Chapter 51

‘[Western Divine Fist Master, Monk]’

Jaeha began checking the video, and once it ended, a new skill was born.

[Michael’s Blessing]

[Rank: Ancient]

Receives Archangel’s Blessing, gaining physical blessings, mental blessings, and finally the great divine power of the Archangel.

[Mechanism: Total Ability × 300]

[Proficiency: 50%]

“Hmm.”

The skill that was born, to be precise, wasn’t a martial artist’s skill but a divine-type skill.

‘Anyway, in my current state, being physically superior isn’t all that meaningful. I already have the Indestructible Vajra Body, and thanks to my internal energy arts, my physical abilities are on par with the Corpse Puppet.’

However, gaining divine power was a different matter. The very fact that he now had divine power meant he could clearly use divine-type magic or skills of that sort.

‘Well, it shouldn’t cause any conflicts.’

With that thought, Jaeha nodded and acquired the skill.

‘It seems like a skill worth having.’

Since he could also learn more divine-type skills, he decided to keep this one. Besides, it was an Ancient-rank skill.

“Alright, enough messing around. Let’s find some martial arts skills.”

After searching through related videos for a bit, he found several suitable ones. Before long, Jaeha came across a video and obtained a fitting skill.

[Hand-to-Hand Combat]

[Rank: Hero]

[A technique that uses every part of the body to move and attack enemies efficiently]

[Mechanism: Total Ability × 500]

[Proficiency: 75%]

[Congratulations. The skill receives a synergy boost, increasing its proficiency.]

“Hand-to-Hand Combat and Michael’s Blessing have synergy. I guess it’s because I got the skills from a video related to a Monk.”

Either way, Jaeha was pleased that both skills had their proficiency maxed out at 100%. Then, to test out his newly acquired skills, he headed to the sparring ground. Upon arriving, he immediately began warming up.

Before long, Jaeha started getting used to the skills. After that, he called the jiangshi and began thoroughly drilling the skills into his body through combat.

* * *

“Whew, this feels better now.”

For about two weeks, Jaeha continued sparring with the jiangshi at a level close to real combat without missing a single day. As a result, he was now able to fight at a level comparable to the jiangshi.

Of course, it was only comparable on the surface. If they were truly fighting for real, Jaeha wouldn’t last long. No matter how much it resembled real combat, a spar was still a spar. It was on a completely different level from a battle fought to take the opponent’s life.

In any case, the result was that Jaeha had gained combat abilities superficially similar to theirs.

“Experience is something you can’t ignore.”

Jaeha muttered that as he looked at the jiangshi. Then he spoke to them.

“Go rest. There won’t be any more sparring.”

“You kept at it until you won, didn’t you.”

“You could say that, but strictly speaking, I can’t really say I won, can I?”

The jiangshi didn’t say much in response, but they seemed to agree with his words. Jaeha looked at them and spoke.

“I said I’d make you all proper weapons, so I’ll do that. It won’t take long anyway.”

“Are you serious?”

They had already felt firsthand just how skilled Jaeha’s Metallurgy was.

Among the jiangshi, there was one who was relatively young. His name was Bitin. Like the other jiangshi, Bitin was a ‘person’ who had lived on the continent of Fantasia.

He was a pure human, not a demihuman, and he too had wielded a sword. In the past, he was known by the epithet the Mercenary King. Of course, that was a story of the past.

He had apparently sought revenge against his sworn enemy with abilities that were far from perfect compared to now, suffered grave wounds, and ended up on the brink of death.

That was why he had initially said he came here and became a jiangshi to get his revenge. He said his past self had been sorely lacking. He mentioned that back then, he wasn’t at a level where he could face an entire army alone.

He even went around saying that if he’d had a weapon made by Jaeha back then, even if he’d still been crippled by the same wounds, he would have completed his revenge.

“I’m heading out.”

With that, Jaeha slipped out of the training ground. The moment he vanished, everyone’s faces flushed with excitement—except Amy’s—because of what he had said.

“I thought I’d long since passed the point where a weapon could affect combat.”

“That’s a divine artifact. A weapon of a god. It’s only natural that such a weapon would have an impact.”

“True.”

Nodding, they gazed at the door Jaeha had disappeared through and murmured.

“What a terrifying talent.”

“Agreed. If our master had been born on our continent…”

“He would have left a great name in history.”

“Yes.”

After that, they fell silent, and before long, they began to take their leave. They dispersed to attend to their own tasks.

* * *

Having forged the weapons for the jiangshi to use, Jaeha set them upright against one side and fell into thought.

“It’s about time I went back on air, though.”

He had put it off and put it off, and now he’d ended up here. He couldn’t delay any longer. He’d already said as much when he’d last turned on the broadcast.

“Content.”

He needed to put together content within a few days and post an announcement. Even if he hadn’t explicitly promised solid content, he was still making a return, so having proper content lined up would give a better impression.

‘Hmm. Content.’

Jaeha began to mull it over.

“Content…”

He’d never really thought about it deeply before, so no particular idea came to mind. As he kept racking his brain, he sensed Seungho entering the house and headed downstairs to meet him.

“Undineee. Do it for me.”

<No way!>

Seungho was saying something while staring at Undine, who was floating around.

“What are you doing?”

“Huh? Oh, perfect timing. Ask Undine to wash me.”

“What is Undine, a showerhead?”

“But it’s convenient, you know.”

“Can’t argue with that.”

With that, Jaeha coaxed and soothed Undine into washing Seungho, then asked him.

“How’s the broadcast going?”

“Well, the viewer count I saw earlier was around 200,000? Compared to you, it’s a tiny number, but getting that many is already something.”

“Reactions decent?”

“Not bad.”

“Hey.”

“Yeah?”

“It’s about time I made my comeback, so…”

“Oh, you’re coming back?”

“I don’t know what to do yet, but I made a promise, so I have to follow through.”

“Oooh. So?”

“Nothing big—you probably saw it too. Back then, I said I’d do some content when I returned.”

“Uh… yeah, yeah. You did say that.”

“So, I’m asking. Got any ideas?”

“Ideas?”

“Yeah.”

“Hmmmm.”

Seungho pondered for about three minutes before speaking.

“Wouldn’t it be best to just do what you’re best at?”

“What I’m best at?”

“Yeah. You’re great at making stuff, and you’re great at hunting too. Why not combine the two and do something with that?”

At Seungho’s words, Jaeha thought for a moment, then his eyes lit up and he rose from his seat.

“Thanks.”

With that, he headed straight up to his room.

Episode 23

“Hey. Is that announcement for real?”

“Of course.”

“You’re actually going to do that?”

“Do you know what the most important thing in broadcasting is?”

“……No idea.”

“It’s bait. Bait.”

“Bait?”

“Yeah. Bait. More precisely, drawing viewers in with bait, something like that.”

“Still, that bait seems way too much. Do you know how many emails have come in right now?”

“How many?”

“Over a hundred million.”

“……That’s a bit of a problem.”

“You need to hire people.”

Jaeha let out a sigh and looked at him.

“Hmm. What should we do?”

“Either take the time to read them all, or hire people to do it.”

“The latter’s better, right?”

“Obviously.”

“Alright. Then look into a place that handles that kind of thing for me.”

“I’m a Hunter now too—do I really have to do that?”

“Yeah.”

“Tch.”

With that, Jaeha got up from his seat, and once he disappeared, Seungho pulled out his cell phone and started contacting people here and there.

* * *

And about seven more days later, Jaeha received word that the sorting was complete, and he received the organized results.

Even just the sorted portion was an enormous number. It was nearly half of the total, but the problem was that he needed to sort through it again.

“Haah. I need to start quickly and finish this diligently.”

No matter how much he thought about it, selecting the candidates was his job, so even though it was a huge amount, he decided to do it himself. And thanks to staring at the computer screen for about three days straight, Jaeha was able to narrow it down to a total of 4 people. Including Seungho, that made 5 people in all.

“Done?”

As Jaeha came down to the living room, Seungho looked at him and spoke.

“Somehow.”

Saying that, Jaeha handed him four sheets of paper.

“These are the people?”

“You handle the contact.”

“Alright.”

“I need to rest a bit. I should get some sleep if I’m broadcasting the day after tomorrow.”

“How many days have you gone without sleep?”

“Feels like about 4 days…… I don’t know. Anyway, get in touch with those people.”

“Got it.”

With that, Jaeha went straight up to his room and started sleeping.

* * *

“It’s been a while.”

“Right? You should’ve broadcast sooner.”

“Well, I prepared one hell of a content piece to make up for it.”

“That’s true, but still.”

Saying that, Jaeha stepped forward one pace and opened his mouth.

“On the air.”

Then, looking straight ahead with a smile, Jaeha spoke.

“It’s been a long time, everyone.”

-Hello.

-Oh, this time it’s Jaeha.

-Sup.

-Hi hi

Jaeha looked at the chat window, made some simple preparations, and waited for people to filter in. Then he checked the viewer count.

[Viewer Count: 332,125]

“330,000. You said you got about 220,000 when you did it.”

“Yeah.”

“Then it looks like everyone who was going to come is here.”

Nodding, Jaeha changed the camera angle and spoke.

“Welcome, everyone. I’ve been busy with work, so I couldn’t find time to broadcast. But the work is finished, and it was time for me to come back, so here I am.”

The chat was scrolling at a rapid pace, and Jaeha spoke with a smile.

“When I last broadcast, I made a promise to all of you.”

-No way, the content?

-Really?

-Is this for real?

“Yes. It’s for real. If you knew how I prepared this content, you’d probably shed tears. Anyway, I’ve prepared it. In fact, I think many of you, including the Hunters, already know about it. I posted a notice, and I hear it’s been a hot topic in the Hunter community.”

Jaeha spoke with a smile.

“The name of the content I’ll be doing is—Hunter Academy.”