The God of Control's One-Coin Clear: Demon King Belial (2)
Even after the broadcast ended, Hyeonhye watched the chat window continue to scroll downward and muttered to herself.
“Ha. Maybe I really do need to hire a manager.”
The average viewer count for Taeyang’s stream had long since passed ten thousand and was now closing in on twenty thousand.
It had even exceeded fifty thousand when he took down the mad swordsman.
That was why the chat was flooded with bizarre messages and ones completely unrelated to the game.
“……Should I just switch it to private?”
After thinking for a moment, Hyeonhye shook her head.
There were clear downsides, but cases like KK and Honor had proven the upside was real.
Even one or two helpful tips like that made running the stream worth it.
For Taeyang, who was staking his life on every run, even the smallest tip was worth its weight in gold.
“If I’m going to hire help, how many people would I even need?”
A stream of this scale still felt foreign to Hyeonhye, despite all her accumulated experience.
Right then—
Viiiing.
Her smartphone began to ring.
A quick glance at the screen showed eleven naked digits staring back at her.
A number not saved in her contacts.
“Again.”
She didn’t need to pick up to know what it was.
An MCN scouting call, another internet broadcaster, or some other media creator. Or maybe an old friend who was broke.
If it was an old friend, the odds were high she wouldn’t even remember their face.
These days her phone never got a moment of peace.
She used to get plenty of calls before, but now the battery was dying from the sheer volume of calls she refused to answer.
“I should just get a second one.”
Why do I have to suffer like this just because of Taeyang?
Hyeonhye grumbled.
In truth, she wasn’t really in a position to complain.
She was earning money from Taeyang’s stream too.
Although the channel was registered under his name, she held a share of the raw footage.
Hyeonhye edited the clips and uploaded them to video platforms, turning them into steady revenue.
If not for that income, she wouldn’t have been able to stay glued to his side all day supporting the broadcast.
“It actually stings my pride a little that I’m earning more than him lately.”
Hyeonhye suddenly glanced toward the capsule.
Taeyang lay inside it like a corpse.
Her eyes darkened.
When the monstrous bird Stan’s talons had pierced him. When the mad swordsman’s blade had stabbed through his abdomen.
Every time he took damage in battle.
Each instance sent groans tearing out of him inside the capsule.
Sometimes the pod itself would rattle from the violence of his shaking.
“Will he be able to endure it? He has to endure……”
Hyeonhye let out a heavy sigh without realizing it.
The category Belial offered changed its list with every round.
It even refreshed at fixed intervals.
Countless players who had overcome hardship and adversity clutched their heads in front of that list.
Is this the item I need most?
What if something better appears? Should I wait?
If I choose this, can I even survive the stage that comes after?
It was difficult to stay rational in the face of greed and cold reality.
That was why Taeyang had deliberately avoided looking at the category before entering the room.
He knew that once he saw it, he would waste his precious rest time worrying.
After resting properly, Taeyang came down to the pub. Belial greeted him with a smile.
“Did you wait for me all night?”
“Would I have?”
Belial gave him a smile full of hidden meaning.
Yeah, that would be ridiculous.
Taeyang suddenly fell into thought about the mechanics of the space-overlap magic.
In all these overlapping spaces, were every single Belial real?
Or were they dummies?
Of course, no matter how much he pondered it, an amateur like him who knew nothing about magic or Dantalion’s system could never reach a real answer.
“Ugh.”
Soon Ran appeared, clutching her head.
Her face was pale, with deep shadows under her eyes.
It was obvious at a glance that she had stayed up all night agonizing over the category.
Taeyang asked Ran quietly.
“Have you decided?”
“Not yet.”
See? Just as I thought.
Taeyang inwardly praised his own wise decision to enter the room without looking at the category, then accepted the list from Belial.
“Please choose carefully. There are no take-backs.”
“Ah, yes.”
Taeyang opened the category while only half-listening to that seductive voice.
Flip, flip, flip.
Even a cursory glance revealed item names that could make anyone’s eyes spin.
Every piece of equipment was high-tier artifact level, and Unique-grade cards appeared frequently.
“No Legend-grade, huh.”
“Legend-grade cards aren’t something even Demon Kings can casually hand out.”
Legend grade.
The highest rank in Dantalion.
Officially, no user had ever possessed a Legend-grade card.
Ah, the number one ranked user, KK, had come closest.
The episode where his NPC comrade stabbed him in the back and stole the card had flipped the entire gaming community upside down. The memory still lingered faintly in Taeyang’s mind.
Damn.
That was probably around the time I won my third King of Fist world championship.
Before scanning the category, Taeyang first opened his status window.
Achievements (31):Solo Player, Perfect Clear (No Hit)
Owned Gold:151
Blood Qi Filling the Heavens: Numbs pain and strengthens overall body functions.
Power of Regeneration: Gain the giant serpent Aksharon’s regenerative power for 3 seconds. (Cooldown 1,200 seconds)
Stormbringer: Summons a storm. The Wind Spirit King Arasil descends upon player Yoon Taeyang’s body. (Cooldown 48 hours)
“Looking at it now, the Monk’s Belt, Power of Regeneration, and Blood-devouring Katana are all tightly linked.”
Removing just one would erase two or even three synergies.
That was another factor he had to consider.
Simply swapping in a higher-grade card didn’t automatically mean an increase in overall power.
While skill and equipment performance were important in combat, synergies were equally critical.
“I should probably start by assuming I’ll remove the Earring of Conviction and look from there, right?”
“Divinity synergy is so rare and efficient that it feels a little wasteful to give it up.”
The synergies Taeyang currently possessed were perfectly balanced at multiples of two and four with nothing wasted.
Because of that, finding a card that could provide immediate combat strength was surprisingly difficult.
It was also rare to find a single card carrying two synergies like Regeneration or Stormbringer.
Bana has sponsored 10,000 won!
Hero synergy would be really good if we could match that too.
Hero synergy.
If the total enemy stats exceeded the player’s total stats, all stats increased by fifty percent.
In other words, an underdog synergy.
It offered an absurd conditional boost, which naturally made it extremely difficult to obtain.
It was as rare as Divinity synergy, and unlike simple stat synergies like Strength or Agility, it required three stacks before it activated.
“Looking at the long term, securing one card with Hero synergy wouldn’t be a bad idea.”
Taeyang, Hyeonhye, the few veteran viewers, and the rest of the chat put their heads together and began filtering through the category list one by one.
In the end, three options remained.
◈ Shadow-merge function that blocks rear attacks
◈ Berserker synergy is very attractive
◈ Grants mental barrier against magic and curses
◈ Extremely rare synergy combination
◈ Long-term value is enormous
◈ Difficulty is similar to Unique-grade stages
The second option, Fragment of Radiance.
A normal-grade card carrying two rare synergies—Divinity and Hero.
It looked extremely efficient at first glance.
Equipping it would also create a mental barrier, granting some resistance against magical and curse-based mental attacks.
Although Taeyang excelled at physical combat, he still lacked knowledge and intuition regarding magic and curses, so preparing against those was not a bad idea.
And finally, the Slot Expansion Ticket.
This was an item that appeared quite frequently in Belial’s category.
Most other items rarely reappeared once they passed by, but this ticket was an exception.
“This one is seriously worth considering.”
If they passed on the ticket now, the next chance wouldn’t appear until after the fifteenth floor.
In the long run, opening a slot now might actually be the wiser choice.
In reality, the selection rate for slot expansion tickets among users was abysmal.
That was only natural.
The seventh-floor stage Belial guaranteed was an opportunity to obtain at least Rare or Unique-grade cards.
Giving up immediate power to secure the future when survival was already difficult in the next stage or the one after that?
It was like a day laborer choosing to put money into a ten-year savings plan instead of eating today.
Moreover, the difficulty of the slot expansion ticket was similar to that of choosing a Unique-grade card.
In other words, insanely hard.
After agonizing for a while, Taeyang asked Ran.
“Have you chosen?”
“Yeah, I’ve roughly decided. What about you?”
“Me too.”
Belial asked the two of them.
“Will you be challenging the next stage together?”
“Yes.”
Ran answered first and then glanced at Taeyang.
He nodded as well.
He had brought her along precisely because he thought they would work well together.
“Then the two of you will be assigned to the trial of whoever chooses the higher-grade card. Is that acceptable?”
At Belial’s question, Taeyang let out a small laugh.
It was a consideration uncharacteristic of a Demon King.
Ran asked Taeyang.
“What grade did you pick?”
“You went with Unique, didn’t you?”
“Huh? Yeah. How did you know?”
Seeing something beautiful naturally makes one desire it.
The ancients really knew what they were talking about.
“Then there’s nothing to worry about.”
Of course, that didn’t mean Taeyang himself was exempt from the danger.