Chapter 39 : Double-sided wire (1)

“Ugh… This is way more annoying than I thought.”

If you’re annoyed, what can you even do about it???

Finally, we get to bully Irene!!!!

The fact is, this is all Irene’s karma, lolololol.

Wahhh Irene! Wahhh Irene! Wahhh Irene! Wahhh Irene! Wahhh Irene! Wahhh Irene!

The person who made this needs a special award from the Hero Guild…

Lolol, we’ve found the ultimate way to defeat the strongest villain.

To put it bluntly…

I don’t like being called cute.

No, it’s not just that I dislike it.

I despise it.

I loathe it to the point of disgust.

The first reason?

Because the word cute implies that someone is showing interest in me.

If that’s the case, why don’t you just call Luminil cute instead?

She’s way better at playing the fool, she interacts with the viewers properly, and—most importantly—she’s actually cute.

The second reason?

Because I am not cute.

I know myself well enough.

Being a natural-born troublemaker is just the default for me.

My speech, my tone, my entire way of talking is rigid and sharp, making it easy for people to lose interest mid-conversation.

Not that I intended it to be this way—it just happened over time as I went through life.

Even after possessing Irene, this habit never really went away.

And the third reason…

This guy blocks people on the spot when they propose marriage but reacts to “Wahhh Irene,” lmaooo.

Irene’s ultimate counter: “Wahhh Irene” confirmed…

From now on, let’s push for little sister Irene too.

[User fkstmffht has been temporarily blocked.]

Okay, the little sister thing is crossing the line, lmao.

Isn’t “Wahhh” crossing the line too? Lol, didn’t you say you’d block 5,000 people earlier?

At this point, even if Irene becomes humanity’s enemy, we might still be able to resist her.

Starting a fundraiser for a “Wahhh Irene” emote.

I’ll go first.

The fact that these viewers were using all their energy just to mess with me really pissed me off.

It was obvious they weren’t being genuine—they were just saying it to tease me.

That only made it more irritating.

“I told you, I’m NOT cute! And I am NOT going ‘wahhh’ either!”

Who the hell even started this?

Just wait until I find you.

That’s not going to be a temporary block—it’s going to be a permanent one.

And if I find you in real life?

I’ll personally separate your body from your soul.

This stupid bet started with a nickname I hated, so I was dead serious this time.

Even more serious than when I made bets with Luna.

More serious than when I fought heroes during the subjugation week.

“I promised I wouldn’t unsheathe this sword, but…”

Is she about to pull out a cursed sword or something?

Irene’s normal sword is already terrifying, what more could she bring out? Lol.

PLEASE LET IRENE LOSE AND GROVEL IN HUMILIATION! PLEASE LET IRENE LOSE AND GROVEL IN HUMILIATION! PLEASE LET IRENE LOSE AND GROVEL IN HUMILIATION!

She’s spared absolute lunatics before, but she reacts to “wahhh”??? Lmao.

If “Wahhh Irene” gets banned, we’ll just type “Waaahhh Irene” instead~~

Celestial Luna Saga, Season 2 incoming!

And yet, these bastards kept teasing me.

If I didn’t put my foot down now, the stream’s atmosphere would be permanently wrecked.

For Luminil’s sake, I needed to restore order.

“Alright. Since you guys keep pushing me, I guess I’ll have to pull out my cursed sword.”

A swirling violet portal opened at my side.

The weapon I summoned was simple.

It was the very first beginner’s sword you get when starting Raios Fantasy.

However, the one in my hands looked completely different.

It was dyed in a deep, ominous purple, its very presence radiating an unnatural aura.

Thankfully, it still worked in this world.

I let out a small sigh of relief.

“I named this sword… ‘Annihilator.’”

Since the server opened, I have been playing Raios Fantasy as an open user, one of the pioneers.

Not only that, I was one of the vanguard—the players who pushed ahead in discovering and exploiting the game’s mechanics.

Which meant I knew every single bug in the game.

Including the infamous Infinite Enhancement bug.

As the name suggests, it allowed weapons to be enhanced limitlessly.

The normal max enhancement cap was +5.

Now imagine a sword with thousands of enhancements stacked on top of each other.

Terrifying, right?

The devs patched it quickly, but before they did, I had been sitting on the enhancement screen, reinforcing this one weapon endlessly.

That weapon… was this “beginner’s sword.”

[Beginner’s Sword]

No other weapon in Raios Fantasy could match its attack power.

Raid bosses?

One-shot kills.

Of course, I never abused it.

What’s the point of using a game-breaking sword when I’m already the strongest?

But right now?

Right now was an exception.

“I just had a brilliant idea. Our next content stream will be a trial. Luminil will determine your sentences.”

Now that I had this sword, I didn’t even have to worry about combat.

Any attempt to take me down from a distance would be blocked by my barrier.

The only real threat was being swarmed in close combat.

But with my beginner’s sword in hand?

Not even that was an issue anymore.

I opened my communicator.

I knew exactly who was on the other end.

[Irene: Luna, you better be ready. This might hurt a little.]

“Be careful, big sis.”

“Of course, Irene!”

Meanwhile, Luminil was happily spending time with Irene.

At this point, even Irene’s usual blunt and rigid way of speaking had faded from memory.

That didn’t mean Luminil was neglecting Irene—far from it.

It was just that, somewhere along the way, things had changed.

And whether I liked it or not…

This was war.

If Irene had never existed in the first place, then Little Sister Irene wouldn’t have existed either.

No matter what anyone said, the one who had ultimately guided Luminil was Irene.

Luminil knew that better than anyone.

And perhaps that was why she found herself so easily drawn to this new version of Irene.

“So I can really achieve everything I want?”

For Luminil, it felt like a dream.

From the moment Irene declared she would live in the Demon King’s Castle, Luminil had been eager to show her around.

But before she could even start, Irene simply said:

“It’s fine. I already know everything.”

At first, Luminil thought she was just talking big.

But to her shock, Irene really did know everything.

She moved through the Demon King’s Castle like it was her own home, slipping in and out of hidden chambers that even Luminil didn’t know existed.

At this point, it was hard to tell who the real Demon King was.

“Luminil, what are you thinking about?”

Even so…

Thinking of Little Sister Irene as someone completely separate from the original made Luminil feel strangely lonely.

Back when she had been just a puppet, at least she still felt like some part of Irene was there.

But now, it was as if a completely different person had walked in.

And that bitter realization left Luminil more shaken than anyone—

Because when had she become this obsessed with Irene?

If her inner self could manifest, she would’ve grabbed it by the collar and demanded an explanation.

And then, she remembered what Irene had said to her.

“If you ever really miss me, press the button on my back. Then, I’ll project my consciousness into the puppet.”

Oh right!

Luminil immediately ran over to stand behind Irene.

Just like Irene had told her, there was a small red button hidden at the back of her head.

She was just about to press it—

Then suddenly, another thought struck her.

“Wait… isn’t the Hero’s Guild in the middle of a civil war right now?”

Her hand hesitated.

If she pressed it now, she might interrupt something critical.

Checking her terminal for Irene’s status would’ve been ideal, but…

As the Demon King, she didn’t have an account.

Which meant she didn’t have a terminal either.

Which meant she couldn’t watch Irene’s stream.

So, Luminil stood there, hand hovering over the button, torn between pressing it and leaving it alone—

Until suddenly, Little Sister Irene grabbed her wrist.

A chill ran down Luminil’s spine.

“W-What the hell?”

Irene said nothing.

She only stared at Luminil, her cold gaze piercing straight through her.

Even as Luminil demanded an answer, Irene remained silent.

Did she realize I was about to press the button?

Come to think of it, hadn’t she asked Luminil to see her as a separate person?

Which meant her sacrifices and dedication were separate too…

That thought hit Luminil like a gut punch.

She suddenly wanted to scream.

She tried to pull her arm away, but before she could, Little Sister Irene yanked her to the side—

Just as a deafening explosion erupted behind them.

The wall where Luminil had just been standing collapsed in an instant.

It didn’t crumble into debris—

It disintegrated into golden dust, as if it had been incinerated by magic.

“…What?”

Only then did Luminil realize what had happened.

“It’s an enemy, Luminil. I can’t handle them, so hide— now.”

A foreign presence had entered the Demon Realm.

Not through a portal.

Not through any conventional means.

No—someone had torn through the sealed boundary of the Demon Realm itself.

Irene stared past the destroyed wall.

A group of people clad in black and gold were marching toward them.

The real Irene had warned her about this possibility.

But she hadn’t expected them to come now.

“Selene.”

A hardline faction of the Empire—

And the one who had warned that the Emperor himself would come.

Selene had arrived.

“How fascinating.”

Selene swept her brown hair back as she surveyed her surroundings.

She had expected a land full of demons.

Yet, she saw nothing.

Not a single demon.

Not even a lowly beast.

“Are we sure this is really the Demon Realm?”

The golden knight beside her responded.

“We are.”

Selene had heard enough rumors about Irene’s strength to take them seriously.

Which was why she had brought the maximum number of Emperor’s Blades she could deploy—three of them.

And the moment she saw the Demon King’s Castle, she hadn’t hesitated.

She had fired a golden arrow of pure magic straight at it.

A declaration of war.

Now, she smirked at the gaping hole she had created.

“The Emperor is far too kind…

A Demon Realm like this—where both the demons and the Demon King still live—should have been eradicated long ago. Why would he ever allow it to exist?”

Selene was devoted to the Emperor.

To her, eliminating threats to the Helios Empire—whether by oversight or intention—was part of her duty.

With a simple flick of her hand, she gestured toward the castle.

The Emperor’s Blades advanced.

And as she walked forward, Selene whispered under her breath—

“For the sake of the Emperor… we will kill every last one of them.”

Even though she was whispering, her voice rang loud and clear.