Black Moon (1)

"So what you're saying is, you've got this busted martial art called the Nine Heavens, One Demon Divine Art, but right now you only remember one stance. That it?"

That was after we'd cleared the first floor and come home. Dandanso had told me she remembered only a single stance of her martial arts. Sword qi, lightness arts, the fundamentals — she still had all of those. What she couldn't recall was her strongest art, the Nine Heavens, One Demon Divine Art.

The moment the talk turned to martial arts, she lit up and launched into an explanation of her own techniques.

"The Nine Heavens, One Demon Divine Art is mighty indeed, yet it is an abstruse and difficult art. So much so that, among every Cult Lord through the ages, only one ever attained Great Completion. And that one is This Venerable One — the Heavenly Demon, Dandanso."

"So right now you can only use the first stance of that art?"

"Indeed. It is a discipline I carried all the way to Great Completion, and yet now I remember nothing beyond the first stance."

She'd lost her martial arts. So why was she this calm? In the murim novels, a martial artist who loses their arts usually has a complete meltdown and can't pull themselves back together.

"Uh... Dandanso, are you okay?"

"Of what do you speak?"

"You lost the martial arts you worked so hard to learn."

"Hmph. There is no cause for worry. The memory fails me, but is it not a road I have already walked? And to This Venerable One, a matter of this degree is nothing at all."

This girl. When we were goofing off and talking nonsense, she seemed about the same mental age as me — so why was she suddenly so grown-up? I was the older one. Thirty.

Ah. Don't tell me.

An internet meme flashed through my head. A thirty-year-old modern shut-in sprawled in the corner of their room, fantasizing about TS-ing into some cute, pretty girl. And a twenty-year-old ancient who takes the enemy general's head in battle and strides home, proud, to his wife and children.

Was this the difference between a modern person who'd lived in comfort and an ancient who'd lived like a savage?

"What is it you are thinking?"

"Ah... it's nothing."

"Do not fret so. Through training that wrings blood, This Venerable One shall soon reclaim her former power."

Wait — why had I forgotten? I was pretty sure I knew why Dandanso could remember only a single stance.

"Status window!"

A hologram unfolded the moment the words left my mouth.

Huh. The Sync Rate had climbed to 2.5%. What bumped it? Clearing the Tower? Or the stream? Skills first, though.

"Why do you open the status window so suddenly?"

"Hold on. I've got a hunch. Just wait."

The moment I set a finger on the Unique Skill field, the skill description unfolded.

Every stance but the first was locked behind question marks. The moment I tapped the second, a system message appeared.

Knew it. This was the one.

"Sync Rate... So I must raise that, if I am to wield the stances that follow. To grow stronger not through training, but by some other means. How curious."

Nice. I'd confirmed how a skill unlocked. Next was figuring out how to raise the Sync Rate.

Before I'd climbed the Tower, the Sync Rate had been 1%. Come out of the first floor, and it was 2.5%. Maybe it was the clear itself. Maybe ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it was clearing at SSS+ rank. That wasn't what I thought.

If the Sync Rate had risen because of the clear, it would have shown up in the clear-reward message.

Tower Streaming. That was how you raised the Sync Rate. I was sure of it.

In the end, my original class was VTuber. And what does a VTuber do for a living? Broadcast. Raising the Sync Rate had to be tied to broadcasting. My gut — officially crowned on the Cheezz platform as number one in viewers, number one in watch time, and the number-one streamer for eating one-dollar donation punches — was telling me I had this right.

Heh. As usual, if it's streaming, I've got this.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

With the first floor behind me, I was sprawled on the bed, rolling around.

"So what am I supposed to do for three days?"

The Tower of Doom has a cooldown. Clear a floor, and you can't go back in for three days. Which meant that, right now, I had absolutely nothing to do.

"Hmm... Rather than idle about in that fashion, how about a little training?"

Dandanso didn't seem pleased that I was lying in bed watching nothing but Shorts. Well, what was I supposed to do? I was the one who owned this body. And mine wasn't a body that got stronger through training. It got stronger through streaming. There was no point bothering with something like training. If I actually wanted to get stronger, I ought to be thinking up broadcast content to pull in more viewers.

"It's fine. I can play for now."

I'd already figured out the stream content for the next floor, the second, so right now I really could just play. Hehehehe. Playing really is the best.

"Did you not say, yesterday, that the mana crystals must be sold?"

"Oh. Right."

Now that she mentioned it, I had meant to sell the mana crystals I'd picked up yesterday. After my broadcasts fell apart, I'd gotten by for the past few years on money I'd saved before. Lately, though, the account balance was sliding steadily toward empty.

I'd made a decent amount while I was streaming — so how was the money already gone? Most of what I'd saved had gone into buying a place in Seoul. There hadn't been all that much left in the account to begin with.

So yes, I needed to earn. But Tower Streaming had no donation feature, which meant a Tower stream alone couldn't make me any money. A donation button would have been nice, but I could live without one. Gear and mana crystals handed out as rewards on the climb were trading at pretty steep prices, and if you became a Partner Streamer there were special events you could join on top of that. Either way, if I wanted to keep a roof over my head, the mana crystals had to be sold.

The problem was that I wasn't registered as a Hunter, so I couldn't trade anywhere aboveboard.

Why ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hadn't I registered?

Once I used Realize, Dandanso's body was strong. My original body, before Realize, was not. Just the body of a thirty-year-old woman — 155.4 centimeters, 39 kilograms. According to Dandanso, I'd lose to some random five-year-old from the Demonic Cult passing on the street. Honestly, I didn't think it was quite that bad.

Still, my real body was weak, and Dandanso's form only lasted twelve hours. Burn through those twelve hours and I had to wait out the cooldown before I could Realize into her again. And if that fact ever got out?

Bastards would definitely show up aiming for the hours I spent in my original body. The Floor 1 clear broadcast alone already had Hunter Gallery calling me the strongest in Korea. If word got out that someone like that had a weakness — whether to keep me in check, or out of plain jealousy — the bad Hunters would come looking.

So Dandanso and I had settled on hiding who we were, and I hadn't registered as a Hunter either. Dandanso had no legal identity in Korea. To register, I would have had no choice but to reveal that I was her.

I had streamed as a VTuber with this Dandanso roleplay before, sure. But the platform I'd used was already dead, and the whole time I'd broadcast without ever revealing my personal information. On top of that, my real voice and my on-stream voice weren't even the same. Stream only in Dandanso's body, and live the rest of the time in my own, and nobody would ever be able to tell that I was Dandanso.

"One may play when it is time to play — but ought one not see to what must be done, and only then play?"

I still showed no sign of getting out of bed, and Dandanso pressed me.

"Ugh... I wanna play a little longer..."

I wanted to stay down and keep loafing, but I couldn't win against her nagging, and I got up.

"Well done. See to your duties first, and play after. That is what a good adult does."

Ugh. This girl was definitely a J. One of these days I was going to sit her down for an MBTI test.