A True Boss, Confirmed

Märchen was a streamer who kept her start times with almost frightening discipline. In a year and four months on the air, the number of times she had missed a scheduled start could be counted on one hand. Some people even went so far as to call that rigid routine the very engine that had raised her into a corporate-class streamer. Clocking in exactly on time was Märchen's trademark.

And yet, when the hour came, that same Märchen did not turn the stream on.

It was an anomaly. No notice on top of that? Révolution, confirmed. The kind of revolution that, at a minimum, would need another twenty-four-hour stream declaration stacked with a horror game—just like last time—before anyone could even begin to settle down.

Fortunately for Märchen, and unfortunately for her viewers, she had not forgotten. She had posted the notice ahead of time on her fan café and her YouTube community. A notice that she would be late today.

Why? Was it the aftermath of yesterday's sixteen-hour stream? Was she feeling unwell? Did that mean today's broadcast would be a short one? More importantly, how sick was she? Had she strained her throat? Or was it body aches? A few kindhearted viewers fretted over exactly those questions as they opened the notice she had put up.

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And with that, they learned all over again, down in their bones, that Märchen was still Märchen.

People like to say that a follow-up equal to its predecessor—never mind one that surpasses it—is a hard thing to pull off. The technical term for this is the sophomore jinx.

Personally, I think it happens because a first work's success lifts everyone's expectations, and then the afterglow of that success bears down on whatever comes next. A career high was never an easy thing to reach in the first place, either.

So even as I looked forward to the release of Beyond the Magenta Seashore, part of me was worried.

That worry turned out to be nothing but wasted effort.

Once the movie was over, I was certain. Beyond the Magenta Seashore had surpassed its predecessor, Snowflowers Clasped to the Heart—the film that had taken an Emmy, an Oscar, and a Golden Bear. The sophomore jinx was broken.

And the director who broke it was a god, and WorldMaker was legend!

"That's the stream title I poured all of that overwhelming feeling into."

Today's title.

Mm. Nicely named. I nodded, satisfied with the feeling packed into it, and shifted my gaze to the chat.

I deleted the chat of the viewer who had committed blasphemy, then announced it in a solemn voice.

"For the rest of today, Beyond the Magenta Seashore is an object of worship. Blasphemy will not be tolerated, so please keep that in mind."

Which was to say: Märchen was currently in full cracked-for-Magenta mode.

And the viewers accepted die-hard mode without much trouble.

Thinking about it, I had written "No bad-faith slander of Raider" as broadcast rule number six. Even on an ordinary day, my skull was cracked clean open for Raider. Before Raider, Knight Rise had occupied that throne.

From the viewers' side, then, this was neither new nor surprising.

I was nodding along, talking myself into that conclusion, when a donation message came in from the viewer I had just punished with a chat deletion.

Mm…. If I dress it up nicely, they've become the fox staring at the grapes and rationalizing that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠those must be sour anyway. Put bluntly, they've turned into a full-on troll.

But I was a ten-year veteran otaku. As a fellow otaku, I could understand that feeling, at least a little. So rather than scolding them for stirring the pot, I decided to extend a generous mercy.

"Since you're already late, I'd recommend watching it in seven days instead of five. Five days from now, the week-one bonus will be out of stock and you definitely won't get one. If you're seeing it late anyway, you ought to at least walk away with the bonus, right?"

If the only time they could spare was the weekend, there ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was nothing to be done about that…. Whether they took a half-day or a day of monthly leave was their own problem to solve.

The rest, they'd sort out themselves!

"Right. You can't resist the bonus. …Which is why, this time too, I'm planning to go for repeat viewings and collect every single one."

I declared it. That bonus-hunter Märchen—who does not lift a finger unless a work has truly stolen her heart—was commencing operations.

Going outside was a pain, sure…! It was still hot out, and what I wanted was the air conditioner blasting while I holed up at home and shoveled ice cream into my face…!! If the theater had been a twenty-minute drive away, I would have called a taxi without a second thought, but it sat a twenty-minute walk from my place, so a taxi felt absurd, and that fact was pure despair…!!! And already a weak little voice was welling up—do I really need to go looking for suffering?…!!!!

"Anyway, I had an incredible time! Enough that I gave Editor No. 1 and Editor No. 2 a ticket each and told them it was genuinely moving, so they absolutely had to see it!"

"What review? I didn't make them do anything like that, okay? It's a special Medongbu benefit. A benefit! I threw in popcorn and cola with the tickets!"

As I said it, I cropped the screen down to just the part where I had sent the gifts, and showed that to the viewers.

And the blameless Medongbu T-shirt was subjected to verbal abuse.

…Even if it meant throwing away the feel of a team shirt, was the right answer still to plant a photo dead center like a shonen-manga entrance scene and write a caption off to the side?

Serious deliberation over a Medongbu T-shirt MK. II could wait. Right now was the time to focus on the stream.

"All right, shall we go ahead and start the part-one content?"

Today's content was a special I had prepared to commemorate seeing Beyond the Magenta Seashore. Content tied to that—the thing I had not once seen in the flesh since class-changing into a streamer.

Which was, of course…!!!

"A sea special!"

Well, it was true that the title had a seashore in it, so a sea special made sense…. But that wasn't the only reason I was doing one.

I put a single news article up on the screen.

An article saying this summer would come hand in hand with a historic heat wave. Then I started explaining the other reason for the sea special.

"This summer, it wasn't just me. People I know didn't go to the beach either. When I asked why, they said it was so hot they couldn't even dream of going."

"I figured some of you watching probably skipped the beach for the same reason. Even if that wasn't why—if you didn't go to the beach, hands up!"

With that, I shot my right hand into the air.

"Just as I thought, a lot of you didn't go to the beach. …But you also can't deny that summer means the sea, and playing in the water. Anyone who's put in some years as an otaku already knows that."

I had no intention of going to the beach. But skipping the universal law of summer content was a shame, too. A situation where one of the two had to be given up. The viewers who had just typed "hand" had given up the latter. And up until a few days ago, so had I.

But the monster of creativity—the one that could strike fear into even the gods—had pulled it off again. I had found a way, limited though it was, to enjoy the official summer content without ever going to the beach.

And that was———

"…Everyone. You know 4D theaters, right?"