Chapter 22: Chapter 21

“Why a VTuber instead of a regular streamer? It’s all about the vibe.”

Anna said as she sat down next to me.

“The vibe? Isn’t there not much difference between a streamer and a VTuber in terms of content?”

“It’s like asking people to use a muscle-bound guy in a cute gacha game instead of a beautiful girl. Sure, the gameplay might be the same, but consumers care about the vibe just as much as the gameplay.”

“I see.”

I nodded.

Having played many different games over the years, Anna’s analogy resonated with me.

“In my case, I’ve loved anime since I was a kid. When I ran out of anime to watch, I stumbled upon VTubers. I got interested and eventually became one myself.”

“Now that you mention it, Rion also seemed to like anime.”

“The reasons people become VTubers are probably pretty similar. You need to have a certain affinity for subculture to become a VTuber.”

Anna shrugged.

“After all, it’s people like me—otaku—who watch VTubers. And most of them are guys, too. It’s a job that requires understanding the vibe those people are looking for.”

“The vibe…”

That shouldn’t be too difficult.

There’s probably no one who understands the male vibe better than I do, and I was once called the most beautiful duchess.

But I feel like there needs to be more of a reason to become a VTuber.

“Oh, it’s starting.”

The monitor screen, which had only been showing a thumbnail, suddenly changed.

With a gentle BGM playing, the words “Now Loading…” appeared. That must be the stream’s loading screen.

Right now, I was watching a VTuber stream with Anna.

“There’s a VTuber I really like. She usually streams at 11 PM, but today she suddenly changed her schedule to stream at 8 PM.”

“She’s a VTuber who’s been around for seven years. And in those seven years, I’ve hardly ever missed one of her streams!”

“Oh, Sensei, do you want to watch with me? She’s super fun!”

A VTuber stream that Anna would skip training to watch, and one she’s been following for seven years? Naturally, my curiosity was piqued.

I also wanted to learn more about what being a VTuber is all about.

So today, I decided to cancel our training and join Anna.

“Oh, it’s starting!”

[ちょっとまってね…。]

“Isn’t that Japanese?”

“Yes, it’s Japanese. Why?”

“I thought it was a Korean VTuber.”

“Where in the world is there a Korean VTuber who’s been around for seven years? Sensei, you don’t understand Japanese?”

“I’m not that good at it.”

“Hah, newbies… The real charm is listening in Japanese. Hold on, I’ll change the settings.”

Anna fiddled with the settings, and the voice on the screen changed.

[Ah, how’s my voice? Is the BGM too quiet? Hold on a sec…]

“I used the translation feature. Now you can hear it in Korean.”

“Translation? It sounds pretty seamless for a translation.”

“It’s because we’re in VR. The data processing speed in VR is really fast.”

And since voices in VR are just another form of data, it’s not too hard to analyze them and translate them into Korean.

“That’s why the boundaries between countries are blurred in VR. Language translation happens in real-time.”

[How is it now? Is this good? Just right?]

The VTuber on the screen chuckled.

The voice sounded quite young. And the character model looked like a middle school student.

But she probably wasn’t a middle schooler in real life. According to Anna, this VTuber had been active for seven years, so she couldn’t possibly be that young.

And besides, the things she talked about…

[So, because of an event yesterday, I stayed at a hotel. When you go to a hotel, it’s best to bring your own drinks. Those of you who’ve been to a hotel know how expensive the water is there, right? I was so thirsty yesterday, but the water was too pricey, so I didn’t want to spend money on it. But you know how some hotels have a place where you can get ice for free? I grabbed a cup of ice and left it on the table. After taking a shower and sleeping, I woke up to find it all melted, so I drank that instead.]

…She was telling an incredibly petty story.

I glanced over to see Anna beaming, clearly enjoying just hearing the VTuber’s voice.

“Oh, she’s so cute… Hehe…”

“Try not to laugh too loudly. It’s a bit off-putting.”

“Sensei, being a bit off-putting is just part of being an otaku.”

Is that so?

The way Anna confidently said it made it seem true. Even as a duchess, it was hard to argue with her.

Anyway, Anna seemed to really like this VTuber. She couldn’t take her eyes off the screen.

As for me… I wasn’t sure if I found it entertaining.

Since the stream was so personal, it was hard to enjoy without knowing who this VTuber was.@@novelbin@@

It would’ve been nice if Anna had explained more about her, but…

‘For some reason, I don’t feel like asking her to explain…’

Anna seemed too engrossed in the stream.

And if I asked her to explain, I’d probably get a long-winded answer. Otaku love to explain things, after all.

So, I decided to discreetly open another screen and look up some information about this VTuber.

‘Her name is Hanabane Rui, huh.’

She’s a VTuber affiliated with a Japanese company called ‘Ink Palette.’

She has 400,000 subscribers, making her the most subscribed VTuber within ‘Ink Palette.’

Her backstory seems bizarre—she’s supposedly a middle school librarian who’s actually the leader of a militant organization called the ‘Rui Cartel.’

[Sorry for the long chat. I got carried away because I enjoy talking. I actually started the stream today to play Labyrinth.]

Thump.

With a light sound effect, the broadcast screen changed.

[I couldn’t play Labyrinth for the past few days because of events, so I really felt like playing it today.]

[There’s a tournament coming up, right? I think there will be another one this year. Last year’s was really well-received.]

[People have been saying I haven’t done enough viewer participation streams, too. How long has it been since the last one? A year? No way~.]

[I’ll only give out the first four digits of the six-digit room code~. 2408XX. 2408XX. …Wow, someone’s already joined.]

A custom room was created, and the slots quickly filled up.

You could tell she was quite popular, considering her subscriber count. Rion had around 10,000 subscribers, and Anna had about 40,000.

On top of that, her rank…

‘Diamond, huh. Higher than I expected.’

Soon the game began, and Rui locked in ‘Puppeteer.’

The Puppeteer was known as one of the most difficult characters in Labyrinth

, but Rui seemed to play it smoothly, indicating she was used to it.

“Is she the one you mentioned wanting to meet at the tournament?”

Suddenly, I remembered a conversation I’d had with Anna before.

“Oh, yes. That’s right… How did you know?”

“Wouldn’t it be strange if I didn’t notice?”

“You’re right…”

Anna hugged her knees.

“As you can see, Rui is a Japanese VTuber. And she does a lot of offline events, but it’s not easy to participate in all of them if you’re not a local.”

“Do VTubers hold offline events?”

“Popular VTubers often do. Things like collaboration cafes, handshake events, and even concerts.”

“Huh…?”

Handshake events? How do VTubers even shake hands…?

I didn’t understand, but I nodded anyway.

“I’ve always wanted to meet her, but I keep losing the lottery draws. But Rui participates in the streamer league every year… So I thought if I applied for the tournament, maybe I could meet her.”

“I don’t really get it. Why do you want to meet her?”

“Well, because I’m a fan, obviously…?”

Anna’s expression turned somewhat self-deprecating.

“Rui has two dogs. I know their names, and I’m familiar with Rui’s family background. She’s shared all of that on her streams.”

“…”

“You know how it is, Sensei. I don’t have many people I can call friends. So, aside from my family, Rui is the person I know best in the world.”

“But you can’t say that everything she shows on her streams is genuine, right?”

“No one can lie all the time. Putting on a fake persona all the time would be exhausting, don’t you think?”

Anna said that.

And with that one sentence, a lot of things became clear to me.

Why Anna became a VTuber. What the VTuber profession entails.

Why Anna wants to get better at Labyrinth. And what Anna is striving for.

“Anna, you should join the viewer participation.”

After thinking it over, I finally spoke.

“Really? Actually, I was debating whether to join or not. I want to play with Rui, but… I feel like it would be rude to go join the viewer participation when you’re here… Oh, how about you join too, Sensei?”

“Of course, I’ll join. As an opponent, that is.”

“…Huh?”

“Anna.”

Anna blinked at my words.

I smiled at her.

“Let’s go kill Rui together.”