Chapter 24
Chapter 24: Predators Aren't All That
Click.
Mu-yeong stepped out of the capsule, leaving his regrets behind.
Divine Dragon, wearing a Skin-Changing Mask, passed by as if nothing had happened and sent a Transmitted Voice his way.
—You worked hard out there. It was a truly spectacular match, impossible to look away from until the very end.
—I should have read the game rules more carefully. I had no idea the system would stop immediately once five players remained.
—That part frustrated me greatly as well. I could see you were setting the board, and then it ended right at that moment.
—Just one more kill and I would have taken first place. That guy ruined everything.
Mu-yeong glared at No Song-baek, who was buried somewhere in the crowd.
The face grinning and waving this way and that was thoroughly disagreeable.
'That was mine.'
There had been a moment when only six players remained.
Since he only needed to take down one more to advance, Mu-yeong had been preparing for his finale—about to scatter every last bomb he had saved up.
But then, out of nowhere, No Song-baek came charging in and shot the prey he had marked.
Before he could do anything—more precisely, before the bomb could even detonate—the target had already died. A disaster.
Thanks to that, he had missed the final kill.
'I'll see you in the main round.'
He shot a glare his way and moved on.
Iron Blood Witch and Divine Dragon naturally fell in behind him at a few metres' distance.
Just then, a clear voice rang out in his head.
—Oh, Mu-yeong. Are you leaving already?
—Yu Ye-rin?
—Yes, yes. I'd like to see you in person, but my senior brother is nearby, so I can only reach you by Transmitted Voice like this.
Yu Ye-rin, standing beside No Song-baek, gently lifted her hat and caught his eye.
She certainly didn't look like she could slip away from there.
They were gathered with fellow Daehwasan Sect members—it would look odd for her to come this way.
—I really enjoyed watching today's game. Did you know the official broadcast had practically been yours the entire time from midway through?
—……Is that right? There were a lot of embarrassing moments.
—Oh come on, not a single person will think that. Just here alone the response was enormous. An absolute explosion in popularity, I'd say.
—More than that—how did you know that character was me? Weren't the nicknames supposed to be hidden?
—Ah, I sometimes watch your stream, so I already knew. And besides, only you would do something that reckless—I mean, that remarkable.
Fair enough.
What kind of madman would charge around the entire map clutching grenades.
He gave a slight nod, and Yu Ye-rin smiled with her eyes.
—Well then, go home and get plenty of rest. I think I need to be on my way too.
—Do that. Thank you for cheering me on.
—Truth be told, I was cheering for you just a little more than my senior brother, hehe. I'll see you in the main round in three days.
With her small wave as his final image, he walked out of the capsule room.
A thought crossed his mind.
Could it be that someone as kind as Yu Ye-rin was precisely what produced a character like No Song-baek?
That felt like a rather compelling hypothesis.
"Guess planting beans doesn't always mean beans will grow."
"Pardon? What are you referring to?"
"Never mind. Just talking to myself."
Mu-yeong turned his head and looked at Iron Blood Witch and Divine Dragon in turn.
The two of them had been busy all morning, briefing him on this and that and staying by his side.
He smiled and gave them the signal to call it a day.
"You're both free to head back for today. You've been working hard—rest until the main round."
"Oh, not at all. We only did what we were supposed to."
"Young Lord, you worked incredibly hard getting through the qualifiers too."
"Right then, I'll see you both in three days."
Mu-yeong turned and walked away first.
He felt their presence vanish with a soft pop as he headed straight home.
A short while later.
With nothing to do, Mu-yeong turned on his stream.
—Oh, what's this?
—He's going live right after the qualifiers?
—The Bomb Killer has arrived lol
—Hi hi
—Mu-yeong!!
Viewers flooding in like a wave.
Not even a minute had passed, and the count was pushing past three hundred.
Donations were the same.
['BombKiller' has donated 10,000 Won.]
—Congrats on getting through the qualifiers lol
['PermanentlyUnemployed' has donated 1,000 Won.]
—The tournament superstar has arrived lmao
['Liar' has donated 1,000 Won.]
—The official broadcast was an absolute mess because of you—basically turned into your personal screen from halfway through lol
"I heard something similar, but was it really that bad?"
—Yeah, that bad.
—This guy has no idea how insane what he just did was lol
—Why would he? He does it like breathing.
—You can never measure him by normal people's standards lol
Honestly, he didn't think he had done anything particularly spectacular.
From start to finish—what exactly had they been watching to react like this?
Mu-yeong traced back through his memory, from the very beginning to the end of the game.
'The one moment I thought went well was when I caught Choo Geol-gae……'
That Gu Yu-do character—or whatever his name was—he'd killed on the way past, so there wasn't even any feeling behind it.
Everything else was just wandering the map tossing bombs around; he hadn't even seen his opponents' faces.
Mu-yeong scratched the back of his head and got to the point.
"I appreciate the kind words. Anyway, the reason I went live today is that I thought I'd do some practice before the main round."
—Practice?
—What even is there to practice?
—Sir, you just chewed through a Predator……
—Let's just rewatch the tournament instead?
"The replay?"
—Yeah that works.
—Honestly would still be fun to watch lol
—I'm in.
—Me too.
He found himself tempted.
When playing directly, you might feel you were perfect—but that was your own perception and nothing more.
Seen through someone else's eyes, your shortcomings and awkward moments would stand out sharply.
As the viewers suggested, taking another look wasn't bad advice.
Mu-yeong went to the official Newtube channel and pulled up the replay.
The unimportant parts he skipped through quickly, and then the bracket reveal came up.
It was colourful in every sense of the word.
—That thing was genuinely insane lol
—Real talk, that was the death bracket incarnate.
—How is it that 21 of the top one percent ended up in one group lol
—When I first saw it I thought it was a bug lmao
Mu-yeong scanned down the list of names and paused.
There were a lot of strangely familiar faces, and he tilted his head.
"Was this actually my bracket?"
—Yeah
—First thing I thought when I saw it was that it was over lol
—For real, how did you even survive?
—Death bracket (annihilated by him)
"It wasn't all that different from a regular game……"
—?
—???
—Excuse me?
Mu-yeong's sincere remark left the viewers speechless.
The lowest-ranked participant in that bracket had been Platinum.
Falling far short of Predator or Grand Master—but still, a top ten percent player by their own right.
And he was comparing that to a regular game filled with beginners and unranked players.
['SnowFalling' has donated 1,000 Won.]
—Hey, do you know that the weakest player in that bracket would be flying around if they joined a regular game?
['TomorrowForSure' has donated 1,000 Won.]
—It was literally a tournament and he's out here saying regular game lmaooo
"I'm not just saying it. Look here."
Mu-yeong hit play again.
He skipped past the infuriating early segment with No Song-baek and jumped to the moment he caught Gu Yu-do.
The broadcast hadn't switched to him yet, so there was no combat footage.
All that could be seen was a character running across a field, so he began explaining the context.
"At this point I was heading toward the swamp when I ran into someone called Gu Yu-do by chance. The toxic gas was closing in, so I finished him off quickly. Took maybe ten seconds?"
Mu-yeong said it like it was nothing.
He genuinely meant it.
He never fought long against anyone he encountered, so he figured there wasn't much of a skill gap.
But those receiving the information didn't feel the same way.
—?
—???
—I'm sorry?
—Mu-yeong……. What are you even saying right now…….
—Stop lying lol
"I mean it. He seemed like he could handle a gun reasonably well so I settled it up close. First hit him with a Javelin, then sent him flying with a Fragmentation Grenade. That was it."
—Good lord…….
—You went close range against Gu Yu-do???
—The way this man lies so boldly is genuinely impressive.
—Catching him is true enough but he's way over-seasoning the story lol
—Real, it's like he dumped in a ton of flavour enhancer.
The response was lukewarm.
He couldn't exactly show them directly either, which was frustrating.
As he sat thinking it over, a donation came through.
['SameDrink' has donated 1,000 Won.]
—I genuinely think this person doesn't understand why we're surprised lol
—That's it.
—Honestly I think so too lol
—Right lol
—He probably doesn't even know what he just said means.
['MuYeongChurch' has donated 1,000 Won.]
—Hey, do you actually know who Gu Yu-do is? Anyone who plays Battle Attack would have heard of him at least once.
"I don't."
At Mu-yeong's flat reply, a flood of I knew it comments surged through the chat.
—That explains it lol
—Figured something was off lol
—Well yeah, it's not like he'd go around memorising stuff like that lol
—Fair enough lol
—If you told him he'd probably be baffled himself lol
Was he famous?
He had certainly felt a little different from a random nobody.
Mu-yeong tilted his head.
['MuYeongChurch' has donated 10,000 Won.]
—Well, Gu Yu-do is……
Upon hearing his true identity, Mu-yeong's expression shifted slightly.
"102nd place?"
—Yeah.
—So what you're saying is you just ten-second-cleared the 102nd ranked player lol
—An unranked player went and hunted a Predator lol
—Someone who's never even touched ranked play just took down a top-tier player lol
—Hearing it put like that makes it wild, right? lol
It was wild, honestly.
Just in a slightly different way.
'That person is 102nd place?'
Mu-yeong's confidence in taking the championship grew even stronger.
.
.
.
.
Where is the place in the modern world that gathers the strongest people?
The Demonic Heaven Sect? The Daehwasan Sect? The Namgung Family?
Or perhaps the Martial Alliance?
No.
It is Iron Blood Witch's stream.
['Dan Jung-seon' has donated 100,000 Won.]
—Finally! How many days has it been since you went live? I've been waiting, I have.
['Shaolin Temple Head Abbot' has donated 100,001 Won.]
—I never knew cultivating the Way would make time drag this much…….
['Dan Jung-seon' has donated 100,002 Won.]
—The bald monk had better watch his mouth.
From the very first moment, two figures bickering relentlessly, and Iron Blood Witch smiled.
"Oh, sorry about that. There was some business in real life I had to deal with, so I couldn't go live."
['Shaolin Temple Head Abbot' has donated 100,003 Won.]
—If something troubles you, call on me anytime. I have nothing but time these days.
['Dan Jung-seon' has donated 100,004 Won.]
—You scrawny thing, just stay planted in your temple. I'll handle it.
['Shaolin Temple Head Abbot' has donated 100,005 Won.]
—Looking at you lately, the Alliance Leader seems to have grown quite the belly……
['Dan Jung-seon' has donated 100,006 Won.]
—What?
The overwhelming top two donors, without contest.
The Alliance Leader of the Martial Alliance and the Head Abbot of Shaolin Temple.
Such passionate fans that they were always the first through the door the moment she went live.
It was touching—and every so often, looking at them, utterly hilarious.
'Back in the old days this would have been unthinkable.'
The Five Pinnacle Masters.
Five individuals considered the most powerful in the current martial world.
The list of those who could make even a crying child fall silent at once was as follows:
Leader of the Demonic Heaven Sect — God of Demons, Wi Ji-cheon.
Alliance Leader of the Martial Alliance — God of Martial Arts, Dan Jung-seon.
Head Abbot of Shaolin Temple — Divine Monk, Hyeon-baek.
Former Head of the Namgung Family — Sword Sovereign, Namgung Cheon.
Former Head of the Sichuan Tang Family — Shadow Emperor, Dang Gun-ak.
And yet no fewer than two of those figures were ardent fans of Iron Blood Witch.
In a manner of speaking, since the Heavenly Demon was also on her side, she could be considered to have his backing as well.
And what did that mean?
In the modern world, the most powerful faction could arguably be called Iron Blood Witch.
"Oh come on, you two, stop fighting. I went live after a long break, so today I'll focus on a chat stream. That's alright, yes?"
['Shaolin Temple Head Abbot' has donated 100,007 Won.]
—I am glad to still be alive…….
['Dan Jung-seon' has donated 100,008 Won.]
—Absolutely for it!
Just how far would that 1-won increment war of theirs go?
Iron Blood Witch laughed and activated video donations.
A system that let you have conversations on all kinds of topics while making the time fly—whoever invented it, it was simply the best.
And so, laughing and chatting over video donations, someone sent in a highlight clip from the Battle Attack tournament.
A short video, about twenty seconds long.
'This is a combat scene from the Young Lord…… but it should be fine? It was in the official broadcast, after all.'
Iron Blood Witch pressed play with a measure of uncertainty.
Boom boom boom!
Explosions erupting the moment she hit play.
The fight against Choo Geol-gae—the one everyone had been praising to no end.
—Whoa, who is that?
—That's so cool lol
—The movement is insane lol
Those with little martial ability, or ordinary people, simply enjoyed it.
Swoooosh
Bang bang!
—Watching him tear across the field in every direction was a feast for the eyes even while spacing out.
But for some, it was different.
"Oho. The movements are quite sharp."
Dan Jung-seon stroked his beard and let out a sound of admiration.
"Amitabha. Using Water-Treading Flight only to then mount the blade itself……"
Hyeon-baek's eyes lit up with a rare gleam.
For two absolute masters, it took no more than a glance to understand just how demanding those movements truly were.
Iron Blood Witch, quietly hoping to show them off, played innocent and clapped her hands.
"Truly remarkable skill! What do the two of you think?"
['Dan Jung-seon' has donated 100,009 Won.]
—Quite a capable young man.
['Shaolin Temple Head Abbot' has donated 100,010 Won.]
—I concur. All the more so given the opponent was Choo Geol-gae.
"Right? I think so too! Hahaha!"
Iron Blood Witch's energy soared at the two men's words.