Gwanjongcheonma’s Game Broadcast - Chapter 176

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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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Chapter 176
“They say a decade can change mountains and rivers.”
Whrrp!
Choi Gang-sik continued, turning the worn steering wheel with vigor.
“I don’t think it even needs ten years. Look at what you’ve accomplished in less than one.”
The road to Incheon Airport.
Choi Gang-sik had taken the wheel for Hae-rang, who owned no car.
“It feels like just yesterday I let that Capsule go to you for cheap, and now you’re a National Representative. Unbelievable.”
“It’s all thanks to Gang-si’s help, isn’t it?”
“Look at you now, all polished. Flattering me like you know how to book a flight.”
“I’m not exaggerating. If Gang-si hadn’t sold me that Capsule at such a price, and if you hadn’t taken on the Manager role, I’d have taken a much longer road. I might have spent ten years getting here, just like the old saying.”
“You bastard, you really know how to move someone. I should be thanking you. Before you came along, my future looked pitch black. Now I can hold my head high even at home.”
Unaccustomed to this sort of sentiment,
Choi Gang-sik wiped his nose with a finger.
“You didn’t forget anything, right? Passport, ID card, phone—you absolutely can’t lose those.”
Choi Gang-sik had checked Hae-rang’s belongings multiple times.
They’d been together everywhere until now, but this time it couldn’t be that way.
National Representatives competing in international tournaments weren’t allowed to bring their managers along.
Though he knew Hae-rang would manage just fine on his own,
it felt like sending a younger brother far away.
“Please take good care of the Channel while I’m gone.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve been meaning to update the settings anyway, and we’ll redesign the interface too. When you come back, it’ll be completely transformed.”
“I’ll need to bring back results for all that effort to really shine.”
“Just perform like you always do. The results will follow naturally.”
Screech!
The car came to a stop in front of the airport entrance.
The fact that Choi Gang-sik’s car was old actually worked in their favor here.
Unlike Singularities who pulled up in massive vans, this attracted no attention.
The airport entrance was already swarming with fans and reporters.
“Wow. I expected it, but this is wild.”
“We might not even be able to get through departure if we’re not careful.”
For now, they were safe inside the car.
But the moment Hae-rang opened the door and stepped out, that entire crowd would converge on them—that much was certain.
So they’d prepared.
A clever move to break through this situation.
Hae-rang glanced at his smartphone.
“One minute left?”
“That’s right. Get ready. I’ll grab the suitcase from the trunk first.”
Choi Gang-sik exited the car and swiftly retrieved the suitcase.
Hae-rang popped the door open with a click, waiting for the signal.
“Five seconds… three… one.”
Hae-rang and Choi Gang-sik’s eyes fixed on the opposite direction.
Then, right on cue, a roar erupted from somewhere.
“Uwooooooo!”
The crowd milling about at the airport entrance
snapped their heads around in unison.
“What’s that sound?”
“Is that a Streamer?”
“It’s Joint! The Iron Fist National Representative!”
“Who’s Joint?”
“I’m not particularly interested in Joint…”
“Run anyway! They might be with another Gamer!”
“Oh, right!”
The fans’ interest lay less in Joint than in whoever Joint might be with.
The press corps had the same calculation.
They had to get something, anything, to bring back.
Everyone at the entrance surged toward Joint like a locust swarm.
“Uwooooo!”
“Joint, don’t move! Stay right there!”
“If you’re gonna run, why are you screaming?”
“Did you come alone? What about the other members of the Heavenly Demon Cult?”
“Joint! Could we get a quick interview with you?”
People surged forward in a rush.
The airport entrance, moments before crowded, suddenly cleared as if by magic.
Hae-rang and Choi Gang-sik exchanged a glance.
“Show them what you’re made of. Let them see exactly who you are.”
“Yes. I’ll do well.”
Gripping the suitcase they’d prepared beforehand in one hand,
Hae-rang moved through the airport entrance with the speed of the Ground Shrinking Technique.
“Phew. The operation’s a success.”
Choi Gang-sik watched the airport entrance where Hae-rang had vanished and dusted his hands off.
Joint, surrounded by the press, wasn’t something to worry about.
To be honest, once word got out that he was alone, their interest would drop off sharply.
“Whoooooah! Is there anything else you’d like to know!”
“Ugh, so loud. I thought my eardrums were going to burst.”
“Yes, Joint! I think you can go in now!”
“Good luck! Joint, fighting spirit! Come on, everyone clear a path! Let him through! We’ve got other people arriving soon!”
“You didn’t hear anything about the other members?”
The crowd parted before Joint like the Red Sea dividing.
And beyond that cleared path stood Choi Gang-sik.
Thump.
Choi Gang-sik raised his thumb toward Joint.
Joint, having completed his mission, returned the gesture.
Was it just his imagination?
There seemed to be tears glistening in the corners of Joint’s eyes as he smiled brightly.
* * *
The best way to avoid the chaos at an airport
is to breeze through departure screening all at once.
“Oh! Over here!”
Ma Hyeon-bin spotted Hae-rang emerging from the screening area.
He grinned widely and raised one arm in a wave.
Beside Ma Hyeon-bin stood Ye Da-hong wearing sunglasses,
and the three of them waited for Joint to arrive.
“Seeing you look perfectly fine, it seems the Nongae operation succeeded.”
“It worked flawlessly. When did you arrive, Ye Da-hong?”
“Let me see… about six hours ago.”
“What?”
“There’s nothing surprising about it. This is the only way to get into the airport comfortably and smoothly. I hid inside the airport and slipped through the moment departure screening opened. I picked up some shopping I’d done earlier too.”
Ye Da-hong held up her shopping bags with a playful expression.
Shortly after, Joint appeared.
“Joint. Thanks to you, I got in without any trouble.”
“Ha! Don’t mention it. I enjoyed the spotlight myself. Even if it did fade fast.”
And so the Heavenly Demon Cult was reunited in one place.
They were all dressed identically.
Gaming suits in black, provided by their sponsor company.
The word “Kraft” was emblazoned elegantly across the right arm of the suit, adorned with red and blue stitching.
“Hae-rang, why did Kraft give us new uniforms? The old ones weren’t bad.”
“Jo Ho-jin mentioned it. He said that for a team called the Heavenly Demon Cult, black would suit the image better than white.”
“Huh?”
Ye Da-hong’s jaw dropped in disbelief.
Even the sponsor company had fallen under the Heavenly Demon concept.
But she couldn’t say she disliked it.
The new uniforms were genuinely more stylish in design.
Though identical in cut, each person wore them with a distinctly different presence.
Ye Da-hong, already nicknamed the Blade Queen, projected an even more commanding charisma.
Ma Hyeon-bin carried a more composed, mischievous air, while Joint radiated the wild, weathered atmosphere of an alley dweller.
And Hae-rang? In two words:
‘Sovereign.’
The black base conveyed gravity and authority.
The stitching in two colors harmonized with Hae-rang’s striking, refined features into perfect ensemble.
He was already tall, and he’d honed his physique through his own training methods until it was lean and powerful.
Simply looking at him made you want to follow him.
You wanted to entrust your future to this man.
Hae-rang bore the image of a ‘sovereign’—someone who naturally commanded that kind of allegiance.
“Oh my. Look over there.”
“Is he an athlete? A national representative?”
Even tourists who weren’t fans couldn’t tear their eyes away from Hae-rang.
They gasped in wonder, scanning him from head to toe.
But there were others who found the sight deeply grating.
“Unbelievable.”
Dozens of figures in white uniforms had appeared.
They were the Singularities selected for the national team alongside the Heavenly Demon Cult.
Kim Si-hwan, standing at the front, smirked as he caught sight of them.
“Well, well. Quite the distinguished group, I see. Don’t want to mingle with us, is that it? Pretty telling that you went with the opposite uniform color on purpose.”
“What?”
Da-hong’s eyes flared at Kim Si-hwan’s words.
It was a baseless provocation.
What gamer personally manages their own uniform design?
You simply wear what the sponsor provides.
As Da-hong was about to respond, a clear, refreshing voice reached her ear.
“Still, I have to admit—I see you in a new light.”
The voice belonged to Hae-rang.
“What? Admit?”
“Yes. Now that you’re a national representative, you call us exceptional. Though I suppose ‘that guy’ is a bit much.”
“You think that sounds like an admission?”
“Kim Si-hwan. Let me offer you one piece of advice.”
Hae-rang’s face had turned utterly serious.
“Choose one: either oppose us or respect us. If you truly think we’re extraordinary, why that twisted expression? You used to praise my record, after all.”
“This crazy bastard…”
“Since it’s confusing you, try being consistent from here on out.”
With that, Hae-rang turned his back and spoke to his companions.
“Let’s go.”
His three companions were on the verge of bursting into laughter.
They’d been wondering how to handle Kim Si-hwan, with his silver tongue.
But Hae-rang had dismantled him in one utterly absurd stroke.
“Pfft. Yes, let’s.”
“Haha! Ahahaha!”
“Tee-hee. His face is about to explode.”
The four members of the Heavenly Demon Cult bantered back and forth as they walked on ahead.
Meanwhile,
“Damn it all…”
Any other time, Kim Si-hwan would have crushed his opponent with the grace of a crane.
But beneath his white uniform, his face had flushed crimson—like a man three sheets to the wind.
* * *
Humiliation.
The word fit perfectly when you looked back on the recent trajectory of the Singularities.
Not a single one of them had made it through the Iron Fist National Team Selection where the Heavenly Demon Cult participated.
Each one individually called a genius, a Singularity.
Yet nearly thirty contestants had been eliminated across the board—however inexperienced they claimed to be, it was a humiliation without equal.
But their humiliation was far from over.
“Why are these seats like this?”
Seo Jae-won blinked hard, glancing left and right.
The business class seating reserved for national representatives.
The front row in particular had always been essentially reserved for them.
Kim Si-hwan, Seo Jae-won, Ye Da-hong, and Moon Young-chan.
But now, except for Ye Da-hong, all the seats were occupied by someone else.
Figures in deep black suits, radiating a dark aura.
Team Heavenly Demon.
“What are you doing here? First time going to an international competition, are you? This is our section. Don’t embarrass yourselves—move.”
Then Ye Da-hong looked up, a sharp smile on her face.
“You’re the one who’s tacky. Seo Jae-won.”
“What?”
“How many times have you flown before and you still can’t read a seat assignment properly? Look at the ticket you’re holding. This is our seat.”
Seo Jae-won pulled his ticket from his pocket with an expression of disbelief.
Kim Si-hwan beside him checked his own ticket with a sour face.
“This can’t be right…….”
The front row of business class.
It was a seat that carried more symbolic weight than most realized.
Traditionally, it was allocated to the ace of the national team in international competitions.
Yet right now, the entire Heavenly Demon Cult team occupied those seats.
Which meant—
‘They’re treating the Heavenly Demon Cult as the national team’s ace……?’
The realization hit Seo Jae-won like a thunderbolt, and he burst out shouting.
“Who in the hell arranged these seats like this?”
“Me. You bastard.”
A thick, gravelly voice came from directly behind Seo Jae-won.
Seo Jae-won spun around in shock.
A stocky man with piercing axe-like eyes stood before him.
Jo Ho-jin—Kraft’s director and vice-chairman of the Korean Capsule Association.
More importantly, he was also the team captain of this national representative squad.

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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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