Cherreads

Chapter 10 - Chapter 10: Is This Abundance?

"Lumina... hehe ( ´ཀ` )... Lumina... hehe ( ´ཀ` )..."

Xiao Hunhun was completely lost in the game's story, muttering Lumina's name repeatedly like a lovesick fool. Thankfully, his camera was off, or his viewers might have seen the drool gathering at the corner of his mouth.

[Streamer, get out of that delusion!]

[Lumina's just a virtual character. Falling in love with a virtual character is pathetic... So, let me bear this pathetic burden alone!]

[The guy above, I can hear your mental abacus clicking even with Lumina in my arms.]

"Ahem, sorry about that. My cousin was using the stream earlier."

Realizing he'd lost his composure, Xiao Hunhun cleared his throat and tried to sound composed.

[Here it comes... the sudden younger cousin!]

[Classic! If you can't even admit you like her, how dare you claim you love her?]

Reading that comment, Xiao Hunhun felt it strike a chord. After a moment of contemplation, enlightenment struck him.

He shouted:

"I'm Miss Lumina's dog!!!"

[?]

[?]

[?]

His declaration was met with a tidal wave of question marks flooding the chat.

"Did I just... gain a dog out of nowhere?"

Lumina raised an eyebrow as she watched Xiao Hunhun's live stream on her System screen.

Then, she glanced at Stelle, who was following obediently beside her, baseball bat in hand.

"Hmm... this little puppy might not be so bad after all."

"Sister Lumina, I finally found you!"

Led by Lumina, March 7th appeared before them, her eyes lighting up with joy as she spotted Lumina. She hurried over, breathless.

"March? What are you doing here?" Lumina asked, feigning surprise at the panting girl.

"Asta was worried about you," March 7th explained. "She thought more hands would make light work, so she sent me and Dan Heng along too."

"Where's Dan Heng?"

"We split up. It's easier to search separately," March 7th replied. Her gaze then shifted to Stelle, and she asked with genuine confusion, "Since when did Arlan become a girl?"

Lumina froze momentarily. Is that something a normal person would say? But then she remembered who she was talking to. Oh, right. It's March 7th. That actually makes sense.

Lumina chuckled and casually took Stelle's hand, introducing her to March 7th. "This is Stelle. I found her in a room filled with strange artifacts. She's physically fine, but she seems to have lost her memory."

March 7th's gaze lingered on Lumina's hand holding Stelle's for a few seconds before finally focusing on Stelle herself.

After studying Stelle's appearance for a moment, March 7th remarked, "Your uniform doesn't look like anything I've seen on the Space Station."

"I... I don't know," Stelle replied, shaking her head to indicate her complete lack of memory.

"Oh, right, sorry. I forgot you have amnesia." Recalling Lumina's earlier introduction of Stelle, March 7th scratched her head awkwardly.

"Alright, alright, let's get moving," Lumina urged. "Whether Stelle is from the Space Station or not, we need to get her to safety."

"Oh, that reminds me!" March 7th exclaimed, snapping her fingers. "The almighty Dan Heng has already located Arlan. We can head straight to the Master Control Zone now!"

"Then let's hurry. If we run into any monsters..." Lumina began with a wry smile, but she trailed off abruptly, cutting herself off mid-sentence.

Not far ahead, seven or eight Voidrangers from the Antimatter Legion had spotted the group and locked their glowing eyes onto them.

"Wow, Sister Lumina, you really have a knack for jinxing things," March 7th muttered, watching the Voidrangers slowly advance.

"Enough with the banter. Let's focus on dealing with this mess," Lumina said, shooting March 7th an exasperated look. A green staff materialized in her hand, radiating a sacred aura that marked it as no ordinary artifact.

"Roger that!" March 7th responded, summoning her bow. Stelle tightened her grip on her baseball bat.

As the trio adopted combat stances, the player's screen shattered, transitioning into battle.

Unsurprisingly, Lumina made her debut in this fight, appearing as a trial character for the first time.

"Why can't I see anything...?" Xiao Hunhun grumbled, staring at Lumina's profile, which was filled with question marks.

Her Ultimate Skill was locked, completely inaccessible. Opening her character details revealed only her name, Lumina, and her Path: Abundance. Everything else was obscured by question marks.

Whether this was due to incomplete development or some other reason remained unclear.

[How stingy! They're giving us a trial run, why can't they reveal all her details?]

[Maybe it's not that they don't want to, but that they simply can't. The story's been completely rewritten since the closed beta.]

[Speaking of which, is my waifu a 4-star or a 5-star?]

Reading the comments on the live stream, Xiao Hunhun grew curious about Lumina's rarity. Was she a 4-star or a 5-star character? Considering her exquisitely detailed model and the impressively powerful-looking staff she wielded, he figured she had to be a 5-star.

"Fine, I can understand not showing her Ultimate Skill, but why can't I even use her Combat Skills? How stingy..."

Watching Lumina only unleash basic attacks, unable to activate any of her Combat Skills, Xiao Hunhun couldn't help but inwardly curse the stingy game developers.

Lumina's speed was agonizingly slow. Whether this was an intentional skill feature or the developers' design choice, she consistently acted last, after all allies and enemies had taken their turns.

"Huh, my wife's basic attack is actually an AoE?"

When Lumina's turn finally arrived, Xiao Hunhun was astonished to see her basic attack targeting all five enemies.

An Abundance character with a basic attack that hits five targets? That didn't seem balanced.

Oh wait, this was his favorite character. Never mind, it made perfect sense now.

Xiao Hunhun commanded Lumina to use her basic attack. On screen, she raised her staff and gently tapped it forward. Countless vines erupted, engulfing all five enemies before detonating in a burst of Imaginary-type damage, instantly obliterating them.

March 7th and Stelle, who had taken damage from the monster's attacks, were instantly restored to full health by Lumina's single strike.

"Holy shit?!" Xiao Hunhun exclaimed, watching Lumina annihilate the monster with a single basic attack.

The live stream chat exploded with similar reactions:

[Holy shit?!]

[You're telling me this is Abundance? Destruction only deals a few dozen points of damage, but she's hitting for over a hundred?!]

[If they don't nerf her, the game's unplayable! Wait, she's my wife—her strength clearly needs to be buffed more!]

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