Reincarnator’s Stream

Crash—.

The shattered mask fell to the floor. With no tool left to hide his face, Suhyuk lowered his arms.

He could have covered his face with his hands or bowed his head.

But what would that have mattered?

His opponent was Hailz.

The Great Mage, second only to the Heavenly Demon in ranking.

Once she set her mind to something, there was nothing Suhyuk could do to resist.

“……”

“Is this enough now?”

Suhyuk asked, his voice tinged with slight anger.

Hailz clearly saw Suhyuk’s face. It was handsome but unfamiliar.

As she scrutinized his face, Hailz muttered in a somewhat clumsy voice.

“He’s quite… handsome?”

Indeed, Suhyuk was rather attractive. His features were distinct, refined, and there was a certain masculine aura about him, probably because of his piercing gaze.

But what Hailz wanted wasn’t a handsome face.

“Is it the same? As Lee Suhyuk?”

With Suhyuk’s sharp question, Hailz responded with an awkward smile.

There was no way it could be the same.

It was a totally unfamiliar face. It didn’t resemble Lee Suhyuk at all.

She knew what Lee Suhyuk’s face looked like.

‘It was a mistake to show my face to her.’

Suhyuk recalled the time he had shown his face to Hailz.

“What are you going to do seeing my face?”

“Don’t be petty. Will it hurt to show it a bit?”

“It’s not that, but I am unintentionally cultivating a sense of mystery right now.”

“Are you hiding it because you’re ugly?”

“… Fine, look. Am I ugly?”

Suhyuk had taken off his mask and shown his face at that teasing provocation.

It hadn’t mattered back then, but he hadn’t expected it to come back in this way.

It was too trivial to regret.

Who would have predicted he would die and reincarnate as someone else? How could he have foreseen Hailz having a crush on him?

After all, Lee Suhyuk’s face wasn’t some grand secret.

‘The mask was just an item.’

It was an item with considerable stamina options.

Wearing it all the time was just one of many methods to handle lightning.

As time passed, strange titles like faceless player and golden knight with the mask had been given to him.

“Sigh—.”

“Ha, hahaha.”

At Suhyuk’s sigh, Hailz felt awkward.

‘I thought maybe he wasn’t dead….’

Streamer Lee Suhyuk had too many similarities to Lee Suhyuk.

Even the way he made her heart race was similar. So she wanted to be sure.

The first step to confirmation was the recruitment offer to the guild.

If he were really the Lee Suhyuk she knew.

No matter what reason he had, he would never join a guild other than Blue Eyes.

“Why don’t you join the guild?”

When Suhyuk refused, Hailz had taken the liberty of removing his mask.

It was the offer of none other than Great Mage Hailz.

If he accepted her offer, he would immediately take on a key position in a massive guild. It would be known that he had Hailz’s protection and he would rapidly rise to power within the tower.

He didn’t look dumb enough to miss such calculations.

The way he handled the trials showed that Streamer Lee Suhyuk was a very intelligent person.

Thus, she couldn’t understand.

“Are you really not him?”

“Yes. Everyone calls me a fake Suhyuk.”

“It’s not that you’re fake….”

“I just don’t want to.”

Suhyuk cut in sharply with no further explanation.

“As you know, I am a streamer. I need to stay true to my main job.”

“Suhyuk….”

Beside him, Un Hyang looked moved. In contrast, Hailz remained puzzled.

Was that really the reason? Really?

If she could weigh the values, it would be obvious which side would tip the scales. Therefore, Hailz couldn’t erase her confusion.

Staying true to his main job?

He didn’t seem like someone with such staunch professionalism.

Anyway, “…I apologize for my rudeness.”

At this moment, Hailz had to admit her mistake.

“Sorry, I got too emotional.”

“It’s fine. Fortunately, I’m not ugly.”

“Yeah, you look handsome.”

“But please don’t go around talking about how I look. As you know, I have a pretty rigorous concept to maintain.”

“Oh… right.”

A streamer whose acts brought out the nostalgic memories of Lee Suhyuk. That was exactly the identity Lee Suhyuk possessed as a streamer.

The reason he had been hiding his face until now was because of this. After all, there were plenty of streamers without faces out there, and Suhyuk was just one of them.

‘Well… that’s not the only reason.’

Suhyuk stared at the fragments of his almost entirely shattered mask.

‘You never know when I’ll need this face.’

This face was, in a sense, his hidden card.

One day, when the fight against Blue Zone and the other guilds that betrayed Blue Eyes began…

This face, which had not yet been revealed, would become his true mask.

“Sigh-.”

When Suhyuk sighed deeply, Hailz flinched.

She seemed to know she was at fault. Nervously, Hailz lifted her staff.

“S-Sorry. This isn’t meant to beg for your forgiveness, but for now….”

Whirrr-.

Hailz’ staff glowed with a bright purple light.

At the same time, the fragments of the mask scattered on the floor began to float.

“Would you like to put the mask back on?”

Crunch-.

“……!”

The mask, which had been shattered into countless fragments, reassembled itself onto Suhyuk’s face.

As if it had never been broken, the mask was restored to its original form without any visible differences.

He reached up to touch the mask. It was hard to believe it was the same mask that had been shattered just moments ago.

‘This isn’t just reattachment.’

It seemed like simple magic at first glance, but it wasn’t.

‘Time reversal on material… perhaps.’

Using such high-level magic just to reattach a broken mask was surprising.

Suhyuk had not been amazed when he first met Hailz, but this was quite astonishing. Though he had heard the title of Great Mage, he hadn’t expected it to involve such capabilities.

He now viewed her with new eyes.

In the past, she had appeared to him as just a mischievous girl from another guild.

‘Looks like I can’t see her the same way as before.’

Just because he knew her, he couldn’t let his guard down.

She had become a significant figure in no time. Forgetting that could easily lead to harm on his part.

With his mask neatly readjusted, Suhyuk nodded.

“It has been fixed well.”

He pretended not to know anything.

But clearly, his gaze towards Hailz had changed from just moments ago.

“I’ll repay you for this gradually. If necessary, I can pay you back with points, but you earn plenty of those yourself, so….”

Suhyuk nodded.

His face being exposed was not a huge issue, but having Hailz owe him was not a bad thing.

“I will call you later when I need you.”

“You’re asking a lot.”

“You won’t come if I call?”

“Uh… that’s not it….”

At Suhyuk’s confident request, Hailz scratched her head.

Despite knowing she was at fault, it was unusual for anyone to call upon the almighty Great Mage so freely.

She couldn’t remember the last time she was treated like this.

Since she had earned the title of Great Mage and led her team to victory in the Counter-Fight, no one had treated her lightly.

Crack-.

That was when they heard something break again.

“Uh-oh?”

The space created by Hailz started to fracture.

The cracks began where Un Hyang had broken through with her magic.

“Is this because of me?”

“Yes. It was already half-broken when you came in. It’s held up quite well.”

It had held up as long as it did because of Hailz’ magic.

“Ah, it’ll be a hassle if we go outside….”

She was still evading her guild’s tail.

Hailz briefly glanced between Suhyuk and Un Hyang, pondering what to do. Then, she moved first.

“This won’t do.”

Voooong-.

“Let’s run first.”

The staff glowed red.

At the same time, the surrounding colors returned to their original state. Hailz’s magic was broken, merging the separated spaces back into one.

“Hailz-!!!”

The voice of a guild member desperately calling out for Hailz could be heard.

Flap-.

A giant wing flap created a strong gust of wind.

“Kyaaah!”

“It’s, it’s a dragon!”

“What the heck is going on?”

Suhyuk and Un Hyang quickly regained their balance.

A red dragon, summoned beneath the feet of Hailz and the other two, spread its wings and began to ascend into the sky.

“Hailz-!”

“Let’s get out of here~!”

* * *

The guild member who was chasing Hailz seemed to be a ranker as well, as he persistently pursued Hailz with magic.

However, no matter how formidable a ranker he was, he couldn’t capture Hailz. It was a task that couldn’t be accomplished by an individual, and barely even by mobilizing an entire guild.

In the end, Suhyuk and Un Hyang climbed high into the sky with Hailz, riding the dragon.

They were so high up that the ground looked faintly distant.

Standing atop the dragon’s head, Hailz spread his arms wide.

“How is it? The air is nice, right?”

Surely, riding a dragon and soaring through the sky was a unique experience.

Despite the height and speed, there was no shaking or uneasy feeling.

“If we showed this on the stream, wouldn’t it get a great response?”

“Should we turn the stream on right now?”

Hailz laughed awkwardly, seemingly having heard Un Hyang and Suhyuk’s conversation.

“Really professional, both of you.”

“Of course.”

“Because it makes money.”

Un Hyang and Suhyuk answered almost simultaneously.

Hailz chuckled and looked up at the sky.

She stared up at the sky in silence for a moment.

After a brief pause, as if deep in thought, Hailz spoke.

“Hey, how high have you both gone?”

Suhyuk tilted his head.

If she had watched his stream, and even briefly listened to news about the streamer Lee Suhyuk, she would have known.

“Are you sure you watched my stream?”

“Not asking about floors. I’m talking about the sky.”

“The sky?”

It wasn’t an easy question to comprehend. In fact, it was a question he had never heard before.

Most people usually asked how many floors he had climbed.

“There was never a reason to go up to the sky.”

“Same here.”

Hearing their responses, Hailz nodded as if he expected as much.

“I’ve gone up.”

“To the sky?”

“Yeah. I was too curious about what’s beyond the sky we see.”

Hailz’s thinking differed from that of normal players.

Most players, including Suhyuk, climbed the tower to see the end of the Tower’s world.

They explored what might be at the top of this tower that engulfed them.

But Hailz simply ascended to the sky.

Borrowing the power of the dragon and magic.

“Do you think that’s the sky?”

Hailz shook her head.

“That’s… a ceiling.”

“A ceiling?”

“Yes. A ceiling made exactly in the shape of the sky, which cannot be broken by any magic.”

A ceiling that divided worlds.

At that boundary, Hailz could do nothing.

“We’ve forgotten about it at some point.”

Since the day she learned the truth, Hailz felt an unbearable frustration.

Because she realized.

“Hey, what are we trapped in?”

They were just birds trapped in a huge cage, mistaking it for freedom.