Chapter 57: Favor Work 2
TL/Editor: Raei
Schedule: 5/Week Wed-Sun
Illustrations: Here
Discord: Here
This storyline is insane.
I initially thought I was tasked with hunting Orcs, but then the plot twisted to include finding a lost girl.
On finding the girl, Grace's parents made a sudden appearance, tearfully begging her to return to the village.
Of course, Grace, who has never been shy about her affection for me, wouldn't leave now.
Han Se-ah only relaxed after we successfully convinced Grace's parents.
If a gacha character vanished as a quest reward, players would set the game company's headquarters aflame.
"Be careful in the city. I'm glad that you'll be with a nun."
"Seriously, when are you going to stop treating me like a child?"
"To their parents, children are forever children. Nun, please look after our daughter. I'll pray for the blessings of the goddess to be with you."
Grace blushes at being treated like a child in front of her companions, but regardless, she responds with a broad smile.
In the end, everything went well.
The Orcs lurking around the village were starving and posed no actual threat.
The mischievous child who was hiding in the village while playing hide and seek in the mountains was yanked away by their parents and scolded until their cheeks turned red.
With Grace's village now safe and her parents appeased
[Help 'Han Se-ah', the streamer, clear the character quest 1/1 CLEAR]
[Reward: Internet Entry Ticket & VPN SYSTEM]
I received a rather sweet reward.
With this reward, the carriage ride back won't be boring.
But since the drone is currently filming my face directly, I can't just ignore it and surf the internet.
I can't have my eyes randomly moving back and forth while pointing at thin air.
I have no desire to look like a crazy lunatic.
Having killed the Orcs, the coachman, eager to leave while safe it was safe, starts the carriage.
Grace's parents continue to wave their goodbyes, as the carriage takes off.
"The quest reward is great! As everyone predicted, it's an Awakening Stone. Looks like the quest tests how close you are with your party and you obtain an additional star as a reward."
-Still, the sudden event at the end was damn hilarious
-Today's stream was worthwhile
-Damn, I gotta show people this.
Inside the confined carriage, I feign interest in the scenery while checking the chat.
It was chaos.
Naturally, it wasn't confined to just the chat.
Those posting in real time wouldn't miss spreading the probability of a companion disappearing during a character quest.
Shutting off the chat and looking through the forum, I saw that posts with attached screenshots of the quest had already begun to populate the platform.
The pictures stirred up a commotion, even in the typically more composed forum.
???: So, should we start seducing our party members? Even the guys???
-Lots of things to do before going to the 15th floor
-A good time to be gay
While browsing the forum, I saw Han Se-ah quietly nestling into Irene's arms within the small carriage.
Looks like Grace's possible departure scared her a little.
Oblivious to Han Se-ah's motives, Irene merely held her close with a radiant smile.
"Sister Irene, are you going to continue climbing the tower?"
"Absolutely, it's my duty to spread the will of the Goddess... Hehe, were you concerned?"
Han Se-ah was such a terrible liar that even Irene, who had only recently gotten close to her, could easily read her thoughts.
The chat blew up as Irene tried to console her, gently running her fingers through Han Se-ah's hair.
Rainbow flags were spammed everywhere.
Both the chat and forum were in turmoil, and while it was funny to watch, I had to shut them both down.
What I need to check out the most right now was the Internet.
I made sure that the camera drone was honed in on Irene and Han Se-ah across from me, then redirected my gaze outside.
What manifested before me was an Internet window, a sight that felt both familiar and foreign simultaneously.
A stark white screen, an elongated search box in the center, and a recognizable logo glaring above it.
'I never thought I'd be so thrilled to see that logo.'
It was the logo of the global search engine G, which I used often in my past life.
Apart from the virtual reality game itself, it seemed that nearly everything else was strikingly similar to my former world.
On a whim, I tried to log in using an account from my past life, but my ID did not exist.
Indeed this is a different world.
Heart pounding, I crossed my arms and played with my fingers beneath my armpit.
It felt weird to be able to use my fingers like a mouse, rather than directly touching the hologram.
Regardless of how focused Han Se-ah was on Irene, if I kept swishing my fingers right in front of her, she would take notice.
So, discreetly, I searched up the Heroes Chronicle Wiki.
Although it was an anonymous forum infested with trolls, it also hosted a variety of genuine viewpoints, surprisingly skilled individuals, and a wealth of informative posts.
[Heroes Chronicle Wiki]
'Real Deal' Heroes [78] +102
Cute Newbies [34] +84
Damn, you were supposed to block with a steel plate [109] +332
Essential Red-Light District rules for Newbies [521] + 739
Are you guys increasing favorability as you go along? [482] + 598
As proof, the moment you enter the top posts, the titles alone are spicy.
If this were Han Se-ah's channel, there would have been enough posts to warrant deletion and potential suspensions.
There are plenty of eye-catching posts.
While fumbling beneath my armpit, I almost clicked on the post about the red-light district, but ultimately, I opted for the story concerning favorability below it.
I clicked on it, suspecting it might be about Han Se-ah's stream.
Are you guys increasing favorability as you go along?
[Grace's parents.JPG]
[Grace on the carriage.GIF]
They're not really your party member until you clear the character quest
Stop talking nonsense.
No one's forcing you to climb the tower. You wouldn't have to worry about this if you went to be a mercenary.
Don't you have party members even as a mercenary?
Damn, I never thought I'd be licking an NPC's foot in my life.
If it's an NPC from Han Se-ah's stream, I'd even pay to lick it
We only got on a carriage less than an hour ago yet hundreds of likes and comments had already been posted.
The news of a party member potentially disappearing is shocking.
If a 5 party member vanishes, wouldn't the user end up like me, running a macro until they somehow die and get transferred to another world?
Given the site guarantees anonymity, the discussions were incredibly graphic.
Most posts regarding Han Se-ah featured images of Grace and Irene.
Despite being encased in leather armor, there were posts like the one about Grace's side breast jiggling slightly, or the GIF of Irene's figure visible through her nun's dress when the wind blew.
As the subject was not Han Se-ah but her NPCs, all sorts of overtly sexual comments were published.
'It's really nasty.'
These posts were of no value to me.
I scrolled through the posts with a twitching finger, then clicked on another post.
Upon entering a post about newbies, I saw the loot of the Full Moon Wolf.
There were all kinds of stories: like someone's rise from newbie to veteran status, a person tumbled and failed trying Kim Seok-hyun's trick of blocking a horned wolf with a steel plate.
A variety of individuals were sharing their stories.
***
Raei Translations
***
As I lost track of time reading the posts, the carriage we were in stopped.
"We've reached our destination, adventurers."
"Ah, thank you, sir."
After closing the window and getting off the carriage, Grace said goodbye to the coachman and then quietly approached me.
The other two women look over at us with interest.
I wonder if they had planned something while I was browsing the internet.
As I silently watched Grace, she gulped before finally opening her mouth.
"We're returning to the city via carriage tomorrow, correct?"
"Yes, it's a bit late to go back now."
"Want to go around together? I've wanted to visit since I was a kid, but I never had an opportunity to visit. I moved to the adventurers' city right away."
I glanced at Han Se-ah.
She was energetically nodding, while Irene, by her side, rolled her eyes.
Han Se-ah's thoughts were pretty clear, but I couldn't fully read Irene.
As I quietly looked at her, Irene, who appeared to have finally decided on something with her hands tightly clasped, added to her suggestion.
"We... we're planning to visit the temple. We can split up from you two! That's... that's okay, right Kaiden?"
"...Ah, yes. I can accompany these two."
With Irene's face flushing and her words stuttering, others would have thought she was making a once-in-a-lifetime confession.
Kaiden, however, easily and readily accepted Irene's suggestion.
I had no reason to reject their plan, so I nodded.
Grace, radiating joy, clung to my side.
"Is there a particular place you'd like to visit?"
"Let's begin with the marketplace. I've always been interested in the large markets."
As she naturally linked her arm with mine, I allowed my body to relax, and the camera drone discreetly trailed behind us.
It seems the viewers' responses aren't too bad.
***
I'm not really sure about the VPN... The author writes 'VPN' directly but the way it's used so far is purely as an 'anonymous mode' in the next few chaps so think of it like that for now until the novel goes into more detail.
Also the website has been updated! There is now the 'Trials' section in the nav bar. We'll be 'trialing' novels to see if we enjoy them/are popular before picking them up. I'm thinking we trial a bunch and pick up the ones we like most... something along those lines. We have one at the moment but we haven't posted it yet so the page will be empty. Discord is also done, has a novel pickup request channel if you guys have any novel recommendations we can trial but I'll post the invite tomorrow, going to give it a little test run first.
1/5 Enjoy the chappy!
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