18 The Fourth Stream (2)

Kia had an hour or two to set up her challenge stream.

All the websites and videos for speedrunning were almost impossible to find. Despite those limitations, Kia still remembered some of the common strategies. Particularly to use beds as weapons. In the End, there was a feature where beds exploded when a player attempted to sleep on them. Coded as a punishment, beds evolved to become tools for speedrunners.

So beating the game should be simple. Kia had to do it with physical activity in mind. It was going to be tiring, and at times hopeless when she was going to inevitably restart. 

Human suffering, people laugh at others' expense… which is great!

What better way to draw people in than by exhausting yourself while attempting to beat a silly block game from centuries ago?

Coding was the easiest part, depending on what you were trying to create.

"Hmm, aha! There it is, I knew I was missing something." Kia tapped two keys on her laptop – Control + C and Control + V.

The wonders of coding were that sometimes things break, and all you have to do is find someone else who fixed it and copy-paste their solution.

Fortunately, Kia had it easy, with a simple if 'this' is pressed, then 'this' happens.

The dance pad she had was basic, a simple foldable base with arrows on it, sturdier than mat dance pads.

There were plenty of videos on how to use it with a desktop. All Kia had to do was take inputs from the dance pad and translate them into Minecraft. Almost like rebinding controls, though more complicated actions like sneaking, sprinting, and even exiting and entering the inventory needed specific patterns.

Then a thought hit Kia. "Oh, God. Moving my character is going to be complicated, isn't it?"

After almost an hour, Kia had it done. Judging by the patterns she created for herself, it was going to be challenging.

"Up, down, up, down… and then left or right for the Hotbar." Kia tested the sequence on her dance pad.

In Minecraft, the highlighted item in the Hotbar changed. Kia responded with a relieved nod.

"Cool… now… up, right, down, left for opening my inventory." Kia looked at her monitor and saw the action happen.

"Right-clicking is… I forgot." Kia went to her laptop and checked her notepad. "Ah, hold up and down before stepping right for the right click and left for the left click."

Kia then scratched her head. "Fuck, I should've gotten two dance pads for looking because I have to double-tap for looking while single taps are for moving."

Kia regretted not turning on her air conditioner for this. "I haven't even started, and I'm already ready to drop dead just from testing." She shook off the slight tiredness and went to her laptop, using her new mouse to find her YouTube page.

"I'm going to regret this, aren't I?" Kia created a new world and entered it.

[Live]

The moment her stream continued, the previous chatters were there, waiting.

[NotoriousReader: You look like you're already tired.]

[YoungPrinz: How hard is this going to be?]

[AdmiralRoux: She's back!]

Kia waved at the camera before going backward, showing her full body. "Yeah, Notorious, I've been testing out the code I made. Without a keyboard, I'd have to do a lot of actions for the most basic controls. So yes, that'll be hard."

Showcasing what she meant by 'hard', Kia started to walk to a tree and broke it to make a crafting table.

In total, she had used the arrows on the dance pad over three dozen times.

"So the plan is simple. I won't restart much since this isn't really a speedrun, but I much prefer finishing this challenge as fast as possible."

She lied about the restarting part; she was definitely going to be stuck doing this challenge.

Kia explained the strategy to the chat, mainly finding iron to make a bucket and using it to make a Nether portal. She'd need a lava pool and an infinite water source nearby to make the portal itself.

After entering the Nether, she would spend the entire time getting gold and killing Blazes to get Blaze Rods and use them to craft Ender Eyes. To get the Ender Pearls for the Ender Eyes, Kia would receive them from Piglins, mobs to trade gold with.

After the whole journey in the Nether, she would craft a lot of beds or steal them from a village and use them to kill the dragon.

Easy! ...if you were using a keyboard and mouse.

"And that's… the… plan…" Kia started to sigh deeply. She has gone through almost a thousand blocks to find a village where she could quickly get iron, but her luck didn't get her the result she wanted.

"This is a restart." Kia quickly went to the laptop and made a new world, glancing at chat on her phone while she did so.

[NotoriousReader: How long will you be streaming for?]

"Until my body cannot take any more. Nah, just kidding, I'm ending this at 10:00 PM."

[NotoriousReader: I don't think you can last an hour, let alone almost an entire day.]

"...Yeah, that's true. I may take an hour's rest when I can't do it anymore."

[AdmiralRoux: If you manage to complete the challenge today, I'll give 10,000 Yen.]

Kia immediately jolted awake and with full attention. "Ignore my previous statement. Is your bank going to stop you from giving that much?"

[AdmiralRoux: You sound confident. This challenge seems hard, I'm betting the same result as Notorious. You won't finish this in a day.]

"...I'll prove y'all wrong!" Kia went back to the dance pad; it was going to take a while for muscle memory to adjust to the control, but Kia had a motivator.

Money!

Besides, it was kind of fun doing the challenge. Kia had nothing else to do anyway, plus it'll be great for exercise.

Kia sprinted the moment she saw a village in the distance; there, an Iron Golem was present guarding the village. Once killed, she only needed a bit of luck to get the needed iron to progress.

Checking the chests in the village, she couldn't find any iron. Meaning, she attempted to kill the Iron Golem.

Her legs were burning as she had to exert more effort to quickly create a few blocks to tower up and safely hit the Iron Golem.

"There we go… phew! Now, die—"

One hit and she realized her mistake too late. The tower she made was one block too short, leading to the Iron Golem attacking her and two-shotting her to death.

Kia stared at the screen, which was already small, to begin with. "Shit… I'm blaming not being able to see properly how far I was up."

[YoungPrinz: wwww]

[NotoriousReader: KEKW]

[AdmiralRoux: KEKW]

"Yeah, yeah, get your laughs out right now. I'm going to empty those wallets when I'm done today." Kia rolled her eyes and restarted the run. "No mistakes after this!"

Once more into the breach, as one would say.

Time started: 12:00; Restarts: 3

"No, no!" Kia frantically spammed the arrows for attacking. "...Damn."

Eventually, she died after going out at night. Skeletons, zombies, spiders, and creepers all attacking at once, front and back, never ended well.

"I had a good start; I don't even know why I couldn't find a lava pool." Kia sighed. "I might just continue a seed after dying at this point."

[NotoriousReader: I'm pitching in 1,000 Yen; I'm not rich enough to throw away money, but I might change that if you continue this challenge if you do it with a no-death run.]

Kia stared at the comment and cursed herself for what she was going to say. "Goddamn it… fine!"

The power of money was too much for someone who lived off a few Yen per day, either eating cup noodles or drinking energy drinks.

"Aha! There's literally a village over there!" she was happy at her chance.

Kia sprinted as fast as she could, not knowing where she was actually running towards.

"...What the fuck?!" Several hit sounds emanated before that dreaded death screen and death message appeared.

[K-Tari1773 tried to swim in lava]

From her perspective, that lava pool had appeared out of nowhere.

"I swear to God if you guys dare comment—"

[YoungPrinz: Hey look, you found a lava pool! KEKW]

"You bastards!"

If she was ever going to reattempt this challenge, she was going to rent an entire movie theater out to get a bigger screen.

Current time: 3:00 PM; Restarts: 27

Kia got many good starts, finding a village, getting starting loot, and eventually entering the Nether after searching for a lava pool.

She already thought it was hard enough to just do those first few steps. Kia wasn't even getting started yet.

"I have seen this damn hell for so long; I can't even see if there's a section of the Nether Fortress that I should be able to see. Chat! Can you please help me if there are nether bricks? I can barely tell the difference from all the way here!"

Her phone showed the chat's answer.

[AdmiralRoux: Our money is at risk, KEKW. Good luck! Do your best!]

[NotoriousReader: Mostly Roux's money, though.]

"Nghh…" Kia grumbled. "Alright, I'll just walk back and forth. Minecraft should never be a physical sport; I'm dying from all thiiiiiissssss— ARRRGGHH!"

[NotoriousReader: ??!?]

[YoungPrinz: ??]

[AdmiralRoux: ?????]

Kia desperately tried to regain control of her character. As of the moment, she was bridging to what looked like another part of the Nether.

It was in vain; that moment of distraction was enough for her to lift her foot momentarily and stop crouching. So, she just walked off the platform and died. However, she wasn't even focused on her death.

"Ugh… mgggh… ahhh…. cramp!" Kia sat on her bed as she let the cramp pass. "I should've added a pause control to my dance pad."

[AdmiralRoux: Are you okay?]

"Yeah, it wasn't that bad."

No, it was definitely bad.

Kia literally screamed from both the pain and the surprise she got from a cramp. The pain was still there as she got back up to continue another run.

Kia notices the amount of sweat accumulating, absentmindedly, she wipes off beads rolling down her face by pulling up the lower part of her shirt.

"I'm going to get a cold if I turn on the air conditioning right now. Would you guys wait for a bit after I change and turn on the air conditioning?"

Kia can already feel the bill for the month being higher.

[NotoriousReader: We have been blessed.]

[YoungPrinz: Uooooohhhhh!!!]

[AdmiralRoux: I have ascended.]

"...The fuck are you guys on right now?"

[YoungPrinz: You have a very beautiful belly.]

"What?" Kia recalls wiping off her sweat with her shirt. "Oh… and? It's just my stomach, back to the question, can you guys wait a bit? Okay, goodbye."

[AdmiralRoux: I think you scared her off, Prinz.]

[YoungPrinz: You guys cannot blame me.]

Current time: 9 PM; Restarts: 78

Kia was used to the control by now; even when crafting, she could move her legs fast enough to where she needed to hold on to something, namely her chair.

The start was the easiest by now; she got into a routine, checking the world for decent spawns. One particular one saw her finding a desert temple and a village together. The run was lost when she was pushed off the edge and into the lava in the Nether due to a Ghast, a flying mob that launched fireballs at the player.

Actually, it was common for her to restart during the initial phase, and then die at the Nether.

Trying to block, hit, and walk all in sequence and in quick succession was stressful, leading to Kia panicking at moments.

Of course, the chat either laughed or thanked her. She didn't even wipe her face with her shirt anymore, and when she tried to ask why everyone was saying they were blessed, everyone just defaulted to the response of not knowing what she was talking about.

"I'm so close…" Kia called out, only a few more Ender Pearls from trading with the Piglins.

"Yes!" She almost cried tears of joy. "I have enough; I don't remember how many gold bars I have to give these fuckers, but I finally have enough."

With some decent armor looted at the Nether Fortress, Kia ran back to the Nether Portal and went back to the Overworld.

"This is the run, boys." Kia looked at her dance pad and back to her camera. "Chat, I am going to do something real quick…"

Kia paused the game and went to her webcam, she tilted it upwards a bit before going back.

[NotoriousReader: What was that for, K?]

"Hmm? I am taking my socks off for a better grip on my dance pad. I tilted my camera in response."

[YoungPrinz: Noooooooooooooo!!!]

Kia laughed. "Ha! I know some of you guys are weird about that, so I am not giving you the satisfaction of seeing them bare."

[NotoriousReader: How will we know if you're not cheating?]

"Don't even start with that. You guys have ulterior motives; besides, I have my legs still on the camera."

[NotoriousReader: At least I tried, Prinz.]

[YoungPrinz: I am sad, but today is still a great day.]

"Okay, no talking. I'm locking in."

Kia does one last stretch before unpausing the game and following thrown Ender Eyes to find the End Portal.

Just like last time, she tries finding the portal, scared but also excited to finally end the challenge. Continuously and with barely 10 minutes per break, Kia was grinding out run after run, all failing due to the difficulty of using the dance pad as control.

As she enters the Stronghold, Kia searches the winding halls and eventually finds the portal itself.

Opening her inventory, she counts the beds. "I've got eight, surely that's enough?"

If she had more time to rewatch old speedruns, she might've been more sure of her answer.

When the chat gave her their good luck, Kia prepared for the fight.

With a big leap, her character enters the End. Making her way to the center island, Kia finds the obsidian pillars enclosed by cages at the tip and starts towering up.

"Don't attack me, don't attack me, don't attack me…" Kia repeated that mantra; it somehow worked as the Ender Dragon rarely attacked her when she was towering up.

Finally, all the other obsidian pillars and their End Crystals were left; using a bow and arrow with a dance pad was torture.

The only thing keeping her body up at this point was sheer determination and the power of money.

"Okay, okay, okay! This is good; only killing the damn dragon is left."

[AdmiralRoux: PogU]

[NotoriousReader: Imagine if you die after all this. Another few hours of gaming!]

"Shut up! I'm not going to die. Don't jinx this; you guys better live up to your promise. I expect enough money for me to buy a stack of burgers and pizzas after this."

[AdmiralRoux: Don't worry, I do this for every streamer I watch.]

[NotoriousReader: You've been dancing for the past about eight hours.]

"To be fair, I'm probably just used to it by now. After I stop, I'm gonna feel everything tomorrow."

[NotoriousReader: You're in decent shape but still, the amount of hours dedicated to this is concerning. Do you exercise regularly?]

"Uh…" Kia drawls as she starts shooting arrows at the Ender Dragon. "...No?"

'If you consider fighting a pro-hero and a bunch of villains exercise, then I've done it twice. So maybe?' Kia contemplated.

[NotoriousReader: Good luck, I have 2,000 Yen on the line. I increased what I'm going to give.]

Kia looked away from her chat; the final lap was nearing and the perfect time came when the Ender Dragon sat on the portal to the Overworld.

Running near, eating, and avoiding the hitbox, she plants herself right below the dragon and starts using the beds.

She made sure not to make the mistake of messing up the run by not preventing the damage splashing back at her with a block.

One bed went off, taking a big chunk from the Ender Dragon, surprising Kia. "Holy, one bed does that much damage?"

Kia continues, placing another bed and detonating it. Taking down the Ender Dragon to its last 1/4th of health.

It flies away, making Kia purse her lips and hold on tighter to her chair supporting her while she uses the dance pad.

"One last time…"

The Ender Dragon spewed its area of attack fire, taunting Kia with each revolution from her player. Each time she pelted an arrow, the Ender Dragon roared back.

When she finally saw the Ender Dragon fly toward the center where the unlit End Portal was located, Kia felt a sense of ease wash over her.

"Yes! Come on…" Her anticipation was palpable.

The final bed was placed, one right-click left. When her foot finally pressed on the arrow beneath her, she could already feel at rest.

The Ender Dragon was slain.

"Yyyeeeeeeessss! Finally!" Kia saw the credits for the game as she entered the portal back to the Overworld. "Augggghhhh!"

[NotoriousReader has donated 2,000 Yen]

[AdmiralRoux has donated 10,000 Yen]

[YoungPrinz: PogU PogU PogU PogU]

"Thank you guys for upholding that promise." Kia lay on the floor, uncaring at the world.

The time? 44:39, Kia thought it was a decent time considering the challenge. It was already night; she was pretty happy about herself.

"I'm going to get taxed for the donations now. Getting more than 10,000 Yen collectively in donations means from now on, YouTube gets 1/3rd. Still, I'm happy I get to eat more than instant noodles."

Trying to get up was a chore… it was getting late at night, and all the motivation to stay awake was gone. Lying on the cold hard ground wasn't comfortable but it was enough for Kia.

Her eyes threatened to close. Finally, she surrendered to sleep.

Who cares if the live stream was still on? It was pointed up anyway… Kia hopes no one minded if the stream ended so suddenly without a goodbye.

And that was the end of the stream.