The First Real Stream, Deep-Fried Blade Centipede Part 1
Sia, do you remember?
On the day we first met, you were sleeping like an angel.
At the time, the scribe told me you had devoured a giant god, but I simply couldn't bring myself to believe it.
Even amidst that faint, delicate silver glow, your silver hair flowed like a starlit galaxy, and your face shone as white as an angel's. I truly thought a celestial being had descended from the heavens.
Haha, was that a bit too poetic?
You always disliked that sort of thing.
Still, it is my honest thoughts, so please just accept it.
Ah, by the way, even when you grabbed me by the collar and flew into a rage, I honestly wasn't scared at all.
Quite apart from how sorry and guilty I felt toward you, no matter how angry you got with that lovely face of yours, it just wasn't frightening.
I still feel sorry about that even now.
If I ever get the chance to speak to you again, I would like to tell you one more time.
Even though it is already too late.
Back then, we stood together in a cluster of light, but now we are surrounded by darkness. Our fragile minds have matured, and we have become full adults.
You, me, and even that cat-like black witch.
Of course, I am doing well.
I am doing very well, so please do not worry.
Starting the day by remembering the times we spent together is surprisingly nice.
Today is the day we went on an outing together, Sia.
Today is the day we won our first victory against the Demon King's army.
Today is the day we marched forward together.
Today is the day you and I first met Theresa.
Today is the day we were defeated and shed tears.
Today is the day we wept in sorrow.
Today is the day we smiled again.
Today is the day we grasped the light together.
I remember it all.
One day, you said to me:
"It's okay. Everything will be fine."
Haha, yes. Just as you said, I am trying my best to be okay.
The imperial palace remains the same. A gentle breeze blows, carrying the warmth of spring.
That alley cat of a witch is quiet.
She seems bored without you around.
On the day you vanished like the wind, the day we shared our final moments.
To me, you scattered like a brilliant cluster of light.
You once said to me:
"Let's make sure to meet as often as we can before we die."
Yes...
I should have met you more often.
I should have looked at you more often.
I should have talked to you more often.
I should have been with you more often...
Yes, but even I... want to complain just a little bit.
I try to picture you again today, disappearing like melting snow...
But we have come too far to grasp what has already vanished.
I am sorry, Sia.
I resolved and resolved again to grant whatever you asked of me.
Yet in the end, I am always the one who breaks my promises and fails to keep them.
Sometimes, I still forget that you are no longer by my side.
Sia.
My friend, my family, and the other half of my soul.
Do you miss me?
I miss you terribly.
I did today.
I did yesterday.
And I will continue to yearn for you in the days to come.
Let us make just one promise.
If we ever meet again...
Let us be together often, diligently... no, let us be together forever.
"To celebrate my first official stream, I'm going to do a Blade Centipede mukbang!"
With those bright, cheerful words, Sia abruptly ended the stream.
Naturally, the chat went absolutely wild.
Actually, because Sia had shut down the stream before the chat could even fully react, the massive crowd of viewers instantly became refugees, cast adrift on a vast ocean before they could even properly enjoy the broadcast.
The chat room, now a ghost town, was flooded with frantic messages.
No matter how long they drifted in the empty chat room, the streamer did not return.
Ultimately, the displaced viewers drifted to the usual place: the Genre Hunter Gallery forum.
Upvotes: 433
Lee Sia's stream run time: 28 minutes and 32 seconds lmao
Upvotes: 873
"Hi, I'm Lee Sia. I'm gonna eat a Blade Centipede. Bye."
Upvotes: 1109
Here's a summary of the stream.
Name: Lee Sia
She is indeed a returnee.
Returned about a month ago.
Age: Claims to be 85. But according to the Association's ethical audit, her mental age is 21.
Hunter Rank: Not revealed.
Judging by the Hunter Association's verification mark on her stream, her skills seem officially guaranteed.
Looking at how she beat down that Wyvern pack, she's definitely at least high A-grade or low S-grade.
I'll leave the combat analysis to the self-proclaimed experts.
Anyway, here's what else was confirmed:
1. Her chest is massive. Seriously, it's huge. I've never seen natural breasts that big and well-shaped in my life. I wondered how big they could actually be when people called her the 'Holy Power Breasts Saintess,' but they are truly gigantic.
2. Her face is top-tier. She easily outshines most celebrities. Combined with her incredible body, she looks way more stunning than any actress.
3. The AI drone camera performance is insane. Most commercial hunter drones have stiff movements. But maybe she got sponsored by the Association, because this drone automatically zooms in on her and reacts to every minor gesture. It looks like the same drone she used in the Curtala Mountain Range.
4. Given that she repeatedly healed and killed that Wyvern about ten times, she definitely seems to be a Saintess-type with healing abilities.
5. The tentacles are indeed her own ability. They aren't visible by default. They seem to sprout when she uses a skill called 'Sacred Miracle.' It's unclear whether she controls them like muscles or if they have a mind of their own.
In this way, the Genre Hunter Gallery was busy gossiping about the cheeky rookie hunter streamer who had vanished after streaming for less than thirty minutes.
Since she hadn't even announced when the next stream would be, it was somewhat understandable. For the forum users who had spent a whole week hyping her up, it was incredibly frustrating.
They had tuned in expecting the flashy, epic action of a potential S-grade hunter, only to get a brief self-introduction that felt like the intro to an adult video before she suddenly vanished. It would have been stranger if they weren't furious.
The moment the forum users heard the news that the red light had turned back on, they instantly flipped their attitude.
The viewers loaded their keyboards with rage, determined to teach this ill-mannered rookie streamer a lesson.
How dare she end the stream after only thirty minutes without even giving a proper schedule to her beloved viewers? What an insolent girl!
But the moment the drone camera focused on Sia's face, the minds of countless viewers instantly went blank.
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Blade Centipedes. They range from F-grade to B-grade, but on average, they are C-grade monsters. Occasionally, long-lived individuals are classified as B-grade threats.
Very rarely, when tens of thousands of Blade Centipedes form a swarm, they are treated as a single organism and given a higher hazard rating, but that only happens in special cases like a Dungeon Overbreak mutation.
Essentially, they are centipede-like monsters. As the name suggests, their legs, venomous fangs, and claws possess the hardness of steel, which is why they are called Blade Centipedes.
Centipedes are arthropods with relatively flat bodies and up to 177 segments. While they typically have 15 pairs of legs, some can have over 170 pairs.
And the Blade Centipede, which is treated as an individual monster ranging from F to B-grade, possessed a minimum of 200 pairs of creepy, skittering legs.
They are at least one meter long. The larger ones can grow over ten meters, and one specimen discovered in a dungeon in the South American Amazon held a terrifying record of 34 meters in length.
Although individual strength is weak, their subjugation difficulty is exceptionally high.
The Association does not even permit solo raids against Blade Centipedes. Every month, there are several cases of C-grade hunters who, out of ignorance and bravado, attempt to hunt them only to flee the dungeon in a panic.
They are lucky if they escape with their lives. Many do not, which is why Blade Centipedes are considered the leading cause of hunter deaths in dungeons below A-grade, excluding a few high-risk zones. Even A-grade hunters have been bitten and killed by swarms of them.
The reason why a monster that averages only C-grade could lead an A-grade hunter to their death was...
"...Alright, we've arrived! This is the 'Rotten Mountain' dungeon in Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do."
Skitter-skitter-skitter-skitter.
It was the sheer, overwhelming number of those damn crawling centipedes that drove up the danger rating.
A Wyvern pack? A single nesting ground might have a few hundred of them.
Because the danger is clearly visible, hunters facing Wyverns prepare thoroughly, and the number of hunters killed by Wyverns is actually quite low.
But Blade Centipedes?
When tens of thousands of them pour out, their legs clicking and clacking, any hunter would struggle to maintain their sanity.
While Blade Centipedes inhabit various dungeons, the Rotten Mountain dungeon was unique. The apex predator dominating the ecosystem there was the Blade Centipede. They had very few natural predators to keep them in check, allowing their numbers to swell continuously.
As a result, the estimated population of Blade Centipedes in the Rotten Mountain dungeon was officially classified as 'unidentifiable.'
And for good reason. In the Rotten Mountain dungeon, digging a single hole would cause thousands to tens of thousands of Blade Centipedes to spill out. It was a truly horrific sight.
"Hehe, the air is so fresh here, isn't it?"
At the viewer's comment, Sia turned around.
Through the underbrush, a Blade Centipede about five meters long was scurrying away, as if trying to avoid her.
What, it's not even that big.
It didn't look like it would have much meat inside either.
In terms of rank, it was probably around C-grade.
"Yeah, I'm not eating that one."
"Did you know? Very rarely, a Blade Centipede can appear as a solo A-grade monster."
"No, really. I asked an acquaintance, and they said A-grade ones do appear once in a while."
"An A-grade would have a high concentration of mana in its body, and it would be much larger than a normal Blade Centipede. Plus, it would be packed full of meat."
"No. As the saying goes, if you draw your sword, you should at least slice a rotten radish."
"Right? Hehe, I think I chose the perfect dungeon."
The viewers were slowly beginning to realize.
Deceived by her appearance and healing abilities, they had initially thought the streamer was a gentle, benevolent Saintess who happened to be a returnee of advanced age.
They had expected her to be a calm, relaxed older-sister type, even if she occasionally delivered quiet, devastating roasts.
But they were wrong.
She wasn't a Holy Power Breasts Saintess.
She was a completely unhinged, chaotic Saintess.
"Alright! Then I'll start the stream by finding an A-grade Blade Centipede in this Rotten Mountain dungeon and deep-frying it. I'm so excited, hehehe..."
Sia was already in a great mood, sensing the sharp, pungent scent of Evil Nature that had drifted toward her the moment she entered the Rotten Mountain dungeon.
From the perspective of the viewers and ordinary humans, they wouldn't be able to smell the Evil Nature. To them, the scent of the Rotten Mountain dungeon, inhabited by hundreds of thousands of monsters, would just feel like a damp autumn mountain filled with rotting mud and leaves.
Regardless of the chat's protests, Sia tried to hide her racing heart as she set down the deep fryer and various ingredients she had packed in her backpack.
"Um... but how do I find a Blade Centipede? Should I just look for a cave or something?"
"Oh... really?"
Taking the viewer's advice, Sia nodded and slowly patted the ground with her hand.
Yes, a faint, rotting stench of Evil Nature was indeed lingering in the soil.
The Evil Nature of a single Blade Centipede wouldn't be much, but if they gathered in a swarm, it would emit a fairly thick scent.
Thud!
Having made her decision, Sia plunged her hands into the muddy ground.
Glancing at the chat's reaction, Sia curled the corners of her mouth upward.
If she caught and checked them one by one, when would she ever get to eat an A-grade Blade Centipede?
"Hup!"
Rumble!
The place where Sia stood was a rocky area of the Rotten Mountain dungeon.
Over time, the bedrock had been covered with soil, dust, and leaves, merging into a single mass.
If one were to use a crane or heavy machinery, it might be possible to lift the entire bedrock section.
And Sia was currently lifting a section of the ground that would normally require heavy machinery, using nothing but her bare hands.
However, the moment Sia lifted the eight-meter-wide slab of earth and the loose dirt fell away due to gravity, the viewers had to stop marveling at her monstrous strength.
Directly beneath the bedrock Sia had lifted...
Skitter.
Squirm.
Writhing...
Click-clack.
Like noodles being squeezed out of a pasta maker, countless Blade Centipedes were writhing and crawling all over the underside of the rock.
When you go hiking and lift a damp, mossy rock, you see a miniature ecosystem of tiny bugs squirming underneath.
Centipedes, pill bugs, millipedes, earthworms, woodlice.
Most people have probably seen that squirming, multi-legged horror at least once during their childhood.
It was the exact same thing in the Rotten Mountain dungeon.
The only difference was...
These Blade Centipedes were at least three meters long, with hundreds and thousands of them writhing together on the rock face.
And Sia's high-performance auxiliary AI drone was zooming in on all of them in crystal-clear, high-definition detail.
While the viewers screamed in horror, Sia smiled brightly.
"Hehe, found them!"