204 Diamond Influencer World Impact DIWI
I opened my channel interface and started to check everything first. As far as I knew, anything that would affect the channel must be displayed there.
But strangely enough, I didn't find anything weird there. Everything looked just fine. The only strange thing I found was that the number of the gods following me was fixed.
It didn't move past the fifteen thousand mark. It was like the last time I checked days ago.
"Hmm… So it's a restriction that won't appear to me… Then it must be from someone higher than gods…"
The first thing that popped in my head was the system higher ups. But as I felt from dealing with Yonker that these higher ups weren't that bad.
So what really happened here? Why was my channel banned? And how? And who did it?
I needed answers.
[I have something I wanted to ask about] as I lacked any way to get answers, I had no other way but to ask my lady nymph.
[Ask then, but make it quick as I'm currently super busy]
[Do you know how a channel can be banned? And why?]
[Banned? Hmm… do you mean the broadcasting channels in the apocalypse? What? Do you already have one?]
[I have] I didn't hide this from her. I believed I once told her about it, or didn't I? [And it's banned]
[This is the first time to hear such a thing]
And this was the first time I asked her about something and she ended up not knowing anything about it.
[Do you know anyone who might know?]
[If you want answers, then there is one place you shall go… The broadcasting impacts]
[There are impacts for broadcasters?] It was my turn to be surprised by this. No wonder… Everything in this universe rain impacts, guilds, and associations. So why wouldn't broadcasters and influencers like me have such a thing?
[I can give you a reel to join one of these big dudes, but you have to prove your worth first]
[Like what?]
[Total number of subscribers, your daily views, donations rate, things like these] she sent before I received a system notification of her sending me something.
[I sent it already to you. Consider it as a gift for our past deals]
[Thanks] I honestly sent it back to her.
[No problem. Just be sure to check their conditions first. If you can't apply there, then send me a message and I'll search for lower ranked impact for you]
[I will] I closed her chat window and opened my inventory. The reel there was a diamond shaped small microphone. Once I took it out, I started reading its description.
[Diamond influencer world reel: a reel to join the diamond influencer world impact, DIWI in short. Drop your blood over it to activate the reel]
Just as I was about to drop my blood over it, another message popped up.
[Conditions for joining DIWI: Have a channel for at least one week. Have two thousand subscribers to gain basic access to the impact. Have ten thousand total views over your videos so far. Having donated over five hundred thousand coins in total. Having at least one hundred messages sent to you in total]
[Having more than these conditions will allow your rank to be higher than the iron plat rank]
"Hmm… Not bad," I heaved a sigh of relief once I read these conditions. Things were getting better as my channel would secure at least one grade higher than that basic one.
I just hoped I'd have access to information that might help me in my current dilemma. Or else I'd have to look for answers elsewhere.
Once I placed my blood over the reel, the scenery around me changed. It was a familiar feeling, just like the way I felt when I first joined the Bringold impact.
"Welcome!"
Just as I controlled my body after feeling dizzy, I heard this soft voice before a girl appeared in front of me.
She had nothing appearing off her face, only wearing a dark blue robe with a cap. She seemed to use something to hide her face and even make her body slightly illusionary as if she wasn't really here.
"Hi, I'm Hye," I raised my hand in greeting while she also did the same.
"A human? Interesting… Let me check your status first… Hmm… Damn dude! You have a channel since the early stages of your apocalypse! That's insane!!"
Out of the blue her tone turned from soft to loud, shouting as if she was really shocked with what I did.
"Is that not common?" I asked while not knowing the answer for real.
"Common? Damn! I only established my channel at quest twelve of my apocalypse! And I was considered a prodigy!"
"Thanks for the compliment," if she called herself a prodigy to have a channel in such a higher stage than mine, then I'd be considered a master prodigy then.
"Ok ok, let me check your channel stats," she paused before I felt her body slightly trembling.
"You… You did all this in just this short time of the apocalypse? Tell me, honestly tell me, is your apocalypse really still at the third quest?"
"It is," I nodded while not knowing if I should smile or laugh.
Her tone and words told me my channel would gain an upgrade for more than one rank. If not then why would she react in such a way.
"Your subscribers are skyrocketing dude! Fifteen thousand! That's a damn number!"
"Is it a cursed number or what?" I teased her and she jumped off her feet.
"It took me a year, almost a year to reach such a number! Damn! Damn! What do you have and I didn't? Come on, tell your big sister your secret, I promise I'll richly reward you."
I didn't know why but hearing her words made me panic. I didn't know what race she belonged to, was she a friend or a foe?
"Sorry, I don't know how I did it myself," as I wouldn't tell, then lying was the only answer.
"Liar!" I swore that if she showed her face right now then I'd have seen her tongue extending out of her mouth in a teasing way. "Alright, keep your secrets to yourself. I'll know by my ways…"
"Like what?" I asked in curiosity before another scream escaped her mouth.
"Damn! Damn! Damn! Your channel can't accept any more subscribers! Wait…" she seemed to scroll across many windows before she muttered in low tone:
"You have enough space to accept more subscribers. Then why… Wait a second…" I felt her heavy eyes falling over me, "is your channel… Cursed?"
"I heard it's banned or something," I didn't hide this from her, "that's why I came here. I wanted to know what's going on with my channel and how to fix this."
"Oh… I see…" It was the first time she showed part of her body. She raised both hands high in the air out of the blue, letting the sleeves of her long robe fall and exposed her skin.
It wasn't skin, it was covered literally with scales. Small, rounded, and semi-translucent scales that kept shimmering with faint blue light.
What was that race? Damn! Such a soft voice made me imagine things I shouldn't have! Agh, it was disgusting to think about my imaginations with such scales!
"I can't think of anything to help you with this," yet as I got my hopes higher, she crushed them with what she said, "but I can ask for a higher up personnel from our impact to come and help you. Only you need to complete the process of joining us to let me summon him."
"I'm fine with that," as long as there was a solution, I wouldn't mind joining this impact.
"You need to pay one million coins first," she said before adding, "wait… That's the annual fee for the iron ranked members. Your rank will be higher… Let me see…"
She started to mumble things I didn't hear clearly for twenty minutes. She gave me such an insecure impression, the one that you get from a disaster maker person.
I bet her life was a mess and anything she did was also a mess. Damn! I just hoped she would complete my admission without any problems.
"Sorry, I'm really sorry," but as I expected, she couldn't be trusted with anything , even such a simple process.
"What's wrong?"
"Your channel has many good stats, but the donation thing is just way too low. You also have used one heroic calling for your channel, which is already an impressive feat… I can't judge your rank by myself, I shall look for help."
"Then please do," I tried to act as calm as possible. Handing over anything to such a girl was a disaster call from the start.
"Wait for a minute then…" in a whoosh she vanished from my sight without any warning.
Her minutes got as long as one hour. I was already getting bored. During this hour, I could have done a lot of things.
I would have started expanding my territory to the east. Or I'd have gone to the west and looked for that girl. Or I could have started thinking deeply about my cultivation.
Damn! I got a lot of things in my mind, things I had to do during the upcoming days.
*Fwoosh!*
In a flash, two silhouettes appeared in front of me. From the outer look, the girl appeared with someone else.
This girl didn't look any much different than me in body size. But compared to the new man, he looked like a giant.
"So you are that human boy who came to join our prestigious impact and let Sissy trouble me for the past hour?"
His tone, his attitude, his selection of words… Everything told me this was a disastrous meeting. Damn girl, couldn't you just complete one simple task without causing trouble? Couldn't you?
"It's me," I said before adding in a strong tone, "everything related to my channel is with Sissy. Please revise my data…"
That bastard didn't wait for me to continue, as he waved his hand as if he was speaking with a trash or something and interrupted me as he said:
"No need, you'll start from the lowest rank just like anyone else."
"Elder Admor… This is…" Sissy turned sharply towards him while her tone told me this was obviously against the rules of the impact.
"Sissy, have you forgotten your current rank or what? With my presence, my words are law! Only the impact grandmaster is the one who can change my decision with his."
"Then summon him," as he decided to be this jerk, I decided to be a stubborn human boy.
"What did you just say?" His instant reaction showed how enraged and stirred he was with my words, yet his tone failed him.
It was slightly shaky, as if a rat was threatened with a cat.
"I want the grandmaster of the impact to decide my rank," I stressed over my words.
"Then your request is rejected, you can return back to your filthy low world," my words made him more enraged as he was about to wave his hand again but this time I shouted in loud tone:
"My name is Hye. I have a channel in my apocalypse just at quest two. I already used one heroic calling, have fifteen thousand subscribers, and have tons of messages and active subscribers, tons of shares, saves of my videos, and I also have subchannels for my channel team. I want to meet the impact grandmaster right now!"
"Humph, as if a worthless worm like you can meet our majestic grandmaster," that bastard snorted and said in mockery.
"I won't leave without meeting the impact grandmaster," I said my words out loud and stressed over every single letter. I didn't shift my eyes even for an inch away from his masked face that was filled with darkness.
205 Views Are The Most Important Thing Ever In Any Channel!
That bastard elder wearing black robe was acting hostile to me. Without the need to ask, he was one of those bastard races who were targeting my human race.
Belonging to such races, or to the angelic race, or even the drags… I didn't care. I came here to the place with answers and wasted one hour to not be kicked like a street dog like this!
Elder or not, I didn't care. This impact had rules just like the Bringold impact. That motherf*cker didn't know I already was part of another prestigious impact, one that was coloured in red in my impact list!
So I wouldn't get fooled by his shitty act. I wouldn't accept his decision and wouldn't leave until I'd meet that grandmaster of this impact. Let's see what this bastard would do against his grandmaster.
"Who is causing this ruckus inside my impact?"
Just before he would respond to my words, a loud and angry shout came from one direction. A gale of wind came before a strong looking middle aged man appeared in front of my eyes.
He wore a pure white robe, without any stain at all. He had a long white beard that was strangled into several thin and long strands.
His pure brown eyes gave me the impression of power and authority. Without the need to ask, this giant man was the grandmaster of this impact, the highest authority here.
"Don't tell me you did something wrong again!" Once he arrived, he turned to the poor girl and gave her such an icy gaze that gave me shivers despite it wasn't directed to me.
Strong… this man was strong! I also felt strange brutality coming out from him, reminding me of those Berserkers.
But he didn't look anything like a berserker. His face was totally human-like. The only difference between me and him was his big body building.
"She did nothing sir," as the big boss arrived, I retracted all the domineering acts of mine and replaced it with humble, "this elder did."
"Admor? What's going on here?"
I couldn't see the face of that dirty bastard, but I was sure it was ashen white at this moment.
"This kid came here and insulted our impact…"
"Lies!" without the need to let him continue his lies, I shouted and interrupted him, "I came to join the prestigious impact of yours. Sissy here couldn't decide my rank so she went to seek advice from this elder here. But this elder came and tried his best to kick me out."
"Nonsense!" Admor bellowed back as he snorted. Dude, don't put on such a facade show. Don't tell me your reputation was crystal clear in this impact!
"Sissy, is that what happened?" The grandmaster ignored the two of us and turned to look at Sissy. I couldn't see her face, but this girl was so unlucky indeed.
If she stayed on my side, she would risk the wrath of that bastard elder. If she stayed on his side… Well, wasn't there another way around to prove my innocence here? Like a short clip from what just happened from my channel?
"Don't lie," the grandmaster suddenly added, "you know everything inside my impact is closely monitored."
"Grandmaster… we can't allow any stray dog to join our impact!" The elder seemed to know how terrible this situation was. Damn cool! That grandmaster had ways to observe things here. That was awesome!
"Do you think I'm blind? He is a human, and I know how deep your grudge against humans is!" the grandmaster retorted back in a tone that told me this really wasn't the first case of this elder.
"But I never did anything to any human joining us before!" the elder didn't give up yet, "you know my contribution to the impact and my dedication for its glory and rise. You can't just ignore my words for such a nobody coming from a new apocalypse!"
"Hmm… You just got lucky before as everyone you scared ran away without even putting back a fight," the grandmaster turned to me as he motioned with his head and added in a praise:
"But this one here was a tough nut to crack it seems. You won't get heavily punished thanks to your previous deeds, but this is your last warning. This is a neutral impact… Leave all your grievances and grudges out."
"Grandmaster…"
"Just go and wait for my decision," the grandmaster's eyes flashed in a dangerous brown light. At this brief moment, it felt like he was a behemoth, a real behemoth that could devour anyone standing in his way.
Scary! That dude was really scary!
And he was also domineering! Just with his words and gazes, that elder had nothing else to do but to give in, turn around, and walk away after giving me a long and seemingly threatening gaze.
Of course I couldn't see his face, but I could feel his eyes falling on me like poisonous daggers. Dude, you were the one to stand in my way, I didn't provoke you or something.
So if you want to blame, only blame yourself.
"Now, what's the deal here?" as that elder vanished from this wide hall, the grandmaster looked at me and asked.
Of course he wasn't asking me, but asking Sissy who started to narrate in a shaky tone what just happened prior to the disturbance of that elder.
"Oh! A heroic calling in such an early stage… interesting!" the eyes of that grandmaster shone brightly when he heard that. But when he heard about the curse on my channel, his face suddenly changed.
It first felt like he was depressed or disappointed. But soon I realised I guessed it wrong. He was mad! Very, very, very mad! To the degree that his face even got totally dark red, almost turning black.
"Who did this to your channel?" This was his first question after hearing what Sissy said.
"I dunno," I shook my head, "I came here to find out and also to try and solve this problem."
"It's not that hard to solve it," he said and gave me hope, "but that will require things… Not cheap things."
I dealt with many things in this apocalypse to know that nothing would be offered without a price. As this curse was such a big thing, then solving it would require a hefty price for sure.
"What's the currency used here?" I asked and he smiled as his face suddenly brightened up.
"Not scared to pay a big price in this matter then?"
I didn't know if he was just speaking to himself or asking me. But I nodded and said:
"I won't fear paying whatever it takes to solve this disaster. After that I'll look for the one who did this and claim the price twice from him."
"Good spirit," he nodded and I felt his praise and content clearly in his words, "it's always good to have such spirit in such dark times you are facing right now. But our currency is much different than what you might think."
"Do you accept treasures or what?" I was expecting his refusal to accept my coins or even stat points. From my dealing with the lady green nymph, I knew these held zero value in the vast universe.
"We accept things like that," he nodded before shaking his head, "yet not the kind of treasure you have in your mind."
Damn dude! Couldn't you just speak your mind in a direct way instead?
This time I waited, patiently in silence. I wouldn't speak until he would say what he really needed to solve my case.
"Sissy, tell him what our currency is," unlike what I expected, he said to the all shaky girl next to him without even lifting his eyes off me.
"Ahem… It's channel views that we ask," Sissy said after clearing her throat. Yet even when she said it, I stood in daze, not getting what she meant.
"Hahahaha, I always enjoy this reaction from fresh members all the time, hahahaha! It's simply priceless!" yet just as I stood there in loss, that dude broke out in laughter, even his body all trembled from his laughs!
What the heck was that?!! He looked totally different from the all domineering and mighty dude before!
"Views is our currency, meaning you have to donate your hard acquired views from your channel to us," he said, and even with his explanation I failed to get his point.
"What's the point in having my channel views?" I finally collected my thoughts and asked what made me unable to understand what was going on here, "do views matter?"
"Indeed they matter! They are our hard currency without doubt!" that grandmaster said in a sharp tone before adding, as if he was lecturing a boy about life:
"Any channel's lifeline is the influencer and his performance. The fuel to run any successful channel is the subscribers. But remember this… The true value of any channel is always, always will be the views of each clip inside that channel."
"Really?!" I exclaimed in doubt, "I never knew about that."
"Views are the first thing that will give your channel prestige among other channels. It might not have a value to the subscribers. But to the rest of us in this prestigious career, it's our main and hard currency."
Hmm… It was really my first time knowing this. I always thought the size of my channel and the number of my subscribers were the best things I should care about.
But now… "How can I know the views of my channel?"
"It's through your channel interface," he shrugged as if this was something known to all.
I opened my interface and there I found the number of my views was slightly over two million.
"I have two million, two hundred thousand and fifty-three views… Is that good or bad?" I raised my head towards him but he ignored me and turned to Sissy.
"How much time did you take before reaching your first million?"
"Don't compare me with him, boss, it's quite unfair!" Sissy said in a childish tone, complaining about this comparison. I imagined her like a little cute girl, pouting and sticking out her tongue at this moment.
She looked cute and lovely! If not only for her scales…
"That's your problem, not his," he laughed before turning again to me, "the first million is the hardest milestone any streamer has to face. You got your first million simply in such a short time and even without struggling at all! I'm impressed to be honest. How did you do it?"
I shrugged. Before this meeting, I had zero idea about this view thing at all.
"Oh, let me check your channel then… Hmm… It seems you have few interesting subchannels attached to your main one," he said before he said in realisation, "you have two people who have the highest views next to you. These two are your most treasured people."
"Two?! Who are they?" I was still new to all this.
"One called the jumper… What a lame name is that?!!"
I couldn't hold myself from laughing. Dude, even if you were so domineering and all that stuff, if that jumper was here and heard you speak about him in such a way… It would be hilarious to watch what that crazy dude would do, hahaha!
"And the second person is one called Leo," he didn't stop at my reaction before giving me a name that I never expected.
"Leo? That Leo?" It was a surprise to me. I thought Karoline might come next. Or perhaps that sexy Angelica, or Isabella. But Leo? Come on!
"Is it a surprise to you?" that grandmaster asked in interest and I didn't hide my shock from this.
"He is just a normal kid who recently joined me."
"Oh, let me see why he has such interest in your subscribers… Hmm… I got it…" it didn't take a few moments for him to find the answer, "that dude just kept jumping from one girl to another, trying to make someone fall in love with him."
206 Being A Streamer Is A Pain
I didn't get what was interesting about this to have such a high view rate. It seemed my doubt was clear on my face as the grandmaster said:
"Surprised again? You're still a green kid in this career," he sighed before adding, "listen and learn… You aren't a fighter in an apocalypse, you are an entertainer. You need to make your audience interested and enjoy staying in your channel."
"Does someone seeking love make them stay and enjoy the show?" I didn't argue with his logic. After all, as he just said, it was me who was new to this business.
"It's not love, it's variety and disparity," he said and his words just made me more lost, "look… If your channel always broadcasted wars and fights, then it will be boring after some time. Even if you got defeated, or made great achievements, your audience will get bored after a while and leave your channel like they did with many, many more channels before yours."
"Really?"
"What? Did you perhaps think that all the subscribers who came to your channel had no other channels to watch? Did you think that? Seriously kid! This is just wrong! You know nothing about our industry, nothing!"
I felt like a kid in a school, getting reprimanded from his master for not doing his homework.
"Listen and learn… The audience you have already has tons of other channels. They all started with excitement and interesting stuff. Each channel has what makes it stand out from the rest at the beginning. But later on? Things will get much different here. Sissy…"
He suddenly turned to the girl next to him. After all this time, Sissy got adapted to his presence and seemed to totally forget all about what happened with that bastard elder.
Her shaking stopped and she looked collected like the first time I saw her.
"What's the rate of channel dropping after quest fifty in any apocalypse?" he asked and she didn't even pause for one second as she instantly answered:
"Ninety-five percent."
"See?" he returned to me, "this is a frightening rate of dropping. And that's not because these channels did something wrong or their content wasn't special. Any early stage successful channel must have a thing or two special about it to succeed."
"Then why would they all decline?" If they all had such a unique thing in their content, then why would they drop after being a trend.
"Adaptability," the grandmaster raised one finger in front of me before raising another, "and the channel's lack of creativity."
Again he started to speak in riddles!
"Listen and learn…" it seemed he was the kind to start his words with this typical phrase, "the life of any influencer is made of three main phases, the early phase, the middle, and the later phase. You are now in the early phase of your career, just establishing your channel and reaping success from it."
Why did I get the feeling that this phase was bad and not good? Dude, didn't you just praise me and my channel for my current success or what?
"This phase is the initial test for any streamer. Do you have nice content? New things to add? Cool, then your channel will gain more subscribers fast, even faster than others like in your case. But there is one big problem here… your fake confidence in future success."
"Won't I succeed in the future?" I couldn't help but ask in doubt and he smiled.
"Listen and learn… It's normal to have such thoughts and feelings. But you must also put in your mind how moody and changing your audience are. Even if they are now cheering for you, that's because you provided something new to them. But sooner or later, that thing would grow old and turn slowly to be boring. And that's when the middle stage comes."
This time I listened and didn't speak or show anything on my face. I wanted to see where this would end.
"The middle stage is where the carnage happens. Most of the channels will fail in this period, and many will stagnate to slowly die down at the final stage. And that's all thanks to two things… Do you know which ones are?"
"Adaptability and lack of creativity, right?" I said in a tone that was void of any excitement, "you just said these two and I still don't get their role here."
"Be patient, listen and learn…" again he repeated his usual phrase, "your audience will get used to what you provide to them. You are a mighty fighter who can always kill and dominate his enemies? They'll get used to that. You are a prodigy ruler who will triumph using his mind and tactics? They'll get used to that. You are someone who is blessed with luck, always finds a way out of any hard and desperate situations? Even in such exciting scenarios they will also get bored eventually."
I didn't know what I'd say to him. In fact my channel could be described to be a mix of all of that. I planned to keep gathering up followers and subscribers thanks to these tactics. And now he just said my channel would die if I kept going down this path!
Damn!
"Don't give me that look… Just listen and learn…"
Damn this again!
"Your audience seeks entertainment. Just feeding them the same food over and over again for days and weeks will leave them unable to like it again. Even if it was the most tasty food ever in the entire universe. So that's when creativity and diversity will kick in."
"I need to be creative in providing more content?" I slowly asked, "but sir, this is the apocalypse! I can't think of anything else besides fighting and trying to dominate others to survive."
"That's wrong," he pointed at his head, "you must use this. Didn't you tell me that Leo's channel high view stats were strange and illogical to you? That's because you didn't think outside the box."
"Does seeking love really matter?" Again I asked, and he shook his head once more.
"It's the wrong question, kid. Listen and learn… It's not about love or fight, it's not about being a dumbass or kind, it's not about acting smart or being a fool, it's even about being a loser or crushing everyone and emerging the conquer. Your audience didn't come to your channel to see these things or even enjoy them."
"Then what?" I was lost again.
"Ask yourself this… Did other channels prior to yours provide what? I bet they also provided fighting, struggle, and even a glorious walk towards the glory of conquering their apocalypses and ruling their worlds. But did you know that the top streamers lack anyone of such calibre? There isn't a single world ruler in any top streamer list our universe has."
"How come…!!" I was shocked to hear that. What? Wasn't stamping over everyone and conquering the entire world something exciting to watch?
"You must be asking yourself how come conquering a world isn't that exciting, right?" he seemed to read through my mind, and I nodded.
"That's the wrong mindset kid. Listen and learn… conquering a world might seem like an interesting and thrilling idea. Indeed it is, or it was. Don't forget, your apocalypse isn't the first ever to happen in this vast universe with a rich history of glorious fighters and legendary world conquerors. What you are desperately trying to give them is simply boring. It happened before, not once, not twice, but for many, too many times to be counted."
I blinked twice and he added:
"You have to seek creativity, genuinely unique content that will leave your subscribers with gaped mouths and dropped jaws. Let me tell you something… do you know when a spike happened to your channel?"
"When did I get reels to expand it and gain more subscribers?" I asked and he shook his head.
"Let me check that moment and tell you about it…" he went into silence for a few minutes before suddenly exclaiming, "aha… See? This is when your channel skyrocketed and got more attention."
"When I used my heroic calling?" I asked again, trying to guess that moment.
"It's the wrong mindset once more," he shook his head, "you aren't the first to use the heroic calling kid. You are one of the fastest to get access to such a grandiose thing, but you aren't even the fastest to get that!"
"Then…"
"It's the moment when you went to visit a god from the death shrine," he said, "after that visit, you gained more attention to your channel. What? Did you never expect this?"
I had to admit, I never expected this to be my turning point. I thought it might be my visit to the Bringold impact, or perhaps my fight against the dragons.
"This is because you don't understand the mindset of your audience," he slowly said, "listen and learn… At that moment, you decided to go against that god of death and sought another shrine, correct?"
I nodded as this was truly what happened.
"You decided to go against a god and challenge him. That's interesting! Indeed you aren't the first to fight against gods, but in such an early stage you made something interesting to other viewers. You gained more attention when you started your cultivation using that strange method of yours."
"I see," I tried to show how much I got from his words here, "so I need to keep doing unexpected stuff like that, focus on my fight against the gods and my cultivation, right?"
"Wrong," yet he shook his head again! "You don't get it yet. You need to think outside the box. Use that thing in your skull and think of new ways to make your audience entertained."
I was lost again! f*ck this! Being a streamer in this universe was a real pain in the as*.
"Let me give you some advice that you might get," he seemed to get tired of me at this point, "forget about that Leo of yours for now. Tell me, when do you think the audience got interested in your jumper?"
I thought and couldn't find anything usual about that jumper of mine. He was filled with contradictions and intense moments with me all the time!
"Perhaps in everything he did with me and others," I said and he shook his head once more. Damn! I started to get used to this. Dude, be creative, don't repeat yourself like this or I'd get bored! Weren't these your teachings or what?
"It's the moment when you discovered his secret," he winked to me and I got what he meant, "the secret and the way that jumper is trying to conceal it were the two main turning points in raising his views. Think also about your Leo once again and tell me, what's the common thing in these two folks of yours?"
"They don't have anything in common," no matter how I thought, this was the only answer I could reach. Their personalities, their attitudes, even their interests… Everything was totally different and there was nothing in common.
"That's right," he finally agreed on something I said, "if they had things in common, this would be boring. Only one channel of theirs would rise and the other would fall. But as the two are different, seeking different goals, doing different things, and the two are totally different from you, then the three channels of yours hold the top views in your channel… Got it?"
I had to admit… It was f*cking tiring to be a streamer in this world!
"I hope you got it, or else you're destined to fall in the last phase of any streamer," the grandmaster sighed, "anyway, just keep in mind that doing repeated things won't help. Doing the expected and most logical actions won't help. You need to be creative, always surprising your audience, always seeking the most troublesome things in your journey. By this you can guarantee being a successful streamer in the future and your channel will keep rising up."
This I understood! Damn man! Why didn't you just say these wise words directly from the start!
Phew! I thought myself gone as a streamer for a second there!
"So Are my current views enough to lift this curse off my channel or what?" After this long session of teaching, I had to ask the most important question right now.
207 Boss Is Mad
"Two million isn't enough at all," that grandmaster shook his head before adding, "this curse can't be removed without paying ten million views at least."
"Ten million…" Damn! That number was almost five times my current channel views. In fact I didn't mind paying views to them. After all, what was the current value of views compared to my cursed and banned channel?
I had to break this curse no matter what!
"But there is a way for you here," as I was dejected and lost in thoughts, that grandmaster said, "you can take a loan from us after joining our impact. It's not a big thing actually for us, but you'll have to pay back fifteen million views once you reach them."
"I agree," I didn't mind paying even one hundred million views to get my channel freed!
"That's good to hear," he grinned, "Sissy, bring a fine silver blue robe for him please."
"Silver blue?!!!" Sissy exclaimed in clear shock before bellowing out, "this is one rank higher than mine!"
"He is already much better than the current you," the brown eyes of that grandmaster narrowed while his tone returned to its icy cold nature, "go, go now before I get angry at you."
"O… Ok grandmaster," I couldn't see her face but her body shook when he said the last threatening words of his. This dude seemed to be a real powerhouse, one who would scare anyone here.
"Sorry about that," as she retreated behind one of the many doors here, the grandmaster's tone and attitude returned to the calm side, "I'm not that dictator who would force everyone to keep their thoughts to themselves."
Yeah, that was obvious dude!
"Can I get any info related to the one who cursed my channel? And why would anyone do that?!!" As things got sorted out at last for me, I had to seek these answers to prepare my vengeance in the future.
"This…" but the face of that dude changed slightly before adding, "I don't know who did this to your channel. But I can tell you when exactly that happened. As for the reasons behind this, you have to think about these yourself."
"Ok," I didn't have anything else to do but to accept what he just offered. If I knew the timing of what happened, I could easily deduct the reason behind all this.
"Let's see… The curse landed over your channel just at this moment."
He played a video in a floating screen midair. The screen popped up without any warning, as if it was formed out of pure dust particles in the air.
In front of my eyes, I saw myself saying:
"I only have one request, a reasonable one," I paused before adding, "as you can see, the sheer number of gods asking me to accept their blessing and sponsorship is immense! So I need to sort things out here, and I need your help to do that."
My eyes went wide when I heard me saying these words. I knew where I was and when that happened. It was just outside Hamilton fort, where I first met Karoline.
I recalled what happened and didn't need to hear the rest of my words there. It was where I gave the offer for the gods following my channel to help me in return to selecting one of them as a sponsor.
Of course I ended up solving everything without their help, but it was indeed a remarkable moment. Since that talk with them I never heard from any of them again.
I was jolted awake when I heard myself saying:
[All the gods are delighted by this time limit]
[Many gods are now contacting their friends]
[A big impact is being noticed in the world of gods]
"World of gods?!!
In front of my eyes, many messages appeared in front of me. These were the last ever received messages from these gods.
"This is the moment when everything started," the grandmaster said while the screen that was lit up in an unknown way to me turned dim slowly before vanishing in thin air.
"It feels like ages passed since then," I couldn't help but sigh before turning to him, "thanks for showing this to me."
"I hope this can help," he said before adding, "ah, there is also something we can salvage from solving this curse."
"Which is?" I was still lost in my melancholic feelings. I haven't heard anything from my supporting gods since then. It was really bad, but it was something I couldn't help either.
I got false intel from the jumper's god. Also went to the death shrine and met Nero before coming back and receiving a message from that mysterious war god.
"I might have a chance to know the general location of that bastard who did that."
I looked at him and didn't say what I had in my mind. How could knowing the place of that bastard help me?
But saying this to him would be rude. So I kept this to myself and instead asked:
"Can a cursed channel receive messages from gods?" I asked and he shook his head first before pausing as his eyes flashed.
"If that god paid a hefty price to do so, and that is a very rare thing for gods to do," he said and I could relate perfectly to his words.
"I already got warned from one of my gods using this way," I said before adding, "but I mean if a god can send me a message without the need to pay any price at all."
"That's impossible!" I saw the shock in his eyes when I said I got a message from one of my following gods.
"But I got a message from one of the gods after the channel was cursed," I said in a firm tone, "it was a message from the god of war, or that was what I thought at that moment."
"Really?" he gave me such an interesting look before adding, "let me scan the channel videos then. Do you know when that happened? Or even where?"
I paused for a long minute. It was really hard to recall all the things that happened in the apocalypse to me so far.
I really did many things, travelled to many places, and fought in many wars. Just thinking back to all my achievements made me feel how grand my deeds here were.
"I believe it happened just after my return from the death shrine," I slowly said, "I think it happened just after crossing the Hudson river, just in the start of my attack over Jersey city."
"Ok," the grandmaster said as I saw his fingers flashing as if he was typing what I just said, "any time perhaps? It will help to narrow down the videos I have."
"Hmm… It feels like a year has passed since then but I think a week perhaps?" I was hesitant to give a firm answer to him.
"Let's search for five to nine days," he decided and then his fingers returned to flash again for a few seconds before stopping.
"Aha, I found it," he waved his hand and another screen appeared just like the first one.
And there I saw myself standing idle beside someone while messages appeared in front of my eyes. My smile went wide as I recalled how happy I felt back then.
[Unknown god just sent you a private message]
[The message: War is only a one directional path of venturing forward and never looking back! Show your courage and raise your head high above all other races. Victory or defeat is just secondary to any warlord, bloody hard battles are the only interesting thing]
"What's wrong?"
It was the jumper's voice. At that time, I just returned back from the visit to the death shrine and was feeling conflicted about Nero's meeting.
And that message just came at such perfect timing, giving me hope to slip away from the ongoing fight in the death shrine and join the war shrine.
"That's weird…" the voice of the grandmaster jolted me awake from my memories and feelings. He seemed more conflicted than me. "The time… This message was sent through your channel… But your channel was cursed by that time… Weird… Totally weird… Yet…"
He stopped there and left me hanging and waiting for his words.
"Yet… What?" but my wait took a long five minutes. During which he kept flashing his fingers sometimes, looking at nothing for others.
"I heard once about a curse that can be used against us, streamers," he slowly said, "it's not a simple curse. It's one that requires the presence of something related to the one doing it near the person."
"Sorry, I don't understand," I didn't get what he meant, "do you mean I got cursed when I visited that death god?" my thoughts jumped towards that Nero.
Bastard! Did you curse me or what? Damn you!
"The one capable of doing this curse must be a god, a higher grade god actually. Also he has to spend lots of treasure to acquire this curse."
"I never thought my value was this big before!" I said in sarcasm but he shook his head.
"It's not about you… This curse can work on anyone and give an endless number of curses to people in the apocalypse. But it's specifically meant for streamers. In other words, the one doing this was targeting our people, not just simply you."
I knew he spoke about all the streamers when he said: Our people. But who would have such a twisted soul and dark heart to target all of the streamers? What? Someone who hated streaming and streamers? Can such a person truly exist?
"Your situation looks more complicated than I thought," just as I was lost in my thoughts he sighed, "frankly breaking this curse will require more, much more than what we agreed upon before."
"But…" I had to say something or else I'd be indebted with much more than I could pay! I already had one debt weighing over my shoulders, adding one more wasn't a joke!
"Just wait," yet he raised his fist and stopped me. At this moment I noticed something else. He clenched both fists while his body started to tremble faintly.
When I closely looked at his face, I noticed his rage. It was so intense that it didn't cause anything except a few changes over his face, like clenching and relaxing his jaw repeatedly, or slightly narrowing his eyes and faint wrinkles appearing over his forehead.
He was mad! He was very mad! For a moment I hoped he wasn't mad at me. But why would he be? I didn't do anything wrong here! I was the victim sir.
"That son of b*tch… I hate this curse! I hate those people making and selling it! And I hate, much more hate those who are daring enough to go and buy these curses to use on our people!"
His voice was so loud and rumbling like thunder. I felt true fear in the depth of my soul, like I was standing in front of my deadly predator.
I wanted to leave, turn around and run. But I crushed down such desire with difficulty before he turned to me and said such good news:
"Forget about paying anything. The toll of lifting this curse is on my house."
I blinked twice and stood like an idiot in all silence in front of him for a few seconds before I realised what just happened.
He wasn't mad at me but mad at those who did this to the streamers like me.
"Thanks boss," from his stance I felt the need to address him as my boss. After all he proved to be my boss with actions and not just authority or mere useless words.
"That's nothing," he waved his hand yet his face didn't relax, "anyway just like I said earlier, for that curse to be used that hideous person must be near you, or have someone related to him nearby."
208 Breaking The Curse
"Near me?!" I said in doubt, "I'm afraid that can't be possible except if that Nero did something to me back then."
"He didn't," the firm answer came from that boss of mine, "if he did, then why would he need to send you such a message?"
His words made sense. Besides this curse started long before I met up with that jerk anyway.
"So who might he be?" I asked, "He is a god, right?"
"I told you so already, he is a god and a higher grade one as well," his tone was still filled with his anger. Yet to avoid him pouring it on me, I remained silent while he kept talking.
"But for a god to curse you this early on… He must have someone belonging to his shrine," he said before something flashed in my eyes when I heard his words.
"Damn! It can't be him!! No way!!!" I said in a weird shout while my words attracted the attention of the grandmaster.
"Do you know who he is?"
"I might be wrong but… If it was him then this would be hard…" I slowly said before asking, "If I removed this curse, can that bastard curse me again?"
"Do you think it's a toy or what?" the grandmaster snorted, "it's one curse per person. If there is such a thing as repeatedly cursing us, then our career would have long been wiped out from this universe."
"That's relieving," I heaved a deep sigh of relief before adding, "there were two occasions when I got near someone with the same specifications as you said… One was just after the start of the curse and the second was just around the time I got this message."
"Really?" the eyes of that grandmaster shone in a vicious way, "tell me who are you doubting and I can help thinking about it with you."
"It's all related to that bastard," I helplessly shrugged, "that jumper of mine."
"The one with the second highest view ratings after you?!" The tone and reaction I got from the grandmaster told me he was genuinely surprised.
"Is that hard to believe? Wait until I tell you what happened…"
I started telling him two tales about the jumper. Even when Sissy came back with a robe that fit me, he didn't spare me a glance and kept checking my channel, watching the events I pointed towards.
Indeed that jumper was the only one I could think of who got related to two unknown beings. Also these two would have the ability to use such curses on me.
The first being was his god. It was the one who told him about that rumour, the false one about all the gods in my channel being terrified of certain gods.
After thinking about it many times, I realised something didn't add up here. Why would the one who did such a curse take the trouble to spread such rumours and give such lame excuses?
It didn't make any sense! From the words of the grandmaster just now, I realised this curse was known and infamous at least in the circle of streamers and those related to them.
Gods would know about it for sure. So why would someone take the trouble to fake such a story and sell it to me?
There was only one purpose behind this, and he succeeded brilliantly in it so far. He made me lower my guard towards the channel's silence, not digging about what caused all the ruckus from my gods to disappear.
At the same time there was another incident that I had to consider.
From the words of the grandmaster, I knew whoever did this had ulterior motives that served a grand scheme.
Trying to stand against streamers like me? That would only help to weaken the strength of people who had such high chances in dominating the apocalypse they were in.
So doing that wasn't just a blow to the streaming industry and community in the entire universe, but it was also a direct blow to the apocalypse itself.
Who would have such deep and bloody grudges against the apocalypses? Who would take such trouble of paying a big price to just hinder those prodigies in any apocalypse?
There was only one race I could think of, those damned Curasee. The jumper got infected with one of them just before my visit to the death shrine.
I recalled that when I got back, he was waiting for me. I still remembered his storm of rage when he saw my face. He acted like that because he got hit by that weird arrow, the one which got him infected with that Curasee race.
And as any race in this universe, it must have gods. Those gods could do such a lowly thing as cursing me.
Everything pointed to these two beings, yet I didn't have a clue which one did it. And weirdly enough, the two were related to the same person.
What? Should I go back and beat that bastard to death as a fair retaliation for what he did to me? Tsk, he didn't worth the trouble or the pain of my fists from punching his ugly mask and face behind it.
As the grandmaster was reviewing the scenes of the two events I told him about, Sissy stood watching while feeling lost.
"What's wrong?" After ten minutes she failed to contain herself and asked in a low tone, fearing to disturb the grandmaster.
"Not now," I felt tired of explaining everything to her. Besides, wearing that robe and recalling the little debate that she created before getting it made me talk in a higher tone to her.
She was lower than me in rank, she admitted that herself. So why should I explain these things to her?
As she got nothing from me, she returned to watch the grandmaster in silence. From time to time the grandmaster would stop what he was doing, magnify part of the screen before shaking off his head.
"Whoever did this made it so it would be hard to detect his fingerprints," after almost an hour, he closed everything and turned to me to add:
"But I'm ninety percent certain of his identity."
"Which god is it then?" I asked, "Is it his god?"
"I'm afraid I can't answer that for now," yet unlike my expectations, he shook his head before adding in explanation, "the answer will get revealed after I cleanse your channel off this curse. Let's just hope it's not just one curse though or else my guess will be wrong."
"M… More than one curse… Damn!!" I was petrified for a second when I heard his words. Yet he smiled and said:
"Don't worry. Even if it's a ton of such curses, I can delete them all and return your channel brand new. But…" he paused slightly while furrowing his eyebrows, "you did really attract a lot of troublesome enemies in just a short time. You have to be more vigilant and extra careful from now on."
"I understand," I got his meaning, vaguely. After all I still didn't know what he truly meant by hoping I had more than one curse over my channel.
Yet his last warning and advice told me he believed my channel was cursed more than once. Damn! Didn't he say once cursed I couldn't get cursed again or what?
"You look conflicted, right?" as if he could read my mind, he shortly laughed before adding, "don't act like a frog living in the depths of a well. There is indeed a rule for one curse to not affect the same person more than once. But who told you there was only one kind of these dirty curses out there?"
"Do you mean…"
"Yes, and no," he gave me such an answer which wasn't one. What I wanted to ask about was that if I could get cursed again with different kinds of curses, then what would prevent the same bastard from cursing me again?
"I'll explain everything in time," he said before taking out a pill out of his inventory, "swallow this. It will heal the curse off your channel in the next few minutes."
I received that pill and examined it. It has a soft and jelly-like body, with clear and translucent green liquid inside.
"Is it painful?" I asked while putting it in my mouth.
"Hahaha, if you wanted the answer then you shouldn't have taken it first," he laughed while pointing at me.
"The answer won't change my mind," I shrugged while feeling the pill crashing inside my mouth, releasing its liquid inside even before I could swallow it.
"It's so spicy!" The first thing I felt was lava inside my mouth. My tongue screamed and couldn't help but gaped open my mouth and took rapid breaths to alleviate that annoying feeling.
"That's the only side effect of it," he shook his head as if I was a helpless case, "just be ready, I'm ninety percent sure you'll need another pill from me."
"These green pills…" Just at this moment, Sissy seemed to be jolted awake from her silence, "aren't these extremely precious and expensive cleansing pills?"
"It's nothing," I was surprised to hear about the value of such pills before I felt a vicious slap that assaulted my heart and shook my soul.
Damn! I ended up on my knees, panting for breath while vomiting a strange pitch black fluid with such an awful smell that made me want to vomit again.
"What the hell… Is that?!!" I felt like my body lost all its strength and couldn't help but sit on the ground next to that ugly and disgusting black liquid.
*Sizzle!* Before saying anything, a bolt of fire fell from a staff in the hands of that grandmaster. I didn't know when he got it but that liquid was purified and eroded away in mere breaths of time.
"It's the curse you got," he said in a deep voice, as if he was trying to control his rage inside, "let me check your channel again…"
He paused as he moved his fingers fast in the air. He didn't store away the staff, just left it resting on his arm while focusing on the things he was doing.
"As I guessed," he said in a weird happy tone. For the first time since knowing about my curse, his face showed a genuine smile. "You are still cursed."
"Is that a good thing?" Sissy asked in shock while I tried to stand but couldn't.
"Just eat something to restore your strength. This curse was deeply rooted in your body," he waved his hand to stop my attempts before adding, "you'll regain strength in less than half an hour. Then I can remove the last curse."
"O…K…" I said in a stuttered way while feeling the fatigue assaulting me fiercer when I tried to stand up.
I took out my meat and liquor before starting to replenish my lost strength. Just as he said, it took me roughly half an hour to return to my full strength.
"Let's crush the second curse and free your channel," the grandmaster held the face of someone celebrating the success of his son, not one who was sacrificing such precious pills for someone he barely knew.
I got the second green pill and placed it into my mouth. The wave of spiciness that came afterwards wasn't as bad as the first time. I was mentally prepared for this one and so it passed without much trouble.
But no matter how hard I prepared for the weakness after vomiting that black filthy liquid, it didn't help at all. I still ended up on my knees, feeling the same terrible weakness as the first time.
"Check on your channel now," the grandmaster didn't even wait for me to catch my breaths before saying that.
"No need to," but I said in slow tone before biting on one large piece of meat, "I got a message from the system telling me that my channel is purified at last."
"Awesome!"
209 The Broadcasting Station
It was indeed awesome, but not just for cleansing my channel off these two curses. The messages I got held more news than I just said to the grandmaster.
Yet for now I had to regain my strength before returning back to my apocalypse. I had a huge debt to settle with the bastard who did that to me.
"So have you figured out who did this to me, boss?" midway while recuperating, I asked with bright eyes.
I wanted my revenge. I wasn't the kind to let someone punch me in the face without going to kill his entire family in return!
"I'm sure now… Both of them cursed you each with a different kind of a curse," he said something that made my eyes wide open.
"Is that true?" I asked, "both of them? Not just one?"
He instantly shook his head before adding in a firm tone:
"I told you before, the price of a single curse is just too high for even an ordinary god. And you got cursed by two different curses! That means only one possible explanation; the two cursed you."
"Hmm…" I never expected that the two I suspected before would end up cursing me both. I could understand the motives behind the Curasee race god's actions. But the jumper's god… that was weird.
"Anyway you shall go back and have a long conversation with your jumper," the grandmaster said before throwing something that I caught midair, "this is the emblem of your rank, fine blue. You are now in the top five ranks in the entire impact. Just drop your blood over it and your system will do the rest."
"Thanks boss," I said, "I'll be sure to repay this kindness one day."
"If you want, then pay by your channel success," he waved his hand while moving away, "recently the number of new streamers plummeted without a reason. It seems I was slacking a lot recently… What a regret, tsk…"
As he moved away, his words turned into whispers then into vague noise before he vanished behind one of the doors here.
"Congratulations on the high rank," just before I could do anything to the emblem, Sissy said while slightly bowing her head.
"You don't need to do that," I said to stop her.
"It's our custom here, after all you are two ranks higher than me," she said in a clear envious tone. Girl, even if you were feeling envious at the moment, you should learn how to control yourself better than this.
"Thanks for the help before," I said to her, "can I add you to my friend list? I'm just new to this business and might need to ask questions from time to time."
"Sure," she extended her arm and I touched hers. The strange thing I felt was softness instead of hardness. I thought scales were meant to be hard, not this soft as if they were the smoothest skin ever!
"Thanks," as I accepted her ad, I said before asking, "how can I return back?"
"Just use the emblem and link it to your system," she said before adding, "in your interface you'll find an option to go back."
[Do you want to bind this fine blue of DIWI?]
"Yes," I said and the next moment that emblem vanished.
[Binding is complete]
[You can now access the impact interface from your profile]
I opened that interface to be met with lots of items being sold. All different kinds of reels, broadcasting tips, short clips, even exchanging subscribers were there.
Damn! This was a totally new world for me.
As I looked closely, ignoring all the interesting items being sold there like a big media auction, I found a way to exit from the impact.
It was a small icon at the bottom right of this window. "I'll see you later," I waved towards Sissy who simply harrumphed, turned around and left.
This girl… She was of that kind… the bitter loser.
*Fwoosh!*
Like I came here, I passed through a whirlpool that took me back to Albany city.
I was still standing in the central area. It took me long hours to get this problem solved.
Before doing anything, I first sent messages to all of my team members, asking about their current progress and latest details.
All were having fun, even my girl. All except one. The jumper was pissed off from the chasing and tracking mission I assigned to him.
Dude… You were this happy before about this mission. And now you were complaining? What did you think about this mission then? You'd walk to the Berserkers and fight them to get the girl back?
But he had more good news than his useless complaints. That girl was spotted closer to my city, just less than fifty miles away.
She was seen by the Berserkers. That dude acted slightly tough and hit any scouting teams belonging to Wryly's side. I knew I told him to disguise himself and his force before attacking the Berserkers, but that was to just get the girl out of their hands.
Going all around attacking Wryly's teams would instigate more unforeseen reactions from these Berserkers. As he sent me the good news he got from the mouth of one of those scouting teams by his methods, he also threw one piece of bad news.
[I noticed the increase in those Berserkers' movements. They are sending out more teams around the city. My guess is that they are trying to get the girl first]
No dude! You just alarmed them of your presence and so they just did that to respond against such provocation!
I rolled up my eyes while taking a deep breath. That jumper was a source of trouble no matter where or when he was.
I decided not to tell him about my opinion. If I told him that, he might go even bolder and fight more with these teams to show off his dominance.
He should have stuck to the original plan and kept hidden as long as possible. Anyway, what happened happened already, so I just asked him to be more careful.
As for that girl… as she was coming towards my direction I should just stick around and wait for her. After that I'd plan things with her on a wider scale.
I still didn't know how strong she and her forces were. If she held a power equal to mine in size and diversity, then it would be great.
The last crushing defeat she suffered from that dragon archlord meant her forces were outplayed in strength and witts. Hopefully she would be a smart girl and knew it was better to ally herself with someone like me, a human like her.
As I received all the new updates about my scattered forces in this area, I had now time to check the messages I got back at the DIWI impact.
[Congratulations! You managed to cleanse your channel off one curse]
[Congratulations! You managed to cleanse your channel off two curses]
[You managed to achieve a feat unprecedented before]
[Congratulations! You got one point of favorability from the system higher ups]
[You gained one heroic calling usage for free]
[Your channel got an upgrade]
[Your channel is now at rank silver]
[You are eligible to broadcast to the nearest one hundred apocalypse to you for one hour per day]
[You can select the videos you want to broadcast]
[Your rank as a streamer got upgraded]
[You are now a grade bronze streamer]
[You can now make business cards in the form of videos, images, and words to describe you and put them into the general streaming forums]
[You can access the forum from your channel interface]
[Your channel got a free expansion package]
[You can now accept support from one hundred thousand being]
[You got a free god blessing slot after the current quest is done]
[You got the blueprint to build a broadcasting station]
[This station can work to cover certain range in the world you are living in]
I was thrilled by everything, no doubt, but the most rewarding thing that made my heart palpitate was none other than the last one.
Damn! Wasn't that the thing I was looking for all this time? Of course it wasn't like the far practical way of communication with other humans here, but at least it could close the existing gap until I finish that chain quest.
A station that could broadcast everything I and my team would do all the time was an awesome tool. This way other humans near me could get inspiration, learn from our mistakes and good points, even try to come towards us and join my forces.
If this station had a good covering range, then it would solve a great deal of time and trouble.
It was like a heroic calling, yet on a smaller scale and without the need to do crazy stuff to get that thing.
Without any hesitation I opened my inventory to find an old looking green paper lying in calm inside my swelled up inventory.
I needed to clean my inventory off any useless shitty gears and monster materials before the end of the quest. But that wasn't the time to do it now.
[Broadcasting station blueprint: Green grade blueprint. Can be used by someone with attributes towards building and architecture. The required materials needed and the way to build it are all demonstrated in details inside the blueprint. Upgradeable.
Conditions for building it: 1. Having someone with an affinity suited to read this blueprint. 2. Have all the materials needed. 3. Have at least ten thousand builders. 4. Have total control over a city with a civilised heart in it.
Conditions for upgrading the blueprint to the silver grade: 1. Have ten million stat points or equivalent amounts of other energy sources. 2. One hundred people with affinity suited to read the blueprint. 3. One of them must have an Earth grade attribute. 4. Paying fifty million views from the owner. 5. Having a coverage of at least one million miles in radius. 6. The city that has the broadcasting station must contain a branch from one of the streaming impacts across the universe.
Further conditions to upgrade the blueprint to higher grades will be unlocked after each upgrade]
I looked at the piece of paper in my hand closely before inwardly sighing. I tried to read it, but I lacked any suitable attribute to do so.
In front of me, this priceless blueprint was just a mere yellow and old tattered paper with dimmed lining and writings that gave no meaning!
I flipped it around but failed to see anything meaningful at all. After a few minutes of trying, I feared I'd damage it considering its old condition, and soon stored it away.
The conditions to build the station seemed a bit vague. Yet I knew I fulfilled few of these conditions, even including the upgrading conditions as well.
The one that might seem ridiculous was the city. Luckily I got this city under my control already. This city wouldn't get to this extent without having a civilised heart in it.
Of course I didn't know its location and didn't care to look for it. The one that planted that heart would be the only one knowing about its place.
Its location must be kept all the time secretive, or else an enemy might infiltrate the city and dig that heart out of it. If that happened, then the heart would be damaged and the city would lose all the glory it had so far.
I once was worried that the dragon race might have a clue about that heart place. But for me I also doubted that. Such a grand secret would be kept hidden even from your forces.
As for the condition to have a branch from a streaming impact here… It was a piece of cake for me. I was now part of the DIWI and my rank there was quite high.
Even if I had to pay views as a cost to gain such privilege, I wouldn't decline that.
Yet the view issue was a problem. I only had a few million views so far and I needed lots and lots of views. How could I gain more then?
"I'll kill you son of b*tch!!!"
Just while I was lost in my own thoughts, a weird voice appeared out of nowhere just a couple of metres away from me. Just before I could turn to see who just dared to come and shout at me in such a rude way, all I saw was a flash of light before I felt intense pain at the left side of my face.
*Bang!*
And like a sandbag I was thrown to the ground, while a nice looking girl was glaring in intense rage at me.
F*ck! Who was this girl?!!! And what did I do to her to deserve this?!!!
210 Changing Gender Accusation
No matter what I thought, that hit on her was really painful.
"Who the hell are you! Come out now!"
Without even waiting to stand up, I called forth all my personal army to my aid. I felt this scene was pretty familiar when I first met the jumper.
Yet back then I was still weak, without many warriors by my side. This time I had a grand army that once appeared, it made that beauty standing in front of me glare in pure shock.
"You…"
"Who the f*ck are you?" I stood up, getting confidence from all the warriors on my side.
My army was in thousands already, almost close to ten thousand. The grand appearance of my army with the diverse warriors in it made that chick quite speechless.
"How could you do that?" she asked but the answer she got was my light weighted glaive.
"It's me who is asking the question here, not you," I pointed the glaive towards her before adding, "don't try anything funny. My warriors are enough to threaten a grand dragon army. Facing a weak chick like you is a breeze."
"F*ck you!" she was so beautiful, I gave her that. Slim body, narrow waist with slightly bulging chest and buttocks. She was long, a few inches even longer than me.
Yet her hair was longer! It was long enough to stretch on the ground behind her. Pure azure hair that had few sparkling red strands like blood lines.
Her eyes also looked the same as her hair, pure azure with faint vertical red lines in them. Her face was spotless, looking as the finest jade one could see.
She gave me the impression of European people living in this era. At my time, humans from different countries and continents before the apocalypse lived together. So there was no nationality or even geographical identity to any of us back then.
Only classes mattered. "Who are you?" I asked again and this time my voice came icy cold.
She was a human indeed, but I wouldn't forgive anyone sneakily attacking me like this.
"If you are a man, then fight me alone," she dared to challenge me, but I wasn't a fool to let go of my advantage out of pride.
Her strength in that punch back then proved that she was even stronger than the jumper.
I was quite sure that even if the jumper hit me now, he wouldn't be able to knock me down like this. I already opened my dantian and even had two! My meridians were cleansed and opened in such amazing size and number.
I wasn't weak, and she was even stronger than the current me by leaps and bounds.
"Identify yourself first," I said before adding, "or face the wrath of my army and die."
She looked quite hesitant as if she was struggling against some sort of an idea. Damn! Don't tell me she really wanted to fight against all of my warriors by herself!
If so then she was a crazy son of b*tch, one that would end up dying without doubt.
Yet the fact that she had her cultivation opened in such early stages of the apocalypse proved how special and different she was.
Cultivation wasn't like classes. If getting a class was difficult, then having a cultivation base was surmounting mountains and ascending to heavens.
"How did you get that power of mine?" out of the blue she blurted in pure rage and hatred, saying these illogical words. "What? Being an angel isn't fun anymore? Are you that insane to try and fool me out?"
"What the hell are you talking about?!!" I felt how angry she was. She wasn't faking it. She believed every single word she said.
"You are an angel, my rival angel, the one I'm fighting against all this time… What? Can't you even recognize an old enemy like me? Come on! Don't play this silly trick on me, it won't work."
"F*ck angels," I said, "and f*ck you as well! Who the hell is an angel? Are you lunatic or got something loose in here?"
I pointed at my head while she responded with a light snort. She looked very affirmative of her words, totally believing in that bullshit.
"Do you think I won't recognize this aura? It's something that only the two of us can have! But I have to give this to you, this time you played it smart in a way that I never expected."
She said these words before taking out a long spear. It looked quite heavy and so threatening to cause cracks in the air around it.
"I won't listen to your nonsense! We are enemies! Mortal enemies! Nothing can change it even if you change your gender and come as a human in this life."
"Girl… I'm sure you are mistaking me for someone else."
This was something clear at this point. No matter what, this girl had a deep grudge against angels, just like me. "I'm also the enemy of angels. I fought against them, killed their traitors, and even crushed down their mighty star weapon."
I pointed towards the high sky while her eyes narrowed.
"I can't believe you did all that just to mask this gender shift of yours! Pathetic! But how come you left part of your energy back at the angel world? I can still feel your aura coming from there as well… What twisted dark sorcery have you done this time bastard!"
Just as she said that, she moved and tried to hit me with her spear. "Shield warriors… Combined skill!"
Without hesitation I shouted and my shield warriors jumped in front of me. They raised their shields and slammed them against the ground, activating their combined skill together.
A massive shield appeared, developing them. Yet just as this happened, this girl raised her spear on the top of her head and let it spin horizontally, creating afterimages.
"A skill… An advanced skill!!!" I was shocked to see this skill. I didn't clearly recognise this skill but it was strong enough to threaten me.
"Lightning god… Come!" without waiting for the two skills to clash, I called forth at one of my lightning fallen gods.
These dudes were monsters at any battle, but they also had something I rarely needed before and desperately needed it now.
*Boom!* the behemoth landed on my side, creating a storm of dust and gale of wind. Just with his appearance next to me, coupled with the words I just shouted, the azure red eyes of that chick widened for a brief second out of her surprise.
"Use your shield," I didn't hesitate to give the order while shouting at the warriors standing behind her, "come back now!"
I took them inside my inventory without any hesitation. This clash was destined to be violent, so my soulers weren't suited to stay here.
Only Bulltors, shield warriors, dragons, Gollems, and fallen gods were strong enough to survive this.
*Rumble!*
The clash turned violent as I expected. The two skills hit each other, one in the form of a giant shield and the other in the form of a massive spear made out of pure azure light.
The shield was strong indeed, but the spear had the upper hand thanks to its focus attack over a single point.
So it wasn't a surprise for the spear to penetrate the shield and go for my shield warriors behind.
The shield skill of theirs was enough to take her down. But at the same time her spear was enough to take them down, and her spear was faster to reach them.
But just before it could hit my precious shield warriors, my fallen god used his shield at this moment to block the advancing spear.
*Clang!* *Clang!* *Clang!*
Like two pieces of steel slamming against each other, the spear and shield kept fighting back and forth for ten seconds. I was surprised to realise her attack was able to stand against my fallen god's defensive shield.
My lightning fallen god isn't unique in defending. Yet his shield was enough to rival the combined skill of my shield warriors. Unlike them, his skill was used mainly to defend without any attacking options.
"Ahhh! F*ck you!!!" just in the middle of this intense fight, a heart curdling scream came from her direction. I looked and saw the combined skill of my shield warriors finally landed over her, creating a deep hole in the ground where this chick fell into.
And with that, her skill lost its support, ending up crushed under the fierce force of my fallen god.
"Stop!"
Just before the rest of my present warriors moved a finger, I gave this order in a firm way.
I walked leisurely towards the edge of this deep and long pit, I saw her body lying down at the bottom.
She wasn't in the messy situation I thought she would be in. This was thanks to an armour she wore just while falling, taking most of the damage of this fall and protecting her body… mostly.
That armour was like a suit made out of azure and silver white ore. It covered her body entirely, stopping just under her chin.
Seeing her from this far made me think of an eye-catching flower, with her armour acting like the petals to her head with its petal-like curved endings.
"Are you done?" I shouted while pointing at my chariot to come to me. I simply grabbed the rope and climbed up to the deck. As for my warriors, they simply boarded it in no time.
As I headed down there, she was already on her feet. The look over her face held the same anger and hatred like before. Except for that thin trail of blood that came from the corners of her mouth, one might mistake her for not taking any damage at all at the last attack.
But even if she didn't take any, she still got a deep blow to her ego.
"If you have such strength now to crush me like this, why not finish the job then?" she said in a tone that held a faint touch of defeat. "Now I understand… Hahahaha! How cruel is this life!"
Like a crazy girl, she raised her head and laughed while saying such words. I frowned and didn't know where this weird meeting would end up.
"I now understand why you decided to change your gender! It's a brilliant move, I give you that," she returned to look at me with eyes that looked like she gave up any hope of fighting.
How come she lost her edge so soon and just from one loss of exchange with me?
"You were bound by the system, so you decided to change your gender and come to this apocalypse this time as a human. Brilliant… Really didn't expect this at all! It never crossed my mind, so I applaud you but…"
She clapped in mockery before adding, "you know killing me is as impossible as winning this eternal fight! I'll skip this apocalypse and go to the next life. And I swear the next time we meet won't be just like this one here."
"Stop!" Something alarming exploded inside my heart the moment I heard her words, "who are you?"
"Stop playing this game, it's already too silly," she said while a strange azure aura was gathering up from her feet, ascending slowly towards her head.
"I'm not what the hell you are thinking!" I shouted, "I'm not that damn angel!"
"You have his energy, I won't mistake this no matter what!"
"Damn stupid girl! I have your energy, not his!!"
"What the f*ck…"
And with her shock, she interrupted whatever she was doing and led to her azure energy to disperse even before reaching her waist.
Damn! That was close!
"Say it again…"
"I got whatever you feel from you," I said before adding, "I came from the future, thanks to your own power."
And saying that made her eyes wide open, her mouth gaped apart, and her entire body kept shaking for long minutes.
211 You Are A Loser, Chick!
She kept trembling for a few minutes before her eyes shone in a strange azure light. "Give me proof of what you say," she said as if she had reached a conclusion. I was toying with her.
"I'm not lying," I said in a firm tone.
"Then prove it."
"What other proof do you want other than this?" I raised my glaive in the air and moved it around, pointing to my army of deadly warriors here. "I can kill you at any moment I want."
"And you know I can travel in time and appear at the apocalypse's beginning," she snorted, "your threats are void of any weight buddy. Just give me something I can relate with."
I frowned! This girl… she was harder to deal with than even that jumper!
I thought about telling her information about the future. But as her enemy had the ability to live through many years and return back like her, then this wouldn't be a good reason.
I thought about the old man. But something told me she wouldn't remember him. The version of her that met and entrusted the old man with her energy was different from this chick in front of me.
Damn! Why was it hard to just answer this simple question? I kept in silence thinking deeply about a way out of this. And in return she kept her silence, giving me such icy cold gazes without blinking.
I bet she would be ready to travel through time the moment I said something not worthy.
"Here," finally something flashed in my mind before I calmly took out something from my inventory. It was an item that I used a lot at the early stage of the apocalypse.
Yet recently I trusted this job to others, while neglecting to keep a track on how things were going with them.
"This…" once I took it out, her face slightly changed.
"It's a compass that can tell enemies apart from friends," I threw it from my position and she grabbed it. "Use it on me. Even if I changed my race and became a human, I'll remain your enemy, right?"
At last she gave me the impression of buying what I just said. In fact this was the only way I could prove to her I wasn't her enemy.
Proving that I wasn't that dude she fought against would solve the entire problem. As for me having the energy of time travel, that would be explained later by the old man's tale.
"Give me your blood then," she finally accepted my proposition.
"Here," I moved my glaive and let it leave a shallow wound over my skin. After that I simply waved my glaive, throwing the blood towards her.
She didn't move to grab any blood droplets of mine. She simply controlled the compass using her energy and let it take my blood.
Then the compass started working.
I was far from her to see the results. But I was sure of what she would find. She kept looking at the compass for a long minute. Girl! The compass wouldn't take more than a few seconds to give a result.
"What does it say?" I asked when she entered the second minute without giving me any response.
"Phew… You seem to speak the truth… But how can this be possible?"
Damn girl! You were stupefied from the fact that I wasn't lying to you! What a stubborn girl you were!
"I can explain everything, but first come on board," I planted my glaive on the ground without letting it back into my inventory.
From my experience in dealing with the jumper, I knew this kind of person had something wrong running inside their brains.
I had to be on my guard all the time, just like what I usually did with the jumper.
"I'm coming," as she got the confirmation on my words, she started to slightly show some trust in me. As she boarded the chariot using the rope, she looked around and her eyes fell over my giant ballista and various weapons.
"Nice collection you have here," she said before her eyes turned to the chariot itself, "and this little beauty… I never saw something like it so early in the apocalypse."
"I won it fair and square," I said and she chuckled.
"I wasn't accusing you of stealing it or something."
"I bet," I rolled my eyes before adding, "did you come here for me?"
"I was running after that dragon bastard. He was this close to dying in my hands before he used some sort of dark magic and turned the tables on me," she said and from her words I realised something.
Damn! She was the girl I sent the jumper after! That lazy and useless dude! What the hell was he doing all this time?
The girl I sent him to keep track of was in front of me. That was weird! The last report that dude sent was that this girl was at least fifty miles away.
Damn you useless jumper! Fifty miles my as*!
"What?" she shortly laughed, "did you think that useless dude with a stupid mask can really track me?"
She raised her arm and at this moment, the suit she wore vanished partially, revealing her clear white like jade soft skin.
And there I spotted a mark in the form of a tattoo.
"With this I can make any copy like myself and fool others like that masked fool."
"Yes, he is a fool, I can vouch for it," I said while feeling how pathetic that jumper was. If he was here right now then a fight was destined to fall between these two.
"Now, give me answers," her face returned to her old icy cold self while speaking like she got the upper hand here.
"First don't speak with me in this tone ever again," I first said while hitting the ground with my glaive twice. "I'm the one with the highest authority here."
"You got your energy from me, that means you are lower than me," she shrugged while giving me such a teasing look and smile.
"That won't count," I said.
"I never listen to loser's words," her tone was filled with mockery.
Me? A loser? What the f*ck did she think?
"If there is a loser here then it'd be you," I returned the mockery with another.
"A loser? Me? Hahaha! That's the most absurd claim I ever heard in my life! Even that bastard won't dare to call me like this."
"You are indeed a loser," I nodded in confirmation, "or else how do you explain you giving up your energy and entrusting it with someone else?"
"Liar!" her face rolled up with anger, yet all she got from me was a loud laugh.
"It's the truth that you don't want to accept, yet it's the truth," I shrugged, "just think about it. If you didn't lose against that angel bastard, then how come you give up your energy and let me take it?"
"That's nonsense!"
"It's what happened in my time," I kept my calm against her shouts and rage, "you failed ninety-nine times! Can you even believe that! For ninety-nine times you were a loser against that angel, ending up losing any hope to win."
"No f*cking way! These are a bunch of lies! Just lies!"
"You failed, and decided to pass on the gift you have. You didn't even have the confidence anymore to fight against that angel in your last attempt. So you decided to pass on your flame, hoping and praying for a hero like me to arrive."
"Bullshit!"
"It's what happened," I laughed, "you can't change history darling."
"That's nonsense! I won't believe a letter of what you just said! They are all lies."
"Hahaha," I laughed in return, "anyway, that proves you are lower, much lower than me," I held my glaive and moved it all around, "just open your clouded eyes and see. Tell me, sweet chick, have you ever seen someone having such power at this stage of the apocalypse?"
"Don't call me a chick!" she left everything I said and was deeply insulted by the nickname I gave to her.
Come on! Don't you have a mirror or something? Didn't you see how you look before? Be a real girl! You are a stunning beauty and chick!
"Listen chick, I hate people yelling at me! I already have one that's a pain the as*, so drop this act and don't join his blacklist."
"F*ck you!" she bellowed before raising her spear, "even if I'd end up fighting and losing against you, I won't accept such an insulting name."
Just seeing her acting like that gave me an impression over the reasons that led to her continuous defeats. I was sure not all the ninety-nine times were her defeat.
But with her current attitude and childish aggressive mindset, I bet she lost the last attempts in a frightening losing streak!
That angel was playing a long game, just like an attrition battle. The one with the calmest mind and furthest view would end up winning.
But the one with such a short temper and lack of even understanding the simplest priorities in her life would end up losing.
If I was her, I'd be happy to have someone like me on her side! At least she wasn't going to fight against that bastard all alone.
Not to mention I wasn't doing bad myself. My entire forces were really so mighty to rival against the mightiest archlords of other races.
"Why are you looking at me in such a way?" she raised an eyebrow. Of course I was looking at a pathetic person, one that was destined to lose and was just inwardly sighing on how bitter our race was destined to be.
If our strongest and mightiest person, the one with such a heaven shaking ability to change anything, was acting in such a way and had such a childish mind, then it was the end story of our race.
It wasn't a fluke that dude of the angelic race managed to claim victory at the end! It wasn't a surprise for me right now that she lost all hopes to change the end result and decided to give up her life and her power to me.
"Let's talk about something productive then," one thing was clear to me; this was her nature! No matter what I'd say or try to do, this chick would always remain like this.
Just like that stupid jumper!
If I just recalled back my early start in this apocalypse, I'd consider myself a fool! I made a few mistakes here and there, and didn't know how to handle the power I had.
If I had the ability to return back and start over, then I'd surely do better, much better than this.
But what about all this time in the apocalypse? I changed… I got matured and hellishly strong enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with people like other races archlord and even crush them.
And just standing in front of the girl who gave me all this from the start… I didn't feel any pressure at all. In fact I saw her as a poor little chick, one who was entrusted with a mission that was way over her abilities from the start.
She was a poor chick indeed. And releasing this made me know how valuable my presence here was.
"Like what?" she asked in mockery just like always.
"Like how we will crush that bastard and save our race from annihilation."
"Genius… what do you think I was doing so far?" she said in such an arrogant tone that made me want to laugh.
But to not add fuel to fire, I controlled myself and only smiled in return.
"I'm here now," I bypassed her loser chick nickname and only said it in my mind, "so it's better to fight that bastard using our number advantage."
"You are pathetic," yet all I got from her was rejection and that mockery in her voice, "do you think you are the only person who came back here with such power? Fool! This is the apocalypse! Everything is controlled by balance."
"What do you mean?" I dropped all my thoughts about her and thought about what she just said, "do you mean…"
"Indeed," she nodded, "as you got that power, another angel bastard must have also gained it! We aren't fighting a battle with number advantage, we are all treated evenly here. This is the system's nature in this f*cking apocalypse, genius!"