Chapter 37
"She really won..."
Manager Won Da-hye, who had been watching the broadcast with bated breath, felt as though the strength had drained from her legs.
The appearance of a golem immune to Mana-type attacks was bewildering even to her, since Wakamo's class was believed to be [Sorcerer].
When Wakamo asked only for the bullets from the armor-piercing rounds, Manager Won Da-hye had wondered what she was thinking─but she had never imagined Wakamo would use them to make holes, wrap the golem in wire, hook it, and throw it.
'Her nerve is on another level....'
She must have crossed countless battlefields over her thousand years of life. If not, then she was simply a genius at fighting.
'She said she was a taekwondo master, but this is already beyond that.'
She had snatched a ninja's sword away with a scorpion kick.
She had even defeated Japan's strongest fighter, the Fist King, in unarmed combat.
"Ugh...."
When a [Mana Burn]-using sorcerer appeared, Wakamo had screamed despite herself. Even the chairman had watched with a stiff expression.
Wakamo had told her believers that she was currently weakened.
She had been chosen as a Climber by the Tower and had instead had her strength taken away. Manager Won Da-hye could not understand what she truly meant by that.... But she had seen Wakamo's original form: an adorable fox girl.
So even if she was not a [Sorcerer], it meant that her gigantic form was something fake, created using [Mana].
She was a physical master in the realm of superhumans, but in that shrunken state, she could not use the martial arts she had built up.
Manager Won Da-hye had no way of knowing how Wakamo had constructed her body out of [Mana], since Wakamo had never told her.
To be honest, all Manager Won Da-hye could do was wish that Wakamo would stop streaming.
Countries everywhere were plotting against her, jealous of her fame, including [Six Great Evils], or seeking to exploit her in countless other ways. The more Wakamo streamed, the more information about her would continue to be revealed.
'Even now, she's practically admitting that she is vulnerable to [Mana Burn].'
Since her true form was a young fox girl, the gigantic form she showed was merely a fake meant to conceal her real body.
It was the same as a VTuber streaming while hiding her red pill (it isn't).
'There are more magic-immunity and magical-power-immunity Skills than one might expect.... But it should be fine.'
But Wakamo displayed such overwhelming skill that she made Manager Won Da-hye's worries seem pointless.
She minimized the damage from the [Mana Burn] explosion by shrinking her body, endured it, got back up, and quickly closed the distance.
Then she grew gigantic, seized the sorcerer's wrist, and used the move that could be called the Fist King's signature finishing technique.
She smashed the sorcerer's head into the ground.
It looked simple at first glance, but she had flipped and slammed an Orc Sorcerer who had strengthened itself as though it were a baby.
The sorcerer looked fine on the outside, but the bones in its arm had been dislocated from its shoulder, and it was unable to move with its body flipped over. Its lungs must have been crushed, leaving it unable even to breathe. Its [Mana Shield] had protected its body and kept its neck from breaking, but perhaps the [Mana Burn] explosion had pushed it to its limit, because the shield had dissipated as well.
Then came the execution.
'The Tower gives Climbers trials suited to their abilities and level....'
People in the outside world asked, "Isn't it only the twentieth floor?" They could not understand why everyone was treating her as something so extraordinary when she still had such a long way to go.
Government lawmakers were desperately trying to reduce and restrain Wakamo's growing influence, and the best the Climber Association could do was oppose them alongside the chairman's supporters to prevent them from creating unreasonable regulations.
But now it was all over.
Even the [Soul-and-Flesh Devourer], a calamity that could well have emerged from Britain's Floor 50, had been unable to defeat Wakamo.
Nothing was more dreaded by the [Wizard] class than a wraith-type monster that absorbed Mana merely by touching its target.
About 2,000 Mana would have been sucked away in an instant, and before the victim had time to realize what was happening, they would freeze and die.
In the first place, it was by no means a monster that should have been offered as an opponent for a Floor 20 Climber to defeat.
But she had won.
She had demolished every one of the monsters whose matchup against a [Sorcerer] was supposedly impossible, live on stream for all the world to see.
And at the end, although she had not shown what sort of trump card she had used, the video she uploaded showed the screen briefly going dark with a "Bang," followed by the sight of the floor reduced to a wasteland.
The scene looked as though it had been bombed.
And in the middle of it, Wakamo stood unharmed, without a single injury.
Her appearance seemed to say, No matter what you bring, I will face it.
She offered the believers a smile as a dignified figure who would never retreat from any enemy, and as a VTuber who always gave them something entertaining.
Manager Won Da-hye could only think how fortunate it was that Wakamo was on their side.
'She publicly crushed the Tower's attempt to exploit her weaknesses and pressure her. An ambush armed to target her [weaknesses] and strike her vitals.... Everyone already knows that the [Ninjas] failed. This is proof of her confidence that she can respond to anything that comes her way.'
Her body trembled.
She was afraid.... No? That was wrong.
As a fellow Climber like Wakamo, she had fought alone recklessly and at times confronted the Tower's trials with groups of others, struggling desperately as she climbed. Her body trembled because she was moved.
'That was the best broadcast ever.'
Even if someone took over the content of Tower climbing after her, it would be impossible for them to make it as compelling as Wakamo had.
She had shown both the Tower's dangers and the finest skill a Climber could display.
And even if she recovered, she had climbed three floors in succession, including the boss floor?
What kind of mentality did she have...? Perhaps this was simply how different someone became after crossing battlefields countless times.
And it was not only Manager Won Da-hye. The chairman, who had been watching alongside her, wiped away the cold sweat that had unknowingly run down their face with their sleeve.
"Heh heh... My heart is pounding too, even at my age. What a thrill."
The footage captured by a camera that looked as though it had been operated by a professional, and the desperate struggle in which lives hung in the balance.
Looking back, at some point the Tower had begun giving her nothing but trials of an absurd difficulty.
This was her first time climbing this Tower, yet it had already given her a challenge this difficult on Floor 20.
What, then, would be waiting for her in the future?
'Haha.'
For Climbers, information about the Tower was more important than anything. Even merely hearing how strong an opponent was from someone who had fought it was precious information.
Even if they were aiming for a 『Complete-Clear Floor』, surely it was not worth more than their lives.
Climbers from higher floors were probably quietly watching Wakamo's broadcast as well, even if they did not say anything.
It would be too early to feel relieved that she would not leave Korea, given that she was raising the nation's prestige and attracting attention from other countries, wouldn't it?
"By the way, her subscriber count really isn't going up. Is it normally like this?"
"Maybe it's because being a VTuber isn't particularly accessible...? Even so, she's among the very top in Korea."
"I suppose so!! Good grief. Are young people these days not entertained by things like this?"
"Chairman..."
....
......
"That's right─!!"
The Fist King, who was watching the Tower climb together with his disciples in the training hall, leaped to his feet, deeply moved by the powerful slam that could not have been more exhilarating.
If a martial artist had a weakness, it was naturally every class capable of attacking from a distance.
Wakamo had slipped inside with footwork like a fox, seen through that weakness, and seized his rear.
And the move she used from that position was the very slam that had failed when he used it against her!
"Did you see? This is the power of the technique I told you about. It can kill an opponent instantly. It's not as though karate is the only martial art with techniques that shouldn't be used casually. This is a kind of ancient martial art, and......"
The Fist King explained the principles of the technique to his disciples, whose eyes were sparkling, even though it was a move that left its target no chance to perform a breakfall.
The training hall, which would once have been not merely spacious but desolate, was packed with people seeking to enroll, while tourists had come to see the Fox God's Shrine.
The Fist King had already become a complete fan of Wakamo the VTuber.
To reporters who had come looking for a story, he said that Wakamo-sama was a martial artist stronger than himself, a true Fox God who could build a shrine, and an emissary who had come to grant the wish he had prayed for by climbing Inari Shrine without ever giving up──
If Wakamo had heard that, she would have clutched the back of her neck and sighed, wondering what to do with this old man.
"Come to think of it, didn't my son say he was a VTuber too?"
When the excited Fist King asked his beloved disciple, a first-degree black belt, about something that had just occurred to him, the disciple's expression grew gloomy.
He had been living in fear and anxiety, dreading the day the Fist King might ask, and now he looked as though he had finally received a death sentence.
The disciple's face seemed too crumpled even for someone given a terminal diagnosis, and he nodded with trembling eyes.
"Do you think Wakamo-sama will like him?"
The beloved disciple imagined Wakamo splitting the Fist King's son in half with a karate chop.
'How am I supposed to tell my master that his eldest son is a VTuber who streams using a voice changer after revealing that he is a male VTuber in a female avatar....'
He could only avert his eyes, thinking he had done his best, while cursing the runaway friend who had said his head would be smashed by his father if he found out.
There was no reason someone born with a man's body could not become a female VTuber, but how was he supposed to explain that he was streaming as a cheerful cat-eared bishoujo VTuber after revealing that he was male?
The number-one disciple, who hated his father for having nothing but muscles in his brain and was in contact with the runaway younger sister who had fled because she did not want to stay in a house where her older brother wore a VR headset and went nya-nya, let out a deep sigh of anguish.
Unlike their father, that child had run away declaring that she would climb the Tower as a [Wizard] rather than using crude methods.... The disciple thought he should get in touch with her after so long.
You should tell her that her father might watch her brother's VTuber streams.
Then he would probably come to the funeral wearing a black suit and carrying condolence money, asking where the funeral hall was....
"Come to think of it, I was talking with the chairman. My daughter is a Climber too, you know. Since Wakamo-sama is skilled at sorcery, wouldn't it be a good idea to have my daughter, who is a [Sorcerer], study under her? It would surely be safer than climbing alone, wouldn't it?'
'Master... [Wizard] and [Sorcerer] are different classes....'
It was hopeless.... He was a daughter-obsessed musclehead, but there was nothing to be done about it....
'Sadako... What am I supposed to do about this...?'
I'm not even part of your family, so why am I involved in your family problems? Tears slipped from his eyes of their own accord.
Leaving aside the thoughts of the disciples, who watched the Fist King's pitiful beloved student suffer and decided they must never grow old like that....
The chairman of the Japanese Association, Watanabe Tomoko, knew how the Fist King's daughter was treated. She was regarded as a delinquent who had run away to follow the path of the [Wizard] and climb the Tower, unlike her father. She respected her father and had tried to make a name for herself as a Climber, but even after achieving the feat of conquering Osaka Tower Floor 30, public opinion about her was so poor that it was unbearable.
Thanks to that, she had even quit Tower climbing and was studying hard to get a civil-service job at the Association.
But she knew the truth. Deep down, she still wanted to become famous as a Climber like her father.
Wakamo Inarizushi wanted to succeed in Korea as a VTuber. Watanabe Tomoko did not know why, but she supposed it was because Wakamo loved it.
She knew that Wakamo streamed as a VTuber alongside a Chinese girl named Yu Ying, who went by Hajime Ichigo, as her partner, but Yu Ying was an [Alchemist] who had spent ten years merely lingering around Floor 10.
With government support, including all sorts of byproducts from Complete-Clear Floors, Yu Ying's floor was already Floor 25! Strictly speaking, she had reached a realm higher than Wakamo's.
'Was Incheon Tower a cooperative tower from Floor 25 through Floor 30?'
She had probably parked herself there on purpose and was waiting for Wakamo.
──So before that happened, Japan should assign someone to her as well and build a relationship with her.
The chairman had already quietly informed the Japanese government. Yu Ying was the Fist King's daughter, and the Fist King and Wakamo were already too close to separate.
They should build a relationship that could serve as an excuse for her to move to Japan if necessary.
'Didn't she say she would take care of Yu Ying like family? I wish she would do the same for Sadako.'
Since her father was so hopeless, the girl was starved for affection in many ways.
Wasn't she passionate enough to pack her bags and move to Korea as soon as she was offered a chance?
"Of course she couldn't pass up the chance to learn sorcery from a real sorcerer. Ha ha!!"
'Wizard and Sorcerer are different classes....'
Councilor Tetsuya, standing beside the chairman and gauging the chairman's reaction, kept quiet rather than arguing.
What could anyone expect from a country that called a [Fighter] with a sword a [Samurai]?
※※※
Ding ding─
Unable to climb to Floor 21, Wakamo was watching VTuber streams while filling her stomach with Mana Potions to replenish her Mana.
She clipped and uploaded the stream, then checked the comments on the edited video titled Conquering 3 Floors Simultaneously!!
She was also a little hurt when Yu Ying suddenly announced, as though delivering a notification, "I've parked myself on Floor 25 so I can climb it with Boss."
No, um... couldn't you have said something to me first...? When did you start climbing alone without telling me?
It was disconcerting, like playing a princess-raising game while focusing on the VTuber side, only for the princess to suddenly run away, behead a bandit chief, and return home.
She had dutifully streamed, consulted with her manager, packed all sorts of things in her bag, and made a ton of potions.... Thinking about it again, that hadn't been content preparation. It had been preparation for climbing.
Wakamo, still only a pathetic Floor 20 Climber, was sad....
"But why is this emergency message ringing so much...?"
[Emergency Notice]
A military mobilization notice has arrived from the Military Manpower Administration.
Failure to respond to the summons may result in disadvantages.
Please check the link below for inquiries.
"?"
The phone was still registered under Wakamo's fake ID(?), but she had never paid much attention to that. This, however, was a little bewildering.
She naturally assumed it was a fake message and searched the internet, only to find everyone in an uproar.
Judging by the flames everywhere, unfortunately, it seemed to be real.
I got called up as a reservist? Is this for real...?
After briefly enduring the absurdity, Wakamo scratched her head, wondering what she was supposed to do about it.
She had kept the phone because she had used it for quite a long time and had not burned it along with the house, but she had never expected it to come back to haunt her like this.
Yu Ying had received the same message, perhaps because she was also a Korean Climber.
They learned that Gimpo Tower Floor 40 had collapsed, and the statement made by the Climber who had brought it down was provoking people's anger.
"[I wondered what would happen if I pressed the option to collapse the Tower. I'm sorry to the residents of Gimpo, and I will make amends for my mistake while climbing in the future, like Wakamo─]"
"Hey, why are you dragging me into this?"
I really had become disgustingly famous as a Climber, Wakamo thought.
Well, she understood. Her manager had told her that the chairman's face had blossomed with smiles because Wakamo's Floor 1 had become vastly larger. Among Korean Climbers, she was practically a superstar.
"Can ya really jus' collapse a Tower like dis, boss?"
"Mm.... I suppose so."
Even if a Tower was conquered, another one would eventually appear someday.
Towers with low floors were extremely popular among beginner Climbers. They had fewer floors to conquer, and since the Climbers who had conquered them were also on low floors, it was easy to find partners to challenge them with. In an age like this, there were guilds everywhere, and people did come from overseas as well.
There was only one thing to remember: when you reached a Tower's highest floor, do not choose something like Tower Collapse.
It was a terrorist act that even [Six Great Evils] might commit.
The Climber had looked young at a glance, which must have made it even harder to feel the danger. There was no way to know whether they had obtained a good Skill or a good item─but Wakamo probably would never see them again.
They said South Korea did not have the death penalty, but Climbers were not exempt from it.
"No, seriously, isn't this unbelievably thoughtless...?"
How could they say they had pressed it because they were curious what would happen? Had they fallen asleep during Climber training? Judging by how shamelessly they talked, perhaps they had.
'.....This is too strange. Some thoughtless-looking kid like that conquered a Floor 40 Tower and collapsed it....?'
Wakamo narrowed her eyes, sensing something unpleasant that she could not identify, but she was relieved that no one had been harmed by the Tower's collapse. Perhaps because it had emerged in a truly remote corner of the mountains, it had not been popular, and the damage had apparently been minimal.
It was probably just her imagination that the Climber had carefully selected a Tower that could be collapsed....
"Good. I'm going to meet my manager anyway, so let's go check this out."
"Mhm."
Her Mana had recovered considerably as well. Perhaps because her Skill efficiency had improved, she was recovering even while recklessly wasting Mana, and if she simply rested while drinking Mana Potions, she could now fully recover!!
At last, she no longer had to desperately climb floors just to survive!!
She could simply cut back on the VTuber streams she watched, but let us move on.
"By the way, I did say I wanted some equipment items, but did the Tower really have to give me this...?"
Wakamo wrapped the tattered Taegeukgi she had received as a reward for conquering Floor 20 around her neck.
No matter how she looked at it, she looked like someone protesting in Gwanghwamun Square. Did the Tower really have nothing else to give its idol?
"Damn it...! If my class had been Shrine Maiden, it would have given me a jakdu!!"
"Boss... only mudang use jakdu...."
"....Oh, really?"
Wasn't that basically the same thing...?
Anyway, Wakamo took the item with her, thinking she should give it to her manager or something.
[You acquired the Relic-grade equipment item [Taegeukgi of Unity]!]
[Taegeukgi of Unity]
Grade: Relic.
Equipment slot: Cloak.
A genuine artifact from the Korean independence movement.
It contains the will to resist oppression and an unbreakable fighting spirit.
As a proud symbol of struggle, it inspires unity.
Leadership +10%
Crowd Effect +10%
Party members' stamina +20%
Charm +10%
Had Incheon Tower been dissatisfied with Wakamo saying during her VTuber streams that she was from Japan and China?
Did it want to boast about its proud Korean fox or something?
How was the first piece of equipment she had finally obtained a Taegeukgi used during the independence movement.... Wasn't this thing almost a hundred years old?
"I should donate this to a museum."
When they opened a portal, emerged in front of Incheon Tower, and headed toward the Climber Association, they found that Climbers and reservists had already heard the news and were gathering in a crowd.
Wakamo transformed into Little Wakamo and entered with Yu Ying, disguising their identities with masks and hats and receiving help from Association employees. Manager Won Da-hye welcomed them as though she had been waiting for them.
"Congratulations on conquering Floor 20. Did you come because Wakamo-sama received a message too?"
"Technically, I came under my former identity. It's a scam message that makes every reservist pray it was fake. I almost got PTSD."
"Ahaha... It is an emergency, but it is already at a level the military units can handle sufficiently. For now, shall we call it a standby order?"
Manager Won Da-hye did not mention that the 『President』 seemed to be plotting something against Wakamo.
The president, who insisted that Wakamo was a Maegu, a fox spirit who had lived for a thousand years, and therefore had to be killed, had taken a completely hostile attitude. Even receiving a Complete-Clear Floor from her had not changed his mind.
When the manager showed him the latest climbing video, he had been so frightened that he asked whether Wakamo was a monster, so it was only natural that the frustrated chairman clicked his tongue.
──He was the one who kept bringing up Wakamo's former identity, which they had failed to erase completely, claiming that she had devoured and stolen it, and shouting that Wakamo, who had lived hidden among humans since long ago, was a nine-tailed fox threatening humanity and had to be dealt with somehow.
There was no doubt that he had carried out this insane scheme on such a grand scale to lure Wakamo toward Gimpo.
Manager Won Da-hye had no concerns about that part. Could they even kill her? Still, every danger had to be eliminated whenever possible.
The arrested Climber would ordinarily have been summarily executed, but after being detained to determine the truth of what had happened, the detainee was found dead inside the prison. There were more than a few suspicious things about the case.
"It seems Wakamo-sama even served in the military...."
"Huh? Of course I did...? I should clarify so you don't get the wrong idea: I didn't go around eating people and stealing things, okay? I even attended school properly."
Wasn't that even more impressive? If she had lived for a thousand years and attended school starting from elementary school, how had she adapted?
As Manager Won Da-hye looked at the genuine Taegeukgi from the independence movement that Wakamo had handed over for donation, she found herself wondering how many times Wakamo had served in the military.
'But why did she go to the military under a male identity...?'
No, let's not think about that. Seeing the Taegeukgi actually made her feel relieved, since it seemed as though it could be used well for staging too.
"Wakamo-sama, do you know about VR roleplay? That includes anime or movies filmed in virtual reality."
"Of course I do."
"──I've come up with new content that fits Yu Ying's concept of being an apocalypse survivor. It would be perfect as membership content."
Manager Won Da-hye smiled as she brought in a massive project supported by the Association as though she were running a corporation.
No matter how sinister the president's scheme was, they only needed to crush it beneath an even greater achievement.
"How about the title... 『Battle Field: Seoul Reclamation』? We'll use lots of CG, like a game video! We've got plenty of budget too!!"
'My manager's naming sense is worse than I expected.'
She had even prepared an entire 3D CG team.
With everyone in an uproar over the collapse of Gimpo Tower, Manager Won Da-hye thrust a detailed proposal at them, saying they would film a massive special that would dispel people's fear all at once.
"We'll film a video with the "setting" that we're reclaiming the Seoul territory taken from us by the collapse of Seoul Tower."
Why was the Ministry of National Defense supporting a broadcast when they were filming VTuber content?
Wakamo was rendered speechless by the sight of both the Army and the Air Force being present.
"It's just a little thing like Virtual Live's "Virtual Gra.""
"Is it somethin' like dat?"
Yu Ying also looked back at Wakamo in bewilderment after seeing the entire list of firearms.
Wow~ Government-affiliated VTubers can even get bombing support. How amaaaazing~
"Why are you showing this to me!!"
"Our VTuber broadcasts always prioritize overwhelming realism!!"
Damn it, my manager had finally lost it.
Black companies were bad....
Wakamo was innocent....