I Gave Up Being Stronger

Chapter 261

They had moved stealthily and appeared right before him in the blink of an eye, as if they had always been there.

‘Their Levels are all in the 290s.’

Truly, Arvis was a powerful Server. In another Server, finding Players with Levels in the 290s was nearly impossible.

‘Even Marshmallow’s manager is Level 290.’

From his experience in the Arvis Server, Jin-Hyeok could tell these guards were most likely Level Grinders, but regardless, reaching Level 290 was not something just anyone could achieve. No one from the Earth Server had ever reached that Level before Jin-Hyeok’s regression.

The appearance of these guards took Marshmallow by surprise. “Wait a minute. Why are the Special Guard Forces coming to this remote and small town?”

Marshmallow was the number one Streamer within Arvis, and some of the guards recognized him but chose not to acknowledge him.

“You are under arrest for the murder of Dion’s guard captain.” Three members of the Special Guard Forces moved toward Jin-Hyeok, and the rest approached Marshmallow.

“Are you livestreaming right now?” one of the guards asked Marshmallow.

“Of course, I am.”

This was why the Special Guard Forces could not just forcefully subdue Jin-Hyeok.

“We are on an official mission,” the guard said.

“I am also just Playing in my own way.”

“...We do not have the authority to stop your Play, but if it interferes with our mission, you might be held responsible.”

Marshmallow scoffed at the veiled threat. “This is clearly a conspiracy!”

He even changed the title of his livestream.

[Conspiracy]

“It just so happens that the local guards were waiting on the first floor, and just so happens that the Special Guard Forces showed up immediately? I think something is going on. There is no way this all happened without the intervention of the higher-ups,” Marshmallow continued.

The captain of the Special Guard Forces frowned, aware of the impact of Marshmallow’s livestream. “Are you an acquaintance of or related to this person?”

“Hmph! Hardly. I saw his face for the first time today.”

“Then why are you interfering like this?”

Marshmallow briefly paused the livestream and said, “It’s the perfect content for my channel!”

Resuming the livestream, he spoke with a grave voice, “This does not seem just to me! That’s why!”

***

Jin-Hyeok was arrested.

‘Oh...’

Even in this situation, he felt a slight thrill.

‘This is going to draw a lot of attention.’

It was almost impossible for a Streamer from another Server to gain popularity in Arvis. The citizens of Arvis tended to consume content exclusively from Arvis Streamers. In that sense, the attention Jin-Hyeok would gain from this incident would be quite welcoming.

‘This is sort of like viral marketing!’

Jin-Hyeok could not help but smirk. The captain of the Special Guard Forces frowned at this sight. “Do not smile, Murderer. I feel like smashing your head in right now.”

Jin-Hyeok did not respond. To an onlooker, he seemed to be compliantly being taken away. He was seated in the back of a flying car and transported to a nearby guard station.

The captain was a bit puzzled. ‘Why were we ordered to transfer him to the regular guard station?’

It was customary for individuals arrested by the Special Guard Forces to be transferred within their custody.

‘This man has the skills to easily kill the captain of the regular guard forces.’

The captain of the Special Guard Forces believed that luck had played a part in that. It was impossible for someone of this murderer’s Level to overpower a regular guard captain. Nevertheless, this man was undoubtedly a criminal too dangerous for the regular guards to handle.

‘We caught him on the spot.’

Yet, the captain could not help but wonder why he had been ordered to transfer the criminal to the regular guards. He even thought whether what Marshmallow had said about the situation being a conspiracy was right.

‘Even if that’s the case, it’s not my problem.’

The captain was a man who followed orders. He securely shackled Jin-Hyeok’s wrists and ankles with special metal chains before incarcerating him in the holding cell of the regular guard station.

Marshmallow came to the guard station. He too sensed something was fishy. “It seems the higher-ups are involved in this.”

Marshmallow’s livestream was broadcast across the universe.

***

[First-Class Citizen Murdered.]

[Guard Captain Killed by a Player from Another Server.]

[Suspect is a Streamer from the Earth Server.]

As Jin-Hyeok anticipated, this incident became quite a big issue within Arvis, with the guards testifying.

“He lured a person who admired and followed him to his hotel room. There is no doubt he intended to commit despicable acts.”

“We heard a woman’s scream and immediately went upstairs.”

“There, in front of the bed, lay a woman with her stomach visible...”

“Had we been even slightly late, a terrible incident would have occurred.”

They unanimously testified that Streamer Kim Chul-Soo attempted to sexually assault his fan, Liling. Public opinion turned against Chul-Soo. He quickly became a vile sexual offender and murderer in the eyes of the public.

However, the scale of the incident grew significantly more with Marshmallow livestreaming about it.

[Conspiracy Theories Raised by Marshmallow.]

[Is All This Merely Coincidence?]

[Marshmallow: “I Will Definitely Uncover The Conspiracy.”]

As the situation grew unexpectedly out of hand, Lady Harkoen got furious. “How could you fail to capture a mere Player with a Level in the early 200s? How could you let things get to this point?”

Swampland No.1 wanted to protest. He wanted to tell her that the murderer had disguised his Level! No one could have known that Chul-Soo was actually around Level 270.

“...Do you want me to withdraw from this matter?” he asked. For Swampland No.1, continuing this mission was becoming too burdensome. It was not that he would stop his revenge against Jin-Hyeok, but the timing was not correct right now. “I will process a refund for the deposit.”

“Like I care about the deposit!”

Lady Harkoen’s reaction was unexpected for Swampland No.1. Typically, when a situation escalated to this degree, covering it up and moving on was commonly the next move.

“I must have Kim Chul-Soo!” Lady Harkoen said.

“...”

“He is my precious treasure.” Lady Harkoen was not planning on giving up. “Things will quiet down in a few days, so let’s wait a bit and then resume the plan.”

“...Yes, Ma’am. I understand. I will seize the opportunity to extract him.”

Kidnapping Chul-Soo during the transport would have been the ideal scenario, but dealing with the powerful Special Guard Forces was challenging. So, for now, Swampland No.1 had Chul-Soo locked up in the regular guard’s holding cell. The plan was to extract the Streamer when the opportunity arose.

However, as numerous Chul-Soo Landers began to emerge, the course of the incident started to change.

***

[Chul-Soo Landers across the universe, send your support to Marshmallow!]

Marshmallow opened a temporary email account to start collecting tips related to Chul-Soo.

Encyclopedia asked him with a pleased smile, “But why do you want to help Chul-Soo so much?”

“Do I look like I’m helping Chul-Soo?”

“Yes, it definitely seems that way.”

“It’s just for my Eltube channel, okay?”

“Alright, let’s just go with that.” Encyclopedia shrugged and nodded.

Marshmallow seemed much more motivated than usual, especially compared to when he recorded videos for his Eltube channel.

“Let’s see... Wow, I can’t even read all these emails,” Marshmallow said. The inbox was already filled with tens of thousands of emails, and the number was increasing as he opened a new one. “Shall we take a look at some of these?”

[Chul-Soo is innocent!]

[Chul-Soo is not someone who would do bad things!]

“There are a lot of emails with no substance.” After reading a couple of emails, Marshmallow found a special [VIP] email. The email sparkled as if it were exuding its VIP status. Marshmallow was puzzled. “I didn’t set up a VIP option for this temporary inbox.”

‘And an email that shines this brightly? Was there such an option for the temporary inbox?’ Marshmallow thought.

[Hello, I am Kim Min-Ji, Chul-Soo Land No.1]

Min-Ji attached a video related to Swampland No.2’s Control Bug.

[It seems that Liling might have been infected by the Control Bug. Digging into this might give you some clues. Thank you. Please help our Chul-Soo.]

Marshmallow was constantly raising conspiracy theories, and he had also covered content related to Control Bugs in his livestreams.

***

Three days after Jin-Hyeok was arrested, a major turnaround occurred.

[Marshmallow’s Conspiracy Theory Proven True?]

[Kim Chul-Soo, a Victim of Unjust Tyranny?]

It all started with a tip from one individual.

?Hello, my name is Catherine, and I am a government official working in the SSP Streaming Department. Two days before the incident, I was the one who granted SSP livestreaming permission to Kim Chul-Soo, and I am also a long-time friend of Liling, one of the victims of this incident.?

Catherine continued, somewhat ashamedly.

?As a long-time friend of Liling, I admit I loosened the rules for Chul-Soo a bit. That is why I could not come forward sooner. I sincerely apologize for my actions.?

She apologized for granting permission to Chul-Soo after working hours, making things convenient for him

?Liling is a long-time fan of Chul-Soo. She cried day and night for three days because she was unable to become an official first-generation Chul-Soo Lander due to being late.?

Catherine submitted a video of Liling with swollen eyes as evidence. In the video, Catherine was teasing Liling, who was crying and puffing up in anger for not being able to become a Chul-Soo Lander.

?I am a very close friend of Liling, and I prepared a small gift for her. Official SSP recordings for Chul-Soo started at midnight two days after he got the permission, but I issued a temporary recording permission for personal possession.?

She had granted Chul-Soo temporary recording permission, which allowed him to record videos but not upload them to Eltube.

?These recordings were supposed to be automatically transferred to my server, and I planned to gift them to Liling later. This was clearly an overstep on my part, and I will take full responsibility for it.?

Catherine continued with tears in her eyes.

?All the recordings in favor of Chul-Soo are there. Please send these to Chul-Soo. Among the SSP recordings, there is one hidden in the Arvis folder with administrator privileges. All the truth lies within.?

Marshmallow relayed this information to Jin-Hyeok, who was still in the holding cell, and said, “Man, this is great! There’s a video that can serve as evidence!”

“...”

“Why don’t you look more happy?”

Jin-Hyeok did not seem pleased upon hearing the news. “... I wanted to draw more attention.”

“What?”

“My arrest was gaining a lot of attention in the Arvis Server...”

“...Did you know you were being secretly recorded?”

“How could I not know what was happening to my body?” Jin-Hyeok had known all along that he was being secretly recorded. It was something he could easily find out through meditation. While Arvis seemed advanced, it had its sloppy aspects.

“But it was hidden in the Arvis folder so that only the administrator could see it,” Marshmallow said.

“...I guess they hid it carelessly.”

Finding that with meditation was easy.

Marshmallow tilted his head, continuing, “There would have been a lock... Oh, right, you have that Unleashing Technique!”

“I wished we could have dragged this out for another two to three days...”

Marshmallow realized. ‘This guy is insane!’

Jin-Hyeok sighed lightly and then showed Marshmallow a copy of the recording. “Do you want to release it to the public?”

“Aren’t you going to do it?”

Jin-Hyeok bit his lip a little before saying, “It will have a bigger impact if you release it. I’m sure you can make this go viral.”

“...”

Jin-Hyeok looked very serious, and Marshmallow felt a bit tense. Marshmallow could feel that Jin-Hyeok was sincere about being a Streamer and instinctively knew that Jin-Hyeok’s next words would be of utmost importance.

‘Go ahead, say it. As your senior Streamer, I will listen to your thoughts attentively.’

Marshmallow waited for Jin-Hyeok’s words with almost a reverent attitude.

“Just make sure to mention my name and promote my channel while doing it,” Jin-Hyeok said.