Chapter 40: Start of Streaming (1)
As Sanghyuk had predicted, the first, no, second party to break through the Cave of Giants appeared in ten days.
They were the elite players of 'Rose Knights', a guild belonging to one of the five major Lines in EL, Line Red.
*Splash splash!*
The 7 users fell into Genesis Lake at almost the same time.
All 7 users were making a refreshed expression as though a ten-year-old problem had just been solved, and this was natural since they had challenged the Cave of Giants since a month ago, and had failed until now.
They had miraculously succeeded just now, so it was no wonder that they felt good.
They felt especially good once they imagined how many other parties would be challenging the Sky Giant right now.
"Uaaaaaah! Yes! YEEESSSSS!"
OonHyu, the main tanker of Rose Knights, shouted in a loud voice and trembled.
"Wow goddammit. That was one tenacious one."
"Whew, the giant would definitely have gone berserk if not for your heat bullet at the last moment, hyung."
"It was really close. But it was also thanks to your poison daggers that shaved its life away."
The super-elite damage dealers of Rose Knights, Longty, and SamZ, flattered each other.
"There, there. Let's talk once we get out of the lake."
The one that calmed their excitement was their guild master, Dark Bull.
Having left Genesis Lake, the seven users could see an NPC that stood near the lake.
"Huh? Why is an NPC here?"
"Is it an NPC that's welcoming us to the new continent?"
The 7 users approached the NPC in confusion.
"Huh? It's a vendor?"
"What the hell? Why is there a vendor here? What? Did another user summon a vendor here?"
"No way... we should be the first ones to get here. How can any other users summon a vendor here?"
"It's probably a system-installed NPC."
The 7 users each came up with their own opinions and flicked their fingers in front of the vendor.
Along with a click, the items sold by the vendor appeared in front of their eyes.
"Palsung Cider, East Face cloak... and the map of Hellfire Desert?"
"See? There are only the necessary items for traveling. This isn't something that a user had set up. What kind of a user would summon a vendor and sell maps? That doesn't make any sense."
They all thought that there was no possibility that the vendor was summoned by a user.
"But...why is the map so expensive? Isn't this too much of a rip-off?"
"Whoa? What the hell? Why is it so expensive... even Palsung Cider and East Face cloak is also expensive... this vendor is such a rip-off."
The users reacted exactly as Sanghyuk had predicted.
The reason Sanghyuk bothered to sell Palsung Cider and East Face cloak were to make them feel like the map was a rip-off.
They would soon realize that they would have to buy it after wandering around in the desert for a few hours, so his intention was to make them feel like this was done on purpose.
This was Sanghyuk's scheme to erase any traces that the vendor was a user-summoned NPC.
"Boss, don't you think we don't need this? When did we rely on maps?"
"You're right. This is too expensive. Even though only one of us need it, this price is just too much."
"Hyung, let's just go."
Dark Bull, just like the other guild members, thought that buying a map at that price was not worth it.
"Okay. Then let's depart after resting for 5 minutes. Maka, you stand up front. You have the 'pathfinding' skill, right?"
"Yes. I'll try to look for a path."
Maka replied with a very confident expression... but unfortunately, the basic skill 'pathfinding' was useless, at least in Hellfire Desert.
10 hours later.
Eventually, the users of Rose Knights could only come back to Lake Genesis. They could only come back thanks to Maka's guide, and if it weren't for Maka, it was likely that they would have wandered around the desert for even longer.
The 7 users admitted their mistake. Hellfire Desert definitely wasn't a place where they could get around without a map.
Everything was as Sanghyuk had expected.
Hellfire Desert. This was a desolate place so empty that the entire land itself could be considered a huge dungeon.
There were many necessities in order to survive, and those were what Sanghyuk had put in the vendor.
The first were the Rose Knights, but another group of users arrived at the new continent just two days later. Following them, many users started crossing over to the new continent.
All those users became Sanghyuk's customers.
They could not reject the map. In fact, later, everyone in the party bought maps and not just one. Some people tried to make a copy of the desert off-game by drawing, but since there were no landmarks in the desert, there was nothing users could do with an internet-drawn map.
No matter how expensive Sanghyuk's map of Hellfire Desert was, considering that it was the one and the only item, it definitely did its price.
With enhanced synthesized skill books, enhanced items and the map of Hellfire Desert selling like hotcakes, Sanghyuk earned an insane amount of gold, to the point that no users would be able to gather that much in their lifetime.
Of course, his profit started decreasing around a week later. Since users kept coming over to Hellfire Desert, it became difficult to profit as much as he did with enhanced synthesized skill books and enhanced items.
The ones who were raising familiarity with NPCs in Blue Oasis had discovered the existence of an NPC synthesizer and started to do what Sanghyuk did, so Sanghyuk just released a rumor through the Hiddenline. (T/N: Shadowline will be changed to Hiddenline)
'There's a synthesizer in Hellfire Desert, and asking the Synthesizer will allow you to synthesize or upgrade items and skills!'
With just that one rumor, selling enhanced synthesized skill books and enhanced items went bust.
The reason Sanghyuk did that was to monopolize wealth. Honestly, if he left it alone, he could have earned more gold for around a week more, but it was better to comfortably start his next business rather than make others profit.
Since it was time to seek fun with the map of Hellfire Desert, he had to throw away what he had to.
***
Sanghyuk had moved around too busily for around forty days selling enhanced synthesized skill books and enhanced items.
He couldn't even wash properly during this time. Like the saying, strike the iron while it's still hot, Sanghyuk attempted to rake in as much gold as possible.
'Now I got some leeway so should I do some of the things I put off for later?'
Actually, he had a lot of things he had to do. The most urgent one being how to solve the personal streaming matter.
In just a few months, LGN would start contacting a few of the top-ranking users and distribute live channels directly managed by LGN themselves. It was better to take that while it was still possible.
Later, it would become harder to acquire a live channel due to many elements and not only that, it was hard to ignore the already procured fan base of the other channels if he started later.
It was much better to acquire one of the 30 live channels in the first go.
Live channels were a goldmine. Later in the game, money gained from live channels would amount to much more than killing a difficult named monster in the game.
Through a live channel, one could not only acquire money but fame and reputation as well.
Above all, there was the one most important thing... the competition that could only be participated by owners of live channels.
LGN always kept their live channels below 100 so acquiring a channel from them wasn't easy.
In any case, the reason Sanghyuk was attempting to try personal streaming again was an attempt to get one of the first live channels distributed by LGN.
Live channels had a completely different infrastructure than livestreaming through Pu TV.
The users who thought they did well in Dream Network games always dreamed of acquiring a live channel for themselves.
'What should I call the room title?'
Sanghyuk first pondered on what to call his room. Actually, he thought that it would be difficult to livestream thanks to many reasons before, but right now, it was different.
With his title 'Shadow Duke of Falcon City', there was no need to worry about his identity being leaked anymore. Sanghyuk had already made an avatar for streaming.
[Cave of Giants solo streaming. –BJ Gale-]
'This should be good.'
Sanghyuk turned on the streaming after writing a very clickbait-y title.
EL allowed for connections with many Dream Network streaming systems so doing a streaming from inside the game wasn't that rare.
He started the streaming, but people didn't flood in like crazy from the get-go.
Perhaps due to the provocative title though, many people started entering despite the fact that he had just started off and had no fame to his name to speak of.
[Cave of Giants solo play? What kind of agro is this?]
[I've seen a lot of other Cave of Giants streams, but most of the time, seven top-tier rankers have a hellish time... the title of this room is just a clickbait, right?]
[I call BS on solo play. BJ Gale? I bet my right hand that this bitch is under level 20.]
[He's probably trying to get some agro and grab onto some of the viewers.]
[At least he's standing at the entrance of the Cave of Giants. He's not actually going in by himself, right?]
[Of course not. He's just putting on a show. We're not leaving due to curiosity, so he's keep waiting for more viewers and will disappoint all of us.]
[Gdi, I get that this is a clickbait but I can't get out. I'm waiting for 5 more minutes. If nothing happens by then, I'm leaving.]
...
...
Many things came up on chat, but Sanghyuk did not reply at all and just checked the number of viewers at the entrance of the Cave of Giants.
'104.... Well, I guess this is enough?'
It would be fine if he got enough people to rumor about him for today. It was too much of him to expect many users when he had just started.
'Then shall I start?'
*Ssss*
Sanghyuk shook his head lightly and walked forward. His appearance was changed to that of 'Gale's', and the Ten Millennia Goldbone Whip was in his bag. In today's stream, he was just going to us the Traveler's Treasure Sword.
[Huh? He's moving. What the hell? Is he actually going in alone?]
[Gdi, wimp. He's showing off until the end.]
[He leave soon.]
[He'll only pretend to go in or get back out immediately. Didn't I say I bet my right hand on it?]
[Anyway, why is he not speaking at all?]
[What is this? A mystery concept?]
...
...
The chatting log went up fast. However, Sanghyuk did not care what the viewers did.
He just had to shut them up with his skills anyway.
Sanghyuk, no, Gale quickly entered the 1st floor of the Cave of Giants and rushed towards an ogre.
Gale dodged the ogre's attack with a quick and simplified movement and swung his sword a few times. When he did, blood gushed out from various parts of the ogre's body.
[Whoa.... Ju, just what....]
[I, insane.]
[What the hell? What in the world is happening?]
[Whoaaaa!?]
...
...
The viewers who were only mocking him until now couldn't even speak properly.
And at that moment, Gale swung his sword three times again, and the three swings struck the ogre's chest, neck, and forehead respectively.
*P-p-poof!*
The ogre's head burst into bits like a ripe watermelon.
The chat instantly froze.
No one could say something random.
How many users in El could solo-kill an ogre in under 20 seconds? Four? Two? It was definitely countable with one hand.
And what was even more shocking was that Sanghyuk was maintaining his transformed state and he wasn't using his Ten Millennia Goldbone whip either.
All of his stats were lowered by 30%, and his main weapon was sealed.
Even in that state, Sanghyuk had killed an ogre in seconds.
'Good, I'll just go like this!'
The chat became quiet as though a storm had passed over it, but Sanghyuk didn't mind hat and kept focusing in conquering the Cave of Giants.
The 100 viewers that were frozen stiff... the Cave of Giants solo raid was going to become a legend among Pu TV viewers.
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