Chapter 9

"Ah, damn it. I feel like I'm gonna get caught again."

Alpaca.

He was a streamer averaging ten thousand viewers, peaking at thirty thousand on the opening day of Assassin Guild's Dawn, and even a week later still maintaining twenty thousand viewers.

Whenever a new Assassin Guild's Dawn title released, he was always one of the first streamers people flocked to.

That was because he had spent years organizing the series' story lore, making review videos, and uploading beginner-friendly recommendation videos.

And now, from the very first day of release, Alpaca had been continuing a challenge run where he performed assassinations completely barehanded.

[So the little rat was hiding there! KHAHAHA!]

"Ah shit, I got spotted ag—"

SWISH!

A dagger instantly flew into his forehead, and the screen of his character, who had been clinging to the ceiling, went black.

After respawning, Alpaca trudged back toward the guild and spoke.

"Phew. If I can just kill Drake, District 4 is basically done, but it's not easy. There are too many gang members, and if only I knew exactly which base Drake was hiding in…"

The Rulers.

The organizations controlling Alteon's four districts—in other words, the game's major villains.

Each district had one: the Queen, the Magic Tower Master, the leader of the Royalist faction, and Drake, the boss of the Dissemblers.

While their assassination difficulty was roughly equal to one another, they were considered mid-boss-level entities a full tier above even the major targets in the royal district, which already had the highest difficulty among the normal areas.

Among them, Drake, the boss of the Dissemblers, possessed ten separate hideouts throughout District 4 and randomly appeared in one of them.

And Alpaca had already been discovered four times.

The reputation he had painstakingly built up was hanging by a thread. At this rate, the guild might stop selling him location information entirely.

Alpaca purchased Drake's location information from the guild.

"Hmm, the theater troupe district. Haah… where's he hiding this time? I really need to succeed here."

Fatigue was starting to pile up, and Alpaca let out a deep sigh.

Then he sighed again after seeing a donation message.

[Just go solo carry mode in the theater district. There's already someone doing a barehanded solo carry playthrough, so why are you struggling this hard?]

"Thanks for the 10,000 won donation. What are you talking about, solo carry? There's no way someone like that exi—"

LOLAt least make believable lies.

[It's real though. He'll probably clear it soon.]

"Drake is literally impossible to kill in solo carry mode. Maybe ordinary NPCs are one thing, but the Rulers were clearly designed seriously by the developers. It's impossible."

Alpaca was a player who loved assassination gameplay.

That didn't mean he hated solo carry combat. Fighting was still part of Assassin Guild's Dawn.

He was just a little lacking in skill this time around.

[You didn't check the community?]

"Ah. Someone's actually doing it on the community? If someone succeeds at that, I'll officially accept them as my master, learn from them, and do an endless stream challenge until I clear Drake with solo carry gameplay!"

An endless-stream challenge was content where the streamer didn't end the broadcast until achieving a specific goal.

If you were skilled, it could end in just a few hours.

If not?

LOOOOOOL that statement.

"Yep~ absolutely impossible. Thanks for the donation. Easy money."

Some people in chat genuinely seemed to be mocking him, but Alpaca brushed it off casually.

"Ah, but if it's a pro player, the endless stream challenge doesn't count."

He knew pros were too busy to spend time on another game, but he still added that line out of nervousness.

Scared???Alpaca chickening out~Just go die already, bro.

Thirty minutes before Alpaca made his reckless endless-stream declaration—

Seojun was walking into the alley where the gang members were gathered in order to find Drake's whereabouts.

"Alright, alright. Come over here and let's have a sincere conversation."

"Well, I'll follow you for now."

That was because he had seen chat messages saying that if fighting broke out in public, the guards would show up and make things annoying.

Splish, splash.

As he entered the alley, the stench of stagnant water mixed with an unidentified musty odor assaulted his nose.

"Good to see you listen so well."

"Seriously though. Hey! First hand over everything you've got. Including the wallets you stole earlier."

As Seojun followed them deeper inside, two more gang members appeared, surrounding him front and back in the narrow alley.

He fought 13 vs 1 yesterday. This should be easy.LOLBut doesn't Mumyung literally have no weapon? How's he planning to fight in there?More importantly, how's he even gonna get Drake's information? lololol He doesn't have enough reputation to use the info guild, and to find traitors in the organization you normally need to complete all the related side quests and actions.

"Hmm?"

While scrolling through chat, Seojun suddenly seemed to notice something strange and paused the game.

"Guys, is this organization hard to take down? Does it take a long time?"

Bro, you're talking about killing a Ruler. Of course it's hard???LOL

"What's a Ruler?"

KYAAAA!!!This is our streamer, newbies. Watch and learn."What's a parry?" energy all over again…

Messages from viewers named FrozenIronDefenseFish, HorsebackPatient, and BrickExtortionKing appeared one after another.

['WaitWhat' donated 1,000 won!]

[You said you'd kill a Ruler without even knowing what one is?]

"Please explain."

In truth, Seojun already knew about Drake.

Not just Drake, but most of the basic game information too. He had studied it while browsing the community.

After all, he understood that he needed at least some knowledge to properly lead the stream.

Meeting the Dissembler gang members at the market, however, had been pure coincidence.

The strategy guides Seojun had found yesterday listed two ways to deal with Drake.

The first was completing many assassination missions and raising your reputation enough for organizations like Alteon's Open Gate guilds to trust you enough to sell Drake's location information.

The second was completing side quests that established a secure information-trading environment where identities couldn't be traced, then buying Drake's location from Dissembler members themselves.

The important part was this:

Both methods required ensuring the information provider wouldn't suffer retaliation afterward.

Which meant—

Couldn't there be another method entirely?

That was what the community users believed.

The game's freedom was simply that absurd.

Seojun had thought the same thing while reading the strategy posts.

Though his reasoning had gone in a different direction.

'Wouldn't it work if I just beat the gang members so hard they stop worrying about retaliation?'

And if that failed, he could always follow the official strategies afterward.

Once he knew the location, killing Drake would be easy anyway.

"So basically, I need to gather information, right? And that's difficult. Plus killing him is difficult too."

Yep.Don't tell me you're postponing this until tomorrow?Strategy guides are banned.

"Hmph. I'm not the type to back out of what I say."

The chat instantly filled with "lololol."

Every time, viewers enjoyed it the most when a streamer got cornered.

That was what Seojun believed as he resumed the paused game.

"Hey, hey. Your ugly faces scared the kid."

"Seriously, why'd you start operating here without our permission, huh?"

The Dissembler gang members snickered and exchanged pointless jokes with each other.

Seojun asked them calmly,

"Do you know where Drake is?"

"The boss? Sure, we know. But why would we willingly te—"

The moment he got the answer he wanted, Seojun cut him off.

"Then that's enough."

"?"

"Let's start with a beating. Usually people start talking after that."

"What the hell are you talking about?! Boys, kill him!"

The gang members drew daggers from their coats and rushed toward Seojun.

First, Seojun kicked off the wall and leapt over the men standing in front of him.

Getting attacked from both sides in a narrow alley was more annoying than expected.

Then, after dodging a dagger thrust from one attacker, he grabbed the man's arm and slammed him to the ground.

"Kuhack!"

[Dissembler Member's Basic Dagger]

The thug dropped his weapon, and Seojun snatched the dagger out of the air.

Wait, how the hell did he catch that?That reaction speed is insane.

Now armed, Seojun rapidly began cleaning up the mobs.

KAAANG!

"Kuhack!"

KAAANG!

"Kgh!"

KAAANG!

In an instant, everyone except the gang member who claimed to know the boss's location was dead.

"Yeah, parrying really is convenient."

Kyah.He really was a master!Solo carry gameplay actually looks fun.Anyone thinking "Maybe I should try this too?" Wake up lol

The remaining gang member also charged at Seojun.

KAAANG!

But he collapsed beside his comrades' corpses, entering a groggy state.

Seojun slowly approached the terrified thug sprawled on the ground and asked,

"Where's Drake?"

The viewers burst into laughter at his bizarre behavior.

Like that's actually gonna work lolololLOOOOOL

The thug trembled violently without answering.

Seojun waited patiently until he recovered.

"You think I'd tell you that?!"

The moment he got back up—

KAAANG!

The thug collapsed in exactly the same spot again.

"Where's Drake?"

??? Is this some new interrogation technique?Wake up lololol

"You think I'd tell you that?!"

The thug regained his composure again and shouted.

KAAANG!

So Seojun parried him one more time.

"Where's Drake?"

This is true insanity lololol

The viewers couldn't understand what he was doing, but Seojun noticed that every time the thug entered a groggy state, his reactions weakened slightly.

"Oh. He's getting weaker and weaker."

Where exactly are you seeing that?What are you even watching, sir?No matter how hard you cope, he's not giving you information. Just go look up a guide already.

Then Seojun disabled him once more and waited for him to stand up again.

This time, even the viewers could clearly see the thug's reaction had drastically changed.

So Seojun asked again.

"Where's Drake?"

"Th-that…"

The thug tried avoiding the answer and suddenly attempted to flee.

Seojun immediately closed the distance.

The thug wildly swung his dagger in desperation, and the moment Seojun disabled him yet again—

The groggy enemy finally started talking.

???This is actually possible?These MovieSoft devs are insane lololol They say they discourage solo carry gameplay, then make routes like this.I'm learning the game from a newbie stream. Is this normal?

"Thirteenth Street… the largest theater troupe there… he's there… p-please stop…"

"Oh. This actually works. Anyway, where exactly is Drake?"

But the thug no longer responded.

"Hmm. No extra reaction. No convulsions or anything?"

Demon lolololDoesn't the streamer also have talent for game mechanics? He's discovering entirely new routes lol

['YouWereThisKindOfGuy' donated 1,000 won!]

[Ettore… so you fought that desperately because you were trying to stop someone like this…]

Ettore redemption arc lololololHe died in the line of duty…

Ignoring the viewers' chatter, Seojun opened the map.

"Hm. Anyway, daggers are too short and inconvenient. Isn't there something better?"

In Assassin Guild's Dawn, there were no unusable weapons.

The fruit knife at the market stall, darts and glass bottles in taverns, bowling pins at bowling alleys—

Everything could become a weapon.

Earn some money and buy a proper weapon already.If you buy wire, it becomes insanely fun. You can play Spider-Man.Go pickpocketing lol

"Hmm, I think… oh, this looks good."

After looking around, Seojun found something suitable and swung it around experimentally.

[Rusted Pipe]

"The length is perfect. Alright then, now that I've got a weapon, let's head to Thirteenth Street."

Thirteenth Street was the cultural district.

And the largest theater troupe there, the White Lotus Theater Troupe, was located roughly three blocks from the market.

Which basically implied that even the city's largest theater troupe was under the influence of the gang known as the Dissemblers.

Seojun quickly arrived at the White Lotus Theater.

People loitering nearby entered his vision—far too heavily armed to merely be guards.

'No real way to know exactly where Drake is.'

They had really packed this place full of gang members.

Well, it probably didn't matter.

Because he wasn't planning to assassinate anyone anyway.

And the viewers hadn't come here to watch stealth gameplay either.

"Sorry, but the performance is over—"

CRASH!

Without any warning, Seojun walked up to the main entrance and smashed the glass doors with the pipe.

As one of the gang members drew a machete, Seojun swiftly swung the pipe and struck him.

The enemy's HP didn't even drop by one-tenth.

'Not even close.'

So he had no choice but to wait until the man swung his machete.

KAAANG!

He read the trajectory and countered it.

KYAH!It's amazing every single time. How does he never fail? lololol

Tap tap tap tap!

Hearing the commotion, more gang members started joining the fight.

But—

Every time Seojun swung the pipe, a clear metallic sound rang out.

One by one, Seojun cleaned up the enemies while moving toward the staircase near the entrance.

That spot made it easier to handle enemies descending toward him.

Eventually—

The staircase became piled high with gang members.

Sometimes outside patrol squads attempted surprise attacks from behind, but Seojun sensed their approach through sound alone and dealt with them easily too.

By the time it was over, the number of enemies piled up had reached thirty.

"Thirty people in a theater this size… wow, the devs are brutal. How are people supposed to assassinate anyone?"

Once again amazed by the difficulty the developers had intended, Seojun leisurely entered the theater interior.

????You're seriously the one saying that?What the hell did I just watch? I'm so dumbfounded I can only laugh.This guy is the real deal…!

The moment Seojun entered the theater, loud laughter echoed from the stage.

His opponent was already waiting at the center of the stage.

When I watched another streamer get caught trying to assassinate him, this scene was terrifying as hell. Why is it hilarious now? lolololLOL so can Drake handle 1 vs 30 then? Can he kill Ettore too? lololol

Drake, the boss of the Dissemblers.

True to being the leader of a vile gang, the moment Seojun approached, Drake immediately hurled knives at him.

"Die!"

Small, thin throwing knives flew toward him instantly.

Seojun immediately swung the pipe and knocked the knives away.

He blocked that instead of dodging again???How the hell did he do that?Reaction speed from another dimension

"Don't react after seeing the knife flying. Predict it by watching the enemy's fingertips. It's actually pretty easy."

The closer Seojun got, the more knives came flying toward him.

The firing speed increased more and more, and halfway through, Drake even began throwing with both hands simultaneously.

But Seojun knocked every single one away.

Using only a pipe.

He even bats away flying projectiles lololol What can't this guy parry?Viewers.Ah right, he can't parry viewers lolololol

And just like that, Seojun reached Drake in an instant.