Due to Angga’s calculated control and tight focus, the camera could float at a perfect angle to shoot the water deer beneath the tree, capturing a high-quality video with amazing precision.
“Be careful, Angga,” cheered Clara.
“Yeah, I’m doing it. Let me focus.”
The water deer seemed restless. It checked the surroundings a few more times before leaning into the tree. Perhaps because its herd can be seen from the tree, the water deer slowly relaxed and made itself comfortable around the dry grasses.
“Ooh, that’s right. It’s a little bit fatter compared to other ones, especially the tummy area.”
“Yeah. I’m sure we hit a jackpot here.”
Since it didn’t notice the floating camera a couple of meters above the ground, the water deer groomed itself for a bit and yawned. After a few minutes, it grew restless again as it let out a distinct whimpering sound.
It was a sound that he never heard before, Angga thought. A natural voice for the resident of this world yet unnatural for the only human guy here.
And then, a phenomenon of nature for the natives of the Union Kingdom happened. Angga and Clara couldn’t take their eyes off the water deer, which was struggling to do the noblest thing a monster can do–she was on the way to give birth to a baby. It shrieked softly, tried to endure the hardship that came along with the process of bestowing life to another flesh and blood–
–she was giving birth. A glimpse of the body part of her fawn appeared as the mother tried to push more and more. An exhausting process, indeed. So, Angga won’t miss this amazing sight laid bare before him remotely.
This scene reminded him of many things, such as how life begins with the mother's struggle and how not everyone was blessed with a conducive environment. Some of them were giving birth surrounded by a rather unfortunate condition. To raise a child also will come up next after the life-or-death struggle.
Around the next half an hour, all of the hardship the mother water deer has paid off. Finally, a weak bleat came from the bottom part of the mother’s body while it witnessed another life form moving slightly. The mother water deer carefully adjusted its body to groom the fawn with strong affection.
Angga slowly moved his camera away while decreasing its zoom until the mother deer was no longer visible on the screen again.
“And that’s the wrap. Thankfully, we finally got what we needed. Woah, it’s so amazing to witness it in real time. Honestly, I only saw that kind of sight through video and–woah! Clara?”
The lion girl sobbed while facing another direction, she didn’t want Angga to see her face.
“She is obviously crying, duh. Can you be more sensitive and feeling on her shoes?” Nixie sneered.
“Ah! I’m sorry! But, yeah, it was pretty beautiful, wasn’t it? Even I was touched and trying not to shake the camera on the whole process.”
Clara didn’t reply and was still sobbing. So, Angga heaved a sigh of relief and walked away to give her more time for herself.
The mermaid floated to approach Angga. “To think that there is someone who ever thought about finding a moment when the monsters are giving birth is something I wouldn’t even come up with. I’m curious about what you will make with that recording.”
“Heh, thanks. Does that mean that even this contest's referee is finally siding with us?”
“Unfortunately not. I’ll keep the contest fair.”
When Clara calmed down, they decided to return to the town and call it a day. Now that Angga had obtained the final piece of the puzzle, all left was to edit the video. With ten days left to make their finished product, Angga was certain to turn the situation in their favor.
He pressed the PC icon on his camera’s screen to open a portal to another space of a copy-paste from his actual room in his world. Before going inside to do his editing work, he glanced at the lion girl.
“Alright, Clara. Time to fight back whatever your father stores for us.”
Clara nodded firmly. “Good luck, Angga! Make us win!”
Angga gave a thumbs-up while disappearing to go to his private space.
Inside the copied space, he sat down and transferred everything inside his camera to the workstation. When Angga categorized the files into the folder to make it neat, a weird folder suddenly appeared in another category.
“Hmm?”
He accessed it only to find a lot of sound files inside. It was the sounds of the savanna, including the water deer and other noises such as the dry grasses and the evening wind’s noises. Even the shrieks of the mother water deer and its fawn were there, too. Angga couldn’t believe his ears when he went to confirm it.
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“Woah! Who'd thought it would also come up with an ability like this? My camera is a few meters above the ground to have a safe distance so the water deer won’t notice it, so I won’t bother recording the sounds. But, to think that it instantly generates the sound data… amazing.”
He clapped for his own cool magic.
“I don’t mind that I can’t even do any offensive magic to protect myself from the monsters here if my camera can do this. Alright. Time to rock the Watchers again.”
Angga knew that tackling the hunts worth 5.000 gold would take a lot of work. But, having the footage according to his storyboard and the sound generator ability out of nowhere just made him grin confidently. He could do a miracle with magic like this.
So he focused on making yet another masterpiece–a video that he never made before.
It only took around one day of work, resulting in Angga almost collapsing if Clara didn’t catch him correctly when he went out from his Workshop Manifestation. There was a bed there, but Angga couldn’t afford to rest before his video was done.
“Our video is done… Clara,” said Angga the first thing when he came out.
“Woah! Wait, Angga. You didn’t sleep at all?!”
“Alright, it’s uploaded for the Watchers to see. We’re done here, so let’s wait.”
“Our video is done? Woah! I can’t wait to see how it is–Angga? Angga! You’re collapsing!”
Angga didn’t care if he were to collapse at any place as long as his work was done and was broadcast to the Watchers. It was within the expectation that the documentary video would quickly have a lot of views in just a few moments when it was broadcast, and it started to pillage Support from curious onlookers.
Since Aleid was away then, Clara princess-carried Angga and put him on the nearby sofa. She also quickly prepared everything that Angga needed when he woke up later. Clara knew he was clearly exhausted and lacking sleep, so she let Angga rest on the soft sofa with drinks and loaves of bread nearby.
“Really, we still have one month left, and he finished the video in one day, huh…”
Clara grinned in delight while patting Angga’s head. He pushed himself to this extent so that she would win the contest against her father. Truly, an admirable person, she thought.
Since their work was done and she had nothing to do for now, Clara accessed the broadcast for the Watchers using her Recording Orb. She had never seen the video Angga made, so she was kinda curious about what kind of video a wildlife documentary was.
It was a sight of the savanna from a certain angle, slowly moving to gently capture the whole environment on the screen. A lot of monsters can be seen there, including the weakest and smallest ones and the big ones who were roaming aimlessly, which somehow made an ecosystem out there.
When the monologue kicked in, Clara was aware that Angga used his voice to narrate this video.
One of them amongst the lot of monsters was a water deer, a weak kind of monster that feed on the dry grasses. It was weak enough that it was a good choice for an inexperienced adventurer to train their ability against the said monster. Yet, it was a naturally fast runner, so it’d flee in a second if danger were nearby. Not only that, but it could spell water magic in a small amount and splash it to the ground to make the soil muddy and confuse the chaser.
They live in a herd to protect themselves, using their sheer numbers against monsters that are a few times bigger than them. They made their natural ability to cast a water spell together and instantly made a temporary pond in the middle of the savanna. Since most of the monsters in the savanna are not accustomed to swimming around, an instant water puddle can drown them easily. That’s why it’s dangerous to face them when they approach their herd.
The introduction section was finished. Now, the video showed Clara moving carefully between the dry, tall grasses because a water deer was nearby. The lion girl in her hunting outfit never put her eyes off her prey when she moved closer to get her strike zone. Alas, the water deer noticed her presence and fled right away.
Angga made sure he put the chase scene just like the one in the movie. He showed how Clara’s struggle enforced the difficulty of chasing a swift monster, especially when it casts a water spell to slow Clara. The viewpoint from the water deer was also shown to let the audience understand the struggle of the monster who just wanted to live.
Angga also blew the audience away with his amazing sound effects and the helicopter view, accurately showing the progress of Clara’s hunt while evading the obstacles there. The hunt finished because of Clara’s leap to avoid the water deer’s pool magic. Even Clara herself was in awe when she watched that scene. Because of Angga’s editing, almost her poor attempt to hunt was washed away since it was looked at from the water deer’s point of view.
Clara’s expression when her successful hunt attempt was such bliss, and Angga captured it perfectly to the point that she chuckled.
“Death of being hunted is just a circle of life. It was fight-or-die out there, just like the way of life of brave adventurers we often see. But we can’t forget one more aspect of this life. It is birth,” said Angga, the narrator.
The screen faded out, and a new scene was introduced. This time, it was the shoot of a pregnant water deer. The video gave away more angles to see the pregnant monster until it became comfortable under the shade of the savanna tree.
The birthing process was edited since it took time in real life. So, Angga shortened it and added a lot of highlights for the audience to consume easily. From the first shriek of agony yet hope from the mother until the calf was safely delivered and licked by its mother, Angga showed it all.
“That was the story of a new life being born filled with hope and optimism for the future. See you again,” closed the narrator.
The video ended here, and the lion girl’s mouth was wide open because Angga’s editing delivered the beautiful side of the weak monsters.
“It was super amazing! I don’t know if you can do this kind of thing and put another perspective on my life, even though I’ve seen the birthing process in real-time. Woah, so the water deer’s life is quite rich if you think about it. What an amazing video. So this is what you called a wildlife documentary, Angga.”
The human guy was still soundly asleep when Clara glanced at the sofa. She noticed this and was embarrassed by herself. Then, Clara walked away to find some fresh air outside the building and to let Angga rest without any disturbance.
“Thank you very much, Angga. You’re an amazing person, and I’m glad that I approached you first when we first met,” whispered the lion girl while enjoying the sunset on the horizon.
Before she knew it, another day has been passed since their last recording in the savanna. She giggled and hummed while going off to buy some snacks at the market since she was in a good mood. Now, all that they have to do is wait for the view and the Supports to accumulate by themselves, and hopefully, it will be the amount that surpasses Alc’s achievement.
After a few days after the first broadcast of Angga’s video, the results were pretty visible.
It was a huge hit, and almost everyone in Canau talked about it whenever Clara or Angga was taking a stroll in the town. If anyone recognized Clara as the hunter in the documentary video, people began to flock around and asked about her experience and mostly how to take that kind of recording.
While people surrounded Clara and couldn’t move, Angga slowly slithered away to find a safe place far from the crowds.
Around two weeks after the first broadcast of Angga’s video, their Support reached 6.000 worth of gold, surpassing the amount Alc had accumulated. Furthermore, it was still counting, so they should expect the number to rise soon. Upon knowing this information, Clara jumped for joy.
“We did it! We finally surpassed my papa just in a short time, Angga!”
Due to her euphoria, Clara hugged Angga tightly in front of Aleid to the point that it was difficult for Angga to breathe because of Clara’s sturdy and soft muscles at the same time. The sheep guy chuckled, seeing how his subordinate celebrated this achievement. Since the video was the work of two individuals, Aleid would take it as Clara’s achievement, which was now on par with Tafnekha’s video.
“Yep. We will win this contest, Clara,” commented Angga between the muscles which constrained him.
Everything went well until Clara’s father heard about his daughter's achievement.