Chapter 11

"Enemy! An intruder has entered!"

An organization NPC patrolling the theater in a fixed pattern grabbed onto Alpaca's trail.

'Damn it. They're packed too tightly.'

Alpaca immediately used a smoke screen skill and clone skill to split the aggro, then clung to the outer wall of the second-floor audience section.

'My stamina just has to hold out.'

Stamina drained every time he used parkour.

Using wires, adhesive tools, or other equipment could conserve it, but Alpaca was attempting a barehanded assassination challenge.

'If I fall, they'll swarm me and I'm done for. But if I move now, the NPCs are still on alert. And if I stay in one place too long, someone from the first floor will spot me. Which skill should I use—'

He rapidly turned his thoughts based on the experience he'd accumulated over the past week.

But all that worrying became meaningless.

"Kuhahaha!"

Wild laughter echoed out, followed by the sound of something slicing through the air.

Swaaaash!

Still hanging from the wall, Alpaca turned around.

Then reflexively squeezed his eyes shut at the rapidly approaching object.

A blade lodged directly into his forehead, and the man hanging from the second-floor audience seats fell straight down.

Thud.

"Aaaagh! Failed again!"

He was screwed.

Every time he died, his reputation dropped, and now if he wanted to buy information from the guild, he'd have to grind reputation through pure repetitive labor.

Or do another kind of repetitive labor—sub quests.

Both were equally annoying.

He needed to somehow deal with Drake using the reputation he naturally accumulated while assassinating other NPCs, but—

-You seriously suck lololol quit the game.
-Time for grinding.
-Just give up on the barehand challenge already.

The viewers enjoyed his failures more than anyone else.

'Evil. Pure evil.'

Did they really enjoy this that much?

He liked to think his stream wasn't filled with toxic viewers, but years of streaming experience had taught him something.

Most viewers carried at least a little toxicity in their hearts.

['Oo' donated 1,000 won!]

[Hey, there's a new route for getting Drake's location info on the forums. Go check it out.]

"Oh? Thanks for the 1,000 won donation!"

Right.

It was viewers like these that gave him strength!

'No, wait.'

Whenever he actually checked these things, it usually turned out to be some badly edited bait image of a real alpaca caught on a fishing line.

'Still, getting tricked even while knowing it's bait is a streamer's destiny.'

Alpaca paused the game and returned to the lobby.

A vast mountain grassland spread out before him, and Alpaca sat on a haystack-shaped chair.

The entire background had been custom-made and gifted by fans.

'At first I thought they were mocking me.'

But the chair was surprisingly comfortable, and the scenery was nice too.

In the end, touched by the fans' sincerity, he had set this grassland as his default background.

Bweeeeh! Bweeeeh!

As he sat down, the alpaca animal that permanently resided in the lobby approached him.

Its name was Daebak.

It was the mascot of his stream—a cute alpaca with fluffy white fur and a perpetually dissatisfied face.

Ptui!

Alpaca tilted his head aside as Daebak spat at him.

"Ack!"

Even though he knew it was only graphics after experiencing it countless times, his body still reacted instinctively.

-Daebak has arrived!
-When is he ever gonna get used to this? lololol
-–人–
-O (Ptooey!)

'Did they really have to implement the spitting animation too…'

That was what viewers were like.

Even loyal fans who created high-quality lobbies always slipped at least one toxic element into it.

Bweeeeeh!

Ignoring whether Daebak was chewing on the hay chair he was sitting on, Alpaca opened the internet browser.

"What should I search for? Maybe I should check the info board…"

-30-upvote posts lol
-Debate board
-Incident board
-Free board
-No lol, Tips & Tricks board.

These bastards.

Who could he even blame?

It was his fault for asking viewers.

"Let's see… ah, there it is already."

[New Route Guide for Drake's Location]

The person in the video was extracting information from organization members in a rather unique—

No, extremely unique way.

"Kyaah! So there was a method like this. I wonder which kind soul discovered it."

Since Alpaca could parry reasonably well himself, his expression brightened immediately.

At least now he wouldn't have to suffer through tedious reputation grinding.

"Still, both the person who found this and the devs who hid a route like this are seriously amazing, don't you think?"

-True
-Kyaaa
-The perfection of an open world comes from the details of freedom.
-God-tier hidden-route game!

With the burden of obtaining Drake's hideout info gone, Alpaca started calculating how many more attempts he could squeeze into today's stream.

And then—

A long donation message appeared.

['lololololololololol' donated 10,000 won!]

[Now's probably not the time to be impressed though? lol]

The donation was packed right up to the character limit.

Then another voice donation played.

['Some Idiot' donated 10,000 won!]

[???: "If someone actually succeeds at that, I'll accept them as my master, learn from them, and keep streaming until I beat Drake musou-style too!"]

…Huh?

"Someone beat it? Yeah right. Nice try. I'm not falling for it no matter what."

Even in virtual reality, Alpaca felt cold sweat running down his back.

A bad feeling crept over him.

Suddenly, he remembered that Ettore had been defeated yesterday.

No way.

Why hadn't he thought of that earlier?

While silently berating himself, more and more viewers in chat started doing nothing except laughing.

People typing only "lololol."

His viewers normally never united over anything, so there was only one situation where they all laughed together.

'When I'm suffering.'

At that exact moment, another post with over thirty recommendations appeared above the one he was reading.

[First Ever Drake Musou Clear.]

"Wow, seriously? You guys even manipulated recommendations just to trick me? I said I'm not falling for it. You people are vicious."

Gulp.

Even while verbally denying it, his hand slowly moved toward the post.

And then the truth was revealed.

A man holding a pipe was casually beating up Drake.

Casually.

At first, Alpaca even thought:

'Huh? This actually looks doable? Maybe the endurance challenge wouldn't be so bad?'

But at that exact moment, the man on screen parried a sword strike, then casually tilted his head without even turning around to dodge the chain stabbing toward his back.

All relief vanished.

That sequence forcibly made him confront reality.

"I'm screwed."

That wasn't something he could imitate.

He had barely managed normal assassination gameplay, so what musou?

So—

"I think that video's edited. Right? Seriously. How could a human possibly beat that? Right? Hurry up and agree with me. Please?"

He began desperately denying the footage.

-As if lololol
-He's rambling now lololololol
-Alpaca has entered the denial stage lol
-Threat mode ON
-He's a streamer. It's all in the travel category lolololol

Of course, nobody bought it.

"Ah, so this is the streamer who beat Ettore musou-style."

This time, he tried changing the topic.

-??? Someone beat Ettore?
-?
-Alpaca got beaten up by Ettore for 10 hours on launch day trying for first clear lolololol and someone actually beat him?
-How did they even do that????

The viewers knew exactly how difficult it was to defeat Ettore because of Alpaca's challenge from a week ago that had ended in nothing but wasted time.

In an instant, the viewers' attention shifted to how Ettore had been defeated, and Alpaca thought it was a great change of topic.

['ThisIsHowYouBeatEttore' donated 10,000 won! - travel clip]

As if on cue, a video donation began playing.

A streamer named Jin Seojun wielded a mace while performing dazzling techniques.

Even Alpaca, who had already seen it once before, found himself impressed all over again.

How much practice would it take for him to move like that?

The movements were smooth and flexible, yet restrained.

-Kyaaa! As expected of Nameless.
-Wow, that's actually insane.
-The difference is obvious. Unlike someone else.
-So this is the level needed for musou gameplay.
-What's the streamer's name?

Even viewers seeing it for the first time looked shocked.

"And the crazier thing is that it's only his second day playing the game. I seriously got completely blown away when I found that out too."

-?? That's monstrous talent.
-Is he some kind of real-life cultural heritage master or something?
-He's not built the same lol
-Anyway, you still have to do the endurance challenge, right?

Alpaca's eyes trembled like a sailor facing a violent storm.

Somewhere from the heavens, it felt like a voice was mockingly asking:

'Did you seriously think that would ever happen?'

Then voice chat played once again.

['Some Idiot' donated 10,000 won!]

[???: "If someone actually succeeds at that, I'll accept them as my master, learn from them, and keep streaming until I beat Drake musou-style!"]

"Ha…"

Alpaca let out a sigh heavy enough to sink the earth.

Forget changing the topic.

He deeply resented his careless past self.

'If I stream nonstop for three days, maybe they'll forgive me…'

Actually beating Drake and ending the broadcast wasn't even within the realm of consideration.

Alpaca, utterly crushed, shouted after seeing the title of the next post.

[Please gather around and stomp your hooves for Alpaca trembling after Drake got cleared lololol]

"Hey! If I had hooves, would I be wearing shoes, you idiots?! And stop upvoting posts like that! I'm already mentally exhausted!"

-Alpaca hooves lolololol
-Whoever wrote that post deserves praise.
-–人–

[Upvote for the handsome Alpaca reading the forums.]

This one wasn't bad.

Alpaca quietly entered the post and pressed upvote.

-Traitor!
-Get rid of the traitor!
-Where are the mods?!

Same old idiots.

Alpaca let out a deep sigh and declared surrender.

"Well, a promise is a promise."

If he collapsed during the challenge, surely the viewers would understand.

-Kyaaa!
-Alpaca is awesome!
-Is your next stream title "New Year Waiting Room"?
-Let's break the Guinness World Record for longest stream lololol
-Who wants to bet whether a sequel to Dawn of the Assassins releases first or the endurance challenge succeeds first?
-He basically just declared he'll spend the rest of his life streaming until he dies.

…Or maybe not?

Alpaca glanced at the viewers.

Still, the idea of doing a collab sounded fun.

-Honestly, inviting that streamer for a collab would be hilarious.
-I just checked the forums after hearing about him, and he's actually crazy good lololol

As if reading his mind, similar comments started appearing in chat.

But—

"First of all, please don't go into his stream mentioning me or anything. That's just rude."

When it came to these things, warnings had to be given early and firmly.

-Okay
-Yep

The fact that he was only a second-day streamer bothered Alpaca a bit.

There was no way he'd done collabs before, and from the look of things, his stream was going well already. A collab could end up becoming a nuisance or burden.

Just as Alpaca was worrying about it, a Travel notification appeared.

After checking it, Alpaca's eyes widened in surprise.

"For now… that's it for today's stream."

-Today's ending peacefully.
-Your next stream probably won't end for eternity anyway, so getting mad now would be shameless lololol
-Good game

"Thanks for watching."

[The broadcast has ended.]

That day, an announcement about a collaboration stream appeared on Alpaca's fan café.

Meanwhile—

At Movie Soft, a corporation with more than ten subsidiary development studios around the world.

Inside the office of Movie Soft Korea, developer of Dawn of the Assassins – Shadows in the City, someone burst through the president's office door.

"President! We've got a huge problem!"

"What is it?"

Eve Paimo, president of Movie Soft Korea, turned her chair and checked the employee who had rushed in.

Kim Yunchan.

A very optimistic subordinate.

"One of the Rulers has been defeated, sir."

"…?"

"Musou-style."

At the troublesome report, Eve Paimo demanded a more detailed explanation.

"Which one?"

"Drake."

"Oh, then it's fine. It was about time someone beat him anyway. Isn't he the weakest one?"

The seriousness instantly vanished from Eve Paimo's eyes.

"But if people start getting curious about the Fragments of Order…"

Eve Paimo cut him off.

"That's enough. You're worrying over nothing. Sure, if all the Fragments of Order are gathered too early, it'll interfere with our plans. But you're the one who personally designed the system preventing that from happening. What's gotten into you?"

Fragments of Order could only be obtained by defeating Rulers musou-style.

And among the Rulers, there was one character who could never be defeated through skill alone and required the help of a specific skill.

They had intentionally designed the unlock process for that skill to take players a very long time.

Meaning there was no need to worry yet.

"I know that, but sometimes impossible things happen. Besides, the guy who beat him was a streamer. I just checked it. He literally walked in and killed him."

"What happened to my optimistic employee?"

"It's intuition. A gut feeling."

"Quit talking nonsense and get back to work. Wait… just now? Does that mean you were watching streams during work hours?"

"…Ahem. I'll be going now."

"Hey!"

The next day.

"What are you doing?"

"Just looking up some information about game skills."

Taewoo shook his head in disbelief as he watched Seojun browsing community forums from the passenger seat of a taxi.

"Don't get too sucked into that stuff."

"…Shut up. I needed to double-check a few things because of the collab."

The collaboration had been arranged so suddenly that there wasn't much time to prepare, but they had at least discussed how they wanted the stream to go.

"More importantly, why are you coming along?"

"I wanted to see hyung again too."

"What about your own stream?"

"I'll just stream from a capsule café nearby. Works perfectly fine."

"…Sigh."

Seojun let out a deep sigh.

The dignity of a veteran streamer truly shone through.

"We've arrived."

The taxi driver announced they had reached the destination, and the two paid before stepping outside.

"Let's see. I've been here a few times before, so just follow me."

"Sure. But how did you know him in the first place?"

"Hyung used to do rookie discovery content. That's when we met. Though I was already a fourth-year streamer back then, and you're only on day three. Damn it."

Despite his words, Taewoo didn't actually sound jealous or self-deprecating.

He was someone who had endured years of hardship before finally succeeding.

He already knew there was no meaning in comparing yourself to others.

Only your own path mattered.

After wandering around for about thirty minutes, Taewoo finally reached the destination.

"You said you'd been here before."

Shaking his head, Seojun pressed the doorbell.

Ding-dong.

A short while later, the door opened.

And someone stepped out from inside.