Tangeni stood at the edge of what used to be a road and tried to figure out his next move.
The dungeon stretched in every direction, bigger than anything he expected from an F-rank gate. Ruined castles dotted the hills with their walls crumbling and covered in vines. He could see goblin camps scattered between them like a disease spreading through the corpse of a dead kingdom.
The goblins had taken over everything, built their crude shelters from stolen stone and hung torn cloth from the towers as flags. This wasn't a dungeon, it was an entire world and he was standing in it with nothing but a hoodie and a recording skill.
The objective floated in his vision, reminding him that he needed to kill a Goblin King to get out of here. He didn't even know where the Goblin King was, didn't know how many goblins stood between him and that boss, didn't know anything except that he was massively underprepared and getting more nervous by the second.
He checked the viewer count. Twelve now.
[Chat]
[randomgamer42: is this guy insane]
[dungeon_simp: no weapon??? lmaooo]
[bestlittlesis: BRO RUN]
"I'm not running yet," he said for the stream. "I just got here and I need to find a weapon or something. Maybe there's loot in one of these buildings."
He started walking toward the nearest structure, keeping low and watching for movement. The road under his feet was cracked and overgrown with weeds that came up to his knees in some places, he had to step carefully to avoid tripping. Every shadow looked like a goblin waiting to jump out at him.
Fifteen viewers now. People were finding the stream somehow, maybe through the new channel feed or the algorithm picking up on something. He didn't have time to think about marketing strategy because he was too busy trying not to die.
He made it about thirty meters before everything went wrong.
Three goblins crested a nearby hill and spotted him immediately. They were smaller than he expected, maybe waist-high with green skin, pointed ears and teeth that looked way too sharp for comfort. One of them screeched and the other two echoed it, then all three started sprinting toward him with rusty knives raised.
He ran.
No shame in it, no hesitation, just pure survival instinct kicking in as he turned and booked it toward the nearest ruined building. His sneakers slapped against broken cobblestones and he could hear the goblins behind him, their little feet pattering faster than he would have liked. They were gaining on him and that wasn't supposed to happen because they had shorter legs, but apparently goblins didn't care about physics.
"Chat," he gasped while running, "I don't know if anyone's watching but these things are fast and I have no plan."
[Chat]
[bestlittlesis: TANGENI RUN FASTER]
[lonely_ghost: bro is cooked 💀]
[viewer_47: this is actually content]
[randomgamer42: rip lmaooo]
The ruined building was closer now, some kind of old storefront with half the roof caved in and the door hanging off its hinges. He dove through the entrance and scrambled deeper inside, knocking over rotted furniture as he went. His shoulder clipped a broken shelf and pain shot down his arm but he kept moving until he was in the back of the building, pressed against a wall with nowhere else to go.
The goblins didn't follow immediately. He could hear them outside, chittering to each other in whatever language goblins spoke, probably deciding how to corner him. He had maybe a minute before they came in after him, maybe less, and he needed to find something to defend himself with.
He looked around desperately for anything useful. The building was mostly collapsed wood and broken stone, shelves full of rotted goods that fell apart when he touched them. Nothing sharp, nothing heavy enough to use as a club. The place was picked clean by goblins long before he got here.
Then he spotted it in the corner—a rusted iron pipe sticking out from under a pile of debris, maybe half a meter long and thick enough to do some damage. He lunged for it and pulled it free, ignoring the rust that flaked off onto his hands.
The weight felt solid in his hands, not a real weapon but better than nothing. His hands were still shaking but at least now he had something between himself and those teeth.
Twenty-three viewers now. The number kept climbing while he tried not to die.
He positioned himself behind a collapsed beam where he could see the doorway but the goblins couldn't see him from outside. His heart was pounding so loud he was sure the whole dungeon could hear it. Sweat dripped down his forehead and into his eyes. He wiped it away with his sleeve, trying to keep his grip on the pipe steady.
A scraping sound came from the doorway. One of the goblins was coming in alone, probably trying to be clever and flank him while the other two waited outside. It crept through the entrance with its rusty knife held low, sniffing the air and looking around with beady yellow eyes.
The thing was uglier up close. Green skin covered in warts and scars, a nose that was more like a snout, teeth that jutted out at wrong angles. It moved like an animal, hunched over and twitchy, and it kept making little sniffing sounds as it searched for him.
He held his breath and pressed himself harder against the wall. The goblin was getting closer, checking corners, kicking aside debris. It passed the spot where he was hiding and kept going, and for a second he thought maybe it would miss him entirely.
Then it turned around and their eyes met.
The goblin opened its mouth to screech but he didn't think, he just moved.
The pipe came down hard and caught the goblin across the side of its head with a sound he would never forget, wet and crunchy at the same time. The thing went down but it wasn't dead, still twitching on the ground and making horrible gurgling sounds while it tried to raise its knife.
He hit it again and kept hitting until it stopped moving and the gurgling stopped. He was standing over something that didn't look like a goblin anymore.
[You have slain: Goblin (F-rank)]
[EXP: +5]
The System notification popped up in his vision and he stared at it while trying to catch his breath. His first kill. His first actual monster kill in five years of being a hunter and it was a goblin he beat to death with a pipe while hiding in a ruined building.
Five experience points. That was what a life was worth in the System's eyes.
He looked down at his hands and they were shaking bad, covered in something dark that he didn't want to think about. The pipe was slick with it too and he almost dropped it before tightening his grip because those other two goblins were still outside.
"Holy shit," he said out loud, causing his voice to crack. "I just killed something. Chat, I just killed something with my bare hands."
[Chat]
[viewer_47: YOOOOO]
[lonely_ghost: HE DID IT]
[bestlittlesis: TANGENI DIFF 🔥🔥🔥]
[randomgamer42: bro is actually insane]
[new_viewer_22: wait what did I just click on]
Forty-one viewers now.
He didn't have time to celebrate because he could hear the other two goblins outside, and they weren't chittering anymore. They were screaming, high-pitched shrieks that echoed across the streets and carried a lot further than he wanted. They were calling for backup and he could hear more voices answering from the camps in the distance.
A lot more voices.
He moved to the window and looked out, pressing himself against the wall so he wouldn't be seen. Goblins were coming from everywhere, pouring out of the nearby camps like ants from a disturbed nest. He counted ten, then twenty, then stopped counting because there were too many and they were all heading toward his building.
Word traveled fast in Goblin Fortress World apparently.
"Okay," he said, gripping the bloody pipe tighter. "Okay okay okay. This was a bad idea."
The viewer count ticked up again. Fifty-seven.
[Chat]
[bestlittlesis: TANGENI GET OUT OF THERE RIGHT NOW, PLEASE DON'T DIE BRO]
[viewer_47: bro has like 30 goblins coming for him]
[lonely_ghost: this is the best stream ive ever seen]
[dungeon_simp: F in the chat]
He looked around for another exit, another window, anything. The back wall of the building had a crack in it, big enough to squeeze through maybe, leading into an alley between this building and the next one. If he could get out before they surrounded him, he might have a chance to run.
It wasn't much of a plan but it was better than staying here and waiting to get swarmed. He took one last look at the dead goblin on the floor, then moved toward the crack in the wall.
Fifty-seven viewers watching him try not to die. At least someone was enjoying this.