Any More of This and I'd Start Feeling Pathetic

Any more of this and I was going to start feeling pathetic.

"Lily~!"

A voice like a megaphone cut straight through the murmur of the crowd. No — that was a megaphone. Yena, broadcasting skill active, came sprinting toward the sea of people.

"It's Yena."

"She was on Yena's stream. Guess they're hanging out together now."

"Yena's pretty cute too, though?"

However thick the crowd, nothing could stop a ranker-class assassin from carving her way through it. Before I knew it, Yena had pushed her way to my side, cocked her head at the man still bowing before me, and made a face like a confused huh?

"What's going on here?"

"He confessed. I turned him down."

"...He confessed?"

Yena's face twisted in open disgust, as if a bug had crawled into her ear, and she turned back to look at the man.

He still radiated the stubborn will of a man who had no intention of giving up.

Strange. By this point, most people would have fled in terror. Could he simply be unable to sense killing intent?

Or is it just that PVP is disabled in town?

Yena let out a sigh and turned her gaze back to me.

"Don't let it get to you. Every once in a while you get one of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠these types — you'll just have to put up with the hassle."

"Ah. Right."

"Where do you think you're going! I still have more to say to her!"

The moment Yena tried to pull me away, the man raised his head and stepped toward me. My spear was at his throat before conscious thought caught up.

He sucked in a breath and stumbled backward.

"Ah. My mistake."

A civilian.

I must not kill him.

"Lily?"

"...Sorry. I zoned out for a second."

A scene from the past had surfaced without warning.

Two years into my life as a saintess, barely more than a novice, I had crushed the arm of a man who approached me with malice in his heart while I was on pilgrimage through another village. It caused quite an uproar at the time.

When he refused to admit any wrongdoing and demanded compensation instead, I nearly took his head as well — the village chief had to physically stop me.

I recalled my spear. The man's legs gave out beneath him and he crumpled to the ground.

"Let's go."

"Yes! Yes, yes."

Yena and I left the scene behind.

"...You're really okay, right?"

We sat gathered inside a tent that stood in a spot with no people around, just like before, and Yena asked the question carefully. The tent space was apparently a type of skill — anyone without permission couldn't enter.

"Ah. I'm perfectly fine."

I had simply been caught up in an old memory for a moment.

Of course, no actual harm had come to me, but it was the first time I'd ever experienced that particular flavor of malice. It must have been a shock. I'll admit it — I was being a little sensitive.

"He's the weird one. That kind of approach is against the rules, you know."

"The rules? Confessing is against the rules?"

"It's less about confessions specifically... Look, it's virtual reality, right? People really shouldn't treat it like just another game. If you want, you can buy object-access prevention and all sorts of protection rights, but with tactile feedback in the picture, that gets expensive fast."

Slurp. Yena took a sip of the apple juice sitting on the table and let out a loud Kyaa~

"So the game company's official stance is: no excessive contact, and no acting on malice by exploiting loopholes in the system — PVP aside. That guy back there? If you report him, he'll probably get suspended. Ah, maybe he's already banned."

He had confessed in front of a crowd that size, after all.

She shook her head with an expression of pure exasperation and let out another Kyaa~

I nodded along. Fair enough. That kind of thing really could be a problem.

Granted, Deoen wasn't an adult-rated game, so you couldn't actually feel anything sexual — but how a person received it was a separate issue entirely. And even setting sexual sensation aside, there was plenty of room for that sort of behavior.

Yena grinned and held the juice out to me.

What was with her constant kyaa-ing, anyway?

"That's called Kyaa Juice. Drink it and a 'Kyaa~' comes out of you whether you like it or not."

"...This thing?"

"Yep. It even boosts your attack speed by 10% for ten minutes."

They really did make everything.

I drank the juice.

It tasted like apples.

"Kyaa~"

"Nice, right?"

"It's such a strange feeling. I'm the one saying it, but it doesn't feel like I'm the one saying it."

"Very accurate observation."

She chuckled.

"Anyway, people like that are extremely rare, so don't worry about it. Moderation's quick these days, and honestly, people just don't think that way when they're in here."

"Is that because there's no sensation?"

"Probably. I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wouldn't really know, but eunuchs don't have sex drives, do they?"

Flinch.

I flinched. Visibly. Instantly.

I was, without question, not a eunuch — but changing my sex had apparently made me one. No, wait. My current body was a woman's, so technically that didn't count either. Probably.

"...Let's talk about something else."

"...? Sure."

Any more of this and I was going to start feeling pathetic.

Yena and I had streamed for roughly four hours.

The donations that rolled in during that time apparently totaled a whopping 37 million won.

Yena said that in her four years of streaming, this was the first time that much money had come in over such a short span.

Of course, we didn't pocket all 37 million raw. As a Twichi partner streamer, Yena gave up 20% of donation revenue, and then taxes took another bite on top of that.

Which meant my actual take-home came to...

"About ten million won? How's that sound?"

Ten million won.

Ten million won?

Ten million won was how many orders of fried chicken, exactly?

Five hundred?

Wonderful. Nothing in this world could be better.

But free kindness only extends so far. There was no such thing as a favor without a price.

I had to repay this, one way or another.

"I mean, I'm happy, don't get me wrong... but you already gave me ten million won in gold coins. It feels like all I ever do is take, take, take..."

It was true that the more money I had, the better — I was back on Earth now, after all. And the me on Earth needed money pouring through my fingers like water just to get by.

Yena beamed and clapped her hands together with a sharp snap!

An oddly unsettling smile.

"Well then~ you could always help me out a little more! You don't think I'm digging ditches to keep this stream running, do you?"

"......."

"Kidding, kidding. More than half of that money — no, seventy percent — came in because of you. Don't let it weigh on you."

"Still, it was earned on your stream. I don't really have any claim to it. And like I said, I already got the gold."

It was true that I'd already received a substantial sum. Making money was nice, but I had no desire to drain her dry, and I certainly wasn't going to force it.

Yena nodded as if she understood perfectly, then drew something new out of thin air — a yellowed map, marked with what looked like monster subjugation zones.

"Then think of it as your guest-appearance fee. Five million per appearance. Deal?"

"...That much?"

"Your market rate is already past a hundred million, Lily. I'm the one exploiting you here. And for the record, I'm a ruthless, greedy boss — even if triple the money rolls in, you're getting exactly five million."

Yena slammed the map down with a decisive thwack!

I burst out laughing at the sight.

"Yes, boss."

Yena's stream had gone live on Twichi.

She hadn't announced an exact start time, but her notification-enabled viewers saw the broadcast-start message and came flooding in like an incoming tide.

"Hi there~ boys~ Yes, yes, come on in~"

"HEY! Quit spamming the chat!"

Yena barked at the camera, but the chat stayed every bit as loud.

"Oh, did I not mention? Lily's all worn out from earlier, so she can't make it today."

"Aw, come on~ the title's just clickbait. Ooh~ twenty thousand viewers already?"

"And you can say all that with a straight face?"

Bahm-bah-rah-bahm-bahm! The donation exploded onto screen with a fanfare sound effect.

Unlike regular chat, donations came through a robotic text-to-speech voice. And because the system was linked to Deoen, a semi-transparent SD-chibi emoticon of Yena materialized in midair, wailing her eyes out as she searched for something.

Yena pressed her face close to the camera with a delighted whoa! expression.

"Ooh~ YenaThicc with a million won~ Thanks, hun~? But really, Lily's not coming today."

"Kheheh."

"Okay, okay! She's coming out!"

I stepped out from between the tents. My view was linked to the stream too, so I could see the chat just as ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠clearly.

"Hello, everyone."

What a madhouse.