A Strange One
Yesterday's events had become a massive issue on FM Community as well.
It was an interview stream with a Rena World recommendation ticket on the line, so attention had already been sky-high — and from the IrlCam Gallery scumbags' viral smear campaign, to my charisma-packed clarification scene, all the way to Ssa-yo's dramatic entrance, the whole thing had played out like a full-blown drama.
VOD view counts more than triple the usual were proof enough of just how much interest it had drawn.
First time I've ever seen a clarification show mid-interview
And then Ssa-yo shows up on top of that, holy crap;;
Na-ro-si wasn't my bias but she was a solid sub
So I checked her streams every now and then, and I really never saw things going that way — I was disappointed and heartbroken both
But everything worked out this well and I'm just so relieved
From here on I hope Na-ro-si only walks a flower path
What the hell even are these people?
Feels like it's just a gathering of total life-disaster trash
These are the kinds of humans who probably act like perfectly normal people out in the real world
Just imagining it gives me chills;;
Community opinion was flowing more or less exactly the way I'd expected.
Right. I'd prepared this thoroughly.
There had to be a return on that investment.
At the very least, Na-ro-si's past would never be able to hold her back again.
Hell yeah. That's exactly it.
Hm? The second you take "keep it" as permission to drop the formalities, you're done for, girl.
You need to hold on to that grateful attitude for at least three months before anyone can call you a person who knows proper manners.
I'd resolved the image problem from a past incident — the single biggest crisis a streamer can face — and even gotten her into the hottest server around, Rena World.
"There's really no problem, right? If something blows up later, you're the one taking responsibility. Got it?"
"Yes, yes. I'll take full responsibility for everything. Don't worry about it and just please send the invite."
"Honestly… whenever something goes wrong, everyone only ever comes at me about it. I wish the residents understood this headache a little."
"Ahaha."
I could still hear Rena-ttang's grumbling voice replaying in my head.
Either way, with server admin Rena-ttang's approval secured, Na-ro-si's move into Rena World was locked in.
Fortunately, everything had unfolded exactly according to my original plan.
Ah — well, bringing Ssa-yo into it had been an investment beyond what I'd initially budgeted for, but given the situation at the time, there'd been no other choice.
If Ssa-yo has any sense, he won't ask for anything truly outrageous.
For now, I just had to treat it as a small debt and move on…
And there was one more piece of good news.
[Image] — meme of a fat guy doing dogeza
But if we go the distance, the ones who win will be us, IrlCam Gallery! (*wink*)
From now on, anyone who brings up Seo-a or whatever FaceCam crap gets banned
After taking such a massive public humiliation over this incident, a fierce internal civil war had broken out inside IrlCam Gallery.
The ones who looked to have led the sniping were getting treated like community punching bags and dragged through the mud, and mentions of me and other virtual streamers had dropped off sharply.
The moment anyone posted, viewers who watched human streamers would swarm in to mass-downvote and rain down abuse — there was simply no holding out against that.
Fewer mentions in a trash gallery like that was unambiguously good news.
At this rate, the ones who used to write virtual-related posts in IrlCam Gallery will scatter off to other virtual galleries — and those places at least do some degree of actual moderation.
I expected the indiscriminate sniping, slander, and sexual posts targeting virtual streamers to drop off quite a bit as a natural result.
Of course, that was still a story for the future, so I couldn't claim one hundred percent certainty just yet.
"Alright, set it up like this, then once you've downloaded the launcher…"
"Yes! Thank you for teaching me. Master!"
With Rena-ttang's permission granted, I'd been helping Na-ro-si connect to Rena World since morning.
But this didn't feel like the kind of character she'd been before.
Hadn't she held her own in banter even against big-agency streamers?
Since yesterday she'd been treating me — someone only a single year older — like a wide-eyed freshman meeting a senior legend.
At first I'd figured it was just a one-day bit, but it was lasting longer than expected.
Well… the more variety a character concept has, the better.
A mindlessly loyal type like this wasn't a bad thing either.
As long as I guided her well, it'd be fine.
And so Na-ro-si successfully logged into Rena World.
I was about to walk her through everything from the daily-mission NPC in Genesis Village to the locations of each shop, when she answered that she already knew it all.
"Huh? How do you know?"
"After I got the interview contact, I went through all of Master's early Rena World VODs. I picked up a lot of useful information thanks to that."
"……"
Early days meant the period when I'd been filling a full eight-hour scheduled stream every single day and then tacking on another four or five hours of unscheduled streaming on top.
I'd done that for roughly a week, so if she'd watched all of it, just how many hours had that taken?
I imagined deep dark circles drooping down from the pink-haired Minecraft avatar of Na-ro-si on my screen.
Come to think of it, I suddenly remembered that before the regression, Na-ro-si had been the one who treated twenty-four-hour no-sleep marathons like a daily meal.
A genuine stamina monster.
When I asked just in case whether she was tired, a vigorous answer came right back.
"I've been awake for thirty hours straight right now, but I'm perfectly fine! Put me to work as much as you want, Master!"
"……"
No, I'd been hoping she'd work hard, sure.
But what if this somehow sparked a Na-ro-si overwork controversy?
Conspiracy theories about me using the recommendation ticket as a leash to force her into labor, and so on…
Nope. Not happening.
Today we'd just get her geared up and introduce her to the other company staff — keep it light.
"Huh? I came in planning to start working right from today, though."
"Ahem! In a big company like ours, there's something called a probation period. We don't work people to the bone from day one."
"……"
I could feel the other staff members staring daggers into my back with looks of pure disbelief, but for the moment I had no choice but to say it — if only to soothe the hot-blooded idiot standing in front of me.
"This is endgame gear! To think you'd give such precious equipment to me… I'll work even harder from now on."
I handed over the full endgame gear set I'd prepared in advance.
"Hello, I'm Na-ro-si, twenty-two years old, born in 2001. I just joined the server so there's a lot I'm still lacking — please take care of me. I'll do my best."
The sight of her exchanging greetings with the staff.
I paired her with the meticulous Lucy and had her give a tour of the shared warehouse they were using temporarily, plus the massive underground farm as well.
"What should I work on today? Just give me any order, Master!"
"Uh, go end your stream for now. Fully recharge your stamina and I'll see you tomorrow."
"I can start right now and keep going straight through until tomorrow, no problem!"
"No, I'm telling you to go!"
"……"
A strange one had been added to V-Live Company.