NOVEL NEXT Chapter 93: Popularity
When Gerald saw the increasing amount of viewers, he grinned to himself.
"Hehehe, advertising to all the kids in school was the best idea. The ones who're playing will quickly pick up on it and they'll spread the news even more!"
Gerald had long since advertised his sister's stream to his friends at school and guildmates right after the stream started.
Now, most of the people who had come to watch were his guildmates and classmates who naturally spread the news.
Also, many other random people joined the stream because they saw the title of the stream and channel. The game being streamed was also popular so many joined just to see what was happening and when they saw a player flying through the air, they naturally stayed due to curiosity.
[Who's this chick?]
[Wow, she's flying!]
[It's nothing to be amazed of! There are plenty of players who can fly now! Even those angel-race players are appearing more and more on the starting planet!]
[It's a band of beautiful people!]
Indeed, it was a band of beautiful people. Alexa and Ash were vampires so they had a beautiful face. Lilah was a fairy so she was inherently cute and as for Maria...that went without saying.
Gerald was making the stream more interesting by panning out the camera towards the party's faces and bodies, outlining their equipment and everything. It would be a boring stream if all it was showing was Maria, Alexa, and Ash flying through the air.
"Hehehe, perfect. Keep em coming!" Gerald said with a smirk.
*****
Maria was still a newbie at streaming so she no longer paid any attention to the probe once she focused herself on the game.
When they touched down from the sky at the base of the mountain, the first thing they encountered was a pack of monsters which Maria decimated single-handedly because they were only around level 70.
She was already level 63 so they couldn't be seen as a threat to her. Maria felt a little disappointed when she saw the monsters' levels. She at least expected them to minimally be level 80.
Looking at the level 70 meant that this mountain range was probably only a level 70-80 hunting ground.
Maria hoped that the monsters' average levels would rise as they traversed deeper into the mountains. She wanted to use this short bit of free time that she managed to gain from managing her territory to stack up some levels and experience points.
She noticed that her territory expansion plan was now in full swing and her subordinates only made things easier and quicker for her. Maria could tell that once they expanded their territory, she would need to stabilize things once again and that meant...more work behind her desk at the castle.
"Ugh...I don't even wanna think about that any more..." Maria mumbled.
She placed Little Red on the ground and the monster dog quickly transformed into its large size again. Maria hopped on top with her scythe rested on her shoulders.
"Alright, let's get going. I wanna head deeper. The monsters on the periphery are just too easy~"
"Yes, My Lady."
"Yes, Queen!"
[Oh! Look, she's being addressed like royalty!]
[We got ourselves a real queen, lol!]
[Queen +1]
[+2]
[+3]
[Are you da queen?]
[Person above, she's definitely the queen]
[Queen!]
Gerald was also listening to how Maria's subordinates addressed her and felt that it was a perfect thing to tease his sister with. He was rather surprised that the chat started calling her queen rather than her name which was displayed above her head in bold dark-red letters.
[My Queen, please look this way!]
[Don't you think she's ignoring us a little?]
[Maybe she's not reading the chat?]
Maria was unaware of the things happening on her stream's chat because she didn't have it open on her HUD. Naturally, when she was on the hunt, anything on her HUD would be closed because it only distracted her.
Others would probably have it up because they needed to use their skills or something, but Maria activated it only by thinking and doing the motions for the skill, not something everyone in the game did.
Most players would just use their skills by tapping on the icon in the quick-skill menu on their HUD, but some didn't need to do that because they had a firm grasp of their skills and could activate them using their actions instead. Maria was obviously a part of the latter, she only needed to think or focus to use her skills.
This small detail also separated those truly elite players and those that weren't.
<Maria, remember to open your chat sometime and talk to the camera! You'll lose viewers if you don't talk to them!> Gerald kindly messaged her sister.
"Oh?"
Maria looked around and quickly found the probe. She opened up her stream's chat and saw the messages. It was hard to read any of them because right as Maria turned to look at the camera, everyone who was watching bombarded the chat with so many messages.
[She's cute!]
[Hot!]
[Hey, isn't she that girl in the promo vid?!]
[She is!]
[She's back!]
[...]
[...]
Some people quickly noticed that Maria was the girl from the promotional video that Universal Games had put out after only a few days since Unitale's release. They also finally saw Maria's name and the title that came after it.
[Maria, Queen of the Dire]
The level wasn't displayed, but the way her name was displayed made her seem like an NPC, however, she was obviously a player. Not many people in the game had titles like Maria's which would automatically be displayed right after their IGN.
"Oh, I'm sorry for ignoring everyone. The chat is moving at super-high speeds so I can't read every single one of them. Anyway, thank you all for coming to watch me play Unitale~"
Maria smiled at the camera as she said this. This earned her another round of praise from the viewers. Of course, some viewers thought that Maria had used the game's function to adjust her avatar to make it more beautiful than her actual IRL appearance.
[Fake, she's just cute because she's using the game's avatar!]
[Lol, bet she'd look like a hag in real!]
The chat was moving too fast so most people just ignored those words just like Maria. She didn't pay too much attention to the chat after greeting everyone.
She was still sitting on top of Little Red so she was looking down at the camera.
"Anyway, I'll be hunting here on this mountain with my subordinates. Since I'll be hunting, I hope you'll forgive me if I'm not paying attention to the chat. I hope you all enjoy the stream!"
Maria swiped everything out of her HUD and switched her attention back to the game. She ordered Little Red to quickly
[Who's the little girl and that young man following her?]
[I think she said they were her subordinates?]
[Not friends? That's one condescending way of addressing people...]
[A true queen indeed! No friends, just subordinates hahaha~]
[I wanna be her subordinate as well!]
Gerald was amused by reading the chat, but Maria had long since ignored it and was moving together with Alexa and Ash deeper into the mountains.
Any monster they encountered along the way was quickly dealt with by them and they continued forward.
The swiftness of their advance and how powerful they were to easily take down a level 70 monster with such ease awed the viewers. These were genuine level 70 monsters and as far as everyone knew, not many players could do what Maria did with such ease.
It just wasn't possible yet unless the monsters were at least 10 or 20 levels below her. Since her level wasn't displayed, everyone assumed she was likely around level 90 or above and so were the others that were with her.
They couldn't be more wrong though, but this misconception was working in her favor since this helped keep her actual level a secret. No one would expect a player whose level was only in their 60s could accomplish a feat like one or two-shotting level 70 monsters.
Instead of being 10-20 levels above them, Maria was around 10 levels below the monsters she encountered on the mountain path. It was even worse for Alexa since she was only level 50 at the moment.
Only Ash was above the monsters' levels since he was already level 80. How he got the time to even level up despite being as busy as he was, Maria didn't know. It was a welcome thing since if her subordinates gained power, her faction did as well.
As they mowed down the monsters that blocked their way, the viewers only became more intrigued by Maria and her party. Her method of playing was much different than the other streamers who play Unitale.
While others strategized and tried to find the most efficient and quickest path, Maria just bulldozed through everything with absolute strength and as she plowed through the monsters, her battle-driven character began leaking out as she cackled in delight as monster after monster fell to her scythe.
"Die for me, you vermin!"
The chat was astonished and amazed as more and more of her character began leaking out. They all thought they were coming here to watch an e-girl stumble around the game with her party, but what they got was a battle-hungry angel who dominated the battlefield like a Valkyrie.