When Lamia stepped into the Plague Torrent region controlled by Anan, she instantly felt her connection to her "knights" being severed.
Unexpectedly, the imperial princess proved far braver than expected.
After feeling her power stripped away, she did not panic. Instead, she addressed the stream chat with righteous conviction.
"Is this how those thugs operate? They strip the Saviors of their power and reduce them to ordinary mortals? Then they force the great Saviors to roll around in the mud?"
"But it doesn't matter! Today, I'm here to expose the truth of this place to everyone!"
Lamia resolutely stepped onto the land, only to find that the scenery around her was no longer the vast wilderness plains.
By the ti Lamia ca back to her senses, she realized she was sohow standing inside a deep, ancient castle.
"Wasn't this place supposed to be all about hunting dragons?"
Lamia had actually done plenty of research before coming to the area controlled by Anan specifically to pick a fight.
Unfortunately for her, the ga Carl had prepared was not Monster Hunter.
Of course, if she got hooked later and wanted to play Monster Hunter, that could also be arranged.
Netherworld Village's current position was a little like Steam. It had all kinds of gaplay styles gathered together in one place.
Players could play any individual ga without issue, but every ga was more or less connected.
For example, resources obtained from looting, fighting, and extraction-based gaplay could be used for Pokémon. anwhile, the Monster Hunter-style gaplay allowed players to bring the Pokémon they had captured into battle with them.
And the area this imperial princess had stepped into was a trial zone Carl had customized specifically for her.
It was designed to get her hooked.
The trial was a Soulslike, a very simple Soulslike demo made by Carl.
So, as Lamia cautiously explored the castle, a spear-wielding soldier suddenly rushed out from around a corner.
Lamia confidently drew her sword to parry, but the spear pierced straight through her chest.
"Your own combat ability really is zero..." Carl sighed softly.
The princess's lack of combat skill was entirely within Carl's expectations. That was exactly why he had arranged for her to experience a Soulslike demo first.
The monster that ambushed Lamia was only the lowest-tier mob. An ordinary player could take it down in two hits.
Unfortunately, after losing all her Extraordinary Power, this imperial princess could not even defeat a mob like that.
Although Lamia knew how to swing a sword, her swordsmanship was terrible. Her strike missed completely, and the enemy drove its spear through her heart again.
At that mont, Lamia's health dropped to zero, and she respawned at the castle's starting point.
This was troubleso. It seed that once she was separated from her knight puppets, the imperial princess had no idea how to fight.
Although Carl could block Lamia's Extraordinary Power, he could not force her to stay in the castle.
If she wanted to return to the world of Oath, all she had to do was push open the door and leave.
"Leaving in silence after being humiliated like this isn't my style."
Unexpectedly, Lamia had the exact kind of player personality that beca angrier the more she died. And the angrier she beca, the more determined she was to challenge it again.
There was far more than one mob in the castle. Combined with Lamia's reckless personality, the result was obvious.
After stubbornly exploring the castle with her longsword for half an hour, her exploration progress did continue to advance.
At the sa ti, the list of monsters in the castle that had managed to kill her also kept growing. Almost every new monster Lamia encountered required two or three deaths before she could defeat it.
At this rate, it would not be long before Lamia unlocked the achievent shared by every Soulslike player.
Getting killed by every monster in the area at least once.
"What a boring ga."
"Imperial Princess, let's stop wasting ti here. Let's go back to the main Oath ga and keep farming Contract Stones!"
The stream chat was also urging Lamia to stop wandering aimlessly through the castle and dying over and over again.
During this ti, Lamia had picked up so weapons and equipnt in the castle, but none of them were as useful as the longsword she had brought herself.
"It is also my duty to let everyone witness this torture-like gaming experience! Everyone, take a guess. By the ti I finish exploring this castle, how many pointless deaths will I have suffered?"
Amazing.
Publicly criticizing Netherworld Village and proving that it was a torturous ga had indeed been one of the imperial princess's main goals for this stream.
Originally, Lamia had been worried about what she would do if the currently popular hunting gaplay turned out to be too much fun.
As it turned out, Carl had served up a gaplay style built around suffering.
Being tortured to death in front of tens of thousands of players on stream ant she had actually exceeded the goals of this broadcast.
Unfortunately for Lamia, her stream reached a turning point when she arrived at a hidden room in the castle and opened one of the treasure chests.
The fun Carl wanted Lamia to experience in this simple demo was not actually the intricate map design of Soulslike gas, nor the thrill of defeating powerful enemies through sheer effort.
Of course, part of the fun was indeed the thrill of finding unique items in treasure chests, items that directly improved current combat strength instead of being yet another Contract Stone.
Who could have guessed that this imperial princess only knew how to use sword-type weapons? As a result, she had never experienced that particular kind of fun.
And another addictive pleasure in Soulslike gas was the crutch weapon.
In an extrely high-pressure, high-difficulty ga environnt, few things felt better than suddenly obtaining an overpowered weapon and starting to slaughter everything in sight.
"Moonveil... Katana?"
Lamia held the weapon in her hands. It was filled with powerful magical energy.
The instant she grasped it, she understood how to use it.
At that very mont, a knight wielding a greatsword rushed into the room.
Before this, whenever Lamia encountered a knight-level monster like this, she could only run and hide. She had not defeated one even once.
But the mont she obtained this crutch weapon, Lamia instinctively drew the blade and slashed at the knight.
A wave of azure magical sword qi burst out with her strike.
With a crisp clang, the sword qi exploded against the knight's armor, breaking its stance and forcing it down onto one knee.
But before long, the knight stood up again, raised its greatsword high, and charged at Lamia.
"Please! Let the sa attack work one more ti!"
In her panic, that was the only thought left in Lamia's mind.
If she had been using her previous longsword, repeating the sa attack would have been useless. It would only have made her die faster.
But a crutch weapon was called a crutch precisely because it was that simple and brainless.
Lamia had already mastered how to use this weapon. All she needed to do was spam the sword qi draw slash.
With the help of Elysium's motion-assist system, Lamia sheathed her sword, then drew it in one clean slash.
Another wave of azure magical sword qi flew out and instantly struck the knight.
With a heavy boom, the knight lost its balance and fell to one knee again.
After the imperial princess released two identical sword waves in a row, the elite knight's health dropped to zero, and it collapsed dead.
"It... died just like that? An enemy I could only run from after struggling for so long was defeated that easily?"
In fact, from the way Lamia used her Extraordinary Power to control knight puppets, Carl had already realized that this imperial princess was a crutch lover through and through.
But the joy of a crutch weapon was not only about how powerful and brainless the weapon itself was.
It ca from first experiencing the ga's extre difficulty and being tortured to death, only to unexpectedly discover a powerful weapon that allowed the player to slaughter everything.
That rush of surprise, satisfaction, and guilty pleasure from cutting down enemies with an overpowered weapon was enough to keep a player smiling throughout the entire ga.
That was exactly what happened to Imperial Princess Lamia.
She held Moonveil high and began taking fierce revenge on the monsters in the castle that had previously slaughtered her.
Spear soldiers? One sword wave.
Gargoyles? Two slashes, and they dropped to their knees.
Elite knights? Kite them while slashing, then execute them the mont they knelt.
As Lamia rampaged through the castle with this crutch weapon, she realized sothing terrifying.
"Wait. Why does this feel so good?"
"No! I suffered so much earlier! I can't start enjoying it now!"
But Imperial Princess Lamia found that she could no longer control her hands, nor the longing swelling in her heart.
All she wanted now was to use this "crutch" to cut down a few more monsters.
Unfortunately, this was only an extrely short demo, so Lamia did not get to enjoy it for long.
"Is it really that fun? The puppet knights she controlled before were stronger than this weapon that fires magical sword waves, weren't they?" the Saintess asked in confusion as she watched Lamia, who could barely control her expression on the screen.
"It depends on the environnt. In the castle, even with that crutch weapon, she still dies in two hits. She's under constant pressure, surrounded by powerful enemies."
Carl explained the Second Imperial Princess's current ntal state to the Saintess.
"Precisely because she's facing powerful enemies, using a weapon that can easily slay them feels especially satisfying."
Sadly, on the stream, Imperial Princess Lamia's joyful journey with her crutch weapon ended right as it was getting good.
The Soulslike demo Carl had given her was extrely crude. Many systems were missing, and the progression was pitifully short.
By the ti Lamia fought her way to the final boss and easily killed it by spamming a dozen or so sword waves, the word "Cleared" appeared before her eyes.
Carl could see deep disappointnt and sothing like withdrawal on her face.
But no matter what, that joyful experience had already been planted in the imperial princess's heart. It had likely left a mark she would never forget for the rest of her life.
"You and she will probably be talking a lot in the future," Carl suddenly said to the Saintess.
"Huh? Her? You think I'd show kindness to a potential enemy like her?" Since joining Carl's side, the Saintess had beco more and more open about her true nature around him.
"What I an is that the imperial princess is probably hooked on the joy of using crutch weapons now. If she participates in the hunt later, she'll most likely choose your weapon, the charge blade."
Carl had a feeling that before long, this imperial princess would create an anonymous alt and secretly start playing.
(To be continued.)
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)
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