Lucien opened his eyes and slowly removed the helmet from his head.
Then he stared at the white ceiling of his room—well, his temporary room.
He felt strange and utterly drained.
’Is fatigue from the game world supposed to follow me back into reality?’
He was confused for a moment. He shrugged it off and tried to stand up but found it incredibly difficult.
He frowned and remained in position, staring at the ceiling.
"How did I even log out? Did I die?"
He was unsure—that last part was hazy. After killing all the goblins, he remembered seeing Gaya... after that, he wasn’t quite sure what happened.
All he knew was that he was here, back in reality, with his body so exhausted that he couldn’t even climb down from the bed.
Lucien exhaled and stared at the ceiling. So many thoughts swirled through his head as he lay there, most especially regarding the last battle.
It was intense and made him realize how weak he really was and how brutal Evolution Online truly was. Imagine—all that bloodshed for only one level.
He knew at that moment that if he wanted to pursue growth, he couldn’t keep settling for normal and elite rank monsters.
He needed to start targeting Bosses, Elders, and Guardians at most for now.
He also needed to migrate to high-level regions—something in the level 100s. That was the only effective path to growth Lucien could see for himself right now.
At the same time, he knew such a thing would expose him to more deaths, which he was trying to avoid. To completely reduce his death ratio, he needed to invest in certain charms, gear, and perhaps potions as well.
He needed money to do that too.
’There’s that streaming thing...’
At this point, he could barely keep himself awake.
Before his next thought could form, he was already succumbing to the sweet embrace of slumber. In time, he was out completely, snoring.
A couple of hours later—at least according to what he thought—he finally woke up.
When he woke up, his body felt magically lighter. He shifted and was able to stand up easily. All the fatigue had somehow vanished from his body.
As Lucien stood up, on the ground he could see a table with a flowery white cloth covering the array of dishes beneath it.
He smiled and slowly sat on the ground, crossing his legs. Then he pulled the cover away.
On the main plate were chewy rice cakes simmered in spicy-sweet red chili pepper paste, and on the side there were fermented vegetables—napa cabbage with red chili pepper, garlic, ginger, and fish sauce. There was roasted crispy chicken on another plate, stir-fried anchovies, and braised potatoes.
Lucien stared for a moment, light blazing joyfully in his grey eyes. He immediately dug in with his chopsticks, savoring every single bite and swallowing with passion, satisfaction, and gratitude.
After a while, all the plates had finally been freed of their burden.
He smiled and leaned back on one hand, rubbing his protruded stomach with the other.
Then he carried his plates to the kitchen, dropped them into the sink, washed them all, and arranged them properly before leaving the kitchen to look for the old lady.
Lucien searched the whole house, but she was nowhere to be found.
He sat in the yard for a few minutes, staring up into the sky. The sky was somewhat white and the sun was harsh—there were almost no clouds.
He needed the harshness of the sun on his skin for a bit because, aside from the fact that they only got cold weather all the time, he was mostly indoors, even in the days before now.
He lay on the large table for a few minutes before eventually propping himself up and heading back inside.
When he stepped back inside, Lucien tried to search for Thena again, but she was nowhere to be found—which led him to conclude that she had either gone to catch up with friends or headed to the market.
Lucien stretched and sat in front of his PC. He smiled as he clicked his username and logged into his gaming profile.
Then he searched for where his recorded videos should be.
That was when Lucien realized something incredible.
Apparently, all his fight videos since joining Evolution Online had always been recorded automatically. He could see all of them there.
Starting from Video0#0_00001 (White Wolf Dungeon), Video0#0_00002 (Ossyn Woods)... and more and more. Even the Godzilla fight, the Elder Palebranch battle—everything was there.
Lucien chuckled dryly. He was amazed and thrilled, so ecstatic that he could only chuckle in disbelief.
He sighed and leaned back in the chair, his lips frozen in an amazed grin.
Then he examined the videos carefully. The only difference between the passively recorded ones and the one he recorded himself was that he appeared in the self-recorded version, while the others played as if his eyes were the camera.
However, he didn’t care. Lucien had read that streaming your fight videos could earn you substantial reputation points. Reputation points were incredibly useful—besides unlocking special quests from NPCs, they helped you get things at cheaper rates in both player and NPC stores.
The more reputation points, the better. But that wasn’t the true benefit of streaming battle videos.
It was because it generated serious cash. There were people whose sole entertainment was watching battle scenes, and these people were willing to pay handsomely to watch these videos.
Also, players were interested because they could learn strategies and scout regions for themselves to hunt.
It was an incredibly lucrative income source. And Lucien thought he really needed to consider it seriously.
Because now he needed money—he didn’t want to live under the old lady’s roof and be a burden. And Evolution Online was thoroughly enjoyable.
If he could make money from doing something he loved, he saw no reason to hesitate.
Lucien inhaled deeply, then navigated to EvoTube, the official streaming platform for Evolution Online. He opened a new profile and named it Player Cien.
However, Player Cien was taken. Player Cien1 was taken, Player Cien001 was taken—eventually Lucien had to settle for PlayerCien96. Fresh chapters posted on ɴovelfire.net
The moment he finalized his profile name, notifications started flooding in.
[You have gained one follower]
[You have gained one follower]
[You have gained one follower]
[You have gained one follower]
[You have gained one follower]
[You have gained one follower]
Lucien hadn’t even uploaded his first video—he was still setting up his account—and he already had fifty-six followers.