Tony had some mercy in him. He didn't let Natalie experience the full sensation of smashing against the bottom of the cliff, otherwise, that would've been a nightmare she'd never forget.
After all, he still had restraint. If the simulation was too realistic and overstimulated the brain, there was always the possibility of brain death. Better safe than sorry.
"What about resurrection?! Where's my resurrection?!" Natalie clutched her wildly beating heart and screamed. "Why didn't I revive this time?!"
"Revive my ass!" A viewer immediately laughed. "You didn't just get cut down, you got thrown off a cliff! Your body's already paste on the rocks below, do you really think resurrection works on that?"
"Yeah, yeah, the dev's logic makes sense here."
"Still, being hurled to death like that… it's brutal. Natalie, you're really unlucky. I also fought this Scarlet Demon before, and while he tossed me around like a ragdoll, I never got chucked straight off the cliff, hahahaha!"
"Fuck!" Natalie cursed loudly, grinding her teeth. "If I'd known I couldn't revive, I would've used my escape technique and bolted!"
This round was a total loss, she was forced to taste the despair of cliff diving firsthand. The viewers, of course, burst into laughter, enjoying her misfortune.
After respawning, Natalie challenged the Scarlet Demon again, but soon realized a cruel reality, this monster wasn't just tough, he was absurdly tanky. His posture never broke, his HP bar was thick as a wall, and chopping away at him was like hacking a tree with a butter knife. Even if she played perfectly, it'd take forever to wear him down.
Worse still, if she slipped up even once, the demon would grab her and unleash one of his many brutal finishers.
In just twenty minutes, Natalie unlocked an entire gallery of death animations.
The 'Tender Embrace': getting caught in his massive arms, squeezed until bones cracked.
The 'World's Strongest Slam': picked up and smashed into the ground, Hulk-vs-Loki style.
The 'Butt Bomb': the demon leapt high into the air and crushed her flat beneath his massive rear.
Summary in one line: she died alot.
"This is way too much! How the hell is this just a mini-boss?!" Natalie cried out in despair after her umpteenth death.
"Hahaha, relax, Natalie, you're only just getting started!"
"Don't worry, I'm also stuck here. This guy's disgusting to fight, I can't even figure out how to pass."
"Same here. Came to watch you for guidance, turns out you're just as bad as the rest of us."
"The dev is too vicious! What kind of monster has a design this busted?!"
"Think about it, if just one Scarlet Demon is this strong, and the Reed Soldiers also have their giant Taro brute, then how terrifying must the Inner Government's actual forces be?"
The chat was buzzing with complaints, while Natalie racked up deaths like achievements. Finally, she snapped.
"Guys, I'm going to the toilet!"
Using the age old excuse, she muted the mic, slipped away from the screen, and hurriedly opened the massive manual Tony had given her.
"Scarlet Demon, Scarlet Demon…" Natalie flipped through the entries frantically, and soon enough she found it, Scarlet Demon's Weaknesses. Her heart pounded with excitement, but when she looked closer, her smile froze.
On the page, beneath the entry, was just one word.
"Brief."
"Brief?! BRIEF MY ASS!" She nearly exploded, pacing in circles. "Tony, you damn scammer! What is this, some kind of sick joke?!"
This wasn't an exam practice sheet, so why the hell was the answer just 'abridged'?! Back in school, whenever she saw reference answers written like that, she'd curse the author's existence!
"Where's my knife, where's my knife…!"
Her anger boiled, but after glancing at the camera, she forced herself to calm down. She was still live. Not a good time to hunt Tony down and beat him.
Fine. Once the stream ended, she'd settle accounts with him.
Just as she was about to close the manual in frustration, something caught her eye, tiny text written below the word brief.
"Weak body, weak hair, weak fire. Heavy armor is weak, fat is weak, everything has a weakness. This is the secret to slaying foes in a soul based game."
"It seems Tony hasn't completely lost his conscience. At least he left me a bottom line." Natalie grumbled, staring at the cryptic line in the manual. "But why did he write it like a damn formula…?"
She frowned. No matter how many times she read it, she still couldn't quite understand what it was supposed to mean.
"Forget it. I've wasted enough time already." After reciting the sentence several times to firmly commit it to memory, Natalie returned to the VR platform.
"Alright, everyone, I'm back." She announced.
"I was starting to think you moved into the toilet!"
"Totally understandable. Natalie must live in a mansion with the game dev. Probably got lost on the way back."
"Yeah, the bathroom trip in a rich person's house probably takes half an hour."
Natalie ignored the chat's teasing and re-entered the game, retracing her previous route. Soon, she reached the same open ground.
Ahead, the two small fry soldiers still whispered to each other, while the terrifying Scarlet Demon roared and struggled in the middle of the clearing.
This time, Natalie didn't rush down recklessly. Instead, she carefully recited the mysterious line from the manual.
"The body is weak, the hair is weak, the heavy armor is weak, the fat is weak, and everything is weak."
Though short, the line seemed to hint at the weakness of many Sekiro monsters.
She started running substitutions in her head. The Scarlet Demon was huge, sure, but no hair, so not a 'hair weakness.' No heavy armor, no fat belly either. That only left…
Natalie's eyes suddenly lit up. The cliff.
Yes! There was a cliff right there. The same one she herself had fallen into!
Suddenly, everything made sense. Tony's cryptic note wasn't mocking her, it was the hint. The cliff wasn't just her grave, it could be the his as well.
"I get it now…" Natalie muttered, a grin spreading across her face.
Acting quickly, she leapt from the roof, silently assassinating the two guards first. At the same time, the Scarlet Demon went berserk, struggling wildly to break free of his chains.
Instead of rushing him, Natalie sprinted straight toward the cliff's edge.
"Natalie, what are you doing??"
"Why aren't you cutting him before he breaks free?!"
"Yeah, if you don't chip some health now, it'll be hell later!"
The viewers was completely baffled.
Boom!
The Scarlet Demon finally snapped his bonds, the chains shattering. He froze for a second, red eyes scanning, then locked onto Natalie's figure by the cliff.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The earth trembled as the giant charged forward like a maddened beast.
Natalie didn't even draw her blade. She just stood on the cliff's edge, half her foot hanging off into the void.
"Rooaaar!!" The Scarlet Demon lunged, massive arms outstretched, aiming to crush her in a deadly hug.
"This is it!"
At the last second, Natalie took half a step back, then let herself fall straight down.
The Scarlet Demon's momentum carried him forward. With no time to stop, the hulking monster barreled right over the edge.
Natalie's hands shot out, grabbing onto the cliff's edge just in time.
Roooooar!!
The Red Ogre wasn't so lucky. With a furious, echoing bellow, his massive body plummeted into the depths below.
"WHAT?!"
"She actually baited the Scarlet Demon into jumping off a cliff?!"
"Holy crap, that's genius!"
"Natalie is too smooth! This is the cleanest kill I've ever seen!"
"People spend hours getting smashed to pulp by this thing, and you solved it with a toilet break?!"
The chat went completely wild. Many of them had been stuck on this exact mini-boss for hours, some even longer than it took to beat the actual bosses. And yet Natalie had bypassed the fight entirely, with zero damage taken.
"Haha, it's done guys!" Natalie clapped her hands after climbing back up. Her experience bar shot up, a skill point popped into her inventory, and she even received a gourd seed.
Even though the Scarlet Demon had been tricked into suicide, the system still rewarded her with full drops.
"Seriously, she's a genius this time. I'm stealing that strat!"
"Thanks, Natalie, now I finally know how to get past this wall I've been stuck at for hours."
"That was actually so damn cool. I didn't expect it at all!"
"Hey, hey, keep it low-key!" Natalie tried to act modest while clearly enjoying the praise. "I just had a sudden idea. Honestly, Sekiro is designed to be close to reality. You can't only think about fighting head-on. Sometimes you have to use the environment, be flexible… that's the real way to play."
"Makes sense! Makes sense!"
"Teacher Natalie, we've learned!"
"Indeed, I'm enlightened!"
If Tony had seen this, he would've definitely rolled his eyes, I gave you the strat, and now you're pretending you came up with it yourself?!
Still, with the Scarlet Demon gone and her mood soaring, Natalie pressed forward.
Through several assassination routes and narrow escapes, she finally reached the outer grounds of Ashina Castle.
1542 Words.