Naru, The Start of the Counterattack
Views don't lie.
…or so he had been utterly convinced. He was the Cyber Wrecker YouTuber, the very man who had just targeted Yerin—more precisely, Luna—this time around.
He watched the view count climb in real time and smiled with deep satisfaction. Not even half a day had passed since he uploaded the video, yet the numbers had already soared past several times his usual haul.
"Finally. I can send that cocky Awakened brat straight to hell."
He had been grinding away at YouTube for years, but the views and subscriber counts never grew the way he wanted. Then, by pure chance, he covered one hot issue and the numbers spiked far above average. That was when he pivoted hard into drama and controversy content.
He clawed his way up subscriber by subscriber until people started calling him the Undertaker of YouTube. And then, one day, another creator caught his eye.
An Awakened named Luna was exploding in popularity at breakneck speed. In a matter of days she had racked up the same number of subscribers he had spent years carefully collecting.
It felt unfair. If she was Awakened, she should have been climbing the Tower like a proper one. Instead she was scooping up subscribers and money with content no ordinary person could copy. He couldn't stand watching a loser who never even made it into the Tower ride a lucky Awakening all the way to an easy life.
So he had gone after her for "educational purposes"—and nearly lost his own channel in the backlash.
But this time was different.
She had watched his video, gotten scared, and run. To him it was nothing short of a victory report.
"Yeah. This is what real education looks like. A lucky loser's fate is already written."
He turned the whole story into a new video, uploaded it, and cracked open a beer in celebration of his certain win. Countless viewers had already turned on her and were tearing into her in the comments. The beer tasted especially cold and refreshing tonight.
Then, while monitoring her channel, he noticed a new video had gone up.
"What? Guess even a million-sub channel felt too precious to abandon. I figured she'd keep running with her tail between her legs."
He was certain nothing she did now could save her. Assuming the new upload was an apology video, he clicked.
"Huh? She's got the guts to go live?"
The live stream threw him for a second, but the background was that classic green chroma-key wall every YouTuber used for apology videos. He smirked.
"Yep. Apology video. Let's hear what excuses she cooks up. Not that it matters—she's already finished."
Unless the Box Fox was real, Luna was done. Common sense said a little fox beastman kid wouldn't just be hanging around alone.
"Even faking content takes brains, you know."
He settled in to wait. Moments later Luna appeared on screen. She was dressed more formally than usual. The viewers who had already piled into the stream took one look and decided it was definitely an apology. The chat exploded.
"Heh heh heh."
Delighted by the reaction, he raised an imaginary toast to the empty air and took another swig of beer.
Then one comment appeared.
"Ha! Way to ruin the beer, you idiot."
He immediately hopped onto a secondary account and fired back.
He congratulated himself on schooling another unsatisfactory viewer and was about to type more when the chat window locked.
"How dare she lock the comments on an apology video?"
He scoffed and kept watching. Luna continued speaking.
"Yeah, that's right."
"One? More like every single word was a lie, you arrogant—"
He was cursing at the woman on screen and raising his victory beer again when her next words hit.
"Pffft—!!"
He sprayed beer across the desk. If the Box Fox was real, the entire foundation of his claims collapsed.
He wiped his mouth roughly with his sleeve and denied it out loud.
"W-what kind of apology stream is this? Still lying? You're pure evil!"
From there Luna calmly recounted the story of meeting Naru—without ever showing a photo or speaking the child's name. She simply described discovering a fox beastman child abandoned in the mountains, living with a cat, surviving on pet food and the occasional mouse or mole she hunted. She had ended the stream early for the child's sake.
Afterward she had tried to report it to the police, then to the Association because the child was Awakened. Their lukewarm response had infuriated her, so she decided to act herself.
The room was cool, yet cold sweat slid down his spine. Something had gone very wrong.
He stared blankly at the stream, not even bothering to wipe the beer from his monitor or keyboard.
Luna pulled up weather data showing a heavy-rain advisory and landslide reports, then continued.
"Damn it… damn it!!"
He scrambled into the communities to check the reaction. The people who had been tearing Luna apart moments earlier had vanished as if they never existed. The mood had flipped completely—support, understanding, even praise. Meanwhile the sentiment toward his own channel was plunging straight into the abyss.
"No. Not yet. The Box Fox still hasn't been proven real. Yeah—all of this is just more staged lies."
He tried to look away from reality, refusing to believe, but Luna kept talking.
"See?!!"
He told himself she was only pretending to protect a child who didn't exist so she could keep the fake going. He had to believe that.
Thump—.
A sudden thud came from somewhere in the stream, but Luna kept going without missing a beat.
The moment the chat unlocked he hammered the keys on his secondary account.
But his comment was instantly buried. The chat had flipped completely—people were worried about the child and cheering Luna on.
He typed desperately.
The replies that came back were ice-cold.
"!!!"
The second he saw that comment he yanked his hands off the keyboard, grinding his teeth and cursing under his breath.
"You brainless sheep… if this is all it takes to convince you, what the hell is wrong with this country?!"
And then—
The door behind Luna slowly swung open. A flash of orange tail appeared.
The tail swayed gently, as if its owner were preparing for something. Completely focused on the stream, Yerin—Luna—never noticed and kept talking.
"Now!!"
"Kyaaaah?! Wh-what—Naru?!"
Naru sprang up and latched onto Luna's face like a little sloth.
"From this moment on, this territory belongs to Lady Naru!!"
"What are you even saying? Unnie's in the middle of a stream, Naru!!"
"Stream?"
Still clinging to Yerin's face, Naru twisted around to peer at the monitor. She tilted her head in pure confusion at the glowing rectangle, and the chat went completely nuclear.
At the same instant, the Cyber Wrecker YouTuber—finally understanding that the Box Fox, Naru, was real—sank bonelessly into his chair in utter despair.
He had been about to claim they simply glued ears and a tail onto some random kid for the camera. One look at how pathetic that would make him look, and he abandoned the idea.