Alan Pioneer News
“Hello everyone, Alan here with some more wonderful news!” Alan exclaims as the cameras turn on. “And with me as always is the man living under a ro- I mean Rodrick!”
Rodrick glares at him as he answers, “I am indeed Rodrick. I don’t know anything about someone living under a rock though.”
“Oh really? You sure about that?” Alan asks with a tilt of his head.
His co-host just firmly nods his head once. Meanwhile the screen behind the two of them changes to show a few different scenes of Aqua.
“Well, I’m sure even someone living under a rock would know about Aqua’s latest viral videos on her Alcast account, right?” Alan asks with an amused glint in his eyes.
“Who wouldn’t know about those?” Rodrick says with a scoff. “Some of them were even playing in the video game store I stopped by this morning!”
“Oh, really? A video game store?” Alan asks with surprise on his face. “What game were you buying perchance?”
Rodrick narrows his eyes, clearly wondering if there’s some trap in Alan’s words as he slowly answers, “That new game where you hunt monsters for their parts and create armor and weapons out of them. Why?”
“Oh, no reason,” Alan says with a nod of his head and a smile that is too wide. “Let’s watch these viral videos for ourselves to see what’s so great about them!”
The moment he finishes saying that, one of the videos expands to cover the entire screen before beginning to play. And in the image, Aqua can be seen complaining about a rather large isopod trying to eat her trident. Then when it looks grossed out by what it tried to eat, she begins to complain about it not liking her trident.
“Classic,” Alan says with a nod of his head.
“Yep,” Rodrick agrees. “Upset when they don’t like it, upset when they do.”
After that, the next video starts to play. This one showing Aqua as she floats in the water with her legs held to her chest with one arm and her other hand resting on her chin as she watches an isopod and a squid fight each other. Showing a lazy yet interested expression on her face while music plays in the background. The type of music people tend to add to videos that are taking a long time for no reason to add a bit of a comical feel to it.
“Her just floating there in the water watching the monsters fight is adorable,” Alan declares, his smile growing wider the longer he watches. “And that music? All while she even begins to spin upside down due to the water current very slowly flipping her? And with her not caring in the least about it?”
“I swear all the videos she is in instantly reach trending,” Rodrick says with a laugh. “And that music! It’s a perfect fit!”
Finally, the last video begins to play. And this one shows Aqua as she slowly wakes up, with the camera itself being shown from her side as she sleeps with her ear on her backpack. Just slowly blinking her lazy eyes open and closed for several seconds. Then she sits up straight and begins to stretch while wearing just her hoodie, a shirt beneath it, and shorts.
All while a wakeup song plays gently in the background.
“This is probably one of the most popular videos on her channel right now,” Alan says with a wry smile on his face. “And it’s obvious why. She’s so adorable yet with that elegant beauty as she wakes up. And even after realizing she’s being broadcast, she doesn’t even show any signs of caring. She just gets up and continues stretching.”Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Rodrick nods his head without saying a word. But his eyes make it clear he enjoys the video just as much as they remain glued to the screen.
“These videos alone make it clear why Aqua is leagues above any other Pioneer currently active in popularity,” Alan declares with a smile when the video finishes playing. “And now? Now it looks like she’s about to begin another big hunt.”
The screen changes once more to show her current broadcast as she finally turns her attention to the massive starfish at the center of the cavern she has deemed the starfish cavern.

Aqua
Since all the other starfish are dead, this fella is the only one left alive.
I stand with my hands on my hips just staring at the large starfish as the creature eats another delfish.
Hmm…
Honestly, I’m not really sure how to deal with this thing. Maybe like how I deal with the other starfish?
Size is just a number, right?
I swim high up in the cavern before waiting for another delfish to get close to it. Then I send out a blade of pressurized water into its mouth along with the delfish.
Then I wait.
And wait.
And continue waiting. But nothing ever actually happens. Which makes me wonder if it ate the blade too.
I guess size isn’t just a number after all.
The thing doesn’t even seem to have noticed my attack. Which is even sadder.
After that attempt, I try using a tentacle next. One from Abyssal Kraken’s Embrace. I just have the tentacle wrap around one of the starfish’s limbs.
But the starfish just counters it by wrapping the limb around the tentacle. Then bringing said flailing tentacle into its mouth and eating it, ripping the tentacle apart at the portal in the process.
I stare blankly as the starfish chews up the tentacle, wondering what the hell I just watched.
Eventually the starfish just swallows the tentacle. Leaving me floating here staring at it.
Okay, so that didn’t work either.
Hmm.
I float over before grabbing a rock that I then throw on top of the starfish. But the rock just rolls off the thing as the starfish ignores it.
Then I try throwing a bunch of corpses at it to overfeed it. But it just keeps eating without a care.
After trying several other things, I eventually find myself huffing at the stupid starfish while crossing my arms and glaring at it. All while ignoring the comments in my chat about how I look cute right now.
Just what the abyss am I even supposed to be doing to kill this? It’s infuriating.
Eventually I give up on killing it in some second-hand way and turn to physical brute force.
And by that I mean rushing at it and stabbing it with my trident, which surprisingly seamlessly enters the leg of the starfish before I twist it. Making the starfish finally let out a screech of pain for the first time throughout this entire battle that hasn’t really been much of a battle.
Oh.
So it’s weak to piercing attacks?
Huh.
The starfish’s leg slams into me, sending me flying for several meters. But not enough to make me reach the wall. And it doesn’t hurt as bad as I expected it would.
Probably because my level is only one below it.
The starfish finally detaches itself from the ground and begins to float up into the water.
What’s it doing? Wouldn’t it have been safer when…
My thoughts trail off as the starfish begins to spin. Slowly at first before going faster and faster until it’s creating a literal vortex around it in the water.
Okay then… was not expecting that.
Then, as if mocking me, the thing shoots straight at me at a speed almost too fast for me to see. Slamming into my gut, cracking my armor in one blow, and sending me flying to slam into the wall of the cavern as I cough out a mouthful of blood.
I glare at the starfish before spitting out some blood from my mouth and stretching a bit again. Feeling the bruising and fractured bones in my torso sending pain throughout my body. But the bruising should go away before long and the fractured bones are just fractures.
They’re easily ignorable.
I rush straight at the starfish with speed matching its own before slamming my trident straight into another one of its legs. Piercing straight through it before I grab my trident with both hands and swing it to send the damned starfish flying with all my immense strength.
And this time the starfish is the one being slammed into the opposite wall of the cavern.
It feels really nice to be this strong and actually be able to use the strength. A far different situation than what happened with the orc.
I crack my neck before tightening my grip on the trident as the starfish disengages itself from the wall and slowly begins to spin again while some sort of clear blood leaks from its wounds.
Then the starfish starts spinning faster and faster while I rush straight at it.
Meeting the starfish in the middle of the cavern as our attacks clash, sending shockwaves through the water.
Time to vent my earlier irritation on this stupid creature.