Chapter 54

Raid.

That was the nickname players used for the mode. Its official name was [Deathmatch (NPC)].

The reason it was called Deathmatch was simple: the game ended the moment either the enemy commander NPC or the player died.

That didn’t mean it was just a simple one-on-one duel mode, though.

Since the battlefield itself served as the combat zone, players had to search for the enemy commander while ordinary NPCs clashed all over the map.

“In raids, speed is the most important thing.”

Find the enemy commander quickly and kill them quickly.

That was the key to earning more Fame Points and Contribution.

• Basically time attack mode
• Let’s wait a bit for information to get out first
• All the rankers probably do that lol
• Start immediately LET’S GO
• This is what real consulting looks like

Seo-jun immediately understood what they meant.

“It’s fine. Let’s just go right away.”

The viewers were advising him to play after information spread, using the collected data to set a faster record.

But Seo-jun decided to just play immediately.

After all, the first run didn’t grant Fame Points anyway.

Because it was a practice round designated by the developers.

And Seo-jun didn’t think there was much difference between learning information through someone else’s gameplay and learning it firsthand by playing the first round himself.

‘Apparently the rankers use even that short amount of time to plan routes and traits, treating the first round like a rehearsal.’

But Seo-jun lacked the game knowledge to pull that off.

“Ah, and apparently resource management is important in raids too.”

Unlike Occupation Battles, Deathmatch had no bases or recovery methods.

You had to rely entirely on naturally regenerating resources.

“Oh, Absorption Technique only works on the enemy commander? Thanks for the advice.”

After hearing the detailed explanations, Seo-jun realized his trait setup wasn’t particularly advantageous here.

It might even be disadvantageous.

“Anyway, let’s go with the Orthodox Faction. I won’t run into that Tang Clan guy from earlier no matter what.”

Today was defense again.

Seo-jun selected the same region as yesterday.

The game started, and Seo-jun opened his eyes inside a building.

After looking around, he tried opening the door, but he couldn’t leave.

Text appeared before his eyes.

[Deathmatch begins in 30 seconds]

• Wonder which sect NPC they’ll fight
• Looks like a brothel building. Probably not the Beggars’ Sect. Those guys would never have money for a brothel lol

Hmm.

While waiting, Seo-jun nodded as he read the chat.

That actually made sense.

[Deathmatch begins in 10 seconds]

But where were the allied soldiers?

Left alone in the room, Seo-jun found himself wondering.

‘If you fought alone, they would’ve called it Assassination instead of Deathmatch.’

Before he had time to think further, the ten seconds ended and an enemy holding a sword burst through the door.

“Enemy commander of the Demonic Cult! Die!”

Neat clothing. Not martial robes, and definitely not a beggar. Then—

• It’s the Namgung Clan lmaoooo
• Anyone know which Namgung NPC appeared?
• How would we know? The game started one minute ago lol

At least now the identity of the Orthodox Faction had been revealed as the Namgung Clan.

The enemy NPCs charged the instant they spotted Seo-jun.

‘Tall and wide building. Enemy faction is the Namgung Clan. Objective: enemy commander.’

Seo-jun checked the martial artists’ HP.

Not as low as the soldiers from Occupation Battles, but clearly lower than player characters.

Seo-jun reversed his grip on his sword and pulled out the dagger hanging from his waist with his left hand.

Thanks to the Grandmaster, he had acquired many weapons for free, and the dagger was one of them.

Carrying many weapons reduced movement speed, but daggers carried almost no penalty.

However—

‘I didn’t invest in dagger-related traits, so it’s probably inefficient.’

Still, this was only the first run. Right now, gathering as much information as possible was the priority.

‘And Absorption Technique isn’t activating.’

That was definitely a problem.

It meant he couldn’t utilize his traits until he found the enemy commander.

‘Then the damage is…’

The enemy sword grew larger in his vision as it closed in.

Seo-jun dodged sideways and slashed the enemy with his sword.

Half of the ordinary soldier’s HP disappeared.

“So it takes two hits with the sword.”

He quickly threw the dagger at another enemy behind him.

About one-third of the enemy’s HP was shaved off.

After finishing the enemy with his sword, Seo-jun picked the dagger back up and sheathed it again.

“Yeah, daggers won’t work.”

He needed to search while finding the fastest and most efficient route possible.

That was the core of today’s game.

• If he were from the Tang Clan, there are so many throwing-weapon damage traits it’d probably one-shot
• This is bad. If Absorption Technique doesn’t activate, he’s basically traitless the whole time
• Wanna switch martial arts? There’s still 3 hours left lol. This is only the first run anyway

Seo-jun exited into the hallway through the door the enemies had entered from.

The corridor was fairly spacious, and when he turned his head, he saw Demonic Cult martial artists colliding with Namgung martial artists.

Seo-jun ignored them and searched for the stairs to understand the building’s structure.

Enemies who spotted him abandoned their fights and rushed at him, but—

Slash!

They were dealt with in just two strikes.

At the end of the day, they were only ordinary NPCs. No matter how many there were, they were merely obstacles meant to waste time.

“Let’s head downstairs first. I should see how big the building is from the outside.”

Encountering martial artists along the way, Seo-jun descended the stairs and soon realized the place he had started in was the third floor.

Even more martial artists were clashing on the first floor of the brothel.

The moment Seo-jun descended the stairs and entered their field of view, every NPC turned their heads toward him simultaneously.

Then came the shouting.

“Capture the enemy commander!”

“Protect Heavenly Demon14-nim!”

At that shout, the formations of the martial artists immediately began to change.

The Demonic Cult moved toward Seo-jun in a defensive formation, while the Namgung side did the opposite.

• Lmaoooo Heavenly Demon14
• Change your nickname already, it ruins immersion
• Honestly just using Seo-jun would be better
• “Seo-jun” is already taken

“Waaaaah!”

The NPCs resumed clashing.

Seo-jun pushed through the Demonic Cultists surrounding him, casually cutting down enemies as he headed toward the main entrance.

“I wonder if I can actually get outside.”

He worried it might be blocked like at the start, but fortunately there really was an exterior area.

After stepping outside, Seo-jun turned around and checked the height of the building.

It was tall.

Very tall.

“Oh, if the enemy commander is at the very top, this is going to be annoying.”

It looked around thirteen stories high.

The commander hadn’t been on the first or third floors, meaning he’d have to search floor by floor from here on.

• Don’t worry lol. If another player finds the commander location first, we’ll tell you
• Now THIS is a real viewer
• Lmaoooo they’re excited to feed him fake info

Seo-jun checked the outer garden just in case the commander might be on the first floor, then re-entered the building.

“It’s the enemy commander! Get him!”

Since he hadn’t cleared everyone out earlier, the same situation repeated itself.

Seo-jun dealt with them without using Internal Energy and returned to the staircase.

“Without Absorption Technique, I can’t use much Internal Energy, so even simple things take longer.”

Seo-jun steadily continued exploring according to his plan.

• Either way, the fight against the enemy commander is what takes the most time anyway
• Even if his arrival speed is slow, his damage is insane, so as long as he kills the commander quickly enough, it should make up for the slower approach
• What if the arrival speed is fast too?
• Only assassins stacked with movement skills like Killstep can do that

Before long, Seo-jun began searching the brothel floor by floor.

It didn’t take very long.

Even without Absorption Technique, Seo-jun’s basic attacks dealt fairly high damage thanks to investing entirely into offensive traits.

And honestly, as long as you handed Seo-jun a sword, that alone was enough.

As he searched each floor one by one, Seo-jun felt the atmosphere change the moment he reached the eleventh floor.

Starting from the stairway entrance, Demonic Cult martial artists lay dead like obstacles.

Sword marks were carved into the walls stained with blood.

More than anything, the entire area was silent.

The sounds of clashing weapons, shouting, and screams only remained as faint noise drifting up from below.

“I think he’s here.”

It almost felt too obvious, but considering the mode was essentially a time attack, it made sense.

The important part wasn’t merely finding and killing the enemy commander—it was how quickly you did it.

Seo-jun stepped into the hallway to inspect the eleventh floor.

He didn’t move cautiously or slow down, but that didn’t mean he had let his guard down either.

‘They said the NPCs use martial arts similar to players.’

In For the Sake of Chivalry, the Namgung Clan had two signature martial arts.

The Heavenly Thunder Divine Sword, which unleashed swift attacks infused with lightning energy.

And another—

The Emperor Sword Form, expressing the aura of a sovereign ruler.

‘Depending on which martial art the commander learned…’

The fight would completely change.

Crackle.

As he rounded the corner, he heard a faint sound.

Seo-jun turned his head.

“There you are.”

Before he could even finish speaking, a figure flew toward him.

The wall exploded apart, and weak lightning energy scattered across the floor like static electricity.

Dust settled, revealing rubble and fragments of the collapsed wall.

“Got him.”

Seo-jun spoke calmly as he looked downward.

There lay the enemy commander with Seo-jun’s sword embedded in him.

The NPC’s name was Namgung Cheon.

Apparently he was one of the Namgung Clan’s elders.

Not that it mattered.

• Way easier than the Ruler fight
• Don’t compare it to the Ruler lmaooo. That one was literally designed to be unbeatable. This one’s meant to be cleared quickly
• He really kills fast though

Now that the battle was over, Seo-jun examined the surrounding terrain before reading the chat and speaking.

“If I can’t kill them quickly, I die. This is a real time attack in the truest sense.”

For other players, taking too long simply meant lower Contribution.

For Seo-jun, failing to kill the commander quickly after meeting him meant instant defeat.

• LMAOOO this really is true time attack. Dude’s playing a death game alone
• Still, his kill speed is definitely solid. He’ll probably get good records

Afterward, Seo-jun also checked the twelfth and thirteenth floors.

There was nothing there.

Next, he infused his sword with a large amount of Internal Energy and slashed the wall.

After seeing Namgung Cheon destroy walls with Sword Aura, he wanted to test whether he could do the same.

Craaash!

It worked.

Chat messages flooded in telling him not to vandalize property.

Seo-jun casually ignored them.

Then he experimented with several other things.

‘Thankfully they give you time to experiment. If they kicked you out immediately after the game ended, I wouldn’t have been able to test any of this.’

Once he finished his experiments, Seo-jun dusted off his pants, opened the game window, and selected Exit Game.

Back outside, Seo-jun didn’t immediately queue again.

• So what’s the plan?
• Your record was 17 minutes. Doesn’t matter since it’s just the practice run though
• Veterans usually aim for sub-5-minute clears

Seo-jun stared at the chat.

Mainly because no suitable method came to mind.

“Wow, under five minutes?”

• Yep
• Crazy fast
• Optimal route, optimal traits, optimal weapon, optimal strategy
• But those guys spend like two hours making strategies first, then start around 9 or 9:30
• Normal players like us just comfortably look for NPCs we wanna fight lol

Apparently ordinary players who just enjoyed the mode without carefully planning strategies usually took around fifteen minutes.

And if they lacked skill, some couldn’t clear it at all.

Seo-jun calculated the time it took to sprint from the third floor to the eleventh immediately after spawning.

Then he added the time it took to kill Namgung Cheon.

‘Looks like I could probably get around six minutes.’

The time spent killing the commander itself was fast.

The issue was the time wasted reaching him.

Because he had to deal with enemies interfering along the way.

Enemies that only required two slashes to kill.

But there were many of them, and the staircases were cut off on the fifth and eighth floors.

‘Five minutes versus six minutes.’

It sounded like only a one-minute difference, but considering there were competitors who spent two hours strategizing just to shave off a few seconds, it was a massive gap.

‘Maybe I should watch how other people do it.’

Judging from his viewers, that didn’t really seem necessary, but other players might still think of methods he never would.

‘Something I wouldn’t think of…’

Seo-jun started by reviewing his strengths.

Attack power. Internal Energy recovery speed. Mechanical skill.

And then—

“Hm?”

A suddenly amusing idea came to mind.

The corners of Seo-jun’s lips curled upward, and as always, he acted first before thinking too deeply about it.

Completely unaware that quite a few people were already watching him closely because of yesterday’s controversy and because he had jumped straight into Deathmatch from the start.

“Guys, I think four minutes should be enough.”