Chapter 13: Haerang challenge

After catching the Kukridyaa.

As I was gathering materials and checking the broadcast time, I realized quite a bit of time had passed.

‘1 AM?’

I started streaming at 8 PM, so I had been broadcasting for about 5 hours.

Perhaps because it was more fun than I expected, I ended up playing the game longer than planned.

Thinking this was enough for today, I announced the end of the broadcast to the viewers.

“Alright, I’ll end today’s stream here.”

-You’re ending already?

-Ah, I just came in through the link…

-No!!!

-Uh oh, no!!

-Ack..

-Can’t you do just a little more..?

“No, I can’t. See you tomorrow at the same time. Paba.”

-Haeba~

-Bye bye

-Kuaaaak!! Stop!!

-Uwaaang!!

-No!! My world is ending!!

-Good work!!

[Streaming has ended.]

“Hoo…”

Getting out of the capsule, I wiped the sweat from my forehead with a towel hanging on the chair next to me.

My t-shirt was damp with more sweat than I’d thought.

‘They said it was old-fashioned, but it’s hotter than I expected…’

I casually tossed the clothes into the laundry basket and threw myself onto the bed.

‘Ah, refreshing.’

Enjoying the coolness without my clothes on, I thought about today’s broadcast.

From the tutorial to defeating the Kukridyaa.

There were no problems with the gameplay aspects.

There were parts I worried might not be fun combat-wise.

But I liked the more realistic combat than I had anticipated.

‘Everything else was fine, but…’

There was one problem.

The viewers.

Right before ending the stream, the total viewership was approximately,

“Around 4,000 people…?”

For the second day of broadcasting, that was an absurd number.

It was astonishing, rather.

So, what was the problem?

The large number itself wasn’t the issue.

The problem was that as many people flocked in, strange people flocked in with them.

Most of them liked my play, so that was fine, but checking the chat intermittently, I saw quite a few people who needed to sort themselves out.

A few that stood out were.

-Ah, that’s not the right way…

-You shouldn’t do that…

-This is that thing!!

-His name is Dante, he’s the former commander. He plays an important role later…

-Who is this punk to be watching like this? Hahaha

And so on.

Backseating, spoilers, and even troublemaking.

Normally, these are aspects that should be managed during a broadcast.

But starting with the lack of a manager to moderate the chat.

I, too, was a broadcasting novice, so I was lacking in many broadcasting aspects.

I banned them on sight as soon as I saw them.

But if this continued, there would definitely be parts I’d miss.

Checking the chat, finding troublemakers, and banning them all while fighting a monster?

I could do it if I tried, but for me, who wanted to fully enjoy the combat, it was a huge stress.

‘So, what should I do now?’

The issues with broadcast progression would resolve over time.

As I got used to broadcasting.

However, the chat issue needed management.

With over 4,000 people chatting while I was trying to play, there was a high chance the game wouldn’t proceed smoothly if I tried to manage it all myself.

‘Should I find a manager? It feels a bit too soon.’

It was also funny to think about getting a manager already.

It had only been two days; I doubted anyone would want to be a manager.

And even if someone volunteered.

‘I have no intention of giving it to just anyone right now.’

If possible, I wanted to give it to someone trustworthy.

“Hmmmm…”

As I was contemplating for a long time, I saw something squirming in the corner of the bed.

Dumchit dumchit.

It was Nyua, eating potato chips and watching a broadcast on a phone.

It had been stuck to my neck even while I was broadcasting, and as soon as my stream ended, it immediately found another one to watch.

It was almost admirable.

‘Huh?’

Then, a genius idea flashed through my mind.

‘Is it possible…?’

After checking various aspects for feasibility, I concluded that it seemed possible.

Come to think of it, Nyua watched far more broadcasts than I did.

‘Compared to Nyua, aren’t I just a drop in the ocean?’

Except for the time I was broadcasting, the creature spent almost all its time on streams.

It should be considered a phantom of the broadcasting world.

Naturally, it would know a lot about broadcasting and have a broader perspective.

And since it was always on my neck while I was streaming, it didn’t watch other broadcasts then.

If so, couldn’t Nyua also be a chat manager?

‘No matter how I think about it, it’s possible…’

If it could enter virtual reality directly, couldn’t it manage a single chat window?

I was sure it was possible.

It was a smart creature to begin with.

I stealthily crawled behind Nyua and lifted it with one hand.

“Nyuat!!”

Startled at being suddenly lifted by me, the creature struggled.

Thanks to that, potato chip crumbs stuck to its body fell onto the bed.

‘I didn’t expect this…’

I’ll have Nyua clean that up later.

The one who eats is the one who cleans.

Then, I felt Nyua’s gaze, dangling from my hand.

As if asking why I lifted it if I wasn’t going to say anything.

Looking at the creature, I gave it the kindest smile in the world.

“Hey, you wanna do a job with me?”

“Nyua?”

Of course, refusal was not an option.

After a long period of persuasion, having acquired a ‘partially paid lifelong sub-moderator,’ I gently placed the precious sucker… no, employee, on the bed.

The creature was dazed in front of the phone.

Perhaps because I spun it around so much, even my sturdy shoulder was starting to ache.

“Such a persistent little thing.”

I never imagined that while being spun for 50 minutes, it would demand an allowance to donate to the broadcasts it watches as part of its conditions.

‘It’s not a Spirit King for nothing.’

Having dramatically agreed on 100,000 won a month, we achieved a win-win situation.

I benefited from having a multi-talented creature as a manager, and it benefited from being able to send 100 ‘1,000 won punches.’

“Come to think of it, I bought those potato chips for myself.”

Dumchit?!

“Tsk, can’t be helped.”

Dumchit dumchit.

It felt like a slight loss, but I decided to let it be.

I took a beer out of the fridge and accessed the gallery through my phone.

I heard in the chat earlier that the gallery was in an uproar, so I wanted to see exactly how it was in an uproar.

It was killing two birds with one stone since I could also check the reactions to me.

“Hoo.”

The very first post was unusual.

The number of comments alone was in the hundreds.

I had to click on something like this.

— Wilds Hunter Gallery —

Title) Who the fck is Haerang that you keep mentioning her?

I occasionally come here to browse, and all day long it’s just Haerang, Haerang. Fck.

I’m not interested, so please go back to your own damn community.

How much are you f*cking mentioning a nobody I’ve never heard of?

-IKR hahaha Anyone would think Haerang is the gallery master. Hahaha

-F*cking clique, get lost. Hahaha

-Ban for promotion.

-No, you finger princesses, just go watch her once, okay?

-Stop the viral marketing hahaha. At best, you’re only watching the early parts.

-Why are 4,000 people watching someone like this?

-First, her face is pretty.

-And her chest is ㅗㅜㅑ

(TL Note: ㅗㅜㅑ is an emoticon expressing awe/admiration, often for something sexy)

-Really? I’ll go check it out then.

-The two guys above, I’ve got a PDF. Sending it to Haerang. GG.

-Do you even know where to send it?

-Dunno? lol

“Interesting.”

The usual sight of gallery regulars tearing into each other.

This much could certainly be described as the gallery being on fire.

“Nyuat?!”

Munching on the potato chips beside me, I snooped through the other posts.

Title) At this rate, is Haerang the next gallery master after Bulramyeon?

Is KingGodGeneral Wilds Hunter Gallery Master Bulramyeon going to be dethroned now?

Looking now, there’s not a single mention of Bulramyeon in the gallery.

-Bulramyeon dethroned!!

-??: Bulramyeon, at attention!

-You’re comparing Bulramyeon to a nobody like this? Hahaha

-She’s not a nobody?

-(Image of Domagirius breathing fire from its mouth)

‘Bulramyeon?’

It was a familiar name.

A name I kept seeing intermittently while checking the gallery.

Someone mentioned this often couldn’t be an ordinary person.

Thanks to that, my curiosity about this person named Bulramyeon grew, and I searched his name on YouTube.

The very first video at the top of the search results was him playing Wilds Hunter.

I played the one with the highest views.

“Damn it, you f*cking devs!!!”

As soon as the video started, curses at the developers flew out.

Unlike me, he seemed to primarily use the tachi, a popular weapon.

“How much did you jack up the difficulty?!!!”

He was fighting a giant monster and was backing away to gauge its attack patterns.

“Ugh!!”

Contrary to his constant complaints, his hand movements while wielding the tachi were quite fluid.

“Oh… not bad.”

This guy would be around a B-class Hunter?

‘No, looking at skills alone, maybe a low A-class?’

Of course, under the premise of identical physical specs, he’d still be toyed with by even a B-class Hunter.

“Still, this much is quite impressive.”

Hunters who had become fighting machines through frequent battles with monsters, versus people who only played games.

Normally, they weren’t even worth comparing.

‘Most C-class Hunters already had that glint of madness in their eyes.’

Of course, all those who looked at me with such eyes were kindly ‘normalized’ by me.

If I just grabbed one of them and ‘fixed’ them for 24 hours, the others would straighten out their gazes on their own.

Watching the video and looking up various information, I found that Bulramyeon was a veteran who had already conquered many Wilds Hunter series.

He had cleared most of the general content.

And for this series, he was playing in Reality Mode from the start, not Baby Mode.

He said he would show his prowess as a Wilds Hunter veteran.

-Doesn’t seem like it hahaha

-Don’t, Ramyeon, you’ll get burned.

The viewers seemed to think he couldn’t do it, and there was even a mission set up, offering prize money equivalent to 10 million won if he truly cleared Reality Mode.

‘This I’m a bit envious of…’

Don’t things like this come my way?

Well, it’s only my second day of streaming, so I’m not even at a stage to be compared.

After skipping through a few videos and watching with mild interest, I turned off my phone.

I had seen most of what I needed to, and watching more seemed like it would spoil the fun.

‘Monsters, at least, are most fun when encountered for the first time.’

And watching the videos, Bulramyeon was on a completely different story route than me.

Perhaps the choice of catching only one Domagirius at the beginning became the diverging point.

In a way, the statement ‘new viewers increased because of the new route’ made sense.

After all, I was the one who opened this route first.

‘I like it.’

Before falling asleep.

I also recalled seeing several titles in the gallery earlier like ‘Trying the Haerang Route challenge.’

The Haerang Challenge, or something like that.

‘Well, even if it’s called the Haerang Challenge, it’ll probably die down soon.’

It’s good if people just try it a few times, and more viewers come in because of it.

It seemed obvious that tomorrow’s broadcast would likely have even more people than today.

Having roughly organized my thoughts, I used Nyua next to me as a pillow and closed my eyes.

Oblivious to how massive a wave the Haerang Challenge would create.

“Nyuueuuuu…”

-Ramyeon, do you know about the Haerang Challenge?

“The Haerang Challenge?”