Ellie felt a pang of annoyance mixed with something else. She was usually the one with the answers, the one who prepared for every variable. But Liam was treating a literal apocalypse like a change in roommates.
"I'm going to change," she snapped, feeling suddenly self-conscious in her dirt-stained leather armour. She ducked behind a wooden privacy screen, pulling out a simple, white linen dress she'd looted from a chest earlier. It was modest, but it cinched at her waist, making her cat tail stand out even more.
"If two billion people are stuck in this game," Liam muttered, his voice a deep, resonant baritone, "they're going to get hungry. And I'm not sharing my secrets for free."
He had shed his heavy iron chest plate for the moment, standing in a simple black singlet that showed off the raw physical power the "Sync" had granted him. He tapped the
[Go Live] icon.
[System: Stream Initialising...]
[Status: LIVE]
[Current Viewers: 5]
The interface was a nightmare. A floating, eyeball-shaped camera popped into existence. Liam didn't realise the "Eye" didn't automatically adjust to his new height. Because he was standing over the basalt kitchen island, the camera was currently at exactly chest height.
"Hello," Liam rumbled, his voice smooth and steady. "This is Liam. Tonight, I'm going to show you how to process monster meat using residual heat."
On the screens of five random players—mostly people hiding in bushes or crying in alleys—the stream flickered to life. One side was Liam's POV, showing his gloved hands moving over the obsidian shards. The other side, the "Face Cam," was a disaster. It was zoomed in directly on his biceps and pectoral muscles.
[Draco]: YO, IS THAT THE GUY FROM ROGUE'S STREAM?
[FarmerBob]: WAIT, HE'S TALL NOW? WHY WAS HE A CHILD BEFORE? WHY WAS HE HIDING THIS??
[FootLover]: BRO, ALL I SEE IS MUSCLE. MOVE THE CAMERA.
Liam heard the pings but didn't look up. He was too busy arranging the toad legs. "The heat from the Golem core is perfect for a slow render," he explained to the five viewers.
Suddenly, the count jumped to 50. Someone in a mid-tier guild had seen the thumbnail and dropped the link into
[Guild Chat].
"The camera is misaligned," Liam noted, finally glancing at the preview. He reached out to adjust the floating Eye, but his Vulcan Gauntlets were heavy and clumsy. He bumped the lens, and the camera spun wildly before settling on a high-definition shot of his elbow.
"There," Liam said, satisfied. "Better."
[WhipMe]: WE ARE WATCHING AN ELBOW. TOP TIER CONTENT.
[BobaLady]: WAIT... IS THAT A GIRL IN THE BACKGROUND? [WolfMan88]: SHOW US THE GIRL!
[SimpPrime]: FORGET THE ELBOW, SHOW THE CAT GIRL IN THE DRESS!
[GamerGurl]: His elbow is actually very well-defined. 10/10 content.
"Who are you talking to?" Ellie asked, stepping out from behind the privacy screen.
She had changed into the white linen dress. It was soft, cinched at the waist, and made her pink cat tail stand out like a neon sign. She caught sight of the floating camera and her ears pinched back in a state of pure, academic-grade panic.
"LIAM! IS THAT LIVE?!"
Liam finally grabbed the camera and shook it until it captured his face—and a very flustered Elizabeth standing right behind him.
"She is the party leader," Liam told the growing crowd. "I handle the calories."
The chat, mostly male players looking for any sign of hope or beauty in the digital martial law, went absolutely feral.
[Dimoo]: AYYYYY!
[StoneArrow]: SHE'S STUNNING.
[Bulb]: SHOW US THE GIRL!!
[BobaLady]: WHY ARE THEY IN A HOUSE? IS THAT A BED?
[Faaah]: BRO, IS THIS A 'FORCED PROXIMITY' STREAM?
[Peak]: SHOW THE GIRL AGAIN!
"Turn it off!" Ellie hissed, her face turning a deep, glorious scarlet. She was the Rank 1 student; she was supposed to be known for her intellect, not for being the "pretty cat-girl" in a wolf-man's kitchen.
"It's fine," Liam said, turning off the stream before the chat got too rowdy. "We have to eat."
The night was a battle of wills. Ellie, fueled by her pride, initially refused the bed. "I have standards, Liam. I am not sharing a bed with a rival. I'll sleep on the floor."
"Suit yourself," Liam said.
Three hours later, the room was freezing. Ellie was curled into a tiny ball on the hardwood floor, her pink tail wrapped around her like a pathetic, shivering scarf. Liam didn't say a word. He stood up, walked over, and picked her up like a rag doll. She was light, her head lolling against his shoulder. He placed her on the massive bed and, realising the room's temperature was dropping, simply climbed in on the other side.
He was a Vanguard; his body heat was like a furnace. He didn't touch her, but he didn't leave her to freeze either.
When the sun rose over Hestia's Hearth, Ellie woke up feeling a strange, lingering warmth. She rolled over, her hand brushing the silk sheets where someone had clearly been lying. The spot was still warm. Her heart did a frantic, uncoordinated gallop against her ribs.
Omg. We slept in the same bed. I... I actually shared a bed with Liam Yoo.
She sat up, her hair a bird's nest, and her eye bags looking like black ink. Liam was already gone from the bedside, busy in the kitchen. He looked healthy, sharp, and annoyingly refreshed.
"Morning," Liam rumbled, setting a steaming bowl in front of her. "Chicken soup. I traded some toad meat for a carcass and some eggs earlier."
Ellie took a sip, trying to hide her face in the steam. "This... this is amazing. Why the rush?"
"We need a guild," Liam said, pulling his iron armour back on with a series of heavy metallic clicks. "Not just for the kitchen buffs, but for the territory. If we want to stay alive in this game, we have to grind. The best grinding zones are controlled by the big guilds. If we want to live, we'd better be the ones holding the daggers."
He leaned in, a rare, competitive smirk tugging at his lips.
"And I think it's time we showed these other new adventurers how we handle a challenge."
Liam adjusted the floating camera eye. After a few more clumsy bumps that showcased his knuckles and a close-up of a wooden ceiling beam, he finally managed to centre the frame.
[System: Stream Initialising...]
[Title: "Looting my way to a Spice Rack"]
[Current Viewers: 40]
"Liam, turn it off," Ellie hissed, walking three paces behind him to try and stay out of the frame. It didn't work; the camera eye seemed magnetically attracted to her flustered expression. "People are literally calling us a 'power couple' in the local chat! We aren't a couple! We're rivals who happened to survive a glitch!"
Liam didn't even look back. His inner brain was a tactical spreadsheet, currently calculating the drop rates of the area. If I can find a party of PKers, he thought, I can harvest their high-grade iron. Iron conducts heat better for the toad-reduction sauce. Also, their gold. I need saffron.
"We're not a couple," Liam rumbled for the stream, his voice a low, nonchalant baritone. "We're a specialised unit. She handles the crowd control. I handle the logistics and the seasoning."
[ShieldBasher]: LOGISTICS? Bro, you're literally wearing a singlet and carrying daggers.
[SimpKing99]: SHE'S SO MAD. LOOK AT THE TAIL. IT'S FLUFFY.
[Guild_Recruiter_67]: Ignore the girl, look at his movement. His centre of gravity hasn't shifted once. He's high-level.
As they rounded the corner into the Merchant's Row, a group of five men blocked the path. They were wearing mismatched leather armour and holding rusted swords—the universal sign of "Players who haven't figured out how to grind yet."
"Hey! Chef-guy!" the leader shouted, his face twisted in a jealous sneer. "You think you're special? Dragging a girl like that into a private house while the rest of us are sleeping in the dirt?"
Ellie's ears flattened. "We were looking for a kitchen! It's not what it looks like!"
Liam didn't even stop walking. He didn't reach for his daggers. He just looked at the leader's boots. Good leather. Might be useful for a smoker-box seal.
"You're blocking the light," Liam said. "The viewers can't see the texture of the cobblestones."
"You think this is a joke?" The leader lunged.
Liam moved like a blur. He didn't even use a skill. He just stepped inside the man's guard, grabbed his wrist, and twisted. A sickening pop echoed through the alley. Before the man could scream, Liam's knee connected with his stomach, folding him like a cheap lawn chair.
The other four charged at him.
"Liam, watch out!" Ellie shrieked, but her hands were already moving, her taming whip cracking in the air to trip the nearest attacker.
Liam was a whirlwind of "Efficient Violence." He wasn't fighting for honour; he was fighting for inventory space. Every time a player hit the ground, Liam's hands were already moving.
[Item Acquired: 45 Gold Pieces]
[Item Acquired: Worn Leather Boots (Recycled)]
[Item Acquired: Half-Eaten Apple]
"You're looting them?!" Ellie yelled, watching in horror as Liam stripped a pair of bracers off a man who was still groaning in the dirt. "They're still alive, Liam! This is... this is unethical!"