Another panel snapped into place, cutting off the comments mercifully.
|ACCEPT REWARDS?
|☐ YES ☐ NO
He didn't hesitate this time, didn't even pretend to weigh the options.
"Yep."
The system answered with enthusiasm that was bordering on malicious. Evil bugger.
A large influx of screens emerged at once. Unfortunately, every single screen came with a congratulatory noise. Ding. Ping. Chime. There were so many that the white room almost had white noise. It was almost like a celebratory blizzard. If only there was a mute button. It would be great if there was a mute button for people too, not just for their mouths, but also their abilities. Tamer's skill was really creepy.
"…Okay, okay, I get it," Ah'Ming muttered, rubbing his ear. "You're proud of me."
The noise did not stop.
He flicked through the screens with all the enthusiasm of someone scrolling through spam emails.
|REWARDS ACQUIRED!
|+75 POINTS
|+$500
|ITEM: NEWSPAPER CUTTING
|ITEM: OLD BOOK
|ITEM: LAMP SHARD
|ITEM: SHREDDED PAPER
…
…
It was full of random things, with items that sounded like they'd been swept off the floor and labeled out of spite. Ah'Ming skimmed, eyes glazing over as the list continued to unspool.
Ah'Ming scrolled all the way to the bottom, not bothering to read it all.
"…Is this a lost-and-found box?" he asked the empty space.
He stopped there, staring at the end of the list, feeling oddly underwhelmed. Because, be honest. Everyone wanted to earn cool things, like a lightsaber. This stuff was just junk.
Ah'Ming sighed, shoulders sagging a fraction.
"I can't believe I really risked my life for shredded paper."
But, before the final confirmation button that would lead to the achievements page, there lay four, slightly more vivid, rewards. Ah'Ming slowed his scrolling, just a bit.
|Librarian's Resentment obtained!
|Whenever broadcaster enters an instance containing a library, auto-receive hate from the librarian.
"Oh," he said after a beat.
Then, thoughtfully, "Sick."
That… was a curse. That was just a curse. There didn't seem to be any upsides to it, but it wasn't like any more librarians were gonna hurt him. Ah'Ming briefly imagined a school bus full of evil librarians with flamethrowers all set out to peel his skin from his bones. Hmm. It would be a fun fight though.
But honestly? Not that devastating. He didn't read much anyway. Manhwas were his upper limit, and even those depended on art quality.
"Guess I'm banned from quiet spaces now," he muttered. "They just couldn't handle me after all ¯_(ツ)_/¯"
The next reward pulsed faintly.
|Branch of Yggdrasil obtained!
|[][][][] Spyglass obtained!
|Book of the Lost obtained!
Ah'Ming could understand where Book of the Lost had come from, as it was clearly a boss drop from both the librarian, and Yuanyuan. Branch of Yggdrasil… He turned it over in his head, then shrugged. Maybe it was from the weird moss person he'd killed?
Then, the redacted something spyglass was either from the moss person's friend, or the other person who he'd accidentally.. uh. Put to sleep. Yes.
They were just taking a very nice nap.
Forever.
He nodded, satisfied with that explanation, and moved on before guilt could get any ideas.
Anyways!
Ah'Ming shrugged off all of these burdens like water on a duck's back, and started looking at the achievements.
"Anyways," he said aloud, forcing the word bright and casual. "Let's see what kind of achievements I apparently unlocked for wrecking a library and traumatizing the audience."
Wreck it Ming could be his new nickname.
Wreck it Ring?
|CONGRATULATIONS ON REACHING 40,000 VIEWERS
|CONGRATULATIONS ON REACHING 10,000 LIKES
|CONGRATULATIONS ON REACHING 25,000 LIKES
|+6 Notifications
Ah'Ming blinked, then leaned back slightly, chest puffing up despite himself. His pride soared rather high. He was doing pretty good, if he did say so himself. Over forty thousand viewers, plus nearly as many likes. That was better than half the streamers he used to watch while half-asleep at 2 a.m., snacking on convenience-store bread and judging their builds.
Yay.
|Reward achieved; Baby's second steps!
|Hit 10,000 likes
"Yay!"
Ah'Ming smiled.
|Reward achieved; Baby's third steps!
|Hit over 50% like to view ratio, above 10,000 likes
"Double Yay!"
|Reward achieved; Blood-stained hands
|Kill a player
The smile slid off his face.
"Not yay!"
|Reward achieved; Cold Blooded
|Kill a player outside of active PvP zone
Another one slammed in right after, like the system really wanted to make sure he understood.
Ah'Ming winced. "Double not yay."
|Reward achieved; On A Spree
|Kill more than one player
…
Okay, it was starting to sound pretty bad.
It was as though the Broadcast was trying to make Ah'Ming sound like a complete murderer here. It wasn't like he was trying to kill everyone! He wasn't going to snap and go on a rampage or anything!
He scrolled, already dreading what was next.
Ah'Ming gestured vaguely at the floating text, voice rising in protest. "I didn't try to kill anyone! I was defending myself! And sometimes against the environment! And once maybe someone ran directly into my hands!"
He paused, reconsidered. "…Okay, that one sounds worse when I say it out loud."
The system didn't respond out loud, but it started auto-scrolling.
|Reward achieved; Cold Blooded II
|Kill more than one player outside of active PvP zone
"I am not a murderer," he told it firmly. "I am a situationally efficient problem-solver."
The broadcast did not update the achievement name.
Ah'Ming gave up. Who knows, maybe the next achievement would be nicer or something.
|Title obtained; Librarian's Bane
|Earned by destroying a library
Oh for the love of—
Seriously. Cut him some slack here, why on earth were all of the achievements trying to paint him a bad picture?! Stupid system, stupid broadcast.
|Title obtained; Protector of Children
This was a far better sounding title. But, how'd Ah'Ming even get it? It wasn't as though it came with the line that described how he earned it. Was it because he helped Yuanyuan? He didn't though, not much. Most of what he had done was what the Broadcast wanted, namely killing the boss.
He exhaled, slow and shaky, then let out a soft scoff. "Figures. The one decent thing doesn't even come with a tooltip."
It wasn't as though Ah'Ming were a complete psychopath. He may not really mind the killing of others, but it was children. Everyone knew that even when hunting, you don't hurt the kids. It was a different matter to find the calves once again, when they'd grown, but still.
Children were to be protected.
Ah'Ming stood there, and waited some more. No other magical blue screens ended up showing up. Truly, it seemed as though there was a limit to one's own magnificence. What a shame.
He turned around, ready to exit the space. As he was dematerializing, he saw a smaller, dimmer screen pop up.
|Received; Yuanyuan's Favor