The Heavenly Demon Prepares (1)
Dan Soyul understood their desperation better than anyone else. After all, he was the very person who had been blocked by the wall of the pros and ended up remaining a streamer. Looking back now, facing Hwaryong in a match had been pure luck for him. Thanks to that, this person had agreed to give him personal guidance.
Just by watching the matches today, she could offer tailored feedback to each individual. She was that skilled. He wondered how much she could transform someone once she started giving one-on-one lessons.
“Aigoo~ MercyPerry-nim, ten thousand won donation. Thank you so much. Heavenly Demon Punch! I can’t give you a definite answer though. Since I’m the one learning now. But I’ll try my best to turn it on whenever possible.”
Following the laws of capitalism, Dan Soyul offered a polite response. Only after finishing his reaction did he remember there was someone right next to him.
NyangNyang was staring at him. She was trying to hold back her laughter, but the way her lips trembled and her eyes curved into crescents made her thoughts painfully obvious.
“Just laugh already.”
“Puhahaha!”
The moment he gave permission, NyangNyang burst out laughing. Dan Soyul hung his head low.
It had been almost a year since Dan Soyul started streaming, yet he still couldn’t completely let go of himself. Letting go of one’s pride wasn’t as easy as it sounded. So every time something like this happened, he writhed in shame.
“Stop laughing already.”
“Pfft. Ahaha. But you told me to laugh, Dan Soyul-nim.”
“I didn’t mean this much.”
“Okay, okay, I got it.”
While NyangNyang tried to compose herself, Dan Soyul summoned a cigarette and put it in his mouth. Even if smoking in VR didn’t send nicotine to his brain, the act of smoking itself had a way of calming his mind.
“Dan Soyul-nim, you look exactly like an old man when you smoke.”
“Says the person doing a female high schooler concept when she’s actually an old man herself.”
“Who said that?! I’m a twenty-year-old college girl, okay?!”
“So it’s not the eternal seventeen concept after all.”
“I’m telling the truth!”
NyangNyang glared at him and raised her voice, but Dan Soyul didn’t believe a single word. Although he mainly played Apis these days, he had played Hwaryong Muin in the past. Back then, NyangNyang had been famous as a concept player.
A girl who had been obsessed with wuxia games since elementary school. Everyone had been shocked by how half-hearted her concept seemed, but NyangNyang stuck to it no matter what people said. After several months of effort, her concept finally gained acceptance. People silently agreed to believe in NyangNyang’s concept.
But everyone knew the truth. There was no way a female high schooler who loved wuxia games actually existed.
“Whatever. So why did you come over?”
“It’s not ‘whatever’! I really am a college student!”
“Yes, yes. Of course you are.”
“Ugh. Haah. I came over because you looked so pathetic.”
“There’s another pathetic person over there too.”
What Dan Soyul pointed at was WhipMasterLove. The man stood far away, quietly watching Hwaryong, who was surrounded by people.
“WhipMasterLove-nim must have his reasons for acting like that.”
“Then what about me?”
“A loner?”
“These people are unbelievable!”
Dan Soyul shouted, heated by the combined attack from the chat and NyangNyang, but she only grinned like she had landed a solid hit.
“Dan Soyul-nim. Dan Soyul-nim.”
“...What?”
“I heard you’re getting lessons from Hwaryong-nim?”
“That’s the plan.”
“When she comes next week, make sure you steel your heart. She trains people really hard when she’s teaching.”
“You’ve been trained by her?”
“Yep! That makes me your senior here.”
No wonder her skills had improved so much. So she had been taught by Hwaryong. Well, with someone who had such sharp eyes giving her one-on-one lessons, it would be strange if her skills didn’t improve.
I wonder if I can grow like NyangNyang-nim.
While NyangNyang and Dan Soyul were chatting, Dekay hesitantly appeared from behind Hwaryong.
“I’m truly sorry!”
Standing in the center under everyone’s gaze, Dekay slammed his head to the ground before anyone could say a word. It was the textbook example of an apology bow.
“Dekay-nim seems to only get better at apologizing as time goes on.”
At NyangNyang’s fed-up tone, Dan Soyul couldn’t help but laugh.
“He really is something. In many ways.”
Dekay had known he would lose in a 1:9. Yet he had pushed for it anyway. The reason was obvious. He wanted to create highlight clips. What a madman for MyTube.
It was a good thing Hwaryong had given the participants guidance. If she had simply crushed them without doing anything, one or two of the tournament contestants probably would have exploded. That was why people had clapped when she came back after tormenting Dekay.
“Shall we get going?”
“Where are you going?”
“To bully Dekay a bit.”
Since he had turned the tournament into this mess, he ought to bear an appropriate punishment, shouldn’t he?
Who is the real Heavenly Demon between them!
To me, blind faith was like a shadow. No matter what I thought, it always followed behind me. Something I could not shake off no matter how hard I tried. Something I had been born with and thus had to carry for my entire life.
From the moment I became the Young Heavenly Demon of the Heavenly Demon Cult, I had been raised as an object of worship. And even when the collapsed Heavenly Demon Cult was rebuilt, I became their god. Even though I had never wished for it.
Someone who was now dead and forgotten had once said that to a martial artist, I was no different from a drug. How could they not follow and revere someone who had reached the very end of the realm they wished to attain?
He had told me that as long as I continued to breathe, I would eventually face the blind faith of martial artists. Looking back, his words had not been wrong. In this place that had no connection to the Murim, I had indeed encountered the seeds of blind faith.
It was truly a dog-like situation.
One fanatic was not a problem. What trouble could there be in having a child who had never reached any real realm following me around? But it would not end with just one.
WhipMasterLove had never spoken to me. We had never made eye contact, and we had never even seen each other’s faces. Yet after watching only my videos, he had developed blind faith.
If even someone like WhipMasterLove could become that way, where was the guarantee that others would not?
Blind faith was like a wheel. One became two, two became four, and it multiplied into a colony. If you ignored it simply because there was only one, your house would soon be taken over by bugs.
The same was true for blind faith. If you ignored it for even a moment, it would grow in size and try to devour you.
If that day ever came, I would have to choose one of two paths. Either turn the entire world into my enemy to exterminate the bugs, or run away from the bugs.
It was funny that the word “run” had come out of my mouth, but unfortunately, blind faith was different from the noble heavens I sought to shatter. They were a sticky swamp. Beings far lower than me, trying to drag me down into the swamp and suffocate me.
I knew how to break what suppressed me, but I did not know how to shake off the hands that grabbed my ankles. That was why I had chosen seclusion as the Heavenly Demon Cult grew larger. I had thought that by coming to the modern world I had shaken off all the hands grabbing my ankles, yet the shadow still lurked behind me.
The touch on my hand brought me back to my senses. Enri was gesturing toward the front with her eyes.
“Ara-ssi?”
The language school teacher was looking at me. Her mouth was smiling, but her eyes were scolding me.