Chapter 17: The Brand
Hajin held the monster down, feeling the ground still shuddering from the impact and the creature’s desperate, wet gasps beneath his weight. He felt a wave of relief that things had actually turned out okay.
’Good thing it didn’t finish evolving,’ he thought, watching the three shards orbit its tusks with a flickering instability, ’most monsters need time to adjust to that kind of power jump, otherwise their own bodies just can’t handle it.’
He kicked off the ground and leaped high, the golden chains instantly coiling tight around his forearm and fist in a series of sharp, metallic clicks that sounded like a lock snapping into place.
He hung there for a second, charging the attack while his eyes locked onto the boar’s head, and he couldn’t help but think about the sheer absurdity of the power gap.
’The difference between two and three shards is what, five times? Ten?’ he wondered, the mana in his fist humming with a heavy, vibrating pressure, ’whatever the case, if this thing had been fully evolved, I would have died here.’
He slammed back down with all his weight, his fist connecting with the boar’s skull in a single, explosive crack that sent a shockwave through the dirt and silenced the creature’s roars instantly.
The boar’s head hit the ground hard and its body went limp, the three shards orbiting its tusks losing their glow and falling to the dirt with a series of soft clinks.
He stood there for a moment, breathing in shallow gasps while he looked at the corpse, and he wondered just how much these shards would sell for since evolved shards like these were rare enough to attract a lot of attention from the guild.
Then, a thick burst of golden light tore itself free from the monster’s chest, splitting into two streams. One shot toward him, sinking directly into his ring, while the other shot across the dirt and sank directly into Juna’s unconscious body.
The sudden surge hit him so hard that his vision blurred and his legs gave out, dumping him to his knees as a wave of immense heat crashed over him.
’What the fuck was that,’ he thought, gripping the dirt as he tried to keep his balance while a cascade of notifications flickered into existence in front of his face.
[ EXP Gained: 15,000 ]
[ Rank Progress: 16,500 / 500,000 ]
[ Summon Juna gained: 15,000 EXP ]
[ Wing Progress: 15,000 / 300,000 ]
[ Loot dropped: Corrupted Boar Tusk (Common) ]
[ Passive Trait Triggered: Fragment’s Blessing ]
[ Rarity Upgrade: Common ➔ Uncommon ]
[ Obtained: Tusk of the Earth Render (Uncommon) ]
He scanned the lines quickly, struggling to catch his breath. ’Fifteen thousand EXP for one kill?’ he thought, staring at the numbers, ’and I just got an uncommon drop out of nowhere?’
It was just another reminder that there was still a lot he didn’t understand about the system or his Fragment’s Blessing trait, but he didn’t have time to dwell on it right now. He turned his head toward Juna, noticing she was still unconscious and bleeding from her side.
He started walking over while thoughts still filled his head.
’So killing monsters slightly above my level is the key,’ he thought, feeling the new, subtle density in his muscles, ’I don’t know exactly how the EXP scale works, but it’s a lot more efficient than just grinding weaklings.’
As he approached, he flicked his wrist and pulled up the detailed screen for the Chains of the Goddess.
[ Chains of the Goddess ]
[ Type: Growth Weapon ]
[ Status: Active (99% Damaged) ]
[ Note: Repairs and evolves through the absorption of divine or corrupted essence. ]
He stared at the condition line, the ninety-nine percent damaged part still feeling like a joke.
’If it grows, does that mean it repairs itself as I get stronger?’ he thought, his eyes shifting to the note section, ’and I wonder what qualifies as divine and corrupted essence.’
He closed the panel and knelt beside Juna, his hand reaching out to hold her face gently. She looked so innocent like this, her breathing shallow but steady.
He felt a small weight in his chest as he checked the wound on her side. It was deep, and the blood had stained her clothes, but it didn’t seem severe enough to be fatal.
’Thank god,’ he thought, letting out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.
He slid one arm under her knees and the other behind her back, picking her up with a slow, careful motion to avoid jarring her ribs. As he stood up, the stream panel flickered in his vision, the comments scrolling faster now that the fight was over.
[ JunaFanClub:] IS SHE OKAY??
[ ShadowMage44:] please tell me the wolf girl survived
[ CringeSlayer91:] if she died i’m actually going to uninstall this app
He looked at the messages and spoke quietly, "Yeah, she’s fine," he said, glancing down at Juna’s sleeping face. "She just needs a bit of rest."
He walked away from the boar’s corpse, his mind wandering as he looked at the steady climb of the viewer count. They were still treating this like a show, a high-budget production with an AI lead, and for some reason, that thought bothered him more than it should have.
’Do they really think this is all just fake?’ he wondered, stopping for a second to look directly into the void where the camera would be.
"Hey," he said, his voice sounding a bit tired. "Do you guys still think this is a show? Or do you finally believe this world is real?"
The comments stopped for a second, before coming back different than usual.
[ CringeSlayer91:] tbh, the way you talk to use directly is pretty wild
[ ShadowMage44:] bro can actually hear us and respond, no AI chat bot does that in real time
[ NewViewer_02:] the donation system works too, i sent 5 credits earlier and it went through instantly
[ LurkerNoMore:] the animation is too clean, voice acting is too natural, and the interaction is live. i don’t know what this is anymore
[ CringeSlayer91:] if this is AI then whoever made it just broke the entire industry
More lines stacked on top of each other, the viewer count ticking up from twenty to thirty, then forty, as people kept sharing the stream with whoever would listen.
[ ShadowMage44:] but another world though? come on, that’s a stretch
[ NewViewer_02:] yeah like, another dimension? parallel universe? that’s insane
[ LurkerNoMore:] if it’s real then this guy is actually fighting monsters in some fantasy world?
[ CringeSlayer91:] it could just be the most elaborate ARG ever made and we’re all just playing along
He watched them argue with each other, "kind of funny because I was thinking the same about them, but unlike them, its easier for me to believe.’
[ ShadowMage44:] hey hajin, if this is really another world, prove it
[ NewViewer_02:] yeah, show us something that can’t be faked
[ LurkerNoMore:] like, do something that no CGI or AI could replicate
He read those lines and felt his mouth pull into a flat line, ’prove it?’ he thought, looking down at Juna, then at the chain still wrapped around his arm, then at the dead boar’s corpse shrinking behind them.
’I just fought a monster that was evolving mid-fight, bought a damaged chain weapon from a system shop, and I’m carrying my unconscious summon back to the capital. What more do they want, a blood test?’
He didn’t say any of that out loud though, because arguing with people on Earth felt like a waste of breath when they were already watching everything he did.
"I can’t really prove anything to you," he said, adjusting Juna in his arms while his voice came out tired. "You’ll just have to keep watching I guess."
The comments paused again, then rolled back in.
[ CringeSlayer91:] fair answer honestly
[ ShadowMage44:] he’s not even trying to convince us, which is weird. if this was a production he’d be selling it harder
[ NewViewer_02:] or he’s just a good actor
Before he could read any more, the stream panel flashed gold, a notification dropping in front of his face.
[ashley donated: 100,000 credits]
[ashley: hey, i know this is insane and i probably shouldn’t be doing this, but i want to be a mod for your channel. let me manage your stream, handle your community, organize donations and keep chat from being a mess. i won’t disappoint you.]
He stopped walking and stared at the donation, ’one hundred thousand?’ he thought, a little sweat forming on his forehead, ’that’s... what?’
He couldn’t even begin to understand what was going on.