Chapter 29
“Alright, let’s start the game.”
[Launching “Assassin’s Dawn.”]
The notification appeared, and the world was enveloped in darkness.
* * *
Seojun awoke in the market.
“Alright, let’s go.”
Where to?
To the assassin’s base.
“Hey, have some fresh fruit.”
“Hey, move out of the way! I’m in a hurry!”
“Mister, can I buy some candy?”
Navigating through the market, Seojun headed towards the Sun Tavern.
It was a place he hadn’t visited before clearing the tutorial and catching the boss, but in the past few days, he had visited it at least once daily.
– “Yep, today’s no different.”
– “Their backs are always so messy, haha.”
– “They’re terrible at handling things.”
“Agreed. These guys are terrible at their jobs.”
After entering the Sun Tavern, Seojun naturally headed to the kitchen.
He then opened the secret passage on the floor and went inside.
This was a secret location of the assassin’s guild, accessible only after achieving a certain reputation by assassinating targets.
“What brings you here, unknown? Need a mission?”
– “If you take a mission, you won’t get the Order Fragment, right? Just don’t take the mission, haha.”
– “Seriously, I don’t know why they’re always like this, haha.”
– “Honestly, if it were real life, the guild leader would be unethical. How can they finish everything in just a few days?”
– “But this is a game.”
– “Are you saying you won’t be doing the Queen today because of this?”
Christina was giving the same answer for days.
“Well, it can’t be helped.”
Seojun nodded.
– “No way!”
– “This isn’t like you.”
– “Do you really listen?”
“I mean, what streamer communicates like I do?”
Ignoring the barrage of question marks, Seojun left the Sun Tavern and checked the map, heading towards the central city where the palace was located.
Although he was bad with machines, fortunately, he wasn’t bad with directions.
“Alright everyone, can you tell me a bit about the palace?”
Seojun asked his viewers for game information as he walked.
So naturally and casually.
– “Are you leaving it to us?”
– “Please do some research, haha.”
– “Doesn’t this show Seojun’s deep intention to review with his viewers?”
“Just kidding, actually, I did a bit of research myself.”
– “Oh? That’s new.”
– “Ssssh, the leader should be caught off guard.”
– “And it’s cool when he easily counters it.”
Seojun climbed across rooftops.
This was the most convenient way.
In the distance, he could see the grand palace at the center of the city.
With a front length of 160 meters, a height of 32 meters, a total of 4 floors, 1,015 rooms, 2,038 doors, and 825 windows, the Alberk Palace stood impressively.
The queen’s outdoor gallery, a massive lake surrounding Alberk, and the largest garden in Alteon all caught Seojun’s eye.
“…And there are over 1,000 employees working there, and 300 royal guards. It seems like a user who counted all these things might be even more impressive than the palace itself.”
– “Totally.”
– “In every sense, it’s impressive, haha.”
– “Time-rich.”
– “Bill Gates of time, haha.”
Seojun descended from the tall building’s rooftop.
And walked towards Alberk.
As he got closer to the palace, he noticed an increased number of guards around.
While chatting and walking, a donation sound rang out.
[‘ScamDice’ donated 10,000 won!]
[Seojun, do you accept missions or something?]
Seojun stopped walking and said,
“Thank you for the donation, ScamDice. What’s the mission about?”
– “Inner thoughts of the leader: How much did the client investigate?”
– “Can’t resist a mission.”
– “Typical guy: Weak against capital.”
After a moment, another donation came in.
[‘ScamDice’ donated 300,000 won!]
[Please infiltrate and assassinate the queen! I want to see you infiltrate!]
– “Whoa, 300k in one go, wow.”
– “Why does he just throw money first, haha.”
– “Throw money first and the streamer will do the mission.”
– “But the leader doing the assassination? That could be interesting, haha.”
– “What about the Order Fragment? Isn’t it a no-go if you take missions?”
Various opinions about the mission content popped up.
Infiltration and assassination.
A type of play Seojun had never tried before.
‘It could be fun to try.’
The person who donated was likely the viewer who was contemplating whether to start “Assassin’s Dawn” before the game began.
They probably wanted to see his infiltration play.
[‘ScamDice’ donated 100,000 won!]
[Oh, I forgot about the Order Fragment! I’m canceling the mission. Refund is fine.]
– “Wow, big spender, wow.”
– “Cancelling a mission is 100k, haha.”
– “If it were me, I’d just buy the game with that money, haha.”
After a moment of contemplation, Seojun said,
“Even if it might not work, let’s give it a try. Well, if I fail, I’ll just wake up and switch to a rampage mode.”
After all, there’s not much difference between an alarm waking him up and him waking up the intruder. He would just switch to rampage mode, anyway. “We should work for what we get. If it doesn’t work, I’ll die and switch to rampage.”
– “A true streamer.”
– “Who plays like this, haha.”
– “Oh! Thank you!”
After reading ScamDice’s chat, Seojun thought about methods for assassination.
There were countless ways to infiltrate and assassinate in the game, and there were various ways to approach the queen in the palace.
One-dimensional methods like avoiding the royal guards or stealing an invitation to a ball, or even befriending a noble to get an invitation to the palace.
What was immediately possible was.
“Guess I’ll just go in. Since I’m aiming for an assassination, I need to get the palace blueprint.”
Seojun used a signal stone to contact Christina and then returned to the nearest assassin’s base.
Similarly, this base was in the form of a tavern.
Seojun entered the secret place in the kitchen and approached the hooded man.
“Be careful not to be consumed by chaos. True chaos doesn’t destroy order.”
He was the assassin in charge of this area.
“Brother, what brings you here, hahaha.”
[ → Trade items.]
[ → Have a conversation.]
Options appeared.
Choosing the first option allowed Seojun to purchase assassin equipment, while choosing the second led to pointless small talk.
Seojun chose the first option.
“I want to trade something.”
“Sure. Brother, you brought enough money, right?”
An interface popped up, and Seojun clicked on the blueprints category.
The Assassin’s Guild had collected most of the building blueprints in Alten.
Seojun scrolled down and found the blueprint for the palace.
“This one is the most expensive.”
To purchase it, either reputation or money was required.
[Alberk Palace Blueprint]
[700 Assassin’s Guild Reputation] [Exchange]
[3,000 Gold] [Exchange]
The palace blueprint was one of the most expensive items, not just among blueprints but compared to other items as well.
However, Seojun had enough of both.
[Assassin’s Guild Reputation – 3,427]
[Gold – 10,000]
His reputation was high because he had taken down three rulers. Even though Seojun played without accepting missions and received lower rewards than usual, his reputation remained high.
As for the money…
– Rich guy…
– Maybe I should try pickpocketing?
– With 30 minutes a day, I can get you a building. By Seojun.
Considering that 1,000 gold could buy the most expensive weapon in the shop, Seojun’s 10,000 gold was more than sufficient.
And this gold was not earned through pickpocketing.
In fact, he had earned much more through mini-game elements.
“Alright, enough with the exaggerations. I’ll buy it with reputation.”
Seojun pressed the exchange button next to the reputation.
“Thank you, Nameless. Come again next time.”
The merchant seemed thrilled to sell such an expensive item.
Is this an assassin or a merchant?
Seojun gave the NPC a skeptical look before heading outside.
“Let’s go then.”
Seojun approached Alberk.
A different scene unfolded from before.
Since he had acquired the blueprint, the shape of the palace was displayed like a radar.
“Oh, so this item exists.”
– Look at the guy who discovered this feature a week into the game lol
– How’s the new feature treating you?
– If you buy a scope, you can also see the enemy positions. What do you think?
Seojun stood in front of the palace.
He saw the Royal Guards standing watch.
“A scope? No thanks. It’s not that hard to infiltrate.”
– Lol, can you handle that comment?
– Karma on
– He probably won’t do well with assassinations
– Planning to get detected a few times and then go on a rampage
“Alright, let’s go.”
As soon as the guard’s gaze momentarily shifted, Seojun nimbly climbed over the bars.
The queen’s outdoor gallery appeared as he climbed over the bars.
The other side had an open park or a natural moat, making it the best choice for accessing the palace interior.
Seojun focused on the sounds.
The Royal Guards patrolled all around Alberk.
Shuffling sounds.
Seojun moved forward, away from the source of the sound.
He knew the layout, so he wouldn’t get lost.
Another thing to be wary of was the snipers on the roof of Alberk.
Seojun lowered his body as much as possible and, after leaving the gallery, climbed the outer wall to the second floor, taking a breather on the balcony.
“Hm. This is pretty easy.”
– It’s just starting lol
– Don’t get too full of yourself
The Alberk Palace was a maze-like structure with several buildings attached.
This was due to the numerous renovations and expansions over its history.
And since the queen’s quarters were in the very center of this maze-like palace, approaching it undetected was no easy feat.
Seojun pressed his ear against the window.
He could hear someone’s sleeping breaths.
“Not here.”
Seojun climbed the wall again.
He was searching for an empty guest room.
“This one is empty.”
Seojun carefully opened the balcony door and entered.
– Lol lol lol lol
– Good luck
– This is why assassinations are hard
– Even though you were careful, the noise was too loud.
The viewers were laughing.
Why?
Then Seojun immediately realized the reason.
“What’s this? What’s that noise?”
A man’s voice was coming from behind the guest room door.
He had been detected by the Royal Guards.
Click.
He heard the sound of a doorknob turning from the other side.
– Hide under the bed
– Into the closet
– Even if you do all that, you’ll get caught. Does it look like palace assassination is easy?
– They’re already on high alert. NPCs in the palace immediately go on alert even with the slightest noise.
The alert state is a common system in stealth games.
When a player makes a sound, NPCs take action by patrolling the area until they find the source of the noise.
If they can’t find the source in time, they sound an alarm.
If that happens, it’s a failure.
Seojun quickly assessed the situation from the chat.
Hiding here would get him caught, and escaping wasn’t an option.
‘The difficulty is high, as expected.’
Then…
Squeak.
– Caught
– Is this the first failure? lol
– Didn’t it seem like assassination was easy?
Seojun drew a dagger from his inventory the moment the door began to open.
He pinpointed the location of the Royal Guard before the door was fully open.
It was almost instinctively fast.
As the door was halfway open, he threw the dagger.
Thud.
With a short dying gasp, the Royal Guard fell.
“Well, this works. Assassinations are easy.”
Seojun said with a grin, as if he had never been tense.
– Thinking of throwing a dagger at that moment is impressive lol
– Another rampage lol
– Stop killing and just sneak quietly lol
– Is this really assassination?
In Assassin’s Dawn, there is a system called surprise attack judgment.
If an NPC is attacked in a vital area before confirming the enemy’s presence, they die instantly.
This is also a common system in assassination games.
The important point is that the Royal Guard died in one hit.
This means…
“But he didn’t see me?”
– Lol
– But it was fast lol
– If the surprise attack judgment is triggered, it’s technically an assassination lol
– Seriously, if the enemy doesn’t know, how can it be a rampage? It’s assassination
– Lol, if NPCs go on high alert, just hit their weak spot before they see you
– Info) Interestingly, assassinating enemies during stealth is normal gameplay.
– But that’s not really normal assassination lol
