282. Phantom / Isrilda / Face Genius
282. Phantom / Isrilda / Face Genius
***
A space where curtains blocked out all light.
Softly glowing fixtures decorated the room, and the furniture they illuminated all flaunted luxurious designs and refined elegance, radiating wealth.
And within that space, a man who looked to be in his mid-twenties was staring at a massive monitor.
—Thunk!
The outlaw with a crescent-moon blade buried between his eyes wore an empty expression for an instant before vanishing into light.
And with that, every outlaw who had taken the contract had met their end.
Tap.
Afterward, the dancer lightly straightened her body and landed on the ground, and as her long silver hair scattered elegantly and wrapped around her like a faint haze, the woman naturally swept it back, her very presence exuding a mysterious aura.
"A hidden class obtained from a Great Hero must have something different about it."
The man spoke lightly, tilting the whiskey glass in his hand with an odd expression.
Another World's undisputed rank 2, Phantom.
That was Yoo Kangjun.
Clink!
As he tilted the whiskey glass back, a spherical ice cube struck the glass, and the clear sound spread through the room.
—Viewers, you can all see the experience gauge, right?
After that, no matter what Rin said with a smile, Kangjun remained impassive.
Even though the contract had failed, he hadn't held much expectation from the start, so his disappointment was minimal.
Instead, he slowly closed his eyes and replayed the earlier engagement in fine detail.
......
From Rin's initial counter to the ambush, to the moment the skill landed like a direct hit using the outlaw system.
Then, from the moment the space was dyed pitch-black, the divine presence Rin displayed raised questions he couldn't ignore.
She had used a skill from Moonlight, a Crescent-Moon Weight that didn't even have any listings on the market, but even setting that aside, the strength Rin had shown afterward had reached a level beyond comprehension.
The two outlaws who took the contract might not have been on the same level as 'Lyudmila,' the one contracted last time. But they weren't low-tier outlaws either, and yet it was no different from them being finished off far too easily.
More than the fact that they had lost to Rin, the fact that they had lost so utterly and pointlessly was what surprised him a little.
......
Kangjun opened his eyes softly and watched Rin riding away on an Arianat, a faint smile forming on his lips.
"This could be fun."
The specialness of Rin's current appearance—that she possessed a hidden class like his own.
And on top of that, the fact that she had obtained the first-ever revealed hidden class of the Great Hero Daji only seemed to stoke his curiosity further.
Clink!
Kangjun was tilting his whiskey glass slightly, savoring that distinctive sound, when—
BaTalk!
At the BaTalk notification, he soon saw a message.
Bloody Night.
[I was watching your stream and got interested in Rin. Phantom, would you be willing to match the contract fee? If you are, I think I can work out a plan myself.]
Kangjun stared at the message with an odd expression.
Bloody Night.
Because the message had come from a woman he never would have expected.
A woman who normally brushed off any kind of contact with light dismissals had, for some reason, reached out first.
And with completely unexpected content, at that.
"She's going to turn outlaw because of Rin?"
BaTalk!
BaTalk rang again, and another message appeared.
Bloody Night.
[The contract fee I'll propose is 30 million. If you're willing to match it, send the deposit. The deadline is tomorrow.]
Kangjun looked at the account number below and sent the full amount without a moment's hesitation.
Compared to his wealth, Kangjun's spending was bizarrely concentrated in Another World, so considering his assets, it wasn't even a large expense.
BaTalk!
Bloody Night.
[Hold on, Phantom, I said send a deposit.... I didn't say send all 30 million won?]
Phantom let out a short laugh at the BaTalk message and rose from his seat.
"Bloody Night, huh."
There was no better news than a ranker—not an outlaw—turning outlaw.
And so, just as Phantom was watching Rin and deciding his next destination—
......
At that same moment, another man was watching Rin's stream and deep in thought.
With a neat hairstyle and tidy clothes, a man whose appearance anyone would call handsome was an Another World ranker and a big-name streamer broadcasting on tweetie.
Currently rank 34 in Another World. Nickname Isrilda.
—Black Rock Shooter has sent a huge donation.... Thank you so much.
On screen, Rin was smiling brightly, wearing a captivating smile.
"Was Rin always this big?"
Woobin, who had charged money to donate at the right timing, couldn't help but be newly shocked as he watched a stream where the scale of donations was on another level.
He already knew that the base donation amounts were sums other streamers could only dream of, but now that he was watching the stream this closely, it was astonishing.
Even at the high amount of 50,000 won, donations kept exploding.
So even if he donated at this timing, wouldn't he just get buried immediately? Without realizing it, Woobin was hesitating to donate because of that thought.
And just as he was agonizing—
Ding-a-ling-a-ling!!
『Yoo Eunha donated 1,000,000 won!!』
《Rin, you worked hard. This is a small congratulatory gift.》
The donation message filling the screen and the donor's nickname caught his eye, and Woobin instantly abandoned the idea of clashing through donations.
The donation amount itself was on a different order of magnitude, but the weight carried by those three syllables—'Yoo Eunha'—had an impact that lightly transcended the amount.
[Rin's stream whale has appeared, damn]
[There's a streamer whose top donor is Jeanne d'Arc!?]
[lololol guess Jeanne d'Arc was watching Rin's stream too lololol]
[Wait, playoffs are in two days and she's watching Rin's stream right now?]
[It's Jeanne d'Arc so yeah, makes sense]
[Rin took down two outlaws and now just counting donations, how much is she making;]
[Is a congratulatory gift supposed to be that small...?]
[fr today Rin's donations are going crazy]
Watching the chat instantly flood with Jeanne d'Arc-related messages, Woobin let out an unconscious sigh.
"If I'm really going to donate.... I'll need to steel myself and charge up."
There was no reason he couldn't donate.
He already knew that last week Jeanne d'Arc had donated a massive 10 million won to Rin, and he figured he needed that kind of impact for Rin to properly take notice of him.
But.
—Jeanne d'Arc, thank you so much for the large donation. I heard your scrim preparations have been going well lately—can I look forward to the playoff match on Wednesday?
Rin, showing an even brighter smile because of the donation amount with an extra digit, conveyed her thanks in a gentle voice.
Her bright smile was the kind that could lift your mood just by looking at it, and Rin's appearance was truly beautiful, but—
"That's.... it?"
As if her reaction to a 1 million won donation ended there, Rin immediately moved on to another topic, and it felt surreal.
Woobin felt momentarily at a loss for words.
Assuming he could get a collaboration stream with Rin, was 10 million won worth it? It wasn't bad.
Among the streamers who had risen to the ranks of tweetie's big-name streamers, there were surely several others besides him willing to pay.
But the key issue was that the opportunity was close to a gamble with no guarantee of a collab.
No matter how established a big-name streamer he was now, 10 million won was not a small amount.
Watching Rin's stream now, he was being shocked in a different sense.
'Is her reaction really just that?'
The person who had just donated was none other than the pro player 'Jeanne d'Arc.'
A superstar whom streamers longed to meet even once, whose personal fan count alone exceeded a million.
As an Another World ranker, Woobin couldn't not know Jeanne d'Arc's standing.
And yet, despite receiving a donation from such an incredible pro player—and a massive 1 million won donation at that—
As far as Woobin could see, Rin had no donation reaction to speak of.
Moreover, it wasn't just about Jeanne d'Arc's donation.
In a sense, Rin's reactions were so consistent you could call her fair.
No matter what amount of donation had gone off so far, Rin simply smiled and said thank you, and that was it.
Only the degree of her smile differed; to Woobin, it looked like she was dismissing everything with a single word of thanks.
"Even if I donated 10 million won right now..."
Woobin, muttering blankly, could already predict Rin's reaction.
—Isrilda has donated 10 million won.... Thank you so much. Oh, you're another streamer? Even more thanks. I'll think about the collab in a positive light too.
With a radiant smile that seemed to brighten the world, she would make a captivating expression with that beautiful face.
'But that would be the end of it.'
He could picture Rin immediately moving on to another topic of conversation.
Park Woobin, despite being a big-name tweetie streamer, ultimately couldn't bring himself to donate in Rin's stream.
And just as he was being shocked in a different sense while watching Rin's stream—
......
A man with an appearance so dazzling anyone would notice was watching Rin's stream with shining eyes.
A man whose value as an actor was soaring sky-high in the entertainment industry, known by the epithet "Face Genius."
That was Seo Eunwoo.
A drama released on Beplix a few days ago.
'A Thousand Faces' had become a massive hit beyond all imagination.
It had charted on various overseas Beplix rankings, and even now the drama's popularity was rising day by day.
Seo Eunwoo, the lead actor of A Thousand Faces, was riding that wave to ever-greater fame.
And so even SJ, the giant agency, couldn't refuse to listen to him.
The news that the agency had arranged a collaboration stream with Rin over the past weekend had already been delivered to Seo Eunwoo.
Watching Rin's stream as she headed to her next hunting ground, Seo Eunwoo smiled faintly.
"A mythic item, huh."
Rin's voice, lamenting that she wanted it but couldn't have it.
The moment he heard her voice, the upcoming collab this week came to mind.
Because he now had a sense of what he needed to prepare.
And on top of that, Jeanne d'Arc's donation that had gone off midway was more than enough to leave Seo Eunwoo satisfied.
Clench.
Clenching his hand lightly, he felt himself looking forward even more to Wednesday, when he would actually get to talk with Rin.
"Well, it's expensive, but..."
Still, it wasn't an item beyond his means to purchase.