I Cherish You
"And how does Master feel about me?"
I fell silent for a moment at my clone's question. I honestly hadn't expected her to flip it back on me first.
"Hmm… I cherish you. A lot."
"Cherish, you say?"
"Yeah."
Thanks to my clone, so much had changed. I'd gone from a fake superhuman to a real one. My streams had taken off. I'd even gotten back at the Cyber Wreckers who'd tormented me. Of course I cherished her.
Maybe that answer landed well.
"Ahem. I see."
A faint flush colored the Heavenly Demon's face, and a smile touched the corners of her lips.
She's so cute when she does that.
She wasn't usually like this, but the second she got like that, it was adorable. Looks really did win out in the end, huh?
More importantly, talking with my clone had loosened me up quite a bit. I dove properly into the content with the Heavenly Demon.
"Alright, let's start the content! This is the 'Ask the Heavenly Demon!' segment. If you've got something you're curious about, drop a question in the donation chat! To keep the spam down, the minimum is ten thousand won!"
This way I could run content and make money at the same time. Even I had to admit it was a solid idea.
"Look at the questions and answer whichever ones you like."
"Understood."
Questions poured in almost immediately. Ten thousand won a pop, and people still fired them off like it was nothing.
What's your favorite food?
"Hmm. This seat favors fried rice."
"You like fried rice?"
"More precisely, the fried rice Master made."
"I see."
So she'd liked the fried rice I'd made last time. A warm little smile tugged at my face.
What's your favorite color?
"For the Heavenly Demon, black. Always."
Are you planning to take more disciples?
"No. Master is the end of it."
My clone was handling the content surprisingly well. Most of her answers were short, but she got her point across just fine.
She's actually pretty good on stream?
A fond smile rose on its own. Having her do proxy streams for me when I wanted a break didn't sound half bad.
What's your ideal type?
"Hmm. My ideal type, is it?"
Just then, the Heavenly Demon casually turned her head and looked at me. Then, face faintly red, she answered.
"Ahem. I prefer someone with exceptional martial talent."
I stared at the chat with a deadpan face. Honestly, why were they always so desperate to manufacture a romance arc?
Either way, the questions kept coming. Luckily, the Heavenly Demon seemed genuinely interested, so she answered better than I'd expected.
Could you beat Cheon Gangmok?
"Of course."
What's your goal in life?
"This seat's goal, is it…"
The Heavenly Demon briefly wore a thoughtful expression.
A bad feeling hit me.
Wait. She's not about to start talking about the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, is she?
It was way too early for that. And once something left your mouth, you couldn't take it back.
"Hmm. This seat has one goal. Namely, to establish a Heav— in this land of Korea…"
And of course, my prediction was right on the money.
Without thinking, I grabbed the Heavenly Demon's hand.
Clasp.
Maybe the sudden move startled her — luckily, she stopped mid-sentence.
Whew. Close one.
I looked at her and gave a subtle shake of my head. A clear don't do that gesture.
Thankfully, she seemed to get it. I caught the faint smile on her face.
I let go of her hand.
"Ahem. I shall restate. This seat's goal is, of course, to establish a Heav— in Korea…"
Same thing again.
I grabbed her hand once more.
Clasp.
And once again, the corner of her mouth curled up.
Hey!
I stared her down and shook my head again.
She just smiled.
I let go. And she started the exact same line.
"This seat's goal is to establish a Heav— in Korea…"
I had no choice. I grabbed her hand again.
Clasp.
And again, a smile bloomed at the edge of her lips.
What even was this.
Naturally, the viewers were spamming confused chat.
I stared at the chat and scrambled for a cover story. Then I threw out something vaguely plausible.
"Uh, so… she wants to raise a new Heavenly Demon in Korea? Something like that."
After saying that, I looked at the Heavenly Demon — really looked at her, with as much silent pleading as I could muster.
Maybe it got through. Thankfully, she stopped with the teasing.
"Indeed. I intend to raise a new Heavenly Demon in Korea."
I breathed an inward sigh of relief. The eye-contact assault had apparently worked.
Either way, it was time to wrap the collab.
I snuck a glance at the viewer count.
110,128
Amazingly, we'd already hit a hundred and ten thousand. All-time high. That was more than enough.
It's short, but it can't be helped.
Leaving the Heavenly Demon on any longer was way too dangerous.
Then another question came in.
How strong do you think you are?
This one seemed fine. Honestly, I was curious myself, so I left it alone.
The Heavenly Demon opened her mouth without a second of hesitation.
The words she spoke were so intense that chat immediately exploded.
Thankfully, the chat reaction was fantastic. Honestly, if you were the Heavenly Demon, you were allowed to be that arrogantly grand. Even I found myself nodding along.
But of course, someone always had to pick a fight.
Stronger than Thunder God, Flame Emperor, and Dragon Emperor?
"Of course."
Again, the Heavenly Demon answered without a shred of hesitation.
I pressed a hand to my forehead.
No!
Thunder God, Flame Emperor, and Dragon Emperor — the superhumans of the United States, India, and China. The ones widely regarded as the strongest in the world.
And the Heavenly Demon had just declared herself stronger than all of them.
Thankfully the viewers were eating it up — but that was because they were Korean.
What if Americans, Indians, or Chinese people heard this?
And of course she had to pick the three most populous countries on the planet!
They could go completely nuclear.
I sighed. Inviting the Heavenly Demon as a guest had been a mistake. Momentary greed had gotten the better of me.
What about Japan's strongest, Wind God?
"I win."
From where I was sitting, the Heavenly Demon didn't even seem to know who any of these people were. She just assumed she'd beat anyone, so she said so.
And honestly… that attitude was a little cool.
There wasn't a flicker of doubt on her face. She genuinely believed she was the strongest in the world.
Will I ever get to be like that someday?
I envied that absolute, unshakable certainty.
Either way, what was done was done. I scrambled to clean it up.
"Of course, you'd have to actually fight to know for sure. More importantly — that wraps up our time with the Heavenly Demon!"
The viewers were pretty disappointed, but they didn't push too hard. Ever since the disciple talk, it felt like the chat had gotten oddly compliant.
And just like that, the Heavenly Demon's first stream came to an end.
You could call it a success, more or less. Peak concurrent viewers had nearly hit a hundred and ten thousand.
But nothing ever came with only upsides.
Her various declarations kicked up a serious storm — and not just in Korea. The whole world took notice.
The Heavenly Demon's remarks left a deep impression on Koreans in particular. A lot of people were genuinely moved by her sheer confidence. Some even said it was pure vicarious satisfaction.
In Korean culture, almost nobody talks like that.
This was a world where a nation's power was measured by the strength of its superhumans. And Korea was not a superhuman powerhouse. There was a reason the whole country had lost its mind when Cheon Gangmok cleared the sixtieth floor.
But things were different now. The sixtieth floor had been cleared, and an S-rank Heavenly Demon had appeared. In that climate, her absolute conviction that she was stronger than anyone else was bound to hit hard.
Her personal fanbase exploded because of it. I even heard a fan club had formed.
In Korea, the Heavenly Demon's attitude was received extremely positively.
Internationally, though, the backlash was much louder.
Specifically from the United States, Japan, India, and China — the four countries that happened to house the superhumans she'd named. And they were among the most influential nations on Earth. Thanks to their collective meltdown, things got pretty annoying.
Why are they raiding my Byeolstar and NewTube?
Those four countries alone had over three billion people. Even if just 0.1 percent of them came after me, it was a massive headache.
America was relatively civil about it. But Japan, China, and India — fellow Asian nations or not — went completely feral. I had to lock down Byeolstar and disable NewTube comments entirely.
Ugh.
Of course, the Heavenly Demon was completely unfazed. She had zero intention of walking anything back.
"You really think you're the strongest?"
"Yes."
"See that lightning over there? That's Thunder God's power, and—"
"I can also discharge lightning from my sword."
"That's not—!"
There was absolutely no world in which this Heavenly Demon would change her tune. An apology was even less likely.
Nothing I can do about it.
It would die down with time. People were creatures of forgetfulness, after all.
Oh — and in exchange, my standing in Korea shot even higher. My NewTube subscriber count exploded past a million.
In the end, nothing was ever all upside or all downside. This was no different. Overseas expansion had hit a temporary wall, but my status in Korea had climbed that much higher.
And the proof of that elevated status was right here.