Chapter 51: Chapter 50

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【Virtual I-Tuber Gallery】

[General] Summary of the AiAi Minecraft Situation

Sora wanted to make a beacon and asked Laura for help.

Laura went to the inland region to hunt the Three-Headed Ghost.

The Three-Headed Ghost’s aggro got drawn to Anna, who was secretly stalking Laura.

The Three-Headed Ghost killed Anna, and then aggro bounced to other creatures and continued moving.

Sora, wanting to get a Void Rod, took Chell and headed to the city.

The Three-Headed Ghost spotted Sora and killed her.

Chell sacrificed Sora and fled to the city, but eventually died, and the city was devastated.

[Comments]

What’s up with number 3, lol

ㄴ Sora was secretly watching the stream and decided she wanted to stalk Laura.

ㄴ That’s insane, what a creep.

ㄴ Is Anna really a creep?

ㄴ Haven’t you figured it out yet from when she confessed to Rui?

What’s with Chell, lol

ㄴ She’s secretly nuts too.

It’s funny that Sora ended up in a horror game by accident.

ㄴ She would’ve had to play anyway, since Laura sent her a gift.

Terrorist Laura, lol

===

[General] Why is Anna late?

When is she going to do the horror game?

[Comments]

For real, at this rate she’ll be a grandma before she plays it.

Shiroki Anna, do the horror game before you turn into a grandma!

If she doesn’t do it, I’ll go to Seoul Station to buy poop.

ㄴ Buy it...?

I’m already protesting from home.

Sora and Chell haven’t done it either, which is annoying.

ㄴ But Chell wouldn’t be that fun to watch anyway.

ㄴ She’s already done a few horror games.

ㄴ Those Tsukuyomi games weren’t scary anyway.

ㄴ Wouldn’t she get scared by something like In Last?

Anna should set an example as a senior.

ㄴ Absolutely lolololol

===

"Please save me."

9 AM.

Anna was kneeling in front of my room.

“…What are you doing this early in the morning?”

“Please save me, Laura-sama…”

She was bowing so deeply that her forehead was touching the floor.

“…You can even step on my head if you want, just please… do something about the horror game…”

“But can you really change things now?”

I looked down at Anna and spoke.

The culprits behind the 'EYEAI Minecraft Destruction Incident.'

Commonly known as the 'Terrorists,' they were supposed to play a horror game as punishment.

It’s a long-standing tradition for VTubers to play horror games as a penalty. In fact, it’s common even among non-VTuber streamers.

“Even if I were to change my mind, no one else would agree to it.”

The seniors want a horror game, and the viewers want it too.

Even if I suggested a different punishment now, it wouldn’t fly. It would only cause more backlash.

“You can use me as a chair if you want…!”

“…It’s more comfortable to sit on a real chair than on a person. The height doesn’t quite match up, you see.”

“How do you even know that…?”

Well, I’ve done it a few times. As the villainess I used to be, I had to put on some performances that involved forcing people to submit.

I once sat on a holy knight. Honestly, it felt pretty great.

‘Though, after that day, the Tower Lord would growl every time they saw me.’

The Holy Knight and the Tower Lord were kind of involved, so the Tower Lord openly disliked me.

That’s all in the past now. I wonder what happened to the Holy Knight and the Tower Lord after that? They probably got married, I’d guess.

“I’ll do anything, just please spare me…!!”

Anna clung to my legs… She’s becoming more and more annoying.

But her desperation was palpable. She’d come all the way to my house this early in the morning, after all.

“Well, since you’re here, you might as well help with the housework. I can’t cancel the horror game, but I’ll propose a slightly less terrifying one.”

Rion was about to retire from VTubing. At this point, she was more of a manager than a VTuber and was working almost every day.

On top of that, she seemed to be preparing something else, which meant her work hours had been getting longer.

As a result, the housework had started to pile up a bit.

Now that monetization was approved, the 6th gen was planning a commemorative stream soon. Payouts would begin next month, and I’d been considering hiring a housekeeper.

“Thank you…! I’ll never forget this favor!”

It wasn’t that big of a favor, really.

We had told the viewers that the 'Terrorists' would be playing a horror game, but we hadn’t yet announced which game.

Honestly, Anna wouldn’t be able to handle In Last. She’s a scaredy-cat, after all.

In Last is eerie right from the start, and Anna would probably give up within minutes.

‘The viewers wouldn’t be too happy about that.’

When it comes to games with a storyline, viewers watch streams anticipating how the streamer will react to certain scenes.

But Anna wouldn’t even reach those iconic scenes in In Last, so it’d be one of those “this is boring to watch” moments.

And if you make scaredy-cats play a game that’s too scary, the pacing slows to a crawl, so I’ll have to pick something moderately scary.

‘I’ve unintentionally boxed myself into a highball strategy. But a game that’s not scary enough would be anticlimactic.’

For example, a free horror game like The Witch’s House or Ib that Chell played before.

Those games do have some creepy elements, but it’s more like “even spicy ssamjang counts as spicy food.”

Just because a game has horror elements doesn’t mean everyone will consider it a horror game.

In that sense, side-scrollers like Outside or Small Nightmare have horror elements, but viewers wouldn’t necessarily see them as horror games.

The Midnight series seems like the limit, but the physicality required is unexpectedly high, so Anna wouldn’t be able to handle it.

I need to pick a game that will leave people saying, “She did a good job.”

I thought for a moment.

There’s something I realized.

Anna is absolutely terrible at housework.

“…Maybe you should just play In Last after all.”

“N-No…! Please give me another chance!”

She couldn’t clean, and she was bad at washing dishes.

I gained a new appreciation for how good Rion had been. Now that I think about it, Rion once mentioned that Anna was a total slob at home.

I vaguely remembered hearing that Anna didn’t do any housework in her own apartment. Turns out that was true.

‘…So what exactly are Anna’s strengths?’

When I used to teach her in Labyrinthos, I remember thinking she was hardworking and had good traits, but now she’s making me shake my head.

She’s a kind person, but… she can’t do housework, and sometimes she’s just plain irritating…

“Just out of curiosity, what do you think about dating or marriage?”

“I don’t think about it at all! Honestly, Laura, I want you to take care of me! …Can I live here forever?”

“Don’t look at me like that. I’m not taking you in.”

If she were good at housework, maybe I’d consider it. But I’m not interested in feeding and caring for someone else. If I had that kind of hobby, I would’ve gotten a dog or a cat already.

If I had time for a pet, I’d rather play more games.

I turned on my PC.

【EYEAI Discord Server】

General Chat

Tanaka Michael (2nd Gen):

[Who’s up for Minecraft today~]

[No 6th gens allowed.]

[@everyone]

Ayanokouji Sora (6th Gen):

[Why are we excluded?]

Tanaka Michael (2nd Gen):

[We’re rebuilding the city, lol]

[You 6th gens can play in your base, lol.]

Ayanokouji Sora (6th Gen):

[I’ll help with the rebuilding!]

Tanaka Michael (2nd Gen):

[Nah, it’s fine, lololol]

[It’s our base, so we’ll handle it, lololol.]

Yamaoka Gabriel (2nd Gen):

[Exactly!]

[Scrubs should just stay out of it!]

[How dare you try to take over a senior’s work! Tsk!!!!]

Ayanokouji Sora (6th Gen):

[What does “scrub” mean?]

Yamaoka Gabriel (2nd Gen):

[What?]

“Hmmm.”

The Discord window automatically popped up when I turned on my PC. As I was reading the chat, I started craving tea. But Rion wasn’t here to make it for me.

I tried asking Anna to make some as a test, but it came out tasting weak. She added too much water, this brat.

“The 2nd gens are playing Minecraft today too?”

Maybe because she knew she failed with the tea, Anna brewed some coffee and served it to me instead.

The coffee was drinkable, at least. I heard that even though Anna was bad at housework, she could at least make coffee at home.

“Looks that way.”

“The 2nd gens always play Minecraft, you know. Especially Michael-senpai, he’s a Minecraft specialist VTuber.”

“Is that so?”

Anna explained that Tanaka Michael was the kind of person who travels all over the Minecraft world building structures.

He had created theme parks multiple times.

He built an underwater city in the sea.

He even made a floating island in the sky.

“That’s impressive.”

“On the other hand, he’s pretty much the only one who consistently plays Minecraft. The rest of us VTubers… well, we’ve lost interest in Minecraft lately.”

That was inevitable. My seniors seemed to have exhausted most of the Minecraft content.

Other than the final boss, the Dragon, there aren’t many high-difficulty challenges in Minecraft.

And even the Dragon doesn’t require much preparation to defeat. Honestly, if you’re confident, you can do it with just iron gear, a sword, armor, and a bow. Diamond gear isn’t necessary.

There’s even a speedrun to beat the Dragon in a day, so the endgame content in Minecraft is fairly easy to tackle.

“When there’s a new update, we might jump back in for a bit. But even then, most of it gets finished within a week.”

“Yeah, they mostly add new creatures or building materials. Occasionally, they throw in a new type of dungeon.”

But there hasn’t been any new endgame content. The Dragon remains the final boss.

So, aside from Tanaka Michael, most VTubers had stopped logging into the Minecraft server. But since the recent incident, they’ve been logging back in to help with 'reconstruction work.'

“Come to think of it, the 6th gen collab ban has been lifted, right?”

“Not completely, but yeah.”

We were allowed to interact with the seniors on the Minecraft server, with the condition that our voices couldn’t be included in the stream.

“Wouldn’t you say that’s all thanks to me?”@@novelbin@@

Anna, looking proud, placed her hands on her hips.

“I breathed new life into the dying EYEAI Minecraft server, and thanks to my stalking of Laura, the 6th gen, who were stuck on a remote island, can now receive help from the seniors! All thanks to me!”

“So, what’s your point?”

“…Please, appreciate my achievements. Do something about the horror game, for real.”

It seemed that Anna wasn’t going to leave until I eased the horror game punishment. …Was she always this annoying?

Ding, ding

A sound came from the speakers.

Looking at the screen, the original woman who used to annoy me was contacting me.

“Inagika?”

Anna wrapped her arms around my neck, resting her chin on my shoulder as she spoke.

“Inagika is cute, isn’t she?”

“Have you been watching Inagika’s streams?”

“I watch them a lot. She doesn’t seem to have many friends like me, so I personally feel for her. And don’t you think her twitchiness is kind of cute, like a little rabbit?”

“Well, depending on your perspective, I guess.”

“Oh! But! I like you way more than Inagika! I’ve watched all your streams! I even watched your 20-hour archive, every bit of it!! So, please… ease the horror game punishment…!”

“Stop repeating yourself. It’s getting tiring.”

I clicked the left mouse button to answer Inagika’s call.

[Oh…! Hi, Laura…! I’m streaming right now, but I’m muted, so you can talk freely…]

Muted. In other words, her mic was off.

Just in case, I opened Inagika’s stream on my second monitor. It looked like she was streaming Minecraft.

“I see. What’s up?”

[Oh, well, I saw you were online, so… I thought I’d say hi…]

“Hmm. Is that how things are with Inagika?”

Inagika stammered nervously, and Anna whispered quietly in my ear.

If Inagika knew Anna was here, how would she react? She might hang up right away.

Maybe Anna was whispering out of consideration for Inagika’s personality. In moments like this, Anna does seem like a kind-hearted person.

“If you have something to say, go ahead, Inagika. I’m listening.”

[Uh, yeah… Could you… log into Minecraft…?]

Today again?

I was planning to run the Labyrinthos Duel Mode for a bit. Why do people keep pulling me back to Minecraft?

“Is something wrong?”

I was curious.

If Sora were asking for help, I’d understand, but for Inagika to ask was unusual. Inagika was the most experienced Minecraft player among us.

While I’m much better than Inagika at combat and adventuring, Minecraft values building and Redstone circuit knowledge more than fighting skills.

In that sense, Inagika was incredibly knowledgeable, and unlike me, who hadn’t played Minecraft in two years, she was up to date with all the latest patches. So it seemed strange for her to ask me for help.

[W-Well, Sora and Chell went to the city… so I’m the only one left at our base…]

Inagika’s voice trembled. It seemed like something serious had happened.

Guess I had no choice.

I logged into Minecraft.

“Hello? This is our first time talking like this, right?”

In front of me was an unfamiliar avatar. The voice greeting me was lively, though a bit low-pitched.

“I’m Kisaki Rinko. I’m a fan. I always enjoy watching your streams.”

That’s how she introduced herself.

Kisaki Rinko.

One of only two 1st-gen VTubers in EYEAI, and the VTuber with the most subscribers among us all.

And aside from me, she’s the only VTuber in EYEAI whose main content is Labyrinthos.

Or is she?

Maybe it would be more accurate to say she was the VTuber whose main content was Labyrinthos.