Episode 35
Office of Samyoung Trading Company in Gyeonggi-do.
A man was clutching his head in the nearly empty office, save for a few desks and three computers.
“You want me to worship him remotely? That crazy bastard… how dare he…!”
This man was Zhang Wei, dispatched from China to scout promising Korean players.
He was the one behind the ID ‘CH111’.
“A D-rank player…! I gave him 40,000 TP, and this is what I get!?”
Although Cheonma (Lee Kang-han) had shown some surprising feats, his status window still labeled him as D-rank.
Zhang Wei wouldn’t have poured such a large amount of funding into him if his superiors hadn’t shown keen interest in Cheonma.
Just as he was frowning and staring at the screen—
Ring ring.
His phone rang.
[Is this CH111’s handler, Zhang Wei?]
A calm female voice speaking Mandarin.
“Yes. Who is this?”
[This is Division 1014 of the Ministry of State Security.]
Zhang Wei’s face stiffened at the mention of Division 1014, part of China’s national intelligence agency.
Several new divisions had been created in response to the appearance of Towers worldwide, and Division 1014 was known for being the most powerful.
[We’ve received reports on your recent actions. Why did you fund Cheonma in that way?]
“W-Well…”
[You donated 10,000 TP, then acted disrespectfully. We spent a fortune supporting Cheonma, yet ended up tarnishing his impression of us.]
Zhang Wei bit his lip.
If he had simply split the TP into two 5,000 increments or given 10,000 and asked him to reveal his traits, Lee Kang-han would have responded properly.
But Zhang Wei had promised 10,000 more if he revealed something, then ghosted him.
He eventually confirmed that Cheonma was still D-rank and decided not to waste more TP on a terminal case.
“How could I have known he’d get promoted to D-rank…”
Grinding his teeth—
[Bow to him. Now.]
“Excuse me…?”
[Fix what you broke. This is an order.]
“I… understand.”
He had no choice but to obey.
“Why does HQ care so much about this guy? What makes Cheonma so special? Even if he rose to D-rank, it’s not like he’s irreplaceable…”
Still confused—
“Cheonma Cheonse, Manma Angbok…”
He bowed before the screen.
Ding!
[‘CH111’ has worshipped Cheonma.]
Cheonma’s chat window lit up with a bright red message.
“It actually updates in real time…?”
Zhang Wei hadn’t expected a message to pop up immediately.
[Oh? He really did it?]
Lee Kang-han looked surprised on screen.
[You actually went through with it. Well then, let’s forget the past. Thanks again for the support, CH111.]
Zhang Wei sighed in relief.
Just as he started to think the issue was resolved—
Ding.
A message arrived on his phone.
[Cheonma is a subject of direct interest by Division 1014. Keep that in mind and stay away.]
[From now on, we will handle contact with Cheonma directly.]
Even though the worship was done and forgiveness granted, another warning came.
Division 1014 was taking Cheonma very seriously.
“They’re stepping in personally?”
Zhang Wei turned off his monitor in frustration—
“I have to find out why HQ is so fixated on him.”
Beep.
He turned the monitor back on and started monitoring Cheonma’s channel again.
There—
[‘Caffenam12’ has worshipped Cheonma.]
And others.
“What the—why are all these people worshipping him?”
Zhang Wei was shocked, but so was Lee Kang-han himself.
Just moments ago:
[You’ve received worship from a fellow human.]
[It contains no fear. The effect of ‘Cheonma Cheonse Manma Angbok’ is reduced.]
[This is a non-face-to-face worship. Effectiveness is reduced to 0.01%.]
[Cooldown time of ‘Heavenly Demon Divine Art’ has not decreased.]
“Not even a second shaved off, huh.”
Lee Kang-han laughed.
“So it’s calculated that precisely.”
“I’ll need a huge number of worshippers to make it worth it.”
Getting worshippers in this era would be tough.
Meanwhile—
“CH111 actually bowed lol”
“I’m more surprised that a worship message popped up.”
“Has any other player had system messages like this?”
“Is this guy playing a different game?”
“What does worship even do?”
Then the chat started getting wild:
“I’m gonna try it too lol”
“My username might show up if enough people do it”
“You’re bowing just to see your ID on screen? lol”
“He destroyed a Tower for us. A bow is nothing. It’s free.”
Suddenly, dozens more worship messages appeared.
[‘Caffenam12’ has worshipped Cheonma.]
“Wh-What is this?”
Lee Kang-han was bewildered.
[You now have over 100 worshippers.]
[Non-face-to-face worship efficiency increased to 0.1%.]
“Whoa, it jumped.”
Still, no cooldown decrease yet.
But the system scaling gave him hope.
“I didn’t think so many people would do ‘Cheonma Cheonse Manma Angbok’… Thanks?”
“lolol”
“He’s just as shocked as we are”
“Who’d expect people to actually do it”
“When this many people join, expect some weirdos”
“So what does worship actually do?”
Lee Kang-han answered:
“It reduces the cooldown of Heavenly Demon Divine Art. Right now it’s negligible, but the more worshippers I have, the more effective it gets.”
“Cooldown reduction?! Whoa!”
“If the whole world bows, infinite skill spam lol”
“That’d be crazy broken”
“The skill is already OP when he uses it…”
Soon, the worshipper count passed 300.
“Didn’t ask for this, but I won’t complain.”
“Out of a million viewers, I guess a few eccentric ones are expected.”
Then, from the side:
“Cheonma-nim! May I harvest this serpent?”
The goblin chief who had mined gold from the lizardmen looked at the giant snake’s corpse with glittering eyes.
“Tsk, Cheonma. This guy was skimming gold.”
From behind him, Karana appeared.
“W-What are you talking about!?”
“I saw you. While carving the lizardmen, you hid gold dust in one of your filthy horns.”
She pointed toward his groin.
Indeed, a faint golden glimmer was visible on one horn.
“T-That’s just gold dust too small to convert to TP! I was just storing it—!”
“Nah, it was shiny.”
“You elf wench! Don’t slander me!”
“What did you say? ‘Elf’? Take that back!”
They bickered.
Lee Kang-han observed silently and asked:
“So, did you or didn’t you?”
“J-Just some dust too small for TP… That’s all!”
Then, he offered all the gold he had mined.
Lee Kang-han touched it—
[You have received 500 TP.]
“Nice bonus, but not a big deal today.”
The massive donations today overshadowed it.
He looked at the goblin chief.
“What’s the deal with your horn and gold?”
“The more gold my horns absorb, the stronger I become.”
“Huh.”
An odd guy, indeed. Neutered, yet he had three horns… stronger than most goblins and even revived after death.
“Alright. Don’t tribute the gold anymore. Use it to strengthen yourself.”
“R-Really?!”
“Yeah.”
THUD! THUD!
“Cheonma Cheonse! Manma Angbok!”
The chief repeatedly bowed his head in thanks.
“Tsk. But he did skim gold.”
“It was dust, not worth TP. Let’s forgive him once.”
“Cheonma-nim…”
Tears welled in the chief’s eyes.
“Never thought I’d see a goblin chief cry lol”
“Hard to believe that’s the same boss who skinned me last week”
“He’s lenient today ‘cause of all the TP he got lol”
“Fair enough, he’s swimming in donations”
Then Lee Kang-han pointed to the snake’s corpse.
“Carve that up, then follow me. We’re clearing the Tower now.”
“Yes, sir!!”
As the chief rushed to the body—
“Time to move. I’ve done all I can on TowerTube.”
“Let’s go.”
When he got serious—
“Wait, I just went to the bathroom—how is he already on the 9th floor?”
“Didn’t even use the skill, and he’s this fast”
“Lizardmen got stomped instantly lol”
“Even the elf can’t keep up”
He crushed through the Tower easily.
The giant snake, which normally chased players, had been killed beforehand and never reappeared.
“This Iron-type map is a breeze.”
Having cleared it quickly, and with the snake dead, he hoped for an SSS+ rating.
But—
[Iron Tower No.16 result being tallied…]
[Cleared in under 1 hour.]
[Defeated 80% of encountered lizardmen.]
[Clear Rating – S]
“S?”
Not what he expected.
