Disaster-Level Player Is Too Good at Broadcasting-Chapter 58: « How Stars Spice Up A Broadcast! [3] »

The portal hissed behind him, the gold light of the 7th floor fading into a bruised, sickly purple.

Kang Min stepped onto the Scalding Tidal Flats, and the first thing he felt was the heat.

Below his boots, the ground was a crust of salt and minerals, white and brittle.

Every few seconds, a low, rhythmic thud echoed from the horizon.

The sound of the acid sea beating against the distant cliffs.

​『8TH FLOOR — THE SCALDING TIDAL FLATS』

『[TRIAL]: THE LONG WALK OF THE UNTOUCHABLE.』

『[MISSION]: REACH THE [SPIRE OF LIFE] AT THE HORIZON.』

『[CLEAR CONDITIONS]: SURVIVE THE THREE CYCLES OF THE SENTIENT TIDE.』

『[FAILURE]: DISSOLUTION.』

’In the Old World, this floor was a slaughterhouse.

We spent four days huddled on obsidian pillars, watching the acid rise inch by inch.

We lost a scout because a single drop of spray melted through his leather boot...it was so terrifying...’

He looked at the vast, empty expanse of the flats.

In the distance, the Spire of Life stood like a needle of white bone, mocking everyone stuck in the toxic soup below.

"Welcome to Floor 8."

Min said, his voice carrying that bored, arrogant edge that his viewers loved.

"Most people come here with a year’s supply of anti-corrosion potions and a prayer.

Personally? I think prayers are for people who don’t know how to use their hands."

『[Viewer_77]: Here he goes again. Direct and disrespectful. I love it.』

『[Slayer_Official]: Floor 8 is no joke, man. That acid eats through Grade-B steel in minutes.』

『[Small_Change_Goblin] Has Donated 1,000 coins through Superchat: You’ll lose a toe in the first tide!』

Kang Min opened his palms as a sword materialized and he reached for the hilt.

As his fingers wrapped around the leather grip, the Hands of Ruin reacted.

The blue magma veins in the gauntlets flared with a violent intensity.

Instead of just glowing, the mana poured out of the gloves, solidifying in the air.

’Something I forgot to mention about these gloves of Varkas...is that it has a special feature...’

Blue, translucent plates of armor materialized around his forearms, then his shoulders, and finally his chest.

It looked like a knight’s harness forged from solidified sapphire.

It shimmered with a holographic light.

『[Viewer_404]: WTF IS THAT ARMOR?!』

『[Slayer_Official]: Is that a passive? Since when could he do that??』

『[Small_Change_Goblin]: WAIT IT’S ACTUAL PHYSICAL ARMOR? I thought it was just a cosmetic hologram!』

『[Pro_Climber_V]: Did he unlock a hidden item?』

『[Noob_Stomper]: He looks like a blue god of war. Where did this come from?!』

『[Viewer_99]: My screen is literally glowing blue. This is insane!』

『[Small_Change_Goblin]: AGAIN, WHEN DID HE GET THIS?!』

『[Viewer_21]: 100k viewers and we’re all collectively losing our minds. GOAT status.』

『The Constellation 「The One Who Enjoys High-Speed Chases」 is vibrating with excitement!』

『The Constellation 「The Architect of Forgotten Ruins」 is admiring the structural integrity of the mana-plates.』

"Let’s test the weight."

Min muttered to himself.

He swung the blade once.

The air in front of him didn’t whistled.

The sheer force of the augmented swing sent a shockwave of wind that cleared the purple mist for fifty meters.

’It’s different this time...

Is it because I have both gloves now?’

Min thought, feeling the raw power thrumming in his biceps.

[SYSTEM: The First Tide is approaching!]

[Remaining Time: 60 Seconds.]

The horizon changed.

The bruised purple sky was blotted out by a wall of dark, frothing liquid.

The acid sea was rising.

It was a thirty-foot wave of corrosive death, moving at the speed of a freight train.

On the distant pillars, other players were screaming, clinging to the rock, activating every shield spell they had.

’I didn’t expect to run into others taking on this challenge in this floor...’

"Watch closely."

Kang Min said, his voice amplified by the mana of his knightly harness.

"I’m only going to show you this once."

He didn’t run for a pillar or look for high ground and walked toward the wave.

『The Constellation 「The One Who Enjoys High-Speed Chases」 is leaning forward, eyes wide.』

『The Constellation 「The Merchant of the Crimson Moon」 is placing a bet on your survival.』

’They must really be invested in the decisions and actions I’ll make.’

As the wall of acid loomed over him, the heat became unbearable.

The salt flats beneath him began to dissolve from the mere spray.

「Skill- [Singularity: Focus] is in use!」

Kang Min targeted the air directly in front of his blade.

He made that single point of air so heavy, so dense, that it became a solid anchor in reality.

Then, he gripped his sword with both hands.

He swung and used the raw, crushing strength of his stats and the gravity point he’d created.

The blade sliced through the air.

The shockwave from the strike hit the center of the massive acid wave.

-K-BOOM!

The wave split like a curtain being torn in half by a giant’s hand, the thirty-foot wall of acid surged around him, crashing into the flats on either side but leaving a ten-meter dry zone where Min stood.

He stood in the center of the roaring torrent, his blade held steady, the blue holographic visor of his armor reflecting the violet chaos.

『[Small_Change_Goblin]: ...What the hell. He just cut the ocean.』

『[Viewer_10]: I’m clipping that! I’m definitely clipping that!』

Kang Min smiled.

’Having an item I used in the old world...even if it’s just one makes things better for me...my power level is already multiple times than it was before...’

’But back then then in the 8th floor... we would have been screaming.’

Min thought, his gaze fixed on the Spire.

’We would have been praying for the wave to end.

I wasted so much time being afraid.’

The tide settled, but the flats were now a shallow sea of acid, four feet deep.

Under the surface, shadows began to move.

The Scald-Finned Raiders.

These were monsters that thrived in the acid.

Predators with serrated fins and jaws that could crush bone.

They saw the lone man standing in their new hunting ground and swarmed.

"I’m in a hurry."

[Lv.2 Compression is in use!]

Kang Min used it on the acid beneath his feet making it hard.

By increasing the pressure of the liquid in a small radius, he created a solid platform.

He began to run.

He was running on the surface of the acid, his boots clicking against the pressurized liquid like it was solid glass.

A Raider lunged out of the water, its jaws wide.

Min didn’t even turn his head and used [Exchange] with a small piece of salt crust floating ten meters ahead.

-Zip!

He appeared in the air above the Raider.

As he fell, he brought his blade down.

The blue knight armor increased the strength of the strike ten-fold.

The blade cut through the monster’s reinforced skull as if it were wet paper and kept running across.

『The Constellation 「The God of Cheap Entertainment」 is whistling at your efficiency!』

『The Constellation 「The Architect of Forgotten Ruins」 is admiring the way you use the environment as a staircase.』

"Fifty kilometers to the Spire...

At this pace, I’ll be there in ten minutes."

’The old me would have taken six hours just to cross.’

Every time a swarm of Raiders got close, used [Focus] to make their lead fins heavy, sending them spiraling into each other under the water.

He also used [Exchange] to swap a leaping monster with a piece of rock at the bottom of the sea, letting the pressure of the ocean do the work for him.

"Goblin, you still there?"

Kang Min asked, his voice calm as he decapitated a Raider mid-sprint.

"You owe me 2,000 coins.

My toes are perfectly fine."

『[Donation - 2,000 Coins] [User: Small_Change_Goblin]: "Shut up and keep running. The Sentient Tide is coming. You won’t be smiling then."』

As if on cue, the system roared.

[SYSTEM: The Sea has recognized a ’Predator’!]

[Difficulty Adjustment: The Sentient Tide is manifesting!]

The acid sea didn’t just rose this time and gathered.

The water began to take the shape of a massive, translucent serpent, hundreds of feet long, its body made of pure, boiling acid.

It rose from the depths, its supposed eyes glowing with a hateful green light.

This was the Floor 8 Boss.

There was no way of killing it as you were supposed to survive it until the Spire opened.

Min stopped.

He stood on his small platform of compressed acid, looking up at the towering serpent.

In the simulated trials I took back then to level up...this thing killed me four times.

The serpent lunged, its massive maw open to swallow Min whole.

Min waited until the last possible second, until the heat of the acid was singeing the edges of his cloak.

「 Skill - [Singularity: Compression] is in use!」

He didn’t target the serpent’s head.

He targeted its neck...the pillar of water supporting the beast.

He closed his fist, and the blue magma in his gloves turned a blinding white.

He applied maximum pressure to a single, horizontal line across the serpent’s body. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

The massive creature’s head continued forward, but its body was suddenly squeezed so hard that the connection severed.

The head, deprived of its mana-circulating base, splashed harmlessly into the sea like a bucket of spilled juice.

Min didn’t wait for it to reform and used [Exchange] with a piece of debris near the Spire’s entrance, covering the last three miles in a single blink of light.

He landed on the white marble steps of the Spire of Life.

He was bone dry.

His blue knight armor began to dissipate into mist, the gauntlets returning to their resting state.

He checked the timer.

「14 minutes.」

"A bit slower than I wanted, but the scenery was nice."

『[SYSTEM]: TRIAL CLEARED!』

『[SYSTEM]: SSS+ GRADE ACHIEVED!』

『[SYSTEM]: NEW WORLD RECORD: 14 Minutes 22 Seconds.』

The silence in the chat was deafening for a full five seconds before it erupted.

『[Viewer_1]: 14 minutes... he just broke the Tower.』

『[Slayer_Official]:He didn’t even get his boots wet.』

『[Small_Change_Goblin]: ...I’m going to go lie down. My brain hurts.』

『The Constellation 「The Merchant of the Crimson Moon」 is laughing so hard they’re throwing 50,000 coins at you!』

『The Constellation 「The One Who Enjoys High-Speed Chases」 is demanding an encore!』