Chapter 91 : Blue Whale
Chapter 91: Blue Whale
Arum-Daun Twins and Geomsaeng Geomsa’s Mission Challenge!
Perhaps because they were the first challengers, the gazes of other participants who had been training nearby to familiarize themselves with the mission build also gathered.
They too knew that these three people challenging now were strong competitors for the first mission. That’s why anxiety seeped through their gazes.
“Whew, here we go.”
-Pass on first try pls go go go go
-Hackphysical + Jeong Nayeon vs Cha Seongcheol
-Twins will pass for sure
-I believe in Geomsaeng Geomsa!
Before dozens of pairs of eyes and tens of thousands of viewers, the three activated their supernatural abilities, and vivid blue energy burst out around their bodies.
It wasn’t really a significantly meaningful effect. They had just selected one of the lower elements that visually revealed whether the ability was activated while increasing physical capabilities.
This was included due to Jeong Nayeon’s strong argument that viewers needed to be able to intuitively know success or failure.
She said that way viewers could immerse themselves more and cheer for the participants’ challenges.
“Heave-ho!”
“Hngh!” “Hup!”
As Geomsaeng Geomsa and the Arum-Daun Twins lifted their barbells, a 3-minute timer naturally began counting down above their heads.
As expected, maintaining the ability without assistance wasn’t easy—when barely thirty seconds had passed, the blue light emanating from them wavered.
The blue light that had burst out vigorously at first gradually lost its strength, and now it barely covered their bodies.
-What, like a candle before the wind
-Already like that after not even 1 minute but 30 seconds lololol
-That’s actually difficult;;
-Here go the devs who’ve never done no-assist commenting again
-If they look like they’ll fail soon, upvote lololol
As if waiting for it, comments disparaging Geomsaeng Geomsa and the Arum-Daun Twins crept up in the chat.
However, not everyone thought that way. The difficulty of no-assist in ‘Reverse Planet’ was already well known.
It’s just that, as always, trolls among the crowd raised their heads at this opportunity. Those who enjoyed scraping reactions from broadcasters and their fans.
In cases of large-scale content like now, floating trolls also swarmed in, so the chat atmosphere becoming murky was a frequent occurrence.
That’s why Jeong Nayeon chose to wisely divert the topic instead of dealing with them by forcibly ejecting them one by one—not that she didn’t do that at all.
She induced interest in that direction by revealing the mission build’s code.
“Viewers, would you like to challenge it together? If you post a success verification video on my cafe, I’ll give you a small prize too!”
-Oh, sounds fun
-Can watch the broadcast while doing it
-Giving prizes? What prizes?
-If I pass this, will you take me as a disciple? lol
‘CarryFlavorLike’ donated ‘1000 won’!
[Just went to training ground and got the build lol just you wait lol]
As a result, Jeong Nayeon’s judgment was correct.
The chat public opinion that had been flowing negatively flipped in one go, turning around as if they had never criticized.
It was proof that it was better to not give attention at all and change the topic rather than stubbornly pushing back and causing backlash.
‘Hmm.’
Watching Jeong Nayeon conduct the broadcast while handling trolls well, Baek Woohyun realized why the ‘Hack Tour’ content was doing well.
Since she handled things so well on her own, the viewer count was growing robustly even though all he did was play the game.
On top of that, she took charge of iTube too, growing it and sharing the profits, so he could only be pleased.
‘I should buy her a meal later.’
Jeong Nayeon would wave it off, saying it was thanks to Baek Woohyun being worthy content, but…
“Kugh—”
“It’s hard!” “Tough!”
Meanwhile, another minute had passed.
Now only 1 minute and 30 seconds remained. They just needed to endure exactly as much as they already had.
They had turned a kind of halfway point, and from here, the methods of the three challengers diverged.
“Sssss, whoooo—”
-Geomsaeng Geomsa fighting!
-The pride of old guys!
-? Why is he the pride of old guys??
Geomsaeng Geomsa closed his eyes and regulated his breathing, trying his best to maintain his concentration that was about to scatter.
It looked momentarily like he was meditating.
“Why don’t you give up?”
“You’re the one who should give up!”
“Sorry but, this noona, doesn’t give up, easily!”
“Oppa’s, the same!”
-Real sibling traits lololol
-Every time I see them they’re fighting
-They’re in an adversarial relationship designed from their genes lol
On the other hand, the Arum-Daun siblings provoked each other to boost their motivation.
Whether they were just bickering and fighting as usual or boosting motivation to not give up wasn’t clear, but anyway.
-1 minute left
-No way all three pass at once
-These guys won’t get eliminated in Round 1 right?
-If you’re 1st place in the first mission, you usually don’t get eliminated
“—Urk.”
Thud—
“Ah. Here Geomsaeng Geomsa has been eliminated.”
“It seems his concentration broke momentarily.”
-Aigoo
-RIP
-Just endure 1 more minute;
When the displayed timer broke the one-minute mark, Geomsaeng Geomsa’s blue light suddenly scattered, and he dropped the barbell.
Cha Seongcheol, Jeong Nayeon, and the viewers couldn’t hide their disappointment at his failure. It was practically failing when he had almost reached the end.
‘So it ended up this way.’
The only one who nodded as if expecting this was Baek Woohyun.
From the start of the challenge, he had already seen that Geomsaeng Geomsa would have difficulty passing immediately this time, maybe next time.
Even if others didn’t know, to his eyes it was plain to see that Geomsaeng Geomsa’s blue light was more precarious than the Arum-Daun siblings’ blue light.
From when Jeong Nayeon showed them as disciple candidates in the first place, he had known there existed an insurmountable gap in talent between them.
There was no way Geomsaeng Geomsa, who only merited ‘Not bad,’ and the Arum-Daun Twins, who received the evaluation of ‘Excellent,’ could stand on the same level.
If they could, Baek Woohyun’s evaluations of them would have been identical in the first place.
“Argh! To fail this!”
Geomsaeng Geomsa, who had slumped to the ground, let out a lament.
It was a natural reaction since he had failed when he just needed to endure a little over one more minute.
Separately from that, the Arum-Daun siblings endured steadfastly, and when 3 minutes arrived, celebratory fireworks burst above their heads.
“Phew—!” “We did it!”
-As expected, the twins are first
-Of course, they’re Hackphysical’s picks ㅇㅇ
-Was Geomsaeng Geomsa just an ordinary person
-Are you losing? “Winning”
Simultaneously throwing down their barbells, the Arum-Daun siblings let out great sighs of relief.
The last thirty seconds, they had been so focused that they even held their breath rather than provoking each other, so they seemed considerably exhausted.
Well, maintaining intense concentration without stopping for a single moment for three minutes wasn’t an easy task.
Clap clap clap!
“Congratulations!”
“The first passers have emerged!”
The three people sitting in the judge seats also congratulated the Arum-Daun siblings, the first passers.
Jeong Nayeon was especially delighted. Because the first passers, the Arum-Daun siblings, were candidates she had chosen, and she predicted that now talk about difficulty would completely disappear.
There were still quite a few viewers complaining that the mission was too difficult, but since the Arum-Daun siblings succeeded in one try and proved otherwise, she thought they would also quiet down a bit.
“Already?”
“To pass on the first try.”
“I think Geomsaeng Geomsa will pass too.”
“Hmm—”
However, unlike others who were pleased, the other participants’ expressions weren’t very bright.
Points were given according to passing order and rankings were decided based on that, so the Arum-Daun siblings’ passing wasn’t very good news for them.
The pressure the participants felt grew even more when Geomsaeng Geomsa, who immediately retried, passed consecutively.
While it was said that even if you mess up the first mission, you can flip it in the second mission, how difficult that would be needn’t be said.
Unlike melee builds, ranged builds were used by many people—there were as many as eight!—so it was also difficult to advance using familiarity as a weapon.
Therefore, from 7th to 10th place in the first mission were strong elimination candidates, and in fact, the remaining spots could be considered just three spots: 4th, 5th, and 6th place.
‘So I have to do it now.’
That’s why one of the participants, Blue Whale, decided to make a not-so-good choice.
Stealthily gauging the others’ reactions, he adjusted the system to invisible mode, telling viewers that work-related contact suddenly came from iTube.
Pretending to reply to a message that didn’t come, he raised the assistance that had been lowered to 0 percent back to its original level.
After that, rather than immediately challenging the mission pass, he calmly continued practicing and waited for the right time.
Meaning he gauged the opportunity while appropriately killing time, since immediately challenging and passing after manipulating the system would be too obvious.
Coincidentally, the fourth passer—a melee build user who used a spear as their main weapon—appeared, and thinking ‘This is enough!’ he began to move.
“Ah, so this is the feeling.”
-Got the hang of it?
-Hurry up and challenge go go
-Even if you pass now it’s 5th place
“That’s right. I got the hang of it. Watch closely, hyungs. I’ll pass and come right back!”
Pretending to have gotten the hang of it, Blue Whale climbed onto the stage in one breath and declared his challenge.
As he calmly regulated his breathing, he was enveloped in the blue light characteristic of the mission ability build, and vigorously lifted the given barbell.
Since there was assistance, naturally enduring wasn’t particularly difficult. Once activated, it was practically close to automatic maintenance.
Of course, outwardly he sweated profusely and acted like it was difficult. He even wavered the blue light a few times as if the ability would cut off.
‘Ha. My acting skills are god-tier~’
Inwardly he was praising himself, thinking at this rate he might receive an acting award.
It was possible because with assistance, the ability maintained well even while thinking other thoughts.
“Oh, Blue Whale is a dark horse.”
“Breaking through 2 minutes on the first challenge! Will the fifth passer emerge like this?!”
-Blue Whale was a talent too?
-Enduring better than expected
-Did he newly discover his talent here lol
-He said he got the hang of it and it was real ㄷㄷ
Jeong Nayeon, Cha Seongcheol, and the viewers admired Blue Whale, who was enduring better than expected.
Although it was fifth place, considering that the previous four were those who had used melee builds before, in fact he was practically first place.
For Jeong Nayeon, who knew that Baek Woohyun hadn’t greatly mentioned Blue Whale, he especially felt like a dark horse.
“Nice!”
-Wow, passing in one try lololol
-Not a Gold tier for nothing ㅇㅇ
-There’s a difference even among Bronze-Silver-Gold~
-But the other Golds haven’t even got the hang of it yet?
“Congratulations!”
“The fifth passer is Blue Whale!”
“……”
As three minutes passed, celebratory fireworks announcing the pass burst above Blue Whale’s head like with the other passers before.
Blue Whale, who was rejoicing while vigorously throwing down the barbell, didn’t forget to pant as if exhausted. Meaning he didn’t let his guard down until the end and continued his acting.
Thanks to that, Jeong Nayeon, who never thought he would have challenged after turning the assistance back to its original level, was about to add his name to the rankings when—
“Wait a moment.”
Baek Woohyun, who had been quietly observing, interrupted.