Chapter 97

CHAPTER 97

Chapter 97

• LOL
• Wow.
• This Heavenly Demon bastard is just a genius. A streaming genius lol.
• Damn, that's cool.
• My Demonic Cult pride is overflowing.
• The Heavenly Demon is actually insane.
• LOL.

The chat in Banju's stream, which was restreaming Seojun's broadcast, began exploding with unbelievable speed.

So that's why he told me to restream it.

The day before, Seojun had asked him to do a watch party if he happened to stream today.

This is crazy!

Had he actually predicted this situation?

Banju always tried to maintain an objective viewpoint, but he couldn't suppress the excitement rising from deep inside him.

He wasn't even part of the Demonic Cult!

More than anything, Seojun's handsome face was doing a tremendous amount of work.

Whenever streamers made declarations, they usually framed the camera so they were facing viewers directly.

As a result, Seojun's handsome face, combined with the calm gaze he cast downward and the faint arrogance in his expression, was captured perfectly by the camera.

The result?

• Heavenly Demon! Heavenly Demon! Heavenly Demon! Heavenly Demon!
• The Orthodox faction is actually dead lol.
• Demonic Cult, rise up!
• I seriously don't think they'll lose.
• Handsome bastard. Good at swordsmanship bastard. Usually talks like trash but always delivers when it matters bastard. Has Christina bastard. Just an awesome bastard.
• LOL he's really going to wipe out the Orthodox faction immediately.

A legendary scene from this war had just been born.

Was he really about to become a top-tier streamer already?

Twenty thousand viewers were watching Seojun's stream.

If Banju hadn't been streaming his own broadcast, it might have exceeded thirty thousand.

He had come frighteningly close to becoming a major streamer.

A shame, perhaps, but because Banju had streamed as well, the count settled around twenty thousand.

Still, thanks to Banju's stream, more than a hundred thousand people had ended up watching Seojun one way or another.

And Seojun had said it himself.

The victory of the Demonic Cult was more important than his own viewer count.

To crush the Orthodox faction in a direct battle, they needed not only the bankers, but also casual users and even players who had only played a single match.

"Ah! Seojun has officially declared war! After hearing that, the Demonic Cult and Orthodox faction players should hurry over immediately! The entire situation has finally been laid out! All that's left now is the battle itself!"

No one knew which side would attract more participants.

Or rather—

Did they really not know?

After witnessing a scene like that, it was obvious whose morale would be higher and whose participation rate would be greater.

At least, Banju certainly thought so.

"The Demonic Cult already has slightly more bankers! And on top of that..."

The Orthodox faction might still have had a few more ordinary players.

But would that still be true today?

And—

"Even if the combined strength of everyone except Seojun is fifty-fifty, or even slightly favors the Orthodox faction, it doesn't matter if Seojun beats all of them himself!"

In the end, everything had returned to the same conclusion.

The answer to this entire war.

The Orthodox faction had been saying it all along.

"We have to stop the Heavenly Demon! Orthodox faction players, if you want to protect headquarters and win this war, you must defeat the Heavenly Demon! You absolutely have to! He's not even a final boss anymore! How is this fair?!"

Objectively speaking, the Heavenly Demon was the attacking side, while the Orthodox faction had historically been the dominant force.

The Demonic Cult was the underdog.

A weak faction that had never won before and was usually stuck at the bottom.

A tiny group whose greatest ambition had once been:

"At least let us finish second."

But—

Anyone who had watched Seojun's streams, anyone who saw him calmly looking down at the battlefield today, would struggle to tell which side was supposed to be the underdog.

• He seriously has final boss energy lol.
• Even the way he moves screams Heavenly Demon lol. He's the Demon King himself.
• Yeah! This is the Heavenly Demon! This is the Demonic Cult!
• This is what I've been waiting for.
• Orthodox faction, you're finished lol. And tomorrow it's the Unorthodox faction's turn. Just wait!

[Han Jimin: Wow. Did you just see that?]

[Lee Jeonyeong: Yeah.]

[Han Jimin: The boss is seriously enjoying this game lol. It looks so fun.]

[Han Jimin: At this point, was he actually the Heavenly Demon in his previous life? LOL.]

If Seojun had heard that, he might have suffered a qi deviation on the spot.

Fortunately, although this was a chat room he belonged to, these people talked so much that the message was destined to be buried unless he specifically checked for something important.

[Lee Jeonyeong: Seriously.]

[Lee Jeonyeong: If he wins the war like this, it'll be legendary.]

[Han Jimin: Then should we do what we can do?]

[Lee Jeonyeong: Sounds good.]

Han Jimin suddenly made a strange expression.

Her eyes, fixed on the monitor, looked as though she had discovered something utterly ridiculous.

[Han Jimin: That's a job for the Viewer Public Relations and Exploitation Department.]

[Lee Jeonyeong: ...]

[Lee Jeonyeong: Maybe don't mention the nickname...]

[Han Jimin: You were using it just fine on stream yesterday.]

[Han Jimin: You do realize your nickname stands out way too much, right?]

To make matters worse, it was even more noticeable because Seojun had been given a VIP badge despite repeatedly saying he didn't want one.

[Han Jimin: Anyway, let's make some shorts.]

Short-form videos made money.

Videos under a minute long were perfect for attaching advertisements and generating revenue.

Though making shorts entirely from advertisements was a different discussion.

In most cases, shorts were used for promotion.

They were simply too effective at attracting new viewers.

[Han Jimin: We need more people to know. About what's happening in the war right now. About the fact that the Demonic Cult actually has a chance to win.]

They weren't only looking at today.

They were already looking beyond the elimination of the Orthodox faction.

Toward the Demonic Cult's eventual victory.

Seojun's editors began moving.

How had the Demonic Cult lost its headquarters in the first place?

Right.

The memory returned.

Back then, when the Orthodox faction was at its peak.

When the Unorthodox faction was also at its peak.

To be more accurate, it was only the Demonic Cult that was at rock bottom, making the other two look dominant by comparison.

It was the era when Movie Soft earned the hatred of every Demonic Cult player.

Back then, the Demonic Cult suffered from a severe manpower shortage.

The reason?

The worst balance patch imaginable.

The Demonic Cult was so weak that it couldn't retain players.

People left.

• Thanks to you, I have finally escaped this savage demonic art!
• I've been playing with my eyes closed all this time. At last, I can see. I'm joining the Orthodox faction!
• I'm never playing Demonic Cult again! What a trashy, pathetic faction!

Only about twenty genuinely skilled players remained.

The situation was so miserable that other factions believed the remaining players must have been Demonic Cult fanatics in a previous life.

How many years ago was that?

And why had it happened?

Because of one person.

Heavenly Demon.

Not Heavenly Demon2.

Not Heavenly Demon3.

The original nickname:

Heavenly Demon.

That player had been the primary reason behind the Demonic Cult nerfs.

The rank-one banker.

A monster who dominated PvP so completely that people joked he was actually Shin Hayeon.

Of course, he wasn't.

Shin Hayeon usually played on her main account, and Heavenly Demon's avatar was male while hers was female. Even their physiques were completely different.

Granted, players at Shin Hayeon's level could probably perform at an elite level even with a different avatar.

Some crazy bandit players occasionally insisted otherwise, but professional players generally agreed it was possible.

There were also expert analyses pointing out that their playstyles differed.

Witnesses denied it as well.

For all those reasons, everyone accepted that Heavenly Demon was not Shin Hayeon.

There were many hidden masters in the world.

But almost nobody could compare to Heavenly Demon.

So Movie Soft nerfed the Demonic Cult because of his overwhelming performance.

The problem was that the nerf was so excessive it devastated ordinary players.

Then Heavenly Demon disappeared.

Whether it was because of the absurd nerfs or because of his professional gaming career, nobody knew.

As a result, the Demonic Cult became a joke.

The Orthodox and Unorthodox factions gradually carved away its territories.

Until eventually—

• Hey lol, Orthodox faction. Want to see what happens if we eliminate the Demonic Cult?
• Alliance for one day! Unorthodox faction!

The result of such openly shameless cooperation?

The Demonic Cult was kicked out of the war.

How much criticism had Movie Soft received afterward?

Demonic Cult players flooded communities for over a month, saying they couldn't understand why the faction had been nerfed so hard because of a single player.

And now Cheonsalseong thought:

You heard that, Movie Soft?

At first, people had wondered whether the current Heavenly Demon14 might actually be the original Heavenly Demon.

But the original Heavenly Demon's account still appeared in searches, and there was no way Seojun was a pro gamer secretly playing on an alternate account.

So people abandoned the theory.

Everything was fine up to that point.

You heard that, Movie Soft!

Because nobody realized that the Fourteenth Heavenly Demon was even worse than the original.

After receiving endless criticism, Movie Soft eventually adjusted the Demonic Cult so it could function normally.

However, they left the Heavenly Demon Divine Art mostly untouched.

Because its performance was supposedly too good.

Demonic Cult players unanimously argued that only top-tier professional gamers could even use it properly.

Movie Soft stubbornly refused to listen.

And now Cheonsalseong thought:

Instead of being stubborn, they should have nerfed it even harder!

Movie Soft had been wrong.

The Heavenly Demon Divine Art didn't need buffs.

It needed more nerfs.

"Please! Just stop him!"

A greater monster had appeared.

The legendary First Heavenly Demon, who vanished for months at a time and barely participated in wars?

Everyone had surpassed him.

Fine.

The original Heavenly Demon deserved credit for securing that rare nickname.

His skill was excellent too.

Cheonsalseong had been younger back then and not yet a banker, so he had never personally fought him.

Still, the guy had obviously been incredible.

But compared to the true Heavenly Demon born in the Fourteenth Generation?

"Please. Just beat him once."

Cheonsalseong stared at the map and prayed.

Nobody knew who would end up matched against Heavenly Demon.

The Demonic Cult had roughly sixty bankers.

The Orthodox faction had roughly eighty.

Both sides were throwing their full strength into the battle.

The Demonic Cult players, as if injected with pure adrenaline, charged forward together, making it difficult for the Orthodox faction to respond.

Neither side could afford to step back and focus on ordinary players.

Not now.

Purely in terms of banker points, the Demonic Cult held a slight advantage.

Which meant the Orthodox faction needed one of two things:

Either overwhelm the Demonic Cult in fights that excluded Heavenly Demon.

Or defeat Heavenly Demon himself.

At this point, most bankers had already completed their third match.

And Seojun was on a three-win streak.

"Five days left. If we survive today and tomorrow, we'll be fine. If the Demonic Cult can't eliminate us within that time, they won't have enough time to eliminate the Unorthodox faction either."

Of course, nobody knew what would happen.

The Demonic Cult players were complete lunatics.

If things went poorly, they might spend the entire remaining war trying to eliminate the Orthodox faction no matter what.

But if that happened, neither the Demonic Cult nor the Orthodox faction would win anyway.

In the end, if they could just hold out, the Orthodox faction—which had managed to ruin the Demonic Cult's plans—would still have a chance at victory.