Chapter 87

CHAPTER 87

Chapter 87

The moment the surroundings changed, Seo Jun checked the team members through the interface.

As expected.

“I had a feeling this would happen.”

There wasn’t a single familiar nickname among his teammates.

He had expected it, but unfortunately, the worst possible outcome had come true.

-What the hell?
-3 vs 1??????
-Is this camp difficulty even real? They put in three Bankers lol
-Seriously, what is this?
-This looks insanely hard

“It’s probably because of the difference in fame points.”

After giving a brief explanation, Seo Jun looked over his teammates.

What level were they?

Average?

Or maybe around the upper-middle ranks where most users were clustered?

There were many Bankers.

As usual, they cautiously observed each other while greeting one another.

“Hello.”

“Yes.”

“Nice to meet you. But one of those nicknames looks familiar. What’s going on?”

Judging by how he had already checked all the nicknames, one of them seemed quick-witted.

“Nice to meet you.”

Tanker.

The tanker had chosen Absorption Art.

Not the temporary version Seo Jun had picked before, but the true Absorption Art that endured by draining enemies’ HP.

One of the dealers had chosen a swordsmanship trait.

The last one had selected a close-range martial art trait called Asura Fist.

‘How should we build our strategy? Just go with a flexible 1-3 formation?’

After replying, Seo Jun examined his teammates’ traits.

“You guys are probably facing three Bankers. And Cheonma Nil? You’re the Cheonma Nil who ranked first in contribution, right?”

Looks like they already figured it out.

“Yes, that’s me.”

The one who quickly grasped the situation was the user who brought the tanker.

A strategy, huh.

“So… what should we do?”

“I can’t even guess how they’ll split up.”

“Should we just group up and push...?”

Seo Jun stared at the chat window while lost in thought.

-This round he seriously needs to carry the team lol
-Good thing he picked Heavenly Demon Divine Art. That’s apparently a total counter to Absorption Art
-What counters Heavenly Demon Divine Art?
-Nothing. It itself is the counter. Total trash-tier balance lol

Heavenly Demon Divine Art really was absurd.

Not as a hidden trait, but as an actual martial art.

Anyway.

Seo Jun raised his head and spoke.

He organized his thoughts quickly.

“I’ll go center alone. You all head to the sides.”

A streamer couldn’t avoid a flashy fight.

-Isn’t that too reckless?
-Shouldn’t the team help?
-Let’s go!

No.

If anything, help could end up being a hindrance.

Following Seo Jun’s instructions, the teammates split toward both side bases while he headed to the center together with the warrior NPCs.

‘How are they going to divide themselves?’

-All mid?
-Considering their composition, they’ll probably attack together
-They need leveling too, but Seo Jun’s basically a monster
-No way they think Babjam’s really going alone?

Normally, one person goes to each side while three pressure the center.

If they chose that strategy and the enemy sent four to mid, they only needed to hold out until the side player returned.

Usually, the user who split off had mobility traits, so even reaching the opposite base didn’t take long.

Considering the experience gain and damage dealt to the enemy fortress after capturing two bases, the center side was smaller in number but still advantageous.

Of course, none of those strategies meant anything to Seo Jun.

“As long as I win, that’s all that matters.”

-The ultimate strategy. Win the fight. Capture the base. Done!
-Tactical Heavenly Demon
-I seriously want to call this nonsense, but after what I saw yesterday...
-Honestly feels like he could win 3 vs 1

Even if they learned martial arts through a game, the users’ skill levels were still extremely high.

Was it because they learned through VR?

As mentioned before, virtual reality was the perfect environment to experience real combat.

You didn’t feel pain, and you didn’t die.

‘People repeat the same motions hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of times in real combat just to avoid dying.’

That was why they survived longer.

Conversely, if you survived real combat, you could skip over those tens of thousands of repetitions.

‘Well, those repetitions aren’t only for surviving combat anyway.’

Whatever.

Seo Jun’s eyes met the three Bankers standing ahead of him.

Looks like one ordinary user went elsewhere.

A 3 vs 1.

‘This is a little burdensome. What’s burdensome about it, you ask? All the attention you guys are going to shower on me after I win this.’

-Wowwwwwww lol this guy’s insane
-There goes the self-hype again =
-He’s seriously saying he’ll win? =
-lololololol

Collecting countless clips again today felt slightly depressing.

He was being serious.

“Talk after you beat me first.”

Maybe because everyone now understood the way Seo Jun talked—

The opponents didn’t get shaken and immediately charged with their weapons drawn.

Or perhaps they simply acknowledged that he was genuinely skilled.

For people coming in 3 vs 1, they looked surprisingly tense.

“This won’t be easy.”

The first to rush in belonged to the Beggar Sect.

Since he was a tanker, he probably intended to tie Seo Jun down first, but he didn’t dive too deeply.

He was wary of the critical strikes formed from sword energy.

In Occupation Battles, most martial art traits only became usable after leveling up, but one special aspect of Heavenly Demon Divine Art was that, just like the Green Forest trait, it was always active.

Namgung Family Branch Disciple.

The tanker he had fought the previous day.

The martial art trait he chose was Imperial Sword March.

The faster he leveled and the more ahead he got, the stronger its power became.

Its characteristic was a pressure-inducing debuff whenever martial arts were used.

In short, they intended to make the already slow Seo Jun even slower.

None of the three had dreams right now.

But that didn’t change the fact that two swords and a fist were flying at him.

Whether he retreated or parried, counterattacking was impossible.

And that was indeed the effective choice.

A sword swept over Seo Jun’s head, narrowly missing him.

They seemed to judge that the slowed Seo Jun, surrounded as he was, wouldn’t be able to dodge or display any blunt-force techniques.

At the same time, another sword from the side drew a diagonal line downward toward Seo Jun.

He twisted his body.

At that moment, a fist approached from the opposite side.

It was obvious they had fought together more than once—their coordination was smooth.

Still—

Without losing focus or wavering, Seo Jun calmly dodged.

Even so, because of his slowed speed, he couldn’t avoid every attack.

Cheonsalseong lightly slashed Seo Jun’s arm with his sword and shouted.

“Nice!”

Seo Jun dodged the nonstop attacks while staring at Cheonsalseong with an incredulous expression.

-Look how happy he is lol
-He couldn’t land even one hit yesterday, so of course
-As a sword-user, I’m ashamed of this group beating...
-When it’s the final boss, ganging up is mandatory lol nothing to be ashamed of

Seo Jun’s eyes moved rapidly, scanning the surroundings.

He kept retreating while blocking and dodging swords, so they still hadn’t completely surrounded him—but it was only a matter of time.

“I’ll hold him down, go in!”

After knocking away the sword aiming for his neck from the left, the Beggar Sect user in front wildly swung his fists.

A movement made while fully accepting the risk of being hit.

Seo Jun’s sword flashed.

The moment sword energy clashed, the eyes of all three opponents trembled, yet none of them hesitated.

Instead, they even poured internal energy into their own bodies.

Their intention was obvious.

“Fine. I’ll play along.”

Seo Jun’s sword infused with sword energy collided with the Beggar Sect user’s fist technique.

“What kind of bullshit is that?”

Only the sword energies had collided, yet thanks to the characteristics of Heavenly Demon Divine Art, nearly one-fifth of the Beggar Sect user’s HP vanished.

There was no attack coming from the rear flank where he should’ve been exposed.

‘As expected. Instead of attacking, they secured my escape route.’

-They finally surrounded him
-Honestly, I thought he could still win since 3 vs 1 isn’t THAT overwhelming, but now it looks rough
-Why wouldn’t it be overwhelming?

So what would the result be?

Saying it wasn’t overwhelmingly disadvantageous was technically true.

For example, if combat power were quantified—

You might think that one person with combat power 3 fighting three people with combat power 1 would be even overall, and since the three had numbers on their side, they should win.

But—

‘Surprisingly, the person with 3 isn’t that disadvantaged.’

Because three people with combat power 1 didn’t simply combine into a perfect 3.

If they had perfect formations and coordination, maybe it could become a 5 instead.

“Sadly, reality doesn’t work that neatly.”

In truth, Seo Jun alone thought that way.

Objectively speaking, 3 vs 1 absolutely favored the three.

But because of what Seo Jun had shown yesterday, people’s expectations had skyrocketed.

In that case—

He had to show them.

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

“Don’t mind him. He’s probably talking to his viewers.”

Now fully surrounded, attacks flew at Seo Jun from every direction.

Unlike before, when attacks came one at a time from the front and flanks, surrounding him created more room to attack, causing multiple strikes to pour in simultaneously.

Staring directly at Cheonsalseong on the right, Seo Jun spoke.

“You never thought I let myself get surrounded on purpose?”

While displaying all kinds of evasive techniques, Seo Jun’s HP gradually began to fall.

With his current speed, taking unavoidable hits was inevitable.

“You’re still acting tough even while getting hit.”

A sword stabbed from behind, grazing his side.

Right.

These guys weren’t veteran players for nothing.

And since they had experience in group fights, their coordination was extremely sharp.

-ㅋㅋㅋ what does he do now
-Feels like two more hits and he’s done
-Even if martial arts group battles aren’t THAT unfair, good coordination makes it impossible
-Is Babjam finally entering spectator mode? ==
-Why’s this bastard still so relaxed lolol

But that didn’t mean they were flawless.

“You guys got hit too, didn’t you?”

Seo Jun tilted his sword toward them, pointing at their HP bars.

If Seo Jun’s HP was nearly empty, the other three were only around half or one-third remaining themselves.

Namgung Family Branch Disciple bit his lip while staring at Seo Jun with a sickened expression.

Because he genuinely couldn’t understand how Seo Jun kept landing counterattacks.

“You really are amazing. If you were just a little faster—or if you’d focused entirely on dodging from the start—you probably wouldn’t have gotten hit once.”

“Maybe.”

‘Next time, stop forcing attacks! Or change your trait if you hate it that much!’

Clang!

Seo Jun’s sword collided with Jeomsoi’s sword on the right, and immediately the Beggar Sect user rushed in again.

‘And Cheonsalseong behind me...’

His coordination was slower!

Seo Jun’s eyes flashed.

At the same moment he shoved away Namgung Family Branch Disciple’s sword, he kicked the Beggar Sect user approaching from the left.

Then, using his right foot as an axis, he spun his body 180 degrees, swinging his arm along with the rotation.

His head turned first, allowing him to see above—

And the moment Seo Jun saw Cheonsalseong, he grinned.

Cheonsalseong was preparing an attack.

A powerful strike, without question.

“I’ve been waiting.”

The head moved first.

Then the torso.

Then the feet followed.

Finally—

His arm extended slowly.

Sword met sword vertically, revealing the hidden dagger strike within the counterattack.

Cheonsalseong opened his mouth wide in shock.

‘Because of that weakness, he probably never used it until now. But as attacks from behind became more frequent, he got careless.’

An opening appeared.

The moment Seo Jun lifted his foot, someone behind shouted—

“Dodge!”

Heavenly Demon Descends Step.

‘Or rather, just a passive effect.’

Bankers rarely had a chance to experience its effect directly, but they clearly understood how dangerous it was.

The instant his stagger wore off, Cheonsalseong hurriedly tried to retreat from Seo Jun.

But—

‘Too late.’

Seo Jun stomped the ground.

The earth cracked apart, and a black wave of energy spread outward in all directions.

‘The effect’s pretty decent.’

It wasn’t an attack overflowing with internal energy, so Cheonsalseong’s HP didn’t drop drastically.

But—

The stagger inflicted was incomparable to a normal parry.

-Holy shit lololol
-He’s turning this around HERE too??
-How did he know an attack was coming from behind lolol
-He seriously doesn’t have hacks??
-He deliberately chipped away their HP for THIS setup? Crazy

Without the slightest hesitation, Seo Jun raised his sword.

Sword energy formed along the blade.

“Now then. I suppose it’s 1 versus 2.”