Chapter 114: The Wagyu Sermon on Existential Dread

The wagyu cubes sizzled like they were telling secrets.

Liam watched the fat render, little pearls of it sliding down the sides of each two-inch square, pooling at the bottom of the cast-iron pan. The Level 3 Hearth’s flame was steady, a deep orange-blue that held its heat without spiking. He’d spent forty minutes getting it there. Worth it.

"See the colour," he said, tilting the pan toward the stream crystal. The blue screen hovered at the edge of his vision, chat scrolling fast enough to blur. "Not brown yet. You want that pale gold. If it goes brown, you’ve lost the marbling."

He tonged the first cube, flipped it. The seared side gleamed.

[Elgumbre]: BRO THAT’S WAGYU???

[He_He03]: real questions here, how did you get so strong so fast?

[daisycattt]: I bet he won’t read my comment.

[Allen_Davis_4917]: I miss the days he was a little guy.

Liam read the chat in his peripheral vision and kept typing. "You don’t flip fast, one flip per side, patience is key, the fat needs time to do its job."

"You know.. I don’t really mind being stuck in this other world. I’m stuck with a few billion players who are probably causing hell, and my guild is chill, and I guess we are all crazy still raiding, and pretending it’s just a game, but it’s not a game, and real people have died."

Midnight curled around his shoulder armour tighter.

Elizabeth whimpered a little and leaned against his back, "Hmm, I agree, I like it better here with you."

Liam turned around and kissed her on the head.

[Jimmy_Shim]: OI DO IT AGAIN I WASN’T READY.

[JudeTraore]: Is everyone in your party still alive? I miss Mirra, I love milfs, I swear to god.

[CMurdock]: What city are u in now? Did you bring spring?

The last cube of wagyu landed on the plate with a soft thud. Liam arranged them in a neat pyramid, garnished with some wild herbs he’d foraged that morning. The meat glistened under the firelight, each cube a perfect medium-rare.

He stepped back, satisfied, then turned to face the stream . The blue screen flickered, chat still scrolling.

"Fuck, do you know what I really want? A coffee," Liam said, running a hand through his white hair. "I really miss coffee. None of the stalls here does coffee. Has anyone on stream found coffee? Or the beans? I could do that. We should go tomorrow and find coffee beans. We could definitely do that."

[Samantech3364]: BRO, I THINK I SAW SOMETHING

[Chronos_Void]: YEAH, THERE’S A VALLEY LIKE A DAY’S WALK EAST OF YOUR CITY

[Elgumbre]: Those things tried to eat my guildie, though.

[He_He03]: You need a mount, man. It’s so far away.

[Samantech3364]: Carriages cost way too much gold now that they’re real.

Liam’s ears perked up as he read the chat. His tail swished behind him, the tip flicking with excitement.

"Elizabeth," he turned to the pink-haired woman still leaning against his back. "You did get the bag and skills for horse training, right? So you should, we should be able to get some wild horses as mounts, right? And then go get coffee beans!"

Elizabeth blinked, her pink eyes widening slightly. "I have the skills, but..."

"Perfect." Liam nodded firmly. "Then I believe we should probably go hunt down the e-girl that ruined Rogue’s bank account and mine."

The chat exploded.

[daisycattt]: WAIT WHAT E-GIRL? [That_one_guy_AD]: ROGUE’S DEAD???? [Chronos_Void]: What happened to Rogue??

[CMurdock]: OMG THE DRAMA

[Elgumbre]: @Liam, who’s the e-girl? And did he at least score?

Liam frowned at the screen. He hadn’t meant to mention that part. But it was out now, hanging in the air like the smoke from his cooking fire.

"Not dead," he clarified, watching Elizabeth’s expression shift to concern. "Just broken and broke. Got scammed by some girl who promised him a lot of things, and said she needed surgery, so he paid for it."

Midnight rolled down his arm, her scales cool against his skin.

"Her real name’s probably Karen," Liam muttered, then caught Elizabeth’s side eye.

[He_He03]: Karen strikes again

[CMurdock]: I think I know who you mean. She did the same to my friend.

Liam’s red eyes narrowed, thinking about it.

"Okay, thanks for watching the stream. I’ll stream again when we are catching horses or collecting beans!"

[Allen_Davis_4917]: Don’t leave your my only form of entertainment.

Liam turned off the stream and turned to Elizabeth.

"Tomorrow," he decided, closing the status panel with a flick of his wrist. "We get horses, we get beans, we get revenge."

Elizabeth opened her mouth to protest, then closed it. Instead, she reached for a piece of wagyu, her fingers brushing against his as she took it.

She chewed slowly, her pink cat ears twitching as she swallowed. Then she set the rest of the cube down on the plate and crossed her arms.

"Sure, whatever," she said, looking off toward the fire. "I don’t know if we can do the revenge thing tomorrow, though. I feel like something crazy’s going to happen." She glanced at him, just for a second, then looked away with a small pout pulling at her lips.

[Tool Tip]:

Status: Vengeance Scheduled.

The Existential Wagyu Pivot: Liam transitioning seamlessly from dropping heavy, reality-shattering truths about player mortality into casually complaining about the lack of good espresso stalls in Aero City has inflicted [Whiplash] on his entire viewer base.

The Simp-Fund Liquidation Audit: Accidentally revealing on a live broadcast that Rogue entirely bankrupted himself funding a fake medical surgery scam for a high-tier digital e-girl has permanently reduced Rogue’s [Public Dignity Stat] to absolute zero. The system notes his name is now synonymous with a bad transaction.

The Horse-Training Conscription: Liam instantly volunteers Elizabeth’s passive horse-taming skills to secure free mounts just so he can bypass carriage fees, secure coffee beans, and physically hunt down a scammer named Karen. He has officially set the party’s next raid parameters.

The Foreboding Pout Modifier: Elizabeth’s pink ears twitching as she predicts "something crazy is going to happen" tomorrow confirms that her internal [Plot Armour Radar] is flaring. The system advises Liam that riding wild horses into a dangerous eastern valley for a caffeine fix will 100% result in another domestic catastrophe.