Chapter 51: The God of Broadcasting

While watching the broadcast, Chronos decided to visit the Goddess of Fate, Moirai.

He was simply too curious.

“Hmm… this goes like this… that part turns this way… ah, this fate has already twisted. Oh my? This man was summoned to the wrong world… well, I guess it can’t be helped…”

She looked extremely busy.

The Goddess of Fate spent nearly every day fixing the twisted threads of destiny.

In front of her lay a massive scroll that recorded how every fate was progressing.

Moirai’s job was to read through it, and whenever something strayed off course, she corrected and rewrote it.

“This one… like this.”

Managing fate was certainly a troublesome task, but it was her destiny to bear such work.

And because of that, she did her best even though it was tiresome.

Of course, recently she had been working with a bit less effort than before.

“This one…”

“Moirai.”

Just as she was concentrating on her task, Chronos called out to her.

Startled by the unexpected voice, Moirai widened her eyes.

“Oh my? Chronos? What brings you here?”

She was genuinely surprised.

After all, Chronos hadn’t stepped out of his chamber for the past ten thousand years.

It was a rare outing.

“Why? Am I not allowed to come here?”

“It’s not that you can’t come, but I’m shocked that you actually did.”

“Is that so?”

“So what brings you here? I’m swamped with work. If it’s nothing urgent, could you please leave?”

Turning her eyes back to her scroll, Moirai spoke bluntly.

At her words, Chronos finally revealed his purpose.

“Has a new god been born recently?”

“What?”

“I’m asking if a new god has been born.”

“Sigh… Chronos, if you came here just to spout nonsense, please leave.”

Moirai frowned gracefully.

“What do you mean nonsense? I’m seriously asking.”

“Chronos, do you really think a new god could appear just like that?”

“Well… I just wanted to ask.”

“Fine, then. What kind of god are you talking about?”

“The God of Broadcasting.”

“The God of what?”

“The God of Broadcasting.”

“Are you talking about those broadcasts you’ve been watching ever since you brought human inventions into your chamber?”

“Yeah.”

Moirai’s expression immediately turned cold.

So that’s what this was about—complete foolishness.

“Chronos, don’t tell me you’ve been watching those broadcasts for so long that you’ve lost your mind? You do know that if a god loses their sanity, they are immediately erased, right?”

“No, that’s not it…”

“And after ten thousand years, the first thing you do upon leaving your room is babble about some God of Broadcasting? Good grief…”

Moirai shook her head, completely exasperated.

“I’m busy. Stop distracting me and go back.”

She ignored him entirely and focused on her work again.

Watching her, Chronos turned away with a slightly bitter look.

“Is she always so irritable… maybe it’s because she’s lived alone for so long. Could it be… divine hysteria? I wonder if such a thing exists for gods. Well, it’s not impossible. I’ll have to research this later.”

“Lalalala~”

Dogry was relaxed.

Since soldiers fought from afar with guns, his class allowed him to progress through stages with much more ease compared to others.

Even the Assassin Zombies of Stage 10 were quickly eliminated with concentrated fire.

—[Woohoo! Totally broken!]

—[What a busted class! Where is your conscience?]

—[He already sold it.]

—[How do you sell something you never had?]

“Hey, what’s wrong with me picking this class?”

Dogry shrugged casually.

He didn’t care what viewers said.

All that mattered to him was protecting his eyebrows.

“And besides, I set a handicap, didn’t I? No summoning special units. You all know it—without summoning special units, you can’t unlock weapons.”

—[Yeah, but no Machine Gunner summons allowed either.]

—[Then you’ll be stuck using rifles until Stage 20.]

—[Still way easier than other classes though.]

“So don’t be too harsh on me~”

Dogry grinned with ease.

Then he spoke leisurely.

“By the way, what happened with Exitra, who ran into the Giant Zombie? Did he get eliminated?”

He asked out of vague expectation.

Defeating a Giant Zombie with Cyborgs was an extremely difficult feat.

Even for a soldier, one of the most overpowered classes, killing a Giant Zombie was no simple matter.

The monster’s hide was so tough that players had to invest heavily into attack power and weapon upgrades to pierce it.

‘And that kind of build is almost impossible in the early stages…’

Since you needed to focus on attack speed and movement speed just to survive against Assassin Zombies, early encounters with Giant Zombies were nothing but headaches.

—[Hmm, haven’t seen it yet.]

—[Didn’t someone go check already?]

—[There must be someone.]

Viewers hadn’t been watching Exitra’s stream because they were focused on Dogry’s.

Then suddenly, Dogry’s viewer count spiked.

People who had gone to Exitra’s stream were now returning.

—[Wow! Insane!]

—[Unbelievable!]

—[This is crazy!!]

—[What the hell did I just watch??]

“Huh? Why are you all so worked up? Did Exitra die to the Giant Zombie and get eliminated?”

He asked, half-expecting that outcome.

But instead, what arrived was a video donation.

[Shinsegae has donated 10,000 won with a video.]

<See for yourself.>

“…”

Normally, Dogry didn’t play video donations during matches, but since he had just cleared Stage 10 and had a break before the next, he allowed it.

Besides, he was curious.

“Alright! Let’s see it!”

—[Play it already!]

—[I want to know too.]

—[Hurry, hurry!]

Dogry played the video.

The footage began with Exitra fighting the Assassin Zombies at the start of Stage 10.

The scene where he grabbed an incoming Assassin Zombie’s arm and slammed it into the ground was particularly striking.

“Holy…”

—[What the hell…]

—[How did he even do that??]

—[What am I watching??]

Then Exitra used nearby Cyborgs to perfectly finish off the Assassin Zombies.

Most beginners struggled horribly against them, but Exitra handled them with surprising skill.

“No way… is this really Exitra’s first time?”

—[Pretty sure it is??]

—[Yeah, he’s new.]

—[He’s never streamed this before.]

“Hmm… let’s keep watching.”

Dogry continued the video.

Then came the part where Exitra faced the Giant Zombie.

And used Cyborg self-destruction to kill it.

“Gasp! What the—he used self-destruct like that?!”

—[Unreal…]

—[Wait, what the hell did I just watch??]

—[Who would even think of using self-destruction like that??]

Turning a supposed weakness into a weapon.

It was an ingenious tactic nobody had ever considered before.

“So you see here? He even destroyed the comms tower.”

Dogry paused the video and pointed it out.

“He deliberately placed it here. That tower was covering the central plaza. Do you get what that means?”

—[What do you mean?]

—[Huh??]

—[You’re just spouting nonsense.]

“No, it’s not nonsense. Think about it. Why was this comms tower the only one covering the plaza? The answer is obvious.”

Viewers began to realize it too.

—[Wait… no way…]

—[Impossible…]

—[There’s no way, right…?]

“Exitra planned to use self-destruction from the very start. Look closely here—see this Cyborg? Watch carefully.”

Dogry rewound the video to the moment when the Cyborgs swarmed the Giant Zombie.

“This Cyborg grabbed the Giant Zombie’s head directly. Do you really think that’s something you can just improvise on the spot?”

—[Chills… for real.]

“He had been planning it perfectly. If the Giant Zombie appeared, this was exactly what he would do…”

It was pure shock.

He had clearly said this was his first time playing “Zombie Survival.”

Showing this level of adaptability in a first-time game was nothing short of amazing.

“Wait… is this really his first time?”

—[But he has no reason to lie to us, right??]

—[Yeah, oh! Right! We can just check that.]

—[What?]

—[If you go to zm.gg, it shows the records, right?? We can just look him up.]

“Ah! That’s true.”

On zm.gg, you could search a player’s nickname and see their class, upgrades, and what stage they reached.

Dogry hurriedly opened zm.gg and searched.

The result was clean.

“He really hasn’t played a single round…?”

—[Told you.]

—[Why would Exitra lie to us??]

“Then…”

Dogry felt a shiver run through him.

Goosebumps spread across his body.

‘So you’re telling me… he came up with that kind of strategy based only on information he researched—on his very first playthrough?’

It was shock after shock.

Could someone really make such a plan without ever having played before?

‘Is he… a genius?’

This was bordering on genius.

Exitra’s mechanics might not have been top tier, but he had a talent that more than made up for it.

“Amazing…”

[How did he even think of that??]

[What the— I thought Cyborgs were garbage, but this is broken as hell.]

[At this point, they’re stronger than Soldiers, right?]

[Oh wow…]

Viewers were stunned.

And it didn’t take long for their shock to turn into excitement.

Why? The reason was simple.

[At this rate…]

[Dogry losing his eyebrows doesn’t seem that far off.]

[There’s hope!!]

The viewers erupted with joy.

Dogry’s misfortune was their happiness, and their happiness was Dogry’s misery.

That connection could never be broken.

“Damn it…”

Feeling the crisis closing in, Dogry tried to negotiate.

…

“Um… could I maybe recruit a Machine Gunner?”

[LOL]

[Absolutely. Not. Happening.]

[You trying to cheat your way out of this?]

[Hey! Stop right there, or you’ll lose a hand!]

[Nope~ denied~]

The negotiation ended in failure.

Of course the viewers would never allow Dogry to weasel out.

‘Dear God…’

Dogry found himself praying to a god he rarely thought of.

‘Please, let my eyebrows stay intact. I swear I’ll go to church this week if you grant me this…! Please!!’

But there was one thing Dogry didn’t know.

‘Nope~ denied.’

God was on Exitra’s side.

He had no choice but to fight alone.

“Now then, time to summon special units.”

Exitra checked his gold.

He had an incredible 1.8 million gold.

The Giant Zombie was tough and a huge hassle to deal with, but killing it gave equally massive rewards.

“The Giant Zombie dropped about 800,000 gold. The Assassin Zombie gave 300,000, and the rest about 700,000 total?”

Normally, he could have earned more, but many zombies had been killed by the Giant Zombie, so it couldn’t be helped.

Still, the difference was overwhelming.

Since no Giant Zombies had appeared for anyone else, Yudok only had 700,000 gold after stage 10, and Dogry had 1 million at most.

Worse, Yudok’s crystal durability had already dropped to half thanks to the swarming zombies and Assassin Zombies.

‘Perfect.’

“Let’s see… build structure…”

Exitra ordered his workers to construct a building.

The building that allowed special unit summons cost 500,000 gold.

Summoning each special unit required about 150,000 more.

So usually, after clearing stage 10, players would summon one special unit, maybe two at most.

But Exitra was different.

“Whoops, I still have gold left over.”

After building, he summoned five special units—and still had 550,000 gold left.

[That’s insane.]

[He still has money left over.]

[Rich-boy meta kek]

[First time I’ve seen someone summon all special units by stage 10.]

[45…]

Special units were a cut above the regular Cyborgs.

Their builds were slimmer, their leg parts reinforced, giving them faster movement.

And on one arm, they had a modified M4 installed.

It could fire 100 rounds.

‘And 100 rounds cost about 300 gold, right?’

“Things are about to get easier.”

Summoning special units also unlocked firearms.

[Firearms unlocked with special unit summon.]

[You can now equip units with guns.]

Exitra immediately equipped them.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t use the M4 the special units had—instead, he had to settle for the M16, a step weaker.

The silver lining was that, unlike in certain other games, this M16 had full auto fire.

[In that game it’s Trash-16! Here it’s God-16!]

[True.]

[Totally different from Battle Pitch kek]

[Over there, no one touches the Trash-16.]

“Equipping a firearm costs 50,000 gold? That’s cheap.”

[Rich man.]

[So much money.]

[With money, you can do anything.]

And indeed, money opened up endless possibilities.

Exitra set up a transmitter in the central plaza, recruited 30 more units, then strengthened his Cyborgs.

Miraculously, his gold balanced out perfectly at zero.

“See that? Spent it all perfectly.”

[Perfect.]

[Zero gold again.]

[So clean~]

“From here on, things will get easier, since I’ve got five special units.”

Having special units made the game far more manageable—at least for now.

Of course, once stage 15 came around, zombies with partial resistance to firearms began appearing.

No, not just firearms—resistance to ranged attacks in general.

Those monsters couldn’t be killed no matter how many bullets you pumped into them.

So balancing gun upgrades with sword upgrades was essential.

“Now then…”

[Zombies will swarm in 10 seconds.]

[Survivors, prepare for the assault.]

Preparation time was over.

[They’re coming again~]

[What’s he going to do now?]

[This is too fun… I can’t even switch to another streamer’s channel.]

[Yeah, I usually rotate between streams, but this one’s too good. Can’t leave.]

The viewers’ response was incredible.

Seeing their excitement, Exitra’s lips curled into a smile.

‘This is fun.’

Streaming was pure joy.

When the viewers were happy, he felt happy too.

Sure, money was one reason streamers kept broadcasting, but this—talking, laughing, sharing the fun—was another big part of it.

Before his regression, one of the reasons Exitra couldn’t let go of streaming until the very end… was exactly this.

And now, he had it back again.

It felt good.

He looked at the map filled with red dots.

Crossing his legs casually, Exitra said with a grin,

“Well then—shall we test out the power of special units?”