Chapter 84

Chapter 84

"Are we dead?"

"Come on, answer us."

"What do you mean? That we're dead?"

The internet broadcasters crept toward Eunseong's party.

Eunseong watched in silence, arms crossed.

He was curious to see how the fledglings would react......

FLASH—!

A selfie stick held by one of the internet broadcasters.

More precisely, the phone camera mounted on the selfie stick shot out a blue flash in a fan-shaped arc.

"Move!"

Kim Seunghye threw herself like lightning and took the flash head-on.

CRACK—! CRACKLE—!

The effect of the blue flash was freezing.

"Ugh!"

Patches of white ice spread across Kim Seunghye's body.

"Son of a bitch!"

Oh Taegwon, Spirit Sword drawn, rushed to Kim Seunghye's side.

FLASH—!

This time, a different internet broadcaster's green flash engulfed Oh Taegwon.

"NNGH!"

Oh Taegwon's face turned a sickly green.

It was unmistakably poisoning.

FLASH—!

Yet another internet broadcaster's phone spewed a dark red flash that latched onto Kim Seunghye.

"GRRK!"

Kim Seunghye's knees buckled.

Her strength drained away.

The formidable power she'd had vanished as if it had been ripped out wholesale.

It was clearly a curse.

SWISH—!

The internet broadcasters swung their selfie sticks at Kim Seunghye.

One might think being hit by something like that wouldn't hurt much, but that was far from the truth.

THWACK—! THWACK—! THWACK THWACK THWACK—!

"KYAH!"

A short scream tore from Kim Seunghye's lips.

A Guardian who wouldn't so much as blink if she shot herself in the head was crying out in pain from selfie sticks swung by internet broadcasters.

Had it been an ordinary person rather than a Hunter who'd been struck by those selfie sticks, their skull would have shattered into pieces without question.

HUM—!

Kim Seunghye's Ether vibrated.

CRACK—!

The ice encasing her body fractured like splintering glass.

BOOOOM—!!

The accumulated force erupted all at once, sweeping the enemies away.

"KYAAAH!"

"My Cotton Candy!"

The internet broadcasters shrieked and went flying.

"Cotton Candy" was an item that served as currency on the platform where they had once been active.

"You bastards! Die!"

Oh Taegwon's Spirit Sword tore through space.

SQUELCH—!

THUD—!

Internet broadcasters' heads flew off, and their torsos were cleaved in two.

But Oh Taegwon's Spirit Sword was still missing roughly a third of its blade.

The Spirit Sword that had been broken by Eunseong still hadn't recovered and maintained its damaged form.

Silently, Ra Sihyeon, who had been gathering Ether all the while, raised her own Spirit Sword—a staff.

The Ether she had amassed was sufficient. It manifested her will into reality.

"Rise."

WHOOOM—!

CRACK—!

The internet broadcasters were lifted into the air, then slammed headfirst into the ground.

BANG BANG! BANG BANG BANG!

Bullets from Kim Duhyeon's gun rained down on the fallen internet broadcasters.

SQUELCH—!

The broken sword pierced the chest of the last internet broadcaster as it staggered to its feet.

"How was that?"

Ra Sihyeon turned to Eunseong with sparkling eyes, as if asking to be praised.

Clap, clap, clap.

Eunseong responded with unenthusiastic applause.

"Zero."

"Zero......?"

Ra Sihyeon frowned as if she couldn't fathom it.

She thought they'd done fairly well......

"Look behind you."

Eunseong pointed past Ra Sihyeon's shoulder.

"Huh?"

"Wh-what the."

"No way."

Kim Seunghye, Oh Taegwon, and Kim Duhyeon had already been reeling in shock.

"That's impossible......"

Ra Sihyeon murmured in utter disbelief.

SHHH—!

"My Cotton Candy......"

"Got a great angle for the stream...... hehe......"

The internet broadcasters they'd thought dead were slowly rising to their feet.

"The broadcast...... must go on...... dear viewers...... please donate...... just one time......"

One internet broadcaster who had once been fairly well-known reattached his own head—split clean in two—while speaking.

***

Outside the Bucheon Station Gate.

"Not bad for newbies."

Wi Taewoong peered at his smartphone and let out a scoff.

He was watching a stream being broadcast in real-time through a certain internet broadcasting platform.

The shaky framing and blood-smeared lens made it dizzying, but the raw sense of being there was undeniably alive.

[Viewer] Ooh lol
[Viewer] Way more fun without Nine-Tail Crew lolol
[Viewer] Nice shot!!!
[Viewer] Peak content lol;;

Chat messages from viewers scrolled up and vanished in real-time.

"Boss, we're all set."

Lee Hyun approached and reported to Wi Taewoong.

"Yeah? Then go ahead and move out."

"What are you watching?"

"This."

Wi Taewoong showed his smartphone screen to Lee Hyun.

On the screen, Eunseong's party was in the middle of a battle.

"Huh? What is this?"

"What do you think? It's an internet broadcast."

"But......"

Lee Hyun wore a confused expression, as if it made no sense.

Communication with the outside world was impossible inside a Gate, so broadcasting an internet stream should have been an impossible feat.

"Ah, I didn't explain that during the briefing. I only went over how to deal with the Broadcast Ghouls, but I didn't bother mentioning this since it seemed like a footnote."

"What......?"

Broadcast Ghouls.

The term referred to internet broadcasters who had been active in the Bucheon Station area before being swept up in the Transference Crisis.

They had been officially declared dead, and they were, in fact, dead.

But one day, the deceased broadcasters' streams began airing again on their respective platforms.

At first, people called it hacking or fabrication.

The broadcasters who had been reported dead began streaming live again, as if by some impossible miracle.

The platforms tried blocking the streams and deleting the channels, but it was useless.

The very next day, their broadcasts would resume without fail, appearing on the main pages of every platform and making their presence known.

Like a scene straight out of a horror film.

"Dead people...... are streaming?"

Lee Hyun asked in a trembling voice.

"See for yourself."

Wi Taewoong held up his smartphone.

On the screen.

Kim Seunghye's body freezing over, Oh Taegwon being consumed by poison, and selfie sticks crashing down—all broadcast live in real-time.

"They're already dead, but they won't stop broadcasting. They've become earthbound spirits that haunt the Bucheon Station area, streaming endlessly. For all eternity."

"Ah......"

"Isn't it amusing? Dead people broadcasting, and living people watching it, cackling and saying it's fun? Haha!"

"Ugh."

Lee Hyun made a face of revulsion.

"No need for that expression. That's just how humans are. As long as it's entertaining, nobody cares who's behind the broadcast. The world is crawling with people who can laugh and carry on while watching snuff films like this. Here, look."

Wi Taewoong pointed at the chat.

[100,000,000 won donated!]

The chat froze for a moment, then exploded.

[Viewer] 100 MILLION???????
[Viewer] ???
[Viewer] What???
[Viewer] Bug?;;;
[Viewer] Insane;;;
[Viewer] 100 mil wtf;;

The camera swiveled to show the face of the Broadcast Ghoul who had been running the stream.

He slowly raised his head.

Toward the camera.

To be precise, toward Wi Taewoong on the other side of the screen.

His mouth opened.

"Thank you...... for the...... do...nation......"

A grotesquely elongated voice.

DING—!

A selection prompt appeared on Wi Taewoong's phone.

* Enhancement (100,000,000)
* Reaction (100,000,000)
* Intervention (100,000,000)

"Huh?"

Lee Hyun flinched in surprise.

"There's a saying: 'Money can move even the gods.'"

"Pardon?"

"It means if you have enough money, you can command even ghosts."

A grin spread across Wi Taewoong's lips.

***

The Broadcast Ghouls' resurrection had apparently come as a tremendous shock to the fledglings.

Then again, monsters they'd painstakingly killed coming back to life—it would be stranger if they weren't shaken.

Resurrection patterns were exceedingly rare, the kind of trial one would be hard-pressed to encounter in lower-grade Gates.

"Just fighting the enemy? Anyone can do that."

Eunseong spoke in a low voice.

"This comes first."

Eunseong tapped the side of his own head.

"You need to know how to fight. Who you are, who the enemy is. What the strengths and weaknesses are. Assessing the overall situation and making a judgment—that comes before anything."

"......!"

Advice that cut to the bone struck the fledglings right where it hurt.

"Watch."

Eunseong approached the first internet broadcaster to revive.

"Yo, everyone! I'll take this bastard—"

At that very instant.

SLASH—!

A red arc cleaved the smartphone mounted on the internet broadcaster's selfie stick.

The bisected smartphone spun through the air before dropping to the ground with a thud.

BZZT, BZZZT......

Static crackled as the screen collapsed into distortion.

Black-and-white dots flickered and consumed the display.

"No...... broad...cast sto—"

SQUELCH—!

"GURK!"

Slaughter Game pierced his heart.

THUD—!

He crumpled lifelessly.

There was no resurrection.

WHOOSH—!

Ether flowed from the dead internet broadcaster's corpse and was distributed evenly among Eunseong's party.

And then......

GLITTER, GLITTER—!

Dozens of Etherium crystals came pouring out.

This was the reason the Bucheon Station Gate had earned the name Grind Haunt.

"See that?"

Eunseong said without so much as glancing at the Etherium crystals.

NOD, NOD, NOD—!

The fledglings bobbed their heads vigorously.

"Your turn."

Just as Eunseong stepped back.

"Thank you, everyone!"

"Oh my! Chairman!"

"Let me bow to you!"

The internet broadcasters, as if Eunseong's party didn't exist, were busy showering their viewers with gratitude.

"Wh-what the."

"Boss?"

"What are they doing?"

"They're impossible to predict."

The baffled fledglings turned to Eunseong.

Stopping mid-fight to do this—it was bewildering. But Eunseong wasn't laughing.

FWOOOOOSH—!

A fierce surge of Ether burst from the internet broadcasters, and their bodies began to mutate grotesquely.

"People must have money to burn."

Eunseong muttered as if he couldn't comprehend it.

"The viewers must be throwing money at the Broadcast Ghouls."

"Why?"

"Why do you think?"

Eunseong answered Ra Sihyeon's question in a cold voice.

"They want to watch us die."