I walked over to the computer and sat down in the gaming chair. The moment I leaned back, my eyebrows rose slightly. It was much more comfortable than I had expected.
The lumbar support held my back in exactly the right place, while the soft cushion near the top eased the tension in my neck.
"At least you spent your money on something worthwhile."
I pulled myself closer to the desk and pressed the computer’s power button. The fans inside the transparent case began to spin. As the blue lights came on one by one, the star-shaped decorations on the desk started glowing as well.
A cute startup animation appeared on both monitors at the same time. A small blue-haired anime girl pointed her staff at the screen, creating the login screen from star-shaped lights.
I closed my eyes for a few seconds and prepared myself.
"I’ll get used to this."
After all, I had no other choice.
Once the computer had fully booted, I relied on Noctis’s memories to check the programs needed for the stream. The microphone, game capture, chat window, stream settings, and avatar software all seemed ready.
Everything was in order. I was the only one running late.
The scheduled stream time shown on my phone had already passed, and there were even a few messages waiting on the channel page. I decided not to look at them because I needed to check the avatar first.
When I opened the program, a blue-haired anime girl appeared in the middle of the second monitor.
I stared blankly at the screen for a moment.
The character had long blue hair, small star-shaped decorations around her eyes, and a hood that resembled cat ears. Her frilly outfit was mostly white and blue without being too revealing.
When I tilted my head, the avatar did the same. When I blinked, it blinked. When I frowned, an adorably angry expression appeared on its face.
"Strange."
The avatar’s mouth moved at the same time as mine.
I raised my hand and waved it from side to side. The small motion sensors on the desk tracked my body, and the avatar waved as well.
When I tried raising my middle finger, its hand suddenly turned into a cute cat paw.
A pink warning appeared on the screen.
[Inappropriate hand gesture detected.]
"Seriously?"
The cat paw waved cheerfully twice. Apparently, this avatar had better manners than I did.
It copied nearly all my movements perfectly. Even the smallest change in my expression was reflected in its eyes or mouth.
That meant everyone would see it if I panicked during the stream.
Great.
I took a deep breath. I was almost ready.
Then I checked the stream title.
[Apophion Hunt! Clearing the Desert Temple in One Try!]
I stared at the title for a while.
"One try, huh?"
Noctis had apparently been quite confident in the past. Unfortunately, he wasn’t the one sitting at the keyboard today.
I opened the pre-stream waiting screen. After making sure the microphone level was correct, I held the cursor over the "Start Stream" button.
My heart began to beat faster.
This wasn’t the same kind of excitement I had felt because of Rose’s kiss. The thought of hundreds of strangers watching me created a completely different kind of pressure.
"Just reach a hundred viewers," I muttered to myself. "Complete the quest and end the stream."
Then I pressed the button.
[Livestream started.]
A red icon appeared in the corner of the screen.
I was live.
Without saying anything, I immediately launched the game. After a few studio logos and short animations played, orchestral music rose from the speakers and the game world appeared on the screen.
I found my character standing in the middle of an endless desert.
Golden sand dunes stretched all the way to the horizon. Two suns hung in the sky, and the hot air made the image shimmer slightly.
In the distance stood massive stone pillars that were half-buried in the sand, along with a structure resembling a black pyramid.
My character was a silver-haired elf mage with pointed ears. A staff tipped with a blue crystal rested in one hand, while the edges of a white cloak fluttered in the wind.
What was I supposed to do now?
I opened the quest list.
[Main Quest: Poison Beneath the Sands]
[Objective: Defeat Apophion.]
"Ah, right... That boss."
I had to go and kill it.
Apophion was a gigantic, snake-like monster that lived beneath the desert. According to Noctis’s memories, it used poison attacks and burrowed beneath the battlefield before emerging from different locations.
I checked the viewer count.
[3]
Three people had already arrived. I knew I should greet them, but I wasn’t particularly eager to do so.
"Oh, God..."
I only remembered that the microphone was live after the words had already left my mouth.
The first message appeared in the chat window.
[MoonBun: Oh, God? Giving up before you’ve even started?]
I ignored the message. I would greet them once a few more viewers arrived, but for now, I needed to figure out how to control the character.
I moved the mouse and opened the menus. Then I examined the character’s stats, spells, and equipment one by one.
The elf mage’s magic damage didn’t look too bad.
[Level: 27]
[Class: Star Weaver]
[Main Spells: Ice Spear, Star Arrow, Moonlight Step, Mana Barrier]
The damage values meant nothing to me, but the green arrows beside them made me think they were good.
I would only find out whether they were enough for the boss by trying.
I let out a deep sigh.
"Guess I’ll find out when I try."
When I looked at the viewer count again, the number had already risen.
[16]
Messages began flowing down the side of the screen.
[StarCandy: You’re finally here!]
[VoidTea: Why did the stream start so late?]
[BlueComet: What are we doing today?]
[MimiMew: Why do you sound so tired?]
[MoonBun: Bet she fell asleep.]
I cleared my throat lightly. It was time to speak.
"Uh... Hi, everyone."
My avatar raised its hand with a nervous smile, causing hearts and waving-hand emojis to appear one after another in the chat.
"Um... I guess we’re killing this boss today."
I opened the map and marked the dungeon in the middle of the desert.
[Apophion’s Buried Temple]
"I mean... hopefully."
The chat immediately came alive.
[BlueComet: That confidence is all I need.]
[StarCandy: Didn’t the title say one try?]
[MimiMew: LMAO, she’s scared before we’ve even started.]
[VoidTea: She’s acting weird today, but it’s cute.]
At least they were having fun.
I began guiding the character toward the dungeon I had marked. For the first few minutes, all I did was walk through the sand.
The controls were more sensitive than I had expected. Whenever I moved the camera, it turned much farther than I intended, and sometimes the character walked in the opposite direction from where I wanted to go.
A few question marks appeared in the chat, but I ignored them.
Before long, I reached the black pyramid. Two massive snake statues with broken heads stood beside the entrance.
I moved my character onto the glowing circle in front of the door.
[Do you wish to enter Apophion’s Buried Temple?]
[Recommended Level: 20]
My character was level twenty-seven, so the dungeon should have been easy.
"Let’s go in."
When I pressed the confirmation button, another animation began.
The elf mage struck the staff against the ground. Sand scattered to both sides, and the stone door opened as green light poured out from within.
The screen faded to black. A few seconds later, my character appeared in the middle of a hall with strange architecture.
The walls were covered in reliefs of intertwined snakes. Blue crystals hanging from the ceiling illuminated the hall with a pale light, while green liquid flowed across parts of the floor.
"All right, let’s keep moving."
I guided the character down the corridor. As soon as I turned the first corner, I encountered two guards wearing white masks and carrying curved swords.
[Sand Temple Guard — Level 19]
"Guess I have to get past these first."
I raised my staff.
"All right, all right."
The moment my character entered their attack range, both guards charged at me.
I panicked and pressed the key for the first spell.
An Ice Spear shot from my character’s staff, passed cleanly between the two enemies, and struck the wall.
"How did that miss!?"
One of the guards swung its sword, and part of my health bar immediately vanished.
While trying to back away, I accidentally turned the camera toward the ceiling. For the next few seconds, all I could see were the snake reliefs.
[MoonBun: She’s admiring the architecture.]
[StarCandy: The enemies are below you!]
"I can see them!"
I couldn’t.
By the time I fixed the camera, both guards were right on top of my character. I managed to activate Mana Barrier, surrounding the elf mage with a blue shield, but the enemy attacks shattered it within seconds.
This time, I used Star Arrow. The glowing blue projectile struck one of the guards and took away almost half its health.
"That’s more like it!"
After casting several more spells in a row, I managed to defeat one of the guards. The other, however, refused to leave me alone. Every time I pressed the dodge key, I either crashed into a wall or teleported in the wrong direction.
My health bar soon turned red.
"How is this supposed to be an easy dungeon!?"
I spotted a red potion in one of the quick-use slots at the bottom of the screen and pressed the key without thinking.
The moment my character drank it, the health and mana bars completely refilled. Golden wings also appeared around the elf mage.
"Oh, nice."
After killing the remaining guard with a few spells, I leaned back as though I had won.
"See? Easy."
When I looked at the chat, the viewer count had reached forty-three, but no one was celebrating my victory.
[43 Viewers]
[VoidTea: NO!]
[StarCandy: WHY DID YOU USE THAT POTION!?]
[MoonBun: My heart hurts.]
[BlueComet: In the first room... She actually used it in the first room.]
[MimiMew: Please tell me this is a joke.]
I frowned, and my avatar copied me with an angry expression.
"Hey, what’s the problem!? I was low on health, so I used it."
The chat moved even faster.
[StarCandy: YOU COULD’VE USED A NORMAL POTION!]
[VoidTea: Check your inventory!]
[MoonBun: She doesn’t even know what she had lmao.]
I opened the game’s item database to check the potion I had used. A red bottle with a golden border appeared under the recently used items.
I moved the cursor over it.
[The Phoenix’s Last Tear]
[Rarity: Legendary]
[Effect: Fully restores health and mana. Removes all negative effects. Allows the user to revive once within the next 60 seconds.]
[Acquisition: Crimson Phoenix World Boss — 0.3% drop chance]
I stared at the description for a while.
"Oh, fuck..."
The words came out very quietly, but the microphone was still live.
My avatar’s eyes widened at the same time as mine. The chat came to a complete stop for one second before suddenly exploding.
[MimiMew: DID SHE JUST SWEAR!?]
[BlueComet: AHAHAHAHAHA]
[MoonBun: She really is different tonight.]
[StarCandy: I’m more shocked by the swearing than the potion.]
[VoidTea: You’re so cute when you swear.]
"Why was that the only thing in my inventory!?"
When I realized I had raised my voice, I covered my mouth. I was live, and dozens of people were listening to me.
Instead of being offended, however, the viewers seemed to find it funny.
What was wrong with these people? How could swearing possibly be cute?
[VoidTea: Say it again.]
I barely managed to swallow the reply that came to mind.
"No."
I closed the item database.
"We’re moving on."
I guided the character into the next corridor. As I advanced, I encountered several different kinds of monsters.
First, I killed small sand bugs that crawled out of the walls. Then I encountered poison-spitting, half-spider creatures with human torsos.
Beside them were two monsters that resembled rabid hyenas, foam dripping from their mouths.
[Venom Priestess — Level 18]
[Rabid Desert Beast — Level 17]
"Okay... I need to kill the spiders first."
I reached for the spell key, but before I could understand what was happening, one of the hyenas leaped onto my character.
The screen shook, and my character fell to the ground. The second hyena clamped onto the elf mage’s throat while the spider creatures fired green webs at me.
[You have been poisoned.]
[Mobility reduced.]
[You have been stunned.]
"Wait!"
I pressed Mana Barrier.
[Cannot be used while stunned.]
I tried Moonlight Step.
[Cannot be used while stunned.]
"What am I supposed to do if I can’t use anything!?"
My health bar began draining within seconds. When I checked the quick-use slots for another potion, I found them all empty.
The legendary potion from earlier really had been my only healing item.
The screen turned dark red, and enormous letters appeared in the center.
[YOU DIED]
My hand remained over the keyboard as I stared at the message without moving.
The viewer count had reached fifty-seven.
[57 Viewers]
[MoonBun: LOL, she actually died on the second wave.]
[StarCandy: Come on, this is an early-game dungeon! It can’t be that hard.]
[BlueComet: She’s not even talking. She really wasn’t expecting that.]
[MimiMew: She used the Phoenix potion and died two minutes later ahahahaha.]
[VoidTea: We’re watching history in the making.]
My eyebrow twitched, and the avatar copied it in an annoyingly cute way.
"Hey, shut up and watch."
The chat slowed for a moment.
I folded my arms across my chest.
"I lost on purpose. That was just a warm-up."
[MoonBun: Of course, my lady.]
[StarCandy: I totally believe you.]
[VoidTea: Tsundere mode activated.]
"You’ll see."
Without hesitating, I pressed the [Restart] button, and my character reappeared at the dungeon entrance.
I positioned my hands over the keyboard and snapped my fingers. When the avatar copied the movement, a blue star flashed between its fingers.
Laughter and supportive messages began flowing through the chat again.
For now, the stream was going well. The viewers found my new behavior unusual, but most of them seemed to like it.
Not all of them, of course.
Still, seeing the number continue to rise was enough.
The system’s counter silently appeared in the corner of my vision.
[Quest Progress: 57/100]
I raised my staff.
"Now we’re really starting."