Chapter 59. Beyond the Path to Death (1)

“As for the exact schedule and important details, we’ll constantly provide you with them. Once the opening of the live channels is done, we’ll have a lot to discuss…… at that time, you just need to talk about it with this fella here. She will be in charge of your channel.”

Sanghyuk finished up his contract with LGN. He liked the contract terms and the employee that Kim Woonho said was in charge of him was also to his liking.

Producer Lee Mirae – she was one of the rare female PDs of LGN, and Sanghyuk knew her too well.

Although she was a rookie PD right now, the Lee Mirae Sanghyuk met in his previous life was a charismatic CP that controlled all EL streaming media.

Her nickname at that time was ‘Queen Bee’.

The nickname came from how she ‘stung’ anyone and everyone that she did not like.

Of course, she looked a little naïve right now, but once she adapted to this field, she would turn into a completely different person.

‘She’s a little hard to deal with, but she’ll get her work done so I guess it isn’t so bad. In fact, people like her are better.’

Sanghyuk preferred people like Lee Mirae when it came to business relationships. If it was someone who prioritized personal friendship over the business, then he would get stressful.

After a light greeting with her, they exchanged contact information. Sanghyuk had a little hard time adjusting to her ‘original’ behavior, but he could see the signs of the Queen Bee appearing inside her eyes.

Having dealt with everything that he needed to do offline, Sanghyuk returned home and cleaned up his house. Since he was very busy lately, his house was a mess.

After cleaning his house, he went to the department store to buy some clothes. When he exchanged the star candy he got from Pu TV, he received tens of millions of won (10,000sUSD) on his bank account.

That was NOT including the insane amount of star candy he got from releasing the videos on Inferno Pyramid.

Sanghyuk once again felt the grandeur of personal streaming and bought a few luxury-brand clothes.

Although he didn’t go outside much, he didn’t plan to live like someone unemployed. Living poorly when he had the money wasn’t something he wanted.

He was even planning to move houses once he gathered enough money later.

Even though he spent more time in virtual reality than in reality, human life was based on reality, so he could not be stingy on his stipend on himself.

***

Having enjoyed real-life after a long time, Sanghyuk entered the game again. If human life was based on reality, human delight was based on this world of EL, at least for him, so he felt good every time he logged in.

Having logged in, Sanghyuk first took care of the basics.

He opened the management window for the Golden Mountain merchant guild and the Hiddenline to see if there was anything that needed his attention. Then, he visited Gold Mountain to see if there were any items that needed his appraisal.

Gold Mountain, whose branches were in Falcon and Tune respectively, had become quite well-known amongst the users, but none of the items he got could be called ‘jackpot’ quite yet.

Despite that, there was a constant stream of items that he could profit off of, so he was making income.

Everything was going smoothly.

Since Sanghyuk already set the merchant guild and the Hiddenline synergize with each other in secret, all he needed to do was to apply oil and it would go smoothly.

‘Let’s see……My level is 53, my proficiency in Ancient Knowledge is pretty high now…… should I be fine with going to the Heroic Lands now?’

Sanghyuk wanted to leave the Hellfire Desert as soon as possible. Actually, Hellfire Desert was the most desolate of the four continents in Treenark.

In contrast, the Heroic Lands was a completely different story.

In his previous life, people called the Heroic lands the ‘land of prosperity’.

There were that many things to do and acquire.

Of course, at the current point in time, absolutely no one had gone over to the Heroic Lands yet.

It wasn’t that the path was blocked. Although it was a path filled with hardships, there was definitely a way there. The problem was…… the monsters that appeared on that road.

Many different types of monsters appeared at that place, with their average level being 67, while there were even elite-grade monsters near that place as well.

Obviously, some challenge-freak users tried to break through this road and enter the Heroic Lands.

However, not even one of them had succeeded. Users with high concealment, users who had high running speeds, users with escape techniques…… users with many different skills endlessly tried getting through it, but they all failed mid-way.

So, this path was currently called the ‘Path to Death’.

At least right now, the Path to Death really lead to death. It would require at least two months for the Path to Death to be conquered.

Once the levels of the users rose, and they farmed enough items from Hellfire Desert, they would only be able to break through the Path to Death with a large expedition.

Since it was a field unlike the Cave of Giants, which was a dungeon, human wave tactics worked to a certain extent. This was why it was ‘two months’. If there was a limit to the number of entrants, then even five months wouldn’t be enough.

Sanghyuk was planning to break through this very Path to Death.

‘Heroic Lands…… now that’s the place where EL begins for real!’

It was the truth that EL was a great game, but it might seem like a slightly lacking game until the Hellfire Desert. Of course, there were so many good points that the cons of this game simply didn’t bother the users, but there were definitely elements that were lacking compared to other games.

However, this all changed one the Heroic Lands was revealed.

The land of infinite competitive contents!

That was the Heroic Lands. To mention a few…… there would be the ‘Hall of Gladiators’ and ‘Hall of Mortality’.

Hall of Gladiators, like its name, was basically a colosseum – a place of free PvP.

It renewed every month, and special rewards would be given to the top rankers of each month.

Twice a year, there would also be a periodic event to select the ‘best of the best’, named ‘Duel of Immortality’. Other than that, there were various other ways of doing PvP contents, so it was a haven for users who liked them.

Hall of Mortality was also known to the users as the ‘time attack raid dungeon’. Naturally, this competitive content was aimed at users who liked PvE over PvP.

The contents were simple.

There were many different raid dungeons, and many teams competed for the shortest time clear of a dungeon.

For example, if there is a time attack raid dungeon called ‘Black Ogre dungeon’, a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 10 teams would enter a single battle, and they would enter that dungeon at the same time and compete to see who clears the dungeon fastest.

This also operated on a monthly basis, and naturally had its own rewards as well.

Users enjoying PvP went to Hall of Gladiators while the remaining users enjoying PvE went to the Hall of Mortality.

Of course, that wasn’t all there was to the Heroic Lands.

There were many public dungeons as well as good hunting fields. It wasn’t called the Land of Prosperity for nothing.

The only obstacle was the Path to Death. Of course, there existed no other people like Sanghyuk who could pass through the Path to Death by himself/herself, so it was unknown whether if Sanghyuk could use those contents without any competitors, but even for the other things, it was better to go to the Heroic Lands quickly.

‘Path to Death…… O, Path to Death……. Even I would have a hard time getting through it, right? But I now got my emergency escape method, so it’s worth a try.’

Even if he prepared more from this state, it would be at most raising his level or raising his proficiency in Ancient Knowledge.

In other words, it wouldn’t mean much.

‘Actually, I don’t have a reason to hesitate, do I?’

Sanghyuk decided on what to do with a slight smile on his face.

***

The entire length of the Path to Death was approximately 10km. The road itself was like a mountain, and once a user left the main road, they would be in serious trouble.

There were many high-level monsters on the main road, and off the road? They would be surrounded by mobs a few steps in.

In the end, the only way through this Path to Death was to break through this narrow path that spanned 10km. There was no other way.

In Sanghyuk’s memory, the first expedition that broke through this road in his previous life numbered 150 people. The number seemed quite small, but considering the width of the road as well as the rough terrain, it was very reasonable. Otherwise, they would literally use human wave tactics numbering thousands.

The time it took for 150 people to cross that 10km path was an entire week. And during that week, the expedition experienced all sorts of hardships.

high-level monsters grouped up on them, and the elite monsters that sometimes appeared ambushed users from the dark so by the time the expedition broke through, there was only around 50 people left.

No wonder people called it the Path to Death.

Having prepared a lot of things, Sanghyuk entered the Path to Death immediately. Since he couldn’t mark places with the Marking Book within the Path to Death, he would have to break through the 10km road in one go.

Even logging out was a pain, since a monster might strike from the dark while he was logging out.

*Fwoosh! Crunch!*

Sanghyuk lightly whipped the Ten Millennia Goldbone whip to snap the neck of a shadow wolf in the darkness around him.

Shadow wolves, shadow snakes, and shadow monkeys were stereotypical assassination-type monsters in this hellish road.

These things made the road even harder since they hid in the shadows and ambushed users before dragging them back to the dark and eating them.

Since they ambushed without any signs, even a user next to the one eaten may not realize that the user next to him/her was gone.’

However, even those things were of no threat to Sanghyuk. Concealment, darkness, shadow were meaningless to Sanghyuk who even had the Shadow Duke title.

With that being the case, Sanghyuk hunted those things while they were still in the shadow before they even attacked.

Their other stats were mediocre compared to their ambushing ability, so they were being skewered one by one by the Ten Millennia Goldbone whip.

Sanghyuk was currently walking through the Path to Death at a leisurely pace while hunting those shadow-series monsters.

If the shadow-series monsters made breaking through difficult in secret, there were those that made it difficult in the open, they were the mutant orcs.

With an average level of 65, and walking around in groups of 3~5, they were named the Redeye orcs. They were the most common monsters that could be seen on the Path to Death.

*Snoort, snooooort.*

Having killed another shadow wolf, Sanghyuk looked up front. Four Redeye orcs were approaching him.

As mutant orcs, they were around 1.5 times bigger than a normal orc. They were slightly smaller compared to ogres.

Dangerous light radiated from their eyes as they saw Sanghyuk as though looking at a prey.

However, their so-called ‘prey’ had a nonchalant expression.

“Damned impotent bastards…… it’s been awhile.”

Sanghyuk smiled at the Redeye orcs. The reason he called them impotent was because they were unable to reproduce as a result of their mutation.

Of course, this was just another background knowledge in the game, but they were indeed impotent.

And once, Sanghyuk had butchered these impotent guys every single day.

When numerous guilds made their expeditions against the Path to Death, Gold Rush also naturally made their own. At their vanguard was Sanghyuk.

At the time, Sanghyuk died tens of times while he fought against the monsters in the Path to Death. He relieved his stress from the workshop against these monsters.

He massacred those monsters like a madman. His colleagues in the workshop gave him a nickname back then.

‘Strong and tenacious monster shredder!’

That came about since Sanghyuk went overkill on those monsters.

“I remember it too clearly… how I smashed you all…….”

He took out the Ogreslayer as he muttered.

He was about to show what a monster shredder was after a long time.