Legends Never Die

Rewards as sweet as a first clear—no, sweeter than the first clear, even.

That pure, electric thrill of buying a brand-new rifle. This is why I can never quit being a Hunter.

Having poured out every last drop of my mana, I collapsed straight onto the floor. Re-clears were always an option, so I figured I'd catch my breath and chat with the viewers for a bit. That was the surest way to rake in those fat donations.

"Everyone see that? The birth of a legend. Legends Never Die!"

Everyone watching had every right to be proud. They had just witnessed the birth of a legend with their own eyes.

"Guys, don't just talk—show some appreciation already. You know you've got the money."

You witness a legendary moment and still won't throw me a coin? That left me no choice but to take drastic measures.

"Sigh… fine. Donations are optional, I guess."

"But you know what?"

I finished the line and smirked at the screen. The mask hid it from the viewers, of course.

"Streaming is optional too, right? Ahh~ maybe I should just hang it up~"

Shameless beyond words—but so what? If it bothered them, they could just donate.

The chat was roasting me—but over in the other system window, donations were exploding.

"Aigoo, thank you all for donating even while you talk trash~"

The community stream's top bar showed the donation rankings, and the runaway number-one, Slimming, had chipped in as well.

"Thank you for the hundred thousand Coin, Slimming-nim."

Was her income just on another level? Slimming had dropped another massive donation this time too.

"Me and Slimming-nim dating? That's ridiculous…"

Right then, another donation from Slimming exploded across the screen.

"…What?"

Slimming's bombshell was like dumping gasoline on a house already on fire.

"N-no, guys, I'm not dating Slimming…"

I fought desperately to put out the fire consuming a house already on the verge of collapse—but it was no use.

Putting out the fire? More like a second dousing of gasoline. If I kept the stream going any longer, something catastrophic might actually happen—so I scrambled to wrap things up.

"Okay! That's all for today's stream. And for the record one more time: Slimming and I are not dating."

Weathering the flood of hate comments, I slammed the end-stream button.

"Haa… I only meant to chat for a bit to rest up."

This didn't feel like resting at all…

After returning from the Tower, I messaged Slimming right away.

"…What is that even supposed to mean."

That wasn't the issue right now. The real problem was dropping a rumor like that live on stream. For a streamer whose popularity was everything, rumors were a serious matter. Some people had even quit streaming altogether after a dating scandal blew up.

"Does this person seriously not get it."

Or was she just pretending not to? The ones who took the biggest hit from dating scandals were always the female streamers. Streaming audiences skewed heavily male, after all. Slimming was already a popular streamer—any damage would only go one direction: up.

What kind of situation even was this? Someone who lived off fan love pulling a stunt that deceived those same fans was basically saying, I'm about to quit anyway, so please give me an excuse.

People say they're going to sleep after a message like that, but nobody ever actually does. I was no exception. I immediately opened the dreaded community window.

"Ugh… I knew this would happen."

Every topic flooding the community was about me and Slimming. I clicked one post just to check.

"…What?"

First shock: the body had nothing to do with the title. Second shock: the comments weren't even about the Slimming rumor at all.

I opened another post. Then another. Then more.

"Huh…?"

Just as Slimming had said, posts actually about us were a tiny minority. No—most of them used our names in the title, but the actual content was completely unrelated. Even so… a lie about us dating was still a lie.

I looked at the competition rifle sitting beside Yahwa—the one I'd used in my athlete days.

"How could I date anyone else when I have Johnson…!"

Johnson was a friend who'd shared so many memories with me. Winning gold at the Olympics together was just the start—we'd gotten scolded by Mom side by side, skipped training together, made so many unforgettable moments.

"Johnson! We're together forever…!"

After fussing over Johnson for a long while, I hugged him close and called it a night.

The morning alarm pulled me out of bed. Still half-asleep and barely functional, I heard—

"Jinwoo…! Come out and watch the news!"

"The news…?"

Mom's voice was urgent for some reason. I didn't usually bother with the news, and I really didn't feel like it, but she sounded so frantic I couldn't exactly ignore her.

I shuffled out, and immediately understood why Mom was so shaken.

The news was covering the incident from a few days ago—the one where people had been sent into a Tower of an entirely different difficulty, complete with a crimson error status window. The one silver lining was that it had happened late in the evening, so relatively few people had entered. If it had been afternoon, the death toll would have been far worse.

I watched in silence.

"What the hell is this supposed to mean…?"

A re-evaluation? I'd fought so hard for that license, and now they wanted me to take it again???

I immediately opened the community window. Nothing beat the forums for getting a handle on a situation.

"…Shit?"

Mom was right next to me, but the curse slipped out before I could stop it. Thankfully, she didn't seem to hear.

The reason I'd sworn was simple. It was right there in the post, plain as day: anyone below a certain rank had to surrender their license. No matter how broken my skills were, an E-Rank Hunter was still an E-Rank Hunter. Korea's only E-Rank Hunter having his license revoked was a given—even if ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I'd cleared Floor 1 with a 100,000-point score.

"Isn't there any way around this…"

If I couldn't be a Hunter anymore, there was truly nothing left for me. My hands shook worse by the day, and I'd burned every bridge with studying, so finding a regular job was impossible.

My hand drifted toward my phone of its own accord.

The only Hunter I knew was Slimming, so I didn't have much choice. About three minutes after I sent the message, she replied.

Slimming didn't know my actual rank, so of course she'd say that. If she ever found out, she'd probably faint on the spot.

I didn't reply for a while, so another message came in.

"Eh."