The Dragon Hunt Broadcast and the Coming Siege
After grinding away in the world of Thread for seven or eight straight hours, Pipi had casually mentioned taking a short break. But the moment she stepped inside the house and started sorting through the mountain of loot Hwaryeong had dragged back, her plans changed completely. The walk home from the gambling hall alone had been a nonstop plunder fest—every person she passed lost everything they carried—so the warehouse was now bursting at the seams. And then there were the five thousand gold coins. Even a massive gambling jackpot at this stage of the game couldn't produce that kind of fortune. The sight of it all stirred something greedy in her chest.
Even if this isn't on the streamer server, this has to be MyTube material, right? Pipi had ridden a huge early-game windfall to massive view counts before, so the thought came naturally.
One more thing had ignited her motivation. After Enri called it quits—physically drained from one spectacular event after another—viewers had flooded into Pipi's stream. Most of them immediately bounced over to watch Hwaryeong, but not all. A broadcast that usually topped out at a hundred viewers now held well over a thousand. There was simply no way Pipi could bring herself to hit the end-stream button.
So even after Hwaryeong headed off to hunt bosses, Pipi stayed behind and threw herself into base development.
"Interior's basically finished, so next up is the outer wall, then installing all the equipment inside, and then..."
"What?! For real?!"
The giant ranked among the top bosses on the island. Its body was the size of a small hill. Its hide was so thick that ordinary blades couldn't even scratch it. A single punch carried enough force to shatter castle walls. Back when Thread had first launched, the giant was a walking catastrophe—the kind that would raze everything the moment it appeared.
Of course, players eventually grew stronger, discovered tech trees, and learned how to raid it. But that only happened after meticulous preparation. It wasn't something you could pull off at the current stage, with barely any tech unlocked. That was why Pipi had been so shocked when she heard the alchemist needed those specific materials.
Pipi was well aware of how special Hwaryeong was. Still, there was a world of difference between watching those feats on stream and witnessing them in the one field she considered herself an expert in. Especially since she had once poured her heart and soul into trying to be the very first player to raid a giant.
While idly reading the chat, Pipi's curiosity finally got the better of her. She pulled up Hwaryeong's VOD. She didn't even have to search for the giant kill—it had already been clipped.
The moment Hwaryeong stepped in front of the giant, pressed its vital points, and threw a single punch, the giant's head simply ceased to exist. Words like "pierced" or "exploded" didn't apply. It was more like magic. In one instant, both the giant's head and the hill it had been leaning against vanished completely.
"...If it hadn't been Hwaryeong, everyone would've called it a hack."
"Hwaryeong hasn't gone to rest yet, right?"
A dragon. The very word sent a thrill through Pipi. Like the giant, dragons had once been considered walking disasters in the early days of Thread. Their personalities were utterly deranged—if they spotted a human settlement while flying, they would rain fire first and ask questions never. The thought of Hwaryeong going to harass one of those monsters made Pipi's heart race.
"Everyone, shall we switch over to relaying Hwaryeong's stream for a bit?"
Expanding the house was important, but watching a dragon scream in agony while being tormented was far more important. Having suffered through countless dragon-related nightmares over her long Thread career, Pipi simply could not miss this.
The viewers' reactions were positive, so Pipi sent Hwaryeong a quick message asking for permission. He replied with typical coolness that it was no problem and she should do whatever she wanted.
When she tuned into his stream, she found Hwaryeong standing at the peak of a rocky mountain, calmly watching a red-scaled dragon that had folded its wings to rest.
It's rather small for a Western dragon.
Hwaryeong had uttered those words while standing before a dragon three times larger than the wolf she had named Neukneuk.
"Small? That thing?"
It was incomprehensible to Pipi. Where exactly was that dragon small? Sure, it was smaller than the giant, but the giant was abnormally huge. A creature with a body that large could not possibly be called small.
"Obviously it's small compared to those."
Those were monsters that appeared as final bosses of an entire world. Of course this dragon would look small next to them. Even so, that didn't change the fact that this dragon was still incredibly powerful. The creature that had once reigned as a calamity over the world of Thread could not possibly be...
Pipi agonized between her own common sense and Hwaryeong's. It was definitely a troublesome opponent that had earned the hatred of countless Thread players, but would it actually be troublesome for Hwaryeong?
She couldn't say for sure.
While Pipi was wondering what to say to the viewers, another donation came in—this one dripping with pure hatred for Thread's dragons.
I could do it if I wanted, but it doesn't seem like it would be very fun.
Even though Hwaryeong was bare-handed, he never said he couldn't do it. He simply remarked that it would end too quickly to be entertaining.
That hesitation crumbled instantly in the face of such an enormous donation. Just how many zeros were in that number?! Pipi stared with trembling eyes at an amount she had never once received in her entire streaming career. So this was the power of a megacorp!
"I'm so jealous."
The viewers chimed in with all sorts of reactions to her honest slip, but most of it was ridiculous nonsense.
"As if that would work."
Even though their comments were absurd, the sudden flood of donations into her normally quiet stream made Pipi smile brightly as she thanked everyone.
Meanwhile, Hwaryeong muttered, Looks like I have no choice but to do this, and pulled a sword from his bag—one of the weapons Pipi had prepared for him before he left to hunt bosses.
Tearing the wings off with my bare hands would be tedious and messy. I'll show you what it looks like to cut them instead.
Just like he had done before hunting the giant, Hwaryeong set up a sleeping bag next to Neukneuk, pressed his pressure points, and stood before the dragon. When he got close enough, the dragon sensed his presence and lifted its head. Even beneath that golden gaze that looked down on all lesser creatures, Hwaryeong remained perfectly calm.
He watched the dragon snort and spread its wings, then raised his sword high. In the next instant he vanished from sight. The movement was so fast that an ordinary person would have struggled to follow it with their eyes. When Hwaryeong reappeared, he was already standing on the dragon's back.
The dragon should have felt something land on its scales, yet it only looked around stupidly, as if it had lost track of him. Hwaryeong stared down at the pathetic sight for a moment, then swung his sword.
One strike. That was all it took.
With a light swing of the blade, one of the dragon's wings flew into the air and tumbled down the cliff.
"Kieeeek!"
Too loud.
The dragon thrashed in agony, but there was no escaping Hwaryeong. Before long both wings had been severed, and the creature eventually offered up its neck as well. In the end it surrendered its heart to him.
Then let's move on.
After that, Hwaryeong continued roaming the island, hunting every boss monster he came across. His methods differed for each one, but they all shared one common point: he never once felt even the slightest sense of threat.
He prevented the lich at the center of the labyrinth from casting a single spell before turning it into bone dust. He suppressed an entire orc horde with nothing but killing intent. He slaughtered countless other monsters that should have been impossible to hunt at the current stage. Naturally, he also completed every bizarre mission request he had received along the way.
BOOOOM!
While Pipi had been watching in a daze, the sudden explosion from outside snapped her back to reality.
No explanation was needed. Pipi, a long-time veteran of Thread, knew exactly what that sound meant. It was a raid. Someone was taking advantage of the fact that both Hwaryeong and Enri were gone. She didn't know who it was, but they had picked the wrong target. Hwaryeong might be on another level entirely, but she was still an ancient monster of Thread herself. Defending a fortress alone against four or five average players was nothing.
Pipi quickly gathered the scrolls she had been crafting and looked out the window to identify the attackers. When she saw the face of the person banging on the outer wall, she bit her lip.
There were seven raiders in total. They were probably one of the established parties from Thread. If they had been ordinary users, Pipi was confident she could hold the fortress. Defenders had the advantage in sieges, the base currently held abundant resources, and most importantly, Pipi herself was the one defending.
But this was different.
"It's going to be tough."
The opponents were bad news. There was Byeol-ttuk, a streamer just as deep into Thread as she was. There was Dang So-il, the physical monster who competed in the Apis Pro League. Not a single person standing outside the walls could be considered easy. These weren't random nobodies. They were a well-organized siege team.
"Still, I have to try."
"Deal!"
Pipi shouted as she equipped her gear.