Chapter 23
"This is bad!!"
A Climber on Floor 30 of the Incheon Tower screamed while watching Wakamo's stream.
Though his body was impaired and even moving was difficult, he frantically typed in chat as a nightmarish scene he could never forget was being recreated before his eyes.
That monster shouldn't be appearing on Floor 13 right now.
He quickly typed everything he knew about the [Under-dweller], desperately hoping she would see it.
Even now, the sight of his chest being pierced was still vivid.
He had belonged to a guild and climbed the Tower as a [Fighter] Class user, carrying a shield and following the tank path.
He had grown by following a Skill tree focused on enduring as much as possible despite his fear of monsters, protecting his body, and fighting to win.
Before entering Floor 30, where the [Under-dweller] he had learned about from the Incheon Tower's strategy information lived, he had prepared torches and, to preserve his life in case of emergency, carefully taken [Potions] and [Buffs] before setting out.
The surroundings brightened in an instant as he raised the torch in his hand.
The Under-dweller was known as a vicious monster that could detect a Climber's location by listening to their breathing and heartbeat, then pursue them relentlessly until exhaustion left them unable to move.
Though extremely tense, he searched his surroundings, wondering where it would come from, and never let down his guard.
He planned to block the ambush with his shield and counterattack immediately afterward.
He cast every defensive [Skill] he could use and waited for the enemy in a steadfast stance as immovable as a mountain, but unlike what he had expected, the Under-dweller in the darkness did not immediately attack.
It was cornering him after hearing his pounding heartbeat—a sign that he was tense and afraid.
He held his breath as much as possible, but with darkness all around him, he could not even tell which direction he was facing.
What was worse, the Under-dweller did not even make a sound as it moved. Making noise in the darkness was more fatal than anything else.
How much time had passed like that? Ten seconds? Or a minute? Perhaps even ten more minutes had passed.
Knowing the enemy was alone, he finally screamed in terror, "Come at me!!!"
Immediately afterward, he raised his shield to block the monster that sprang out, but its horribly cold claws tore through the shield, pierced his armor, and sank into his chest.
He was lucky simply to realize, while still alive, that this was the infamous [Heart Extraction].
Even though he had been prepared, he barely escaped death at the hands of the hunter that sprang silently from the darkness.
It had become a trauma. Although climbing the Tower could have helped him recover, he had given up climbing and continued living his life.
"She has such a clueless expression...!!"
Of course. It was only Floor 13.
Having been driven to the brink of death and experienced it himself, he struggled with PTSD rising from the oppressive darkness he could feel through the screen and frantically typed in chat, but.....
The other upper-floor Climbers, including him, soon realized that something was strange.
The Under-dweller was not reacting at all.
It was understandable that it made no footsteps.
Holding its breath was not impossible, either.
But what about its heartbeat?
Could the fox god smiling inside the screen and playfully saying, "VTubers don't exist in reality" even stop her own heart...?
"Haha.... Serves you right..."
Watching the [Under-dweller] standing there with its mouth hanging open in a stupid expression made his painful memories feel a little better.
The fox god laughed as if teasing it, pretended to put an arm around its shoulders, flashed a V-sign at the viewers, and eventually disappeared into the darkness.
Soon, the sound of something breaking rang out, followed by a horrifying scream.
That being probably never realized who had killed it, even until the very end.
Eventually, a hand emerged from the darkness and waved goodbye as the broadcast shut off... He staggered to his feet, drenched as though he had just taken a shower, and wiped his forehead with one hand. Even though he had only watched it through a screen, the fear was this intense.
Still, could this be called vicarious satisfaction?
"Nice...."
Wakamo did not know it, but her journey was giving solace to Climbers who had been defeated by monsters and abandoned climbing out of fear.
※※※
Wakamo Inarizushi was afraid that the Tower was showing her too much affection.
But in reality, Wakamo was suffering an enormous disadvantage because of her unique 『Legendary Class』.
Now, let us use our cute 『Hajime Ichigo』 as an example.
[Status Window]
[Climber: Yu Ying]
[Class: Lower Alchemist]
[Age: 17]
[Stats]
Vitality: 30
Mana: 50
Strength: 2
Agility: 17
Health: 3
Intelligence: 22
Wisdom: 5
Charm: 1
You may have noticed it already, but Climbers receive [Free Stats] as they climb higher.
They also receive bonuses based on how smoothly they cleared a floor.
Then there was our highly intelligent idiot.
Those believer-readers watching Wakamo Inarizushi's journey, who knew nothing but VTubers, would have understood just how much she was suffering by comparison.
Although she had achieved the unprecedented feat of clearing 『Complete-Clear Floors』, her Class came with surprisingly absurd disadvantages.
-Her only stat is Mana.
-If that Mana reaches 0, she dies.
-Her Mana stat does not increase when she climbs the Tower.
In practice, she had become a bizarre Class that required her to work hard outside the Tower as an idol to gather believers, then climb the Tower as an idol and gather even more idols while proving herself.
The Tower had given her the Class while thinking, Oh, so there is a job like this on Earth~. But since even the Tower did not understand it very well, it had looked inside Wakamo Inarizushi's head, gathered information, and provided Skills accordingly.
Thus, Wakamo thought, "Isn't my Class ridiculously overpowered?"
In reality, she may have been permitted to see [Floor-Clearing Information] precisely because it came with disadvantages of equal magnitude.
No matter how excellently she cleared a floor.... Wakamo received no bonus points.
The difficulty simply rose like crazy.
Since she had a non-combat Class, she was squeezing every bit of ability out of her Skills and overcoming things with the wisdom(?) of a VTuber.
She was voluntarily walking into an inferno-level difficulty setting.
A normal Tower clear awarded 3 points.
Clearing it without suffering any injuries awarded 5 points.
A Complete-Clear Floor awarded 10 points.
Stats should have been provided in that manner, but Wakamo had no stats to raise, so no points came to her. Instead, the Skills given as rewards received enhancements, but since they were non-combat VTuber Skills derived from being an idol, even her Class-exclusive Skills were based on information inside Wakamo's head, making them rather questionable.
Even when the Tower gave her idol-type Skills, Wakamo had to shave away the Mana sustaining her very existence to fight, so she was always fated to risk her life.
She was wasting Mana recklessly when she could barely spare any, so yes, Wakamo was an idiot.
She was so absurdly strong at the low end that even the Tower seemed to wonder whether she had any potential at the high end. It was a Class that was only strong in the early game. If one looked at it objectively, it might be worse than [Alchemist].
At this point, the believers did not know Wakamo was suffering a disadvantage, and Wakamo did not know it either.
At least she was somehow receiving commensurate rewards by stringing together 『Complete-Clear Floors』.
Even after thinking it over again, it was difficult to call it a good Class.
In terms of its potential, she might be able to obtain an enormous amount of Mana equal to the population of Earth.
Wakamo was fortunate to have built up her foundation, because if she had become a VTuber with few subscribers, this Class might have killed her suddenly within seconds for no apparent reason.
But perhaps the Tower was also at a loss in many ways.
It kept showing her [VTuber Skills] related to her Class while also steadily offering [Attack Skills] to the child who cried and threw tantrums about wanting one, but she refused to take them.
It showed her Skills that had appeared in advance, telling her to look them over and take them later if she had the spare capacity, but she snatched them up without even thinking.
Then she would sob bitterly, whining that she had no [Attack Skills], so what was the Tower supposed to do...?
Worse, although she had no [Attack Skills], she squeezed every bit of ability and wisdom out of the Skills she did have and somehow managed to obtain Complete-Clear Floors, leaving the Tower thinking, This bastard is genuinely incredible.
That was how the Tower came to understand her.
"Ah, she's an idiot because she's a beast."
Her earnest efforts were so pitiful that the Tower thoughtfully prepared rewards for her again today.
Still, thinking that she would eventually take an Attack Skill, it always kept the VTuber Skills available for her to choose at any time.
.....The only problem was that she was truly an idiot VTuber lover who moved according to her desires. Still, the kid was kind...
※※※
[Status Window]
[Climber: Wakamo Inarizushi]
[Class: VTuber]
[Age: 1,000]
[Stats]
Mana: 523,678
"You finally passed 500,000...."
Her subscriber count was increasing more slowly than expected... which simply meant that many people came by to watch whenever she started a broadcast, then left.
Would it increase a little if she asked the government to make everyone entering her Floor 1 subscribe...? She disliked the idea because it seemed a little selfish.
The condition was subscribing to a VTuber for one month, but viewers had the freedom to choose the VTuber they liked!! Dictatorship was not allowed!!
Yu Ying looked at her as though she were watching someone a little dimwitted and said, "Boss, couldn't you just tell them to subscwibe for a month and watch Boss's stweam...?" But that was greed, Yu Ying!!
But she was slowly reaching a crisis.
That was because the reward for clearing Floor 13 was completely incomprehensible.
[You have acquired the Artifact-grade item [Jiang Taigong's Fishing Rod]!]
[Jiang Taigong's Fishing Rod]
Grade: Artifact.
The straight hook pierces anything.
The fishing line is made of the owner's Mana.
Although it is made of bamboo, a divine artifact dwells within it.
The phrase [Taigong Fishing, Three Inches from the Water] is written on it.
It is the genuine article that was lost during the Zhou dynasty.
An Imperial Seal, a fan, and now a fishing rod?
What on earth did VTubing mean to the Tower? What did it think she was?
Was she supposed to use this bamboo to perform some supreme fishing technique..? It did look useful for beating things while keeping her distance.
When she grabbed it, thinking that the fishing line was made of her Mana, Mana immediately began leaking out of her again.
"If I run out of money later, I should display this in a museum and make some money."
"Boss. You don't know Jiang Taigong?"
Although Yu Ying had struggled to survive for ten years after the age of seven, she had learned some Chinese characters as a child and had gained wisdom by reading various things. There was no need to say more, since if she had been stupid, she could never have become an [Alchemist].
If it was a genuine article from the Zhou dynasty, and especially if it belonged to Jiang Taigong, then it must refer to the legendary Taigong Wang.....
'Ah! Boss must have received it from him personally!'
Then just how old was our Boss? She had lived so long that her brain had hardened.... Yu Ying resolved to make a poison that would soften her brain.
The truth was simply that Wakamo had no interest in history.
If China had had VTubers, she would have learned about it.
Yu Ying wanted to ask what Taigong Wang had really been like, but according to the legend(?), she had apparently been beaten by Taigong Wang and suffered because of him, so she decided not to ask in case it brought back unpleasant memories. Hadn't her friends said on stream that secrets made a woman beautiful?
Just respect...!
Yu Ying burned with determination to care for Boss even if she developed dementia, and with the motivation never to forget the kindness she had received.
If Wakamo learned the truth, she would have felt hurt and asked, What on earth do you think I am?
But there were many cases in which keeping one another's secrets made the world more beautiful.
"I think the Tower is trying to kill me. It keeps giving me [Elite Monsters] on every floor and dragging in monsters from higher floors. The rewards are trash, but the difficulty just keeps rising!"
"Isn't it because Boss is so stwong? Our Boss is invincible!"
"It would be easier if it just gave me an [Attack Skill]....."
"Isn't it because Boss doesn't choose them?"
"Your pronunciation just became incredibly precise, didn't it?"
"I can't tawk..."
Anyway, since they had climbed two floors, today's broadcast was a duo stream with Ichigo and Wakamo.
The problem was that when they spun the roulette, it landed on [Outlast : Trials], a co-op survival horror game.
To explain the game, it was a horror game where players solved assigned missions on a given stage while escaping pursuers.
"I don't wanna....."
-Why is the stream's energy like this the moment it startsㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-It's because this game is scary, ㅇㅇ...
-Isn't the host the scariest one...?
-Why are her droopy ears so cuteㅋㅋㅋ
-Those guys probably find the host even scarier...
The game began amid the viewers' teasing.
Ichigo and Wakamo stood at the entrance of a research facility, having been told to retrieve a [Vaccine] from inside, accompanied by ominous background music.
"Uuugh──"
"Eek!!!!"
"Whoa, Boss is scawed!!"
-Welcome, sweet happinessㅋㅋㅋ
-This is dopamine.
-No, how are you getting scared right from the startㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Why are they even afraid of zombies and ghostsㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Isn't it because they can't play the game...?
-Maybe she was terribly tormented by a Changgui...
The VTuber model shown on the screen already had tears streaming down its face, its ears drooping as it muttered, "I don't wanna, I don't wanna, I'm scared..." like a mantra.
"Boss, we have to wowk. Get up."
"Sob sob... sniff..... hic..."
-No, why is she actually crying.... Don't hurt her feelings.
-What are you doing, Ichigo? Push the host inside.
-We're going to lock the crying fox god in a horror game~
-The young breadwinner Ichigo is having a hard life today too.
-She's saying she'll protect her with a brick, but is this really okay...?
-The burden of being a breadwinner is too much for a seventeen-year-old girl.
On Ichigo's utterly calm screen, a zombie suddenly sprang out when she opened the door. She smashed its head with a brick at an astonishing speed, then entered the darkness without even turning on her flashlight, closed her eyes, and quietly listened.
"Sob... sniff... sob..."
"Boss, don't hit me.... Please be quiet...."
"Don't leave me... whimper..."
"Boss, Boss! Don't shake me! I'm dizzy!!!"
Perhaps because she was right beside her, when Wakamo grabbed Ichigo by the shoulders and shook her, Ichigo's character on the screen lurched wildly from side to side.
-Even a gentle shake is a whole amusement ride....
-Can you even hide behind Ichigo?? Is hiding meaningful at all??
-Meanwhile, the host fuckingㅋㅋㅋㅋ She somehow hid in a trash canㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-No, play the damn gameㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-I told you, hitting them with a brick kills them??? Pick up the brick!!
Because she had used a mod that fully implemented the VTuber characters, Wakamo's character stuck out even when she hid in the trash can, making her responsible for the comedy explosion on Ichigo's screen.
-The trash can hid inside Wakamo!
-It accepts even us losers, so a trash can is no problemㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-The trash can can't hide youㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
"I said don't come near me──!!!!"
Wakamo was so terrified that she panicked and could not hit anything even when she threw bricks. In the end, a zombie caught her, mauled her, and left her lying cold on the floor.
"The floor... is warm....."
-Look at the VTuber stand-in Ichigo running the moment the boss dies.
-"I'll save her!!"
-True love, running to save her boss even in hell...
-The polar bear is checking whether it is allowed to cry.
-Aha! This isn't love; it's an owner taking a large dog for a walk!
-She really seems like she'd be impossible to control.
-Shouldn't you put a muzzle on her?
Lying there and only rolling her eyes around, Wakamo minimized the game and finally started watching a VTuber stream. While the believers sighed, Ichigo desperately struggled to find the vaccine in a darkness where not a single ray of light could be seen.
Keeping her health precariously above the point of death, maintaining her distance, avoiding enemies, and hiding her body... Ichigo showed the expert movements of someone whose survival know-how had been ingrained in her body, earning a flood of praise from her friends.
-The host's existence is already completely forgotten.
-"I'll hurry because Boss is scared."
-That bastard is watching another broadcast when he should be praising her for working so hard....
-And in the middle of it, did someone really clip the highlight from Ichigo's collab and upload it?
-How can she multitask like this but not start the generator?
-The host is a beast, so she doesn't know anything about electricity.
-Ahㅋㅋㅋ Lightning is nature's wrathㅋㅋㅋ
"Don't bully my Boss! Leave her alone!!"
Unable to start the generator, unable to find the vaccine, and even losing her way while avoiding zombies, Wakamo was utterly useless, doing nothing but scream all the time. Ichigo came running to save her.
Rescuing someone in this game was rare enough already, and actually doing so required truly filthy amounts of effort.
Even so, Ichigo charged into the zombies with a pistol that had only a few bullets left.
She swung her head wildly and erratically, threw bricks and empty bottles to knock down the zombies on either side, and annihilated them with unbelievable aim so precise it seemed as though she had killed them all almost simultaneously.
-It is too soon to die.
-Something that small couldn't possibly have Bankai.
-Slashes driven in at an invisible speed.
-This is the American style.
-Just an idiot who knows nothing but her boss...
-You have to look after the homeowner!!!
-Does our Ichigo even know what a white-collar company is...?
"Hiek, hiek.... Boss, I did it!"
-Her tongue is getting even more tangled because she's tired....
-Woo woo, Hassan worked hard, Boss....
-Do we really need to save the bastard clipping another stream while they're doing a horror-game collab?
-Dying was part of the strategy. We lost the battle, but we didn't lose the war.
-So this is the sorrow of a working adult....
-Krrgh.. get corporate golf out of my head!!!
"You really killed all the zombies? Really?"
"Yesh!"
Only after everything was over did Wakamo proudly stand up, saying, "Then shall we go get the vaccine?"
What the two of them did not know was that the moment they obtained the vaccine and tried to escape, the zombies would respawn.
"Ueeeee!!!!"
Displaying truly insane control, Wakamo watched the zombies' movements with her eyes and demonstrated what agile evasion meant as she fled like the wind.
"Ugyah!"
Ichigo, who had fallen behind, was surrounded by zombies and helplessly bitten before collapsing on the floor.
"B-Boss..."
The believers firmly believed that Wakamo would, of course, go back to save her. Hadn't the host loved VTubers more than anything?
"Goodbye, Ichigo. I will never forget your sacrifice."
-I knew I wasn't wrong...
-You fucking bitchㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Is this really a discard-the-hound-after-catching-the-rabbit ending? Is this really the ending!!!!
-Ichigo is happy as long as Boss survives.... Is this really okay, fuck???
-Die, host!! How can you abandon a child once she's no longer useful!!!
-You said you loved VTubers!! You said you loved them!!!
-Abandon Unit 1!! You can just find another VTuber!!!
-What a genuinely trashy ideaㅋㅋㅋ
Wakamo snatched the vaccine at the end and escaped alone, even giving a thumbs-up as she thoroughly enjoyed the believers pelting her with stones.
Ichigo was left alone after Wakamo fled, saying that she really, really hated horror games.
The viewers who came rushing in to comfort her after she had worked so hard fired donation after donation filled with words of consolation.
Watching this, Ichigo was moved, thinking, Our Boss really had a plan to help me earn money.
The reality was simply that Wakamo had been genuinely scared, abandoned her, and cleared the game.
Everyone already knew that the host was afraid of horror, but even newcomers were astonished by how much of a coward she was, and a post teasing her became the new hot topic in the community.
The host's broadcast seemed to be sailing along without any problems like this.
That was, until a 『Complete-Clear Floor』 by another Climber suddenly appeared from an upper floor without warning.