The Chinese Man Who Came to Kill a VTuber

As always, as she ended the broadcast, Wakamo was considering a future in which she had advanced another step as a VTuber.

There was no way she could keep streaming like this forever. Her income had increased thanks to the Complete-Clear Floors, and she needed to give Yu Ying the money that came with it while also investing in the VTuber industry(?).

Doing things limited to games that allowed VTuber models to be added as mods, like today, would be fun too.

But it probably wouldn't hit home as much as the Tower-climbing content that viewers teased as real-life online VTubing.

To be honest, some might say there wasn't much difference from taking the red pill, so why not just do it shamelessly?

"But that's wrong!! That's not being a VTuber!!! Don't mock all the workers who are putting in the effort!!"

Who is this blockhead even angry at?

From the position of someone investing in VTubers, she had become a VTuber herself. In that case, she needed to buy all kinds of equipment right away, but if she was going to buy it anyway, she wanted to build the 【studio】 itself.

Since the Climber Association was helping, staffing wouldn't be a problem──but in the end, money was needed to get the best equipment.

She also needed money for people to rig the 3D avatar so it could support motion, facial, and eye-tracking integration.

She had to get Vive Trackers too. Fortunately, Wakamo's arms and legs were slender, so that wasn't a problem. She also needed a studio with a motion-capture room and motion-capture cameras.

What about [My Worlds]? It would be fine if it expanded later, but since Wakamo supplied the power, she had to consider mana consumption.

She couldn't exactly put a generator in there.

What if Wakamo died of depleted mana in the middle of an exciting 3D live concert and Ichigo's performance was ruined?

She wouldn't be able to close her eyes even in death.

Anyway, as always, while she was grumbling about why the reward for clearing Floor 13 was such garbage─a message that should never have been heard rang out.

She couldn't stay holed up inside [My Worlds] forever, so she had come out to feed Yu Ying a hamburger and was looking at what might appear on Floor 14, wondering whether there was any point in doing so.

[Incheon Tower Floor 15 has achieved its Platinum conditions and is being opened to all of humanity!!]

"....Huh?"

Wakamo pricked up her ears and expressed her disbelief. ──No, come to think of it, she had not considered enough that the leader climbing ahead might be the one to achieve a 『Complete-Clear Floor』 first.

If that happened, how would ownership be divided? Wakamo tilted her head.

She wasn't greedy enough to tell Manager Won Da-hye how she viewed it, but she had vaguely mentioned that it could be achieved by taking as little damage as possible while defeating it.

"The Tower takes the Climber's class into account, you see. I don't know what your class is, Lady Wakamo, but the conditions will probably differ in detail for each Climber."

Wakamo had a [Non-Combat Class] that seemed to be near the bottom even among Legendary Classes. No matter how hard she climbed the Tower, her stats rose independently of the Tower, and she would eventually reach a decisive limit... In many ways, it was a class with fewer advantages than other Climbers.

But conversely, that was precisely why the difficulty on the lowest floors was practically spoon-feeding her.

"As you can see, the monsters listed in the Incheon Tower information are classified according to average standards... If you look at the information on the upper floors, you can see that they're divided into these categories, right? The conditions aren't absolutely identical for every class."

"Oh, really?"

Anyway, that was how it was. Recalling that time, Wakamo figured that whoever the Climber was, they must have succeeded.

There were many people targeting Complete-Clear Floors because they offered better rewards, but Manager Won Da-hye had advised her to take good care of herself because overseas had gone into an uproar over the information that clearing them consecutively provided an entirely new floor.

Apparently all kinds of things were arriving in her inbox, but the manager was handling everything and had told her not even to think about opening it.

Even so, she was accepting requests from VTubers for Wakamo's sake.

While watching Yu Ying focus on eating a hamburger with both hands, Wakamo wiped the corners of her mouth with a tissue. Then her phone rang. There was only one person who would call her, so she answered, worried about what her manager wanted.

An absurd story she never could have imagined began to come through the phone.

"The person who cleared Floor 15 is Chinese?"

※※※

"It seems [The Collector] did a good job as planned."

"......"

"Do you suspect that I'm out of my mind right now? It probably looks like I'm following your orders because you're threatening me with your safety."

"N-no, sir."

"I am the President."

In the inner room of the Blue House residence, the President sat with the curtains drawn over the windows, holding his breath, and turned to look at the young lawmaker watching him. He was the supreme leader guiding this country. No, he had to be the supreme leader. But what was he like now, especially compared to the previous president?

Wasn't the Association president, the leader of that barbaric tribe called Climbers, effectively the real power who had seized the country's authority?

From the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Chief Justice to the other ministers, everyone was watching the Association president's mood rather than his.

He was unquestionably Korea's greatest Climber, having saved South Korea from the brink of destruction and conquered three Towers. But now that Climbers were beginning to increase, all he looked like to the President was an eyesore who had gained power and acted as though he were king.

The young lawmaker thought privately that the old man had completely lost his mind and condemned him for attempting something beneficial to no one.... But his own survival came first, so he obeyed quietly, lamenting his position.

"At least, aside from the Prime Minister, there isn't anyone who follows me."

Slowly drinking the tea on the table, he wanted to rebuild South Korea, which had fewer Climbers and less influence than other countries overseas, with everything he had. He had become President because he wanted to leave his mark in history as a great man.

"Everyone's been bewitched by a mad fox."

Watching footage of the Fox God, Wakamo Inarizushi, brutally massacring goblins, the President trembled in fear. He could not believe that being had lost its power, and even if it was true, that was a problem.

What if she regained the power of her prime later? What if she tried to swallow the country whole and make it hers?

Wasn't there even a story that her true identity was the White-Faced Golden-Haired Nine-Tailed Fox─Daji, the wicked beauty who had brought down several countries?

"I'm only doing my best for the country!!"

The Association president was defending her, but he was asking America and Japan, as well as Russia and China, to cooperate in somehow killing the monster that could not even be called a Climber, for Korea's future.

Moreover, hadn't this being given the Association president even greater power!

'Isn't it just because she won't take his side....?'

The young lawmaker responded to the President's impassioned outpouring of patriotism and speech, delivered with enough fervor to make him forget his age, with the three-part sycophancy of pretending not to hear, remaining silent, and saying, "Excellent."

But wasn't he really insane...?

Giving this information to a Climber known to the public as a terrorist called [Six Great Evils]?

'He really is completely insane...'

The Tower occasionally gives truly unexpected things as rewards. The overseas 100-floor Tower sometimes provides information in advance about another 100-floor Tower. Regardless of one's class, if one possesses an item containing that information, the floor may even be structured according to it.

And sometimes a paper describing a strategy appears too─an item called 『Incheon Floor 15 Strategy』 had also emerged in China.

It was one of the items [The Collector] was known to have displayed.

Therefore─the Climber who had just cleared Floor 15 was one of the Collector's followers.

'What kind of President helps an assassin get inside....'

In other words, an assassin who had come from China to target Wakamo Inarizushi.

※※※

"The Climber's name is Zhou Yutong. He probably abandoned and reset his Tower climb, then climbed Incheon Tower."

The moment someone enters a Tower and achieves an achievement, their name is forcibly revealed, so there was no way to hide it.

In an age like this, identifying someone's nationality from their name alone was difficult, but this time they had a confirmed identity.

"Can it happen this quickly?"

"There is a way to make it happen quickly, you know? He's one of [The Collector]'s followers. Sigh... It seems he's staying inside the Tower."

"Is there any way to find him if he comes out...?"

To be blunt, it was more accurate to say there wasn't. They could only ask guilds for assistance, including CCTV access, search the Incheon area, and hope he used Tower Exit to emerge somewhere. They didn't even know where he had entered the Tower, and if it was near the Seoul boundary, the problem would become even more troublesome.

"But the Tower's floors are separated from one another anyway, aren't they? So does it matter?"

"....I didn't explain because this shouldn't happen... but there was once a case where owners of 『Complete-Clear Floors』 happened to encounter each other. While climbing the Tower, at that. Strange already, right? The owner on the lower floor said the Tower asked whether they wanted to fight over 『Floor Robbery』."

"No way...?"

"It means Climbers who possess 『Complete-Clear Floors』 in the same Tower can fight over ownership. We didn't learn what the conditions were, but he thought he couldn't defeat the Climber two floors above him, so he handed it over and ended things peacefully. This won't be that kind of case, will it?"

An assassin from China was going to try to kill Wakamo Inarizushi.

It was not yet clear whether the assassin's goal was to demand the transfer of the Complete-Clear Floor or something else.

That was because [The Collector] remained silent and was doing nothing. They had to consider that the previous terrorist attack might have been a diversion to bring the assassin into Incheon.

"........"

Of all places, China?

Listening to Manager Won Da-hye, Wakamo thought of China's abuses(?) toward VTubers and its cyberbullying terrorism against VTubers.

How many VTubers and companies had suffered because of China? The same was true of China's own VTubers.

The sorrow of having the red pill forcibly revealed. The miserable state of becoming objects of ridicule.

She had only wanted to be content with a life of climbing the Tower and streaming while enjoying the profession of VTubing.... But perhaps the Tower had given her this power for her sake. For the sake of VTubers.

"I have to protect them...."

If the Tower heard that, it would be horrified and think, This one's seriously insane, and if Manager Won Da-hye knew Wakamo's true intentions, she might say, She's a lunatic....

From now on, no matter what and forevermore, Wakamo would always support VTubers.

After climbing the Tower and streaming as a VTuber, she would use her power for VTubers too.

Was she really going to have no choice but to use force?

'As expected, she isn't afraid at all.'

And because Manager Won Da-hye misunderstood Wakamo to that extent, she wasn't particularly surprised that Wakamo could remain so calm(?) and impassive even while being told about an assassin who had come to kill her.

They lived on entirely different timescales!! How many people had come seeking to eliminate and hunt down an existence like Wakamo?

There were stories that she was Daji or the White-Faced Golden-Haired Nine-Tailed Fox, but Manager Won Da-hye did not believe them.

Even if that were true.... Was there any proof that the records of the past were actually historical fact?

"Are you going? If you need any support from us, we'll provide as much as you need."

"Then the VTuber studio.... It will require an enormous sum of money."

"....Understood."

What composure!! She didn't even consider an assassin worth worrying about!!

She was going to fight an opponent who might be armed with all kinds of high-grade items handed over by [The Collector], yet she said she needed nothing.

In reality, Wakamo had only thrown out what she considered an unreasonable request because they had said they would do anything for her and it seemed like a good opportunity.

"But can I stream this too?"

"Pardon? Um.... Let's record it and edit it...?"

They decided to post an announcement asking the believers to understand that she couldn't livestream.

Since an assassin had come to Floor 15, wouldn't it be a little cruel to watch that live?

The believers were dumbfounded by the absurd announcement, but they were left speechless by Wakamo's mentality for writing it like that.

This VTuber... doesn't even consider for a moment that she might die!!

※※※

[Incheon Tower Floor 14 has achieved its Platinum conditions and is being opened to all of humanity!!]

[Rewards have increased due to the Tower Platinum clear]

"Whew, that was brutally hard."

[Status Window]

[Climber: Wakamo Inarizushi]

[Class: VTuber]

[Age: 1,000 years old]

[Stats]

Mana: 12,574

[You are climbing in the Incheon Tower Floor 14 World]

-[Wakamo Inarizushi] The difficulty increases according to the Climber's achievements!

-[Elite Monster] Overcome it!

-[Violent Guillotine Taurus] Defeat it.

[Platinum Achievement Conditions]

-[Violent Guillotine Taurus] Do not take damage from it (1/1)

-[Violent Guillotine Taurus] Destroy its guillotine (1/1)

-[Violent Guillotine Taurus] Defeat it (1/1)

To be honest, it had been so close that she wondered what kind of monster it was.

She had wanted to conserve consumables as much as possible, but how much mana had she spent beating it down?

On top of that, having her fingers and arms chopped off by the guillotine. There had been more than one thing to make her recoil in horror.

It was time to rethink using taekwondo against monsters larger than her.

Was she finally reaching the limits of her class? Was it getting a little tough?

[[Video Recording] Skill gains the [Summon Additional Camera] function]

[[Mana Manipulation] Skill gains the [Increased Mana Efficiency] function]

[[My Worlds] Skill is upgraded to [Large Full-Option Two-Room Size]]

The number of registerable assets for [VTuber Assets] increases.

"It's underwhelming."

It seemed the reward had been packed to the brim and had strengthened several Skills all at once, but there was still no [Attack Skill] among them. She was a little worried──but her opponent didn't understand her, did they? She planned to exploit that blind spot and win by striking an opening.

Besides, wouldn't assassins be coming after her often in the future?

She was always with Yu Ying, so there was no need to worry about kidnapping, and she contacted the manager whenever she went out to ensure safety. The base where they lived was always moving according to Wakamo, and if necessary, it was fine to continue entering the Tower, going home, and resting the way they had before.

She had never seen a Tower-clear condition with a time limit, after all.

"Shall we go?"

When she tried to climb to Floor 15, the Tower asked Wakamo whether she would fight over 『Floor Robbery』 for the Complete-Clear Floor.

──Was this the Floor 15 where an assassin was waiting?

To be honest, she could say she was more afraid than she had expected.

But VTubers had to endure invisible antis and trolls rampaging behind the masks of fans.

Compared to that, there was only one assassin coming to kill her!!

There was no need even to put them on a scale and compare their weights!

Compared to a stalker who pursued her relentlessly, an insignificant assassin she could beat to death with her own hands was nothing.

"I won't run from a fight that comes to me─!!!"

[You are climbing in the Incheon Tower Floor 15 World]

『Complete-Clear Floor』 owners will duel over 『Floor Robbery』.

Determine the winner without needing to take each other's lives.

Upon defeat, ownership of the 『Complete-Clear Floor』 you possess will disappear.

A window appeared the moment she entered Floor 15. This time, it seemed visible to the opponent too.

The Climber climbing the higher floor would gain everything on the lower floor!!

It was a terrifying penalty imposed by a Tower whose only goal was climbing upward.

But that was always how struggles worked. The loser lost everything.

VTubers who worked hard streaming and nurturing their dreams were tormented simply because someone disliked them, sometimes for no reason at all, while their personal lives were dug up and nonexistent rumors spread.

Yet the most vicious thing of all was none other than stream terrorism. Was there anything more painful for VTubers who streamed than cyberbullying?

"Wakamo Inarizushi!! Our master wants the [Heirloom Seal of the Realm] you possess!! Hand it over obediently and withdraw!!"

"That's what you're after? Then─there would have been a smarter way to do this. Insisting on doing it like this means.... You want to take away what someone else achieved, don't you?"

"Our master has great ambitions. It is only natural that this weak country should become part of our great nation. Isn't that what our countless years of history tell us? You, a monster who has lived that long, should know that."

"What, you want a unified China?"

"Unify the realm!!"

As if any further words were meaningless, the assassin Zhou Yutong drew his weapon.

"What a loyal subject you are!!"

She was looking at the sword being drawn from his waist, but─unfortunately, even Wakamo could not tell what kind of item it was.

What was the opponent's class? Judging by the light armor he wore and the shield clutched in his other hand, he seemed to be in the [Fighter] family. But she also had to consider that it could be a disguise.

From his helmet down to his shoes, belt, necklace, and even the rings on his fingers.

She had no idea how much equipment he was armed with, but she could tell one thing: he overestimated himself.

"[Dance of Blades]!!"

A ring flashed. Wakamo knocked away the blade flying at her with the edge of her hand, sending it ricocheting, but it had definitely shot out of the ring. What category of item was something like that? As the deflected blade struck the floor, nine more blades shot out simultaneously.

Could all ten rings possibly be the same item?

Without time to be flustered by the incomprehensible choice, the camera she had floating showed blades rising on their own.

She jumped sideways to evade the ambush flying for her back, but its trajectory bent with perfect precision and shot at Wakamo.

"[Guaranteed Slash]!"

Just as though it had been waiting for the moment Wakamo lifted her foot, he swung his sword from a distance of about 5M, and one of Wakamo's legs was severed with a sawing sound following the blade's path.

There was no leg where she was supposed to land, so her balance collapsed on its own.

"Even if poison doesn't work on you, you're still a beast! If your vital point is pierced, you die!"

The confident assassin shouted. The necklace emitted light, and the floating blades accelerated even further, embedding themselves densely throughout Wakamo's body before she had time to react. Yet she tried to stand on one leg despite the blades lodged in her body.

"[Shukuchi]─[Underhanded Ambush]!"

With a movement that ignored physical laws and sharply closed the distance in a single sliding step, a blade sprang from the object that had looked like a shield, spun, pierced Wakamo's neck, and dug deeply into half her face.

Blood then sprayed out, enough to spatter the assassin's face.

"Heh."

He had lost his stats due to the Tower reset, but had replaced every Skill he acquired while climbing the Tower with ones intended for fighting people, using the various items he had received from [The Collector] to overwhelm opponents, deceiving them until the end and piercing their vital points to kill them.

"Tastes like pig's blood."

The skilled assassin, who had killed many Climbers this way, wiped the blood from his face and looked down at his work.

A blade was deeply embedded diagonally across her face, nine blades were lodged in her body, and one leg had been severed.

He had pierced through both her heart and head, so there was no need even to check whether she was alive.

"It doesn't matter even if I left the [Heirloom Seal of the Realm] behind."

The assassin, who had even carefully prepared a scroll enchanted with magic for [Robbery], was preparing to use it on the corpse and rejoiced that no one could stop [The Collector]'s grand plan.

Since he had become the owner of the 『Complete-Clear Floor』 with the greatest influence in Korea, he couldn't stop smiling at the thought that he could now rise even to a high position.

He would be able to escape the life of infiltrating countries and killing Climbers while never knowing when he might lose his own life.

As he smiled like that, he sensed something strange before tearing the scroll.

The sharp intuition he had honed as an assassin screamed to save him.

"I don't like what you did. But facing me head-on despite being an assassin? I like your honesty. You must have been that confident, huh?"

A slender hand gripped both of the assassin's wrists.

Then, with a loud crack!!, his hands were crushed and snapped, hanging limply.

He desperately tried to put distance between them, but the severed leg flew in from behind and kicked him in the chin, making him stagger and roll across the floor as strength drained from his entire body.

"Wh...what..."

Wakamo, who had risen, was casually pulling the blade embedded in her face free.

Soon, the blades embedded in her body were pushed out on their own and dropped with clinks.

"I guess the smell of pig's blood gives it away?"

Dozens of empty blood packets dropped with a plop into the hole in her stomach.

"...Fake blood...?"

The assassin's face turned pale when he saw her severed leg reattach perfectly after she put it back in place.

But even with both arms smashed, he was a professional; he struck his breast pocket hard enough to shatter the potion bottle inside and began treating his arms.

However, the momentum had already shifted toward Wakamo.

Besides, what could be more incompetent than an assassin who had been frightened by his opponent?

"I admire that you came alone and faced me head-on despite being an assassin. In recognition of that... I, too, as a Duelist, shall humor you in a duel!!"

A Duel Disk sprang into her hand with a click.

The assassin stiffened for a moment at the sight of it unfolding with a snap and a sweep amid unnecessarily flashy mechanical sounds.

"You have challenged me, the greatest Duelist in the world─!!"

"What..??"

"The Tower already declared the duel's opening! My turn!!"

Without giving him time to collect himself, Wakamo spouted nonsense(?)—or rather, fox noises—and drew a card from her Virtual Live TCG game collection.

A card of the highest rarity. Wakamo's treasure, safely encased in a card protector!

"I summon the Alternative Yakuza Dragon!!"

It was as if she meant to show what a duel without rules(?) looked like in a Tower without rules.

"Kwaaaar!!!"

Along with the character card being placed on the Duel Disk, a gigantic dragon burst out behind Wakamo in blinding light and looked down at the assassin with an overwhelming presence.

"I don't particularly hold a grudge. But I have no good memories of Chinese people who try to kill VTubers!! This is the Chairman's revenge!! 『Dragon Fire』!!"

A direct attack with no concept of turns!!

The assassin hurriedly spread a barrier to protect himself from the tremendous flames the dragon spewed with its jaws wide open─then belatedly realized there was no impact at all, but Wakamo had already closed the distance.

"Tower Exi─!!"

Just before the assassin could declare his exit and flee, a card depicting a beautiful girl dragon was driven into his mouth.

"A card infused with mana should hurt..."

The card she threw was real. She had infused it with no less than 200,000 mana and thrown it using [Mana Manipulation].

Then Wakamo's fist slammed into the assassin's face.

The blow had enough force to crumple his helmet, shatter his teeth, and knock them out.

Wakamo caught the assassin's legs as he floated up like a balloon from that blow.

"You scratched my rare card!!!"

She slammed him into the ground with all her strength, and the assassin, hurled back up by the impact, writhed as he spewed blood and screamed in pain.

Watching the assassin's limbs flail freely as he hung there, unable even to close his jaw, Wakamo raised the card she had recovered during the attack and struck a pose.

"Gotcha."

Throwing away the card protector stained with blood, Wakamo checked the card's condition, then put on a new protector and smiled at the card she had reinforced by infusing it with a full 200,000 mana.

"That was a good duel."

Colorful fireworks exploded in the sky above Floor 15 as if celebrating Wakamo's victory.

As Wakamo filmed it, wondering whether this was something the Tower did too, she rubbed her chin and considered how and where to edit it.

Would a concept like an immortal monster that never dies be kind of okay too?

With those small concerns, she took the assassin with her and exited using [Tower Exit].