The Heavenly Demon Begins Broadcasting (2)
Even her skin was flawlessly pale and smooth. Her delicate face held sharp, well-defined features. Her eyes carried a detached yet overwhelming charisma. But what truly captured his gaze was her changed hairstyle. The long, flowing hair was now neatly tied back with a hairpin in what people commonly called a ponytail. It was such a simple change, yet the effect was enormous. From the usually cold and sharp aura of Hwaryong, a subtle femininity now radiated.
Was her avatar always like this? She was pretty, sure. After all, she was based on the Heavenly Demon from Apis. Her figure had been good, and her face was decent. But people usually described her as cool rather than beautiful. Who would have thought changing her hair would make this much of a difference?
He stared at Hwaryong’s face, completely losing track of time, until a drop of drool fell from his mouth and snapped him back to reality.
Wait a second. If Hwaryong really turned on her stream… does that mean the person who posted on the community was actually her?
Hwaryong glanced at the chat window that was scrolling up far faster than the number of viewers warranted, then answered Minjun’s message.
“That’s right. I wrote a post. Didn’t you all come here after seeing it?”
“None of you saw it? I clearly put my name on it and announced the stream!”
Is this guy not just playing a concept? Does he actually belong to an older generation? Even if he didn’t use the community much, writing a post like that was pretty weird. But then again, his Heavenly Demon roleplay felt way too authentic. Maybe the post itself was part of the concept? Did he write it that way to stay in character?
Ah. Damn. I don’t know anymore. Whatever. First, let’s take a screenshot.
How strange. Since everyone is saying in unison that they didn’t see the post, it’s clear the majority missed my announcement. Then why did they all flock to the stream so quickly? Did they really just click because they saw my face on the broadcast list? Hah. It seems even Enri isn’t always right. If I had known this would happen, I wouldn’t have gone through all that trouble writing that post.
While she was chatting casually with the early arrivals, the number of viewers began to skyrocket.
CheonSeManManSe has donated 100,000 won!
[The Heavenly Demon has descended! All demons shall bow! The demonic path shall rule the world!]
“I appreciate the goodwill, but where on earth do you people learn such phrases?”
Heavenly Demon’s Descent, All Demons Bow, Demonic Path Rules the World. She was hearing the same tired lines she used to hear endlessly from the followers of the Divine Cult. Did wuxia novels in this world use those same expressions?
CheonmaNimOsyeotda has donated 10,000 won!
[Heavenly Demon-nim! I’ve been waiting for your arrival!]
“Yes. Thank you for coming to watch.”
She had originally planned to start the game once the viewer count reached a thousand, but the donations kept pouring in without pause. She could ignore regular chat messages, but she couldn’t disregard the sincerity of people willingly donating their own money.
At this rate, she would spend the entire day just thanking people.
“Enri. Are you watching? How do I stop this thing called donations?”
The moment she asked, a message from Enri flew in.
> If you give me manager permissions, I’ll take care of it right away.
“How do I do that?”
> Just go into the settings menu and...
“Just what do you people take me for?!”
I’m just not familiar with modern technology! Why are you all looking at me like I’m some kind of monkey? Even if I’m awkward with these things, I can learn them quickly if I study a bit!
After barely managing to hand over manager permissions to Enri, the donations continued for a while longer.
“Enri. Didn’t you block the donations?”
> There were a lot of donations before I could block them. It’ll stop soon.
Enri said “soon,” but the donations continued for several more minutes before finally stopping. Just how many people had gathered in that short time?
“You idiots. If you have money to give me, go buy yourself another bag of snacks. I am not poor.”
After confirming that the donations had completely stopped, she finally felt ready to get to the main topic and opened her mouth.
“As many of you probably expected, the main focus of my streams will be gaming content.”
“It seems many of you are expecting it, but unfortunately the game I’ll be playing today is not Apis.”
“The game I will be playing today is Sky’s End.”
Sky’s End. It was the game Enri had recommended to her last time. One of the masterpieces of VR fantasy. A historic work that showed the future direction of VR games, or so she claimed. Enri seemed to love the game very much; she had called her and passionately explained it, but Ara had filtered out most of what she said. It didn’t seem particularly useful information.
“I refuse. There is a reason behind this decision of mine.”
“Well. Isn’t there a dragon that appears in it?”
Scales harder than steel. A body so massive it could be compared to a castle. Sharp claws and wisdom beyond anything a human could match. Flames spewing from its mouth and countless spells raining down. Doesn’t it sound like a beast worth hunting?
“That’s different from what I heard. Enri told me you could meet a dragon from the very beginning.”
“What is this? Why are you saying it appears but also doesn’t appear?”
She was momentarily shocked, wondering if Enri had lied to her.
“Enough with the chatter. I’ve been itching so badly to hunt a dragon. I can’t hold back any longer.”
Just how much fun will that winged lizard bring me?
The moment she connected to the game, the rattling sound greeted her. When she lowered her gaze from the gray sky that looked like it could snow at any moment, she realized she was riding something closer to a wooden cart than a carriage. Looking ahead, she could see the horses pulling the cart and several other carriages. The surrounding trees were all species typically found in cold regions.
It’s a world filled with winter.
“Hey.”
At the voice, she turned her head to see a shabby-looking man with short golden hair. His wrists were bound with rope as if he were being transported, yet his eyes still burned with fierce determination.
“You’ve finally woken up.”
“You tried to cross the border, didn’t you? You walked straight into the ambush. Just like us, or that friend over there.”
“Those damn rebel bastards. It’s all your fault. If it weren’t for you people, I would have…”
Watching them exchange words filled with pure hatred, she temporarily paused the game.
“By the way. Is it okay to talk with all of you while playing the game? Won’t the characters in the game find it strange?”
“What a convenient setting.”
So she could talk however she wanted. That was enough.
When she resumed the game, the people inside the cart continued talking among themselves. They were speaking with premises only they understood, so there was no room for her to join in, nor did she want to. She took a step back from the conversation, closed her eyes, and examined the body given to her in the game.
The body she had been gifted wasn’t bad. It showed signs of consistent training with decent muscle throughout, and her cardiopulmonary function was acceptable. However, the amount of mana flowing through her veins was abysmal. It was tiny compared to the dragon hunter’s mana she had felt in Apis. At this level, it seemed impossible to perform anything decent.
What caught her attention more was something lurking beneath her heart. It was closer to a vessel than power. A container meant to hold something that would enter later. It looked like it would gradually fill as the game progressed, but since nothing had been placed inside yet, it was currently useless.
In other words—
“The protagonist of this game is no different from an ordinary person.”
She had heard a rough explanation from Enri, but she hadn’t expected to start with literally nothing.
“That’s why I like it.”
Struggle was only enjoyable when it began from a position of disadvantage. Cutting down the strong while facing the threat of death from the perspective of the weak—that was the true flavor of battle. Having lived as the strong for far too long, she had always yearned to be the weak. She didn’t know how others might see it, but having a mountain she needed to overcome was nothing short of a blessing.
“To face a dragon with this empty shell of a body. I’m already looking forward to it.”
After passing through the forest, a castle wall built of brick greeted them. For some reason, the atmosphere inside the cart had become deeply pessimistic. It was as if they were being dragged off to their deaths. Although she hadn’t been paying any attention to their conversation, it seemed something had been said during that time.
A little further ahead, she understood why the mood had sunk so low. The soldiers had brought them to an execution ground. A large man holding a massive axe stood beside a box stained heavily with blood. Were they supposed to place their necks on that box and have the axe come down?
The man holding the axe must be quite strong. Cutting off a head in one swing wasn’t an easy task.
She looked around the execution ground as she stepped down from the cart. There were quite a few soldiers, but every single one of them was pathetically weak. Even with both hands bound, she could subdue them all right now.
“Hey. How about I take care of the soldiers before the dragon arrives?”
These guys would definitely get in the way during the fight with the dragon.