Watching the streamer die several times in a row to the Crystal Lizard, clutching his head in frustration and nearly breaking down, Ichin couldn't help but chuckle and shake his head. He sent another gift to the poor guy before closing the stream.
After exiting the page, Ichin turned to the audience in his own stream and said,
"For this monster, you actually don't need to fight it. You can always come back later once you're stronger. Of course, the Crystal Lizard does serve as an early lesson for players—teaching them how to deal with elite enemies. Charging in recklessly like that won't work. Alright, let's move on to the next one."
While Ichin browsed for another streamer, Haruno leaned over and asked,
"Hey, Ichin, you think anyone will make it further today?"
"There should be some," Ichin replied, opening another stream—a Monster Hunter player this time. "A lot of people just aren't used to the controls at first. But those who play a lot of action games usually adapt pretty fast. See this one? He's already taken down the Crystal Lizard."
In Dark Souls, the invincibility frames during a roll are much more forgiving than in Monster Hunter, so the streamer deftly rolled past the Crystal Lizard's spinning attack, slashed twice with his straight sword, and finally finished it off.
Letting out a long sigh of relief, the streamer looked at the reward that popped up on screen.
"Dragon Scale Shard?"
He opened his inventory to check the description and realized it was an upgrade material.
"An upgrade item, huh? Too bad I can't use it yet. Yeah, figures—that monster was just there to mess with players. Whatever, let's keep going."
He took only two steps forward before noticing a new gift alert.
"Thanks to YC Games for the fancy compliment gift—wait, the YC Games?!"
When he confirmed it really was Ichin himself, the streamer got visibly excited.
Ichin sent a comment on the chat:
> "Good luck. If you beat Gundyr within three tries, I'll gift you a Captain badge."
After sending the message, Ichin turned to Haruno.
"Haruno, you think he can do it in three tries?"
Haruno shook her head. "Hmm, it'll be tough. I mean, even in our company, we've got a lot of skilled players—but when they tried for the first time, even Nene and Ruri didn't beat Gundyr within three tries."
Ichin chuckled. "Still, maybe he'll surprise us." He looked over at Utaha and Yukino. "What do you two think?"
Utaha didn't answer right away. She pulled out her phone, searched for the streamer, and said,
"He's a Monster Hunter player. Not very famous, but he's got quite a few speedrun videos. His skills seem solid. I think three tries is doable."
Yukino nodded. "Since Utaha-senpai thinks so, then I'll also bet on him passing within three tries."
"Hey! Yukino, how could you? Shouldn't you support your own sister at least once?" Haruno huffed.
Yukino ignored her and said calmly, "He's entering the boss arena now. We'll see soon enough."
With that, everyone's attention returned to the gameplay. Meanwhile, in the streamer's chat, many viewers who'd just heard Yukino's voice for the first time immediately sensed the contrast between the two sisters.
> "The older sister sounds so cheerful and outgoing, but the younger one feels more cool and composed!"
> "I like the calm type better!"
> "Wait, you guys notice how tall those three girls are? Way taller than the average Japanese girls!"
> "Yeah, sitting next to the boss, they all look around 170 cm or so, right?"
Although everyone knew Ichin by name, after several years of fame and success, most viewers had gotten used to calling him simply "the Boss."
On-screen, as the streamer was sent flying by Gundyr's sweeping attack, Ichin glanced at the comments and laughed.
"Everyone's asking about your heights—mind sharing?"
Utaha was the first to answer with a relaxed smile.
"Sure. I haven't measured recently, but during last year's health check, I was about one seventy-two."
Haruno raised her hand cheerfully. "I'm also one seventy-two!"
Yukino glanced sideways at the two of them before finally saying, "One seventy."
> Damn, she's taller than me! I'm only one seventy!
> I just looked it up—apparently the average height for Japanese girls has gone up a bit, but it's still only around 156 cm!
> So jealous… jealous of the boss, of course.
Ichin looked around the chat and chuckled. "You all think these three are tall, huh? Well, among the girls I know, Japanese heights really vary a lot. Some are tall, and some—let's just say they're legally classified as lolis."
Haruno laughed. "You mean Aoba and Nene?"
"Yeah, those two." Ichin nodded, glancing back at the screen. The streamer was still fighting hard, but his Estus flasks were empty, and his HP bar was hanging by a thread.
"If you've watched our old streams before," Ichin continued, "you should've seen them already."
> "I remember! Gotta dig through the old stream archives."
> "Anyone got a link?"
> "Damn, I'm even more jealous now!"
While everyone in the chat was chatting away, the screen suddenly faded to black.
> "Ah, so close!"
> YOU DIED!
Watching the streamer's frustrated face, Ichin laughed. "That was his first attempt, but the next two should go fine—he's already reached phase two."
And indeed, Ichin was right. On his second try, the streamer successfully defeated Iudex Gundyr, pushed open the doors of the boss arena, and advanced into the next area—the Firelink Shrine.
True to his word, Ichin gifted the streamer a Captain badge.
Inside the Firelink Shrine, the Fire Keeper—who had appeared in the trailers—finally made her formal debut.
Draped in a gray robe, her figure tall and graceful, with long white hair and silver crown obscuring her eyes, she stood quietly before the player.
> "I'm calling it now—this is my wife of the year!"
> "Wait, that voice… Saori Hayami?!"
> "Wow, they really went all out! Even the old lady's voice sounds familiar."
> "I checked the Japanese voice actor list—all of them are big names!"
Seeing everyone start to discuss the voice cast, Ichin explained with a smile,
"For Dark Souls, we've prepared both English and Japanese voice tracks. As for a Chinese dub, I didn't include one—since it's a Western fantasy setting, it didn't quite fit. We actually tried at first, but it just didn't sound right, so we dropped it. The English voices turned out great though, and you can freely switch between English and Japanese on any platform—PC or console, both dubs are included in every version."
After finishing his explanation, Ichin exited the stream and started browsing for another channel.
Following his lead, the viewers in his own stream hopped from one broadcast to the next, watching a wide range of reactions and chaos unfold.
In just two hours, they'd witnessed every kind of human emotion imaginable.
The first boss, Iudex Gundyr, was actually considered relatively easy—anyone who had watched Ichin's earlier gameplay videos could figure out his attack patterns.
But beyond the Firelink Shrine lay no "safe zone." There awaited the first true elite enemy players would encounter—the Katana Guy.
Clad in simple clothing, wielding only a katana, this lone warrior had already traumatized countless players.
That night on Bilibili, the air was filled with endless screams.
---
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