When Seong said that, Kyou’s party, who had been in despair as if the Lord of Despair’s very body had manifested, and Embris’s party, who had been far too happy, both calmed down and nodded.

For now, everyone got out of Mugan and gathered in one place to hold a meeting.

Somehow, they ended up coming to Mihael’s party’s hideout.

But Mihael’s party themselves were sitting very politely, not between Seong and the backup teams, but a good distance behind them.

“Come on, Mihael hyung, and Lowell-nim, and Noar-nim, you should all come over here too.”

“A-ah, no. Somehow this spot just feels more suitable for us......”

“S-since we rode the bus, it feels a bit...... rude to sit together......”

“Y-yeah, it would be a bit shameless......”

Since they all said that, Seong could only shake his head as if there was nothing he could do.

Well, they were acting like that because they felt burdened.

Thinking it couldn’t be helped, Seong tried to go ahead and run the meeting.

The other backup teams also didn’t say anything more once Mihael’s team had gone that far.

They simply looked at Seong, focusing on the meeting.

“First of all, now that we’ll be doing things jointly from here on out, I think we should consider the content we’ve been doing up to now effectively finished.”

Everyone nodded at Seong’s words.

Now, even if they wanted to do competitive content, they couldn’t.

Rather—

“Now that we’re doing it jointly and will be getting synergy, I actually think it might be better.”

“I think so too.”

“The viewers’ reactions at the end of today’s stream were really good as well.”

The leaders of each team—Luna, Kyou, and Embris—also agreed and spoke up.

However—

“But is there anything you could really call ‘content’? It’ll just be us fighting together.......”

Luna said that a little anxiously, sounding cautious, and the others all nodded as if they agreed with that part.

It was true that just gathering and fighting was the content, so it felt like there might not be much they could do, but—

Seong was smiling slyly, as if he had an idea.

Then, when he met eyes with Mihael, who was sitting apart from where everyone else was gathered—

Mihael blinked at Seong as if to ask why he was looking at him, and Seong said,

“I was thinking it’d be good if Mihael hyung took charge as host. What do you think, hyung?”

“Huh? Me!?”

Mihael was startled at suddenly being called on.

And all the backup teams were now looking at Mihael, whom Seong had just named.

There was certainly a sudden surge of pressure, but rather than that, even though Mihael had been startled at first, his expression started to brighten considerably.

Which made sense, because they’d already been feeling like they weren’t doing much, so if they were given anything to do, they’d only be grateful.

On top of that, reaching the end of Mugan, which had been one of Mihael’s goals, would have been impossible if not for Seong, so doing nothing would have made him feel terribly guilty.

Seeing Seong asking him to handle at least something made his face light up.

As Seong looked at Mihael, asking how he felt—

Mihael looked at Seong, his face brightening, and said,

“If you’ll let me do it, I’ll really give it my all!”

“Hael-oppa really is good at hosting.”

“I-I think so too.”

Right beside Mihael, Lowell and Noar were cheering him on, saying he was good at it.

And the other backup teams began voicing similar opinions.

“It’s true—seeing you last time, you were really good at making the stream fun.”

“Your back-and-forth with the viewers and your banter were good too.”

“I think it’d be great.”

All three team leaders accepted it, and none of the team members really objected.

No, from the start, whose suggestion was this supposed to be—of course there wouldn’t be any pushback.

They were backup teams who were happy just to be streaming together with Seong in the first place.

Who did the hosting really didn’t matter much to them.

Of course, as backup teams, it was also nice that they could focus more on the fighting.

Either way, having a group dedicated purely to combat and another in charge of the stream was bound to be a huge advantage.

Especially—

“I really think you have a lot of talent when it comes to streaming, Mihael hyung. That’s why I wanted to ask you like this.”

“Ahh, it’s an honor for me.”

“In that case, we should do a rough briefing too.”

When Seong said that, everyone focused and looked at him.

Then Seong began a quick explanation.

“First off, Mugan has three lords related to my class sealed inside it. It’s known that the Lord of the Abyss, the Lord of Destruction, and the Lord of Despair are each sealed here.”

“Ahh, so that’s why.”

“The lower we went, the more bosses with those three attributes showed up, huh.”

“True enough......”

He didn’t explain the details of Overlord.

But he went on to give a brief explanation of why Mugan had been created and how it was structured.

Know yourself and know your enemy, and in a hundred battles you will never be in peril, after all.

After he said that much—

Seong spoke.

“We’ll probably end up facing those lords, but I have a few things I’m expecting, so I think we should be careful. In my opinion......”

With that, Seong shared what he was speculating about—what Nocturne had said about being wary of the Abyss, and what he’d felt from everything they’d seen so far.

And he talked about the aura of the Lord of Despair at the very end.

“For now, I’m the only one with resistance to the aura of despair the Lord of Despair gives off, so until we pass the 100th floor and before the lord fully appears, I won’t be directly participating in the battles as much as possible. °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° I’ll act more as cover so you can get used to the aura of despair.”

“You mean you’ll be acting in more of a covering role?”

“Yes, and I was wondering how you’d feel about bringing back the competitive content here.”

“Huh?”

“!!!”

“!!?”

At Seong’s words, Luna and the other three team leaders’ eyes lit up.

Come to think of it, if Seong stepped back, that meant the three backup teams would be stepping forward, and in other words—

“Contribution?”

“Yeah, I was thinking we could rank the teams by contribution score.”

At Luna’s words, Seong nodded and replied, and Kyou’s party and Embris’s party—aside from Luna’s team—both had their eyes light up.

Then they looked at each other, glaring as if sparks were flying between them.

The competitive content had been more popular than expected.

He’d brought it up because he thought instead of scrapping it entirely, they could keep it but change the format—

And seeing how excited everyone was about this direction made Seong happy.

And Mihael said,

“If it’s a piece of content where all three groups compete together, it’ll be easier to host too.”

“And it’ll definitely be simpler to commentate.”

“With contribution, as long as everyone’s grouped as one team from time to time, we can check it.”

The three members of Mihael’s team said that.

Right now the parties were split into four teams, but thanks to Mugan’s system, all four were being recognized as a single team, so it was nothing for Mihael to check everyone’s contribution.

The system allowed them to see contribution by team, and also individually.

It was a game, so in a way, that was only natural.

If they streamed it like that, there was no way it wouldn’t be a hit.

Seong would be the referee, Mihael’s team would handle commentary, and the other three teams would compete.

Wasn’t that a perfect picture? 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Right then, Rapid, who had been watching this meeting through the guild-only camera, also voiced agreement.

[Rapid - Looks like a really good idea. As expected of Seong.]

Now that they even had Rapid’s approval, what reason was there to hesitate?

The content was already polished to a very high level.

All that was left was to put it into action.

After deciding what time tomorrow they would start the stream and posting the announcement, everyone finally dispersed from the meeting.

They agreed to gather thirty minutes before going live tomorrow.

Just like that, Mihael’s party’s hideout, which had been buzzing with the meeting until just a short while ago, became far too quiet to call it a bustling conference room, and Mihael, who remained there, smiled.

He had never imagined he would be given such a big opportunity.

On top of that—

Rapid Guild!

Mihael’s entire team had been scouted by Rapid Guild.

Their combat skill was markedly inferior to the backup teams, but purely in terms of ability, they were still some of the top-tier players.

They might not be first string, but they could at least be considered 1.5-string, and on top of that, they had outstanding talent for streaming.

From Rapid’s perspective, there was no reason not to recruit them.

Thus Mihael’s team became fully affiliated with Rapid Guild.

 Meanwhile, not long after Rapid Guild’s stream ended—

Right when Seong was still in that meeting—

Something began to seep out of Mugan.

It was such a subtle aura that only NPCs wouldn’t be able to feel it, and even Seong would have had to focus to sense it—an elusive energy leaking out of Mugan.

As the aura of despair flowed out of Mugan and the Lord of Despair’s power gradually began to spread into the world, Assistant Manager Lee Won-sang, who checked the alert, simply stared at it blankly, blinking.

“......?”

Wondering what that was supposed to be, he watched.

Thanks to an on-screen label, he was barely able to figure it out.

As he saw it spread across the entire continent—no, even across to other continents—and watched the aura of despair being diffused throughout Eternal World and planted, in tiny amounts, in each boss—

Those bosses that absorbed the aura of despair began to grow stronger, one after another.

And bosses who had obtained the power of despair began to appear.

“What on earth is this.......”

Assistant Manager Lee Won-sang, dumbfounded, staring in disbelief, hurriedly called Event Team Leader Baek Jiwoo.

After the ringtone sounded through the receiver for a bit, Baek Jiwoo picked up, and Assistant Manager Lee Won-sang urgently asked,

“I-is this some kind of global event?”

-What? What event?

“Right now it says ‘power of despair,’ and some bosses are getting buffed...... isn’t this a major event?”

-W-what are you talking about??? Don’t say creepy stuff like that.

At Lee Won-sang’s words, Team Leader Baek Jiwoo spoke in a shaky voice, sounding nervous.

And when Baek Jiwoo checked it—

-Aaagh! W-what is this!? What is this aura of despair even supposed to be......???

“......So you don’t know either, Team Leader?”

As Assistant Manager Lee Won-sang said that—

Before long, a summons came from Chairman Park Won.

[Event Team Leader Baek Jiwoo, please report to the chairman’s office immediately.]

-......Ah.

Assistant Manager Lee Won-sang was just about to silently offer a moment of prayer for Team Leader Baek Jiwoo’s soul.

However—

[User Management Team Assistant Manager Lee Won-sang, please report to the chairman’s office immediately.]

“......Ah.”

Somehow, he had ended up in exactly the same situation.