Episode 10. The Demon’s Secret Double Life (4)
“Hey, GoblinMom posted.”
“Oh, for real? What’s she saying today?”
On the
Netizens were writing and reading posts in real time.
Normally, the place was filled with everyday topics: the weather in the Kingdom of Caron, item auctions, high-level quest progress, and so on.
But starting a few days ago, one subject had occupied the board continuously.
It was the
The reward the Kingdom of Caron had placed on the quest
Among those countless posts, there were several that had made it to the best board with an unusually high number of upvotes.
The majority of the best posts were written by a user named
That’s right. It was the nickname of none other than Cheon Gyeong-u, the mother(?) of three goblins.
“Wow, who on earth is this person?”
“They must be a really skilled scout user… They know everything that others can’t figure out.”
The users had been blindly trusting his information over the past few days.
Because several board users had verified his posts through raids multiple times.
Accordingly, the number of users following GoblinMom had grown tremendously.
Now, even if he posted some nonsense like
“Oh, it went up today too!”
“Where? Is it GoblinMom’s post?”
That day, as always, GoblinMom’s post bringing information about the demon saw an explosion in views.
But today, something was slightly different.
“Huh? What’s this?”
Normally, GoblinMom mainly conveyed hopeful messages.
But today’s post was somehow different.
But that doesn’t seem to be the case. The demon is too powerful to catch. Everyone. Don’t receive meaningless death penalties anymore. I recommend you stop demon hunting…>
Starting with that post, GoblinMom wrote several posts in succession throughout the day. The theme of every post was
“Huh? Is this how it is?”
“Sigh… well, I heard a late-500s Knight ranking party got wiped recently too…”
“Yeah… well, it didn’t become a national public enemy for nothing…”
The board users soon began to take his words seriously and think them over.
Well, it wouldn’t have mattered even if they hadn’t taken them seriously. There were almost no people capable of going to kill Ted anyway.
However, to the users who had been holding onto the thought that while the demon was strong, it might somehow be killable thanks to all the posts so far, it was a bit of a shock.
But then, someone lodged an objection.
It was a user with the nickname
He had posted a long article, and the content was entirely a detailed dissection of GoblinMom’s posts.
However, Jjajangmyeonsilta’s post was instantly hit with numerous downvotes.
Because GoblinMom had quite a few devoted believers.
“Ugh, who is this punk to diss GoblinMom-nim?”
“Without any evidence… Does he want to see more people die to the demon for no reason?”
As the board users vented their dissatisfaction through malicious comments,
I’ve found this out. Please take a look at the evidence video I’ve prepared.>
A new post went up.
The users checked the video in that post.
“Huh?”
“What? The demon is helpless?”
The video began with a few Musketeers firing bullets at the demon in first-person.
For a short time, several Musketeers said nothing and simply fired bullets in silence.
Accordingly, the demon resisted but was helplessly pushed far back. Unlike the demon they had seen in other videos, it looked incredibly powerless.
The board users were puzzled but pinned that post to the best board anyway. Because it was that impactful.
“Is this… really that demon? Isn’t it CG?”
“I can’t believe it. A demon that can be caught with muskets…”
Inside the game, countless variables and affinity systems were intertwined.
So they couldn’t properly grasp the truth and were confused.
But… right then, a single person appeared to resolve their doubts.
The video seems to be real after all. I didn’t know, but it seems bullet resistance is weak… Still, being called a liar in my post doesn’t feel good. Anyway, from now on, I’ll write a correction post. (Omitted)
…Therefore, bullet-based classes seem very effective for hunting the demon. Musketeers, or Cannon Shooters… A
“Ahh. So that’s how it was.”
“Of course… There’s no such thing as a boss monster without a weakness.”
Until then,
Their versatility fell short of elemental mages or shamans, and their attack power wasn’t much different from other jobs.
But when GoblinMom posted a correction this time… a slight change occurred.
Several parties urgently began recruiting
That’s right.
An opportunity had come for Ted to catch land-dwelling fish that he had been unable to catch with a net until now.
How lucky was this?
“Hehe… It’s going well.”
But Ted watched the situation unfold with a smirk, as if thinking *of course it should*.
‘Those Chinese bastards who screwed me over deserve worse than death… Yep. That’s right.’
That’s right. The nickname
Yesterday, while watching the goblins, a rather good idea had suddenly come to Ted.
He immediately took out the camera he had used during his Paprika streamer days and turned it on.
Then, from the goblins’ perspective, he found an appropriate angle where the three goblins wouldn’t appear and began filming himself.
“Guys.”
Squeak!
“Shoot me. Now.”
Squeak!
Bang bang bang bang bang—!
The goblins, who had been smiling brightly, fired their muskets at Ted without a moment’s hesitation.
There was no doubt or resistance whatsoever.
Shoot? Sure! I’ll shoot!
…Because the goblins were still simple-loop NPCs, they didn’t resist Ted’s orders at all.
They even carried out the orders with bright expressions.
‘They really shoot right away when I tell them to shoot…’
Feeling somewhat betrayed, Ted hunched his body as he took the bullets. Their attacks were quite fierce.
By that time, the skill proficiency of
The current character’s level was 389, Ted.
Furthermore, as a demon, his attack power was nearly 56,000.
That was an attack power rivaling the official world rank 1 in numerical value.
Therefore, even the Silver Goblins with only 26% applied had over 14,500 attack power!
Though it went without saying, in the previous playthrough, Ted in the early 600s hadn’t even had 9,000 attack power. So the goblins possessed the attack power of a ranker in the mid-600s with enhanced items.
When the guys started firing at Ted with determination, Ted became a rag within minutes.
His arms, legs, torso, and head—all were grotesquely wounded by the bullets.
“Stop. Stop!”
Squeeeak!
At Ted’s words, the goblins ceased firing.
Despite that, they made expressions as if to say, “Didn’t I do well?” and demanded rewards from Ted. Ted obliged by patting them.
‘…Good grief, shameless bastards… Still, I really look miserable.’
With 6,800 HP. Ted, who had fallen to just before about 10%, was in a wretched state.
‘I beat hundreds of users alone during the day, but at night I’m getting thrashed by my own summons… Well, what can you do. Time to go wrap things up.
Cheon Gyeong-u, who had returned to reality, studied video editing for the first time in his life.
‘Ugh… I really don’t want to do this…’
Though Cheon Gyeong-u hated studying anything other than games, he had no choice. Because he had to cut out the parts where the goblins’ voices came out at the beginning and end.
The resulting video contained nothing but scenes of the demon Ted getting beaten up by them.
Soon, when Cheon Gyeong-u posted it on the
Users who had already harbored anxiety that it was impossible—who had been discouraged and resigned by the despairing posts of
But
And
…Truly… everyone had fallen for the scam that Cheon Gyeong-u had orchestrated.
‘If it’s this, Elder Cheon Gyeong-u will happily watch it in the distant future too. How admirable… Young Cheon Gyeong-u… hohoho.’
Recently addicted to acting, Cheon Gyeong-u had put on a one-man show by himself. He soon saved the video he had made into a folder and put on an extra-large diaper.
Because 24 hours wouldn’t be enough to catch the users who would soon rush in.
* * *
For the remaining two days, Ted succeeded in slaughtering users.
His character level reached 399.
After waiting blankly for a few hours, the energy of lower demon [Luxiot] completely drained from his body.
His height decreased, and his skin color returned to that of a human. The horns protruding like the antennae of a bug also withered and fell off with a clack.
Simultaneously, the demonic supernatural ability
‘The HP is a shame… Anyway, I really suffered for the past few days.’
Repeated battles and a performance giving his all. And at night, even board manipulation.
Ted had lived very hard, day and night, for several days.
The evidence of that effort appeared before his eyes.
< Ted > Level : 399 (1st Rebirth)
Class : Musketeer / Race : Human
Titles : Six-Star Seat, Righteous Thief, Survival Expert, Hero-Qualified, Heart Snatcher, Siege Slaughterer, One-Man Army
Achievements : Out-of-Nowhere Sniper, Righteous Thief, Survival Expert
Supernatural Ability : 1. Indomitable
— HP : 9,182 / MP : 3,724 —
Strength : 310 / Agility : 1,071
Vitality : 720 / Intelligence : 410
Sight : 441 / Presence : 387
Hearing : 300
—Detailed Status—
Attack Power : 46,395 / Defense : 2,527
His status window, splendidly embroidered.
‘The level 300
From level 300 onward, users gained a huge ability addition to one stat every 100 levels.
The level 300 Allocation was 20% bonus HP and 20% bonus MP.
‘When you hit the 400s, 20% of your highest stat is added, so… Agility will exceed 1,300. Good… Perfect. With this, I can meet Brahman in Tom Gray to make a skill set with
Solo hunting 600-level monsters!
In terms of overall combat power, Ted had now far surpassed the Ted of his previous playthrough. The character itself had become absurdly strong compared to his lacking skills.
‘Furthermore…’
Thanks to the power-leveling over the past few days, the Silver Goblins’ levels had nearly reached 250. By dividing and eating 10% of the EXP Ted gained from hunting, they had approached 248!
Accordingly, the skill set evolution gauge had risen to 99%.
‘If I clear the
Ted’s crime stat was around 130,000.
If caught, he’d have to spend 1,300 days behind iron bars.
‘Well, the thief I got as my dual class is a
Ted organized his objectives.
Clear the Joint Dungeon to get to the Pixie Kingdom. Evolve the goblins during that time.
In the Pixie Kingdom, head to Tom Gray and have the blacksmith god Brahman create a new D-rank skill set with
Then go to the Middle Zone to finish power-leveling.
‘Let’s go.’
With his thoughts organized, Ted moved his feet toward
A dark, unpleasant dungeon entrance.
But to Ted, it was a gate to heaven containing a hopeful future.