Donkey hoof trimming videos finally blew up, and along with them, the nickname "Elder Donkey" for the Hunting Pope caught on too.

In a mansion not far from the Church of Hunting headquarters, a wiry young man watched the snowballing trend online, grinning ear to ear. Ever since he first showed up at Church headquarters years ago and saw the Pope's face, he'd wanted to say it—the Pope really did look like a donkey. But in real life? No way he'd dare say that out loud, or even mention it to anyone else.

Now though, with the Pope actually appearing on screen with an actual donkey, he finally had his chance.

"Dude, if your Pope finds out you're the one leaving these comments, you're toast," his younger brother warned, watching his gleeful sibling. Even at his young age, he could tell things were spiraling way beyond their original plan.

"When everyone's calling him Elder Donkey, he won't be able to figure out who started it," Edwin said, still grinning. "Besides, who says I was the first one to comment? It was clearly you, my dear brother. I used your account."

"What? You know I could report you right now, right?"

"Ha ha, just kidding, bro. I didn't call you back here just to mess with our Pope. I actually need your help with something." Edwin mysteriously pulled out a parchment. "Check out this plan. If we can pull this off, by year's end, our family will have its first senior bishop in the Church of Hunting. Maybe even... a shot at something higher!"

Senior bishop?!

His brother's expression instantly turned serious. This was huge for the family—their entire income pretty much came from Church of Hunting contracts. More importantly, if his older brother succeeded, his influence in both the family and the Hunting God Society would skyrocket. That'd be great for him too. This affected both their futures and their bank accounts—definitely something to take seriously.

"Teaching people how to survive in the world's harshest environments? Using your expertise and skills to face challenges without magic or supernatural powers? Bro?! Have you lost it?"

"We're teaching people to survive in harsh environments, not saying we have to survive in harsh environments ourselves. We'll use supernatural powers when we need to." Edwin radiated confidence. "Besides, I'm confident that even without supernatural powers, I can handle most environments—quicksand in the desert, raging rivers, snow-covered peaks. I can deal with all of it."

"Even so, with such a huge investment, how do you know people will want to watch? And even if lots of people watch, this doesn't really fit the 'Great Video Hunt' criteria, right? There's barely any hunting in this—it's mainly about survival..."

"No, it's mainly about the wilderness! You only remember that everything under the God of Hunting seems hunting-related, but you've forgotten what the God of Hunting actually oversees... Most people in this world, even inside the church, get misled by the god's name. What I'm doing is what truly fits the criteria."

Edwin's confident words made his brother start doubting his own understanding, until Edwin pulled out an old tome. The God of Hunting oversees hunting... wilderness! Beasts! Mountains! Caves! Forests! Archery!

There was even a story about how the God of Hunting's favorite activity was taking bow and arrows, bringing hunting dogs, and going hunting in mountain forests. The god especially loved hunting a supernatural creature called the Golden-Horned Deer and making it serve as a mount!

"Bro! When do we leave? Myriad Mountains first? Or somewhere else?"

The God of Hunting probably never imagined that a simple "Great Video Hunt" event would bring out so many brilliant talents in the Hunting God Society—wildlife education and nature documentaries, stress-relief donkey hoof trimming, wilderness survival. Just these three tracks alone would probably bring in more faith than all the continent's hunters combined had brought in the past.

Compared to triggering such a huge harvest from just one plan, other gods were scrambling. Many of their followers were too.

This wasn't really surprising though. Magic Net videos were still a new thing. Right now, most people were just filming whatever was in front of them—how could everyone come up with great ideas? Accepting this new medium and figuring out how to use it would take some time.

Near the capital of the Kingdom of Dawn, in a somewhat rundown magic tower, "Reverse Merlin" Carl Brown looked disdainfully at yet another rejection notice for his Quest Board feature proposal on the Magic Net. "Hmph, guy doesn't know quality when he sees it. Rejecting my proposal—you'll spend your whole life stuck in that echo chamber, never getting out!"

Merlin was a famous alchemist in the Kingdom of Dawn, but this Carl Brown guy had earned the nickname "Reverse Merlin" because, well, he kept inventing useless alchemical creations—at least useless to most people.

Still complaining, he closed out the Quest Board and looked at his latest alchemical creation, sighing helplessly. "I think it's perfect. Why don't they appreciate it... No, wait. It's just those stuffy nobles in the Kingdom of Dawn who don't get it. I refuse to believe nobody on the continent appreciates this. And if humans don't, there's always dwarves, elves, halflings—someone's gotta like it, right?"

With that thought, he decisively grabbed his Magic Net Ring again and started filming his masterpiece. It was a crystal parrot, translucent and beautiful, exquisitely crafted. The thing was, when activated, this parrot started spouting complaints in different languages, even different dialects... The problem was its answers never matched the questions—like it was just talking to itself.

"Isn't my crystal parrot perfect? Sure, sometimes it curses, but what's the problem with that? It fits the quest requirements perfectly. Besides, what's wrong with cursing? In certain situations, wouldn't that come in handy?" The more Reverse Merlin Carl displayed it, the more he scorned whoever rejected his quest submission.

After who knows how long, he shook his head, unsatisfied. "Filming this is really inconvenient, and the lighting's not great either."

After just a few mumbled complaints, a weird-looking tripod and a ring light had already been crafted. You could tell he actually had skills—it was just his creativity that was, well, questionable...

After a long time fiddling, he finally filmed a video he was reasonably happy with, then added the title: "A Lonely Elderly Noble Was Bored, So I Made This For Him—And He Called Me Crazy."

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