3.

The number of people enjoying Eternal World had already surpassed two billion.

And if you included everyone who watched Eternal World videos on MeTube, you could say nearly four billion people enjoyed the game in some form.

In the midst of that, the hottest topic right now was none other than the live stream running on Rapid Guild’s channel.

Less than a minute after it started, there were already tens of millions of viewers connected.

The number, which was quickly approaching the previous record high of one hundred million, was downright astonishing.

Normally, an audience of that scale would be enough to make anyone feel immense pressure, but Mihael instead tried his best not to get nervous.

Which was why—

-Wow, I thought I was staring at Jjangu’s dad up close.

-Hael-hyung!!! Don’t shove your mug that close to the camera!!!

-Scared the crap out of me lololol

-Wow, my heart almost dropped.

-So scary......

-Phew, almost pissed myself;;;

Right from the start of the live, Mihael opened with a light prank.

And he did it in front of an audience already in the hundreds of millions.

Most of them could be considered new viewers.

But when the people who’d been watching Mihael and the Demon King together over the past few days bantered with him like that—

The new viewers didn’t really complain.

At most, there was a flood of chat messages saying how startled they’d been.

In any case—

“Ah, you’re saying I scared you all? I was scared too, you know!”

-??????

-What is he talking about?

-No but obviously we got scared, why are you scared???

When everyone spammed question marks at Mihael’s weird comment—

Mihael said,

“I see this face in the mirror every morning.”

-Aaak lololololololol

-lolol okay, that is worth getting scared over. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

-Born into the world and the face you get is Mihael’s?!

-That is terrifying! lololol

-This is killing me lololol

The viewers couldn’t help bursting into loud laughter.

Self-deprecating humor worked anywhere in the world.

People of various nationalities were happily enjoying it.

Even though they had come to see the Demon King, Mihael’s patter was charming them.

Of course, there were also some who whined, asking when the Demon King would show up.

Mihael ignored all that.

A show had to have structure.

Caving to whining and showing everything on demand was bad for the viewers’ habits.

Thinking that, Mihael began to move things along quickly.

“Before we introduce our Demon King and the backup teams, we have an announcement.”

-????What’s this?

-??????

-Announcement????

-We’ve never had something like that before, have we?

-Yeah, right???

Everyone was puzzled, but thanks to Mihael’s immersive speech, they focused in.

At the moment when everyone’s attention was gathered—

Mihael spoke.

“Our boss—no, our Demon King—told me to let you know about this. Things have been pretty noisy lately because of the Lord of Despair, right? The aura of despair spreading across the world. You all came to see that too, didn’t you, hehe. So aren’t you curious? Whether the Demon King knew about all this in advance or not?”

At Mihael’s words, the viewers naturally erupted.

He had brought up exactly what they were most curious about.

Of course they would react.

When you watched the streams of other rankers or single rankers, they’d all hide behind “that’s confidential” and refuse to talk.

But here he was, just laying it all out?

That kind of fresh shock rippled through the audience.

-He’s really saying it out loud????

-rly?

-Wow, seriously????

-Okay I’m holding my breath till he says it! inhale

-This man has passed away.

-lololol

Just as everyone’s expectations were peaking—

Mihael opened his mouth to speak.

“Our Demon King’s class is related to the various lords, which is why he first came into Mugan. But he apparently didn’t expect that meeting the Lord of Despair would end up harming the world like this. And with that, let’s move into our interview with the Demon King!”

As Mihael said that and pointed to one side, the camera swung toward Seong, who had been smiling as he watched Mihael’s hosting.

The sudden camera movement made Seong flinch mid-laugh, but—

The reaction was great.

-lolololol he’s stupid handsome.

-When he smiles he looks a bit boyish, he’s so cute ㅠㅠㅠ

-Opaa, take meee!!!

-He really is handsome.

-Right? lolol

-It’s ridiculous.

As everyone admired Seong’s looks like that—

When Seong started speaking a bit awkwardly as he looked at the camera—

The chat slowed down sharply.

They wanted to just take it in.

“Ahem, I really didn’t expect an event to appear across the entire world because of me, so first of all, I’m sorry. It feels a bit like I’ve caused trouble, even though I didn’t expect things to turn out like this either.”

-What trouble lololololol

-There’s an exp event now too, it’s festival mode lololol

-The Demon King is actually adorable lololol

-For real lololol

Everyone spammed chat saying it was fine.

But even so, Seong bowed his head to apologize, then continued.

“Anyway, my class is a dark mage-type that absorbs the powers of various lords, so in that sense, I’ll try absorbing the Lord of Despair with my power as well.”

Seong said it like it was nothing.

But in effect, he had just revealed the secret of his class.

The viewers couldn’t help being shocked as they watched him casually drop that.

-??????????

-He just dove right in, huh????

-Absorbs the powers of multiple lords?????????

-So that’s why he had multiple attributes showing????????

-How do you just drop a secret like that like you’re talking about what you had for lunch lololol

-This dude is a giga-chad lololol

-I can’t believe he’s just saying this on stream lololololol

-First time I’ve ever seen a stream like this lololol

People all around the world couldn’t help being stunned.

Not only were there no rankers who revealed secrets like that—

In the rare cases they did, it was only when their class rank was low enough that revealing it wouldn’t really cause problems.

But now, one of the most shrouded figures of all, the Demon King Seong, was revealing it this openly.

It was beyond refreshing—people were just dazed.

They watched and laughed, loving every second.

And then came something even more shocking.

“Now then, there’s something else we have to tell you.”

Before they had even recovered, Mihael jumped right back in.

What now?

In front of the expectant audience, Mihael read the next announcement.

“Now that we’re on a joint floor, we tallied up the rankings from yesterday, right? The backup team rankings were Luna’s team in first, Embris’s party in second, and Kyou’s party in third. But just because it’s a joint floor doesn’t mean there won’t be any more competition!”

At Mihael’s words, the viewers couldn’t help feeling confused.

How were they supposed to compete on a joint floor?

Then, some of the viewers suddenly caught on and started typing.

-???????

-How do you even compete?

-Oh? Wait, contribution score?

-Ah!!! There is contribution!!!

-So they’re going to rank by contribution?

-My dopamine levels are spiking lololol

-This is sick, it’s gonna be crazy fun.

Everyone chattered excitedly.

Mihael nodded, then panned the camera over Seong and the other backup teams.

Unlike the calm Luna team, Kyou’s party and Embris’s party were glaring at each other like they were ready to kill, while Seong simply stood between them with a faint smile on his face.

Showing them, Mihael said,

“That’s right. We’ll be ranking them by contribution. Since we can see contribution by team and by individual like this, I’ll handle the commentary and casting. And our Demon King will be judging fairly.”

As Mihael explained, the chat filled with messages of anticipation.

-This is gonna be insane lololol

-I mean I do want to see the Demon King’s overwhelming power, but this kind of competitive content is really fun too.

-lolol plus, everyone here fights really well so it’s even better

-fr, they’re on par with most first-stringers

-Who’s gonna win this time, I wonder?

-Though in this setup Luna’s team might be at a bit of a disadvantage.

-Oh, true.

Everyone argued over who would win and who’d be at a disadvantage.

Just as Seong had expected, the vast majority were excited about this matchup and watching with bated breath.

Seeing that, Seong nodded, pleased, and Mihael took that as his cue to move things along.

As if to announce that the competition was about to begin.

“Then let’s head down. Who will take first place!? Oh right, if you type ‘!vote’ in chat, you can vote on who’ll get first place and even predict second and third, so we’d love your participation! If you get it right, they say they’ll draw winners and give out Rapid Guild one-month subscriptions! You know what that means, right? With a sub, you can come into the stream for free for a whole month even without a live ticket.”

-Insane?????

-They’re giving out subs???

-How many people are getting them???

-Wow! 100,000 for first, 50,000 for second, 10,000 for third???

-They’re handing out subs to a total of 160,000 people?

-That’s a crazy amount of money????

-!vote

-!vote

-You have to vote for this, right???

-They’re even filtering dupes, this is pure value, please!!!

-Please!!!

At Mihael’s words, the viewers couldn’t help getting hyped.

Subscriptions had that kind of impact.

This live, too, could switch to paid ticket access at any time.

Everyone started voting like crazy, praying they would be chosen.

As he successfully drew out such a strong response, Mihael felt again that he was doing well, and Seong and the backup teams led the way down to the 97th floor.

What would appear this time?

Everyone braced themselves as they descended to the 97th floor.

And then a system message appeared, similar to the one they’d seen when they’d first gathered on the 96th floor.

[The Lord of Despair’s mind partially awakens.]

[On the 97th floor, the Lord of Despair’s Foot manifests.]

Before, it had been an eye, and now it was a foot.

It felt bizarre, but once again a gray foot appeared.

Just from looking at it, you could say it was a giant’s foot—it was a massive foot, two meters tall.

But only up to the ankle had formed, and unlike the eye, there were no tentacle-like appendages extending from it.

However, the ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ aura of despair it contained radiated an overwhelming intensity, and Seong stepped back as he watched it, then said to the backup teams,

“Begin.”

At Seong’s shout, the backup teams charged in at once.