Streaming Is Almost Too Perfect for Feeding the Hunger for Validation

In horror films, lighting has long been a tool for wringing fear out of an audience.

A deserted street at night with no streetlamps is more frightening than broad daylight under a high sun. A ruin with a single thread of moonlight seeping in is more frightening than total darkness where nothing can be seen at all.

In short, if you want to summon dread, lighting has a role to play. It is not something you can afford to ignore.

By that logic, this is pretty…

The dizzying sight before my eyes made the muscles of my face twitch of their own accord.

Right. I had set it up myself so that if an intruder cut the tripwire and entered the territory, the pre-installed lightbulbs would start flickering — a simple way to flag an anomaly even from a distance. But… wasn't this a little too scary?

Flicker. Flicker.

The bulbs crossed back and forth between light and dark with no rhythm at all, weaving an atmosphere so uncanny it felt as if a ghost had taken up residence nearby.

And the backdrop was no ordinary place — a cold, lifeless scrapyard where not a single living presence could be felt. The chill that settled over it almost seemed to declare that living things were not permitted here.

"D-don't worry too much! This is all something I, I designed myself! Everything's within the calculations!"

I knew the truth, though. This flickering was not the work of some occult force or unknown entity. It was simply the result value I had programmed in advance, playing out exactly as intended.

In other words, someone who didn't know the circumstances might have reason to be afraid — but I, right now, had no need to fear this phenomenon at all.

Fortunately, that reliable air of mine seemed to come across. The chatter that had been boiling over in the chat window gradually began to settle.

…Was my reliable air really coming across?

I stared at the chat window floating at the edge of my vision with a sulky look, then gave my head a single shake and lightly brushed away the thoughts bubbling up inside.

Honestly, I still had a lot of rough edges — both as a streamer and as someone trying to survive in the Abyss. If I let my guard down too far, I might end up making a fatal mistake. Accidents always struck most easily the moment you relaxed, so I needed to stay as alert as I could.

And if I get badly hurt, that's a total disaster for the stream. Even if I somehow pull through… it could slam the brakes hard on my growth.

What if the camera caught a scene that simply could not be allowed on stream? The consequences of that would be impossible to ignore. It would almost certainly become a problem that cut straight to the life of the broadcast itself.

So I had to think carefully. Was what I was about to do a conclusion I had genuinely weighed on the scale of risk and return?

…I can handle this.

I gripped the hilt of the Scissors Blade I had casually picked up on the way here and steeled myself.

I didn't have that much experience fighting Virtual Beasts, but I had never really struggled so far — mostly because I hadn't run into a Glutton Species yet. And if I took one look and decided I couldn't win… well, the stream wouldn't matter. I'd be running either way.

So this was a gamble worth putting chips on.

I crushed down the anxiety trembling through me and spoke toward the camera with as serious an expression as I could manage.

"…I called them a guest, but the truth is, what I'm going to meet right now is by no means friendly toward me. If I had to put it another way… it's more like a wild boar living on the mountain out back."

The viewers currently in chat could be sorted into roughly three categories.

People who had vaguely heard rumors about the virtual world. People who knew nothing about it at all. And lastly… people who seemed to work somewhere closely tied to the virtual world itself.

Chat was roaring with talk from people who clearly worked in the field. Listening to the exchange, I wanted to jump in and add my own two cents — but unfortunately, I had no time for that.

"…There it is."

I had arrived in the zone where the bulbs were flickering without rest, and near the tripwire I had installed, I found myself face to face with something moving ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠slowly.

Creeeak… creeak…

It was a Virtual Beast with the appearance of a puppet. If I had to compare it to something, it was like those simple marionettes from old circus tents, limbs worked by strings.

But the monster's face was vicious enough that I would never want a fragile child to see it. Its limbs hung in tatters, the inner frame exposed as if a wolf had chewed them through. Roughly half its face had been ground away against asphalt, torn open in dark red, adding to the grotesque effect. Its body listed at an angle, unable even to stand properly, and the way it staggered forward was so hideous it could have walked straight out of a nightmare.

I wanted to congratulate myself for not screaming on instinct.

Naturally, chat was in total chaos.

On top of the dark scrapyard backdrop, the screen was now filled with a scene that could have come straight out of a horror film or game. People who didn't know the virtual world well were startled by footage that rivaled any halfway decent horror movie — and even those who knew the virtual world well seemed shocked by the ragged appearance of this particular Virtual Beast.

Is it different up above? Noise said they were all more or less the same…

The thought flickered through my mind, but I set the worry aside for now. I had no room at all to dwell on something that small.

Most of the people watching this stream almost certainly had not expected a scene like this. At most, they had probably imagined me chatting casually against the backdrop I'd shown in my vlogs.

But if you thought about it seriously, I couldn't keep hiding forever that the Abyss was a place this dangerous. If I suddenly got dragged off and killed by a Predator Species, the people waiting for my next stream would be left fretting over a vanished streamer with no idea what had happened, wouldn't they?

The old me used to panic pretty hard whenever Nia disappeared without a word, so I can relate.

So this was also my way of showing that I lived somewhere this dangerous — and of asking them to understand if I vanished someday. The same way people cleanly write off a jungle survival YouTuber whose videos just stop one day and assume they're dead.

And no matter how you looked at it, this was a situation where I stood to gain far more than I stood to lose.

A beautiful virtual idol who beats down Virtual Beasts in the virtual world. Wouldn't even a passerby get curious enough to look her up?

I shifted the reverse grip I had on the Scissors Blade into a familiar two-handed hold, then stamped my foot hard enough for the camera to catch it cleanly.

The bulbs that had been flickering like they were completely broken seemed to come to their senses and settled into a quiet, steady glow. Far off, the staggering puppet beast turned its gaze toward me.

The beast looked at me. I looked at the beast. A hair-trigger standoff.

I glanced sideways at the people thrashing in panic beyond the chat window, then smiled as if to tell them it was all right.

"Everyone, don't worry too much. Who do you think I am?"

Creeeak… creeeeeeak!

The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠puppet beast wrenched its mouth open in a nauseating gape and came flailing toward me. But its sheer size must have made the difference — even with that unstable, lurching run, it closed the distance to me in an instant.

"Heaven above, earth below — I alone am supreme. The strongest, most transcendent beautiful virtual idol on the planet."

And yet, right now, I was not particularly afraid of the beast.

The dark night was scary. The grotesque puppet was scary. Something charging at me to do harm was even scarier. So why?

The answer was simple and clear. Because I was… stronger.

"A half-dead scrap puppet like you can't hurt me!"

It was an absurdly simple contract. But the result was anything but simple.

Cree…

There was no flashy sound effect. I simply stepped forward before the beast could reach me and cut through the puppet's neck, head, and legs in turn.

Then, somehow calming the heart that was pounding out of control, I carefully checked the chat.

…Ah. This is why I stream.

I wriggled my toes as hard as I could, fighting not to let the rush of exhilaration flooding up to the top of my head show on my face. If I grinned like an idiot on pure instinct here… it really wouldn't look cool.

I thought I saw a comment like that flash up and vanish at the edge of my vision — but my attention snapped back to the beast, just in case it was playing dead, and I forgot about it almost at once.