63 Chapter 63

"Hi... I'm Reed and you may know me as Redde."

Ooh, going straight-forward with the real name.

We both looked incredibly stupid with the masquerade masks on, but it was funny.

Trying to annoy chat, even more, I stalled more time by whispering to Reed.

"Dude," I looked at the camera suspiciously and covered my mouth "you already told your parents about this, right?"

Oh, I should totally be an actor right now.

He whispered back, "Yeah."

I nodded.

[blacklily: "OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOD."]

"Hi, hi Lily! God damn, Charlie. Why are your earphones this sensitive? No wonder you whined like a baby when I yelled in the mic earlier."

I chuckled.

"Now you know my pain."

He tried turning the sound lower but one volume bar down and we couldn't hear anymore.

He smiled frustrated and just left the volume where it was at before.

[bzoomster: "Redde, I like your hair dude."]

The person in question scratched his cheek nervously,

"Thank you very much zoom."

[Rykun: "Wow, finally almost looking at you while hearing your voice I realize that you look exactly how you sound."]

I smiled confidently at Reed and he smiled back.

"Exactly like a sexy beast," he nodded to himself.

We laughed loudly and Reed's tenseness dissipated in small amounts at every joke we cracked.

[Poodlefluff: "Haha, that's the Redde we know."]

[wipL: "Exactly what I was about to say."]

Reed smiled happily.

[Yvettel: "Agh! I wish we were all together in one place instead of online."]

Yvette voiced out her frustrations and also hinted to the chat at the planned streamer house.

[LoafofBread: "Same. I just wouldn't want to see Lily's cat, though."]

[Juliamn: "Hahaha, same. By the way, Reed, it's been almost one year that you've left us with curiosity."]

[bzoomster: "Yeah, even if you're not ready to show your face I'm pretty sure the majority of us here are satisfied to see this. Don't feel pressured."]

I gave a thumbs-up to Reed.

"It's okay. If he decides not to show his face I'll rip the masks off from his face."

We laughed.

Reed did not flinch at all when I said that which means he's definitely prepared himself mentally to show his face.

[Poodlefluff: "Not all heroes wear capes."]

"This one is wearing a mask though."

[blacklily: "Idiot."]

[Yvettel: "Idiot."]

[Poodlefluff: "Idiot."]

[bzoomster: "Idiot."]

[Rykun: "Idiot."]

[Juliamn: "Idiot."]

[wipL: "Idiot."]

[LoafofBread: "Idiot."]

"Idiot."

"Not you too as well, Reed!"

I fake-cried and we began laughing.

[Chat:

thewatchrx: i have tears in my eyes

Tomtomjam: ive been waiting for this my whole life

Viwwyx: finally seeing redde my life goal is completed

MustardPig: im crying rn]

[blacklily: "It's okay. I also will cry with you, chat."]

She and chat were very emotional.

[Juliamn: "Check the viewer count."]

Knowing we had hit 1 million viewers already, I showed my pearly whites to the audience.

Reed began coughing and I began patting his back roughly in vengeance for the times he's almost broken my back with his back slaps.

"Alright, alright Charlie I'm okay!"

I kept slapping his back.

He bolted away and one of his masks fell.

"Ah, well. That's not how we were expecting the first mask to go down, but oh well."

Reed picked the mask up and gave it to me. I merely placed it on my face for a double mask.

He scrambled to the computer screen and stared at the 953,021 viewers gathered just for him.

"Reed, everyone's here just for you."

He beamed and the brightness in his smile blinded my eyes.

Oh, thinking of the huge number, will I get achievement points for the 1million viewers? I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't though since the people are not gathered for me.

Reed sighed and his eyes alighted a determined look.

Before he could rip off all three of his other masks, I hastily grabbed his hand.

"Ah, do you want to die? What about the brilliant prank I set up? It's a little more reasonable if we were at one million but we haven't hit it yet."

He looked at my hand perplexed and let it down at his shoulder.

We heard streams of laughter in the call.

[bzoomster: "Charlie… did you say prank?"]

I could tell from miles away that they were pretending not to know about my prank. Fool, you can't prank the prankster.

I squinted my eyes,

"No, no prank. I dunno what you're talking about."

The people in the call giggled stupidly but I kept acting unaware of it.

[Chat:

Penguinou: dude… you were unmuted

galaxycloud1: omg i just wanna see reddes face]

Reed took peanut m&ms from his pocket and offered some to me.

"You carry around peanut m&ms in your pocket? Why did I not know this?"

"No, but it's a special occasion. These are my favorite though, you want some?"

He signaled again and I stared at the m&m bag.

"Dieting right now, thanks though."

[Rykun: "Dieting? Charlie?"]

I covered my mouth and said with an acted panicky tone, "Oops— I wasn't supposed to say that."

[Poodlefluff: "What, why?"]

[Yvettel: "Charlie..?"]

[LoafofBread: "Waddya mean?"]

I merely shook my head at the camera with panicked eyes and my hand over my mouth.

Of course, this is all on purpose. I'm trying to reignite a little fire on the Knife Agency subject; especially when there are close to a million people watching.

There are three types of people that diet:

Those that want to lose weight, those that want to eat a healthy diet, or celebrities.

Of course, knowing the internet and how gossipy they are, they'll blow this up to massive proportions and instantly link it to the Knife Agency subject.

"Ah, dieting is weak. Just eat one. I've never shared with anyone before."

He offered again.

"I'll eat one later,"

"When is later?"

"Like, in a few months."

"Ah, do you want to die?" He put his legs up on his seat and fiercely shoved the m&m bag in my mouth.

I closed my mouth tightly.

"Eat one!! They taste good!"

I shook my head dramatically while still keeping my lips tight.

[Chat:

dream3r: bruh wtf is this randomness

pillowdealer: LOL WTF HAPPENED TO REDDE THIS IS SO RANDOM

reedswife: i want the m&m :(

Simp_reporter: this one right here sir]

He tried opening my lips and his second mask fell.

"Watch out there buddy, don't ruin my prank trying to force-feed me m&ms."

Reed picked up the mask and sat down on the chair.

"So why are you dieting again?"

"Dunno."

[Juliamn: "Eating is healthy."]

"That's right. You're not gonna grow up to be a healthy boy."

[wipL: "Pfft, healthy boy."]

[LoafofBread: "Yeah yeah, if you don't eat you won't grow tall."]

[Yvettel: "How tall are you guys by the way?"]

"Oh, Red— Reed's really tall."

Now I'm calling his streamer pseudonym rather than his real name.

[Rykun: "Oh oh, stand up."]

We both stood up for the height comparison.

[bzoomster: "Huh, Reed looks average size."]

"I'm six foot one."

"Yeah, isn't that taller than average?"

[Yvettel: "Wait what? That's pretty tall, then."]

[bzoomster: "Yeah never mind that is tall. He just looks average next to Charlie."

[wipL: "Wait, so then how tall are you Charlie?"]

I stayed quiet.

"He's six foot three and can't dunk."

I raised my fist instantly and stared menacingly at the traitor.

"You really want to die, huh?"

...

[Yvettel: "Charlie, could you rip off Redde… Reed's mask now pwease?"]

She pouted to the camera trying to seem cute.

Reed glanced at me.

Reminded of Maya's face doing the same exact action, I reached over to Reed's face and took off one mask.

"Hah, another mask."

The people in the call merely smiled knowingly.

With sarcasm dripping from his voice,

[Rykun: "Oh nooo, we got pranked again."]

We laughed at his expression.

[The system congratulates the host in achieving 1 million concurrent viewers in any live viewing platform!]

Oh, damn!

[Achievement get: 1 million]

[Reward: 500 points of the current tier. (Silver)]

500 * 5 is 2,500.

Wow! I didn't even have to do anything!

It might have been better to save up the achievement for the future when I unlocked higher tiers of achievement points…

Oh well, I'm not complaining.

"Reed, check the viewer count."

Without glancing at the screen, he raised his hand to take off a mask.

I grabbed his hand,

"Wait,"

[bzoomster: "CHARLIEEE I WANNA SEE HIS FACEEEEEEE."]

[Poodlefluff: Laughter, "Oh my god, Charlie please."]

[Chat:

Blakeznder: i wanna kill this man

marsmar: im—]

'JordanRy has donated 50 dollars.'

["LOL CHARLIE"]

Since we've been getting almost 1 dollar donations continuously we immediately paid attention to the 50 dollars.

I took his mask off with my hand.

[Everyone: GASP]

Just to find another mask beneath.

Reed and I began laughing out loud stupidly. The prank was so stupid and dumb but their reactions really made it top tier.

"Welcome everyone to the stream! We're currently a million people chatting and having fun!"

We conversed with each other, chat, and the donators.

"Alright alright, you guys want to see my face now?"

"Yep, no more masks underneath anymore."

[wipL: "...Forreal?"]

[Yvettel: "You swear?"]

[Poodlefluff: "He's laughing again, there's no way."]

"Wait wait, I swear, I swear. There's not another mask underneath that one. It's the last."

'Sandmman has donated 50 dollars'

["TAKE IT OOFFFFFFFFF"]

We laughed again.

Reed took his mask off and I immediately disabled the camera.

"Buhahahaahahaha."

[Yvettel: "Charlie… I'm going to kill you…"]

"Yvettel? More like, Yvette-L."

Everyone visibly face-palmed.

Reed took the mouse and turned the camera on.

"Hello!"

[Everyone: Gasp]

…

"...Charlie, yesterday you got a million concurrent viewers. Correct?"

"Yes…"

He brought his hand up to his face and sighed.

"Alright, well. At your speed, I think you're ready anyway."

I tilted my head in confusion.

[Modeling has gained 2.2 points.]

'System, could you disable notifications for Modeling skill point gain that are less than 10, please?'

[Recalibrating…Done!]

"We were planning something for you after you hit more than 100,00 concurrent viewers. You smashed through our very high expectations in considerably less time than we had ever expected."

I grinned.

"Congratulations, Charlie."

"Thank you, sir."

"Call me Blake."

"So indecisive, you tell me to call you either Sir, Mentor, or Blake. Which do you want?"

Blake grinned as if I finally asked the question he had been wanting me to ask for a long time.

"Charlie. Do you remember the important objectives?"

"Setting, accomodating, cutting, flowing, spiking, standing, and camouflaging, all of which fall under reading the situation."

"So you did study. It seems you haven't figured it out yet, though." He grinned, finally seeing the chance to instruct me on something without me figuring it out within a few seconds.

"Ah! Reading the situation. I'm such an idiot, how could I not connect the two?"

His face fell down and a cloud hung above him. Ah, I'm sorry, Blake. It seems he really wanted to have an instructional moment.

"Ah, nevermind. I completely forgot whatever reading the situation!"

His face brightened.

"Charlie." He nodded, "it seems you can think about reading the situation, put it into practice and theory but sometimes in the most casual things you have to apply the law."

I nodded my head.

"What will you call me, right now?"

"Mentor."

He smiled.

He changed his facial expression to become calm and happy in the blink of an eye.

"How, about now? Charlie."

"Blake."

He smiled.

"Charlie, you showed a moment of reading the situation when you forgot what reading the situation meant and allowed me to explain."

I laughed.

"Charlie…" his mood turned serious, "You're a quick learner," he looked to the wall as if staring somewhere far away and placed his arms behind him like a jaded Shifu that has seen too much of this world.

Are we in a martial arts novel now? Hello? Are you my eldest senior fellow brother under the Venerable Sword Saint about to explain our master's crisis to warn me not to get involved but I'll ignore anyway?

"Teaching you is both a refreshing experience yet a desolate one, as you figure out things within seconds. Explaining to you is a mere redundant action."

Is this where he betrays me and becomes a rogue disciple where I will spare him continuously for 1,000 chapters even though he kidnaps and murders my family?

"You're a genius of a million billion gazillion zillion years… Therefore you must die! Earth Shattering Palm!"

Cough— Ignore everything after he said I was a quick learner.

I shook my head, preventing my wild imagination from going any further.

"Charlie?"

"Ah, yes sir?"

He stared at me deeply.

"I was saying: Remember. Talent without hard work is nothing; you become the greatest version of yourself when in humility."

[Achievement unlocked: A Grand Master's Teachings!]

My eyes dilated and a huge explosion rang out inside my brain.

The room began falling apart.

The world split into different pieces but Blake's figured alone remained standing without a single cut of the void.

Showing his back to me, he was the only recognizable thing in my entire vision.

The floor disappeared and the walls disappeared but only his firm figure stood still as if nothing was happening.

The words he spoke echoed infinitely throughout the void of the space, ringing from everywhere into my eardrums.

Golden words reciting the exact same mantra he spoke just now entered my eyeballs and pasted themselves into my brain.

[Secret Feature unlocked: A Master's Disposition.]