Chapter 52

“Event 1-on-1 Match: Kisaki Rinco VS Aurora.”

Kisaki Rinco read the final phrase.

After tilting her head for a moment, she opened her mouth again.

“Event 1-on-1 Match: Kisaki Rinco VS Aurora.”

“…Rinco-san, do you not like it by any chance?”

Her manager asked anxiously at Rinco’s mumbling.

“If I had to choose between liking it or not, I’d say I don’t like it.”

“But there’s no choice…. Deadraus Korea specifically chose you and Laura for this.”

“I know.”

Rinco nodded.

Labyrinthos is riding the so-called ‘VTuber coin.’

It wasn’t a particularly strange thing.

When targeting the Japanese market, using VTubers is one strategy.

For example, there was an online mahjong game.

When it launched its Japanese server, the user count was low.

Then they hired VTubers for advertising, and the number of users exploded, reviving the Japanese server. This is a fairly well-known story.

Labyrinthos also had some success using VTubers when targeting the Japanese market, and since then, it has remained a VTuber-friendly game.

Though, I didn’t expect them to hire Korean VTubers for advertising.

“There are already so few female users who have reached Master rank, and on top of that, you’re a VTuber. Deadraus treasures you very much.”

“I was a Master last year. Now I’ve been demoted to Diamond because I’ve been inactive.”

“Rank isn’t everything. Rinco-san, you’ve also appeared at Labyrinthos events.”

“I’m aware.”

Even if I don’t like it, I can’t just quit.

A VTuber is a professional who gets paid to work.

No matter how unpleasant the job is, sometimes you just have to do it.

Originally, you need a reason to let go.

And Rinco didn’t yet have a reason to do so.

“Starting next year, Laura will probably take over.”

“Pardon?”

“I’m talking about the Labyrinthos advertisement.”

Rinco shrugged her shoulders.

“Ugh… I wish someone would just overthrow me already.”

***

===

【Virtual VTuber Gallery】

[General] What’s this Labyrinthos Tournament?

Is there a set number of participants for the Labyrinthos tournament?

[Comments]

– Arcade mode is 3v3, so it should be doable.

ㄴ (Author) What’s arcade mode?

ㄴ It’s a new mode coming in the next patch.

ㄴ (Author) Oh, I see.

===

[General] Today’s participants are out

EYEAI Official @EYEAI_official

[#LabyrinthosTournament

Announcing today’s participants for the EYEAI Cup Labyrinthos Tournament!

The flashy leader of the 6th generation, ‘Ayanokouji Sora,’ will be competing for the Winter team!!]

[Comments]

– Flashy?

– Shouldn’t she stick to singing?

– Wasn’t Aurora the leader?

ㄴ (Author) Apparently not.

ㄴ Being a leader cuts down on game time.

ㄴ LMAO

– She’s gonna suck at this…

===

[General] Summary of the participants announced so far

Spring Team: Tanaka Michael

Summer Team: (Still not revealed)

Autumn Team: Shijo Erika, Shiroki Anna

Winter Team: Ayanokouji Sora, Inagika, Chel Sumeragi

[Comments]

– Where’s A-Grade Virgin?

ㄴ (Author) She’s the Coach.

ㄴ Isn’t the Coach not supposed to participate?

ㄴ (Author) Not sure.

ㄴ Guess she won’t be in the tournament?

ㄴ That sucks.

– The Winter team only has 6th gen members?

ㄴ The Autumn team is probably only 5th gen too.

– The Spring team is a mix of 1st and 2nd gen, and the Summer team is probably a mix of 3rd and 4th gen.

===

[General] Rinco and Laura are probably separated because their ranks are high

Rinco was Master last year.

Laura is Diamond.

Ainatsu and Veronica are Platinum.

The rest are all below Gold.

[Comments]

– Why is A-Grade Virgin still stuck in Diamond?

ㄴ (Author) She’s been grinding 1v1 duels to cut down on her Berserker rank.

ㄴ Sora keeps distracting her with Minecraft.

ㄴ ???: “Hey, I’ve got a cat at home, want to come see?”

ㄴ Why does Sora have this meme now? LOL.

ㄴ It kind of fits her though.

– What, so this is just a joke match?

ㄴ That’s why it’s going to be fun, lol.

===

[General] If you’re excited for the event match, smash that like button

EYEAI’s top Rinco.

The King of Virgins, Laura.

This is gonna be epic…

[Comments]

– Honestly, this is probably the main event, lol.

***

“…Aren’t you going to start the stream? Why are you launching Labyrinthos first?” Sora asked, sounding incredulous.

“Oh my, didn’t you ask me to share my screen? I just did what you asked.”

“I meant to share the stream screen, not the game screen.”

“Oh, I see. Does this work?”

“…Why is the stream screen only showing the patch notes and the game screen? At least show our Discord icons.”

Sora explained that for collaboration streams, it’s better to have the Discord overlay displayed.

When multiple people talk on one stream, viewers might have trouble distinguishing who’s speaking. It’s even more confusing when people with similar voices are talking.

“The overlay is the thing where the Discord icons blink when we speak, right? How do I set that up?”

“…You don’t know how to do it?”

“I’ve never done it before.”

Come to think of it, this was my first time hosting a collab on my own channel. Our first 6th gen collab was on Inagika’s channel, and after that, I only appeared on other people’s streams, never inviting anyone to mine.

“First, click on the scene and add a source. Then you need to copy the URL….”

Thankfully, with Sora’s help, I managed to set up the screen without too much trouble.

Before I knew it, the time had reached 6:00 PM.

I clicked the button to start the stream.

【#LabyrinthosTournament】 Winter Team Assembly 【Aurora/EYEAI】

– Greetings.

– How are you all?

– The stream’s started~.

– Milord (as in ‘greeting for a noble,’ lol).

As soon as the stream started, the chat room became lively.

Currently, there are about 2,000 live viewers. Considering the stream had just started, it was quite a large number.

The tournament announcement and the fact that it was a collaboration likely drew more viewers than usual.

“Well, since the stream is up, shall we continue where we left off? I’m thinking of trying out Arcade Mode. Should I just go ahead and create a custom room?”

“…What are you even talking about all of a sudden?”

“Oh my, I said we should look into Arcade Mode earlier, didn’t I? We’ll have to try playing it ourselves to really understand it, right?”

“That’s not what I meant…. Aren’t you going to explain to the viewers? Your channel doesn’t even have an opening greeting? Just diving straight into a conversation only we understand is going to confuse them.”

“You make a valid point.”

I nodded.

“Well then, Sora, why don’t you explain it to the viewers?”

“What…? Me?”

“I’ll need to explain the Labyrinthos part myself later, so until then, could you handle it?”

– She’s passing the buck again, LOL.

– After Rion, now it’s Sora, huh? LOL.

– Isn’t this Aurora’s stream?

– Ahaha, this 6th gen really shares everything, LOL.

– If you’re a genmate, you’ve got to take ownership, even on someone else’s channel.

– Help relieve the noble lady’s burden! Sora, whatever-your-title-is!!!

“…Every time, I swear, you’re such high-maintenance.”

With a sigh, Sora began explaining.

“If you saw the SNS announcements, you’d already know, but EYEAI is hosting a Labyrinthos VR tournament this time.”

“Yes, it’s an ad. Wow, Laura’s viewers are sharp. Deadraus Korea approached our agency with this proposal. So, we’re promoting the Arcade Mode.”

“As for the rest of the tournament participants, we’re not going to spoil that, are we? If you’re curious, check our SNS!”

Sora read through the chat, providing clear explanations.

Listening to Sora’s explanations reminded me of something from a few days ago.

—“There’s going to be a Labyrinthos tournament within the company.”

—“It’s about time we started sharing subscribers.”

Rion, after getting home from work, had told me that.

Sharing subscribers.

It’s a topic that’s come up a few times before. VTubers share a portion of their subscribers through collabs.

In fact, the 6th gen VTubers had already shared subscribers to some extent.

【Aurora】 183,219 subscribers

【Ayanokouji Sora】 31,866 subscribers

【Inagika】 22,431 subscribers

【Chel Sumeragi】 14,018 subscribers

Sora, who initially had the fewest subscribers, saw a significant rise after our Minecraft collab.

It wasn’t just because Sora and Minecraft went well together, but probably because she kept dragging me onto her channel.

It seemed like many of my viewers had grown fond of Sora. When I wasn’t streaming, they would often watch Sora’s streams.

While I interact with Inagika more outside of streams than on them, we’ve also collabed a few times.

Chel, on the other hand, didn’t interact much with the rest of us.

Though her character was strong due to her quietness, she often lacked presence and left awkward silences during streams.

Despite participating in collabs often, her lack of words made it meaningless. Perhaps that’s why her subscriber growth was the slowest among us.

—“I wish Chel would interact more, but I think the 6th gen is doing well.”

—“I hope you guys continue to interact actively in this upcoming tournament, especially since you’ve been placed on the same team.”

—“As you get along with your seniors, share subscribers, and prepare for future external collabs.”

In other words, it was time not only to share subscribers among our genmates but also with our seniors.

“Hmm? Is Laura participating in the tournament? …I’ll leave that to you to explain, Coach.”

Sora passed the baton to me after providing plenty of explanation. Though she could have just finished it off herself.

“Coachs aren’t allowed to participate in the tournament due to their high tier. It would be unfair.”

“…You don’t need to mention tiers or fairness, just say you’re not participating.”

“Oh, did I? Anyway, if you were hoping to see me in action, I’m sorry to disappoint, but you can look forward to the event match.”

With that, I displayed the patch notes I had prepared earlier on the screen.

[Arcade Mode’s victory conditions are as follows:

1. Eliminate all opponent players (same as other modes).

2. Complete missions.

There are various missions, and here are a few examples:

– Extermination: Hunt all the monsters on the map, and if you successfully hunt more than your opponents, you win.

– Escape: Find the escape routes hidden somewhere on the map. The escape routes are for single players only. If your team escapes more, you win.

– Conquest: Occupy specific areas on the map. If you occupy more areas than your opponents, you win.

There are other missions as well, and one random mission will be selected for each match.]

“There was a new patch for Labyrinthos earlier, and the Arcade Mode was added. As you can see, the Arcade Mode is a 3v3 mode with significantly different victory conditions compared to other modes.”

Honestly, even I wasn’t sure how the game would play out.

What was clear was that it would be different from Gate Assault Mode or 1v1 Duel Mode. I had a feeling it would require a wide character pool and exceptional individual skills.

But that was just a hunch. I didn’t have enough information to be certain yet.

“No point in explaining too much. You’ll understand the game better once you experience it. Let’s all try playing Arcade Mode together.”

“…You’re not just saying this because you want to play, right?”

Having been silent the whole time, Inagika suddenly asked a rather rude question.

Of course, I didn’t deny it.