Chapter 82
CHAPTER 82
Chapter 82
“I’ll explain that part. Seo Jun-nim, hello. This is our first time meeting in-game. I’m Samgamro, the brain of the Demonic Cult.”
The strange-looking man with a beard attached to his youthful face spoke to Seo Jun.
It probably would’ve been better if he had just worn an avatar mask, but compared to the other people gathered here, he was relatively normal, so Seo Jun didn’t comment on it.
That guy with the orange skin and half-naked body looked uglier than a monster to the point it hurt to look at him.
Seo Jun was honestly curious what kind of item could make someone’s skin shine like that.
Though now that he thought about it, all of these IDs looked familiar.
He was pretty sure they’d seemed normal in the chatroom.
“Hello. You’re the one who spams the most chat messages in the Demonic Cult group chat, right?”
Seo Jun lightly nodded in greeting.
“Haha, yes.”
“Huh. So you’re the brain.”
“Shut up.”
Even though Dalso originally came from the Unorthodox faction, he’d adapted shockingly well to the Demonic Cult.
Impressive.
“Anyway, enough nonsense. Seo Jun-nim, are you aware of the Demonic Cult’s current situation?”
Thankfully, once they got into the main topic, Dalso quieted down.
“No.”
“Originally, our Demonic Cult lacked enough Bankers. This content is heavily affected by the total number of participating users. And the game company never once considered giving us compensation or balance adjustments. Damn you, Ubisoft.”
The Demonic Cult was generally evaluated as having individually powerful players.
If this were a purely skill-based competition, they might’ve won at least once.
But the lack of users that followed due to their poor perception was hard to overcome.
Most players were ordinary users.
But compared to the other factions, the Demonic Cult had around ten fewer Bankers—the players who gathered reputation points like treasure.
And today, Seo Jun had filled that gap.
With a ridiculous method, while displaying skill beyond imagination.
“The number of ordinary users is still slightly lower, but the number of Bankers is now basically equal.”
Samgamro stared at Seo Jun with renewed eyes.
For the first time ever, the Demonic Cult had gained a chance to win.
Thanks to a streamer who’d chosen the Demonic Cult as a joke because of a nickname shortly after starting the game.
When he’d first heard about the streamer Jin Seo Jun, Samgamro hadn’t imagined even slightly that things would develop like this.
“So you’re saying you can win now?”
“Yes. The number of Bankers is that important.”
It made sense.
Ordinary users couldn’t coordinate in detail unless it was a decisive moment or a very simple objective.
Compared to the number of people who participated even once, the number of regular users who fought every day without fail was pitifully low.
Most people preferred casually eating snacks while spectating, then jumping in together only during important moments.
And sometimes they just logged in to play a bit when bored.
“So you were all gathered here making strategies?”
“Not really. We finished our four matches early so we could watch Seo Jun-nim’s stream, but this idiot kept clinging to us…”
Samgamro gestured toward Dalso with his eyes.
What a remarkable lunatic.
“The main strategist is me and another person called the Demon Brain. The two of us come up with plans, but most things get decided roughly in the group chat.”
“Manager?”
“Demon Brain.”
He’d heard of that term before.
In martial arts novels, the people responsible for the Demonic Cult’s administration and strategies were called Demon Brains.
The Orthodox faction called theirs Divine Brains or something.
But then what was this “Ja”?
Did it mean “tooth”? He had no idea.
“Haha. I see.”
Seo Jun let it slide.
There were already too many things in For the Martial World worth nitpicking.
“Anyway, while detailed strategies change depending on each battlefield situation, we still establish the overall direction. For the past few years, we mostly just watched those guys fight while thinking about how to at least secure second place somehow…”
“But then this monster appeared and changed everything.”
Dalso interrupted again.
“Shut up.”
Seo Jun spoke once, but Samgamro ignored him and continued.
Apparently, he’d already adapted.
“Because Seo Jun-nim crushed everything today, the situation changed dramatically. A lot. So right now, our greatest strength is obviously your skill.”
“My skill?”
“Yes. Like Bangju-nim said, Seo Jun-nim possesses overwhelming skill that almost never loses. Having fourteen Bankers enter a region isn’t that burdensome. But if those fourteen are at a level where they absolutely never lose, then that becomes terrifying.”
Conversely, if he lost even once, that deterrent effect would weaken.
‘I don’t plan on losing.’
The enemy would have to make a difficult choice.
Either leave him alone and search for another route, or somehow stop him no matter what.
“So what kind of overall strategy are you thinking about?”
“Well… we’re debating whether we should reveal that to you.”
“Why?”
“Because if it’s you, Seo Jun-nim, you’d probably announce the strategy publicly on your stream and say, ‘Try and stop me.’”
Then why even call me here?
“I’m joking.”
Midumsu and Cheonhajeilgeomgaek, who’d been standing nearby, burst into laughter.
“For now, we’re planning to push forward through direct confrontation while trusting Seo Jun-nim.”
“Direct confrontation?”
“Yes.”
“You mean fighting head-on?”
“Exactly. You know what happens if you capture the rearmost region where the enemy faction’s headquarters is located, right?”
Each faction’s headquarters region was located at the far eastern, western, and southern ends.
If you pushed all the way through and succeeded in capturing that region—
“That faction gets eliminated from the war.”
He knew that already.
Though unless extremely special circumstances occurred, it rarely happened.
But it had happened before.
Yes. To the Demonic Cult.
“That’s right. They’re completely removed from the war. Hohohoho.”
After saying that, Samgamro laughed to his heart’s content while his body trembled slightly.
Seo Jun sensed a trace of madness, but he understood.
Up until now, only one faction had ever been eliminated.
And that faction was the Demonic Cult.
“I see.”
“So what do you think? No matter what strategy we use, we’ll need Seo Jun-nim’s cooperation. That’s why I asked Dalso to bring you here.”
“Still, it’s better to talk face-to-face like this than through messages.”
Seo Jun shrugged.
“Sure. I’ll cooperate as much as possible. I don’t really lose anything from this anyway.”
And he truly didn’t.
Whether he lost in-game, failed while attacking or defending a position and missed out on bonuses, or lost sponsorship opportunities—
He genuinely didn’t care.
He already had so much reputation points that first place was basically guaranteed.
“And full-scale war? That sounds fun.”
He quite liked the overall strategy.
The finer details would naturally be adjusted day by day.
“Hohoho. Thank you very much.”
Samgamro clenched both fists tightly and cheered.
Was he really that happy?
Seo Jun clicked his tongue internally and stretched his shoulders.
The clock pointed to 12:30.
Five and a half hours had passed since Seo Jun’s stream started at 7 PM.
And during those entire five and a half hours, Lee Jeonyeong had sat motionless in front of his computer.
He finally pulled his hands away from the keyboard for a moment.
Stretching.
Closing his eyes.
“Ughhh.”
He rotated his neck and did all kinds of stretches before focusing back on his work.
What had he been doing for the past five and a half hours?
Well, while watching the stream he’d occasionally gone into communities to downvote posts he didn’t like, and he’d even sent links to fellow editor Han Jimin asking her to downvote them too—
But the thing he spent most of his time on was editing.
Specifically, editing today’s stream footage.
“Hoooo…”
A groan escaped automatically.
His body felt exhausted.
He drank cold bottled water straight from the fridge, moisturizing his dried throat before returning to work.
It was exhausting.
There was no need to rewatch the footage.
He’d already marked all the editing points while watching the stream live, and had discussed every thumbnail and direction with Han Jimin.
His goal was simple:
Finish the edit as quickly as possible and upload the video.
Why?
“I need to upload it before the hype dies down.”
The number of live viewers had reached 160,000.
Even if only 10% of them stayed awake and watched the ArcTube upload late at night, that was still 16,000 views.
16,000 itself wasn’t particularly huge.
But getting 16,000 views immediately after upload was completely different in value.
“They say the fate of a video gets decided within the first few hours after uploading.”
If a lot of people watched during the first few hours, the algorithm judged it as a recommendable video and pushed it further.
That was why.
Lee Jeonyeong wanted to maximize profits while the current hype still remained.
Four hours had passed since he seriously started editing.
But it still wasn’t enough.
“The editing points and overall direction were already set, but even then, finishing all of this in four hours is impossible.”
Only about half the footage was done.
At this rate, if the editing finished within another three hours, it might actually be better not to upload it.
Because at that hour, most people would be asleep, making high view counts unlikely.
However—
He wasn’t the only one editing.
Ping.
[Han Jimin: I’m done. You?]
A smile spread across his face.
“She did it.”
If they finished before 1 AM, they could upload the video.
[Lee Jeonyeong: I’m done too. I’ll combine everything once and upload immediately if it looks okay.]
The method they used to edit and upload the stream highlights within only a few hours was simple:
Split the workload and edit simultaneously.
That was the trick.
[Han Jimin: Good work. Once again we’re getting ground to dust under the boss’s command like this…]
[Lee Jeonyeong: LOL why are you saying it like the boss forced us? You were the one who immediately agreed because you liked the idea.]
Han Jimin handled the first half.
He handled the second half.
It dramatically reduced the required time.
Assuming their editing styles matched.
And surprisingly, the two of them had similar editing styles.
“I learned a lot from her.”
Directly through teaching.
Indirectly through watching her videos and absorbing her style.
[Han Jimin: I’m checking the combined version now, but it’s smooth and doesn’t feel awkward. I’ll tweak it a little more and upload it before 1.]
[Lee Jeonyeong: Okay. Great work.]
[Han Jimin: You too.]
“Hah…”
He felt completely burned out.
Lee Jeonyeong thought to himself.
Had there ever been a time he worked this hard for something?
At least in the past few years—where he’d done nothing except run away—there definitely hadn’t been.
His body was tired, but strangely, his mind felt at ease.
And he liked this version of himself far more.
“Even if I don’t have enough time, it feels like I’ve gotten a glimpse into the lives of people who live fiercely.”
All of this was thanks to the boss.
Chuckling pleasantly, he went to wash up.
After getting ready for bed, he lay down.
Then he waited while scrolling through his phone.
“I want to see it uploaded before I sleep.”
How effective would it be?
Even Han Jimin, who was experienced in this field, said she wasn’t sure.
No one knew how explosive the issue would become.
He was excited, so he wanted to confirm it before sleeping.
But gradually, his senses dulled.
Was it because he was tired?
The actual work time hadn’t been that long, but he’d concentrated intensely for a short period, so his mental fatigue was heavier than usual.
“I hope it does well…”
Rustle.
His eyes closed.
Buzz.
As the clock struck 1 AM, the dark phone screen suddenly lit up with a subscription notification.
A notification that a new video had been uploaded to Seo Jun’s channel.