Chapter 57

What was the purpose of the players participating in the battlefield?

Since the battlefield was a game event, simply participating granted enormous rewards.

Because the purpose of game events was to gather lots of people.

The more people there were, the more lively the game became, the more new players flowed in, and the more fun it got.

Rewards perfectly aligned with that goal.

Even if you weren’t good at the game, the rewards for participation could be costumes.

Or material items you needed to farm.

Or perhaps meaningless but desirable things like titles.

Then was the reason people participated in the battlefield simply for rewards?

Could useful items or satisfying collectibles truly be considered the battlefield’s driving force?

‘That could be part of it.’

At the moment the clock struck 7.

The ranker from the Assassination Sect and Tang So’s gaming friend, nicknamed “Mumyeong,” thought to himself.

If a game didn’t have rewards, it wasn’t merely disappointing—it was practically negligence.

There was a reason battle passes had become such an enormous success among game business models.

A battle pass was a system where players received in-game rewards after playing the game and completing certain challenges.

One of the reasons battle passes succeeded was because they offered short-term goals and rewards tied to gameplay.

That was how important rewards were.

But was that all?

‘No. There are extra rewards based on contribution, sure, but unless you place in the top sixteen, the difference isn’t even that huge. So why would rankers try that hard?’

Mumyeong was one of the people who created the strategic plans for the Unorthodox Faction every battlefield season.

Meaning that when it came to the battlefield, he was an expert.

And in his opinion, one of the biggest reasons people fought in the battlefield was pride.

‘Sixteen spots is an extremely tiny number. Most rankers don’t really care. They know it’s not a realistic goal for them. And yet…’

They still tried hard.

The reason was pride.

The battlefield was competition between factions.

At this point, anyone could guess what came next.

If you lost the battlefield—

You’d be mocked and ridiculed everywhere, including the Old Chivalry forums, by the players of the victorious faction until the next battlefield opened!

‘Absolutely not!’

It already drove people crazy when the team they cheered for lost a championship.

But in the battlefield, you became part of the team yourself.

Could anyone endure all those insults being directed at them personally?

If the battlefield ended without your faction winning, you wouldn’t even be able to play another game for a while.

Because every time people saw you, they’d grin and say things like—

If he won another game:

‘You lost the battlefield, so I guess you had to win at least this game instead. Hmph, must feel nice.’

If he lost another game:

‘Lost this too, huh.’

Those were the kinds of reactions people gave.

‘It’s a checkmate situation. There’s nothing you can do.’

Of course, on the flip side, if you won, you could say the same things back.

That was why rankers united wholeheartedly, creating strategies and cooperating for the sake of their faction’s victory.

Just looking at this chatroom showed how serious everyone was.

[Protect the Righteous, Destroy the Hypocrites Faction] [999+]

Just as the name implied, this was the Unorthodox Faction’s group chat.

It had only been a few dozen minutes since he last checked it, yet the notifications had already maxed out from activity alone.

Number of participants: 80.

A gathering of elites among elites.

The reason they gathered was because they needed to understand how the battlefield system operated.

The majority of players simply played the game casually.

They didn’t coordinate or synchronize movements with others in the same faction.

No—in reality, it was difficult to the point of being nearly impossible, so it was more accurate to say they couldn’t.

If that were the case, then the battlefield would become content where faction victory depended entirely on random player actions and luck.

Fortunately, that wasn’t true.

The reason lay in reputation points.

Without reputation points, even if all 80 people gathered here united, they would still only amount to 80 players.

But reputation points existed.

And because of that, once the battlefield passed the mid-game phase, they could move as a group and produce meaningful results.

For example, if all of them accumulated reputation points and someday gathered together to attack one enemy region—

Since the Unorthodox Faction’s very ideology was eliminating the hypocritical Orthodox Faction—

Their attack points would naturally exceed the defenders’ defense points, and that territory would fall under the Unorthodox Faction’s control.

‘Of course, the enemy factions won’t just sit still either.’

The Orthodox Faction and the Demonic Cult both had ranker chatrooms like the Unorthodox Faction.

-Let’s just work hard and farm reputation points

-I’m joining the Orthodox Faction raid today

-Anyone gathering Demonic Cult intel?

-Looking for Green Forest Bandits to make routes with later

-It’s my first time. Where do I get information?

-Go to the Old Chivalry forums

Mumyeong currently had countless website windows open, gathering information about raids.

‘Most rankers are probably doing the same thing I am.’

He shifted his gaze toward the currently most active Old Chivalry forum.

[A streamer just started fighting the Demonic Cult (link)]

[Unorthodox Faction is Tang Clan, Orthodox is Namgung]

[List of streamers currently broadcasting the battlefield (constantly updated)]

[That Grandmaster fraud from yesterday made another promise. Demonic Cult bastards are probably covering for him]

Grandmaster?

As someone who had tried the Demonic Cult trial again that morning for the first time in a while, he had become interested in that streamer.

And while searching through iTube, he had even discovered that the guy used the same nickname in his previous game.

‘Anyway.’

Mumyeong clicked on the intriguing post.

[That Grandmaster fraud from yesterday made another promise. Demonic Cult bastards are probably covering for him]

==

That fraud made a promise during his stream to either make the Demonic Cult win or place within the top sixteen. Punishment if he fails: wear a magical girl outfit.

This is someone on literally Day 2 of For the Sake of Chivalry. A guy who’s never even played ranked before.

From the Demonic Cult players’ perspective, he’s precious.

Nobody ever told them they’d win, and suddenly some guy confidently makes a promise like that lolololol

==

-100% gonna fail and run away from the punishment

-Wow, this guy’s arrogance is on another level

-A newbie who’s never even played ranked is making promises like this??? Cocky as hell

-It might actually be possible. He got pretty high reputation yesterday

-That’s only because he stomped weaklings

-It’s literally only the first day though?

-Why are people acting like the fraud thing’s confirmed? Nothing’s been proven yet. Please let’s restore our Chivalry game.

ㄴ Even if he’s not a fraud, he’s still arrogant though?

ㄴ Your streamer started the trash talk first lololol

ㄴ New outrageous statement just dropped!!!! (link)

“Why are people making such a huge deal out of him setting a challenge for himself?”

Mumyeong frowned as he scrolled through the comments, then clicked the link.

“What outrageous statement now?”

[???: “I think four minutes should be enough.”]

==

Streamer Jin, who got 17 minutes on his first attempt.

Claims he can clear the raid in under 4 minutes.

-This guy’s delusions are seriously insane

-I’m genuinely getting mad

-4 minutes my ass

-The Demonic Cult lunatics are probably gonna come rushing in again screaming ‘Our Heavenly Demon can do it though?’

ㄴ The fact there are obsessive fans defending this nonsense is unbelievable

-“Just because he beat Shin Ha-yeon, doesn’t mean he should act this cocky.”

-“Have you people even watched his stream once?”

-“Yeah, I’m about to. Gonna go spam hate comments too.”

And countless insults filled the comments as well.

The reason? People thought he was arrogant.

“Good grief, why would he say something like that?”

He seemed like the kind of person who naturally attracted backlash.

“Even if it’s actually possible, he should’ve just kept his head down.”

A thought suddenly crossed his mind.

They said true superstars drove both fans and haters insane.

…No.

More likely, the guy simply had no idea he was already getting torn apart across the communities.

“Isn’t this why his chat’s become such a mess?”

Since he was planning to head toward the Demonic Cult region anyway, Mumyeong entered Seo-jun’s stream, which he normally hadn’t bothered watching.

Fortunately, only followers were allowed to type in chat, so the chatroom itself was clean.

But then a problem appeared.

Because of a certain aftermath happening right when he entered.

“What’s this idiot doing now?”

Haah.

That was precisely how he ended up going to find Tang So.

“What do you mean pack my bags? Listen carefully. The Heavenly Demon will definitely fail to kill Namgung Cheon.”

Tang So recovered quickly.

No idea where that confidence came from.

“So what now? Are you really going to the Demonic Cult?”

“Ahem. I said I’m not losing the bet.”

Yeah, sure you aren’t.

“Seriously, why did you even make a bet like that?”

Every single ranker was important. What kind of nonsense was this?

The only consolation was that if Tang So lost, the place he’d be going was the Demonic Cult.

More Demonic Cult rankers weren’t a problem.

Even if their numbers doubled, it still wouldn’t be worrying.

“Have a safe trip.”

The group chat had already started a vote.

[Tang So must accept the result of the bet!]

[Agree – 90%]

[Disagree – 10%]

Ninety percent agreed.

At this point, everyone was simply enjoying teasing their comrade.

“I said I’m not going!”

“What nonsense.”

“Listen carefully. That fraud’s build helps recover internal energy, so at first glance it may seem like using all his internal energy isn’t a major issue.”

“But?”

“But he still has to kill the enemy quickly. And if he lacks internal energy, then how’s he supposed to compensate for the missing damage?”

Sharp observation.

As expected, even if he looked dumb on the outside, his understanding of games was excellent.

But—

“Stop talking and just go join the Demonic Cult already.”

“And why’s that?”

Mumyeong had already watched the gameplay Seo-jun had shown so far.

Because everything had been neatly compiled on iTube.

The battle immediately began.

“See? Look at how slowly that NPC’s HP is dropping. There’s no way he clears it in time. He can’t clear it… huh?”

The moment Seo-jun gave up on dodging, the enemy’s HP began plummeting rapidly.

“I knew it.”

On the screen, Seo-jun defeated Namgung Cheon with ease.

A record in the three-minute range.

An all-time achievement.

The group chat exploded.

-He got 3 minutes????

-20?

-Anyone here ever seen a raid cleared in 3 minutes before?

-The real monsters aiming for top 16 usually don’t reveal their records

-Even 4 minutes would’ve been historic lololol

-He seriously found the fastest Orthodox raid route this season lolololol is there any way to use that strategy?

-No matter what, unless you have internal energy absorption like him, you’d spend forever trying to lower Namgung Cheon’s HP

-As expected, everyone was watching lolol

The chatroom immediately entered analysis mode.

Mumyeong’s jaw dropped open.

“Three minutes…”

[So then, I guess you’ll have to come to the Demonic Cult now, right?]

Pfft!

Tang So, who had picked up his cup to calm himself down, spat out his water.

“Goddammit.”

“What do I do? I seriously don’t want to go back to the Demonic Cult.”

At last, Tang So’s persona—which never broke no matter what happened—finally shattered.

That was how serious it was.

Going to the Demonic Cult.

But it wasn’t Mumyeong’s problem.

Mumyeong quickly lost interest in the now silent Tang So.

Because compared to a guy who was about to leave anyway, there was something else he was more curious about.

‘I wonder what the people trashing him on the forums are gonna say now.’

Seo-jun played two more rounds back-to-back.

Since he had already set the record, his goal was to finish as quickly as possible.

Reputation points were awarded after calculating the standard deviation of the records across each faction.

Because records were relative.

“Three runs all in the three-minute range is pretty good.”

The first run had been the shortest.

After that, Seo-jun had relaxed a little.

Apparently, even three minutes was considered historic anyway.

After leaving the game, Seo-jun headed back to where he originally was.

“I wonder if he’s still there. Surely he didn’t run away, right?”

What if Tang So couldn’t accept the bet result and fled?

“There are a lot of rankers watching right now, you know?”

Current viewer count: 8,000.

‘This really is the battlefield event buff.’

It seemed like starting the game immediately at 7 and setting a record had been the right call.

In reality, most of the new viewers had entered specifically to hate-watch Seo-jun—

But Seo-jun had no idea.

-Seo-jun-nim, would you like to join the Orthodox Faction? We’ll treat you very well. Victory guaranteed too.

-How about Mount Hua?

-Come on over, come on over

-What kind of treatment are we talking about?

-Don’t steal even the guild master from the Demonic Cult

-What about the Assassin Sect?

Recruitment messages flooded the chat one after another.

Seo-jun made a genuinely confused expression.

“No, if the Demonic Cult is going to win anyway, why would I go somewhere else?”

Naturally, he wasn’t being serious.

Even he knew the Demonic Cult wouldn’t actually win.

The reason was simple: they lacked rankers.

The number of ordinary players was lacking too, but surprisingly, the gap wasn’t that huge.

Because most players played casually and chose whatever suited their tastes rather than caring about results.

“I’m serious though.”

Although most people mocked him, there were also messages saying they believed him.

Seo-jun gave an awkward smile after reading the chat.

Please don’t actually believe me.

Anyway, after briefly chatting with viewers, he returned to where he had originally been.

Then the chat, previously filled with hook emojis, suddenly flooded with “kkkkk” laughter.

-Look at him lol what’s he doing

-Is he begging for mercy?

-This is hilarious lololololol

Because Tang So was kneeling beside the chair where he had originally been sitting.

Seo-jun walked closer.

“Heavenly Demon-nim, you have arrived!”

Listening to the provocateur’s overly respectful greeting, Seo-jun thought:

“Heavenly Demon Descends! Ten Thousand Demons Bow Before Him!”

…Honestly, the previous character concept was better.