Chapter 14

Travel had a Channel Point system.

Channel Points were something that accumulated automatically under certain conditions while watching Travel streams, and viewers who had just started using Travel usually received 100 points.

Meanwhile, longtime viewers sometimes gathered points in the millions.

But what rewards those points could be used for varied from streamer to streamer.

Because the streamer themselves set the rewards.

In streams that didn't care much about points, there often wasn't anywhere meaningful to spend them no matter how many you collected.

However, in streams where the system was actively utilized, viewers with enough points could do everything from changing the style of their chat text to obtaining or modifying emotes, requesting songs, or even forcing the streamer to play horror games.

But there was another reason viewers truly loved these points.

"Alright! I gave plenty of time to submit your predictions, so take it easy, everyone."

It was because of Channel Point Predictions—the system where viewers bet points on what would happen during the stream.

[Prediction]

[Within today's stream~]

[They'll probably stumble upon one or two weak points by sheer luck.]

VS

[Nope, they'll find three or four.]

VS

[What nonsense. Even the Nameless King will fail like everyone else. (0 found)]

1882763

[Nope. The Nameless King is an alien with a third eye that sees weak points! (Finds 4 or more)]

VS

The various prediction scenarios Alpaca had prepared beforehand appeared on screen.

Now viewers could see the odds, the number of participants, and the total points wagered in real time while betting their points on one of the options.

-Ah lol obviously they won't find any lol

-No way there's an idiot betting on the alien option, right?

-I think they'll find one or two. Let's go!

-Listen up, suckers. Here's insider info. A few days ago this became a hot topic on the forums, and hundreds of people tried it but nobody found anything. You get it now?

Of course, the points themselves had no monetary value. They were generated simply by watching Travel streams, and since they couldn't be exchanged or traded, the prediction system technically wasn't gambling.

Losing them didn't really matter.

Even if you collected a huge amount, most of the time the only thing you could do was send slightly fancier chat messages that disappeared within a second anyway.

But—

Human psychology was funny like that.

Even an old comic book you hadn't touched in ten years somehow felt like a loss if you gave it to your younger cousin.

So what if you personally wagered your points and lost them?

Even if they had no real meaning, wanting to win predictions and collect more points was almost instinctive.

-The safe bet, obviously.

-People actually believe he can see those? lololol

-These crazy underdog bettors lololol betting on the 1% option? lol

"What do 'safe bet' and 'underdog bet' mean?"

Seojun, quietly watching the chat, asked curiously.

Alpaca kindly explained.

"Ah. A safe bet means betting on the side expected to win. The odds of winning are higher, but if you do win, you earn less."

"Ah. Then an underdog bet is the opposite."

"Exactly. Usually it refers to people trying to hit the jackpot."

"Hm. Then that's strange. Why did 'I can find them' become the underdog bet?"

Seojun understood perfectly how absurd the idea of "seeing weak points" sounded to someone unaware of his previous life.

He also understood the live betting ratios perfectly:

55% for "finds nothing,"
39% for "finds one or two,"
5% for "finds three or four,"
and 1% for "he's an alien."

But for the sake of entertainment, Seojun shamelessly continued:

"Guys. If you bet on 'finds four or more,' it's 100-to-1 odds. Trust me."

-As if that's convincing lol

-Why would I entrust my precious memories to you?

"Memories? What memories?"

"Ah! Since these points were accumulated while watching streams, people sometimes call them memories."

"You're betting those precious memories on something like gambling? Wow."

-That roast was insane lol

-Nope, still not betting lol

"Alright then. Let's get into the game now—"

['Assassin of Joseon' donated 10,000 won with a big donation!]

[I trusted Seojun-nim and bet every point I collected over 3 years on '4 or more.' Am I mentally okay?]

-No.

-Damn! Foreign currency has entered the market.

-What a sucker lololol

When viewers from another channel placed bets, people often called it "foreign currency entering the market."

"Ah. Congratulations. You'll probably hit 100x odds. Probably."

Seojun grinned.

That was, of course, assuming the weak point system followed the rules he had in mind.

But if it didn't?

Well, nothing he could do about that.

Honestly though, he felt like he was right.

It was intuition built from his previous life.

He just knew.

"Alright then! Let's go check it out. We don't actually know the answer either. Seojun-nim just said he thinks there's a pattern, so we can't take responsibility."

-"Probably," he says lololol

-There go three years of memories

-This guy really has the heart of a beast

The prediction timer closed, and Seojun launched Dawn of the Assassins.

"Wait a sec!"

Alpaca's mysterious scream was drowned out as the screen transitioned.

Against the backdrop of a mountainous region, darkness swept in instantly, and Seojun appeared in the middle of Alteon.

A pipe rested in his right hand, and before him stood the half-destroyed theater troupe.

Moving aside, Seojun activated the Joint Assassination feature. After fumbling around briefly, he invited Alpaca from the friends list.

A moment later, a figure slowly emerged from the shadows.

It was Alpaca.

"Whew. Good thing you managed to invite me properly. Right after we sent Seojun-nim off earlier, I suddenly realized something."

-There has never been a master quite like this before.

So that was why he screamed earlier?

First, they headed to the tavern and unlocked the skill window.

"Alright. The place we're heading to now is one of the four districts—the residential area where the upper class lives. In-game, it's called the Northeastern End."

Pretending to explain things to Seojun, Alpaca naturally began providing information to the viewers.

The place they were heading was the Northeastern End.

It was an area where luxury stores and entertainment facilities for the upper class flourished, lined with townhouses, while farther out stood the grand mansions of nobles.

Without question, it was the true center of Alteon.

"In simpler terms, it's Alteon's rich neighborhood."

The place where Ettore had lived was also this Northeastern End.

There were many plazas and parks here, along with a straight road called the Noble Path that stretched from the residences of high-ranking nobles all the way to the royal castle.

The assassination difficulty for key figures here ranked just below the royal castle itself.

Unlike the crowded Fourth District, the Northeastern End had wide open spaces, making it easy to get spotted, and guards regularly patrolled the area.

The reason they had come here was—

"We're here."

As they walked down the street, screams could be heard from beyond a grand mansion.

Alpaca vaulted over the wall, and Seojun followed after him.

With movement assistance active, scaling walls over three meters high was effortless for them.

Crossing over like true assassins, they landed in the garden, where a young man who looked like a noble's son was tormenting a ragged child by stabbing him with a rapier.

"That's Louis Neville, son of Richard Neville, the ruler of the Northeastern End."

He was also the owner of the weapon-destruction clip.

"First, we should verify your skill."

"Sure."

Seojun nodded and stepped forward.

Then he pulled out the sword Alpaca had given him from his inventory.

A pipe made it difficult to precisely target delicate spots.

Though honestly, it wouldn't have mattered much to Seojun anyway.

Behind him, Alpaca began commentating.

"Alright everyone, even if you know where to strike to destroy the weapon, actually replicating it accurately is difficult. Personally, I'd say recreating the clip is a whole level above parrying in terms of difficulty. Of course, with Seojun-nim's skill, he'll probably succeed quickly, but he'll still probably fail a few times— huh?"

It ended in an instant.

As Seojun approached, Louis Neville smirked before suddenly thrusting his sword.

As if he had expected it, Seojun lightly sidestepped and slashed diagonally across the rapier's blade exactly like in the video.

The exact position.

The same speed as the clip.

Even though it was a sword he had only just picked up, he controlled the distance as naturally as if it were part of his body.

Seojun's indifferent expression remained unchanged, and Louis's estoc split apart with a cracking sound, like an axe driving through the grain of wood.

-Excuse me? You said this was hard?

-"Probably fail a few times" my ass lol

-Wow, a master really is a master.

-Are the safe bettors starting to panic now?

[Weakness Detection]

[Unlock Condition: Destroy 10 weapons by striking their weak point (1/10)]

Seojun's skill window updated.

"Damn. You finished it in one try. You really are built differently from the rest of us."

Alpaca couldn't stop expressing his admiration.

Even after replaying the clip countless times, he had only barely succeeded after dozens of attempts.

Even if the enemy's sword stayed perfectly still, tracing the exact point was harder than expected.

But doing it during combat—and succeeding on the very first try—was undeniably incredible.

However—

Alpaca walked over to Seojun.

"But you know this still doesn't prove anything, right?"

-The underdog bettors are getting cocky after one success lol

-Please come back to reality

-If it were that easy to discover, other people would've found it already, idiots

"Well, true."

Seojun nodded while finishing off Louis Neville.

Then he recalled the sensation from just now.

"But now I'm certain."

"Huh? Certain about what?"

"That the rule I figured out is correct."

For someone who had only destroyed one weapon through a weak point so far, it was an unbelievably arrogant statement.

-lol sure it is

-Anyone falling for this should stay away from pyramid schemes fr

-The game's been out for days and there's only been one confirmed example

"Well, seeing is believing. I'll just show you."

Right on cue, soldiers came running over after hearing Louis's screams.

The shields and swords they carried.

He needed to find the weak points that could destroy them.

Like the grain in wood.

Tiny structural distortions and fractures in an object's form creating an artificial vulnerability.

'The developers implemented that concept.'

Vital points.

'Come to think of it, the former abbot of Shaolin who gained the Mind's Eye said he could see something similar.'

Whether it was an object or a martial art, it didn't matter.

Was it a similar principle?

Seojun himself had never obtained the Mind's Eye like the Shaolin abbot. In terms of martial enlightenment, his past self had undoubtedly reached greater heights, but when it came to insight and understanding of objects, the senior monks of Shaolin surpassed him.

Which was why he actually couldn't see weak points.

No—he had never even known about them.

Not in the past.

Not now.

But—

'In the end, the weak points in this game were created by the developers.'

Meaning there was no need to memorize scriptures or achieve enlightenment to understand the truth of objects.

All he had to do was understand the enemy's intention.

In other words, the developers' intention.

And battles like that were Seojun's specialty, forged through countless combat experiences.

Seojun raised his sword upward and closed his eyes.

The guard's movements were obvious anyway.

-Did he give up?

-Why's this old man closing his eyes? lol

Inside Seojun's mind, countless lines were drawn across the guard's shield and sword.

From countless different angles.

The only weak point examples he knew were two.

And he had personally experienced only one of them.

But that was enough.

Among the countless imaginary lines, the ones that didn't match the developers' intent began disappearing.

And then—

Seojun's arm slowly began to descend.