322. Louise Tepes / Yoo Chaeri
322. Louise Tepes / Yoo Chaeri
***
[What's this, what's this?]
[What's with this vibe?!]
[Rin x Yujeong]
[Isn't the vibe between those two kind of weird?]
[lolololol]
[The fake-marriage shippers are at it again lolololol]
[Was Bloody Night always this bright?]
[Every single person who meets Rin ends up liking her. Doesn't that mean she really has something?]
[Femme fatale Rin, damn]
[When they brought up a 3-person raid, I thought it was impossible... but watching them hunt, maybe it's actually possible?]
[Is this what a real ranker party looks like? Their hunting is on a whole different level lol]
[How are they just strolling around the Demon Realm like it's a walk in the park lololol]
After entering the Demon Realm, Serin's group focused on hunting and exchanged opinions.
They were trading thoughts as if they had forgotten the stream entirely.
Even so, the chat was burning with reactions, and the viewer count kept climbing.
Current viewers: 58,226.
With nearly sixty thousand people watching in real time, the audience contained all sorts of viewers.
...
Wavy, glamorous blonde hair. A woman boasting striking features and a beautiful face enhanced by makeup let out a deep sigh as she stepped into her home.
"...I'm exhausted. So exhausted."
Muttering under her breath like a complaint, she began peeling off the clothes wrapped around her one by one.
Slide, slither.
Soon, down to her underwear, she revealed fair skin and a figure that was nothing short of dazzling.
She was someone who liked working out and took special care of her body, and her body possessed a beauty that made people stare as if spellbound the moment they saw it.
The woman's name was Yoo Chaeri.
She was a user who went by the Another World nickname "Louise Tepes," and a woman busy with an active career as a film actress.
...
After finishing her shower, she exhaled slowly.
"Honestly, this moment after my schedule ends... is the best part of my day."
Right now, she could rest with a refreshed mind after finishing everything she had to do. On top of that, the back-to-back schedule that had left her with no room to breathe was over, and the next few days were a complete break.
Feeling a sense of openness and freedom, she opened the refrigerator door in one corner of the spacious interior office.
"What should I eat?"
Murmuring in a bright voice, she took out alcohol from a shelf packed with drinks bearing identical labels and naturally headed to her room.
Click.
She sank deep into a plush chair right in front of a massive monitor, opened the bottle, and began searching for this and that.
Her main interest as she searched was mostly Another World.
She had deliberately cut herself off from game-related news to focus on work like premieres and appearances on various programs. She had wanted to check whether there was anything unusual before logging into Another World.
After looking through various Another World communities, articles, and even the ACK tournament schedule, Chaeri wore a surprised expression.
"The finals are coming up soon, so why are all the hot posts like this?"
She couldn't help but be surprised by the hot posts on the Another Level community.
With the ACK Pro League approaching its finals, she had expected talk about that, but ironically, the community was full of posts about a single streamer.
[GIF of Rin as seen by Bloody Night]
[lol, isn't it getting old that everyone who meets Rin acts like that?]
[The Plea / Rin / Bloody Night combo is seriously insane]
[You can see the future of Another World by looking at Bloody Night's fashion... Isn't this the right kind of game?]
[Upvote if you want the three of them to keep doing collab streams lololol]
[A dancer who uses a sword is the true orthodox dancer...]
[Is there still some sucker using a Crescent-Moon Weight? Rin dropped hers too lolol]
Click, click.
She clicked on a few of the posts and looked through them with interest.
Whether they were hunting in the Demon Realm or not, images set against the Demon Realm appeared frequently.
"Rin... can use a one-handed sword too?"
She already knew Rin could handle a greatsword in addition to the Crescent-Moon Weight, but the sight of her moving leisurely with a one-handed sword was different again.
She had known Rin's skill was outstanding, but even from the short images, her swordsmanship was far from ordinary.
After that, she put off her plan to log into Another World and connected to one site instead.
The moment she opened the tweetie site, she was surprised anew to see Rin at the very top, unlike before.
'Sixty thousand viewers?'
In the time she hadn't seen her, the scale of Rin's stream had grown to an unbelievable degree.
Click.
The moment she entered the stream, what she saw was the three of them facing a black wyvern.
As colorful bursts of light filled the screen in vivid variety, skills unfolded one after another as if they were matching each other's rhythm.
Just as pitch-black claws tore a great gash in the black wyvern's right wing, on one side of the screen a rapier radiating golden light embroidered the air in gold and destroyed the other wing.
While they were damaging the wyvern's wings, a figure with flowing pure-white silver hair appeared.
A dancer confronting the wyvern head-on in the center, swinging her sword without pause.
Whoosh!
The wyvern's massive breath tried to swallow her, but each time, Rin deployed various techniques and erased the flames. Her hands moved without rest, holding the wyvern's aggro so it wouldn't be drawn to the others, and Chaeri's lips parted before she knew it.
"Seriously... is she really a dancer?"
She was facing the black wyvern alone from the front like a knight holding the line, and a disbelieving laugh escaped Chaeri.
This wasn't just any monster. It was a black wyvern, one of the special individuals of the Demon Realm.
It was a monster evaluated as a boss-class individual of the Demon Realm, so it required a coordinated attack, and there was no way to kill a black wyvern through ordinary means.
First, both of the wyvern's wings, its weak points, had to be completely destroyed. Only then would the black magic crystal on its forehead be exposed, and destroying that was the only way to kill this boss-class individual.
Even now, she could clearly see Plea and Bloody Night continuing to damage both wings, while Rin, meeting the flames trying to engulf her in the center, waited for an opening.
And that opening came before long.
Boom! Boom!
Screeeech!!
The moment a strange bursting sound rang out as if both of the black wyvern's wings were destroyed at once, the wyvern's ear-splitting scream echoed vividly through the screen.
And watching it, Chaeri's lips moved before she knew it.
"Now."
On screen, Rin also seemed to read the timing as she raised her sword high and kicked hard off the ground.
Then, as her body spun rapidly, her pure-white silver hair embroidered the space in splendor, and the moment her leg shot out as if striking the air, Rin shot forward like light.
Screeeech!!
At that moment, the wyvern stopped breathing fire and opened its mouth wide.
As if it meant to swallow Rin whole as she came toward it...
"...The pattern changed?"
When a pattern that served as a kind of counter to melee classes suddenly appeared, even Chaeri, who was watching, felt a little flustered.
And no wonder. No matter how good Rin was, this wasn't a situation where she could react or use a parry.
The moment you approached within a certain distance of the black wyvern with its mouth wide open, you would be swallowed whole by the monster. In short, it was an instant-death pattern.
Then, the direction of Rin's sword, which had been streaking through the air like a ray of light, suddenly shifted its angle.
Her sword, which had been thrusting straight forward to strike the crystal on the wyvern's brow, turned downward as if it had lost its target. Immediately after, a massive crimson light illuminated the world as if exploding.
Whoooosh!
Rin's body, which had expelled a great force toward the ground instead of the wyvern, soared high into the air from the recoil.
It was such a wondrous acrobatic feat that even Chaeri found herself staring blankly despite watching through a screen.
'Seriously... how does she do that?'
The judgment to neutralize the black wyvern's instant-death pattern with a split-second improvisation was astonishing, but if things went on like this, the destroyed wings would soon recover.
So she thought Rin would wait for the next opening.
But on screen, Rin, soaring high into the air, was caught with a cold expression as she drew back the arm holding her sword.
"...?"
Chaeri, who had been holding her breath and immersing herself in the situation, wondered what on earth Rin was doing.
Just as she had that question.
Whoosh!
A sound like tearing air rang out, and Rin's sword hand shot forward like lightning. The sword, wreathed in blood-red energy, traced a line of crimson.
Crunch!
At the tip, a small sound like something shattering rang out as the sword struck the wyvern directly, and Chaeri blinked.
"A skill...?"
She wondered if the movement Rin had just shown was a skill, but she soon realized it couldn't possibly be one.
From the way Rin had spun as if gaining momentum and struck the air, to the massive crimson surge that had flared along the sword at the tip as it shot forward, considering the huge burst of crimson, that final move couldn't have been a skill.
There was no way Rin had the capacity to use another skill.
Just as the system didn't allow a user to use two skills at once, there were restrictions on chaining skills in midair, so it was systemically impossible.
"..."
As Rin slowly descended to the ground on screen, the black wyvern also began lowering its massive body to the ground.
Thud!
Soon after, Plea and Bloody Night looked at Rin with strange expressions, as if voicing Chaeri's own feelings, and Chaeri nodded without thinking.
"How on earth did she do that?"
As if answering her question, Rin on screen naturally tidied her disheveled silver hair and moved her lips.
—Honestly, I wasn't sure it would hit. I got lucky.
When Rin dismissed that unbelievable movement as luck, Chaeri burst out laughing without realizing it.
"How is that luck?"
***
After dealing with the black wyvern, Serin's group entered a kind of final phase of their hunt in the Demon Realm.
Their original goal of syncing their teamwork also posed no particular difficulty, as if they had always been party members.
As things progressed smoothly, Yujeong looked at Rin and felt her initially excited mood gradually settling.
'Haa.'
Sighing inwardly, she felt that the plan she had set up beforehand was completely hopeless.
The Rin she saw up close wasn't simply a user with good reactions or judgment. The range of variables in her movements was far too wide.
While hunting, she had watched Rin's movements and tried to predict them, but Rin showed different movements as if to prove her wrong, and the final movement that finished off the black wyvern was the decisive blow.
She would have to completely change the plan she had made.
...
"Yujeong, are you okay?"
Since Yujeong had gone quiet compared to the beginning, Serin worried that it might be because of the stream.
"Ah, I'm fine. Why do you ask all of a sudden?"
Yujeong immediately smiled brightly and answered cheerfully, and Serin shook her head slightly.
"No. You just got quiet... Then I'm glad."
The more time she spent with Rin, the more new sides of her appeared, and her desire for Rin only seemed to grow endlessly.
'I'll make her interested in me no matter what.'
While the two of them were lost in different thoughts, Yujeong saw a whisper.
—[Louise Tepes : Hi?]
It was a whisper from the user who had made her a certain proposal before.