Chapter 29 - Chapter 29

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Translator: 8uhl

Chapter: 29

Chapter Title: Palace Infiltration

-----------------------------------------------------------------

"Alright, let's get this game started."

A notification chime rang out.

The world plunged into darkness.

Seo-jun woke up in the market.

"Alright, let's head out."

Where to?

The Assassins' hideout.

"Hey, grab a fresh fruit here."

"Oi, don't block the road—move it! I'm in a hurry."

"Mister, buy me some candy, please."

Seo-jun pushed through the bustling market toward the Sun Tavern.

It was a place he'd never visited before clearing the tutorial and taking down the Magic Tower Lord, but over the past few days, he'd stopped by at least once a day.

"I admit it. These guys are terrible at their work."

Seo-jun entered the Sun Tavern and headed straight for the kitchen.

He opened the secret passage in the floor and slipped inside.

It was the Assassins' secret lair, accessible only after accumulating enough reputation from assassinations.

"Unknown, what brings you here? Need a mission?"

Several options popped up in front of Seo-jun.

He selected one.

"I want to take out the Ruler now."

"Sorry. It's too soon. We're not ready yet."

Christina gave the same response for days now.

"Well, nothing we can do about it."

Seo-jun nodded.

"Only way is to take her out myself. You think I'd wait around?"

He grinned and pulled a sword from his inventory.

It was one he'd bought for a hefty price at the Assassins' exclusive shop.

"Why not before? Eh, just 'cause. You guys kept begging me to, so I didn't feel like it."

The real reason was the contract, but he wasn't spilling that.

There was no nondisclosure clause, but he'd asked them to keep it quiet anyway.

Seo-jun was the type to honor requests like that.

"Sigh. No swearing, please."

"Jeez. Name another streamer who communicates as well as me."

Seo-jun ignored the flood of question marks, left the Sun Tavern, checked the map, and headed toward the city center where the palace stood.

He was bad with machines, but thankfully not with directions.

"Alright, viewers, tell me about the palace."

He asked the audience for in-game info as he walked, completely naturally.

"Kidding. I've actually looked it up a bit."

Seo-jun hopped from rooftop to rooftop.

It was the easiest way.

Far off in the city center gleamed the ornate palace.

The Alverk Palace: 160 meters across the front, 32 meters tall, four stories with 1,015 rooms, 2,038 doors, and 825 windows.

The Queen's outdoor gallery encircling Alverk, the massive lake, and Alteon's largest garden all came into view.

"...And over a thousand servants work there, plus 300 guards called the Royal Guard. Users who actually mapped all this out by peeking through windows seem even more impressive than the palace itself."

Seo-jun descended from the high rooftop.

And walked toward Alverk.

As he got closer, Royal Guards were everywhere.

Mid-chit-chat, a donation chimed.

Seo-jun stopped walking and replied.

"Thanks for the donation, Rigged Dice. What's the mission?"

A moment later, another donation.

Opinions flooded in about the mission: infiltration and assassination.

Playstyles Seo-jun had never tried.

'Could be fun to give it a shot.'

Rigged Dice seemed like the viewer who'd been debating whether to start Assassin's Dawn before the stream.

Probably wanted to see his stealth play.

Seo-jun pondered for a moment, then spoke.

"Not sure if it'll work, but let's try it. Worst case, infiltrate, wake her right before the kill."

Wouldn't that just rampage-mode anyway?

Alarm waking her or intruder doing it manually—same difference in the end.

"Gotta earn my keep. If it fails, I die and rampage. Whatever."

Seo-jun read Rigged Dice's chat and pondered assassination methods.

With endless ways to infiltrate and assassinate, there were plenty of paths to the Queen.

Dodge Royal Guard eyes, steal a ball invitation, befriend nobility for an invite—the options abounded.

For now...

"Guess I'll just walk in. For assassination, need the palace blueprint."

He used a signal stone to contact Christina, then headed to the nearest Assassin hideout.

This one was also disguised as a tavern.

He slipped into the kitchen's secret spot, pulled up his hood, and sat before the man.

"Beware being devoured by chaos. True chaos doesn't destroy order."

The Assassin handling this sector.

"Brother, what brings you? Heh heh."

Options appeared.

First bought Assassin gear; second was pointless chatter.

Seo-jun picked the first.

"Here to trade."

"Good. Brother, you brought plenty of coin, right?"

The interface popped up. Seo-jun tapped the blueprints category.

The Assassins collected blueprints for most Alteon buildings.

He scrolled and found the palace one.

"This one's the priciest."

It required reputation or gold.

Palace blueprints were among the most expensive items, blueprints or not.

But Seo-jun had plenty of both.

Reputation was sky-high from three Rulers, even without missions and lesser rewards.

The gold...

10,000 gold was a fortune—1,000 bought top shop weapons.

And it wasn't from pickpocketing.

Minigames netted way more.

"Cut the trolling. Buying with rep."

He hit trade on reputation.

"Thanks, Unknown. Come again."

The NPC seemed thrilled at the big sale.

Assassin or merchant?

Seo-jun eyed the NPC dubiously, then headed out.

"Alright, let's go."

He approached Alverk.

The view had changed.

With the blueprint, the palace layout showed like radar.

"Oh, neat item."

Seo-jun stood before the palace.

Royal Guards stood watch.

"Spyglass? Nah. How hard can sneaking in be?"

"Here I go."

The moment a patrolling guard glanced away, Seo-jun vaulted the iron fence with fluid grace.

The Queen's outdoor gallery appeared right after.

Other sides had open parks or the lake moat—best entry to the interior.

Seo-jun focused on sounds.

Royal Guards patrolled everywhere.

Thud, thud.

He moved away from the footsteps, pressing forward.

Knowing the layout kept him from getting lost.

Another threat: snipers on the palace roofs.

He crouched low, slipped from the gallery, scaled the outer wall to the second-floor balcony, and caught his breath.

"Hm. Easier than expected."

Alverk Palace was a maze of interconnected buildings.

From countless renovations and expansions.

The Queen's quarters, deepest in the maze-core, were tough to reach undetected.

Seo-jun pressed his ear to a window.

Sleeping breaths inside.

"Not here."

He scaled the wall again.

Searching for an empty guest room.

"This one's empty."

He quietly opened the balcony door and slipped in.

The viewers were cracking up.

Why?

Seo-jun realized immediately.

"What? What's that noise?"

A man's voice from behind the guest room door.

Busted by a Royal Guard.

Click.

Door handle turning from the other side.

Alert mode: common in stealth games.

NPCs search noise sources until resolved.

Palace NPCs sound alarms if unresolved.

Game over.

Seo-jun scanned chat and assessed instantly.

Hiding wouldn't work; no escape.

'High difficulty, huh.'

Then...

Creeeak.

As the door cracked open, Seo-jun whipped a dagger from inventory.

Pinned the Royal Guard's position before it fully opened.

Instinct-level speed.

When the door was half-open, he flung the dagger.

Gurk.

A short gurgle, and the guard crumpled.

"What? This works. Stealth's easy."

Seo-jun smirked like he'd never tensed up.

Assassin's Dawn had backstab judgments.

Hit vitals before enemy confirms foe: instant kill.

Standard stealth mechanic.

Key: one-shot on Royal Guard.

Meaning...

"But he didn't see me, right?"

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Read 401 more chapters ahead on NovelDex!

https://noveldex.io/series/master-swordsmans-stream

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━