Book 1: Chapter 72

Aqua “Who did what now?” I ask with a very irritated grimace on my face. “Your grandfather on your father’s side, the Kraken Patriarch, made an official announcement declaring everything that he believes the public should know about in regards to your family matters,” Rhett says after the hair and makeup dresser for the scene finishes messing with my hair. Putting it up into a ponytail. “So now everyone knows why your name changed again. And why you were an orphan.” Damnit. So much for not letting family drama go public. “Don’t these Bloodline families want to save any sort of face at all? I thought most Bloodline families try to avoid publicizing inner conflicts like this?” I ask while crossing my arms in the military grade armor I’m wearing for this scene. With the next scene I’m filming being one of the ones in the drama after she’s already joined the military. “That’s right, most of them do,” Rhett says before shaking his head. “But the Kraken and Abyssal Orca families like nothing more than attacking each other in any way possible. Without any shame. And without any limits on what they’ll do.” He grimaces. “It’s sickening.” Seriously? I knew the two families hated each other, but this much? Damnit. I let out a sigh before finally getting up and heading out of the room to go back to the set, where I go through the next scenes. Then I move on to the next job of the day. Which is a mixed photoshoot. The first part of it is more swimsuits except with a jacket unzipped thrown on top, whereas the second part is actually with the jacket zipped as I pretend I’m acting as a server for a beachside food place. It’s a little bit of a change of pace but not much. Oh, and my hair is braided this time. Which I don’t usually do. So I guess it’s different in that as well. After those two jobs I go to another variety show. But this variety show is far more pleasant than the last one. In fact, it’s just gaming. Video games. I haven’t really played video games before since I never really had the money to splurge on buying consoles and the games themselves. So I actually very much enjoy them. Then I eventually return to my body and head towards the mountains again to continue hunting. The mountain is giving me a good amount of EXP, so I would like to keep hunting in it. But more than that, I am starting to get to a level where I feel I should be strong enough to go back down to the caves where the adamantium is. Because while I know it is useless to me right now, it could prove very useful in the future. And if I happened to miss some bugs down there, I may eventually return to find it all gone. Which would be a pity. Anyway, when I arrive at the mountain, I quickly begin using an item I got from a Sponsorship. One that tracks where I’ve moved in the past day on a hologram that appears above it. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. With this I won’t get lost again. I smile at that thought as I head into the mountain. Only to realize I don’t know where to go to find where I left off. Ending up with me wandering around aimlessly for a couple hours until I finally start finding a lot more monsters again. Clearly finding a spot where I hadn’t been before. Good. Time to go back to hunting. With that thought in mind, I immediately begin killing monsters. Except at a much slower pace than when I started yesterday, since these monsters are all higher level than those monsters. They still aren’t at my level yet though, so I don’t struggle either. While I’m hunting I occasionally glance at the chat to see what they’re talking about. And I occasionally look at my sponsorships and business inquiries. But overall, things seem rather quiet today. Despite what just happened with the Kraken Patriarch. Which is rather surprising. I wonder why no one is mentioning it? Of course, I’m not complaining. But it’s still curious. Maybe they’re avoiding talking about it to me because I’m a Bloodliner and they don’t want to piss me off? Then again, from what I can see, most of them seem to be talking more about the Azuranth family’s survival with all of their members still alive in the Abyss. Which is pretty shocking news I guess. When I really think about it. So maybe some of the news about what the Orcayne family did to me is being drowned... out... Oh. I think I just figured it out. The blubbery general is probably using his own influence to drive public opinion towards talking about the Azuranth family’s reappearance rather than what he’s done. That makes a lot of sense now that I think about it. Still, he isn’t absolute, nor is the only one capable of driving public opinion. So by the time evening comes around, I begin to see messages in the chat about what the Orcayne family did. Yet they’re still not directed at me. Just in the chat. That’s all. I guess both of the patriarchs are probably directing them to not bother me with it? Either that or the people just aren’t bothering me on their own accord. I am the granddaughter of the patriarchs of both the most powerful Bloodline families in the entire Alliance after all. So it would make sense if that title would intimidate them into leaving me be. Regardless of what’s going on, I eventually find monsters who are around the same level as me. At which point I finally begin to slow down more in my hunt to be extra careful. By now I’m level forty-seven after hunting my way down here. Having gained two more levels in today’s hunt. And I just need three more levels for my next skill. As for the idea of hunting another large monster today? That won’t be happening. I don’t have the mana left to use Maw of the Abyssal Kraken again. So unless I want to use leftover mana and brute force, I should begin making my way out. It’ll probably take me a couple hours to leave this mountain anyway. With that in mind I go ahead and begin making my exit. Without the help of the chat this time thanks to my new handy little item. On another note, I can’t help but glance at the number I’ve never really checked in a separate menu of the Broadcast System menu. Where the stats for my broadcast are shown. The stats specifically show the current number of viewers – which are in the billions in terms of numbers – along with the current channel of the stream chat I’m looking at. Reminding me that there are thousands of other channels. Each with their own viewers. Other than those two things, there is also a follower option. Which shows me the current number of Pioneer Followers I have. A number that is also in the billions. And there’s a number for donations. Right. I forgot about those. The Pioneer Broadcast unlocks donations for the livestream after the ten day mark. But I was so focused on the Sponsorships part that I completely forgot about it. And my current earnings through the donations is astronomical. Hmm. Yeah, I’ll just dump a lot of that on the cranky old grandmother. I’m sure she’ll be happy with it. Ignoring how many swear words were in her last mail sent to me after she received my last bit of money tossed her way. Mostly fussing at me for not using the money for myself. Until I asked how exactly I would do that while on Oceana, making her go silent. Something tells me she won’t touch most of it though. Which means I just need to dump more on her to make her touch it. The miner guys don’t have any problems touching it though. So that’s good. Nor do the other few friends I have from that neighborhood. It’s just the cranky grandmother. I smile before lightly shaking my head at that thought. Such a stubborn lady. Anyway, tomorrow morning I have some more shoots to deal with and more vocal training for future song recordings. Then it’ll be back to the mountain again. I continue swimming through the water as I feel oddly relaxed. More than I’ve been in a while. This is actually kind of nice.