Gwanjongcheonma’s Game Broadcast - Chapter 172

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 172
Whoosh!
It was different in several ways from the last time he’d used a capsule.
The drastically shortened time was just the baseline.
There was no wispy, billowing smoke like before,
and no oppressive heat either.
Not even sweat—the workshop’s chill still clung to his skin.
But there was one thing.
If there was one thing that remained the same as before,
it was the sight of Ryu Hyeon standing motionless, as if possessed by a ghost.
“Are you… divine?”
Hae-rang answered with a slight smile instead of words.
He’d heard that often enough in his previous life,
but he hadn’t expected to hear it again in this age.
“The machine’s condition is exactly as you see it.”
There was no need for embellishment.
The record shortened to a tenth of its former time spoke volumes by itself.
Ryu Hyeon’s capsule was exceptional.
The moment he connected, it felt as though the Heavenly Demon Divine Art opened entirely at once.
Not even the EX Capsule he’d used in America had offered this sensation.
Inside this capsule, it seemed he could do truly anything at all.
“My worries seem foolish now.”
Ryu Hyeon let out a dry cough and settled into a chair.
His gaze fixed on the monitor screen.
To Hae-rang and Choi Gang-sik, the characters covering the display were unfamiliar.
“You two should head out now. Don’t forget to call the delivery service.”
Choi Gang-sik’s eyes widened as he asked,
“Won’t you come with us? It’s mealtime—why don’t we eat together?”
“I’m fine. I’m not particularly hungry. When you get old, your stomach shrinks along with everything else.”
Gurgle.
Just then, Ryu Hyeon’s stomach sent out a signal.
Choi Gang-sik’s impertinent finger pointed toward his belly.
“Cough! Ahem! It’s just that my stomach feels uncomfortable, so don’t mind it. Now get going, will you!”
“Goodness. Why are you shouting like that?”
Ryu Hyeon’s shout proved quite fatal to Choi Gang-sik’s delicate eardrums.
Beside Choi Gang-sik, who was covering both ears, Hae-rang lowered his head respectfully.
“Thank you for the fine capsule. Still, don’t skip meals. I’ll call the delivery service and have some soup brought along.”
“Well, that sounds good.”
His gaze remained fixed on the monitor,
and Ryu Hyeon raised a gaunt hand.
It was a gesture of dismissal.
The two men who left the workshop each set about their tasks.
Choi Gang-sik arranged for a specialized delivery service to transport the capsule,
while Hae-rang ordered soup.
“All done?”
“Yes.”
“That man is incomprehensible. His stomach sends such clear signals for food, yet he skips meals. What is he working on? People his age should be more careful about eating properly.”
“It’s rather like those old master craftsmen.”
“Master craftsmen? Where did that come from?”
“You rarely see a fat blacksmith among them. Some of it’s due to the labor being grueling, but they say when you’re in the thick of forging a weapon, eating feels like such a chore. The rhythm breaks.”
“Hmm. I think I understand the feeling. But the capsule is already finished, isn’t it? Surely he’s not planning to forge a new one from here?”
“That’s unlikely.”
“You sound quite certain about that. Do you know the reason why?”
“There was something he said to me before. I think he’s probably trying to verify it.”
“Verify what?”
Hae-rang’s voice emerged heavy and deliberate.
“My biometric data.”
* * *
Checking a gamer’s biometric data.
It wasn’t particularly surprising, nor was it unfamiliar.
Private Capsules are built on the user’s biometric data in the first place, after all.
By now, Ryu Hyeon had examined the biometric data of hundreds of gamers.
Yet Ryu Hyeon scanned the data with eyes blazing.
Hae-rang is extraordinary.
A gamer who has approached the realm of the divine.
So surely, there must be some metric that sets him apart from other gamers.
‘I have to find it.’
Not merely out of intellectual curiosity as a Capsule Craftsman.
The more clearly he understood Hae-rang’s biometric data,
the more efficiently he could build the next version of the Capsule.
“Huh?”
Ryu Hyeon’s eyebrows shot up sharply as he studied the data.
On the monitor lay results that differed starkly from his expectations.
Comparing the old model Capsule against the Sinshi,
the machine’s output value was actually inferior to the older model.
“That can’t be right… How is this even possible…?”
Ryu Hyeon rubbed his eyes and checked the monitor again.
The machine’s output value was low.
It didn’t mean the Capsule had a problem.
It meant the user hadn’t drawn out all of his senses.
Which is to say,
“That Milk Song run just now… he wasn’t going all out?”
A deflated whisper escaped Ryu Hyeon’s lips.
A time cut down to a tenth of the original—and it wasn’t even his full power?
The record he’d just set alone would shatter the world record many times over.
Ryu Hyeon lurched upright from his seat—
“Oof.”
—only to sink back deep into the chair.
Whether from the shock of the revelation or from prolonged hunger,
dizziness suddenly washed over him.
It was only then that Ryu Hyeon pulled the beef soup from the envelope.
“Bleh. No taste to it.”
Had the chef overheard Ryu Hyeon’s critique, he likely would have wept with head in hands.
The soup had simply gone cold.
Ryu Hyeon lifted his spoon five hours after the soup had arrived.
* * *
“Gwanjong Cheonma’s Game Broadcast. We’re live.”
-Gwan-ha! Gwan-ha! Gwan-ha! Gwan-ha!
-Whoa whoa… where’d you go that you’re starting this late?
-Man! Do you have any idea how busy a National Representative is?
-Why does it feel like it’s been so long since I’ve seen you? ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
-I’ve been waiting! Gwanjong Cheonma!
-Every time I wanted to see Gwanjong I rubbed my palms together so much my fingerprints wore off!
-Oh! Something’s different about the broadcast today, huh?
-You turned on the camera instead of the game screen?
-Damn, you actually showed your face and it doesn’t feel weird at all;; I thought it was the game screen
-Real talk, you look exactly like your character lol lol your avatar I mean lol lol
-Are you giving us special service because you were late to the broadcast? ^^*
-I think there’s a broadcast error right now;; all I see on the screen is light!
“Aah.”
Amid the flood of attention and praise,
Hae-rang steadied his breathing once.
“Some of you enjoy the camera broadcast, and I have something to announce as well, so I figured I’d turn it on.”
-Good. I like that very much.
-It just puts us in a better mood lol seeing our Gwanjong’s face
-From now on Gwanjong Cheonma has to turn on the camera before every game for sure!
-What are you announcing?
-Real talk, I’m so curious
-Gwanjong Cheonma (Wizard of Announcements, Master of Bombshell Statements)
“Just a moment. If I do this like so……”
Hae-rang adjusted the camera’s angle to the side.
Naturally, the camera’s frame swept across Hae-rang’s room.
-Oh! Gwanjong’s room is showing up!
-Gwanjong Cheonma’s secret private life (hehe)
-Feels like stepping into my boyfriend’s room for the first time ㅠㅠ
-Thought it’d be flashy, but the room’s actually super simple and clean
-Dum-dum-dum-dum~ (Love Homes BGM)
-Streamers usually don’t show this stuff lol, he’s got no filter
-Didn’t someone turn the camera sideways last time and their girlfriend showed up? Went straight to disaster lol
-A girlfriend would be tame—remember when that tattooed guy walked in and he had to do a whole clarification broadcast? lol
-Gwanjong! We trust you!
The viewers had been chattering about Hae-rang’s room from all angles.
Their chat fell silent for a moment.
Something unusually striking had come into view.
-Huh? What’s that?
-A capsule?
-Gwanjong! Didn’t you say you used commercial models?
-I thought you picked one up secondhand from a Capsule Room?
-Never seen a capsule like that before;;;
“Yes. I turned on the camera to show you the new capsule I recently acquired. Its name is Sinshi.”
-Sinshi? What does that mean
-Sounds like a Sino-Korean word?
-Oh lol here we go again
-Fr, his concept of never letting even a name slip by carelessly lol
-My heart swells with pride……
-We don’t know this Sino-Korean stuff! What’s Sinshi!
“It means ‘a new beginning.’ I named it thinking of the person who crafted the capsule for me.”
-Who made the capsule for you?
-There’s no decoration at all? Why’s the design so minimal;;;
-Forget decoration, it’s not even painted lol;;;;
-Gwanjong! Where did you buy this from?
-Please don’t tell me you got scammed? ㅠㅠ
-Man, this is making me so anxious;;;;
Hae-rang’s face settled into an easy, reassuring smile.
“Well, seeing is better than hearing a hundred times, isn’t it? I’ll start the match right away.”
Hae-rang logged into Iron Fist Nine.
Having settled into the Gold Rank while preparing for the National Team,
Hae-rang occupied the uppermost tier where players were few.
The opponents he faced tended to be of much the same caliber.
<Searching for a match opponent!>
-Let’s go gooooooooo
-Who’s gonna be Gwanjong’s sacrifice today lol
-I’ve heard a rumor that Gold Rank disappears when Gwanjong starts streaming!
-Gold Rank’s apocalypse lol
-This is real. I watched a Gold Rank video on YouTube, and the second I saw Gwanjong go live, he switched to a different game lol
-Beep! Beep! A disaster has descended upon Iron Fist Nine!
As Hae-rang waited for his opponent, he checked every sense in his body.
Crisp. Refreshing.
They hadn’t even entered the match yet,
but a surge of confidence washed over him—as if he could do anything.
Like finally shedding the weighted vest he’d been carrying all this time.
He was savoring that pleasant sensation when,
at last, his opponent was determined.
<Match opponent found!>
<Starting a ranked match with ‘Hyeon-bin’!>
“Oh.”
A note of welcome slipped from Hae-rang’s lips.
Ma Hyeon-bin—the National Representative for Iron Fist solo matches, and also his teammate in team competitions.
It seemed they’d happened to boot up their games at the same time.
Once the match was confirmed and communication opened between them,
Ma Hyeon-bin’s reaction came short but sharp.
“Ah! Why!”
He stamped his foot, venting his frustration.
Of all the players in the Gold Rank, why did it have to be Gwanjong Cheonma?
Ma Hyeon-bin’s spirited reaction set the chat window ablaze.
-Ooh! Hyeon-bin’s here!
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Internal match right out of the gate
-Wow;; the Heavenly Demon Cult kids are really going at it;; they must have separate team training
-Real talk, totally different from that group packed with sponsorship schedules
“Hyeon-bin. Why the long face?”
“Why? Because my rating matters to me.”
Ma Hyeon-bin selected his character with the expression of a man who’d lost everything.
Against any other gamer, he’d have had confidence.
But the opponent standing before him made winning a single match feel like plucking a star from the sky.
“Good timing. We’re using the new machine today, so let me know right away if anything feels off.”
“Huh? A new machine?”
Ma Hyeon-bin, whose face had been twisted in dismay, suddenly lit up.
A new machine.
Then there was a real chance.
Even if a machine was optimized for its user, it always needed an adaptation period for the first day or two.
‘Perhaps…….’
This might be the perfect opportunity to beat Hae-rang in a ranked match.
Ma Hyeon-bin selected his main champion, Fubao.
“Let’s go, Hae-rang!”
“Right.”
Ma Hyeon-bin’s sudden growth in skill owed everything to Hae-rang’s guidance.
Rather than the characters he’d been using before,
Hae-rang had recommended the most entertaining champion.
Ma Hyeon-bin, who’d always loved animals, trained intensively with Fubao from that point on,
and throughout that process, Hae-rang had faithfully provided sparring.
When we say “faithful” sparring,
we mean full-power beatings.
Exactly like now.
“Ooo-ah!”
Crash!
“Boom!”
Despite the massive house-sized body,
Fubao launches skyward.

For Hae-rang, there was no adaptation period,
no awkwardness at all.
Three straight games swept.
The final match was a perfect victory—he hadn’t even allowed a single attack.
“Ugh! I knew it! I’m out!”
Ma Hyeon-bin, who’d nursed that brief false hope, bowed respectfully and logged out.
He didn’t want to risk another match and watch his rating drop further.
“Haha.”
Hae-rang smiled more brightly than ever before.
Was it because he’d leeched Ma Hyeon-bin’s points?
No.
There was something far more important.
‘For it to be this manageable.’
Throughout the fight with Ma Hyeon-bin,
not once had that distinctive tinnitus echoed through Hae-rang’s body.
‘Which means…….’
In every single moment he’d overwhelmed Ma Hyeon-bin,
he hadn’t needed the Heavenly Demon Divine Art at all.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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