As the crimson explosion slowly dispersed over the valley, the chat scrolled faster than my eyes could follow.
[MoonBun: SHE STOLE THE DRAGON!]
[Rook47: SHE KILLED BOTH OF THEM WITH ONE SHOT!]
[AshCrow: All that guy’s hard work went to waste hahaha.]
[PeachMilk: GREAT NOCTIS!]
[caramel: Thief...]
A new donation notification then appeared on the screen.
SCALE gifted Golden City!
[I kept my word. That shot deserved a donation.]
The System panel updated at the edge of my vision.
[Donations received during stream: 2/5]
Seeing the praise in chat and the sudden donation sent my ego straight through the roof.
I leaned back in my gaming chair with a smug smile on my face.
"Hmhmhm... Praise me more, mortals."
Trying not to sound too arrogant, I tossed my hair behind my shoulder. When my avatar copied the movement, the chat filled with another wave of messages.
"After all, you’re not watching an ordinary streamer."
[caramel: Says the person who screamed at an invisible guy ten minutes ago.]
"That was a trick to make the enemy lower his guard."
[Rook47: You were still screaming after the enemy died.]
"Don’t get hung up on the details."
Even though I tried not to make it too obvious, I couldn’t stop grinning.
The Ash Dragon had left behind a large loot orb glowing with golden and crimson light. I didn’t know what was inside, but an item dropped by a world boss couldn’t be ordinary.
I moved Vharos down from the watchtower and started toward the valley.
"Now let’s claim our real reward."
[AshCrow: Heal first.]
I glanced at the corner of the screen.
My health was still at twenty percent.
"There’s no need. No one else is around."
[caramel: Famous last words.]
I ignored the message.
The distance between the tower and the valley was longer than I had expected. That distance was also what had made Fading Star’s Radiance so powerful.
While Vharos ran down the slope, I drank a healing potion, raising my health bar to sixty percent.
That was enough.
When I reached the Ash Dragon’s enormous corpse, the loot orb was still lying on the ground. Hunter’s Eye didn’t reveal any traces belonging to another player nearby.
"See? Completely safe."
I approached the orb and pressed the interaction key. The crimson light faded, and the item inside entered my inventory.
ASH DRAGON’S—
Before reading the rest of its name, I opened my inventory.
"Let’s see what it does."
The moment I moved my cursor over the new item, the screen turned dark red.
[YOU DIED!]
"Huh?"
My hand froze over the mouse. My eyes moved from the red text to the place where my character had fallen.
Another player appeared beside Vharos’s corpse. They wore a stone-colored cloak, and a thin trail of smoke rose from the suppressed rifle in their hands.
The player must have been hiding among the nearby rocks for the past several seconds. They had waited until I left my safe position to collect the dragon’s loot.
Exactly as I had done to the other players.
Now they were calmly collecting the items dropped from my corpse.
I didn’t shout or swear. I merely planted both elbows on the desk, clasped my hands beneath my chin, and stared blankly at the screen.
The player took my sniper rifle first, followed by the Thornhorn Talisman. Finally, they placed the item dropped by the dragon—the one whose name I hadn’t even managed to read—into their inventory.
I had hoped the chat would feel sorry for me.
It didn’t...
[AshCrow: How does your own medicine taste?]
[Rook47: The professional coward got caught by another professional coward.]
[MoonBun: THE LOOT IS GONEEEE!]
[PeachMilk: We told you to heal...]
[caramel: Completely safe.]
[SnakeVictim: Killed the dragon but couldn’t even read the item hahaha.]
After silently reading their mocking comments for a while, I took a deep breath.
"That item looked ugly anyway."
[caramel: You didn’t even see its name.]
"Shut up."
I clicked the Return to Lobby button.
The side quest was still active. I had killed nine players in my first match, but I hadn’t finished in first place. I had also received only two of the five donations I needed.
I still had time.
"That match was only a warm-up."
I clicked Start again to find another game.
There were more than two hundred ten viewers in the stream. So far, I had gained forty-seven new followers and received two donations.
Apart from losing the dragon’s loot during my first match, things weren’t going too badly.
My next match quickly changed that opinion.
When the game began, I found myself inside a two-story wooden house. Before I could even leave the first room, I heard footsteps coming from upstairs.
"Did someone spawn in the same building as me?"
I aimed at the stairs.
A heavily armored warrior appeared, carrying an enormous weapon with rotating barrels.
"This isn’t fair—"
The weapon opened fire.
Three seconds later, I found myself back on the death screen.
[Match Duration: 02:41]
[Kills: 0]
[Ranking: 83]
[caramel: Professional.]
"The random spawn system is bullshit."
My third match went much better.
This time, I started in a forested area and managed to find good armor within the first few minutes. I killed two players while they were fighting each other, caught one near the edge of the poisonous zone, and hunted down three more while they were moving toward the final area.
With six kills, I managed to reach the final seven players. However, once the safe zone shrank, I couldn’t find anywhere to hide. I was caught between attacks coming from three different directions and eliminated in seventh place.
This time, the chat didn’t mock me too much. For someone playing the game for the first time, I had genuinely done well.
The stream had been live for almost two hours. The viewer count had stabilized at around two hundred seventy, while the number of new followers I had gained had reached seventy-three.
I was actually doing quite well.
I proudly raised my chin while looking at the statistics.
Most new VTubers struggled to reach even ten viewers during their first streams. I had already passed two hundred during my second.
People also continued watching the recordings and following me after the streams ended.
At this rate, reaching one thousand followers wouldn’t even take three days.
I didn’t care that this calculation might have been a little too optimistic.
Some people in chat wanted me to start another match, but no one had donated during the last hour.
I still needed three more donations to complete the five-donation objective. Even if I stayed live until morning, there was no guarantee they would come.
Continuing for several more hours merely to force one of the quest’s objectives would be pointless.
I pulled the microphone closer.
"All right, mortals."
I tried to put a serious expression on my avatar’s face.
"Great Noctis has blessed you enough for today."
[MoonBun: No new match?]
[Rook47: It’s still early!]
[PeachMilk: Get the dragon item back!]
"Thank you for coming tonight. I haven’t decided what I’ll play during the next stream, but—"
I thought for a moment.
"—I’ll probably win again."
[caramel: You didn’t win a single match today.]
I pretended not to see the message.
"Good night!"
I ended the stream before the viewers had time to respond, and the room instantly fell silent.
I leaned back in my chair and stared at the darkened stream screen for several seconds. Then System notifications appeared one after another before my eyes.
[Side Quest ended.]
[Receive at least 5 donations during the stream.]
[Result: 2/5 — Failed]
[Finish the match in first place.]
[Best Placement: 7 — Failed]
[Kill more than 20 players in a single match.]
[Highest Kills: 9 — Failed]
[Completed Objectives: 0/3]
[Evaluating partial progress, stream performance, and viewer engagement...]
A loading icon spun for several seconds.
[Rewards calculated.]
[You obtained a 2★ Card.]
[You obtained 2 Eclipsie Points.]
"Huh?"
I blinked at the notifications. I hadn’t expected the rewards to be this generous.
After all, I hadn’t completed a single objective. Yet the partial progress alone had earned me a two-star card and two Eclipsie Points.
My lips slowly curled upward.
"Maybe the System isn’t so bad after all."
Just as I considered using the card, an important possibility occurred to me, freezing the smile on my face.
"What if..."
I swallowed involuntarily.
A monster could come out of the card.
It hadn’t happened before, but there was no guarantee that the System’s cards would only produce abilities or items rather than living creatures.
What would happen if I opened the card in my room and a hostile creature two meters tall came out?
My computer would be smashed, my furniture would be destroyed, and the entire apartment building might need to be evacuated.
Most importantly, I would be homeless.
"Sleeping on the street doesn’t sound appealing."
I wasn’t going to open the card at home. Apparently, it was time for an evening walk.
I quickly turned toward the wardrobe and began searching for something to wear.
I had set aside the tracksuit I wore that morning to be washed. The rest of the wardrobe contained wide-necked tops, over-the-knee socks, and several cosplay outfits whose purpose I couldn’t understand.
"God... Is there nothing normal in here?"
When I pushed aside a black dress hanging in the wardrobe, I discovered a pink hoodie with bunny ears behind it. I immediately put that one back as well.
After several minutes of searching, I found a plain black oversized sweatshirt and a pair of loose dark pants in the bottom section of the wardrobe.
"Finally."
I changed clothes and put my phone in my pocket.
I still hadn’t opened Eris’s messages. For now, I would continue ignoring that problem too.
By the time I reached the small park near my apartment, it was completely dark outside.
Yellow streetlights illuminated the walking path, and a gentle breeze moved through the trees. The only other person in the park was an elderly man walking his dog, but he soon headed toward the exit.
I found the bench where I had sat the last time I opened a card and took a seat after making sure no one else was nearby.
If a monster really did come out, at least it wouldn’t destroy my room. I could also run away.
At least, I hoped I could.
I placed my hands on my knees and took a deep breath.
"System, I want to use the two-star card."
[Confirmed.]
Blue light flashed before my eyes.
The park, the bench, and the ground beneath my feet vanished in an instant. I found myself floating in endless darkness.
Hundreds of cards drifted around me. Some passed over my head, others circled one another, while a few shone in the distance like tiny stars.
I couldn’t see their fronts. The back of every card displayed a silver moon surrounded by black chains.
"I’m back here again."
I began moving between the cards as though my body had no weight.
I reached for one, but it quickly moved away before my fingers could touch it. Another card circled me twice of its own accord before disappearing into the darkness.
"Are you making fun of me?"
After wandering around for a while, I noticed a card emitting pale-blue light from its edges.
It wasn’t any brighter than the others, yet for some reason, I felt that I should choose it.
I reached out and caught it before it could move away.
"I choose this one."
The card turned over by itself in my palm.
There was no image of an item or ability on its front. It showed only three golden stars and the image of another card.
3★ CARD
"..."
A card had come out of another card.
And it was a higher level than the one I had used.
[You obtained a 3★ Card.]
"Is this a good thing, or is the System just wasting my time?"
Before I could receive an answer, the darkness around me shattered, and I found myself sitting on the park bench again.
The icon of the new card appeared at the edge of my vision. My two-star card had transformed into a three-star card.
This time, the chance of obtaining something truly valuable should have been higher.
I stood without waiting another moment.
"System, use the three-star card."
[Confirmed.]
The world darkened for the second time, and I once again found myself floating among the cards.
This time, golden and purple light radiated from their edges. Some gave off a powerful pressure even from a distance.
I struggled to decide. I was afraid of drawing a monster, but I also didn’t want to miss out on a powerful three-star ability.
After searching for a long time, I noticed a completely black card. Unlike the others, it emitted no light and hovered silently in front of me.
Even the silver moon on its back was covered in a dark mist.
"You look a little suspicious."
The card didn’t move, but for some reason, that only made me more curious.
I reached out and touched the black card.
It immediately stuck to my palm and turned over on its own. Its front showed an open umbrella that was completely black.
A single word was written beneath it.
UMBRELLA
"Wtf?"
Before I had time to understand what it was, the world of cards shattered.
When I opened my eyes, I was standing in the park again, but my hands were no longer empty.
In my right hand was a completely black umbrella, held by its curved handle.