Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Crack—!

The cabin’s wooden roof collapsed, and the hunch-backed giant who’d been stomping on the dwelling turned his head.

Fwoosh—

Breath as hot as lava leaked through his slightly misaligned teeth. He was so huge that he towered over the rooftops, and his overwhelming presence and height of over 10 meters enveloped the village.

“Paidal...” The giant’s voice resonated. Many giants, much smaller than him, were destroying the village.

BOOM, crash—!

“Guoo-!” Around a thousand giants were rampaging through the village in anger over the death of their leader, seeking revenge on the humans. They destroyed everything they could and killed everyone in the village.

The unusually tall giant stood and watched it all. “My... son...” He’d woken from a long sleep due to the grief and anger over the loss of his son. The giant slowly moved forward. Though his steps were slow, each stride was long.

BOOM, BOOM—

A soldier fell back in fear when he saw the giant approaching. “Ah... aah...”

BZZ, BZZT—!

A faint spark of lightning spread in the giant’s eyes. He approached the human and muttered, “I will soothe your soul with humanity’s blood.”

THUD—

The fallen soldier made eye contact with the giant, who was reaching toward him. The giant’s palm blocked the sun. As soon as he realized what was about to happen, the man screamed out in terror. “AAAHHH!”

Crash—!

The giants continued forward on their rampage, meticulously destroying the village as they went.

* * *

The scene in front of Su-hyeok’s eyes dissipated like smoke. Having watched it from a human’s perspective, he muttered in admiration and found himself on top of a horse when his vision returned.

– Woah...

– Incredible.

– It was really big!

– Was that a real giant?

The chat room flooded as soon as the cutscene ended.

The giant had seemed tall enough to reach the sky and showed overwhelming strength, allowing him to destroy buildings with only a single punch or stomp. Strength alone couldn’t be used to judge overall power, but it was still incredible that such a large monster was the boss.

‘How does this even make sense?’ Even Su-hyeok frowned. During the 5th stage’s ‘Survival’ trial, he’d killed the giants’ leader. Even before getting the Lightning skill, he’d made it through their encirclement to kill his target.

“Are they telling me to die?” Things were different, though. No matter how he looked at it, it seemed hopeless.

– Lol.

– The game is telling him to die.

– To be honest, that boss makes no sense.

– The trial: That’s why you should have taken things easy ^o^

None of the viewers expected him to be able to kill the giant that’d appeared in the cutscene. It was only natural. Even Su-hyeok had trouble estimating how tall it was, so there was no way the viewers would be able to tell its size.

‘It isn’t just about how big the giant is.’ Su-hyeok recalled the faint lightning in the giant’s eyes at the last moment. ‘Maybe that guy also...’ Su-hyeok fell into thought.

He must have been shown that cutscene for a reason.

The knights and soldiers were gathered around him in the village. They were also there to fight the giants. At least he wouldn’t be facing them alone. He must’ve been shown the cutscene so that he had time to prepare in advance.

“It will take a few more days for the giants to get here,” he said.

Before he left the village, Felius approached Su-hyeok with a request. “If you can’t find the lightning strand, don’t come back. Without it, it will be impossible to kill him.”

Was it a pre-set warning from the stage itself?

‘No matter how much I think about it, there’s no way I could kill it right now.’ As he sat on the galloping horse, he thought of possible ways to fight the giant. ‘In the end, this trial is the key...’

He sighed. “Why did a guy like that appear?”

– I wonder why?

‘Nice.’

“Everyone...” Su-hyeok spoke to every viewer who’d posted a mission. “Thank you in advance for your support.” As always, he was full of confidence.

None of the viewers were annoyed, though. A mission was meant to both support and be a sort of bet, especially in the case of challenging missions like the ones Su-hyeok received.

Since those who supported missions with points enjoyed such gambles, they were all enthusiastic about Su-hyeok’s bold responses.

Of course, both those who’d made the bets and Su-hyeok, who’d accepted them, were confident of their victory.

“Hihing—!” The horse neighed and stopped after he pulled the reins.

Getting off the horse, Su-hyeok looked at his destination—a huge mountain reaching into the sky. That was where the 6th stage, ‘Legend’, would take place.

“The strand of lightning is something that only appears in legends. Whether it’s a special power, an object, or a person... we don’t know anything. We also don’t know how to obtain it. All we know is the location of the mountain and the legend.”

The story was quite barebones—they didn’t know what the strand was or how to get it. None of that was relevant for Su-hyeok, though.

“What’s certain is that, in the past, someone who handled the Lightning skill wiped the giants out.”

Su-hyeok recalled the legend he’d learned. He’d thought he knew more about the Lightning stat than anyone else due to how much longer and better he’d used it than others, but he didn’t know much about where it came from or who’d used it before.

‘So there’s a lightning strand here, right?’ If that were true, it would probably be the key to dealing with the giant he’d seen in the cutscene.

Su-hyeok slowly approached the huge, rocky mountain before him. It didn’t have any sort of entrance. Even though it was probably over a thousand meters tall, there didn’t seem to be anything else about it that was special.

He looked around the mountain for a while. No matter how much he searched, he couldn’t seem to find anything out of the ordinary.

“What’s this?”

– Ta-da! It was a prank!

– What is he supposed to do here?

-└ Who knows?

– Nobodies: Never mind.

There had to be something there. He seriously believed there was no trial in the world that couldn’t be passed. That being the case, there had to be something to help him clear the stage.

‘This is the route I changed to after I killed the giants’ leader. That means...’ After pondering for a moment, Su-hyeok moved as if he had a destination in mind.

* * *

Un-hyang immediately called John Tail after securing her accommodation. “Team Leader! I succeeded with the contract!” It was part of her job to contact him after securing the contract, after all.

John Tail smiled and congratulated her. “Finally, you’re being useful, Un-hyang!”

‘Finally being useful?’ Un-hyang looked puzzled and wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or not.

“Yesterday, I met Hawk Eye. As for what we discussed...”

Thud—

Since she’d done her job and reported, she cut the call. John Tail sent a text message right away, but she had something more urgent.

“I need to watch the stream~” She lay on the bed and turned on Su-hyeok’s stream, feeling a sense of urgency with the time she’d lost due to having to buy the room and report to her team leader.

“So they were nobodies...” It all started when Felius became ‘Nobodies’.

‘I did well in telling him about the mic channel.’ Making such comments was something streamers could do to add fun to their streams.

Until then, Su-hyeok had been too focused on the trial. After all, what he said in response to the viewers back then was also heard by the characters in the trial. Thanks to the private channel, that inconvenience was gone.

Laughter burst from all around, followed by scenes of knights being suspicious of Su-hyeok. “It seems they don’t believe I killed the boss. No, maybe they don’t want to believe it?”

He didn’t seem upset. Instead... “They’re quite arrogant.” He conveyed his honest feelings to the viewers.

“Kyaa!” she exclaimed. Yes, that confidence and the skills and achievements to back it up were what Lee Su-hyeok 2.0 was all about.

She found herself so immersed in the stream that time flew by. Eventually, Su-hyeok began riding a horse to a mountain that was a bit away from the village.

Once he arrived...

“What’s this?” Su-hyeok couldn’t find anything.

“Yes, I wonder what’s going on...” Un-hyang muttered. For a while, the chat was filled with comments that teased Su-hyeok for his futile effort.

Su-hyeok stood still for a while, as if he couldn’t understand what to do. Suddenly...

“Wh-what?” Un-hyang pushed herself upward in surprise. “Wh-what is he doing?”

____