Pretty Girl vs. Ten Goblins

"…Then that concludes the questions."

"Thank you……."

The brief Q&A session was over.

Of course, before that I'd rattled off some excuse like, "No no that's not it I was in the middle of a stream and the Constellations had sponsored me so I was doing reactions as a thank-you you know Constellations like that kind of thing," but nobody looked particularly convinced.

Fuck.

"I don't have kids. This is mortifying, so shut up."

"From now on, anything related to this gets an instant ban. Everyone shut up. Please."

"This son of a bitch?"

I bought the Clip Manager feature from the shop.

Opening the clip window, I found my reaction already sitting there as an uploaded clip.

"This is mortifying, so please don't post stuff like this. I'm deleting—"

Wait a second.

Why is the view count like that?

It already had that many views?

I checked the comments.

Hmm…….

"…This is free real estate."

Embarrassing was embarrassing, but nearly six hundred views and the comments were all positive.

Getting seen by random people was the mortifying part — Constellations watching didn't matter.

More traffic was a good thing. It meant growth.

I'd also heard that once you grow past ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a certain level, you can farm gates for easy money.

Kill monsters, sell the magic stones they drop, and the cash rolls in. Hunters who'd already grown past a certain point supposedly cleared gates like they were going for a stroll, then lived large off magic stone sales and clear rewards. I'd read that online.

Something about how hunters had outpaced the average gate difficulty, or whatever.

Anyway — the point was that if I reeled in Constellations hard early on, earned Coins, and used those Coins to grow, I could live rich too.

This clip was obviously going to bring in new viewers, so deleting it would be the worst move.

"…Please make clips like this more often going forward."

If anything, I needed the Constellations to keep clipping so more of them would find me.

"Ah, let me buy some other stuff first."

I bought features for putting on a better stream.

Maybe because of everything I'd already shown them, nobody reacted negatively to the purchases.

I hit refuse, then slapped on a one-minute ban.

"You lunatic, I'm still at the Association."

That's right. I was still inside the Hunter Association.

Obviously — I still hadn't finished hunter registration.

Han Nami had offered to handle it for me, of course. But I'd turned her down. If I'd stayed in that room any longer, I really might have died of embarrassment. Just sharing the same space was already mortifying enough.

"Anyway, from now on I'm not doing reactions anywhere except at home, so deal with it."

"Please fix that fossil-tier speech pattern already."

If the others were ordinary trolls, Not an Octopus was a legendary method actor. Who the hell poured that much concept into every single chat message? The guy wasn't even an actual old man.

Chatting with the Constellations as I went, I came down the stairs and the Hunter Association lobby came into view.

Still looks ridiculously grand no matter how many times I see it.

It looked less like a government building and more like the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠lobby of a high-end hotel. There was a hunter-only restaurant upstairs, plus lodging, so it did serve a similar function to a hotel lobby in practice.

The hunter registration desk was a little farther in from here. I cut through the lobby and headed that way.

"That's the one, right? The person who used that weird weapon at the sudden gate earlier."

"Probably? How many people look like that."

"She's genuinely pretty, though."

"But that weapon is a little… a lot, actually?"

"When she was fighting earlier she kept muttering to herself."

"Must be a little off in the head."

"Kinda makes you want to take care of her……."

"?"

People whispering while staring right at me.

Why are they doing that within earshot.

The weapon was getting me labeled a pervert.

"This is all your fault, you know. You keep spamming weird chat and I react to it, so I end up muttering and people treat me like a psycho."

"Oh, is that how it works? No wonder I felt like I was the only one chatting."

People who'd seen me talking to the Constellations started whispering again, but I ignored them and headed for hunter registration.

"Hunter registration complete. Here's your hunter license."

"Yes, thank you."

Registration itself didn't take long. Stick an item in your inventory, pull it back out, done. Only hunters could use inventories, so it was a simple check.

"The Hunter Exam is downstairs."

The Hunter Exam.

A test where you took down monsters that appeared in the exam hall. Not real monsters — dummies built with cutting-edge magical engineering, supposedly, though I didn't know the details.

From what I'd seen online, it ran through a total of ten stages. Past that, even magical engineering couldn't keep up, or something.

"Missions are fine anytime. As long as it's not something weird."

Stage 1 was ten goblins. I'd read that online.

"Obviously."

Even if I couldn't eat it, it was still a free meal.

I had Hephaestus's Club on me, after all. One hit each and they'd slow down and get confused — there was basically no way to fail.

…Or so I'd thought.

"I have to use this?"

That was before they made me use standard-issue gear.

"Yes. Please cooperate for a fair examination."

The words "shut up" nearly left my mouth, but I swallowed them hard at the sight of the Association staffer.

Almost fucked that up.

One more second and I really would have cemented my reputation as the Association's resident psycho.

Might already have, honestly.

They'd promised to keep the childbirth reaction quiet, but whether that promise would actually hold was another question. I'd have to be more careful going forward.

"I just pick a weapon from these, right?"

"Yes. Choose whichever you're comfortable with."

The equipment storage had everything — swords, spears, bows, staves, clubs, the works.

I didn't even glance at weapons that needed technique, like swords or spears. I'd never learned any of that. Staves were out since I couldn't use magic.

My hand went to a club, naturally. My current weapon was a club anyway, so there was no reason to switch.

I picked one up and finished getting ready. There was armor available too, but it looked like it'd just get in the way when I moved, so I left it.

"If you're ready, we'll begin immediately."

"Yes. Please start."

Clear ten goblins without taking a single hit. Mission accepted.

Time to put on a show.