Chapter 78
Bald Suhyuk.
He first started streaming about five years ago. With his inherent cheerfulness, he began his stream by cosplaying Lee Suhyuk using a mask.
A physical appearance that didn’t match the mask at all and his poor gaming skills led to hilarious moments. He was truly a natural-born streamer.
“A major streamer indeed. At his peak, over 100,000 viewers would watch his streams.”
Nonetheless.
Un Hyang seemed reluctant about the idea of collaborating with him.
“But still… it’s a bit…”
“Why is that?”
Having finished his meal, Suhyuk set down his utensils. At this point, he was genuinely curious.
Why was everyone so hesitant about collaborating with Bald Suhyuk?
If even Un Hyang, who wasn’t a regular viewer, was advising against it, there seemed to be a valid reason.
“Bald Suhyuk has a nickname.”
“A nickname?”
“King of Destruction.”
A question mark popped up in Suhyuk’s mind.
King of Destruction?
The nickname seemed childish, but more importantly, it didn’t fit Bald Suhyuk at all.
“He didn’t seem like someone who’d earn such a grandiose title.”
“He is an incredible person, in many ways.”
“In many ways?”
“There have been over twenty streamers who’ve collaborated with him. But…”
Un Hyang let out a deep sigh.
“They all failed.”
“Failed? The collaboration?”
“No, the streamers themselves.”
It was a statement hard to comprehend. Not just the collaboration failing, but the streamers themselves failing?
What on earth did that mean?
“The collaborations themselves generally went well. Bald Suhyuk is immensely popular, and the streamers he collaborates with are quite popular too.”
“Then what is the problem?”
“There is no problem. For Bald Suhyuk, that is.”
Finding it hard to explain, Un Hyang furrowed his brows even as he took another bite of something sweet.
“It’s like a kind of jinx. A very strong one.”
“A jinx…”
“Yes. Most of the issues were with the streamers he collaborated with. Relationship problems, major accidents during streams, or their streams slowly declining.”
The reasons were varied.
“Not a single one of them could be blamed on Bald Suhyuk directly, but this much is clear: any streamer who collaborates with Bald Suhyuk ends up failing.”
“So the nickname ‘King of Destruction’?”
“Yes. It’s called that because any streamer who collaborates with him ends up destroyed.”
With that explanation, Suhyuk recalled the viewers’ reactions.
‘Now it makes sense.’
Collaborating with Bald Suhyuk, the King of Destruction. To the viewers, it must’ve felt like watching a moth flying into a flame, not knowing if it was fire or water.
However, rather than deter him, this information only sparked Suhyuk’s interest further.
“There’s definitely no issue with Bald Suhyuk himself, right?”
“That is… correct?”
Bald Suhyuk was a streamer under Balhae Entertainment. As a streamer from the same company, Un Hyang could confidently say that Bald Suhyuk’s nickname ‘King of Destruction’ was not his fault.
It was just a cruel twist of fate.
“Then that’s settled.”
With that response, Suhyuk made his decision.
“Let’s do the collaboration.”
“What?”
Un Hyang looked surprised. He had suggested against the collaboration, but Suhyuk reacted in the opposite way. Initially, it seemed like Suhyuk didn’t mind either way whether they collaborated or not.
But now he was showing a firm determination to collaborate.
“But Bald Suhyuk doesn’t just collaborate with anyone.”
“Is it still not enough?”
“Well… to be honest, I think you might be enough, Suhyuk-nim. But…”
Un Hyang seemed to be trying hard to dissuade Suhyuk from collaborating with Bald Suhyuk.
“Bald Suhyuk is also mindful of the ‘King of Destruction’ nickname. If he collaborates and your stream fails, it would unfairly become his fault.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
A major streamer known as the ‘King of Destruction.’ A collaboration with him would certainly create a buzz, and it would have a positive effect in one way or another.
The only concern was the jinx that any streamer who collaborates with him ends up failing. But Suhyuk was confident.
“I will absolutely not fail.”
He was determined to fight and win, even against the ‘King of Destruction’, bak Suhyuk.
*
Recently, the hottest trending content on Falcon Eye’s channel was ‘Lee Suhyuk’. For Falcon Eye, who focused primarily on reviews, rankers or streamers themselves were content.
And lately, the hottest rookie generating the most buzz was Lee Suhyuk.
– Fal-hi!
– Fal-hi!
-Fal-hi
– Ei-ha! (indicating “Hello to Lee Suhyuk” streamer)
It wasn’t surprising that viewers’ reactions had turned like this recently. Falcon Eye had been reviewing every other day, Lee Suhyuk’s stream.
At this rate, it was only a matter of time before Lee Suhyuk became the most frequently featured subject on Falcon Eye’s stream.
At that moment, from a black screen, Falcon Eye’s voice flowed out.
“Yes, hello. This is Falcon Eye, the dedicated Lee Suhyuk review streamer.”
– LOLOLOL LOLOLOL
– What’s with the tone? LOLOLOL
– Just acknowledged it LOLOLOL
– Translation: So what if it’s true, you pesky viewers~!
The chat filled with laughter at Falcon Eye’s greeting. Having broken the ice, Falcon Eye immediately showed his face and started the stream.
“Seriously, at this rate, I might end up being a dedicated Lee Suhyuk review streamer. I’m kinda worried.”
Weren’t you already?
You just admitted it, old man.
“That was a joke. But what can I do? There’s something to review in every single stream. Even though I’ve been doing this content for a long time, I’ve never seen someone like him.”
– Starting off with high praise again ㄷㄷ;
– Get together! (clap) Get together! (clap)
– But seriously, he did clear Thunder Cave LOLOLOL
“Exactly! I knew he’d challenge it, but I didn’t expect him to succeed on the first try. Honestly, I thought maybe five attempts? But…”
As if struck by awe, Falcon Eye continued the stream with an excited expression and tone.
“But the most impressive part is the process and the result. I actually screamed while watching it live.”
– Definitely confirmed easy mode
– Just change your nickname to Easy Falcon Eye, bro
– This isn’t easy mode; it’s sweet mode.
Indeed, the atmosphere of reviewing Lee Suhyuk’s content was significantly different from other review content.
Even when dealing with rankers, Falcon Eye’s streams could be ruthlessly critical, but when it came to Suhyuk, the review turned so sweet it could give you a toothache.
‘Indeed…’
Falcon Eye recalled the stream from just the other day.
“No, you can’t pull back now! If your shield’s durability is still good, you should hold your ground with it!”
“Look, his stamina is completely depleted and he’s gasping for breath, but he has plenty of magic, so he retreats to heal himself.”
“I’ve always said this: it’s ideal for stamina and magic to be used in proportion.”
“This person lacks basic fundamentals. Just because they’re a ranker doesn’t mean they’re all the same. This guy should go back to the first floor for basic training-.”
The tone difference was significant. But it was unavoidable. Whether it was sweet, spicy, or bitter, every review had to be honest. That was Falcon Eye’s motto.
“There’s nothing to criticize here. So what do you expect me to do?”
In the end, Falcon Eye shamelessly carried on. And fortunately, his shamelessness worked quite well.
– True, true
– There’s really nothing LOLOLOL
– But this trolling was a bit…
– Those bus riders were the real issue. Don’t you know?
As the chat started getting noisy over the finished topic, Falcon Eye hurriedly tried to calm the stream.
“Alright, alright. Let’s stop talking about unrelated stuff. Let’s keep it short and sweet today.”
Saying this, Falcon Eye played the video.
However.
Contrary to the phrase ‘short and sweet,’ the video started quite far along.
– Hmm?
– Why start from here?
– Did you skip the beginning?
The review began right from where Suhyuk entered ‘2nd Thunder Chamber’.
Practically at the final stage of the Thunder Cave raid. Suhyuk spotted Ferius fighting Schneider in the distance and aimed his spear at him.
“The stance of throwing the spear was good. The target setting was also good.”
Thwang-!
The spear shot by Suhyuk deflected Ferius’s sword.
Actually.
It looked like it deflected Ferius’s sword.
“Honestly, I was more surprised by Ferius than Lee Suhyuk here. To react so quickly and deflect the spear while fighting Schneider—it was incredible.”
It wasn’t Suhyuk’s spear that deflected the sword.
Instead. It was Ferius deflecting the spear shot by Suhyuk.
“It was here I thought, ‘Ah, this won’t be easy. No, it’ll be difficult.’”
After pausing to gather his thoughts, Falcon Eye added.
“It wasn’t the same old Loserrius.”
– Poor Loserrius LOLOLOL
– What’s Loserrius?
– Why is someone here who doesn’t know Loserrius?
– What’s that, nerd ㅡ.ㅡ
The video continued.
“But unexpectedly, Lee Suhyuk fought really well. Honestly, I was a bit surprised here, but not that much. Why? Because it’s Lee Suhyuk.”
Because it’s Lee Suhyuk.
By now, he was becoming someone who could be described with just his name. He was becoming that, and Falcon Eye was crafting that narrative.
“The real surprise was this.”
Click-
At a certain point, the video playback slowed down. It was the part where Schneider’s spear flew between the fiercely battling Lee Suhyuk and Ferius.
“This was the turning point. Of course, Ferius reacted. The issue was the brief opening that was created.”
Even though it was supposed to be in slow motion, the speed seemed to be the same. No, it even appeared to be faster.
“Look, it’s speeding up alone. Isn’t that insane? How can this be considered a level three floor?”
Falcon Eye’s voice grew louder.
“And this part!”
Click-
Lee Suhyuk leaped high, stepping on air right in front of Ferius. And he didn’t stop there; he directed his feet toward the ceiling of the cave.
“If you flip your body like this in an instant, your leap strength skyrockets. From your opponent’s perspective, it would feel like the enemy on the ground suddenly vanished or soared into the sky.”
It was an acrobatic feat. One that was extremely difficult and spectacular.
“Just landing correctly from this position alone is impressive, but…”
Swish-
Lee Suhyuk slashed Ferius’s neck in that stance. In one clean cut, all the way through to the bone.
Boom-
“This is the truly insane part! How can you achieve such an accurate aim from that position?”
– That’s insane ㄷㄷ
– He made it look so easy, so I thought it was simple
– Hmm… It’s a bit ambiguous
– It looks doable
The audience’s reaction was a bit ambiguous. It was understandable. Most viewers didn’t watch streams of lower-level segments. They typically watched streams of top-tier players, the rankers.
It wasn’t surprising that Lee Suhyuk’s play didn’t seem extraordinary to viewers accustomed to the most stimulating content.
However.
“You think this looks easy? This?”
Falcon Eye couldn’t agree with that sentiment at all.
“No matter what skills you use, if anyone below the fifth floor can replicate this, let them come forward!”
– What if someone does?
– What will you do?
“If someone does…”
After pondering for a moment, Falcon Eye finally made a bold proclamation.
“I’ll immediately donate 100,000 points to that person’s stream!”
And that statement marked the beginning of the ‘Lee Suhyuk Challenge.’