Chapter 269: Finding the Cause
The 'Proof of Strength' content beca just as much of a talking point in the community as the 'Nuclear Tourism' content or 'Reverse City'—despite being DH Empire's own iTube original content.
It was likely thanks to having launched on the heels of, and absorbing a fair amount of the buzz from, the 'Reverse City' buzz surrounding the [Steel Legion Invasion] event.
The tily absence of other content to pull in floating viewers, and the fact that the pro league had yet to open its season, also played their part.
Above all else, what made the biggest impact was that the content's featured players—Hackphysical, Battler, and Nikki—were a combination for which calling them the all-ti greatest would draw wide agreent.
Baek Woohyun, who had climbed to the apex of Challenger with a complete undefeated record; Kim Hyeonjun, the very foundation and emperor of DH Empire; and Lee Yeonwoo, who carried on the imperial lineage and was evaluated as the more talented of the two.
Where else could you find a combination like this? Setting everything else aside, the monster known as Baek Woohyun alone was one of a kind.
─[Reverse Planet Gallery]─
✪ Upvote if just chatting is insanely informative ㅋㅋ
✪ Breaking: DH Empire internal physical asurent program to be released publicly!
✪ asurent program records summary (updating)
✪ This is··· feedback??
─[Reverse Ti]─
[Info] Hackphysical/Battler/Nikki conversation summary
[General] Launch a talk show content series right now!!
[General] Brain Speculation) Hackphysical joining DH Empire seems confird?
[General] The feedback is brutal ㄷㄷ
Content-wise as well, it was inevitable that the community would churn out nurous trending posts. That had already been the case from the mont Baek Woohyun, Kim Hyeonjun, and Lee Yeonwoo began their conversation.
Tips being offered by the current Challenger rank 1 and World Class pro players had been transcribed on the spot and claid the top trending posts in the community, hadn't they?
This had also triggered a virtuous cycle—viewers drawn in through those posts relayed live updates back to the community, which in turn brought in more viewers.
The physical test via DH Empire's internal asurent program was no different!
Programs of this kind used by pro teams are generally kept under wraps, so the fact that it had been publicly revealed for content purposes naturally attracted wide interest.
Of course, now that a program used in secret had been exposed, they would certainly have procured a new one—but still, people couldn't help but be curious about what they were using.
✪ asurent program records summary (updating)
Final records based on Perfect Clear
· Hackphysical: Level 150 (max level)
· Nikki: Level 118
· Battler: Level 131
Reference first-attempt records
· Hackphysical: Level 150 (max level)
· Nikki: Level 50
· Battler: Level 100
······
···
—Hackphysical ← this guy is just on a completely different level
—(not human confird)
—Wondered why the first record matched the final record—turns out that was the max level
↳ Ah, I didn't write that. Fixed it ㅇㅇ
—Nikki ㅋㅋ started at floor 50 on his first try ㅋㅋ
↳ The king emperor god who took him up to floor 120
↳ Sothing about a warm-up, sothing about a demonstration
↳ Slow! Slow! Slow! (genuinely slow)
—150 was just sothing else entirely
↳ All I could see was flashing lights;
↳ Level 150 fun fact) You can tell sothing is happening. And that's all you can tell.
↳ Level 150 fun fact) You can tell sothing is happening. And that's all you can tell.
—The terrifying part is that Hackphysical looked capable of going even above 150
—Dominated every other test too ㄷㄷ
—Hackphysical only knows max level
In addition, there was the appeal of having three powerhouses—each worthy of being called all-ti legends—lined up against one another through objective trics.
Who was strongest was obvious given there were clear winners, but the significance was being able to confirm in absolute terms just how strong each of them individually was.
Of course, since various factors were asured separately, it wasn't possible to evaluate everything from that alone—but it was more than enough to enjoy for fun.
The fact that Nikki Lee Yeonwoo had cleared a re Level 50 on his first test—unlike the other two—was already enough to keep people laughing.
The fact that he had afterward easily cleared Level 100 as he claid, and that his record continued to rise with Baek Woohyun's feedback, was beside the point.
For viewers perpetually hunting for dopamine, having sothing to enjoy right now was more than enough.
[General] The feedback is brutal ㄷㄷ
So this is what real feedback looks like
Hackphysical said he apparently trains pretty terrifyingly when teaching the Beau-tiful Twins and the raid party mbers, so I was like nah ㅋㅋ, but watching him teach Battler and Nikki—instantly got it;
Just insane, Spartan training wouldn't even go this far, it's just hell difficulty;
─???: It can get a little rough
↳ What I understood 'a little' to an and what it actually ans
↳ Smiling while beating the hell out of them is nothing special
─You're free to quit at any ti. However, I will never teach you again if you do
↳ The hell you chose yourself—deal with it
↳ Amazingly, Battler and Nikki accepted it with a smile
↳ They were laughing while getting hit too
↳ A perfect match
─Told them to get up imdiately, and they got up like zombies;
─So this is how you beco World Class
─Genuinely terrifying, felt like having your bones ground to dust
The Demon Instructor Baek Woohyun, imparting his teachings to Kim Hyeonjun and Lee Yeonwoo in earnest. Quite a few posts went up from those who, having witnessed his true nature, were shaken with fear.
They trembled as they realized just how much restraint Baek Woohyun had been showing when teaching others—having grasped that he had been treating them practically like kindergarteners.
This was Baek Woohyun, who had once unleashed 'die if you can't learn it' on the Beau-tiful Twins—yet even accounting for that, the reactions spoke to just how grueling it must have been.
What struck them as even more terrifying was the fact that Kim Hyeonjun and Lee Yeonwoo had, if anything, enthusiastically charged in to be taught by that very Demon Instructor Baek Woohyun.
No matter how many tis they were brutally run into the ground, no matter what harsh words they received, the two never once wilted. They simply absorbed everything in an instant and kept growing.
Naturally, many were shaken at the thought that all players called World Class were built with this kind of relentless disposition.
─[DH Empire Minor Gallery]─
⊙ Hackphysical, Battler, Nikki, let's go
⊙ Are two players going FA this ti?
⊙ Can't wait for next year's Triangle Formation ㄷㄷ
⊙ But then what happens to the imperial lineage
Among those who had watched the 'Proof of Strength' content, so were already looking beyond the content itself. Primarily DH Empire fans.
They believed the Triangle Formation of Kim Hyeonjun—Lee Yeonwoo—Baek Woohyun would solidify DH Empire into an absolute imperial dynasty.
Fans of other teams were horrified and told them not to say such things—but to the DH Empire fans, it was soone else's problem entirely.
As is the nature of fandom, once your own team is doing well, what happens to other teams barely registers.
"···That's roughly the community reaction to this content."
"Mmm."
Baek Woohyun nodded as Jeong Nayeon briefed him on the responses across various Reverse Planet communities alongside the DH Empire fan community reactions.
The reactions she had compiled and laid out neatly were overwhelmingly positive across the board. The 'Proof of Strength' content had generated enormous buzz, and the iTube view count was staggering.
Even setting aside the goal of drawing in Kim Hyeonjun and Lee Yeonwoo, it was a very good outco for Baek Woohyun, who had no desire to see the content flop.
"I've also set up the next training session with the two of them. They reached out first and said any ti works."
"Growing further requires consistent training."
"I wonder if that could be used as content, too."
"Would that be possible? It'll be pretty rough."
Baek Woohyun tilted his head. It wasn't as though even he was unaware that he put people through remarkably 'rough' training.
He knew very well that those he had trained called him by the nickna Demon Instructor. He also knew they sotis used harsher nas than that.
Even so, the reason he persisted in training the way he did—so deeply ingrained it had beco second nature—was that the survival rate of new recruits rose aningfully in proportion to the abuse he received.
In order to save even one more person, he had no choice but to maintain the brutal training. To the degree that it had beco completely fused with him.
In any case, he was pessimistic about whether such rough training could be used as broadcast content.
"It'll be fine, it'll be fine! That has its own demand!"
Jeong Nayeon, it seed, thought differently.
She said with a bright smile:
"Even if not as full-blown content like when teaching the Beau-tiful Twins, it'd be worth using as a one-off event!"
"Is that so? Well, if you think so."
"Yep! I'll bring it up with them later!"
Having wrapped up the conversation about Kim Hyeonjun and Lee Yeonwoo, Baek Woohyun's expression briefly fell into deep thought.
The subject that had been occupying his mind the longest these days—'finding the cause'—had once again surfaced, suddenly and afresh.
Gazing at Jeong Nayeon as she tidied up the community reactions she had spread out, he tossed out a question as if casually dropping it.
"···If soone who seed like they would absolutely never betray anyone suddenly did—what would the reason be?"
"Hmm."
Jeong Nayeon tilted her head at the out-of-nowhere question.
But rather than asking why he was raising it, she calmly thought through the question posed to her.
Instinctively, she sensed that Baek Woohyun's question right now was enormously important. It felt, to her, as though he were at a crossroads—whether to open up to her a little more, or not.
"It depends on what kind of person they were. What exactly do you an by 'absolutely wouldn't betray anyone'?"
"······."
He had intended to share at least part of his worry with Jeong Nayeon—but since he couldn't tell her the full truth, Baek Woohyun took a mont to choose his words.
Once he found the approach that would help her understand best, he opened his mouth.
"For example—let's say certain people developed a great technology, and a greedy major corporation had its eyes on it."
"Mm-hm."
"One of the people who developed it stepped up to fight back, gathered those who had been hard, and founded a company."
"Quite a person. You're talking about that person?"
"Yeah. That's right. That person beca the CEO and took very good care of the company's employees. A family-like enterprise, you could say. But then that person suddenly betrayed the company and joined the major corporation."
Clench.
Baek Woohyun tightened his fist where it couldn't be seen. Having clumsily conjured the example and brought the commander from 'that side' back to mind, the anger he had managed to put to sleep surged up again.
But the object of that anger had already died by his hands—and having rembered that this side needed to reach a different outco than 'that side,' he steadied himself.
To secure a better future, he had to find the cause of the commander's betrayal.
"Because of that, the company was completely destroyed. With the CEO having handed all the information over to the major corporation, they couldn't put up any resistance at all. ···Why would that person have done it?"
"Hmm—maybe they suddenly had a desperate need for an enormous amount of money?"
"Material things weren't sothing that person valued much. They could have joined the major corporation at a high position at any point if they'd wanted."
"Plenty of money, talented enough to go to a major corporation, and with the prestige of being a company CEO—and they still betrayed them."
Jeong Nayeon, who had been tapping her cheek with a slender finger, snapped her fingers.
Her expression was that of a detective who had just pieced together the answer.
"Then there's really only one thing it could be. It's a family issue!"
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