Repent Before You Go
"Listen to the answer and go, you little—"
[Lene][Let's talk][Talk | 1,539 viewers | 00:50:13] [480,000 / 1,000,000]
As expected from the start, the most common topic among the forty-eight questions was, of course, the Albion raid. It made sense—after all, we had cleared a raid that had suddenly appeared in just one day. But donations were starting to slow down. Viewers had probably gathered enough information about Albion. Besides, most of the people here hadn't tuned in because they were interested in the streamer named Lene in the first place.
…Still, letting all these viewers who were growing in real time slip away would be such a waste. So now was the time to pull out my trump card.
"Hmm. Questions are starting to dry up… We didn't quite hit the expected amount, but should we move on to the ones I held off on earlier…?"
"That's not how it works…"
"Anyway, there were a lot of questions about the raid patterns this time…. Has no other party cleared it yet…?"
"…Really? You're talking about the SK pattern that uses Skadi's Tear, right?"
The moment I heard that not even a single party had reached the clear point, a wave of confusion hit me. Was Albion really that difficult? Well, of course it was hard, but I hadn't thought it was to that extent.
"No, is it really that cold?" Even with sensory blocking set to level five. Why would it feel cold at all?
"Hmm…"
Honestly, I still didn't understand, but I could tell what they were trying to say. So because of the cold they couldn't focus properly, and since they also had to memorize the patterns, they kept dying in the middle. In my case, I didn't know all the patterns… but I knew the entire SK pattern side, which was why they came to ask.
"You don't have to worry about that."
I just wanted more people to see the sights in New Dimension, even if only a little. Having comrades to share the same memories with… Honestly, that sounded nice. …Setting aside whether there was anyone who would actually have that kind of conversation with me.
"Of course. I need to get proper gear anyway…. Anyway, let's really move on to the Albion patterns now…"
★ Even though I had turned off the stream during yesterday's raid, I hadn't stopped the video recording, so the discussion about Albion's patterns wrapped up easily.
[630,000 / 1,000,000]
And donations had reached 630,000 won before I knew it. Honestly, I had thought reaching 300,000 won would be amazing, but the amount was far beyond my imagination. I had earned more than I ever had from streaming before…? The number of viewers was dropping rapidly, probably because we had covered almost everything related to the Albion raid… but I could be satisfied with this much. Above all, even if the numbers had decreased, there were still far more people than usual for my streams.
"Then… should we start distributing the items we got yesterday?"
The biggest reason I had turned on the stream today was because we still hadn't done the item distribution, which could be considered the true end of the raid. I wondered what new items had dropped. And what we could do with those new items. Like an adventurer discovering treasure, the feeling of checking rewards with an excited heart was something I could never get tired of. Even in that other world, right after taking down a heretic, the moment I discovered the treasures they had hidden away was always the most enjoyable. Of course, those treasures had to be used for the church's operating expenses, so I could rarely keep any for myself, but just being able to feel that excitement was enough to make me happy.
Fortunately, the reaction wasn't bad, so I displayed the message "Turning on New Dimension now" in the top left of the screen and stood up from my seat. Well, I couldn't say for sure it was a good reaction since most of the people in my stream right now couldn't chat.
"Hnnngh…"
Stretching as I stood up, I entered the Reverse Capsule. Then I launched New Dimension, turned off the in-game voice chat feature I had left on during the last raid just in case, and linked the Reverse Capsule with the computer using the method Tyuni had shown me last time.
"Ah, aaah. Can you hear my voice? I'm logging in now—can you see the screen properly too?"
Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any problems. As soon as I logged into New Dimension, the first thing that greeted me was the pure white landscape visible only at the summit of Ribagar. Looking up at the sky, the clouds seemed close enough to touch, making my hands itch. Looking down, it felt like the entire world covered in white snow lay beneath my feet.
"Huuu…"
Taking a deep breath, the cold yet clear air refreshed my entire body and lifted my mood. Such a magnificent place, yet no one wanted to come here just because it was cold. I really couldn't understand it.
"There's no one around… Did everyone already go to the place I mentioned yesterday?"
…I really couldn't understand. Even though they were comrades who had fought together yesterday, this kind of reaction made it even harder to comprehend. Was I the weird one? That couldn't be…
Shaking my head to avoid falling into negative thoughts, I steadied my breathing. Yeah. Being alone in this beautiful scenery had its own atmosphere, so it was fine. Thinking that, I quietly used a Return Stone.
★ The place I had chosen for our meeting was a tavern in the corner of Barley Town. The food was good and the prices were cheap, so I frequented it often, and from the chat window, it seemed everyone liked it well enough.
"…That aside, should I lower the minimum donation amount a bit now?"
I had already received far more donations than expected, and quite a few people had left. With this much time having passed, the remaining viewers were probably fairly normal. Just in case, I would leave the chat restrictions as they were for now.
Heart-wrenching advice flooded the chat window. …But you guys barely donate in the first place. I couldn't say that, though. I was someone who could read the room. Anyway, after the conversation ended, I immediately lowered the minimum donation amount to 2,000 won. Even 1,000 won probably wouldn't have been a problem, but this was also a precaution just in case.
And before I knew it, I had arrived in front of Barley Town.
"…Huh?"
I saw it. An oak staff decorated with a cross that had a circle drawn in the center. From the outfit, it wasn't a newbie. If anything, it looked like a fairly experienced player.
…Right. There were people waiting for me right now. People who should have met me much earlier, but because of my circumstances had ended up waiting even longer. So the right thing to do was to run to the tavern as fast as possible. …But it was a heretic.
"I believe you'll all understand…"
With those final words, I sprinted at full speed and swung my warhammer at the heretic.
"Shit?!"
Clang!
After making one more heretic repent like that, it took about ten minutes. Thanks to not getting caught by any NPCs, I was able to enter Barley Town without receiving any PK penalty at all.
"Still, I'm glad I didn't get flagged for PK. Sometimes I do get penalties, and they're more annoying than you'd think…. I'm just doing what I have to do. Right?"
For some reason, no one answered. Were they all busy? …Well, they were probably all gathered together drinking. Couldn't be helped.