Hajin walked along the dirt road with his hands in his pockets, keeping his eyes on the distant shape of the capital's walls while the morning sun beat down on his back.
Juna walked three steps behind him, which was exactly where she had been for the last two days, and he had stopped pretending that was a coincidence.
'It's progress I guess,' he thought, glancing back at her without turning his head, 'she's not running away anymore, so that counts for something.'
She still kept her distance, tensed up whenever he moved too fast, and still hadn't said more than a handful of words since they left the forest. But she was walking with him instead of away from him, which felt like a small victory even if it wasn't really one.
The capital kept getting bigger the closer they got, its walls rising above the tree line like a gray smear on the horizon, and with every step his thoughts kept circling back to the same question.
'Is going there even a good idea?' he thought, looking at the walls and then back at the road ahead, 'a city that big means guards, rules, and people who ask questions I don't want to answer.'
He also didn't know what kind of attention a guy with Rings instead of Shards would draw in a place full of adventurers and officials. The system had fixed his manifestation path, but it hadn't given him a cover story for why he looked different from every other awakened person in the world.
'Then again, sitting in the woods eating deer meat every day isn't exactly a long-term plan either,' he thought, rubbing the back of his neck, 'I need information, supplies, and a place to call my own.'
He checked the stream panel while he walked, since it was the one thing that kept getting more interesting the longer he ignored it.
[ Stream ]
[ Status: Active ]
[ Viewers: 10 ]
[ Comments: 47 ]
He had 10 viewers now, which wasn't much, but it was enough to unlock the basic comment feed, and judging by what they were saying, not a single one of them believed this was real.
[ ShadowMage44:] bro the animation quality is insane for an indie project
[ xXDarkBladeXx:] dropped episode 3 somewhere? where do i watch from start
[ LurkerNoMore:] this is definitely an unreleased series, look at the UI design
[ CringeSlayer91:] still think its AI but the wolf girl is carrying the show ngl
He stared at one of the comment for a second, 'unreleased series?' he thought, not sure whether to be offended or relieved, 'so they think this is some kind of show.'
It actually made sense when he thought about it. People on Earth had no reason to believe a random stream was broadcasting from another world. They would assume it was entertainment, a production, or something generated by whatever AI thing they kept mentioning.
Which meant he could work with that.
He tapped on the stream settings while walking and found a toggle he hadn't noticed before.
[ Broadcast Control ]
[ Stream: ON/OFF ]
[ Note: Turning off the stream pauses Soul Energy accumulation. Goddess Fragment Recovery will not progress while broadcast is inactive. ]
He read that twice, then tested it by flipping the switch to OFF.
The comment feed froze instantly, the viewer count stopped updating, and the faint awareness he had been feeling at the back of his head since the stream activated just... vanished. It was like someone had closed a door he didn't even know was open.
He flipped it back to ON and the comments started rolling again.
[ CringeSlayer91:] did the stream just lag
[ NewViewer_02:] what did i miss
[ ShadowMage44:] probably server issues, this thing is clearly running on something janky ]
'So I can turn it off whenever I want,' he thought, feeling a little better about the whole situation, 'which means I'm not stuck broadcasting every moment of my life.'
That was important, he didn't want the stream dictating when he could have a private conversation or when he needed to sleep without an audience. The system had given him control, and he intended to keep it that way.
"Hey," he said, looking back at Juna without stopping. "How do you feel about cities?"
She flinched a little at the sudden question, which made him regret asking it while she was already on edge, but she answered anyway.
"I don't," she said, her voice flat and her eyes fixed on the road.
"Yeah, same," he said, turning back around. "But we need supplies and I can't exactly hunt deer forever."
She didn't respond to that, but he heard her footsteps keep pace behind him, which was answer enough.
The road curved around a hill and the capital came into full view for the first time, massive walls stretching left and right with a gate large enough to fit a dozen carts side by side. People were moving in and out in a steady stream, merchants, adventurers, and what looked like regular travelers, all of them passing through without much trouble.
He could see guards at the entrance, armed and armored, watching the crowd with bored attention that meant they were only paying attention when something looked wrong.
'Alright,' he thought, slowing his pace a little, 'so we just walk in like everyone else, keep our hands visible, and don't do anything weird.'
He glanced at his wrist where the Ring would appear if he channeled mana, then at Juna, who was already getting nervous looks from people on the road because of her wolf ears and tail.
'Or I could just not channel mana and hope nobody asks questions,' he thought, which felt like the smarter option by a wide margin.
He kept walking toward the gate, the stream running quietly in the corner of his vision while the comments kept rolling in from people who thought they were watching a show.
[ xXDarkBladeXx:] city arc lets goooo
[ LurkerNoMore:] betting the wolf girl has a tragic backstory episode coming
[ CringeSlayer91:] if they do the whole "city guards stop them at the gate" trope im dropping this
He almost smiled at that last one, 'yeah, let's see if I can surprise you then.'
The surprise turned out to be that nothing happened.
By the time they reached the gate, the flow of people moving in and out was thick enough that the guards barely gave more than a passing glance to anyone who was not hauling suspicious cargo or acting like an idiot, so Hajin kept his pace even, kept his hands visible and walked straight through with Juna behind him.
One guard looked at Juna's ears for a second, then at Hajin, then waved the next cart forward like he had already decided neither of them was worth the trouble.
They were inside the capital before he fully accepted that it had worked.
'Huh,' he thought, looking back once at the gate and then ahead again while the noise of the city hit him from every direction at once, 'guess your show instincts were wrong for once.'
[ CringeSlayer91:] okay fair play
[ ShadowMage44:] wow they actually just walked in
[ LurkerNoMore:] city arc with no checkpoint scene, bold
'Now that I am in, first order of business is heading to a guild,' he thought, patting his bag a little, 'I need to see these and earn some money.'