"Hello everyone! Just like I told you all yesterday, today we will be live-streaming from Arcadia Online! The game that had taken the gaming community by storm, providing a breathtaking experience to all ages, the one that had realism that was generations apart from any of the previous games!"
[Nobody11: Hi Blaze! Good to see you!]
[Hungaaryyyy: I wish my exams were over so I can play too. All I can do is just watch from the stream.]
[Watcher0191: Oh! The stream is back on!]
"Haha! Good to see you too, Nobody11! As you all can see, we will be joining the game as well. Though! There is a twist! Rather than showing the average stories from the main towns and villages, we decided to show you the story of a random settlement! As for our main theme? We are trying to unfold the mysteries of this place! Cool, right?!!"
With a bright and cheerful expression, Joshua spoke as he looked around the mesmerising natural area. Though lacking the bustle of the starter town, this peaceful serene atmosphere had a charm of its own.
[Nboy: What is this place?]
[GrayInva12: Looks cooooool!!!!]
[TristanBear: Show us more!]
Looking at the excited viewers, Joshua soon controlled the momentum as he began describing everything around him while Gregory focused on him, providing a 3rd Pov to the viewers. The scene changed slowly as the duo soon went to the receptionist Tierra, and were taken to the Elder to get their basic equipment.
The calm scene mesmerised the viewers who were only observing the other streams of the starter town up until now, and the stream which usually stayed a bit above 100, was now reaching 200s easily, and it was only increasing.
With the reveal of Zombies haunting the settlement, and the few subsequent quests, anticipation grew as the viewers started urging the duo to explore more of the settlement. Telling them to find out about their location, they too wanted to check out this place themselves if it was not too far.
Joshua and Gregory tried talking to a bunch of NPCs hoping to find more about the settlement and try to fetch a quest, but because of their low favourability, most of the NPCs avoided talking with them, leaving them pretty much directionless within the settlement
As of now, the only quest that they had was about the Zombies.
"Well. Doesn't seem like we are gonna go very far in gathering information. Perhaps we can try it after increasing Favourability?" Gregory questioned, to which Joshua nodded in agreement. And then looking around the area, Joshua turned back to Gregory and viewers at once asking,
"There doesn't seem to be any player here other than us, huh?"
Gregory nodded as he traced the area around, hoping to find anyone other than the NPCs.
[Nboy: Look near the torch, there is someone strange!!!]
[Enchanter0191: Holy shit! Who is that? Seems spooky?]
Hearing the comments, Gregory focused on the area even more, and in a discreet corner behind the makeshift fire church, there was indeed someone standing there, observing the surroundings.
The brave duo slowly walked towards that person with caution, as the outline of that person became clearer, taking the shape of black black-haired girl in a newbie dress. At the top of her head, there was a [Raven Level 1] floating denoting that she was a player.
Her pale skin was akin to snow, showing a deep contrast with the bowl cut black hair she had. Her black aloof eyes, which were focused on a random tree branch were now turned to the duo who randomly appeared in front of her.
"A Player!" Joshua spoke
"A Player?" Gregory asked
[Nboy: A Player]
"It's a girl!" Joshua added.
"It's a girl?" Gregory rechecked
[Nboy: It's a girl]
[Enchanter0191: All right, that's enough!]
Having a girl in the stream would boost more views than average! This is a good development! Joshua was extremely happy as he walked closer to that girl and introduced himself and Gregory,
"Hello. I am Blaze and he is my partner, Link. Are you by yourself here?"
[Enchanter0191: Isn't that what kidnappers say before checking if the kids are alone or not?]
[TristanBear: You need to work on your pick-up lines better, brother!]
Giving a side eye to the comments, Joshua then focused on that girl, who seemingly understood his words and nodded. And then politely bowing she spoke," Hello. I am new to games. I was on my way to hunt some monsters but I seem to have gotten lost in between."
Hearing her words, Joshua paused for a bit. Then looked at her with a confused expression.
"Lost in the settlement?" Gregory asked, a bit baffled as he looked at the settlement with fewer than 10 houses in it.
[Nboy: Looks like a klutz.]
[TristanBear: Cute.]
Though before Raven could speak anything, Joshua and Gregory had a quick silent conversation with their eyes before Joshua politely asked," If you don't mind, you can join us. We were actually going to hunt as well."
The girl pondered for a few seconds before nodding and agreeing.
Joshua gave a silent thumbs-up to Gregory, who seemed to be happy with this development too.
"What is your class, by the way?" Gregory asked with slight curiosity.
"Class?" Raven questioned back.
"You know like mage, warrior and stuff? You do know about things like that, right?" Joshua asked this time, making Raven ponder for a brief moment before answering.
Her unfocused eyes seemed to be recalling something before a spark lit in her eyes and she turned to the duo again, focusing as she answered,
"Rune-Warrior"
The duo smiled as they heard the answer. Joshua then suggested walking towards the area where the zombies were while explaining their classes to each other.
"I have chosen the spearman class, allowing me to have an increased attack with all spear-based weapons. My class also provides two extra attack points with each level up along with a spear-based passive skill at each 10th Level I reach," Joshua explained as he skillfully swung his spear around, showing off a bit.
"Hey, I have the Priest Class. Including the basic skills, heal, area heal and rejuvenate, all my healing skills have a 100% increased efficiency and 25% reduced cooldown. Plus, one of these three skills randomly upgrades every 10th level I reach," Gregory added as he showed the book he had in his hand.
Understanding that it was her turn, Raven simply explained what was written in her class information.
"Allows the user to cast runes on any weapon of choice. Basic rune agility, strength and vitality available. If the user uses a weapon that she had enchanted with a rune, the efficiency of the rune increases by 100%. One extra attack point per level," she narrated.
Hearing that, the duo paused for a few seconds before Joshua asked Raven to apply a strength Rune to his weapon. And within a few seconds, the spear had a temporary 10% increased attack written along with it that would last for an hour, bringing out a bright smile on Joshua's face.
Within the next few minutes, the trio reached the zombie-infested area with multiple level 1 zombies walking around. Since Raven did not have a weapon with her, she simply picked up a broken branch, enough to protect herself and Gregory.
"I will attack, Raven cover. Gregory will heal us after the battle," Joshua made a rough plan as he began hunting the zombies which were not that difficult.
[Nboy: Oh! The synergy is surprisingly good!]
[TristanBear: That's kind of good.]
Likes poured in as Joshua took out three zombies before getting back and letting Gregory heal him. While he did so, Raven used her branch stick to hit the other zombies, collecting their aggro before taking them away from the duo. And once Joshua was healed back to peak health, he went back in for the hunt giving Raven enough time to recover her stamina as well.
All was going well for the duo as Joshua rapidly levelled up to level 3 within an hour, but somehow out of nowhere, a few zombies, each level 5 and 6 appeared among the mix. Joshua pondered if he could take them out using the same strategy but after a single attack showed -0HP, they realised the level suppression was way too much for them to handle.
"Let's fall back," Joshua spoke, making a wise call, as the trio nodded and then began running away from the zombies, back towards the settlement.
Though… the Zombies for some reason kept chasing after them without any pause in their steps.
And they were freaking fast!!!
"Why are they chasing us still?"
"How are they so fast?!!!"
[Nboy: It went from Resident Evil to World War Z pretty fast!]
[TristanBear: Oh my poor Raven!]
[Anomous01: What the!]
For the next 5 minutes, the zombies chased after the party like madmen, and for some reason, they seemed to be getting faster and faster, getting closer to Gregory who was the farthest away from them.
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!…." Gregory cursed under his breath, as he ran as fast as he could. While Joshua, who was at the forefront, observed the settlement in sight. His eyes, locked on a certain man standing with a sword in his hand, his name plate read
[Ezekiel Level 7]
Gregory's eyes widened as he saw that man before he shouted out loud,
"RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY! ZOMBIES ARE COMING!"