Chapter 201
Chapter 201
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 201
Chapter Title: Streamer Lee Soo-hyuk Fights Valiantly Against the Heavenly Demon, But Suffers Inevitable Defeat...
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Tak-.
Beep-beep-beep-.
The finished article uploads. Big Mouth, having written it up quickly, lightly stretched his fingers.
Right after upload, the views climb in real time. With the article on Lee Soo-hyuk from the day before still fresh, interest was even higher than usual.
'He really delivered.'
He had announced he would stir up some trouble. But who would have thought it meant a showdown with the Heavenly Demon.
Until then, he had briefly regretted grabbing the rotten rope handed down by that madman.
No matter how much he kept winning without fear, how could anyone think of fighting the Heavenly Demon?
But the result was completely unexpected.
As if to say I told you so, but Hawk's Eye's voice was clearly trembling.
The impact Lee Soo-hyuk showed today was too great for him to boast triumphantly about being right all along.
Sizzle-.
Big Mouth silently lit a cigarette.
Taking a deep drag of nicotine to numb his brain, the pounding in his chest from watching the match finally began to subside a bit.
Only after that did he respond to Hawk's Eye.
"...Let's do a collab stream soon."
"Yes. I need to join Hawk's Eye's stream content too."
Taking another deep drag, Big Mouth exhaled his next line with the smoke.
"I'll head over as soon as the interview with Soo-hyuk is done, so get ready."
It was more of a notification than a suggestion, but it didn't feel bad. No, it felt good.
Anything related to Lee Soo-hyuk, he had to do.
With that, the calculations in Big Mouth's head restarted.
The first match of the showdown was over.
Due to Murim and Blue Zone weakening, there were some changes, but most of the expected participants advanced as planned.
The top traveler Ripley, Lukan's Mercenary King Bamael, Loyalty Guild's Legion Commander U Se-hyeon...
And many other famous rankers climbed up.
But there was an upset.
A massive one at that.
"I'm out."
It was the Heavenly Demon forfeiting after passing the first match.
"I have no interest in kids' games."
Dismissing countless rankers as kids, he vanished.
The guilds that had been bracing for a fight with the Heavenly Demon felt a mix of emptiness and relief.
Some guilds that had assumed the Heavenly Demon would win anyway now had a chance at the championship again.
Meanwhile, they speculated on why the Heavenly Demon forfeited.
"Is he injured?"
"He fought Lee Soo-hyuk, so maybe."
"Injured? Didn't you see that last bit?"
"...True."
"He suddenly enters and immediately forfeits."
"Did he achieve his goal?"
Various guesses flew, but they all boiled down to one name: Lee Soo-hyuk.
The Heavenly Demon's return to the showdown after years. Followed by the sudden forfeit.
And the only match the Heavenly Demon played in the showdown was against Lee Soo-hyuk.
"Have you made contact with Lee Soo-hyuk?"
As Lee Soo-hyuk's stock rose, Namgung Hwa-young grew impatient.
She had planned to approach quietly after the match, but his performance made that impossible.
"He's... unconscious right now."
"Unconscious?"
"Yes."
"He didn't fight in the field, and he lost the match, but unconscious?"
Namgung Hwa-young furrowed her brow at the report from her subordinate who had also participated.
It's not unheard of for players to faint after experiencing death in trials.
Players with weak mental fortitude sometimes couldn't handle the shock and passed out.
But that was only for beginners who hadn't climbed far.
"We checked, and he's never died in a trial before."
"Not once?"
"Yes. This was his first death."
"...I see. Still weird."
That made sense. Namgung Hwa-young nodded.
Never failing once up to the 8th floor.
She had never considered such a case.
Of course, even so, it was odd.
Neither she nor most rankers fainted from dying in trials.
Rankers had not just skill, but iron wills to reach that position.
'Surprisingly weak mentally?'
Namgung Hwa-young's evaluation of Lee Soo-hyuk dropped a notch.
If he was just skilled in combat but had such fragile mentality.
'He won't become the real Lee Soo-hyuk.'
It felt like lying on clouds.
He realized his consciousness had been hazy for quite a while.
He didn't know exactly how long, but it wasn't just a day or two.
'Feels like I really died.'
Others might not know what dying feels like, but Soo-hyuk did. And this sensation was eerily similar to the death he had experienced once before.
How long had his body floated like that?
With the sensation of stepping on firm clouds, his vision returned.
"...Huh?"
Crackle, crackle-.
Unlike the soft sensation, where Soo-hyuk stood was a total mess.
Everything was burning, the sky darkened by thick black smoke.
Around him lay corpses. All charred black.
Sizzle-.
Lightning leaked from his fingertips.
Mana boiled inside, lightning raging. Startled by the uncontrolled output, he stepped back, and lightning burst from his fingers.
Kaboom-!
Crack-!
The lightning snapped a precariously shaking tree. Flames erupted from the tree again at the power.
Soo-hyuk's eyes shook.
This was a scene he had created.
'Did I... kill them all?'
The thought hit him.
He had no memory, but the evidence was too clear.
As his mind reeled in shock, a voice came from underfoot.
"Soo... hyuk..."
His eyelids trembled.
It was a dying voice, but unmistakable. Hwang Kyu-seong's.
"Why... us...?"
Looking down, he saw Hwang Kyu-seong's face half-burned.
Next to him, Si-woo and Ye-ryeong. And other friends' faces too.
"Aaaah!"
He screamed and bolted upright.
It was a bed. More than wondering where he was, relief that the nightmare wasn't real washed over him first.
'A dream... just a dream?'
He frantically patted his body. No traces.
Normally, he would brush it off as a nightmare.
But it was too vivid to dismiss as just a dream.
As if such a world existed, and he had visited it briefly.
"In that place, I killed countless lives."
Thor's words came to mind.
In the memory of thunder. There, Thor massacred countless humans.
If what he just saw was what Thor experienced?
He didn't want to imagine. Even a brief moment was torment; hundreds of years of it?
"Now I get why he called it salvation."
He had mumbled aloud without realizing, then noticed the chat belatedly. Right, he passed out without ending the stream.
No one around. Only viewers could fill him in.
"How long was I out?"
"...Three days?"
He thought it was a joke, but the following chats said otherwise. Three days was long enough for the showdown to end.
"Who won? The Heavenly Demon as expected?"
'Heavenly Demon forfeited?'
He wouldn't have run scared. So he achieved his initial goal.
'To fight me, really?'
Jin Ha-ryeong's telepathic words resurfaced. He spoke as if certain Soo-hyuk was the real one.
Maybe he really figured it out.
Soo-hyuk was the first and last to defeat Jin Ha-ryeong, so the Heavenly Demon had a strong fixation on player Lee Soo-hyuk.
'Or because of injuries?'
The thought crossed briefly.
Fighting Murim and Blue Zone, Jin Ha-ryeong took significant damage.
Current Soo-hyuk aside, could he face Hiles in that state? Hard to be sure.
'...No. Not the type to run from that.'
The Heavenly Demon's true intentions could only be known by asking him directly. Pointless anyway; nothing to gain.
"...I lost, huh."
He hadn't started with winning in mind, but suddenly realized.
How long since he lost in the showdown? First match elimination too. First time ever.
"Kinda disappointing."
It was absurd enough. Soo-hyuk chose Heavenly Demon as first opponent; suicide to anyone watching.
Performance exceeded expectations, but that's it.
No one expected a win.
Yet Soo-hyuk continued as if genuinely upset.
"My heart hurts, so stream ends here."
[User 'Lee Soo-hyuk' has ended the stream.]
He ended it quickly. It was just continuing from his blackout anyway.
Checking the date on his kit, three days had indeed passed. Late evening too.
'Messages...'
Because he was out so long?
Piles of messages. Hawk's Eye, Pak Soo-hyuk, Big Mouth, Unhyang, John Tail.
Struck him how many new people he'd met. First, Unhyang's.
Come to think, she who was always by his side was missing.
Messages kept piling after. Lots to say over days.
Viewers hit 500k, fought Cheongryang. No reason given.
Soo-hyuk's gaze lingered on 'Murim Alliance Lord'.
'The Murim Alliance Lord wants to see me?'