Among all the unknowns, one thing was certain.

'Looks like we missed some kind of gimmick?'

The old, injured mother crystal dragon that seemed poised to advance the story had disappeared.

Besides the forest fairies and beast-kin who provided quests and directions, the fairy and crystal dragon were obviously gimmick-related. While the fairy had hatched at some point and attached itself to Grace, the mother crystal dragon had vanished after unleashing fire on the orcs.

Whether she left satisfied after confirming her baby was being well cared for by the mages, or collapsed hidden from human and orc eyes after exhausting her final strength, there was no way to know. Regardless, our path forward was clear.

Suddenly, our game genre had shifted from party development to baby care simulator.

"Laat!"

"You like this? Wait a moment, I'll cut it smaller for you."

"Pieeeek!"

"Hey, put down that pebble! I told you the little one doesn't eat rocks! Have you mages already forgotten that?"

"Ah, this is a pebble from somewhere else! We need to verify whether it dislikes pebbles in general or just this specific type of rock."

"Hmm? Hey! Where did you get that in your mouth?"

"What's wrong, Grace?"

"I think the shadow fang tiger stole some fruit from somewhere? It's not forest fruit—it brought an entire sack of dried fruit."

Irene was caring for the fairy like a human baby, cutting fruit into tiny pieces to feed it like baby food. The mages were observing the baby jewel dragon, cleaning its scales and arguing over what to feed it. Grace was smacking the shadow fang tiger's backside as it tried to devour an entire sack of dried fruit.

With a fairy, baby dragon, forest predator, and wraith all mingling with mages in a beast-kin village—though it might sound like an insult to the beast-kin—the word "chaos" fit perfectly.

Especially since the mages were beginning to research gates and prepare for exchanges with the outside of the Tower, the situation was bound to be even more confusing.

"What about those reagents that were supposed to arrive?"

"I heard they're somewhere around the 67th floor. The roads aren't great except for the Stone Hoof tribe area."

"Still? Well, I suppose you can't drive carriages on treetop roads."

Even setting aside the baby dragon and fairy childcare, the situation was incredibly complex. They needed to establish communications between humans and forest fairies at the 61st floor, build roads on burnt forest ashes that wouldn't swallow carriage wheels, and restructure the beast-kin road network that had only been designed for on-foot travel.

Forest fairies, beast-kin, fairies, baby dragons, predators, and wraiths... this mess resulted from too many neutral NPCs appearing. Of course, the predator side had been thoroughly roasted, turning them back into hostile monsters, but still.

While Han Se-ah and the hero party didn't have specific tasks to handle, there was no avoiding the various developments in progress.

And that created a significant challenge for a broadcaster.

"...Where should we go next?"

-Go to the forest fairy village to learn about the fairy! If you're not going to the fairy women, why even play this game? For real, I'm genuinely asking, if you're not going to visit the fairy women, what's the point?

-Whoa whoa don't burst into flames why are you spontaneously combusting

-Shouldn't you first deal with the 62nd floor you completely burned down? lol If that ash forest blows up, won't the beast-kin relationship be totally wrecked?

-Hey where did the mother crystal dragon go? lol Besides the fairy's blessing, don't you need the dragon's blessing? Are you making the baby dragon an orphan?

-If you're going to be like this, just do a viewer poll lol is what I was about to say but you'd just go wherever you wanted anyway

It was a matter of choice and focus.

Only Han Se-ah could conduct the broadcast, and the camera moved with her. With so many potential broadcast topics—the fairy, baby dragon, mages and gates, beast-kin or forest fairies—she couldn't help but struggle with what to prioritize.

If she focused on Grace and the fairy, she'd almost certainly face complaints like "The fairy will stick around anyway, let's see something else." Conversely, if she examined the crystal dragon or other deep forest NPCs, she'd get comments like "Your companions are what's important, not that other stuff."

If public opinion had leaned heavily one way, she could have ignored the minority view, but with so many neutral NPCs, opinions were completely scattered.

"Hmm, everyone gather around."

"What's up?"

"Hey! Spit that out! ...Huh, what's going on?"

This was when the tank, often called the scapegoat, became necessary.

Just as Han Se-ah, camera in hand, was vacillating between the baby dragon and fairy, about to make a decision despite viewer backlash, I put my hand on her shoulder and called everyone together.

Irene had been stroking the fairy with holy power-infused palms; Katie had been cutting apples into tiny pieces with a small dagger; and Grace had been smacking the shadow fang tiger's rear as it munched on an entire sack of dried fruit.

Perhaps because they'd defeated a Four Heavenly King without suffering any damage and were in a relaxed state, they all hurried over when I called in a low voice.

"We have a lot to do, but I'd like to learn more about the fairy first. If we return to the forest fairy village, we might get some information. Let's head to the forest fairy village first and deal with the rest later."

"Well, fine. I was curious about that too."

If Han Se-ah made the decision, someone would complain, but if Roland Teacher—the party advisor and senior figure—pushed for something, the aggro would disperse. With that in mind, I suddenly proposed learning about Grace's sparkling eyes and the fairy.

Complaints that Han Se-ah hadn't done something might seem valid, but complaints that she didn't object to Roland's opinion would look like trolling from anti-fans.

※

It might seem strange to suddenly rush everyone away from a comfortable rest in the village to gather information, but I'm grateful they all followed without complaint.

Passing through the beast-kin village and crossing the forest now teeming with respawned predators, we arrived at the 62nd floor. As expected, the layer had been completely destroyed—a vast expanse of ashes welcomed us with its acrid stench.

If the deep forest had vertical majesty with massive trees blocking the view from ground to sky, the 62nd floor had horizontal desolation—an ash plain stretching beyond human vision in all directions like an endless sea.

Faced with these terrifying yet majestic traces of destruction, the fairy sitting on Irene's palm shrieked "Luluruluut!" and quickly hid in Grace's nape.

"Is it scared? Though even hiding like that is kind of cute."

"Oh, seeing that reminds me of something, you know? When we were kids, we'd put a blanket over two chairs or tables and say, 'This is our secret base! Our hideout!' It wasn't just me, right? So it seems like the fairy is making a hideout in Grace's nape with her hair."

-For real lol I used to sleep under the clothes drying rack when laundry was hanging lololololol

-Making a hideout with blankets? I just went into the closet lol It was dark, soft, and warm

-If that fairy were male I'd smack it right away but since it's a girl I'll let it slide lol

-And what would you do if it didn't behave? lol You think a fairy pet that can break boss gimmicks cares?

-Honestly that boss one-shot buffer fairy is thousands of times more valuable than some free eyeball chat guy, fr fr

They say fairy seeds are formed from concentrated natural energy. So naturally, the fairy would be frightened by the sight of an area equivalent to at least 50 Yeouido Islands completely burned to ashes.

And so began our chaotic journey through the ash forest where feet sank with every step: Han Se-ah desperately flipped soil to make a path while viewers criticized her for making the baby cry; Grace tried to comfort the tiny whimpering fairy before handing it to Irene; and Irene stroked its tiny head with holy power-infused fingertips to calm it down.

-This wasn't accomplished with ordinary fire. What happened here?

"We unleashed the stone dwarves' siege weapons, ancestor."

-...On a forest? You used siege weapons to drive away animals? You, a hero?

"Well, it wasn't animals but wraiths we were trying to drive out."

-...Isn't there a saint in your party? But, um, I apologize, this is your journey

"...Haha, well, um, yes."

Meanwhile, ancestor Wesley was shocked that the hero would burn this much forest to drive away ghosts when they had a saint in the party, and Katie could only laugh awkwardly as the criticism hit right on target.

If that conversation between the two Wesleys had been caught on camera, Han Se-ah would have been criticized even more harshly. While feeling slightly regretful about that, I tried to quicken my pace—then slowed down. Running at our normal speed would create not just dust clouds but ash storms.

"Luut! Luluut! Luuuu—!"

"Yes, I know. Here, cover your nose with this. It's uncomfortable, but bear with it a little, okay?"

The silver lining, if you could call it that, was that monsters didn't seem to appear at all in the completely incinerated 62nd floor. This meant we could adopt an extremely mana and holy power-wasteful travel method—blocking ash with my shield and using sacred law protection to comfort the fairy—without any real problems.

Amid viewer mockery, unsolicited advice, and excitement about the broadcast suddenly becoming a childcare show, we safely reached the forest fairy village.

"I, I, I told you I would set the fireeeee...."

"Uh, well, I'm, I'm really sorry...?"

We approached the forest fairy who was still sobbing.

Enjoy the chappy!