Chapter 217
Chapter 217
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 217
Chapter Title: Ta-da! Beauty Manager Appears!
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“Ta-da! Beauty manager appears!”
“Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. I was worried I'd get hate for pulling aggro with the stream title.”
“Yeah, I am a genius. Quite a few of you have heard the rumors.”
Unhyang was smiling on the screen.
As she gave the edited video a final check, Unhyang felt her heart pounding.
‘...Not as bad as I thought.’
Back then, her mind had gone completely blank, and she hadn't even known what she was saying or how.
It felt half like incoherent rambling, but on video, it actually came across pretty smoothly.
At least it didn't look awkward.
“I don't get along with my sect.”
A story she couldn't easily confide in anyone.
Yet here she was, saying it in front of hundreds of thousands of people.
Thump, thump. Her heart beat even harder.
Once this video went up, even more people would learn about her existence.
-Can you really handle it?
It felt like another voice inside her was speaking up.
-They're all liking you now, but once they learn everything about you...
But before that voice could finish.
Squeeze-.
Unhyang suddenly hit the button floating on the screen.
[Video uploaded.]
“Argh.”
Whoosh- thump.
The kit she half-tossed clattered upside down onto the floor.
“I'm done now.”
Having done the deed, Unhyang flopped down right there. What was done was done; spilled water couldn't be gathered back up.
Just the live stream viewers numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Unless she could seal all their eyes and mouths, it was only a matter of fast or slow— the whole world would learn about Unhyang eventually.
In that case, better to upload the video and let even more people see it. If the water's spilled, might as well make a pond out of it.
She lay on the floor with her eyes squeezed shut for a while. But even that didn't calm her heart.
Bzzz, bzzzz-.
The kit kept vibrating nonstop. Comments were pouring in on the uploaded video.
How could she possibly calm down like this?
“Ugh.”
Unhyang, who had been listening to the vibrations for a while, suddenly jumped to her feet.
Of course, she headed straight for Soo-hyuk.
Thick fog so dense it was hard to gauge the width.
Soo-hyuk was trapped inside the formation array Jin-un had set up.
Jin-un's formations always felt utterly real, no matter how many times you entered them. They tricked temperature and humidity, scents, all five senses—and even intuition beyond that.
‘Feels just like clouds.’
When you really thought about it, fog and clouds weren't that different. Fog if it was on the ground you stood on, clouds if it was floating white in the sky.
Crackle-.
Soo-hyuk gazed at the electric currents spreading through the surroundings.
It was a controlled environment, but even so, spreading lightning across such a vast area didn't tire him out much.
‘Lightning really is influenced a lot by the environment.’
The tiny water droplets and crystals in the fog and clouds amplified lightning's power even further.
Soo-hyuk didn't have much time.
He'd gotten a special chance with reincarnation, but as payment, he'd fallen 20 years behind.
He'd fought the Heavenly Demon in this interdimensional war and met Hielz.
Catching up to them through normal means wouldn't be easy.
On top of that, getting Hyo-min back from those Blue Zone bastards would take far too much time.
So he'd thought of ways to shorten it.
A way to grow stronger while conserving stamina.
‘If only I could create this environment myself.’
Rumble-.
Even with far less mana than usual, he could produce thunder this loud.
It made him greedy.
If he could make fog and clouds, he could boost his specs without risking lightning's stamina drain.
“There you are.”
Crackle-.
The fog shattered, ripples spreading out.
A section of space cracked like glass, and Unhyang appeared.
Seeing her burst in so dramatically, one scene overlapped in Soo-hyuk's mind.
‘Come to think of it, she broke through Hielz's magic too.’
First the grand mage's spells, now Jin-un's formation array.
Could he do the same?
He knew the answer just from thinking about it briefly: no.
Unhyang still had hidden cards up her sleeve. What he'd seen so far was just the tip of the iceberg.
“What're you thinking so hard about?”
Soo-hyuk answered Unhyang's question now that she'd found him.
“The usual.”
“What's the usual?”
“How to tackle the next trial, how to use lightning more efficiently, that sort of thing.”
Unhyang blinked at Soo-hyuk's reply.
A question mark practically floated over her expression, prompting Soo-hyuk to ask.
“Why the face?”
“Just... I didn't realize you had ordinary worries like that too, Soo-hyuk.”
Soo-hyuk's concerns were the same commonplace ones most players had.
Worries about the next trial. Worries about getting stronger.
But the Soo-hyuk Unhyang had seen so far seemed distant from such mundane frets.
“No matter how I look, I'm just a player too.”
Sharp as ever.
He couldn't say it all, but she'd seen right through him.
In truth, Soo-hyuk had never worried or stressed about the next trial before now.
Up till then, it was all places he'd reached in his previous life anyway.
But the 8th floor was different.
Back then, he hadn't been able to take the 8th floor trial. Because of the 'guardian' he had to face first.
The 8th floor guardian, Hydra.
Right after the fight with it ended, Lee Soo-hyuk vanished from this world.
‘It's not just the trial.’
“Do you... remember? The 'thing that'll start someday.’”
“If you get the chance... meet the Three Demons. Then... you might understand.”
Before dying, Hwang Gyu-seong had left those parting words.
If they were true, Soo-hyuk had to meet the Three Demons ahead, rescue Hyo-min, find Ye-ryeong and Si-woo, and at the end, extract payback from Kim Il-su.
Mountains of things to do.
He was still sorely lacking for all that.
“So why'd you come? You went through the trouble, so it's not just a casual visit.”
“Just came to see.”
“Not 'cause you had something to say?”
“Something to say...”
Unhyang trailed off, unable to deny it.
She'd come to Soo-hyuk to ease her anxiety a bit, but it wasn't like she had nothing to say.
“Actually, I'm the daughter of the Heavenly Demon.”
Why was this one sentence so hard to get out?
Jin-un had said it'd be fine. That Soo-hyuk didn't fear the Heavenly Demon. And from what Unhyang had seen, it seemed true.
But now that she was steeling herself to tell him, she got it.
She could tell Jin-un because he was the first person she'd met.
Secrets were harder to share precisely with people you liked.
“Um... that is...”
As she hemmed and hawed for a while.
“Hanging out here, huh.”
Crackle-.
Jin-un tore through the formation just like Unhyang and entered the space with the two of them.
“What're you two up to?”
“Thinking about how to get stronger.”
“Is that all that's in your head?”
“Where've you been?”
Ignoring Jin-un's exasperated tone, Soo-hyuk lobbed the question.
Jin-un had been gone from the house for days without a word.
“Did some cleanup after some guys.”
“Uncheon-geuk?”
Jin-un's eyes flashed at Soo-hyuk's guess.
“You knew?”
“Figured as much. You vanished suddenly.”
It was just a hunch, but he'd nailed it on the first try. Meaning Soo-hyuk had Uncheon-geuk constantly in mind.
“Went to help, but it was pointless.”
“Why? Things didn't go well?”
Jin-un shook his head at Unhyang's anxious question.
“Nah. No need. You two already handled it.”
“Then...”
“Looks like we're good for a while.”
Unhyang's face lit up at the answer.
“Yes! We're good, Soo-hyuk!”
Unhyang hopped in joy. Seeing her so elated, like she might fly away, Soo-hyuk felt relieved.
‘It worked.’
If this stream hadn't panned out, it'd have been all-out war with Uncheon-geuk. And that wasn't a scenario Soo-hyuk relished either.
Deputy Castle Lord Baek Yi-dan and Castle Lord Uncheon-geuk were worlds apart. The second-in-command of the massive Murim world hadn't earned his spot for nothing.
With a breather now, Soo-hyuk turned to Jin-un.
“Can I ask one favor?”
“Again?”
Jin-un's face twisted.
Fair enough—he'd already shouldered way too much as it was.
They had some shame left; one-sided requests wouldn't fly anymore.
“If I can pay in points, I will. Otherwise, I'll owe you one and return the favor later.”
Jin-un's eyes gleamed intensely for a moment at Soo-hyuk's offer.
“You think you know what I'd ask?”
His look screamed, You couldn't even imagine.
But Soo-hyuk already knew what request Jin-un had in mind.
“If it's tough, we can call this one a wrap.”
“Talking like you'd grant even hard ones.”
Unhyang, stuck between them, stomped her feet.
From yesterday's events, she knew what favor Jin-un had in mind too.
He still harbored grudge against the Heavenly Demon. And Jin-un wanted someone—anyone—to avenge what he couldn't.
If it was Soo-hyuk.
If it was some future Soo-hyuk, it might even be possible.
“And if I said yes?”
“I'd take it.”
Jin-un grinned meaningfully.
“Fine, what's the favor?”
“This.”
Soo-hyuk pointed at the fog surrounding him.
“How do you make it?”
Soo-hyuk immediately began learning the formation array from Jin-un.
Day and night meant nothing to the two. Like time was of the essence, Soo-hyuk scrimped even on sleep to immerse himself in the arrays.
Unhyang wasn't wasting time either.
Late into the night when everyone slept.
In one corner of the estate, Unhyang stood with her sword drawn.
Hiss-.
A dark red aura flowed from her body like heat haze.
Now as familiar as her own limbs. It felt like something wrapped around her hand, gripping the sword alongside her.
The moment the aura began to take shape, Unhyang's closed eyes snapped open.
“Haa, ha-.”
The gathered aura scattered. Strength drained from her body, and she collapsed to the spot.
Sweat poured like rain. Her stomach churned like she might vomit.
‘Just one step more.’
Crunch. She bit her lip.
She was almost there. Within arm's reach.
It wasn't that she couldn't touch it. She just wasn't trying to.
But some things you knew didn't work no matter what. Because she knew that crossing this line meant no turning back.
People don't change overnight. Fear and terror aren't overcome in a flash either.
What she needed now was effort and training, nothing else.
As Unhyang, slumped on the ground, tried to rise using her sword as a cane.
“Still afraid, I see.”
Stiffen-.
Her body froze.
A voice that absolutely shouldn't be here rang from above her head.
She slowly raised her bowed head. That instant, the face from her dreams appeared before Unhyang's eyes.
“Heaven...ly Demon.”