Chapter 17: Casual Carlean

Seeker's gameplay continued for another hour. And later, people were anticipating yet another challenge. The aerial bosses. Soon Seeker's travels reached a large military base on the outskirts of the thriving city. Seeker controlled his character to attack the base.

"Piercing Agent! This is an Impact owned military base. Turn away, or we will attack!"

A warning was heard, but Seeker paid no heed to this warning and controlled Bullet to continue on towards the base.

In the middle of the base, the mechanical floor gave way, and several huge man-shaped robots dashed out and zipped towards Seeker with intense speed. Shoulder launchers appeared by the side of these robots, and several missiles were fired.

Seeker casually used an attacking skill to dash forward, and Seeker would immediately prematurely end the dash with another attack, and once the quick attack would end, Seeker would use the dash skill again. This cycle was expertly delivered and led to a fast-paced movement technique that could do damage. Seeker could now catch up with the dashing robots and would pummel it with a variety of melee attacks. Like this, the mechanical Titans were demolished.

Seeker slowly approached the base, and a cutscene started.

A reddish Titan with a large engine in the back appeared and started flying in the air.

The chat room was cheering! How could Seeker kill this boss as it was in mid-air? This was why several gamblers were confident of their win.

"Now, here comes the painful part." Seeker's eyes grew serious. Those who placed their bets looked in glee. This was the first time that Seeker had a serious expression.

The bets slowly increased as some players who were shocked at Seeker's expression decided to enter the last minute. Right now, with over 50 people joining in the bet, everyone would receive a share of over 3 times of their 100 credit buy-in.

"A PIERCING AGENT?" A loud and painful voice echoed out as the Red Titan hovered over, unleashing a series of missiles.

One of Bullet's skill was a missile defense system wherein Bullet would use his gun to destroy missiles that are approaching him. However, Seeker made no investment on any ranged skills. Therefore, he had no defenses to stop the missiles. On his previous playthrough, he had those skills with him, which made the battle easier.

Seeker controlled Bullet to run towards the missiles and started dashing evading the torrent of missiles easily.

"HOW ABOUT THIS?" The painful voice screamed again.

Seeker frowned and continued to control Bullet to dash and drew closer and closer to the enemy.

Two more viewers entered the Den. If this demigod of gamers frowned, then it could mean he was not confident.

However, Seeker pushed on. Seeker used the dashing attack to launch himself in the air. It was just enough to connect to the hovering Titan. However, Bullet started to fall down and only managed to connect one attack.

Many who gambled were smiling in amusement. Seeker could not use the quick attack and relaunch another aerial dash as it was a ground-based attack.

"DIE YOU PIERCING TRASH!" The painful voice shouted again as it launched a different attack pattern. A salvo of missiles erupted and flew towards Bullet's position. Seeker used the dashing aerial attack to escape the arriving salvo and as he was in mid-air. The red Titan drew closer to the aerial Bullet and was about to launch an attack.

Just before the attack could commence, Seeker used a skill that used the Rifle as a pole and struck the enemy. As the attack connected, Seeker used the attack as a foothold to propel him further upwards, and then Seeker immediately used the aerial dash again.

Seeker's avatar zipped through the Red Titan, inflicting small damage. But after Seeker dashed through the Red Titan, Seeker then used the same attack skill, which propelled him upwards once more. Seeker then used another dash. Seeker continued with this cycle in a very precise and fast manner.

The Red Titan continued to shout painful screams that made Seeker look annoyed. Seeker's attacks continued. The missiles that the Titan launched were of no use. They continued to travel downwards, and Seeker was always right beside or above the red Titan.

None of the viewers could type a message as they saw Seeker's fast and unusual techniques. Seeker zipped to-and-fro until the Red Titan's hit points shot down below its halfway mark.

"NOOOOOO! THEN TRY THIS!" the painful voice was heard once again.

"That's it! I've had enough of this." Seeker stood up and picked up the remote in the corner table and tried to mute the audio. He kept pressing random buttons as the sounds had not died down. As his right hand was doing that, he controlled his avatar using his left hand. Bullet was seen running around, evading the incoming missiles. Seeker, however, seemed focus on muting the television.

Meryl and Lynd had to contain the urge to urinate at the stressful situation that Seeker placed himself in.

"SEEKER!" Lynd was about to run to grab the controllers.

"I'll get the remote! Geez!" Meryl complained as she stomped off and snatched the remote from Seeker.

"It's not that one! It's this!" Meryl shouted angrily. She took a different remote controller and muted the sounds.

Seeker sat down once more. He looked very relaxed. "I hate that voice. Ugh. Whoever suggested that I play with the volume on is an idiot. Hey Meryl, what are we having for dinner? Here, take my card and order some pizza." Seeker then stood back up and rummaged to his back pocket. His left hand continued to control Bullet in parrying missiles and other attacks.

"SEEKER!" Lynd shouted again. He wanted to just pinch and crush that frustrating nonchalant face of Seeker. All it took was to receive a single hit from those missiles, and they would be 20,000 credits poorer.

Seeker finally managed to take out his wallet. He then used the thumb and index fingers of his left hand to pick a credit card out of the card slots while his middle finger continued to move the analog joystick.

Meryl and Lynd looked very frightened and continued to cringe as their view turned back and forth from Seeker's controls and the screen. As Seeker took out the card and attempted to give it to Meryl, Meryl dashed angrily at Seeker and took the card. She could hardly contain the urge to dropkick her friend then and there.

Seeker sat down and relaxed at the inclination of his chair. He controlled Bullet to dive in and started his aerial combos, which instantly killed the boss. It took 1 minute and 46 seconds for Seeker to kill this boss. And that included 10 seconds worth of delay since Seeker had to move away from the Titan as he made Bullet run around in circles.

The chat room was buzzing with chats when Meryl went back to her seat.

"MAH HEART! MAH KIDNEY!"

"Oh look! I don't need to use the toilet anymore."

"SON OF A!"

"That's exactly what I do whenever I'm betting twenty freakin' thousand credits to do a no-hit walkthrough with a boss-beating time limit of two minutes. Mute the TV and order dinner with one hand while I play with the other!"

"HAIL THE NEW PIERCING PRODIGY CASUAL CARLEAN!"

"I'm watching this in the toilet. I've been having problems relieving myself due to chronic constipation. But I tell you, my constipation is cured now! Thank you, Casual Carlean!"

"The doctor didn't need to defibrillate my uncle, who was suffering from cardiac arrest. Watching Casual Carlean proved to be more effective. Thanks, Casual Carlean!"

Several similar comments were made that night, and several of which were featured online. This later created a mountain of curious viewers who accessed Seeker's streams later on.

Lynd and Meryl watched in exasperation. It was just as if they've just undergone another round of Seeker's exercise. It was just too much. The standing, the one-handed control, the muting, the wallet. Why the hell did he do that in the middle of the boss fight? Isn't there a pause button?

As various thoughts continued to plague Lynd and Meryl, the source of their plague, Seeker was having a very nonchalant time as he happily controlled Bullet to dive towards a group of enemies and instantly made scrap metal of them.

The game progressed on, and soon, Seeker reached the warehouse where the Penetrating Sky soldiers reside.

The cutscene began. A group of soldiers was waiting for Bullet to enter. They jumped up and started to fly. The Elite group of soldiers known as Penetrating Sky was a mockery of the Piercing name. The soldiers used weapons and ammunition, similar to various Piercing soldiers.

Penetrating Sky used specialized guns that fired bullets at an incredibly fast speed. However, just as it was with the slow-moving missiles, Seeker had no problems evading everything. He dashed and dashed around, and once he would be directly below one of the soldiers, Seeker would utilize the same aerial combo to immediately kill the soldier.

Once everyone saw how easily a soldier died, they knew that Seeker had won the bet. Seeker dashed and went to pursue another soldier. And he instantly killed it with a blur of combos. Then another soldier died, and then another. As the soldiers slowly perished one by one, there were curses and strange voodoo chants filling the chat logs. Naturally, the source of these messages was the frustrated gamblers who placed their bets.

None of their chants worked. Seeker managed to defeat the last soldier with ease.

Seeker smiled and simply stared straight at the camera.

"Thank you for your generous donations!" Seeker smiled.

The processing of the Gambling Den immediately initiated, and Seeker was deemed the winner of the bet. Just like that, Seeker earned 4300 credits through the Den.

"Tomorrow, I will continue my Power Walkthrough same time." Seeker announced.

There were lots of complaints as they wanted Seeker to continue to play. The impossibility displayed by Seeker was a tremendous lesson to many.

"I'm sorry, guys. I'm still a student. After all, I can't live off playing games. I mean, how do I sustain myself?" Seeker shamefully asked.

At this time, Seeker was to earn a total of 10950 credits from people viewing the stream and 5700 credits from the Den.

Several pained emotions were expressed at Seeker's very shameful statement.

"See you tomorrow, guys! Same time! Remember to share this vid! Bye now!"

Just like that, the stream ended.

The stream became the most talked about topic amongst gamers that night. Almost every gaming website talked about Seeker's stream.

On the twentieth floor of a tall skyscraper, five teens were watching the stream.

"Impressive." A short teen with thick glasses and dark hair spoke. He watched earnestly at how Seeker controlled Bullet to evade and attack. At the same time, he seemed to be counting something, and he continued to mumble numbers under his breath.

"We should join the stream tomorrow. This will definitely get their attention." The only female of the group spoke. She had pink hair, thin glasses, and a very white complexion and beauty that would match movie stars. She smiled and started giggling as she saw Seeker stand and started using the remote. The others, however, we're cringing at what Seeker did.

Everyone held their breath as they watched Seeker pick his card whilst controlling Bullet with his middle finger.

"Well, no matter what they offer him, he'd most likely join us. Kris, you should join the stream alone tomorrow. A personal touch from you should be enough." The short teen ordered unaffected by what he saw. He carried on counting under his breath.

The pink-haired girl smiled and nodded. Her eyes were full of anticipation.