Treasure? If You Want It, I'll Give It to You - 2
By now, twenty minutes had passed since the quiz show began.
Aki spun the slot for “choosing the punishment contents.”
Rrrr-
Clack!
!
Out of the numbers from 1 to 100, it landed on 100. At the same time, several of the empty punishment fields filled in.
Punishment: Do ■■■■ with 100 ■■■.
Aki said,
“It’s 100!”
“Yes! Then the number in the punishment is 100. We still haven’t decided who it’ll be with or what they’ll be doing, so everyone, please think carefully before you set your questions—!”
“Berry has a question! If I deliberately fail, is that okay?”
“Yes, of course. But once the member who’ll take the punishment is fixed, the rest of you can have fun deciding what exactly the punishment will be…. I’ll leave that to your imaginations.”
“Eek…! Kyaaah, that’s so embarrassing…!”
Berry covered her face with her hands and pretended to be shy.
The reaction was weirdly provocative, and the viewers immediately began acting like fools all over the place.
The quiz continued.
This time, it was a short-answer question.
It was the kind that would be auto-detected if you typed it into chat. The question hadn’t even appeared yet, and all kinds of embarrassing words were already flying around. It was chaos, pure and simple, and not the orderly kind.
In the middle of that chaos,
Doda grinned wickedly and said,
“Heh heh, looks like everyone’s having fun.”
Clara said,
“Then here comes the question! Short-answer questions don’t have the fifty-person ladder limit, so please be careful when you set them—!”
“Ding-dong!”
“Uh… um. Right. ‘What food does Doda often eat for lunch on Tuesdays?’”
Q. What food does Doda often eat for lunch on Tuesdays?
A moment later.
Doda’s vitality gauge started dropping in a rush. If this had been multiple choice, the ladder would have cut it down to fifty people at most, but because it was short-answer, the gauge was being shaved away in real time.
362
361
360
359
...
...
...
In no time at all, the gauge had fallen to 200.
It was because I’d thrown out such an easy question to Doda’s stalker-level Doda-fans. She stomped her feet and appealed to the chat.
“Ah! Seriously! Please! It was from a broadcast three months ago, so why do you all know it?! I’m begging you, meow!! Pretend you don’t know, meow—!!”
In the end, Doda dropped to her knees.
“This humble one begs you, meow! Please, stop…!”
The numbers fell without mercy.
In the end, the bleeding only stopped after it dropped to 179.
The Doda-fans lived to torment Doda.
As Doda sat there like that, Aki came over and patted her shoulder.
“Hang in there.”
“Mmm….”
The existing ABCD fans were satisfied.
They had honestly been worried that the people who’d known ABCD from the very beginning would miss out on the goods, but the quiz content was working strongly in their favor.
The absent “narrative” was taking shape.
I knew this kid from way back.
I’m the one who completes this story.
Even that godlike Bigman came after us.
That kind of superiority drifted through the air.
It was a reward for their long wait.
The reactions from the newcomers only fueled that superiority even more.
Even while smiling, Clara kept an eye on the mood of the chat out of the corner of her eye. Since the atmosphere was basically one of acknowledging the “true fans,” it was still warm and friendly for now.
“...”
But it was getting dangerous.
If we keep using the old Live Future-era questions as an excuse for preserving vitality, there shouldn’t be much pushback. But if we don’t start giving the newcomers any goods soon, they’ll start complaining that we’re being too blatant.
In truth, all of this had been Clara’s plan from the beginning.
[For the opening, we’ll use questions that only the “true fans” who’ve been watching since the Live Future days can react to.]
Even if there weren’t many of them.
The true fans had to receive as much of the gift as possible.
Only when they were rewarded would this event be narratively complete. To keep that fact from the newcomers, she had to move carefully and use the rules as cover.
That, too, was nearing its limit.
Even hidden behind the rules, the complaints were leaking through.
...All right. It’s about time to liven things up with a question for the newcomers.
Clara came over to the kneeling Doda and let out a sigh.
“Doda, your big sister worked hard to prepare this, so that’s a little mean, isn’t it? You’ve already burned through almost everything on your own….”
!
Doda sensed it.
This was the setup for professional wrestling.
She deliberately said in a crushed voice,
“Sob, that was delicious. Today’s jerky was….”
“What are you talking about…?”
“Big sis, can’t you raise my vitality gauge a little? If I get hit with the punishment, I feel like those guys will make me do something weird.”
“...”
Then the chat burst into cheers. The Doda-fans loved her whining most of all.
Clara said gloomily,
“That’s difficult. The budget….”
“Ah….”
“How about doing it like this instead?”
“How?”
“Since we’ve gone all the way around to Doda…. Next time, we’ll make the question easy, and the person who gets the most correct answers will be exempt instead.”
!
Clara looked over at Berry and Aki, who were sitting nearby.
“Anyone have a different idea?”
“Berry has none~!”
“Aki doesn’t either.”
“Then we’ll go with that!”
At the same time,
the newcomers cheered.
Now the veterans and the newcomers were on equal footing.
Before the new rules were applied, Berry toddled over to the punishment roulette.
This time, it was a roulette for deciding the punishment target.
[Person]
[Food]
[Place]
[Action]
“Eeet!”
Rrrr-
Clack!
What the roulette landed on was [Person].
!
Clara said carefully,
“Yes! The punishment target is a person. Is there someone you’d like to choose?”
“Mm… I want our boomerang.”
“Since the punishment target hasn’t been decided yet, let’s call them the ‘viewers’ here.”
“Okay!”
Berry smiled and nodded.
The quiz show UI glittered and changed the line.
Punishment: Do ■■ with 100 viewers.
“...”
“...”
Something.
Something....
The wording was odd.
Berry hid her face and acted embarrassed. Then she scampered away on tiny steps. That shy reaction once again set the viewers’ imaginations on fire.
Of course, the chat immediately filled with every kind of shameless nonsense.
*
Under the Friday evening glow of sunset.
I kept watching the broadcast from an outdoor table. Watching it in front of an empty convenience store was surprisingly entertaining. It had been a long time since I’d felt this kind of pure interest.
In the end, it was Doda who got her gauge drained all the way.
Clara spun the punishment slot with cool indifference. It was the step that decided the “goal” after the “number” and the “target.”
Rrrr-
Doda howled when she saw it.
-Kraaaah! Bigman, please remember me—!
-Yes! And the final target is [Action]—!
-Aaaaaagh—! P-please, not that…!
-So what kind of [Action] will our Doda be doing?
Punishment: Do ■■ with 100 viewers.
The [action] that would go into the ■■.
As viewers watched the final missing piece of that suggestive image click into place, they went absolutely wild. The Doda-fans, especially, who loved teasing her, looked ready to faint.
Just from this situation alone, all kinds of jokes started pouring out.
Due to excessive chat activity, a traffic error has occurred. To ensure smooth viewing, chat delay will be temporarily increased.
...
This was huge.
It had the kind of heat that would absolutely end up clipped and preserved somewhere.
And not even forced sex jokes, either. It was the kind of scene that sat at the perfect threshold for turning into an internet joke.
So the structure is basically: distribute the goods as much as possible to the true fans, and rather than pushing the show itself to a win-or-lose climax, focus on creating stories through safe, non-over-the-line jokes. And on top of that, they’re aiming for merchandise viral spread.
There were signs of deliberate fine-tuning.
But Clara wasn’t directing this from behind the curtain. She was adjusting things live, as one of the people inside it. At this point, the level of skill was practically godlike.
...
And then, when I considered what they were going to show after the show ended....
This one program alone is going to have the kind of impact that’s almost like a brand launch. Every single thing was built to support that.
Flap—
...
I looked over Clara’s proposal again.
There, it laid out a “strategy” that understood subculture entertainment and used the capital and circumstances already in hand.
The goal of the strategy was a declaration of war.
1. Justify fandom narrative
2. Aggressive market entry
3. Complete the group’s worldbuilding
In other words....
It was a declaration of war on the market.
...A broadcast that brutally burns the BigPlan System and the idol brand ABCD into the world.
War had to begin before allies and enemies could exist.
Because the risk was enormous, it was the logic of someone bold enough to stand in the vanguard where no one else would dare.
And the return was sweet enough to justify it.
The members came away with a positive image, and both the true fans and the newcomers got their own victories. And the founder, Bigman, was left as nothing but a “legend of the past.”
No one on the “ally” side got hurt.
ABCD had now become an idol group that actually existed.
“Hah.”
They’d handed her a sword, all right,
but the way she handled it was at the level of a sword master.
Having someone like that next to A-Young is... really incredible luck. A pure artist with no greed needs at least one cold-blooded, battle-hardened blade beside her.
...
The corner of my mouth twitched a little.
Clara’s methods were cruel, but beautiful.
*
Honestly, there weren’t many people who had seriously expected something sexual, so most people liked this wholesome ending. And those who didn’t get merch were disappointed.
The members gathered to deliver the closing remarks.
Clara said brightly,
“Did everyone have fun?”
Soaked in dopamine, the viewers were obedient to a surprising degree.
!
Clara caught that and answered,
“Actually, the ‘All-Star Box’ that we’re sending out as this event’s prize will be sold through the official store.”
“It’ll open right at midnight after today’s broadcast ends. Please check the official SNS for details and the store link—!”
And then.
Clara said, with a meaningful smile,
“I’ll surprise you over the weekend. Please make sure to check it out. Thank you for watching today’s broadcast!”
Running toward the light! We are ABCD—!
*
The viewers, still holding onto the afterglow of the broadcast, clicked the store link. And they witnessed an unbelievable number.
“?”
-Huh?
-That’s cheaper than I expected...?
-What is this
To that question, someone made a cautious guess.
A mistake became viral spread.
A capture of the site spread everywhere across VTuber communities.
The word spread, and within one night, 1,500 sets were sold.
But....
By the next morning, the All-Star Box price still hadn’t changed.
-?
-Did the small shop go to sleep because it was the weekend?
-What, was that really the price?
Then a thank-you message was posted on the official SNS.
“...”
So it was really that price?
-No way, lol
-They’re seriously out of their minds lol
-Man, I’m tired from all this dopamine....
ABCD’s viewers... now their fans were clutching their sides and laughing. It was a fresh shock.
The shock spread to other VTuber fandom communities as well. And shock slowly gave way to a kind of dazed emptiness.
-They give out merch like that too?
-And the price is actually reasonable?
-They do special broadcasts every week?
We,
haven’t seen anything like that for years.
...
...
...
Our understanding of things began to wobble, just a little.
What are we, then...?