[YOU ARE LIVE]
The moment the stream screen appeared, I realized I had started about twenty minutes earlier than planned. I must have misread the time while rushing to get ready.
"Well..."
At least it would be a small surprise for my followers. I was already expecting a few confused reactions to the early stream.
I moved my cursor over the RPG I had played yesterday.
My save file from the Apophion fight was right there. I had even prepared the stream title to announce that I would be fighting him again.
Before I could click Continue, however, I remembered the games I had looked at that morning—especially Last Bastion.
If I wanted to gain three hundred new followers tonight, trying something different might be better than repeating what I had done yesterday.
After going back and forth between the two games for a while, I closed the RPG.
"I changed my mind."
I quickly edited the stream title.
Can I Win My First Match? | Last Bastion
I launched Last Bastion and prepared to play. I had only watched a few promotional videos, but the basic idea was familiar.
Be the last player alive, kill everyone in your path, and, if possible, do it in a way that entertained the viewers.
Simple enough.
After browsing the character selection screen for a few seconds, I stopped on an elderly dark elf.
VHAROS — THE LAST HUNTER
He had long white hair, wrinkled gray skin, and a deep scar running from his left eye down to his chin. He wore dark leather armor and held a sniper rifle almost as long as he was tall.
He wasn’t cute. In fact, standing beside my avatar, he looked like a grumpy old man who hadn’t seen sunlight in years.
But he looked cool, and more importantly, he was a sniper.
I was confident in my ability to use those kinds of weapons in games. As long as my target was far away, I could remain calm and wait for the right moment.
Vharos also had an ability called Hunter’s Eye, which allowed him to see the trails left behind by distant enemies. He seemed like a safe choice for my first time playing.
I selected him and entered the lobby.
When I checked the stream, the viewer count had already reached twenty-seven. The chat was also slowly beginning to move.
[MoonBun: Aren’t you early today?]
[Rook47: Surprise stream?]
[PeachMilk: What game is this?]
[NoctisFan: Last Bastionnn?]
[AshCrow: Looks like we’re playing battle royale.]
[caramel: hii]
I still hadn’t spoken. I tapped my finger rhythmically against the desk while waiting for the viewer count to rise a little more.
The number climbed first to twenty-nine, then thirty-two, and finally thirty-six. I wanted to reach at least forty before greeting everyone.
At that moment, a blue light flashed before my eyes.
"Hm?"
A System panel opened over the stream screen.
[Side Quest Created]
[MASTER OF THE FIRST MATCH]
[Receive at least 5 donations during the stream.]
[Current Progress: 0/5]
[Finish the match in first place.]
[Current Status: Incomplete]
[Kill more than 20 players.]
[Current Progress: 0/20+]
[You will be rewarded according to the number of objectives completed.]
[Penalty: None]
The sudden appearance of a side quest caught me off guard. The System had given me tasks during a stream before, but having one created specifically around the match I was playing was a little unsettling.
It really must have been watching everything I did.
Then I fully understood what the objectives were asking of me.
"Wait a minute..."
I had to finish in first place in a game I had never played before. On a map containing one hundred players, I needed to kill more than twenty of them by myself. In other words, I had to eliminate roughly one-fifth of the lobby.
As if those conditions weren’t difficult enough, I also needed to receive five separate donations during the stream.
Only one person had donated during my first stream, and that had been caramel.
"Ahh... Whatever."
At least there was no penalty.
Even if I failed all three objectives, I wouldn’t lose anything. If I managed to complete even one, I might earn a small reward.
By the time I closed the System panel, the viewer count had reached forty-seven. Unfortunately, the chat had started losing patience because I had remained silent for so long.
[MoonBun: Noctis?]
[Rook47: Your microphone might be muted.]
[AshCrow: We’ve been staring at the lobby for five minutes.]
[PeachMilk: The streamer forgot how to speak.]
[caramel: ARE YOU ASLEEP?]
"I think that’s enough."
I cleared my throat and pulled the microphone closer.
My avatar raised her head at the same time as me. I put on a smile that I hoped looked arrogant.
"Oiiii! Are you ready?"
The messages in chat slowed for a moment.
Spreading my arms wide, I proudly announced:
"Welcome to Great Noctis’s stream, mortals!"
My avatar spread her thin arms and puffed out her chest, making the greeting look more cute than threatening. Even so, the chat immediately came back to life.
[MoonBun: She finally spoke!]
[Rook47: Great Noctis summoned us twenty minutes early.]
[PeachMilk: Where’s the RPG?]
[SnakeVictim: Ran away from Apophion hahaha]
My eyebrows drew together.
"There’s no RPG today!"
Several sad and angry emotes appeared in the chat at once.
"Why, you ask?"
I couldn’t exactly admit that I had also thought I would be playing the RPG until a few minutes ago.
"Uhh... I realized I have a special talent for FPS games."
That wasn’t entirely true. I had been decent at them in my old world, but I hadn’t fired a single bullet in this one yet.
"So I thought Last Bastion would be much more entertaining."
[AshCrow: How did you discover your special talent if this is your first time playing?]
I hadn’t expected anyone to point out the flaw in my logic so quickly.
"Don’t get hung up on the details."
[caramel: Got scared.]
"I’m not scared! Ahh, come on! Have a little faith in me. This will be fun."
Ignoring the chat’s objections, I clicked the Play button.
The game found a one-hundred-player lobby within seconds. Players with different characters appeared in the waiting area as a countdown began at the top of the screen.
[10]
[9]
[8]
I adjusted my grip on the mouse.
"Watch and learn."
[3]
[2]
[1]
The screen went black for a brief moment.
I expected to jump from a plane or some kind of vehicle in the sky. Instead, my character appeared in the middle of a ruined village without warning.
"Huh?"
Half-collapsed stone houses surrounded me, along with vine-covered pillars and broken statues rising from the weeds. In the distance, I could see the shattered tower of an ancient temple.
The sky was gray, and flocks of black birds circled beneath the low clouds.
The name of my current location appeared in the upper-left corner of the map.
FORGOTTEN VILLAGE
"So there’s no jumping out of a plane."
Last Bastion placed every player in a random part of the map. The system was fast, but an unlucky player could apparently spawn directly beside an enemy.
I immediately checked my surroundings, but there was no one nearby, at least as far as I could see.
The instant I tried turning my character, the crosshair moved far too quickly.
"This sensitivity is awful."
I opened the settings menu.
[caramel: A professional player adjusting the settings after the match starts.]
"It’s my first time playing. Give me a second."
I lowered the horizontal sensitivity slightly and increased the scope speed a little.
When I closed the menu and moved the mouse again, the crosshair stopped exactly where I wanted it.
"Yeah, this is better."
I opened the map.
The location of the safe zone hadn’t been revealed yet. Vharos started with a basic sniper rifle and a short dagger, but I had no armor.
If I encountered another player now, a single mistake could get me killed.
"Let’s look around and find something useful first."
I began moving between the village’s ruined houses.
Inside the first building, I found some ammunition and a low-level healing potion. The second house was locked, but after climbing through a broken window, I discovered nothing except rotting furniture.
As I left the building, I noticed movement in the distance.
A deer-like creature was wandering through a grassy area between the stone walls. It was larger than a normal deer, and the black antlers on its head split in several directions like the branches of a dead tree.
"We’ve found our first target."
I crouched and raised the rifle, then placed the thin lines of the scope over the creature’s head and held my breath.
Bang!
The gunshot echoed through the ruins.
The bullet struck directly between the creature’s eyes.
[Thornhorn killed.]
"Haha! Did you see that?"
I sat a little straighter in my chair.
"I took it down with one shot!"
[MoonBun: Ooo, you actually hit it.]
[AshCrow: It wasn’t moving.]
[caramel: Thank you for not missing.]
My eye twitched.
"What is wrong with this person?"
I was grateful for the donation yesterday, but that didn’t mean caramel needed to mock me at every opportunity.
I approached the creature’s body and inspected the items it had dropped. Among the ammunition and monster parts was a black horn.
THORNHORN TALISMAN
[Maximum Health: +20%]
"Not bad."
The moment I equipped the horn in my accessory slot, my health bar grew longer.
"See? These are the benefits of playing safely."
[Rook47: Killed one deer and became a tactical expert.]
I ignored the message and spent the next few minutes finding an old leather chest piece, a better scope, and three healing potions.
The village wasn’t completely empty. Pale specters wandered among the ruined buildings, and since they usually remained behind walls, they should have been difficult to notice.
However, whenever Vharos’s Hunter’s Eye activated, the trails of moving creatures appeared as purple lights. This allowed me to locate the specters before they could approach me.
I shot one from one hundred meters away, took down the second through a gap in a collapsed roof, and put two bullets through the third one’s head when it charged at me.
I wasn’t taking any risks, but unfortunately, the chat wasn’t enjoying that.
[PeachMilk: This is getting a little boring.]
[AshCrow: Go fight some players.]
[SnakeVictim: The moment an enemy appears, the game is getting closed.]
[caramel: Old elf walking simulator]
"This isn’t cowardice. It’s called strategy."
The counter in the corner of the screen continued displaying the cruel truth.
[Players Remaining: 94]
[Kills: 0]
Killing monsters didn’t count toward the side quest’s elimination objective. At this rate, forget killing more than twenty players—I wouldn’t even see a single one.
The viewer count had reached seventy-seven. At least they were staying in the stream so they could continue complaining about being bored.
I had gathered enough items from the ancient ruins. Deciding to move toward the center of the map, I left the village and entered an old stone road running between two hills.
At that moment, a new message appeared in the chat.
[Scale: I’ll donate if you defeat the dragon on the map.]
My steps slowed.
"Dragon?"
I opened the map again.
A red wing icon was displayed at the foot of the mountain to the northeast.
WORLD BOSS — ASH DRAGON
It wasn’t far from my current location. If I followed the old stone road, I could reach the boss area within a few minutes.
However, world bosses were visible to everyone on the map, and I wouldn’t be the only person going there.
Many players would gather at the same location—some hoping to kill the dragon, others looking for powerful equipment, and some planning to hunt the other players.
It was extremely dangerous, but it was also the best place to get the kills I needed for the side quest.
I looked at the upper-right corner of the screen.
[Players Remaining: 89]
[Kills: 0]
Eleven players had already been eliminated, while I still didn’t have a single kill.
If I wanted to complete the objective of killing more than twenty players, I couldn’t keep hiding in the ruins. Besides, defeating the dragon would earn me my first donation.
[MoonBun: DRAGON HUNT!]
[Rook47: Lol]
[caramel: good luck]
I clenched my teeth.
"All of you are going to regret this."
I placed a marker on the map, turned Vharos toward the road leading up the mountain, and reloaded my sniper rifle.
"All right..."
An excited smile appeared on my face.
"Let’s hunt a dragon!"