The Iron Rules of RPGs 5
Watching someone else's suffering from a safe distance turned out to be surprisingly entertaining.
Han Se-ah looked ready to kill the stream on the spot—terrified that her relationship with me might get exposed, or more precisely, that the whole world would find out she'd been using an NPC to snag a daughter. But she'd impulsively opened donations for a punishment roulette, and some chairman's heavy two-million-won attack had pinned her feet to the floor. A full 3.3 million won had piled up in five minutes just to mess with her. She couldn't exactly shut the stream down after that.
In the real world, 3.3 million won was riding on a punishment roulette. In-game, four beauties excluding Roland were gathering for a girls' night. When four pretty women announced they were about to do a drinking stream together, anyone could guess the backlash if she cut the broadcast.
"So first the roulette—no, wait, can the girls link arms a bit—I'm seriously fine. Mm, it's not that I don't want to drink with you. Just don't worry too much, okay?"
Even a streaming genius like Han Se-ah was struggling to keep things running smoothly under that kind of pressure, her words starting to tangle. Still, the viewers seemed to be enjoying the spectacle as much as I was, so that was something.
Not long ago she'd hit them with a "if you're jealous, pull your own" to scatter their firepower. Her karma was stacked sky-high—might as well burn some of it off. More accurately, she had no choice but to burn it off.
Bombarded by viewer questions and squeezed from both sides by the Grace-and-Katie combo, a flustered Han Se-ah led them to a cozy little tavern. Judging by the cute décor filling the interior, the place was clearly designed to attract female adventurers.
In a medieval fantasy world, the image of an ordinary tavern was "a place where people drink, vomit, fight, and smash everything," so hanging fragile flowerpots and easily dirtied picture frames meant you were targeting either women or nobles.
Crafted ornaments on the ceiling scattered a soft, warm light as the four of them settled naturally around a table. The complete lack of hesitation suggested this was a regular spot for girls' nights.
"For drinks—mm, we're probably going to talk a lot, so let's go with something low-proof."
"The Alraune's Tears we had last time were sweet and lovely."
"Then I'll take the Flame of the Snowfields."
"Isn't that a bit too strong?"
Chattering away, they ordered from the waitress without missing a beat. Seated at a refined table draped with a proper tablecloth instead of some battered wooden slab, they all tilted their heads toward Han Se-ah one by one, completing a rather delicious picture.
Grace's playful gray eyes, full of mischief and ready to tease. Irene's gentle golden eyes, already resolved to offer counsel. And Katie's questioning blue eyes, still not quite grasping the situation—all of them fixed in one direction.
It was as beautiful as a wine-themed fashion spread, and even the viewers who'd been clamoring for the roulette just to mess with Han Se-ah fell into a dazed silence the moment she framed all three faces in the camera at once.
"Well then. Shall we start talking before the drinks arrive?"
"But what are we talking about?"
The silence only applied to the viewers, of course. Our party members, freshly seated, were fully prepared to put the squeeze on Han Se-ah. More precisely: one of the three was ready to press her, one intended to soothe her, and the last had just tagged along because someone said they were drinking, without the faintest idea what was going on.
Naturally, Grace took the lead. Even a born clown and streaming prodigy like Han Se-ah seemed to be losing ground to her, given the circumstances.
"What we're talking about? Obviously, our Hanna."
"Hm?"
Still full of playful intent, Grace kept circling around the point right in front of a clueless Katie. Han Se-ah's face filled with dread.
I didn't know how Grace usually talked at these girls' nights, but given her blunt, mischievous personality, a bombshell like "Hanna, did you sleep with Roland?" could drop at any moment.
…And yet she still refused to kill the stream. I genuinely couldn't tell if she was insane or just that bold.
"No, I mean, our Hannaaa—"
Grace opened her mouth with a sly, smiling squint of her eyes, accepting the tray from the waitress—and the stream cut out without any warning.
……Whether she'd kept it running just for this moment or killed it in a panic, one thing was certain.
Today, the galleries and fan cafés were going to explode.
Han Se-ah had never been one to show her private side on stream. More precisely, anything unrelated to game strategy got roughly cut and skipped.
Aside from the occasional "ant-shaking" sessions where she uploaded Magic Tower old men debating just to discipline her viewers, she sliced everything clean.
The long carriage rides out of cities, the stretches of map-clearing while waiting for me in the Empire, city exploration, opening the minimap, building rapport with companion NPCs until they were on sisterly first-name terms—all of it, gone.
Even I, who never missed a single day of her streams, had no idea when our party members had started speaking casually with each other. That told you how ruthlessly she cut the footage.
"Uh-huh. Keep talking dirty and the AI teacher is going to scold you."
The viewers desperately longed for that girls' night—now lost to the darkness, or more precisely, surviving only in the memories of four women. But if Han Se-ah had ever let herself get pushed around by viewer tantrums and demands, her stream never would have made it this far.
"Alright then. Today we're heading to the 60th Floor, and we're not coming back down until we find the boss. Ten ogres are already gathered, so let's move fast. Charlotte said she'd handle the maintenance fees, so extra expenses aren't a concern—and with ogres clustering in groups of ten, the old men with bloodshot eyes for test subjects are apparently out in force."
She ignored the seizing chat and said exactly what she meant to say. As if she'd become a different person from yesterday—as if she'd never heard of "engaging with the audience"—she finished her piece, led the party out of the Adventurers' Guild, and the chat went berserk.
Whether it did or not, Han Se-ah marched toward the Tower with the others trailing after her in a neat little line. Whatever had been said over drinks must have wrapped up cleanly—Grace and Irene followed without a word of complaint.
"You've arrived, sir!"
"Ah, Hero. Heading back to the 60th Floor now?"
The Knights of the Ice Cross greeted us at the gate. Word that the 60th Floor boss monster would take the form of an army had spread well beyond the adventurers—all the way to ordinary city folk—so they seemed to have steeled themselves as well.
We hadn't hired a handful of mercenaries for the Hero's party. We'd contracted an entire order of twenty-one knights. The reason: the 60th Floor boss would appear as an army, and a mid-boss would show up alongside it—
That rumor had swept the city, so even the Knights of the Ice Cross, currently resting and reorganizing, carried a new weight in their shoulders. I'd only chosen them because our scatterbrained goddess told me to bring them along, not because I'd assessed their potential or skill—but they didn't know that.
"That's right. You might've heard while resting, but we've already finished preparing to face the boss. Unless they've got some absurd number of troops or they're dodging a frontal fight with weird black magic, I plan to clear them out immediately."
"By 'clear them out,' you mean using those ogres, correct?"
"Exactly. Once we pin down the location, we contact the Magic Tower and release the ogres. Even if they've set traps with black magic, ten ogres should be enough to flush out most of whatever they've got hidden."
At her plan to probe the mid-boss black mage's underhanded traps with ogre bodies instead of our own, every head nodded along.
No matter how much real combat experience the Knights of the Ice Cross had built up through monster waves, nobody wanted to personally sample a black mage's schemes while fighting the Demon King's army inside a Tower the Goddess's grace couldn't reach.
"Hero Hanna's party and the Empire's Northern Cross Knights—confirmed. Ah, and this is a signal device that Mage Charlotte asked us to deliver."
"Is that so? Do I just use it as is?"
"Yes. She said that when you discover the boss monster's army, use it and she'll identify the coordinates and send the ogres plus support troops."
As we all headed for the Tower gate, the mage on duty recognized our faces. He handed over a crystal orb with a fawning little smile and a deep bow, as if begging us to put in a good word for him.
Hmm…… Charlotte's competence was hard to believe for a mere 2-star. Outstanding, really.