122. Tomb of the Frozen Knight
122. Tomb of the Frozen Knight
***
Even as I marveled at something so utterly trivial, a deep fatigue pressed down on my whole body, like a side effect of having woken up early.
Part of me wanted to just close my eyes, but if I slept now, I had a feeling I'd be out for at least another five hours, so I shook my head. To force myself awake, I stretched both arms straight up over my head.
Crack. Pop.
The now-familiar sound of bones popping escaped me, and a groan slipped out before I could stop it.
"Ahh..."
What I felt was a faint muscle soreness.
I'd been hitting my set quota every day without overdoing it. The muscle soreness ought to have become familiar by now, but it still wasn't a pleasant feeling.
Someone I'd met in Black Ark used to say they enjoyed this soreness and that working out itself was fun, but even thinking back on it now, that guy was definitely insane.
After loosening up for a moment, I picked up my phone and checked BaTalk. There was a message from Soyul. The message said, "Go check your email!"
"I mean, why not just tell me what it says instead of making me check?"
I grumbled for no real reason and turned on the PC.
The moment I settled into the chair, the PC booted up with virtually no delay and the screen lit up.
I opened a website and entered my email address.
At the very top, there was one new email.
Click.
*
————
[Your Application has been Accepted!]
—Hello, Rin (rin0238).
Thank you for applying to the tweetie Partnership Program. We have since monitored Rin (rin0238)'s channel multiple times and reviewed it carefully, and as a result, we have determined that you meet the qualifications for the Partnership Program.
......
We are pleased to inform you that, effective immediately, Rin (rin0238) has been accepted into the tweetie Partnership Program, and you may now access the various partnership benefits.
You can review the full list of benefits below.
*Channel subscriptions and emotes: Subscription features at $4.99, $9.99, and $29.99 will be added, along with various subscription options. Partners may also use up to 50 channel emotes.
*Ads: You will receive a portion of the revenue generated by ads played on your channel. Partners can also control the length and frequency of various ads.
......
Finally, congratulations once again on being accepted into the tweetie Partnership Program.
————
*
"That's a lot of stuff... but basically it says I'm a partner streamer now."
They say when you read something, you should look at the beginning and the end to get the gist. Since it said from the start that I met the qualifications, I just scrolled all the way down and finished checking.
I'd actually already gotten a heads-up about the partner streamer stuff from Sua, so there wasn't much I really needed to check.
—BaTalk!
At the sound of the BaTalk notification, I looked at my phone. It was Soyul.
Park Soyul.
[An otter emoji waving both arms while holding a giant sign that read "Congratulations."]
It was funny, as if she'd sent it expecting I'd have checked my email by now.
"Soyul is surprisingly... attentive to every little thing."
For a moment, I thought of someone from the past who used to remember even the smallest anniversaries, but I quickly pushed the thought away.
'Anyway, a partner streamer, huh...'
Now I'd truly become a streamer in every sense of the word, with no way to deny it.
Then, out of nowhere, I remembered that two days ago I'd told Seoyun I was a streamer.
"The date was this Sunday, wasn't it?"
Even as I said it, the wording struck me as funny. Spending time outside with Seoyun being called a date...
Swish.
Out of habit, I smoothed down my disheveled silver hair, then just stood up. I was about to shower anyway, so what was the point of fixing my hair now?
As I grabbed a towel and headed for the bathroom, I noticed the sunlight streaming through the window looked different from usual, and I laughed for no reason.
"I guess today's going to feel a little long?"
Since I'd woken up earlier than usual, I felt like I had a lot of time on my hands.
From now until my stream time, I had roughly seven hours to spare.
Clack.
With that, Serin opened the bathroom door and disappeared from view.
***
Whoosh!
A beautiful silver-haired woman in a red cheongsam-style outfit swung her Crescent-Moon Weight once and slowly stepped forward.
Thud.
Thud.
—Ting.
And soon, the silver-haired woman felt a sensation as though she had passed through something.
*
————
—You have entered 『Tomb of the Frozen Knight』.
【Several system functions are restricted.】
- Party invites and acceptance are unavailable within this area.
- Requests for help are unavailable. Upon death, a 24-hour penalty is applied before re-entry to the area.
- Normal, area, world, and whisper chat are locked within the area.
- Logging out within the area is automatically treated as character death, applying a 24-hour entry ban and death penalty.
【Additional Benefits】
- An additional 20% drop rate benefit is applied for entering an appropriate-stats hunting ground.
————
*
A massive hologram filled her vision. Serin parted her crimson lips and twisted the corner of her mouth.
"How long has it been since I last did some mob grinding... seriously..."
I never thought the day would come when I'd go grinding mobs again. It felt strangely novel.
I still had about four hours before I needed to start the stream.
But there was nothing to do.
Normally, just checking communities, news articles, and the day's hot topics would easily kill a few hours. But today, even after checking all of that, I still had about four hours left.
What I wanted to do most was the Another World Arena.
But since raising my tier on stream had become something like a promise to my viewers, I couldn't just go into the Arena now.
So the remaining options were watching one of the movies or dramas on my list, or PVE—logging into Another World and hunting monsters.
In the end, I chose hunting.
I considered watching a movie, but I figured if I watched one, my energy would drop before the stream, so I ruled that out.
Tomorrow was a streaming hiatus day anyway, so it felt right to keep my energy high for today's stream.
—Crunch.
—Grind.
—Creak.
I wasn't sure how long I'd been walking while lost in thought when I heard the familiar sound of clattering bones.
"Maybe imagination and reality aren't so different after all."
The bone sounds were so similar to what I'd heard in Black Ark that the words slipped out without thinking.
What I saw next was.
A truly pure-white snowfield.
Against the backdrop of a snowfield where a blizzard raged without pause, numerous skeletons were positioned.
And the skeletons kept shivering as if they felt the cold from the ceaseless blizzard, their bones clattering all the while.
—Grind. Grind!
"Pfft..."
Watching them, I let out a silly laugh for no reason.
Still, it seemed I hadn't entered the skeletons' detection range yet, because from a distance I could see them moving slowly and aimlessly.
Whoosh!
I gripped the cord tied to my right arm and swung the Crescent-Moon Weight when a thought suddenly came to mind.
I manipulated the hologram and looked for a quest.
I figured I'd just swing the Crescent-Moon Weight around for the first time in a while, and soon found a quest.
—Ding!
—You have accepted the quest.
[Tomb of the Frozen Knight Skeleton Kills 0/500]
(Time remaining: 0 days 11 hours 59 minutes)
"This really is easy. Ridiculously easy."
Only 500 of them.
Honestly, this might be easier than a piece of cake.
But for some reason, I couldn't see any quests that required killing more monsters than this.
'That's strange. If this game is anything like the ones I know, there should at least be one telling me to kill around five thousand.'
Among the daily quests, I couldn't find anything with a higher count than that.
Maybe weekly quests would let me raise the number, but all I wanted was to kill a few hours today, so I passed on that.
After accepting the quest, I kicked off the ground without hesitation.
Thud!
I closed the distance quickly, and as if I'd instantly entered the monsters' detection range, the randomly wandering skeletons all stopped moving at once.
Screech.
Creak.
Crunch.
At the same time, the skeletons all began turning their heads until every one of them was staring directly at me.
The moment I tensed my hand to react to their behavior.
—Crunch!! Crunch!! Crunch!!
—Grind!! Grind!! Grind!!
Unlike before, when they had moved without any purpose, the skeletons suddenly all began making eerie sounds.
Some suddenly dropped their bodies to the ground and came rushing in as if crawling, their bones clattering.
Some kicked off the ground in unison and launched their bodies into the air.
And some ran at full speed, swinging their leg bones in huge strides.
But each of those skeletons held a gleaming blue sword in a hand, a foot, or against its chest—and even that was uniformly grotesque.
Holding a sword in your hand, I could understand. But clenching one in your mouth, or having one stabbed through your chest, or running with a sword wedged between your foot bones—what the hell...
Their behavior patterns looked like something that had mixed beasts and humans, or something else entirely.
"...This isn't a horror game, is it?"
Even I, who had been watching carefully, tensed my hand without meaning to. It just didn't make sense.
Clang!
Clang!
I deflected the attacks of the skeletons charging at full speed and stabbing their swords down at me, turning my body as I did.
I couldn't understand how the skeletons that had launched into the air were staying airborne, but they were pulling out their own bones and firing them at me.
Clangclangclangclangclang!!!
With the hand gripping the blade of my Crescent-Moon Weight, I knocked aside the relentless barrage of bones and naturally stepped back.
Crunch!!
Then, at the spot where I'd been standing a step before, a skeleton that had been rushing along the ground slashed upward with its sword, gouging deep into the snow-covered ground and sending up a massive wave of snow.
—Explosive Spike.
I thrust my weight toward the oncoming wave of snow and activated the skill. The wave burst apart with a bang, scattering white light in all directions.
—Single Kick.
I spun my body toward something I sensed nearby and extended my leg, activating the skill.
Crack!
With the heavy sound of bone striking bone, a skeleton that had been bringing its sword down from the side staggered backward as if hit by a powerful impact.
......
"......"
At some point, the focus had vanished from Serin's eyes, and she stopped thinking altogether.
She simply used the skills that fit each moment as if by instinct, matching the movements of the skeletons that attacked with their uniformly grotesque motions.
She began to dance.
—Ghost Dance.
As the weight wrapped in deep crimson embroidered the air beautifully.
A sharp metallic sound began ringing out continuously.
Clangclangclangclangclang!!!
Bang! Bang!