Half an hour had passed since Jenny boldly made that declaration.
Over this half-hour, Jenny's expression morphed from initial delight to a deep frown, and finally to heavy solemnity.
Gradually, she even stopped interacting with the chat. She began to challenge Shigeyama with a stubborn, almost obsessive persistence. When she got tired, she would rest for a moment, take a sip of water, and dive right back in.
During this time, Jenny didn't even know how many times Shigeyama had killed her. She was completely numb to the word 'DEATH' flashing on the screen.
The viewers were equally dumbfounded.
[My God... no wonder everyone thinks I'm such a loser. I've been rotting here in my bed, watching Jenny fight this Shigeyama guy for the last half hour instead of doing anything.]
[I bet Jenny knows the path from the tower to the castle gate better than she knows her own living room by now!]
"Almost there, almost there. I've pretty much figured out how this Shigeyama attacks!" Jenny replied earnestly to the chat' teasing. She then muttered to herself, analyzing the fight. "He basically just does a top-down downward slash. I just wasn't getting the timing right for parrying and attacking before. Almost there, I'll beat him any second now!"
After dying yet again, Jenny walked out of the tower once more. After neatly dispatching the first three soldiers, she stood before Shigeyama for the umpteenth time.
"Trespassers will die!" Shigeyama shouted for the nth time, charging at her with his sword raised for the nth time.
This time, Jenny was no longer afraid. Her eyes were locked onto Shigeyama's large sword as he raised it above his head and violently swung it down!
'Now is the moment!'
Jenny fiercely raised Stormrazor and struck back with all her might!
Clang!
Sparks flew everywhere!
A successful parry! Shigeyama instantly lost his balance. Seizing the opportunity, Jenny chased after him and delivered a punishing slash!
Blood sprayed from Shigeyama as he stumbled two steps back. Steadying himself, he returned a slash of his own. Jenny swung her sword once again!
Clang!
Another successful parry!
Taking advantage of Shigeyama's lost balance, Jenny countered with two consecutive strikes!
"Curse you!" Shigeyama roared. A third downward slash quickly followed, but Jenny steadily deflected it once again!
"Gah!"
After being parried three times in a row, the Posture gauge above Shigeyama's head was completely full. With a groan, he dropped to one knee, and a red dot appeared on his chest.
When the Posture gauge was full, players could immediately execute a one-hit kill.
Jenny did not hesitate. She closed the distance. Guided by the haptic suit, she first delivered a brutal knee strike that sent the kneeling Shigeyama sprawling to the ground, then followed through by driving her sword straight through his throat.
"Ah!!" Shigeyama screamed. The remaining half of his health bar instantly emptied, signaling his death.
"Raaaaaah!" Jenny shouted in absolute excitement. With a kip-up assisted by the haptic suit, she jumped to her feet and started spinning in circles out of pure joy. "Chat, I finally freaking killed this Shigeyama guy! Holy crap, that felt amazing!"
At this moment, Jenny finally understood what made such a hardcore game so fun. The immense sense of achievement from relying on your own hard work and struggling endlessly to defeat a single enemy was just incredibly satisfying.
[Insane! After struggling for half an hour, she completely flawlessly killed Shigeyama without taking any damage!]
[And it was so fast! Just a few clashes of swords and it was an instant kill. The whole process was completely flawless and smooth as water!]
↳ [Fr, when Jenny was trading blows with Shigeyama just now, she genuinely looked like Mia Khalifa!]
↳ [Kekekekeke.]
The viewers were also roaring in the chat. Watching for half an hour before finally seeing Jenny succeed filled them with all sorts of emotions. But thinking about it, if they were the ones playing as Wolf, would they find it just as agonizingly difficult as Jenny did?
But regardless, just the powerful agility of Wolf and the immensely satisfying clang of metal clashing during combat made this game simply irresistible to them.
After all, Jenny had died so many times, yet she was still completely addicted.
Just then, a streak of light flew out from Shigeyama's body and absorbed into Jenny. At the same time, a prompt appeared on the left: [Item acquired: Pellet. Effect: Slowly restores your health.]
"Another healing item. Heh, but I don't need it." Jenny smiled. Because she had just killed Shigeyama flawlessly, her health was still completely full.
[Not bad, that flex actually impressed me a little.]
Meanwhile, Jenny walked up to the massive castle gates. The gates were tightly shut. She pushed against them, but found they wouldn't budge at all.
Looking up, the gates seemed to be over sixty feet tall. Even Wolf probably couldn't jump over them.
'Right, there doesn't seem to be any need to enter the castle anyway. The Divine Heir said to look for a secret passage near the moat.'
With that in mind, Jenny wandered around the area. She quickly spotted a path next to the gates leading down to the moat beside Ashina Castle.
It was called a path, but in reality, it was just a series of uneven ditches combined with various steep cliffs and drop-offs.
But that was fine. This kind of terrain was a breeze for Wolf. Following the moat all the way down, after another bout of rock climbing and long jumps, Jenny finally saw it. On the other side of the moat was a closed wooden door.
After navigating a few more obstacles to reach the door, Jenny pushed it open, revealing a winding tunnel leading outward.
"Yeah, this should be the place." Jenny nodded. She pulled out the Reed Whistle from her inventory and brought it to her lips. A sharp, crisp whistling sound automatically echoed out.
Then, the screen faded to black. When her vision cleared, the Divine Heir was already standing in front of her.
"Wolf, thank goodness you were able to find this passage. Let us go," the Divine Heir said immediately, his tone sounding somewhat emotional.
"As you wish," Wolf's stern voice replied.
"Alright, time to take our little lord and get out of this place!" Jenny announced. Suddenly, a thought struck her. "Hey, I wonder if we can give the Divine Heir a hug? This little lord looks pretty cute."
Acting on her impulse, Jenny immediately tried to do just that. However, she quickly realized it was impossible. It was as if there was a transparent barrier between her and the Divine Heir. No matter what she did, she couldn't touch him.
"Tsk, you really can't?!" Jenny curled her lips.
[Obviously not. Lucien didn't even let players touch Tifa, let alone a little kid like this!]
↳ [That sounds so wrong, what the fuck]
↳ [Are you a closet pdf file?]
↳ [I actually think Lucien made the right call here. If we could actually touch them, who knows what kind of sick, twisted things those deranged degenerates would do using this game!]
↳ [Agreed.]
The two figures, one large and one small, began walking through the tunnel. At this moment, Wolf asked, "Once we leave this castle, where will we go?"
"Well, first we must leave the borders of Ashina, and then find a place to hide," the Divine Heir answered. "We cannot let Lord Genichiro's men find us, otherwise, many disasters will arise. What do you think?"
"I will follow your orders," Wolf said.
"Wolf, you are just the same as before. You listen to me no matter what," the Divine Heir sighed with emotion.
Soon, the two emerged from the dark tunnel. The very next moment, the view before them opened up completely.
Before them lay a vast field of silver grass. Pure white stalks standing nearly three feet tall packed the area neatly. As the gentle breeze swept through, they swayed gracefully, resembling pure white waves rolling across an ocean.
High in the distant sky hung a bright moon. Its light cascaded down onto the field, adding an profound sense of tranquility to the scene.
"Wow, this place is so beautiful," Jenny couldn't help but marvel.
"It really is gorgeous!"
"When it comes to beautiful scenery, Lucien's games always go above and beyond!"
"Yeah, it would be a total waste not to make stunning scenery with graphics this realistic."
As the viewers marveled, Jenny led the Divine Heir through the field. A gentle breeze brushed against her face, and the soft rustle of the silver grass lightly brushing against her body was perfectly recreated.
But right at that moment, Jenny suddenly noticed a tall silhouette standing ahead, his back turned to them.
Judging from the back, it was a man. He stood nearly six and a half feet tall, wearing a helmet and heavy armor. An absurdly massive bow was slung across his back.
"It has been a long time, Divine Heir." The man spoke, then turned around. He possessed a handsome face, yet there seemed to be an unshakable knot of sorrow tightly woven into his features.
"Lord Genichiro." The moment the Divine Heir saw the man's face, he instinctively took a step back, visibly panicked.
"So that's Genichiro? The Divine Heir seems really scared of him." Jenny gasped. "Chat, I have a bad feeling about this. Looks like a boss fight is coming right up."
"My lord, please step back. Leave this to me," Wolf said in a deep voice.
"Hey, Wolf, stop trying to act tough! I'm the one who's gonna get beaten up in a second!" Hearing this, Jenny couldn't help but complain.
The viewers immediately cracked up.
"Understood, Wolf." The Divine Heir nodded, then immediately turned and ran off.
Genichiro immediately shifted his gaze to Jenny. Narrowing his eyes, he drew the longsword from his waist in the next second. "Does a mere servant dare to stand in my way?"
Since things had come to this, there was nothing more to say. Jenny drew the sword from her waist as well.
"This Lord Genichiro looks way tougher than that squad leader from earlier, but I'm not scared. Now that I've mastered parrying, I think I can give him a run for his money!" Jenny said, her tone laced with excitement. "A master like me is destined to duel another master!"
After defeating the squad leader, and flawlessly at that, her confidence had skyrocketed. The addictive thrill of clashing swords was just starting to kick in. Truth be told, Jenny genuinely wanted to keep fighting.
It was a truly bizarre sensation. At first, crossing blades with an enemy triggered instinctual fear. But once you overcame that instinct and could genuinely trade blows back and forth, it morphed into a thrilling rush, dancing on the razor's edge between life and death.
The immersion was truly off the charts!
The next moment, Genichiro let out a low shout. A health bar materialized above his head. Griping his sword with one hand, he dashed rapidly toward Jenny.
This guy's speed was vastly superior to the squad leader Shigeyama from earlier.
"With this kind of speed, he really is a powerful boss!!!" Jenny furrowed her brows, raising the sword in front of her.
Parry, parry, parry!
She chanted silently in her heart.
When Genichiro was about twenty feet away from Jenny, he suddenly launched himself high into the air. Leaping directly above her head, the blade in his hands transformed into a streak of light, crashing down like a bolt of lightning.
"What the f-, he's too fast!" Whether it was Genichiro's sudden leap or the terrifying speed of his strike, everything completely caught Jenny off guard.
In that split second, Jenny changed her mind. Abandoning the parry, she shifted to a block!
His strike was simply too fast; there was no way she could parry it in time!
Clang!
Jenny managed to block Genichiro's attack. She could feel an immense pressure bearing down on her blade, and the Posture gauge at the bottom of her screen violently spiked.
"Even if I block, this guy will probably break my guard in three hits!" Jenny gasped in shock. The next moment, a bright flash erupted from the left side of her vision. Landing steadily, Genichiro instantly unleashed a horizontal sweep right at her!!!
Immediately after the sweep came a blisteringly fast vertical slash.
Unlike Squad Leader Shigeyama who only knew a single downward strike, Genichiro's swordplay was vastly more exquisite and versatile.
Squelch, squelch!
Jenny had zero time to react as both slashes cleaved directly into her body! Her health bar was instantly halved. At the same time, her Posture gauge maxed out, sending her staggering backward.
Genichiro pressed the attack, raising his hand for yet another strike.
Jenny immediately felt her left arm go completely, frighteningly cold, as if it had lost all sensation.
At the same time, accompanied by a spray of crimson blood, she saw something fly high into the air right in front of her.
Looking closely, it was actually her own arm.
"M-my left arm got chopped off?!" At that moment, Jenny was absolutely horrified, and her body fell uncontrollably to the ground.
[ADVANCEDDDDD 30 CHAPTEEEEER ONNNNN MYYYY PATREON.COM/EDGYREADER]