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Chapter 58
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“···”
That’s strange. Is the chat window bugged?
You can even remove debuffs like this!
I thought sharing such a great tip would elicit an explosive reaction.
But it was eerily quiet, and the atmosphere felt unsettling.
Uh…
I’m a little scared.
Is everyone filming a hidden camera prank on me?
Fortunately, the silence didn’t last long.
―――
I’m scared.
Is the host really okay?
So suspiciously familiar with self-harm…
Menhera
No consideration for first-person POV.
Jeez, scared me to death.
―――
Judging by the belated flood of chats,
I instantly understood that the chat had momentarily frozen.
When watching a broadcast from inside the capsule, you can see it from the streamer’s first-person perspective.
But when someone suddenly slashes their eyes with a dagger, it’s only natural to be shocked.
“Uh, guys? I’m not that kind of person···.”
Calling a perfectly sane person mentally ill.
If I were really Menhera, huh?
TL/n: Menhera is a Japanese slang term used to describe a person, typically a woman, with a mental health disorder.
I wouldn’t have been able to create Akare or direct its development.
I read the questions appearing in the chat one by one and answered them.
“Do I do things like that in real life? What kind of question is that···? Of course, I don’t.”
“When Suzuka’s stream first aired, you also self-harmed… Because it’s more efficient.”
“Why didn’t I use holy water or purification? Holy water is expensive. Purification should be reserved for debuffs or hallucinations that can’t be removed with heal.”
“Saving on holy water, huh···. What, is holy water paid for by your ancestors?”
“Huh? You think stabbing the abdomen with a dagger and then using heal works for poison? Are you crazy? That’ll cause fatal blood loss. Heal doesn’t regenerate spilled blood.”
“Look who’s talking···. Excuse me, what? I’m not crazy. I’m perfectly normal.”
“People who call themselves normal are typically not normal. Hey, come on now!”
Why is everyone like this?
Just because I self-harmed once in a game, they label me as some kind of weirdo.
“Hmph. I’m not interacting with you all anymore.”
For some reason, I felt like my reputation always plummeted whenever it involved broadcasting.
Rice-farmer··· or something along those lines.
All these nicknames came from my broadcasted behaviour.
I intentionally allowed the Salvation Church cleric’s black haze attack, which inflicts the ‘hallucination’ debuff, to hit me.
[You have been afflicted with the ‘Hallucination’ status.]
As hallucination took hold, the surrounding monsters’ appearances began shifting dramatically.
The Salvation Church cleric turned into a drake.
The drake morphed into a black phantasmal rabbit.
The black phantasmal rabbit became an Elder Lich.
The scenery distorted, the map reappeared, and then it twisted again repeatedly.
Only then did I speak my thoughts.
“See? The hallucination makes you dizzy, right?”
Sneakily.
I glanced at the chat window and saw messages like “Gwaaah!” pouring in.
After confirming the viewers’ reactions, I immediately used purification.
The hallucination vanished instantly, and I proceeded to use divine punishment to hunt the monsters.
“How was that? I was right, wasn’t I?”
―――
I surrender.
Yeah, you’re strong.
What a spectacle.
Stubborn as hell.
Crazy in a different sense.
You win.
Gwaaaah!
―――
I had forced the viewers into submission.
Well, since I demonstrated my argument with evidence, they couldn’t help but agree.
After securing victory over the audience, I continued exploring the dungeon.
There were a few moments when I had to remove blindness and burn debuffs.
Yet, some viewers continued treating me like a Menhera heroine in the chat.
These people don’t know when to give up.
“We’re at the final boss room.”
―――
The Cardinal’s patterns are so damn annoying.
Hahaha, please teach him a lesson.
Ready?
Cardinal, please.
Go, Salvation Church, go!
―――
Messages cheering for the boss monster, the Salvation Church Cardinal, flooded the chat.
To see people desperately rooting for such an impossible outcome…
Feeling pity, I finally broke my silence.
“Do you know what my job class is?”
―――
Crazy woman.
Akare Director.
Rice-farming Saint.
Exploiter (confirmed).
Stubborn Menhera.
Queen of mind games.
―――
With such an obvious answer that even an elementary school kid could guess,
the chat spewed every wrong response imaginable, making me sigh instinctively.
Such contrarians.
So annoying.
I silently swallowed my frustration and revealed the answer.
“Inquisitor.”
I scrolled up in the chat to the point where people were cheering for the Cardinal.
Then, using the ‘viewer management’ feature, I flagged every viewer who had supported the Cardinal.
“The Salvation Church, including cultists, is heretical.”
Cheering for heretics during an Inquisitor’s broadcast?
That’s grounds for judgment.
―――
As long as it’s not me, lol.
Let’s bring down heresy!
Normalize it!
Let’s go~
Congrats to the Season 1 Ban.
―――
I temporarily banned about ten viewers and continued speaking.
“How much do you know about the Inquisitor’s exclusive skill, Mark of Heresy?”
Mark of Heresy.
A skill that grants numerous buffs when an Inquisitor judges heretics.
Because of one Inquisitor’s merciless massacre of cultists,
many thought, “The Inquisitor is a PVP-only class.”
But, if you think carefully, even the Salvation Church monsters have the Church’s mark on them.
In other words, the Salvation Church’s monsters are also subject to Mark of Heresy.
“Mark of Heresy can be used on the Cardinal as well.”
Of course, the skill had a 10-minute cooldown, so it couldn’t be used recklessly.
But against the Salvation Church’s boss monsters, it was practically a designated predator skill.
“Inquisitors do not lose to heretics.”
Confidently quoting a famous line from another neighbourhood, I opened the boss room doors.
***
Fera’s explanation stream was peculiar.
Normally, when a stream is started to address controversies,
viewers would briefly flood in to watch and then immediately leave after the explanation ended.
But in Fera’s stream, the number of viewers kept increasing as time passed.
By the end of the explanation, there were 65,000 viewers.
When she soloed the obscure dungeon, “The Place Stained with Malice,” it rose to 70,000.
Her bizarre act of self-harming to remove a debuff brought it to 73,000.
When she successfully defeated the Salvation Church Cardinal with ease using Mark of Heresy, it peaked at 77,000.
Now, upon encountering Daehyeop Kim waiting at the dungeon entrance, it hit 80,000.
[Akashic Records Gallery]
―――
Daehyeop enters the chat, lol [12]
Daehyeop, you crazy bastard, turn on your stream [7]
Daehyeop’s definitely going to win this [15]
Daehyeop shows up to reform the Menhera [24]
If they PVP, who’s going to win? [33]
―――
Rank 1 in Martial Artist Rankings. Rank 1 in the Unified Rankings.
The first player of Akare. The first Martial Artist.
No one denied that Daehyeop Kim was at the pinnacle of Akare.
If Sweet was known for being proud and self-assured,
Daehyeop Kim was polite and humble.
Because of this, most players acknowledged Daehyeop Kim as the ultimate player.
―――
[Title] Sweet is just an average joe, but Daehyeop is different.
Current level of Daehyeop? A whopping 77.
He’s collected all Realization skills.
All his main skills are maxed at level 3.
He’s completed every piece of existing content.
Perfectly flawless
Invincible
A one-man army
There’s no title that doesn’t suit Akare’s strongest man.
Comparing someone like Sweet to him is an insult.
Like: 1,025 | Dislike: 256
―――
[Comments: 1,333]
These martial artist fans are insane, lol.
ㄴFacts, lol
ㄴOld-timers need to bend their backs already.
ㄴMartial artist boomers are unbearable.
ㄴMartial artists, please stop posting these kinds of comments.
ㄴSuch an embarrassing reflection, jeez.
ㄴThe truth is, everything in the post is factual.
ㄴWhat kind of weird voodoo is this? Is the author a witch?
―――
Given this, many predicted Daehyeop Kim’s victory.
But there were also opposing opinions.
For every staunch fan, there are critics.
And even without critics,
Sweet’s fans, who had already seen him normalized by Fera’s hammer in the past,
predicted Daehyeop Kim’s defeat this time.
Rank 1 in Mage Rankings. Rank 3 in the Unified Rankings.
Sweet was undoubtedly a paragon of mages.
But having been previously defeated by Fera’s judgment mace,
his fans believed Fera would win again this time.
“Are you ready?”
“Yes, I’m ready.”
In Fera’s stream,
the prepared Fera and Daehyeop Kim faced each other.
The secret class specializing in raids and PVP, Martial Artist.
Unlike standard classes, the Martial Artist did not branch out during the second awakening.
Why was that?
Players found their answer in Aka-chan’s dialogue from the Hall of Heroes.
– The path of the Martial Artist may be harsher than others.
– This world is not particularly kind to Martial Artists.
Here, the “path” Aka-chan referred to symbolized the class’s “direction.”
Unlike other classes that could choose their direction during the second awakening,
Martial Artists could not choose their path.
Because they couldn’t choose, it might not align with what they envisioned.
This made the Martial Artist’s path feel harsher compared to others.
Additionally, a solitary, unpredictable path indicated how unkind this world was to Martial Artists.
…That was the players’ interpretation of “why the Martial Artist class had no second awakening branch,”
but in truth, there simply wasn’t enough information about the Martial Artist class to create branches.
It was more conjecture than fact.
Aurora might have reacted to this speculation with:
– What an interesting theory. Should I just use it as is?
That’s how Aurora might have responded.
Even Aka-chan’s dialogue was improvised.
Aurora’s command to spout something plausible led to the creation of that ad-libbed line.
In any case, back to the duel between the two.
Amid a tense atmosphere, the starting timer hit zero.
Daehyeop Kim immediately went on the offensive.
The skill he used after Forward Leap was one of his second awakening skills, Moon Dragon Strike.
A dragon bathed in moonlight hurtled toward Fera.
Crash-!
The combination of Forward Leap and Moon Dragon Strike was blocked by Holy Barrier.
The barrier cracked and then shattered completely.
Spotting an opening, Daehyeop Kim immediately followed up with another skill.
The second awakening skill, Pulverizing Strike.
The Realization skill, Whirlwind Strike.
The devastating strikes, capable of breaking boulders, landed cleanly.
But Sanctification was already deployed.
“Heal.”
Fera murmured, and her body was healed of all wounds.
Brilliant radiance unfurled behind her.
To protect the owner of Sanctification, Fera,
the heavenly forces, Valkyries, attacked Daehyeop Kim.
Sanctification. A Realization skill considered the priest’s ultimate ability.
It lasted 30 seconds, summoning Valkyries at 4-second intervals.
Each Valkyrie attacked only once before disappearing.
If he could just endure this, he would surely win.
Confident in this thought, Daehyeop Kim created distance.
But putting distance between them didn’t solve everything.
Divine Punishment.
A skill with considerable damage even compared to other classes.
Divine Punishment also inflicted damage on the caster.
Thus, Daehyeop Kim needed to remember that creating distance made him a prime target for it.
However, contrary to his expectations, Fera advanced toward him.
Why? What was her plan?
On guard for Divine Punishment, Daehyeop Kim heightened his vigilance to the maximum.
If they engaged in close combat, their match-up would be equal.
Both had a fair chance.
And with Sanctification still active,
one properly enhanced Divine Punishment could leave him gravely injured or dead.
Of course, using it blatantly would make it easy to dodge.
As he evaded the Valkyries’ attacks, Daehyeop Kim never stopped thinking.
Then, unease crept in.
Sanctification had 6 seconds left.
The Valkyries had only one summon remaining.
If she had a plan, she should act now, shouldn’t she?
At the same time, another thought came to him.
If he could just survive this, he would win.
That thought pushed away his unease.
As he prepared to dodge the final Valkyrie’s attack,
Thud-!
An invisible wall blocked Daehyeop Kim’s movement.
The duel system.
It formed an invisible barrier based on the field,
completely isolating the inside from the outside.
This was a mechanism to protect those unrelated to the duel.
And now.
Daehyeop Kim, too focused on Fera,
failed to notice his position and found himself cornered.
But it wasn’t over yet.
Though hit by the Valkyrie’s attack,
he still had plenty of health.
In just 2 seconds, Sanctification would end.
Even the sole variable, Divine Punishment, couldn’t be used by Fera anymore.
Wait.
Fera couldn’t use Divine Punishment?
Suddenly, the image of the self-harming, crazy Inquisitor flashed through Daehyeop Kim’s mind.
“Got you now.”
Before he knew it, Fera was right in front of him, executing a wall slam.
With both his arms pinned, rendering him immobile,
Daehyeop Kim gave a sheepish smile and softly asked Fera:
“No way… Right?”
Fera gave a bright smile in response.
“Rest in peace.”
With those words, the heavens’ wrath, imbued with immense divine power, descended upon him.
—
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