"Oh no! He kidnapped Princess Persica!" Minnie worried. Asterion set her down and she thanked him. Her wings were completely burned away.
"At least we know he won't slay the princess. Technically, she's safe," Gamer brushed the sand off him and checked the broom. Seared, but not broken, "He's so different from all the other shellies. Why is that?"
"A balanced nutritional breakfast," Minnie figured. Gamer nodded; it made sense.
"You don't have time to worry about her. Shit's not only hitting the fan in Chanterelle, but in the real world, too," Asterion forewarned.
Samira collaborated, "Asterion's right, bro. Check the minimap."
Gamer checked and saw numerous enemy signals. Some decorated the resort area, but many more were outside its bounds. He didn't see anything wrong, "What's up? All I see are Lord Shellie's minions."
"Incorrect, good sir. Those aren't all NPCs."
"Whaaat..." Gamer's gut fell.
"This is what I wanted to tell you when I logged back in," Asterion kept an eye on his minimap. "Remember those two players you skipped away from? They're not the only ones."
"Oh, damn...I'm popular," Gamer fluttered his eyes.
"Very much so. That's why I called in some favors."
A collection of footsteps approached from behind them. Gamer turned to confront the new threat, but dropped the H when he saw who it was. Five enthusiastic 3D anime women made their way over and repeating 'ayaya!' They fawned over Asterion and showered him with greetings and affection.
"Oh my god, your avatar turned out so cool! I'm like, super jealous, heheh!" a wolf bombshell with the color theme of bisexual lighting giggled.
"I think you're supposed to call it an ava-taur. Hah hah hah, ah? Get it?" a purple-haired cutie with a bandage across the bridge of her nose made a punny.
"Asterion! Aaagh! Did you miss us?! We missed you!" a bewildered, pink-colored devil with a high-pitched Latina accent latched onto Asterion's leg.
"Guys, are we allowed to show him on stream? He's a bad boy, now. I don't think we can show him. Maybe...for just a second...ara ara," a green-haired succubus wiggled her eyebrows mischievously.
"I think the avatar came out great. Good freaking stuff," a beauty with a long mane of dark red hair and dragon horns admired. When she spoke, her voice sounded like it went through a voice changer.
"Asterion found all the hunie!" Gamer appreciated the abundance of bouncing boobaloos barely constrained by fashionable clothing. "I didn't know we were about to break out with Mambo #5."
ヾ(⌐■_■)ノ♪ DJ Samira played a slow, jazzy version of the aforementioned song. Asterion cleared his throat and spoke through the flails of arms and bobbing, "Gamer, meet some of my friends. They are known as Vtubers. The V stands for virtual, not vendetta."
"Hi, hello, how – that isn't a video game reference, dammit – how are you?" Gamer acted suave. The ladies made anime noises and waved.
"They are part of the VHolo association, which backs hundreds upon hundreds of Vtubers. They span every genre of gaming you can think of, and are followed by millions across the world. We all work together on creating custom avatars, for ourselves and others. Quick introductions; ProjectMelonie, Zenplaya, Aprilcock, IronRat, and Shivervale," Asterion pointed with a hand to each Vtuber.
"ProjectMelonie, here to brighten up your day," the purple-haired girl gave an awkward salute and genuine giggle. She posed with her fists on her hips, "Don't trust me with a locked door. I...don't adult too well."
The redhead with dragon horns nodded and made Samira ( ˶°ㅁ°)!! with her introduction, "Nice to meet you, Gamer. I'm Zen, and I just downloaded your internet search history."
"Ah!" the green-haired lich squelched. "Yes, thank you, Asterion! I'm Aprilcock, or Fook to some. I hope we can have a lot of fun together!"
"It is I, Satan!" the short, Latina ball of pink chirped. By far, she was the most expressive out of the five, "You can also call me IronRat, that's fine, too! Heheh!"
"Hiii, I'm Shivervale!" the wolf woman waved both her hands with a big smile. "Pleased to meetcha, Gamer! A friend of Asterion's is a friend of ours."
Gamer checked his minimap and saw that their five blips turned green. However, the numerous bundles of red on the perimeter eclipsed the edges.
"They must have sent out invites to the game en masse. You're pressuring the council," Asterion surmised. The new players were peppered all around – some approached from the mountain's forest, on the beach, and along rocky outcroppings. Most appeared as humans, but some wore helmets or full outfits that covered everything. A rare few were like Asterion and had custom avatars, to look like orcs, half-dragons, cyclops, aliens, and more.
"By the creed of Gary's mod..." Gamer couldn't believe his eyes.
"Are they friends of yours, too?" Minnie hoped.
"Afraid not," Asterion glared forward. Minnie readied for battle. The Vtubers squealed at her adorable determination.
"That's a lot of butt we have to kick," Gamer used a finger and started counting out loud.
Asterion took a moment to access his player screen. He checked on the Quest tab and reevaluated Gamer's bounty. He confirmed, "Thought so. Your bounty went up to ten grand."
"Ten big ones? Now that's more like it!" Gamer appreciated the attention. His cocksure attitude made the Vtubers giggle and cheer. The members of the council, including his father, must be done fooling around. He needed to face an entire army of money-hungry, high score stealing players.
"The rich elderly send the young hopefuls to do their dirty work. War never changes," Samira's message dripped with disdain.
Gamer asked his sister, "You're my Navi, Samira. Got any information on the real threats here? I doubt all of them are big time players."
"You've got big dubs coming your way. Most of these scrubs are mid. Only a select few are giving that champ vibe," Samira scanned every profile. She popped up the profile picture of anybody with a high score greater than one hundred thousand. As she explained them, she did the football game play-by-play scribbles to deface their profiles.
Samira started out with a couple of elderly gentlemen. They wore casual clothes, as if they were hanging out for a day on the couch. One had a curly afro, and the other had luscious locks with a single blonde streak, "Those are the Game Gramps, Donny and Arnold. They are the oldest 🦕 video gamers in the world, with an entire association following just them."
"Gosh, they've been around forever," Gamer felt his own age showing.
Samira brought up a Korean man with one heck of a jawline, "That's Markivider. He's one of the sigma independents, and does a slew of different content. He'll be streaming, and you can bet he'll bring the most amount of eyes on you."
"I'm being recorded," Gamer yassified himself with character customization.
"Slay, king 💅"
The next player up was a fully armored space marine. His armor color was dark green, and he held what looked like an advanced assault rifle. His yellow visor reflected all of the environment, "That's Master Chaffe. A great FPS player, and legendary in his own right. Stiff competition, no cap."
Master Chaffe said nothing, but adjusted his legs and groin.
"Captain Vulcan?!" Asterion recognized one of the players. The man he gawked at stood before a slick, blue hover racer. He sported a classic flight suit with armor pauldrons that exemplified his flashy nature. His helmet's visor darkened his face, but somehow made his eyes glow. A rockstar grin and sickass pose drew a lot of attention to him. Asterion excitedly said, "I can't believe he's here! I'm a huge fan of that guy! He's one of the greatest Grand Prix racers in the European circuit! Holy moly!"
"Yes!" Captain Vulcan saluted with two fingers. His words were punctual, as if he was trying to knock a person out with each syllable, "I've got power!"
"D'aw, there's something cute about an old man fanboying ( ˊᵕˋ )♡" Samira sent.
Gamer ignored Asterion gushing and scanned the rest of the players. Many faces with many attire, but all of them looked generic. That is until he saw two individuals farther down the beach, past a group of players who failed to stand out in military gear. A blue female lounged back on a motorcycle, her hands tucked behind her head. A black and red one glared daggers in Gamer, his hands clasped before him and chanting something to himself. It was Sonia and Shade again.
"Great, those cyber-looking punks. Samira, what do you have on the Tron rejects? Some kind of midnight club?" Gamer poked fun at their hair and style.
Samira brought up the speedrunners' portraits, "Scary yikes, bro. Those two are from Marathon, a renown speedrunner association. They are GOATs in the community, since they are all about high risk, high reward playstyles."
"Guy's got alotta hate in his eyes," Gamer locked in on Shade. He flashed the dude a grin, "I bet he didn't like the skip button."
Talis messaged Sonia and Shade, "Alright, remember: Gamer has lots of tricks up his sleeve. Being able to skip in a public MMO game is nuts. We need to proceed with caution."
"I don't know, Talis. The mole people were fun to escape from. Gamer knows how to have a good time," Sonia appreciated the challenge.
Shade injected hate into his inflections, "Nobody embarrasses me except me. He'll rue the day he cheated Shade."
"Nah, none of that |｡- .•| Let the scrubs soften him up, while we analyze his capabilities," Talis kept a close eye on his team's demeanor.