Five Million in Five Hours

With the Emperor's parting remarks, the dungeon was cleared. He'd kept warning me about Karabus's danger afterward, but Karabus could never be a threat to me. From his weaknesses on down, I probably knew more about Karabus than Karabus knew about himself. Or do I? Judging by how I hadn't known he'd left descendants behind, maybe not. Or perhaps Karabus's soul had crafted something resembling itself. Maybe it had even tried to use that body to break a sealing that had sat abandoned and masterless all this time. Whatever the case, there was no need to worry about it now. *Ding.* 150,000 points. I had no idea whether that was a lot or a little. "Is 150,000 or so a good amount?" The moment the points message ended, price tags began floating above every item in sight. A small crab's pincer: 200 points. The 'Water-Rising Clam': 5,000 points. The 'Pearl of Two Lives (one destroyed)': 20,000 points. Everything else I looked at ran somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000 for the good stuff. Pretty decent numbers, all things considered. "Oooh... at this rate I can take quite a lot of—" 'Big Crab Hammer' — 140,000 points. ? 140,000 points. What a greedy little glutton of a weapon. Well, Yena's the same now as ever — still can't stand being told no. To be fair, the hammer had nothing special going for it at the moment. No unique effects, just a sturdy, powerful weapon. Giving up priceless relics for a sealed weapon when I didn't know how to break the seal or what would come out of it? That would be absurd. If I were just "Lily," I might have made a different choice without knowing the hammer's true worth. But I wasn't. *Thud!* There was no reason not to. "I'll take this one." "And also... these two pincers." He'd paid the price for poisoning me, after all — I'd gone to the trouble of chopping them off. Leaving them behind would just be a loss. Even if they were pricey, I had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to take them. "Why not?" Thankfully, ordinary crabs and other seafood were cheap in points. I gathered up a few more cooking ingredients and left the dungeon. After finishing the Crab Empire dungeon and a brief stretch of collecting payments— ahem, *chatting* with the viewers, I ended the stream. I'd been in there quite a while, and the sky outside had already gone dark. Even though it was three in the morning, the lights were on in the editing team's Discord call — apparently this was their prime working hours anyway. All three of them are here. *Ding-dong.* "Waaah! Boss! Boss! Big news, big news, BIG NEWS!" "What is it?" An excited White Autumn again. What could it be this time? "You're not going to pull the same gag ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠as last time — 'Wow, the Boss is online at this hour! Big news!' — are you?" "Aigoo~ You think I'd pull the same trick twice?" *Heh heh heh.* A villainous laugh echoed through the Discord call. "But it IS big news." "She's right, you know." Both editors, too? "What happened?" "You know the video we uploaded, right? The Mock Siege Battle team selection." Ah, that was this morning... or rather, yesterday. I'd spent so long in the Crab Empire that even yesterday felt like the distant past. And she'd managed to upload it in less than a day? "You edited that in just a few hours?" "I worked hard, okay? Right while you were enjoying your crab soup, Boss." *Mm-hm.* White Autumn earnestly pleaded her case. Normally I'd have had to dose her with a sedative for thrashing around this much, but this time there was nothing to do but praise her. Every video that goes up on my channel only ever ships after reaching above-cutoff editing quality. "You worked incredibly hard. So, what about it? How did it do?" "Heh heh heh. Battery-nim?" "Prepare to be amazed." Something strange is going on. Editor Battery posted a few screenshots into the Discord channel. At the very top, the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠most recent video — uploaded five hours ago. A single fifteen-minute video titled *Mock Siege Battle Team Selection*, and its view count was anything but ordinary. Which meant... "...Five hundred thousand?" "Incredible, right? Five hundred thousand in five hours." "Huh??? Is that even possible?" Exactly 5,050,012. The counter sat more than fifty thousand past the five-million mark. Trending was, of course, number one. "WHAT?!" It wasn't that five million views was impossible. Some of the videos already on Lilytube were closing in on ten million, and my other uploads pulled a baseline of around three million. But I'd never hit five million in such a short window before. Normally it took a day or two just to reach 200,000, and a full week before a strong video climbed past 500,000. But this? It started at 500,000. "The algorithm's been spreading overseas since last time, and the combat Lily-nim showed in this Mock Siege Battle was apparently so unprecedented that word got around." "Whoa..." "A lot of people had already seen clips, but since this is your official upload, it catching fire was only natural." "And of course! This IS a genuinely big deal!" I'd wrapped up the Crab Empire intending to stretch out and sleep with a light heart, and there was something even more enormous waiting for me. And five million in five hours ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠meant... "It's going to keep climbing. Probably." "...How far?" "Well, honestly, under normal circumstances the growth would taper off around here — but the algorithm's been hitting just~ right this time, so hmm. Past ten million for starters, and then... twenty? Thirty?" Thirty? Thirty million? I felt dizzy. Genuinely dizzy. "...I think I need to sleep. Great work, everyone." "Huh? No celebration party? Celebration party!" "Lily-nim spent almost eight hours in the dungeon today — she must be exhausted. Go get some rest." Battery reined in White Autumn's hype. Overwhelmed by the fatigue suddenly crashing over me, I pressed a hand to my forehead and thanked them once more. "Aww... okay, later then!" "Yes. Later. I promise." I really do need to sleep. I'm tired. Demons are smarter than angels. More precisely, their minds simply turn faster. There were any number of reasons, but the most representative one was that casting magic required constructing spell formulas in one's head. Because of that, demons wove together and warped not merely ordinary spell formulas, but hundreds, thousands of them, wielding ultra-high-difficulty magic that their opponents could never resist. "...Hnngh." And when the mind grew this tangled and the hour to sleep finally came, there were moments I actually envied demons. They had no need for this kind of sleep. A few brief moments, and every stray thought and worry simply ended. The only thoughts they ever failed to process were the ones involving angels. I slept. Even within the dream, I slept — laying myself down beneath the open sky as a blanket, on ground still thick with the fatigue of moments before. A night sky that could never be seen on Earth. The brilliant starlight was beautiful, though regrettably every one of those stars was fake. A near-perfect illusion, woven by one of the high-ranking demons by bending a fragment of the world's laws. I'd never been there to see for myself, but I doubted they truly existed up there. Then again, perhaps there was some other thing entirely that even I knew nothing about. "...I want to go home." Twenty years since I'd been reborn into the body of a small girl. Surely it was about time I returned home. ... . . . "Gahk!" *Beeeep CRASH! Beee-beep! Beebeebeep!* *Thumpa-thumpa-thump...* "Ow..." The alarm clock rolled away into the distance, only to hit the wall a few meters on and collapse, spent. My body was on the floor rather than the bed, so apparently I'd tumbled right out of it. As I dragged myself upright, the cramped little one-room apartment swam into view. "I don't usually sleep like this." Given the body I was in, I always slept neat and tidy — no idea why tonight of all nights was different. I picked up the alarm clock that had tumbled down with me. 7:10. So I'd slept an extra ten minutes. I got up and went into the bathroom. Still the same pretty face of Lily. "Whew... I really need to find a new place." It was all the bed's fault for being so small. The room was cramped enough as it was, and with the connection device taking up space besides, there wasn't a square inch left to stand. It was practically a miracle nothing on me was bruised from the fall. ...But how am I supposed to find a place, anyway. Do I just... go to a realtor?