Defense Champion - 3
Doda’s gaming arena, DEFENCE, opened every day from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. During those hours, anyone who came by could sit down and play.
And challenge her from the seat.
Challenge the blue-haired girl who claimed to be the “champion.”
“If you don’t like it, then challenge me~ I’m taking unlimited challenges until Sunday~”
People slowly gathered.
Tuesday.
The first day was mostly just ordinary people who had drifted in. So aside from a few with enough initiative to jump in, most of them sat in the spectator seats and watched Doda put on her little show.
And when the match ended with Doda’s side winning, everyone who had participated was given a brand-new smartphone. They looked flustered and said,
“W-What is this? I was on the losing team....”
“Ah! This is for everyone who participated.”
“You’re giving smartphones as a participation prize?!”
On screen, Doda laughed heartily.
-Since they were rivals who fought alongside a king, there should be a reward to match it, right? Good work, everyone. And for the people who won together with Doda, there’s a little extra gift.
The staff handed out wireless earbuds as an extra gift to those who had been on Doda’s side. Not the cheap kind, either, but a premium model worth several hundred thousand won.
-This time you won with Doda. But if Doda loses, the earbuds go to the winning side.
“O-Ohhh...! Thank you.”
“Wow, these are the kind you give to a girlfriend.”
“Can I just confiscate my neighbor’s gift?”
Murmurs swelled into a buzz.
“?!”
“?!”
“?!”
Everyone in the spectator seats, and everyone watching the live relay from outside, was stunned. This wasn’t some carefully planned tournament from the start; it was basically just a friendly match they’d all stumbled into by accident....
And she’s giving out smartphones as participation prizes?! Earbuds too, if you win with her or beat her...?!
Truly.
It was the sort of largesse only a self-declared king could get away with.
Her chest was small, but
her heart was enormous.
Damn it, I can’t help but admit her as the champion now...
Those who had taken part in the match were grinning ear to ear.
Those in the stands swallowed hard.
“....”
“....”
“....”
Then... isn’t it basically a huge win just to participate?
People rushed each other to sign up for the next match.
“Excuse me, I’m Gold tier...! Can I participate?”
“Gold? And where do you think some measly Gold-tier punk is going—?!”
“Move aside! Me! Me! I’m Platinum!”
“I’m Diamond!”
“I’m Grandmaster!”
The system rewarded extra prizes for winning.
So naturally, participants were arranged by skill.
“All the ordinary people with low tiers, get out. This place is about to become a battlefield....”
“Don’t you know that here, tier is basically human rights?”
“Sorry, old man. I didn’t mean to draw this deck.”
As the participants took their seats in the player area,
those whose low tier kept them from entering let out low, regretful sighs. But soon enough, they brightened at the additional game Doda announced.
-Ah, later we’ll be doing an OX game, and everyone who came here will get gifts, so don’t worry. I’ve also prepared plenty of group prizes.
As soon as she said that,
the staff rolled out huge carts loaded with gaming mice, ordinary wireless earbuds, and the like. Faced with that mountain of prizes, everyone in the arena went speechless.
-Did you all think Bigman’s mercy was only worth that much?
“O-Ohhh...!”
People, drenched in dopamine, cheered.
“Bigman...!”
“Bigman! Bigman! Bigman! Bigman!”
“Waaaaah!”
The situation spread quickly online. Inside the arena, the place was instantly overrun by people wanting to watch or hoping to join.
Even the old-timers who once ruled the Seoul gaming scene had stars in their eyes.
“I’ll show you the skills that earned me the name Twin Swords of Nowon-gu...!”
“Ever heard of the Pigeon of Gwanak-gu?”
“Fast endless. Beginners only.”
Game personalities, including streamers, soon began showing interest too. Across SNS and every community site, posts about the event poured in.
Those watching the spectacle grew uneasy.
“....”
But isn’t the place going to be packed to the rafters...? It looks like even people who don’t usually watch VTubers are going to show up in droves....
Maybe anticipating that concern, a new rule was added starting Wednesday.
Only those who passed the official website lottery could enter the arena. And priority was given to people who passed the group OX quiz for ABCD.
Only then did people realize this was a VTuber event.
“ABCD...?”
“Ah, right, she was a VTuber.”
“What did you think she was, then?”
Doda on screen still looked every bit the triumphant champion.
-I’ve added a few rules for everyone’s enjoyment, so... today’s participation prize has been upgraded to a tablet PC. And the winners get a pen too.
Sure enough, the carts the staff brought out were crammed full of tablet PC boxes. The people staring at those terrifying prizes shivered.
“?!”
And perhaps to accommodate existing ABCD fans, anyone who had been subscribed for more than a month could watch the matches comfortably in a lounge prepared in the same building.
Of course, Doda still won there too.
Victory!
By that point, nobody even had words left.
“....”
No, how much money are they burning through here...?
The king’s generosity knew no end.
And yet there was someone who still felt dissatisfied.
It was the VTubers.
Not that they were truly voicing complaints; it was just that a comment casually made by one independent VTuber ended up getting attention.
Ah! By the way, did you watch the D/FENCE matches? They looked really fun.... I live in the virtual world, so sadly I can’t participate....
That evening, a new line was added to the lottery site on ABCD’s official homepage: “VTubers and other creators are eligible to participate.”
Starting Thursday, VTubers began appearing at the arena. Of course, not in person, but on the displays mounted on the arena walls.
Berry and Aki, who served as MCs for the team event, shouted from the screens.
“Everyone~! Are you all ready? Today, cute Berry is going to handle today’s OX quiz in a cute! cool! kind! elegant! sexy! way! And Aki-chan, who’s just a little less cute than me, is here to help!”
“Yes! Please take care of us! Everyone, please have fun and enjoy yourselves!”
-Yup! Ropido will do their best, too!
-Uttatata, uttatata!
-P-please take care of me!
Then the monitors connected to the arena for virtual participants flickered to life. The people actually inside the venue couldn’t hold back their laughter.
“What even is this...!”
That day, the boundary between fantasy and reality collapsed.
It was a strange place.
But once again, there was no choice but to be swept up in the excitement.
Victory!
-Waaaaah─!
The atmosphere blazed beyond control.
On Friday, gaming streamers formed teams and issued their challenge. Doda answered, won, and then rented out a nearby PC bang to run team games while showering people with participation prizes.
Victory!
On Saturday, together with PR staff sent directly by game companies, they held a special mode demonstration. The companies had opened a limited-time mode specially for this one match.
Sunday.
Day six of the D/FENCE tournament, and the final day.
In the end, pro gamers came to visit.
With the season still in preseason, the teams had reached out to Big Plan several days earlier and coordinated their schedules, deciding to make their appearance the finale.
[Since this is an event match, and the mode is a special one rather than the standard format, it seems the players can participate without much pressure.]
The pro gamers entered the arena. Seeing the feverish atmosphere, they gave awkward smiles and waved.
The people inside the arena,
the fans watching from the lounge,
and the people following the broadcast all gaped.
“W-Wha...?! That person...?!”
D/FENCE, the gaming arena, was packed with gaming journalists from every company imaginable. They kept photographing the tournament as it spiraled onward.
Click.
Click.
Click.
Inside those huge lenses were the cheers of people caught up in the moment.
What those cheers were being given to was the girl who had dared to call herself the champion.
And then.
She won again.
Victory!
-Today’s victory, today’s match, and all glory, are dedicated to Bigman-nimggg─!
Six days.
Over those six unbroken days, the match had been talked about across countless communities. People remembered it not simply as a VTuber event, but as a dream carried through the medium of games.
A happy dream.
Sunday evening.
As Aeri checked the subscriber counts on the company computer, she trembled.
“....”
It, it doubled in almost a week...
Overall Rank: [x] / [total]
ABCD_Doda subscribers: 197,000
ABCD_Berry subscribers: 136,000
ABCD_Aki subscribers: 131,000
ABCD_Clara subscribers: 113,000
By today, Doda’s “Defense Match” had left behind a mountain of stories.
The endless stream of participation prizes,
the participants leveling up one by one,
and the way the line between VTubers and ordinary people had melted away....
All those stories had been spread by gaming journalists and streamers, and in the process, they acknowledged Doda for standing firm and playing the role of champion without flinching.
One stumble, and it could have turned into ridicule. She’d beaten back that risk. And the results had led to attention far beyond anything they’d seen so far.
She had succeeded in making herself known through games.
“....”
Aeri’s hands shook.
What kind of nerve it took to run one huge event after another like this, and what kind of courage it took to build an environment where so many people could challenge her.
Doda’s unusual caliber made her skin prickle.
In the end, her voice had gone completely hoarse, so starting Thursday A-yeong and I took over hosting instead.
The company,
the members,
and Doda herself
all burned completely through themselves while throwing money into the fire.
That money had been added by Investment Director Seonwoo Taek.
-The current situation is a rare windfall, even if it happened by chance. It would be best to ride this momentum.
On Wednesday, while the tournament was still in full swing, he said that with a blank expression, then immediately pulled 2 billion won from his pocket and handed it over to Aurora Prism Entertainment. Even after taking out such a frightening sum, his hand never trembled.
And yet my own hand, which was only watching, was shaking this much.
“....”
From that alone,
he seemed almost scary.
But the tie he wore was a bright yellow and blue one A-yeong had picked out for him. That softened the cold impression around him and brought out the human side beneath it.
“....”
When you look at it like that... he almost seems like a kind person who just cares about A-yeong and Doda. He was like that when I saw him at the soup place and the convenience store, too.
For some reason.
A little....
I wanted to talk to him more.
And I was curious how those three had even met in the first place.
“....”
Anyway.
Aeri let out a breath and shut off the computer. Then she gathered her things and went into the room next door marked Editing Room.
Before going in,
she made sure to knock.
Knock, knock!
“Ye-seo unnie. Are you busy?”
Then the editing-room door swung open at once.
Standing there was a woman in her late twenties with a tired look on her face. Her hair was swept back under a headband, and she wore thick glasses.
She was ABCD’s eldest, the manager and editor....
...Clara, Choi Ye-seo.
With a tired smile, she said,
“We hit it big this time, so I’ve been busy trimming everything into shorts and whatnot. You know Doda’s channel is being reposted everywhere, right? The views are exploding.”
“Looks like you’ve got it rough.”
“Rough, my foot.... If I don’t work hard at a time like this, we’ll never blow up for real.”
“....”
Ye-seo rubbed the neck that jutted out slightly in a forward hunch. Then she looked at Aeri, who was still lingering there in her princess-like outfit, and said,
“So? Why did you call me?”
“Just... I was worried about you, unnie.”
“Aigoo, our little Berry princess is worried about her big sister now. You really have grown up.”
“Ah, don’t pat my butt...!”
Aeri puffed out her cheeks a little and covered her backside with both hands.
Watching that,
Ye-seo laughed, amused.
“Wanna eat dinner together?”
“Yeah, that sounds good.”
“All right, I’ll finish up soon and come out.”
“....”
Suddenly, Aeri asked,
“Unnie.”
“Hm?”
“The investment director at Big Plan.”
“Ah, that person? I’ve never seen him. I’m always editing in here.... But why?”
“....”
Aeri seemed about to say something.
But then she shut her mouth.
“....”
“?”
“...Nothing. I’ll wait outside. Take your time and come out.”
“Got it.”
Aeri turned to leave.
Ye-seo stopped her.
“Oh, right.”
“Yeah?”
“Come to think of it, I don’t know the investment director’s name. Could you tell me?”
“....”
Aeri answered.
“Seonwoo Taek.”
“....”
Ye-seo fell silent for a moment. Then she asked back,
“Seon? Director Seon?”
“No, the family name is Seonwoo, and the given name is Taek.”
“....”
Ye-seo shook her head.
“I see.”
“Why? Do you know him?”
“....”
She answered with a wry smile.
“No, I don’t think so. That was a long time ago.”
“?”
*
Late Sunday night, as I was heading up to the rooftop room above the convenience store, I had no choice but to stop in my tracks. An unbelievable sight was spread out in front of me.
A-yeong was in the hallway.
...In her underwear.
Her yellow hair was dripping wet.
“....”
“....”
I closed my eyes. Then I turned around.
“I’m sorry. You were in the middle of showering. I’ll head back down.”
“W-Wait a momen—?!”
A-yeong shouted.
“This is a swimsuit, okay?!”