Chapter 6
Chapter 6: Isn't this person using Nuclear Weapons
50,000 Won.
He'd need to receive something like this 14,000,000 times to reach his goal.
No, wait—he'd said he'd already paid back 20%, so it'd be a bit less than that.
Having actually earned real money, he now truly felt just how impossibly distant that debt was.
But regardless of the amount, the simple fact that it was his first donation was enough to put him in a good mood.
As Mu-yeong flicked the blood off his sword, a clear chime rang out.
['SmileForUs' has donated 10,000 Won.]
—So you're actually doing this lol. But how'd you get through the armor?
He'd originally planned to stay silent today.
But if someone was going to give him money, that was a different story.
Mu-yeong spoke in a slightly brighter tone.
"Every object has something called a flow. You could also call it a grain. Once you understand it, there is nothing in this world you cannot cut."
Only a handful among the truly skilled knew of this.
And among even those few, the number who actually understood it and could put it to practical use was an extreme minority.
Take splitting firewood, for example.
A seasoned woodcutter knows exactly where to strike and with how much force to split the wood cleanly.
But that only applies to an object standing perfectly still.
Now imagine taking that into a life-or-death battle where every second counts.
Aiming for a moving opponent's weak point and landing a precise strike?
Nearly impossible.
['ThatsBitMuch' has donated 1,000 Won.]
—Didn't you just smash through it with raw force just now? Does that count as a grain?
—For real, you completely shattered the armor and you're talking about grain?
—Just get the gist of it. Why are you picking at every little thing lolol
—Gotta say, he's still the best when it comes to pure strength.
Not entirely wrong, either.
It was true that using the Heavenly Demon Three Swords required a baseline level of physical strength.
The problem was just that the level it required was far beyond what an ordinary person could imagine.
['EndMyPain' has donated 1,000 Won.]
—Isn't this only Floor 2 though? He looked cool and all, but isn't this the section any Martial World person clears no problem?
—That's true, tbh.
—Maybe not to this extent, but I've seen people break through armor loads of times.
—What was that Daehwasan Sect guy's name again? What he was doing was genuinely an art form.
'Daehwasan Sect?'
Mu-yeong's eyebrow twitched for a moment.
Of all the things to compare to.
To think that after witnessing a level of martial skill that ranked among the finest in the Central Plains with their own eyes, they were still saying something like that.
Even if the hostility between the Orthodox and Unorthodox factions had somewhat softened since coming to the modern age, for Mu-yeong it hadn't.
The memories of the endless slanders he'd endured ten years ago were still exactly as they were.
Mu-yeong bared his teeth slightly and spoke.
"How many stages has that Daehwasan Sect fellow cleared?"
['EndMyPain' has donated 1,000 Won.]
—Most of the second-generation disciples have cleared Stage 3 or higher, but the most famous one is Yu Ye-rin. She got all the way to just before clearing Stage 5.
Yu Ye-rin.
A name he'd never heard before.
Partly because he'd spent so long in Closed Door Training, but it didn't particularly bother him.
Whatever the case, she was someone who hadn't even cleared Stage 5.
In the moment he paused to search his memory, an extraordinarily long message flooded Mu-yeong's field of vision.
—Wow! So you know Yu Ye-rin! For those who might not be familiar, allow me to explain. She's known as the Greatest Beauty of Daehwasan and among the strongest of her generation, a name that stands in the top—
Less than a second later, the lengthy message shrank down to a single short line.
Mu-yeong tilted his head.
"Deleted message?"
—Lololololol
—What the hell, did this guy rent out the entire chat? lol
—Keep it to 3 lines, 3 lines.
Skimming through the reactions, he had a rough sense of what had happened.
It seemed that to prevent spam, any message exceeding a certain character count was automatically removed.
Mu-yeong smirked.
'She seems quite famous. But however strong she may be, she's still someone who couldn't clear Stage 5.'
If he showed something even more impressive here, all that attention would turn to him.
Same went for the donations.
The thought of money snapped him back to full alertness.
At just the right moment, a pleasing sound rang out.
['SmileForUs' has donated 200,000 Won.]
—If you clear the next stage within 5 minutes, it's yours.
Mu-yeong pressed the accept button.
"I'll clear it within 3."
.
.
.
.
"Alright, that's it for today's stream! Thanks everyone for watching, you worked hard!"
—?
—Already?
—Isn't this a bit too early to end today?
—So disappointing……
"I have to train today, so I really can't help it. I'll go longer tomorrow instead. Got it?"
—Holding my breath until you come back on.
—When are you coming back……When are you coming back……When are you coming back……
—You haven't even ended the stream yet, you idiot.
"Alright then, everyone, bye~"
Waving with a bright smile, Yu Ye-rin pressed the end stream button.
Once she confirmed it had fully shut off, she stretched both arms straight up above her.
"Ughhh……. Haah, today was rough too……."
Still in position, she twisted her body this way and that.
Once she felt the tension in her muscles ease somewhat, she reached for her mouse again.
Click click.
She browsed through the NewTube and Minsta channels she managed herself.
Scroll scroll.
She hopped between all kinds of community boards, checking what was going on.
When had it started?
When had this routine become just… normal life?
Sometimes the days in the Martial World felt like nothing more than a dream.
'Even so, compared to back then, I'm a lot happier now.'
She didn't have to train all day until she dropped.
There was no looming threat of war that could erupt at any moment.
And that wasn't all.
Thanks to her exceptional looks, she'd become a well-known celebrity across social media.
No matter what she streamed, she had a steady 3,000 viewers who kept coming back.
In the past, it would have been a paradise beyond her wildest dreams.
Yu Ye-rin exhaled a contented breath through her nose and moved her mouse toward the upper right.
"Alright, now that I've checked everything……. Should I hop in the Capsule and do some training?"
Right before she closed the browser, something made Yu Ye-rin freeze.
Recommended Channels.
The section that surfaced streamers broadcasting content she'd shown interest in or frequently searched before.
Among them, the one that grabbed her attention most aggressively was this.
Guest437123 is live.
—15 viewers.
—Castle Defense.
Yu Ye-rin let out a hollow laugh.
"Wow, someone's actually playing this game? Are they doing some kind of punishment stream? Or a challenge run?"
Having played Castle Defense herself quite a bit, she knew exactly what it was.
A hellish game where even ordinary people struggled to clear Stage 1, and most Martial World players fell apart at Stage 3.
Even she—someone raised to be called the future of Daehwasan—had been crushed at Stage 5. So what could anyone else expect?
And yet there was still a reason people kept streaming it.
'Because the viewing experience alone is absolutely top-tier.'
No matter how composed someone was, this game turned them all into the same spectacle.
Rolling here, tumbling there, desperately doing anything just to survive.
And then dying in an absolute mess in the end—it was massively popular with viewers.
—The way he's crawling around on the ground looks just like a cockroach lol
—Got hit again? Try dodging for once.
—Hmm…… can't even clear this? Disappointing.
And all the while, viewers would gently poke and prod with donations, and nothing wiped away stress quite like it.
Of course, the donations came in pretty generously too, so it was a win for both sides.
"Should I just watch this before anything else? Looks like it'll be fun."
Yu Ye-rin's eyes lit up for a moment as she flashed her white teeth.
It had been absolute hell when she was the one playing, but watching from a viewer's perspective hit differently.
Alright then—shall this senior go over and offer some seasoned commentary to a junior?
With an excited expression, Yu Ye-rin quickly clicked on the stream.
'I'll see how they do, and if it looks like a good time, I should put up a mission too. What would be something they could absolutely never clear?……'
Loading.
In the meantime, the list of donations she'd received herself came to mind.
['ㅇㅇ' has donated 1,000 Won.]
—Kill the boss without swearing for 5 minutes and I'll give you 1,000,000 Won.
['ㅇㅇ' has donated 1,000 Won.]
—Wasn't some guy from the Demonic Heaven Sect clearing this in under a minute? Seems like you're a bit behind……
Grrrk.
Yu Ye-rin, who had been grinding her teeth without realizing it, rubbed her forehead.
At the same time, the familiar battlefield appeared on the screen.
Her eyes went wide as she turned to look for the streamer.
She'd expected to see someone covered in dirt, getting pummeled by the boss, but—
"……Huh?"
Yu Ye-rin let out a dumbfounded sound.
Her eyes blinked rapidly, as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing.
That's how different it was from what she'd imagined.
Very, very different.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
—No way, he's actually dodging everything lololol
—Is this guy using eye techniques? Feels like cheating.
—And what are you gonna do even if he is? You think anyone could see that and dodge it?
—For real lolol
A man in soldier's armor was evading every single attack from his opponent.
With his eyes closed. In a completely relaxed manner.
"What is that?"
There were more things she couldn't make sense of than she could count.
First: his outfit.
Soldier's armor offers almost no defense and is incredibly restrictive to move in.
Taking it off before playing was basically the standard—yet this person had it all on, helmet included.
'That's essentially the same as strapping sandbags to your arms and legs…….'
That much, she could just barely accept.
It could be a concept.
But that aside.
Why?
Why were his eyes closed?
['WhatShouldIEatForLunch' has donated 1,000 Won.]
—Hey hey, go easy
—the person who set the mission is going to go bankrupt lololol
['HateGoingToWork' has donated 1,000 Won.]
—Looks like it's already too late lol. I've been counting and it's already passed 50.
At the string of donations going off one after another, Yu Ye-rin immediately shifted her gaze to the left.
Only then did she understand why he was doing any of this.
[Surprise Mission—10,000 Won per boss attack dodged with eyes closed.]
—Time limit: 3 minutes.
This was absurd.
You could barely manage keeping both eyes wide open at full concentration, and here he was pulling this off with total ease.
Of course, it wasn't completely impossible.
By reading sounds or the flow of the air, she could do it to a limited degree herself.
But even then, it would only last a handful of times, and it came with the prerequisite that there be a massive gap in skill between her and the opponent.
Which brought up the problem.
Did this battle actually satisfy that second condition?
The knight in eagle-crested armor with pale blue eyes.
The one she'd beaten only after suffering immensely—a fighter whose strength was just a notch below her own—was his—
"That's the Floor 4 boss!!!"
Yu Ye-rin's jaw dropped.
.
.
.
.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
'530,000 Won, 540,000 Won, 550,000 Won.'
Mu-yeong's lips kept curving higher and higher.
All he had to do was close his eyes and dodge, and someone would give him money!
Was there any easier job in the world?
Was the person who set this mission secretly some kind of saint?
While Mu-yeong was on the verge of dying of happiness, Mark, swinging his sword with everything he had, was having the absolute worst time of his life.
—This guy's face is turning bright red lol
—I've never seen him make that kind of expression before lol
—From his perspective, it must feel like fighting a ghost.
And as things went on, Mark's face didn't just go red—it froze over.
The delighted viewers hammered their keyboards even more furiously.
The frequency of donations surged sharply.
['JustLetMeLive' has donated 1,000 Won.]
—Wait, is this guy actually hacking? How is this even possible?
—He's literally doing it right now.
—Who puts a hack on a garbage game like this lol
—For real, the time it'd take to make and inject the hack would cost more lol
Yu Ye-rin, watching every frame with sharp eyes, shook her head.
'There's absolutely no hack here.'
An ordinary person might not know, but those who'd lived and breathed the Martial World could tell at a glance.
Programs like that, no matter how well-made, always have something that feels slightly off.
For a full-body Capsule game, those flaws are only amplified further.
Whether it's anticipating the attack path before it's even telegraphed, or some subtle imbalance that makes the movement feel jerky—
But this person was reacting only after the opponent had already begun to move.
'Insane……. He can actually do this with pure physicality? And he looks about my age too?'
Yu Ye-rin, who'd always carried a certain pride in her own ability, simply couldn't accept it.
Without even using energy, he was at this level—so just what kind of monster would emerge once those restrictions were lifted?
Her mind told her it wasn't a hack. But her pride refused to accept it.
In the meantime, a clear tone rang out.
['WhatShouldIEatForLunch' has donated 1,000 Won.]
—1 minute left. You should probably wrap this up soon?
It was a donation sent to keep Mu-yeong, who couldn't see the timer informed.
But nothing changed.
['WhatShouldIEatForLunch' has donated 1,000 Won.]
—No, seriously, you've got 30 seconds left, okay? You know all of this is worthless if you can't kill the boss, right?
—Maybe he's so focused he can't hear the donation sounds?
—Try donating 10,000.
—The chairman is absolutely beaming rn lolol
['WhatShouldIEatForLunch' has donated 10,000 Won.]
—10 seconds 10 seconds 10 seconds 10 seconds 10 seconds.
With a loud triumphant fanfare, Mu-yeong's eyes snapped open.
"What a shame. If this one had been just a bit stronger, I could've earned more."
Mu-yeong clicked his tongue as he abandoned his defensive posture.
As he came charging at full speed, Mark stumbled in a panic.
"Wh—what!?"
It seemed he'd been so focused on trying to land a hit that he hadn't spared a single thought for a counterattack.
In the heat of a fierce battle, a mistake like that was absolutely fatal, and the cost was merciless.
Thud!
Watching the corpse crumple to the ground, Mu-yeong muttered in dissatisfaction.
"Still, swinging that sword so slowly is a problem."
—Cleared it with literally 1 second to spare lol
—Insane money-harvesting genius lolol
—The chairman is sobbing in real time lol
['SmileForUs' has donated 650,000 Won.]
—Regretting setting that mission. Got completely cleaned out.
A massive donation, setting a new all-time record.
Mu-yeong curled the corner of his mouth and spun his sword once.
"I'll put the donation to good use. Thank you."
Adding it all up, he'd made roughly 1,000,000 Won total.
Before the stream had even started, he never imagined it would blow up this much.
'I'll put half of this toward paying off the debt.'
While Mu-yeong mulled over this pleasant dilemma, Yu Ye-rin was jabbing her finger at the monitor.
"H—he cleared the Floor 4 boss in one run? How!?"
As far as she could recall, the all-time record in Castle Defense was the Floor 6 boss at half HP.
And even the person who held that record hadn't taken down a boss this effortlessly.
"I was rolling around like an idiot, pulling every trick in the book, and barely scraping by!"
This makes no sense.
‘I can't believe it.’
‘Is this seriously not a hack?’
More fired up than she'd ever been, Yu Ye-rin opened the donation window.
Tap tap tap tap.
She typed furiously for a moment.
Then immediately clicked the donate button.
['YuYeRin' has submitted a 1,000,000 Won mission.]
—Up for Floor 5 right now? Clear the boss and it's yours.
—Wait, is that real?
—Is that the real Yu Ye-rin?
—Would someone throw down 1,000,000 Won if it wasn't real?
—What a humble presence to grace such a distinguished stream lol
Seeing the chat, Yu Ye-rin's head cleared instantly.
"Oh, right—I forgot I was supposed to donate on a secondary account."
No—actually, this was fine.
If someone as well-known as herself was the one setting the mission in person, this person couldn't pull any cheap tricks.
"Accept it."
Mu-yeong nodded without hesitation.
Someone offering to double everything he'd earned so far—there was no reason to refuse.
Then, a small flicker of greed reared its head.
"Is there a bonus if I clear it bare-handed?"
The sheer audacity of the question made Yu Ye-rin leap to her feet.
"So that's how you want to play it? Fine—today I'm going to expose exactly who you are!"
['YuYeRin' has submitted a 2,000,000 Won mission.]
—Deal.