Chapter 30
Chapter 30: Those Who Follow
On the way home.
Mu-yeong's hands held a large shopping bag on each side.
The tournament organizers had packed it full of things, calling them gifts.
A quick look revealed they were all Battle Attack merchandise.
T-shirts with illustrations on them, desk pads, toy gun replicas, and the like.
But among everything, what he liked the most was the small trophy plastered in gold.
"Hmm……"
Yu-na, who happened to be heading in the same direction, had been walking alongside him.
She kept sneaking glances at the bag, as if what was inside was bothering her, over and over again.
Every now and then she'd stretch her neck out too—she clearly wanted to see it badly.
Mu-yeong smirked and held out his hand.
"If you're that curious, it's fine to take it out."
"Really? The handprints might get on this precious trophy, you know?"
"I'm not that petty, so don't worry."
"Then I'll just take one little peek!"
Yu-na carefully slipped her hand into the shopping bag.
In her hand when she pulled it out was the championship trophy.
Already brilliantly gleaming to begin with, it caught the sunlight and sparkled so brightly it was nearly blinding.
"Waaah……. It's so pretty……."
"They told me when they handed it over that it's pure gold."
"Pure gold? Wow! No way!"
Yu-na gaped wide open and raised the trophy high up toward the sky.
She turned it this way and that, inspecting it—then this time hugged it to her chest.
"I want one of these too. It'd look so cool sitting at home."
"Can't you just win the next tournament?"
"……That's a lost cause for me. Before, I at least had a sliver of a one percent chance, but seeing a true genius today completely crushed my motivation."
"It's too soon to give up. Work hard enough at anything and there's nothing you can't do."
"Wow, are you saying that to make me mad? Mr. Talent-Drop who obliterated an entire tournament two weeks after starting the game."
Yu-na pulled a face of disbelief and stuck out her lips.
She stroked the trophy a few times, then looked back at Mu-yeong.
"By the way, I have a question—how did you know I was hiding there?"
"Where do you mean? I don't really keep track since I don't watch the kill log."
"Around the mid-to-early stage—I was hiding in a house in a secluded spot on purpose to avoid you, right? Then there was this whoosh sound like wind and two grenades came through the window."
"I sensed your presence. The sound of tense breathing and a quickened heartbeat."
"You could sense that? No seriously, just how good are your ears?"
Grumbling, she put the trophy she'd been holding back into the shopping bag.
Then she took a stick out of her pocket.
It snapped out to three times its original length.
"What is that thing used for?"
"Oh, this? It's kind of like a tripod handle? For outdoor streams? It makes filming less shaky and easier to carry around."
Only then did he remember.
When they'd first met, Yu-na had been holding that.
Mu-yeong, who happened to have a lot he was curious about related to it, threw out a question.
"I understand you mainly do gaming streams—if you go outdoors, do your viewers not mind?"
"Not at all? If anything, they love it because they get to see something different. In my case, they're screaming at me every day to go outside more."
"So it's only for special events like today then, I suppose."
"Hmm……. Not exactly."
She secured her phone to the end of the handle.
She tapped it a couple of times, then turned the camera on.
Mu-yeong and Yu-na's faces were captured on the screen together at once.
"I'm a Battle Attack addict, so when I stream I normally only do that. But my viewer base is fixed, so I thought about it a bit. How do I pull in more people? What if Battle Attack flops—what would I do then?"
She fixed her bangs and put on a serious expression.
"I tried out various things to grow my Newtube too. I played games in similar genres, did chat streams. But among all of those, the one that got the most views was outdoor streaming like this?"
"That much?"
"I actually get more donations when I do this kind of thing. The viewer count shoots up too, which is great."
It's certainly a structure that makes sense.
Yu-na, who doesn't normally turn her cam on, and a beauty at the level of Yu Ye-rin at that—only showing her face at moments like this?
A heated reaction is practically guaranteed.
Quite a good strategy. Maybe I could use it myself too.
In a way, it's a similar situation to Yu-na's.
Up until now, the only times he'd shown his face were during Castle Defense and earlier today during the tournament interview.
His curiosity deepened further, and Mu-yeong continued with his questions.
"Then what do you usually film? It can't be as simple as just stepping outside."
"Oh, but outdoor streaming doesn't strictly mean you have to actually go out. It refers to any activity beyond the capsule, so it's entirely possible to do it from home too."
"Inside the house?"
"Yes. Cooking, cleaning, mukbang, working out, taking walks, and so on. Filming everyday things like these. It's called a vlog—viewers who are totally into a streamer are curious, you know? What does that person do when they turn off the stream? What do they get up to day to day? Things like that."
"In a word, radiate charm."
"Exactly. There's also a bit of a technical term for this called 'simmering the broth'……. Hmm, just know that a term like that exists. No need to know exactly what it means."
Yu-na held out her index and middle fingers.
She smiled just enough for her teeth to show slightly, then gently tilted her head toward Mu-yeong.
Click!
The endlessly serious Mu-yeong and the mischievous Yu-na were captured together on the screen.
"Oh, that came out well. Should I send this to you later, Mu-yeong?"
"That would be nice."
"Great. While we're at it, let's exchange contact info too."
Yu-na held out her phone.
Mu-yeong wrote down his number right away.
"You know what? This is the first time I've asked a guy for his number."
"What an honor."
"Come on, you don't mean that. I bet this kind of thing has happened to Mu-yeong loads of times?"
She grinned shyly and took her phone back.
Now that the mood was truly one of parting, Yu-na lightly swept her bangs back.
"If you ever have any questions later, feel free to contact me anytime. About Newtube, how to film a vlog, anything is fine."
"I'll do that. Thank you for telling me so many things today."
"It was nothing. Well then, let's meet again sometime later. Bye~"
She waved and walked away.
Once her back was out of sight, Mu-yeong set off again and sent a Transmitted Voice.
To the Iron Blood Witch who was secretly tailing him without being noticed.
—Did you find it?
—Yes, Young Lord. The name of that child we saw at the fireworks festival is Cho-myeong. I'm told he currently lives at our orphanage on the outskirts of Seoul.
—An orphanage? Is it one run separately by our Sect?
—It is. At the time of the Great Unification, many children lost their parents in the war. We've been setting aside budget separately to support them.
—Well done. I had a feeling—he was running that BB Gun corner alone, and as it turns out, there's a sad story behind it.
This was the separate order Mu-yeong had given when he left the Capsule Room.
He had asked for information on the young boy he'd seen at the fireworks festival.
His plan had been to send a gift in return for the information about the Battle Attack tournament.
—Is it possible to send these items separately later? I think they'd be far more valuable with that child than with me.
—Everything you're carrying, you mean?
—That's right. For me it's just decoration either way, but wouldn't it be an enormous source of strength for him?
—Understood. I'll wrap it up nicely and send it by courier.
—Thank you. I'm only saying this just in case, but please make it anonymous.
The Iron Blood Witch smiled and looked at the items in the shopping bag.
Most of them were things given just for participating, but that gleaming trophy was something only one person could receive.
And yet he says he'll give even that away as a gift.
It would be a memory Cho-myeong could never forget for the rest of his life.
But Mu-yeong's words did not end there.
—Can the prize money I receive this time also be donated to the orphanage?
—……How much are you expecting?
—Not all of it, but I'm thinking of sending around five million Won from the Romance Award. Wouldn't that be just the right amount?
—It's an amount that won't feel burdensome to receive, yet seems sufficient to express sincerity.
—I see. Sorry to ask, but is it alright if I leave this matter to you?
—I will carry it out as an anonymous donor—thoroughly, flawlessly, in a way that naturally inspires nothing but reverence for you, Young Lord.
No, it really didn't have to go that far.
Leaving the Iron Blood Witch to burn with determination behind him, he tapped away at his mental calculator.
I'll use the ten million Won from the Top Kill Award as my emergency fund, and put all of the hundred million Won in prize money toward paying off the debt.
When he thought of the total remaining, it was still an overwhelming amount—but wasn't this something?
On top of that, apart from the money, what he'd gained from this tournament was enormous.
First, momentum for growth.
His viewer count had shot up dramatically thanks to Castle Defense, but the growth had stalled right there.
Since the game itself wasn't that well-known, new viewers hadn't been flowing in much.
If Yu Ye-rin hadn't dropped by the stream, it would have been far lower than the current numbers, no doubt.
But now that I've earned the title of Battle Attack Tournament Champion, that will change.
You have to row when the water comes in.
While growing his barren Newtube alongside it.
Of course, there were matters to deal with before that.
—Have you also identified the nature of those flies?
—Not yet. I've been monitoring them closely since he came out of the Capsule Room, but there have been no clues yet to reveal their affiliation.
A man with his hat pulled down low, a woman standing at a lamppost smoking a cigarette, a fellow walking over pretending to be on a phone call, an old man following along while walking his dog.
Anyone could see they were Martial Artists disguised as ordinary people, four of them tailing him.
They'd been at it for ten minutes already, so it was clearly a tail.
As Mu-yeong's expression hardened, the Iron Blood Witch flared with hostility.
—If it's bothering you, I'll take care of them right now.
—Enough. They're probably trying to find out my identity after seeing my performance in the tournament. This is the first time I've appeared in such an official setting.
—Even so, to dare tail the First Young Lord. I absolutely cannot let this stand.
—If they make a move later, it won't be too late to deal with them then. I don't know whether they simply mean to dig up information, or whether they intend to cause harm.
In the Martial World, he would have seized and interrogated them immediately.
But now, in the modern day, things are very different.
As long as they were debtors, he wanted to avoid causing problems as much as possible.
Of course, if they made the first move, that would be a different story.
—Just in case, I will inform the Black Slaughter Unit. I'll have them assign elite escorts.
—That won't do. If the Demonic Heaven Sect's elite assassin unit lingers nearby, my identity would be exposed in an instant, wouldn't it?
—Even so……
—That's enough.
Mu-yeong was genuinely fine.
This was, to begin with, a fight he could not lose.
Even if a truckload of those below the Peak Realm came swarming in—could they really defeat a master of the Transcendence Realm?
Impossible.
I don't know what group they belong to, but if they try to harm me, it won't end quietly.
Compensation for damages, settlement money. Mental therapy fees.
Somehow, the sweet scent of money seemed to drift softly his way.