Chapter 260: Freaking Rich! [Bonus - ]
Hiro had never uttered the official name of the skill on stream, so Silas assumed the swordsman simply called it "Invisible Slash" in his own internal thoughts.
But in reality, the mechanics were far more intricate and demanding than a simple magic projectile.
Hiro wasn’t just throwing wind mana forward... he was using his broadsword’s edge to slice the air molecules themselves into hyper-compressed frictionless vacuum pockets.
He then used his steel mana as an invisible propellant wave, driving those vacuum pockets forward at Mach 4 velocity.
Because there was no light emission or elemental flame attached to a vacuum pocket, the attack remained completely invisible to the naked eye until it physically impacted the target’s skin.
It was an extraordinary display of advanced swordsmanship... requiring extreme blade control, precise wrist angles, and immense mana compression that would tear an inexperienced swordsman’s forearm tendons to shreds.
’It’s clear he has a profound fundamental understanding of the sword,’ Silas pondered deeply inside his disguise. ’Can I do that too...?’
Silas knew the answer was yes, but it would require practice.
Just because he had witnessed the structural flow of a high-tier skill didn’t mean he could execute it instantly without refining his own physical muscle memory first.
Down on the floor, Hiro wasn’t finished.
As he reached the apex of his flight, his broadsword flared with a terrifying ocean-deep blue light that illuminated the entire cavern.
He plummeted downward like a falling meteor, bringing his broadsword crashing down with every ounce of his physical strength.
"HARRRRGH!" Hiro shouted, his voice echoing loudly off the cave walls.
KRA-THOOM!
The blue blade struck the center of the Spider Queen’s head.
The force cleaved the thirty-foot Tier 3 Boss monster cleanly in half, splitting her entire body from head to abdomen as a towering geyser of black blood and purple fluid sprayed thirty feet into the air, splashing across the stone floor as the two severed halves of the monster collapsed lifelessly into the silk.
Up on the floating stream drones, the comment section exploded with ten instant messages praising his strength:
[@GamerGod99: HOLY SHIT HIRO CLEAVED A TIER 3 BOSS IN HALF!]
[@SovereignWatcher: THAT WAS ABSOLUTE PEAK SWORDSMANSHIP!]
[@NoobMaster69: HIRO IS A MONSTER BRO!]
[@PVP_Legend: THE CUTS WERE TOO CLEAN!]
[@ValoriaFan: Look at that blue aura!]
[@DarkKnight_00: Unmovable Wall’s main hero is insane!]
[@StreamLover: What a finisher!]
[@TacticalNuke: RIP Spider Queen lmao!]
[@AnimeFanatic: THAT WAS SO HYPED!]
Hiro landed lightly on his boots beside the steaming carcass, flicking the black blood off his blade before smoothly sheathing it.
’That thing went down quite fast, didn’t it...’ Vespera thought, watching the blood pool around Hiro’s boots. ’I thought a mutated Tier 3 Boss would have—’
Before Vespera could even finish her internal sentence—
ZIP!
Out from the rear abdomen of the left severed half of the dead Spider Queen, a hidden six-foot-long, razor-sharp poison stinger shot out like a pressurized steel spring.
The Spider Queen had calculated her own death, using the last lingering nerve impulses of her corpse to unleash a final lethal post-mortem trap.
The tip of the long black stinger was dripping with a thick pitch-black liquid that radiated a toxic core-corroding mana capable of permanently crippling an un-shielded warrior’s magic channels.
The toxic stinger flew straight toward Hiro’s exposed, blindfolded back at point-blank range.
Vespera’s sharp purple eyes caught the incoming projectile instantly.
With her single-armed lightweight agility and her Gold Core wind magic, Vespera easily possessed the reaction speed required to step forward, draw her sword, and deflect the poison stinger before it could touch Hiro’s armor.
Her hand twitched slightly on her sword hilt... but she didn’t move an inch.
’Why the hell would I intervene?’ Silas thought coldly behind his female disguise with cold logic dictating his inaction. ’We aren’t friends... In six days, Hiro is going to be standing on the opposite side of a battlefield trying to cut down my commanders. If he gets stabbed by a high-tier toxic stinger right now and spends the next week bedridden with a corroded mana core... that is a massive, free advantage for the Blessed Land.’
Silas watched the black stinger close the distance, fully prepared to enjoy the sight of an enemy champion getting incapacitated by his own arrogance.
However—
CLANG!
Hiro cursed softly under his breath.
Without even turning his head, his spatial vibration perception picked up the displacement of air behind his spine.
He executed an impossibly tight, blind turn, drawing his broadsword just two inches to slap the incoming stinger away with the flat of his blade.
The toxic stinger hit the stone wall, shattering into harmless fragments as the black poison hissed against the rock.
"Tch... persistent bug," Hiro grumbled, sheathing his sword again.
Vespera let out a long quiet exhale through her nose.
To Lord Sky and the live stream viewers watching on camera, it looked like Vespera was letting out a soft sigh of relief, relieved that her ally had survived a sneaky trap.
In reality... it was a long, deeply disappointed sigh over a missed tactical opportunity.
’Dammit,’ Silas grumbled internally. ’Fucker actually blocked it. Would’ve saved me a lot of trouble next week if that poison hit him.’
Lord Sky walked over, sheathing his broadsword with a satisfied smile beneath his alloy mask.
He looked around at the destroyed cavern, raising his hand toward the group.
"Outstanding work, team!" Sky congratulated cheerfully. "We’ve successfully wiped out the spider nest and eliminated the scouting threat to our camp!"
Vespera offered him a polite, charming smile, her raspy voice returning to its pleasant hospitable tone. "A clean execution, Lord Sky."
Sky looked down at the massive, severed halves of the Spider Queen, stepping forward while opening his Lord Inventory interface. "Let me gather the monster meat so my logistics staff can process it—"
Before Sky could touch the carcass, Vespera’s face subtly scrunched up into a look of genuine disgust. She raised her single right hand, stopping him with an urgent gesture.
"Don’t bother, Lord Sky," Vespera warned him flatly, her voice filled with experienced conviction. "I’ve already had my own cooks attempt to prepare spider meat back at my territory. Trust me... no amount of boiling, roasting, or Valorian spices can fix it. It tastes like bitter, rubbery sulfur, and it’s a complete waste of your inventory space."
Sky paused, his hand hovering inches away from the black carapace. He looked at her serious disgusted expression, blinking behind his mask.
"O-Ooh..." Sky mumbled sheepishly, pulling his hand back. "Right... good to know. Thanks for the heads up."
An hour later, back at the western border clearing...
The late night air was cool and crisp, lit by the glowing campfires of ’The Unmovable Wall.’
Near the base of the colossal three-story mobile war-rig, Lord Sky finished setting down the final wooden supply crate from his private vaults.
"And that’s the last of it!" Sky announced proudly, dusting off his gauntlets.
True to his word, Sky had provided an extraordinary trade package in exchange for the four tons of game Vespera had delivered earlier.
Neatly stacked in front of Vespera were ten additional ingots of rare Central City True-Silver Tungsten alloy, three wooden variation boxes filled with exotic Valorian spices... and resting right on top of the stack were several vacuum-sealed, frozen packages of pure, authentic Earth food.
Real, genuine, high-grade chicken!
Vespera’s deep purple eyes fixed onto the frozen poultry packages.
Inside her female disguise, Silas felt his mouth literally salivating. His golden-ringed eyes sparkled with food joy!
’ACTUAL CHICKEN!’ Silas cheered internally, his soul practically weeping with happiness. ’Real, honest-to-god chicken breasts and drumsticks! No more eating slimy, roasted Basin worms that merely taste like chicken! I get to eat actual chicken tonight or tomorrow...!’
Vespera quickly reached out her single right hand, touching the trade stack.
FLASH!
With a smooth spatial shimmer, the alloys, spices, and precious frozen chicken vanished cleanly into her Lord Inventory.
She looked at Sky, bowing her black-haired head gracefully.
"Thank you, Lord Sky," Vespera thanked him warmly, her voice filled with deep appreciation. "Your generosity is unmatched."
Sky smiled warmly behind his silver mask.
He gestured toward his six floating camera drones hovering overhead, which were still actively broadcasting to the global network.
"Before we wrap up for the night," Sky requested politely, "let’s say a formal goodbye to the live stream chat."
Vespera offered the central camera drone a breathtaking, radiant smile, raising her single hand in an elegant wave. "Goodnight, everyone. Until next time."
Beside her, Aeli who was still wearing her giant, neon-yellow motorcycle helmet timidly stepped forward.
Clinging tightly to Vespera’s empty left sleeve, the helmeted elven arcanist raised her white-gloved hand and offered a tiny, adorable wave toward the lens.
"G-Goodnight..." Aeli whispered softly from inside her plastic visor.
The live stream chat went into one final explosive meltdown of sweet goodbye messages before Sky tapped his helmet button.
[@GamerGod99: GOODNIGHT MY QUEEN VESPERA! ❤️]
[@SovereignWatcher: GOODNIGHT HELMET JADE BEAUTY! 👋]
[@NoobMaster69: BEST STREAM EVER SKY!]
[@PVP_Legend: See you guys at the Lord War next week! 🛡️]
[@ValoriaFan: Sleep well Lord Vespera! ✨]
[@DarkKnight_00: Peak broadcast! 10/10!]
CLICK!
Sky turned off the stream broadcast.
The six brass camera drones powered down, their glowing blue lenses going dark as they whirred back into their mechanical housing compartments on his armor.
The moment the broadcast went offline, Sky pulled up his private Lord analytics HUD to check his stream metrics for the evening session.
When his eyes landed on the final viewer counter, Sky froze dead in his tracks!
’Fifty million...?’ Sky thought, his jaw dropping beneath his alloy mask in mind-shattering shock. ’Just this short, one-hour late-night stream hit 50,000,000 CONCURRENT VIEWERS?!’
It was an utterly insane record-breaking figure!
Under normal circumstances, Sky considered himself an extraordinarily successful streamer.
On an average broadcast traveling across standard sectors, he usually averaged roughly 8 to 9 million viewers... maybe peaking at 12 million if a major boss battle was taking place.
His primary revenue didn’t even come from direct stream ads... it came from multi-million-dollar corporate sponsorships, ad revenue from his official LordTube highlight channel (which regularly pulled tens of millions of views per video), and recurring monthly subscriptions on his private creator platform, Itraeon.
Subscriber platforms like Itraeon alone netted him millions of Spirit Credits every single month.
But today... simply by collaborating with ’Lord Vespera’ and the Blessed Land for less than twenty-four hours, his numbers had entered an astronomical dimension!
Their brief afternoon meeting stream had topped out at 35 million viewers, and this late-night spider hunt had shattered records with 50 million active concurrent screens.
Not only that, but earlier today on camera, Sky had casually posed for a quick promotional screenshot alongside Vespera.
According to his live Itraeon dashboard, over one hundred thousand new paid members had signed up for his premium tier in the past six hours just to download those high-definition photos of Vespera.
His net earnings for today alone were staggering...
’This is insane...’ Sky thought, a quiet disbelieving laugh escaping his throat. ’At this rate... the central banking branch back in Valoria City might actually have to temporarily block or audit my corporate account because of how much money is pouring in!’
Vespera didn’t know the exact financial figures scrolling across Sky’s private HUD, but seeing the masked Lord standing there quietly chuckling to himself while staring into empty air gave Silas a deeply suspicious uneasy feeling.
’What the hell is this guy laughing about to himself in the dark...?’ Silas thought dryly behind his female disguise with a chill running down his neck. ’There is zero chance whatever he’s thinking about is anything wholesome.’
Vespera cleared her throat softly, breaking Sky out of his financial trance.
"In any case," Vespera spoke, her raspy female voice drawing his attention, "thank you again for the trade goods and the real chicken, Lord Sky."
Sky snapped out of his thoughts, waving his hands cheerfully. "Oh, think nothing of it! You earned every bit of it tonight!"
Sky looked at her with his masked face tilting slightly as he asked with genuine interest.
"So... are you busy tomorrow, Lord Vespera? If you’re free, you’re more than welcome to visit my mobile fortress again. I’d be happy to make it well worth your time."
Vespera looked at him with a slightly strange and deadpan expression with her purple eyes flickering.
"I will be quite busy as of tomorrow, Lord Sky," Vespera answered plainly. "I have to begin immediate, intensive preparations for our upcoming war."
Sky paused, then nodded his head in understanding. "Ah... right. The Lord War in six days. Of course."
Sky offered a warm, polite bow. "Well, if you happen to find any free time between your preparations, the offer stands. Have a safe ride back."
"Sure," Vespera replied neutrally.