CHAPTER 109: HERE’S TO THE ORCS

I leaned back in my chair, knees pulled up close as I hugged them in place and spun the seat in a circle like an austistic kid. But it didn’t last long when I feel the taste of stomach acid still souring my tongue and riling up in my stomach.

After a minute, or four, actually, the viewer count kinda drop to sub 90 now; Rina’s stream came back from black. The girl’s camera tilted down at the dirt road beneath her boots, then lifted again to show a dull, forested horizon at twilight.

Rina spoke, which both us; the viewers, and her team could hear.

"Alright guys, it’s just a short trek. We’re heading over to the site, shouldn’t take long."

The view bobbed with her steps, then steadied as she panned it toward the others.

Pearl and Mei, the twins that I met in the New Destiny court case were already mid-argument.

Or, wait... No, not an argument, not exactly. Mei was bounding around like some feral woodland creature, swinging her staff wildly, which confirmed to me that she was also a magic user like her younger brother. Meanwhile, Pearl kept grabbing at her elbow to steady her just right before she tripped.

You know what they say, when you’re a woman in love, you can turn off your brain.

...

Ah god fucking damn it did I just insinuate that they’re having an incestuate relationship?

I do not deserve it when the rapture comes, I believe.

"C’monnnn, Pearl, let me do the first hit when we see them! That’s literally half the reason I bought a staff, for physical touch!"

Mei tried running forward with her little legs to get to the farming site first, but she quickly found out that her hat was missing from her head, so she turned back, and saw that Pearl was holding it up high in the air. Mei—comedically so—tried jumping up and down to grab it, but the tip of her fingers couldn’t even brush through it.

"You’re a bully!" She yelped.

"Behave and you’ll get this back."

Rina didn’t interfere, just angled the camera to capture them more fully, her tone somewhat amused as she giggled and pointed at them.

"Twins of older sister and younger brother by the way~, not the opposite."

The chat was filled with question marks... Yeah, I was confused when I first met them too, guys, don’t be too worry.

Marc, the blond man in medium armor, sheathing a longsword walked alongside them, his armor clinking in a muted rhythm as he was talking casually to Hailie, who for once looked more interested in the conversation than terrified of messing something up, they’re hitting it off I see?

Why do I feel like a parental figure putting a tracker in her daughter’s backpack... Because I’m worried that the Marc guy was going to try and get handsy with my precious lil girl.

"Oh my... That’s so cool!" Hailie spoke as she looking at Marc up and down, both hands hugging her staff at the front like it was a teddy bear, "You served for 3 years? That’s so brave! What’s that like? Did you eat... Um... MRE? I heard they do that."

"Oh no, I didn’t deploy, I just ate what was cooked for us all." He said, "It’s not thing serious, I’m mostly in it just so I am certified to work at this security firm downtown, belongs to an friend back at church. It’s quite a drive to get there, but if I wake up like, fifteen minutes earlier, I can still make it by bus."

"That’s... wow, that sounds like a lot."

For some reason, Hailie’s eyes seems to bubble and shine like she was looking at the reincarnation of Michael Jackson as she continued,

"I don’t even know what I want to do myself, I know a lot of stuff but only barebone and I haven’t learn any specialized skills or have master’s practice... Um- But I really, really want to do music, do you think I can?."

Her voice had this hopeful wobble in it that almost made me smile, so does Rina and Marc, who were listening and not arguing.

"I believe you can do anything when you put your mind into it," He said it straight out of a textbook with a bright smile, "You know, you could totally practice here in-game, instruments are not easily found at the early stages because we don’t have access to the Bard class but they do have instruments in the game and you can buy them."

"Really?!" She gasped.

Her gasp was so sharp even I flinched, Marc chuckled, holding his hands up like he’d just uncovered a magician’s trick, pointing towards where the sun sets.

"There’s a shop in Orc Town, two miles out. I think we can make time to swing by to re-gear when you’re level 40 and can use that healing staff."

"Can we?! Thank you so much, Marc!"

Her whole body jolted in this giddy little shake, and for the first time since I’d seen her in-game, she actually looked alive, like the screen itself couldn’t contain her excitement.

And then... Excitely, she charged in and hugged him, which confused Marc and he just stood there taking it without moving his arms until she let go.

I immediately grabbed both ends of my monitor in rage.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY HAILIE YOU GOD DAMN JOHN SMITH LOOKING ASS!"

They chuckled it off and walked again, much to the dismay of me and at least 50 other spectators of this 105-viewcount stream.

Meanwhile, in my actual room in the mansion, the door creaked open. I turned just enough to see Anshur walked in with a giant... Like one litre glass of milk.

"Why are you screaming?"

She squinted at my screen, adding moree before I could answer.

"Is this... LARP? Or is this the new video game you guys have been playing? It feels real."

Wow, for the first time ever, she actually sounded human.

"It’s a game, Anshur." My throat still felt raw from this morning, so my words came out croaky. "Just... thanks for the milk, don’t mind me."

She tilted her head, blinked at the stream for another second, then shrugged and left the room.

Back on the stream, the forest had thinned and the group entered a clearing as the dirt path widening into cracked stone. Everything was quiet... I recognized this orc farming site (hence the closeset town is named Orc Town), and realized that it was too quiet.

Pearl slowed his steps, his hand moving to hold his staff and fixed up his glasses.

"That’s... odd, at this hour there should be at least two other teams here."

"Maybe they cleared the mobs early?" Rina commented, "What do you think, chat?"

[Probably just unlucky timing lol]

[Who here ships Marlie?]

[What is that?]

[Probably Marc Hailie]

[Mods ban these shippers please]

[Actually there’s no mod in this stream, I’m surprised there’s no n-word spammer already]

Ignoring the chat, the view cut back to Pearl as he spoke,

"Possibly, but the mobs respawn’s every thirty minutes, so it’s ."

The camera swung out across the field, and there they were... The orcs.

Not like the cartoonish green brutes you’d expect from other medias and games, but tall, mottled creatures with thick gray hides, their spines crooked and shoulders hunched as if their bones were too heavy for their own bodies.

Their faces were half-human, half-boar, tusks curling up from wide, drooling mouths. Some dragged chipped axes behind them, others gripped crude spears with serrated stone tips.

But what made them terrifying wasn’t just their looks, it was the stillness and intelligence, albeit below-average, but still better than those barks.

They didn’t roam or grunt or taunt like mobs usually did. They stood in clusters, breathing slow, synchronized, guarding where the spawned.

"Alright..." I sat with my legs on the table, glass of milk on hand to ease my headache, "Let’s see what you got, Hailie’s party."