Chapter 29
Chapter 29
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 29
Chapter Title: Echo of Lost Souls
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The Echo of Lost Souls, commonly known as the "Graveyard Hunting Ground," was a highly efficient hunting spot.
It was massive in scale, which meant monsters of various level ranges appeared.
Fast respawn rates. Above-average experience points. Optimized for party hunting, and so on...
Despite all these advantages, the Echo of Lost Souls was an unpopular hunting ground.
Why was that?
According to Aka-chan's analysis during the beta test period...
The monsters that appeared were too scary-looking and grotesque.
As undead types, they didn't die easily, leading to high hunting fatigue.
And because of their respawn method—burrowing out of the ground—it was full of jump scares.
In short, it was a mentally exhausting hunting ground.
"Kyaaah!"
"..."
I blankly watched Suzuka fleeing from a skeleton that had clawed its way out of a grave.
'Is it really that scary?'
There were far more gruesome visuals out there.
If anything, that crude skeleton was kinda cute, in its own way.
Think about it. It was just a walking skeleton.
No cold weapons or anything. Just imagine the flesh separated from bare bones.
"Uwaaa... Get away, get away! Radiant Light!"
Psssh-
It turned to dust from the light bursting out of her small cross.
Scared out of her wits, yet she erased a freshly spawned skeleton from existence with one click.
No matter how you looked at it, wasn't the undead the one that should be scary?
Grrraaahhh-
"Isn't it kinda cute?"
I pointed at the zombie shambling toward us at a snail's pace and asked Suzuka.
Aside from the rotting flesh and hole-riddled skin like torn jeans, it looked almost human.
"Not at all! Not even a little! Radiant Light's on cooldown, so please take it out quick!"
Hmm. Overreacting much?
She'd taken down way grosser boss monsters multiple times before.
I offered my hand to the zombie that had closed in right up to my face.
Kwachik-!
"Fera got bit! What do we do?!"
Fera was my alt character's nickname.
Someone might misinterpret it as something lewd, but it totally wasn't.
Occult. Aurora. Opera.
I was free-associating words starting with "O," and grabbed the "pera" part from Opera for my nick.
Definitely, absolutely not that kind of intention.
"It's fine. Heal."
Urk- Urk-
The zombie munching on my hand clutched its belly and collapsed.
It looked so much like someone who'd eaten bad food and got the runs that I couldn't help but chuckle.
"Huh? The zombie just dropped dead."
"That's how you kill zombies like this."
I wanted to explain the principles of holy power, but held back.
A player with suspiciously deep knowledge of Akashic Records?
That was prime material for getting suspected as a dev alt.
"Wanna try it, Suzuka?"
"No way. Absolutely not. My body's precious."
"Gasp."
So my body isn't precious?
I stared at her with that exact look, and Suzuka's eyes trembled violently.
"I'm kidding."
"Phew..."
As Suzuka sighed in relief, a zombie respawned behind her.
I immediately smashed its head with Judgment Mace.
The satisfying whack, like playing whack-a-mole as a kid, brought a smile to my face.
"So scary..."
"Hunt 'em like whack-a-mole, and it's easy."
"Ugh... I wish it were as easy as it sounds."
Zombies and skeletons were level 9.
Perfect for comfortable hunting at level 10 after first awakening.
"Level up and go hunt some wraiths?"
We were at the graveyard entrance, where only zombies and skeletons spawned.
To hunt higher-level monsters, we'd need to head deeper in.
Monsters inside the tomb were all level 11.
Wraiths, ghouls, skeleton knights.
Among them, the trickiest one was generally the wraith.
As spirits, wraiths came with a physical damage reduction buff by default.
Martial Artists, Hunters—especially Warriors—hated them most, earning the nickname "Warrior's Nightmare."
"Aren't wraiths the toughest monsters in the tomb interior?"
"In the face of faith and belief from my heart, all are equal before the cross."
"That's some profound stuff."
What the hell was her criteria for "profound" lines anyway?
"I wanna try it in action."
"I'll buff you up."
I cast Blessing on the fired-up Suzuka.
Suzuka looped around the graveyard, pulling aggro.
Dozens of undead chased after her.
'Like a scene from a zombie flick.'
Just before Blessing's duration ended, Suzuka stopped in place.
"Faith and belief from my heart. The cross... Huh? Eek! Save me!"
"Pfft!"
A monster had respawned right next to her mid-line.
Talk about bad luck.
I used Radiant Light in place of the frantically fleeing Suzuka.
✨ LEVEL UP! ✨ ◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ 📰 Broadcast Alert Suzuka's broadcast has started. - Akashic Records 6 hours ago In the dead of night, Suzuka's stream had a whopping 50,000 viewers.
That outpaced Sweet's late-40k's and Daehyeop Kim's mid-40k's.
With the official launch, viewer flow had spread out, naturally dropping numbers.
But Suzuka was the only one whose viewers hadn't dropped—in fact, they'd grown.
📱 Streaming Gallery — Anon [265] Fera noona, do your nickname justice just once... — Anon [289] Fera sis in real life.jpg (beyond imagination) ⭐ Top Comment — Anon [344] Suzuka oshi hen, horny soup? Massive upvote lol — Anon [310] Char design so damn hot, fkn vtuber — Anon [325] Fera << VTuber debut and she'll feast on virgins right away lol The reason Suzuka's viewers had ballooned was simple.
Her stream had been plastered across Streaming Gallery as prime bait.
New viewers trickling in from those posts kept stacking up until she hit #1.
"What? Since when have we had this many watchers?"
Moving zones gave Suzuka a brief moment of leisure, and she was shocked.
There had only been about 20k when she went to the church alone.
Yet in the dead of night—when viewers usually dipped—she had 40k tuning in.
— Chat ??? Dunno Why so many at this hour Night owls assembled Suzuka's stream was notorious for trolls, so it had a default 3-month follow-only chat restriction.
Newbies couldn't chat, so even regulars didn't know why viewers had spiked.
Of course, a few knew, but they didn't bother explaining.
Chat too on-point with drama, and mods might ban you.
'Streaming Gallery hyping it up?'
Suzuka played dumb, but she knew full well.
Streamers inevitably picked up on these things whether they wanted to or not.
Streaming Gallery was a place you got dragged into, big corp or not, like it or not.
It wasn't the first time, so she was just curious.
'Wonder what pulled the aggro.'
Suzuka's gaze drifted to Fera, leading the way.
'Her, probably.'
The one difference from her usual streams? Fera.
'Someone with real charm.'
Letting zombies bite her hand. Then healing it to feed them holy power and drop them.
Her utterly unpredictable actions hooked people.
'Voice is nice too.'
And the avatar customization? Impeccable.
Even as a fellow girl, it was pretty and beautiful—easy on the eyes.
'Makes me greedy.'
Wanna get close. Develop something special.
Ah, not like that—broadcasting-wise.
Above all, playing Akashic Records with her was straight-up fun, game and stream aside.
Someone she wanted both gameplay- and stream-wise.
How to reel her in? As Suzuka pondered, Fera halted.
"We're here. This is the tomb interior from now on."
As Fera said, the atmosphere was distinctly different from the entrance.
More dreary and sinister, goosebumps for real.
'They even implemented goosebumps.'
Akashic Records was truly a god game.
With that thought, Suzuka stuck tight behind Fera and advanced.
"Over there—a wraith watching us."
"Y-Yes?! Where? Where?!"
Suzuka peeked out and looked where Fera was staring.
"Th-That? Those eyes?"
"Yeah. Dark, so only pairs of eyes visible."
"Uwaaa... So creepy!"
VTubing meant roleplaying your virtual character.
But with scary stuff? Zero acting involved.
She was genuinely terrified, eyes squeezed shut, tears welling up.
"It's coming."
"...!"
As Fera said, the wraith approached slowly.
A quadrupedal monster with human heads dangling from its sides.
The infamous "Mental Shredder," aka wraith.
"Moves like a crab."
"Don't casually compare it while commenting—attack!"
Dadadadada-
The wraith charged Suzuka at full speed.
Exhausted from all the screaming, Suzuka froze solid.
"Can you cast Blessing?"
"Uh, ah, um..."
"Aw, you're broken."
No helping it.
Pure white light enveloped the small cross.
Fera's cross transformed into a holy mace.
She gripped the handle two-handed and assumed position.
Geerrrraaack-!
Toward the slobbering, charging wraith, Fera swung the mace with all her might.
Kwachik-!
Bones crunching, the wraith flew back.
"You okay?"
"No. Not okay. That was terrifying."
Her body finally loosening, Suzuka clung to Fera's chest.
Sniff- Sniff-
"Wraiths resist physical damage, so hunt them while Judgment Mace is up."
"Huh?"
Judgment Mace lasted about 10 seconds.
Then 20-second cooldown kicked in.
In other words, Fera's mace was about to vanish.
"Fera's mace!"
"Oops, duration's up."
Geerrrraaack...!
An enraged wraith's cry echoed.
"Then what about that?"
"You'll have to take it yourself, Suzuka."
— Chat How generous is temp mace Vanishing fate? Grateful only LMAOOOO she's screwed Chat unity on display Suzuka red alert! Even in crisis, chat was busy with memes.
Suzuka shook her head furiously, no solution in sight.
"No way no way no way."
"Where's the problem? Don't freak—just swing the mace once; it'll drop."
Taking Fera's words to heart, Suzuka steeled herself.
She recalled her beta efforts to get strong, tired of watching Raven die.
A week since beta ended, but the gains remained.
More than anything, no more pathetic shows—for viewers or Fera.
"Hoo... Haa..."
She hefted the mace, took stance.
Simultaneously, the recovered wraith charged again.
Terrifying, but she endured, facing the fear head-on.
"Blessing's on. You got this!"
Suzuka calmly mimicked Fera's moves.
When it closed in, pour the mace's weight into a full swing.
Kwachik-!
A sound like before.
Suzuka, who'd instinctively shut her eyes, slowly opened them.
"I... I did it."
Watching the wraith crumble to dust.
Suzuka exhaled in relief, smiling.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ While party-hunting with Suzuka, a problem arose.
"...Why is this here?"
A holy sword—one of the church's sacred relics.
Sealed away in some unidentified coffin.