Chapter 13
Chapter 13 – Winning With Style; Crushing Records
Mei’s fist slammed into the Hobgoblin General’s breastplate, denting hardened steel like it was cardboard.
Spit, blood, and some kind of green fluid sprayed from the hobgoblin’s lips.
“Ew!” Mei hopped backward to avoid the vile mix. “Yuck, yuck, yuck! It got on my boots!”
She shook her foot repeatedly, trying to fling the disgusting sludge off.
That brief distraction gave the hobgoblin just enough time to recover from the one-sided beating it had been taking. With a guttural snarl, it scrambled for its discarded saber and snatched it up.
“!&#>&«!” it barked unintelligiblely, charging at her with the blade raised for a sweeping horizontal slash.
Mei didn’t even look up.
Still focused on her boots, she raised her pistol and fired a charged shot straight between its brows.
The Hobgoblin General froze mid-stride as the purple energy round pierced its forehead. Then, with almost comical stiffness, it tipped backward.
It was dead before it hit the ground.
“Eeeew…” Mei groaned, lifting her foot again to inspect the damage. “I need a new pair of boots. But where am I supposed to find those in this stupid forest?”
She turned as she spoke. “Adam, do you think the system would give me a new pair if I ask? I am the main—eh? Where did the puppy go?”
Her gaze swept across the burning camp. The only thing left where the Dire Wolf had been was a dark, spreading puddle of blood.
A prickly sense of impending danger ran down her spine. But it wasn’t directed toward her.
She looked toward Adam.
And then she saw it.
The wolf had circled around while Adam meditated, closing the distance in complete silence. It crouched behind him, muscles coiled, ready to pounce.
“Adam—!”
It was far too close.
She snapped her pistol up, knowing a bullet would be faster than her voice.
But her body suddenly lurched forward.
A wave of dizziness hit her like a hammer. Her vision warped, lines bending and splitting into spots. Her aim wavered.
The buff was gone.
Her stats had dropped all the way down to E, bringing with it a wave of weakness and severely reduced mana. There wasn't even enough mana left in her body for a [Lesser Purple Bullet], let alone the [Charged Shot] she needed.
“A-adam!” she tried again, her voice unsteady. “Wolf!”
She was too late.
Adam heard her, but he assumed she was still joking around. He didn’t even open his eyes.
The Dire Wolf leapt.
It rose high into the air, angling downward toward his head.
He lacked any awareness of the danger.
But, even if he knew of the danger, this time there was no spare staff to save him, or any lucky interruption.
Mei tried to force her body to move.
Nothing responded.
Even her mind felt sluggish, like it was sinking into mud.
The world slowed to a crawl.
She couldn’t bear to watch.
But she couldn’t look away.
Then—
Bang!
A wet, violent spray of blood filled the air.
The Dire Wolf… died.
Mei blinked. Once. Twice.
Her brain struggled to catch up with what she was seeing.
The wolf looked like it had slammed headfirst into something solid. Its jaw was twisted at an unnatural angle, clearly shattered. The dent Mei had left in its skull had split open completely, blood and gray matter spreading across an invisible surface in front of Adam.
Adam’s eyes snapped open at the sound. He looked around, disoriented, trying to figure out what had just exploded next to his head.
Then he saw it.
The wolf’s corpse hung suspended above him.
He flinched back in panic, dropping his staff.
The moment it left his hand, the magic vanished. It cut out instantly, like an internet connection being severed.
With the invisible support gone, the Dire Wolf’s body collapsed straight onto him.
“Oof—!”
It pinned his legs and half his torso to the ground.
“M-Mei… a little help here?”
Mei was still staring, blinking in disbelief.
“How… how did it die?”
“What do you mean?” Adam said, struggling beneath the weight. “Didn’t you see? It smashed its head into my [Shield].”
“Eh…? Since when are your shields invisible?”
He gave a small shrug, which looked ridiculous given his situation.
“I just made it that way. Figured it’d be easier to see through.”
Before Mei could respond, a flood of system messages exploded into view.
Combat Finished – Victory!
Hobgoblin General (Mini-Boss) and
Dire Wolf (Mini-Boss) Defeated
A massive amount of Experience Points awarded!
Level Up!
Player Adam Colt Lv. 7 → 12
Player Mei Mori Lv. 7 → 12
Stat Up!
Player Adam Colt Magic – D → C
Player Mei Mori Dexterity – D (E) → C (D)
Many Achievements Earned!
(Adam Colt): Break a Boulder with an Egg - Kill a boss (or mini-boss) tier monster with a non-damaging defensive skill or spell
Reward: Very slight reduction to mana cost of defensive skills and spells.
(Mei Mori): One Isn't Enough - Overwhelm multiple boss (or mini-boss) tier monsters while underleveled by ten or more levels
Reward: Equipment Loot Box (Random Grade – Class-Specific)
(Combined): Stream your first boss battle and achieve an overwhelming victory
Reward: 250 Coins
(Combined): Have your first stream reach over 100 viewers
Reward: 10 Coins
(Combined): Have your first stream reach over 1,000 viewers
Reward: 100 Coins
(Combined): Have your first stream reach over 10,000 viewers
Reward: 1,000 Coins
(Combined): Have your stream featured on the front page
Reward: Unlock Donation Feature (Active next stream)
(Combined): Have your first stream featured on the front page
Reward: Monthly guaranteed front page feature (Cooldown: 30 Days)
Livestream relocked due to Impossible difficulty modifier.
Please end the stream within five minutes.
The chimes overlapped. Screens stacked on top of each other, flashing, shifting, multiplying until they filled nearly their entire field of vision.
Both of them were overwhelmed by the sudden flood of sound and light. It was enough to make them lightheaded and dizzy.
Mei swayed where she stood, though that had less to do with the overwhelming system notifications and more to do with the crash that followed her [Berserker’s Magic Buff].
Adam, on the other hand, didn’t sway at all. He couldn’t. The Dire Wolf’s corpse was still crushing him into the ground.
He desperately needed help…
Mei blinked a few more times, then finally seemed to remember.
“Oh… right.”
She stumbled toward him.
“Ugh… is this what it feels like to be an E-rank pleb?”
“...I’m one of those plebs,” Adam said, frowning. Mostly from the weight currently compressing his ribs.
“You aren’t a pleb,” she shot back immediately. “You’ve got a C-rank stat now. And it's Magic, your main stat.”
“True…” Adam nodded as much as his position allowed. “That’s probably the luckiest Stat Up I could’ve gotten.”
Mei crouched and grabbed onto the wolf’s body, bracing herself before trying to lift it.
It barely budged.
The most she managed was shifting it a few inches.
“I hate this,” she groaned. “I feel so weak!”
Adam planted his hands against the ground and pushed upward at the same time, taking advantage of the slight shift. With some awkward wriggling, he managed to free one leg, then the other, before dragging himself out from under the corpse.
He rolled onto his side and sucked in a deep breath.
“How do you think I feel?!”
Mei didn’t answer.
She didn’t need to.
The look of pity on her face said everything.
Adam stared back at her for a second, then something clicked. A grin slowly spread across his face as an idea formed.
A terrible, reputation-destroying idea.
But first, they had something more immediate to deal with.
The stream.
“Let’s end the stream,” Adam said, while secretly plotting Mei's downfall.
Mei perked up immediately. She turned toward the chat window with a wide, excited grin.
“Alright, chat,” she said, practically bouncing with excitement. “Let’s talk real quick. How about a five-minute Q&A?”
She had always liked attention. Back on Earth, she fed that need through her cosplay account and her YouTube channel, where she reviewed guns with an enthusiasm that attracted a surprisingly large audience.
The gun reviews actually brought in more viewers than the cosplaying.
It didn’t take long for her audience to find her.
The very first question that caught her eye:
CosFan: Aren’t you the cosplayer BeautifulMei?
Mei lit up and nodded enthusiastically.
“That’s me! Are you a fan? You are?! Wow!”
She clasped her hands together, clearly delighted.
“I should totally do some cosplaying in the tutorial? I’d love to, but I don’t have any of my tools or outfits here.” She paused, reading more messages. “Buy them in the coin shop? I can’t. This is Impossible difficulty. There is no coin shop.”
While Mei happily engaged with the sudden wave of fans flooding the chat, Adam focused on the other messages scrolling past.
One question in particular kept popping up.
DumDum4: Isn’t this the tutorial? How do you two have classes? And one is Rare while the other is Hidden. The hell is going on here?! :monkaHmm:
Vytr26: This ^
Adam frowned slightly.
That was… a very good question.
He wasn’t sure how much they should reveal, or how they could even begin to explain it without making things worse. His mind turned over a few possible answers, none of them particularly satisfying.
Before he could settle on anything, Mei answered for him.
“It’s because I’m the main character!” she declared confidently. “You’re all looking at a bonafide MC. The protagonist!”
The chat exploded.
A wall of question marks flooded the screen.
???
After the initial confusion, the chat shifted.
Then it exploded into laughter.
Most of them clearly thought Mei was joking.
DumDum4: No, seriously, how???
Mei puffed her cheeks slightly, clearly annoyed they weren’t taking her seriously.
“I’m not lying. I really am the MC. According to the system, I’m not even the only one. Apparently every world that the Game exists in has a single main character. Earth’s is me!”
The response was immediate.
SeeCuteGirl-iClick: Maybe she really is? She’s definitely pretty enough to be an MC.
Frogman: True
Frank72: She’s crazy beautiful. I thought she was a model when I first clicked the stream
Tiff-Any: I’m a girl and I think she’s hot :PepeFlushed:
FeetGuy: (Message deleted by moderator)
The chat derailed instantly.
Instead of debating her claim, everyone started talking about how good she looked. Compliments flooded in faster than she could read them.
Mei tried to steer things back.
“No, seriously! I’m telling the truth!”
It didn’t matter.
The more she insisted, the more they assumed it was part of a bit.
After a few more failed attempts, she let out a long, defeated sigh.
“Fine… don’t believe me.”
“Alright, we’ve got about a minute left,” Adam said, stepping in to regain control. “Any other questions?”
The moment chat realized the stream was ending, it went wild.
Messages flooded in so fast they blurred together into an unreadable wall of text. The chat window became a waterfall of words.
A second later, the mods stepped in and activated slow mode.
Slow mode enabled: One message per person every ten seconds.
It was still fast, but now it was manageable.
“Yes, this really is Impossible difficulty,” Adam answered, scanning through questions. “No, we’re not cheating. How would we even cheat an omniscient system?”
He paused, then snorted.
“How are we so good-looking? I don’t know. Genetics, I guess.”
Wishing-U-ill: Translation: just be born hot, idiots.
Adam ignored that one and kept going, picking out the easier questions while mentally sorting through the more complicated ones.
“How’d Mei and I meet?” He smiled slightly. “That’s actually a pretty interesting story. But… we’ve only got about thirty seconds left, so we’ll save it for next stream.”
He clapped his hands once.
“Alright! That’s it for today. Make sure you tune in next time. Mei, wanna add anything?”
Mei perked up instantly, her earlier frustration gone.
“Yeah! Everyone, you can look forward to us being the first and only two people to beat the Impossible difficulty tutorial! You know why?”
She pointed at herself proudly.
“Because I’m the MC… and Adam is my sidekick!”
The chat erupted again.
Dustybooty: She’s acting delulu again! :KEKW:
Vytr26: :KEKW:
KekestOfWs: :KEKW:
xYzXyZ (mod): :KEKW:
SweetSarah (mod): :KEKW: (I don’t have this emote installed 😢)
(The rest of chat): :KEKW:
“Don’t KEKW me! I’m telling the truth!!”
Mei stomped her foot and shouted at the screen.
But the stream had already cut.
They couldn’t hear her anymore.
Stream Ended
A new window appeared in front of them.
Stream Payout:
Total viewers: 11,096
Coins earned from view count: 119
Coins earned from donations: 0
Total Coins earned: 119
Another notification followed immediately.
Viewers crossed 1,000 during a single stream
Would you like to enter a streaming contract to unlock subscriptions?
Subscriptions enable various channel features such as custom emotes, ad management, ad revenue, sponsorships, bounties, and more.
Adam glanced over at Mei.
This decision was hers.
He didn’t particularly care about streaming one way or the other, but it was obvious she enjoyed it… even if the chat spent half the time laughing at her.