Chapter 42: Want to 1v1?

By evening, Eris checked the time on her phone and reluctantly stood up.

She had spent most of the day in my apartment, eaten my food, played games on my computer, and finally tried to convince me to buy fake breasts. After all that, seeing her gather the belongings she had scattered across the couch felt strangely unnatural, as though she were the real owner of the apartment and had suddenly decided to leave.

"I need to go home," she said. "I have training early tomorrow morning. If I’m late, my instructor will chase me around all day."

"How bad can being late to a Nexus user’s training be?"

"Last time, I had to attack moving targets for two hours without using fire."

"That isn’t a punishment. It’s normal exercise."

"The targets were attacking me too."

I closed my mouth and nodded in understanding.

After picking up the sock she had left on the arm of the couch, Eris began searching the room for the other one. Seeing that my morning note had worked filled me with a small sense of satisfaction.

"Your other sock is under the bed," I said.

"How did it get there?"

"You’re the one who threw it across the apartment."

Once she found the sock, she put on her shoes and slung the small bag beside the door over her shoulder.

"I’ll message you tomorrow about where we’re meeting for shopping. I don’t know when my training will end."

"We can leave the shopping for another day."

"No. I’m not giving you an excuse to escape."

"I’m not trying to escape."

"Then you won’t cause any trouble when we go to try on wedding dresses tomorrow."

My eye twitched.

"We’re only going to look at the dresses."

"Sure, sure."

Before opening the door, Eris turned around and looked me over from head to toe with a teasing smile.

"Good night, Evelyn."

"If you call me that again, I’m not coming tomorrow."

"Good night, Tsundere Evelyn."

The moment I reached for the nearest pillow, she laughed and slipped through the door. She closed it before I could throw the pillow, leaving my hand suspended in the air.

"Damn nuisance..."

After locking the door and returning to the living room, the silence felt more noticeable than I had expected. Only a few minutes ago, Eris’s laughter had been filling the apartment, accompanied by the endless sounds of videos playing on her phone.

Now, I could hear nothing but the quiet hum of my computer.

Her presence sometimes exhausted every nerve in my body, but the apartment seemed a little empty without her.

Before that thought could settle any deeper, I checked the time on my phone. I still had more than enough time to stream, and with tomorrow’s training and shopping trip, I had no idea how much energy I would have left in the evening.

Besides, there was an important goal I needed to reach today.

I sat down in front of my computer. Eris had changed the height of my chair while playing, so after readjusting it, I opened my profile on the streaming platform.

When the page loaded, my eyes widened slightly at the number beneath my follower count.

[941 Followers]

"Wow..."

I had ended yesterday’s stream with 817 followers. The number had increased by more than a hundred while I was offline. Short clips from my streams were still being shared across different pages, especially the one where I lost all my items at the last possible moment.

I needed only fifty-nine more followers.

I would reach one thousand during tonight’s stream.

I had to.

As soon as that thought crossed my mind, a translucent System window appeared before my eyes.

[Mission: Rising Streamer]

[Objective: Reach 1,000 followers.]

[Progress: 941/1,000]

[Reward: Four-Star Mystery Card]

My gaze remained fixed on the reward for several seconds. It might not be as valuable as the five-star card I could earn from the cosplay contest, but a four-star card could still grant me something more powerful than any ability I currently possessed.

Umbrella was only a three-star item, yet it could transform into any object I wanted and repair itself after being damaged. The more I considered what a four-star card might give me, the stronger my desire to stream became.

"I’m getting that card tonight."

After changing the stream title, I selected Nexus Frontline as the game I would play. It was a competitive fighting game that turned famous Nexus users, heroes, and villains from the real world into playable characters.

I had already downloaded it but hadn’t played a single match. Everything I knew about its controls and basic mechanics came from a few short videos I had watched.

Playing a new game for the first time on stream was risky, but if I kept opening the same battle royale every day, the viewers might eventually get bored.

Before starting the stream, I went to the kitchen and took a cold can of lemon soda from the refrigerator. When I opened it, the sharp hiss was picked up by the microphone far more clearly than expected.

I took a small sip, settled into my chair, and drew a deep breath.

"Here we go."

The moment I pressed the stream button, my blue-haired avatar appeared on the screen. I checked the game’s audio settings while waiting for the first viewers to arrive, but the chat began moving after only a few seconds.

[You’re finally here!]

[What are you playing today?]

[Hello, Supreme Noctis.]

[Finished mourning the items you lost yesterday?]

[Are you drinking soda?]

[Start the game already!]

The viewer count passed one hundred within the first minute and two hundred only a few minutes later. When the number in the corner climbed to 270 before I had even left the main menu, I couldn’t completely hide my surprise.

Yesterday, I had spent half the stream struggling to reach this number.

Today, it had taken only a few minutes.

Had all these people really come here to watch me?

A few days ago, reaching one hundred concurrent viewers had seemed almost impossible. Now, hundreds of people were already complaining even though I hadn’t been late.

I suppressed the happy expression threatening to form on my face and made my avatar look arrogantly toward the camera.

"Oiii, mortals! Welcome to Supreme Noctis’s stream!"

The chat immediately filled with new messages.

[Here she goes again.]

[She declared herself a goddess in three days.]

[Supreme Noctis, why did you scream while running from the dragon yesterday?]

[How many minutes before she starts crying in this game?]

"I didn’t scream. That was a battle cry."

[It was definitely a scream.]

[I had to take off my headphones.]

[Are we playing Nexus Frontline today?]

"Yes. Today, I’m playing a game where you can witness my true talent."

[Have you played it before?]

"That detail isn’t important."

[So she hasn’t.]

[She’ll start blaming the game in ten minutes.]

"Stop talking nonsense and watch your master."

---

After opening Nexus Frontline, I skipped the tutorial without a second thought. Learning the controls during an actual match would be far more entertaining.

When I selected an unranked match from the main menu, a large character roster appeared on the screen.

Every character was based on a Nexus user who had either lived in this world or was still alive today.

Before I could properly examine them, the chat filled with suggestions.

[Play Ice King! He’s easy for beginners.]

[Pick Solaris. His range is incredible.]

[Make her play Titan. She can win with two buttons.]

[No, choose the Glass Witch!]

[Pick Nightfall!]

Ignoring their advice, I began moving through the character portraits. The first rows contained famous heroes and powerful Nexus users from the global rankings.

Ice King could freeze his opponents and restrict their movement. Solaris’s attacks covered nearly the entire arena, while Titan’s enormous body allowed him to ignore a portion of the damage he received.

A large number of the characters were locked. Some could be unlocked by raising the account level, while others had to be purchased with in-game currency.

As I scrolled down the list, my hand stopped on the mouse when I encountered an extremely familiar face.

A sharp-featured man with slicked-back black hair stood with his arms folded over his chest. Gray currents of wind swirled around the long black coat he wore.

[NIGHTFALL]

Seeing my father on a video game’s character-selection screen felt stranger than expected.

Giving in to my curiosity, I clicked on his portrait. Lucian Evernight’s character model appeared on the screen, lifted his head slightly, and delivered his special line in a confident voice.

"All kneel before the Evernight bloodline."

I stared silently at the screen for several seconds, pressing my lips together to keep from laughing.

Had the developers written that line themselves, or had that old bastard genuinely said something like it?

I suspected the second possibility was far more likely.

[Nightfall is really strong. Pick him!]

[He’s locked.]

[Supreme Noctis can’t afford him.]

[Nightfall’s ultimate is insanely cool.]

"I don’t want to play such an arrogant character."

[You’re saying that?]

[The girl calling herself Supreme Noctis is complaining about arrogance.]

[At least Nightfall is actually strong.]

My eye twitched again.

"I’m strong too."

[Of course...]

"You’ll see in a minute."

Nightfall was locked, so I couldn’t choose him anyway. Besides, I had no intention of paying money to spend time with that old bastard, even inside a game.

As I continued scrolling, I realized the roster included more than heroes. Criminals and villains who had appeared during various Overlap incidents had also been turned into playable characters.

Some were completely locked, but one free character near the bottom of the list caught my attention.

The lower half of his face was covered by a metal mask. Rusted chains hung from his long black coat, and he carried a large, curved scythe attached to a chain.

His difficulty rating displayed five stars.

[Don’t pick him. He’s too difficult for beginners.]

[Chain Executioner? She’s going to embarrass herself in her first match.]

[He’s way too slow at close range.]

[We told you to pick Ice King!]

I clicked the portrait and selected him.

"What? He looks cool!"

[Is that your only requirement?]

[She’ll blame the character within ten minutes.]

[Place your bets. Can she win the first round?]

Ignoring the chat, I began matchmaking.

My first opponent used a fast character who created flaming spears from his hands. I took several hits during the opening seconds while trying to understand which button did what, but I soon realized that Chain Executioner’s scythe had a much wider range than I had expected.

When my opponent lunged at me again, I threw the chain and caught him in midair. After dragging him toward me, I struck him repeatedly with the scythe and removed most of his health.

It took me less than a minute to win the first round.

During the second round, I discovered that the character could use his chain to move around the arena. I hooked it onto the edge of the stage, swung over an incoming attack, landed behind my opponent, and finished the match with my special ability.

The result appeared on the screen.

[2–0 VICTORY]

I leaned back in my chair and casually took a sip of my soda.

"Was that it?"

[Luck.]

[That opponent was definitely a bot.]

[How did you do that chain movement?]

[I don’t believe this is your first time playing.]

[She definitely practiced in secret.]

"You mortals simply refuse to accept how talented I am."

I immediately started a second match. This time, my opponent chose an assassin with a short-range teleportation ability.

I lost the first round because I spent most of it trying to adjust to his speed. However, once I noticed that he looked toward his destination before every attack, I began reading his movements.

I won the second round by maintaining my distance with the chain. In the third, I threw the scythe toward his destination before he teleported and struck him the moment he appeared.

[2–1 VICTORY]

The chat moved even faster when the result screen appeared.

[Impossible. You’ve definitely played before.]

[A beginner couldn’t predict that attack.]

[This is a smurf account!]

[She’s lying!]

[You deceived us, Supreme Noctis.]

"What?! Stop talking nonsense! This is my first time playing the game with you!"

[Her first time playing "with us." Look at that wordplay.]

[She probably has another account.]

[Show your match history!]

Their accusations became increasingly irritating. I returned to the main menu, opened my profile, and showed my match history to the entire stream.

Only the two matches I had played a few minutes ago appeared on the screen.

[Matches Played: 2]

[Wins: 2]

[Losses: 0]

"Oiii, do you see it now?! It’s understandable that my supreme and professional skills confused you, but stop slandering me."

[She won two matches and became a professional.]

[Her ego has reached the ceiling.]

[Don’t let her end the stream until someone beats her.]

Just as I prepared to begin another match, a message from a familiar username appeared in the chat.

[Caramel: God... stop giving her opportunities to become more arrogant.]

I frowned and leaned toward the microphone.

"Oiii, don’t be jealous just because I’m playing well, mortal."

Caramel answered within seconds.

[Caramel: Jealous? Of you? Ahah.]

[Caramel: Want to 1v1?]

My hand stopped on the mouse.

I had no idea how long Caramel had been playing this game. What if they had thousands of matches and easily defeated me in front of all my viewers?

Only two matches ago, I hadn’t even understood the controls. I still hadn’t discovered all of Chain Executioner’s abilities, and I had barely seen the attacks of the other characters. Challenging an experienced player in this state could be incredibly stupid.

However, the competitive fire inside me refused to accept the thought of backing down.

Besides, Caramel was probably a beginner like me. If they were genuinely strong, they would be playing their own matches instead of sitting in my chat and bothering me.

I formed a confident smile.

"If you’re going to regret this, say so now. Supreme Noctis shows no mercy to his opponents."

[Caramel: If you’re done talking, send the request.]

They posted their player ID in the chat.

I copied the code and pasted it into the game’s friend-search menu. When the username appeared on the screen, I sent the friend request, then clicked on the profile to see what kind of player I was about to face.

The moment the page opened, the confident smile vanished from my face.

My blue eyes widened when I saw the season badge, total matches, win rate, and the number beside the global ranking. My mouth fell slightly open, and I stared at the screen in silence for several seconds.

"Fuck..."