Chapter 27
"Gasp.. gasp...."
[Arizona Tower Floor 11 has achieved its Platinum conditions and is being opened to all of humanity!!]
"Seriously...?"
The [Summoner]-class Climber was panting, unable to believe the achievement they had accomplished.
The climber had only heard about it through rumors and watched others do it from afar, so how had they achieved it themselves...? But at the same time, didn't that mean they would eventually have to fight the owner of a Complete-Clear Floor on an upper floor once they climbed high enough?
It was a distant concern, but they could not help sighing. At least, the silver lining was that only ownership of the floor could be taken from them.
The achievement and rewards they had earned would belong entirely to the Climber, so there was no need to worry about them being stolen.
They swallowed nervously, stroked their [Gray Wolf] and [Black Hawk], and wondered what incredible rewards would pour forth.
[Rewards have increased due to the Tower Platinum clear]
[The Climber has been awarded 10 additional stat points]
[You have received the Rare item [Summon-Exclusive Armor (No Species Restriction)]!]
[You have received the Rare item [Ring of Bonds]! ]
[You have received the Rare item [3 Potions of Summon Growth]!]
[Based on the achievement, you have acquired the [Summoner] Class Passive Skill [Owl's Eye]]
[Choose 1 reward]
"This is insane!!"
They could not help exclaiming in admiration. The American [Summoner] Climber finally understood why people who had tasted this even once would reset their Towers and climb them all over again.
If this was what the bottom floors gave, then just how incredible would the rewards from the middle and upper floors be...?
Simply achieving one created an overwhelming gap between oneself and other Climbers.
As if rewards this generous were not enough, the Tower even offered [Reward Choices] that let the Climber choose not only [Skills] and [Equipment], but also a [Summon].
They could not help feeling relieved that even if they encountered a Climber from an upper floor while climbing and handed over this Complete-Clear Floor, they would not lose these rewards.
"....I hear there's a crazy Climber in Korea who clears these consecutively. They must be unbelievably strong compared to someone like me."
Their joy and excitement lasted only a moment. They remembered that across the ocean, in that small country, there was a supernova Climber who had recorded ten consecutive Complete-Clear Floors. Apparently, the American Climber Association was paying close attention, and even the President was interested?
They had heard that the climber was not even human... Perhaps this really was the mysterious East.
"This so-called mystery of the East is ridiculous."
The [Summoner] Climber seemed to be misunderstanding something, but as a member of the [Combat Class] category, they had succeeded in conquering the floor through their own efforts.
If they could see floor information like Wakamo, it would have been displayed like this.
[You are climbing in the Arizona Tower Floor 11 World]
-Work together with your summons to hunt the [Axe-Handle Hound]. You will need to watch out for its ax blade.
[Platinum Achievement Conditions]
-[Axe-Handle Hound] Do not take damage from it (1/1)
-[Axe-Handle Hound] Do not run away from it (1/1)
-[Axe-Handle Hound] Use only Class Skills against it (1/1)
-[Axe-Handle Hound] Do not use consumables against it (1/1)
-Do not lose any [Summons] to the [Axe-Handle Hound] (2/2)
-Destroy the [Axe-Handle Hound]'s head axe (1/1)
-Defeat the [Axe-Handle Hound] within 5 minutes (4:57)
The checklist-like conditions given to a lower-floor [Combat Class] user... But in hindsight, they were not much different from telling them to use only the power given to them, stand their ground without retreating, and defeat the enemy. In a way, they were incredibly generous conditions that seemed easy to achieve.
The American Climber Association spared no expense in providing every kind of support to all Tower Climbers.
The [Summoner] had climbed up after forgetting that all the consumables had been used on the previous floor; it would not be an exaggeration to say that America invested in its Climbers enough for them to clear it.
They wanted to secure resources, of course, but the Climbers were also idolized and, for political reasons, each possessed strength comparable to an army. America wanted to keep them under complete control.
America had once suffered tremendous losses because of the 『Legendary Class』 known as [Man Eater], so the treatment of unregistered Climbers was effectively shoot-on-sight. Whether they liked it or not, American Climbers had no option to refuse registering their identities with the Association.
Of course, their Classes were respected.
Even if they did not reveal their Classes, the weapons they rented would give them away, so it made little difference.
Because there were Climber terrorists like [Six Great Evils], America paid exceptional Climbers a great deal of attention for many different reasons. And there was no need to say who the Climber they were most interested in lately was....
Returning to the subject.
The Tower provided Climbers who achieved such splendid accomplishments with jaw-droppingly generous rewards. It also raised the Tower's difficulty to a level befitting those rewards.
That was why the Tower paid attention to the idol who, despite these unfair rewards and unequal treatment, squeezed every ounce of wisdom from what she had and continued climbing.
It would be understandable if she slowly climbed while gathering believers outside and growing stronger as an idol.
But this idiot was living like a beast, to the point that it was questionable whether she had once been human at all.
The Tower had to give her rewards. It was showering her with 『Artifact-grade』 items from human history worthy of an 『Idol』, but even those had difficulty straying far from the realm of 『Idol (VTuber)』, so it had begun giving her increasingly bizarre objects.
The floors were too low to give her anything excessive, yet her achievements were too great to give her nothing.
Wakamo was climbing while receiving only about 30% of the rewards for her accumulated achievements compared to others, with the difficulty raised by 300%.
The Tower could only prepare [Attack Skills] for that Climber while simultaneously preparing [Idol (VTuber) Skills] and 【Class-Exclusive Skills】.
The rewards Wakamo had not received were steadily piling up.
It would be fair to say that they would explode in an unimaginable form before long.
※※※
[Author : ㅇㅇ]
[Title : Let's Watch the Broadcast She Showed Us Yesterday]
(Ichigo sleeping inside her tail)
This is welfare... This is hope.
Sob sob... Please accept a new recruit into the company already....
The fan dance was insane, and so were the gayageum, haegeum, and danso performances.
I bet she's good at pansori too.
I want to be held in Mama's arms too...!!
The maternal love I've been searching for is on the other side of the screen!!!!
-Don't you know that guys have a hard time becoming VTubers?
ㄴHaha; I'm a woman.
ㄴI sent you a DM.
ㄴAh, fuck, you crazy bastards.
ㄴI'm a woman too! (jiggle).
-But with the boss promoting her equipment and the studio too... she's really a corporation now...
-Growing this quickly from a clipper is a talent in itself.
-There are even YouTubers analyzing the boss's performances.
ㄴ"A skill level closer to a hobby than something that can be called professional."
ㄴTMI) The boss said there isn't an instrument she can't play.
ㄴIf you've lived for about 1,000 years, you could probably try every instrument as a hobbyㅋㅋㅋ
-Wow, but what is this part that got cut from the video?
ㄴAh.... You didn't see it yesterday?
ㄴNope!
ㄴThen it's better if you simply don't know....
ㄴSometimes, the truth is cruel.
ㄴIf you want to see it, here you go (link)
ㄴThe guy who asked hasn't come back?
ㄴYou killed him..!!
[Author : Ear-gasm]
[Title : Haaung]
The boss dances and plays music too.
Then she finishes with ASMR, and the tickling sensation is just wow....
This is a real fox, fuckㅋㅋㅋㅋ
She tickles your ears and blows on them.
She laughs with a "Kkuk-kuk," then goes "nom nom nom"....
This is a true professional.
That final "Good night" voice was just wow....
So. Hand.some.
-This may be weird to say, but the boss's voice is insane.
-She has the charm of a dashing general.
-But why is she so good at this?
ㄴThe boss has bought more than twenty ASMR recordings.
ㄴIt's a recreation based on big data, yeah.
ㄴAs a VTuber, she can be called first-rate.
-I should play this on repeat until it wears out.
-I already saved itㅋㅋㅋ
The first broadcast from the studio was an enormous success. Yu Ying's singing and Wakamo's performances brought in more viewers. Even after the broadcast ended, Wakamo successfully created and uploaded a professional-quality video herself using the expensive ASMR-specific microphone she had bought and brought in.
'How many ASMR broadcasts had she watched, and how many VTuber ASMR recordings had she bought from overseas sites?'
Apparently, one ASMR-specialist VTuber had invested 80 million yen in total, including 70 million yen for the studio building and land, three one-million-yen microphones, and other equipment.
ASMR was not something one could do simply by buying a microphone, so Wakamo even took off her top to eliminate friction sounds, and carefully and meticulously optimized everything, including the settings for more than ten pieces of audio equipment and the audio interface.
She could have done it with only a microphone set up... but that could easily result in terrible sound quality.
A VTuber must always seriously research content for her fans. (No.)
Seven hours of preparation, thirty minutes of recording, and three hours of editing..... And the quality of the ASMR she had always listened to once it was completed?
Wakamo, who loved VTubers, judged it coldly: only one star out of five!!
The voice was a dealbreaker!! But the breathing was good, so she gave it one star.
She had set everything up properly, so she planned to record Yu Ying's ASMR next.
I'll make it stimulating enough to shake the brains of perverts...
"Then, shall we start climbing the Tower soon?"
After creating VTuber broadcast content and using the studio to please her believers, it was time to give them another dose of Wakamo's broadcast dopamine!!
Even two bodies would not have been enough, but Wakamo did not feel pain, breathe, eat, or need sleep, and her body was always in peak condition, so it did not bother her at all!!
"What should I do about the next floor...."
[VTuber Assets]
-Has the same function as 『Virtual Chat』.
-The number owned increases according to the number of floors the [Climber] has cleared.
-[Registerable Assets 2/3]
-[Dazzling Radiance (Color Changeable)]
-[Duel Disk]
"There is still one slot left in [VTuber Assets]."
By now, she no longer knew what might appear, so the information on Incheon Tower had become completely useless. What good was it when monsters that should have appeared much higher up attacked after being somewhat weakened or reduced in number as [Elite Ranks]?
She was in the position of having to climb the Tower and respond instantly to whatever happened, just like a Climber from the earliest days.
"So I have to use the [Skills] I have to their fullest."
Wakamo already had eleven [Skills], excluding [Tower Entry]!! But if she had to choose a skill that helped in combat, there was not a single one!! She did not possess even one of the common [Attack Skills] that directly struck or inflicted damage.
Because Wakamo had refused to choose any of them!!
Her sincere love for VTubers was understandable, but judged as a Climber, she could only be called an idiot who looked at nothing but what was directly in front of her.
'[Video Recording]'s [Shared Viewpoint] can eliminate blind spots with three cameras. Even if I can't exit the Tower, I can secure a shelter in [My Worlds] and rest. I can even choose a weapon through [VTuber Assets].....'
Among the items she possessed, the useful ones were the Golden Cord enhanced with [Mana Manipulation], and Jiang Taigong's Fishing Rod, which she could still control as she pleased.
'Should I focus on consumables?'
She could make the next floor's concept drunken boxing, drink from a gourd filled with the poisonous potion Yu Ying had made, and breathe fire. When she imagined it, the result looked fairly convincing.
[VTuber Model] also caught her eye, but─she had already decided how to use it, so she passed it by.
"Hmm...."
As she inspected her Skills, Wakamo found the very first Skill she had ever obtained. It came to mind when she happened to scroll upward without thinking.
In truth, it was fair to say that this Skill was everything to Wakamo.
Perhaps she should say that she had already assigned it a reason to exist.
"Can't this be enhanced?"
Wakamo looked at [Idol's Body], sighed once, and entered the Tower by activating [Tower Entry] as usual.
As the dazzling light faded, a vast grassland appeared. Looking around at the landscape, which resembled the savanna called the 'treeless plains' that she had seen in documentaries, Wakamo was about to greet her believers through the broadcast she had started.
"Hello, everyone~ Kon-kon, ki─"
[You are climbing in the Incheon Tower Floor 16 World]
-[Wakamo Inarizushi] The difficulty increases according to the Climber's achievements!
-Overcome the [Elite Monster]!
-Defeat the [Lightning Rage Rhino].
[Platinum Achievement Conditions]
-Do not dodge the [Lightning Rage Rhino]'s [Charge] (0/1)
-Block the [Lightning Rage Rhino]'s attack (0/1)
-Defeat the [Lightning Rage Rhino] (0/1)
The strategy conditions appeared at the same time.
Wakamo realized that the difficulty was brutal when she saw that there was no prerequisite condition requiring her not to take damage.
The requirement to block the enemy's attack without dodging it─made her feel as though the Tower might even be maliciously experimenting on her.
And it was not even the monster that was supposed to appear on Floor 16. Hadn't a Floor 30 monster appeared on Floor 13?
She was inwardly lamenting why she alone had to climb under such difficult conditions and was about to finish her greeting when.
Wakamo's eyes met those of a gigantic rocket standing opposite her. It radiated an equivalent sense of pressure.
Its entire body was protected by thick, armor-like skin, and its curved, upward-pointing horns were impossibly sharp.
Its bloodshot eyes were already shooting hatred and killing intent at Wakamo─the rhino crouched low, bending its front legs and tensing its hind legs until its thighs bulged tautly.
It was poised to launch at any moment.
Wakamo watched the scene and admired the elephant-sized rhino monster's immense bulk, while also understanding that the viewers could not even type in chat and that she had no time to finish the greeting she had intended to give at the start of the broadcast.
That was because───
───the enemy's [Charge] struck without the slightest warning.
Moreover.
Its speed was nearly supersonic, approaching 1,000 km/h.
As time seemed to slow, making the world appear to flow in slow motion, Wakamo spread her arms while preparing an asset that emitted light.
Then there was light.
-Aaaagh!!
-Aah!
-W-What the fuck?!
-Did something happen the moment the broadcast started???
-I hurriedly turned off my speakers, fuck...
-I can't see anything...
-Did we get ambushed the moment we came in?
-Isn't that fucking Rage Rhino from Floor 31??
The impact left their ears muffled and ringing. Viewers who had entered the broadcast without a thought complained of pain and cursed.
It was the first terrible broadcast accident Wakamo's stream had ever suffered. But no one blamed her for it.
That was because, just before the dazzling flash exploded, the Climbers had seen a monster charging toward Wakamo.
And even viewers who were not Climbers realized that it was a monster ambush. The situation had erupted while she was greeting everyone during the broadcast.
The monster's name was [Rage Rhino]. On Floor 31, seven of them appeared in packs; they used only the [Charge] Skill, had such savage tempers and poor intelligence that they even attacked their allies, and were relatively easy to deal with because they could be defeated simply by leaving them to fight among themselves.
But if someone stood there blankly without knowing that and got hit by its headbutt, they would normally die instantly.
That was because it came crashing in at 350 km/h, the speed of a race car.
A Climber was a superhuman, so someone who had reached Floor 30 would react and respond quickly.... But let us not forget.
The previous floor, Floor 30, was nothing but pitch-black darkness because of the Under-dweller.
It was a malicious setup in which a Climber could be struck and killed while still unable to open their eyes and going, "Ugh─," at the bright scenery that appeared the moment they climbed up.
An ultra-fast headbutt that gave them no time to react!!
And in the case of an Elite Monster, it was nearly three times faster.
Wakamo could not even dodge it and took the full impact head-on.
As the light slowly settled, the believers held their breath, trembling with anxiety.
-Is she frozen...?
-Something's weird.
-.....The boss is just standing there?
-What? What happened..??
[Incheon Tower Floor 16 has achieved its Platinum conditions and is being opened to all of humanity!!]
The clear announcement rang out without giving them time to understand what had happened, leaving the believers even more bewildered.
-You can tell just by looking. She stood there and tanked the Charge.
-Is that even possible????
-It is, because it rammed her and just fucking died from the impact!!!!
It was a sight that even Climbers could not believe, but unfortunately, this was a live broadcast. What they were seeing was reality!!
Wakamo had not moved a single step from the spot where she arrived on Floor 16, standing like an immovable mountain.
And the Elite Rage Rhino that had flown toward her and headbutted her.
Its face was crumpled, its head pierced by its own horn, and its body was twisted into a gruesome and hideous mess.
Its sturdy, armor-like hide was keeping its innards from spilling out, but in this state, it would not be wrong to call it a water balloon.
And although she looked fine on the outside, the impact Wakamo had suffered was far beyond imagination.
[Stats]
Mana: 545,876 -> 137,543.
"That startled me."
Even though she had not defended against it in any way, the feeling of exhaustion was far beyond what she had imagined.
Wakamo's original plan had been to catch the thing charging toward her and stop it.
[Idol's Body] stated that all physical laws were based around Wakamo, so she had only expected that she would not be pushed back even if she took the impact head-on. She had never imagined that she would not move even slightly.
Where had all the damage caused by the collision immediately after the impact gone...?
'What is the principle behind this....'
Even she found her body difficult to understand.
Her body, made entirely of Mana, was apparently even stranger than Wakamo had thought.
[Killer Ankole Watusi] and [Feral Deer] were one thing, but she did not even get pushed back when something the size of an elephant rammed her...?
'I should investigate this.'
It seemed like something she could use to show off.
"Should I ask the Black Box channel how fault would be assigned in this case?"
-Someone might think an electric kick scooter crashed into herㅎㅎ....
-No, is she really completely fine? She didn't move even a little?
-I knew she wasn't human, but this is beyond imagination.
-How strong are the muscles in that slender body....?
-They say martial artists train their lower bodies. Maybe it's possible after a thousand years of training?
-Have humans lost their strength because of technological advancement...
[You have acquired the Skill [Weight of Faith]! ]
"....Huh?"
Wakamo stood with the enormous rhino's corpse behind her and tilted her head at the Skill that appeared on its own despite no choice being offered.
Was that it...? Really?
No, it had always been like this, but now it was not even giving her a choice?
[Rewards are being settled due to the Tower Platinum clear]
'Being settled...?'
What was that supposed to mean?
The malicious placement of Elite Monsters was already exhausting enough, and now the Tower intended not to give her the rewards she had earned after all that suffering either?
Unable to understand what the Tower was thinking, Wakamo scratched her head in frustration.
"You came here and rammed yourself to death... The believers didn't even get to see anything."
In the end, Wakamo took out her frustration on the dead rhino, grumbling at it.
-The rhino probably didn't expect this either.
-It was going all-out in a head-on fight without dodging, though?
-Not knowing that it was a natural disaster isn't a crime.
-It's like a bird crashing into a window because it couldn't see the glass.
-At this point, can bullets even hurt the boss...?
-Tower monsters die when they get shot tooㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-I am a devout believer!! So were my ancestors!!!
"Hmm-hmm, everyone seems disappointed, so shall we go to the next floor?"
It was far too early to end the broadcast. Honestly, turning it off five minutes after starting would have been even more horrifying than the broadcast accident.
The believers worried about Wakamo and told her not to overdo it─but she needed to understand the Tower's intentions, such as throwing Skills at her without permission and saying it was settling her rewards without giving them to her.
The only way to find out was to keep climbing the Tower.
[You are climbing in the Incheon Tower Floor 17 World]
-[Wakamo Inarizushi] The difficulty increases according to the Climber's achievements!
-Overcome the [Elite Monster]!
-Defeat the group of [Indestructible Chain Devils].
[Platinum Achievement Conditions]
-[ ]
"....Huh?"
The Platinum Achievement Conditions were.....blank?
-What are Chain Devils?
-I've never seen them before?
-....? That's a British Tower monster.
-Aren't demon-type monsters only in Europe..?
-Yeah, there are lots around the Vatican.... It must be brutal without a Companion Skill?
With a strong premonition that something had gone wrong, Wakamo saw the demons surrounding her before she knew it.
Six humanoid monsters resembling bizarre metallic cacti, their bodies wrapped in chains and covered with nail-like spikes, had surrounded Wakamo.
Naturally, she had never seen them before.
-What floor do these guys appear on?
-...British Tower Floor 30...?
-They inflict guaranteed binding with their chains and launch [Hellfire]....
-The strategy is to attack and destroy the chains!!
Watching the desperate chat messages rise, Wakamo understood that the chains were their weakness. But at the same time, they had been given the grand title of [Indestructible], so she punched one of the chains flying toward her, half-expecting the worst. It did not break; it did not even receive a scratch.
Was this how the Rhino had felt when it rammed into Wakamo on the previous floor?
Clatter!!!
Wakamo staggered as her arms and legs were bound in an instant and chains wrapped around her waist, leaving her helpless like a captive. The Chain Devils charged at her, raising their spikes as sharply as possible, as if they intended to kill her by ramming her.
As the viewers screamed that they could not bear to watch the gruesome scene that was about to unfold.
Crunch!!
-Huh?
-Huh?
-What?
The Chain Devils collided with one another and went tumbling.
"Ahh─seriously! If it weren't for me, I'd be dead!"
Along with the grumbling voice, light, quick footsteps could be heard from the bottom of the screen.
The camera's viewpoint lowered, revealing something cute and small walking out from inside the tangled chains.
A girl with round red metal sunglasses pulled down over her eyes appeared relaxed, contrary to the viewers' concerns.
It had been one disastrous broadcast accident after another.
But Wakamo was a VTuber, and at the same time, a professional-in-the-making.
"Is Tower climbing really allowed to be this unfair? Well.... From a broadcasting standpoint, it's nice that the reality comes through."
"Turning things around in a crisis is what the believers like, right?"
The chat exploded at Wakamo's cuteness as she tilted her head toward the camera.