Chapter 178: Jumpstart
———Karra———
<11: 02 am>
“Ah!? Wha!?” She screamed out, understandably so as she is suddenly transported from one place to another in the blink of an eye. Probably almost like a jumpscare. “Where am… Uhh…”
“Don’t worry too much about it. It’s quite startling, but that’s about it.” The shield lady said, sitting down and checking her equipment while we waited for the last person who said she can come here in a flash as well. “So. Only Terry left, right?”
“Should be… You’re Crylight, right?” The woman who should be LissP asked.
“Yep. You can just call me Cry for short if you want.” She replied. “LissP, I take it?”
“Yeah, call me Liss.” Looks like no one wants to share their real name around here. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if these are already nicknames used by their friends and family. “...Ah! Kara. Uhh…Thanks for the help, if it wasn’t for you, I’d be…”
“Don’t mention it. It’s all just coincidence anyway.” I said while dismissively waving my hand at her. “Glad you aren’t discouraged from that, or how you don’t even have the best equipment for streaming in there but you still did. Good for you.”
“T-Thanks.” She said before scratching her cheek. “...So those three are the staff you talked about, right?”
“Yeah. They’ll make sure everything is in order. Dungeons can be a bit random, and this one I picked was said to be one of the harder ones.” Obviously it’s nowhere near the absurdity of that dungeon next to whatever suspicious group that was, I had Wiina checked beforehand. From the looks of it, the main thing with this dungeon is how plentiful the monsters are each floor, even the first floor has multiple monsters ready to swarm you. “Alright, first of all… Fei, you got the setup ready for Liss, right?”
“Yep, got it right here, boss.” Edea said, wearing a mask with a screen on it that reacts to their emotions quite well. They handed the drone over to Liss who is obviously confused as to what to do with it. “Don’t worry. We still got some time before the stream starts. I’ll help you out.”
And the two take a few steps away from the group and start discussing. It’ll only be temporary usage, but Edea might entertain the idea of selling one or two of those at some point.
Meanwhile, Lrem is still inspecting the sword we gave her. She seems pretty content right now, probably also because of what Wiina did for her yesterday. Apparently a slimeball refused to properly pay her before he died, so she asked for a way to drain the dead dude’s bank dry. No idea how Wiina got access to that, but it all worked out in the end.
Oh, and also because Edea helped fix up her phone to be all new and shiny. They have all sorts of tools just lying around somewhere for occasions like this. Edea can do a lot to help, certainly a tech person, which is always welcome in a new age where everything got wrecked by magic and such, there’s a lot of repairing to be done.
“Whew! I hope I’m not too late.” Terry said once she finally arrived. She simply ran over here, it looks like. I heard she’s pretty darn strong, so if this dungeon isn’t too far from where she lived, then I guess just running would do the job. Hopefully she isn’t out of breath already. “...Is that a blind person?”
“No, it’s see-through, don’t worry about it.” I said to quickly dispel any misunderstanding. “She’s just wearing the black cloth to obscure her face a bit. Same with that elegant black dress, she is super frugal usually, probably only ever wears something this fancy once in a blue moon.”
“You could also not say that in the first place.” Lrem bitterly said as she overheard the conversation. I doubt that’s anywhere near enough information to find out who she is. “Why don’t you yap about this other friend of yours instead?”
“Who? Me?” Wiina, or Navi in this context, said while pointing at her chest. “I’m nobody. You couldn’t find jack about me even if you wanted to. Go ahead and talk about me all you want.”
“Rather suspicious, but if you were someone sinister, you probably wouldn’t appear on public broadcast in the first place.” Cry said while looking at Edea and Liss talking and tinkering.
“Obviously. I mean, they don’t even allow you to stream with someone banned on the platform, let alone criminals, right?” She said with a small smirk.
“Doesn’t exactly stop some rather… suspicious activities. It’s not exactly an airtight rule now, is it?” Cry said with skepticism. “But I guess this isn’t something for me to worry about in the first place. We have roughly half an hour to prepare, correct?”
“Yeah. I mean, technically, the latest we can go live is at twelve, but we can start early if we want.” I said before looking around. This is one of those destroyed city, so there isn’t really anyone around to spot us, but I want to make sure no one is snooping around…
…Why am I even doing this? Edea and Wiina probably already surveyed the area plenty of times, probably without anyone even noticing the how and why.
“Alright. Got her to finish setting things up. We can all just relax and maybe do a test run. What do you think?” Edea said as the two of them walked back.
“Maybe at least a rundown of the plan is good. The aim here is at least fifty floors, rotate who gets to fight and who plays support, and a bit of commentary once we reach certain floors.” Just fighting and not much else would be too dull for a collab. One thing people look for is for personality to shine through, and interacting. Yapping around does do that.
I don’t think people have strong expectations overall. We’re all relatively small streamers, so there’s not that much hype to be had. Of course I’m a big deal in a way. I do educational streams on magic sometimes just so everyone understands it a bit better. The school doesn’t really do online classes.
“Just so we’re clear. I’m gonna tame some early-floor monsters to help us fight. Make sure to leave at least one alive.” Terry said with a smile. I still don’t really know how she tames them, and even how strong she is. Wiina was rather quiet about the whole thing, not really the best sign for me. She then turned to look at Edea with a smirk. “By the way, are you gonna be fighting at all? You can’t expect the others to always watch your back.”
“What? I’m just a tech person. I shouldn’t get my hands dirty at all!” Edea said in a playful fashion. “Besides, the two bodyguards will keep me safe. They’ll be the ones who mainly look out for the rest of us.”
“So how strong are they? I’d assume at least as strong as the rest of us, but I want some words for reassurance.” Cry said while playing with her bangs. How does she even go about her days with one eye looking like it has been permanently covered?
“Uhh… I wanna ask. Cry, is that hair and eyes natural?” Liss suddenly asked while we’re in the middle of a conversation. She does have a somewhat striking color in her hair and eyes. Pink that is a bit on the paler and creamier side, and eyes of the same color with a bit of blue in the center. Certainly not something you see everyday.
“Yeah? Of course it is. I know exotic hair and eye colors are rare, especially on normal humans, but they do exist, you know? Terry is in the same boat, I believe.” She said with her eyes squinted. Terry does have quite a bright white hair, and it’s not like Liss’ bright blonde hair isn’t eye-catching in itself. “What about it, do you usually dye your hair and put on contact lenses?”
“Well. Yeah. I do that sometimes when I stream at home. I don’t do it too often nowadays with dungeon diving and stuff.” She said, sounding a bit shy. “ I still do gaming streams, of course. I’m honestly kinda surprised that gaming streams still do well. I thought with magic and stuff people would be less interested in it. Video games don’t really feel like fantastical fiction anymore, does it?”
“Probably because they still need some form of escape. In case you forgot, all the magic stuff causes a lot of damage to the entire world. It means people are more gravitated to any form of escapism they could find. They need it now more than ever.” Lrem gave out some wise words. “Streamers and such are way more accessible and plentiful than other creative media nowadays. Less people are working on that sort of thing. Rawer contents are much easier to put out, alongside shitty generated content.”
“Yeah, so many shows and comics are on hiatus, sometimes just flat out indefinite or canceled. It kinda sucks.” Wiina said with a hand on her hip. “So, we should probably make this the most entertaining thing ever. Be the hope bringer, the ones who grant everyone their smile back, the women and one enby of tomorrow, stuff like that.”
“Hey, I’m just a background character, don’t put me into this.” Edea protested. “Also, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. We don't have that much reach even if we combined the total views from every streamer here. Some dipshit who spouts nonsense will still get more views than this. It’s just how it is.”
“...How about you wrecked the bots so they have less views than we do?” Wiina suddenly suggested.
“...I guess I could do that for the day, as a scare.” They suddenly said with a smirk on their screen mask before opening their phone.
“...Can they just do that?” Liss asked, sounding a bit nervous.
“What? You got bots on your stream or something? Admittedly I think everyone got a few bots sneaked in for whatever reason, I think we shouldn’t be too worried about it.” I said to reassure her a bit. “Now let’s recap our approach and style here. I’m the speedster, you’re the magic girl, and you’re the tank.”
“And the two of us will watch your back the entire time.” Wiina said with a shrug.
“And of course, I’ll stay back and watch, making sure your cameras are all in the right place. It has some automatic functions, but manual is still the best.” Edea said with a thumbs up.
“So, you three got anything else to say? We still have some time. My staff have some supplies lying around if you need food or water.” I asked, since I still don’t really know what they all need.
“I think I’m good. I only need this shield with me to succeed.” Cry said while standing up and lifting up her shield. “I’m fine with playing defensive and not getting too many kills in. This shield might have blades attached to it on all sides, but a shield is a shield.”
The shield looks really sharp with eight blades protruding out in a similar fashion to that of a compass. The shield is extremely large and bulky, probably hard for anyone to just carry around usually.
“I think I’ll be fine as well.” Liss said while scratching her cheek, not having any weapons on her. She is the spellcaster. Can do a lot of damage but get tired out very quickly. She is definitely the one that needs the most attention as someone afraid of going into melee combat.
Magic can easily tire you out even if you don’t use that many spells. Something I have to keep in mind in this case. I’m around a lot of people with monstrous talents or years of experience. Many are still able to cast roughly ten spells before tiring themselves out and become a liability. Compared to reinforcing your body with magical energy and fighting in close range, a magic spell costs way more in exchange for higher firepower and range.
“I already said this, but I want some monsters from the earlier floors and let them fight as well. Leave one alive, and that’s it.” Terry said with a smile.
Really doesn’t look like anyone is feeling pressured or has extra conditions out of the blue. That’s good. Hopefully we can keep the vibes up while the viewers watch on.
Sure hope those guys don’t try to make things awkward by calling in the middle of the stream. I know full well those guys are gonna come in and watch.