Chapter 14
[Author : Tachyon's Husband]
[Title : Let's Look at Our Mod's [Dark Ring] Record]
(A photo of her streaming [Dark Ring] for 18 hours)
(A photo showing she played for another 7 hours)
The contradiction of a day having 25 hours!
The grit to keep trying without giving up even after losing!
(A meme of her wailing Ueeng!)
From today onward, the fox cries Ueeng ueeng. No objections accepted.
She knows a lot if you watch her, but she just can't do it.
Seriously worse than anyone I've seen streaming, for real.
-Even our pig mod wasn't this bad.
-Taesan's grit is only because the difficulty's high, but even in our field, this is a bit....
-What was with her putting on sturdy armor before charging in at the endㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴThis is what you call an animal learning.
ㄴAh, this is armor. It even blocks a beast's claws.
ㄴBut it can't block the [Tree Guardian]'s club, can it?
ㄴI could block it, though!! (Fact)
-Do you understand how weak humans are now, modㅋㅋㅋㅋ
[Author : ㅇㅇ]
[Title : Yesterday's News on the Incheon Tower's Floor 9 [Tooth Collector]]
(A GIF of the Fox God trading blows with an Orc Fighter)
(A GIF of her being lured into the air, only to get countered and driven headfirst into the ground)
If you look closely, it looks like a fight between a child and an adult.
The mod is 240 cm tall. Can you see the Orc Fighter desperately punching upward?
Look at those explosive thighs. She was lying on the floor and stood up using only the strength in her toes ㅇㅇ
Her core is on another level, and her midair movement is insane.
I never thought I'd see something I only saw in superhero movies in real life.
-Are you perhaps the Broken-Nose Alchemist guy?
-Ah, the piss-your-pants guy is here....
ㄴㅅㅂ You think I wanted to become one?
-But the height difference is seriously overwhelmingㅋㅋㅋ
-She's that big and heavy, but that agile? Does that make sense?
ㄴBro, that's what it means when it's all muscle....
-How much compressed muscle can there be in those slender arms?
-Was she not a water balloon but a lump of rock??
-If you jumped between them, you'd get compressed like in a press.
-Even so, I want to get caught between those thighs.
[Author : Turn On the Stream]
[Title : You guys know the mod just threw down a gauntlet and you're screwing aroundㅋㅋ?]
(A picture of the Fox God wailing Ueeng)
She boldly challenged the solitary elderly resident of Eunpyeong-gu, then got utterly wrecked by the Dragon of Eunpyeong-gu in a perfect three-game sweep.
She said, "Hey! That's not how you do Iori!" and then landed a full combo. I seriously thought she was some kind of god-tier player.
After getting wrecked there, she charged the Crazy Iron King of Yangjeong-dong like her head had been cracked open.
She said she was going to get a hamburger, but she just got beaten into dust there too.
She said, "My eyesight's pretty good, so I'm confident!" and she really was good at blocking ㅇㅇ
She was so good at blocking that it reminded me of myself getting beaten in the corner of a school bathroom.
She kept blocking until she got beaten up, and my empathy went wild enough to make my eyes sting a little.....
She even popped up in the dog auntie's viewer-participation rhythm game next door, and she was so unbelievably bad that I thought she was intentionally trolling.
-Why did the Fox God become a punching bag!!
-Wow, she's insanely good at blocking. She really does seem to see the attacks?
-Seems like she can only see them, and her body doesn't follow....
-It's genuinely pitiful from the viewer's side. She's only good at blocking, like she's using hacks.
-Just play a shooter instead, mod. I'm crying...
ㄴShe also popped into a Touhou shooting versus game viewer-participation stream ㅇㅇ..
ㄴHow was it....?
ㄴShe's insanely good at dodging, but she's only good at dodging ㅇㅇ
-I really guess people can't be good at everything.
-I think it was a good thing our mod became a VTuber.
[Author : Fox God's Thigh Worshipper]
[Title : Let's Examine Our Mod's Quotes from Her Fourth Day of Streaming]
"I get it!" (She doesn't).
"I dodged it!" (She didn't).
"I rolled, didn't I?!" (She didn't roll).
"I have all the patterns memorized, you know? It comes diagonally from here!" (It came diagonally, and she died).
"From now on, I'm getting serious." (After getting beaten for 3 hours)
"I'm going all out for real!!" (After getting beaten for 6 hours)
"Means and methods don't matter anymore!! I'll kill you!!!" (After getting beaten for 17 hours)
"Ueeeeeng!!!"
"My eyesight is good, you know?" (Only her eyesight is good)
"I've watched so many gaming streams! I'm confident!" (She has watched a lot, at least)
"You just have to look and dodge." (She only dodges)
-It's truly nothing but priceless gems.....
-I've never seen anyone this bad at games before...
-It's a good thing the mod is a beast—she doesn't have parents, either...
ㄴLook at this bastard crossing the line with the dead-parent jokesㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴThe Fox God's parents are so warm....
ㄴAre all you bastards seriously complete lunatics? Fuck.
-She's bad at games, but her focus and grit are great, so it's funnyㅋㅋㅋ
-Just watching the suffering mod's ears droop and her eyes well up makes my dopamine spikeㅋㅋㅋ
-She's got both cuteness and charisma down at once. Is her greed insane?
[Author : VTubers Go Die]
[Title : No, I know everyone's having fun, but isn't there some controversy?]
She swore like crazy while doing stocks and crypto.
No, I mean, if she's really a fox and a Climber, I won't cuss her out for swearing.
But isn't she hiding her true nature and pretending to be nice??
[League of Legends] is full of beasts, so I guess that one gets a pass.
-Why is that one okayㅋㅋㅋ The mod curses pretty hard.
-But she does have a reason for cursing.
ㄴㅇㅇ? What is it?
ㄴFor one thing, the mod doesn't specifically curse at VTubers either ㅇㅇ.
ㄴDidn't she curse regardless?
ㄴThere were tons of people who got angry because she didn't tell them to invest when someone made 20 billion won from one of the investments she mentioned.
ㄴI can see why they'd call the mod an idiotㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴㅅㅂㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴThey were told so they could make money for the believers, so it's the fault of the idiots who didn't listen.
-It's just a rumor, but I heard the fan cafe manager is a 20-billion-won believerㅋㅋㅋ
-Ahㅋㅋㅋ If she made them that much money, they really should worship her as a godㅋㅋㅋ
-But she really is a god, isn't she?
-The idiots who didn't listen were so frustrating they deserved to get cursed at.
-Wasn't she trying to tell them to sell?
-Ah! So they're even craftier bastards!
-More importantly, why is the person with insults in their own username accusing the mod of hypocrisyㅋㅋㅋ
Today, the community was noisy again. Thanks to the viewers following the mod on a VTuber pilgrimage(?) as she popped up in every viewer-participation stream without turning on her own broadcast, things never had time to cool down.
No matter where she went, whenever someone asked, "Did you beat the mod?" the only answer they got was, "I lost again."
Everyone mocked her as a hopeless scrub who had never once beaten the Queen in a duel, but she was even more pathetically terrible at games than they had expected.
The believers speculated that watching other VTubers' streams had made her know too much for her own good and caused her to play worse... but judging by how well she watched opponents' attacks and blocked or dodged them in fighting and shooting games, she wasn't completely unskilled.
She was just bad.
For some reason, she was so bad at games that it almost seemed like she had a natural talent for it.
-Besides, she already gets scared of zombies and ghosts. Wasn't [Dark Ring] impossible for her to clear from the start?
Meanwhile, videos from the days when she actually turned on her stream and streamed herself watching other VTubers began resurfacing. The believers burst out laughing as they watched Wakamo shriek and crumple with screams even sharper than the VTubers' when grotesque, twisted monsters appeared.
New believers tracked down believers who had been watching since long ago, hounded them, and threatened them until they produced the videos. The old believers resisted, saying it was the newcomers' fault for not having watched them, and that they wouldn't hand over their treasures to latecomers. Some believers even went back to the fan cafe's very first post and scraped and licked their way through everything until they reached the bottom.
A video of Wakamo editing a VTuber's tearful reaction to an emotional game highlight, while sobbing just as miserably herself, became popular. Then, whenever another VTuber cried while playing the same game, the Fox God shed tears without exception and displayed her editing devotion, leaving the believers impressed in an entirely different way.
Isn't our mod way too emotional?
By the time Wakamo had become so immersed in VTubers' stories, concepts, and passion that she went beyond empathizing with them, her sensitivity was becoming a little excessive.
She was terrified of ghosts, and even when editing footage while knowing exactly when one would appear, she screamed like a chick every time it did.
She didn't just shed tears over the same highlight scenes she had already watched countless times; whenever that game's OST played, her sniffles and tearful voice would spill through the screen.
All of that was part of the Fox God's charm that captivated the believers... but Wakamo was wondering whether being a man who was so cowardly and tearful would count against her.
It no longer mattered now that she was a woman... although being a man wasn't necessarily a disadvantage.
It made it easy to banter with the viewers when she became the butt of their jokes.
To begin with, they tended to like intense reactions from streamers that hit them right in the gut. Of course, some people were uncomfortable when it went too far.
Those dopamine addicts were dying of delight over everything, from the Fox God's agonized screams to her crying like a child.
There was plenty of controversy over her rough language and curt attitude during editing and stock streams, but most of it was ultimately summarized as the believers' fault for failing to capitalize on information that could have earned them up to 20 billion won and wasting their time fooling around.
VTuber Fox God Wakamo Inarizushi, who had appeared on the internet like a comet.
Angry believers criticized her for doing viewer-participation streams without turning on her own broadcast, saying it would be more fun if she streamed too. In the end, though, the believers began to resemble the mod and demanded that the fan cafe create a VTuber promotion board. They got one made and started promoting their own oshis there.
In the middle of that, Wakamo once again didn't turn on her stream, went to watch someone after saying, "Thanks for the recommendation!" and caused one believer to suffer the minor incident of being pelted with stones.
On one peaceful day—her fifth day of streaming—Wakamo spent the day casually chatting and playing variety games, then announced to the viewers that she would prepare properly before climbing 『Floor 10』.
Most of the believers accepted that.
After all, she insisted that it was the latest metaverse virtual-reality Tower climb(?) and called it VTubing, but not a single believer believed her.
A [Large Monster] appears on Floor 10.
The best option was to join an association or guild, receive help from Climbers who had climbed ahead of her, or secure her safety with supplied equipment before attempting the floor, so the believers exchanged opinions on the message board about what choice the Fox God would make.
Then one believer suddenly remembered something and tossed out a question.
-Animaminus Shop Korea-exclusive Virtual Live collab. The mod said she was going. Is she really coming?
It was a huge event held only in Korea, to the point that Japanese fans visiting Korea for a trip were also flocking to attend.
Of course, it was only a gathering for VTuber fans... but it was a collab event for a VTuber with no less than two million subscribers, so even a fraction of them would create an enormous crowd.
And among all this was a VTuber who had wanted to attend for a long time, now lost in thought.
I want to stay alive until next year's festival. They had said the collab would be held next year too, but—for some reason, the schedule had suddenly been moved up.
Was it because nine 『Complete-Clear Floors』 had appeared? Wakamo didn't particularly care. Wasn't it better if it happened sooner?
But if there was a problem, it was that she had no way to get there.
The hard-earned [Idol Statue] had turned out to do little more than show [Illusions] when she tried using it. Illusions like making herself look much larger, for instance.
However, with it, clothes and disguises might be possible. The only problem was that becoming smaller than her current body was difficult.
"I guess I'll just shamelessly insist it's cosplay..."
Hadn't she already been prepared for things to turn out this way?
She carefully examined herself in the mirror from every angle, wondering what outfit would keep her from looking suspicious. Since [Mana Manipulation] was burdensome in so many ways, she used [Idol Statue] to alter only the appearance of her clothes. After trying all sorts of things, she somehow ended up with an outfit that wouldn't stand out too much.
It was the best of the ten, at least.
"I should buy a hat on the way."
"Everyone respects VTuber red pills, so it'll work out somehow."
Wakamo was so excited about the long-awaited collab that her already insufficient intelligence stat was hitting rock bottom.
Hadn't that immortal phoenix across the sea also boldly gone to a collab cafe? Who said she couldn't do the same...? She just had to avoid getting caught. If she insisted they had seen wrong—people... no, a fox—she could make it work somehow!!
Having steeled herself, Wakamo came out in front of the Incheon Tower and naturally blended into the crowd.
Since buying a hat right away was also a problem, she used [Idol Statue] to create one and kept it hidden until she picked up a suitable hat at a nearby shop and pulled it low over her head.
She wore a trench coat and a buttoned maxi dress. Even the black shoes matched her long, bare legs. She had carefully chosen the outfit from fashion magazines, paying attention to the VTuber's appearance.
She did wonder whether she was technically always naked, but she ignored it, pulled on the hat she had bought, and strode through the streets.
It wasn't as though she had done anything wrong! She could boldly face the problem head-on!!
"It's been an incredibly long time since I've come outside. I don't even have a home now, so should I buy a bunch of cola or something to take back when I go in...?"
After all, she didn't get tired, so there was no need for her to drink coffee.
With a sigh, she decided to buy several portable chargers because the smartphone battery she had saved even when her house burned down was dangerously low. She considered going to a PC cafe, but since she was taller than the people around her not by a head but by an entire torso, eyes were naturally drawn to her.
She even saw rude people taking pictures with cameras, making her sigh at the disappearance of respect for human rights and consideration for people's identities.
Why were they looking at her like a lion that had escaped from a zoo!!
"Hm...?"
With a harsh roar, she thought a bus was coming, but it turned out to be a massive container truck passing along the road. Admiring the enormous truck that looked like something from America, she felt the concentrated attention shift elsewhere and hurried toward the collab venue.
There were so many people heading in the same direction because it was Otaku Road that she had no chance of getting lost.
Some people were following her, too... but that was probably because she was so big, so she ignored them.
She decided to shamelessly ignore anyone who spoke to her and confidently joined the line amid the crowd.
'Wow, that's a hoodie from the kids' YouTuber Pekoyama. Did her mom make it by hand?'
A child in a cute bunny hood, clutching their mother's hand tightly, was speaking Japanese.
Even a child like that watched VTubers... The future really was bright, and Wakamo couldn't help smiling fondly.
At the same time, she began to worry because the event was popular enough for a mother and daughter to come all the way from Japan.
'More importantly, why is everyone staring so much.... Is a tall woman really that fascinating?'
She stood out because she rose above everyone else and felt even more eyes on her, but she folded her arms and ignored them. For some reason, a wave of gasps spread when she did so, but she ignored that too...
'【『Figma NO.777! Virtual Live 5th Festival Commemorative! Paradise's Guerrilla☆Explosive☆Bunny☆Pekoyama!』 Animaminus Shop Korea-exclusive [Limited Quantity & Handwritten Signature Included]】 is limited, so I probably can't buy it... The line is long too... But should I buy something that costs 400,000 won?'
For Wakamo, whether the figurine she wanted would still be in stock by the time she reached the front was more important than people's stares. She anxiously followed the shortening line, humming to herself as she thought about what to eat first once she got inside.
She failed to notice the heated gazes watching her.
How much time had passed? While watching a VTuber stream, she realized that far more people had gathered than expected.
A thunderous boom erupted from the direction of the Incheon Tower, black smoke billowed upward, and people's screams began to echo through the streets.
Was the Tower collapsing..? No, there were so many Climbers in the Incheon Tower that there was no way that could happen.
As the commotion grew and people anxiously wondered what was happening, emergency evacuation alerts arrived on everyone's phones at once.
Thud─
Then the ground shook. It was faint, but strong enough to feel.
The ominous premonition proved accurate. When she turned her head toward the sound, a gigantic monster poked its face out from beyond an alley across the street.
A Drake, one of the [Large Monsters] that appeared on Floor 22. The Tyrannosaurus-like monster walked down the road, drooling with eyes turned bright red, then turned its head toward the place where the crowd had gathered.
The screams of people thrown into a panic rang out, but a tremendous roar crashed over them, loud enough to drown out their cries.
Some people collapsed when their legs gave out, while others fainted because they couldn't endure it.
Even Wakamo was slow to understand what was happening, but she had a pretty good idea.
She briefly wondered whether it was the work of extremists who believed the Tower existed to judge humanity, since news reports had mentioned terrorist attacks by such people.
But that wasn't important!
The collab cafe was right behind her!!