Chapter 10- star 3

Choi Kang-sik bypassed the battlefield. On his left shoulder, a camera; in his right hand, a massive door. Even with such cumbersome heavy equipment, his speed was incredibly fast.

Thud!

“Mooooo!”

Flash!

“Mooooack!”

In the distance, the Buffalok herd and the psychics were fiercely clashing. Chaos, intertwined with explosions and screams, enveloped Gimpo Airport. Choi Kang-sik remarked nonchalantly, “Viewers, don’t worry. MS Kim So-yoon and Mr. Han Jo-seop are veteran heroes who have protected South Korea. They’ll do just fine, surely. You should worry about me more than them… Oh! Thank you for the donation!”

Even if the MS were in danger, Choi Kang-sik had no intention of helping. A Buffalok with 8 buffs was incredibly strong. The power of 1-star monsters combined into one! Increased health, increased intellect, increased physical resistance, increased cold resistance, increased flame resistance, increased electrical resistance, increased gravity resistance. And the most annoying one…

‘Increased size.’

The world suddenly grew dark.

“Moooooo!!!”

A monstrous roar that made the ground tremble. A buffalo with multicolored rainbow fur covered the sky. And that wasn’t all.

Swoosh!

The creature continuously grew larger with the stacked buffs sent by its comrades. Was it because of the large herd size? Choi Kang-sik couldn’t even guess how much larger that Buffalok, receiving concentrated buffs, would grow. Still, he casually shrugged.

“Well, they’re veteran heroes, so they’ll surely handle it well.”

“Moooooo!!!”

Thump-thump-thump…

The air violently vibrated.

“…Maybe they’ll need a little support?” Choi Kang-sik, massaging his ringing eardrums, quickened his pace.

[A certain God watches seriously]

‘Why suddenly serious?’ Choi Kang-sik couldn’t help but chuckle at this word, so utterly unsuited to these free-spirited gods. He flinched, quickly fixing his expression. He was on broadcast, after all.

“Ahem! Many of you must be wondering why I’m carrying this large door instead of an iron pipe. So, a small event! I’ll give a small prize to the first person to guess the purpose of this shield. First come, first served!”

• To stab the monster with the edge of the door?
• It's obviously a shield. -.-
• You're going to change the answer because you don't want to give a prize, aren't you? Hmph!
• The answer is in here! O.O+

Comments began to stream in. They refreshed at an incredible speed, but it was no problem for Choi Kang-sik, who had been trained by the gods’ incessant messages all night. ‘I wasn’t just doing MS manager work for nothing.’ He carefully checked all comments while running. Since he specified ‘first come, first served,’ he couldn’t miss a single one. Unexpectedly, he found the answer quickly.

“We have a winner! Camouflage! The ID is Thumbelina. Congratulations! Buffaloks have poor frontal vision due to their facial structure. Furthermore, they suffer from severe astigmatism. If you hide your body like this and approach from the front, they’ll mistake you for terrain.”

Choi Kang-sik hid behind the airplane door. He moved boldly in that state! From the front, any movement that might suggest a ‘person’ couldn’t be detected. It was unavoidable that the door would appear slightly larger or smaller depending on the perspective, but even this wasn’t understood at all due to their severe nearsightedness. No, they were just plain stupid.

“Moo.”

The Buffalok, having applied buffs to its comrades fighting at the front, leisurely grazed in the rear. It would never have been this relaxed if it had noticed a human approaching. The viewers went wild.

• They really can't see? =S;;;
• XX, is this broadcast always like this? lololol
• You could film a documentary. :-)

Few people knew about this blind spot. This was because verified guidebooks instructed hunters to ‘snipe’ Buffaloks. They only taught the easy way. Was that why? Choi Kang-sik wore a very surprised expression. He had expected it would take longer for someone to find the correct answer.

‘Thumbelina… is she a princess complex?’ Anyway, she was a very unique viewer.

“Congratulations. If you leave your address and contact information in a private message, I’ll send you a Buffalok horn as a gift, Thumbelina. Of course, that’s if I don’t die here. Please understand that.”

The 1-star monster, Buffalok. Normally, it looked like a pure white buffalo. Its size was about that of a small yellow bus that transported kindergarteners. Without receiving buffs from its kin, it was just a large buffalo.

‘Though its vitality is tenacious.’

The Buffalok’s core was located between its eyes. Choi Kang-sik, an incompetent person who couldn’t use psychic powers, had no way to destroy it from a distance. That’s why he approached.

‘My original plan’s roles are completely reversed.’ The two MS were diligently acting as decoys in his place.

• Thumbelina: I'll look forward to it. *^^

A private message appeared in the chat. The address provided by the winner was in the innermost central area of Seoul, known as the safest place in South Korea.

‘Yeouido…’ An upper-class neighborhood with astronomical land prices.

‘Well, that’s none of my business.’ He stopped trying to guess the viewer’s personal information. At least the address wasn’t Jeju Island or overseas, right? Saved on delivery fees.

“Moving on to the next…” Having secured the winner’s address and contact information, Choi Kang-sik bent his upper body and knees to gain momentum.

‘If one hit isn’t enough, then two.’ The distance was almost touching the Buffalok’s head. He still found the monster’s head structure, which hadn’t noticed his presence, highly questionable, but it wasn’t a problem for Choi Kang-sik to worry about.

“Munch, munch.” The Buffalok lowered its head to graze.

Thump!

The young man, judging the monster to be within range, leaped like lightning. He lifted the door, which had been serving as camouflage, with both hands.

• XX, I was right!
• Camouflage my ass! It's totally a blunt weapon. lol
• It's a shield. Shields were used as weapons in the Middle Ages!
• MS is selling snake oil. >0<

A torrent of protest comments from viewers rained down on the camera, which had been unceremoniously dumped in the bushes without warning. But Choi Kang-sik wasn’t about to stop for that.

Crack.

He slammed the edge of the airplane door into the Buffalok’s forehead. The core, more important than its heart and brain, took the impact.

“Mooooo?!”

The slow-witted buffalo, calmly grazing, let out a startled shriek.

“As expected!”

He knew it wouldn’t end with one hit. Choi Kang-sik gave the Buffalok no time to react. Since he hadn’t expected it to end in one hit anyway, he immediately went for the second blow.

Squish.

The skull, already precarious from the first surprise attack, was deeply caved in.

“Mooooo…!”

The Buffalok shook its head from side to side, trying to dislodge the human, then raised its head high and roared.

Thud.

That was the monster’s last death throe. The 1-star monster, its core damaged, collapsed in the bushes.

“Moooo…”

The large eyes that had glared at the ambushing human one last time lost their focus. Its movement stopped.

‘D-dangerous!’

Choi Kang-sik wiped his chest in relief. If he hadn’t finished it with the second blow, he would have been defeated in turn. Anyway, success. He immediately resumed managing his expression.

“…Haha! This went according to my plan as well. The shield protecting the monster’s core can be compared to a sandbag. A gun is more threatening than a shovel, but bullets can’t penetrate a sandbag, right? This is the same principle.”

Humanity’s advanced weaponry was powerless against the core’s shield. The exceptions were primitive direct attacks like this. And psychic powers, which were similar in nature to the shield and could pass through it without repulsion. The scientific principle was still being explained. It would probably be better for one’s mental health to just understand it as occult.

‘This is not good at all.’ Choi Kang-sik viewed the situation pessimistically. At this rate, it would take ages to take them down. He didn’t think MS Kim So-yoon and Han Jo-seop would last that long. What if they retreated? He would be isolated by the Buffalok herd and as good as dead! Taking down one 1-star monster like this didn’t make a dent. He had only removed one of dozens of stacked buffs. There was no answer like this.

[A certain God reheats sweet potatoes]

[A hasty certain God is very frustrated]

‘No, I’m the one who’s frustrated!’ It was too obvious what would happen if he aired a broadcast where he abandoned the MS and fled! There was no breakthrough visible. Knowledge was meaningless if there was no way to implement it. His firepower against the monsters was insufficient, far too insufficient.

“A means, a means is needed…”

[A certain God makes a serious decision]

[Donation received]

“Hmm?”

Choi Kang-sik’s movements, as he searched for a better weapon than the door’s edge, abruptly stopped. His eyes narrowed.

‘Donation?’

He rubbed his eyes and looked again, but the message content hadn’t changed.

“What did I receive, exactly…?”

Something sparkled in the dead Buffalok’s opened mouth. Choi Kang-sik’s eyes lit up in unison.