Chapter 50

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【Virtual VTuber Gallery】

[General] EYEAI Minecraft Incident Summary

1. Sora wanted to make a beacon and asked Laura for help.

2. Laura went to the inland region to hunt the Three-headed Ghost.

3. The Three-headed Ghost got aggroed towards Anna, who was secretly stalking Laura.

4. The Three-headed Ghost killed Anna and, while aggroing other animals and plants, kept moving.

5. Sora, wanting to get a Void Rod, took Chel to the city.

6. The Three-headed Ghost spotted Sora passing by and killed her.

7. Chel offered Sora as a sacrifice, fled to the city, but eventually died, leaving the place in ruins.

[Comments]

– What even happened from point 3? LOL

ㄴ Anna was secretly watching the stream and ended up wanting to stalk Laura.

ㄴ That’s insane, lmao.

ㄴ Is Anna really a disaster?

ㄴ Didn’t you know? She confessed to Louis, remember?

– What’s up with Chel, LOL?

ㄴ She’s also secretly crazy.

– Sora suddenly getting forced into a horror game is hilarious, LOL.

ㄴ She had to do it anyway because Laura sent her a gift.

– Terrorarist, LOL.

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[General] Anna-noona is late!

When’s she going to do the horror game?

[Comments]

– For real, at this rate, she’ll be a grandma before doing it.

– Shiroki Anna, before you become a grandma, do the horror game now!!

– If she doesn’t do the horror game, I’ll go to Seoul Station to buy some poop.

ㄴ You’re going to… buy it?

– I’m already protesting from home.

– Sora and Chel not doing anything is annoying.

ㄴ But Chel probably wouldn’t be fun anyway.

ㄴ Chel has already played a few horror games.

ㄴ But they were RPG Maker games, so they weren’t scary in the first place.

ㄴ Wouldn’t she be scared if it was something like In Last?

– Anna should set an example as a senior.

ㄴ Exactly LOL LOL LOL.

===

“Help me.”

It was 9 a.m.

Anna was kneeling in front of my room.

“…What’s going on this early in the morning?”

“Please help me, Laura-nim….”

She was prostrating on the floor, her forehead pressed down.

“…You can even step on my head if you want. Just, please, do something about the horror game….”

“But can you change your words now?” I looked down at Anna and spoke.

The culprits of the recent ‘EYEAI Minecraft Catastrophe Incident.’

Commonly referred to as the ‘Terrorarist,’ they were supposed to do a horror game as punishment.

VTubers playing horror games as punishment was a long-standing tradition. Even among streamers, this was a common occurrence.

“Even if I were to change my mind, others wouldn’t allow it.”

The seniors wanted a horror game, and the viewers wanted a horror game.

Even if I suggested a different punishment now, it wouldn’t fly. It would only cause more backlash.

“You can even use me as a chair…!”

“…It’s much more comfortable to sit on a regular chair than on someone. The height never quite matches right.”

“How do you even know that…?”

Well, because I’d done it a few times. As the Villainous Noblewoman, I had to put on a show and make others submit.

Once, I sat on a Paladin, and honestly, it felt pretty good.

‘Though after that day, the Tower Lord would always growl at me whenever we met.’

The Paladin and the Tower Lord had a bit of a thing going on. The Tower Lord didn’t hide her dislike for me.

Now it’s just a memory. I wonder what happened to the Paladin and the Tower Lord after that. Maybe they got married?

“I’ll do anything, just please save me…!!”

Anna clung to my legs. …She was becoming more and more annoying.

But her desperation was clear. She’d even come to my house this early in the morning, so she’d certainly said all she could.

“Well, while you’re here, you can do some housework. I can’t cancel the horror game, but I can suggest a slightly lighter one.”

Rion was on the verge of retiring as a VTuber. She was now practically more of a manager than a VTuber and had started working nearly every day.

On top of that, she seemed to be preparing something else, as her work hours were stretching longer recently.

As a result, housework had started to pile up.

With monetization approved, the 6th generation was also planning their monetization celebration streams soon. Payments would start coming in from next month, so I’d been considering hiring a housekeeper.

“Thank you…! I’ll never forget this favor!”

It’s not much of a favor.

I’d told the viewers that the ‘Terrorarist’ would be playing horror games, but we hadn’t announced which games yet.

To be honest, Anna wouldn’t be able to handle In Last. She was a scaredy-cat among scaredy-cats.

The game had a spooky atmosphere from the beginning, so there was a high chance she’d quit within a few minutes.

‘That wouldn’t sit well with the viewers.’

In games with a story, viewers usually watch streams anticipating the streamer’s reactions to certain scenes.

But Anna wouldn’t even make it to those scenes in In Last, so the viewers would probably find it frustrating.

And if the game was too scary for her, the pace would be unbearably slow. I needed to pick something moderately scary.

‘I unintentionally ended up using a highball strategy. But I can’t pick something too tame either.’

For example, something like ‘Witch’s House’ or ‘Ib,’ which are free horror games that Chel once played.

They have some horror elements, but the pixel art only makes it mildly creepy. Like calling a mildly spicy dipping sauce a ‘spicy food.’

Just because it has horror elements doesn’t mean everyone will consider it a horror game.

In that sense, side-scrollers like ‘Outsider’ or games like ‘Small Nightmares’ also had horror elements, but the viewers probably wouldn’t consider them true horror games.

Something like ‘Wandering Dawn’ might be the limit, but that game was surprisingly physically demanding, and Anna wouldn’t be able to manage.

What game would make people say we did well?

I thought about it for a while.

***

I realized something.

Anna was terrible at housework.

“…How about you just play In Last ?”

“N-No…! Give me another chance!”

She couldn’t clean, couldn’t wash dishes properly.

I was starting to realize just how capable Rion was. Now that I thought about it, Rion once mentioned that Anna was a complete slob at home.

Apparently, she did absolutely no housework in her own apartment. I’d vaguely heard this before, but now I knew it was true.

‘…Then what’s Anna good at?’

When I was teaching her Labyrinthos, I thought she had some good qualities because she worked hard. But now, she was just making me shake my head.

She had a good heart, but she couldn’t do housework, and she was sometimes a little annoying….

“Just out of curiosity, what do you think about relationships or marriage?”

“I’m not interested! Honestly, I’d rather you take care of me! …Can I live here forever?”

“Don’t sparkle your eyes like that. I have no intention of taking you in.”

It might be different if she were good at housework. But I had no hobby of supporting others. If I had that hobby, I would have already gotten a dog or a cat.

If I had time to take care of a pet, I’d rather play another game instead.

I turned on my PC.

【EYEAI Discord Server】

# General Chat

Tanaka Michael (2nd Gen)

[Anyone want to play Minecraft today~]

[Not the 6th Gen]

[@everyone]

Ayanokouji Sora (6th Gen)

[Why are we excluded?]

Tanaka Michael (2nd Gen)

[We’re doing city restoration, LOL]

[You guys go play at your own base, LOL]

Ayanokouji Sora (6th Gen)

[I’ll help with the restoration too!]

Tanaka Michael (2nd Gen)

[It’s fine LOL LOL LOL]

[It’s our base, so we’ll handle it LOL LOL LOL]

Yamaoka Gabriel (2nd Gen)

[Indeed!]

[Newbies, stay put!]

[How dare you try to steal our senior work! Grr!!!]

Ayanokouji Sora (6th Gen)

[What does “newbie” mean?]

Yamaoka Gabriel (2nd Gen)

[What…]

“Hmm.”

As soon as the PC turned on, Discord automatically opened. Reading the chat, I suddenly craved tea. Rion wasn’t here to brew it for me.

I tried having Anna make tea as a test, but it came out a bit bland. She used too much water, this girl.

“The 2nd Gen is playing Minecraft again today?”

Maybe because she knew she’d failed with the tea, Anna brewed some coffee and presented it to me.

The coffee was drinkable at least. I’d heard that Anna, despite being terrible at housework, made coffee for herself at home.

“They seem to be at it.”

“Actually, 2nd Gen has always played a lot of Minecraft. Especially Michael-senior who is a Minecraft specialist.”

“Is that so?”

Anna explained that Tanaka Michael was someone who roamed the world building structures.

She’d built multiple theme parks.

Constructed underwater cities in the ocean.

And even built floating islands in the sky.

“That’s impressive.”

“On the other hand, the truth is, only Michael-senpai has been consistently playing Minecraft. VTubers like me… we were starting to lose interest in Minecraft.”

That was understandable. The seniors had probably exhausted all the content in Minecraft.

Other than the final boss, the dragon, there wasn’t much in terms of high-difficulty challenge content.

And even that dragon didn’t require much preparation. If you were confident, all you really needed was an iron sword, armor, and a bow. Diamond gear wasn’t necessary.

There was even a speedrun where people killed the dragon in a day, so the endgame content in Minecraft was very shallow.

“People usually only come back to Minecraft when there’s a new update. But even then, it’s often content that can be completed in about a week.”

“Most updates add new creatures or building materials. Sometimes there’s a new dungeon, but not often.”

There hadn’t been any new endgame content. The dragon remained the capstone boss.

So, except for Tanaka Michael, people had stopped visiting the Minecraft server.

But after the recent incident, they all had to participate in the ‘restoration work,’ so lately, the EYEAI VTubers had been logging back into Minecraft.

“By the way, the 6th Gen’s collaboration ban was lifted, right?”

“It’s not completely lifted, but yes.”

Interaction with the seniors within the Minecraft server was allowed.

But there was a condition that their voices couldn’t be heard on stream.

“I could say all this was thanks to me, couldn’t I?”

That seemed to be her real point. Anna put her hands on her hips.

“I brought new life to the dying EYEAI Minecraft server, and the 6th Gen, who were stranded on their island, can now receive help from the seniors! All thanks to me stalking Laura!”

“What exactly are you trying to say?”

“…Please appreciate my great achievements. Seriously, do something about the horror game.”

It seemed that unless I eased the horror game conditions, Anna wasn’t going to leave. …Was she always this troublesome?

-Ding-dong

The speaker chimed.

Looking at the screen, the original woman who had always bothered me was now contacting me.

“Inagika?”

Anna wrapped her arms around my neck, resting her chin on my shoulder.

“Inagika’s pretty cute, huh?”

“Do you watch Inagika’s streams?”

“I watch quite a bit. Personally, I like her because she seems like she doesn’t have many friends. Plus, the way she flinches makes her look like a cute little rabbit, don’t you think?”

“Depending on how you look at it, yes.”

“Oh! But of course! I like Laura more than Inagika! I’ve watched all of your streams! I even watched the 20-hour archive! So please, the horror game…!”

“Don’t keep repeating yourself. It’s getting tiresome.”

I clicked the left mouse button and answered Inagika’s call.

[Ah…! H-Hello, Laura! I’m streaming right now, but it’s on mute, so you can speak freely!]

Mute. In other words, her microphone was off.

Just in case, I opened up Inagika’s stream on my second monitor. It seemed she was streaming Minecraft.

“I see. What’s going on?”

[Ah, well, since I saw you were online… I just wanted to talk…]

“Huh, so this is the kind of relationship you two have?”

Inagika stammered, and Anna whispered quietly.

I wondered how Inagika would react if she knew Anna was here. Maybe she’d hang up right away.

Was Anna whispering out of consideration for Inagika’s shy personality? In some ways, Anna was a kind-hearted person.

“If you have something to say, just say it, Inagika. I’m listening.”

[Y-Yeah…! C-Could you log into Minecraft…?]

Again?

I was planning to run some duels in Labyrinthos, but it seemed people were constantly pulling me back to Minecraft.

“Is something wrong?”

I was puzzled.

If it were Sora asking for help, I’d understand, but Inagika asking for help felt odd. Inagika was the most experienced Minecraft player among us.

I was better at combat and adventures, but Minecraft was more about building and redstone circuits, which Inagika excelled at.

She knew far more about the game, and unlike me, who stopped playing two years ago, she was familiar with all the latest updates. There shouldn’t be anything in the game that required my help.

[S-Sora and Chel went to the city… So I’m the only one left at our base….]

Inagika’s voice was trembling. Something serious must have happened.

Guess I had no choice.

I logged into Minecraft.

***

“Hello? This is our first time talking, right?”

In front of me stood an unfamiliar avatar.

The voice that spoke to me was lively and a bit on the deeper side.

“My name is Kisaki Rinco. I’m a fan. I always enjoy watching your streams.”

That’s how she introduced herself.

Kisaki Rinco.

One of only two 1st Gen members of EYEAI, and the VTuber with the most subscribers among us.

And, aside from me, the only other VTuber in EYEAI who made Labyrinthos her main content.

Or should I say, used to make it her main content?