SFRW-Chapter 62

Ch. 62 Sword God From The Ruined World  

The U.S. rift zone monster wave, being broadcast live worldwide, was reaching its turning point.  

The monster wave had been ongoing for 10 days.  

For 5 days straight, the broadcast continued nonstop, day and night.  

Most people couldn’t watch continuously due to work, but some viewers were different.  

Particularly streamers who made money through internet broadcasts kept their live streams running all 5 days.  

They selectively edited only the most attention-grabbing moments and uploaded videos to their channels in real-time.  

Naturally, those who couldn’t watch live due to work ended up boosting the streamers’ profits by searching for battle scenes of Heroes that became hot topics.  

Among these, the most popular videos were…  

“Haah… Did Seo Do-jun fight?”  

Park Cheol, who had just woken up from a nap, immediately asked his cousin and employee Park Young-gi whether Seo Do-jun had fought.  

“No, he’s been resting since his fight two days ago.”  

“Really? Ugh, that bastard went there to fight, so why isn’t he fighting? Isn’t this negligence? What’s the U.S. Hero Association doing? They’re paying him a shitload of money, right? At that rate, they should be making him work nonstop!”  

Park Cheol spat out his words irritably before heading to the bathroom.  

A while later, Park Cheol returned from his shower and sat at his computer.  

‘Nuclear Cider! Freaking awesome! King of Monster Studies! Seo Do-jun Battle Video No. 5’  

9.74 million views in 2 days.  

“Haah… The growth rate has definitely slowed a lot. But still, 9 million views in two days is huge…”  

Park Cheol couldn’t believe that a video uploaded just two days ago had surpassed 9.74 million views.  

A streamer with 700,000 subscribers.  

In his 10 years as a streamer, his most-viewed video had 1.7 million views.  

Yet with just five videos of Seo Do-jun’s battles, he had achieved far more than in his entire decade of effort.  

His fifth and most recent video had 9.74 million views, while the first one was approaching a staggering 100 million.  

For Park Cheol the streamer, this was like a dream—something unreal.  

The only worry and complaint was that it was gradually returning to reality.  

“If only those latecomer bastards hadn’t…”  

Park Cheol had been the first in the industry to edit and upload Seo Do-jun’s battle footage.  

At first, he had no particular intention other than thinking Seo Do-jun’s fights were so cool that editing them would be great—but it turned out to be a massive hit.  

Seo Do-jun’s battle scenes, which shocked the world, were astonishing no matter how many times you watched them, so Park Cheol’s edited videos went viral globally.  

So much so that Park Cheol’s name even trended in real-time searches.  

But as quickly as fame comes, it fades—once other streamers followed suit and flooded the platform with Seo Do-jun’s battle videos, the view counts plummeted with each new upload.  

“Bastards with no morals. If only I had exclusive rights to these videos…”  

He could have become a globally famous streamer overnight.  

Literally sitting on a goldmine—but for Park Cheol, that was impossible.  

“But still, this is huge. I’ve made a ton of money, and my subscribers have multiplied.”  

Eventually, Park Cheol accepted reality and compromised.  

Of course, he knew better than anyone that this bubble would burst over time.  

Still, he was grateful just for having received this much attention.  

Because he knew that, depending on his efforts, he could retain at least some of these subscribers.  

“Maybe I should just rebrand my channel as a Seo Do-jun channel?”  

Park Cheol thought that if he could get Seo Do-jun’s permission to officially use his name and monopolize his content, the channel could grow into something enormous.  

Just the thought sent shivers down his spine, his lower belly tingling with excitement.  

“Should I try contacting him somehow?”  

Park Cheol decided to try reaching out, figuring he had nothing to lose.  

And at that moment—  

“Uncle! It’s Seo Do-jun! Seo Do-jun is preparing to fight!”  

“You punk! Who’s ‘Seo Do-jun’? Call him Lord Seo Do-jun! No—call him King Seo Do-jun! And edit this in high quality! Make it leagues above those other amateurs! No—go back and re-edit the old videos too, make them classier than anyone else’s!”  

From now on, Seo Do-jun is our meal ticket!  

As Park Cheol shouted energetically, his cousin Park Young-gi wondered what the hell had gotten into him.  

“Uh, Park Young-gi! What’s that?”  

Park Cheol pointed at one of the live streams.  

The monster wave broadcast was being live streamed through over 100 drone cameras, not monopolized by a single network.  

Five U.S. broadcasters, with permission from the Hero Association and government, were selectively airing footage from these drones.  

And that was just three days ago.  

Due to global demand for multi-angle coverage, even local U.S. broadcasters and internet streamers could now freely relay drone footage.  

This allowed viewers to vividly watch every corner of the monster wave.  

Naturally, streamers like Park Cheol had to monitor as many feeds as possible to catch anything noteworthy—and one feed had just captured something strange.  

“Is that a monster?”  

“Must be. It’s coming from the rift zone.”  

“Then… is our King Seo Do-jun going to fight that monster?”  

“Our King Seo Do-jun?” Park Young-gi cringed at the exaggerated title, his face involuntarily scrunching up—but it was true that Seo Do-jun on screen had started moving, signaling a new battle.  

“Park Young-gi! Edit that footage together with the moment our King Seo Do-jun started moving! This reeks of a mega-hit! 100 million views, here we go!”  

Seo Do-jun was participating in the monster wave while conserving as much energy as possible.  

This wasn’t his choice but a request from the U.S. Hero Association.  

“Your abilities have been sufficiently proven. Thus, we intend to preserve you as much as possible.”  

These were the words of Eric Jonathan, chairman of the U.S. Hero Association.  

‘Preserving’ the proven Seo Do-jun had a simple meaning:  

They wanted him to handle monsters other Heroes couldn’t.  

For Seo Do-jun, this wasn’t a bad arrangement.  

Fighting monsters that others could easily deal with was never enjoyable for him either.  

So compared to other Heroes, Seo Do-jun had been relatively idle.  

Since the monster wave began, he had only fought five times.  

“Kassal, thanks to you, we’re containing the monster wave very smoothly.”  

Gloria approached Seo Do-jun with a smile as she said this.  

Her smile was always beautiful, so Seo Do-jun couldn’t help but feel goodwill toward her.  

Or perhaps it was more of a rational attraction?  

Even in the ruined world, finding a beauty like her hadn’t been easy.  

‘Now that I think about it, both were women recognized worldwide for their beauty.’  

Hyun Joo-yeon of South Korea and Gloria of the U.S.  

Women of different charms and beauty, hard to compare.  

“If the monster wave ends like this… only one task remains.”  

Closing the rift zone.  

The problem was that to close it, they had to hunt the mysterious Boss Monster… Honestly, even Gloria wondered if this might be too much for Seo Do-jun.  

“I plan to assemble the best team. Every S-class Hero in the U.S., plus every available S-class Hero gathered here.”  

It would be the strongest team in history.  

Though of different nationalities, they would unite under the U.S. banner as a single elite force to close the rift zone.  

Gloria spoke confidently, as if to say this should be enough even for him—but Seo Do-jun showed no reaction.  

Strangely, once someone develops goodwill, even such aloofness becomes an attractive trait.  

‘He’s truly a fascinating man.’  

Just as Gloria was falling deeper into Seo Do-jun’s cool charm—  

Seo Do-jun, who had been expressionlessly observing the battlefield, suddenly moved.  

“Kassal?”  

“It’s starting to move for real now.”  

“What do you— Ugh!”  

Before Gloria could finish, an ear-splitting screech erupted.  

Kyaaaaaaaaah!  

A new monster emerged from the rift zone.  

Its body was ashen, composed of wood and stone, standing 10 meters tall.  

Twelve spider-like legs supported its torso, while its face—located centrally on its back—was attached to a long neck stretching skyward.  

Swivel.  

Its head rotated 360 degrees, surveying its surroundings in a grotesque manner.  

“W-what the hell is that?”  

The appearance of this never-before-seen monster shocked everyone.  

Over 100 drone cameras busily captured it from all angles.  

“If you don’t know what it is… kill it first and find out later!”  

Gael Ruakani of Congo, a towering figure, was the first to charge at it.  

Sprinting like a raging bull, he sent nearby monsters flying left and right.  

“Raaaaah!”  

His body enveloped in blue magic, Gaël drove his fist down without hesitation.  

Kwaang!  

An explosion like a small bomb echoed around them.  

A direct hit.  

Even the sturdy Deambsi would crack under such a blow—yet this monster remained unharmed.  

“…Huh?”  

Gaël looked up in confusion, only to see the monster’s face staring down at him, seemingly mocking him.  

“What… kind of thing…!”  

Thud-thud-thud-thud!  

Wham!  

A tree trunk as thick as a grown man’s embrace shot from the monster’s body and smashed into Gaël, sending him flying like a baseball hit by a batter.  

“…Ghk! Ghk! Cough-cough!”  

Gaël barely managed to rise, coughing up blood with every breath.  

His trembling legs struggled to maintain balance, and his left shoulder hung grotesquely—clearly shattered.  

“Gaël!”  

His close friend Coby Borgetti rushed to support him.  

With his friend’s help, Gaël stood on shaky legs, his face pale as he muttered:  

“Got humiliated in front of the whole world. Heh… Ghk! Cough!”  

“You idiot, how can you laugh?”  

“It’s better than just feeling ashamed.”  

Coby shook his head at Gaël’s weak joke.  

The atmosphere turned icy as everyone processed how this monster had one-shotted an S-class Hero.  

Viewers worldwide tensed up at the monster’s display of power.  

In that frozen moment, only one person moved.  

Seo Do-jun.  

The South Korean S-class Hero who had pulverized a Deambsi with one punch.  

Though also an S-class Hero, Seo Do-jun’s strength was on another level entirely. All eyes turned to him as he stepped forward.  

“Cradiam.”  

Unlike everyone else, Seo Do-jun knew exactly what this was.  

One of Heavy Mountain’s subordinates—a monster that had slaughtered countless people in the ruined world, growing stronger by feeding on them.  

As Seo Do-jun approached, Cradiam thrust its tree-trunk spear at him.  

Whoosh—  

The trunk shot forward fast enough to pierce wind, yet Seo Do-jun didn’t even blink.  

Wham!  

With a slight twist of his body, Seo Do-jun dodged, letting the trunk embed itself deep into the ground.  

Snap.  

Seo Do-jun’s hand gripped the trunk.  

As Cradiam’s mocking face twisted—  

Creeeeak!  

Seo Do-jun twisted his wrist, and the dry wood splintered apart explosively.  

Kyaaaaaaaah!  

Cradiam shrieked in pain and rage, and immediately, more wooden and stone appendages erupted from its body like something from a horror movie, freezing the battlefield in terror.