Chapter 13
◎ Climbing Rule 2.
Even when the Tower's information is known, the Tower remains a place where life and death hang in the balance, so do not forget to take precautions even if you distrust the Association.
◎ Climbing Rule 3.
The Tower adjusts itself so that Climbers can ascend from Floor 5 through Floor 9 using their own abilities, but anyone attempting Floor 10 must consult the Association or their affiliated guild.
※※※
"Well then, greetings, young brothers!! Mm! The martial world has been quite noisy lately!! Hm? You ask what an MZ Murim warrior of the ultra-peak level is doing?"
A proper, wholesome VTuber who never let his concept waver and made the most of his strengths as he streamed.
Today, a video donation featuring the fox god rampaging came flying to him.
"The grand minister called you a supernatural monster? You ask whether capturing a spirit beast would produce an elixir? Ahem, if I were a great hero of orthodox Murim! How could I harm an innocent maiden!! Begone!! I was not afraid, I tell you!"
Viewers carried the video everywhere, in every direction.
YouTube's algorithm began force-feeding it even to people who did not particularly dislike VTubers but did not want to watch them either. This happened because its ranking rose and it became a popular video.
And it did not stop there. People who loved promoting things and running all over the place kept spreading it around. Most importantly, the channel had no rules, so since the fox god herself had not forbidden it, the video ran wild everywhere like a young horse with its reins cut loose.
Naturally, some people were displeased that a streamer unrelated to the broadcast had appeared.
But the flashy one-on-one fight against a monster inside the Tower naturally drew the eye.
Along with the fierce guitar music, the fox god's dazzling one-sided slaughter reached its finale with a bullet slash. The sight of her cleanly snapping shut the open fan with a crisp smack before throwing it and piercing the enemy's head was exactly like a martial technique from a Murim novel. It was spreading not only among VTubers but among other streamers as well.
That was why the so-called YouTube wreckers naturally began spreading it too.
Some took only the video and added their own direction, while others attached AI voices and turned it into Shorts.
It was also a common phenomenon that no one could avoid once popularity took hold.
Especially when the other party was a highly promising Climber who possessed a 『Complete-Clear Floor』 and might truly be a fox god.
However, most people openly mocked those doing such things.
Why did they mock them? The Shorts naturally began to be deleted, and in some cases, the channels disappeared as well.
No matter how hard the fox god tried, she was still only famous domestically. Even if she was a promising prospect, she was still climbing the lowest floors.
Even so, there were far too few Climbers in Korea.
Naturally, the government became the backer of promising prospects, whether the prospects knew it or not.
※※※
Regardless of how the world was turning, Wakamo Inarizushi was watching his own broadcast again today.
It was already his fourth day of streaming. Even calling him a complete novice would have been fair.
Even if he needed to be a VTuber for his long-term survival, after reflecting on himself and contemplating what it meant to be a VTuber─Wakamo found one problem while watching his own intense battle footage.
He had gone back down to Floor 8 and beaten the dwarf's head in after setting up the angles properly with two cameras.
Wasn't it too one-sided? Dominating a fight certainly gave viewers plenty of exhilaration and dopamine.
However, the VTubers Wakamo had watched sometimes struggled because they were bad at games, called out, "What's that supposed to be?!" in the middle of a game, and made quips. They screamed and overreacted so much that he wondered whether a game could really be made that funny, and they showed bright-eyed interest in even the smallest things.
Even the shark from Atlantis across the sea was loved for its genuine curiosity, examining this and that with the voice and actions of a pure, innocent child, wasn't it?
And in between all that, that VTuber included professional remarks and possessed excellent singing ability, so the viewers never had time to get bored.
The shark was not a VTuber at the top of the vast American continent for no reason.
But this enormous body... the only thing it had to show off was its chest. And if someone asked whether it could tease its audience with the kind of vocabulary that maintained boundaries like the blue orca, the answer was no.
A VTuber is a character. Being able to freely change and decorate one's clothes is an advantage, but ultimately, the person inside is male. It is difficult to produce the uniquely feminine performances that only a woman can give. No matter how gently he spoke and kindly treated his believers, he could never compare to a married VTuber who truly radiated maternal love!!
"My broadcast is lacking a crisis!!"
Having been chosen to be a VTuber, he had burned down his own house and vowed never to return.
On the second day, he set his new resolve and convictions as a VTuber.
Wakamo had been putting on a performance with the excellent content of climbing the Tower and the strength of action, something difficult(?) for a VTuber to do, but he had realized that the problem was how completely one-sided his battles were.
One did not have to look far. Even in fighting manga, wasn't it more popular for the protagonist to go through a crisis and overcome it than to win one-sidedly?
Of course, there were cases where someone beat everything in one punch... but if that pattern became fixed, the believers might be immediately disappointed if Wakamo ran out of strength while climbing the Tower.
If one was human, one would eventually reach one's limits.
Didn't VTubers also burn themselves out with passion as they streamed diligently every day?
Of course, someone might ask what a fourth-day Wakamo knew about burnout.
He already possessed enough wisdom for climbing the Tower, even without being a VTuber.
Don't be surprised. Most VTuber viewers probably possessed it too.
"There is something called the Venus of Willendorf, a remnant of a primitive ancient idol... an object from at least 22,000 years ago. In other words, otaku history is 20,000 years old!! Even if the Tower made fantasy reality, that is only 10 years!"
Tell me, believers... if power were given to a Korean otaku who understood everything about the subject of climbing the Tower, what would happen?
Ordinary monsters, ordinary magic, ordinary gimmicks, ordinary situations──otaku had already learned and absorbed all of them through anime, surpassing their own imaginations.
Beyond that, they existed in movies, and there were dramas too! If manga was difficult, couldn't one simply watch an anime with intense movement?
"Eat, watch movies, and sleep. That alone is enough training for a man!!"
He had said it with great force, but!!
The problem was that the model known as Wakamo Inarizushi made all of that possible.
As he had said before, he did not get tired. In fact, he did not even need to breathe. Conversely, that had become a disadvantage, leaving him unable to sleep or recover mana through sleep, so he was living on borrowed time.
He could save mana, perhaps, but not watching VTuber broadcasts was absurd... he would rather die.
He did not know how his weight was determined, but feats like doing a handstand on one finger or supporting his body on his big toe were also possible.
If he became skilled at [Mana Manipulation], wouldn't all sorts of incredible things become possible?
"So, after thinking it over, I registered it."
For now, he wanted to add things like guns or lightsabers, but he decided to start by securing effects useful for videos.
Even Randolph, the tank VTuber who packed all sorts of functions into his model, considered effects important. Wouldn't viewers enjoy it if he could shoot beams from his eyes or mouth? It might be fun to add something small, like a flash of light in his eyes.
[VTuber Asset]
-Same function as 『Virtual Chat』.
-[Climber]'s number of owned assets increases according to the number of conquered floors.
-[Registerable Asset 1/1]
-[Blinding Radiance (color changeable)]
Yes, now I could unleash a rainbow-colored barrage of gunfire from my hand.
As a bonus, it consumed a tremendous amount of mana. It drained mana like a short circuit.
Since it was simply 『light』 in the purest sense, it dealt no damage whatsoever. It did not raise the temperature, but its color could be freely changed and its shape was easy to alter. Could I make something like a hologram of a Wakamo clone? It seemed difficult, perhaps because my proficiency was insufficient.
I could project something like a vague afterimage or rough shape, even if it was not distinct.
Along with the belated regret that I might have been able to use it more comfortably if I had added it as a VTuber model function instead of an asset. Thinking about it, the model had also possessed functions for taking off my outer clothes and making my tails appear or disappear, so I wondered where all of that had gone.
Why couldn't the tail I had brought out with the 2D Live model be brought out with my actual body...? Was it because my floor count was too low?
"Oh, oh... swish, swish..."
I practiced here and there while watching a VTuber broadcast at the same time.
Other people might say I was flaunting my talent and silver-spoon upbringing.
Every day, I had said things like VTubing was an inhuman realm and that I was too talentless, but now it was time to steel myself and leap out.
"Greetings-tail! Be well! I'm Wakamo Inarizushi!"
-Greet-sea-cucumber.
-Thought this was a migrant worker's stream lol;
-You're right in the sense that you're the same kind of beast.
-Finally climbing Floor 9 today?
-What appears on Floor 9?
-Orc Fighter.
-Came to give boss a massage?
-Lol, that's not technically wrong lol
"Today, I'm going to climb Floor 9 quickly and play [Dark Ring], which even got DLC recently. I haven't actually played this kind of game before.... But it's popular and trendy! I have to follow the trend, right, believers?
-Tr?nd?
-The DLC did come out, so I guess it's something you could play, but wouldn't playing it now be past its prime?
-Boss knows so much that she's practically suffering from the curse of knowledge, isn't she?
-As far as I know, there are more than 40 VTubers whose [Dark Ring] streams boss has watched.
-If boss watched Taesan's 24-hour broadcast for 48 hours, she can do it!!
-She has all the patterns memorized in her head lol
-No, you're the trendsetter by yourself, so what game are you talking about? Climb Floor 10!
-Believer... if you climb Incheon Tower's Floor 10 without preparing, you die...
-Who? Boss?
-Give boss time to mentally prepare for the Floor 10 boss....
-Ahㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
As she kept her stream running for the fourth day in a row, she carefully watched the believers' delighted reactions and made small talk while the viewer count rose, saying with a laugh that she had watched a boxing movie today. She had also watched a Chinese movie because she wanted to learn how to throw punches, and the believers' reactions were truly varied.
-"I want to learn martial arts."
-My mind drifts away from nothingness several times every day.
-Believers, Wakamo goes to the Tower to get stronger!!
-She gets stronger by devouring endlessly!
-Is human martial arts really at this level....
-More importantly, boss, does Bruce Lee even deal damage when he hits you??
-Can you call something slower than a bullet a punch?
-A bottom-floor Climber has UFC-level strength... humans, that is.
"Aw, stop teasing me. I earned a taekwondo black belt at Cheongdogwan. Mm! I'm quite the master!"
-What is Cheongdogwan?
-It's a taekwondo dojang, yeah. Nothing special; it was the first dojo established in the 1940s.
-Idiot, why do you know that?
-If she learned at Cheongdogwan, does that make her something like a master of taekwondo's roots?
-Think of it as Marine Corps Class 0.
-Boss isn't Marine Corps Class 0; didn't she even fight in the Korean War?
-Were you on the Red Team?
-What is this crazy bastard even sayingㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Well, in reality, he had simply learned at an ordinary taekwondo academy, but he had said that to fit his concept. Everyone accepted it so readily that he felt pleased. After about thirty minutes of small talk, he said it was time to climb the Tower and entered Floor 9 directly with [Enter Tower].
According to the Incheon Tower information he had forgotten and left unattended, the monster that appeared was the [Orc Fighter].
It could be called the first proper humanoid monster he had encountered. The Corrupted Dwarf had been so short that it was practically treated like something similar to a goblin.
A dazzling light brightened his vision, and when he dodged the black shadow that immediately loomed in front of his face, he saw a green-skinned creature about 1.7 meters tall with a muscular build, huffing as it swung a fist. Were ambushes by monsters during Tower climbing also among the causes of Climber deaths?
It was an attack while he was defenseless immediately after arriving─if he had not known the information, he might have been hit.
-No, that ambush was fucking unfair.
-This is why Climbers get killed by ambushes.
-This is why Incheon Tower is in the capital but isn't popular lol
-Right, if you aren't a melee type, you always start by getting punched in the face.
-When that thing punched me and flattened my nose, it brought back my trauma from getting hit by a school bully.
-Idiot.... Don't cry.... What's your job?
-Alchemist.
-Cry even harder; your life is ruined.
-I'm crying even without you saying so.
The chat window floating to one side shot upward rapidly as viewers who had heard the rumor gathered. Had the small-talk stream really been that unpopular?
Even though the green skin had suddenly ambushed Wakamo right in front of him, hardly anyone was worried about him. Did they believe he would not be hurt even if he was hit? His broadcast was definitely lacking a crisis.
Then again.... he could cut bullets. What was there to worry about?
[You are climbing in the Incheon Tower's Floor 9 World]
-Get used to combat! Practice against the [Orc Fighter]!
[Platinum Achievement Conditions]
-[Dodge the [Orc Fighter]'s attack (1/5)]
-[Block the [Orc Fighter]'s attack (0/5)]
-[Do not take damage from the [Orc Fighter] (0/1)]
These were bewildering conditions once again.
Even if it was a proper humanoid, why would he be sparring on Floor 9? Most Climbers would be dazed after being hit by the ambush, then fight and win, while those who knew the conditions would ignore them and dispatch it quickly.
"A fist, you say. Come at me."
He gave it a relaxed smile and beckoned with one finger to provoke it. He did not forget to place one hand behind his back.
Watching the straight punch fly fiercely through the air, he narrowly dodged it by leaning his neck backward.
It was a feat made possible because he had hardware capable of utilizing software with exceptional dynamic vision at 200%!!
"Krrraaaack!!"
The orc irritably swung its extended fist downward, but he pulled one leg forward and bent it while lowering his body along the punch's trajectory. The standing Orc Fighter swung so violently that its arm bent back as far as behind its waist, but because he had lowered himself to around the height of its thigh, the fist merely grazed his chest, missing by a hair.
Irritated that its attack had missed, it lashed out with a kick, but he released the toes gripping the ground and used the impact of his heel striking the earth to spring vertically from a nearly prone position. He avoided the kick, spun around, and landed.
Without looking at the fist flying toward him while he stood with his back turned, he rotated to the side and dodged, then slipped rapidly behind the orc in a tangled movement like a waltz.
It belatedly swung its hand to grab his hair, but he pulled away with [Mana Manipulation], successfully taking up a position behind the orc, and lightly kicked the back of its knee with his toes, making it stagger.
"Why don't you try a little harder?"
One camera floated behind me.
I had struggled tremendously while adapting to [Share Viewpoint], an additional function of [Video Recording], but thanks to it, I could see ambushes behind me without looking.
And that meant the viewers could see it too through the camera showing the orc's back from the position where I had been standing.
I checked with [Share Viewpoint] to make sure the video was being filmed from a good angle, then smiled.
The Orc Fighter took that as a provocation, let out an enraged roar with its eyes bloodshot, and charged.
I knocked away the incoming fist with the back of my hand and slapped away the kick with my palm, blocking and batting aside the orc's fists and feet like a master of Jeet Kune Do. When martial-arts action that looked like it belonged in a Hong Kong movie unfolded, the chat window became heated. Their hands and feet moved back and forth as if they were exchanging combinations, but knowing that it was not staged made them even more excited.
I watched with my eyes and used [Mana Manipulation] with my excellent body, accelerating my already unreasonable movements into something even more unreasonable as I parried.
As a result, my mana was draining away at an incredible rate.
Without revealing my worry about how to create the crisis scene I had originally planned, I smiled outwardly and leaped over the Orc Fighter's front kick, thrown like a decisive finishing blow.
Once you rose into the air, there was nowhere to evade.
-No, if you dodge upward, where are you supposed to go?!
-Look at that insane orc bastard's disgusting grin.
-Did boss jump on reflex? Is she screwed???
The viewers and believers knew that, so they realized Wakamo had made a mistake and that the Orc Fighter had lured him into it.
They could tell just by looking at the sly smile emerging from its ugly face, enough to disgust the viewers!
"Kieeeek!!!"
A punch filled with murderous intent.
And a hook dug into that punch.
-Whoa!
-Did she stop in midair?
-No, she didn't stop; she stepped on it!!
-With her toe????
My extended foot curled its toes into a hook and planted the tip into the orc's wrist.
Immediately afterward, the orc was pulled beneath me as if being sucked down, and it spun through the air roughly three times like a top, dragging the orc along with it.
Bam!
Along with my foot driving into the ground, the orc slammed into it headfirst and was literally crushed.
"Ta-da! Did you see that! I tried copying something from the Murim movie I watched today. Was it okay?"
-She watched it and copied it (for real).
-She lured it into the air, countered its attack in midair, and slammed it down...?
-The Orc Fighter is pitiful... it did its best....
-It felt good when the pig that punched me in the face got hit, but now I suddenly feel sorry for it and can't watch.
-This isn't a Climber's fight!!!
-What's wrong with the strong abusing the weak?
-It used its fists, so I answered with my fists.
[The Incheon Tower's Floor 9 has fulfilled its Platinum conditions and is opening to all humanity!!]
"Yay, V V! Wakamo wins big!"
Wakamo smiled brightly so the viewers could see him clearly, held up both hands in V signs, and swayed them gently.
The believers loved how cute Wakamo was, while the viewers cheered that he had achieved a 『Complete-Clear Floor』 through Floor 9.
"Then, everyone, take a short break! See you during the [Dark Ring] stream!"
His crisis scene had failed, but he felt relieved that he had somehow patched things up and briefly put another screen on the broadcast.
The Tower had conveniently(?) given him suitable achievement conditions, allowing him to film a scene from an appropriate action movie!!
Putting everything else aside, my body's performance was truly too good, making almost anything I imagined possible. It was so convenient. What if I turned out to be good at games too...?
Was my own hidden talent as a VTuber slowly blossoming until I finally became one?
"Turns out I had talent for VTubing, didn't I?!"
The corners of my mouth naturally reached my ears as I grinned happily and sank into a blissful delusion.
Wakamo doing collaborations with famous VTubers.... He'd probably be a nuisance because he was so damn tall....
[Rewards have increased due to the Tower's Platinum clear]
"So, what will I get as my Floor 9 reward...?"
I shrugged my shoulders, bit my lower lip, and, in a "Wakamo is amazing!" mood, checked the reward while drunk on uncontrollable happiness.
[Choose 1 reward]
[Form of an Idol]
-Uses possessed mana to create a form.
[Idol's Protection]
-Provides believers with a buff proportional to the floor number.
[Weight of Faith]
-Can become lighter or heavier in proportion to the number of believers.
"There isn't one.... An attack skill...?"
What were these skills even supposed to do? No matter how I looked at it, two were meant for performances, and one was for the benefit of the believers who worshiped me.
[You have acquired the skill [Form of an Idol]!]
At least it seemed like I could use it as a threat... no, then hadn't I had any need to use an [Asset] for light...?
A sorrow I could not understand seemed to fill me so completely that I forgot the happy moment entirely.
Why was there no attack skill..... Give me back my Flame-Flame Fruit.... Give me my Chidori!!!
"Sigh, they'll give me one on the next floor...."
What could not be helped could not be helped.
The believers would be waiting, so I used [My Worlds] to return to my personal space and prepare for the game.
If I had [Internet Connection], didn't that mean I practically did not need a computer? I could move everything with my will alone, without a mouse or keyboard, making me feel like I was living in the future by myself... and since everything responded exactly to the speed of my thoughts, I was confident I could play any game perfectly.
I had already watched and studied [Dark Ring] through countless VTubers.
With the viewers' expectations behind me─I immediately chose the [No-Item Cheetos] route, something only seasoned players attempted.
-Wow, where did boss get that confidence?
-Even the Recognition Association recognizes this part lol
-Just you wait!! The primitive man of the primordial ancient VTuber is coming!!!
-Choosing a childhood acquaintance by instinct the moment it started... boss couldn't resist the nostalgia....
-Our boss just loves Uga Uga...
"Uga Uga."
Accepting the believers' jokes, Wakamo boldly advanced his character toward the [Tree Sentinel], the field-type tutorial boss also called [Dark Ring]'s [Refund Guardian]. It was optional to kill, but it was the first boss encountered upon entering the field, and countless streamers and VTubers had been crushed by it.
"I've injected all your patterns into my mind! I'll butcher you in one try!!!"
And seventeen hours later.
"Aaaaah!!! Please!! Why can't I dodge this?! Why can't I dodge it?! I rolled!! I dodged!!"
The Tree Sentinel beat Wakamo so thoroughly that he did not even make it stir up dust, killing him over and over again.
"Huh? Why did that hit me? It shouldn't have hit me, should it? Why did it hit me! It didn't touch me!!"
Ah! I get it! (I don't)─he repeated it endlessly while continuing his retry attempts through sheer determination.
"Waaah!!"
At last, on the eighteenth hour, he accepted his humiliating defeat and fled, saying he was going to watch a VTuber stream.
The [Tree Sentinel] had avenged the Orc Fighter's grudge.
And the boss's talent for being unbelievably bad at games had been exposed, turning him into an object of the believers' mockery.
A truly innate talent for the atrocious...!!
A gamer whose lack of talent was on the level of being a different species!!
Afterward, the fan café blossomed with laughter when one believer delivered the happy news that, after looking at Wakamo's [Dark Ring] playtime and achievement record, they had played for another seven hours afterward but still could not beat it.