Chapter 97: Maria's Cruelty 2
Maria's epic duel against the twin-headed ogre chieftain amazed all of her viewers. There were already people waiting to see if they could clip the entire duel or if Maria was going to release an exclusive video of just the duel.
Gabriel saw this and immediately began working. He already made the timestamp, gave the raw cut out the raw footage, and sent the data over to the butler who then contacted one of the video editors of the Heltania family's company to hand them the job of making an enjoyable and cinematic video of their young lady's duel.
Maria was more ecstatic about the fact that she had one over a faction and the rewards she got. She pulled up her stream's chat and saw the long row of messages congratulating her and telling her to open the reward box that she just received.
The viewers saw the message box she received right after the duel ended and although they couldn't read what was on it, they anticipated that she had received some kind of reward.
Maria pulled out the box from her inventory and teased her audience, "You want me to open this?"
[Yes!]
[Yes, please!]
[Yes yes yes yes yes!]
[Yes +1]
[Yes +2]
[+3]
[+4]
...
...
Maria giggled and said, "Okay~ but first—"
She turned to look at the now armless ogre chieftain who was still prostrating himself to her. Maria looked around before asking, "Who's willing to sacrifice their life for the chieftain?!"
The ogres in the surroundings all looked up at her. Even Orh'bankhur did as well. He couldn't understand what Maria was implying with her words.
"Quickly, step up those who are willing!" Maria yelled.
The ogres didn't understand what Maria was getting at, but since the command was so simple, a few of them stepped forward and said, "Me, wiling!"
"Me too!"
"Me!"
The other ogres lagged but they did step forward and say the same thing. All of them indicated that they were willing to sacrifice their lives for Ogre Chieftain Orh'bankhur. Maria selected the 3 ogres who had stepped forward first.
"Since you three were so eager, then I'll use you."
Maria stretched out her hand and activated [Angel's Cruelty].
Three streams of light flowed out from the 3 ogres, entering her palm. The ogres she had cast [Angel's Cruelty] on and stole their life force immediately began withering before they fell over and died after their HP was immediately depleted.
Maria then sent the life force she took over to Orh'bankhur and the chieftain's wound began healing. First, the lopped-off arms which had fallen on the ground beside him rose and reconnected themselves onto his body.
Then, the wounds from the battle against Maria began healing. Once the ogre's HP was full, Maria stopped the transfer and used the remaining life force to augment her HP.
"Hmm~ what a convenient skill," Maria said aloud.
Her audience heard every last one of her words and they thought that it was scary. She just used the lives of 3 NPCs to heal herself and the ogre chieftain whose life she had been toying with just a few moments ago.
Everyone knew how realistic the game was and the fact that Maria did all this without any hint of remorse on her face or voice was astounding.
[Uwa, my Queen, please step on me!]
[So cruel...I like it!]
[Psychopath Queen!]
Everyone justified that it was just a game so they didn't need to read into it too much. This was the case indeed, Maria only saw this as it was, a game. It looked a bit cruel to a few people watching, but they could just leave if they didn't like her.
Maria also wasn't concerned about how people judged her. After she healed Orh'bankhur, she then turned her attention back onto the reward box which she had promised to open.
"Okay, let's open this up~"
*DING*
The box opened without much fanfare and an item popped out. It was a necklace with an elegant design that had a few rubies and obsidians embedded on it.
Maria opened up the description and saw that it was actually an item from the faction store that she had been eyeing.
[Maria's Cruelty
Lv. 60 [Upgradeable]
Rank: Unique
Effect 1: +10% to all Stats
Effect 2: +100 Charm
Effect 3: Skill Slot (1)
Requirements: Queen of the Dire, 100 STR, 100 AGI, 100 VIT, 100 INT, LCK 10
Majesty of the Dire's necklace, the Dire Queen's Cruelty. One part of the jewel set for the faction leader of the Dire
Set Bonus 1: Locked
Set Bonus 2: Locked]
The equipment bought at the faction store would be made available for every faction leader. Since the faction leaders would have similar equipment, later on, the developers decided to put a little spice and luck in it.
The developers didn't want to make things so monotonous with the unique faction shop so they decided to randomize the effects of all faction equipment. What anyone would get, whether it was bad or good, would all depend on luck, and the LCK stat played a big part in this randomization.
The stats on Maria's Cruelty were actually really good because her LCK stat was pretty high. The randomized stats and effects had a good outcome.
Since it was upgradeable equipment, the effects of the equipment could be randomized once again at the cost of a substantial amount of faction currency and the deletion of the equipment's previous effects.
Maria didn't know about this randomization so even if the equipment's stats were bad, she probably wouldn't have cared and just equipped it regardless since it was such a beautiful and elegant necklace.
The randomization was either going to be a plus or a minus for the equipment despite it being upgradeable. Having upgradeable equipment with very sketchy effects wasn't great after all.
It was better to just get equipment through forging and quests, but the faction equipment was easily accessible for all faction members and could be bought with faction currency.
There was also another thing. Maria's new item was named after her because she was the faction's leader. The Dire Queen in Dire Queen's Cruelty was replaced with her name thus it became Maria's Cruelty.
This also meant that the 2 other accessories part of the set would also have their names changed to match hers. The ring was called Dire Queen's Benevolence so it would become Maria's Benevolence while the earrings, the Dire Queen's Wisdom, would become Maria's Wisdom.
They needed a substantial amount of points to purchase so it was a godsend that Maria was lucky enough to get the Dire Queen's Cruelty, from here on out Maria's Cruelty, just from the random faction reward box.
The coincidental outcome of her necklace's new name was quite fitting and ironic because her actions just before she opened the box were a bit cruel from one perspective. The viewers who were watching all laughed when they saw the item's name but they were more intrigued by the stats that weren't being displayed because it was all blocked by a censor.
[Show stats please]
[Reveal what is underneath that censor!]
[Godly stats, that's why it's being censored]
Maria equipped the item and said to the chat, "No, I won't be showing the stats. That's a secret meant only for me~"
The chat wanted her to display the necklace's effects and stats but Maria was against it. They could only spam their discontent in the chat to which Maria paid no heed.
Maria soon got a message from her brother telling her to end the stream. After it, was a long text of what to say when ending the stream and the announcement of her social media account that people could follow to get updates of her streaming schedule and whatnot.
"Alright, I'll be ending the stream here. Please subscribe to receive notification for when I stream next or follow me here and check out the weekly schedules that I'll be posting~"
Maria nodded to herself after saying that.
"Okay, bye-bye everyone~"
Gerald ended the stream and told her to return to her base or get to a safe place and logout. The ogre village was now part of her faction so it was a safe area for her to logout from. She called over Alexa, Ash, and Little Red before walking into the village along with the fully healed ogre chieftain, Orh'bankhur, and the rest of her new ogre minions.
She didn't say much and after telling Ash to coordinate with Orh'bankhur to help the ogre clan's integration with her faction. Maria didn't forget to tell Alexa, Lilah, and Little Red to go around hunting in the mountain range before logging out.
*****
"So, how was it?" Gerald asked after meeting up with Maria in his room.
"Well, it was fun~ but it wasn't like anything became different from how I normally play!" Maria answered.
"Oh, that's good. You should play as you want without minding too much about the people watching you. Since we're making a schedule, map out the geography of the area around you and send me the data. If there are any dungeons you can do or anything you want to do, I'll put it in the schedule."
"Okay~"
"Other than that, you're free to do whatever you want."
"Thank, Gerry~"
"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, are you sure it's fine for you to stream? You are in a new world after all..."
"Didn't I tell you before? I find it interesting so I wanna do it. I don't care if people find out if I'm in a different world," Maria replied.
She did everything on a whim because she could do so. Nothing like logic or consideration could change the decision of her whims. She was raised spoilt like this so Gerald couldn't talk his sister out of it.
He wanted Maria to fully develop her faction first before revealing anything on the internet about where she was. It was only going to be a matter of time before people catch on that she's not on planet Eur anymore.
"Anyway, I'll send you the data later. Once you compile the schedule remember to tell me. I'll treat it as a breather from all the serious stuff that I have to do for my faction and quest~"
Gerald nodded before asking, "Once people find out you're on a different planet, I think it's safe that we stream some content about your faction and your quest, especially that war. I'm sure people would be extremely interested in seeing you wage war against that vampire faction you were talking about."
"Sure, I don't mind. Actually, we're planning on raiding a nearby vampire noble's town. Maybe we can stream that?"
"Oh, that'd be great but if you can put it on hold until people catch on about your actual situation—is that alright?"
"Whatever you say, big brother~ I'll be returning to the game again. I got a tribe to integrate into my faction. I'm sure those ogres will be a large asset to my faction's military force!"
"You get to it then. I'll be going back in-game too after butler David and I get the edited footage of your duel with that ogre and post it onto your SNS account. Oh yeah, about that, make sure to post something from time to time if you can!"
Maria was already out of the room so she replied with a yell, "Sure, if I have time!"