A Thunderous Rebuke

The gaming forums continued to burn long after the stream ended. Those branding Wadeulwadeul a dirty hacker clashed furiously against those defending her innocence. No matter how much proof surfaced, there were always people stubbornly refusing to believe.

Twenty thousand concurrent viewers had watched Jo Meohyeop's co-stream with her, and clips from the broadcast surpassed a hundred thousand views in a single day. With that much viral spotlight shining on her, attracting trolls and bad actors was inevitable.

So Rihwa was completely oblivious to the commotion. The only online community she ever checked was for stock trading, not gaming forums—and even that had fallen by the wayside ever since she got expelled from the academy.

Amid the swirling blizzard of wild theories, conspiracies, and baseless accusations, she hit the button to start her very first solo broadcast, entirely unaware of what awaited her.

Unemployed internet lurkers who had pre-followed Wadeulwadeul's Ogogok account quickly broadcasted the alert across the web. The viewer count skyrocketed in real-time, blazing past two thousand before So Rihwa had even uttered a single syllable.

"...What's going on?"

So Rihwa offered a hesitant, clumsy greeting to the audience rushing into her channel. She had only just finished setting up her microphone.

Still entirely in the dark about the storm raging across the forums, she looked on in utter bewilderment as the numbers surged relentlessly.

"Why... why are there so many people?"

She had assumed a handful might trickle in after the co-stream with Jo Meohyeop, but she had expected fifty at most. Two thousand was completely beyond her wildest imagination.

"Wait a moment, please. The chat is scrolling way too fast, I can't keep up."

In truth, the vast majority of these spectators did not particularly care whether she was a hacker or not. They simply needed a new playground to cause mayhem in.

To quell her rising panic, So Rihwa circulated her inner cultivation arts. The boiling internal qi residing within her dantian loosened, smoothing out the tension in her muscles and returning her body to tranquility. Completing a single Microcosmic Orbit cleared the fog of agitation, leaving her calm and centered.

"...Haaah."

Observing the chaotic chat through a mind clear as a polished mirror, the underlying reality began to snap into focus.

Hardly anyone here genuinely cared about cheating. They had merely followed the coordinates to start drama and stir up trouble.

Such petty behavior was hardly rare in human nature, but the martial world So Rihwa envisioned was never meant to be like this. The world of martial prowess and chivalric honor—a realm where stalwart heroes drew their blades without hesitation in the face of injustice, pouring out their blood, sweat, and profound passion. Where on earth had that martial pride and chivalry gone in this modern age?

Then, a thought struck her.

At its core, wasn't the chivalric path about upholding one's own conviction through a single blade to set the crooked world right?

Perhaps live streaming was the modern equivalent—the single most effective blade to pierce through this cynical era. A profession that allowed her to project her true self to the masses while commanding genuine influence. A streamer.

Thinking along those lines, the role of a streamer underwent a dramatic transformation in her mind, taking on the noble air of a sacred calling.

Indeed. If the world was twisted, one simply had to change it. She might possess a naturally meek disposition, but she was no longer the helpless person of the past. Did she not now wield martial arts?

"When pushed to extremes, change arises; through change, passage is cleared; with passage cleared, endurance endures..."

The ancient passage from the I Ching flowed quietly from her lips. So Rihwa drew in a deep, measured breath.

"A thunderous..."

As the viewers stared blankly at the solemn recitation, So Rihwa unleashed a deafening Lion's Roar.

"SILENCE!"

The abrupt, earth-shaking rebuke violently jolted the entire audience. While the digital conversion prevented her internal qi from inflicting spiritual internal injuries through their headsets, the sheer, speaker-shattering volume hit them like a physical blow.

Having seized complete command of the room with overwhelming presence, So Rihwa began lecturing them in earnest.

"Everyone! Do you not feel that you have crossed the line? Reflect upon yourselves! Where has the valor of the Central Plains vanished? Where has the righteous spirit of the Jianghu gone? How can flocking together in a cowardly horde to lynch a lone maiden ever be called chivalry?!"

"I cannot help but grieve deeply at how righteousness and virtue have fallen into the gutter! Denouncing me as a cheat is no different from the shameful conduct of pathetic ruffians, who, incapable of comprehending prowess greater than their own, dismiss it as sorcery and demonic arts!"

Just as So Rihwa had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠predicted, most of the viewers had merely come to fool around. A young girl speaking like an ancient martial arts fossil in the twenty-first century Central Plains was more than enough entertainment to keep them hooked.

Yet not everyone found it amusing. A handful felt genuine irritation prickly beneath her words—the stubborn few who adamantly maintained she had to be a cheater.

"Shall I tell you why you refuse to believe?" So Rihwa countered, her tone level. "It is simply because a girl who appears freshly arrived in the Jianghu is stronger than you. Your fragile pride cannot accept it. Naturally, you yearn to brand it as foul sorcery. But the truth is simple: I was blessed with the Natural Martial Physique."

In truth, it was not some divine body at all, but the cursed, wretched condition known as the Nine Yin Severed Meridians.

So Rihwa was speaking from a genuine desire to enlighten and guide them, but her words struck a raw nerve among the self-proclaimed veteran players who ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠remained convinced she was cheating.

That particular message caught So Rihwa's attention.

"A capsule room? If I play from a capsule room, you will believe me?"

The chat flooded instantly with unanimous assent. For once, public opinion showed complete solidarity.

The only known way to run third-party cheats within a virtual reality capsule was through physical rooting ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and heavy hardware modification. Rooting a capsule was an extraordinarily complex, invasive procedure—tampering with one inside a public capsule room was practically impossible. Thus, pulling off the same plays in a commercial capsule room was universally recognized as absolute proof of innocence.

Supporters and detractors stood united on this single point. Her defenders desperately wanted her to shake off the allegations once and for all, while her critics salivated at the prospect of exposing her.

"So if I stream with my phone while walking to a capsule room, and then start the game stream directly from their capsule, that will suffice?"

Now that she had resolved to take streaming seriously, So Rihwa wanted nothing more than to clear the air cleanly. If visiting a capsule room settled the matter, there was no reason to hesitate.

"Then I will restart the broadcast. I'll step out of the capsule and switch to my phone."

With those parting words, she disconnected the capsule's broadcast feed. Even with the video dark, the chat room remained lively, messages scrolling past at breakneck speed.

The die-hard accusers were certain she had fled, but within moments, the stream sparked back to life. So Rihwa's phone camera blinked open.

"Hello."

The feed was broadcasting from her rear camera. Since she had tucked the apartment's sole mirror away inside the bathroom, there were no reflective surfaces around to betray her face.

A few obstinate haters kept chirping, but the chat's overall tone underwent a sudden, solemn shift. The sheer state of squalor on display through the camera lens was nothing short of appalling.

"..."

She had never intended to flaunt her destitution, but she had ended up proving it all the same. She had never expected anyone to peer into her living space, so she had treated the apartment roughly and seldom bothered to throw away the trash.

"It might look a bit untidy, but it's perfectly livable. Please stop making such a fuss."

So Rihwa dismissed the miserable state of her home as mere drama and stepped outside. The building was ancient, its concrete crumbling and every step of the staircase paved with cracked, splintered tiles.

Extreme poverty had a way of eliciting sympathy. Before the verification trial had even begun, public sentiment had tilted heavily in So Rihwa's favor.

"I have money for the capsule room," she assured them casually. "I received an appearance fee from Jo Meohyeop-nim's broadcast not long ago."

As the chatter pointed out, the street was pitch-black. Being the most dilapidated corner of Xi'an, civil petitions submitted here were routinely swept under the rug. The narrow, winding alleys only added to the suffocating gloom.

"Ah. Actually, a few organ traffickers were caught around here recently," So Rihwa remarked nonchalantly. "Knife fights break out all the time, brawls are constant... it's that sort of neighborhood."

In Sinseong-gu, bloodcurdling screams echoed through the night at least once every three days, and police sirens were a regular fixture of the soundscape. It was notorious for wretched security.

While the chat erupted in horror, So Rihwa spoke with absolute indifference after years of living there. In fact, her voice carried a touch of cheer, as though she were giving tourists a fond guided tour of her hometown.

Right then, a hulking shadow stretched across the far end of the alleyway. A towering silhouette emerged, slowly ambling toward So Rihwa. As the figure drew closer, the dim light caught the edge of a blade gripped firmly in his hand.

A cramped, unlit alley. A giant of a man advancing with a drawn knife. Yet So Rihwa did not pause for a second, continuing her steady stroll forward while the chat room erupted into absolute hysteria.

Before long, the distance shrank enough for his features to resolve in the gloom. Both the giant and So Rihwa came to a halt. The chat held its breath in agonizing suspense.

"It's been a long time! Big Sis!"

The moment the giant laid eyes on So Rihwa, his broad shoulders squared and his waist bent into a rigid, perpendicular ninety-degree bow.

Instantly, the chat room plunged into utter pandemonium.