[Congratulations to WhiteGod, FleetingCloud, Kristal, and GentleBreeze! You have defeated the Grass Wolf Alpha!]

[You have gained experience points. You have leveled up.]

[Achievement Received: Alpha Slayer]

[Server Announcement: Congratulations to players WhiteGod, FleetingCloud, Kristal, and GentleBreeze for being the first to kill a Green Ranked Field Boss.]

I swept a gaze through the several notifications and took a deep breath.

Since this appeared, that meant the hunt was truly over. The boss was dead.

Checking our status, I couldn’t help but grin bitterly.

Although the level-ups refilled our stats, we were all sitting at critically low health and SP beforehand.

If Eri hadn’t stopped healing us after running out of mana and potions and started hitting the wolf with her staff instead, we definitely wouldn’t have cleared it in time.

"Oh, I’ve reached level 27..."

I didn’t even realize until I checked my status. Killing a boss five levels above me must’ve given us a massive EXP boost. Looking around, everyone else had already hit 25 or 26.

A different kind of smile crossed my lips.

"Uh... UltimateSunDancer? Can you see this right now?"

I smiled, pointing at the party screen showing all our levels.

"We’re all over level 25, and we still have an hour left on the time limit. We cleared your challenge successfully, right...?"

[Umastur: Right, right! Pay up!]

[BlackHeart: You shouldn’t have challenged them... 😭]

[IsekaiPimp: Pay up, pay up~! 🤣🤣🤣]

His response was delayed, and even the other viewers were piling on in the chat. Of course, there was a chance he’d go back on his words and just leave—that’s human nature. But well...

[UltimateSunDancer Superchat: $1,000

Take it... You deserve it... 😓😓😓]

"Ohh... You didn’t run! What a man!" I taunted lightly. Though of course, we couldn’t just let a big donator leave feeling like he lost. "Alright, girls. Thank him for the donation!"

Miyabi quickly picked up on what I was asking and smiled, nodding energetically.

She rushed over to UltimateSunDancer’s camera and pulled it closer, planting a kiss on the lens. "Thanks for the donation! It really made my day~!"

After that, she passed the camera to Kiki, who gave it a thumbs up and a wide grin. "You’re a man among men, a man of your word! Thanks, buddy!"

"..."

Her persona while gaming really was something else compared to her real-life self.

Anyway, the camera was then passed to Eri, who paused for a moment as if thinking of what to do. Then she gently pulled it closer and drew it into a deep hug, pressing it against her chest.

"Someone who knows how to share his blessings will surely be blessed even more. Please don’t forget the feelings in your heart."

And just like a nun, she whispered her appreciation toward him.

[FriedLiver: ...I want a hug too!]

[MoeLover: Kiss... The goddess’s kiss...! :ENVIOUS_GOBLIN:]

[BlackHeart: Fuck... Donating comes with perks?! 😰]

[UltimateSunDancer Superchat: $100

I... have seen heaven. I have no regrets... 🕊🕊🕊]

The chat exploded after what the girls did. Some demanding equal rights or whatever. But of course, a privilege is called that precisely because it isn’t handed to just everyone.

"Ah, this may or may not be a one-time thing, though." I quickly stepped in, clarifying—or rather, muddying the waters. "Well, we won’t know until the next big spender comes along~!"

If I said they’d get the same treatment every time they donated, I’d basically be turning the girls into merchandise. That wouldn’t do. This was just a spontaneous perk—something that happened when the girls felt like it, and the other party deserved it.

Right now, counting both big and small donations, we’d already earned roughly $5,000 in this stream alone. The viewer count had already blown past 100,000 and was still climbing. Adding in the banner ad revenue, we’d probably barely scrape $6,000 total.

Basically $1,500 each.

It might sound like a lot, but factoring in my earlier 10k expenditure, I was still in the red. Though I supposed it covered living expenses for the time being.

"Ohh... This is... embarrassing..."

"Hmm?"

While I was lost in thought, Kiki seemed to have changed her equipment. It looked like she’d gotten a full set from the Alpha’s drops. However...

Her top was covered by a thin layer of silvery-green fur—barely covering her, but not so revealing we’d earn a PG-13 rating. Her lower half was the same material shaped into pants, giving her an energetic, wild appearance overall.

But more than anything else...

[MoeLover: Wolf ears! God, how cuuute~! 😍😍]

[AutumnBlueWolf: Woof, woof! Wooof!]

The equipment came with a set of accessories—wolf ears that moved on their own like real ones. A game-only item, I figured. Something like that definitely wouldn’t fly in the real world.

Looking Kiki up and down, I couldn’t help but nod to myself. "The devs really know what they’re doing... Good job!"

Seeing the chat agree wholeheartedly, I let them enjoy it for a while before clapping my hands.

"Alright, let’s continue! We’ve got a quest speedrun to finish!"

The boss fight had delayed us, but it’s not like we walked away empty-handed. The earlier hunt had nearly fulfilled all the quest requirements for this zone. Only the gathering quests remained.

"Alright, let’s gooo~!"

"I’ll gather them all in a jiffy!"

"Girls, don’t run, you’ll trip!"

And just like that, the three girls took off ahead of me.

Well, there weren’t any monsters left in the area, so I supposed it was fine. And since we were deep enough into Teru Plains, no other players were visible nearby either.

The ones who’d rushed to the newbie village earlier were probably busy remaking their characters and grinding through the prologue map again. A valuable lesson learned—rushing is never a good thing.

Now that we were all over level 25, we’d be moving to the next hunting ground anyway.

Since we were just gathering items, I opened the floor to viewer questions to keep the stream from going stale. After all, it was no secret that we were the top players right now.

The next highest-leveled player outside our party was only level 18, after all.

If anyone would have access to the best info, it’s us... regardless of my returner status.

[Bell: That skill you spammed near the end. Where can we get or learn it?]

"Huh? The Moon Waltz?"

When that question came up, I was genuinely caught off guard.

Moon Waltz wasn’t technically a "skill"—it was more of an "ability." And I’d been using it for over a decade. Although I could execute it, explaining it step by step was another matter entirely. It was like being asked to describe in words how you balance on a motorcycle without falling.

’Still, more people learning this ability would be for the best.’

I never had the chance to teach it to anyone after I discovered it—I was the last survivor back then, after all. But now, if I could get others using this skill—or rather, the entire family of skills that could be derived from it—then things would be very different going forward.

"It’s hard to put into words, so I’ll demonstrate it again—slower this time."

I drew my parry dagger and stood in the middle of a clearing. The girls, curious themselves, stopped what they were doing and watched from a distance. Only Ram and Gwen kept gathering, completely focused on their task.

We were in a bit of a hurry, but a short detour should be fine.

"First, this skill doesn’t require any particular class. You don’t need a scroll or anything like that. It doesn’t even show up in your skill panel. It just exists for you to use."

I began explaining while raising the blade forward.

"As you all know, in fighting games, there’s a split-second moment where you can chain two moves together, right? Combos? It’s basically like that."

I waved my sword, halted it, took a step, then stopped it halfway.

"Moon Waltz is a skill I created—just an attack interrupt chained into a walk interrupt. If the timing is off, it fails like this. But this is what it looks like in slow motion."

A slash, stop, walk, stop with the leg raised, then follow through with the slash, then complete the step. I repeated it several times, giving the viewers enough time to copy or record it.

"Alright, I’ll use it at proper speed now. Watch carefully."

I took a deep breath and fixed my stance. "I’ll use the second combo point of the slash and the step to make it more visible, though the attack itself will be shortened." I clarified.

I swung my blade, interrupted it, stepped forward, interrupted again, and snapped my focus back to the blade. In that moment, my body shot forward about a meter, leaving a short crescent slash in its wake.

"...See? Easy as that."

[Bell: ...Easy? Which part? 😅]

[MoonArcher: Damn, such a move exists?! 😲 I need to get this!]

[LazyResearcher: Wait, if there are interrupt points for all movements, that includes the parries from earlier... Does that mean it exists for every move? Can we create an infinite combination of skills?]

[GarudaFlame: Inventing a move within the system’s confines without the system’s blessing... a God has descended...! 🙏]

The reactions were varied, but it seemed like at least one person had grasped the core of the idea.

Right.

Moon Waltz was just the most basic application. The combinations you could build from it were literally infinite. Some moves and skills didn’t allow chaining, of course, but they’d figure that out on their own.

Letting their imaginations run with the concept was better than handing them everything on a plate.

"Woah! I did it!"

"Ugh! I’m so close... I think!"

"This... then this...?"

"Huh?"

To my surprise, the girls had already started trying it out on the spot.

Eri was carefully copying the movements step by step. Miyabi looked a little awkward as she tried it at full speed. But Kiki had somehow already chained two Moon Waltzes back to back...

Wait, was it really that easy to pick up? How did she even—

I guess this was just the gap between an ordinary person and a genuine genius.

Ah... My eyes are sweating.

[Anon00010101: So the move you spent decades developing was learned in a few minutes, huh...]

Even Tee seemed exasperated as she sent that.

...

Wait. Tee?