Chapter 4

An action-adventure open-world stealth franchise game, Dawn of the Assassins.

On its opening day alone, the game surpassed 2 million viewers, and even a week later it was still causing a stir on Travel.

Especially this latest entry, Shadows Within the City, received praise from day one for its higher level of freedom compared to previous installments and its urban assassination-focused gameplay.

People even began comparing it to the most perfect open-world game ever made, nicknaming it Dawn of the Assassins: Breath of the City, or simply Dosum.

'They say you can assassinate targets however you want.'

When performing an assassination, no matter how high up the target was, a single strike would kill them instantly.

Instead, the player had to personally investigate and choose everything themselves: from the assassination target, the target's daily routine, the assassination location, infiltration method, assassination tools, and even the escape route.

That high degree of freedom made all sorts of bizarre assassination playstyles possible, which was why the excitement around the game refused to die down.

Which was exactly why, even after a week, it still maintained over 800,000 viewers.

[Download for Dawn of the Assassins - Shadows Within the City has completed.]

The notification appeared, and at the same time Seo-jun pressed the Start Streaming button.

[First time streaming and first VR game too. Any pros willing to coach a newbie?]

That was the stream title Tae-woo had chosen for him.

'Well, it's not actually my first VR game.'

But Tae-woo had insisted that veteran deep-divers and hardcore "god-game addicts" wouldn't be able to resist a title like this, and that gathering viewers first was the priority.

Honestly, it didn't sound very trustworthy.

A message popped up saying the stream would start in five seconds, so Seo-jun took his eyes off the broadcasting window and pressed Start Game.

In an instant, the lobby sank into shadows, and in the empty darkness, European-style buildings from the modern era began sprouting up everywhere like bamboo shoots after rain.

The starting point was an alleyway.

'Is this automatic progression?'

Seo-jun's body moved on its own, performing parkour.

He passed through foul-smelling streets, vaulted over walls, and climbed upward using window ledges.

Clatter.

"Who's there?!"

He crossed on top of a clothesline, stepped on a flowerpot sitting on a balcony, and accidentally knocked it over.

But his body ignored it completely and continued upward, hanging from flagpoles attached to houses.

After reaching the rooftop, he began leaping across buildings and running somewhere.

As the atmosphere gradually brightened, he entered something like an entertainment district, and the surroundings suddenly filled with lights and noise.

Hahaha.

Hohoho.

As though recalling the Belle Époque era, elegantly yet practically dressed ladies and dandy gentlemen occasionally came into view between the buildings.

And before long, a lone clock tower standing tall in the middle of the city appeared before him.

Without hesitation, Seo-jun began climbing the clock tower's outer wall.

'If I just relax completely, it almost feels like I'm moving myself.'

But the moment he tried to force movement himself, he could clearly feel that he didn't actually have control.

Like a climber throwing themselves upward through a difficult course, he repeatedly launched his body higher.

Then, just as he reached the top, there was nowhere left to grab on the wall.

Whoooosh.

A chilling sensation spread through his chest as gravity took hold, and the world began spinning as his body was pulled toward the ground.

Even while falling, Seo-jun simply relaxed and waited.

Then his body automatically spun through the air and, at the perfect timing, shot out a wire with his right arm.

Click.

The hook caught onto the top.

Ziiiiing!

Along with the sound of the wire retracting, Seo-jun leaned against the line and ran along the outer wall of the clock tower before reaching the top.

Dong! Dong! Dong!

Right on cue, the clock tower rang, startling the crows into flight with loud flapping sounds.

Riding the cool night breeze blowing straight into him came the laughter and string music from the entertainment district he had passed moments earlier.

Every dissonant sound in the night scenery blended together, making it feel like the true beginning of the game.

As though the game itself were saying:

This is the city you'll be playing in.

'The direction's pretty good.'

After spending a brief moment admiring the scenery—

"Hey, Dane. This mission could get you killed."

A beautiful voice rang out.

His body turned toward the source of the sound, and a hooded woman emerged from the darkness behind him.

Her blonde hair swayed as it poked out from beneath the hood.

"Heh heh, Christina. Since when has it ever not been dangerous?"

Seo-jun's mouth moved.

But the voice wasn't his own. It was probably the voice of the character named Dane.

"That's…"

"If you're going to kill others, you should be prepared to die too."

"…Yeah, fine. Still, be careful. They might already suspect something."

"Stop worrying and wait for me at the tavern."

Christina nodded, handed him a note, and spoke softly.

"There is no truth. Doubt endlessly."

Seo-jun answered.

"Even chaos itself."

Then he fired a wire at a nearby rooftop, attached it, and slid down the line like a zipline.

When he got close enough, he released the wire, landed on a streetlamp, then jumped down and landed smoothly on the ground.

The moment his feet touched the earth, Seo-jun felt strength spread throughout his entire body.

"Ah… ah."

Was the tutorial over?

He could finally speak properly, and his limbs moved freely too.

Ding—

[Tutorial Quest - Assassination Mission]

[Ettore is both a middle manager of a secret society supplying street orphans to an organization and magic towers, and a high-ranking noble.

Thus, the Assassins have assigned the mission of assassinating Ettore to one of their members, Dane.

Quest Clear Condition: Death of Ettore]

A notification sound rang out, and the game system window appeared.

A route leading to Ettore's mansion and Ettore's location were marked on the map.

"So basically I just have to assassinate him. First, I should head there."

Seo-jun had never really played games outside the AOS genre, but he roughly understood what he needed to do.

He immediately walked toward the blue marker.

When the path became blocked midway, another alert appeared.

[Climb using the pipe.]

The moment he grabbed the pipe and applied a little strength, it felt similar to when Dane had been moving his body earlier.

"So there's movement correction like this."

But when he completely relaxed, he slid right down.

[Try jumping.]

It wanted him to leap across the rooftops, but he became curious about what would happen if he failed.

So he deliberately fell between the buildings.

A faint pain spread across his body.

[Try crossing using the rope.]

Even while hanging from the rope, it didn't require much strength, so he kept dangling there for a while.

After holding on long enough, he gradually began to feel his strength draining away.

He dropped to the ground once more.

Just as Seo-jun was enjoying the unfamiliar experience, he suddenly remembered something he had forgotten.

'Oh right… I was streaming.'

Still, it hadn't been long yet, so how many viewers could there even be—

[Viewers: 4]

He was surprised by the higher-than-expected number.

Apparently, some people could stream all day and never get even a single viewer. Was it because he had picked the right game? Or maybe because of the stream title?

Feeling uncertain, he opened the chat window.

-This is a real newbie lolololol

-Ah seriously, this is why newbie streams are so fun to watch

-If this acting is fake, give him a Nobel Prize lololol

Oh.

The viewers were chatting among themselves.

Still, thinking that they had watched everything that had just happened made him feel oddly embarrassed.

"Sorry. I only just saw the chat."

-Hello hello

-True though, watching a newbie run around amazed at everything was pretty entertaining lol

Out of the four viewers, three were actively chatting.

[WhiteHorseBulletPatient]

[TheBestDefenseIsWinterSteelGreatShield]

[PublicBathroomBrickMuggingKing]

'Those usernames are really something.'

They were both funny and dizzying at the same time.

Was this kind of username trendy here?

Pushing those thoughts aside, Seo-jun recalled Tae-woo's advice first.

'If there aren't many viewers, don't obsess over the numbers. Practice filling the silence instead. And if people are there, try communicating naturally without breaking the flow of the stream.'

Usually, the reason people watched low-viewer streams was because they were easier to interact with.

In the chats of giant streamers—called "major corporations"—messages flew by too fast and got buried instantly.

As he headed toward the objective marker, Seo-jun casually tried talking to them.

-Streamer really a newbie?

"Yep, that's right."

-Ah seriously lol, I checked your match history. Completely clean. Account was created two days ago.

"You can check that too?"

-Yeah.

-You have to switch it to private yourself.

"That sounds annoying."

Seo-jun didn't really see the need to hide it.

-Then how did you even bother turning on the stream if you're that lazy?

-lololol

'It's good that they're active in chat, but… is this normal?'

He suddenly felt the need to check other streams' chatrooms later.

"Hmm, I got here pretty quickly. So what do I do now?"

-Open the note.

-If you open the note, you can see detailed info about the mansion.

-It's the tutorial, so it tells you most of the info and assassination routes. Just follow it exactly.

Surprisingly, they gave proper answers to questions like this.

Seo-jun did as they said and opened the note. The blueprint system activated, and a movie-like 3D display unfolded before him.

He could zoom in and out on specific locations, rotate the angle, and even edit the map itself.

Not only did it show the structure of the mansion, secret passages, and enemy positions, it also detailed the infiltration route leading to Ettore.

Ettore himself was located in the deepest part of the mansion—the second-floor bedroom.

"There are twenty enemies. And the weapons in my inventory are… an Assassin-exclusive gauntlet and a sword stick?"

A sword stick was a weapon designed for assassination and self-defense, with a hidden thin blade concealed inside a cane that could be drawn in emergencies.

The cane itself also had shallow embedded blades, allowing it to slash enemies directly. Its tip was pointed like the end of a sword.

The gauntlet contained a hidden assassination blade that extended from the back of the hand and a wire launcher attached to the wrist.

"Are these just the tutorial default weapons? Anyway, I just need to kill Ettore, right?"

-Yeah.

-Yup.

Should he give it a try?

Holding the sword stick, Seo-jun walked straight toward the front gate.

The chat immediately exploded in opposition.

-No dude, follow the note.

-Leave him. The other guys all went through the front gate too, and after dying they learned to climb walls on their own.

-Lord, another one goes forth.

"Why? Can't I go through the front gate?"

-Streamer's still a baby. We must observe silently.

-You totally can. Go open the gate already lol.

-Those guys are food. They die in one hit.

Their change in attitude was world-class.

"Hmm. Feels like I'm apparently not supposed to go through the front gate."

-Ah crap, now he noticed because of you idiots.

-Lord, one almost went forth.

Seo-jun became curious at the viewers' reactions.

"But I heard this game lets you do anything. So why can't I go through the front gate?"

-You can though?

-...

-LMAOOOO stop bullying the newbie already.

Apparently unable to watch anymore, the viewer who had stayed quiet until now finally typed something.

-Normally, instead of sneaking in and killing the target, going in openly and killing every enemy is called Musou Play…

The viewer then explained.

In this game, while assassination kills were always instant no matter how highly positioned the target was, if the player got detected they would have to fight hardcore one-versus-many melee battles against NPCs with several times more HP than the player.

Which was why most people tried their hardest not to get caught.

But some veteran players completely threw away assassination plans and openly stormed in through the front gate instead.

The so-called Musou Play.

Musou Play was far harder than normal assassination gameplay, even without the information-gathering process.

Shadows Within the City had been praised specifically because it naturally guided players toward stealth assassination through difficulty balance while still preserving freedom.

"Then does that mean it's impossible to clear the tutorial with Musou Play?"

-No idea. Nobody's cleared it yet.

-Streamers figured it was better to just play the rest of the game instead of wasting time on that lol.

-One guy challenged it for ten hours, gave up, then said he'd come back after finishing the first playthrough.

-Even the hardcore community veterans haven't heard of anyone succeeding.

"So it's not impossible then?"

Seo-jun focused only on that point.

-Yeah, maybe if your controls are on Shin Ha-yeon's level.

-Theoretically, if you dodge every attack from Ettore within the time limit and every one of your attacks hits a vital point, you can do it.

-Sounds easy lol. Doesn't everyone beat Shin Ha-yeon?

"Shin Ha-yeon? Then… I'll give it a try."

Seo-jun spoke confidently.

After all, even if it was just AI, a win was still a win, right?

-?????

-Do you even know who Shin Ha-yeon is?

-Someone catch the idiot who said anyone can beat Shin Ha-yeon lololol

Seo-jun simply continued walking toward the front gate.

-Lord, he truly goes forth.

-Ah… newbie… are you really the type who has to taste it yourself to know whether it's poop or soybean paste?

-In five minutes: Streamer crawling on the ground, "So if I do this, they won't notice me, right?" LMAOOO