157: Once Again, Asking For Donations

Once Again, Asking For Donations

{Neve}

"Are you sure you can afford to waste time like this?" Tamira asked. "You spent soooo much time telling Ahlakan you needed to keep going and keep going... I half expected you to shrug her death off and keep going." 

Neve did not say anything. The only indication she gave that she'd even heard Tamira was the subtle clench of her jaw and the purse of her lips. 

"... Alright, that was a little low on my part. I apologize!" Tamira said. "But, really, what if Thomas gets away? You might be missing your chance if you go through with this." 

Again, Neve did not respond to her. Instead, she continued scrolling through the World Shop until she found the overpriced internet service she'd received all these donations for. 

Once she found it, she hit {Purchase}

Instantly, her HUD had an internet connection once more. 

And Neve's notifications doubled. 

[Hm... Well, it has been a while since I've been online. I'm sure I've missed a lot.] 

"Indeed," Tamira said, reading Neve's thoughts. "If you manage to beat the Final Challenge, Starlight City might just end up being completely unrecognizable!" 

Neve ignored her. 

She went straight to Witch, a popular streaming site. 

[Fuck, what was my password again?] She asked herself as she tried to log in. [Oh, right. Huh? Two-factor authorization? When the fuck did I set this up? What was my phone number again? Ugh, annoying.] 

"... Silent treatment it is, huh?" Tamira asked. "Well, I'll leave you alone. But, I think it is rather confusing for you to be so mad at me. After all... If you cared about Ahlakan at all, your behavior certainly didn't show it~" 

Neve couldn't keep quiet after that one. 

"Fuck you..." 

A mischievous giggle bounced off the walls of Neve's mind and, thankfully, she was left alone. 

Neve finished logging in. 

{xXhealforelo: online} 

"Are you sure they're going to believe you?" Another voice asked, though Neve actually replied to this one. 

"I think so," Neve told Erin, who stood by with her arms crossed. "You see that thing up there?" She pointed at the cameras. "It records images. It's how the movies I gave to Ahlakan were made. And... it caught everything." 

[The bastard was so dumb he forgot to delete the footage. Or, maybe he just didn't expect me to have enough tokens to ask for internet service, though if Tamira told him that I was coming to kill him, why wouldn't she also tell him about how many tokens I had?] 

"I see..." Erin nodded. "Well... I did as you asked. Her body's ready." 

"Thank you," Neve replied with sincerity. "We'll go ahead and do it once I'm done here. Can you give me a moment?" 

"..." Erin just stared at Neve for a second. Even Neve wasn't dense enough to miss how concerned she looked. 

Eventually, however, the lamia gave Neve the space she asked for and Neve quickly went to the World Shop to spend some of her remaining tokens on the items she'd need to make this work.

She bought a camera and a microphone, two of the most expensive she could find since she wanted her voice and image to come across perfectly, bringing her down to 8120 WST. Finally, once all the pieces were in place, tapped the {Go Live} option on the site. 

[Here goes nothing,] she thought, taking a deep breath. [I hope I set this up well.] 

She titled her stream "Neve Stephens, live from the Final Challenge". 

It took a moment, but, soon, Neve was looking at herself on the screen, next to a big red dot with the word "Live" beside it. 

[... I should probably wait for a few people to show up, huh?] 

So, as neon lights flickered behind her, Neve just stared at herself on the screen for a bit. 

[I'm a mess, aren't I? Eh, whatever.] 

Eventually, she saw that the viewer count had gone from "0" to "1". 

Seeing this, Neve cleared her throat. 

"Uh, hey, whoever's watching..." She opened. "Can you get people in here?" 

---

{Charlotte}

[Crap, crap, crap, crap, merde, fuck!] 

The word had spread like wildfire. 

And Charlotte had been out getting herself a sandwich when she heard. 

Now, she was running as far from the shop she was at as she could, trying to find the most silent space available so she could actually listen to this stream. 

Eventually, she found an old, empty pharmacy and went inside, crouching quickly beside the counter. Dried blood and old corpses shared the space with her, but she couldn't care less about the rancid smell that invaded her nostrils. All that mattered was the fact that Neve Stephens was, apparently, streaming right now. 

Her fingers tapped wildly against her phone's screen. As she navigated Witch, she misclicked several times before she finally landed on the correct account. 

And, there she was. 

Neve Stephens. The sapphire-haired beauty Charlotte had been so fixated on for months now, was sitting in front of a camera in an alley that looked just as rundown as the one beside this pharmacy. 

Though, Charlotte had been all over Starlight City, and yet she couldn't remember ever seeing signs and buildings like those in the background. 

[Ahhh~ Good God, she's beautiful.] 

The object of Charlotte's long-distance affections was currently standing in front of the camera, with what the journalist could only describe as a slightly bored expression. 

Charlotte's brows narrowed, though. She quickly pulled up the image she'd seen of Neve before, from her player ID, which had kicked off her interest in her.

Looking at that and comparing the photo to the image of the woman in front of her now confirmed it. 

The girl had changed. 

As far as Charlotte understood, the size of one's muscles in the new world was decided by their Strength while their body fat percentage was decided by their Endurance. 

Knowing this, she guessed that, although she was a mage, Neve must have been training every day for the past couple of months, as her shoulders and biceps were slightly bulkier and her body was so toned she looked like she'd been sculpted out of stone. 

Neve took a deep breath and her abs pushed against her angelic outfit like they were threatening to break out. 

At the same time, there was an odd aura radiating off her. Charlotte felt like if she squinted she could see mana surrounding Neve. 

It had been speculated by many that the other attributes could affect one's appearance as well, only in more subtle ways. Charlotte wondered if perhaps she had this aura because her Arcane was high. 

Neve hadn't said a word just yet. Instead, it appeared like she was waiting for something. 

Charlotte checked the viewer count. 

11890, and rising with every second that passed. 

"Fuck it," the healer suddenly whispered. Charlotte shifted, crossing her legs. "I guess I should start."  0

Neve inhaled slowly and then declared: 

"So, uh... In a little bit, I'm going to go over the specifics of everything that happened here. At least, everything that I witnessed. For now, though, it's probably better to get the general stuff out of the way. First things first, the Final Challenge is basically a collection of different dungeons all packed within one massive, ehm... pocket dimension. And in this pocket dimension, there's one specific 'tower' that needs to be completed. This tower holds 10 dungeons. I'm currently on the 8th. Once you clear all 10, the Final Challenge is completed and you win. That's how this stuff works." 

Charlotte's pen scribbled over her notepad so intensely that she feared she'd break the paper. 

"Each dungeon is... different. I wrote about them all and, in a bit, I'm going to upload what I've written so far to my Tweeter. Same username as this one. Anyway... I'm sorry to say that out of the 100 players who were sent here, there are only 2 left. And, uh, clearly, I'm one of them." 

It wasn't hard to see how that specific bit of news was going to set the internet on fire. So many different, important people had been sent in here. 

And, apparently, most of them were just dead. 

What Neve said made matters worse, though. 

"And... the only other person remaining is a guy called Thomas. A murderer." 

Charlotte's pen froze. 

[What?] 

"This is why I'm streaming right now, actually... I wanted to get this message out there just in case anything happens to me since I'll be fighting this motherfucker pretty soon. In short, Thomas led a group of players to fight other players, and... Most of the group massacred itself." 

Neve inhaled sharply. 

"I know a lot of you aren't going to just take my word for it, but, here. I managed to record this a few hours ago. Uh, if there are kids watching you should probably look away or something. My account's probably gonna get banned but, whatever. Watch." 

Neve clicked on a few things and the screen suddenly changed. 

They were now looking from the point of view of a camera overlooking a makeshift camp, with tents, benches, and an alchemy station. 

There was a woman with grey skin and silver hair standing there, at the station, when, suddenly, this "Thomas" showed up. 

An assassin-class player, as evidenced by the black leather he wore, who walked up and...

Charlotte's eyes widened. 

She hadn't expected to witness a murder while watching this stream. The others watching clearly hadn't as well, as the chat went crazy. 

The video stopped and Neve was back on the screen. 

"So, yeah," she said. Again, she didn't even look that sad about it. Mostly, she just looked like she was barely containing her anger. "That guy is a murderer. And, I'm going to try to k... fight him." 

Neve swallowed. 

"Before that, though, I need your help. He's an assassin, and I'm a healer. Class-wise, I'm at a disadvantage here. So," she looked into the camera, "if you can, I would appreciate it if you could send me some gifts. Weapons, armor, potions, elixirs, accessories. Anything I could use to take this fucker down. Please." 

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