The reason Seong’s figure vanished was none other than something Helena did.

When Helena moved into the space where Seong was—without Mihael, the backup team, or even the viewers noticing—

She handed the powers she was holding, the Abyss Lord and the Lord of Destruction, over to Seong.

Seong was in the middle of looking at the reward messages.

[You obtain a vast amount of experience.]

[Level Up!]×22

[You have reached Level 290.]

[Having reached a level milestone of 10, the Almighty-grade item, 『Overlord’s Ancient Tome』, is activated.]

[Having reached Level 280, you can forcibly enhance a lord skill of your choice.]

[Having reached Level 290, you can forcibly enhance a lord skill of your choice.]

[The skill triggered at this time can also trigger skills that activate at every 100-level interval.]

[Having reached Level 280, you obtain a clue to the whereabouts of a new lord skill.]

[Having reached Level 290, you obtain a clue to the whereabouts of a new lord skill.]

His level had risen by a full twenty-two.

It seemed that after coming to Mugan, he had received all the accumulated experience here at once.

Seong grinned when he saw it.

He had gained the authority to strengthen lord powers—and he had even obtained clues about the whereabouts of a lord skill twice.

And on top of that—

So the reward for clearing Mugan still isn’t even this, huh?

Seong grinned again as he ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) looked at it, and when he accepted the lord essences Helena handed him, a message appeared before his eyes.

[Would you like to acquire 『Abyss Lord』?]

[Would you like to acquire 『Lord of Destruction』?]

[Would you like to acquire 『Lord of Despair』?]

What kind of obvious question was this?

Seong smiled and acquired the powers of all three lords.

He still hadn’t decided which lord power to forcibly enhance, so he didn’t use anything yet.

After absorbing everything up to the Lord of Despair, Seong felt the new lord powers within him and was quietly satisfied—

When another reward message appeared.

Why did they have to appear so slowly?

Seong was looking, wondering what it was—

[The level of 『Helena’s Super Strong Swordsmanship』 increases.]

[The Almighty-grade skill, 『Helena’s Super Strong Swordsmanship』, reaches Level 5, and new skills are unlocked.]

[『Helena’s Super Strong Swordsmanship: Despair』 is unlocked.]

[『Helena’s Super Strong Swordsmanship: Corruption』 is unlocked.]

[You have created a new secret art within the Almighty-grade skill, 『Helena’s Super Strong Swordsmanship』, not one of its existing secret arts.]

[You obtain a new secret art of 『Helena’s Super Strong Swordsmanship』.]

Because Seong created the Black Hole and gained immense proficiency, he obtained the fourth and fifth sword techniques of Helena’s Super Strong Swordsmanship.

Despair, which matched the despair he had already acquired from the Lord of Despair—

And then—

“Corruption?”

The sword technique called Corruption looked pretty good. Seong stared at it with clear interest.

Then he decided—

They were still streaming, and there was still plenty to do, so he would set it aside for now.

Thinking that, Seong only checked the rewards roughly and decided to go back outside.

Helena looked at him and said,

“You grew a lot.”

“Yeah.”

“You’ll call me more often now, right?”

Seong nodded at Helena, who looked slightly sulky.

“Of course. It seems like it’d be fun to stream together, too.”

“Ahaha! Did I do well?”

“Yeah. You did really well.”

When Seong said that, Helena seemed genuinely pleased. She nodded, then returned to the underworld through the portal Seong opened.

Remembering his promise to call her again.

After Helena returned to the underworld, Seong released the dimensional confinement technique he had spread out. Space rippled for a moment—

And he arrived back at the 『Abyss』 that had originally existed there.

Mihael’s team, the backup team, and even the viewers had been startled when Seong suddenly vanished. So when Seong appeared again all at once, they stared at him in surprise.

In the middle of that, Mihael said,

“Ahh! You’re finally back!?”

“We’ve been waiting!”

“You were seriously incredible!”

As all three members of Mihael’s team said that to Seong—

The viewers also exploded.

-Honestly, that was insane.

-Anyone who didn’t see this live is actually losing out big time.

-Seriously, this is a real loss;;;;

- Grats!!!

-Good work!!!!

-That was so cool!!!!!

-That was seriously badass!!!!!

-I can say I watched the Demon King’s stream!!!

-Wouldn’t everyone say that? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ for real

-Wow, it seriously feels like I just watched an entire movie;;;;

-That’s why the film industry almost collapsed ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

The viewers typed chats like roaring cheers.

Seong, taking it in, smiled like he was in a pretty good mood.

It felt like a long, carefully prepared piece of content had finally ended.

Seong smiled with an expression that looked both refreshed and a little wistful.

Of course, the stream wasn’t over yet.

There was still something left.

“Ahhh, now we can call this the main event, right? Since Seong is here too, I’ll start what I was about to do earlier but couldn’t!!!!”

At Mihael’s words, most of the viewers jolted in surprise.

Come to think of it, they’d forgotten.

-Oh right! The backup team ranking was on the line???

-I totally forgot ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-LMAO maybe the black hole sucked up our memories too ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ for real

-So black holes absorb memories too???

-Is that why it’s called an event horizon? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-That fight was so insane it made everyone forget the main content.

-Honestly, the backup teams would admit it too.

Just like some viewers said, the backup teams were nodding as if they agreed.

To be honest, the entire backup team had forgotten as well.

Seong’s secret art had been that overwhelming and intense, so it couldn’t be helped.

Anyway, with everyone looking forward to it—

Mihael looked at the viewers and said,

“We still haven’t received the reward for clearing Mugan, but today’s stream will end after we tally and announce the rankings.”

A small announcement right before the results.

Normally, the viewers would have whined and begged for more—

But today was different.

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ after seeing that much, I can’t even whine.

-For real ㅋㅋㅋ

-If you complain after watching that for free, you deserve a ban.

-I want to complain but I’m scared I’ll get banned. Still, I’m satisfied.

-I want to see more, but yeah, fair. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

-Everyone must be exhausted. Announce it and go rest.

-I do want to see the reward though ㅠㅠㅠ

-That part is kind of sad ㅠㅠㅠ

-What reward do you think it’ll be?

-First time clearing Mugan, it’s probably going to be huge.

As the viewers waited with anticipation—

Mihael said to them,

“This is a really surprising result.”

Because the contribution display had been hidden from everyone except Mihael, only he knew the results.

So the viewers and the backup teams all looked tense.

Mihael scratched the back of his head like he was awkwardly troubled.

Just as someone was about to speak, wondering what that was about—

Mihael opened his mouth.

“Everyone already knows that first place in contribution is Demon King-nim! But second place came out as something nobody expected!!!”

At those words, Luna’s team’s expressions stiffened.

Kyou’s party and Embris’s party, on the other hand, brightened with hopeful looks.

Could it be them?

Since Luna had been the one pulling aggro and doing all the close-quarters combat against the Lord of Destruction, both groups had already given up on first place.

But an unexpected result?

The viewers were the same.

-Kyou?

-Embris?

-Kyou! Kyou! Kyou! Kyou!

-Embris! Embris! Embris! Embris!

-Go Kyou! Go Kyou! Go!!! Kyou!!!

-Go! Embris! Go! Embris!

Everyone spammed chat with heated cheering.

But the real result was something nobody expected.

“Second place in contribution is Helena-nim!”

“??????”

“Ah.”

“Ahh.”

“Ah.”

At Mihael’s words, everyone could only nod at the completely unexpected name.

It seemed that contribution that should have gone to Seong had gone to Helena instead, so Helena ended up taking second place.

Maybe people felt a bit embarrassed after cheering so hard, because the chat fell quiet in an instant—

But since the real results announcement had only just begun, Mihael didn’t drag it out and immediately announced third place.

“Ahh, then third place right after that! It was an extremely close margin! With a difference of just 3%, third place—and first place among the backup teams—is Luna’s team!!!”

This was something most people could predict.

As said earlier, Luna had handled all the aggro and all the close-quarters fighting.

So in a way, it was only natural.

And on top of that, their last attack aimed at the neck had landed as an effective hit, so they took first among the backup teams with a three-percent margin.

Now all that was left was the results for second and third place among the backup teams.

Because depending on that, they could even win Rapid Guild subscription passes—

The reactions exploded.

-Please please Kyou

-Please Embris please

-It’s obviously Kyou;;;

-You didn’t see how much Embris pressured them too???

-Do you not remember that Thunder God impact in the first place???

-Do you not remember the Vampire Queen Embris showed???

-Black hole sucked up your memory;;;;

-Honestly, me too;;;;;

-It’s understandable ㅋㅋㅋㅋ after seeing that, how would you remember earlier stuff?

-For real ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

They argued like that—

But Kyou turning into the Thunder God was insane, and Embris turning into the Apostle of the Blood Lord also showed overwhelming presence.

It wouldn’t have been strange either way.

So Mihael glanced around, about to build suspense, then said,

“Ah, I don’t think I can drag this out. I’ll announce it right away.”

As Mihael said that, somewhere a “dugu-dugu-dugu” sound effect seemed to play, and Seong also waited as if he was excited.

Then Mihael shouted,

“Fourth place is!!! Kyou’s party! And Embris’s party!!!”

The moment he said Kyou’s party, Kyou’s fans were about to start spamming chat, but they froze at the word “and.”

A tie for fourth?

At that, Embris’s party and Kyou’s party looked at each other with strange expressions.

Then, as if they wanted to end it no matter what, they stared at each other intensely.