The Curse Of Popularity

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"I can finally see why some players just sell you off or just dismantle you, Guide! You've gone a bit too far now! I never asked you to record what I did and upload it as a video! I'm not even that good at doing this kind of stuff… I just wanted to make videos while doing farming things…"

The Guide looked at me as it floated idly in the air. It was as if he was completely apathetic to my own feelings and perhaps even confused that I reacted this way… but I could now see that he was just a cold-hearted robot!

"You never said it but you implied it, I also didn't want to miss out on the awesome moment!" he said. "You wanted to start as a live streamer so of course I must show how awesome you are. Also my protocol tells me to report any bugs or weird stuff to the developers and—Eh? They said it was fine? What?"

"Huh? The developers said something?" I asked.

"The Game Masters just said it is okay to do what you did without any reason other than "its fair"?! Fair my ass! What is this preference they suddenly got for you? …Oh well, that's for the better I guess."

Apparently after reporting what I did, the game masters said it was completely fine and they didn't nerfed it nor "fixed" it, despite that summon being a tad bit too strong, enough to one-shot a Level 10 Boss-type monster.

I had yet to find what had truly happened. I was afraid to check the Ranker Live Streaming System, but it had been roughly an hour ever since the video was uploaded, and sadly, you couldn't delete videos until ten hours after it was uploaded for some weird reason.

I was not accustomed to this sort of in-game social media so I haven't seen anything weird yet, but then it came. As I was seated over the chair inside of Acorn's house, watching as he extracted the dew from the flowers we picked up, my Direct Messages was flooded with notifications alongside my friend requests…

Huh? W-What was this?

When I clicked the Direct Messages, there were over 50 people trying to contact me for some reason! My eyes widened. What was this? Who were you people? Why were they contacting me out of nowhere? I was… a bit scared! What did they want with me?

I slowly began to check every Direct Message, some were rather spammy, others were weird, and some outright degenerate assholes!

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[RoyTheLadiesMan55 has started a Chat with you]

[RoyTheLadiesMan55: Hey babe, I saw what you did there, pretty awesome. Do you got a boyfriend or anything? Have you tried having sex in-game? It is more compelling than you might think. Also I am a Level 85 Player, I could carry you through Bosses and help you Level Up all the way to my level if you join my party. Come on, answer me.]

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[XXXTentationXXX has started a Chat with you]

[XXXTentationXXX: You're fucking hot! How much to smash that pussy? I got billions of gold so just say a price! Don't worry I'm always gentle with my chicks]

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[Liberator55 has started a Chat with you]

[Liberator55: Hello, I am Liberator, since the moment I saw your video that you've captivated me. My heart has never felt this way ever since I was a child and experienced my first crush! Please, Planta, go on a date with me! I am Level 150, I can do anything you want for you!]

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[WitchOfScarletFlames has started a Chat with you]

[WitchOfScarletFlames: Hello Planta, I am the Guild Master of the Scarlet Witches Guild and I am a Level 160 Flame Witch, I have considered in recruiting you into my guild even as a newbie, we'll make sure to nurture your talent, as the first newbie to have ever gotten the Legendary Warrior Title, you're someone that will make history, please consider it.]

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[IAmTheNewGodXxX has started a Chat with you]

[IAmTheNewGodXxX: Where do you live?]

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Uwah! This was disgusting! So many creeps… I knew there were some people trying to recruit me into their Guilds, but I was not really interested in any of the things they wanted to do anyway. I was not into leveling nor did I want to go beat bosses every day, also getting carried would kill all the fun of character progression, so no thanks!

Also there were so many creeps who wanted to have sex with me, it reminded me of all those male friends I had in Facebook, just a few days after knowing my husband passed out, those creeps sent me weird messages and a handful even sent me dick pics! Disgusting! This was why I ended closing my Facebook Profile…

Sorry but for now I was going to just block all these creeps, disable the friend requests and DMs that were not from my friends… And done.

"PHEW…"

Acorn slowly walked towards my side as he carried a small cup. He tilted his head as if he was curious about my sudden sigh of relief.

"Lady Planta? Are you okay?" He asked.

"Y-Yeah… I am okay…" I sighed. "S-Something weird happened, that's all…"

"Huh, okay. I made a bit of tea with dew, how about you relax for now?" he said.

The cute Acorn suddenly gave me a cup of herbal tea with a delicious aroma, which was sweetened with the dew from the Morning Flowers.

"Oh wow, thank you dear…" I smiled and accepted the cup. I sipped a little and my shoulders relaxed. Ahh, it was so sweet, warm, and aromatic, it felt like my nostrils were opening up… Was I feeling a bit agitated to the point even my in-game nostrils closed up? Wow this game was way too realistic sometimes.

After drinking the tea, I decided to cook something quick. We had collected a new type of meat, bird meat from the crows! I checked it beforehand and it was edible, and looked just like chicken too, so we could make something up with that.

Also, Acorn said that he collected some tubers in the morning when I wasn't here. They grew out of white flowers and were like smaller potatoes, but way sweeter. These tubers were named Babrica and were something that the Squirrel-folk eat sometimes.

He had found five of these little potatoes, so I decided to peel the skin off and then add them to the pot, like the other days, I was making a simple stew with the crow meat.

"Let's cook something tasty then!" I said.

"Oh? You're going to cook the crow meat?" He asked. He watched as I took out of my inventory two crow carcasses.

Their skin was actually white, and their meat was also pink-colored just like chicken! They even came without the innards for some reason, so it was easy to just cook right away.

"Yep!" I said as I grabbed the kitchen knife and smiled. It seemed that my smile was quite malicious because Acorn looked a bit scared, but he didn't have to worry, my chicken stew was the best.

I chopped the crow into several chunks, separating them and then putting them inside the pot alongside the mini potatoes. After that, I cut down some garlic, added acorns as well, which I peeled off previously, and also some salt and Pepperine, the red-colored pepper-like dust that they ate, all while equipping the Beginner Cook Title for maximum Cooking Proficiency enhancement!

And then, I quickly put some water and began to boil everything together, it was that simple! You just threw stuff and water and then you boiled it up… Maybe if I had some onions, carrots, and more vegetables, I would make a vegetable soup first and then add it to the chicken soup, but we didn't have that here, so we would have to do it in the roughest cooking way possible.

However, I wasn't done yet. I quickly cut down the second crow carcass. This time I cut down the crow's thighs and breasts separately, then I threw inside the stew all the bones that I wasn't going to use. With this, I decided to use the thighs and breasts to make some pseudo-fried chicken!

There was a lot of acorn oil in here, so I decided to deep fry them by covering them in acorn starch, which was another food they got. This starch had a nutty and fragrant scent. So alongside some salt, and the yolk of two crow eggs, which were items that also occasionally dropped from crows, but were way rarer, nonetheless, I made the batter.

We actually got three more eggs so I'd save them for later.

"W-Wow, what are you doing with the starch there, Lady Planta?" Acorn asked.

"I'm covering the meat with some eggs and then salt, some spices, and lots of starch!" I said. "I am going to make deep fried crow! Or well, I am going to try making that! Let's see how it ends though," I said.

When the oil was already boiling, I quickly put the four big pieces of crow into the oil and began to deep fry them, leaving them there until the meat was to get fully cooked.

"Wow, I've never seen this method of cooking before, deep frying meat covered in starch?! I wonder how it will taste…" said Acorn.

"I'm also curious! I've never eaten acorn starch before." I laughed.

After half an hour of waiting, the food was ready. I served the two of us with some crow stew. The delicious little potatoes were indeed quite sweet, but they went well with the flavorful chicken soup. Crow meat tasted almost the same as real world chicken too! I guess that's just in this game, in the real-world crow meat was probably not that good. But because this was a game, the devs probably tried to make the meat tasty no matter where it came from.

The acorns that got boiled into the stew were also like small potatoes, they were so chewy and tasty. The nutty flavor was quite elevated to a whole new level when they were boiled… and of course, the meat! It was very soft and not chewy at all, in fact, it slowly melted down into tiny pieces inside of your mouth, and it was infused with the spiciness of the Pepperine, so nice…

"Wow, this is an amazing stew…" Acorn said.

"Well now, time to try out the deep-fried chicken!" I said.

I grabbed a thigh and Acorn did the same, and the two of us bit into it gluttonously. I was suddenly attacked by the fragrance of acorn oil, all mixed in with the crunchiness of the fried batter and the tasty crow meat below it… Oh wow, this was amazing! The delicious oil, the meat juice, and of course the meat texture, way firmer than the stew but not too hard either… Amazing! I was so happy. All the awful things that happened earlier were placed aside and forgotten while I enjoyed the meal with my little squirrel friend.

"Ahh… Ahh…"

Suddenly, I saw Acorn dropping the crow thigh over the plate as he looked at the piece of meat while gasping for air. Wait, was there something going on?!

"Acorn? Are you okay?!" I asked.

"Ah… Ahhh… AMAZING!" he cried.

"Eh?!"

"It's so amazing! I have never tasted something so tasty before! Even though my hands are filled with grease, I'm… so impressed! How come we never thought about making food like this before?!" Acorn cried, as he raised his tiny squirrel hands.

"Hahaha! You scared me there, I really thought you had a stroke or something." I laughed.

"N-No, it is just… I was impressed by the flavor…" Acorn said as he began to eat the fried crow again.

"I am glad you enjoyed it…" I said. "Maybe we can give some to your grandpa and the villagers? Although there is not enough deep-fried meat, there's still a lot of stew left!"

"Sure!" he said.

Ding!

[You have cooked [Crow Meat Stew with Babrica, Acorns, and Pepperine] and [Deep Fried Crow Meat With Acorn Starch]!]

[You gained 500 EXP]

[You gained 300 EXP]

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