The Expert's Method (4)
From afar, the elf Isilen had been watching the fight unfold.
What is he doing?
She simply couldn’t set the question aside.
She had witnessed humans throwing themselves into foolish battles more times than she could count, but this? This was excessive.
Why are they suddenly fighting each other?
To her eyes, the scene looked utterly bizarre. Thanks to the wisdom that came with centuries of life, the narrative trick woven into the mask had no effect on her.
They were on friendly terms just moments ago.
The two who had been chatting like old friends were now spilling blood. The real issue, however, was how absurd the fight itself looked.
This doesn’t even seem like a real fight… Is this training?
One side held an overwhelming advantage and was clearly holding back. If the stronger fighter had truly wanted to, he could have killed the other dozens of times over. This had gone beyond mercy; it was practically a lesson.
After watching the bout to its conclusion, Isilen gave a small nod.
As I thought.
It’s training.
She understood now. This was simply how humans trained one another. The process here was a little harsher than what she was used to, but the principle remained the same: the overwhelmingly strong beat the weak until the lesson sank in.
Then the man the World Tree showed me…
At first Isilen had not been entirely convinced by the revelation. Prophecies were always vague. She had even wondered whether the man standing beside her might be the one it referred to. But now she was certain.
The man in the prophecy was the porter.
The figures who appeared in such revelations were what humans called heroes. Heroes were the Demon King’s natural enemies, blessed with immense power. They received the world’s favoritism and countless gifts from the gods. They were special.
That overwhelming strength, that mysterious warm aura…
There’s no doubt.
That man was a hero.
But then…
What is he doing?
The hero had subdued the man wrapped in flames and made a stylish exit, only to say, “Get stronger and come back,” before walking away and suddenly breaking into a run.
Human eyes would never have caught it from this distance, but an elf’s vision, enhanced by mana, could zoom in with perfect clarity.
Tap tap tap tap!
The hero was sprinting somewhere in a hurry. Did he have an emergency?
Hmm?
If it was urgent, shouldn’t he head straight there? Instead he was looping back around. And now he had removed the mask and changed his clothes.
“Huff… huff…”
The hero panted heavily as he held out his hand.
“Um, Miss Elf? You wouldn’t happen to have any… potions, would you?”
“Potion?”
Isilen tilted her head.
“Don’t you have any?”
Junil asked again, just to be sure. He hadn’t expected her to be without one.
“I need treatment… urgently.”
He had said “potion” for the Constellations’ sake, but what he truly wanted was something else entirely—the substance elves created by periodically purifying mana-infused poisonous herbs.
An elixir.
The Constellations assumed he was simply asking for something he had seen in games.
Ah. Treatment.
Isilen understood.
He must mean an elixir.
Even so, asking for an elixir so boldly? What an insolent human. Creating even one required what elves considered “an age.” To humans, that could easily mean an entire lifetime without ever seeing one.
“I don’t give these to just anyone, but…”
Still, this man was a hero. The World Tree had chosen him, and he basked in the gods’ favor.
Junil was about to offer gold when his eyes widened.
An elixir?
He had asked for a potion and received something far superior.
“Here. Just take it.”
“…?”
She was giving it for free?
“You’re just… giving it to me?”
“Yes.”
Isilen shook the vial again. The contents made a clear, liquid sound.
Shimmering ruby crystals that seemed both liquid and solid at once.
It really is an elixir.
“Th… thank you.”
“Come visit often.”
Isilen spoke like some venerable elder of a great house. Which made sense—she truly was one.
“…Of course.”
Junil nodded with proper respect.
“Come by and we can forage for mushrooms togeth—”
“Aaaaaah!”
“?”
“I have an urgent matter to attend to!”
Junil bolted away like he was fleeing for his life, rushing back toward Kang Hae-il. Isilen watched his retreating figure with faint regret, as if the short conversation had been too brief.
It was hot.
The first sensation that hit him the moment he opened his eyes was heat. It was almost comical that someone who could engulf his entire body in flames would feel hot, yet here he was—burning up like he had come down with a childhood fever.
The sky was pitch black. No, the entire world was darkness.
Darkness. That was his color. The man who wrapped his whole body in black and wore a black cat mask…
Watch the expert’s method closely.
Sagosul.
That bastard’s figure flickered before him.
“Ugh…! Urgh…!”
Just thinking about Sagosul made his body convulse with pain. It was an excruciating agony that felt like it was crushing his nerves. Perhaps it wasn’t even physical pain.
I couldn’t even touch him.
Even though he had been granted S-rank potential, he couldn’t lay a finger on the enemy who had killed his father.
Kang Hae-il. You really are an amateur.
Maybe the man had been right. He only had S-rank potential by sheer luck. He had only ever killed monsters. Killing a person? If it hadn’t been for his father’s grudge, he would never have even considered it.
But the other man? He treated human lives as less than those of flies. He had calmly decided to save only his own carriage during the Fourth Line incident. He had killed the man sending distress signals from the rooftop without hesitation, and when he cut down the ragdoll golem there had been no pause at all.
But…
It was strange.
Why didn’t he kill me?
He had deliberately spared Kang Hae-il.
Once again, Sagosul’s figure spoke in his mind.
Get stronger and come back.
It was a truly bizarre thing to say. Why tell him to get stronger and return? Did he have a death wish?
What the hell…
Either the man was truly insane and toying with him, or there was some deeper story involved. In the unconscious world, the mask on Sagosul’s face twisted into a smirk.
Crack.
Kang Hae-il ground his teeth.
Story? Don’t get soft.
He would definitely kill him. Fine. Just as you said, I’ll get stronger and come back.
“…Come back…”
Only then did the pitch-black world begin to regain light. In truth, Kang Hae-il’s eyes were only now truly opening.
The sky was still blue, the graveyard grass still vivid. And someone was looking down at him.
“…Come back…”
Get stronger and come back?
With those words echoing in his head, Kang Hae-il shot upright.
Whoosh!
“Whoa. You’re finally awake?”
The other person quickly dodged to avoid a headbutt and asked.
“…You.”
It wasn’t Sagosul.
“Porter?”
The F-rank porter. Moon Junil.
Junil scratched the back of his head and answered.
“Yeah… I’m the porter. Hyung, I’m sorry I couldn’t help you fight.”
Junil had been about to make an excuse for running away, but—
“What are you doing here?”
Kang Hae-il seemed to think running away had been the obvious choice.
“Huh?”
“You’re F-rank. You have no combat ability. Why didn’t you run away?”
“I did run away. Then I came back.”
“What? Why? It’s dangerous. That guy is still—”
Kang Hae-il tried to stand, thinking Sagosul might still be nearby, but of course he wasn’t.
The man in front of him was Sagosul.
“…Did he leave?”
“You mean that masked lunatic?”
“Yeah…”
“He left. Struck a big pose and disappeared.”
“You ran away but still managed to watch him?”
“I watched from far away.”
“Ha. Then you saw everything.”
Kang Hae-il seemed bothered that the porter had witnessed his miserable defeat. His expression turned slightly bitter.
“But I didn’t just run away.”
Shimmer.
Junil shook the elixir.
“I brought this back.”
“…?”
Hae-il tilted his head.
“What is that?”
“A potion.”
“A potion…? Like the ones from games?”
“Yes.”
“Those actually exist?”
“It really healed me.”
“!”
Realization struck. Hae-il looked down at his own body. It was spotless. His clothes were torn, but there wasn’t a single wound left.
“You…?”
“That’s right.”
Junil nodded as if to say he had done it.
“Where did you get it?”
“I told you I’m close with the elf. Once we got friendly, she just gave me one.”
“That’s impressive.”
Kang Hae-il was sincere. This guy might be useless in a fight, but his abilities were outstanding.
No wonder he got first place in contribution.
The man even the Champion Goblin Dungeon had acknowledged. Moon Junil.
“As expected, ranks are just…”
“Numbers.”
“!”
Kang Hae-il’s eyes widened. It was the first time someone had finished his signature line for him.
“Thanks.”
Whether he was thanking him for finishing the line or for the treatment, it was hard to tell. Junil didn’t particularly care and simply handed over the elixir.
“Take this with you.”
“…Me? Isn’t this valuable?”
“An S-rank body is more valuable. You have to save the world.”
He had just said ranks were just numbers, yet here he was contradicting himself seconds later.
“…Got it.”
Kang Hae-il nodded and accepted it.
“Thank you. I’ll definitely repay this favor.”
The Constellations burst into laughter at Kang Hae-il’s behavior. Of course, the ones reacting with such ease and amusement were Junil’s viewers. The main channel was a completely different story.
A full-scale war had broken out in the chat. While there was one dominant theory, the closer you looked, the more the Constellations’ viewing habits differed. Some examined every detail like they were looking through a magnifying glass, while others only half-watched with sideways glances.
Because of this, the majority refused to connect the dots that the porter Moon Junil was Sagosul. Many Constellations only watched the story in fragments to begin with. Even those who had seen it had low insight and fell for the narrative trick mask. Even though the mask’s effect shouldn’t work on Constellations, they were fooled simply because the outward appearance looked different.
It was only natural that conflict would arise among the Constellations. To those who had seen the truth clearly, the man who had brutally beaten Kang Hae-il—the enemy of his father—was now pretending to be a benefactor right beside him. Yet the other Constellations watching the same story had no idea and kept saying “Poor porter ㅠㅠ,” so it was impossible not to get furious.
Not everything in the world goes according to plan. While this conflict had caused some Constellations to drop the stream as Junil intended, for others it had the opposite effect—it made them determined to watch until the end.
Some Constellations had sworn to keep watching until the day Sagosul died. In other words, the total number of Constellations following the story had actually increased. The problem was that they were no longer watching on Kang Hae-il’s channel.
Current Viewers: 1,303
Agh. So noisy.
They had all migrated to Junil’s channel.