The Rice-Eating Hero’s Capitalist Streaming - Chapter 102

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

The Capitalist Streaming of a Freeloading Hero

Episode 102

Constellation’s Game [Lyka]

With a majestic orchestral melody, a breathtaking battlefield unfolded beyond the CRT screen.

A massive shield deflected a monster’s front paw, and sword light flashed through the pitch-black void.

A dramatic montage of pouring flame magic and falling beasts quickly flashed by, then a brilliant golden logo slammed down on top of it.

[ HUNTER’S SCHOOL SEASON 3 ]

[ Coming up, the beginning of a legend! ]

But that wasn’t the start of the actual broadcast yet. As soon as the logo disappeared, instead of tension-building BGM, a cheerful CM song began along with a parade of advertisements.

On screen, a famous ranker was roaring while drinking an energy drink, but the gazes of the family gathered in front of the TV anxiously moved between the screen and the table.

The living room table was practically groaning under the weight.

A large portion of pig’s feet glistening with oil, and two freshly fried chickens emanating a savory aroma.

Plus sweet and sour naengmyeon and french fries piled up like a mountain.

It was too luxurious for an ordinary South Korean household’s Tuesday evening dinner, a solemn feast reminiscent of a celebration day.

“Ahem, hmm.”

And in front of this elaborate spread, Taechul Lee, the head of this household, was gripping the remote like a lifeline and breaking out in cold sweat.

“Why are the commercials so long? It should start right at 9 o’clock sharp, but they’re dragging it out.”

He was nervously shaking his leg while pressing the button with his thumb, afraid the channel might change.

“Dad, there’s still more than 10 minutes left before it starts. You don’t need to be glued there from now.”

Despite Siyul’s scolding, Taechul couldn’t let go of the remote.

“Our princess doesn’t understand. You see, with things like this… you have to watch from the previews to establish dominance. Flow is important, flow.”

“What flow…”

He picked up a piece of chicken radish and ate it, pretending to be relaxed as he added:

“You know Dad’s analysis skills, right? During the last World Cup, I perfectly predicted the substitution timing! If the coach had listened to me, we would’ve made the semifinals!”

His words flowed smoothly, but his hand gripping the remote was trembling slightly.

In truth, Taechul had absolutely no knowledge about hunter variety shows.

Since he usually only watched morning dramas and sports games, there was no way he could know what hunter variety shows were like.

He simply didn’t want to show his family the complex emotions in his heart.

‘Phew.’

Taechul’s stomach had been churning a lot lately whenever he thought about his son.

No matter that he was thirty-six years old, in his heart, his son was still no different from a fresh graduate job seeker…

It was heartbreaking to see the kid who had miraculously returned after 10 years not acting spoiled, but instead calculating loan interest rates as soon as he arrived.

‘Foolish boy. Just rest and have fun for a while. Dad will somehow handle things, so what’s the rush…’

The 20 million won he had casually given him, saying it was appearance fees, was still sitting untouched in the bank account.

Rationally, he knew he should use this money to pay off at least one overdraft account, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it.

So Taechul had no choice but to suppress his surging feelings of guilt and pride by pretending to be even more cheerful and putting on a show.

Toward such a husband, his wife Juyeon Kim scolded him.

“Aren’t you worried, honey?”

“Worried about what! What kind of people do you think the broadcasting station folks are? Would they air it if it was really dangerous? That’s all CG, CG!”

“Oh my, I hope our Geonyul doesn’t get hurt…”

“Geez, would you brighten up that expression?”

Siyul, who was crumpled in the corner of the sofa looking at her smartphone, was shaking her head at her parents’ conversation.

‘Really. The two of them are complete opposites.’

Father Taechul Lee, who pretended to be calm and hearty on the outside, but clearly had about a truckload of worry piled up in his heart.

And mother Juyeon Kim, who should be somewhat worried, but actually wasn’t that serious about it.

[Breaking News] Today’s gold prices surge due to preference for safe assets…

Watching her mother, who claimed to be worried about her son but had her eyes fixed on the small news ticker flowing at the bottom of the TV, Siyul let out a deep sigh.

But that was only momentary.

Siyul’s gaze was drawn back to her smartphone screen.

While her family was distracted by their son’s safety and gold prices, she was facing the greatest dilemma of her life.

[Seonghwan Lee (Shield Warrior)] vs [Park Jinwoo (Healer)]

Looking back and forth at the profile photos of the two men displayed on screen, Siyul was caught in serious internal conflict.

‘Ugh… in terms of visuals and physique, no matter how I look at it, Seonghwan is saving the nation.’

Seonghwan Lee’s sturdy shoulders that seemed ready to burst out of his uniform. Leaning against those would feel safe even if the world collapsed.

But.

‘Jinwoo’s sorrowful eyes… they keep getting stepped on.’

A healer overflowing with sickly beauty who looked like he might collapse at any moment.

This was also nothing short of a cheat key that stimulated maternal instincts.

So today’s broadcast was extremely important to Siyul.

After watching this broadcast, the companion for her first-ever hunter fangirl life would be decided.

Just as Siyul was solemnly steeling her resolve.

“It’s starting! It’s starting! Hey, be quiet!”

“Nobody was talking, Dad.”

Taechul Lee made a commotion as he perched on the edge of the sofa…

And at the same time, the boring commercials ended and the TV screen went black, then once again a majestic logo song filled the living room.

[ HUNTER’S SCHOOL SEASON 3 ]

[ Episode 1. Entrance Ceremony ]

* * *

Meanwhile, at that moment.

On the opposite side of Seoul, in a cramped one-pyeong studio apartment in Sinrim-dong Gosiwon, storm clouds were also gathering.

Clack clack, tap! Clack!

In the darkened room, three monitors—the only light sources—cast a bluish glow on Mincheol Park’s glasses.

His gaze shone as sharply as a commander looking down at enemy territory.

The left monitor showed the 【Hunters Lounge】 integrated bulletin board, the right had a video frame analysis program, and the center had a high-definition streaming player.

It was a perfect three-screen setup for ‘sniping.’

Hiss—

Gulp.

After downing an energy drink with near-lethal caffeine content in one go, he roughly wiped the liquid from his lips and smiled coldly.

“Alright, let’s go.”

The bulletin board already had thousands of comments being posted in real-time under the title ‘Pre-broadcast Waiting Room.’

Among them, what stood out quite a bit were…

Praise posts from the so-called ‘Daekkae-geon (Die-hard Geonyul fans)’ who had high expectations for Geon-ryul Lee’s performance shown in the teaser video.

Mincheol snorted.

‘Foolish idiots. They don’t even know they’re being played by the broadcasting station’s editing.’

A level 35 underdog hard-carrying an elite wave?

Physically, no, systematically impossible.

The teaser video could deceive with short cut editing and flashy CG, but they couldn’t maintain that fraud in a full-length live broadcast.

Mincheol’s fingers danced brilliantly over the blue switch keyboard. He opened a notepad file he had prepared in advance.

[Title: (Live) Level 35 Bubble Burst Scene Live Coverage. No rebuttals accepted.]

‘Broadcasting station bastards, and part-timer bastards. Know that you won’t even be able to pick up your bones after my fact bombing today.’

Mincheol was never a simple troll.

He was more like… a ‘basement dark knight’ who judged falsehoods based on data.

Mincheol positioned his mouse cursor over the [Screen Capture] button and held his breath.

“I’m going to tear apart that ‘rigging’ frame by frame, down to the nano level today.”

A single mistake, just one second of clumsiness.

The moment that was captured, the bubble called Geon-ryul Lee would burst at Park Mincheol’s fingertips.

And finally.

The blackout on the screen lifted, and the countdown pointed to 0.

* * *

Along with that majestic orchestral sound, the panoramic view of ruined Seoul unfolded on the screen.

Collapsed high-rise buildings, blackened asphalt, and even N Seoul Tower reduced to bare skeletal remains.

But what drew the eye even more were the massive, grotesque chunks of ice covering this entire landscape.

Even the Han River’s flow was frozen solid into a giant ice rink, and bone-chilling blizzards were raging between the building forest.

Minus 40 degrees of bitter cold, a land of death where no warmth of life could be found. That was the stage for this 【Hunters School 3】 entrance mission, the virtual dungeon 【Frozen Seoul】.

“Wow, the scale is no joke.”

Siru muttered to himself and began getting more and more absorbed in the TV screen.

The claims of Heroic School anti-fans that only the teaser videos were high quality while the actual content would be different were being proven wrong from the start.

And the moment after the dungeon’s scenery passed across the screen once.

Boom-! Crash!

Along with BGM sound effects that were even more majestic than before, the spectacular show of so-called ‘protagonists’ – the championship candidates – began.

The first thing caught on screen was a man blocking an ice golem’s fist head-on with a massive shield.

[ ‘Iron Wall’ Seong-hwan Lee (Shield Warrior) ]

[ Hot tanking from the start! Is this the dignity of a championship candidate? ]

The subtitles came with flashy flame effects, and when Seong-hwan Lee shouted and pushed his shield forward, the house-sized monster staggered.

“Wow… insane.”

An exclamation burst out loud from Siru sitting on the sofa without him realizing it.

‘His physique… what the hell is this? His shoulders are just the Pacific Ocean? Is that a person or a monster? Wow, this is really hitting hard.’

As expected, the #1 ranking calls for ‘falling for him’ – he was watching the screen as if entranced.

From beside him came a crunching sound that broke the spell.

Father was chewing chicken radish with the most indifferent expression in the world.

“Tsk tsk. Siru, watch carefully. That’s what amateurs do.”

“…What?”

“If you use strength that crudely, how will you endure when you get tired later? Look, he’s already panting. Tsk tsk, that guy failed at pace control. He’s going to get eliminated in round 1.”

Siru almost let out a hollow laugh from disbelief.

‘Eliminated in round 1… when did our CEO Taechul Lee become so MZ?’

Father’s armchair expert mode that usually only came out when watching soccer… he never expected it to activate even for hunter variety shows.

A man who only knew hunters as the hunters who caught wild boars in the neighborhood back mountain was giving advice about Heroic School’s biggest rookie.

“Father… please.”

He had a lot to say… but swallowed the rest as much as possible.

Even if he said anything, our CEO Taechul Lee would find it hard to understand anyway.

‘Anyone can see he’s incredibly strong, so where’s the amateur part, really.’

Still, unable to hold back, he ended up adding one more comment…

“That’s not him being tired, it’s his skill cooldown running, you know?”

“Cool patches? Already hurting so he needs to apply patches?”

“Fatherrrr! Oh please!”

In the end, Siru, who couldn’t even break even, just crumpled back into the corner of the sofa.

‘Ugh, I should just watch the community real-time chat.’

Then, the screen switched and the next batter appeared.

Swish, swoosh―!

A nimble shadow racing like the wind between the ruined building forest.

Hajun Park’s play, gripping twin daggers in reverse and targeting only monsters’ vital points, was close to an action movie, no, art.

“Whoa, he tore it up.”

Siru’s eyes sparkled again.

‘Hajun Park’s visuals are pretty good too? How old is he? He looks young too…’

He casually asked Father again.

“Father, honestly you have to acknowledge that guy, right? Is he no good either?”     

Then Taechul flinched for a moment, then hurriedly lifted a chicken leg to cover his mouth.

Anyone could see he was clearly flustered.

“Huh? Ahem. Well… he is fast.”

“Right? At least that guy looks pretty cool, right?”

“No, no! He’s too light. A man should have substantial weight, flying around like a gnat like that. If he gets hit once, he’ll go flying. There’s no stability, no stability!”

Siru clicked his tongue inwardly.

‘…Wow, our father’s forced criticism is insane.’

According to Father’s miraculous logic… the tanker gets eliminated for being slow, the assassin gets eliminated for being light.

If a mage appeared, he’d probably criticize them saying a man should use his fists, not play with fire from behind.

He just wanted to say ‘our son is the best’ in the end.

‘I understand what you’re feeling, but your shield is too transparent.’

Like that, even after more than 10 minutes from the broadcast start, the TV screen was filled only with flashy fan-recruiting videos of ‘other families’ precious children.’

From the cold beauty Chloe Kang who melted ice walls with magic, to the mercenary who wielded a giant greatsword like a toothpick.

Every single one was a monster with inhuman-level visuals and skills.

And the more spectacular it became, the heavier the air in the living room grew.

There was exactly one problem.

“Siru. But when is your older brother going to appear?”

That’s right.

The fact that this household’s eldest son hadn’t shown even a trace yet… could be said to be the only problem with this broadcast right now.

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