Of course, I couldn't just go up to Han Se-ah and say, "I believe you, you're definitely the player," and start talking about quests.
Nor could I go to Katie and tell her, "Actually, what Olek said was about your ancestors."
Since it was impossible to speak directly, I had to drop hints subtly.
So I started with Irene, who was offering her lap as a pillow. With my sleeping bag spread beneath and my head resting on her thigh, I couldn't ask for anything more. The sun was warm, but Irene's substantial pouch of divine energy cast a shadow over my eyes, making it the perfect position for a nap.
"You say it doesn't seem far-fetched. Why's that?"
"Back in the day, I traveled all over the kingdom trying to make money as an adventurer."
"Yes, I heard about that from the guild folks. They said you were a great help, only traveling through the kingdom's remote areas without crossing into the empire..."
Did she think I didn't go to the empire because of past wounds? The hand gently stroking my forehead hesitated for a mont, then, as if apologetic, moved down to softly massage my closed eyelids.
Even as I kept my eyes shut and observed Han Se-ah's reaction through the hologram window, I could clearly feel the affectionate touch. I hadn't expected Irene, of all people, to be so clingy like this, not Grace or Katie.
It was a drowsy situation where I could easily fall asleep, but the cara was focused on Irene and , so I had to keep talking. Of course, we couldn't rush off to the northern empire right away, so I just needed to drop enough hints for Han Se-ah and the viewers to let their imaginations run wild and co up with a solution.
"So when I went north, I heard an interesting story."
"Oh, what kind of story? It sounds like sothing good to tell the children, but it's not scary, is it?"
"Of course not."
Irene's fingers gently caressed my eyelids, then pressed on my eyebrows and forehead as if giving a real massage. She seed to be using all her strength, but it was far too weak to penetrate the skin of a 6★ tank.
Still, it felt nice, and I needed ti to think.
I stretched my arms up, wrapped them around Irene's waist, and turned to bury my face in her soft belly. I wondered how a body without an ounce of fat could be so soft and smooth.
This wasn't exactly a private mont, happening in the middle of a sun-drenched prairie where everyone else was busy setting up tents and working. Surprised by this sudden display of affection, Irene quickly grabbed my head.
Co to think of it, on the night of our first ti together, I had buried my nose in her cleavage like this, and she had loved how her stomach quivered each ti I―
"Ahem. It's nothing special, just a story I heard in a small hunters' village settled in the harsh northern mountains."
"Oh, a hunters' village?"
"Living in the northern mountains, their numbers didn't grow much, and since they couldn't farm, it was a small village where everyone road the mountains."
This wasn't the ti for that.
I wanted nothing more than to bury my nose higher up and fall asleep right there, but that wasn't possible. So I racked my brain to co up with a story.
It was like creating a story from the wild speculations of the viewers, similar to the twist in a movie where the limping character turns out to be the culprit. Fortunately, I didn't need to create a perfect story with a beginning, middle, and end, since I could claim it was just nonsense from country bumpkins.
To buy ti to think, I exhaled slowly and clung to Irene's waist like a spoiled child. She smiled softly and patted my head gently, as if putting a child to sleep.
"The north? Co to think of it, Roland, you said you traveled all over the kingdom."
"Oh, did you hear an interesting story?"
Thanks to this blatant display of affection and their loud voices without any attempt to lower them, Katie and Olek joined in, each throwing in a word and giving more ti.
Now I could drop so real bait.
I couldn't keep my eyes closed like this with people gathering around. As I raised my upper body using my core strength, Irene, seemingly a bit disappointed, fiddled with the hair on the nape of my neck. I scooted over to sit beside her, who had been sitting down to offer her lap as a pillow. After organizing my thoughts, I slowly began to speak.
"Since it was a small village ford by hunters, I was curious and asked them a few questions. Like why they built a village and lived on land where they couldn't even farm."
"That makes sense. Northern people build up their villages and trade to stockpile supplies for the winter, even if it's just for firewood. If their numbers are too small, an accident in winter could wipe out the entire village."
"And those folks told this. The village chief isn't a hunter, but a wandering knight who claims to be a branch family mber of the Wesley family."
"...The Wesley family?"
"You an our family?"
The story I ca up with was, of course, about a branch family. No matter how normally the Wesley family had passed down their legacy and lived soundly, they couldn't have lived for hundreds of years having only one child per generation. This seed like the best approach.
So the story I was going to leak was about an ancestor of the Wesley family who couldn't beco the heir and, as an adventurer challenging the unknown, eventually crossed the mountains to head towards the empire.
Thinking about it, it might sound ridiculous, but it wasn't really that far-fetched. Sure, the mountains were high and treacherous, but while it might be difficult for cargo carriages to pass, it wasn't impossible for a high-ranking superhuman to claim they crossed alone.
Especially since the northerners were macho n reeking of vodka. If they heard a story about soone giving up their family position to their older brother and heading alone into the high snowy mountains to search for hidden treasure, they'd respond with "How cool!" instead of "Are they crazy?"
"A branch of the family..."
"Is it too far-fetched?"
"No, it's just that it reminds of too many people. Most of our family's ancestors headed to the snowy mountains, saying it was too hot to go south."
See, all of Sergei's friends were like that.
------
As expected, Han Se-ah and the viewers reacted very sensitively to the story I leaked.
Of course, they believed my story was true because of the quest window. The story about the wandering knight village chief of the hunters' village was nonsense I made up, but the existence of a Wesley family branch that crossed the snowy mountains was an undeniable truth.
While the story about treasure buried under the rainbow in the snowy mountains was dismissed as a children's fairy tale, the bait about a mber of the Wesley family crossing the snowy mountains towards the northern empire had been dropped.
This led to viewers getting impatient and urging Han Se-ah to seize the opportunity I had thrown her. Even though we were about to ascend to the 56th floor and it would take months to head towards the empire.
"Well, convincing with that rainbow fairy tale is impossible since there's no evidence. But how can we use Roland's story about the Wesley branch family to sohow visit the northern empire? ...Should I hold a story contest? Submit so scenarios to my stream channel, I'll even offer prizes like chicken or pizza combos."
-Just claim you received transmissions from the empire using the omnipotent mana theory?
-You know it'll be a headache if you spout nonsense you can't handle and get suspected, right? These are companions you'll be with until you behead the Demon King.
-How about saying you saw research materials when you wandered around the empire's magic tower during the Season 2 tutorial?
-Can't we just say the hero wants to go and handle a wave, then head north? My head hurts.
-Forget about being a hero, you're just a ^flashlight water purifier luggage bag map portable shower tunnel digging multi-purpose tool^, how can you make such claims lol Just go where teacher wants to go.
It had been a daunting character quest with no end in sight. It was both an enhancent quest for an NPC companion who showed affection and emotional investnt like a fan looking at a celebrity, and a garbage quest forcing a long journey from the kingdom's center to the northern empire.
This led to a situation where people were half-resigned, cursing BB Gas and saying it was either give up or pray, with so even suggesting that companions born with many ★s could unexpectedly hold them back. Amidst all this, when a potential answer popped up, all sorts of reactions, both positive and negative, couldn't help but burst forth.
The positive people were Katie's fans, expecting how happy katie, who was thrilled just by applying enhancent stones to her sword, would be if she restored the magic armor. The negative ones were Han Se-ah's fans? who cried out about Han Se-ah's free ride and demanded she inherit the money earned from streaming to Roland.
So spread their wings of imagination, hoping for the evolution of their favorite character, while others felt like they had struck gold in a field their in-laws had bought. Ti flowed on relentlessly, even as their stomachs churned.
We destroyed encampnts, purified them with mana stones, received food supplies, marked our exploration information on the minimap and map, and used the gate to move up to the 56th floor―
"What's that now."
"It seems they really have organized an army."
What appeared before us was an earthen fortress made by piling up soil from the prairie.
These crazy bastards weren't satisfied with just wooden fences, they even built an earthen fortress.
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