The Heavenly Demon Attempts Again (4)
“So, did you learn martial arts in real life?”
“Hardly. This one is the Heavenly Demon. Most martial arts under the heavens are within my grasp.”
More questions followed after that, and Hwaryeong’s attitude remained consistent throughout. She answered most questions with care, but grew firm whenever the topic touched reality. She refused to give the viewers even the smallest clue. As a result, those desperate to uncover her identity hurled insults, yet Hwaryeong merely sneered at the chat.
“My apologies. Despite appearances, I am a rather shy woman.”
Hwaryeong did not waver. Whether cursed at, criticized, or mocked, she responded with nothing but calm indifference. Thanks to that, viewers began to seriously speculate that she must have a job accustomed to broadcasting.
Roughly an hour later, Enri’s interview drew to a close. Despite the flood of questions, little new information had surfaced. Most exchanges merely confirmed what players had already guessed among themselves. The one fresh revelation was that Hwaryeong was, as they called it, a “murim idiot.”
“Are you asking that in earnest? Do you truly believe the ‘jo’ in ‘joshik’ refers to breakfast? Truly?”
It was a common joke in murim streams, yet Hwaryeong’s reaction was explosive. She let out an incredulous shout, furrowed her brows, and bit down on her pipe—an expression that stirred something dark in the viewers’ hearts.
By the latter half of the interview, the chat had devolved into a festival of nonsense. Talk of the Unbreakable Silver River, Hwasan’s Fireball, praying to Zeus in the Namgung Clan, and so on. Hwaryeong tried to respond to each one until Enri, sensing the stream was veering into madness, intervened. She reluctantly pretended to ignore the chat, though she could not hide the way her eyebrows twitched whenever another absurd comment appeared.
Watching the usually confident Heavenly Demon sulk like this, viewers felt a hidden cuteness behind the character.
“Right, let’s wrap up the interview and move on to the main content. Normally we’d play ranked matches and share character tips during the guest segment, but today’s a little different. Hwaryeong said she’s going to hunt an Outer God alone.”
The chat overflowed with disbelief. The claim defied common sense. Even Inseok, listening in, assumed Enri was joking. He had once tried to raid an Outer God with acquaintances, burning through vacation days for a serious attempt. Their courage had turned to recklessness. After three days the raid ended in utter failure. If twelve people couldn’t do it, how could one person possibly win? No matter how skilled, it was impossible.
Though the broadcast grew chaotic, Enri remained unshaken.
“It’s not a joke. I brought Dekay along because we need someone to explain Hwaryeong’s playstyle. Right, Dekay?”
“Hello, everyone. This is Dekay. I’m here to provide commentary today.”
When Dekay—who had clashed with Hwaryeong before—appeared, viewers realized Enri had been serious.
“Well then, shall we boot up Apis?”
*
“The chat’s going wild.”
Enri spoke after finishing preparations to summon the Outer God.
“What does it matter? No matter what they say, what will happen will happen.”
“Hwaryeong, are you confident?”
“Do you believe I will fail?”
“No! Of course I believe in you! It’s just…”
Enri flailed her hands in panic, drawing a quiet laugh from Hwaryeong. Realizing she had been teased, Enri pouted.
“Don’t worry. I’ve faced the opponent in various ways already.”
“That’s right?”
“In my head, that is.”
“…Pardon?”
Ever since losing to the black entity that day, I had continued imagining battles against it. The number of simulated fights in my mind had reached the hundreds, to the point where the thought of the black thing now brought a strange sense of anticipation. Preparations to defeat it had long since been complete.
“We can really trust you on this, right?”
“Of course.”
“I’m going to summon it now, so you have to win, okay?”
An ominous tone crept into Enri’s voice.
BOOM!
At the same time, cracks spread across the wall as black energy began to seep out.
It’s coming.
While researching the black entity, I had learned something important: the emotions I felt during our first encounter had all been artificially induced. The VR device directly imprinted fear into the brain. It was an exquisitely crafted illusion that made one feel terror even when there was no reason to. Modern technology was truly remarkable.
While lost in thought, the wall completely collapsed, revealing the black entity. The moment I saw its crimson eyes, a chill ran down my spine. Even knowing the fear was false, I couldn’t help but feel a twisted thrill. In this regard, I was clearly a broken human being.
“It’s been a while. Have you been well? The space beyond that wall didn’t seem particularly comfortable.”
I greeted it warmly, for it was the first being to ever hand me defeat. Yet the black entity offered no reply. It merely expressed its welcome by waving its tentacles, as it had the first time. Apparently that mouth was only used for breathing.
I lightly dodged the tentacles and observed the entity through the rising dust. The most frustrating part of reviewing my previous loss was still its breath attack. To cancel it out, I had to expend my full power, and what awaited afterward was nothing but defeat.
Its only real threat was that single breath, yet that one move completely blocked the path to victory. I knew that sometimes a single ultimate technique could be more efficient than a hundred different arts, but this felt excessive. How could I break through the breath?
As I pondered, one idea came to mind. If the breath was the problem, then why not prevent it from being used in the first place?
*
“I still can’t believe that’s the same human as me.”
Hwaryeong, seen after so long, still displayed overwhelming martial prowess. None of the Outer God’s tentacles could touch her, and its punches and kicks only stirred up dust.
“Commentary. I brought you here for a reason—don’t just sit there gasping.”
“Sorry. Watching Hwaryeong makes me lose my mind.”
At Enri’s scolding, Dekay coughed awkwardly. Still, how could any Apis player not be captivated by such a sight? Look at her now—tilting her body ever so slightly to graze past a barrage of tentacles. The image of her gazing upward through the dust was so striking that the title “Heavenly Demon” no longer felt self-proclaimed.
“Please explain why you’re spacing out already. I don’t understand anything except that it looks cool!”
“If you understood that much, it’s enough.”
“Excuse me.”
“I’m joking, Enri. Have you ever fought an Outer God yourself?”
“I got toyed with back when I was a newbie.”
The fact that Apis was the most popular game in the country also meant it attracted a disproportionate number of toxic players. Among them were those who delighted in tormenting weaker newbies. Early on, Enri had run into one such person. The player had toyed with her before deliberately summoning an Outer God to harass her. That day, upon first seeing the Outer God, Enri had collapsed to the ground in tears. It had been so terrifying that she couldn’t sleep that night and even had nightmares.
“You’ve never attempted a raid, then?”
“Of course not. Just looking at it is scary enough—how would anyone beat that?”
“Most viewers probably feel the same. No one would even consider raiding an Outer God. So let me explain its specs.”
Dekay spoke without hesitation; he had heard the same information countless times during his own raid attempts, and even now it remained fresh in his mind.
“First, its attack patterns aren’t that varied. The main one is the tentacles. They stab, swing, try to bind you, and sometimes even feint to mess with you. The damage is high—grazed and you’re near death, hit directly and you die. There are dozens of them, so the moment you lose track of even one, you’re dead. Watching Hwaryeong makes it look easy to dodge, but facing them head-on feels completely different. They’re so fast you can’t even see them. You have to read the wind-up to barely react.”
“The occasional punches and kicks are almost welcome, since you can see and dodge those.”
Even so, the slightest hesitation would drag you into the shockwave and kill you. The moment the Outer God began its motion, you had to sprint for your life to escape the range. Doing what Hwaryeong was doing—effortlessly dodging before charging in to strike its hardened body—was simply impossible.
“The worst part is the instant-kill move that triggers once its health drops below fifty percent.”
The Outer God’s breath. There was no way to deal with it. The best a raid party could do was spread out to minimize casualties to a single person. Countering the breath with a punch like Hwaryeong had done was not something a human could accomplish.
“Its defense is ridiculously high and its health pool is massive, so even going all out takes nearly thirty minutes to bring it down. Yet every three minutes it fires off that instant-kill move.”
“How do you even clear it?”
“Gather twelve players with pro-level skill, pour time into it, and you might get lucky and clear it.”
Even assembling twelve active-level players resulted in that outcome—yet someone wanted to solo it? Impossible. No matter how overwhelmingly skilled a person was, even if they dodged every attack and landed hits, they would eventually be stopped by the instant-kill. Hwaryeong had managed to block it once last time, but she had exhausted all her strength with that single punch and lost anyway.
“Hwaryeong herself must know it. If she can’t handle the instant-kill, she loses. I’m curious what countermeasure she has in mind to propose this kind of content.”
The flow of battle resembled the previous encounter, except the Outer God had yet to be knocked down even once. Hwaryeong appeared to be deliberately controlling her power.
“She seems to be managing her internal energy distribution. Maybe she’s trying to keep some in reserve after blocking the instant-kill.”
That wouldn’t be enough. The Heavenly Demon’s internal energy would recover over time, but the rate was limited. Even if she blocked one instant-kill and then another, what about the third? The fourth?
If she planned to cancel the breath attacks like last time, Hwaryeong would ultimately be defeated.
After roughly ten minutes of combat, the Outer God opened its mouth. The instant-kill was activating. The moment she saw the tell, Hwaryeong began sprinting forward. The Outer God did not remain idle. All the tentacles behind it shot out to intercept her. Yet even amid the barrage, Hwaryeong never slowed down. At first glance it looked like suicide, but it wasn’t. Not a single tentacle touched her. It almost seemed as though the tentacles were deliberately avoiding her.
“Is she trying to interrupt the pattern by dealing damage?”
“Exactly. Then it works! If you can’t block the instant-kill, just stop it from being used!”
“It won’t work.”
Dekay poured cold water on Enri’s excited voice.
“No matter how much damage you deal, the instant-kill pattern cannot be canceled.”