Chapter 32

There was a limit to tracking.

The enemies knew his location, but he didn't know theirs.

An overwhelmingly disadvantageous situation.

There were only a few ways to break through it.

"Either hide…"

Or lure the enemies in.

Seo Jun slowly walked into an alley with fewer people.

And the moment he did, the shadow beneath his feet transformed into a hand and burst upward, grabbing his ankle.

If he hadn't stopped moving immediately, he would have been dragged away on the spot.

Seo Jun spoke with a puzzled expression.

"Uh, how many seconds does this bind last again?"

It was a skill players used in the Assassin Guild reputation missions.

Naturally, Seo Jun had never personally used it before, so he didn't know the finer details.

"Nameless, remember this. Excessive order obstructs individual growth."

A voice echoed from above.

Before chat could even relay information to him, the blade of a massive axe swept horizontally toward Seo Jun's head.

Seo Jun tilted his head slightly and dodged.

Since his ankle was restrained, he couldn't move his body much.

What kind of assassin uses an axe?

Was this guy a barbarian warrior or something?

FWOOOOOSH!

The axe tore through the empty air where Seo Jun's head had been, smashing into the wall hard enough to crack the red bricks apart.

"My ankle's restricted, huh."

Seo Jun immediately twisted his body, grabbed the assassin's head with one hand, and slammed it directly into the wall.

A stun effect activated.

Normally, stunned NPCs only froze for a few seconds, but perhaps because this was during the quest, once an NPC was stunned, they didn't wake up again.

"Yeah, you should at least give me this much."

Seo Jun moved deeper into the alley.

-Where's the streamer even going?

-Isn't a narrow area worse for him?

-How could sparrows understand the heart of a swan lololol?

-You don't understand either lol.

As Seo Jun advanced deeper, he glanced upward.

On the rooftop behind him, an assassin wearing a hood and revealing only his nose and mouth was aiming a bow directly at Seo Jun.

"Knew it."

And when Seo Jun looked ahead, another assassin was already leaping toward him.

The assassin blade extending from his sleeve and the fluttering coat made him resemble an eagle diving for prey.

"Good."

Seo Jun parried the descending sword.

How?

As long as he accurately struck the edge — the very tip — of the blade with precise timing.

Rustle.

The shadow hand climbing upward like sludge transformed again and grabbed his ankle.

Seo Jun ignored it and focused entirely on the tip of his sword.

"So the force vectors intersect vertically."

He gripped the sword with both hands, raised it behind his head, and swung.

KABAAAAANG!

A perfect hit.

He struck a target as thin as a needle with absolute precision.

-Ohhh.

-How is he THIS good?

-A man born purely for parrying.

Creeeak.

He heard the faint sound of a bowstring being drawn.

This was virtual reality.

Differences in physical senses between people were practically nonexistent.

Because the signals were transmitted directly to the brain rather than through actual sensory organs.

Which meant that Seo Jun — whose synchronization rate was relatively low — might technically perceive less than others.

But Seo Jun was better than anyone at detecting faint sounds.

For one reason only.

He knew exactly which sounds mattered among all incoming information.

FWIP!

The arrow shot toward him instantly, and Seo Jun tilted his head aside to evade it.

The arrowhead lightly grazed his cheek before embedding itself into the ground.

Sluuurp.

The shadow restraining his ankle disappeared.

Seo Jun moved again.

"There's no end to this."

Compared to what Seo Jun had experienced before, this wasn't a huge deal.

But to the viewers, it looked terrifying.

-…

-This is scary. Seriously scary.

-If it were me, I'd die during the first ambush.

-Streamer, just kill the assassin guild already and fail the quest!

The smell of blood stung his nose.

The streets grew narrower.

And the attacks became more frequent.

Seo Jun threw daggers upward toward assassins he'd identified on rooftops, but they dodged quickly.

Hitting NPCs that were already fully alert wasn't easy.

"Can't really increase dagger speed either."

And he couldn't climb upward.

Because the leg injury penalty prevented parkour movement.

"I'm trapped."

Seo Jun stared at the dead-end wall blocking his path.

He had finally reached a complete dead end.

There was nowhere left to move.

The enemies seemed to realize it too and slowly began revealing themselves while pressuring him psychologically.

"Give up, Nameless."

From the shadows on the walls and ground, from behind the dead-end wall, from the second floor—

And on the rooftops, three assassins aimed bows directly at Seo Jun.

All of them were prepared to attack at any moment, merely waiting for the command of the assassin speaking in front of him.

-This is hopeless…

-NOW THIS is an assassin guild!!! You traitorous dog, streamer! Die for falling for Pristina's looks!

-Assassins Assemble!

-Were the assassin guild members this strong all along?

Seo Jun read chat and chuckled.

Strong? Not really.

"I intentionally came here, everyone."

More than dozens of enemies surrounded Seo Jun completely.

The most troublesome among them were the rooftop snipers.

The assassin who appeared to be their leader stepped forward.

"Chaos is the confusion and fear born from our ignorance. People hate taking responsibility and fear stepping outside. Chaos is uncertainty. That is why people seek order. They wish to be controlled by beings who can protect them. But…"

An assassin blade slid out from his sleeve.

"That kind of life makes people careless. They become addicted to comfort and lose possibility itself. They end up no different from livestock feeding in a barn. Therefore…"

I see.

Even for a game character, he was absurdly extreme.

The moment the speech ended, the assassin gave a signal and arrows flew toward Seo Jun.

Seo Jun moved forward.

Three arrows embedded themselves into the spot where he had just stood.

Seo Jun charged toward the nearest assassin, parried his weapon, snatched the smoke bomb hanging from the assassin's belt—

And immediately vanished.

BOOOOM!

A thick cloud of smoke swallowed Seo Jun's body.

For a brief instant, silence fell.

The assassins had assumed only they themselves were concealed.

"Uwaaaah!"

"Kill him!"

"Where the hell is he?!"

The alley was narrow, but still wide enough for several people to move through in a line.

Meaning Seo Jun could still move freely.

Even the rooftop snipers lost track of him and began frantically moving their bowstrings around—

Something suddenly shot out from inside the smoke.

SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!

Before using the smoke bombs, Seo Jun had already identified the snipers' positions.

The three daggers he threw pierced directly toward their shoulders.

"Got them."

Three screams rang out.

"The most annoying bastards are taken care of first."

Now it was his turn.

Inside the smoke, you could only vaguely see a person's head and shoulders.

And for Seo Jun, that was more than enough.

He began knocking the assassins unconscious.

Even if another assassin found him, Seo Jun had already vanished elsewhere.

Another assassin slammed headfirst into the wall and collapsed unconscious.

-Seo Jun hyung… I'm getting scared.

-Things just keep collapsing in front of him and it's terrifying.

-Isn't the smoke bomb actually HIS skill?

-Lol you can technically see silhouettes, but the screen moves too fast to tell what's happening.

By the time the smoke bomb effect disappeared, over one-third of the assassins were already unconscious.

Then Seo Jun smiled and waved his hand.

"There's one more."

-He's visible now!

-Wait, what's he holding?

-Look at him casually waving it around lol.

-…What?

-LMAOOOOOO this can't be real.

In Seo Jun's hand was another smoke bomb.

BOOOOOM!

The thick smoke filled the alley once again, followed by screams.

-This is straight-up comedy lololol.

-The Assassin Guild <--- greatest fraud organization in history.

-The entire branch getting farmed by one guy lol.

-After thinking about it carefully, Seo Jun really is correct.

-The same guys who were jumping him 50-vs-1 just moments ago lololol.

-How is the assassin guild losing in stealth combat???

-The streamer really IS an assassin!

Seo Jun cleaned up every assassin in an instant.

The alley was now covered with unconscious guild members.

Then a thought suddenly crossed his mind.

"So this is chaos."

What else could chaos even mean?

-He himself is chaos incarnate.

-I was deeply moved by the Assassin Guild becoming chaos itself.

-His actions match his words perfectly lol.

[The conditions for Hidden Quest 'Resentment' have been fulfilled.]

[Return to the abandoned factory and meet Arthur.]

[The conditions for Affinity Quest 'Mercy' have been fulfilled.]

[Meet Pristina and speak with her.]

Notifications appeared.

"Oh, looks like I got all the assassins. As expected, gathering enemies together is the easiest and safest method. Hm? Of course it was intentional."

He had thought the number of assassins he subdued was unusually high, but thankfully the quest cleared exactly as expected.

If even one assassin had remained — especially a sniper — it would've been incredibly troublesome.

"Well then, the quest's done now."

"Everyone, if I log out right now, does the quest progress get saved?"

Seo Jun was planning to end the stream.

The timing was perfect.

-LOL.

-Why NOW?!

-Are you insane?

-NOOOOOOOO.

-If you log out mid-quest, it resets from the beginning.

-Seriously, just go back to the factory and play a little more.

-The Pristina quest only appears once. If you quit here, it disappears forever.

Their intentions were completely obvious.

The Pristina quest had appeared for the very first time during this run.

How would they even know all that information already?

"Really? Then I'll just do it again later. It wasn't difficult anyway."

-Seo Jun hyung… you're actually insane.

-LMAOOOO.

-Everyone here is crazy.

-Are you serious right now?

-Hyung. I'm holding back tears right now. If I die, it's your fault.

The donations and messages flooded down at incredible speed.

But Seo Jun ignored them and shouted:

"Stream over!"

The viewers who had nowhere else to go immediately gathered in other streams and communities.

[What happens when you collect all the Fragments of Order]

[Pristina Affinity Quest reward revealed!!!]

[Lol if Seo Jun had shown only the Pristina reward, I swear people would've collected the Fragments immediately.]

[He's doing viewer hostage-taking at this point. Absolute demon.]

[Looking for people to jump the bastard who got hand-kissed by Pristina (1/9999)]

[Jin Seo Jun pisses me off. Handsome, popular, successful in real life — and he still invades games too. Please leave games for us at least.]

-LMAOOO.

-This guy's actually hilarious lololol.

-It's a character concept, guys. (Author)

[The assassin guild idiots really can't process reality lol.]

-The academic consensus is that the hidden quest wasn't made to let players experience being hunted — it was made to give players a chance to beat up the assassin guild instead.

[Reason the assassin guild always loses to the Death Squad: they're a tiny company that can't even assassinate one person.]

-"Tiny company" lol.

-Isn't that insulting to small businesses? They're basically just a gang.

-Fact) Even the Death Squad couldn't properly beat him.

-But the Death Squad at least lost honorably in 1v1 fights.

[Breaking News) Nameless's edited clips are exploding in popularity.]

-Lol I was bored waiting until tomorrow, but now I've got content to watch.

-Anyone who hasn't watched the edited clips yet absolutely should. I haven't watched them either, but they're probably legendary.

[Can a man truly survive in online games?]