TL/Editor: raei
Status: 5/Week Mon-fri
Illustrations: Posted in discord.
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The knights of the Fabius family and the aunties from the adventurers' town vanished into the tower, serving as a warning about this gimmick's fake safe zones-
Or so I wanted to say, but the viewers' attention had long since shifted to Irene's character quest.
"Now that I think about it, that's true. Grace started as a 3★ and made it to 5★, and Katie evolved from 4★ to 5★. It's about time for a natural 5★ to reach 6★ too. But calling it an achievement... seems a bit off. It's probably just a trigger, and she might pull off some miracle during a boss fight."
-Honestly, finding two people isn't exactly what I'd call a miracle lol
-Is she going to learn some seriously miraculous holy magic that makes her current spells look like child's play?
-Reddit says getting six stars is super hard, so I'm excited-Why do these Yankee friends keep going on about eggplants? Do they really love stir-fried eggplant that much?
-Laughing my ass off. LMAO translates to 'eggplant' in the translator. It's probably a typo plus auto-translation issue.
Well, it's not every day you see an NPC companion born as a 5★ evolve into a 6★, so it's natural to be excited.
Han Se-ah's stream attracted millions of viewers, with Kim Seok-hyun, aka the Sword-Wielding Warrior, close behind with his niche hundred thousand viewers. But this didn't mean the streaming market had solidified into a two-horse race between first and second place.
Given Heroes Chronicle's real-time gameplay, viewers who weren't playing themselves had no choice but to hop between different streams.
Why?
Because even the most popular streamers could only produce so much content in a day.
They'd watch Roland's combat highlights, then Kim Seok-hyun's mad movie, followed by Han Se-ah's 40th floor main quest summary, then Kim Seok-hyun's beginner swordsmanship class... Even then, they'd only have four or five videos to watch in a week.
The minority of 'female cam viewers' who weren't after Heroes Chronicle content but pretty female streamers would lap up even mundane videos of Grace, Irene, and Katie chatting while camping during exploration. But viewers seeking game content had no choice but to look for other streamers.
"You've seen someone who wasn't a companion reach 6★? Got a video? Oh, I had to block that because trolls kept popping up. If you whisper me the address or video name, I'll check and show you guys."
[Roland's Hefty Warhammer donated 10,000 won!]
You'll probably find it if you look for Monk Yuna's channel
"Wow, using a donation for this. Thank you."
That's how big data accumulated.
With so many viewers, there were just as many streamers, so all sorts of information piled up. And since this wasn't a game enjoyed only in Korea, but across the East and West, the speed at which information accumulated was staggering.
No one had cleared the tower faster than Han Se-ah while accompanied by a natural 5★ companion. But quite a few people had met or become socially entangled with natural 5★ companions, so they must have read what those people wrote on the internet.
Just look at that Yuna monk's channel that viewers kept asking if it was viral marketing or not. As the channel name suggested, it was a vlog-style channel of a monk interested in virtual reality games who entered a temple as an apprentice priest to learn about the fantasy world's religion.
"So a 5★ priest became 6★ while she was training nearby and recorded it? But the achievement level... saving children from a high-rank monster's rampage with bare hands... Is that even possible?"
The terrifying execution of cyber detectives who dug up even channels with less than 100 average views. The viewers moved as busily as if they had fire in their eyes upon hearing about Irene's character quest.
Throwing a rock at a hornet's nest would cause less of a commotion.
"What are you doing, Irene?"
"Oh, Roland. I'm just... practicing some holy magic. You never know when you might need spells other than protection."
While the others in the party, accustomed to death, continued exploring without a word, and Han Se-ah seriously debated with viewers whether "saving the aunties" was the quest or not, Irene fidgeted with her fingers, manipulating divine energy.
As I was getting bored of peeking at Han Se-ah's stream, I approached Irene. She flashed a bright smile, but it definitely seemed less energetic than usual.
The corners of her eyes trembled slightly as she tried to curve them upwards, and her lips, attempting a cheerful smile, quickly drooped. Though her gentle voice and neat appearance remained unblemished, she was clearly different from her usual self.
'That's exactly the face of a newbie adventurer about to break through.'
And this reaction was very familiar to me.
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Raei Translations
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In the adventurer and mercenary industries, people drop like flies. Of course, Hans who charges headfirst into monsters lives more dangerously than James who farms in the fields.
In a world where comrades die, rookies die, and veterans die if they slip up, human life is treated more lightly than gold coins. Even in 21st century South Korea, one person dies every day from industrial accidents, so how many must die in this medieval K-fantasy world reeking of dark fantasy?
That's why some of the settings I've seen in other fantasy novels are quite applicable here too, which I find a bit funny. Like mercenaries who squander their money on women and gambling because they'll die anyway, or the mercenary group custom of stoically sending off dead comrades.
"Hey, Lukius."
"Hmm? What is it?"
And in the adventurer seniors who took me in, and the Rebecca Mercenaries that followed, there was something called "peeling off the sticker."
It's a vulgar term used by mercenaries, but it doesn't mean losing one's virginity in a sexual sense. It means experiencing the death of family, siblings, or a close senior in the mercenary group.
"In my mercenary group, there were hardly any female mercenaries. How did the Imperial mercenaries handle it?"
"...Ah, you mean the nun? My experience won't help. Imperial female mercenaries are bitches with their balls cut off and stuck to their chests, so they acted just like the men - booze and sex."
So, just in case, I asked Lukius, the ex-mercenary, and sure enough, I got the expected answer.
In a medieval fantasy world, there's no such thing as psychological treatment, so the shock of losing an acquaintance could only be relieved by drinking until you puke yourself to death or venting your frustrations in a brothel. This seemed to be the same in the Empire, as Lukius shook his messy hair and nodded repeatedly.
Whether in the Kingdom or the Empire, it seems similar that they push you into a brothel to peel off another sticker right after peeling one off, under the guise of comfort. Well, from what I've seen, most cultures are at a similar level, probably because of the Goddess.
"By the way, Sister, you've come past the 50th floor as part of the hero's party, but is this your first time seeing someone die? How is that possible?"
"She's probably seen people die indirectly, but it's likely her first time losing an acquaintance."
"Is that so? You must have lived in a good place. Ah, I'm not being sarcastic. I didn't see people die until I left my family too."
Lukius, startled, flapped his hands before turning to look at the women busy preparing dinner. It was a statement that could be taken as rude sarcasm, but it wasn't entirely wrong.
As for me, well, I've lived 11 years with adventuring as my main job and mercenary work as a side gig, so I've seen plenty of people die. Having traveled to remote parts of the kingdom with just my body to rely on for gold coins, I know well how commoners exposed to monsters without magical aid fare.
Grace, coming from a country village, must have seen villagers drop dead for various reasons during the village's development. Katie, though a young lady, seems to know well how monsters and winter kill commoners, probably due to the harsh nature of the North.
If I had to guess, Grace probably experienced the death of a well-known villager to a wandering monster at least once, and Katie must have lost one or two doting knights who cared for her since childhood.
But Irene's story was a bit different.
"Well, she's a girl who stayed in the temple continuously until she entered the tower for ascetic practice."
"She's the last to gain experience, huh?"
"Shhk― Her heart, dulled by peace, will be sharpened. She'll have to overcome it herself."
Though she was raised in an orphanage, it was quite a wealthy temple located in the center of a big city. The only crisis she'd faced in her life was when noble patronage occasionally got cut off or became insufficient, making fundraising difficult.
To put it nicely, she's a noble religious person who gave up comfort and entered the path of asceticism for her mission. To put it badly, she's a young lady ignorant of the ways of the world who got a rude awakening to harsh reality.
The rest of the party seemed to realize this too, as they gathered around Irene. Well, except for Han Se-ah, who was so focused on the character quest with her viewers that she was oblivious to everything else. They all seemed to have noticed Irene's state of mind.
Still, her faith wouldn't crumble just because of this, right? Besides wishing she'd truly overcome it, is there anything else I can do?
"Dinner's ready!"
Thinking this way, I ate the hot stew, expressed a bit of disappointment at the reduced meat, and went to sleep. The next morning...
"...What's this, Irene?"
"Huh? Oh, I tried applying holy magic a little differently."
Lukius and McDonagh, who stood the last watch, looked at us perplexedly from inside a pure white barrier. Actually, from inside separate small barriers.
She wasn't a flower in a greenhouse, but a bamboo in a greenhouse...
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