The Million Club (2)
The single tweet of gratitude drew thousands of replies in an instant.
Most of the replies were in Korean, though Japanese and other foreign languages popped up here and there.
It was proof that Myeong-yun’s fame was slowly spreading beyond Korea and reaching global levels.
After sprinting nonstop for two days, Myeong-yun decided to take a single day of rest.
Since it was Monday and he had to attend school, he spent a leisurely time there for the first time in a while.
“Yo! Pass!”
“Over here!”
Even though November had begun to turn bitterly cold, the boys’ soccer game showed no signs of ending.
During morning PE, they ran around the field in short sleeves, kicking the ball with relentless energy.
“Ugh, it’s freezing and they’re still running around like that.”
“They’re at that age where they just want to play.”
Myeong-yun and Sang-hyun stood on the field to make up for the lack of players.
Myeong-yun was the goalkeeper, while Sang-hyun played defense. While their teammates pushed the ball forward, the two of them mostly chatted.
“Their bodies must be built differently from ours. I’m shivering over here.”
“Then go run around a bit. You need to build up your stamina.”
Sang-hyun’s physical condition already surpassed that of an average person thanks to the training Myeong-yun had given him since childhood, but Myeong-yun still believed he needed more exercise.
“…You’re seriously a monster.”
“This much is normal for anyone.”
Until the ball came his way, Myeong-yun lightly worked on his strength.
One-finger pull-ups—hanging from the top of the goalpost with a single finger and lifting his entire body.
“I bet no one else in our school can do that. You’re insane.”
“Eyes forward. Ball’s coming.”
Sang-hyun whipped his head around at Myeong-yun’s words and dashed toward the opposing striker who had already closed in.
He tried to stick tight and block, but the opponent’s reflexes were clearly superior. The striker easily slipped past him.
And so began the one-on-one between Myeong-yun and the attacker.
Normally the striker would hold the advantage in such a situation, yet no one believed the striker would actually score.
Because the goalkeeper was Myeong-yun.
“…Hngh! Today I’m definitely scoring!”
The opposing striker was a promising youth soccer player rumored to have already signed with a professional team.
However, as long as Myeong-yun stood in goal, the boy had never once succeeded in scoring against him, so the rumor remained just that—a rumor.
The striker created some distance and curled the ball toward the far post with a perfect arc that looked as if it were being sucked into the net.
Even Lee WoonX wouldn’t be able to stop that!
‘Yes! This time I—!’
The moment he thought that, Myeong-yun—who had clearly been standing at the center—sprang forward like a coiled spring and snatched the ball out of the air with pinpoint accuracy.
Then he immediately booted it with tremendous force. The soaring soccer ball arced through the air like a meteor and slammed straight into the opposite goal.
“Holy shit, is this real…”
The striker slapped his own forehead in disbelief.
Why on earth had this lunatic been born in the same era as him, turning him into nothing but an ordinary mortal?
With physical abilities like that, why wasn’t he pursuing a career in athletics? It was truly baffling.
Just as those thoughts filled his head, the bell signaling the end of class rang.
“Whew, it’s cold. Let’s head inside.”
Sang-hyun trudged over, and the two of them walked back toward the school building together.
The dejected striker remained frozen in place for a long time.
The final score was 4–0.
Every single goal had been scored by Myeong-yun, kicking from one goal into the other.
Today was a day off from streaming, so Myeong-yun and Sang-hyun took the chance to rest.
Of course, Sang-hyun was busy catching up on editing, but Myeong-yun was able to truly relax without a single thought in his head.
Yet sitting still only made his body feel more restless, so he decided to climb a mountain for the first time in a while.
After all, moving his body in reality would help him perform even better in virtual reality.
The mountain he chose was Gwanak Mountain, which wasn’t far from his house.
Even though it was a weekday in winter, the weather was nice, so quite a few people were hiking.
Dressed in ordinary hiking clothes so as not to draw suspicion, Myeong-yun quietly climbed the trail at first before vanishing from the path at a certain point.
“It has been a while since I last came here.”
After reincarnating in Korea, there weren’t many places where Myeong-yun could freely train his martial arts.
He could do strength training at the gym, but practicing martial techniques was out of the question.
So he had chosen a small cave in Gwanak Mountain, a place untouched by human footsteps.
He had even set up a formation to repel people, making it his one and only personal training ground.
It had been several months since he last visited the cave.
Focused entirely on his exams, nearly half a year had passed since his last visit. The cave looked exactly the same as when he had left it.
The interior wasn’t very deep. All it contained was a small table and a mat to block the cold air.
Myeong-yun set down his bag, took off his hiking clothes, and sat cross-legged in comfortable attire.
“Huu.”
With a single breath, it felt as if every bit of vital energy in his body was replenished.
Unlike his previous life, the modern world lacked natural qi, making it difficult to accumulate internal energy.
To solve that problem, Myeong-yun had chosen the spot in Gwanak Mountain where qi gathered most densely.
It seemed to have originally been a hibernation den for a bear, but the owner had disappeared somewhere, and the cave had become his.
“Indeed, the efficiency here is excellent.”
Just a few breaths were enough to gather more internal energy in his dantian than days of normal practice.
What would have taken several days in daily life was finished in mere moments.
After cultivating his internal energy for some time, Myeong-yun slowly opened his eyes, stood up, and began practicing his forms with slow, deliberate movements.
With the mindset of embedding a thousand profound principles into every single motion.
He meticulously controlled the flow of muscle and blood, carving the essence of martial arts into his still-frail body.
This world is a peaceful one where there is no need to train in martial arts.
But now he had a new goal.
To rebuild the martial world inside virtual reality, he needed to draw many people into that realm.
Doing such a thing in reality would cause massive chaos, so he had set virtual reality as his target.
For that to happen, he needed an overwhelmingly powerful being to serve as the central pillar of the martial world.
One of them would be himself—the heart of the Heavenly Demon Cult. The rest would appear in due time.
The righteous faction, the demonic faction… perhaps even the forces from beyond the central plains.
Once he set the trend, people would naturally follow.
The moment order was established, the martial world would be complete.
Because that was the law of balance in the martial world—the natural order.
To fulfill that dream, he needed to reach that realm once more.
He needed to become the Heavenly Demon again.
“Huu……”
With his eyes closed, lost in a state of no-self while practicing the forms of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, Myeong-yun slowly opened his eyes.
“…As expected, training in a state of no-self makes time pass quickly.”
When he had entered Gwanak Mountain it had been around lunchtime, yet now not a single ray of light could be seen outside the cave.
The sun had set in the blink of an eye—probably because it was winter and the days were short.
Myeong-yun quickly put his hiking clothes back on and checked the time on his smartphone.
“Seven o’clock.”
Dinner time had already passed.
Moreover, the moment he stepped out of the cave, his previously blocked signal reconnected and several missed calls appeared.
He had told his mother he was going out, but since he hadn’t returned even after dinner, she must have called.
“Oops.”
However, after reading the messages that had arrived later, Myeong-yun could breathe a sigh of relief.
Auntie asked where you were so I told her you were hanging out with me Hurry up and get home dude
It seemed quick-witted Sang-hyun had covered for him so his mother wouldn’t worry.
Myeong-yun sent Sang-hyun a short reply of thanks and hurried home.
Thanks to Sang-hyun’s help, Myeong-yun safely returned home and logged into virtual reality to set up the New World device that Yeonamdang had sent him.
The high-end version of New World had an automatic setup function, so he only performed the basic automatic configuration for now. The detailed settings would be handled by Sang-hyun tomorrow.
While waiting for the setup to load, a message appeared before Myeong-yun’s eyes.
> 'Chief Strategist of the Heavenly Demon Cult' has requested access to your MyHome.
“It must be Sang-hyun.”
When Myeong-yun pressed the Accept button, a single person materialized in the pure white home space alongside a flash of blue light.
“…What is that appearance?”
“Huh? Why, does it look weird? There was a generic model in the store so I tried it out.”
Sang-hyun’s appearance was vastly different from reality.
He looked like a young man wearing a long blue jangsam-style hanbok, modeled after a blue dragon.
His hair was a vivid blue, and a pair of deer antlers protruded sharply from his forehead.
On top of that, a thick dragon tail swayed behind his hips.
“I would never have guessed it was you.”
“It’s only temporary, so bear with it. Actually, I still can’t get used to your appearance either. You look like some old uncle.”
Sang-hyun scrunched up his face, grumbled a few words at Myeong-yun, then continued.
“The basic setup is almost done, right? How is it? Better than the old one?”
“Much better.”
Myeong-yun lightly moved his body in various ways.
His body felt lighter and moved far faster than when he had used the previous New World device.
The earlier unit had been a new model, but it was still a mass-market standard spec product.
In comparison, the one he was using now had nearly double the performance, so it felt as if the chains that had been binding him had been loosened by two whole layers.
“Good. Looks fine to me too. I’ll handle the detailed settings tomorrow. And for the main topic—tomorrow’s stream, instead of the usual education session, how about doing a Q&A?”
“Q&A?”
“Questions and answers. Remember when we did our first broadcast we told people to leave questions in the comments if they were curious? But we hit a million subscribers in just a week, so we never got the chance to do a proper Q&A stream.”
“Not a bad idea.”
“And I have one more suggestion. How about doing a collab this time?”
“A collab? Didn’t you say joint streams were still too early?”
“This one’s a bit different. It’ll be hosted by a VTuber specialized in interviews.”
As he spoke, Sang-hyun projected a YouTube channel as a hologram.
The channel name was Ask Me Anything! MootDayang!
The subscriber count was an impressive 2.2 million—more than double Myeong-yun’s.
What caught the eye even more was the description written on the channel.
“Graduated at the top of Seoul National University’s Department of Political Science and International Relations, former diplomat, two years of announcer experience, fluent in six languages…?”
Those were absolutely not the credentials of someone who should be a VTuber.
At this level, it seemed like they would be better off continuing their diplomatic career.
Sang-hyun chuckled and said,
“These days even VTubers need specs. You need at least this much to pull in the clout. Anyway, they want you on the show. They reached out first. What do you think?”
Sang-hyun then showed him the contact email they had sent.
Myeong-yun read through the contents for a moment before slowly nodding.
“If it’s something like this, it doesn’t sound bad at all.”