Chapter 30: The Trustworthy Black Cow Strikes Again

Alfredo was left speechless at the scene before his eyes.

“Snore…….”

“Zzzzzzz…….”

“Snrk snrk…… Hic!”

That was everything.

“What in the world…!!”

“Oh, did it work?”

Exitra had arrived.

Alfredo instinctively knew this was all Exitra’s doing.

“Don’t tell me, was this your handiwork, brother?”

“H-how did you……?”

— [Younger brother is shocked.]

— [Aww, surprised? We’re surprised too.]

— [Wow, what’s your JQ, anyway? How do you even come up with this stuff?]

— [Chairman… you’ve become the Trustworthy Black Cow again…….]

Ding~

[Didn’t see this coming.]

[Everyone was shocked.]

[No one had imagined he’d use that kind of method.]

“Well done.”

Exitra checked the leftover herb.

[Dreamland Sleep Herb]

[Description: A completely new, improved variety of herb. Infused with elemental power, its sleep effect is outstanding. Even insomniacs will fall asleep just by smelling this flower. It also has a mild calming effect.]

[Option: Powerful sleep effect. It was the Sleep Herb. The ordinary Sleep Herb, after passing through Exitra’s hands, gained a new modifier and a stronger sleep effect and he even earned an achievement.]

[Achievement, ‘I’ll Take Responsibility for Your Insomnia!’ achieved.]

That was the achievement.

[Well, there was no special option—just a collectible achievement.]

“It worked out well, right?”

— [Oh wow……..]

— [That Sleep Herb is OP;;;]

— [Did he really do this?]

“Haha, see? It went well.”

Exitra smiled.

Everything had gone according to plan.

He used Silph to deliver the scent of the Sleep Herb directly into the bandits’ noses.

Maybe because he shot it straight up their nostrils, the effect was immediate and certain.

Thanks to that, the bandits fell asleep.

By now, they were probably living out their dreams inside their own heads.

“Alright, shall we go save them?”

Alfredo still wore a dazed expression.

He seemed to have trouble grasping the situation.

Regardless, Exitra approached the cage where the merchants and architect guild members were trapped.

***

But just then—

“Was this your doing, you brats?!”

With a booming shout, a burly man leapt to his feet.

“Huh?! That’s the boss!”

The boss hadn’t fallen asleep.

Looking closer, blood was running down his leg.

It seemed he’d sensed something wrong just before falling asleep and hurt himself to resist the Sleep Herb’s effects.

— [What a tough guy…’]

“Impressive.”

— [One guy left!]

— [Here we go!]

— [Daaamn!! 5252 Bandit Boss! We knew you could do it!!!]

— [You’re our last hope!!!]

[Chairman has donated 10,000 won.]

— [Chairman’s cheering!]

— [Go, go, our bandit! Win!!! Kyahaha!!]

— [Boss, you can do it! Hang in there!!!]

— [Everyone was cheering for the bandit boss.]

But the boss wasn’t in good shape.

He’d managed to dull the Sleep Herb’s effect by hurting himself, but only barely.

And the Sleep Herb had a ‘calming’ effect too.

That meant even the pain from his self-inflicted wound was fading.

“Grrgh….”

“Heh, you managed to stay awake?”

Exitra took out the Sleep Herb and tried to put the boss to sleep again using Silph.

But the boss refused to sleep.

“That kind of thing! I’ll overcome it with sheer willpower!”

“Oh…”

The bandit boss was resisting the Sleep Herb’s effect.

His mental strength was impressive.

“Hmph, so there’s one left. I’ll take care of—”

“No, I’ll handle it.”

“But brother!”

“Watch, I read about this in a book.”

Exitra dashed quickly, moving behind the bandit boss.

He used Silph to eliminate wind resistance and pushed himself forward with wind, moving in a flash.

— [‘It’s fast, but changing direction would be tough.’]

High-speed movement using Silph wasn’t bad, but it was too linear.

It’d be hard to change direction in the middle.

Exitra chopped at the boss’s neck with the edge of his hand.

Thwack!

“Keugh!”

“Huh? Why isn’t he knocked out?”

“That stuff… doesn’t work on me!”

“That’s weird. In books, this always knocks people out…”

— [ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

— [You actually need proper technique for that. Right angle, right force, or it won’t work.]

— [Learned it from a book.]

— [Doesn’t look like it’ll work, honestly.]

“In that case, I’ll just keep going until it does.”

Thwack thwack thwack!

Exitra kept chopping at the boss’s neck.

“Keugh!”

“Why isn’t he knocked out? Well, let’s just keep going.”

Exitra was relentless.

The boss tried to fight back, but he’d lost most of his strength due to the Sleep Herb, so he couldn’t shake off Exitra clinging to his back.

***

After about ten minutes—

Thud!

Finally, the bandit boss collapsed.

Looking at him, Exitra said, “See? I did it. Just like the book said, if you keep at it, they’ll pass out.”

— [Uh, this is a bit…]

— [Exitra, you know why the Native American rain dance always works?]

“Huh? The rain dance? Because… they get lucky?”

— [Nope. The rain dance works because they keep dancing until it rains.]

— [Ox]

— [Beating someone till they pass out… that’s evil…]

— [Should’ve ended in one hit. After ten minutes, not passing out would be weirder.]

Ding~

— [Is he just pretending to be knocked out so he doesn’t get hit anymore??]

Exitra thought that was possible.

He checked, just in case, but thankfully, the boss really was out cold.

He wore a pained expression, but in the end, results mattered more than process.

“As long as it worked.”

Exitra approached Alfredo.

“Alright, it’s over now……

But what’s with your face?”

“I never imagined you could be so ruthless, brother.”

That expression, priceless.

Little brother’s terrified.

Honestly, if someone keeps chopping at your neck for ten minutes, wouldn’t you be scared?

Honestly, when he said ‘Why isn’t he knocked out? Usually works…’ did anyone hear the bandit’s comment?

— [I did. The bandit was like, ‘If you’re gonna do it, do it right… you XXX…’ LOL, I lost it]

Exitra shrugged.

“Well, shall we free them now?”

Exitra unlocked the cage and let the captives out.

[Quest ‘People Captured by Bandits’ cleared.]

[Merchant Guild favorability +10.]

[Architect Guild favorability +10.]

[You have earned 10 points.]

[–Achievement: Pacifism obtained.]

[–Achievement: Outstanding JQ obtained.]

[Achievement: ‘I Didn’t Kill Anyone’ obtained.]

He achieved three achievements at once with the quest’s success.

— [Wow… there’s even an achievement for pacifism?]

— [I’ve never seen any of those before!]

— [Honestly, who’d have thought you could clear this by putting all the bandits to sleep instead of killing them?]

— [Incredible, just incredible.]

“Hahaha, I got some nice rewards.”

Exitra grinned.

But it wasn’t over yet.

[With the ‘Outstanding JQ’ achievement, you have received an item.]

[You have obtained the Gold Monocle.]

“Huh?”

— [Wait, what’s that?]

— [Oh wow, an achievement reward item!]

— [That kind of reward exists? First time seeing it.]

“Ooh……”

Exitra examined the monocle.

Its rim was gold, with a long gold chain hanging from the lens.

“Not bad.”

It was easy to wear, with both a nose clip and an ear hook.

Of course, the lens had no prescription.

“Let’s see.”

Exitra checked the monocle.

[Gold Monocle]

[Description: Makes you look smarter when you wear it.]

“No special options, I see.”

Just a cosmetic item.

Even in Molgahub, achievement rewards are just for looks.

Still, it’s stylish.

— [Ooh, try it on!]

“Alright, I’ll give it a try.”

Exitra put on the monocle.

“How do I look?”

— [Cool.]

— [You kind of look like a butler…]

— [Seriously, you look like a genius.]

“Hey, what do you mean ‘like a genius’… I am a genius.”

— [Ah~ my bad.]

— [No no no, totally not a mistake~]

— [Not a mistake, just facts~]

— [Kyahaha.]

“Sigh… Anyway, isn’t it about time we collected our payment?”

— [Ah! Right!]

— [Black Cow~ Moo for us~]

— [Where did the Black Cow go~ Come out now~~~]

— [Chairman, they say you’re a Trustworthy Black Cow again, is that true~?]

[Chairman has donated 500,000 won.]

— [ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

— [This is hilarious!!]

— [Whew, glad I didn’t get picked.]

— [King Investor, you’re not a king if you don’t invest!]

“Chairman~ Thank you so much for the 500,000 won~ I’ll use it well.”

Exitra smiled and thanked him.

Then the Chairman’s support continued.

[Chairman has subscribed for 3-stage, 6 months.]

— [Whoa.]

— [Chairman subscribed!]

— [There aren’t many people Chairman subscribes too!]

Subscription was one of Trs TV’s systems.

It wasn’t that complicated.

There were 1-stage, 2-stage, and 3-stage subscriptions.

Viewers could choose their stage and subscribe for 1 month, 3 months, etc., with a donation.

Naturally, a 2-stage subscription cost more than 1-stage, and 3-stage more than 2-stage.

And the differences weren’t just in price.

Usually, the subscription reaction changed, or subscribers got more chat emotes, and so on—various perks.

Chairman actually subscribed…

The Chairman, known as a “big spender,” almost never subscribed to anyone.

Up until now, the only streamers he’d subscribed to were major or super-major streamers.

And yet, he subscribed now.

That meant Chairman had acknowledged Exitra.

“…….”

— [Oooh~ Exitra, do a reaction!]

— [Subscription reaction!!]

— [Chairman subscribed, so you have to do a 3-stage reaction~]

Honestly, until now, no one had ever subscribed during Exitra’s streams.

Surprisingly, even though he had lots of viewers and donations, this was his first subscription.

“Uh, first of all, Chairman, thank you for being my first subscriber.”

— [Huh! What? Chairman is the first subscriber?]

— [What? Isn’t this a big channel? There are over 4,000 viewers, but no one had subscribed?!]

— [Wait, now that you mention it, I donated but never subscribed……?]

The chat went wild.

Well, of course, everyone assumed people had already subscribed.

But it turned out no one had.

Unthinkable at a big channel.

[Chairman has donated 10,000 won.]

“Chairman, thank you for the ten thousand won. But that sounds kind of weird….”

— [So where’s the reaction?]

— [Six months at 3-stage, how much is that? You gotta do a reaction!]

— [I’ll subscribe if the reaction’s good. Let’s see how generous it is.]

“Ugh……”

Exitra fell into deep thought.

He didn’t have a subscription reaction.

Even before returning to the past, he hadn’t thought to make one, since barely anyone subscribed.

Ding~

[Come to think of it, even before you returned, you didn’t do a reaction when I subscribed!]

Even Chronos was pushing him to do a reaction.

***

After thinking it over, Exitra came up with an idea.

“Just a moment… I’ll pause for a bit.”

Exitra paused Molgahub.

Since it wasn’t a combat situation, he could pause the game.

With time stopped, Exitra took a deep breath.

‘Let’s finish this in one go.’

“Alright, here I go.”

Exitra placed one hand on his stomach, let the other trail behind, and bowed gracefully.

Then, lifting his head and looking straight into the camera, he smiled and said, “Thank you for subscribing. You won’t regret signing this contract with me.”

It was a reaction he’d tweaked from one he’d seen a streamer do before he returned.

That person just bowed, but Exitra added a touch of elegance with his hands.

“D-did that work?”

His first ever subscription reaction.

Exitra nervously checked the chat.

It was exploding.

— [Wow, insane!]

— [So cool!]

— [What the? That reaction makes him look handsome!]

— [Ugh, my hands and feet are curling! Oh wow!!]

— [That’s a real deal reaction!!]

“Well, as long as you’re all satisfied……”

Exitra turned his head a little.

It was much more embarrassing than he’d expected.

Way more than he’d imagined.

He hadn’t thought it’d be this bad.

— [Whoa, look at Exitra blushingㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

— [This is hilariousㅋㅋㅋ]

— [Exitra is cuteㅋㅋㅋ]

— [Cool but cuteㅋㅋ Exitra, look over here~~!!]

“H… hahaha….”

Exitra laughed awkwardly.

Even he thought he’d gone a bit overboard.

Since he hadn’t prepared anything, he tried to make it look fancy, but it just ended up weird.

He was embarrassed.

And then he said, “Everyone… please, whatever you do, don’t export this. Got it??”

— [Of course!]

— [Don’t worry~]

— [You can trust your viewers!!]

“I believe you……”

And that day, Exitra’s subscription reaction was exported to over a hundred other streamers.

That’s when he realized:

‘Never trust your viewers.’

It was a streamer’s moment of enlightenment.