Sent by That Lady Over There (2)

A few hours before Mazia would scatter every last coin she owned through the server-wide chat, back in the tutorial zone.

Maru had chased the tail of Mazia as she fled toward the wild field, but she ultimately couldn’t catch up. Maru was supposed to be the veteran here—why did the gap keep widening no matter how hard she ran? She sprinted after her, only to suddenly plunge into a ravine that appeared out of nowhere. By the time she climbed out, even the faint name tag she’d barely been able to see had vanished completely.

“Ugh, why is she so fast….”

It was a sad day for Maru, who had wanted to do a mother-daughter roleplay. She hadn’t literally wanted to become someone’s mom, but she had hoped the server’s special rules and the fact that she’d been invited would let her create one fun scene and grow a little closer to Jia.

But Jia had run off like that, so there was nothing she could do.

“Ugh. That was my chance to become a mom.”

“No, guys. Obviously I can’t give anything right now… I only got here thirty minutes ago. Still, don’t you think I could at least say ‘Thank you, Mom~’ for all the precious donations that let me draw the special invite ticket? That’s what I think, anyway.”

“W-wait, what? That’s not allowed, is it? We still have that bond formed through the invite ticket!”

Kizuna was a term from Japan, but it was used extremely often in the VTuber industry. It referred to a temporary connection that somehow felt deeper and stickier than most normal relationships. The bond between Maru and Jia formed on the server through the special invite ticket was part of that kizuna. That was why Maru could say it with confidence.

No matter how hard Mazia worked to earn money or how much she relied on her, Maru was determined to be acknowledged as her mom.

But, Maru. Wasn’t she forgetting something?

She had a whole army of fans who loved(?) her. There was no way they would quietly watch her, a starting member, finish brief greetings and then disappear into a mine to earn money.

A dark cave. An unexpected fan meeting was about to begin.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaack!”

“No, what the hell. Stop! Stop summoning! You crazy people! Stop! Kyaaack!”

Maru screamed as handshake requests flew at her from every direction, then flopped over with a thud.

It had only been five minutes since she descended underground. She did have Inventory Protection Tickets, but those were rare items that only appeared once in a blue moon even with a 500,000 won donation. Maru had twenty-five of them in her inventory, but even though she was a veteran, she wasn’t the kind of hero who could beat ten monsters at once with just an iron set.

She was only a veteran because she had played the game for a very long time. Her actual gaming skill and physical ability were so bad that even among her fans they were called a ‘disaster.’ Naturally her protection tickets were consumed rapidly—and her wallet grew thicker in proportion—but to Maru, who was crazy about 64 Cubics, in-game resources were more important than real money right now. In just two hours, every last ticket was gone.

“…You guyyyyys!!!!”

It was a bit of an exaggeration. In the early and mid game when everyone used iron sets, it was rare to aggro dozens of monsters at once and fight them. But because Maru was a veteran, she frequently suffered this kind of trolling when she personally linked her API and played 64 Cubics. After constantly falling for the viewers’ “If you’re a veteran you should be able to handle at least this!” she would lose all her items, scream, and cry. That was a normal round of 64 Cubics WWE in Maru’s stream.

So today, another round of WWE had just ended. She had just died without an inventory protection ticket and lost all her gear. On top of that, even the iron set given to starting players on the server was gone. She was now truly starting from absolute zero.

“Hii… huu… Seriously. This time… for real… on the server… I’ll do well… First place… Money… Rich…”

“Those damn circle bastards……”

Still, it wasn’t a completely blank slate. At the very least, the Wicker bread that could quench her thirst and hunger was overflowing in her mailbox.

If she wanted to give cookies she would normally have to endure the fun thousand-won punch, but the viewers had laughed enough today so she compromised and went with ten thousand won instead.

“Sii… siing… sii…”

Maru stacked up coins one by one and prepared to stand up again. All her tools were gone, but it was fine. Even if she started over now, she believed she could still get ahead of the people who came in with invite tickets.

Just as Maru was about to head back out to the wild field—

Everyone was shocked by Mazia’s sudden message.

The cuckoos who ignored the ban and risked being blocked to deliver news from other rooms said that Ronze, who was currently running the fastest, had gathered 20,000 won. It was a high-volume low-margin strategy of digging up the copper and coal that came in piles near the surface and selling them. The system prevented the price from ever dropping below 1 WK, so it was a grind that the operators didn’t block. He had mined over ten thousand blocks of coal and copper in two hours. That was worthy of recognition.

Yet here was 50,000 WK—more than double what the leader had. It was enough to shock everyone.

The server ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠chat window exploded. Unlike Ronze, who had openly grinded for money from the start, most people had spent quite a bit of time trying out different jobs or looking around the village. To those people, 10,000 WK was an offer they had no reason to refuse.

“Ah, okay!”

Maru hurriedly typed in chat and pressed the return scroll.

With a whooshing sound of wind, she arrived at the respawn point in Wicker Town, which was already complete chaos.

[Ack, ack. Ack. Stop hitting me, ack!]

[Everyone please yield the 10k. You all arrived an hour before me!]

[Graaah get lost. Let goooo.]

Normally, mindless PK was strictly forbidden on these large collaboration servers. If it was between friendly users who were okay with killing each other, the viewers could laugh and enjoy it, but killing unrelated people and stealing their items could lead to permanent bans through operator reports.

However, in this situation, light punches that only took a little health—basically a scuffle—were allowed. Everyone understood it had turned into an all-out brawl.

So no one actually died, but the place was a mess of people grabbing, hitting, and shoving one another. Maru, with her excellent sense of timing, realized a straight line was impossible and drew a wide arc to the side. Fortunately no one followed her. Thanks to that, Maru took first place.

[Hello.]

The moment she saw Jia greet her cheerfully, Maru’s tear ducts threatened to burst again.

“Jiaaaaa…!”

“I really went through so much…”

When Jia saw that Maru was completely empty-handed, she let out a small laugh.

[Looks like it.]

“Yeah, yeah. So, thanks for the ten thousand. I’ll use it well. I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠can buy tools with it. Hehe.”

[Huh? Ten thousand?]

“Huh? Ten thousand!”

Mazia’s blocky character inside 64 Cubics shook its head.

[Not for you.]

“What? Why?!”

[Look at the chat.]

Only then did Maru see the messages she had missed while passing through the chaotic plaza…

Somehow, Mazia’s 50,000 won had become a gift from her. As a bonus, she even got the title of idiot.

…Why?

[When people come, stand next to me and act cute.]

“Ah. No. I need that ten thousand right now.”

[Act cute when I tell you to. It’s all for your own good.]

“Ugh.”

“No, what are you guys even saying? I’m broke! Can’t you see? I have 0 WK!”

Moreover, what Mazia was saying sounded exactly like the situation the viewers had predicted earlier.

“Ah, no? I’m the mom, okay? Right, Jia? I invited you to the server so I’m the mom, yeah?”

Mazia had never intended to immerse herself in roleplay. On this server she was simply acting as Parallel’s manager Mazia. After all, it was a huge server where she needed to create YouTube clips and fun moments through chemistry with various streamers. If Maru kept trying to do roleplay with her, it wouldn’t help at all.

The manager who had come to work and promote was ice cold…

[People are coming. Hurry up and stand next to me acting cute.]

“No. No. But. No. I invited you. I’m the mom…”

[Hurry.]

“Ugh, ughhh. Fine…”

When a large-scale collaboration server like this ran, not everyone could watch every stream from beginning to end. That was why far more people searched for fun one-to-three-minute clips on community sites rather than watching entire broadcasts. And the clips these people saw most often were the major incidents that swept up many players on the server at once.

The reason was simple. Viewers who had been watching various streamers would head over to the Pazizik gallery—the platform that supported the server opening—and post about it. They did it to share fun moments with everyone, but the bigger purpose was usually to promote their own streamer.

So when Mazia used her 50,000 WK to call over more than half the starting members to the village, the gallery was flooded with related posts to the point of spam.

The Pazizik gallery wasn’t a space exclusively for fans of the roughly twenty streamers invited to the Wicker server, but several major streamers with large fandoms had joined as starting members. Plus, since it was the first day of the server, even fans whose favorite streamers hadn’t joined yet were paying attention. As a result, posts about the Wicker server dominated the gallery for quite a long time.

Naturally, as the topic kept being rolled around, the truth behind Maru’s 50,000 won incident gradually came to light.

It wasn’t Maru’s money. Then whose was it?

Naturally the frequency of Mazia’s name appearing in the gallery increased. People were curious how she had earned that much money in only two hours. But the people who watched Mazia’s streams knew. She had given up on communication, roleplay, and content entirely and spent a full two hours solely inside a mine. That was something an ordinary person—especially a streamer who had entered the server with various goals—could never do.

In other words, the question “How can I earn money like Mazia?” was fundamentally wrong.

A streamer should never do that. Their viewers would all leave.