The scariest thing was sudden silence.
But there was no helping it, this Void Ranger died way too fast.
He disappeared as quickly as when he attacked the Mimic Honey Badger. With a single "whoosh," he vanished without a trace. Truly "came fast, left fast."
After a short silence, Burning Calamity Shadow clenched his fists and said furiously, "You, you bastard! You actually, you actually killed him! We will never forgive you! Your days of ruling this forest are over!"
"For Void Ranger, for the others, for every living thing in this forest, today, we must defeat you! Aaahhh!"
"This guy... really has a lot of drama..."
Watching Burning Calamity Shadow shout a bunch of passionate-sounding lines, then wave his weapon and lead the companions beside him in an attack against the Mimic Honey Badger, March really could not hold back her urge to complain.
"This plot keeps giving me the feeling that I've seen it somewhere before."
"It's that so-called 'main character template,' right?" Nero said from the side. "It feels like reading one of those children's animal comic books published by the company.
"Going by that kind of plot, next this Burning Calamity Shadow probably won't be able to beat the mimic monster no matter what."
"He'll even lose his friends, then endure humiliation and hardship, and finally defeat the enemy in the end."
"Doesn't that mean we're the legendary old masters then? Picking up this heavily injured Ether Spirit, training him, teaching him skills, and finally helping him defeat this big guy acting as the final boss." March directly continued along Nero's line of thought.
"Damn, Nero and March have really watched a lot of these!" Siberian Duck could not help laughing as she watched March and Nero complain and discuss things in the game.
[Stealing Your Rice: I can testify, people who've seen too much really are like this.]
[So Ugly People Scold Me At Home: But the question is why people watch so much of it. It's because even when you know and can predict what'll happen next, you still can't help watching. That's what they call the 'satisfying' part.]
[Glue Man: Got it. The problem isn't whether it gets repeated too much, as long as it works, right? Since it works, people keep using it.]
[Putting Nero's Feet In My Mouth: It's like why I only stare at Nero every time. Nobody else can make me react, only Nero can. Nero is just too amazing!]
[Pom-Pom: Damn, Yellow Pee Bro is going crazy again?]
[Belobog Savage: Yellow Pee Bro has already become this book's... I mean, this livestream's trademark. It feels wrong not seeing him.]
[Drawing A Prison Around The Ground: True. If I don't see Yellow Pee Bro for one day, my balls start itching.]
[Yellow Pee Bro's Cellmate: Insane. Couldn't you at least say your whole body itches?]
[Drawing A Prison Around The Ground: Hehe! My d*ck is so itchy!]
[What Is What: Damn, this really is a 'perfect match.' @Receding Hairline Daily, I want to see Yellow Pee Bro and Drawing A Prison Around The Ground together. Is there potential here?]
[Glue Man: Spare her already. If you ruin her, where am I supposed to read so many full-color comics?!]
The bullet comments rolled by, and the direction of the discussion gradually changed.
Meanwhile, inside the game, the plot developed almost exactly the way Nero and March had discussed.
The Fragmentum monster team led by Burning Calamity Shadow lost.
The Everwinter Shadewalker and Incineration Shadewalkerwere unfortunately killed after accidentally getting touched by the Mimic Honey Badger during the battle.
The Frostspawn had half its body eaten away by the Mimic Honey Badger and lay on the ground. Burning Calamity Shadow lost both legs and lay there unwillingly.
He would probably disappear before long.
As for the remaining data, it would likely be recycled by the system and reshaped into a new Ether Spirit.
The Mimic Honey Badger glanced strangely at Burning Calamity Shadow, then leisurely turned and left. That look before turning away seemed to say the words "idiot."
"Damn it! Bastard! Bastard! Damn it! Stop right there! Stop!"
Burning Calamity Shadow kept pounding the ground while roaring unwillingly.
Just like Stelle and Nero had discussed, from the perspective of well-read players, this guy suddenly seemed wrapped in some mysterious glow.
This experience, this unwillingness, this personality, this starting strength and situation, he was basically the protagonist.
When something looks like a protagonist, sounds like a protagonist, feels like a protagonist, smells like a protagonist, tastes like a... cough cough... protagonist, then can we make a hypothesis?
That he is the protagonist?
"Alright, we've watched enough. Time to catch Ether Spirits.", Nero stood up and said, "We're pretty lucky. There just happens to be a suitable one here right now."
"True. So you're planning to take this guy who clearly has the protagonist template as your Ether Spirit?", Stelle pointed at the unwillingly crying Burning Calamity Shadow lying in the distance and asked.
"Huh? Of course not. What's the point of taking a useless guy like this as an Ether Spirit? Might as well wait for him to die and return to the system. Maybe when he respawns, he'll become a really strong Ether Spirit.
"The suitable one I meant is that big guy from earlier. Isn't that thing really strong? It wiped these guys out effortlessly."
"Since we're capturing Ether Spirits for battle use, of course we should pick something powerful like that."
As Nero spoke, he walked out from the bushes where the three of them had been watching the show.
The Burning Calamity Shadow lying on the ground saw this.
At this moment of life and death, he no longer cared about ancestral teachings. He immediately reached out toward Nero for help and shouted, "Hello! Can you help me?"
"Help me! I need to survive and avenge my friends. I can't let something like that continue existing on this land! Help me, I can do anything for you!"
However, Nero completely ignored Burning Calamity Shadow with a cold attitude. He merely said to March and Stelle, "Wait here for me a bit."
Then he left.
"As expected of Nero, I knew it would turn out like this." Seeing that Nero chose not Burning Calamity Shadow, but that giant Mimic Honey Badger instead, Siberian Duck spoke in a tone like she had expected it all along.
[Dan-heart Eternal: Burning Calamity Shadow: No, then what about me?]
[Wind-Boy Solo-Stan: Just a Fragmentum monster. So what if nobody saves him?]
[I Use Pantene: But the problem is this guy's behavior in Real Ether Spirits is completely unlike a normal Fragmentum monster. Speaking of which, if these Fragmentum monsters all have thoughts this vivid, then can they also be considered true lifeforms like Bubble? (Siberian Duck also named the Trotter Bubble.)]
[Wind-Boy Solo-Stan: So what? He's a Fragmentum monster, hated by everyone. Once a Fragmentum monster, always a Fragmentum monster!]
[Glue Man: Why suddenly raise this to a moral and philosophical discussion? Isn't it better to just happily play the game?]
[Putting Nero's Feet In My Mouth: True. What's the meaning of discussing this kind of thing here anyway? Philosophical questions can never get unified answers. Personally, I think things like this are limited to the individual. Different people's experiences and beliefs naturally produce different answers.]
[Putting Nero's Feet In My Mouth: There are no two completely identical people in the world, so naturally there won't be completely identical answers either. Even if two people hold the same opinion, give the same answer, and make very similar conclusions, inside the thoughts that belong only to them, inside this closed world that belongs only to the individual, their perspectives and reasons for making those conclusions still won't be exactly the same.]
[Glue Man: Damn, Yellow Pee Bro can actually say stuff like this?]
[So Handsome I Get Beaten Outside: You think? The guy's still a rich kid after all. Who knows what kind of education he got growing up.]
[Putting Nero's Feet In My Mouth: How does the saying go? A thousand people see a thousand Hamlets. But here, I want to express a different conclusion, and that is that even in ten million Yellow Pee Bros' eyes, there is only one Nero. Ehehehe...]
[Glue Man: This, is the education Yellow Pee Bro received!]
[I Use Pantene: Damn it, he's starting again.]