------------------
HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]
------------------
Chapter 318
[HoneyTube broadcast has started!]
- But the lag is insane! Why are there so many viewers?
└ Wow lol 100,000 viewers right at the start?
└ It keeps going up! Passed 200,000!
└ Only 2 minutes in and it's already 300,000… Is this gonna crash?
└ Crazy… Look at that number rising by the tens of thousands in real-time;;
As soon as the HoneyTube broadcast started, everyone who had been waiting flocked to his stream.
[User "Muni0001" has donated 300,000 won.]
- Finally, you're here!
‘This is insane…….’
Seeing the skyrocketing numbers, Jang Dae-Hwi couldn’t hide his shock.
He had only started the broadcast, yet in just a few minutes, viewers had surpassed 400,000.
And that wasn’t all.
[User "Gurinice22" has donated 100,000 won.]
- I'm here to learn what to do for this event. Consider this my tuition fee!
[User "Aox" has donated 200,000 won.]
- My tuition fee too, lol.
[User "IAmAGentlemanvv" has donated 1,000,000 won.]
- Ah, you guys have no sense. Paying in tens of thousands for a lesson this valuable? Lol.
[User "InMyPastLifeARiceBug" has donated 2,000,000 won.]
- Ah, you gotta pay at least 200, lol. What's with the 100?
Donations kept pouring in nonstop.
Within five minutes of starting the broadcast, donations had surpassed 10 million won.
“Alright, welcome everyone.”
Jeong-hoon greeted the viewers with a smile.
- Hey hey
- Bro, seriously, you should stream on HoneyTube more often. Why is a 1.4 million subscriber channel so inactive?
- If you’re salty, just leave lol.
- For real lol.
“Sorry about that. It’s just that without some useful tips to share, it’s hard to find a reason to stream.”
- But what’s with those guys coming your way?
- Are they trying to gang up on you?
- Idiots lol. Of all people, they’re messing with Honey1.
Jeong-hoon smiled faintly.
“Those guys are all Incarnations.”
- Incarnations?
- You mean those guys trying to trick people into contracts?
- Nothing ever came to me though…
- They don’t go after hopeless cases like you, lol.
The comments kept flooding in.
Meanwhile, the Incarnations had surrounded Jeong-hoon.
“What the hell are you mumbling about?”
“Praying to your god before you die?”
They each muttered something in their respective languages.
However, perhaps because they had entered the survival map, translation wasn't difficult.
“Didn't they say to make sure to kill him?”
“Yeah. They said we'd get a huge reward for it.”
When they chose and entered F-9, the Transcendents had issued a quest.
The quest was to annihilate all the humans here.
The condition was that not a single one should be allowed to leave alive. As soon as it started, they had already killed two humans.
All that remained was the human in front of them and the one hiding further back.
“Alright, then. Let's begin the strategy.”
Among the seven skills he had registered before the event started...
Jeong-hoon activated one — the Heavenly Demon Lord's Dominion — and sprang forward.
Since his level and all his stats had been set to 100, reading Jeong-hoon's movements wasn't difficult.
“Hup!”
The burly man with a hefty build swung his axe powerfully.
Jeong-hoon twisted his body mid-leap and deflected the attack using his dagger.
'Now.'
Jeong-hoon seized the moment when the man's balance was shifted toward his axe and thrust his dagger into the man's throat.
“Guhk!”
The man, his throat pierced, spewed blood and collapsed.
[You have slain the Transcendent's Apostle.]
[Due to the contractor's death, you have gained 30,000,000 experience points from the Transcendent.]
[[Title] Apostle Slayer has grown to Level 4.]
“This bastard!”
As one apostle fell, the remaining ones charged at Jeong-hoon all at once, unleashing their skills.
Realizing that defending with just a dagger was impossible, Jeong-hoon activated his second registered skill.
[You have used Light Barrier.]
A Celestial-grade Light Barrier enveloped Jeong-hoon's body.
Boom!
A deafening explosion followed as the collision between magic and the barrier engulfed a 200-meter radius in smoke.
With visibility obscured by the smoke...
Jeong-hoon activated the Heavenly Demon Lord's Dominion once again.
He had memorized the positions where the apostles had stood during their attack, so targeting them was simple.
His first target — the apostle who had been recklessly firing magic from the rear.
Jeong-hoon’s body shot forward, arriving right in front of the mage. The mage’s eyes widened in shock.
“W-What?!”
The mage hurriedly began preparing a spell, but Jeong-hoon was a step faster.
His dagger plunged straight into the mage’s heart.
“Ugh!”
[You have slain the Transcendent's Apostle.]
[Due to the contractor's death, you have gained 30,000,000 experience points from the Transcendent.]
Next was the mage standing beside him.
Jeong-hoon slashed his bloodied dagger across the mage’s throat.
“Gahk!”
In an instant, the two mages had become cold corpses.
“Damn it!”
“Damn smoke, I can’t see a thing!”
Jeong-hoon sneered at them and activated the Heavenly Demon Lord's Dominion.
With lightning-fast movements, each swing of his dagger sent another Avatar's head flying.
* * *
[You have completed the quest.]
[You have reached a new realm.]
[You have advanced to Dark Lord (5th Advancement).]
[All stats increase by 200.]
[All skill damage increases by 20%.]
[Achievement unlocked! You have completed ‘Realm.’ 200,000 achievement points have been awarded.]
[The maximum rune equipment limit has increased to 12.]
[You have obtained 10% of Celestial Energy.]
[You have accessed Celestial Power for the first time. 30,000 achievement points have been awarded.]
“I did it……”
Ha-jin barely held himself up by leaning against a rock with his trembling legs.
It had been a grueling ordeal, so difficult that he had felt like giving up hundreds of times.
His face was covered in blood, and his armor was in tatters.
It was so badly damaged that it would be unusable without immediate repairs.
If he hadn’t visited the Demon Realm to raise his level and stats beforehand, he would have surely failed.
‘Now I can finally join Hoon in the event.’
By now, Jeong-hoon was probably participating in the event with full focus.
Dae-hwi hyung would likely be filming beside him as well.
Now he could finally join them and take part in the event.
“Congratulations on reaching the realm.”
The one who had given the 5th advancement quest was the First Dark Lord.
Ha-jin had also met him during his 4th advancement.
“…Thank you.”
Ha-jin forced a smile with difficulty.
“Drink this.”
The First Dark Lord handed him a potion.
With his exhausted body barely holding up, Ha-jin grabbed the potion with trembling hands and gulped it down.
“I commend you for not giving up despite reaching your limit.”
“Yes……”
“Well then……”
The Dark Lord’s words were suddenly cut off.
The air distorted, and a rift opened, revealing a pair of crimson eyes.
“Gasp!”
Ha-jin’s body froze stiff upon seeing those crimson eyes.
Even after completing his 5th advancement, just facing those eyes alone brought an overwhelming fear of death that engulfed his entire being.
<It’s been a while, human.>
“……”
<What’s with that startled look? Did you really think I wouldn’t know you were moving with that human?>
“W-Why did you come to me……?”
What Baal wanted was Hoon.
So why had someone like him come to Ha-jin instead?
<Heh heh, it’s simple. The event that’s happening right now.>
“The event……?”
<My master intends to alter that event.>
“Alter it?”
<I had hoped to approach that human participating in the event if possible… Just watch. Watch as your world meets its end.>
With those parting words, Baal vanished.
As soon as he disappeared, Ha-jin’s tension broke, and he collapsed on the spot.
“They’re changing the event……?”
As his frozen mind started working again, questions began to surface.
“…Wait, why did he even bother telling me that?”
* * *
The battle ended in an instant.
Jeong-hoon wiped the blood off his dagger and returned to Jang Dae-hwi, who was hiding behind a barrel.
“Alright, let’s head out now.”
“Uh… Oh, yeah.”
Jang Dae-hwi was still dazed, unable to snap out of it.
His grip on the camera was slack, suggesting he’d even forgotten to keep filming.
“Hyung, don’t tell me you forgot to record?”
“N-No way……”
Jang Dae-hwi cleared his throat awkwardly and checked the camera.
That’s when his face turned pale with confusion.
“W-What?! What’s going on?”
“Is something wrong?”
“I-I think the broadcast crashed!”
“What?”
Jeong-hoon furrowed his brow and checked the comments.
The comments were still pouring in, so he couldn’t imagine the broadcast had gone down.
“Hold on… I’ll try restarting it.”
“Alright.”
It seemed their departure would be slightly delayed.
‘The monsters will start flooding in soon.’
The focus of this survival event was endurance.
And this time, surviving the wave of monsters was the key.
Survivors would be ranked from highest to lowest based on both survival time and the number of monsters defeated.
If you died, you were automatically removed from the rankings.
Yet, despite waiting, the broadcast wouldn’t resume.
“This is weird… What’s going on?”
As time passed, Jang Dae-hwi grew increasingly anxious.
He had joined the event to film the broadcast, yet now that the broadcast was down, he felt like he’d lost his purpose.
That’s why they had to hurry.
The longer the broadcast was down, the worse the viewers’ reactions would become.
"Hey, hold on a second."
At that moment, Jeong-hoon called out to Jang Dae-hwi in a serious voice.
"Huh?"
Sensing that something was off, Jang Dae-hwi turned his head.
Jeong-hoon's face was stiff and tense.
"Don't try to restore the broadcast."
"Don't restore it?"
"Yeah. And you should have received a message. Check it out."
"Wait a second."
Just as Jeong-hoon said, there was a notification marked with a '1'.
'What is this?'
Curious, he opened the message.
[Notice Regarding Event Change]
It was about an event change.
Jang Dae-hwi tilted his head in confusion and opened the message.
- The event will be changed.
Level, skills, and equipment locks will be lifted.
Additionally, a penalty will be forcibly imposed on Earth every 10 minutes.
To end the event, designated quests in all zones must be completed.
"What... what is this?!"
Jang Dae-hwi shouted in shock without realizing it.
It was already bad enough that the event had changed suddenly, but now penalties would be imposed on Earth?
And that wasn't all.
- Successfully completing the event will significantly increase the episode's success rate.
*Ranking rewards will remain unchanged.
It was clear they intended to push for 100% episode completion.
'Escanon is behind this.'
Jeong-hoon bit his lip.
When he acquired Asura, things had remained calm, so he assumed the event would proceed without issue as well.
But now, he'd been blindsided like this.
'Looks like I'm being heavily restricted.'
He had planned to receive a 'Mark' as a reward for this event.
The still-unfinished Tyrant Titan.
It seemed they were determined to prevent him from completing that Titan.
'Master!'
'Phew, I felt so frustrated not being able to say anything. Now I can finally breathe.'
With the lock lifted, Mukho — which Jeong-hoon was equipped with — regained its functionality.
The same went for Anima.
The two took a deep breath of the outside air, feeling relieved. But after noticing Jeong-hoon's expression, they tilted their heads.
'Hmm? Master, what's with that face?'
'Did something happen?'
Yeah, something did.
And something huge at that.
"Our plan is completely screwed now."
Regardless, now wasn't the time to sit around.
If they didn't move quickly, Earth's destruction would only accelerate.
* * *
[Broadcast Crashed]
Ah, this sucks;; Just when things were getting good, it crashes.
└ Aren't they fixing it?
└ Seriously, who's operating the camera?
└ I'm losing my mind.
└ Ugh, I'm getting dizzy...
The countless viewers on HoneyTube seemed ready to riot at any moment.
The broadcast crashing was one thing, but the real issue was that it wasn't coming back online.
[By the way, what's this event change about?]
- They said penalties will be applied.
└ NPCs are blocked;;
└ Blocked??
└ Can't even enter the event.
└ What? You're right.
The sudden event change threw the entire world into chaos.
Kwaaaang!
And then came a deafening roar.
Earth's penalty had begun.
------------------
HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]
------------------