Chapter 41
Chapter 41
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 41
Chapter Title: Oh, Red Pill
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Oh, red pill.
Crack!
Splat!
For a bit of acting, the sound effects were surprisingly realistic.
"Gyaeeeeek!"
With that, her motion of slamming her head into the floor came to an end.
Lee Jia got booted from the game.
V-World was a virtual reality game boasting such flawless completion that there was no substitute for it. However, contrary to its fame, it was also a game riddled with all sorts of minor bugs.
One of V-World's most infamous bugs.
When you get booted from the game,
an afterimage of your character lingers in that spot for several dozen seconds.
In other words,
Lee Jia's afterimage—with her head smashed into the floor—stayed there for several dozen seconds, decorating Ayase's stream screen.
💬 Stream Chat — Viewer Insane lololololol — Viewer Dogeza ending lolololol — Viewer Perfect ending lololol — Viewer Best ending ever lolololol — Viewer That chick's a total lunatic for real lololol — Viewer No way you can hear the desk breaking lololol — Viewer She actually smashed the desk with her head, right? ⭐ Official — Official GOAT guest on Naraka Show. ⭐ Official — Official God of Broadcasting ⭐ Official — Official God of RP Performance ...
Clap.
Clap clap.
Clap clap clap clap clap clap clap.
Gazing at Lee Jia's afterimage with her head smashed into the floor,
Ayase burst into applause.
It wasn't intentional applause—it was reflexive.
Ayase was genuinely impressed by Lee Jia.
At this level, as her fans put it,
it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say the God of Broadcasting had possessed her.
Inviting Lee Jia as a guest on Naraka Show had truly been a divine move.
It was the greatest ending—and the greatest guest—in Naraka Show history.
The skyrocketing viewer count was proof.
'Ayase's Naraka Show' usually averaged around 15,000 viewers.
But today,
it was double that!
Peak viewers hit 30,000.
As Ayase delivered her closing remarks to the audience, she thought,
'Gotta thank Jia separately.'
She'd been confident that booking Lee Jia would guarantee at least a solid hit.
But she hadn't expected a massive jackpot like this.
And she certainly hadn't expected Lee Jia to sacrifice her own skull to deliver laughs to the fans.
Bit by bit,
Ayase's curiosity about this person named Lee Jia was growing. ◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ To cut to the chase,
I'm an idiot.
No, more than an idiot—I'm a moron.
No, no!
More than a moron—I'm a total blockhead.
The reason I'm so harshly criticizing myself like this is simple.
In the final question of Ayase's Naraka Show,
I acted like a complete blockhead.
Did smashing the desk with my head do it?
Now that I'd regained my cool, I mentally replayed Ayase's final question one more time.
Choose the answer where the religion and its god do not match.
A. Christianity - Lord Jesus Christ
B. Buddhism - Buddha
C. Islam - Allah
D. Reflecting Myriad Stars Faith - Reflecting Myriad Stars
At first glance, it looks like a question with no right answer.
At first glance, it looks like a question designed to make me say Reflecting Myriad Stars' name myself.
But no.
This final question had a clear correct answer.
The right answer was
B.
Buddha.
'Buddha' is not a god.
Buddha is a term for a 'human' who awakened to the truth of the world, opened their eyes, and attained nirvana.
The representative figure of Buddha, Shakyamuni, never once claimed to be a god himself.
I'm an idiot, a moron, and a blockhead.
It was a question where the flaw was obvious if you just thought about it a little.
Of course, there were excuses.
First, fear of the cost of blasphemy kept my brain from working properly.
Second, the 10-second time limit left no room for thought.
Third, it was the grand finale question of Ayase's signature content, Naraka Show, so the pressure was immense.
...In other words, Ayase had deliberately crafted the question's flaw into a double-layered trap, and I'd fallen for it spectacularly.
There had been an escape route.
But I boarded the express train to hell myself.
As someone duty-bound to endlessly pursue knowledge, giving the wrong answer to a basic common-knowledge question?
I had no grounds to complain about receiving a stronger-than-usual cost of blasphemy.
If I dared to guess,
Reflecting Myriad Stars probably wasn't angry because I blasphemed or denied them.
They were probably angry because I gave such a stupid answer.
The title 'Archivist of the Omnia Archive' must be weeping.
...Not that I chose to become an Archivist, of course.
Ah, so frustrating.
I resent my shallow knowledge and lame reflexes.
I resent Ayase for setting that trap on purpose.
But even that foolish Ayase,
I love...!
Sorry for ruining the content.
Anyway.
Fine, so I royally screwed up Ayase's content.
But there's one more infuriating situation left.
"..."
Desk.
Keyboard.
Monitor.
All smashed.
What the hell am I supposed to do now?
I haven't even done today's stream yet.
I'd planned to wrap up 'Ayase's Naraka Show' successfully and follow with an afterparty recap stream...
Now I can't even do that.
At least the main rig itself wasn't broken—that was a small mercy.
But with the monitor smashed, streaming from home was already impossible.
What can you do?
If I don't want to get scrapped right now, I need to layer up, head to the nearest PC bang, and stream from there.
...My life is legendary: smashing my desk with my head and now having to stream from a PC bang because of it. Legendary. ◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Freshman college newbie,
twenty-year-old Kim Jihoon
had started working weekends at a PC bang about three months ago to save up some serious cash.
PC bang jobs are boring.
At busy ones, you'd be run off your feet making food orders for crowds of people.
But the PC bang where he worked was astonishingly dead—barely any customers.
Kim Jihoon thought,
better to be busy than sitting around zoning out from lack of customers.
Guarding a fly-blown PC bang was no easy task.
Luckily, the boss who hired him was a pretty chill guy.
When there were no customers, he even gave permission to watch internet streams on the counter PC.
That didn't mean Kim Jihoon spent his entire shift just bingeing streams.
He cleaned the bathrooms.
Wiped down keyboards.
Managed inventory, checked expiration dates, cleaned the filthy smoking room.
Only after handling his part-timer duties properly did he watch streams.
Today, Kim Jihoon hustled extra hard, scrubbing every corner of the PC bang faster than usual.
The reason?
To catch Ayase's Naraka Show live from start to finish.
That's right.
He was an Adung.
The whole world is Adungs...!
He finished cleaning earlier than usual, sat at the counter, and watched Ayase's Naraka Show from beginning to end.
The result? Total satisfaction.
It was a legendary episode—no exaggeration to call it the arrival of the greatest guest ever.
Kim Jihoon was a diehard Adung who only had eyes for Ayase,
but the VTuber named Lee Jia
had piqued his interest just a little.
...Not enough to make her his second main, though.
If Ayase was mild-flavor VTuber,
Lee Jia was nuclear-fire-chicken spicy.
Her superhuman RP skills on Naraka Show? Spicy.
The pink soup bowl? Spicy.
Those massive tits? Spicy.
'Spicy food is best in moderation—eat it every day and your stomach hurts.'
As he had that silly thought,
"Excuse me."
"..."
"Excuse me?"
A voice that sounded vaguely familiar came from across the counter.
Oh crap.
A customer.
He jolted to attention, yanking out his earbuds and tossing them aside before switching to pro part-timer mode.
"Ah, sorry. What can I... Uh..."
"I'd like to make an ID."
"Uh... uh... sure...?"
PC bang part-timer
Kim Jihoon
pinched his thigh, wondering if he was dreaming.
"Ouch..."
It hurt.
Guess it wasn't a dream.
"Excuse me?"
"Ah, yes! Yes!"
"It said to ask at the counter to make an ID. Can you set one up for me?"
"O-Of course!"
Kim Jihoon broke into a cold sweat as he created an ID for the woman in front of him.
Once the ID was made, she charged 5,000 won worth of time,
then headed to the most secluded seat in the PC bang.
...He barely held back.
Words nearly burst out, but he held them in.
He almost straight-up asked.
Are you
by any chance Lee Jia?
The woman who made the ID looked astonishingly like VTuber Lee Jia.
No, 'looked like' didn't cut it.
It was copy-paste level identical.
No way... right?
Nah, no chance.
But still, the resemblance was uncanny.
Maybe... no way...
Nah, couldn't be.
The questions piled up in his mind,
clashing between
'Logically, it's not Lee Jia'
and
'Logically, it is Lee Jia.'
A face straight out of VTuber Lee Jia?
Possible. The artist who drew her avatar might've referenced a real model.
Pink hair?
Possible too. Rare as hell to dye it pink, but not impossible.
An insane coincidence, but believable.
However,
the voice identical to VTuber Lee Jia? Unbelievable.
The big, beautiful mid... equal to or bigger than the VTuber's? Totally unbelievable.
In the end, he
reached one conclusion.
"Oh, red pill!"
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "Oh, red pill!"
...What the heck is that part-timer on about?
Sweating bullets and everything.
What a weirdo.