Max Talent Player - Chapter 245

[Disclosing the first condition.]

If someone without the qualification chose to find out what it was, they would be trapped here forever. Even Hyukjin found the moment of truth nerve wracking.

Thump. Thump.

His heart thudded in his chest, but he didn’t really dislike the feeling.

A peculiar thrill. Slight nervousness. The sense of crisis engendered by the possibility that he could, in the worst case scenario, very well die here. All those feelings jumbling together and titillating down his spine. Hyukjin didn’t dislike it.

“Senia,” Hyukjin said. “You know you need to cut the video here, right?”

She was recording right now.

“What?”

That moment, Senia used her Pause authority. The world turned black and white.

“You must really be loaded, huh?”

“Yes. I am the most successful Intermediate Administrator in the entire server, after all.”

“You’re grateful, right?”

“…”

Senia’s wings fluttered. In fact, she did feel grateful to Kim Hyukjin. There were plenty of Intermediate Administrators who could replace her, but no Players who could replace him, so she was grateful, yes.

‘But if I say I’m grateful here…’

She feared he would pluck every single feather she had. This was a human who exploited even the Guardians.

Instead of responding, she asked, “What do you mean by needing to cut the video?”

“No way, you don’t have a video editor?”

“…”

It was such a basic thing, so he hadn’t asked.

“How are you publishing the videos?”

“I…”

“Surely you’re not just publishing the unedited footage from start to finish, are you?”

“Yes. I am doing so with the intent to give the Guardians all the information available.”

Hyukjin felt his head ache.

“You need to extract the highlights, cut out the boring parts, put in some captions, and add some BGM.”

“What is BGM?”

“Back… ground… music.”

Hyukjin found himself clenching his fists. He had forgotten. Although she had grown a great deal, Senia was a Streamer who had failed to survive the competition.

‘It’s true she’s grown, but…’

Her base aptitude was too poor. But it was impossible to instill her with such aptitude and knack now.

“Senia. You said you’re rich, didn’t you?”

“Yes. I am getting a continuous stream of big sponsorships from many Guardians.”

“Then just hire an editor.”

Senia would handle the filming and the broadcasting, while the editing would be done by someone else with a sense for it.

“An… editor?”

“Yeah. They don’t exist?”

“There are no editor Intermediate Streamers in the streaming system.”

Hyukjin thought for a moment.

‘At this point in time… there are no video editors in the streaming system?’

To people of the modern day, the concept of a ‘video editor’ was all too natural, but it was possible that wasn’t the case for Intermediate Administrators now. Just like how dog meat wasn’t an oddity to a Korean, but was a culture shock to a French person. A natural part of life to one person wasn’t necessarily so to another, he mused.

‘What if it’s not that Senia lacks a knack for it, but that the very concept doesn’t exist yet?’

He was floored by the thought, but it was possible. Like Columbus’ egg, there were many things in this world that should be extremely simple, but were hard to come up with.

“Find an Intermediate Administrator named Shobidobi.”

“Shobi… dobi?”

“He should look like a pair of scissors. Sometimes when he gets excited, he turns into a pen.”

“I know a race like that.”

“Invest a lot of Coins in him. Ask if he’s interested in working as a video editor instead of as an Intermediate Administrator. He’ll accept.”

Shobidobi was a video editing whiz. After failing to make it as an Intermediate Administrator, he switched to being an editor. He was bad at creating content, but he was very good at processing content into a fun product.

‘An Intermediate Administrator of such talent will know exactly what to do just by hearing the words video editing.’

It was said that Shobidobi’s days as an Intermediate Administrator were rough. That he considered killing himself because he had no Coins was a fact known by many Players.

“But how do you know that name?”

“I just do.”

“The identities of Intermediate Administrators aren’t publicized to the Players. Depending on the situation, revealing such knowledge can result in a System sanction.”

Hyukjin stared at Senia. She was warning him right now, but it didn’t feel like that to him.

‘Is she… worrying about me?’

It looked like she was worrying about him rather than warning him. It was only for a split second, but Eye of Perception captured worry from her before it disappeared, gone so fast that he didn’t get a proper look.

‘No, surely not.’

Senia was as expressionless as ever, having returned to an inscrutable state.

“It was the same with my conversation with Neptune, and when I got the Arbitrator rights by using Judgment of the Law.” Hyukjin smiled wide. “But problems only become problems if someone takes issue with them. Right?”

“…”

“Right now, it’s just you and me. No Guardians are watching. Do you intend on taking issue with the fact that I know the identity of an Intermediate Administrator?”

“Of course not.” Senia hurried to supply her reasoning, though none had been asked for. “It’s because Player Kim Hyukjin is my excellent business partner. There’s absolutely no other reason.”

“I never said there was another reason.”

“I only stated it to be perfectly clear.”

It occurred to Hyukjin that ever since she carried out the Arrow-Shooting Cupid’s mission, Senia seemed a little more touchy.

“The Pause will soon end. As you suggested, I will cooperate with the Intermediate Administrator named Shobidobi.”

“Yeah. Give him a generous wage. Asking someone to work out of passion is no good.”

“Understood.”

Hyukjin’s mood brightened at the unexpected boon.

‘It’s always good to be the first in something.’

The benefits of being first couldn’t be put into words. Both 1st and 2nd place were amazing, but people only remembered the 1st place winner. As unfair as it was, that was how the world was.

‘If Shobidobi’s editing skills are added to my content… the video is gonna be nuts.’

It would be the first exquisitely edited video to reach the Guardians. They would reap a significant ‘first’ bonus.

The Pause ended, and with the return of color to his world came a notice about the special qualification.

* * *

* * *

[You must have already cleared the Centipede Cave once.]

[The first condition has been met.]

Ever since he came to know that two identical gates existed, he expected this condition.

[Disclosing the second condition.]

Hyukjin intentionally said, “I think it’ll be related to the three tomes.”

Perfectly fusing the three tomes with Unique Ability Fusion had created the hidden piece related with the Tome of the Divine Sword Physique. That was what led him to this prediction.

‘It’s great if I’m right, but it doesn’t matter if I’m not.’

Guessing correctly might earn him a positive response from the Guardians, and if he guessed wrong, he could just have that part edited out. There was nothing to lose.

[A Player who has fused three ‘tomes’ must be present in the current field.]

[The second condition has been met.]

In a stroke of luck, he was right.

[Disclosing the final condition.]

Hyukjin threw out a rough guess.

“The last one will be related to the Predator Tree Colony.”

This, too, was no big deal to get wrong. It could just be cut out in post-processing.

The Predator Tree Colony came after the Centipede Cave, which led him to believe this field might also be connected to the Predator Tree Colony in some way. In the Predator Tree Colony, he acquired the True Ruler title by fulfilling a very difficult condition. Since it was so difficult to get, he thought it might come up here.

[You must have the Ruler of the Predator Tree Colony title.]

[The third condition has been met.]

Senia’s wings trembled. She almost used another Pause authority, but stopped herself.

‘I don’t think he was just lucky.’

In truth, it really was luck this time. Hyukjin had just made some rough guesses, knowing they could edit things later. He happened to be right, but Senia couldn’t think of that as a coincidence.

The same question she had asked before came to mind.

‘Do you… truly have no true name?’

The question quivered on her tongue, but she didn’t ask. She had the feeling that Kim Hyukjin would give her an answer of some kind on his own if she continued to wait. In any case, the fact remained that Kim Hyukjin called out the conditions before they were disclosed.

Choi Sung-gu shook his head back and forth.

“You crazy bastard.”

Even he could not think of this as a complete coincidence.

“You absolute monster.”

Choi Sung-gu picked up on why Hyukjin stated the conditions aloud before they were revealed. It was, of course, because he was an outstanding content producer. That made Hyukjin seem all the more spine-chilling.

The man didn’t miss a single tiny detail, no matter how insignificant. It was said that the difference between a luxury brand and a regular one was in the details. That was exactly how it felt now.

“You gross mothafucker,” Sung-gu groused. His eyes focused on the center of the chamber. “Something even more gross is waking up.”

He scuttled behind Hyukjin, sticking close to him.

“Hyukjin. I hate bugs. I, Choi Sung-gu, am scared af. Hyukjin.”

[The boss monster ‘Black Pearl Centipede’ is waking from its slumber.]

The giant monster went from hard as stone to slowly beginning to move. Stone dust fell to the ground.

“Sung-gu. Light your fire ki.”

“Huh?”

He didn’t know what Hyukjin was trying to do, but he did as he was told. Poison gas instantly wisped into existence, forming wherever Sung-gu’s fire ki met the falling stone dust.

“Fuck. The hell is this?”

Hyukjin felt the strong poison energy. It was stronger than any he had experienced so far. It was just a little dust that had scattered into the air, but even that produced poison of such intensity.

‘If that fully touches the skin…’

Skin and bone were sure to melt away all at once.

‘We need to eliminate the poison first.’

The stone statue was moving little by little, almost like it was stretching itself. Hyukjin was once again reminded that this was the beginner period. This slight reprieve, this short moment before the battle began, was all assistance from the System. Assistance put in place for balance.

‘The System is urging us to see the stone dust and think fast on our feet.’

Someone who wasted these several free seconds would probably never be able to kill this monster.

[The quest ‘Hunt the Black Pearl Centipede Boss Monster!’ has been generated.]

The raid began. But the stone statue wasn’t fully awake yet. Hyukjin intentionally spoke aloud to inform Sung-gu, and tell Senia as well. In other words, he was acting for the Guardians.

“Flame of Purification.”

He’d already used it once before—it had come in handy against the Shadow Sovereign. Whatever Hyukjin used once, he could use even better the second time. He was able to work the skill with greater natural ease.

[The ‘purification target’ has been selected.]

He said, “Showing us this poisonous stone dust is the System’s way of helping us.”

Whoosh!

Flames rushed up in a flash.

He turned to Senia, who was filming. “When I fought the Shadow Sovereign, I used this ability to flee.”

But this time, it was different.

“However, this time, I will purify the enemy’s poison.”

Flames hungrily ran up the stone statue.

“I can add some heat of my own, yeah?”

Sung-gu drew a magic circle with his hand. Hyukjin was able to feel that Choi Sung-gu’s tome boosted mana was increasing Flame of Purification’s purity and intensity.

‘This… makes quite the admirable picture.’

They had produced a scene that would really fire up Guardians who liked co-op play, like the Lady of the Scales, or efficient teamplay, like the Herdsman of Las Vegas.

‘The boss’ poison energy is being cleared.’

It was being disarmed of one of its weapons.

[The Black Pearl Centipede has woken completely.]

The stone statue was now a living being.

“Eurgh, gross. Look at those legs. It’s got steel for hair.”

Hundreds of legs were wriggling. But those legs, as well as the squirming body they were attached to, slowly began to disappear.

“What the heck? Where’d it go?”

Hyukjin examined his surroundings with Observer’s Eye and Eye of Perception, staying calm.

‘Perfect stealth.’

He was already familiar with stealth like this. It was the same stealth used by Kim Darong, the stealth Hyukjin could not penetrate no matter what skills he applied.

‘To think it had such complete stealth…’

It would probably go for an ambush, like an assassin. An extremely deadly ambush.

‘If I can’t locate it… it’ll be dangerous.’

There was no knowing when or where it would attack. He had to locate it, and quick. But he couldn’t see anything. He couldn’t even detect its presence.

‘How?’

He had to find a way. Acquiring the Tome of the Divine Sword Physique by a Player’s natural-born strength without Guardian assistance was surely going to be a challenge. But it wasn’t that he hadn’t taken such difficulty, such danger, into consideration.

‘There must be…’

Surely.

‘…a way.’