My Streaming Life With SSS-Rank Girls With Want My Kids

Chapter 129: The Eastern Sector

The eastern sector smelled different from the north.

Denser. Wet wood and earth that had been churned for centuries. The trees were shorter but wider, their roots visible on the path’s surface.

The settlements were larger. Every village had at least one rank system post with on-duty hunters. The main streets had A_D_M marks on the walls — signs of active supervision.

Mara walked ahead.

The path she took on the second day wasn’t the most direct to the point where A_D_M’s report placed [VOID]. Kai saw it on the system map. He didn’t say it.

---

[DraconicLegacy]: Mara leading through routes that avoid something. Kai noticed and stayed quiet. that’s respect.

[Stephen_Summers]: A_D_M posts in every village. the eastern sector is more heavily watched.

[Warwolf]: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ Mara ahead. the group following. this is how it should be. ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ

[Martijn_Wiersma]: the path wasn’t the most direct. everyone in the group knows it. no one says it yet.

[Bangsund]: what exactly is Mara avoiding with that path?

[Drakeking]: @Bangsund the main Orc territory. where she was declared a traitor. where she hasn’t returned in two years.

[Zerox]: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ Kai noticed the detour and stayed quiet. that silence is worth more than any question. ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ

---

The hunters found them on the third day.

Six. All A-rank. Moving fast in the opposite direction the group was headed, with their gear intact but with the posture of people who made a decision and don’t plan to reconsider.

The first one saw them and stopped.

The other five stopped behind him.

"You’re coming from the east," the first one said.

"Yes," Kai said.

"Don’t go."

---

[DraconicLegacy]: six A-rank hunters fleeing. with intact gear. that says everything.

[Stephen_Summers]: "don’t go." no explanation yet. just that.

[Warwolf]: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ A-rank fleeing. whatever is to the east made six A-rank hunters say no thanks. ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ

[Martijn_Wiersma]: the first one stopped them and said "don’t go" before explaining anything. the urgency is real.

[Bangsund]: intact gear but fleeing. they didn’t fight. they decided it wasn’t worth trying.

[Drakeking]: A-rank hunters who saw something and decided not to continue. that doesn’t happen often.

[Zerox]: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ Mara looking at the hunters. assessing. ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ

---

Kai looked at them.

"What’s to the east."

The hunter took his time.

"A Streamer. They’ve been in the area for weeks." He breathed. "The creatures in the zone stopped behaving like creatures. We saw them devour an entire tree. A tree. In thirty seconds."

"Devour how."

"With their mouths. With parts that shouldn’t be mouths." The hunter looked east. "They changed. The shape, the behavior, everything. A B-rank creature we knew from previous missions in that zone threw itself at us without provocation. Normally it flees when it detects A-rank. This one didn’t flee."

Lira looked east.

Mara looked at the hunter.

"The ground?" Mara said.

"Different. In some points it sank more than normal. In others it was hard as stone for no reason." Pause. "And the air. Three of the six of us had nausea within a kilometer radius of the Streamer. The rank system stopped responding correctly."

---

[DraconicLegacy]: creatures devouring trees in thirty seconds. with parts that shouldn’t be mouths.

[Stephen_Summers]: the rank system stopping responding. that’s different from anything we’ve seen before.

[Warwolf]: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ mutated creatures, corrupt ground, air causing nausea, systems failing. [VOID] is serious. ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ

[Martijn_Wiersma]: "parts that shouldn’t be mouths." that phrase is going to stay with me.

[Bangsund]: a B-rank creature that normally flees from A-rank throwing itself without provocation. the corruption changed the survival instinct.

[Drakeking]: the rank system failing in [VOID]’s radius. that explains why A_D_M isn’t intervening directly.

[Zerox]: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ Lira looking east. Mara assessing. both processing the same thing differently. ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ

---

"Does the Streamer have an active system?" Kai said.

"Yes. Active stream too. It had viewers when we saw it." The hunter looked at him. "Forty million. Or that’s what we understood since he bragged about it too much at every opportunity."

No one answered that.

"Was he hostile toward you directly?"

"No. He didn’t even look at us." The hunter looked at the group — at Kai, at Serah, at Lira, at Mara. "He was just there. And the area around him was rotting."

Kai nodded.

"Thanks."

The hunter looked at them a moment longer.

"You’re going anyway."

"Yes."

The hunter said nothing more. The group of six continued west.

---

[DraconicLegacy]: forty million viewers and the Streamer didn’t even look at them. didn’t even see them as a threat.

[Stephen_Summers]: "the area around him was rotting." no combat. no intention of attacking them. just existing and rotting everything.

[Warwolf]: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ the hunter asked if they’re going anyway. Kai said yes. the hunter didn’t insist. correct. ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ

[Martijn_Wiersma]: forty million. more than the borderland Streamer. A_D_M fills its streams with more notorious criminals.

[Bangsund]: [VOID] rotting the area with no apparent intention of doing so. or with every intention?

[Drakeking]: @Bangsund the report said "active corruption." active implies intention.

[Zerox]: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ the group continuing east. Mara ahead. into [VOID]’s territory. ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ

---

That night the improvised camp was on a hill with a view to the east and north.

To the east, in the direction of [VOID], the sky had a color that the sky shouldn’t have at that hour. Not firelight. Something more diffuse, lower, as if the horizon were mistaken.

To the north, the lights of the main Orc territory.

Mara was standing outside the camp looking north.

Kai was sitting nearby.

He didn’t speak.

Neither did Mara.

The lights of the Orc territory were visible from there — scattered points on the horizon, the kind produced by the fires of a large camp or several camps close together.

Serah was by the campfire.

Her wolf senses processed the air from the north. A specific frequency — not danger, something that had been unresolved for a long time and that Serah’s body recognized even though Serah hadn’t been in that territory in two thousand three hundred years.

She didn’t say anything.

---

[DraconicLegacy]: Mara looking north. Kai sitting nearby without speaking. that specific silence.

[Stephen_Summers]: the horizon to the east with a color it shouldn’t have. [VOID] visible from a day’s journey away.

[Warwolf]: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ Serah detecting the frequency of wolf territory and staying silent. all three processing something different in the same camp. ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ

[Martijn_Wiersma]: Kai sitting near Mara without speaking. didn’t ask. didn’t offer words. just was.

[Bangsund]: Serah recognizing wolf territory with her senses. without having been there in millennia.

[Drakeking]: three different silences in the same camp. Mara with the north. Serah with her sense of smell. Kai with the silence of someone who chose not to ask.

[Zerox]: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ Lira sleeping or pretending to sleep. with Lira you never know. ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ

---

Kai saw it first.

The lights of the Orc territory had moved.

An hour ago they were on the horizon. Now they were closer — not on the horizon, at the tree line about two kilometers away.

Mara saw it at the same time.

She stood up.

"How many?" Kai said.

Mara read the terrain.

"Twelve. Maybe fifteen." A pause. "Scouts. Not a combat patrol — the number and formation are reconnaissance."

"Did they see you?"

"Not yet." Mara stared at the lights. "But they’re going to see the campfire in ten minutes."

Kai looked at the fire.

Looked at Mara.

"What do you want to do."

---

[DraconicLegacy]: the lights moved. they weren’t there an hour ago.

[Stephen_Summers]: scouts from the Orc territory. reconnaissance, not combat. someone sent them to look for something specific.

[Warwolf]: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ Mara reading the lights’ formation in two seconds. three hundred forty years of tactics. ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ

[Martijn_Wiersma]: "what do you want to do?" — Kai asking Mara. her territory, her decision.

[Bangsund]: are the scouts looking for Mara specifically? or did the Council track Mara’s energy signature in the eastern sector?

[Drakeking]: @Bangsund if the Council declared her a traitor two years ago and has scouts in the eastern sector, they probably tracked her.

[Zerox]: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ Mara has ten minutes to decide whether the Orc territory sees her or not. ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ

---

Serah stood up from the fire without anyone saying anything.

Lira opened her eyes from where she was.

All four stared at the lights in the trees.

Mara looked at all of them.

She went back to the lights.

"Let them see us."

---

[DraconicLegacy]: "let them see us." — two words. Mara decided.

[Stephen_Summers]: not hiding. not fleeing. let the scouts report what they found.

[Warwolf]: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ Mara decided to face the Orc territory from the first contact. ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ

[Martijn_Wiersma]: Lira opened her eyes. she wasn’t sleeping. I knew it.

[Bangsund]: Mara chose visibility. that’s a declaration toward the Council.

[Drakeking]: "let them see us." with the full group behind. with Kai. with Serah. with Lira. the Council is going to receive that report.

[Zerox]: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ the Orc territory is going to know Mara came back. with company. the next Chapter already started. ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ

---

[System — notification]

[Current viewers: 8,400,000]

[The system notes that scouts from the Orc territory are 2 kilometers away]

[The system notes that Mara said "let them see us"]

[The system notes the incorrect color on the eastern horizon]

[The system notes that Serah detected the frequency of wolf territory]

[The system notes that none of the three spoke about what they detected]

[The system considers that shared silence significant]