Chapter 99

Chapter 99

[Impossible.]

[There's no way they didn't do something!]

[Movie Soft is obviously favoring Cheonma! Otherwise this makes no sense!!]

[It's a bug... I'm telling you...]

There are five stages people go through when accepting reality.

Stage 1: Denial.

The stage where they simply refuse to accept the facts.

[Watching the Orthodox Faction guys collectively lose their minds is hilarious lol.]

-We're currently witnessing Stage 1: Reality Denial.

-The comments on Cheonma's stream are exploding lol.

-Orthodox Faction, Seo Jun killed you!

-He actually did though.

Stage 2: Anger.

[Damn it, this is bullshit.]

Why attack the Orthodox Faction first? Why attack the Orthodox Faction first? Why attack the Orthodox Faction first? Why attack the Orthodox Faction first?

What did we do wrong? What did we do wrong? What did we do wrong? What did we do wrong?

This is bullshit.

-Stage 2 has arrived.

-Next comes bargaining lol.

-You Orthodox Faction guys raised in a greenhouse, this is the taste of the Demonic Cult!

-They're about to start begging Movie Soft for mercy lol.

Stage 3: Bargaining.

[Please just let this one slide... Prediction complete.]

No, that's not it.

[What happened when the Demonic Cult lost its headquarters last time?]

They ended up getting a faction buff, right? That's how they barely managed to gather players again.

Well, our headquarters got destroyed too.

So—

How about we use the unity of our prestigious Orthodox Faction and get a buff too?

-LMAO They're actually trying to negotiate with the system.

-Have they seriously gone insane?

-That was an actual emergency. You guys just lost lol.

Stage 4: Depression.

[Can this really be called balanced if one person can't be stopped...?]

[I'm not logging into For the Law for a while.]

[It's really over...]

The final stage, Acceptance, was resolved surprisingly easily thanks to Seo Jun.

[Live Cheonma: "The Orthodox Faction looks pitiful, so I'll make them a quick path to recovery."]

"Now then, Sapa. Time for your turn."

-Cheonma is coming!

-Yeah. I can't be the only one who dies.

-Sapa, enjoy this experience too lol.

-At this point just let the Demonic Cult win.

-He is coming.

-The remaining enemies are falling leaves!

The Demonic Cult and Sapa naturally clashed.

Day 17 Results

The Demonic Cult succeeded in its attack.

Remaining territories: 3

Day 18 Results

The Demonic Cult succeeded again.

Remaining territories: 2

After Day 19 ended, Demonic Cult players started thinking:

[Why does this feel so strange?]

[At first it was just "Let's eliminate the Orthodox Faction," but are we actually going to win?]

Victory was right in front of them.

Sapa desperately tried to stop them.

[Cheonma just doesn't lose!]

How were they supposed to stop him?

It honestly felt like they could stop the Demonic Cult if they beat him just once.

It wasn't an unreasonable statement.

Because everyone believed that if Seo Jun lost even a single time, the Demonic Cult's momentum could be halted.

Nobody knew the exact player counts, but the prevailing opinion was that the numbers were fairly even.

If one side had significantly more players, people would constantly be getting matched against AI opponents.

Yet no such complaints were appearing.

[Sapa is so screwed lol.]

[We used to be in that position.]

[Just steamroll them!]

Then a post appeared.

A post about the one person who had never lost.

[God of the Sword]

"...What is this?"

Seo Jun read Mi Jeon-yeom's message and entered the forums to check the post.

Apparently someone had edited together footage of his gameplay.

Opening the post, Seo Jun immediately started the video.

A black screen lingered for about three seconds.

Then—

The sound of clashing swords shattered the silence.

Clang!

The swords collided again.

And again.

The tempo of the impacts grew faster and faster.

Fwoooosh!

Suddenly the screen brightened.

At the same time, the video's perspective focused on someone.

A sword blocking an enemy technique.

The viewpoint belonged to the person holding that sword.

The scene switched rapidly.

This time an enemy blade was rushing toward him.

The owner of the perspective blocked it effortlessly.

The background changed again.

This time, an enemy's neck was severed.

The scenes continued.

Deflecting a sword strike from above.

Dodging an attack from the side.

Extending a hand.

Then appearing in front of an enemy with his coat fluttering behind him.

From that point onward, a faint but increasingly intense beat began to swell.

The footage became sharper.

"Oh."

What Seo Jun was watching was a montage someone had created by stitching together countless moments from his battles.

Mi Jeon-yeom had watched it and admitted, half-jealous and half-impressed, that he wished he had made it himself.

It really was well made.

"Huh? Are these scenes in reverse order?"

Thinking about it, the first scene had been today's battle where he fought Sapa rankers in a two-versus-one.

Then came yesterday's fight.

The day before that.

Three days ago.

"Yeah, they are."

And now the footage showed Seo Jun facing three Orthodox Faction rankers by himself.

The music grew increasingly tense, as if announcing the approach of the climax.

Then the editing slowed time itself.

Seo Jun's body turned.

To parry the sword of Heavenly Killing Star, who was attacking from behind.

And at the exact moment when Heavenly Killing Star staggered because of the parry, Seo Jun raised his sword—

The perspective suddenly changed.

Now it was showing Seo Jun from Heavenly Killing Star's point of view.

Seo Jun's emotionless eyes zoomed in.

Then, covering those eyes—

His sword.

Sword energy descended across the screen, splitting it in half.

KRAAAASH!

The screen went black.

And then—

[Sword God MAD MOVIE]

The title appeared as the video truly began.

Feeling as though he were reviewing his own matches, Seo Jun continued watching.

The countless battles from the faction war tournament unfolded before him.

In that video, Seo Jun's sword was slow, yet fast.

The footage consisted entirely of game scenes, but the editor had done an excellent job presenting them from the enemies' perspectives.

The decisive moment against Baekho.

The scene where the sword spun through the air and intercepted an attack just before it landed.

Then came Seo Jun facing Namgung Cheon.

Followed by the scene where he stabbed his sword into a wall and climbed upward to catch Namgung Cheon.

His use of Berserk Mode during the early days of For the Law.

And then—

The scenes of him fighting the assassins emerging from the shadows.

Defeating the Hidden Rulers.

And finally—

"The last one is Detorne."

The video concluded with the battle against the Dawn Assassin Guild's boss, Ryutori Mel.

The video had been uploaded to the forums.

Not only that—it had comfortably taken first place on the Top 10 rankings.

The quality of the editing and the excitement surrounding the battlefield had combined to set the forums on fire.

And the title of the post and video that had reached #1 was:

Sword God

His title from his previous life.

Seo Jun froze.

"...Huh?"

"How did they know?"

In For the Law, his nickname and concept were Cheonma.

Yet this person had given him the title Sword God.

Someone who made a video with this level of understanding wouldn't have chosen the title randomly.

Which meant that, in the editor's eyes, Sword God suited Seo Jun better than Cheonma did.

'Did they not watch my streams?'

If they had watched his streams, it would've been hard not to conclude:

"Yeah, this bastard is definitely the Heavenly Demon."

But if they had watched his streams and still chosen Sword God—

It felt like someone was saying:

"You keep acting like the Heavenly Demon, but that's not really who you are."

And strangely—

'I never expected to hear the title Sword God here.'

It didn't feel bad.

Was it fate after all?

Seo Jun began reading the comments.

The top comment immediately caught his eye.

-Cheonma fits him better lol.

Well.

That one felt good too.

"I see."

Accepting that some destinies couldn't be avoided, Seo Jun nodded and read the next top comment.

It was a reply to the first one.

-Sword God fits him perfectly too, though?

The two comments had almost identical numbers of likes.

There were hardly any dislikes.

Which meant both opinions were widely accepted.

The Sword God side argued:

-He's literally a god of the sword lol.

-Watch the duel videos. He cleared every game through pure swordsmanship.

-I've never even seen him use another weapon.

-What about the pipe, newbie?

-LOL the Pipe Massacre.

Meanwhile, the Cheonma supporters said:

-Just look at his personality. He's definitely the Heavenly Demon.

-Sword God sounds way too cool. Call him Cheonma!

-One thing's certain. That personality could never belong to the Orthodox Faction.

-Even if he'd been born in the Orthodox Faction, he would've joined the Demonic Cult and become Cheonma anyway lol. Then he would've carried out the same reinforcement strategy from the battlefield. That's why Cheonma fits better.

His mood worsened again.

Everything he said on stream was an act.

There wasn't even one gram of sincerity in it.

And yet, somehow, it still annoyed him.

Still—

Seeing people naturally debating him in the comments of the top-ranked post on the Adventure Talent forums gave him a sense of satisfaction.

Normally, it would've been difficult for people to discuss him this much.

The only reason it happened was because of the faction war and the unusual circumstances surrounding it.

Without question, the biggest beneficiary of this battlefield was Seo Jun.

He had engraved his name into the minds of everyone who played For the Law.

Now—

All that remained was finishing things properly.

"Tomorrow."

It would be time to bring the twenty-day race to an end.

[Ahhh, call him Sword God.]

• Swordmen.
• Cheonmen.
• Cheonma for the win!
• Why not just call him Sword God and make him join the Orthodox Faction?

Seo Jun chuckled.

He turned off his phone and went to sleep.

It was shocking.

From the perspective of Monster, the game development company that had been keeping an eye on Seo Jun, the fact that he had surpassed 20,000 concurrent viewers was utterly shocking.

"A new high."

The term referred to a newly achieved peak value.

And Seo Jun had reached one.

'His regular viewer count is over twenty thousand now?'

It was insane.

How many people was he carrying around with him?

A man who had once struggled just to reach ten thousand viewers.

Then he participated in the martial arts tournament.

Then he began seriously playing through the battlefield.

And suddenly, enormous crowds started gathering around him.

In other words—

Seo Jun's value had exploded.

There was only one thing they could say.

"We should've signed him back then."

But it was already impossible.

Once the battlefield ended, the hype would cool down.

As time passed, the viewer count would naturally settle.

Of course it would still remain higher than before.

But right now, his market value was simply too high.

Even accounting for the special circumstances, it was expensive.

And by the time the hype faded enough for his true value to be properly evaluated—

Another company would probably have already signed him.

"At least we prepared a lot of other candidates..."

"Don't you think so? Director?"

"..."

"What are you doing?"

Why were you staring so intensely at the video of that skyrocketing streamer?

And why were you typing comments?

The contents were roughly:

The Demonic Cult is invincible.

"Director?"

But then—

"...Huh?"

"What should we do? Negotiate under different conditions?"

"What are you talking about? We absolutely have to sign him. I don't care how much money it costs."

"Excuse me? But that price is practically at the limit—"

"Buy him! Stock, contracts, whatever! Just buy! The Demonic Cult is going to win!"

...What are you talking about, Director?

Were you secretly a Demonic Cult player?

"We're going to skyrocket just like the Demonic Cult!"