I Have Reasons to Hate Streamers

There are two main core contents in Infinity Black.

One is the large-scale RvR battlefield commonly called the ‘siege scene’.

A muddy battlefield where huge factions fight for their interests. Not only vile political battles but also fierce behind-the-scenes struggles take place.

As enormous amounts of wealth are at stake, there are many dirty dealings.

Field battles or assassinations to hinder the opponent’s growth.

Guild wars to steal hunting grounds. And the evils that follow the results of wars, such as abuse of power or harassment.

If Infinity Black were divided into light and darkness, the siege scene would clearly belong to darkness.

The area that could be called light was the ranked PvP where battles ranging from 1:1 to a maximum of 6:6 take place.

When it comes to e-sports in Infinity Black, this is definitely what it refers to.

Unlike the field, ranked games have spec limitations, so it was literally a battlefield to compete in ‘skill’.

Infinity Black was designed as a PVP game from the planning stage.

The combat experience of becoming a superhuman like in fantasy or martial arts stimulated human peripheral nerves, and it has now grown to such a large scale that there are leagues in various countries around the world.

In my case… I didn’t properly belong anywhere.

I often get offers from the pro scene, but I can’t realistically accept them due to physical conditions and connection device issues.

I can’t demonstrate my true skills unless I use my room’s dedicated connection device.

If I could, I would have done it long ago. I’ve tried such attempts more than dozens of times.

On the other hand, in the siege scene, I was a mercenary operating without any specific affiliation.

This was due to economic issues.

‘I need money. A lot of it.’

The scraps that fall from siege guilds are by no means small.

In nostalgic terms for the older guys, it’s called the extermination team. In more vulgar terms, it’s the bastard team.

Field battle specialists receive treatment on par with major corporations depending on their skills.

In other words, it was barely that much.

Even if I belonged to a siege guild, I’d end up just being a salaried worker.

Even if I receive better treatment because of my skills, my fundamental situation wouldn’t change.

It wasn’t better income than doing mercenary work like now.

I, and my leg, are quite a special case.

I couldn’t fix my leg by just quietly receiving a salary.

[Adventurer GermaniumNailClipper…]

[You have forcibly eliminated adventurer HanRiverJjamtong.]

[You have forcibly eliminated adventurer BluetoothShowerhead.]

[Adventurer NoseBridgeNoodles…]

The blade pierced another heart.

The next one was lucky enough to have his neck cut in one go, and I cleanly dealt with the one who was resisting in his own way.

Due to the lingering feeling of killing Sooljbbang, adrenaline was surging like crazy.

This time, my assassination target was a rookie streamer called ‘BluetoothShowerhead’.

He was the leader of a new guild called ‘PseudoScience’, and now his guild members were often watching his face too.

It’s killing two birds with one stone, like with Sooljbbang. I wonder if we’ll continue to have polite conversations for the next few days?

I don’t know why I have to target him.

The principle is that only money and mission details are exchanged between me and the client.

In the siege scene, as real money is involved, the logic of cold capitalism is often applied.

[You have received mail from an anonymous adventurer.]

[Title: Find the Strongest Adventurer! The 1st Infinity Arena Opens!]

[Content: BluetoothShowerhead 10 times Start 2000 Completion 2000]

[Attached item: Mana-infused Oak Plywood]

The rule of the request is to send the title of the first notice on the official homepage.

The mail is sent anonymously, and the content only lists the target to be killed and the request fee.

The attached item means they will trade by putting this up for auction and buying it.

I wonder why they need to go to such lengths to kill… but my business was booming more than I expected.

If I had to guess, either they have a thick growth potential, or they’ve done something to fall out of favor.

Given that they specifically used me, it’s probably not a very noble reason.

[Exchange notification: 1 Mana-infused Oak Plywood has been sold for 20,000,000 Gold.]

Well, it doesn’t matter, does it?

The gold coins piled up in the warehouse look so good.

* * *

When you kill the same person multiple times, you usually get similar reactions.

Usually, it’s two to three times. At most, maybe four times?

At first, everyone tries to defeat me on their own. Because they have pride.

When that becomes too much, they start calling friends or guild members, and if even that doesn’t work, the next reaction comes.

This time was no different.

Nickname BluetoothShowerhead.

The magician in a blue robe quickly knelt before me.

He put down his weapon and raised both arms in surrender.

“Wait, wait a moment! Let’s talk this out, okay? First of all, I admit I was wrong, so let’s at least have a conversation. Why, why are you doing this to me?”

It’s like the 5 stages of death.

Denial. Anger. Bargaining. Depression. Acceptance.

Having just passed through the stages of denial and anger, it must be time for bargaining.

But I had no intention of negotiating with this magician.

Because that would be a breach of contract.

Not because I have great professional ethics, but because if I break something this basic, I won’t be able to get customers.

It’s an important matter that affects my livelihood.

While the income from requests isn’t exactly small, my medical expenses are even more.

It’s not like the earnings are stable either. There’s a reason I’m stuck living in a moldy one-room apartment.

However, killing people even in a game is quite a lonely job.

So I had a policy of not ignoring conversations that were initiated.

“Did I do something wrong? If you tell me, I’ll apologize.”

“Apologize? Hmm, an apology… I don’t think that’s necessary.”

“What? Then what should I do? There must be a reason you’re doing this to me. Please say something.”

“A younger sibling I know was harmed by your guild. But I can’t tell you their nickname, right? Don’t apologize. I didn’t come here expecting to receive that.”

Of course, it was a blatant lie.

How could I know the reason when I didn’t hear it during the request?

I just need to make a plausible excuse to avoid causing harm to the client.

If there was some kind of grudge, they could be specifically identified.

A contract killer who kills endlessly respawning targets.

You could call it the hardship of this unique occupation.

Well, I wasn’t worried about being caught in the lie.

These excuses have never failed to work.

Like most games where field PK is possible, Infinity Black is designed for the strong to bully the weak.

In this game, guild wars didn’t require elaborate procedures, so wars could break out for any trivial reason.

When you’re constantly on the receiving end, someone is bound to say something harsh.

From that moment on, even the ‘justification’ is taken away by the strong. And the strong who gain justification often become more cruel to the weak.

Even among the cases I know, there were some that demanded harsh prices as conditions for ending the war.

To an extent that couldn’t be dismissed as just a game.

It was the nature of this field, nothing particularly new.

The dark side of this game governed only by the logic of power.

At least in this game, there wasn’t a single person involved in the siege scene who didn’t bully others and remained clean.

If a request comes to me, eight or nine times out of ten. No, it should be almost certain.

‘It’s not that there are no suspects, but there are too many to even guess.’

Sure enough, it seems he gave up on finding my imaginary younger sibling.

Instead, the magician’s gaze started to squirm.

Once towards his staff, and another time he glanced randomly at some point in the sky.

He’s probably counting skill cooldowns.

If not that, then support talks might be going on in the guild chat.

Either way, it doesn’t matter. Humans feel more hurt when they fail after using dirty tricks.

I took the risk and pretended not to notice.

“Th-Then… how about financial compensation?”

“That’s strange. When people die to me about eight times, they usually know well what kind of person I am. Have you ever heard of me taking money from the people I’ve killed?”

“I… don’t think so.”

The magician’s gaze turned to my sword.

I had finished my assessment too. His earlier glances were counting skill cooldowns.

Is he trying to do it alone? Good courage.

I moved my blade to the side as if I had let my guard down.

That’s when it happened. As if he had been waiting, the magician raised his staff and shouted loudly.

“You bitch! Your younger sibling or whatever…”

Thwack─ Unfortunately, my hand was faster than the magic.

There’s no rule that says you must hold a weapon with only one hand, right? I’m an experienced assassin, and I always keep a secondary weapon ready.

The blade that entered from the chin crushed bones and tore through somewhere in the head.

Poor judgment. I thought he would measure the timing once or twice more.

Perhaps because he’s a magician, he seemed to have no talent for surprise attacks.

A surprise attack only has meaning if I don’t know about it. When it’s this obvious, it’s harder to let myself be hit.

Moreover, was he the only one trying to stab me in the back while pretending to talk?

I flicked the blood off my blade and gave a bright smile. Radiant.

“See you next time.”

[You have forcibly eliminated adventurer BluetoothShowerhead.]

[Warning: Your infamy…]