I Gave Up Being Stronger

‘It’s my Black Flame Dragon’s turn to go rampage, and you’re trying to take the spotlight away from me?’ Cha Jin-Hyeok glanced up and noticed that Ilina was now just three meters above him.

“Sir Chul-Soo, grab my hand,” Ilina said.

Chul-Soo remained silent, pretending not to hear her, but it was futile; Ilina was now close enough to touch him.

“Sir Chul-Soo! Grab my hand!” she repeated.

Again, silence followed. Jin-Hyeok’s mind was in turmoil, grappling with how to deal with this assassin.

‘Why is she acting like this? She seemed so understanding before, but now she’s acting all clueless! Did another Streamer pay her to assassinate my content? If not, why is she like this?’

“You’re too young to die! Cherish your life!” she exclaimed with a desperation that transcended urgency, appearing entirely determined to save him.

‘Oh? Does she know more about livestreaming than I thought? Is that why she’s doing this?’

He now understood it more clearly. After all, being only a spectator to a situation from above could not portray the same level of tension as one created by actually participating in it. Jin-Hyeok guessed this was an advanced tactic to engage the audience by purposely frustrating them.

‘I guess Players from the Arvis Server know how to make a livestream spectacular even if they aren’t Streamers.’ Jin-Hyeok again thought about how the Arvis Server was the strongest in the universe. ‘Her expression is genuinely intense. She is very skilled at this.’

Ilina was not even a professional Streamer, yet she was showing such dedication to the performance. Jin-Hyeok needed to respond to her appropriately.

“I refuse,” Jin-Hyeok said.

“Why?!” Ilina thought Jin-Hyeok was just being prideful. “I understand you might not want my help now, but shouldn’t we at least survive first to talk about why?”

“No.” Jin-Hyeok firmly shook his head as boiling lava loomed directly before him. The climax of the scene was imminent.

“This isn’t the time to show your pride!” Ilina shouted.

“It’s not about pride.” Jin-Hyeok walked toward the lava. “It’s the weight of the crown I must bear.”

Jin-Hyeok was thrilled about his line. He genuinely felt an immense weight on him as the live viewership count surpassed two billion again. With a theatrical flair, he slowed down time around him by using Time-Lapse Recording for a more dramatic effect, while his editor, Kang Chul, added a slow-motion effect to the scene.

-Holy shit!

-They’re going to die!

-No, don’t worry. This isn’t our first rodeo.

-We’ve been through this too many times. Why are you acting like a newcomer?

-Can’t you guys feel the tension? Chul-Soo is in crisis now!

The viewers of Wang Yu-Mi’s channel were ablaze with excitement. Online communities were flooded with keywords like ‘Chul-Soo’s death’ or ‘Chul-Soo’s suicide.’

-Look at Ilina’s expression. Does she look like she’s joking right now?

-It’s all staged. Trust me.

-How could it not be?

-If that’s staged, Ilina should become an actress right now.

Ilina was known for being expressionless, which only fueled the speculations about the authenticity of the crisis.

-This isn’t the usual Ilina.

A trending search for the usual Ilina showed up online.

-There are only pictures of her smoking nonchalantly.

-That’s the real Ilina.

As the viewers learned more about her personality, more of them believed this could truly be a dire situation.

-No way!

-Someone please stop Chul-Soo!

-Stop what? Can’t you see it’s already in slow-mo? He would have reached her hand by now in real time.

As online communities continued to simmer with excitement, Jin-Hyeok’s livestream viewership soared to 2.2 billion in no time. The experts who had been predicting a plateau in Chul-Soo’s explosive growth were embarrassed at their miscalculations.

-Please… T_T

-Protect our Chul-Soo at all costs. T_T

-Could this really be his final livestream?

-Thank you for loving Chul-Soo’s livestream till now.

***

Ilina bit her lip as Chul-Soo’s words resonated deeply with her.

“The weight of the crown I must bear…” she repeated what Chul-Soo had said. ‘He is too young!’

Chul-Soo’s growth was unparalleled, and his abilities were formidable. But he lacked experience and wisdom. That was why she was surprised that such a young man already understood the burden he had to bear and accepted it humbly.

‘I wouldn’t have been able to act like him in such a situation,’ Ilina thought. If she were in Chul-Soo’s place at this moment, she would have been furious. Anyone but a fool would have realized that the Mages had abandoned and betrayed them. ‘Yet Chul-Soo isn’t blaming anyone.’

This realization made her ashamed. Ilina wondered about what she had learned in the magic tower where she studied. She wanted to learn magic to broadly benefit humanity, but now, she wasn’t sure if her magic was truly benefiting humanity.

‘If I were Chul-Soo, I would have cursed this era and my origins, drowning my sorrows in alcohol.’ Yet, Chul-Soo was handling his responsibilities more honorably than anyone else, silently walking toward an all-too-obvious demise. ‘He’s too valuable to die here.’

She couldn’t let this young hero die here, especially because this situation wasn’t his fault but the Mages’ machinations—he was a victim of their vile political strife.

“Sir Chul-Soo, I wish your crown to become even heavier,” Ilina said. She believed in Jin-Hyeok’s boundless potential. The crown he bore was already heavy, but this was just the beginning. She wondered how much heavier his crown would become in the future. “This is not the time for you to give up.”

Ilina stood in front of Jin-Hyeok, intending to warp him to safety.

‘It would be great if I could go with him, but that would be asking too much,’ Ilina thought. A powerful magical field was surrounding the area. Even sending Jin-Hyeok away would be very difficult. ‘At least, my end will not be meaningless. Live and let your flower bloom fully in my stead. You’re worthy of it, Chul-Soo. I am sorry that the privileged can’t help you.’

***

Jin-Hyeok swiftly pulled Ilina toward him with such speed that she did not have time to react. Unable to activate her warp, she tumbled backward.

“Sir Chul-Soo!” she said. ‘He can’t let go of his pride till the end!’

Eventually, the lava reached Jin-Hyeok.

‘Damn it! Will I not be able to save him? Am I, with my own hands, going to mercilessly crush this budding hero? How will I be able to live with this guilt in the future?’ Ilina thought. However, something odd had happened. ‘What?’

The lava did not engulf Jin-Hyeok. Instead, when it touched his right hand, it immediately split into two around him as if his hand were a massive rock placed in the middle of a waterfall.

‘What’s… going on?’ Ilina sat down, looking at Jin-Hyeok’s back and the surroundings. ‘It’s like I’m surrounded by a sea of lava.’

The miraculous thing was that the environment wasn’t hot. They didn’t have trouble breathing either. In a place where her skin should be melting off, everything was surprisingly normal. Only the massive flow of lava before her felt unreal.

‘The lava… He’s controlling it to flow in two directions.’ Clearly, he was staging the lava to flow as broadly and forcefully as possible. ‘Is he doing that with Absolute Barrier?’

Acting as the central axis, Jin-Hyeok appeared to have implemented Absolute Barrier in long diagonal lines on either side, creating a ‘∧’ shape that would split the lava as widely as possible.

‘Why would he do something this inefficient?’ It was absurd that a Streamer could do this. Moreover, the way he used Absolute Barrier was far from conventional. She said, “Sir Chul-Soo, I hope you reduce Absolute Barrier’s range. This is too excessive.”

The mere human body couldn’t block such a catastrophe indefinitely. Chul-Soo had to maximize efficiency by extracting the most benefit from the least amount of energy. This method was extremely inefficient, wasting too much energy.

‘My voice isn’t reaching him,’ Ilina thought. Chul-Soo seemed to have entered a state of profound concentration. Ilina decided that it might not be good to disturb or provoke Chul-Soo while he was in that state. ‘Let’s see what I can do to help.’

***

Ultimately, Ilina was unable to help in any meaningful way. More precisely, there was no need for her to help at all.

‘He looks perfectly fine.’ she thought.

Initially, she had thought that Jin-Hyeok wouldn’t last more than about three minutes. However, even after hours, there was no sign of exhaustion on him.

‘I had no idea he had that much energy left.’

She had guessed that he had exhausted all his energy when he focused on attacking the mountain. It was a logical and proper judgment; even Vilsmark would have reached the same conclusion, were he there.

‘But why didn’t he summon the Thunder Dragon?’

If she were to think logically, too many things were incomprehensible. Chul-Soo could have escaped on the Thunder Dragon, and none of this would have happened.

‘Moreover… he’s climbing back up the mountain.’

Instead of merely enduring the lava, he was ascending against the flow of the lava. The sight of a human climbing through such a disaster was nothing short of miraculous.

‘Ah! Could it be that he gained a new insight in the face of imminent death?’ Ilina trembled as she placed a cigarette in her mouth. ‘Yes, Chul-Soo… You’re indeed worthy.’

Once someone reached a certain level, it was not uncommon for them to transcend through insight into a completely different being. It seemed that was the case with Chul-Soo now.

Puffing smoke, Ilina sighed in relief. After some time had passed, the lava that seemed like it would engulf the entire land disappeared, and the height of the rocky mountain significantly decreased. As the lava began to solidify, a sloped path formed ahead of them.

Pit, pat, pit, pat.

Heavy rain began to fall. The rain carried so much ash it was almost like black wastewater.

Drenched, Ilina laughed in exasperation. “Ha ha, ha ha ha, ha.”

She felt relieved that Jin-Hyeok was safe and that she was freed from the guilt that would have haunted her had he died. In many ways, it was all fortunate. She brushed back her wet hair and exhaled smoke.

‘If I hadn’t seen it, I would not have believed it,’ Ilina thought. Even if Chul-Soo had gained enlightenment, for a Streamer to do all that was unbelievable. She would never have believed such a heroic tale coming from someone else’s mouth.

“Congratulations on your enlightenment, Sir Chul-Soo,” Ilina said.

“Enlightenment?” Jin-Hyeok tilted his head. ‘I’ve gained enlightenment? Is this something that only an Arvis ranker can see? Did I miss something?’

“What enlightenment did I gain?” Jin-Hyeok asked.

Shin Yu-Ri, who had been in Jin-Hyeok’s arms, also landed on the ground. She too was curious about Jin-Hyeok’s enlightenment, as he had always been a beacon for her. Eager to see what new ideal he would reveal today, she felt her heart pound in anticipation.

“The enlightenment you gained while you managed to perform a miracle despite being so exhausted,” Ilina said. She brushed her wet hair back again and exhaled smoke. “You probably used Absolute Barrier so inefficiently to protect me when I was down, right, Sir Chul-Soo?”

Jin-Hyeok was speechless. ‘That wasn’t it. I just wanted to make it look more spectacular.’

During that scene, he had changed the perspective of the livestream from a first-person one to a third-person aerial shot. That made the scene of him splitting the lava much cooler.

Yu-Ri, who had been quietly listening, sensed something was off. ‘It seems like Ilina is misunderstanding something.’

She softly muttered, “It isn’t enlightenment; it’s most likely his raw physical ability…”