The Happiness Circuit Catches Fire

For a gamer, the day of a major update was no different from the day of a festival.

It was the day you finally got to crawl out of that nothing to do, dead game, scratch-scratch state, after all.

But a festival isn't made of the day itself alone. There's the eve-of celebration beforehand, and the after-party once the whole thing is over. The Marchen viewers who'd sat through the 100,000-subscriber celebration stream with me already knew that. I'd built that broadcast's whole concept around a festival and run segments literally named the Eve and the After-Party.

And the festival known as a major update had its own eve. That was the official broadcast held before the update went live.

No after-party, you ask? ...Scrolling the community once you'd finished the game? Please. An official broadcast was easily big enough to count as eve and after-party both, so there was absolutely no problem here. None. Obviously.

Which meant there was also nothing strange about me plastering the stream title with something this extra:

"Watching my favorite game's official broadcast while eating chicken.... Isn't this what life is for...?"

And it was no stranger that, for the sake of performing the sacred rite of eating chicken while watching the broadcast, I had held out without dinner until 9 p.m., when it was scheduled to start. An event on the level of eve-party plus after-party was waiting for me!

Yeah. There'd been a time like that.

For a second I nearly sank into the memories and started telling stories from back then, but I managed, somehow, to clamp down on it. There was something I had to do before the relay started!

"No dead-game talk on a happy day like this. Jinxes, begone!"

Topic change, let's go!

Yeah, who told them to trample my pure devotion?

"Chicken's going ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in the kitchen for now. I'll bring it back out around when the broadcast starts."

The smell was needling my nose, and holding my appetite until the broadcast began was genuinely rough. If I'd already eaten dinner, maybe. I hadn't, so it was even worse.

I left the chicken on the table and came back into the streaming booth. Let's see, the time.... About ten minutes until the broadcast. Maybe I should've just started on the chicken early and waited it out.

"All right, shall we slowly start predicting what the broadcast's gonna cover?"

I said it and opened a notepad. First, the things that were absolutely coming.

"This one's just obvious, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠right? Same tier of fact as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. So I'll breeze right past it."

"Okay, from here on is the important part. I'm writing down the stuff with a really high chance of showing up. Big expectations mean a big letdown, so I'm lowering them as far as I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠can...."

I got that far and took my hands off the keyboard.

"About this much, for now? I'd love if all of it showed up.... There's the whole dev-capacity issue, though, so one or maybe two of these will probably get cut."

What were these people even saying. Calling this scrap-picker energy.

"This next part is the scrap-picker energy."

I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠said it, and then I let every expectation I'd been sitting on spill out at full blast.

The result———

"About this much? If even one of these lands, I think I'd be in a good mood for a week."

Sure. That's what a normal person would think. If their career as an otaku wasn't very long, anyway.

But if you'd been an otaku for about ten years, you could spin a perfectly plausible happiness circuit even on a game that had barely been out.

"If it's a slice-of-life anime, isn't a longer series at least somewhat possible? And if even that's too much.... Not twenty-four minutes, but twelve-minute episodes for one cour? That one actually feels like a real possibility, I'm just saying."

Like so.

All right. Time to burn the happiness circuit properly.

"They already said in a pre-launch interview that they fully intended to push a media mix, remember? So an anime adaptation is happening someday, no question. And since these people are an anime studio at the root, I'm thinking they might get to the adaptation a little early."

Sorry to the viewers, but I wasn't done burning it yet.

"And Raider's production budget was 270 billion won, right? You could basically call it a massive project with the company's entire fate on the line, yeah? This is we're going to build one proper giant IP! Lock in a concrete fanbase with the game, and bulk the whole thing up with anime at the same time! You can just see that kind of will in it—wait the broadcast started wait wait the chicken, I have to go get the chicken, I have to bring it back and toast with the viewers, wait!!!"

Ten minutes had already passed?!

Time was moving way too fast! Was I the only one with the playback speed cranked up?!

I scrambled out of the booth and came back with the chicken. Then I scrambled to pour cola into a cup and shoved it at the camera.

"Skipping the toast speech! Then—cheers! Okay, done! Let's watch the broadcast!"

With that I took a sip of cola and immediately snatched up a piece of boneless chicken.

Official broadcasts came in quite a few flavors. Sometimes the executive director came out and ran the thing in person. Sometimes the voice actors showed up and carried it on pure reaction energy. Failing that, they hired an MC.

And the way Raider's official broadcast was being run was———

"Techsecular, the boss that opened Raider's very first fight. Since it was adorning the beginning, it's a creature we put a fair amount of care into, and we expected you Saviors would take to it. The response burned even hotter than we'd predicted. We were genuinely surprised, and deeply grateful."

The executive director, out in person, running the official broadcast.

"Talks well, huh...."

I said it and bit into the chicken. This place's boneless really wasn't dry breast meat. It was good.

"Regrettably, incorrect. I was thinking about how good the chicken is."

Next time I'm picking one with sauce pooled in the bottom and making chicken over rice. It's been a while since I had chicken-rice.

Even mid-bite, thinking about chicken over rice made my mouth flood.

Anyway, I really wish they'd say something about whether a new boss is being added this update or not....

"We're also hearing this quite a lot from many Saviors. Will you add competitive content besides boss First Clears? Yes. To lead with the conclusion: we will."

Unfortunately, a different topic popped out. And not a particularly pleasant one.

"I mean, fair. The boss First Clear system right now is a bit of a stretch if you want to call it proper competitive content."

I said it, and I was just about to slap some kind of rationalization onto what the director had said a moment ago———

"...Huh?"

My brain stopped.