A Swordsman’s Stream

Chapter 62

“Darn Heavenly Demon villain bastard.”

Baekho unleashed a dagger, raising his arm.

Did he create a new ID and choose the Tang Clan this time?

“Finally, you’ve escaped from the newbie zone after all these years. Congratulations.”

“Ha. Your mouth is so annoying. Yeah, I’m here to get you!”

As voices rose, Baekho swung his arm sharply.

The dagger that left his fingertips drew a long curve, aiming for Sojun’s temple.

A characteristic of the Tang Clan’s attack was that the path of the dagger changed with each move.

Additionally, it was famous for receiving an in-game boost. Because the boost always drew attacks directly to vital points, it made blocking easier and precise throwing impossible, so experts did not use it.

*Bang!*

Sojun lightly swung his sword, intercepting the dagger mid-air.

“As expected, you block it well. Crazy Heavenly Demon villain bastard.”

He didn’t understand why they kept calling him a villain.

– LOL, from his perspective, Heavenly Demon is a villain
– He has said ‘I am the Heavenly Demon’ countless times. It is villain-level LOL
– Even from our perspective, streamer-nim is villain-level
– Isn’t the guy who made an account again to snipe him also a villain?
– He was originally a lesser villain anyway

While the chat room shared profound thoughts on villains, Baekho unleashed daggers from both hands and swung them again.

“Then try blocking these too!”

The daggers flew with peculiar trajectories once more.

Sojun read their paths, twisted his body, and swung his sword.

*Bang.*

The daggers lost their momentum and fell to the ground.

“This too!”

As he dodged two daggers, another rushed straight into his view.

Sojun felt uneasy as he saw Baekho’s meaningful expression beyond the dagger.

* * *

One week earlier, under the game nickname Baekho, real name Lee Sangcheol, he had his account deactivated from the game “For Justice”, which he had enjoyed for years.

Being impulsively kicked back into the lobby, he initially felt bewilderment.

“Isn’t this a bug?”

It wasn’t.

“After all this time, they’re sanctioning me because of some trivial streamer? Does that even make sense?”

How long had he been stuck in the newbie zone?

“So, let’s see on what grounds they sanctioned me. It’s not like I was intentionally losing or trolling.”

Intentionally losing is an act referred to as “throwing”.

Things like trolling, not participating in the game, or intentionally leaving are clearly reasons for sanctions set by the game company.

But, what he was guilty of was just playing the game diligently.

“If that’s the problem, they should have just made a system to automatically promote me from the newbie zone!”

He checked the site to see what sort of actions led to sanctions.

After checking, there was no mention of players being sanctioned for continuously playing in the newbie zone.

“Okay, that’s not right!”

He posted immediately on the community forum.

『Exposing MubiSoft for Sanctioning Users Without Standards.』

===

Hello, fellow users of “For Justice”.

MubiSoft has sanctioned me for playing in the newbie zone.

I assure you I have not committed any actions that warrant sanctions.

I’m simply a casual user who occasionally enjoyed “For Justice” and felt inadequate and terrified to leave the newbie zone, so I stayed and played.

The company had no issues with this, and I would just play here and there.

But as I was enjoying a game the other day, my account was suddenly deactivated.

I’ve submitted inquiries regarding the reason for the sanctions, but I can’t understand it.

If what I did was indeed problematic, why did MubiSoft leave me alone until now?

And I question whether what I did deserved such an immediate account termination without a single warning.

===

He thought the post was written well.

Although he had never written such a post before, he felt it clearly explained his situation and the wrongdoing of MubiSoft.

“Now, let’s see the reactions!”

After posting, sending several inquiries, and even calling customer service, he returned to find his post with dozens of comments.

The first comment read:

– Is it Baekho?
└It’s Baekho LOL
– What did you expect to achieve with this post LOL
└ No conscience, lol.
└ What’s going on?
└ That bastard got banned.

“What? How do they know?”

It seemed that the community people knew well about him.

Baekho was new there and generally not interested in such matters, but he was somewhat recognized in the community.

Moreover, the board where he posted his write-up was the incident and accident board. Had it been the free board, he might not have known, but the incidents and accidents board was where the most seasoned players of the dead game gathered, and there was no way they wouldn’t know Baekho.

– You deserve to be banned.
└ Did you really think you could bully our cute and precious newbies and get away with it?
└ Ugh.
– As a daoist of Mount Hua, I could not tolerate such unruly behavior as a street hooligan. Finally, Yonghwa Soft is doing something.”
└ Not that kind of Yonghwa (glory) in Hanja. Why don’t you translate the ‘Soft’? Aren’t you sticking to the concept?
– Scold (嘎)! Right!
– If you create an account again, come to the Demonic Cult. The Demonic Cult can embrace you.
└ Why is a guy from the free world recruiting that bastard into the Demonic Cult, lol.
└ Lol.

It was a mess.

What he wanted was at least some sympathy, and curses. However, the commentators, busy playing among themselves, showed no interest in what he wanted them to see.

“What is this?”

Originally, that was what the community was like. There were comments focused on the content, though.

– It’s written that bad manners in the game can be sanctioned anytime, yet he claims he did nothing wrong.
└ If he had that conscience, would he have slayed newbies?
– Baekho, Oh wait, you’re not even Baekho anymore since you lost your nickname, lol. Just go to the Demonic Cult. Even if your account is deleted, you can make a new one once more. But be careful, if you’re banned again, it’s permanent.
└ Stop dragging the Demonic Cult into it, lol.

As he read the comments, his eyes began to twitch, and he yelled out.

“Oh right, my nickname!”

Having such a rare nickname was uncommon.

Anyway, he deleted the post with no good public opinion—no, there wasn’t even a public opinion to speak of.

Hoo.

Then he took a deep breath and thought.

“Yeah. Honestly, I expected I’d get sanctioned anytime.”

Although he slightly minimized his faults in the post, he was aware that his actions were abnormal and bad-mannered.

So he had no right to complain about being banned.

After all, it was just a pastime game.

But why was he so angry?

Why?

As he delved calmly into his inner emotions, he realized that he wasn’t mad about the ban; he was furious about being completely mocked.

An annoying face and voice came to his mind.

『Surely, the production team wouldn’t leave such a bad-mannered user unchecked?』

He immediately turned on Travel to watch the replay of the streamer.

He wanted to know why and with what malicious intent they mocked and urged the game officials to ban him.

『Ugh, this newbie killer is really bad at the game. Thank you for your 10,000 won donation.』

『Newbie terminator title wasted. Thank you for your 10,000 won donation.』

With those words, ‘lol’ filled the chat window.

And the most important fact of all—those donations never existed.

“That darn villain of Heavenly Demon! Argh! Damn it! Even that was a lie!”

He was thoroughly mocked.

Thinking that he had been turned into a laughing stock from start to finish in front of thousands who watched and ridiculed him tightened his chest.

Frustration surged.

He didn’t understand why he was receiving a reverse dose of stress from a game meant to relieve stress.

* * *

The next day, he thought.

“I have to get revenge.”

Yes.

If he didn’t somehow get back at them, he wouldn’t be able to sleep.

“First, let’s admit it. I can’t do it with skills.”

The previous night, he couldn’t sleep, so he stayed up doing research on Jin Sojun and kept lying down and researching again through the night.

That was the conclusion he reached.

Skills wouldn’t do it.

Then, how would he manage it?

He needed to learn about his enemy and prepare to meet them.

『”Jin Sojun” has started streaming』

The next day, he watched the stream and found a way to take revenge!

He joined “For Justice”.

Starting from scratch in the game.

“Ah, damn.”

『Username is already in use.』
『Would you like to use ‘Baekho3’?』
『Would you like to use ‘Baekho4’?』
『Username is already in use.』

“Who in the world is using these stupid nicknames?”

『Would you like to use ‘Baekho5’?』
『Username is already in use.』

“They took this one too. Ah!”

For a moment, he considered using a different nickname.

However, for revenge, it was better to use the same nickname as before.

It wasn’t like he was hiding to take revenge.

* * *

“This is my chance.”

He entered the Unorthodox Faction’s Tang house, waiting for an opportunity.

And eventually, the perfect opportunity arrived.

He thought it would be enough to defeat that guy just once.

The 16th rank in personal rankings was competitive enough.

“Sniping is doable.”

Another viewer had succeeded. There were three chances left.

“The game mode is just right too.”

Even if he didn’t win the battle, he could still deliver a defeat to Sojun in Escort mode.

Perhaps, if not today, the opportunity for revenge may never come again.

He watched the stream, timing it, then started the game.

“Is it ready? Is it done? Please! You’re going down!”

The game started and the stream cut off, but there was a known method.

He began running quickly.

The teammates behind him followed, murmuring.

“What’s with that crazy guy?”

“Let’s hurry too.”

“Yes.”

Even if he heard strange sounds, he needed to move fast for now.

If he failed the snipe, he had to quickly finish the round to aim for the next opportunity.

Fortunately, a game message that calmed him came through.

『Based on the timing, it seems like you met?』

A message from a friend he had requested.

If he couldn’t watch the stream in-game, someone watching the stream could inform him.

The most crucial piece of information.

『There’s a large brown box in the middle of the wagon, and the mark is the small box right next to it on the left, based on the direction the wagon is moving.』
『Thanks』

The defeat due to the destruction of the mark would leave Sojun both baffled and frustrated.

This is what sniping is about!

He slowed down and sent his teammates ahead.

This was to make sure he pinpointed the exact location of the mark and drafted a trajectory.

‘Confirmed.’

He derived the trajectory and moved forward.

“Did you miss me, punk?”

“Who is this?”

“What… what?”

“Hmm… I’ve never seen that ‘ID’ before.”

“Bastard. It’s because of you.”

He nearly lost his cool but managed to endure it.

‘Arrogance and brazenness only last for now.’

Even though he hurled daggers, the Heavenly Demon villain deftly deflected them.

Yeah, of course, it should be deflected.

“Then try deflecting these too!”

He threw two daggers simultaneously, preparing for the most crucial strike.

The current position of the Heavenly Demon villain was slightly diagonally away from the wagon.

Thus, he aimed to start the trajectory seemingly straight towards the Heavenly Demon villain, then curve midway to hit the mark.

The game should end right there.

“This as well!”

You’re finished.