I Became the Goddess of a New World

The Echo of the Wraith, known as the ‘Grave Hunting Ground’, was a remarkably efficient hunting spot.

Due to its vast size, a variety of monsters from different levels appeared.

With a fast respawn rate, above-average experience points, and optimized for party hunting…

Despite the many advantages, the Echo of the Wraith fell under the category of unpopular hunting grounds.

Why was that?

According to what Akachan analyzed during the beta test period,

the monsters that appeared were too frightening, grotesquely designed,

undead types that were hard to kill, leading to severe hunting fatigue,

and the respawn method where monsters dug up from the ground caused many surprises.

In summary, it was a very mentally draining hunting ground.

“AAAHHH!”

“….”

I stared blankly at Suzuka, who was fleeing from a skeleton that had popped out of a grave.

‘Is it really that scary?’

There were plenty of others with much worse visuals than that.

If anything, that shabby skeleton was somewhat cute.

Just think about it. It’s just a skull walking around.

It doesn’t even hold any weapons. You can think of it as just a bunch of bones detached from a body.

“Ugh… Go away! Radiant Light!”

*Fzzzap!*

The light bursting from the small cross obliterated the newly formed skeleton in an instant.

To be that frightened, eliminating a skeleton that was just born with a single click…

Isn’t it the undead that should be the ones we fear?

“Isn’t it kind of cute?”

I pointed at a slow-moving zombie, asking Suzuka.

If you ignored its decaying flesh and hole-ridden jeans, it looked humanoid.

“Not at all! Absolutely not! My radiant light is on cooldown, so please kill it quickly!”

Hmm. Is it that terrifying?

After all, we’ve defeated bosses that are much more grotesque than zombies multiple times.

I extended my hand to the approaching zombie, which was now right in front of me.

*Thwak!*

“Ah! I’ve been bitten by Pera! What should I do!”

Pera was my alternate character’s nickname.

One might misconstrue there being lewd intentions behind the nickname, but not at all.

Occult. Aurora. Opera.

I came up with the nickname in a stream of consciousness, drawing only the name part from Opera.

It was never, ever meant to have any such intention.

“You’re fine. Heal.”

*Nom nom nom…*

The zombie munching on my hand suddenly clutched its stomach and collapsed.

It looked like it had a stomachache from eating spoiled food, and I found it amusing for some reason.

“Huh? The zombie just suddenly died.”

“Yeah, it turns out that zombies can die this way.”

I wanted to explain the principles of divine power, but restrained myself.

Suspiciously knowledgeable users about Akare?

Such users are often suspected of being developer’s alternate characters.

“Would you like to give it a try, Miss Suzuka?”

“Absolutely not. No way. My body is precious.”

“What? So, my body isn’t precious?”

As I looked into her eyes with that incredulous gaze, Suzuka’s pupils were trembling violently.

“Just kidding.”

“Phew…”

With a sigh of relief, another zombie respawned behind Suzuka.

I swiftly brought down the zombie’s head with the Judgment Mace.

It felt exhilarating, as if I was playing a whack-a-mole game from my childhood, and a smile inevitably crossed my face.

“I’m scared…”

“If you treat it like a whack-a-mole, it’s easy.”

“If only it were that easy in practice…”

The zombies and skeletons were level 9.

They were monsters comfortable to hunt for those who had completed their first awakening at level 10.

“Shall we level up and go hunt some evil spirits?”

Currently, we were at the grave’s entrance, where only zombies and skeletons appeared.

To hunt higher level monsters, we needed to venture further inside.

The monsters that appeared deeper in the grave were all level 11.

Evil spirits, ghouls, and skeleton knights.

Among them, the most troublesome monster was usually the evil spirit.

The evil spirit had a buff that reduced physical damage since it was an ethereal being.

Warriors, particularly, found them the hardest to catch, leading to the monster being nicknamed the ‘Nightmare of Warriors’.

“Aren’t evil spirits the most troublesome monsters in the graves?”

“My faith and belief in my heart. Before the cross, all are equal.”

“That’s a profound statement.”

What on earth could be the criterion for that profound statement?

“I want to try it out in real combat.”

“I’ll cast a buff for you.”

I laid a blessing on the spirited Suzuka.

Suzuka made a round in the grave to draw aggro.

Dozens of undead chased after Suzuka.

‘It’s just like a scene from a zombie movie.’

Just before the blessing expired, Suzuka stopped in her tracks.

“My faith and belief in my heart. The cross… uh? Heeelp! Save me!”

*Pew!*

A monster spawned right next to Suzuka while she was delivering her line.

Oh dear, what horrible luck.

I quickly used Radiant Light on behalf of the fleeing Suzuka.

[Level Up!]

***

[Suzuka’s stream has started. – Akashic Records 6 hours ago]

In the dead of night, Suzuka’s stream had a staggering 50,000 viewers.

This was higher than Sweet’s 40,000 and Master Kim’s 40,000.

It was natural for viewer numbers to decrease after the official launch due to the dispersal of audience.

However, Suzuka was the only one whose viewer count had not decreased but rather increased.

[Streaming Gallery]

―――

Can Pera noona show us some of her nick value…? [265]

Pera noona’s real-life imagination.jpg [289]

Suzuka is definitely the hottest thing right now LOL [344]

They really nailed the character customization, it’s crazy [310]

Pera << might just take the throne if she debuts as a VTuber ㅇㅇ [325] ――― The reason Suzuka’s viewer count rose was simple. The concept posts in the Streaming Gallery were filled with gossip related to Suzuka's stream. As the views from the posts stacked up, she ultimately hit number one in viewership. "What? When did so many people start watching?" As Suzuka moved to a new area, she was taken aback. When she had gone to the church alone, she had about 20,000 viewers. Yet now, in the dead of night, 40,000 were watching her stream. ――― Is anyone here? No? Why are there so many at this hour? I guess the neighborhood guards have gathered. ――― Because Suzuka's stream often attracted trolls, a chat restriction of three months for followers was in place. That meant newcomers couldn’t chat, and the regular viewers didn’t understand the sudden spike in viewer count either. Of course, some were aware of the reason, but they didn’t bother to chat about it. Because if they wrote something too sensitive to the issue, they might get banned by the manager. 'Is there a gossip going on in the Streaming Gallery?' Although Suzuka pretended not to know anything, she was actually fully aware. When you stream, there are things you can't help but learn about, even if you don’t want to know. The Streaming Gallery was a place that, whether you liked it or not, you inevitably got tied up with if you were a popular streamer. Such instances weren’t completely absent either, so she was merely curious. 'What could have drawn the aggro?' Suzuka's gaze turned towards Pera, who was leading the way. 'Could it be because of this person?' The only difference from her usual streams was Pera. 'A person with a special charm.' Someone who wasn’t afraid to get bitten by a zombie. Healing a bitten hand to feed the zombie divine power... She was a woman captivating people with completely unpredictable actions. 'And her voice is so pleasant.' Just the efforts she put into customizing her avatar were impressive. As a fellow woman, she was undeniably beautiful, and pleasing to look at. 'I want to get closer.' I wanted to develop our relationship into something special. Ah, not in that way, but in the context of broadcasting. Above all, I enjoyed doing Akare with her, outside of broadcasting. A person I was greedy for, both in terms of gameplay and streaming. How could I attract her? While Suzuka was deep in thought, Pera came to a stop. "We've arrived. From here on is the internal area of the grave." As Pera said, indeed, the atmosphere was distinctly different from the grave's entrance. It was much colder and gloomier, sending chills down my spine. 'To think they implemented goosebumps as well.' Akare truly was a god game. Thinking that, Suzuka closely followed behind Pera as they moved forward. "Look, an evil spirit is watching us." "Y-yeah? Where? Where?!" Peeking out, Suzuka turned her head in the direction Pera was looking. "Is that it? Those eyes?" "Yeah. Is it just me, or is it dark enough that we can only see multiple pairs of eyes?" "AHHH... It’s really creepy!" While playing a virtual character was a VTuber's duty, when it came to scary things, it was absolutely not acting. It genuinely frightened her, making her squeeze her eyes shut, feeling like she was about to cry. "It’s getting closer." "…!" Just as Pera said, the evil spirit was slowly approaching. It was a monster with a person's head hanging from its side, walking on all fours. That was the infamous 'Mental Crusher', known by its nickname. "It’s moving like a crab." "Don't compare it calmly and admire it, attack it..." *Thud thud thud!* The evil spirit charged directly at Suzuka. Having screamed so much, Suzuka was frozen in fear. "Could you bless me?" "Uh, I... um..." "Oh no, you seem broken." There was no choice. A pure white light enveloped the small cross. The tiny cross that Pera had been holding transformed into a divine mace. With both hands gripping the mace’s handle, Pera took aim. *THWACK!* With a powerful swing towards the approaching evil spirit dripping with filth, *Thud!* The sound of bone shattering echoed, and the evil spirit collapsed. "Are you okay?" "No. I'm not okay. That was too scary." Now free from her fear, Suzuka buried her face into Pera's embrace. *Sniff sniff...* "Evil spirits are tough to catch with physical damage since they're hard to kill. It's best to do it while the Judgment Mace is still active." "Yeah?" The duration for the Judgment Mace was roughly 10 seconds. Once the duration ended, a cooldown of 20 seconds applied afterwards. In other words, Pera’s mace was destined to disappear soon. "Pera's mace!" "Oh no, the duration has ended." *Gaaah...!* The angry cry of the evil spirit echoed through the area. "Then what about that?" "Suzuka, you have to take it down yourself." ――― How forgiving is the temporary mace? Bound to disappear, it’s a blessing in disguise. LOL, we're in big trouble. Check the unity of this chat! Suzuka is in a major crisis! ――― Even in this serious situation, the chat was busy cracking jokes. With no answer found, Suzuka shook her head vigorously. "No way, no way, no way." "What do you mean by no way? Don't be scared. It has just enough health to drop with one swing of the mace." At Pera's words, Suzuka steeled her resolve. During the beta test, remembering the effort she had put in to become stronger so she wouldn’t have to witness Raven's death again. Even though a week had passed since the beta test ended, her efforts hadn’t vanished. Above all, she didn’t want to show an even worse appearance than this. Not to the viewers, and not to Pera. "Haa... Hah..." Gripping the mace, she took her stance. Simultaneously, the rejuvenated evil spirit charged again. Though frightened, she faced the terror before her head-on. "Blessings activated. Let’s go!" Suzuka calmly followed the actions Pera had shown her. As it approached, she swung the mace with all her might. *Thwack!* Similar to the sound she heard moments ago. Suzuka, who had unconsciously closed her eyes, slowly opened them. "Oh, I did it." Watching the evil spirit disintegrate into dust, Suzuka let out a sigh of relief and smiled. *** While partying with Suzuka, a problem arose. "…What is this doing here?" One of the Church's sacred artifacts, a holy sword. It was sealed and placed inside an unknown coffin.