Chapter 75: Livestreamer
Although the white mist was dense, swirling around the hill and concealing it like a mysterious veil, Aurelius could see the figure directly.
It was a man.
Tall yet unnaturally lean, he wore a wild smile, filled with arrogance and madness.
He was speaking alone, constantly staring at the air before him as though conversing with an invisible being.
Judging from the expressions of the adventure team, Aurelius instantly guessed what they were thinking:
This man was crazy!
But he knew better than that.
The floating interface above his head revealed everything.
[LunaticTV]
A Player!
And, judging from his earlier words and his name, this man was livestreaming!
Aurelius’ expression turned strange.
Could the Nova Roma Game also be livestreamed? But it made sense upon further thought.
Since videos could be recorded, why wouldn’t livestreams be possible too?
While he was organizing his thoughts, Medea beside him could no longer wait.
She had sneaked out of the Imperial City and came to the northern border, all for the sake of obtaining the Underworld Tulip.
It was the final ingredient for the Potion she had been trying to refine for so long.
Seeing the flower she had dreamed of being plucked right in front of her by a madman, she could not control herself.
"Damn it!" she cursed.
Without hesitation, she grabbed the bow from her back and drew its string.
Then...
Woosh! Woosh! Woosh!
Several arrows whistled through the air.
Seeing them aiming at LunaticTV, Aurelius wondered whether to intervene.
But soon, he discovered there was no need to try and save him.
Medea wasn’t actually trying to kill the Player.
As though an invisible hand was controlling the arrows, they ignored the force of gravity and embedded into the man’s clothes.
Then, in a move that went against all common sense, they nailed him to the ground, holding him in place.
Medea didn’t say a further word. She hurriedly moved toward the hill in large strides.
Aurelius and the rest of the team followed behind her.
But by the time they reached the hill, Medea was already grabbing the clothes of LunaticTV.
She pressed a dagger against his neck and shook him violently, her own hand trembling.
"Where is the Underworld Tulip? Where did you put it? Take it out!"
She had lost her usual composure. She was practically threatening the Player to give her the ingredient.
Under normal circumstances, an ordinary person would have succumbed to the threats of an Awakener, much less an Awakener with such obvious killing intent.
Unfortunately...
Aurelius shook his head. He didn’t believe that Medea could achieve anything by acting like this.
Sure enough, facing her naked threat, LunaticTV laughed.
He didn’t answer, but continued speaking to himself.
"Chat! Chat! Are you seeing this? Look at how realistic the game’s graphics are!"
"Just look at the NPC’s face! That expression!"
"When have you ever seen such a beauty?"
"Isn’t such an experience worth at least a Rocket? Everyone, gift a Rocket! Otherwise I’ll log off!"
Aurelius raised an eyebrow.
But as he looked at the expressions of Medea and the rest of the team, he discovered they showed no abnormality.
’It seems that the rumors are true,’ he thought, having already learned from the forum that the game possessed a "voice filter".
Everything that could reveal the true nature of the world was automatically filtered.
Terms such as "NPC," "game," and other modern words could not be heard by NPCs. Instead, they were translated into concepts that fit the listener’s own understanding.
As for the reason Aurelius didn’t face such a problem, he believed it was due to the Player Template.
He didn’t know what Medea had heard instead of LunaticTV’s words.
But whatever it was, it managed to trigger an even more violent response.
"Name your price!"
"Ten! One hundred! A thousand golden coins. As long as you give it to me, I’m willing to pay it," she insisted.
She didn’t notice that LunaticTV’s eyes flickered as she said those words.
A prompt flashed in his field of vision.
"Ding! Trade has been initiated!"
"Do you wish to give up the Underworld Tulip in exchange for 1000 golden coins?"
Beneath the prompt was a simple Yes/No menu.
The Player was surprised. However, he pressed neither of the two options.
He stared into Medea’s eyes and laughed.
"So the name of that flower is Underworld Tulip? No wonder it looked so beautiful."
"Since you’re so desperate to get your hands on it, it must be valuable too."
"Don’t think you can lowball me."
LunaticTV glanced at Medea’s giant bow. His eyes lit up.
"How about we trade the flower for this bow? Well, keep the one thousand golden coins you talked about."
After a brief pause, he added:
"In fact, make it one hundred thousand."
"Add a Class Initiation Item too. And a Gacha Potion."
LunaticTV kept on listing his demands.
No matter how dark Medea’s face became, he didn’t stop. If anything, his demands grew even more outrageous.
By the end, he had all but asked Medea to turn him into a God.
’This guy is trying to farm reactions off his stream!’ Aurelius realized after a while.
This guess was confirmed when he saw LunaticTV glance at the side of his vision, smile contentedly, and push things even further.
This man clearly did not care about the game or the rewards Medea promised. He would much rather entertain his livestream audience.
Getting Medea to become furious was his latest attempt at this.
And it seemed to be working extremely well.
LunaticTV kept on going.
Before long, he seemed to realize that there was no reason to target only Medea.
Her companions should suffer too.
"I’ll also want the wooden staff in this girl’s hands. The iron shield of that ugly guy too."
Andrea seethed in anger, while Marcus looked ready to rush forward and smash LunaticTV’s head open.
LunaticTV’s smile grew wilder as his gaze focused on Aurelius.
He seemed to want to find something in his possession to point out. When he didn’t, he was disappointed and planned to move on to Matthew.
But just then, he seemed to remember something. Raising his head, he looked back into Aurelius’ face.
Before his eyes, Aurelius’ face gradually overlapped with another face he knew all too well.
"It’s you!"