Someone's Hobby 1

Thud, thud. Four massive golems marched in a line, their heavy footfalls echoing through the dim secret passage.

A virtual reality game launches, she pulls the world's only natural-born 6-star companion, rockets to the global number-one ranking, and now she's piloting a six-meter-tall rideable golem. It was a story that seemed to have nothing whatsoever to do with a streamer famous for regular workout broadcasts and the occasional game stream in her spare time.

If she could go back and tell her past self, "You're going to become the world's top-ranked player in a VR game and a global streamer casually clearing a hundred thousand live viewers," would she have believed it?

"Hey! Mock me for whatever else you want, but leave the deepfakes alone!"

As if.

She wouldn't have believed in a VR game full of NPCs who moved like real people instead of stiff A.I. in the first place.

The temple kids who came swarming in waves, Irene—whose nickname "Mamang" suddenly made perfect sense—and Katie, that unpredictable little northern gremlin… but the most fascinating of all was Grace. Around other women she was a chill, easygoing big sister; stand her in front of the man she loved and she turned into a shy little girl.

A three-dimensional personality you couldn't find even in text-only characters. Add the aggressive streak she showed when she was drunk, and the whole package was so human it occasionally gave her chills.

"I thought the next sector would be right next door, but this passage runs pretty deep."

"Right? We're not going to get the path blocked by an explosion or something, are we?"

"Unlikely. If things were that urgent, that woman's voice would have told the pilot to run. They're not going to casually toss personnel who specialize in operating golems this size into a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠death trap."

"True. Anyone who can move something this incredible would have to be at least a knight or a mage, even in another world."

And then there was the NPC chatting behind her—Roland—incomprehensible in more ways than one. The first NPC she'd met in this game, started on a whim of viewer pressure and gamer curiosity, and the one who'd made her the number-one player in the world.

Radiant golden hair, gemstone-blue eyes, a face soft and beautiful enough that even past thirty it still held a trace of boyish youth. And it wasn't as if his personality had any sharp edges, so she could understand why Grace had fallen so hard.

Last time, a viewer had posted that Roland's photos were floating around ordinary internet cafés, not just game communities—used as bait in clickbait posts about "rookie idols" and "newly debuted Hollywood actors."

"Roland, looks like the passage is ending."

"You heard her. Everyone, combat ready."

While her mind wandered through all of that, the dark, cavernous passage finally reached its end. In one corner of her vision, viewers were rioting with anticipation for a real boss monster; in another, the quest window she'd left open for them.

Prepared as both a gamer and a streamer, she moved the golem with a low mechanical whine. And ironically, standing solidly in front of those six-meter steel giants was a human in armor who didn't even reach two meters.

It sounded absurd, but the thin plates of iron fitted over that muscular frame were tougher than a six-meter, multi-ton steel colossus.

That sturdy figure of his looked almost adorable by comparison. No matter how tall and solidly built Roland was, standing in front of a six-meter steel golem he barely came up to its knee.

Of course, it took less than a minute for the viewers' laughter to turn into curses aimed at her.

"Hmm. What's this now?"

"Roland? You're okay, right?"

Because out of the darkness beyond the end of the passage lighting—out of a clearing that should have been as empty as Sector 301E—something stealthy and threatening came flying at them.

Before Katie could even react and raise her sword, before Irene could react and throw up a barrier, something vanished into the dark trailing nothing but a scatter of sparks. Before anyone could even grasp the situation, Roland's booming voice—laced with mana—slammed into her ears.

"Hanna! If you can cast magic while riding the golem, light this place up right now!"

"Ah—got it!"

She didn't spare a glance at the chat flooding one corner of her vision; she just followed the order that had hit her ear. Player pride and all the rest of it didn't matter when Roland's skill was suspiciously, overwhelmingly good.

She pulled her hands off the crystal orb that controlled the golem's movements without hesitation and grabbed the staff propped in the corner of the cockpit. Just because it wasn't a mage-type golem didn't mean casting from inside while seated was forbidden.

And so the dim clearing was revealed—along with the true identity of the boss monster the viewers had been waiting and waiting for.

Whether it was the same kind of space as the golem hangar in 301E or not, the wide clearing of 301F was identical except for the smashed lighting. A smooth, broad floor; hangar doors set into the walls; shattered fixtures dotted sparsely across the ceiling and walls.

The problem was the enormous monster coiled in the center of that wide clearing.

"Is that… a snake? So what flew at us was its tail?"

Option 1, cave monster, had been at 47 percent; Option 2, labyrinth monster, at 53. Years of streaming experience had taught her that once they started thrashing like this, even bans wouldn't calm them down. Once their heads cooled a little, she'd have to weed them out and filter them properly to restore any sanity.

Which meant this was not the time to care about chat. It was time to deal with the boss monster right in front of her.

"Roland, I've got your back!"

"I'll hold it down—find whatever looks like a weak ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠point!"

The giant snake coiled in the clearing did not look like any "blind snake" to anyone with eyes. Those huge pupils glowing scarlet in the dark carried a presence more terrifying than any ghost face out of a horror movie.

She'd played plenty of horror games, but she didn't think she'd ever seen a ghost scarier than those snake eyes. Could a VR game really render this kind of presence and atmosphere? She let the idle thought pass and watched Roland's performance—the kind of performance that made fear evaporate on the spot.

A long snake that looked nearly twenty meters—bigger than a Giant Worm—writhing like an earthworm with its jaws clamped shut by a human who didn't even reach two meters tall.

"Ah—thank you for the ten thousand, SpineBreaker-nim. The quest? Oh right… but guys, honestly, when there's a person right in front of you slamming a twenty-meter snake into the floor like hand-pulled noodles, how are you supposed to not space out?"

Bang. Crunch. Skreeeeech—

Watching the giant snake bounce pitifully across the floor with a variety of unpleasant sounds, she checked the quest window as the viewer had ordered.

She needed to at least read this and cobble together some kind of story if she was going to keep playing the part of the party's mage.

A tangled quest line, an excessively overpowered companion NPC, and the sacrifice of a national-treasure-class magic tool Katie had been carrying. Thanks to the 30th-floor boss monster they'd finally managed to put down after all that chaos, she figured she could roughly stitch the story together.

With viewers still rioting over their evaporated points, she paused the game for a moment, opened a notepad, and took some time to organize her thoughts.

"Something like that? If I organize it this far, Roland should understand and move on, right?"

Because the boss was a snake, people thought Option 1 had won—but according to the quest description it was a being that came over from the labyrinth alongside the worms, so Option 2 had to be the correct call. Plenty of viewers still couldn't accept it and were throwing fits, but what could she do? The choices had only ever been cave monster or labyrinth monster to begin with.

"Anyway, that wraps up the much-discussed 30th-floor quest summary! If any of the details are wrong, you'll find out from someone else's stream eventually. Knowing your personalities, none of you would sit on a correction just to spare me, right?"

Plenty of viewers were still making a racket, but she ignored them and ended the stream.

The post-battle cleanup didn't really need to be broadcast—and there were things she wanted to look at without an audience.