*Huff* “Ah! Damn!”
A man dodged just as a goblin stabbed at his waist with a dagger, narrowly avoiding the strike.
“Ah, not like this! This is why I didn’t want to go off on my own, guys! It’s too dangerous out here!”
— I’m actually rolling rn this is too funny haha
— Goblins, the most fearsome enemy
— Have you considered attacking it?
— It’s more afraid of you than you are of it (false)
The goblin chased after the man, while he ran away clumsily. He was faster than the goblin and would have escaped, if not for the fact that he immediately ran into three more.
“AAAH!!!!”
— Yes, scream, that won’t attract any more lmao
— Okay but he might actually die here tho
— Poor guy lol
As he attempted to run through the goblins, they slashed out at him with sharp weapons, causing his health bar to plummet. Barely breaking through, he quickly changed direction and ran for a while longer before vaulting over an upturned tree. Catching his breath, he hid behind the tree and uncorked a health potion.
However, he stopped his action when his eyes caught notice of five more ugly monsters leering at him a short distance ahead, completely stopping what they were doing as they stood around a small pond.
“...Darn.”
— Okay now that’s just unlucky
The man decided not to waste his health potion, given his imminent death and sat against the tree with a rueful expression.
Thud. Thu-Thud.
He heard sounds behind him. Knowing his luck, it was probably more goblins falling from the trees. Not that he particularly cared, when he was already about to be shanked by the ones in front of him. The way they looked at him was the way an average person would look at McDonald's food after being stranded for a year on a remote pacific island. They were even drooling!
“Oh well guys, we can try again tomorrow.” The man consoled his chat.
— F to pay respects
— rip
— Nooooo!!!
— L
Whoosh!
An arrow suddenly flew over his head and exploded the eye of the closest goblin. More followed in quick succession and took down the other four, causing them to splash back into the pond, spraying water in every direction.
“Hmm, let’s see. They were after... an egg?” The man heard a voice from over the fallen tree behind him. “Should I shoot it?”
At this moment, the man remembered he was bald and quickly stood up from where he was sitting, “Wait, don’t shoot! I’m a human!”
A few metres away, a surprisingly handsome archer with dark hair and red eyes was standing with a bow trained. “Eh? Not an egg? Why is your head so shiny?”
— HAHAHAHA EGG
— SAVED!
— lmao he’s an egg now
— WE’RE SAVED!!!
— Taken down so quickly???
“Thanks for killing the goblins, you saved me!”
“Oh. You’re welcome… Lemonade? Is that your username? Why do you have a red dot next to your name?”
“That’s a streaming symbol, it shows I’m live-streaming my gameplay.” Lemonade looked at Max to see his info. “You have one too-You’re streaming?”
[ ◉ Player: ‘Gun’, Level: 3 ]
“I am! According to my friend, it will guarantee me endless reserves of money and hot chicks. I am not entirely convinced that’s true, but I have no reason not to try it and find out.”
—Lol, I wish this man many moneys and hot chick
—So handsome!
—Why is his name ‘Gun’ lol, is it because he’s an archer?
It was at this moment Lemonade realised it: This guy… was great content!
“Indeed! How many viewers do you have?”
Max proudly pumped his chest, “I already have six!”
*cough* Lemonade used his entire strength of willpower to avoid laughing; he didn’t want to get PK’ed.
—Lololol
—So many viewers. Maybe one day I can be popular like him
—Why does he look so proud haha
“Th-that’s certainly a start. Then it’s your first time streaming today?”
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
“That’s right! How many viewers do you have?” Max asked back.
Lemonade froze. ‘Um... Should I really tell him? He won’t shoot me, right?’
Sensing his reluctance, Max followed up “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. I heard that most people flock to the big streamers and celebrities anyway, so there’s not-”
“24,857.”
“...” Max looked at him expressionlessly.
—Hahahaha oh my god his face I can’t
—This is the best. Someone clip it XD
—He looks so lost lmaoo
“I-uh, I stream games on other platforms, so I already have a lot of people who watch me...”
“Right. Of course, that makes sense...” Max paused for a moment, “Can I have them?”
“Uh, hmm, since they’re living people with egos and personalities, I’m not sure that’s within my control. Slavery was already abolished, too...”
“That’s unfortunate...”
—Wait, unfortunate that he can’t have the viewers, or that slavery was abolished?
“I can add you as a friend though,” Lemonade offered, “I’m planning to make a guild of streamers in the future, so you’d probably-”
Thwak!
Max suddenly shot a goblin to the side, reminding Lemonade of where they were.
“That sounds great! I’ll try to get more viewers so we can stream collaboratively.”
“Y-yeah.” Lemonade agreed. It would be nice to have a skilled archer in the guild; he’d heard that there weren’t many players with the archer class, so running into this guy was good luck. Lemonade sent him a friend request.
“Do you want to stream together?” Max proposed, “I’m actually doing a mission right now; you’re free to join in if you want.”
“Oh, a mission! Is it nearby?”
“I have no idea! I’m just meant to keep going that way until I find something.” He pointed north.
“That way? Are you sure?”
“Yep, I’m positive. Why? Do you know what’s over there?”
“Kind of, actually. I saw some huge monster in a clearing, so I did a 180 and went the opposite way. The map shows that area as level 20+, so I’m pretty sure we’re not meant to go there yet.”
“Oh.” Max appeared to think for a few seconds, “Wanna go there anyways?”
Lemonade was about to say yes, but then considered it and shook his head, “Sorry but I think I’d just be a liability. I nearly died to level four goblins, after all.”
“That’s too bad.”
“Yeah. By the way, I saw a bunch of blood and tattered clothing around that clearing as well, if that’s what you were looking for.”
“Nah, that’s not what I’m looking for. I’m looking for a group of people who-” Max stopped talking.
“...”
“...”
Lemonade felt some pity for him.
“Anyways, I think I’m in a bit of a hurry, so I should get going. It was nice meeting you.” Max quickly ended the conversation and moved to retrieve his arrows.
“Likewise. Just a heads-up, before you go: There’s a big PK group wandering around nearby. I think they’re only looking for someone specific, but just thought I’d let you know.”
“Got it. Thanks for the warning.”
“No problem.”
Lemonade watched him vanish into the undergrowth, before speaking to his viewers, “He seems interesting. Some of you guys should find his stream and keep tabs on him for me.”
—Would you like fries with that?
—You got it, boss!
—That guy’s about to get obliterated by orcs lolol
...
...
Max thought about his mission as he looked for the clearing.
The game servers were already open when Max returned from work, so he was able to load back in and accept the mission from the guard captain. It felt quite strange to relog mid-conversation. Apparently, Virtek would announce the reason for that shutdown at their press conference tomorrow morning. Max was very curious to know what happened.
For now though, Max brought up his mission description to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything.
Mission: The Lost Patrol
Difficulty: Unknown
Description: Crisis looms over the town of Novus, where numerous members of the local guard have gone radio-silent after a string of unexplained disappearances in the adjacent forest. Captain Ken has personally asked you to find his subordinates and either bring them back or return with information on their status.
Milestone 1: Find the patrol (Pending)
Milestone 2: Either bring back the patrol or report your findings to Ken (Pending)
Optional Milestone 1: Return with evidence related to the Patrol (Pending)
Optional Milestone 2: Investigate the source of the disappearances (Pending)
Optional Milestone 3: Obtain evidence of the source of the disappearances (Pending)
Reward: 15,000 gold, subject to changes based on mission performance
‘Hmm...’ Max pondered. ‘If that streamer’s words are true, there’s a good chance the monster he saw is the culprit for the disappearances.’
He checked his inventory. [Arrow x 100]
He had 100 arrows. Adding the 20 already in his quiver gave a total of 120 arrows. He’d lost a lot of arrows at the goblin dungeon, and, to his horror, they were really expensive.
“Twenty gold per arrow is robbery.”
Max played with an arrow in his fingers. He’d started with 200 gold and received 1000 gold from Coby for completing the starter mission. He also received 1 gold for each goblin he killed, which summed to 320 gold, and sold all the weapons he’d scavenged except a small dagger which he kept for himself, for an extra 180 gold. This brought him to a total of 1700 gold, which was only enough to buy 85 arrows if he spent it all.
For a money-miser like Max, this was a nightmare. He ended up buying 75 arrows and keeping the rest of his gold for emergencies. He also had 50 arrows leftover from his dungeon trip, but he’d already lost 5 just in the short time he’d been in this forest, since they could only take a few hits before breaking.
Max checked his stream to see if anyone would console him.
[ Current Viewers: 521 ]
“What?! So many people joined the stream?”
—Hello! We’re the slaves Lemonade keeps in his basement!
—Waiting to see this guy get dunked on by lvl.20 orcs
—Lol he finally looked
—Hello Gun-san!!
“Welcome! Welcome!” Max was pleasantly surprised. He didn’t expect this many people to migrate from Lemonade’s stream. “Since you guys just joined, I’ll give you a rundown of what I’m doing.”
“A group of guards entered this forest against orders from their captain, so I have to track them down and convey the captain’s order to return to the village... And, after hearing from Lemonade just now, I’m hoping nothing bad’s happened to them.”
Max gave a very condensed explanation, which was fortunate because he happened to find a large clearing right at that time.
Traces of a battle were apparent, with large patches of grass having been stained red and some broken weapons scattered around. There were no enemies here, so Max entered the clearing to get a better look.
It was a bit disconcerting that there were no bodies. One of his chatters claimed that orcs were the culprits here and Max did not pin them as the type to hold burials. After searching around for a short while, he finally saw the tattered clothing Lemonade mentioned. It was a patch of red uniform bearing the guard insignia, clear evidence that the patrol team was ambushed here.
“Well. This is definitely for my mission. Unfortunately.”
Max followed the colour red and found several clear strings of blood trailing uphill, heading further north. Gripping his bow tightly, he took the uniform patch in his inventory.
“Let’s see how tough orcs are.”