Chapter 14. If You Keep Talking Bullshit, I'll Really Smash the Forbidden City?
Chapter 14. If You Keep Talking Bullshit, I'll Really Smash the Forbidden City?
The moment they faced the monster, the viewer count hit the highest number in Pajijik's history.
It was enough to momentarily paralyze Pajijik's servers.
Fortunately, Pajijik's quick response prevented the stream from actually shutting down.
Exactly three seconds after facing the monster.
Its head vanished and it crumpled to the ground.
"Oh my, it's over already? Everyone, how was Hero's hunter debut?"
After saying that, Laila switched back to selfie mode and waved with a bright smile.
"We've subjugated the monster, so we'll wrap things up for today~"
[Saintess, wait!!!!]
[You have to give us an explanation!!!]
[Whoa, are you really ending it just like that??]
[Wait, suddenly ending i...]
[ World's Strongest Hero's channel is now offline. ]
---
As soon as the subjugation ended, Laila flew over from a distance.
"Laila, how was the reaction?"
"They all seemed to love it?"
I looked at the creature's corpse floating on the sea surface, its head gone.
Then I extended my fist forward and fiddled with the ring on my finger.
And astonishingly, the monster's corpse was sucked right into the ring.
"Will Hero be using it for something?"
"Not really, but wouldn't it sell for a lot?"
"Oh my, so we're rich?"
I already had over a billion won—wasn't that rich enough on its own?
No, technically I hadn't received the settlement yet, so I was broke.
"Let's head back."
"Yes!"
I let out a small laugh and scooped up Laila as she approached with her arms spread wide.
Then when we headed to the camp, everyone was staring at us.
They were all looking at us like we were some kind of monsters.
"What is it?"
"Ah, no... that... um... er, is it really over...?"
I glanced at the screen on the wall beside us and saw my offline stream displayed there.
They'd all been watching it themselves, so why were they asking?
"Yes, I took care of it definitively."
"And what happened to the monster's corpse, if I may ask?"
"Ah, I handled that properly on my own, so don't worry."
They looked relieved, but they kept sneaking glances at me.
Hmm... it stings a little when even my own mother and father look at me like that...
---
[ Author: Anonymous ]
[ Title: 3 Seconds ]
[ Content: (Footage of the Hero subjugating the monster) This is in slow motion, everyone watch ]
└ At this point I was starting to suspect this was just an elaborate show by South Korea to hype up this Hero guy;;
└ I couldn't believe it when I first saw it either
└ He's just so far beyond the norm that it's honestly dumbfounding
└ Is this bastard seriously someone who crossed over from another world or what?
└ lololol there's literally no other way to explain that level of strength
People wouldn't stop talking about my stream.
Even experts appeared on the news to analyze it, and ultra-nationalist NewsTubers uploaded videos with sensational thumbnails.
And in the middle of all this, I didn't turn on my stream for several days.
"Son, I'm starting to worry whether your viewers are waiting for you and only you."
Watching me do absolutely nothing for days, my father finally said something.
The name 'Song Hoon' was on everyone's lips—not just in South Korea, but across the entire world.
Because to them, a hunter who broadcast this openly was a first.
"I'm driving up my value right now."
"..."
As expected of a guild's vice-master, he understood exactly what I meant.
And beside him, my mother sat on the sofa with her legs crossed and let out a sigh.
"Haa... when I saw you reverse-summon Peusilla so effortlessly, I figured you wouldn't be ordinary... but I didn't expect it to be this much."
"So? Can I enter the Baekdu Mountain gate now?"
"Do as you please..."
---
[ President "To Award Commendation to Hero Streamer Who Saved the Nation from Crisis" ]
[ Association President "Saved the Nation from an Unprecedented Crisis—Truly a Hero" ]
[ Minister of the Interior and Safety "Will Spare No Support to Help Citizens Swiftly Return to Daily Life" ]
"I don't really need a commendation."
I wasn't going into politics and I wasn't joining some company. Things like commendations were just annoyingly burdensome.
In some circles, people were even suggesting that a new hunter rank might need to be created.
But the World Hunter Association—the standard for hunters worldwide—remained silent.
[ Author: Saintess's Foot Wiper ]
[ Title: So When the Hell Is This Bastard Turning On His Stream? ]
[ Content: I can't see Saintess and something inside me feels incomplete ]
└ I've already burned through all my side dishes too;
└ lolol when the lawsuit arrives, just think of it as something that was bound to happen
└ But seriously, why isn't he streaming? Isn't this exactly when he should be cashing in big?
└ Didn't he already cash in plenty with that 1 billion won?
└ True, fuck
└ Ah, just thinking about this prick getting all smug pisses me off lol
└ But honestly, at this level, doesn't he kind of have the right to be smug?
I was searching for the optimal streaming timing.
The perfect moment to step forward with a ta-da under the spotlight.
I was already getting plenty of spotlight, but I needed more...
And then news arrived that would satisfy my expectations.
[ China Claims Ownership of Monster Subdued by Korea... "It Merely Strayed from Our Territorial Waters" ]
(Seoul=XX News) The monster that crossed over to the Korean Peninsula was subjugated through the efforts of hunter 'Hero,' but immediately after the incident concluded, China stepped forward, claiming the monster was "originally theirs" and asserting ownership.
A spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed a hardline stance at a press conference today, stating, "The monster in question was originally an entity that appeared off the Chinese coast," and demanding that "the monster's corpse and related research data be returned to China."
... (Excerpt)
└ Oh for fuck's sake, you bastards lolololol
└ They nearly got South Korea completely wiped out because of them and now they're this shameless
└ Tossing the monster over to the Korean Peninsula really was legendary though;;
Of course, South Korea wasn't staying quiet either.
They released the documents I had previously prepared with the staff from the Chinese Association.
And naturally, they denied everything.
[ China Claims "That Was Unilateral Action by an Employee," Punishes Said Employee ]
└ lololol they're just consistently like this
In the face of their continued brazenness, the Association President contacted me.
The Association President proposed a press conference and asked me to quickly sort things out.
'A press conference...?'
I immediately went to the Pajijik website and posted a notice that I would go live tomorrow at 3 PM.
I said I'd be holding the press conference through my stream, and if they wanted to ask questions, they could donate.
In response, Pajijik also quickly inspected their servers to prepare for any potential accidents.
---
[ World's Strongest Hero : Press Conference ]
In the blink of an eye, the viewer count went from zero to surpassing five digits.
[Press conference (no press present)]
[Press conference (from my room)]
[Pay up if you wanna ask questions (he actually said that)]
[I've seriously never seen anyone hold a press conference through streaming before;;]
"First off, I don't speak any foreign languages, so everyone speak in Korean. If revealing your identity is awkward, you can go by Anonymous—I don't mind."
[ Anonymous has donated 1,000,000 Watts! ]
- China continues to claim ownership of the corpse. What are your thoughts on this?
"Are they really asking to die? I told them if they keep spouting bullshit, I'd destroy the Forbidden City, didn't I? The corpse is mine to begin with."
I was stating the obvious.
If a group or guild had caught it, sharing might be appropriate—but this was a monster I took down alone.
At those words, Chinese chat messages started flooding in furiously.
I ignored them from the start.
If they were going to act shameless, I'd act shameless right back.
With one person kicking things off with a 1 million won question, everyone started donating 1 million won each.
[ Anonymous has donated 1,000,000 Watts! ]
- That is merely Hero's assertion. China is making aggressive demands. They have expressed concern that this could even escalate into a diplomatic dispute between the two nations.
"Oh, cut the crap. You couldn't take it down yourselves so you tossed it over to the Korean Peninsula, and now that the monster's dead you come demanding we hand it over? If you keep talking nonsense, the next thing that gets smashed won't be a monster—it'll be your heads."
After I spoke with that attitude, no donations came in for about three minutes.
They were probably pondering whether my harsh remarks were meant literally, or if they were some kind of smokescreen hiding another meaning.
[ Anonymous has donated 1,000,000 Watts! ]
- Do you have any intention of disposing of the monster's corpse?
"Nope, I'm not selling it. I'm giving it to my parents. I've got to be a filial son too, you know."
[lolololol a filial piety gift (the corpse of a monster that nearly wiped out South Korea)]
[What are your parents gonna do with that lololololol]
[Well, his parents are hunters lolololol?]
"Ah, I didn't mention it before? My mother is the master of Hanul Guild."
At that, the chat window burst into flames once again.
Every single thing I said was setting the chat on fire.
[ Anonymous has donated 1,000,000 Watts! ]
- I understand that the master and vice-master of Hanul Guild are a married couple.
"Yes, my mother is the master and my father is the vice-master."
And the moment Hanul Guild was mentioned, the real-time search rankings on the wiki flipped upside down.
Questions kept coming for a long while, and then at some point, they stopped.
'Come to think of it, I've never examined the corpse in detail myself.'
With that thought, I fiddled with the ring, and the monster's corpse materialized in midair.
It dropped to the floor with a thud like a puppet with its strings cut.
I grabbed the corpse by its wing joint and lifted it up so it was clearly visible on screen.
"This is the corpse of the monster I caught this time. It's obviously valuable, right?"
[Hey fuck, I was eating]
[Bleargh, fuck!!!]
[Give us a fucking warning, you bastard]
No blood was dripping from it.
But it was a monster in 'human' form, with its head obliterated.
"A bit too gruesome? Sorry about that."
Everyone must have been thrown off, because no chat messages came in.
But something was a little strange.
No matter how long I waited, the last message was someone saying they were 'gonna puke,' and then dead silence.
"Huh, what's wrong with this?"
[ This channel is temporarily unavailable due to a violation of Pajijik's operating policies. ]
"Ah, fuck..."