Max washed his face and looked at his reflection. He was a bit embarrassed that he wasn't professional enough to the point he forgot to update his status on Strike. His life wasn't only his anymore... He shouldn't worry his fans.
'To think that even BloodSucker is telling me this... I also need to get my act together.'
It was not because he forgot to update his status last night; he talked a lot with Flexy to know better about the competition. Not only that, they also talked about how skillful Atlas and Ferin were. Max gave his guess that they were probably sitting at the top 20 SR ranking.
Lily, whose movement was also similar to Ferin's, had 97.6% SR. Those couple probably had an SR similar to hers.
When both of them realized it, midnight had arrived, and Flexy excused himself to stream another game. Meanwhile, Max was already tired and hit the bed immediately to prepare for today's practice.
Before that, he still had time and decided to update his Strike.
[Sorry, guys. I am a bit too busy and forgot to give an update. I will start live streaming early today, at 9 AM. We will play Roach Planet with Flexy and two other friends. Mercenary Quest's main story will be postponed temporarily until the Midnight Heist tournament ends. That's it, see you soon!]
In just a few minutes, many replies arrived.
— So you're still alive! Good to know!
— Mercenary Quest is postponed, but Roach Planet is on. Wait, if you play with Flexy, does that mean you are participating in that competition too?!
— Two tournaments in a month... Breeze is so wild.
— So after being a thief, police, a hunter, now he's going to be an exterminator? He has so many jobs! What's he going to be next?
— I am glad to see you doing well and give us info! But even if you are sick, please do tell us! Just a sentence is enough!
— Roach Planet, eh? I wonder what kind of weapons you will use.
Max was relieved that the response was mostly positive, and most of them actually worried about him. He replied to some comments that stood out and joked around with those leaving comments about Roach Planet and his various jobs.
└ Yes, I am going to participate in that tournament.
└ Dude, you forgot I am also a traceur who does parkour and a streamer! But if you ask what kind of job I will be doing next, I want to be a killer kekekeke
└ Thank you for worrying about my condition. I am not sick, don't worry. I was just babysitting a certain orange-haired friend of mine.
The art of shifting blame was truly wonderful.
Breathing deeply, Max calmed his nerves down and pulled the trigger. Many bullets flew out of its muzzle in a spraying motion. For some reason, it wasn't concentrated and created a straight line even though the gun almost had no recoil.
Still, most bullets still hit the target. Out of 50 the mock P90 spewed out around 39 bullets hit two targets. There were also explosion traces that were outlined with blue on the bodies of the two cockroaches. It was indeed way smaller, only a third of that rifle's bullet.
Looking at the result, Max casually changed the magazine into a new one.
"Let's try it on the boss next." He muttered, "Spawn the first wave boss."
The two normal cockroaches disappeared into tiny pieces and were replaced by a large one with an exoskeleton as smooth as a diamond.
Once again, Max got into position and emptied his clip. Fifty bullets flew and created small explosions when they touched the large cockroach.
The result was satisfying. The damage might be spread out, but the weapon certainly works, although it was proved to be better used against normal cockroaches.
Nodding, he once again reloaded the submachine gun and said another command.
"Spawn a player."
Continuing that, he kept experimenting with various things until 8:30 AM, like changing weapons and seeing auxiliary items' effect on the enemies. Only then did he stop and prepare for his livestream.
Exiting the training room, Max started his stream, leaving it with a loading screen. He looked around the bar and found that no one was there yet.
'It's still 30 minutes before the gathering time. I guess I will talk to my viewers first.'
Finding a good sofa to sit on, he set the camera to hover around him and wrote 'I am streaming' on a board beside him to alert the others when they entered.
From the edge of his view, he noticed that more than 10K viewers were already waiting for him.
[We will exterminate roaches! Come here, you shiny, black, disgusting thing! #RoachPlanet #Practice #Competition #Flexy #OrangeSquashTeam]
[Viewers: 12,721]
The chat was also moving pretty fast, even when he put a 10-second cooldown. Smiling wryly, he decided to increase the cooldown to a 15-second cooldown before changing the loading screen into footage taken by the floating camera.
"Yo! Good morning, guys. Welcome, welcome. My apologies for not giving any news for the last two days. My days have been so busy, and many things have happened. I need to calm myself down and get away from the internet.
But don't worry. I am fine and still kicking if that answers your question."