Viewer A: “Huh? What is this person saying?”
Viewer B: “Are they seriously suggesting a fight between dungeon streamers?”
Viewer C: “Stop it! Don’t fight amongst yourselves!”
“How about it, Shiba? Are you scared or something, huh?”
Makita is trying a blatant provocation. Shiba, don’t take the bait. If you do, this could get really complicated.
“Fine. I’ll accept, but I have a condition.”
Shiba…? Shiba?!?
Wait, why is he letting himself get roped in by this hot-headed guy? I thought Shiba was more level-headed, so I never imagined he’d actually accept.
“Oh, now we’re talking! That’s the spirit.”
“First condition: you’re the one who challenged me, and I accepted. So, I want to be the one to set the rules for this match.”
“Huh? Street fights don’t need rules.”
Viewer D: “A street fight?”
Viewer E: “Street (Dungeon) Fight!”
“If you can’t agree to that, I won’t fight. If you want to label me a coward who ran away from a challenge, go ahead.”
“Tch… fine, I’ll go along with it. I don’t mind you setting the rules to be in your favor.”
What is Shiba planning? What good would setting the rules even do?
“Second condition: if I win, you have to listen to what I say whenever we’re in the dungeon from now on.”
“Is that all? I don’t mind. It’s natural for the loser to obey the winner, and I don’t intend to lose.”
Despite Shiba being the one to decide the rules, Makita still seems awfully confident. Has he thought this through?
“All right, if you accept those terms, I’ll announce the rule for our match. The first one to defeat the monster that appears before us wins.”
“Huh? What!? Aren’t we going to fight each other directly?”
Makita trembles with anger. Of course, he wanted a direct fight with Shiba.
“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll take you on if I lose. If I lose, I’ll listen to your demands and accept a rematch under your rules.”
“Ah, so that’s how it is. Then if I win, it’ll be a no-holds-barred street fight. Sound good?”
“Of course.”
Shiba looks completely unfazed. Does he have some guaranteed strategy to win?
Shiba is strong, no doubt about it. But Makita is strong, too. In the fight against the Black Golem, he charged forward, quickly closing the distance and blowing off its arm with a punch.
It seemed like Shiba couldn’t keep up with Makita’s speed in that fight. In a contest of who can defeat an enemy the quickest, it looks like Makita has the upper hand.
So how is Shiba planning to beat him?
Viewer F: “Come on, Shiba, you got this!”
Viewer G: “Teach that foul-mouthed guy a lesson!”
Viewer H: “It’s Shiba, after all, so he’ll win easily, right?”
As they were talking, a monster appeared. It was another slime monster. This is bad. Makita has already defeated this type of monster before, so he has the advantage.
“Yes! I know how to beat this one. Here I go!”
Makita dashed forward at an incredible speed. He’s incredibly fast, closing the distance to the slime in no time.
“It’s over!”
Just as Makita was about to deliver a knife-hand strike—
“Guard Barrier!”
A barrier appeared in front of the slime, blocking Makita’s attack.
“What!?”
The one who cast the spell was Shiba. He jumped forward with his spear, quickly closing the distance to the slime.
“Take this!”
Shiba pierced the slime with his spear. Flames erupted from the point of impact, burning the slime.
The slime was obliterated, defeated by Shiba. He looked over at Makita and gave a triumphant fist pump.
“Th-that’s dirty, Shiba!”
“There were no rules against interference. Who said you can’t protect the monster?”
Viewer A: “This is Shiba’s victory.”
Viewer B: “Wisdom won!”
I see. Shiba had a strategy. Makita isn’t the type who can use magic. Therefore, he can’t protect the monster with a barrier like Shiba can.
From the start, Shiba had the advantage in this battle because he could use a barrier to protect the monster.
“Ugh… that’s true. I lost, and I’m not going to deny that. It’s not something a man would do.”
Makita readily admitted his defeat.
Viewer C: “Whoa!”
Viewer D: “Finally, the time has come for understanding!”
Viewer E: “Shiba, you’re amazing!”
I was worried when Shiba took the bait from Makita, but he was clearly thinking things through. Shiba is indeed a calm person.
The exploration of the dungeon continued.
“Jin! You’re going too far alone! Fall back for a moment!”
“Sure!”
Makita began to properly listen to what Shiba had to say, just as he promised. Despite his complaints, he listened to the person who defeated him.
In that way, it was almost like he was a wild animal obeying the boss.
Viewer F: “Shiba is amazing. He’s managing Jin well.”
Viewer G: “He’s really good at using people.”
Viewer H: “If Jin doesn’t act on his own, he might actually be quite capable…?”
Viewer I: “Rather than calling it a collaboration, maybe he should just join Shadow Stars.”
The atmosphere in the comments section was shifting to welcome Jin. Good. If this keeps up, we could officially add Makita to the team.
If that happens, it would definitely boost our agency’s strength.
After all that, the stream ended once everyone returned from the dungeon. There were some tense moments during the collaborative stream, but fortunately, it ended without any major incidents.
After the stream ended and everyone dispersed, Makita went home. Meanwhile, our members Shiba, Kuniya, and Daigo came over to my place.
“Everyone, great job today!”
I first thanked everyone. They all sat down at the table.
“Ah, that was tough. That guy Jin is quite a handful. He listens to Shiba, but not to me.”
Kuniya complained as he laid his head on the table. Well, Kuniya didn’t even defeat Makita.
“But Shiba really thought it through, didn’t he? He protected the monster with a barrier and then finished it off.”
“Well, it’s important to make it look like the conditions favor the opponent at first. Since he thought that with that speed he could take down the monster first, he accepted the match.”
“Indeed, Makita was really fast. He must have accepted Shiba’s challenge because he was aware of that.”
But the reality is that it was actually disadvantageous for Makita, who couldn’t use magic, while Shiba, who could use magic, had a significant advantage.
“But when did you come up with that idea, Shiba? It’s not easy to think of protecting the monster like that.”
“No, this idea is quite useful, Kuniya. For example, suppose a monster has a wide-area attack. In that case, if there’s only one barrier to protect one person, then only one ally is safe. But if you put the barrier in front of the monster, the monster’s area attack will be blocked by that barrier, protecting everyone.”
“Awesome! That’s true!”
Hearing Shiba’s explanation made me realize that the use of magic can have endless possibilities with a little ingenuity. Coming up with ideas like that really shows the value of experience.
