Frontier Online

Stay Out! Part 43

The last few preparations for Rydr's interview with Little John proceeded without incident. The sun was already setting, casting a golden glow over Grotto's lush greenery outside the tower window.

Urginok and Hermes still had questions they wanted to ask, but they were content to hold them until the stream was over. Izor and the rest of the group stepped outside the tower's top room to avoid appearing in the frame, although Izor had no idea what they were talking about.

The mage was still asking the team why they had to leave the room as Little John turned to face Rydr.

"Are you ready?" The streamer questioned the Titan.

Rydr put a hand on his chest, trying to calm his heart rate before he gave up. He was too nervous. The giant's heart pounded in his chest.

It wasn't as if the colossus hadn't given a public speech before. There were plenty of times where Rydr presented science projects.

It's a little different when the audience could number in the millions—Rydr thought to himself, full of trepidation.

What if I say the wrong thing?

Rydr shook his head to clear away the disparaging thoughts. That's not what this is about. This is about sending a message. Rydr's message.

The Titan looked up at Little John and nodded, "I'm ready. How do we begin?"

*****

Outside the top room in Izor's tower, Urginok, Syrna, and Hermes waved their hands as they navigated online menus to pull up Little John's stream.

Izor watched them in open fascination. He desperately wanted to take apart the innate magic all Travelers seemed to wield so effortlessly. The team explained to him that the other man would use recording magic to display the room's image and events to millions of souls.

After the explanation, Izor was all too ready to step out of the limelight, which actually puzzled Urginok. Where was the mage's crazy attempt to propagate magic to all Travelers?

Nothing seemed to add up when it came to Izor, further cementing Urginok's determination to get away from him.

Although they were tuned into Little John's channel, the stream wasn't open or titled yet. A few of the streamer's regular audience members were milling around the chat room, wondering why Little John hadn't started yet.

[This isn't like him. What's up?]

[Maybe he died in Grotto? The place is a shit-shot after it turned into a Dungeon.]

[Little John should've left while he could. The guilds would have taken him out for the coverage alone.]

[He mentioned that he might have a scoop, though?]

[Upstairs is right. He's definitely setting up for a big scoop!]

The group chuckled as they read the chat at the same time. Hermes was in the middle of adding his own reply when the stream's title changed, distracting the gleeful teen.

[In a Titan's Wake: Interviewing Rydr!!!]

The stream still wasn't open, but the number of viewers in the lobby started to skyrocket. There were originally a few dozen viewers idling in the chatroom. There were over twenty thousand now.

And that number was growing by the second. When Hermes navigated back to the stream channel, over two million viewers were blowing up the chatroom.

[Start the stream!]