Chapter 51
[Author: Bolendroong]
[Title: If You Came Here from the News, Read This First]
When someone unqualified to be a leader proclaims himself the Son of Heaven and establishes an imperial era.
There is an old story that Nuwa sends down a beauty capable of toppling a nation to destroy a country.
I love this story very much.
(GIF of Wakamo standing in the middle of a news report while being hit by a barrage of machine-gun fire)
Are modern weapons really only this powerful...?
Humans became weaker by acquiring guns.
(GIF of terrorists following Wakamo as she kindly forgives them)
"I don't know how to use things like charm."
Is this the face of mercy...?
Is it really right to make terrorists go pick up trash...?
Is she so weak that we should actually see her as nothing more than a stray cat?
(Video of Wakamo uploaded from a restaurant's CCTV)
Even with a sword stuck through her head, she took practically no damage.
Of course she didn't, because that wasn't her real body, fuckㅋㅋㅋㅋ
The frightening part is that they're all still alive.
Why is she petting the assassins and calling them cute??
-Collector-sama, please prepare yourself...
-So the host wasn't joking when she said the Fist King was incredibly strong.
ㄴI think I finally understand the stature of Japan's strongest.
ㄴThe host said, "If we'd fought any longer, I would have lost." Japan's pride indeed..
-Assassins, you may take pride in yourselves. Wakamo Inarizushi is the very embodiment of Far Eastern martial arts!
-The common sense that modern weapons work against Climbers....
ㄴThere was a time when we believed that too.
-Should we slowly return China to the era of the Zhou dynasty?
-So lowering ages is trendy these days, I see. Seventeen is too young, so should we make her 1,000 years old?
ㄴIsn't this at the level where you wonder if they accidentally left out one zero?
-She's Daji herself!!
-She was attacked in the middle of the capital, but seeing her smile scared the hell out of me.
ㄴI could even hear the host's bright voice saying, "I saw this in a Hong Kong movie!"
ㄴㅋㅋㅋFuckㅋㅋㅋ They were actually shooting gunsㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴ(GIF of her seemingly firing a real gun while wearing 3D glasses)
-That's something you only see in superhero movies.
-So the red pill isn't Daji, right? Anyway, understood.
-"Don't ask about the past."
-I think I understand why. Upvote.
ㄴI shouldn't have asked. Looks like we'd better keep quiet before we get nothing out of it.
ㄴPlease stay our mommy forever....
-You really treated this Wakamo like an idiot? Unforgivable. I'll kill you, Collector!
-Is this the legendary super beauty who topples nations spoken of in Asian legends...?
ㄴEven Taigong Wang couldn't kill me in the end.
ㄴDidn't Japan get nuked at one point too?
ㄴThen doesn't that mean it really was ruined?
Shortly after Wakamo departed for China, breaking news spread that a terrorist attack had taken place in the middle of Shanghai, China's new capital.
This was a world where there were CCTV cameras everywhere. Shanghai was especially difficult to find a place without CCTV, since the Chinese government also had a surveillance network it used to monitor its citizens.
That was why a vividly recorded video was uploaded to the news.
Did the Chinese government want to show the world how frightening Wakamo was? Or did someone checking the footage while investigating the scene get startled and upload it without permission?
They belatedly tried to control the information, perhaps worried that it would offend the Chairman, but once something spread across the internet, stopping it was practically impossible.
A video of Wakamo walking into the hallway and fighting as though she knew an assassin had entered the private room of the upscale restaurant.
The [Fighter] unleashed a furious attack at point-blank range, but Wakamo stood still and took every hit before lifting the [Fighter] as though he were a doll.
No sooner had she confirmed that both arms were sealed than attacks from above and behind pierced her body.... Yet Wakamo stood there without shedding a single drop of blood.
She lightly embraced the assassin from behind and folded him in half, then returned the sword embedded in his head as she smiled. Her smile was full of kindness, but it was impossible to hide how eerie it was.
The assassins climbed on top of her and attacked fiercely in an attempt to kill her, but a slight scratch from her finger made their arms and legs fall off in a horrifying sight.
One assassin soon collapsed and rolled around engulfed in flames. It looked as though spontaneous human combustion had occurred, but the stark-white color made it impossible to mistake Wakamo's flames.
Then all sorts of skills cast by a [Wizard] appeared at the end of the hallway.
The [Wizard] recklessly unleashed [Curse]-type magic that would be tantamount to instant death if it was not avoided, but Wakamo calmly approached and patted the Wizard's head as though it were cute. The Wizard, having lost the will to fight, visibly wet himself on the spot.
The comments even mocked them for doing this after seeing what had happened to the Japanese shamans.
But many people who knew nothing about Wakamo were frightened, asking whether she was a monster that had emerged from the Tower.
Wakamo writhed in fear and despair, convinced she could hear the sound of her subscriber count dropping... but how could the believers possibly know that?
The Korean believers stayed quiet, afraid that unsubscribing might bring a curse upon them.
Immediately afterward, a scene worthy of being called the highlight appeared.
"I saw this in a Hong Kong movie!"
Wakamo laughed as she took a direct hit from an anti-tank weapon without suffering a single wound.
Even when struck by bullets believed to be made of rare metal, she did not budge.
"The bullets are too small."
The bullet that hit her eye crumpled, and even the shotgun fired at point-blank range had no effect.
She even showed the bizarre sight of putting a grenade in her mouth and eating it, which made people want to think she was kind in a way because she had done it to prevent civilians from getting hurt... but....
From the South Korean president's perspective, it was certainly a sight that justified grabbing the Association president by the collar, raising his voice, and protesting that she was a monster. As the president of the South Korean Association, he knew she was strong.... But he had never imagined she would be this monstrous, operating on a scale so far beyond actual humans.
However, didn't she love Korea?
Rather than take the president's side and turn his back on her, the Association president chose to side with her as much as possible, earn her favor, and try to make her Korea's guardian deity.
Countless myths and histories taught people what happened when they mistreated the gods who helped them and bestowed their grace upon them.
It was only natural to feel fear and terror, but he could not blindly dismiss the way she loved people as a lie, either.
'I suppose I'll have to deal with this somehow'
Whether it would be the president or Wakamo Inarizushi─the Association president folded his arms and decided to watch a little more carefully.
Even weakened, if she truly set her mind to it, conquering a country would be no difficult task for her.
In an age with Towers and Climbers, in a world where regions under China's rule could become independent─would it really be difficult for a being with power rivaling a god to ascend the throne? To the Association president, Wakamo seemed utterly indifferent to such matters.
※※※
"[Yeah, Boss. I left the humidifier on too!]"
"You put water in it, right?"
"[You were supposed to put water in it?]"
"Is the stream going well?"
"[Yeah! Did you know that your favorite miko, Boss, released a new song? An original one!]"
"......"
Wakamo quietly swallowed her sadness, gloom... and grief.
She had come outside because she could not bear to show Yu Ying such a miserable sight.
She could not let anyone see her drooping shoulders.... She was a company president, after all.
Adults had to make an effort to show children only their dependable side, as befitted adults.
The stream was the stream, and reality was reality.
-Nice to meet you all! You can just call me Miko-sama!
"Uuugh..."
Our miko, who would soon be releasing even a solo album, had achieved such success. What on earth was I doing in this distant foreign land?
She did not want Yu Ying and the manager, who were sleeping inside Wakamo's portal, to see her crying...
Wakamo stroked the package of [Sakura-colored Dreamer], a visual novel featuring the miko as its heroine that was now difficult to obtain, and swallowed her sadness.
She had watched the livestream and heard that the new song had been released for everyone.
Wakamo wanted to press play and watch it right away, the MV packed full of memories from the VTuber streams she and her fans had shared.
Even though the excitement had already cooled, she wanted to see it, but she endured.
She was enduring the rising anger, hatred, agony, and pain..... so she could return the [Collector]'s way of expressing love exactly as he had taught her.
How could he torment someone who only wanted to quietly live while streaming as a VTuber to this extent? This was clearly a twisted form of fan devotion.
-Being a VTuber is the crystallization of courage all by itself!!
Recalling the miko's famous words, Wakamo held the sentence about courage close to her heart.
Right now, she felt as though she might undergo a dark evolution from anger... but she could endure it because she still had so many streams to watch in the future.
"─I'll be back before the members-only stream begins."
She would settle things with that bastard [Collector] before the stream that had not yet begun grew cold.
The Tower had told her directly, he had tried to kill her before, and now he had caused this whole mess.
They could no longer live together beneath the same blue sky!!
※※※
Ding, ding, ding──
"Damn South Korean president!!! Was this a trap from the beginning!!!"
The mysterious broadcaster who possessed the [Imperial Seal of All Under Heaven]. Until then, the [Collector] had thought she was some kind of 『Legendary Class』.
After witnessing Wakamo's earth-shaking might.
The sight of her made him question whether she was even human, and [Collector] Yun Wei immediately gave up his obsession with the Imperial Seal of All Under Heaven.
He was wanted as one of the terrorist Climbers known as the [Six Calamities], but that was entirely because of the Chinese government.
He had not intended to take things this far at first.
He had been one of the richest people in China, living comfortably without wanting for anything, collecting artifacts and other precious objects as a collector, until he awakened by chance.
The government threatened him, telling him to hand over his wealth because the country's situation was dangerous and to climb the Tower as a Climber, then tried to confiscate the artifacts he had collected as illegal─in the end, the Collector could no longer stand it and rebelled against the country.
Inside the country, even young people who worked hard and graduated from university had nowhere to find employment, while the country did nothing but exploit those trying to make money, and he had grown sick of it.
Outside the country, people looked down on them as barbaric, filthy savages─uneducated people. He had grown tired of the Chinese people, including the government, whose standards showed no sign of improving.
He proclaimed himself the Son of Heaven, declared that he would become king, occupied the Sichuan region, and claimed to be a descendant of Liu Bei.
Now that Tibet, the Uyghurs, and even Hong Kong had grown sick of the Chinese government and declared independence─what more needed to be said?
This country was already heading toward ruin, so a new China was necessary.
He was a man chosen by the Tower as a Climber, and among those Climbers, he had obtained the special 『Legendary Class』.
He gathered those who followed him and rebelled against the Chinese government, forcing even the Chinese army to retreat with the artifacts he possessed. To his followers, he truly was the descendant of the King of Hanzhong reincarnated in the present age.
The Chinese government used the media to spread the claim that he was behind all sorts of terrorist attacks and even collected people, but.
He wasn't collecting people; he was recruiting them...!! He was collecting monsters, if anything...!!
"Damn it, I should never have accepted the South Korean president's offer just because I was short on money!!"
He had done it because he believed that possessing the [Imperial Seal of All Under Heaven] would allow him to turn the situation around.
His goal had been to avoid harming civilians as much as possible─his only target was Wakamo Inarizushi!!
─When an excessively loyal subordinate had rushed ahead on his own and tried to kill her, he had lamented that excessive loyalty was a problem too and wondered how the generals in Romance of the Three Kingdoms had controlled their officers.
He had pitied the fact that his country's president had abandoned a Climber by requesting cooperation not only from him but also from the Chinese government.
But in reality..... wasn't he effectively using a monster to kill him?
But he had no choice─he had to fight himself.
Artillery fire rained down beyond the walls surrounding the Sichuan region, and amid the hail of shells, a single Climber was sprinting toward them with all his strength.
His movements were so frantic that it felt as though he were being chased by something─but it was clear he intended to kill the king quickly and return.
"Fire!! Keep firing!!! Don't let her approach!!!"
"Did the Alchemists coat the walls? What about Alchemy?! Are defensive spells active?!"
As Collector Yun Wei watched the commanders rushing about, he fell into deep thought.
He knew China was desperate, but they had plucked the whiskers of a fox who wanted only to live quietly, woken her up, and then blamed all of this on him.
What about the people they had persecuted and tormented all this time? What about the wealth gap? They had forgotten their own suffering during the Cultural Revolution, branded him a terrorist resisting the country, and piled every possible slander upon him... Of course, he could not call himself a good man, either.
The world always belonged to the victor.
Now that Xinjiang and Tibet had joined forces and occupied Qinghai Province, they were close. The Chairman had been trying to redirect the resentment caused by his persecution of the people toward foreign powers, but that too had its limits.
Just as the Qing Dynasty had ultimately fallen, China had already begun losing territory to India in addition to America and Russia, and its future was bleak.
"Stop──!! Open the gates!!"
"But, Lord Yun Wei!!"
"Do you think we could win even if our entire army charged out? Climbers should fight Climbers. If I lose─cooperate with whichever is easier to work with between Xinjiang and Tibet. Never India. Understood, Adjutant?"
"....Yes, sir."
Yun Wei gathered the relic-grade items.
No, [Collector] Yun Wei began walking toward the gates with a dignified stride.
A terrorist Climber known as a member of the [Six Calamities], carrying a flag symbolizing Shu Han on his back and armed from head to toe with all manner of weapons, including swords and shields.
But the truth was─he was merely branded an international terrorist Climber and treated as a member of the [Six Calamities]. In reality, he was a Climber desperately trying to change his country somehow while helping Climbers oppressed by the Chinese government.
Of course, he could never be called a good man.
Many people had died in his war against the Chinese government, and he had committed plenty of terrorist attacks himself.
'I can't bring out monsters.'
He could prepare in advance and lure his target to a chosen location, but the Collector had guessed that nothing he summoned would help. It might even attack him and cause casualties instead..... He had no choice but to fight with the artifacts he had gathered by raiding and looting museums throughout the world.
"With the world collapsing and an age of chaos in which heroes contend for supremacy upon us. ──I never expected to meet the most famous beauty who topples nations in Chinese mythology."
"Yun
Wei
right?"
As Wakamo asked with a bright smile while rolling her shoulders, he nodded.
"What does the Chinese government want... me, or my head? Wanting your [Imperial Seal of All Under Heaven] was... ─my own greed. I wanted to become the king of this country...!"
"Mm-hmm."
"I fight against a country that abandoned its people. If it were Liu Bei, he would do the same. Do you feel nothing about what happened to China? If I said I would support you if you became China's king, would you accept?"
"Why would I do that?"
"Heh... A fitting answer from the enchantress Daji... Then we can only fight... I hear you like modern culture. Manga is popular in Japan, isn't it..? Shonen manga, I believe...? I saw an impressive line in one of them. The brutally simple truth that the one who wins in the end is the one with ability! Because they have ability, they gain companions, work hard, and prevail!
─In this reality, where there is no way to save ordinary people who lack the ability to become Climbers, I declared that I would become China's king!!"
"......."
"There is neither good nor evil in this rotten world! Only the strong survive, and only the victor is justice!! Come, Daji!!"
"Before we fight, I have something to say too."
"......"
"Because of you!! I can't watch my VTuber streams!!! My schedule got pushed back too!!! Our Yu Ying's first original song got review-bombed, so I came here to beat you up!! Do I care what happens to China?!?"
"What?"
"I'll beat up anything that interferes with my VTuber streams!!! I swear it by the heavens!!!"
"What??"
A release of Mana powerful enough to make the air tremble─Wakamo took her stance as she reinforced her body with Mana.
Even though his mind could not process what he was seeing, his instincts as a Climber made him take a stance as well, and the Collector prepared himself.
Daji could have no interest in rotten China, so that made sense! Perhaps she even wanted it that way! Maybe she wanted chaos in the world? Yun Wei had been unable to sleep, tossing and turning beneath his blanket as he agonized over every possibility, and Wakamo's completely unexpected words dealt a severe blow to his mental state.
Was this Daji's rhetoric, the kind that drove people mad?!
"One-million-ton straight punch!!"
"[Zeus's Lightning]──!!"
Not even daring to try blocking with his shield, he created lightning in his hand and hurled it at Wakamo.
A [Mythic]-grade item obtained by conquering the Tower.
As a [Collector], his Legendary Class allowed him to overcome class restrictions and use items as long as he met their conditions, so he immediately fired the lightning of the greatest god of Greece.
The streak of light melted the earth, and the lightning spear pierced Wakamo's body as tremendous high-voltage current spread through her. Lightning plunged vertically from the storm-clouded sky and swallowed Wakamo whole.
It was the most powerful weapon among the items he possessed, with a one-year cooldown between uses.
The reason the Chinese government had been afraid to pick a fight with the [Collector] was that they feared lightning might strike down upon the government itself.
Its output was powerful enough to melt an ordinary person completely.
A storm of lightning like the wrath of a god directly delivered to humanity, worthy of its name as a [Mythic]-grade item. The Collector held his shield forward and endured it, sweating coldly as he denied what he was seeing.
Within the lightning, a shadow was walking toward him, taking the strikes head-on.
Thunder and lightning rained down and boomed across the land.
The darkness brought by clouds that obscured the sun was pierced by flashes of blinding light, and thunder roared, but that only made the darkness within stand out more clearly.
'[Zeus's Lightning] can't deal damage. It summons a [Lightning Storm] and can only inflict the [Shock] effect... but normally, that's enough to kill someone.'
If it had been the real lightning of Zeus, Wakamo would have evaporated without being able to respond, but because the item could use only a portion of its power, it dealt no damage at the moment of impact. The lightning merely traveled through her entire body and electrocuted her, but.....
Wakamo's fist finally reached the Collector from within the lightning and was thrust forward.
Believing there could be no exaggeration in the words one-million-ton, he raised the [Shield of Spartacus]. The hero's shield that had withstood every form of oppression!! He crossed it with the brass relic [Spartan Hoplon], resolved to block the blow and endure it─
Clang, clang, clang─!!
His earrings, necklace, and even two rings.
Protective items and relics meant to protect their owner shattered because they could not withstand the impact. The Collector was sent flying to the gates, where he struck the ground and skidded.
"Huff.. huff...!"
He stared helplessly down at the two shields, which had been completely smashed, then gripped the [Mace of Rustam] tightly.
Using the relic [Helmet of Hector], he synchronized with the walls of Sichuan and raised their durability, changing the toughness of his body to match that of the walls. In that state, he used the [Wolfskin Cloak of Marco], [Armor of Xiang Yu], [Bracelets of Bhima], and even the [Beard of Bogatyr] hanging like an ornament.
The Collector grew taller as he used countless relics simultaneously, transforming into a giant two meters tall, but he still had to look up at Wakamo.
"Behold the strength of heroes called legends!! Come forth, beloved steed Šarac!!"
Summoning and mounting Šarac, the beloved steed of Marko Kraljević, called a Serbian hero, he leaped over Wakamo in a single bound and swung his mace, striking her head with tremendous force.
"Even if you're strong, you're still a martial artist!! We aren't losing to you in mobility──"
The Collector had received a superhuman strength buff from the power of heroes of immense might, enough to throw even a tank, but when the mace struck Wakamo directly in the face and she continued smiling, he realized something was wrong.
Does physical damage simply not work at all?
He quickly rode his horse and fired arrows, but he clicked his tongue when Wakamo displayed the astonishing ability to catch the incoming arrows without even looking at them.
He needed to use another method.
He knew she was vulnerable to [Mana Burn], but using it did not guarantee that she would die. It might even erase the entire Sichuan region from existence.
The moment he summoned a relic through the power of [Collector] and raised a spear high to pierce her head, Wakamo had already vanished.
Startled, he heightened his sense of presence and looked around, but Wakamo was nowhere to be seen.
"Where did she disappea──"
Immediately afterward, an unnaturally warm presence could be felt behind him.
Wakamo's fist emerged from a portal opened in midair and struck the Collector in the face, sending him flying from his horse and rolling across the ground.
"Ha, haa?!"
[My Worlds], cast using invisible cameras that flew through the air.
Wakamo flattened herself against the ground with all her momentum and sank into the portal that had opened beneath her. The Collector hurriedly got to his feet, but Wakamo burst from a portal opening behind him and lifted him in a tight embrace.
Crack─ crack!!
"I'll carve into your body exactly how many streams you've delayed....!!!!"
Whoosh─!!
Wakamo shot upward in a single leap, flying so high that the castle instantly looked distant and tiny.
"MikoMeto Special─!!"
The Collector panicked at her lightness, as though her body weighed nothing, and tried to escape, but with his arms and legs caught, he fell upside down.
"Stella!!!"
Boom─!!
The Muscle Buster exploded as she drove him straight down.
The Collector's armor cracked and shattered along with his helmet, his neck hooked over Wakamo's shoulder while both his legs were held in her arms, leaving him hanging upside down.
Before long, even the walls of Sichuan began collapsing all at once.
"Nyaharo!!!"
Beside the Collector, who lay facedown and could do nothing but cough and barely breathe, Wakamo struck a victory pose and shouted with spirit.
She was completely toying with him. Moreover─had she heard from the Chinese government what kind of relics the Collector possessed...? Her attacks were far more daring than they had been before.
She had claimed she would adhere to a no-killing policy and leave him alive even if she shattered all four limbs.... But this was...!!
"......You're seriously planning to kill me...!! Aren't you, Daji!!"
"The power of life and death belongs to the strong, my friend."
When the Collector struggled to his feet, Wakamo leaped and thrust forward. He thought he had blocked it, but the kick that pierced through made him stagger, and he crossed his arms to reinforce his guard.
"Help Lord Yun Wei!!!"
"Shoot that monster!!"
Arrows, magic, and bullets flew toward them. Even while taking the attacks fired to protect their leader, Wakamo raised one leg and took her stance.
'High!'
When she raised her arm, the trajectory bent in midair toward his abdomen and knee. As his guard opened, her foot bent upward and struck his chin.
With her leg pointed skyward, she drove a merciless fist into the centerline of the human body.
"Guh...! Everyone!!! Get away from me!!!"
She was a genuine master whom only Japan's Fist King could contend with in martial arts!! The Collector, who was being beaten without even a moment to breathe after the slightest opening appeared, shouted for the soldiers to get as far away as possible.
He was not asking them to help; he was telling them to get away. The adjutants realized what [Collector] had resolved to do, evacuated the people, and saw Wakamo standing as though she were waiting for them. The Collector gave a bitter smile.
"Even if you don't kill me, I will kill you. Does that not matter?"
"I'm very afraid of corpses."
"Hah─ [Whistle of Slovey Razboynik]!!"
A whistle containing the cry of a half-man, half-bird whose call was said to kill people with sound alone shrieked.
Because he was [Collector], special [Relic]-grade items that could be obtained from the Tower began pouring forth in earnest.
"[Golden Scarab], devour my enemy!!"
Countless scarabs surged from the ground and rushed toward Wakamo, burrowing into her body, gnawing at and clinging to her flesh as they quickly surrounded her. He did not stop there and mobilized every [Relic] he possessed.
A steel coffin rose from the ground, trapping Wakamo and piercing her with spikes, while a self-igniting brass bull rampaged as it swallowed the coffin.
Crack─
The bull spewed flames without making a sound, struggling as it shook off the burning scarabs. When molten metal began leaking from the steel coffin it had swallowed.... a crack opened.
Wakamo's arm emerged from the hole.
She calmly walked out with holes scattered across her body and her back completely visible, regenerating as she did so.
"[Filippo Negroli]!!"
When Medusa's shield was raised toward Wakamo's incoming fist, Wakamo turned to stone in an instant.
Yet even after transforming, Wakamo did not stop and slammed a stone fist into the Collector's face.
"Huff... huff...."
How could he kill her.... In the end, he gave a bitter smile and pulled out a book.
"Let the fire of God rain down!!"
A condition that could only be met beneath a storm-clouded sky.
The Collector used the single-use [Mythic]-grade item bestowed by the Tower, and immediately began burning as he vomited blood.
The item was called the [Prophecy That Burns the World], and he had resolved never to use it, even if he had to fight China.
As a rain of flames began pouring from the sky, the Collector took out the [Robe of the Fire Rat] and wrapped it around himself.
The robe, which granted immunity to fire, withstood even the [Idol's Flame] Wakamo casually fired.
"Please, burn to death..."
It burned. The entire area in front of Sichuan burned.
He did not know what kind of catastrophe the flames spreading across the mountains would cause, but he could not lose.
He had used not one but two of the Mythic-grade items he possessed. He was fighting with the resolve to suffer tremendous losses.
It burned.
As if witnessing the end of the world, everything───burned away.
The rain of fire that seemed as though it would fall forever, the black clouds that swallowed the sun, and even the flames that had imprisoned Sichuan and burned beyond those mountains all vanished in an instant.
At the center, Wakamo stood proudly amid falling red plum blossoms, holding a sword... the Mythic-grade item [Kusanagi's Sword].
Beyond despair, in a beauty so detached and isolated from the world that it seemed to exist in another realm, Yun Wei looked up at the blue sky as though cursing the world, then drew an utterly ordinary spear.
"I challenge you to single combat!! [Guan Yu's Spear].... Strike down my lord's enemy!!"
"Isn't it the Green Dragon Crescent Blade? That's a little disappointing."
"I was disappointed by that too...."
It was nothing more than a common, worn-out spear─but as a mass of light gathered, the God of War appeared before the Collector, with a long beard, red skin, green armor, and a massive Green Dragon Crescent Blade.
He did not speak, but the spirit he radiated was palpable─Wakamo realized he had surpassed the Fist King, raised her sword, and took her stance.
Reflexes enhanced through physical reinforcement, superhuman dynamic vision, and transcendent combat sense that surpassed the limits of a class.
"All Climbers have such a strong fighting spirit!!"
"I'll summon someone too! Yu Ying, I choose you!!"
"What?"
A portal opened, and Yu Ying hopped out.
"Ahem."
She emerged with her hands boldly tucked into her pockets, then proudly raised the glowing [Imperial Seal of All Under Heaven] and struck a cool pose.
Even when Yu Ying approached and lightly tapped Guan Yu with her fist, the summoned Guan Yu did not flinch. He only turned around hesitantly.
"You won't call that cowardly, will you, Collector?"
"F-Fuck... Don't be ridiculous!! Lord Guan would never cut down a descendant of Liu Bei!!! If you ordered him to attack, he'd cut off my head instead!!!!"
"I believed that too!! Even though you're my enemy, you're a true otaku!!!"
The trump card in the [Collector]'s arsenal of [Summoning]-type items that he had shown against the Chinese government.
The manager had told Wakamo about the unprecedented item that could summon the legendary Guan Yu, just as he claimed to be a descendant of Liu Bei, so Wakamo had agonized over what to do.
It had been Yu Ying's suggestion. She had studied quite a bit herself and knew about it.
But even Wakamo had not expected it to really work.
"Kugh.... The true line of Liu Bei has arrived... Take over Shu Han and fulfill the dream of unifying the realm that I failed to achieve...!!"
"Eee... I... gonna... be a VTuber."
"Graaah!!!"
The Collector writhed in despair at the complete absence of hope, then collapsed facedown.
He had lost... He would now be captured by China and executed.
As a Climber, he had done his best for those who followed him..... but he could not win....
"VTUBER──!!!!"
They say a person's potential reaches its peak just before death. He threw away even his own weapon, dropped to his knees, and shouted desperately at Wakamo.
"To the new China!! Freedom for the people!! I will create a country where people can stream as VTubers as much as they want!!! Please!! Accept me through guanxi!!!"
"Starting today, we'll be friends for life!!!"
"Lady Wakamo!!!"
"Huh....!"
"P-Please let us establish a constitutional monarchy, place someone with legitimate bloodline on the throne as an emperor without real power, and let us handle the administration of the country under you!!"
In other words, he wanted her to serve as a perfect symbol of authority, reigning but not ruling.
Wakamo thought, Who cares about that? Wouldn't it be great if China became a country where people could freely be VTubers?! Her eyes went wide with excitement, and she covered her ears even as the manager tried to persuade her.
"Do you have any relics used by idols?"
"I-I'll give them to you...."
"I don't need them!!"
"L-Let me contact the Association president for a moment...!!"
As the situation took an absurd turn, the manager contacted the Association president and asked everyone to wait.
The United States government was also supporting Xinjiang, Taiwan, and Tibet for the sake of democracy─and the Association president left Manager Won Da-hye flustered by suggesting that perhaps having one puppet state would not be so bad.
How did Manager Won Da-hye feel, listening in real time to the insane talk about China becoming a puppet state of Korea and all that?
If they simply left things alone, it was practically certain that [Collector] would conquer the remaining Chinese territory, despite losing much of China's land, and become the chairman of a new Chinese government.
And in that situation, there was the image of Yu Ying, supposedly a descendant of Liu Bei, sitting on the imperial throne despite having no real power.
"At least we obtained evidence from this incident that China attacked our country. We just have to hide the evidence that the president cooperated with them, heheh....."
Should I quit this job?
The manager seriously contemplated the question and let out a deep sigh.
"Then we can even swear the Oath of the Peach Garden with Yu Ying and Wakamo...!!"
"Ah, VTubers shouldn't be associated with men. Do it with the manager instead."
Even in that situation, Wakamo firmly rejected anything that needed rejecting.
For now, the manager told the Chinese government that Wakamo had seriously wounded the [Collector] and left him incapacitated in order to clean up the situation.
There was no reason for Wakamo to capture him and hand him over to the Chinese government, and the manager did not want to provoke Wakamo any further for no reason.
And because they had witnessed the fight!! The Chinese government backed off, saying that they would handle things themselves from then on.
[Collector] Yun Wei also stopped causing any further trouble.
He said he would unify the realm and come to ask Yu Ying to take the imperial throne like Zhuge Liang, or something along those lines....
Yu Ying said she would do VTubing regardless of whether she was an empress or anything else, and Yun Wei's needless clinginess annoyed Wakamo so much that she punched him in the face, telling him to create a country where VTubers could stream. He passed out.
Afterward, with the Collector problem resolved, Wakamo left the cleanup to the manager and told her to discuss the rest with him.
Since she had not taken any artifacts from the Collector and had nothing in particular to bring back, Wakamo returned to Korea with Yu Ying.
"Boss... what are we doing now?"
"What do you think?"
After returning from China, Wakamo turned on her stream.
Everyone excitedly joined Wakamo's long-awaited broadcast.
The believers who claimed they had crawled there on all fours saw a strangely familiar green chroma key.
"Hello, I'm the VTuber Wakamo Inarizushi, and I stream on YouTube..."
"I'm sorry for postponing the stream schedule due to personal matters...."
-No, why are you doing an apology streamㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Even the fox god whom the Collector begged for mercy from can't defeat her believers...
-Ahem! Don't go any further than that, you bastard!
-You're not sorry, bastard!
-Just a whole Yuringeshung lump...
-What the hell are these insane bastards even talking aboutㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-In all my life, I never thought I'd watch a virtual apology stream.
-"Sorry I came back after conquering China."
-She's sorry for conquering China in just two days...
-Didn't Nuwa entrust this to her because she works this well? She was punished for slacking off.
-If you're sorry, do a cute stream.
-Dance Sakuranbo in a three-way split screen.
"We'll be performing Super Dopa for our migrant-worker unicorn!"
-Uhyōㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Anyway, upvote if you're happy she's streamingㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-So did she really go beat him up because he made the stream suckㅋㅋ
Wakamo shamelessly dumped politics on the government, claiming that she was merely a lowly VTuber and that they could handle it themselves.
Wakamo's return stream began as an apology stream and continued with her dancing in response to all sorts of requests.
Wakamo was a spectacular dancer even if she did not know many songs, while Yu Ying creaked awkwardly beside her.
The mother-and-daughter apology-stream performance succeeded in satisfying the viewers.
Whether or not the manager called her, Wakamo locked herself away, watching VTuber streams and clipping them.