"Haha, I didn't know I could fly!!!" Jenny grinned from ear to ear. She looked around for protruding tree stumps and rocks. For a while, she was just swinging back and forth through the mountainous terrain.
Since the system automatically locked onto grapple points, Jenny didn't have to worry about missing her target and falling to her death.
The scenery blurred as it rushed past her. Feeling the wind whistling past, Jenny shouted, "Chat, this is way more fun than the Prawn Suit! The Prawn Suit is too clunky. Wolf's body feels as light as a feather! This must be that legendary martial arts wind-walking!!!"
[Damn, I'm so jealous!!]
[Watching Jenny fun will be the most worst day of my life!]
↳ [Wait, why? What did she do?!]
↳ [You should be asking is "What she didn't do?"]
↳ [Alright, What she didn't do?]
↳ [Nothing, i just hate seeing her when she's having fun.]
↳ [This ngga just be hatin on anything bruv.]
Every single viewer was marveling at the gameplay. It looked incredibly satisfying, except for that one guy in the chat, who seemed to complain about absolutely everything.
From what they had seen so far, Sekiro truly lived up to its title as an action game. The action mechanics were absolutely maxed out!!!
Not only could players experience the lightweight agility of a swordsman and the intense, fluid combat, but they could also feel the thrill of running across rooftops and scaling walls.
How could they not be craving it?
Jenny swung through the jagged rocks like Spider-Man. A few minutes later, some houses finally appeared in her vision.
At the same time, a prompt appeared above her.
[You have arrived at: Ashina Castle, Outskirts]
It was called the outskirts, but it was really just a sparse cluster of wooden houses. The tallest were only two stories high, and none of them looked particularly grand. After all, this was a microscopic nation in ancient times. The so-called Ashina nation was probably about the size of a small American county. How prosperous could it really be?
On top of that, Ashina Castle was situated deep in the mountains. The terrain was extremely rugged, and the houses were scattered at varying heights, making it look like a maze.
Jenny soon arrived at the entrance to the town. There was a Sculptor's Idol at the entrance, so she sat down to commune with it and activated the checkpoint.
After activating it, Jenny continued onward. She climbed over a small hill and spotted a two-story wooden house ahead. With a quick toss of her grappling hook, she easily vaulted onto the roof. Looking down, she saw an Ashina soldier standing right below.
[Quick, Jenny, assassinate him!]
A viewer commented. Jenny had originally planned to show off an aerial assassination, but her addiction to clashing swords suddenly flared up.
"Hey, chat, assassinations aren't exactly the style of a master. Watch me take him one-on-one!"
With that, Jenny jumped down directly in front of the soldier.
The soldier probably hadn't expected Jenny to be so brazen. His expression was incredibly lifelike as he startled, then drew his sword and charged at her!
Jenny just smiled faintly. With two swift strikes, she deflected the soldier's attacks and followed up with a one-hit kill!
"Too weak, too weak, too weak!!!" Jenny shouted excitedly. A stream of light flew from the soldier and absorbed into Jenny's body, accompanied by a prompt: Coins +20.
"Oh ho, you can even earn money." Jenny chuckled. But right as the words left her mouth, she heard battle cries echoing from all directions:
"Enemy attack!"
"Over here, over here!!!"
"Hurry, hurry!"
In the blink of an eye, Jenny saw three or four soldiers rushing toward her from all sides. It seemed her fight had alerted them.
"Bring it on!" Seeing the crowd, Jenny shouted in excitement and charged forward, fully intending to take them all on at once.
Then she realized she had been incredibly naive.
Because while she was engaged with one soldier, the others would launch sneak attacks from the side. Unable to react in time, she easily took a slash.
Furthermore, among these soldiers was a guy wearing a bamboo hat. Jenny had never seen this hat-wearing enemy before. She had never seen his move set either. Unable to read the speed and direction of his strikes, she couldn't parry them.
"Hey, hey, hey, something's wrong, something's wrong. Heal, I need to heal!"
In an instant, Jenny's health bar was halved. Panicking, she quickly reached for the gourd at her waist to take a sip and heal.
However, the soldiers were relentless. A flurry of slashes interrupted her healing animation and completely emptied her health bar in the process!
"What the heck!!!" Jenny screamed as Wolf let out a tragic cry and collapsed to the ground.
[Haha, Jenny got hacked to death!]
[That's what you get for showing off! You deserve this, you fucking bitch.]
↳ [Moderator: You again? bruv, i'm banning your ass this time.]
↳ DrakeNumberOneFan has been banned!
[Don't you know there's strength in numbers? New World is just teaching us the importance of teamwork!]
[Jenny, you're so silly. Why would you try to heal right in their faces? You have so much mobility, make some distance first!]
The viewers were having a field day, but Jenny noticed something strange. This time, the word 'DEATH' didn't appear in her vision. Instead, two options popped up: [Die] / [Resurrect].
"Huh, I can come back to life?" Jenny was surprised at first, but then decisively chose to resurrect.
Wolf, live on with my blood... The Divine Heir's voice echoed in her ears. Then, Jenny watched in shock as her body went completely stiff before shooting straight up from the ground, exactly like Hanbei had done earlier.
This sudden twist startled the viewers. Jenny was equally surprised. If she was also Infested, that would be disgusting. Just thinking about having a centipede living inside her body...
Just then, a prompt appeared on the left side of her vision:
[Resurrection: The power of the Divine Heir's Dragon Heritage has taken effect on you, allowing you to return from death once. Resurrection charges can be replenished at a Sculptor's Idol.]
[It's not an infestation, it's the Divine Heir's bloodline ability!]
[It can literally bring people back from the dead. No wonder Genichiro kidnapped the Divine Heir!]
[Yeah, this ability is insanely overpowered!]
The viewers marveled in the chat. Now they finally understood why the game was called Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice!
[What is this monstrosity!]
Jenny's resurrection didn't just shock the viewers; it completely terrified the soldiers in the game. Their faces twisted in horror, and they subconsciously screamed as they backed away.
It had to be said, this was the mark of a game made by Lucien. Even the enemies' terrified reactions were indistinguishable from real people.
Jenny seized the opportunity, throwing out her grappling hook. It caught onto the roof eaves above, and she flew up, escaping the soldiers' encirclement.
These soldiers obviously couldn't soar through the sky and scale walls like Jenny could. They could only watch helplessly as she got away.
Soon, Jenny arrived back at the Sculptor's Idol. She immediately sat down to commune with it. By doing so, she refreshed her two lives. At the same time, the map reset, and the soldier she had killed in this area earlier was resurrected.
"It seems our Divine Heir is quite incredible. This bloodline..." Jenny murmured in awe. "With this, I basically have two lives. But still, I can't get reckless in this game. I have to assassinate them one by one."
After that little stunt, Jenny finally grasped how this game was meant to be played.
Wolf was, after all, only one man. Taking on these grunts one-on-one was fine, but once they grouped up, it became overwhelming.
Of course, she couldn't rule out the possibility that she was just too much of a noob right now. She wasn't at the level of a true master who could fight several enemies at once.
Setting out once more, Jenny chose to use stealth this time. She first hopped onto the roof, descended from the sky, and assassinated the first soldier she encountered.
Sure enough, this didn't attract the attention of the other soldiers.
"Perfect!" Jenny slipped into the tall grass ahead and continued her low-profile advance. Another soldier appeared in her vision, his back facing her, standing just a short distance from the grass.
Lunging out of the grass, Jenny successfully executed another assassination!
"Nice, this is the rhythm." A smile crept onto Jenny's lips. "Yeah, even if you aren't clashing swords, playing as an assassin is extremely satisfying. The thrill of taking them out with a single strike is hard to describe..."
She continued onward, but the terrain ahead suddenly grew complicated. Jenny noticed that some soldiers were standing on the main path, while others were positioned on a slightly elevated dirt mound in the distance. Furthermore, there was no tall grass nearby to hide in.
Jenny took a few steps forward and immediately saw a yellow exclamation mark appear over a distant soldier's head. It was rapidly turning red.
"I'm going to be spotted!" Spooked, Jenny hastily retreated. "This isn't going to work. There are soldiers everywhere and nowhere to hide. I can't assassinate them!"
"Jenny, find a high vantage point first! Get a bird's-eye view to assess the situation before doing anything!!!" a viewer advised in the chat.
"Yeah, that's actually a great idea!" Jenny nodded immediately. She whipped out her grappling hook, latched securely onto the rock above, and flew upward.
Carefully avoiding the surrounding soldiers and scaling two steep cliffs in succession, Jenny finally reached the highest peak in the area.
"Okay, now let's see what the layout of this area is." Jenny nodded in satisfaction. Just as she was about to survey the scene, she suddenly noticed something right in front of her. A chicken?!
That's right, a chicken! And a massive rooster at that!
This rooster stood about five feet tall. Flapping its wings, it looked incredibly majestic.
But the moment the viewers laid eyes on this rooster, the chat exploded with laughter.
[Holy crap, God's Plan! It's Drake!]
[Why is it you again, Drake? After your cameo in Subnautica, you're doing a cameo in Sekiro too?!]
[Hahaha, even though it's a completely different species from the fish, why did I subconsciously make the connection!]
[Lucien, you absolute hater... scratch that, putting Drake in two consecutive games, this isn't hating, this is true love!]
The moment the rooster appeared, Jenny almost lost her composure. She couldn't help it. With the precedent of the fish, it was way too easy for her to make wild associations, Lucien, this guy, was an absolute god-tier troll.
"Cock-a-doodle-doo!!!"
However, amidst the viewers' amusement, the rooster suddenly crowed.
[Huh? The rooster crowed!]
[Enemy attack!]
Following the rooster's cry, Jenny watched as the exclamation marks above the soldiers below instantly turned red. Shouting, they quickly swarmed her position. They had clearly all spotted her!
"Holy crap, this chicken can actually sound the alarm?!" Witnessing this, Jenny instantly realized that these chickens were raised by the Ashina soldiers to scout for enemies!
However, looking at the soldiers gathering below, Jenny wasn't too panicked. It was their own fault for being so unskilled in martial arts. They couldn't double-jump, nor did they have grappling hooks. They could only crowd at the bottom and rage impotently, unable to cause her any actual harm.
"Heh, chat, look at these crippled losers. They don't have an ounce of agility, yet they still think they can catch me!" Seeing the soldiers huddled below, Jenny laughed mockingly. And then...
"Cluck, cluck, cluck!"
Clucking sounds erupted behind her. The next second, Jenny felt an icy chill shoot across her back, and her health bar plummeted.
She spun around, only to see the massive rooster flapping its wings and hovering in mid-air, striking at her with its talons like a hawk! Those talons actually gleamed with a metallic silver light under the sun.
Squelch! With another strike, Jenny's health dropped to a mere third!
"Are you kidding me?! This thing can attack, and its damage is this high?!" Jenny was completely spooked. She never expected a rooster to actually attack a person, let alone be this ferocious. She had assumed it was just a living alarm system.
Jenny hastily raised her sword and attacked. The rooster had no ability to defend itself. The blade struck it squarely, carving away half of its health.
"Drake has high attack but low defense!" Realizing this, Jenny hurriedly swung her sword again!
Thwack!!!
The next moment, Jenny felt something violently smash into her waist. The impact interrupted her slash, throwing her off balance and causing her health bar to drop to critical levels.
Almost simultaneously, the rooster in front of her swiped again with its talons!
"Squelch!!!"
Jenny's health bar emptied completely, and she collapsed to the ground!
Two options popped up in front of her: [Die] / [Resurrect].
"Damn it, what just happened?" Jenny roared. "Did I seriously just get killed by a freaking chicken?"
The viewers were dying of laughter. Jenny, naturally, refused to accept this. How humiliating was it to be killed by a chicken? The viewers would probably mock her until next year for this.
Jenny decisively chose to resurrect, instantly standing back up from the ground.
"Let's see you sing, dance, and rap in front of me now!"
The very first thing Jenny did after standing up was swing her sword squarely at the rooster in front of her.
"Cluck, cluck, cluck!" The rooster let out a tragic cry and finally fell to the ground.
Bang!
But almost instantly, Jenny felt another heavy blow strike her back, shaving off a third of her newly recovered health bar.
She hurriedly looked down, only to see that one of the Ashina soldiers below wasn't holding a sword, but a matchlock rifle.
"I was wondering how that rooster managed to counter-kill me! Turns out these freaking soldiers have guns!!!" Jenny screamed in exasperation.
[Times have changed, Jenny!]