Genius Blacksmith's Game

Viewers shuddered.

Their shiver came from one realization:

Someone in Korea had just matched the feat of Smith, the world’s no.1 blacksmith.

And that shiver—

[Hyun’s second Legendary artifact. Unboxing begins now.]

—Ressel’s words flipped into a roar of cheers.

Unboxing.

Literally, opening a box.

These days, it means tearing into a new product and showing every last detail.

A sword slowly slid out of the box.

The rear of the grip was shaped like a dragon’s head, and the beautiful blade curved once, like a rolling wave.

And on the flat of the blade, one very familiar name was engraved.

Dragon-Flame Sword.

At first, viewers were simply delighted that an artifact they knew from real life had come to life before their eyes.

Ressel was smart.

[I don’t like wasting time. I’ll open the detailed info right away and dive into the review.]

(Hyun’s Twelfth Custom Craft Sword)

Grade: Legendary

Durability: 8,000/8,000

Attack Power: 534

Requirement: Level 300–450, dragon-related classes.

Special Abilities:

· All stats +1.3%

· Attack power against animal-type monsters +70%.

· Damage taken from animal-type monsters −45%.

· Active Skill Sword Imbued with Dragon.

· Active Skill With the Dragon.

· Passive Skill Dragon’s Claw.

Description: Hyun’s second Legendary sword, custom crafted for Dragon Knight Ressel.

In front of their computers or TVs, most viewers had the same thought.

It’s insane.

It’s gorgeous.

They want it so badly.

But even if they could never own it, just watching it was enough to be fun and exhilarating.

They imagined it.

If I were the one gripping that sword and swinging it into monsters?

The monsters would melt in an instant.

Ressel started firing off skills, demonstrating the Dragon-Flame Sword’s effects.

And this reaction wasn’t happening only among the viewers.

Section Chief Im Seoktae of Blue Daily, the country’s top news outlet, shot to his feet.

“What? You’re telling me someone in our country has made two Legendary artifacts? Write an article, now! No, put it on the hottest headline slot. We’re turning this guy into a star.”

“A star?”

“Yeah. The world no.1 blacksmith Smith made one, and this kid made two! And one of them is the Dragon-Flame Sword? Hey, is there anyone in this country who doesn’t know the Dragon-Flame Sword? The guy we’re pushing this year is Blacksmith Hyun!”

News desks across the country started hammering out articles.

[Blacksmith Hyun: Writing a New Legend.]

[Blacksmith Hyun: Who Is He?]

[Auction Rankings in Turmoil: Hyun’s Forge Soaring in Subscribers and Auction Rankings.]

[Hyun: Just How High Can He Climb?]

And it wasn’t just viewers and reporters.

Hwarang, no.1 on the Korean Ares guild rankings.

The top guild in Korea, boasting over a thousand members and a slew of ranked blacksmiths.

Its guild master, Maser, who had never once surrendered the top guild spot in the past two years, also wore a stunned expression.

“He’s made two Legendary artifacts? Try to recruit him to our side somehow. For now, just make a move.”

Maser had realized one thing.

The unofficial rankers and high-rankers who hadn’t cared about this blacksmith named Hyun are going to start paying attention.

By nature, those at the top don’t pay much attention to people climbing up from below.

Most of the ones trying to climb end up crashing halfway, and the ones who’ve already secured their seats usually don’t care.

But even high-rankers and unofficial rankers needed something.

Artifacts that could make them stronger.

Guild Master Maser was sure of it.

He’s going to get buried in notes today. More than that, I’m curious about something...

He smiled with interest.

Just how high his auction ranking is going to climb.

[Current viewers: 423,013.]

AJ Internet Broadcasting Station had been in a slump lately.

The Time-Attack Dungeon’s popularity had sagged, and viewership had hovered around an average of forty thousand.

Year 2040.

Internet broadcasting was now blazing far hotter than the terrestrial and cable channels that had once ruled.

In that era, AJ Internet Broadcasting Station had been posting record-low ratings.

Its all-time peak was around two hundred thousand viewers.

And right now, they had blown past that, sitting at four hundred thousand.

Director Lee’s phone was ringing off the hook.

“Congrats, sure, haha. It’s not like I did anything—Hyun did all the work.”

“What? You want me to set up a bridge to Hyun?”

“Ads for Hyun? Why are you telling me that?”

Eventually, with the calls coming in too hard and fast, Director Lee just turned his phone off.

“Producer Kim.”

“Yes, Director.”

“How did a jackpot like this roll into our laps, huh? I feel like I want to do something for him. If he were standing right here, I’d probably kiss him on the cheek.”

Producer Kim felt exactly the same way.

“How far do you think Hyun climbs today? How far he goes is what matters.”

He was right.

If that happened, AJ would keep being remembered as the station where Hyun first appeared.

“What should we do for Hyun? Ah, maybe I should tell him I’ll introduce him to some good contacts? I know a lot of media people... or maybe...”

At that, Producer Kim cut in with one short line.

“Director.”

“Yeah?”

“Just give him money.”

“...Huh?”

Director Lee understood at once. On top of the donations, they should tack on extra money and hand it to him.

Giving extra cash to a guest sounded absurd on paper, but with a director of his clout, it was perfectly doable.

Producer Kim’s point was simple: they needed to plant a good impression of AJ Internet Broadcasting Station in Hyun’s mind, no matter what.

The problem was this.

“Will Hyun even come back to our station?”

He might move on to a bigger network now.

“Of course, even if he never sets foot in our station again, if he asks for help I’ll help, and if he asks me to put him in touch with someone, I’ll do it right away.”

Hyunsoo had no idea. Director Lee was a man with ridiculous connections, having once been a director at one of the big three terrestrial networks.

To him, Hyunsoo had already been branded as a benefactor.

[What are you doing, not hitting subscribe on Hyun’s Forge?]

Nell watched as Hyun’s Crafted Item Unboxing wrapped up with that final line.

They remembered the whisper they’d gotten from Rune, guild master of Golden Shield, back when they left the guild.

[Rune: Nell. I wish you’d reconsider. I’ll support you wherever you go. But raising a guild the way we grew Golden Shield isn’t going to be that easy. No—at this point, it’s impossible. You know better than anyone that blacksmith guilds with deep roots already dominate this country. I’m sure of it. That guild of yours will never reach the level of our Golden Shield.]

Rune was a gentleman and not a bad person.

And what he’d said definitely had a point.

Beating out guilds that had put down roots for three years was just that hard.

And it was also true that Golden Shield was among the top guilds in the country.

Even Nell was more than a little shocked right now.

So this is Hyun’s power?

Nell felt like they could finally say this to Rune without hesitation.

You were wrong, Representative, and I was right.

They watched the live-updated subscriber rankings and the number that had shot up in just a single day.

They weren’t the only one staring.

Plenty of people were probably watching those subscriber numbers.

The top blacksmith guilds in the country.

The media outlets.

And the high-rankers.

Most of them were probably thinking the same thing.

This is unprecedented.

With their heart trembling, Nell tried calling Hyunsoo.

[The phone is switched off. Redirecting to voicemail...]

Still keyed up, Nell finally snapped back to their senses.

Hyunsoo had said today was hospital day. He always turned his phone off when he went to see his father.

With that in mind, Nell checked the real-time search rankings on the portal site on their monitor.

[No.19: Hyun’s Sixth Custom Craft Sword.]

[No.17: Dragon-Flame Sword.]

[No.15: Hyun’s Twelfth Custom Craft Sword.]

Nell’s heart pounded as their gaze moved to the highest-ranked one.

Because there was a name there they were incredibly proud of.

[No.9: Hyun’s Forge.]

VVIP ward.

After uploading the information on the sword he’d crafted for Sword King Barad, Hyunsoo had come straight to the hospital.

Every Monday.

Hyunsoo always came to see his father at the same time.

Looking at his father, who had been lying peacefully on a ventilator for over three years now, he murmured:

“This is all thanks to you, Dad.”

The Dragon-Flame Sword.

The only reason he’d been able to restore and craft it was because Kang Hyuntae had advised and taught him.

Without that teaching in the past, Hyunsoo would never have been able to create the Dragon-Flame Sword.

He had taught him many other things as well, shaping the Hyunsoo of today.

“I’m thinking I’ll try to grip a hammer again in the real world. To do that, I need to become even more successful in this game called Ares.”

Yeah. He had to succeed.

He needed the doctors who kept saying it was impossible to look at the power and money he put on the table and decide they would find a way to treat his father.

And when his father came back, he wanted people to know that being a blacksmith was far more valuable than they thought, so his father could feel proud.

He wanted to live a cool life as a blacksmith. As visiting hours were about to end, Hyunsoo took out his phone.

The broadcast’s probably over by now, right?

The moment he powered it on, countless missed calls and notifications poured in.

[Subscribers are updating.]

[Subscribers are updating at record speed.]

[Rankings are rising at record speed.]

He’d turned it off on purpose. On the days he saw his dad, if he started worrying about things like that, he wouldn’t be able to focus.

Nell had taken a bunch of screenshots and posted them in Radiance’s guild group chat.

[Nell: (screenshot), (screenshot), (screenshot) Guild Master, I think you’re with your father right now, so I’m posting this run’s results for you.]

Hyunsoo was stunned.

What the hell happened while I was gone?

During the unboxing, Hyun’s Forge had climbed all the way up to no.9 on the real-time search rankings.

Another screenshot.

[Current viewers: 440,013.]

“...?”

The peak viewership for the unboxing.

Is that even possible in this country?

Hyunsoo quickly realized that far more foreign viewers had tuned in than he’d expected.

His heart started pounding like crazy.

He’d originally estimated that Ressel’s review of the Dragon-Flame Sword would push his subscriber ranking to about 40th place.

Thanks to his capable manager Nell, he could feel in his gut that he’d climbed much higher than that.

Then, he saw a meaningful message from Nell in the guild chat.

[Nell: Hyunsoo, you know what?]

Hyunsoo frowned, puzzled.

[Nell: This is a first. A solo blacksmith—not a corporate blacksmith outfit—has never climbed this high before.]

That tone of absolute certainty only amplified Hyunsoo’s anticipation.

He thought back to his previous subscriber count and ranking.

438,113 subscribers, ranked 48th among blacksmith channels.

He hurriedly logged into the auction house to check the current stats—and his jaw dropped.

[Hyun’s Forge Subscribers: 710,113.]

[Current ranking among Korean blacksmith channels: 19th.]

It was the moment his name settled firmly into the top twenty.