Chapter 89

‘Why do you all watch my broadcast?’

When I turn on the broadcast, I sometimes think this way.

At first, I started this to earn a little potion money, feeling that it was a shame to waste time.

However, looking back, I couldn’t shake the thought that my broadcasts had been excessively self-centered.

At some point, I made it a habit to turn off the chat window and block all communication.

This wasn’t only the case in the virtual space. It had been like this long before…

In a small three-tatami space in virtual reality. In the past, it was just a bed, a table, and a chair.

Even now, structurally, it hasn’t changed much.

However, when I broadcast alone, I often had to write equations, so I bought whiteboard-like items from the paid store.

Fuzzy animal fur could be seen on the carpet between my toes.

It was a product with the same hash value as the carpet Seol-a sold before, purchased for a price 100 times its market value in the name of server recovery costs.

The atomic structure would be the same as that of other carpets with the same product name.

I know it doesn’t mean anything… but sometimes reason would surrender.

For a long time, I just scribbled and muttered various magical knowledge I had.

The knowledge from my past life is not perfect.

Like when you wake up from a long dream: if you don’t desperately think about it again, you will forget it, just as I was piecing together the puzzles of my past life step by step.

After awakening those magical knowledge lying in my unconscious, what remained was always just regret.

Ah… if only I had used this magic back then.

If only I knew a way to conserve mana at that time.

To calm the soul of my past life, which fell into the swamp of regret, I researched and preached.

So, the frustration that erupted from my vocal cords—who was it aimed at, after all?

Perhaps this is why I turn off the chat window whenever I talk to myself under the pretense of lecturing.

I don’t want to be criticized. I feel like I won’t be able to hold up the moment others say my choice was wrong.

I don’t want to think about anything. Especially on days like today.

[운메이노 이타즈라데모~ (Even if it’s a prank of fate)]

Moreover, today was not the usual classical piano or violin pieces; a rather chaotic song was playing.

[메구리아에타 코토가~ (The fact that we met)]

In the pitch-black darkness, the passionate voice of a honey badger girl singing a foreign song echoed like a resonance.

[시아와세 나노~ (I am happy)]

“…”

Although I intended to filter out the viewers, the problem was that I, too, had to listen to this song.

At first, I thought it would be apt since it was similar to my voice, but it was surprisingly uncomfortable for me to listen to.

So, it’s trendy these days for VTubers to sing too?

[연애 서큘레이션 (Cover – 카리리)]

[2:41/4:15]

As virtual reality capsules became popularized, the boundaries between VTubers and non-VTubers were increasingly blurred.

It seems there are still debates about how to define a VTuber, but a few clear propositions remained.

First, a VTuber shouldn’t reveal the ‘person inside’ themselves, and even if it is revealed, it shouldn’t be through official means. Of course, the reverse does not hold.

Moreover, not everyone hiding the ‘person inside’ is a VTuber.

In such ambiguous definitions circling one another, ‘VTubers’ undeniably existed and formed a huge ecosystem.

In that sense, the VTuber with 900,000 subscribers, ‘Kariri,’ was influential enough to appear on my unrelated VTuber recommendation channel.

I was an outsider to this culture, but thanks to that girl in the honey badger costume, the broadcast viewers had become a bit more gentle.

[후와후와루~♡ 후와후와리~♡ (Fuwafuwaru Fuwafuwari)]

– Please stop!!!!!!! At this rate, we will all die!!!!!!!!

– Today’s discipline is on point, lol.

– Are you not going out? Are you not going out? Are you not going out? Are you not going out? Are you not going out? Are you not going out? Are you not going out?

– Hold it with grit! You chose this streamer!

– lololololol

– Kariring, come on, come on, Kariring, come on, come on, Kariring, come on, come on, Kariring, come on, come on, Kariring, come on, come on!

– Already, the honeybee kids have infested the area, lol.

– The concept is a honey badger, why is the fan name honeybee?

– Because in English, it’s HONEY Badger.

– I think I will go out for lunch now!!!!!!

– Is it real that it’s already 1000 kills, lolololol.

– It’s a great depression, Dome Hwangcha~~~

“I will stop here.”

I turned off all the VTuber windows and turned the camera back on.

Let’s try to start again in the original calm atmosphere.

Under soft lighting that wasn’t overly bright, I leaned back in my armchair.

The heat of the chat remained the same, but since the direction of the flames had shifted, I felt a bit proud.

I glanced at the number of viewers.

[Number of viewers – 1480]

Compared to before, the number of viewers had halved, but the inner intimacy between me and them had increased.

Originally, a single loach can muddy the water, and a rotten apple can spoil a whole barrel of apples.

The room, now rid of aggro and resentful viewers, may not be perfect, but I liked it.

[‘대유쾌마운틴’님이 1,000원 후원!]

– No Name, I really like you! I also like Kariri!

With the cheerful sound of a coin rolling on the floor, a voice identical to the girl who had just sung flowed out as a donation message.

Did that person called Kariri even entrust her voice to capitalist society?

“Thank you.”

The loyal viewers now demanded an answer from me about what to do next.

It was too obvious that if I ended the broadcast here, the atmosphere would turn sour, so I shook the armchair back and forth, deep in thought.

It was too short a time to give a lecture on the magical knowledge I knew as usual.

Since I had interacted with the viewers only through donation messages, this situation was very awkward.

It was like class time was over, but everyone was sitting in their seats waiting for the professor all at once.

Still, I should at least give a sweet marshmallow to the kids who patiently waited.

“I will end the broadcast in one hour. In the meantime, if there are any content requests you would like, I will consider them.”

– What are you talking about?

– The real broadcast hasn’t even started, and you declare an end, lol.

– Not having a broadcast theme means no content at all!

– When the water rises, the first thing you do is shake the ant’s nest, lol.

“It seems like you’re not really into it. Then, the broadcast ends here…”

– How about doing a Q&A, host?

– How about reading the Tree Wiki?

– Would you like to react to visual tube videos?

– Even just for you looking at the chat window, we should be grateful… ehh… tsk tsk…

– How about trying an MBTI test?

– Let’s do a type world cup, No Name!

“Type world cup?”

[‘jdfshsdfjdfs’님이 5,000원 후원!]

– How about a Type World Cup for Twish female streamers?

Were the words type and world cup able to coexist?

A type would be the most perfect type that an individual could abstract, making it contradictory to compare it with others.

– Why is it female streamers when the host is a woman? lol.

– So, are you asking us to look at male cam for one hour?

– I’d rather listen to Kariri’s song for an hour.

– Really, lol.

With half curiosity and half distrust, I entered a link that contained a variety of category world cups.

‘Ah, it’s a world cup for finding types.’

It was content where you first don’t set a type and select among the various options given, culminating in one final choice.

In fact, eliminating the term ideal type would have been acceptable because there were also food world cups, life movie world cups, and Pokémon world cups in the popularity rankings.

It wasn’t much different from a simple VS game. Perhaps the tournament format is why it was called a world cup.

Since the viewers wanted different categories, the relatively quiet chatroom began to get lively.

I quickly scanned through the various world cups sorted by popularity.

I dislike evaluating others based on appearance. I prefer to detest it, actually.

[Pretty Girl Idol World Cup]

[Anime Female Character World Cup]

[AV Actor World Cup]

[Pokémon Anthropomorphism World Cup]

When I felt it was pointless to scroll any further, one word caught my eye as if enchanted.

[Battle Magic World Cup]

[If you could use only one magic during battle? / Includes the 128 most frequently used battle magics presented at the World Magic Culture Forum / Excludes 6 circles and above]

[Choose total rounds: 32]

[32 random candidates will compete out of a total of 128 candidates.]

A low-popularity category that no one would seem to want.

An excellent idea suddenly came to my mind.

“This time, the content will be viewer participation. Those who make the same choice as me and survive until the end will be granted manager rights in my channel.”