Festival

After that day on the fields, three more years had gone and passed. During that time, the Santos family had gone through a few precarious situations. However, with everyone cooperating, they were able to get through all of them, their bonds becoming even stronger than before.

…

As Corius opened his eyes, he could not help but let out a muffled groan as the sun's rays lit up the room. Looking around, he noticed that he was the only one still asleep. Pondering as to where the others went, he eventually remembered that all of his siblings went outside to head there. As for his parents, they were at the kitchen, judging from the noise they were making. 'From the looks of it, they're cooking up some breakfast in preparation for my first day of school.'

At that moment, it was only then that he realized that four Earth years had already passed since he was born in this world. Although not a lot of interesting events had happened throughout his life during those past four years, he was still able to make a couple of memories that he wouldn't forget even if he failed the attempt. For one, he was able to make Pugo eat a bug without the latter knowing. Once he told Pugo what he had eaten, he was chased to no end, only stopping when both of them were tired.

Thankfully, he was already three years old by then.

'Speaking of which, how tall have I gotten?' he thought to himself as he stood up to lightly stretch his body. After that, he went to the mirror to take a look at himself. 'Huh. I haven't thought about this before, but I actually look kind of handsome.'

Although his chin was still covered with a lot of baby fat, there were a few telltale signs on his face that told him he was going to grow up in a decent looking man. Paired with his smooth jet-black hair and starry-looking eyes, he was certain that he'll probably the attention of a few girls once he grew older.

'Also, I'm probably taller than Pugo now,' he thought soon after, returning to the main topic. With the aid of [Inferior Adaptability] and [Inferior Enhanced Growth], his body was now comparable to his older brother Pugo, who was three years older than him. Though, with him doing a bit of exercise while the others weren't looking, he looked slightly skinnier.

'I should probably take a look at the kitchen.' With that in mind, Corius slowly made his way to the kitchen, where he saw a plethora of dishes being prepared, some of them even being unfamiliar to him. Just as he was about to ask what kind of food his parents were cooking, Celia noticed his presence and immediately beamed a smile on him. "Good morning, sunshine. Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah…" Even though he replied to his mother's question, his gaze could not help but be fixated on the food in front of him. After all, rarely did their family ever prepare this much food. "Mama, why are you two cooking a lot of food? Is it because it's my first day of school?"

Since he was now four years old, he had finally met the minimum requirements to enter the village's preschool. Although he was certain that he wasn't going to learn anything new from there, he couldn't do anything about it since he would have to go through it if he wanted to enter elementary school.

However, before he could think more about how he'd have to endure two years of learning almost nothing, Carlo said something that was quickly picked up by his ears."'Your first day of school? With the village festival just about to start? They're probably gonna move the first day to next week, son."

"Festival? What festival?" At that moment, Corius realized that he had to brush up on his knowledge regarding the world he was in, especially knowledge regarding Calesa Village. Not even once did the information he had received at the start of the run say anything about a village festival. 'Then again, the information I received from that was very broad.'

"Well, you see, son, the village holds a festival every 10 years celebrating the founding of the village. It just so happened that your first day of school lined up with the festival's first day," his father explained, oblivious to what Corius was thinking of.

"Does that mean…" Hearing that, it was only then did his father's previous words click into his mind, making him tremble with joy as he clenched his fists.

Seeing their son act this way, the couple could not help but look at each other before lightly chuckling.

"Yes, son. You can sleep in for a bit more. However, we'll have to head to the village center a few hours from now," Celia told Corius, to which he committed to memory as he returned to the woven mat and laid down. At the moment, he felt the greatest bliss yet in being able to sleep in a bit more. 'This brings back some good memories.'

…

After a couple of hours had passed, Corius was woken up by his mother, who felt like that sleep was the best sleep he'd ever gotten so far in this life. Being told to prepare to head out, Corius went ahead and ate some breakfast before taking a bath, changing into clothes that were already picked out for him.

Considering how he was the last one in the family to wake up, he did all of that quickly, being ready to leave the house within just 20 minutes. Seeing that, his parents looked at him with a smile before Carlo went ahead and shouted, "Pugo, Eli, Shiela, Jann, Cap! We're leaving!"

In response to that, a symphony of footsteps resounded throughout the house as Corius' five older siblings appeared in front of them, all of them wearing clothes that they wouldn't have normally worn. Then again, the same could be said for him and their parents. For some reason, he could not help but commit this sight into memory.

"Alright, let's head out," Carlo said soon after, nodding in satisfaction. With that, the entire Santos family left the house and leisurely made their way to the village center, where all of them were greeted by the sight of cheerful people accompanied by festive sounds.

Ding!

'The Worldrunner has met the minimum time requirement set, automatically enabling the Neural Link System's livestreaming feature. Please modify the livestream's settings as soon as possible.' Just as Corius was about to enjoy the festival, a sound he never thought he'd hear at this moment resounded throughout his mind as a disembodied voice spoke soon after.

Hearing that, Corius could not help but have a confused expression on his face as he wondered what the notification was about. Noticing her son's actions, she could not help but think that her son was feeling a bit overwhelmed from the sounds and sights of the festival. Pondering over it for a bit more, she wondered if it was better for them to move a bit further away so their son could have time to adjust.

Oh, how far she was from the truth.

'Where did this come from?' Corius thought to himself, recalling that this feature from the system had not popped up in any of his previous runs. 'I guess this is only available to runs that exceed a certain time? Or is there a setting where I could enable this at any time I want?'

'In any case, this feature seems like something that could help me out in this run. According to the notification, it wants me to check the livestream settings?' With that, he inwardly gave a command to the system, to which a small screen with a list of texts and numbers appearing in his mind soon after.

Looking at the various options on the list, he instantly focused his attention on the name of the livestream, which was currently a mishmash of texts and numbers. 'I guess I should change this first. After all, this feels like the most important setting out of all of them.'

'But what should I go with? Should I write down that I'm attempting a nine star achievement?' Pondering over it for a bit, he decided that having that as the title would be for the best. 'Yeah, I guess that'll probably be the best. I don't know what else to name it anyway.'

After that, he looked through the other settings he could fiddle around with, taking note of their various descriptions and adjusting them as he saw fit. Eventually, another notification resounded throughout his mind.

Ding!

'The livestream settings has been modified. The Worldrunner now has access to the Worldrunner Point Shop.'

'The Worldrunner what now?' Reading through the notification he had obtained, Corius could not help but feel like there was still a bit of hope for him to actually take this attempt a bit more seriously. Taking in a deep breath, he sent a command to the system. 'Now, what did the notification say again? The Worldrunner Point Shop, right? Er… system, open that.'

Ding!

At the very instant he had uttered the phrase, another screen appeared beside the settings screen, showing him a large list of items that were accompanied by numbers beside it. While looking at the items that could be bought, Corius finally understood something. 'So, this was what those Worldrunners were using in their runs. Who knew?'

'Anyways, I could temporarily upgrade my skills, which would last until the run is complete or I fail the run, or I could buy some items from the shop. I don't know what to get first, though,' he thought not long after, looking through all of the items that he could buy. Though, while thinking about which items could help him out, he could not help but look at the large zero at the top of the screen. 'I wonder how I can get Worldrunner Points.'

Unlike Worldrunner Credits, which were only obtained after completing achievements and could be used at anytime, Worldrunner Points were only obtained through livestreams, the rate at which one gained them proportional to the number of viewers watching the livestream. The more viewers the livestream of a specific Worldrunner, the better the items the Worldrunner could get and use during the run.

In fact, almost all of the Worldrunners did their attempts in this fashion, utilizing items that could be obtained from their livestreams to speed up their runs, even forming strategies based around certain items from the shop. Only in rare circumstances, such as when Worldrunners added the No Items condition to their run, would they not use any Worldrunner Points.

'It would be great if I could watch some videos or read some articles on how the livestream feature works, as well as what ideal items I should buy for an Immortality% run. In any case, I don't know what else to do with this, so I guess that'll be all for now.' With that in mind, Corius closed all of the screens in his mind as he returned his attention to the festival in front of him. He was going to try and enjoy this festival as much as possible, placing the thought of going to school at the back of his head for now.