Chapter 102
Chapter 102
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 102
Chapter Title: Time to Change Strategy (1)
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Darkness enveloped the bedroom.
A woman who had been tossing and turning in the grip of a nightmare suddenly jolted awake with a start.
"Gasp, gasp...!"
She hurriedly flicked on the bedside lamp and scanned her surroundings with a terrified expression.
Only then did the cozy bedroom come into view, bathed in the soft glow—familiar furniture everywhere.
It was her own home, returned to after months away. Not that suffocating single-room cell in the basement of the studio.
Once she registered that fact, Thea finally managed to calm herself.
"Haa..."
Feeling her body soaked in cold sweat, she let out an involuntary sigh.
The past few months—imprisoned in the basement of a criminal production agency due to a bad contract, exploited relentlessly.
Even after breaking free from their clutches, Thea kept having nightmares like this.
Every time she closed her eyes, the horrifying thought of waking up in that basement again haunted her, robbing her of sleep night after night.
It felt like brutal thugs would burst in any second and grab her by the hair.
Like they'd slap her mercilessly for failing to meet her quota.
That voice she desperately didn't want to remember. The threats to expose her fatal weakness to the world... Her heart throbbed painfully. Anxiety squeezed her chest like a vise.
"........."
The Prism Studio incident had been perfectly resolved, no question.
But mental scars didn't heal that easily. Every memory from those months lingered as trauma. The days of living in constant trembling tension felt like they were still dragging on.
Thea gulped down water from the glass on her desk with shaking hands.
"Haa..."
Her sleep was completely ruined now.
She was still exhausted, but closing her eyes again promised the same nightmare. So she picked up the VR connector cable from beside the bed.
>
It had become a habit.
A habit from the days when she'd desperately studied trends from other streams during every break just to meet her sponsorship quotas.
In her dazed state, as Thea scrolled through the channel list, she soon spotted something.
One of the channels she'd followed in the past was live.
'Regular Worship...?'
Truth be told, even when she'd subscribed, Thea hadn't known the details.
She'd just made a mental note after realizing the channel's owner—the one who'd saved her from exploitation at the agency—was a fellow broadcaster on the same platform.
She'd even sent thank-you messages a few times, but for some reason, the chat was closed, so no contact.
Things had been too chaotic back then; it was just a fleeting glimpse in her memory.
She hadn't even gotten a chance to ask why she'd helped them.
["Don't worry about a thing. It's time to go home."]
But that warm voice... she still remembered it vividly.
The kind of gentle reassurance that truly put a person at ease.
"........."
Mesmerized, Thea connected to the broadcast channel.
>
And after watching until the worship service ended... she fell asleep without another nightmare.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Online communities inevitably attract all sorts of bizarre characters.
Given how easily anyone can access the net, people from wildly different walks of life mix together over a single shared topic.
Among them are types who seem glued to the online world 24/7—you can't help but wonder what their lives are like.
And those with endless free time sometimes latch onto utterly ignored details with terrifying obsession, unearthing unexpected facts.
This time, it all started with a single trivial post.
📰 Breaking News Title: [The girls freed from Prism this time are all following the same person] You know those streamers who escaped slavery with Rico recently? Check their follow lists—they're all subscribed to this channel called "Regular Worship"... What's the deal? Someone they all know? The initial post didn't stir much. Just a few curious souls paid it any mind.
— Anonymous (21 likes) What's wild is that the Regular Worship owner signed with Starlit before Rico did? — Anonymous (3 likes) A newbie just a few weeks in pulling that off? Was she a trainee Starlit prepped from the start?? At that point, it was just one of countless bits of community bait that bored ghosts poked at for fun.
But the deeper they dug... unexpected info started trickling out.
— Anonymous (27 likes) Old Rico stream clip—and it's mentioned here too. — Anonymous (13 likes) So... the Saintess and Rico were friends even before the company contract?? — Anonymous (11 likes) So just who the hell is this Saintess anyway? Once the hottest name in VR streaming got dragged in, curiosity exploded.
But the person in question's channel had chat and donations locked, so zero communication.
Communities overflowed with rumors and wild guesses.
— Anonymous Did this newbie Saintess beg her company to save her friend? — Anonymous Come on lol, what pull does one streamer even have? — Anonymous But a stream with donations, ads, and chat all shut down—what's that about? — Anonymous Contracted with a company but zero revenue streams? And with Starlit of all places? — Anonymous This point, the streams are legit just a hobby, right? And when folks hurl random crap... occasionally something plausible sticks.
— Anonymous Why overthink it lol? Gotta be the boss's daughter or something. — Anonymous Eh...? — Anonymous .....? Of course, it was all baseless speculation.
Nothing but irresponsible fantasies from the faceless masses.
But what's an online community if not a place where any fun nonsense ignites like wildfire?
📰 Breaking News Title: [Is this for real?] So if we sum up the bait... A mega-corp heiress doing Saintess hobby streams crushes a criminal agency to save her friend, normalizes the VR streaming scene, and now keeps up the concept with sleep-aid ASMR broadcasts? And that ties everything together neatly... wait, what? 💬 Comments — Anonymous Yeah? — Anonymous Wait, huh? — Anonymous .....? For real? Especially in Omega Detroit, the word "mega-corp" always set off an explosion of public fascination.
Rulers living in their sky-high skyscrapers, in a society all their own.
Wielding overwhelming wealth and power, yet shrouded in veils—the ultra-elite.
They were a tiny minority, far rarer than your average celeb or influencer.
That exclusivity and scarcity stirred a kind of mystique in the masses.
Always on the lips of gossips, but no one really knew their true faces. Unlike politicians, they had no need to chase fame. Almost never showed up in media or press.
Faced with beings forever out of reach in the heavens, people couldn't help their curiosity.
Fear them, hate them at times... but always envy them.
And now... one such unreachable figure descending so close.
Fact or fiction, the sensational fodder lit the boards ablaze as always.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Over the past few days, I'd helped Rico out of her jam and run a virtual reality worship service.
But that was just a slice of my increasingly packed daily routine.
The operations at the cathedrals we'd recently opened downtown were hitting snags.
'Way tougher than the outskirts.'
The influence of dangerous mega-factions in the city was on another level entirely. So there were tons more things to watch out for and handle carefully.
And above all, building the church's foundation was progressing much slower than expected—a real headache.
The outskirts had a high share of the truly desperate poor with nothing to lose. When the church first started charity work, they latched on like it was a lifeline. That let us build trust fast.
But downtown residents generally had a somewhat higher standard of living. Much like the merchants on the outskirts who wouldn't open up easily despite their assets, the city folk's wariness was way stronger than we'd anticipated.
So right now, charity and volunteer efforts alone weren't yielding big results for the church.
'Gonna need a different approach.'
Surrounded by these and other worries...
Even one problem I'd thought solved came back to bite.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ You have reached the maximum viewer limit for your current channel plan. Would you like to upgrade? "........."
Just three days later, facing the message again gave me a throbbing headache.
It made sense, really.
VR broadcast servers guzzled data traffic on a whole other level from regular video streams.
A fixed screen visual versus full-sensory immersion.
The data density was worlds apart, naturally.
That was exactly why VR hadn't claimed the mainstream media throne yet.
Unmatched realism, sure—but server strain skyrocketed with every additional viewer. Platforms couldn't just hand out slots willy-nilly.
So the tiered, strict broadcast limits? Totally understandable.
But...
'We tripled the capacity from before...!'
Hit the wall again in just three days. What the hell?
Finding the cause wasn't hard. A quick peek at the platform community laid it bare.
'Word got out that this ties to the Prism Studio incident, huh?'
Not unexpected.
Revealing the incident had been my call, after all.
And the truth coming out? No issue there.
We hadn't done anything wrong. Someone might even get a positive impression of the church from it.
Bumping viewer limits more? Just a matter of cash.
No, what worried me was this overheated reaction itself.
'Didn't see it blowing up this bad...'
Viewers surging at an unnatural pace.
This didn't feel normal at all. I had no clue what the best way to handle it was.
After agonizing over it, the one I consulted was the expert in this field: Rico.
She told me,
"This buzz exploding right now? Mostly curiosity, I bet. Eve, you've never shown your face since starting streams, so it just fuels more curiosity. You know how people are—the more you hide, the more they wanna know."
After catching her breath, Rico pressed her case.
"So, how about this? One of my channel's mainstays is guest interviews. We could do a casual collab stream, you pop in, show your face, explain who you are and why you're broadcasting... That should satisfy the curiosity and let the hype die down gradually, right?"
"........."
Her suggestion gave me pause, deep in thought.