Chapter 36

Seo Jun shrugged his shoulders and launched the new game.

"Thank you for the donation. Then let's move on to the next game."

Ohhhhh here we gooooFinallyWill this work though?

The background flipped as the world changed.

If the previous game, Dawn of the Assassins, had a dark backdrop with towering buildings rising endlessly—

this game was different.

Bamboo shot up everywhere like wild growth.

Rustle.

That was Seo Jun's first impression of the game.

Birds chirped, and pandas rolled around here and there.

The starting point was a hill covered in lush greenery.

Seo Jun first moved his body around in place.

He stretched and swung his arms.

"...Hm. Feels nice."

Thanks to the surface connecting martial arts and virtual reality, the sensation of diving into VR hadn't changed much, but movement speed varied depending on the settings.

And this game seemed to aim for a feeling as close to reality as possible.

The fluttering hem of his robe and the faint metallic ringing brought back nostalgic emotions.

Meanwhile, the viewers had already started getting excited before even identifying the game.

Wait, is this For the Martial Path?lol the game with no real answers?The game drowned in martial arts masters?It's For the Martial Path online!!Damn.

As expected.

Just from the starting area alone, they immediately recognized it.

"As you all guessed, today's game is For the Martial Path."

For the Martial Path.

Another game by Movie Soft.

Its genre was martial arts action, set in a murim world where three factions—the Orthodox Sect, Unorthodox Sect, and Demonic Cult—constantly clashed against one another.

At its peak, it had ranked #1 in concurrent players, and even years after release, although it had declined somewhat, it still maintained upper-tier popularity.

And despite being only around top-three in popularity, another major characteristic of the game was that it had become absurdly "matured."

Meaning the playerbase was unbelievably experienced.

– 385,000 viewers watching

– 270,000 viewers watching

Those were the current streaming statistics.

For the Martial Path consistently maintained viewership in the high 300,000s.

While Dawn of the Assassins had briefly hit 800,000 viewers during its explosive surge, that was because giant corporate streamers with millions of followers had jumped in.

Now that they had stopped, the numbers had dropped.

'Still, choosing Dawn of the Assassins wasn't a mistake.'

If anything, it had been the optimal choice.

'After all, half a million people are watching my stream right now.'

Wait.

Half a million?

The viewer count was absurdly high.

What?

Seo Jun calmly checked the viewer distribution.

"Four thousand foreign viewers? What's going on?"

Oh? What?There really are a ton of viewers.I noticed it earlier but didn't say anything because mentioning viewer count before the streamer does is taboo lolWait seriously?FOUR THOUSAND foreign viewers???

It wasn't common for foreign viewers to watch Korean streams.

Technology had advanced enough for voices to auto-translate, but cultural differences still existed, and things like game UI text weren't translated.

Meaning they had probably flooded in temporarily.

Seo Jun quickly realized why.

"Ah. Must be because of the training hall rankings."

Probably lolololThe training hall influence is insane.Are you finally becoming world class now?

World class, my ass.

Seo Jun chuckled and fiddled with the stream controls.

'Well, I guess this gives me something to say to sponsors too?'

Good things were good things.

Then a paid promotion notice appeared on the stream.

"Alright, today's game is sponsored."

OHHHHHHAlready getting sponsors??Advertising the next game too? Truly a monster created by capitalism.But why sponsor For the Martial Path? Is there an event or something?A Movie Soft sponsorship? Is he seriously becoming world-class?

The viewers didn't seem particularly bothered by it.

"Haha, right? But everyone, even after the sponsorship ends, I'm not planning to quit this game immediately. Even without the sponsorship, I already wanted to try For the Martial Path."

He meant it sincerely.

After all, it was a martial arts world.

And the skills were martial arts techniques.

Honestly, it felt a little awkward, but it also stirred up old nostalgia and seemed fun.

Nice.Honestly that's better.Then how long are you gonna play?

"How long? Until it stops being fun."

Seo Jun made a face like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Even if the game changes, this guy stays exactly the same lolHe probably wouldn't switch games even if public opinion completely collapsed.It already collapsed several times and he still pushed through. During the broadcasts, during the Pristina skip lolololol

"Alright then. Let's move. Looks like we need to head to the city below the hill."

Seo Jun slowly descended the stairs beside him.

Meanwhile, a panda rolled down beside him.

"So cute."

It looked peaceful, but not particularly realistic.

After reaching the bottom, he immediately tried jumping over the city wall.

But an invisible barrier blocked him.

He immediately tries climbing over the wall lolololHe still hasn't fixed the thief-class instincts.Please stop here... I'm getting secondhand embarrassment lolololI don't know this man. Don't make eye contact.

"Why are you all disowning me? That hurts."

Seo Jun turned his head sideways.

There was an entrance with people coming and going.

He approached the gate guard wearing a bamboo hat.

As someone approached, the guard lifted the brim of his hat with one finger and looked at Seo Jun.

The swordsman in the bamboo hat spoke.

"Are you an adventurer from another world?"

So that's the setting.

A typical opening.

Well, he didn't really care about the lore.

"What's your name?"

A window appeared before Seo Jun's eyes.

It was the nickname selection screen.

"Nameless" fits here too.Bet "Nameless" already exists.So are you joining the Orthodox Sect?Unorthodox Sect is the best, you righteous-pretending bastards lolololDon't ever join the Demonic Cult. Seriously. Don't.

People immediately started dividing into factions again.

But Seo Jun had already decided.

A single letter that symbolized both his previous life and current one.

The most familiar thing to him.

"I'll go with Heavenly Demon."

Now that—

that was impossible to resist.

[Would you like to use the name 'Heavenly Demon'?]

"Yes."

There wasn't any deep meaning behind it.

It just sounded fun.

lolololol it's Heavenly Demon again.Koreans' love for the Heavenly Demon lolWhat season's Heavenly Demon is he on now?

[This nickname is already in use.]

Ah.

"So this is multiplayer, right? Makes sense people already took it ages ago. Then obviously HeavenlyDemon2 would exist too."

Seo Jun casually started adding numbers.

It wasn't like nicknames were that important anyway.

[Would you like to use 'HeavenlyDemon2'?]

[Would you like to use 'HeavenlyDemon3'?]

[Would you like to use 'HeavenlyDemon7'?]

[Would you like to use 'HeavenlyDemon14'?]

"Yes."

He was starting to get tired of this.

In the end, he successfully created a nickname.

Seo Jun's final nickname became HeavenlyDemon14.

"Right. HeavenlyDemon14. Quite an impressive name."

The martial artist nodded with admiration.

Wow, he's good at social life lolWow! Fourteen Heavenly Demons! They're multiplying!lololol are you planning to become Heavenly Demon in every game now?

"Alright, HeavenlyDemon14. Which faction do you wish to fight for? And remember, you may change factions at any time. Of course, if you do, all the contribution you earned in your previous faction will be lost. Hahaha!"

As explained earlier, there were three factions:

The Orthodox Sect, the Unorthodox Sect, and the Demonic Cult.

Generally, the Orthodox Sect referred to righteous martial arts schools.

They valued etiquette and morality, steadily building up their martial arts through discipline and patience.

The Unorthodox Sect leaned much more heavily toward personal gain compared to the Orthodox Sect.

Many of them committed crimes casually, and some organizations practically survived through criminal activity.

There were also sects classified as unorthodox simply because their methods were excessively cruel.

And the Demonic Cult worshiped strength.

Only power mattered.

Everything else was insignificant.

Etiquette? Morality? Social status?

Before absolute strength, all were equal.

For the Martial Path had been praised for skillfully mixing these stereotypes into its story and creating believable faction conflicts.

"I'm not really sure yet."

"Good. Take your time looking around before deciding!"

"Yes."

Seo Jun entered the city.

Other players could be seen everywhere.

"Let's just play first. Oh, why am I not doing the tutorial? Because I'm not."

Bro this isn't some boss raid game, at least read the explanations.He's definitely about to hard carry while knowing nothing.Seriously, people who are bad with machines NEVER read manuals even if they die lololollololololol true tech-illiterate behavior.

How did they know he never read manuals?

A true mystery.

Anyway, the game matched people with players of similar skill levels.

Seo Jun believed learning while playing was more than enough.

The viewers clearly disagreed.

Seo Jun headed toward a massive building at the end of the main road.

When he entered, an interface for starting battles appeared before him.

"Oh. The main game modes are…"

For the Martial Path had several modes, but two of them were by far the most popular.

One resembled fighting games.

Sparring matches.

The sparring mode matched players into 1v1, 2v2, and 3v3 battles.

Then there was Territory War, which resembled an AOS game.

That one was 4v4 and considerably more complicated.

"Let's try Territory War."

Territory War was the mode most players enjoyed.

The reason was simple: sparring depended entirely on pure mechanical skill, making the entry barrier pretty high.

Of course, Seo Jun didn't know that.

He simply picked Territory War because the queue time was shorter.

The match was found instantly.

"Oh. Here we go."

"...Hm, I joined mid-game?"

LOL what awful timing.Starting with a join-in-progress match is brutal.

[Tip. Territory Wars contain strategic control points. Secure more control points than your enemies to continuously damage the enemy fortress!]

After reading the tutorial popup beside him, Seo Jun looked around.

He had spawned deep within a forest.

"So 'join-in-progress' means I entered halfway through a game?"

Yep.Someone rage quit mid-match so you filled the slot.It's a system only multiplayer games have.

"Ah, I see. No wonder it looks like we're losing."

The scoreboard floating above showed:

[Blue: 217] vs [Red: 479]

The numbers represented the fortress HP of each team.

"Oh. Default weapon is a sword. Skills are the Three Talents Sword Technique?"

It was basically synonymous with low-tier martial arts.

Looks like this was the default setup before choosing a faction.

"So the objective is destroying the fortress?"

There was probably more to it than that.

Seo Jun looked toward the battlefield.

Indicators showed the locations of control points in the center and on both sides.

"Well, I'll figure it out while fighting."

His eyes gleamed as he drew his sword.

Martial artists and soldier NPCs appeared, marching toward the central road.

Seo Jun decided to follow them.

[Tip. Use your movement technique to try basic qinggong! However, qinggong consumes stamina and a small amount of internal energy, so overusing it may leave you exhausted!]

Soon—

he arrived at the clash point where enemy and allied forces collided.

NPCs began fiercely battling near the central control point.

Seo Jun focused strength into his feet.

More precisely, he imagined using something called internal energy as he kicked off the ground.

In games involving mana or internal energy, imagination like this was important.

After all, even settings menus and interfaces appeared naturally through thought.

'Internal energy, huh.'

A slightly unfamiliar sensation flowed through him, and his movement speed increased.

The moment he pushed off the ground, it felt like gliding through the air itself.

Seo Jun charged straight into the enemy formation.

'Not fully familiar yet, but adapting isn't difficult.'

Sliding across the ground almost like skating, Seo Jun dodged attacks and cut down two enemies simultaneously.

LOL already playing like a master from the start?Qinggong is insanely hard for beginners.I always feel this, but the streamer might genuinely not be a newbie.

[Enemy Fortress HP -5]

A small message informed Seo Jun that he had damaged the enemy fortress.

"So killing soldiers lowers fortress HP by 5."

Moving among the enemy troops wasn't easy, but Seo Jun quickly started shaving away HP.

The sensation of qinggong felt natural to him.

[Enemy Fortress HP -5]

[Enemy Fortress HP -5]

[Enemy Fortress HP -5]

"There aren't any players here?"

At some point, there were noticeably more allied soldiers than enemy ones.

"Oh, there."

Seo Jun spotted someone approaching from the right whose aura clearly felt different.

He instantly used qinggong and closed the distance.

Since he had hidden among the soldiers before ambushing, the enemy likely hadn't noticed him.

That was precisely why he entered the chaotic battlefield from the start.

Information advantage was absolute.

The enemy's HP was already low enough that even Seo Jun, who didn't yet know the game's damage numbers, could tell one hit would kill them.

And just as expected, the enemy failed to react to Seo Jun's sudden attack.

However—

there was one important fact he hadn't considered.

"Wha—! I'm dead— wait, what the hell? We're on the same team! You bastard!"

[Tip. In For the Martial Path, allies can also receive damage. Be careful not to attack or hit your teammates.]

Oh.

That was an ally.

The marker was blue.

[CheonhajeilSwordmaster defeated.]

"Save me."

"?"

"SAVE ME, YOU PSYCHOTIC TROLL!"

Another tip window popped up.

The player named CheonhajeilSwordmaster shouted at Seo Jun while collapsed on the ground.

"Oh, you can revive people? But how do I do that?"

Seo Jun approached him, but couldn't figure out how to revive him.

Eventually, the timer above CheonhajeilSwordmaster's body expired, and he respawned back at base.

Then he sent Seo Jun a message.

[Come to the spawn point. The game's already ruined anyway. You're seriously unbelievable.]

The streamer trolls people without even trying lolololTruly newbie behavior lololololSatan: Teamkilling and then not reviving them is a bit...WHERE HAS JUSTICE GONE?! WHERE DID JUSTICE GO?!The streamer really IS a newbie lolololWhat even is this game anymore???