times to Richard Neville.

As a result, Lee Dongsu found himself recognizing Sojun’s abilities.

This guy was something else.

However, admitting that fact did not diminish his competitiveness. Instead, it only fueled it further.

**Whoosh!**

He narrowly dodged again.

“Oh? Then why don’t you try becoming a professional gamer?”

Sojun spoke without much thought, while Lee Dongsu sighed deeply.

‘I’m already a pro.’

Today, he planned to challenge the Magic Tower.

He had no idea how to split lightning or perform sound play, but he planned to give it a try.

Following Jin Sojun, he noticed his own skills improving with each attempt, in both sparring and other challenges.

‘Is this why Hayun-nuna continually challenges unknown in the sparring ground?’

His drive for improvement was stimulated.

“Hyung.”

“Yeah?”

“Are you planning to catch the Queen on today’s stream?”

The title “Queen” referred to the last remaining Ruler of Assassin’s Dawn.

“Why?”

“Just a hunch.”

“Maybe?”

After that, there was no more small talk.

Lee Dongsu concentrated, aiming to at least land a hit somehow.

Sojun chatted with people next to him while also keeping up with Lee.

Smack!

But Lee Dongsu couldn’t shake off the overlapping image of Sojun and some other entity in his mind.

An entity that conversed leisurely with others while fighting.

A new type of AI rumored to be created by Surface.

‘No way… this hyung isn’t the level 10 unknown, right? Nah, that’s too far-fetched.’

Even Shin Hayun kept challenging it nonstop.

* * *

Sojun sat in a café, waiting for Team Leader Kim Yunchan while watching Alpaca’s stream.

『Ha. Please, I don’t want to see that Drake anymore. Ugh!』

– Hahahahahahaha
– It’s only been 22 hours since you started streaming, Paca, stop whining.
– ㅡㅅㅡ
– Hang in there!

『You guys don’t find this fun either. It’s hard to watch, right?』

– I just woke up from a nap, so it’s not hard at all? Hahaha
– This is just a waiting room for the New Year
– Wasn’t this a World Cup waiting room?
– We can’t end the stream until the end of the world, so what are you all talking about, haha
– Don’t overthink ending the stream. You chose this journey. Endure with grit and determination.

『What’s grit and determination? I didn’t choose this.』
『’What a Fool’ donated 1,000 won with a generous heart!』
『???: If you succeed, I’ll serve that person as a mentor and learn to Musou…』

Alpaca quickly closed the donation and kicked out the viewer who sent it.

『I told you if you send that donation one more time, you’d get banned, right?』

– Hahahahahahaha
– Instant ban, wow
– The speed was Nameless level, omg
– Catch Drake with that move speed, Paca

『Oh! The capsule connection limit has surpassed 9 hours. Hehehe.』

There were time limits for the capsule connections. This was a measure by Surface to prevent gamers from overworking their bodies.

If playtime exceeded 3 hours, users couldn’t reconnect for half the time they were online, forcing a break. And if the connection time surpassed 9 hours, the capsule would forcibly shut down.

Alpaca had been fighting Drake for a total of 18 hours, excluding a 4-hour and 30-minute break since starting at noon the previous day.

‘I feel a bit guilty.’

Sojun glanced at the clock.

The current time was 10:30. It was almost time for the appointment.

『Now I’m going to leave, so I’ll play an ad. You know this is the first ad in 9 hours, right?』

An advertisement popped up on Sojun’s Travel screen.

‘Advertisements.’

Partnered streamers with Travel had various income sources, one of which was ads.

These ads were different from those received from game companies. Inside Travel, ads appeared either when viewers first tuned into the stream or during breaks, and income was generated based on the number of viewers who watched these ads.

Streamers could play these ads at will.

But playing ads too frequently would decrease viewership.

So, streamers typically preferred short ad breaks during shifting moments or bathroom breaks, like Alpaca did.

“The conditions to become a partnered streamer are relatively low…”

To qualify as a partnered streamer, one needed to meet the following requirements over the past 30 days: total live streaming time of 700 minutes, live on 7 different days, an average of 10 concurrent viewers, and at least 30 followers.

All but one of these conditions were met.

The number of streaming days.

“That’s not something I can handle right now.”

In the near future, hiring an editor would incur expenses, so every source of income had to be carefully considered.

『After sleeping… I’ll do an assassination clear-through. I must be getting old. I’m really sleepy now. Yawn. Just this once. Please understand just this once.』

Alpaca spoke with half-closed eyes.

Soon, the streaming ended.

The viewers also appeared to understand.

* * *

A moment later.

“Hello. I am Kim Yunchan, who contacted you, streamer-nim.”

“I am streamer Jin Sojun.”

Sojun stood up from his seat and shook hands with Kim Yunchan.

Kim Yunchan wore an outfit that was comfortable yet neatly arranged, likely because MubiSoft was a foreign company.

“First of all, I apologize for contacting you so suddenly. This is an urgent matter.”

“No, it’s fine.”

“Nonetheless, I apologize once again. If Sojun-nim did not see this, we would have been quite troubled. We had to somehow get in touch, even if it meant contacting you multiple times. Haha.”

He knew all too well.

They had utilized every possible method to get in touch.

“Well, I was just a bit surprised. But what is the problem exactly…?”

A foreboding thought crossed Sojun’s mind.

Could this be a situation where he would need to compensate for something?

Let’s see, among Father’s acquaintances, there’s a lawyer…

“Hahaha, actually, it’s because of the ‘Fragments of Order’ that you’re currently progressing that we sought you out.”

“Fragments of Order?”

“Yes. When you collect all the Fragments of Order, an Easter egg related to our upcoming project will be revealed. We originally planned to release a teaser video around that time… but it’s not ready yet.”

I see.

“So, you’re asking me to delay catching the Ruler a bit, right?”

Sojun gave a leisurely smile.

He undoubtedly held the upper hand in this situation.

“That’s right. Of course, we also intend to show our sincerity. It should take about six more days to complete it.”

Kim Yunchan smirked slyly.

Man, you sound like you’re committing a crime when you talk about sincerity.

“Hmmm…”

In any case, the game company couldn’t force him.

Sojun started to think cautiously.

“Usually a teaser video refers to…”

A video intentionally concealing information to arouse curiosity for promotional purposes.

“My cooperation isn’t absolutely necessary for that.”

Currently, even with around 3,000 hints dropped in Korea, it wouldn’t significantly impact MubiSoft operating in the global market.

On the contrary, even if Sojun didn’t cooperate, they could turn this situation around and achieve a greater effect than the teaser video.

They were, after all, a company and not individuals.

But since it might be unexpectedly important, he thought he needed to listen to their proposal to gauge it properly.

If it was reasonable, no more no less.

Sojun was willing to cooperate.

“So, may I hear what that sincerity entails?”

“Ahem, well, if you delay the Queen capture for about six days, we’ll specially grant you the beta testing rights for our next project. The beta won’t be over a year away.”

What?

“Moreover, we’ll create a bundle of event items related to Sojun-nim in both the upcoming DLC and the next project.”

Jackpot?

Why are they offering so much?

While he hadn’t needed such things before, these were excellent terms for Sojun who now aimed to be a serious streamer.

“And the cost?”

“Simply delaying the capture of the Ruler by six days. That’s all.”

Sojun looked at Kim Yunchan in disbelief.

Was this person a scammer?

“Uh…”

The conditions proposed by Kim Yunchan were not immediately needed, but from his perspective, there was no loss; it seemed absurd to refuse.

“Could you accept our proposal?”

Sojun couldn’t answer immediately.

His suspicion started to build.

“Hahaha. Didn’t I say the conditions were right?”

At that moment, slightly awkward Korean came from a middle-aged foreigner who had come into the café at the same time but sat a bit apart, approaching and extending her hand to shake Sojun’s.

“Nice to meet you, Sojun. I’m Eve Faimo from MubiSoft Korea.”

Kim Yunchan’s superior.

That made sense.

So they were here to negotiate the terms.

They probably would offer additional compensation.

Sojun felt relieved at the thought that the other party would make demands.

“We’ll also provide advertisement opportunities.”

Eve Faimo’s next words surprised Sojun once again.

“Sorry?”

Oh.

This wasn’t something he had anticipated.

“You mean game advertisements?”

“Yes. Do you have any games from our company you’re interested in? We’ll match whatever you choose. All you need to do is play the game.”

A paper was handed to Sojun.

Eve Faimo grinned.

“Oh. We are thinking at least a minimum of a thousand.”

So they were serious about this.

What on earth?

TL’s Corner:
As of the moment, Eve’s gender hasn’t been revealed, meaning we still don’t know whether she’s a man or a woman, but with the name Eve, I am assuming she’s a woman, I could be wrong though. I will apologize in advance.