Chương 178: Half-Right

Meno was halfway through checking Veyrath's status when a knock came from the suite door. Rina was still in the bathroom doing her hair, so Meno went to answer it. Vivi hurried inside with her orange hair slightly out of place, her nose piercing flashing under the hallway lights.

"Sorry I'm late. Traffic was awful," Vivi said.

"We need to get to the studio. Celeste sent me 11 AM."

"Fine. Where is it? Do I need to put on something fancy?"

"No. Sweatpants, T-shirt, slippers. You'll look more organic and approachable." Vivi tipped her head toward the bathroom.

"What did you two decide? Is Rina doing the podcast too?"

"Nooo," Rina called through the door.

"You guys can have that one."

"Yes. Absolutely. One hundred percent," Meno said, leaning against the wall.

"Me and Kestrel don't have that much in common to talk about."

"And I do?" Rina called back.

"I'm gonna look stupid. I can't contribute much when you guys start theorycrafting."

"That's good. You represent the viewers. They don't know what they're talking about either, but they all have opinions. Plus, three guys is lame. You're used to being on camera, Celeste won't want to join, Vivi has to handle everything behind the scenes, and I don't want to ask Merry." Meno counted through the reasons before reaching the obvious one.

"Also, you're hot. That boosts numbers and clips, and if I have to waste time on this, it better be the rank-one podcast."

"Potential sponsors might not like it," Vivi said.

"For obvious reasons. Just saying."

"See?" Rina called from the bathroom.

"I'm radioactive."

"I couldn't care less about sponsors. If you're not on it, I'm not doing it. Otherwise it'll be me and Kestrel shouting at each other while BrineSaint delivers divine wisdom to the masses. If the numbers are high enough, somebody will pay to put their name on the screen anyway."

"Okay, this might sound rude," Vivi said, "but even if Rina joins, I don't think she should talk that much. People are tuning in to hear from the three of you." Meno turned toward the bathroom doorway.

"Why do I need to explain this? You're both pros. Especially you, Rina. Don't get shy on me now. You know people love you on camera. You'll be the tank. And what you say matters because you can get the same things wrong the average viewer does. They'll feel represented. Plus, you'll create more drama, which means more reach."

"Fine, fine, fine." Rina finally emerged from the bathroom.

"I get it. I'll sit there looking cute while you guys scream at each other."

"In that case, I really need you to wear something more modest than usual," Vivi said.

"Numbers only help so much. Some companies have hard rules, so even if they want your audience, they won't be able to sponsor us if you go too far." Rina's smile disappeared. Still wearing Meno's shirt and sweatpants, she headed straight for the door.

"Give me a minute. I need to find something..." She glanced back at Vivi.

"What was the word? Modest." The door shut behind her.

"You really pissed her off," Meno said.

"It's my job," Vivi said. Meno accepted that. They headed to the communal area and claimed a table while they waited. Rina returned around five minutes later wearing what might have been the least modest possible interpretation of Vivi's request. An oversized black blazer hung from her shoulders with no visible top beneath it, paired with a fitted skirt that barely reached the tops of her thighs before giving way to thigh-high boots. Her pink hair and makeup were immaculate. Vivi buried her face in both hands.

Meno thought she looked great, and the target audience probably would too. The studio was on the second floor, so they took the elevator down into the Pearl's business wing. There were no hotel rooms here. Marble covered the floor, dark wood panels lined the walls with gold accents between them, and glass-fronted offices overlooked a seating area filled with low couches and narrow tables. People in suits moved between rooms carrying tablets and drinks.

Meno followed Vivi while Rina pulled eyes toward herself from every direction without seeming to try. That was one advantage of walking beside her. People noticed him less. Meno liked streaming, but getting recognized remained a major debuff. Rina had it even worse. Her outfit was not helping today, but he doubted putting her in a business suit would change much. She had a permanent high-Threat aura and way too many Charisma modifiers.

Vivi led them through a soundproofed door into a studio built for exactly this kind of production. A large sofa faced the cameras with a low wooden table in front of it and microphones built into the surface. Single armchairs sat on either side, green plants softened the corners, and the wall opposite the seats was one huge display for clips, graphics, or whatever else the discussion needed. Extra chairs lined one side outside the camera frame for managers and production staff.

A small bar occupied the far corner with a Pearl employee already waiting to take orders. The remaining walls were screens too, currently showing a bright beach with palm trees swaying beside slow waves. From the camera angle, the podcast would look like it was being recorded at some private resort. VR made the whole setup feel a little redundant for Meno, but for a physical recording it was neat and obviously expensive.

Nobody had asked him to pay yet, which meant the bill was probably hiding somewhere waiting to ambush him later. Kestrel already occupied the large sofa. A woman in her thirties stood beside him, long black hair falling around a pair of chain earrings. A rose tattoo climbed partway up her neck above a chain choker, and her black T-shirt showed some metal band Meno did not recognize. Tight black leather pants completed the look. BrineSaint sat at the other end of the sofa talking to Celeste.

"Finally," Kestrel said.

"Can't you show up on time?"

"I am on time," Meno said.

"You were too early because the podcast starts when I get here." If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"Thanks for blowing up Veyrath again, by the way. Was worried I would lose progress talking to—""STOP!" Celeste called from behind the cameras.

"We aren't live yet. Save the content." Meno knew everyone except the woman beside Kestrel, so introducing himself seemed reasonable. She appeared much more interested in Rina, though, watching her with the frozen focus of a computer stuck processing something.

"Hey! Who are you?" Meno asked.

"Kestrel, no manners as usual. Will you introduce your wife?"

"This is Meryn. She is my partner and manager." Kestrel gave Meryn a wary glance, but she ignored it.

"Hey, PBG. Nice to meet you all," Meryn said.

"Kestrel has been saying terrible things about you." She delivered it with a completely straight face. Meno liked her already. Much better than people who waited until he left before complaining. He crossed to one of the armchairs and dropped into it.

"Shouldn't Meno and I get the big couch?" Rina asked.

"Unless you guys really want to sit all cozy together for some reason."

"She will also be on?" Kestrel asked.

"Yes," Meno said.

"Got a problem with that?"

"No, that's great. An actual host makes this feel like a production. I don't like doing things half-assed, and this thing was put together at the last minute for obvious reasons."

"Let's swap and start," BrineSaint said.

"You might be 100, but I am not." That was enough motivation. Kestrel and BrineSaint moved into the armchairs while Meno and Rina took the large sofa in the middle. Celeste gave Meno an awkward glance before focusing on the actual problem.

"Let's discuss the name first," she said.

"What are we calling this podcast?"

"How about PrayerBeadGod and Friends Plus Kestrel?"

"No," BrineSaint said.

"What about Public Service?" Meno asked. For the first time, everyone considered the same idea without immediately attacking it.

"Fine by me," Kestrel said.

"Fits the theme, even if you already corrupted what those words mean on your stream." BrineSaint nodded, which settled it. The first episode of the Public Service Podcast was about to begin. Vivi, Celeste, and Meryn moved out of frame.

"Wait, what channel are we streaming this on?" Meno asked.

"Don't tell me it's all canned. That's lame."

"I'll make a shared channel now using the name you picked," Meryn said.

"Just accept the ping on your phone and it'll automatically restream to your main channels too." The notification arrived moments later. Meno accepted it, followed by the others. Hotel staff placed sparkling water in front of each of them with thin lemon slices floating near the surface. Camera indicators lit around the room.

"Rina, can you host?" Celeste asked.

"We already prepared the topics. They're on the main screen. Intro, then PBG's tier list, then the new patch notes. That's enough for the first episode."

"Sure. If you guys are okay with me running it." Rina glanced toward BrineSaint and Kestrel. Both nodded, probably relieved somebody else had volunteered to keep the conversation moving.

"Uhm, Rina," Vivi said from outside the frame, "could you maybe cross your legs? We really should've asked for a table setup instead of the couch."

"You should've prepared your clients better," Meryn said.

"But it's fine. Getting age-restricted might be safer anyway. Otherwise this becomes a public safety issue instead of public service with these three guys." Rina smiled sweetly at Vivi, then did the opposite. Meno pulled up the live chat on his phone as she turned toward the cameras.

"Heeelooo, everyone. Thanks for coming!" Rina said.

"The guys here definitely don't need introductions, so I'm Rina, your host, and today we're talking all things Veyrath. If you disagree with anything, make sure you leave a comment on Connect and tag both the Public Service Podcast and Veyrath so we can see it." Meno felt a strong urge to warn people, and with a podcast called Public Service, it seemed wrong not to.

"Before we get into the topics, I need to call out Kestrel for unethical behavior," Meno said.

"You kept your players away from the Streamline event, had them spam Excrinant, and still didn't get rank one. Your stack even lost to some guy called Solver. Very Crownfall."

"Unethical?" Kestrel leaned forward.

"You shut down Veyrath for everyone again by abusing an obvious exploit. What I did was strategy. Anyone intelligent would've done the same, except the other top guilds are full of idiots. Right, Brine?"

"No comment," BrineSaint said, unimpressed.

"The unethical part was not letting your guild members enjoy the event," Meno said.

"Anyway, I just wanted everyone to know."

"No need. Everyone already knows Crownfall is the best."

"Oookay," Rina said.

"Let's move to our first actual topic. Brine, what did you think about PBG's Prestige tier list?"

"Half-right." Rina waited, but BrineSaint only took a sip of water, apparently satisfied with the answer.

"Could you give me a little more than that?" Rina asked.

"Destroyer is strong, but class dependent. Damage is normalized, so weapons that hit harder also attack slower. That means it favors classes that get their value from instant abilities." BrineSaint set his water down.

"For Swing Master, Massive weapons are actually a downside," BrineSaint said.

"Tyrant has that weakness baked in. PBG could build Chain much faster with two daggers. Dawn Bastion is the opposite. If Destroyer lets me use a Massive weapon with a shield, which it will, my block returns scale from that weapon. I get the Massive damage without needing to swing it." Rina waited for more, but BrineSaint was done again.

"Okay, so you agree with PBG that Destroyer is SSS-tier. Which part did you disagree with?"

"Everything else." Meno had reached his limit.

"Say it, man. Show me your list. Huge doubts here." BrineSaint cleared his throat, took another sip of sparkling water, and finally expanded beyond two words.

"This is how I see it," BrineSaint said.

"Hoarder is better than Fatebreaker because stacking more Cooldown Reduction is more consistent than relying on a refresh. Manipulator is the safest option. I can't recommend anything outside Destroyer, Hoarder, and Manipulator. The rest depend too much on unknown scaling. Usurper is the wildcard. Depending on future dungeon bosses, it could be the strongest option or the worst."

"Worst?" Meno asked.

"You expect Veyrath to get easier as levels go up? I see the opposite. You watched me delete two raid bosses with it."

"I didn't say it was bad. The upside just isn't worth gambling on when safer options already exist."

"Okay, thanks, Brine." Rina turned toward Kestrel.

"What about Crownfall? You disagree with both of them?"

"As usual, it seems like only Crownfall knows the correct choice," Kestrel said. Rina smiled.

"Don't keep us hanging, Mr. Correct Choice."

"PBG, you'd see it if you could think two steps ahead instead of running at walls until they break," Kestrel said.

"Prodigy is the only real option. It only looks weak if you ignore Divine-tier Evolutions. Once you reach that point, an extra Divine skill, using Mush as the baseline, is worth far more than extra stats or some random boss ability."

"Divine classes might be player-count restricted," BrineSaint said.

"It's bad advice for most players to pick a Prestige hoping to get one."

"That's a different question," Kestrel said.

"If we're ranking what most players should take, then yes, Divine availability matters. If we're ranking the strongest Prestige at its ceiling, Prodigy still wins. Players who don't expect to reach that point can take Hoarder and build around the extra slots." He gestured toward the camera.

"Crownfall's list separates theoretical best from practical recommendation. The full version is already on our website."

"That's cool," Meno said.

"You already have a tier list and zero players at Level 100. Very trustworthy. I actually picked the Prestige I ranked. Calling my list fake bait makes no sense."

"Yes, your tier list was so powerful you even managed to bait yourself. Congratulations." Kestrel started clapping. Meno waited until he finished.

"We'll see. Rina, which one do you think is best?" Meno asked.

"Uhm, I think Corruptor sounds the most exciting," Rina said.

"Maybe it's not the strongest, but if you roll a really good Corruption, you could make a ton of gold too."

"I strongly advise against Corruptor," BrineSaint said.

"You'll ruin your gear and be unable to progress."

"Who are you talking to?" Meno asked.

"The viewers are already unable to progress. It wouldn't make much difference." Kestrel burst out laughing.

"That's one way to put it. I, on the other hand, respect our viewers enough to recommend Prodigy. Can't go wrong with an extra skill."

"Okaaay, before we lose the entire audience," Rina said, turning toward the main screen.

"Next topic: patch notes. BeadGuard Patch 7 dropped today with a ton of balance changes."

"Unbelievable it keeps putting your name on these," Kestrel said.

"The AI really needs to stop. That's why your ego can't fit in any room you enter."

"Don't give up, Kestrel," Meno said.

"If you try harder, you might eventually accomplish something worth putting in a patch note." Rina pressed her lips together and looked toward the ceiling. Off-camera, Vivi rubbed at her temple. Celeste folded both arms, while Meryn watched Kestrel with calm familiarity, apparently used to this exact version of him. By Meno's standards, things were going well. He turned toward the main screen as BeadGuard Patch 7 loaded. This was the part that mattered.

The patch notes were about to tell him whether choosing Usurper had been brilliant or whether he had massively trolled himself.