The scraping from deeper in the passage got louder. Hajin backed two steps toward a narrow rise in the basin floor, keeping the camera aimed forward. Bibi pressed against his collarbone, body low, watching the dark.
"Incoming from ahead," he said, voice tight but steady. "I need clean spacing this time."
Three small slimes shot out first, then a fourth with a darker core, all moving faster than the first waves near the entrance. He planted his left foot, feinted right, and swung low at knee level, clipping one and forcing the others to split.
Bibi dropped from his shoulder and intercepted the second slime mid-hop, but this time she did more than block it. Her silver surface darkened in thin streaks as she pulled the incoming acid into her body, then whipped around and slapped the slime into the mud.
"Bi!" she chirped.
Chat spiked the second it happened, lines stacking faster than before and staying on the same moment instead of jumping around.
[SeoulGateLurker]- "wait wait wait did anyone else see that?? she just swallowed the acid and got darker??"
[ClipFarmOperator]- "clip from 14:21 to 14:24 RIGHT NOW someone tell me that's not an adaptation trigger"
[CrownCounter77]- "I came here to laugh at a rookie dying, why am I actually hyped right now"
[DungeonAuntie]- "f-rank my ass, that little thing just changed in front of all of us"
'They saw it too huh,' he thought, driving the rod into the third slime before it reached his ankle.
The fourth one lunged at his face mid-turn and caught him off guard, spraying acid across his chest cam in a streak that blurred the stream for a second. He cursed, wiped the lens with his sleeve, and his boot slid on dissolved mud near the basin edge.
"Bibi, left side now," he said.
Two more slimes spilled from the passage behind the first four, packing the lane into a rush. She bounced once, flattened, and stretched wider than before to cover a line between him and the next wave. Two slimes hit her at the same time, but the acid that should've splashed onto Hajin's legs stayed inside her surface, vanishing as dark lines pulsed through her body.
A system panel flashed at the corner of his vision before he could blink.
[Entry 001 response confirmed]
[Trait variance stabilized]
[Adaptive membrane active]
"Were you hiding that or is that new from the earlier monster consumption," he muttered, looking at her with a small smile.
"Bi bi."
He finished the wave with three quick strikes and one rough kick that strained his thigh, then backed onto the rise and sucked in a long breath while the basin finally went quiet. Bibi settled near his heel and kept watching the tunnel.
[Hostile Unit Eliminated]
[Objective Progress: 13%]
Stream numbers jumped, chat box widened as new viewers poured in from clips, fresh names filling the feed.
[Live viewers: 96]
He wiped acid off his forearm wrap and watched Bibi's darker lines fade back to silver while his pulse settled, keeping the rod up and checking the next lane.
'So she is an adaptive slime, that's cool,' he thought, 'I wonder how much she can adapt and growth,' he looked at the maturity percentage, understanding it better now.
He opened his palm and Bibi climbed onto it without hesitation, tapping his thumb twice while keeping her eyes on the tunnel ahead. She stayed angled forward, ready to jump again.
"Still with me?" he asked.
"Bi," she answered.
"Good, then we keep moving," he said.
Beyond the basin, the passage narrowed into a low corridor with dripping ceiling roots and thick slime residue. Hajin had to crouch every few meters as he dragged the camera rod behind him. The farther they went, the warmer the air got, and the sour smell sharpened until it burned the back of his throat.
Chat stayed noisy, but the tone shifted from insults to pattern calls as viewers synced to the same cues.
[CrownCounter77]- "watch the walls near his left shoulder, movement ripples every 2 seconds"
[DungeonAuntie]- "host if you can hear this, stop stepping dead center and hug the dry ridges please"
[SeoulGateLurker]- "this feels wrong for F+, I think the gate might've grown since it was listed"
He caught the dry-ridge advice from the side chat and followed it without saying where it came from, stepping onto higher stone seams while scanning the ripples on his left wall. One ripple broke, then another, and a chain of micro slimes dropped from the ceiling.
"Down," he snapped.
He crouched instantly and shielded the lens with his forearm while Bibi shot up and spun in a tight arc above him, catching the falling slimes in rapid taps that were almost automatic. Each impact left a faint dark flash across her body before fading.
By the time he rose, the floor around him was littered with gel chunks and acid marks, with Bibi dropping back beside him.
[Objective Progress: 17%]
Another panel appeared over the combat notifications, darker than the gate panel and tagged as Archive, its border pulsing once before settling.
[Resonance trace detected]
[Viewer emotion intensity: Rising]
[Crown Aura +1]
He paused, read it again and watched the line pulse once more before shrinking into the corner.
His grip tightened on the rod, 'crown Aura from viewers?' he thought, eyes narrowing. 'So the stream is actually feeding this system thing? I am so lost.'
Before he could sit on that idea, chat activity blew past earlier fights and a burst of donations popped up on the right side of the feed.
[Tip received: 2,000 won]
[Tip received: 5,000 won]
[Tip received: 1,000 won]
[GateClipJunkie]- "that overhead defend was sick, take my lunch money and don't you dare die"
[UrbanManaNerd]- "if this is live adaptation then this run is bigger than rookie content, everyone should be clipping everything right now"
[MomSaidNoGates]- "I was just scrolling and now I'm literally holding my breath, this is so stressful"
The Archive panel flashed again as a new pulse stacked over the previous notification.
[Resonance trace detected]
[Viewer emotion intensity: Spike]
[Crown Aura +2]
[Current Crown Aura: 3]
Fear hit him, but he kept his pace steady.
'Three points from one fight,' he thought, tightening his grip, 'this stream is going way better than I expected, I even got donations,' he couldn't help but smile.
He kept moving, slower now, splitting his focus between the corridor ahead and the side panel only he could see. Bibi stayed low near his boots, bouncing in short controlled motions that looked less random each minute.
At the end of the corridor, the tunnel dropped onto a narrow inner ledge circling a vertical shaft with slick walls. Their entry route sat half a level above and behind them, but the stone near that bend had softened into a sagging layer that dripped acid.
He aimed the camera up and grimaced because the retreat path looked worse than expected.
"The path behind us is degrading," he said. "I don't trust that climb at all, suspicious as fuck."
Chat caught the angle immediately and warnings stacked fast.
[DungeonAuntie]- "do NOT go back that way, those supports are literally melting, you'll break right through"
[CrownCounter77]- "if the retreat route is cooked then this gate just got way worse than listed"
[SeoulGateLurker]- "please tell me he has another exit because this is giving me actual anxiety"
"I hear you," he said, scanning for footholds down the shaft. "Going deeper might be safer than climbing the acid sludge."
Bibi bounced onto the ledge, then looked down into the shaft and made a low sound unlike her usual chirp, making him freeze at the change in tone.
"...bi," she whispered.
He followed her gaze and saw motion far below. Not the quick hop pattern of micro slimes, this was something bigger, dragging itself in slow, steady pulls.
[Gate timer: 00:14:12]
[Objective Progress: 17%]
The ledge under his left boot cracked, dropping a chunk of softened stone into the dark. It splashed far below and he wasted no time shifting before the next break.
He stepped back instantly and pulled Bibi into his chest as the camera swung, catching one blurred frame of a large silhouette moving at the bottom of the shaft.
[ClipFarmOperator]- "pause that frame, that thing is MASSIVE compared to the trash mobs"
[UrbanManaNerd]- "host you're close to the nest center or an early boss variant, watch your footing PLEASE"
Another crack spread across the ledge behind him, cutting off the route they'd used minutes earlier, dust falling as the sound below kept rising.
He looked up at the melting passage, then down at the shaft where that heavy pulse continued, and forced himself to breathe. One last scan of both routes told him the same answer.
"Retreat is getting worse by the minute," he said in a low tone, "it seems the only way forward is down, dammit."
Bibi answered with one sharp chirp, and the dark lines inside her body flared for a second.
The beacon was still one-use, but without a stable return lane it was basically useless. He checked it anyway, adjusted the chest cam, and started along the inner ledge toward the descent point as the sound below grew louder with every step.
'There is hard encounter ahead,' he thought, his jaw tight as grit broke under his boot, 'this just got a whole more annoying.'