┖ Hey, Mister MS? Pick up the camera. ㅠ
┖ Don't forget about us! Please!
┖ I wanna see what's inside, too! +.+
Choi Kahng-Sik decided to listen to the overwhelming demands of his precious audience members. He picked up the camera he left on the ground and placed it on his left shoulder.
'No matter how curious I am, I can't forget my main job, no?'
It had been only a few days ago; the MS Cameraman took down an Any-Won in the middle of the city and by doing so, stole away many of the MS Hahn Joh-Seop's viewers in the process. And now, his soaring audience numbers were once more getting ready to rewrite the history books.
This time, he was even stealing away the viewers from a famous MS, no less...
In one word, jackpot!!!!
….As long as he could safely return to Seoul, that was.
"Keuh.... Man, it stinks....."
Using his right hand and his foot as a lever, Choi Kahng-Sik pried the giant bovine monster's snout open while enduring the foul stench.
With that, the identity of the buried object gleaming inside became quite clear for all to see.
The youth's eyes naturally widened in surprise.
"That is....."
Never mind having a proper grip, all he could see was a plain steel pipe with a flat metal plate shaped like a fan attached to its end.
It was a rather oddly familiar shape to him.
┖ ….It's a shovel.
┖ It is a nice shovel. ㅇㅅㅇ ;;;
┖ I was expecting a legendary sword, though. ㅠ.ㅜ
┖ Ng, sure. You can go away now. That's a shovel. ㅋㅋ
┖ Wait, did the monster eat a miner or something?
'What the heck... Could this be? This is the 'donation'?'
He was actually expecting fabulous fortune in gold and jewels since the attractive gleam could be spotted from afar. However, the reality was that... it was just a steel shovel.
No matter how many times he looked, it was just your average shovel.
Since he was expecting something big, Choi Kahng-Sik was understandably left speechless.
[A certain god is unhappy with your reaction.]
'….No, wait. It's still something given to me by a god.'
So, he definitely wouldn't judge a book by its cover!
Hoping that there was no way such an item would be some ordinary junk, Choi Kahng-Sik expectantly reached out. He then tugged and pulled the shovel out of the foul-smelling monster's mouth...
"Euhk?!"
The dang thing was insanely heavy!
He could lift the camera, which looked much heavier than this unidentified shovel, with no problem. Yet, he had to seriously put his back into it if he wanted to lift this shovel up!
'Maybe, it's not a shovel, but a dumbbell?'
This had to be something only found inside a gym.
[A certain god is laughing his head off.]
[Another god is looking at you, the weakling, with pitying eyes.]
'What the hell?! These guys...!'
Choi Kahng-Sik put more strength in his arms and his hands. Well, he was still in the middle of the stream; he couldn't show his weak side and complain to the viewers watching at home that the shovel was much heavier than it looked.
His pride as a man was at stake here!
He hadn't broke a sweat while hunting monsters until now, yet his back was soaking wet with perspiration just from trying to lift this shovel up.
He still forced a smile on his face, though.
"Ahaha! Well, we aren't playing a video game, so there's no way I'd get an incredible loot just because I killed a monster, right? Well, now. I will go and kill the next Buff-Palrog right away. The more I kill, the easier the hunt will get for our MSes over there."
….Because, the buffs on that giant Buff-Palrog would be reduced, that was why. Actually, that giant body buffed up by its herd mates had shrunken just a little bit.
Buzzzzz!!
Kaboom!!
Unfortunately, the monster's superiority hadn't really changed.
Meanwhile, the two Monster Streamers and the staff members were driving around the Gimpo Airport's landing strips by using the cars they drove to get here, as they desperately waited for the reinforcements to arrive.
That was how powerful that Buff-Palrog had become after it got buffed up to the nth degree.
Shouldn't they escape to Seoul?
If they ran to Seoul, a city full of unarmed and powerless civilians, with a powerful and enraged monster following closely behind, it'd be supremely difficult even for a famous MS to escape the ensuing punishment.
That was why they couldn't run away.
"I'm pretty sure that the reinforcements will arrive quite a while later....."
Choi Kahng-Sik calmly assessed the current situation.
This is the cutthroat world of Monster Streamers.
The more famous a Monster Streamer happened to be, the more complicated his or her business interests would be. Let's not forget, fame also brought along countless enemies and competitors.
To them, Kim Soh-Yun was a thorn in their sides who stole away 'their' viewers. If their broadcasts happened to overlap with hers, then their fate was simply written in stone.
Surely, her competitors would prefer to see her 'disappear' today...
"Munch, munch...."
Not really caring whether its colleagues were getting killed or not, this lone Buff-Palrog was leisurely munching on grass. It probably believed that its job was over after buffing its kin.
Of course, if it was this guy that received the buff, it'd definitely fight tooth and nail.
'Seriously, this d*mn monster is way too relaxed.'
Looking at how the monster was relaxedly grazing on the grass with absolutely no hint of worry nor fear, Choi Kahng-Sik couldn't help but feel really ticked off. It felt like he was facing a murderer who wore the mask of a hypocrite.
Choi Kahng-Sik sneaked closer and closer to his next target.
'It's basic strategy to cut off the flow of the enemy's supply line.'
He gently put the camera down and waited for the Buff-Palrog to lower its head.
He decided to use the shovel that a god so kindly donated to him, rather than the using the edges of the aeroplane door like a caveman as he did before.
The front of the shovel was tapered sharply to help dig up soil much easier. And quite importantly, the stupid thing was hideously heavy as well.
'Since it's so d*mn heavy, I don't think I can hit the monster twice in a row....'
For a shovel to be heavier than an aeroplane door...
What a ridiculous shovel this was.
Stab!!
….And sure enough, its performance was just as ridiculous, too.
As if it was digging into a sandbag, the shovel easily dug past the Buff-Palrog's thick skin and its hard cranium.
Not only that, even the Core that was hidden in the forehead was reached in one blow, too!
"M, mooo...?"
The monster leaked out a dumb sounding cry as it keeled over.
When viewed from the distance, it was kinda like a small garden trowel sticking out from the forehead of a water buffalo.
┖ Hul. Mister MS is shovelling. ㅎ
┖ ㅇㅇ He's really shovelling.
┖ Is this MS for real? ㅋㅋㅋ
┖ The question of the legendary sword, 1 defeat. OTL
Even Choi Kahng-Sik was taken by surprise.
'What the hell is this?'
Since this was pretty much an assassination, he tried not to make any noise whatsoever, but still, he put everything behind that blow in order to finish the monster in one go.
That proved to be a roaring success!
'Very good. Very good that it's working out fine, but...'
He was somewhat weirded out because it felt like the situation was being resolved far too smoothly.
[A certain god is smiling triumphantly.]
[A certain impatient god is snorting derisively.]
[Another god is giving you two thumbs-up.]
[Number of viewers: 6]
However, he obviously couldn't display a stupid look on his face during the broadcast. He was well aware of the possibility that, if he tried to offer up any unnecessary excuses now, people would only get more suspicious of him instead.
So, he must remain straightforward 'till the end!!
"Ahaha! Should I call this a god's arrangement? Well, I know how to shovel a bit, you see."
The number of times he had to shovel could be counted in one hand; it was that small. And most of those times would have been him digging shallow trenches around the tent whenever he had to camp outdoors.
'Surely, there shouldn't be a diligent viewer who'd go out of his way to investigate my past, right?'
Well, it wasn't as he cared if such a thing happened, though.
It'd be impossible to find anything of note on people like him who had lost just about everything when the five-star ranked monster, Bul-Raid, attacked Seoul.
"Well, from here onwards, I shall repeat the hunts in the same manner, but at a quicker speed."
Just as he confidently declared to the camera, Choi Kahng-Sik indeed increased the speed of his hunt.
Not once did he run into a mishap of any kind during this brave fight.
┖ Just what am I witnessing right now?
┖ I'm beginning to pity the Buff-Palrogs. ;;;;
┖ There's a shovel in my house too, but why.... ㅠ
He hung the camera on his neck and held the aeroplane door in his left hand like a shield. And in his right hand, the mysterious shovel taking up space as if it magnificently shone under the sunlight!
Stab!
He then proceeded to crack the heads of the lazily-grazing bovine monsters, one at a time.
"Mooh?!"
"Mooo-urhk?!"
One blow per monster; no exceptions!!
These Buff-Palrogs were no different from your regular water buffalos without buffs reinforcing them; they all died without realising what the heck was going on here.
Soon, the number of individuals in the herd visibly decreased.
Choi Kahng-Sik massaged his stiff shoulders as he spoke to the camera.
"Since I took care of this many, even these idiotic monsters must've realised something's off by now. They must think that leaving themselves defenceless by focusing the buffs only on one individual would lead to them all getting killed. We've enjoyed a few easy kills until now, but I fear, it's only going to get harder from here on."
The massive hulking size of the Buff-Palrog that had been doggedly chasing after MS Kim Soh-Yun and Hahn Joh-Seop suddenly began shrinking down quite rapidly.
However, at the same time, the rest of the surviving Buff-Palrogs in the herd undergone changes.
Their near-perfect white fur changed colour after receiving a buff. They were in the shades of a rainbow - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. And finally, the black colour that symbolized the physical size buff.
By receiving more than 2 buffs, one of these monsters would become a rather colourful rainbow cow.
'There are quite a few yellow-coloured ones, huh.'
The yellow fur signified the increase in their electrical resistance. More than likely, these Buff-Palrogs were distributing this buff amongst themselves because they were wary of Hahn Joh-Seop's lightning strikes.
Choi Kahng-Sik deeply smirked.
Stab!!
He kept on cracking the heads of Buff-Palrogs with yellow fur. They might have gotten tougher through the buff, but nothing's changed for him.
Choi Kahng-Sik put the shovel down for a bit and shrugged his shoulders.
"Looks like I was worried about nothing."
He couldn't spot a single orange among the monsters, a colour that signified the increase in their physical defence. Meaning, these monsters hadn't discovered him yet and therefore, they were ill-prepared for his sneaky assassination antics.
The viewers, meanwhile, sounded rather dispirited by what they were seeing at the moment.
┖ The broadcast from the guys next door is complete chaos. I saw it with my own eyes. ^^
┖ They both are broadcasting live, and they are in the same Gimpo Airport, but... ㅇㅅㅇ?
┖ What is this insurmountable difference between the two? ;;;;
MS Kim Soh-Yun, Hahn Joh-Seop, and her staff members were now being chased by more than a few Buff-Palrogs from the herd and were fighting desperately for their survival over on that side. Never mind the massive financial cost, they had suffered several casualties, as well.
However, Choi Kahng-Sik's world was calm and stress-free, relatively speaking, as if he was in another world altogether.
Stab!
"Moooh?!"
Before long, dozens and dozens of Buff-Palrogs were assassinated by one sneaky human being.
Thud!
And with that, the last stray monster roaming on the perimeter of the main herd was dead.
Choi Kahng-Sik left the shovel in the monster's forehead for a second or two so he could wipe the sweat off his brows. He gave off an aura of a young entrepreneur moving to a rural area to start a farming life or some such...
"Shoveling is surprisingly fulfilling, I see."
His appearance, framed by the red sunset behind his back, looked quite cool, actually.
┖ How many did he kill all by himself? @[email protected]
┖ It's 2 to 1 fight, and he still won. ㅋㅋㅋ
┖ My girl is telling me to be more like this MS. What should I do? ㅠㅠ
┖ Break up with her.
┖ Break up wi... Jjijippon! >0< (TL note at the end)
┖ Yo, do me. ㅗ^^ㅗ
'….And the audience response is pretty good, too. Ahh! They are finally here!'
He could see the reinforcements rushing towards this place from afar while raising a thick dust cloud behind them. It seemed that they only departed from Seoul after enjoying a leisurely dinner.
Out from the open windows of trucks and cars, Hunters extended their arms out.
With that, a spectacular show of various superpowers unfolded before his eyes.
Kwaboom!!
Kablooey!!
The herd of the Buff-Palrogs were killed off in the blink of an eye as the bombardment of the Espers commenced in unison.
If these Buff-Palrogs had raised all of their resistances by exchanging buffs between themselves from the beginning, they wouldn't have been wiped out so easily like this.
In the end, the hunt came to a disappointing end.
Choi Kahng-Sik stared at the falling sun and muttered to himself.
"I'll buy a house with the money I got this time..."
[A certain god is worried about you.]
[A certain impatient god is looking for fresh popcorn.]
[Another god's hands are soaked in sweat.]
'Why are they acting like that, out of the blue?'
This hunt was entering its final stages. The one-star monsters that resembled water buffalos lost their numerical advantage and fell into confusion, only for every last one of them to die rather unceremoniously.
So, the only thing remaining was to return to Seoul, and it'd be over!
The remains of the monsters, as well as the dead and wounded humans, would be taken care of by those guys here to reinforce Kim Soh-Yun. The only things Choi Kahng-Sik had to deal with now, would be the increased number of his viewers and the waiting reporters back in the city.
That was why he couldn't understand those messages from the gods.
'No, wait a minute. Surely, you don't mean....?'
Didn't he experience something similar to this not too long ago?
"Is it happening again?"
*SFX for a dozen plus metallic noises. Way too many, so not gonna TL them.*
It was then, he heard countless creepy metallic noises.
Everything happened in an instant.
Bang!! Pow!! Screech!! Kwaboom!!
The vehicles carrying the reinforcement suddenly got chopped into dozens of pieces - along with every single Hunter riding in them. They couldn't even issue a scream before perishing in the most gruesome fashion.
And the reason for that?
'The flying blades.....?!'
Dozens of blades were flying around in the sky before disappearing like a mirage. With the exception of a lone blade, that was.
Choi Kahng-Sik could well remember a scene remarkably similar to this one.
How could he forget the sights from that day?
How could he forget the appearance of his sworn mortal enemy?
"Even if I told you that I'm not ready, I guess you won't wait for me, right?"
"...."
A monster with hands and feet shaped like blades laughed back at him in silence.
The youth reciprocated that smile.
"Hi, Thumbelinnim? Thanks to the unexpected occurrence during this broadcast, I fear that you may have to retrieve your prize personally from this place a bit later on. Sorry."
[A certain impatient god is saying goodbye.]
[A certain god is praying for your soul's safe journey.]
'Hey, you. I'm not dead yet.'
< Chapter 12: A Star (4) > Fin.
(TL: Ok, so. This "Jjijippon" thing is a bit weird one to explain. Basically, if you and someone else end up saying the exact same thing almost at the same time, one of you must say this word out loud and then proceed to, uh, twist the nipples of the other person. Or you can poke them on the cheek. Either way works fine, apparently. I'm not making this stuff up. Hence, the commenter below was saying "do me" with an "emoji" that kinda looks like, you know....) (ED: A western equivalent is the children's game, 'Jinx'. The punishment varies, though.)