Chapter 27 - There's an Entrance but No Exit (5)
“Finally, it’s the final boss, brothers. Watch closely with your eyes wide open as I make history by being the first to clear it.”
Blue Hair spoke with an excited voice.
Upon reaching the boss room, the surrounding scenery was quite different from usual.
The sun was blackened as if devoured by sunspots. The ground was covered entirely in ash, with grayish-white powder scattering with each step. Trees that had died black as if burned by sulfurous fire were crumbling mournfully.
The final boss, who had been sitting by the bonfire, spotted Blue Hair’s character and slowly stood up.
“…Wow. This one has a different aura.”
Calmly, without getting excited, like stacking sugar cubes one by one, he figured out the boss’s patterns.
Roll, thrust.
Roll again, roll, thrust.
He played loosely, as if carefully removing blocks in a Jenga game.
It was a skilled movement and a textbook progression.
Until the donation sound rang.
‘HaYoo’ donated 1,000 won!
-Fighting! But if you don’t catch it quickly, you’ll be late lol
For a moment, Blue Hair’s concentration wavered. It felt like the sugar cube tower he had painstakingly built was crumbling.
Because of that, he ended up getting hit by the final boss’s pattern attack.
‘F*ck! That bitch is throwing ashes on my cooked rice till the end.’
In the end, Blue Hair died just before seeing the 2nd phase.
Rubbing the bridge of his nose, Blue Hair said,
“HaYoo-nim. I don’t think it’s time for you to worry about me. Aren’t you playing the game?”
‘HaYoo’ donated 1,000 won.
-Watch my broadcast.
Blue Hair frowned and connected to HaYoo’s broadcast.
And what he saw was-
[Black Souls Gallery]
[Author: 1ujean0314]
[Title: Proof video of first Black Souls clear]
(Video)
(Video)
(Video)
(Video)
(Video)
-Video is being encoded.
It was HaYoo’s screen, waiting to upload several hours worth of video.
“What are you doing now?”
Then came HaYoo’s reply.
─What do you mean what? I’m uploading the clear proof video. Hey guys, can’t you hear something?
HaYoo said, twisting one corner of her mouth.
─Ah, it’s the sound of Blue Hair’s butthole clenching.
HaYoo pretended to look at her wristwatch and joked.
─I think the encoding will be complete in about 10 minutes, how about it, want to try now, Blue Hair-nim? If you clear it within 10 minutes, I’ll feel sorry for you and won’t upload mine. Exactly 10 minutes. Starting now!
“You’re bluffing nonsense.”
Though he said that out of pride, Blue Hair’s hands moved busily.
At some point, it had become a time attack rather than being the first to clear.
He hurriedly closed HaYoo’s broadcast and knocked on the final boss’s door once again.
Thrust, roll,
Thrust once more, roll.
What came back was a series of defeats.
“…Ah, f*ck. Why isn’t it working today?”
Cold sweat started to drip from Blue Hair’s forehead. The limited time of 10 minutes was slowly choking him like rising water. He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand and repeatedly entered and exited the boss room.
‘ㅇㅇ’ donated 1,000 won!
-Hands shaking? It’s dizzying watching your mouse shake, you f*cker lol
“Ah, shut up.”
However, a warrior who had already lost his composure could not win.
And so 1 minute passed,
3 minutes passed,
9 minutes passed,
9 minutes and 50 seconds passed.
A countdown flowed in the chat window.
-555555
-Blue Hair’s destruction???
-This guy is Black Souls’ number one, WTF lol
-44444
-Just wasted time lol
-What have you been doing all this time, you bastard
-33333
-Losing the record to a woman who plays Galaxy War lol
-Sprinkling HaYoo on cooked rice lol
-2222
-But HaYoo might be hacking, don’t lose hope yet Blue Hair
-Yudai noona is working overtime lol
-11111
-Pa-ba
-Pa-ba lol
-00000
-END
-Get lost
-Get lost
-Get lost
-Get lost, idiot lol
The armored warrior character stopped moving. Blue Hair, who had taken his hand off the mouse, was burying his face.
“…Aaaaah!! Fck!”
Bang bang bang bang bang-!
The sound of keyboard smashing, commonly called a shotgun. The cam screen shook violently as if an earthquake had struck.
What shook the most was Blue Hair’s broken heart.
He entered the Black Souls gallery to check if she had really posted. HaYoo’s post went straight to the top posts in just a few seconds.
When he clicked on the video, he saw HaYoo’s back view, as if someone had filmed her. On the computer screen, Black Souls was on.
She massacred monsters at an almost miraculous speed and quickly moved on to the next chapter.
Blue Hair paused the video.
“…Ah, this is sht.”
And he entered HaYoo’s broadcast again.
A classical music piece was playing loudly, and donations were pouring in like starlight.
Ravel’s Bolero.
The full trombone sound of the grand orchestral performance cut through Blue Hair’s heart and filled his lungs.
‘Nose Man’ donated 100,000 won!
-The woman who even conquered Black Souls… Great HaYoo…
‘Daddy Bird’ donated 1,000,000 won!
-K-eldest daughter is strong
‘RPG Lover’ donated 1,000,000 won!
-Honestly, I did well recommending Black Souls, right?
‘Sang Old’ donated 100,000 won!
-Blue chip of the streaming world! Blue chip of the streaming world! Blue chip of the streaming world! Blue chip of the streaming world!
‘ㅇㅇ’ donated 100,000 won!
-What’s her real identity lol Did she come from the future?
‘Ulari HaYoo’ donated 100,000 won!
-From today, Black Souls is not BS but BU (Black Ulari)
Just blankly,
He blankly watched HaYoo’s broadcast.
To make matters worse, with his keyboard broken, he couldn’t even continue playing.
Feeling the greatest humiliation of his life, Blue Hair bit his lips.
And,
[Blue Hair’s broadcast has ended.]
There’s a gallery running at #1 in real-time busy galleries.
[Black Souls Gallery]
Full of praise and admiration.
-HaYoo killing Demon in 1 minute lol
-How can she get out of the labyrinth so quickly?
-She moves as if she knows all the paths
-I mean lol I’m not defending Blue Hair but this does look like hacking
-How can there be hacks for a game that just released, you f*cking idiots lol
-OK, let’s say it’s hacking, then what about finding the path? Is there a pathfinding hack too? lol
-But… something’s fishy… don’t know…
-Black Souls players are so scary.. that noona is scary…
-But really, the speed doesn’t make sense lol
-It’s the first time I’ve seen the Twin Princes taken down like that lol
-Hey I figured out why HaYoo uses Great Shield + Straight Sword.txt
Among them, the post with the most likes:
[Author: ㅇㅇ]
[Title: I’ll tell you the hack HaYoo is using, you gays lol]
(Image of HaYoo raising her middle finger)
Git Gud Hack
You f*cking Black Souls losers lol
Again, you can’t admit it and think bad thoughts?
Likes: 1014 Dislikes: 175
The gallery’s topics changed chaotically like the chaos in myths.
Then it oddly drifted to the topic of whether Han Yujin used unauthorized programs or not.
Many users went as far as to directly inquire with ‘Soul Game Company’, the company that made Black Souls.
Finally, two days later.
Soul Game Company explained directly through a YouTube live.
[ソウル·ゲーム·カンパニーの篝火トーク]
[Soul Game Company’s Bonfire Talk]
[141,696 watching]
The live format was a Q&A style where one person asks and another answers.
─Q. Is the Korean Twimer streamer HaYoo the first user to clear
─Yes. As far as we’ve determined, yes. We can say that with certainty. We also discovered something surprising. While other players recorded an average playtime of 100 hours, HaYoo took less than half of that.
─Q. That’s an unbelievably low figure. Did streamer HaYoo use unauthorized programs or not?
─We’re aware that many users, especially in the Korean community, want HaYoo to be banned, but we can’t ban her simply because they want us to.
─To conclude, she did not use any.
─We thoroughly investigated the account HaYoo holds, and we consider this matter truly closed. We investigated her using various methods, and even using various types of detection methods, no special anomalies were observed.
─Q. How many times did you investigate this case?
─We didn’t think a user who could clear it this quickly would exist either. Even from our perspective as the game developers, it was a result we couldn’t comprehend. So we investigated much more than you might think.
─Q. Streamer HaYoo moved as if she knew the path.
─Yes. In the middle part of
─Q. Is there no possibility of an insider leak?
─It’s hard to believe. We considered that possibility and investigated in various ways, but nothing has been revealed yet.
─Q. When will
─Probably the year after next. But one thing is certain. The game difficulty will be doubled.
─Q. Because of HaYoo? (laughs)
─Yes. Because of her! (laughs) Anyway, we officially answer that the Korean streamer, HaYoo, is the first user to clear Black Souls.
And so, the ‘Han Yujin hacking controversy’ ended anticlimactically.
At the same time, Han Yujin’s fame rose endlessly like a stock price with no upper limit.
I stretched out because the sunshine was nice. A sweet pleasure swept through my whole body.
Blue Hair didn’t turn on his broadcast today either. He was no longer visible in the clear ranking list.
Did he delete his account?
Anyway, it feels like old indigestion is going down now that an eyesore has disappeared. It felt refreshing.
And,
It was the first day of filming
Beside me were PD Kim Hwachang, editor Moon Jaehyun, and player Kang Yohan.
We came to the small studio apartment where Kang Yohan had newly moved.
“The room is quite small.”
Kim Hwachang said, fiddling with the wallpaper.
“But noona, is there a reason it has to be a studio apartment?”
Moon Jaehyun asked me with a dubious expression.
I answered confidently.
“Of course, the story only works if it’s in a studio apartment. The concept of this show is about an emperor who was once at the top, rising again from the bottom to the top. It’s a royal road story of rising again from a Battle.net pub user to the pinnacle of pro gaming. But would it taste right if we started in an expensive Gangnam officetel?”
“…Ah, that’s true.”
I approached player Kang Yohan, who was standing awkwardly.
“Player Kang Yohan. You said you’d do anything, right?”
“Yes. Anything if I can win.”
“Anything?”
“Anything.”
I extended my hand.
“I like your straightforward answer. Then let’s start now. The victory story of Kang Yohan and Han Yujin.”
He grasped my hand.