"Why does that Drunkard's line sound so incredibly familiar?"
"I think it's from that documentary, A Bite of China."
"Heh, if you didn't know better, you'd think this drunkard was one of our own Chinese Uma Musume."
Only a few minutes into the broadcast, the viewer count began to skyrocket.
The night-shift moderator at the streaming site took one look at the data and immediately pinned the stream to the most prominent featured slot on the homepage.
Now, everyone would see it the moment they logged in.
A steady stream of newcomers flooded the chat. Some asked what the stream was about—was it some kind of wilderness survival challenge?
Others, seasoned Chinese Uma Musume fans, popped in to ask if Barbatos was a trainee from a specific professional team.
You couldn't really blame them.
After all, standing in the middle of a forest and speaking such fluent, earthy Chinese, no one would ever suspect she was an Uma Musume from Japan.
Besides, Uma Musume exist in every country, though the ones in China aren't quite as world-renowned.
Because of that, even the most dedicated "Uma Musume" fans didn't always keep a close eye on international circuits.
Barbatos took in the forest scenery, chatting idly with Seiun Sky and only occasionally glancing at the screen to toss a few words back to the viewers.
She mostly focused on responding to her moderators or familiar faces in the chat.
While this "insider" vibe might turn off some new viewers, she didn't stream often and certainly didn't rely on it for a living. To her, going live was just a way to shoot the breeze with her old fans.
"The place where Grandma said the beetles gather should be just up ahead."
Following the directions given by the elderly woman the day before, they ventured deeper into the heart of the woods.
"Found it!"
"It's the marked leaf."
"Grandma mentioned yesterday that beetles tend to swarm around these marked leaves."
"Though, I have to say, this marker is barely visible. If we came here at night, even with a flashlight, we'd probably never find it."
"Yeah, true. If we were cat-girls instead of Uma Musume, we'd have no problem navigating at night."
"A leaf like this feels like it would just blow away if a stiff breeze caught it."
The so-called "marked leaf" was simply a leaf skewered onto a tree branch—hardly an obvious sign.
However, for the locals, such a marker was probably redundant. Given the grandmother's age, she likely didn't even need a sign; she could probably find this spot with her eyes closed.
"Let me see if I can spot any of them..."
As the camera zoomed in on the marked trunk, seven beetles—two large and five small—were huddled there.
Handing her phone to Seiun Sky to keep the stream going, Barbatos pulled out her gear and efficiently plucked the beetles from the bark, lining them up neatly.
The beetles came in various colors, likely representing different species.
Some looked quite vibrant, but Barbatos wasn't worried about poison or getting nipped.
With her Heal and Insanity Potion ready to mend any wounds, and Cleanse available to neutralize any toxins, she felt pretty bulletproof.
"Grandma's intel is the real deal. If I'd tried to find these on my own, it would have taken forever."
Barbatos couldn't help but marvel. An elder in the house is like a treasure in the house—or in this case, a neighborly elder.
"Seven in one go! Thank you, Grandma, and thank you for the bounty of nature."
"I feel like we've caught enough already, but since we're here, let's try that trick Grandma mentioned—kicking the tree. To those watching at home, please don't try this yourself. There might be hornets in the woods, and provoking them by kicking trees is a very bad idea."
Even as the words left her mouth, Barbatos spun around and delivered a sharp kick to the trunk.
Thud!
The tree, which would have taken a man and a half to wrap their arms around, shuddered violently. Beetles began raining down from the canopy.
The viewers in the chat were momentarily stunned.
Even though there were newcomers who didn't know Barbatos—didn't know she was a Japanese Uma Musume or where she was—that single kick left them speechless.
And it wasn't just the newbies; even the veteran fans were reeling.
They had seen Barbatos race and knew she was fast, but the sheer force behind that kick... if that landed on a person, they'd be sent flying like something out of an action movie—or straight to meet their maker.
"That many?"
"Are we taking all of them?"
Barbatos looked at the beetles scattered across the ground, glancing at Seiun Sky with uncertainty.
They had come for the fun of the hunt, but did they really need to haul this many back?
Was she supposed to give them to Special Week for an extra snack? She certainly didn't know the first thing about roasting beetles.
Whump—
The sound of another heavy object hitting the ground was followed by an immediate, low-frequency buzzing that filled the air. A swarm of hornets began pouring out of the fallen object.
Barbatos: "..."
Seiun Sky: "..."
The two shared a look of pure bewilderment.
Grandma had warned them to watch out for hornets, but she hadn't mentioned there was a nest right on the marked tree!
Of course, Barbatos didn't blame the old woman; she just really wanted to complain.
Normally, a person's kick wouldn't cause such a massive reaction—the tree might vibrate enough to drop a couple of beetles, but it wouldn't disturb a nest high in the branches.
It wouldn't have even been noticed.
Sharing a silent understanding, Barbatos and Seiun Sky bolted back toward the path they came from. Even if they could technically survive a few stings, nobody actually wants to get stung by hornets.
In the chat, a literal wall of exclamation points began to scroll by.
The "experts" in the audience knew the second that nest hit the ground that the stream had taken a disastrous turn.
They had poked the literal hornet's nest. With that many stingers in the air, a wrong move could be fatal.
But before they could react further, the scenery in the stream began to blur, whipping past like the view from a car window speeding down a highway.
"Holy crap, how fast are they going?!"
"This is a literal race against the Grim Reaper! Whoever's slowest becomes the sacrifice!"
"Stop chatting and call an ambulance for the streamer!!"
"Wait, what's the emergency number in Japan again?"
"I have a question... can hornets actually catch them?"
The audience's reactions were a chaotic mix, but several viewers had already started recording their screens.
Even if the footage was mostly a blur of green and brown due to the speed, they wanted to document this life-or-death sprint.
"If we make it to the water, we should be safe," Seiun Sky shouted, analyzing the situation in a heartbeat.
At their current speed, the hornets couldn't catch them; they just needed to wait the insects out underwater.
"At this rate, we need to be ready for a 3200-meter dash..."
Barbatos was about to agree, but as the woods thinned and the road ahead came into view, she suddenly changed her mind.
"We can't head for the road! There are people there!"
"On the count of three, let's both trigger our Zone! Let's see if we can knock the hornets out with the pressure!"
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.