Chapter 31

Chapter 31: [Knight Soul] You’re Not Human......! (2)

‘Speedrun.’

It could be called an ancient tradition among gamers, one that had continued since the distant past.

After all, aiming to clear a game in the shortest possible time was perfectly suited to testing a gamer’s ability.

Optimizing the play route, designing actions down to the frame, then executing it all without a single mistake.

It was an effective method not merely for discussing ‘who is fastest?’ but for debating ‘who is superior?’

Because even when playing the same way, it could clearly prove that differences in skill existed.

Competing to determine each other’s superiority had happened anytime, anywhere.

Was that why?

-Isn’t this a Speedrun Quest?

The moment Halkenburg gave him the Speedrun Quest, the chat window heated up once again.

-?? I think it is? Looks like a Death-Spirit Tower Lord boss run 

-How long has it even been since he started the game, and he’s already getting a Death-Spirit Tower Lord boss run quest..

-It’s like an onion, more stuff keeps coming out no matter how much you peel lololololololol

-The level gap with the Death-Spirit Tower Lord has to be around 20, and they’re telling him to beat it as a Speedrun Quest? Fuck lol

At first, naturally, they discussed the Speedrun Quest itself.

But that did not last.

Since speedrunning had also been popular in [Knight Soul] among those known for so-called ‘Skill Streams,’ and because in-game Speedrun Quests were occasionally given out on their own as well, the point of interest naturally converged into one place.

Past records for Speedrun Quests began to rise and fall in the chat window.

-Wasn’t the fastest Death-Spirit Tower Lord clear in KniSoul 45 hours, 17 minutes, 22 seconds in real time after starting the game?

-ㄴYeah. Black Moon cleared it at 45 hours, 17 minutes, 22 seconds, beating Kenshin by 3 seconds. That was the new record.

-Wow, then if Teacher Seo-jin clears the Death-Spirit Tower Lord, wouldn’t that update the record?? His playtime still isn’t that long.

-Gasp.

For a moment, opinions spread among the viewers that perhaps a new record might be set.

-Black Moon and Kenshin are pro-gamers, though. Are the bastards comparing them on the same line with an amateur actually serious? Fuck?

-Fr lol.

-If you’ve seen Black Moon and Kenshin play, there’s no way you can really put them on the same level as an amateur...?

-ㄴThen,, does an amateur who fought Crack, a Worlds-winning member, 1:1 in [Limitless War] and crushed him with Gaming Martial Arts,, make sense,,?

-ㄴHey, hey; why would you say it like that;

Even now, there were still quite a few people who steadily insisted that ‘pro-gamers are on a different level from amateurs.’

And it made sense.

They were killing machines who had gone beyond reaching the pinnacle of combat arts and had honed martial arts optimized for games.

That was what one called a pro-gamer of the current era. 

Comparing them on the same line as an amateur was difficult in and of itself.

Under normal circumstances, that is.

Ding, ding, ding-.

[<FireRocketLet’sGo> donated ‘10,000 won’.]

━People saying pro-gamers and amateurs are different, are you serious lol? This is ridiculous, seriously??

[ donated ‘10,000 won’.]

━Then what’s the amateur who beat Crack 1:1 in [Limitless War]? Asking because I genuinely don’t know, yeah;

[ donated ‘10,000 won’.]

━He’s already learned all of Gaming Martial Arts, even Virtual Energy Operation, and you’re still calling him an amateur lololol

The story could not help but change once Ju Seo-jin had also acquired the Gaming Martial Arts of pro-gamers.

It was not as if proof of his skill had not been shown at all, either.

His performance in [Limitless War], where he had overwhelmed a pro-gamer with pure combat arts throughout the match and won one victory after another.

Because that existed, the rebuttals could only grow fiercer.

After all, the opponent Ju Seo-jin had one-sidedly overwhelmed and lightly defeated was not even an ordinary pro-gamer.

It was only natural that opinions divided among the viewers and heated debate went back and forth.

Standing one step behind and watching that heated topic, Ju Seo-yoon clicked her tongue with a ‘Keh-.’

‘Wooow... This is no joke, no joke! Aren’t they all way too immersed?’

It was on a completely different level from when Ju Seo-yoon treated her low blood pressure(?) by flailing around.

There were enough people swarming in who had dug into all kinds of Gaming Martial Arts and accumulated their own level of knowledge.

She had known the viewer base was wider than usual, but it was beyond what she had imagined.

‘Hmmm. At this rate, if someone tosses one proper log onto the fire, it might be hard to get the situation under control...?’

Considering a possible quarrel, she needed to slowly cool the heat down.

There was no reason to get tangled up in controversy for nothing while pro-gamers were being mentioned.

Because she had accumulated a fair amount of experience as a streamer, she immediately caught the timing for crisis management.

‘Well... aside from being careful, maybe there won’t be any real problem? My brother isn’t that oblivious either.’

She had already removed the attention-seeking trolls who intentionally tried to stir up fights in the chat window without much difficulty.

Now all that remained was keeping Ju Seo-jin from making any careless remarks...... but she did not think there would be any particular problem.

Because he had only been standing still without any real reaction since earlier.

‘Right, as long as he doesn’t say anything unnecessary here, nothing should happen......’

However.

Ding-.

An abnormality occurred.

[<Let’sGoHardcore> set ‘500,000 won’ as mission funds.]

━Teacher Seo-jin, why not just go all out and set a new record on the Speedrun Quest?? I’m seriously, genuinely thinking you can do it, yeah

<Mission: Defeat [Knight Soul]’s field boss ‘Death-Spirit Tower Lord’ faster than the speedrun world record>

*Time Limit: None

‘!’

The chats in the streaming window had not merely gone wild. 

Now, a mission had been openly placed.

For a moment, Ju Seo-yoon felt a sense of danger deep down, but before long, she regained her calm.

Separate from her game sense, she had honed a fair amount of professionalism as a streamer, so judging the situation was not difficult.

She had somewhat expected this might happen, too.

Swish-.

Ju Seo-yoon immediately turned her head and tried to make eye contact with Ju Seo-jin.

She was not speaking through Player Chat, but even an exchange of glances was enough for them to coordinate.

Ju Seo-yoon narrowed her eyes until she was almost glaring at Ju Seo-jin, a gleam shining in them.

Stare-.

With the meaning of, ‘You roughly get what I mean, right?’ or ‘Don’t accept that, no matter what!’ contained in her gaze.

-What’s with Myangbangwool? Looks like she’s about to shoot Hyper Beam from her eyes??;

-What Hyper Beam? She’s probably about to fire Magnetism Magic, yeah.

-Kyaa, is she already imagining how to use Magnetism Magic and getting started?? She’s got talent??

-Genius even ‘that’ old geezer would acknowledge...! The talent of a first-rate magnet pet..!!

-ㄴThese crazy bastards lolololololololololololololol

“……….”

Of course, thanks to that, she unintentionally received an infuriating misunderstanding, but in the end, it felt like ‘OK.’

“Ah-.”

Ju Seo-jin, who had exchanged gazes with her through that eye contact, let out a calm sound of understanding and nodded.

Only then did Ju Seo-yoon relax and let out an inward sigh of relief.

‘Hmmm. Thankfully, it looks like he understood properly. ...With this, I can finally set one worry aside───’

From here, Ju Seo-jin would probably make a suitable excuse on his own and refuse the mission.

=I will accept missions related to the Speedrun Quest.

=?

An unexpected situation. 

At that unforeseen statement, Ju Seo-yoon’s mind went completely white as the thought, ‘Huh?’ rose in her head.

‘Wait. Did I hear that right just now? He said he’ll accept the Speedrun Quest mission...?’

But.

Separate from that, Ju Seo-jin continued speaking in a calm, level voice as if nothing were wrong.

=You may set time limits on the missions for the Speedrun Quest, but in exchange, I will perform whichever one has the largest mission funds.

=?

=However, the Speedrun Quest must be presented based on the clear time that is actually recorded.

=………!?

=That is all.

The next moment.

Ding-.

[<It’sPureSkill> set ‘500,000 won’ as mission funds.]

━Now~ Breaking the world record = safe asset, and no sucker doesn’t know that, right.? I’m depositing without a worry

<Mission: Defeat [Knight Soul]’s field boss ‘Death-Spirit Tower Lord’ faster than the speedrun world record>

*Time Limit: None

At the same time as another mission was set, notification sounds rang out one after another.

Ding, ding, ding-.

[<It’sPureSkill> set ‘500,000 won’ as mission funds.]

[ set ‘450,000 won’ as mission funds.]

[ set ‘300,000 won’ as mission fu…….]

………

……

…

Snowballing.

In an instant, missions began bringing in clear times corresponding to [Knight Soul]’s world record as their condition, and the mission funds began to swell like a snowball.

It was thanks to his words that they could place missions based on that ‘new record’ of the Speedrun Quest drawing a mad amount of aggro.

And.

=I have accepted all missions. Thank you.

=……….

Soon, when no more missions were being placed, Ju Seo-jin spat out that dry comment.

Ju Seo-yoon, who had been standing beside him while looking at the streaming window, stared blankly, then murmured in shock.

She had even forgotten her concern that they might get dragged into some pointless controversy.

It was only natural.

=Wa, waaah………. A-Are you crazy? Is this for real?

Because what had happened was none other than this—

[Mission]

━Goal: Defeat [Knight Soul]’s field boss ‘Death-Spirit Tower Lord’ faster than the speedrun world record

*Mission Funds: ‘7,245,000 won’

=So. This is really all mission funds……?

...An unimaginable sum had ended up being staked as the pot.

***

After accepting all the missions, everything proceeded swiftly.

━Heh heh. I like your spirit. So you’re saying you’ll give the damn thing a try, huh? Fine, good.

At the same time as he accepted Halkenburg’s Speedrun Quest, he was assigned a guide who would lead him to the destination.

━Good. I will attach a capable guide to you, so complete the mission and return within three days. I will be waiting.

At first, since he was attaching a guide in the current situation, Ju Seo-jin thought that perhaps they did not have an unexpected manpower shortage.

But that was not the case.

“It is an honor to accompany you once more, Ones Who Reclaim the Light.”

“……….”

-?

-Wait, the capable guide the old man said he’d attach is the Saintess? This is insane lololololol

-How fucking bad are the Order’s finances if they’re dumping guide duty on the Saintess? Fuck lol

Grandis, the Saintess of the Moon.

They had assigned the Saintess of the Order, whom they had already traveled with once before, as their guide.

Unlike Ju Seo-jin, who accepted it without a word and headed outside the cave, Ju Seo-yoon muttered in disbelief.

As if she were suffering cognitive dissonance.

“No, no. Wait. Isn’t something strange here? What kind of Saintess doubles as a guide...? Is this right?”

However.

“Not at all. Rather than being strange, I actually think this is more natural.”

“Huh?”

“When there aren’t enough people, it’s hard to divide work domains so neatly.”

“Come on-. No, no matter what, does it make sense to assign her a job that doesn’t suit her at all like this?”

“Who knows.”

Ju Seo-jin muttered in a slightly sunken voice, as if he was not particularly moved.

“Common sense isn’t as universal as you’d think. Unfortunately.”

“?”

-Ah.......

-Shitty-small-business Order Sh-sh-sh-shiver...

-???: Our Order has a family-like atmosphere ^^

-Now that I see it, these bastards in the Order of the Star kind of run the Order like a shitty small company, yeah;

-Life tip) At certain family-like companies, you can be put in charge of sales, cleaning, and deliveries all at once

-ㄴThis... uh... doesn’t seem like a life tip..?

While Ju Seo-yoon tilted her head in confusion after hearing that, the Saintess walking ahead let out a quiet groan.

But it did not last long.

Swish-.

The movements of the Saintess walking in front suddenly became cautious, and before long, she signaled with her hand for them to stop.

Then she stood still for a moment, quietly returned to the back, and bowed her head in apology.

Her tone was full of regret, as if she had made them waste their effort.

“...It seems we cannot go beyond this point. I apologize, but let us take a detour through another path.”

“Huh? After coming all the way here? Um, I can see the path continuing over there, too…… It doesn’t look like a dead end, though?”

“I sense many presences.”

“Mobs are something we can just take down as we go, aren’t-”

“They are living people.”

In other words—

“...They may not be a very decent group. It would be best not to get deeply involved.”

What lay ahead were living people, but they were likely not especially mild in temperament and were hostile.

“I have heard that recently, mounted raiders have been roaming beyond the cave.”

“Wait. Raiders?”

“Yes, they may be raiders who came in from the grassland connected to the outside of the cave. I was told a mounted bandit gang is roaming around, so it is dangerous. There is no need to take an unnecessary ri-”

“Then we should hurry up and go.”

“?”

Before Grandis could even finish speaking, Ju Seo-jin muttered that and placed his right hand on the hilt of his sword.

“If we go this way, it leads outside the cave, and we can obtain money and a means of transportation, too. Right?”

“Pardon……? Obtain money and a means of transportation…? I find it difficult to understand what you mean. Going this way is danger-”

At that moment, Grandis’s mouth, which had been about to dissuade him from going beyond this point, clamped shut.

One beat late, she had ended up understanding what Ju Seo-jin meant.

After all, the keywords ‘money’ and ‘means of transportation’ had something in common with the raiders expected to be beyond this point.

In other words, this was what he meant.

“Hmm. Since they’re raiders, I think they’ll have a lot on them…….”

-?

-Wait, what’s with Teacher Seo-jin’s eyes..

-This.. they’re filled with greed..?

In other words.

Claaank───.

“Then we can take all the necessities here before we go.”

-Th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th

-He’s treating them like a starter package instead of raiders, fuck;

-This is, like, not a modern person’s mindset, but a medieval person’s mindset..? Yeah?;

-This is it, this is it lolol. Hand over everything you have before you die, you bastards lolololol

He was saying he would commit robbery(?) against the raiders.