Chapter 115: The Child Who Creates the Flow (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 115: The Child Who Creates the Flow (3)
As the van carrying Black Unicorn arrived, the gathered crowd erupted in cheers.
The easiest way to see a hero in person was to check the dungeon reservation status on the Association's website. By confirming where a specific hero was headed and waiting in front of that dungeon, one could see them directly, even if kept at a distance by the police lines.
Usually, die-hard fans were the ones who waited in front of dungeons. While Black Unicorn always had a large following, the crowd today was even bigger than usual. A large electronic billboard set up in front of the dungeon entrance announced that they would be conducting a public conquest today.
Back before they were known as Black Unicorn, during their D-rank days, they had occasionally shown their raids, but this was their first public conquest since reaching C-rank. In a way, it was their first public raid under the name Black Unicorn, so no fan was going to miss such an event.
"Kyaaa! Jeong Yeon-woo is so cool!"
The woman wearing glasses frowned as she looked at Kim Hyun-ah, a recent addition to the fan club. While Hyun-ah was sociable, got along well with other members, and was helpful in many ways—even paying out of pocket for coffee trucks and food trucks—she became incredibly annoying and lost all composure whenever Jeong Yeon-woo appeared.
Thinking that how one conducted their fan activities was a personal matter as long as they didn't cross the line, Glasses pulled a massive, bazooka-like telephoto lens from a long bag and mounted it onto her camera.
"You actually managed to lug that thing around," her friend said with an exhausted expression.
Ignoring her, Glasses skillfully assembled the gear and aimed the camera at Jeong Yeon-woo. As always, he was beautiful.
"Whoa, whoa. Please send me this photo too!"
"I'm going to upload it to the club page, so please don't bother me."
When Kim Hyun-ah clung to her after seeing the shot, Glasses looked at her with annoyance. She considered herself a fan of Black Unicorn as a whole, unlike those who only swarmed around Jeong Yeon-woo, and she made sure to photograph all the members.
"Wait...?"
While diligently filming Black Unicorn preparing for the dungeon, Glasses spotted something and let out a sound. She wasn't the only one; reporters were also whispering while staring at the members' waists.
Holstered at their backs were large revolvers. It wasn't just Jeong Yeon-woo; every single member of Black Unicorn was carrying a gun.
"What are those...?"
Her friend asked, knowing Glasses was knowledgeable about firearms, but she couldn't answer because it was a model she had never seen before. A revolver so ridiculously large that an ordinary person would likely need both hands to use it simply didn't exist in the world.
The reason for today's public conquest was likely related to those weapons. Glasses and the reporters focused their lenses on the revolvers hanging from their waists.
Black Unicorn was always kind to their fans, often giving autographs and sharing brief words, but that only happened after a dungeon was cleared. Before a raid, they never answered reporters' questions to maintain their focus.
Today was no different. Black Unicorn entered the dungeon without showing any interest in the people gathered around them.
A short while later, drones were deployed, and the electronic billboard began broadcasting the interior of the dungeon. Since it was a maze-type dungeon, there were limits to the angles the drones could capture, which felt a bit stifling, but the pilot's skill was excellent, providing a grand view of Black Unicorn.
Flare bombs had been detonated around the entrance, bathing them in a red glow. The dungeon they were conquering this time was notoriously difficult because of the lack of light. The monsters weren't particularly strong, but the environment was extremely disadvantageous for heroes. Without creating light through magic or flares, one would be trapped in a darkness so thick they couldn't even see their own hands.
The monsters in this dungeon were eyeless and hunted heroes using sound waves. While they were easy to deal with if there was light, they were incredibly troublesome because they launched ambushes from the pitch-black shadows where light couldn't reach.
An orb of light rose above Jeong Yeon-woo's head, but it didn't illuminate very far.
"No honorifics. All orders come from me."
As his words signaled the start of the conquest, the fan club outside cheered in unison. Without straying from the reach of Jeong Yeon-woo's light, Black Unicorn advanced through the dungeon.
"Yeon-woo-jjang has Mana Detection, so he can easily sense enemies even in the dark."
"But the other members don't. To maintain formation, they have to keep their distance, but Ye-jin Unnie at the very front won't be able to see anything but darkness."
While the fans were busy analyzing, Jeong Yeon-woo announced that monsters had appeared and told them to get ready.
Bang! Bang!
Flames erupted from the revolver Yoon A-young drew. The gunshot was as heavy as the gun's size; hearing it in person would likely make one's body vibrate. The bullets she fired at the ground in front of her triggered a magic effect similar to the light orb Jeong Yeon-woo had created.
Having secured their vision in an instant, Black Unicorn easily dispatched the monsters that had lost their advantage.
While people watched with their mouths agape, more monsters continued to swarm from the distant darkness. Lee Yu-na aimed her revolver high and fired. As the bullet flew, it emitted a trail of bright light particles, illuminating the path of the bullet until it hit the distant ceiling.
A blue lightning bolt formed on the arrow Lee Yu-na fired, electrocuting the monsters in the back all at once.
"Hahaha! Die, all of you!!"
Seeing the pack of monsters hidden in the dark, Anna, who had transformed into a demon, lunged in and swung her claws in all directions. Even as Demon Anna went on a rampage among the monsters, Jeong Yeon-woo's bullets struck her accurately, and upon receiving the buffs, she slaughtered them even more vigorously.
"Fall back. Anna, get out of there."
At Jeong Yeon-woo's command, Anna immediately fired her revolver at the ground. The floor she was standing on rose up, and Anna leaped, retreating behind Kwon Ye-jin.
As the scene of their brilliant combat was broadcast on the screen, the people gathered at the site couldn't make a sound, staring blankly in awe.
Jeong Yeon-woo focused solely on buffs and debuffs, while the magic triggered by the party members' guns handled the tactical roles he used to perform. The combat scenes of Black Unicorn, moving far more organically than before, were incredibly thrilling.
In the narrow corridor, every single member was engaged in battle without exception, and their movements—as if choreographed in advance—evoked a sense of catharsis in the viewers.
"He's leaving simple tasks like securing vision to the party members, while Hero Jeong Yeon-woo focuses entirely on support."
"Didn't they say using guns is hard? Something about... mana and all that? Did Yeon-woo-jjang teach them...?"
At her friend's question, Glasses watched blankly and spoke.
"They swapped cylinders even though they hadn't used all the bullets. Each bullet has magic engraved on it. That way, they only need to inject mana, so there's no need to construct a magic formula. That's why Hero Jeong Yeon-woo isn't the one using them..."
Glasses analyzed the situation as if muttering to herself. The reporters near her took interest and quietly listened in.
"It's not just the appearance... these aren't ordinary guns. They're guns made specifically for heroes."
As soon as Glasses finished speaking, the reporters each called their superiors and companies to relay the news.
Whoa—this is comfortable.
By assigning simple spells to the party members and sharing my role, the battle itself has become much easier. Especially when using Acceleration, I tend to get overwhelmed and can easily miss small details. But by delegating those tasks to Lee Yu-na or the other members and not worrying about them, I feel like my own efficiency has increased.
"I didn't get to fire a single shot!"
Only Kwon Ye-jin, who had been busy holding the front line during the raid, grumbled.
"Go ahead and shoot. There's a target right here."
"That's the boss! It's already dead!"
"Isn't it the perfect target for your skills, Ye-jin? It's huge and it doesn't move."
Lee Yu-na teased Kwon Ye-jin.
"Pew! Pew!"
Anna, still caught up in the excitement of the revolver, held the gun and made sound effects with her mouth like a child. Give them a gun, and kids and adults alike become the same.
Goodness, how cute.
Watching the doll-like girl play with the gun, I asked Yoon A-young.
"How was the experience using it in actual combat?"
"The Acceleration tactics have become much more stable. You set it to 3-minute intervals this time, right? I didn't feel any sense of interruption at all."
I asked how the revolver was, but Yoon A-young answered that my support had improved. It wasn't the answer I was looking for, but since it meant the party's strength had increased, I'll take it.
"This is truly amazing. It's much more comfortable than trying to imbue mana into a regular gun."
Instead, Lee Yu-na praised the gun. She was the only one among the party members who used bullets without pre-engraved magic. As a supporter, it was too time-consuming for her to swap magazines while using various spells.
With her existing support skills, marksmanship, and even hand-cast magic, she could now provide diverse support depending on the situation. On top of that, she could even contribute sub-DPS, making her a very well-balanced position that could excel in all areas.
For her, marksmanship was strictly a secondary tool, so I didn't need to worry about her stealing my role.
We've cleared the boss, and the field test and promotion are finished, so shall we head back?
When we came outside, the crowd had grown even larger. The fans were still there, but there were dozens of cameras from broadcasting stations.
"We'll have a separate interview later, so please step back!"
As I was signing hero cards held out by fans, reporters kept swarming in as if to attack, prompting a nearby staff member to shout. I wondered what the big deal was for them to be in such a frenzy.
I chuckled and took photos with the fans.
[World's First Hero-Exclusive Gun Appears! Poltsmith's JP-12 Revolver!]
[Not a Gun for Gunslingers. A Gun for Heroes. The JP-12]
[The Reason for the Split with H&K: A Great Step Toward Creating a Better Gun]
[JP-12: What Makes It So Special?]
[Michelle Audrey & Poltsmith: A Masterpiece Created by Two Great Beings]
Marina Zuckerberg, Vice President of H&K, stared at the screen with a devastated expression. Everywhere she looked, people were talking about the guns used by Black Unicorn.
Analysis videos by firearms experts, streamers jumping on the trend without knowing much, an endless stream of articles, posts clamoring for the release date—the whole world was buzzing only about the guns made by Poltsmith.
Since Jeong Yeon-woo had abandoned H&K's guns for Poltsmith's after the ship party, the company had even interrogated her about what had happened back then. All she had done was relay the proposal for a 'Jeong Yeon-woo Edition' that the company had subtly suggested.
The frustrated Marina Zuckerberg felt chills run down her spine as she looked at Poltsmith's revolver. She hated to praise a competitor, but it was a brilliant strategy.
They had positioned it not as a weapon, but as a support tool. By targeting all heroes instead of just gunslingers, they would make an endless profit if it sold. Furthermore, since they were selling exclusive bullets, it wasn't a one-time sale.
The hero business was such that if a product was effective, it would sell like crazy regardless of the price. And why was this person working with Poltsmith?
Michelle Audrey. Her name carried such weight that heroes would buy products without even checking them.
Imagine the JP-12 hanging from each of their waists. Million-dollar billboards were roaming around dungeons. At this rate, Poltsmith might monopolize the industry.
"We have to get Jeong Yeon-woo... A gunslinger, let's make a gun for gunslingers. Jeong Yeon-woo didn't use that gun. There's a problem with it; if we make a gun exclusively for gunslingers, we can recover..."
Muttering as if she had lost her mind, she picked up the phone to call an executive meeting. Since this was a crisis that could lead to ruin if not resolved, the steady ringing tone felt incredibly agonizing.
"... ..."
[Michelle Audrey's First Pistol, Astra]
Before the ringing could even stop, Marina Zuckerberg weakly lowered the phone as she saw the breaking news articles. The person on the other end finally picked up and spoke, but she couldn't hear them.
In the photo of Michelle Audrey and Jeong Yeon-woo together, he was holding a pistol. It was a gun made specifically for the only current gunslinger, Jeong Yeon-woo.