Chapter 16: Aftershock (1)

I was so startled that I dropped the chicken I had only taken one bite of onto the floor.

But that wasn’t what was important right now.

The video proudly displayed on the main page of iTube.

The video’s thumbnail featured a picture of me, smiling, holding a blood-soaked rapier.

And below that.

[Trending Now #1]
[A Day-1 Male F-rank Hunter’s Goblin Gate Strategy!]
[910,000 views]

Something that looked incredibly impressive was listed.

Trending video #1. 910,000 views.

I clicked on the video as if possessed.

The video started with Park Hyena giving an introduction.

Then I greet the camera, we form a party, and walk through a dark cave.

Park Hyena explains the characteristics and strategy of the Goblin Gate like a top instructor from Daechi-dong.

Tense BGM plays, and I announce the appearance of goblins.

Four goblins appeared in the darkness.

I aimed my rapier at the goblins and rushed out in an instant, stabbing the first goblin’s heart.

From that moment on, the camera’s focus was entirely on me.

After that, I stab the eye of a goblin that was off guard next to me.

I grab the corpse of the dead goblin, trip the third goblin, and then stab it.

I neutralize the fourth goblin that attacked from behind and stab it again.

The battle scene passed in an instant.

After that, the video showed Park Hyena reacting in surprise at the unexpected performance, me killing the goblins that appeared again.

And the scene where I catch the gate boss, the Goblin Mage, and the scene where I clean up after the gate is cleared.

Only appropriate BGM, subtitles, and cut editing were added through editing.

The overall content of the video was exactly what I experienced in the Goblin Gate.

“It’s fun, but…”

Objectively, it was a fun enough video.

But I felt like something was missing while watching the video.

And I quickly realized what that missing thing was.

‘Image quality and aesthetics’

I had seen the video Yu Ayeon filmed using her skill.

Yu Ayeon created a much cleaner video without any special editing, through very clear image quality, overwhelming immersion, and various and colorful productions from multiple viewpoints.

On the other hand, the camera that can be used inside the gate has a maximum resolution of only 360P.

In addition, since the cameraman had to hold the camera himself, there was a big difference in the point of view.

There was a large, unbridgeable gap from the original footage of the video.

I watched the whole video and looked down at the comment section.

• Came here after seeing the thumbnail^^.

• Even though he hasn’t awakened, his physical ability seems to be at the top of E-rank. If he awakens a physical skill, he’ll be flying.

• Wait… Is it possible for an F-rank to have such movement? How much do you have to train your body to be like that? I’m a man too, but I really respect you.Whoa….

• Wow… The handsomeness breaks through the resolution… Why can’t we use 4K cameras in gates!!

• Isn’t he just an F-rank hunter? Why is he being so praised? It looks like he had plastic surgery, and the blurred quality barely hides it. He probably looks like a plastic surgery monster in real life.
  ㄴ Memi… Are you… there…?

• Seriously, stop with the fabrications, LOL. Do you really think it’s believable that a 1st-day F-rank hunter, a man at that, wouldn’t be nervous in front of goblins~?

There were good comments, and there were also suspiciously angry comments.

But the comments that were favorable to me were overwhelmingly many, so the malicious comments were quickly buried by other comments and disappeared somewhere far away.

One thing I’m a little disappointed about while looking at the comments is that everyone is only looking at my face.

I understand that their gaze is only on my face.

But I wished they would also recognize the awesome rapier swordsmanship created by Anastasia.

It seems that hunters are few in number, and the majority of iTube viewers are ordinary people, so there are almost no people who recognize it.

Ah, but this is also my fault for not 100% reproducing Anastasia’s swordsmanship.

I haven’t held a rapier since Anastasia died.

The main weapon I used after that was a greatsword.

Even if my body remembers, there was bound to be a gap in my memory.

‘It’s a shame.’

I turned off the video and focused on eating again.

Ah right. Chicken.

I dropped a piece of chicken on the floor earlier.

It was annoying to bend down to pick it up, so I put it in my inventory and took it out again, holding the chicken in my hand.

“Ow, hot!”

What is it? Why is it so hot?

I looked at the piece of chicken I took out of the inventory.

Fried chicken with a bite mark.

The chicken that was moderately cooled was now as hot as freshly fried chicken.

Could it be that keeping things in the inventory in their optimal state meant this?

With a trembling heart, I put the box containing the fried chicken into the inventory and took it out.

The box remains unchanged. The important thing is the contents.

The chicken, emitting steam as if it had just been fried, was there.

Crazy.

The inventory was indeed an overpowered ability.

Thinking back, I should have realized it when I drank the cool Dr. Pepper I took out of the inventory.

‘Does this function also have an on/off?’

With that thought in mind, I put the Ppuring Ppuring Ppuriring seasoned chicken into the inventory and took it out.

‘Lukewarm’

The optimal state maintenance function could be turned on and off.

‘Amazing.’

I turned the optimal state maintenance function back on and warmed up the Ppuring Ppuring Ppuriring chicken.

I tore off the chicken that was emitting hot steam.

It was much crispier, hotter, and juicier than the chicken I ate a little while ago.

The inventory was indeed an overpowered ability with unparalleled convenience.

Inventory is invincible.

The goddess who gave me the inventory as a reward is a ‘god’.

After I finished eating like a dog, I started the mana cultivation method before going to bed.

This kind of training doesn’t work if you do it intensely for one day.

You have to do it consistently every day for the real effect to appear.

What I realized while practicing the cultivation method was that this world had a thicker mana in the air than Grandia.

To the point where I felt it was a little strange.

But it wasn’t something to worry about right away, and at my current level, it was more of a positive thing.

I take in mana through breathing.

The turbid mana circulates through the bloodstream, is purified, and the refined mana is accumulated in the core.

I repeated the series of actions until the surrounding mana became thin.

Certainly, the efficiency of the cultivation method was much better than in Grandia, probably because the mana in the air was thicker.

The core grew to almost half its original size.

The amount of mana I could use increased by almost half.

The mana was thicker, but also, the level of accumulated skill was different from when I first cultivated the core in Grandia, so the core grew much faster.

Still, it’s still the size of a bean.

“Phew…”

I had been concentrating on the cultivation method for quite a long time, and it was already well past midnight.

My whole body was soaked in sweat, and I felt sticky and wanted to wash up right away, but my tired body didn’t even think of moving.

This is because the cultivation method consumes a considerable amount of stamina.

If I were to compare the mana cultivation method to a game, it would be an act of increasing the maximum MP at the cost of current HP.

“Ugh…”

In the end, I gave up on showering and lay down on the bed.

Lying down, various distracting thoughts came to mind.

“By the way, what happened to the video uploaded to iTube?”

When I was in the hospital, I suggested to Yu Ayeon that we upload the video of the battle with the Ogre to iTube.

Yu Ayeon asked me if it would be okay, but I said it didn’t matter.

To be honest, I suggested it lightly without much thought.

Yu Ayeon and I created a business account together and uploaded the video to iTube.

It’s been quite a while since I uploaded the video when I left the hospital.

“Well, nothing will happen.”

I was too tired, both physically and mentally, to get up again and check the video.

I fell asleep as if I had fainted.

‘Gallery’, the largest community in Korea that guarantees 100% anonymity.

There were two particularly popular topics in this place where various people talked about various topics.

They were hunters and virtual reality games.

Hunter Gallery, where people talk about hunters.

Virtual Reality Game Gallery, where people talk about virtual reality games.

These two galleries were always vying for the top two spots in the popular gallery rankings.

But recently, the story was different.

The Hunter Gallery had been maintaining a solid first place for two days.

This was because huge topics that would set the gallery on fire even if they came only once a week were popping up one after another.

The day before yesterday morning, a fluid user posted on the Hunter Gallery.

[Recent F-rank Male Hunter Level…]

(GIF of Han Suhyeon cutting down 4 goblins in 20 seconds)
(GIF of the gate boss Goblin Mage’s head being split in two by the rapier thrown by Han Suhyeon as soon as it appears)
(Source: Park Hyena YouTube)

An F-rank male hunter who hasn’t even awakened solos a Goblin Gate Haha

The F-rank fem-hunters who barely cleared a Goblin Gate with a 6-person party while trembling are f*cked.  Hahaha..

• ? He hasn’t awakened? But how is that movement possible? And he’s a man?
  ㄴ I couldn’t believe it either, so I looked through the association’s Awakened list, but that person isn’t registered. He seems to be a real non-Awakened?

• Ugh, fck, stop with the fabrications Haha. I see it’s Park Hyena’s YouTube. That btch is past her prime now.
  ㄴ But you can’t say it’s a fabrication? Park Hyena is a close-range skill Awakened, so she can’t do anything in that situation.
  ㄴ Ah, I don’t know, they probably edited it with motion capture or something. Anyway, it’s a fabrication.
  ㄴ You were a fabrication parrot, you b*tch.

• A 1st-day F-rank hunter kills a goblin in one hit? With a rapier? Do you think a fcking rapier is a joke? Do you think hunters are a joke, no matter how F-rank they are? You btch, stop fabricating things. I thought Park Hyena was getting better these days, but she’s going downhill like this.

• Making a fuss over a mere goblin ,lol
  ㄴ Isn’t it amazing if a non-Awakened solos a Goblin Gate?
  ㄴ Yeah~ But people who can’t awaken will never be able to~ Ordinary people will never be able to cross the E-rank wall~ We’ll live comfortably while running gates and receiving pensions~
  ㄴ Are you E-rank? Anyway, E-rank trash have a real inferiority complex LOL.

• Wow, but he’s really handsome. He’s on the level of a visual member of a boy group.
  ㄴ But you have to consider the appearance debuff of the gate. When you enter the gate, the camera becomes garbage, so even handsome people’s faces get blurred.
  ㄴ But even if the quality is garbage, that person looks handsome.
  ㄴ That means he’s that handsome in real life. For real, LOL.

• I think I’ve seen that person somewhere before. I’m not sure because the quality is bad, but I think he was a porter.
  ㄴ A man being a porter…? Get a grip, you btch!!!
  ㄴ No, really. He’s probably pretty seasoned? I saw him a long time ago. 4 or 5 years ago. I remember him because he was a very handsome and cute little boy.
  ㄴ …? Little boy…? You, you crazy btch…?
  ㄴ No, I said 4 or 5 years ago, fck. No. No! Fck, no!!!!!!!!
  ㄴ I think I saw him at an F-rank gate a while ago too? He was a man, but he was doing his job as a porter diligently. Honestly, I thought it was an urban legend until I saw it myself.
  ㄴ Really? How was it?
  ㄴ I barely worked up the courage to ask him to go to the after-party, but he said he had to go buy cola. There’s cola at the after-party too, fck…
  ㄴ You btch.  LOLLLLL..A btch who is lower level than cola LOL
  ㄴ Yeah~ You btches, stop talking nonsense~ Do you think there’s a super pretty boy porter and hunter in real life? Anyway, fem-hunters’ fantasies.Lol.
  ㄴ Wasn’t a male porter an urban legend from a long time ago? There are still people who believe it.

The gallery was on fire with all sorts of people flocking to the topic of the suspiciously skilled F-rank male hunter.

But the people who stay in the Hunter Gallery from the morning, when ordinary people all start working or going to work, are highly likely to be insane.

And most of them were severely addicted to the gallery, feeling a sense of belonging to the Hunter Gallery.

As public opinion began to form to condemn him, they began to express their disgusting malice behind anonymity.

iTube and Gallery were very different in nature.

On iTube, if you write a malicious comment, you can be punished legally, so even if it’s a malicious comment, the level is not that intense.

But the story was different in the Gallery, which guaranteed 100% anonymity.

All sorts of people came to bite, tear, chew, taste, and enjoy Han Suhyeon.

Of course, there were also people who mediated the malicious people and shielded Han Suhyeon in the video.

But now it’s morning.

It was a time when there were far more vicious people who beat you to death with shields.

Disparagement and high-level s*xual jokes about Han Suhyeon were basic.

Countless posts that were hard to even put into words were uploaded.

Park Hyena, who uploaded his video, was also bitten and torn apart as a fabrication YouTuber.

But from some point, without even them noticing.

The public opinion that had been denouncing him began to completely reverse.

[I’m in Incheon right now, and there’s a B-rank gate backflow, we’re f*cked…wow]

It also started with a post by a fluid user.