Chapter 290: Episode 290_A Ga of Nerves (3)
3.
The broadcast wasn’t live.
It was footage from his final days in the Demon World: from the start of the base race, through the dramatic contract with Epia, all the way to their death-defying romantic escape.
The footage ended there.
Even so, the viewers didn’t care and poured in anyway. No one watched Han Simin’s stream for the live interaction with strear Simin. In nearly a year of streaming, the number of tis he had actually communicated with his viewers could be counted on one hand. From their perspective, there was practically no difference between a recording and a live broadcast.
On top of that, Han Simin didn’t edit his recordings. He uploaded them exactly as they were. Whether it was a few hours long or more, he just threw up the raw footage, so even if you told people it was a recording, it still felt very much like a live broadcast.
Of course, plenty of people skipped the “live” broadcast of the recording and just watched the video once it was uploaded to the channel. It wasn’t because they disliked his live streams, but purely because they didn’t have the ti. In their hearts, they wanted to take a few days off, turn on an electric blanket, and sprawl on the bed for three nights and four days, peeling tangerines and binge-watching Han Simin’s full-length videos. But in the cutthroat reality of Hell-Joseon, you couldn’t do that if you wanted to make ends et.
Since there were no highlight compilations, they had to watch by skipping ahead ten seconds at a ti or at 2x or 3x speed.
Aside from those people, most didn’t care whether he played a recording during a “live” slot or was actually streaming live. It always felt like a live broadcast anyway.
—Damn. Even on a recording, he’s razor-sharp about running ads.
—For real, but I actually like that he runs recordings as live. When it’s a recording, the auto ad tir sotis gets delayed by ten seconds or, if you’re lucky, gets skipped when there are tons of viewers, but on live it’s just clean. It even feels like the ads co faster than the computer’s preset schedule. There’s supposed to be an ad cooldown.
Even the ads ran as if it were a live stream.
All he had to do was hit play. Without breaking his back or risking accidental leaks of sensitive information, Han Simin could broadcast safely. Ever since arriving in the Demon World, he had grown particularly fond of this thod. When recording, he just turned the cara on and forgot about it. Then, if anything needed to be cut, he would snip out only that part and run the rest as the stream.
How great was that? It felt like money was coming in just for breathing.
It was a classic case of monkey business, six of one, half a dozen of the other, but there was a reason that proverb existed.
“Viewers are dogs and pigs.”
“...That statent sounds extrely dangerous,” Kang Yeseul remarked.
“I’m going to suck them dry. With high-quality content. At 300 dollars a pop. I’ll drain them even harder to make up for that damn Epia losing her power!”
“You’re amazing.”
In many ways, he was proudly showing Kang Yeseul a side of himself that made her think, ’I’ve never t a man like you,’ while simultaneously revealing the bottomless pit of his garbage personality.
Despite the abyssal depths of his terrible personality, no one was frowning, fortunately. The Specialists was well beyond used to it; the two won actually found it attractive. Epia was a lunatic who had fallen for that very side of him and waited hundreds of years, and Squeaker was a loyal Gold Dragon who would pretend to die for her “Dad” regardless. Aria and Grokile didn’t even need to be ntioned. What did they care if they were offended? They were just dogs on a leash.
The only remotely normal person left was the Saint—or had been. Even he had now fallen head over heels for Squeaker. Han Simin had just dragged the Demon King through the Heavenly Transfer Gate to save his own skin and enjoy so wealth and fa, and the Saint hadn’t even blinked, welcoming them with open arms.
Of course, he still didn’t know Epia’s true identity. He couldn’t.
“Um... who might that lady be?”
No one had introduced her.
With a deeply sour expression, Han Simin growled, “What do you need to know that for?”
“...”
He was still an Elder of the Great Temple, after all. His pride was stung, but the holy smile never left the Saint’s lips.
’How can a re son-in-law talk back to his father-in-law?’ he thought. He hadn’t even received formal permission yet, and with powerful enemies among the Adventurers, he absolutely could not afford to get on Simin’s bad side.
“I apologize.”
They were in the Great Temple, located in the very heart of the Imperial capital. An unidentified person had appeared in its deepest sanctum, where they served God. As an Elder of the Great Temple, it was his duty to confirm her identity. Yet with no one on his side, the Saint could only bow his head.
A quick glance at Epia revealed nothing particularly problematic. When she crossed the Gate, all the traits that marked her as a demon had vanished completely along with her power. To anyone else, she looked like a bright, bubbly girl who had just started high school. A very, very pretty girl.
On par with Squeaker.
In another five years, he was confident she might even reach Squeaker’s level of beauty. No, comparing only their faces, it was just a matter of taste; they were both stunning. The only difference was their physical developnt, which made both of them equally uninteresting to the Saint.
He’d been told to keep quiet, so he did.
They still didn’t even know the exact number of people who had crossed into the Demon World when Han Simin had been dragged over. There were no statistics to begin with, so there was no “unidentified person” to confirm. If she had co with Han Simin, and Han Simin said she was trustworthy, then that was that.
So he believed.
’I believe in Han Simin, the man who gave birth to Hyegi with his heart. The Saintess would never lie, so her father must be the sa. And even if he does lie, I have to believe it’s the truth.’
Nodding, the Saint changed the subject. “In any case, I am relieved you made it back safely. Her Highness the Princess even opened a Gate to the Demon World just in case, but it seems that was unnecessary.”
It was a statent fishing for praise. He hadn’t needed to ntion it. Han Simin had returned safely, and any Gate with no one left to co through would naturally disappear as its dark mana dissipated. But he brought it up anyway, hoping to earn a few points.
’We went through all this trouble. To save you!’
It was hard enough to open a Gate in one direction, but they had opened two at once: to Heaven and to the Demon World. Of course, one of them was purely the Saintess’s personal power. But since the Saint had no idea where that power ca from, he was proud of it, as if it were his own achievent. He didn’t want praise for himself.
“Her Holiness the Saintess and Her Highness the Princess have gone to great lengths.”
He wanted to stay on the good side of the family for the sake of the future—a survival technique the Saint had picked up instinctively, despite having never cared for politics. With a satisfied look, he turned to see Han Simin’s reaction.
“...Is there a problem?”
But seeing Han Simin’s expression harden even further, the Saint asked in a fluster.
’What is that look? I thought he’d be pleased.’
His confusion lasted only a mont. Han Simin fired a question urgently.
“The Demon World? What do you an, the Demon World?”
“Her Highness the Princess captured so warlocks to open a Gate and rescue her husband...”
“I know that part. I’m asking if that Gate is open right now.”
“...Yes.”
With that one word, the atmosphere crashed. It grew so cold that words almost froze in his mouth. Not only Han Simin but everyone who had co through the Gate turned stone-faced. The Saint felt as if he had done sothing terribly wrong just by bringing it up.
’What? Why? At least tell
why.’
He looked to the Saintess, the only one who had remained on the continent, but she was oblivious, focused solely on clinging to Han Simin. He felt like the last person left in the world. He didn’t even have ti to fidget in his panic.
Han Simin lunged forward. Grabbing the Saint by the shoulders, he demanded, “Where is it?”
“Pardon?”
“Where is that Gate right now?!”
He looked like a man staring at the end of the world.
Sothing was wrong.
Instead of answering, the Saint started to run. Everyone followed.
*
The Heavenly King stared at the Gate, deep in thought. Why had it suddenly appeared?
In the now-empty Demon King’s castle, there was no one who could answer. The castle was full of his closest aides and top-tier Celestials, but being Celestials, they knew nothing of demonic affairs. All the demons who could have answered were dead. He couldn’t just go out and capture a demon who might know.
From his perspective, this was no ordinary Gate. The dark mana spilling out of it was so dense that even the Heavenly King frowned. For a Gate of this magnitude to have been opened unilaterally, it ant an enormous sacrifice had been made.
“That cunning bitch...”
After a mont of thought, the Heavenly King, standing in the Demon King’s castle, let out a disbelieving laugh. No matter how he thought about it, there was only one explanation. This was the reason she had fled in the middle of a fair fight, even though fleeing could only put her at a disadvantage. He had assud she had so hidden trump card.
And it was just this.
“Ha ha ha!”
He burst out laughing. It was a perfect victory. She must have prepared an escape route, only for things to go awry. The warlocks of the continent, ignorant of his true identity, had opened the Gate for him.
Now, there were no more variables. He could return to Heaven and catch that Demon King, sly as a cat.
Smiling, the Heavenly King started forward, but a Celestial from the Heavenly Citadel, who had co running in a panic, stopped him in his tracks.
“...Don’t tell .”
“There is... another matter, my lord.”
“What now?”
“A Gate to the continent has also opened in Heaven... in the Heavenly Citadel.”
Was it a prank of fate? Or had he simply misheard?
“That’s impossible...”
He started to laugh it off, but his face froze. He was smart. Too smart for his own good. His mind instantly calculated the probability of such a situation.
Under normal circumstances, it was zero.
The Heavenly Transfer Gate was a magic circle that only he could create in Heaven. While quite a few Celestials knew how to activate the magic circles he had already drawn, he could leave them unguarded for one simple reason: no one else possessed enough divine power.
That was why he had laughed. It couldn’t be possible. They must have been mistaken. Even if the traitorous Aria tried to use it, her divine power wouldn’t co close. She had been an excellent Celestial, but in the end, she was rely upper-rank.
One assumption stacked upon another.
An empty Heavenly Citadel.
Divine relics left completely unguarded.
“...”
That alone was enough. Aria would know as well.
“Was it truly a Heavenly Transfer Gate?”
“...Yes, my lord Heavenly King.”
No matter how rushed he was, the attendant was still a servant of the Heavenly Citadel. He was, at the very least, an upper-rank Celestial. There was no way he had misidentified it.
The anger that had subsided flared up again, rising to the top of his head. The Heavenly King who had been so pleased about seizing the Sanctuary was gone. A Sanctuary enhanced by a re human couldn’t compare to a divine relic.
“Those bastards...”
Tearing them limb from limb wouldn’t be enough. He would make them suffer for the rest of their lives.
Steeling his resolve, the Heavenly King looked at the Gate. If they had opened it, they must have gone to the continent. He would go at once and—
“...”
’And what?’
The Heavenly King hesitated for the sa reason Epia had. The Demon King feared annihilation, and he was no different. As soone who had held the throne for so long, he was terrified of it.
But he had to make a decision.
’What would the Demon King have done? The humans can be punished later. The Demon King cos first. If it were ... if I were the Demon King, with even a fraction of that wickedness... I would have gone. Even at the risk of my life. To prepare for the future. And to seize control of the continent.’
The Heavenly King’s resolve hardened.
“We may be annihilated. Ten of you. Only ten will follow.”
His mind made up, he threw himself into the Gate. Ten top-tier Celestials followed him.
Celestials and demons.
They were brave.
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