Max appeared in an exceptionally glimmering, strange golden castle and walked toward a person waving at him in a golden knight's armor.
"Yo, Breeze! You look better than before, hahaha!"
"Thanks to you. I really appreciate your help."
"Don't mention it. We're friends, and we help each other!" Flexy laughed loudly and circled his arm around Max's shoulder. "Also, while that was already taken care of, I do know his identity from the police report. Do you want to hear it?" His tone turned slightly serious.
Did Max want to know? Yes, he did. He was really curious about him.
However, the hacker was no longer important to him. The police had already put him in jail and given him punishment.
"Tell me more about it after the program. We need to win this one first, and I don't want to have anything more in my mind." Max answered his friend and grinned, "Hehe, I wonder what kind of new bonus Mr. Taka will give me if I win."
Flexy blinked a few times in surprise before bursting into laughter. He smacked Max's back, much to his dismay and pain.
Max rubbed his back and sent a death glare toward his friend. The other party probably didn't know that he set his pain setting to 50% that of a real-world to move a bit better and felt the sensation of his whole body, just to feel alive.
'Damn... Should I lower it?' He seriously considered it. 'Nah, that won't work. I am finally able to use my 5 senses. It will be a shame to just cut it off and feel no pain again. That will... probably make me go crazy instead.'
"True! Let's not think about something as unimportant as his identity." Flexy grinned, "Well then, let's do this. The livestream will start in 20 minutes. We will do it like usual, alright?"
"Ah, about that." Max rose from his hunched position and looked at Flexy, "There is something I'd like to show you first before streaming. Shall we go to a Fort Siege first?"
"Hmm?" Flexy seemed confused but nodded his head nevertheless. His grin widened, feeling that his friend had something in mind, "It sounds interesting."
Interesting was kind of putting what Max would do down. It wasn't just interesting but crazily interesting.
"Holy shit!" Flexy cursed loudly as he reappeared in the co-op waiting room, facing Max with widened eyes. "That... You were able to do that?!"
Then, they continued to the second run. This time, it was much better with only 3 to 4 archers, a manageable number. The numbers of barbarians weren't as much compared to their first run in their first collaboration.
On top of all those factors, Max and Flexy had already trained together before and actually worked on their teamwork.
"On your right!" Max shouted and threw a short sword he found near his feet at the barbarian coming from Flexy's blindspot, killing him at once.
"Thanks!"
Shouting back, Flexy blocked an arrow attack with a shield in his left hand and rushed toward the archer. He was fast and took the barbarian off guard.
"See ya!"
With a swift slash, he decapitated the archer and proceeded to the next one, ending the first wave of the army and continuing to the split section.
Flexy went inside the fort while Max went to the roof to take the flag. This time, they succeeded in taking over the flag and killing the boss, finishing in 49 minutes and 47 seconds and placing them in the 6th speedrun ranking.
The viewers went wild with donations and chat. Even Flexy was excited and hugged Max tightly.
As someone who would rather have a private space himself, Max felt uncomfortable with it and pushed his friend away.
Nonetheless, he shared the happiness of getting into the top 10 speedrun ranking. Not that the happiness would last that long.
They ended the stream on a happy note and continued training secretly without trying to put the result in the speedrun ranking.
In a short explanation... The result surprised both of them and boosted their confidence a few times more than before.
After getting used to the path and having a few clean runs, Max got exhausted and couldn't move the way he wanted to anymore. They decided to finish the training and rest.
At night, Max bid goodbye to his apartment for a few days and went to New Eden City with the Sky Rail. When he arrived, everything was already prepared for him; he just needed to wait until tomorrow.
And then... the important day arrived.