Once All Preparations Are Complete, Simply Surrender Yourself
For someone who not long ago had been nothing more than a viewer watching streams, this felt surprisingly unexpected — but contacting Menchi, the major streamer with eight hundred thousand subscribers, wasn't actually that difficult.
For one thing, both of our email addresses were sitting out in the open. For another, I was the one who'd received her mail first. All I had to do was send a reply.
Still, hashing everything out over email alone was inconvenient in all sorts of ways. The biggest problem was how long it took for replies to bounce back and forth.
A collab required a fair amount of advance coordination, and there was no way we could keep relying on email — not when every answer meant sitting around waiting for a response.
So I had no choice but to suggest a video call. The reply that came back was… dramatic, to put it mildly.
If emotion could be packed into written sentences, Menchi's reply would have weighed a ton.
I did find myself wondering why she was reacting with that much fuss — but in the end I just figured that was her personality and let it go.
We were going to have to talk a lot once the collab started anyway. Getting used to each other ahead of time could only be good for the stream, right?
"Uh… ah, Nia-nim! Hello… eep! S-sorry… I bit my tongue…."
"Y-you don't have to be so nervous."
"Yes, yep! I'm n-not nervous! I mean, I just didn't know we'd be doing a video call…. Hnn, hnn…. Can I go take some medicine real quick?!"
"I-if that would make you more comfortable…."
The one thing I hadn't anticipated was just how restless and wound-up Menchi would be once we actually got on the call.
Normally, if you put an eight-hundred-thousand-subscriber streamer next to someone who'd only just hit three hundred thousand, wasn't it the three-hundred-thousand one who was supposed to be nervous?
From any ordinary perspective, she was the one who'd been streaming longer and wielding more influence. The dynamic should have been reversed….
But watching her flail around like that, I felt the little knot of worry that had been sitting in my chest melt away like snow.
Sure, she'd already shown me plenty of goodwill — but a person's off-camera personality could still turn out completely different from their streaming persona. I'd been half-afraid that side of her might come out. Looking at her now, though, that didn't seem likely at all.
"Feeling better? I'm sorry — I really didn't mean to put any pressure on you."
"N-no, not at all! Hoo, hooo…. Okay then, l-let's talk! Sooo… in the email, you said you wanted to run the stream with me appearing on your broadcast, right?"
Fortunately, whatever anti-anxiety meds she'd taken seemed to be working. Looking considerably more composed than before, Menchi dove straight into the main topic.
What she brought up was the collab plan I'd briefly floated in my email before the call.
"Yes. I figured we'd have a lot more content options that way. If we just put our faces on one screen and talk, the viewers would get bored pretty fast, wouldn't they?"
"Uh…. My viewers would probably go wild just hearing Nia-nim's voice…. But, w-well, if that's how you feel about it, I don't mind. Still, th-the part about me going into the virtual world… I'm not sure I follow…."
"Ah, that part."
Menchi nodded hard, staring at me through the camera with an expression that practically begged for an answer.
When she looked at me with eyes that intense, what choice did I have? I cleared my throat lightly, loosened up my voice, and calmly laid out the possibility I'd been turning over.
"The Abyss, where I am, is a deep, dark space you can't reach by ordinary means even within the virtual world. But just like how we're talking right now, it's not as if no information can get through at all, right?"
"R… right?"
"Which means a channel connecting the outside and the Abyss definitely exists. So if I prepare a puppet in advance for you to operate, and you connect to that puppet through a VR device linked to the Abyss…."
"…I-I could go over there?!"
"In theory, yes."
It might have sounded complicated, but broken down it was actually quite simple.
The fact that I could browse the web and run an internet stream meant this place was connected to the outside world….
So couldn't that same connection be used to bring someone from outside not into the ordinary virtual world, but right to my doorstep?
After running the idea past Visk — who'd already helped me in all kinds of ways — and finishing a whole series of consultations and research, I'd confirmed the concept was fully workable.
And the research had already been put to partial use during the hundred-thousand-subscriber event, with that viewer-participation true-or-false quiz.
Of course, the connection is still unstable, so hauling someone in via full-sensory VR comes with a whole laundry list of conditions. We've only finished the tech to a workable degree — we've never actually demoed it. But still, being able to bring someone in from outside is huge.
A technology that could pull a person from the outside world directly into the Abyss.
I still wasn't sure how else it could be used beyond streamer collabs and viewer events….
But once people had a technology, they always found ways to slap imagination onto it and put it to work. Sooner or later, something was bound to change.
"Uh, s-seeing Nia-nim in person…? Eheh, eheheh…. Th-that's impossible…."
…Wow. She looks ridiculously happy. I was worried she'd feel pressured, but I guess that was for nothing.
My first concern had been that Menchi might feel uncomfortable being cast as the guinea pig for this experiment.
But the idea of meeting me face-to-face through VR must have genuinely excited her — her whole face lit up like someone had flipped on a spotlight, and she drifted off into her own little world.
Well, a reaction like that meant she wasn't against it. From the position of someone who'd sprung a sudden request on her, that was a genuine relief.
"W-when we meet, c-could you maybe shake my hand? No, wait — if I'm being greedy, a hug even!"
"Well…. Th-that much should be fine?"
"Yes! Khee, heehee…. This is seriously unreal. How did I get this lucky, getting to meet the real Nia…. I'm so glad I just went for it…."
…Was this a good thing?
I had the distinct feeling that whatever vague image I'd held of a major corporate streamer was about to shatter into pieces. I laughed awkwardly, mumbled something about talking through the details next time, and more or less fumbled the conversation to a close.
Part of it was that pulling off the vision I wanted for this collab would take more than just Menchi and me — I was going to need help from Visk, the management team lead in charge of me.
…Still, I am a little excited. Thanks to Noise, I almost never feel lonely here. But chances to meet someone new face-to-face are still incredibly rare.
I stared blankly at the monitor, now silent after the call had ended, then bounced up from my chair with a little hop of energy.
From today until the collab, we had roughly five days of free time left. There was a lot to prepare before then.
This was my first collab with an outside streamer, so I needed to give the viewers a heads-up. I also needed to build anticipation around the technology we'd be demoing for the first time, to draw attention. And so on.
In short, there was plenty on the to-do list. If I didn't want to end up racing the clock, I needed to start getting ready now.
"Thankfully I've got a decent cushion of CP right now…. First, maybe I should touch up the stage a little."
I gave Noise a few pats on the head — she'd been sitting quietly out of camera range during the call, reading a book — then quickly got ready to leave the studio.
I wasn't the type to corrode in the Abyss's air, but that didn't mean it was a good idea to wander around completely unprepared for an emergency.
As I packed a portable flashlight, a collapsible ice axe, an internally stored rope, and the like, something seemed to take notice of what I was doing.
Suddenly a cluster of green light spilled out from the ball resting quietly in the corner and began swirling around me.
That light was none other than the Virtual Spirit I'd brought back from a Delic not long ago — the one I owed a great deal to.
Apparently, sensing I was about to leave the studio, she was asking whether I needed her guidance….
"Ah, I'm just heading right outside for a bit. I'll be back soon, so you don't need to guide me."
The stage I'd built for activities that needed open space was right next to the studio, so I didn't particularly need this Virtual Spirit's help finding the way.
I'd probably only need her once my body was fully recovered and I set out looking for distant Delics… or so I thought.
But however she interpreted my words, the light that had been busily circling me suddenly shifted to a deep indigo, and her movements slowed.
I was still flustered by the abrupt color change when Noise, who'd been quietly reading, looked over and explained.
"…Polaris seems disappointed. She's asking if that means she's useless."
"Huh?! Ah…. Th-that's not what I meant…! It's just really close! I feel bad making you go to the trouble…!"
I'd named her Polaris because the way her light flashed to show the path reminded me of a guiding star.
Unlike me — who struggled to understand anything that wasn't put into language — Noise could communicate smoothly with Polaris in this state, and she told me what the little spirit was saying.
The content was more than enough to throw me. I hadn't thought of her as useless for even a second.
Yeah… as long as she's like this, understanding each other is hard.
Creating physical matter when my condition was poor had negative effects, so I'd been waiting until I was at my absolute best before making her a body.
But sure enough, communicating while she was still like this was a bit of a struggle.
…Once I'm fully recovered, I need to make Polaris a body as soon as I can.
Holding that thought, I told Noise and Polaris to hold down the fort.
Picturing a future where a embodied Polaris sat right beside Noise, I decided to push just a little harder from here on out.