Chapter 24

The moment Seo Jun's sword pierced precisely into the crossing point—

A crackling sound erupted right in front of him.

It happened in an instant.

The blue current of lightning was suddenly absorbed into the sword.

Blue lightning flowed into Seo Jun's blade, turning white as it condensed there.

The crackling sparks rang loudly nearby, and as the sword grew heavier, a tingling sensation spread through his hand.

Seo Jun swung the sword once.

Hwikaaram!

The white lightning gathered on the blade burst forward with explosive force and shot toward the wall.

The lightning struck a bookshelf directly and lingered for about a second before disappearing.

Thududuru—

Crash!

The books hit the floor first, and then the entire bookshelf collapsed.

-Wha…? Holy shit.

-Is he literally using the magic itself now?

-What did he just do? He didn't use Weakness Detection, right?

-There he goes again, doing stuff only he can do.

It was exactly what it looked like.

The clue to defeating the Magic Tower Lord.

"So it really was the developer. As expected."

Seo Jun smiled faintly and leaned his body sideways.

Pajijik!

Lightning flashed past him instantly.

Seo Jun identified another tiny crossing point, thrust his sword into it, and swung toward the Magic Tower Lord.

With a sharp sound, the lightning shot toward the Magic Tower Lord and struck the shield directly.

The Magic Tower Lord could clearly have teleported away, but instead he endured it head-on.

Cracks spread across the semi-transparent manifested shield.

"So your own magic hurts you too, huh?"

Blue lightning carved lines through the air, and like a response, white lightning traced over them.

The exchange repeated.

The cracks in the shield widened more and more until it finally shattered.

Immediately afterward, Seo Jun swung his sword toward the glass tube behind the nobleman and launched another bolt.

"You insect!"

The Magic Tower Lord's pupils widened instantly.

And because Seo Jun stood between him and the target, he was finally forced to teleport away.

Craaash!

At last, the glass tube shattered.

Then the soccer-ball-sized ring inside was revealed and began trembling violently.

The Magic Tower Lord, who had retreated to Seo Jun's side, frowned deeply.

Then he glared at Seo Jun.

"Hoo… So you believed destroying that would solve everything. But you are mistaken. The core merely refines the infinite mana extracted from the Magic Tower into a form easier for me to absorb."

Seo Jun shrugged.

"You sound pretty shaken."

-Exactly what I was thinking.

-So he found the source of the infinite mana?

-It's a transformer lol

Despite Seo Jun's mocking, the Magic Tower Lord stubbornly continued.

"Even without the core, I can still wield infinite mana. In fact, even greater amounts of mana now flow into me, amplifying my power further. Since things have come to this, I'll use this power to end your life quickly."

Veins lit up across the Magic Tower Lord's face, glowing blue.

"Man, you sure talk a lot."

Seo Jun rested the sword on his shoulder as he spoke.

-Look at him dumping exposition. He's panicking.

-So it really WAS a transformer.

-Feels survivable now.

-Phase 3 let's go!

People experienced with games immediately realized something.

If they simply survived long enough, the Magic Tower Lord would self-destruct from overload.

Seo Jun also figured it out while glancing at the chat.

"The AI level's pretty low though. If he stopped using lightning, there'd be no way to break the shield. But he keeps using lightning and destroying his own magic himself."

-LOL

-He could literally just spam basic magic and shields until the timer runs out lololol

"Then… die."

The Magic Tower Lord spread out his hand.

The sound of air being sucked inward as magic formed felt far more intense than before.

And suddenly, the Magic Tower Lord disappeared.

He reappeared behind Seo Jun.

"You insect."

Kwaaahm!

Thunder roared as a blue line was drawn through the air.

Seo Jun heard the sound and dodged rightward.

And just as he tried to stab the lightning with his sword, the ground beside him rose upward.

Seo Jun abruptly twisted the sword's trajectory to destroy the rock spell, and the lightning vanished.

The Magic Tower Lord disappeared again, this time appearing directly in front of Seo Jun.

Even as blood vessels burst in his eyes, Seo Jun never lost track of the Magic Tower Lord's hand.

Doooom!

The Magic Tower Lord's spells began pouring down violently.

Far stronger and faster than before.

Seo Jun searched desperately for patterns amidst the storm of magic raining down like a downpour.

-This difficulty is actually insane.

-And he's dodging ALL of it.

-Are they telling martial classes to play or not?

-Lol they spent all this effort making it and then balanced it so nobody could beat it.

"Seriously. I feel this every time, but I think the developer's kind of a pervert."

An ice arrow grazed past Seo Jun's cheek.

At the same time, lightning struck from behind.

"And I don't know how long I'm supposed to survive, but killing him sounds faster than waiting for self-destruction."

Seo Jun dodged sideways and immediately stabbed his sword into the lightning.

The blade charged white.

-Stop reading chat while dodging, you lunatic.

-lololololololol

-He just declared he's ending this in Phase 2.

-The lightning gathering on the sword actually looks insanely cool.

White lightning erupted from the tip of Seo Jun's sword.

At the same time, blue lightning flew toward him.

Two spells collided midair.

It was dangerous.

"He trusted his shield and just fired it."

The Magic Tower Lord's replenished shield shattered, and Seo Jun dodged the lightning.

Then, like drawing a sword from its sheath, he stabbed the blade into the core of the magic and ripped it back out.

Lightning gathered again.

"This ends here."

Now that the shield was gone, this was his chance.

Kwa-kak!

Lightning exploded from Seo Jun's blade.

And naturally, the Magic Tower Lord was no longer there.

He had teleported.

However—

A sound came from the right side.

-What just happened?

-Why is there a sword stabbed into the Magic Tower Lord's stomach?

-lololololol he predicted even THAT?

"Mages really are physically weak."

Seo Jun's right hand was empty.

At the same moment he fired the lightning while predicting the teleport, he had thrown the sword as well.

Seo Jun walked over and pulled the sword out from the mage's abdomen.

Dark blood poured from the Magic Tower Lord's mouth.

Clutching his waist, the Magic Tower Lord slowly raised his head.

"You… insect…"

"Shut up."

Light gathered at the tip of Seo Jun's sword.

And the conquest of Magic Tower Lord Duke came to an end.

[The Master of the Magic Tower, Duke, has died.]

[You have acquired Fragment of Order (3/4).]

-Run back the ending. That was insane.

-He totally just let go of the sword on accident, right? He got lucky, didn't he?

-Stop talking nonsense lol

-He kept dodging the lightning so he just threw the sword instead =

-Insane.

kkkkkkkk

"So the guards aren't coming this time either, huh?"

Seo Jun quietly looked around the Magic Tower and spoke.

-000

-Three Rulers down!

-Another world first clear!

"Then I'll go collect the mission reward."

<Clear the Magic Tower Lord without using Weakness Detection — Mission Reward: 1,417,000 won>

Seo Jun pressed the reward claim button for the mission that had climbed to 1.4 million won.

A familiar completion notification rang out, and the bounty was transferred to Seo Jun in the form of donations.

lololololol

So much for "safe investment," that was a ghost asset.

-Just wait and see.

-Would've been fun if there were betting systems too.

-The streamer himself is basically a prohibited weapon.

['Bangju' donated 100,000 won!]

[Great show. So it really was something you could clear with pure skill. Wow.]

"Ah, thank you Bangju for the 100,000 won donation."

But the donation message sounded oddly meaningful.

Looking at the chat, he immediately understood why.

-Oh? That's the post author.

-Bangju was watching too lol

-He's a famous analyst.

-Former pro player from a collectible card game.

-Bangju confirmed: you can clear it with skill alone.

-Bangju confirmed: Seo Jun's skill gap is untouchable.

-Bangju confirmed: if Seo Jun went pro, he'd dominate.

Apparently he was pretty famous.

"Anyway, let's stop there, guys."

Seo Jun shook his head.

"Alright then, now let's casually look around the Magic Tower. Nobody's left to interrupt us anyway."

-Because you killed everyone lol

-Man, I want Weakness Detection too. That looked awesome.

-You think you'd actually be able to cut magic even with it?

-I'm not even asking for lightning lololol

kkkkkk

Seo Jun chatted idly with viewers while looking around the top floor.

And the moment he stepped out of the Magic Tower—

A cutscene appeared.

-Oh???

-First time seeing this.

-Has there even been anything in this stream that WASN'T a first? lol

Under colorful light pouring through stained glass windows—

Tok, tok.

A woman wearing a deeply lowered hat walked in.

Her long purple hair flowed down to her shoulders.

The screen shifted to a man staring up at a mural, then the woman stopped beside him.

Both wore immaculate uniforms.

The man spoke first.

"Malteon?"

The man continued staring at the mural without turning his head.

"There appears to be someone who handled our work for us."

The woman's soft voice followed.

"They took care of all of them?"

"No. Only three fragments. Three out of four."

-He's talking about the streamer.

-Aren't those guys the Society?

-Calling them fragments definitely sounds like the Society.

The story line of Dawn of the Assassination Squad was, simply put, the conflict between the Society and the Assassination Squad.

Though it had been rebooted after transitioning to Canvas, the core structure remained unchanged: the Assassination Squad destroyed the Society, which acted as the hidden hand controlling the world.

The Assassination Squad pursued chaos, while the Society pursued order.

The Assassination Squad viewed the Society as oppressive tyrants, while the Society regarded the Assassination Squad as terrorists.

The purple-haired woman also looked up at the mural.

Here, chaos did not simply mean disorder, but rather a free state from which order itself could be born.

"An assassin?"

A heavy voice.

"Who knows. They didn't kill according to the Assassination Squad's methods."

The woman's low voice brushed against the ears.

-Cyaa lolololol

-The developers are saying the streamer isn't an assassin.

-Developer-certified: what the streamer did does NOT count as assassination.

-This mission controversy's gonna be hilarious.

The viewers seemed fixated on strange things.

"Could we recruit them to our side?"

This time, the woman spoke first.

"Who knows."

The man repeated her words.

"Either way, I suppose we'll have to see for ourselves."

The woman let out a sigh and turned around.

It looked like she was about to leave again.

"You were planning to go anyway."

"Well, yes."

The woman briefly removed her hat and adjusted her hair.

For just a moment, her face was revealed.

And when the screen captured a beauty rivaling even Bristina from the tutorial, the viewers exploded.

-That big sister's coming to find him now???

-The story confirms they're Society members lol

-Should I abandon the Assassination Squad?

-Wait. I've reconsidered being oppressed.

-Are you all crazy? No matter what, Bristina noona is superior.

-So what exactly was this scene?

-Upvote if watching story scenes in the streamer's broadcast pisses you off lol

"...So he really did kill the Magic Tower Lord."

Yves Paimon let out a hollow laugh.

It was admittedly funny for the person who posted the mission to feel dumbfounded afterward, but still… who would've expected someone to brute-force the Magic Tower Lord like that?

To conquer the Magic Tower Lord as a martial class, you first had to neutralize the barrier.

If you possessed the right skill, the easiest method was using Weakness Detection to destroy it.

That was why he posted the mission for streamers—to forbid Weakness Detection and make them search for the "flow" of the barrier instead.

Yet Seo Jun had watched lightning that only lingered for a single second, found its flow with eyesight beyond human limits, reflected it back, and cleared the fight.

Without even using the skill's assistance.

Lightning Reflection. Thunder Parry.

A system they included simply because it looked cool.

"Come to think of it, he brute-forced the other Rulers too. Hm… now that the cutscene has appeared, everyone will definitely start gathering all the Fragments of Order…"

In truth, Yves Paimon wasn't some carefree slacker while the development team suffered overtime.

There was a reason he had personally posted streamer missions involving the Rulers.

He simply wanted to confirm something.

The eyes capable of discovering "flow."

And the skill of the first person to consecutively defeat the Rulers.

Regardless—

"If we recruit that streamer, it'll be enough."

Other players?

Honestly speaking, he didn't think anyone else could do it.

"Well, he is a secret weapon after all…"

Yves Paimon called for Kim Yunchan with a satisfied expression.

"Hmm. What kind of gift would be best?"