Ch.137132 – Nyangster Call

There was a young man who lived an unremarkable school life.

His family was harmonious, he had enough wealth to live comfortably for life, and he maintained good relationships with his peers.

Like others, he graduated elementary school normally, then middle school.

Just when he was about to take the KGSAT and graduate high school like any other student, a great trial befell him.

[This is the scene of the Banghwa Bridge bombing incident. In this unprecedented terrorist bombing in South Korea, the death toll currently stands at 57, with approximately 480 injured. The wounded are receiving treatment across 38 hospitals throughout Seoul-]

The young man stared with lifeless eyes at the photo frame displaying pictures of his family.

Father, mother, older brother, younger sister.

And among them, only his photo was missing.

The situation felt so unreal, like he was still dreaming. Strangely, no tears came.

Many visitors and reporters came to the funeral, but none of them registered in his mind.

When evening came, he headed to the study hall out of habit.

He picked up a pen and solved Korean language problems.

“Choose the option that best describes the speaker’s feelings in this situation.”

Grief-stricken, sorrowful, lamentable. None of the choices had the right answer.

So he opened the next workbook. Mathematics.

“Find the length of the following vertical line.”

The Banghwa Bridge is 2,559m long, and with cars traveling at 60km/h, if they had passed just 150 seconds earlier or later, they wouldn’t have been caught in the accident. Again, there was no answer among the choices.

Filled with frustration, he threw all his workbooks out the window.

Only then did he realize those workbooks had been freed from their narrow confines.

As if possessed, he headed toward the Han River. Any bridge would do.

By chance, his footsteps led him to Mapo Bridge, notorious as a suicide spot.

The man gripped the railing tightly with both hands.

Just as he was about to lift one leg over, he heard a sound—meow.

“Ahaha… did I interrupt you…?”

A woman holding a silver cat in her arms.

With an awkward expression, she scratched her head and blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“Um… would you like to go see a late-night movie with me?”

Only then did the man begin to cry bitterly like a lost child.

The woman’s hand patting his back was as gentle as his mother’s.

The man had many friends before.

But it didn’t take long for him to become closer to this woman than any of them.

Going to movies together became routine, and they even napped together feeling the gentle breeze on a campus full of cherry blossoms.

The cat she kept eventually gave birth to five kittens.

They spent days crying and laughing together like family, supporting each other—days so fun and happy that anyone would envy them.

And just when the man thought this would continue forever, the woman confessed through floods of tears.

“I’m actually terminally ill…”

She revealed that she had gone to the Han River that day to end her life when she saved him.

With a trembling voice, she thanked him for creating unforgettable memories with her, and apologized for giving him an unforgettable wound.

“Keep me in your heart, remember that I existed in this world. I want you to continue being happy even without me.”

Another life was extinguished meaninglessly.

When the pillar that had barely been supporting the tower of the man’s life collapsed, his life came crashing down with it.

He shut himself in his room, living like a recluse.

He cried all day, laughed all day.

He starved himself for days, then ate until he vomited.

Then his eyes caught a billboard advertising a virtual reality game.

The woman had truly loved a game called World of Arsheria.

The man, who had disliked games, never understood her hobby.

Lamenting that he was only trying the game after her death, the man began playing.

There was nothing special about the story until he cleared it.

He immediately joined ranked matches and killed as many people as he could.

For those moments, his heart felt slightly relieved, but that was all.

Despite not caring about winning or losing and only focusing on killing enemies, his rank kept rising.

Eventually feeling limited by his account, the man naturally gravitated toward Nightmare mode.

And there, he was greeted by a cat-kin.

He couldn’t help but imagine that she looked like a combination of the silver cat the woman had kept and the woman herself.

Adella, with her prim expression, ignited a fire in the man’s heart.

If he couldn’t save her in reality, he wanted to save her in the game at least.

After hundreds of attempts, he thought he would finish Part 1 with Adella, but

Inevitably, what awaited was Adella’s suicide.

Whether by fate’s cruel joke, Adella’s last words were similar to what the woman had left him in life.

There must be a way to save her. No, he had to save her no matter what.

The man gritted his teeth, thinking that if he couldn’t even save a game character, his existence would be meaningless.

But as he repeated playthroughs, he realized Adella was structured to inevitably meet her death, and this suspicion turned into certainty at the VIP seats.

Though his obsession with Adella, stemming from his lost love, had reached the point of madness, he no longer had the strength to express his anger.

Spending each day remembering his departed lover and having his usual adventures with Adella, a savior appeared to the man one day.

[I want to save Adella.]

People who had tried to save her were already numerous worldwide.

So at first, he didn’t believe the streamer’s declaration.

Thanks to various attempts, he only knew that certain conditions allowed different interactions with Adella, but it was clear that even NoName couldn’t save her.

Or so he thought…

[‘NyangsterCall’ has donated $100,000!]

-Adella, can you hear my voice…?

“Eek! You startled me! Y-yes, I can hear you? Do you know who I am?”

-Is this a dream or reality

-The streaming service can interact with NPCs?

-Did Wearsoft seriously torture aliens to make this!!!!!

-Holy shit the technology is insane…

-Look at the donation queue lmao

└ Everyone’s donating to try talking to Adella lol

└ This is the final boss battle right now!!!!!!!

-The stock price is going to rebound?

└ Amazing that you’re thinking about stocks even now

└ That guy who said he shorted earlier must be feeling pretty stupid now lol

NyangsterCall turned off the capsule power and struggled to lift his body that had collapsed to the floor.

Meow-

By now, the kittens were scratching at the door, begging for food.

The man carefully embraced the silver cats and smiled faintly.

“I’ve cursed the heavens countless times, wondering why everyone I love leaves me. I thought several times a day that no one in the world could be more unfortunate than me.”

Although as a viewer he couldn’t directly touch Adella in the broadcast, overwhelming emotion washed over him as he watched the cat-eared girl looking around in confusion.

“How could I be happy while keeping you in my heart? I couldn’t understand what you meant back then… but now I think I’m starting to understand a little…”

There was no need to watch NoName’s broadcast anymore.

Because she would definitely defeat Mephistopheles and save Adella.

NyangsterCall, Lee Hyeon-seo, left the capsule and first called his cousin.

He was a grateful person who had rushed to his side when his family had the accident. The man felt sorry for ignoring recent calls from him.

He had been shut in his room for so long that there were too many people he hadn’t updated about his life.

This was his first step back into society.

[Yi Mir – 010-XXXX-XXXX]

* * *

Though Adella had instantly become a popular star, now was not the time for fan meetings.

The black mist gradually cleared, and Mephistopheles appeared.

“So you’ve decided to make a wager, I see?”

Mephistopheles’ appearance evoked the image of a northern nobleman with an overall cold impression.

A strong, angular jaw and a straight nose.

His silver hair reached down to his waist, and as he brushed one side behind his ear, his piercing purple eyes gleamed ominously.

Black shoes, black suit pants, black gloves—the only contrasting color was his white shirt, which he unbuttoned at the top as he murmured softly.

“Human history has been a continuous struggle. Humans fight, steal, and ultimately kill to get what they want. In struggle, there are neither eternal victors nor eternal victims. How wasteful are lives spent without creating meaning?”

The ominous mist completely disappeared, revealing a blue sky.

Yet with each step the devil took, vegetation lost its vitality and ultimately crumbled.

“I will become your god. I will bestow eternal peace and rest upon the world. So give me Yggdrasil.”

Mephistopheles extended his hand with a courteous demeanor.

His eerie gaze was directed at my laurel crown, ring, and necklace made of laurel leaves.

Meanwhile, on the hand he extended was a bracelet glowing ominously in black.

[Choose the laurel to give to Mephistopheles:]

[▶Laurel of Reincarnation – MP +5,000]

[▶Laurel of Life – HP +10,000]

[▶Laurel of Diligence – AD +750]

[▶Laurel of Creation – AP +1,000]

Here, even if you hand over all the laurels, you don’t lose the growth stats stored in each laurel. Instead, it’s a gimmick where you gain bonus stats.

In other words, you receive additional stat bonuses based on the number of laurels you hand over. Of course, giving all of them results in an immediate game over, so caution is required.

Handing over laurels strengthens Mephistopheles’ abilities, but it’s a kind of challenge for those who want to finish with high combat power.

However, not being able to use mid-circle magic was especially fatal for me, who had reached this point with combat more like a mage than a healer.

[▶You did not hand over any laurels.]

So instead, I shook his hand up and down in a light handshake as a substitute gift.

The devil looked dumbfounded with a stupid expression.

“What’s this…?”

Mephistopheles opened his fist to check what I had given him through the handshake and frowned.

-What is that?

-Some kind of rock?

-Telling him to eat shit? lol

-Honestly don’t need growth stats now, already strong enough

What he held was not the verdant leaves he had expected, but a colorless metal lump.

Disappointment was about to show on his face.

[Cast: Coulomb Explosion (Na)]

BOOM!

“Kuhak!”

The devil’s right hand was blown off completely, scattering white smoke.

“It’s sodium, but not an ion, so it won’t taste salty.”

It’s a long-standing tradition in the North that combat begins the moment bodies make contact, right?

Checking whether an enemy can regenerate is always an important procedure.