The Weight of a Promise
When making a promise, it's always better to say something you can actually do.
After all, worries are things that take time to resolve — they're the kind of annoying, drawn-out issues that drag on. That's why they're called worries.
From the kind of conflicts or debates between nations, groups, or individuals that experts have spent decades trying to solve without success, to small, trivial ones like what to eat for lunch today or whether to snack to stick to a diet.
When limited resources force a decision, people inevitably find themselves lost in deep thought.
“Haaah… What should I even do…?”
And around the time of the first external collab in her broadcasting history, with just a day left, Nia was once again buried in profound worry.
The content of that worry was simple enough: a collab was a good thing, but… she had no idea what she was supposed to do during it.
It was like handing a billion won to someone who sings “Dondondon” without saying a word — what was she supposed to do with it?
The problem was there were too many options… She couldn't settle on a single clear direction.
Someone living in a place with only Chinese restaurants nearby would order jajangmyeon without a second thought when they wanted delivery food. But in the middle of Seoul, with every kind of cuisine available, the worries just kept piling up.
“Mmm… Thinking about it, Menchi-nim and I don't really have any specific image in mind, do we? If I have to pick one, mine is mostly Oparts-related content, while Menchi-nim focuses on communicating through face and voice… right?”
“…”
“So maybe we should just go all out and review Oparts together. The visuals aren't bad, and we could even dance? But if I have to be honest, Menchi-nim is the guest, so making the guest dance seems a bit off…”
“Um…?”
“And even if we do the Oparts review together, considering Menchi-nim's connection time limit, a movie screening would be too much… So games are probably the most effective? Ah! Then what about playing a two-player cooperative game together…?”
“Hey! Nia-nim!”
“Eh… Yes?”
Nia was about to wrap up her internal deliberation, lost in thought as if alone, when a sudden stimulus slipped into her consciousness.
She realized belatedly that Menchi was calling her from right nearby.
Before becoming Nia, she'd been alone and hadn't noticed this part well. It seemed she was the type who got deeply absorbed in thought and didn't pick up on surroundings easily.
But it didn't feel like she was having trouble multitasking, so maybe it wasn't a lack of processing speed in her head, but rather a tendency to pour all her effort into one thing at a time.
…Well, that self-reflection was probably fine for now. The immediate priority was figuring out why Menchi had called her.
So, after organizing her thoughts, Nia looked at Menchi with an expression that said, “If you have something to say, go ahead~” in a gentle manner.
It seemed like she was having trouble getting the words out, as Menchi hesitated for a long time before finally squeezing out the words from between her lips — words that were as shocking as a bolt from the blue sky.
“S-sorry…! I-I think we should cancel this collab altogether, right?!”
With the help of Visk, the Olive relations person handling Nia, and the virtual reality relations expert, connecting the neural world and a specific virtual reality device had taken a full day.
With her protection, it would be fine, but implementing safety measures and routes that wouldn't cause mental damage from the Abyss environment or be detected by virtual beasts took half a day.
And setting up the virtual reality device to fit Menchi's body who came to the 21st district, and designing her connection link centered around Nia's location data in the neural world with Noise's help, took several more hours.
Despite having to cram dozens of hours into a body that didn't need sleep to make the collab with her a reality, suddenly saying to cancel it as if it never happened left Nia, who didn't know her circumstances, utterly bewildered.
“Um, well… If Menchi really wants to do that, I can cancel it right away… Would it be okay if I ask why?”
But since they'd been talking for a decent amount of time for this collab, the first emotion that bubbled up before shock and anger was worry.
At first glance, Menchi had an appearance that looked like she lived wildly on her own…
But from what Nia had figured out so far, aside from her being a great streamer with 800,000 subscribers, she was just an ordinary person with a shy and normal personality.
So, in a situation where she was facing Nia directly, would she boldly declare she couldn't do it?
This wasn't something that would happen unless Menchi had been acting all along without fully hiding her true personality, and it took more than just a little resolve.
So Nia couldn't help but worry about what kind of resolve it was.
“Y-you're not angry, are you…?”
“Hmm, of course, it's very surprising to suddenly say to cancel a collab that's right around the corner… but…”
“U-um…”
“Still, from what I've seen of Menchi-nim so far, it doesn't seem like someone who would say something like that without any reason.”
“Eh.”
Nia didn't know how her words were received, but Menchi's eyes widened in surprise as she stared blankly at her.
Was it really that surprising?
…Well, thinking about it, that reaction wasn't entirely unreasonable. Nia and she hadn't known each other long. In fact, aside from video calls or emails, they'd only met for a few hours in person.
It was possible to build trust in such a short time only if the other party was a scammer trying to deceive or a fool who knew nothing of the world. Those were the only two possibilities.
But her words were at least not baseless nonsense to Nia. After all…
“It wasn't that I said it because I had some urgent reason I couldn't do it. I honestly wanted to cancel the collab face-to-face. And from the way I've seen her in broadcasts or calls so far… Menchi-nim, you have trouble telling lies, right?”
“Ugh…”
Her experience wasn't particularly broad, but there were always people like this. People who were so honest that even if their tongue was cut in half, they couldn't lie.
In modern society where indirect speech is a virtue, such a personality had to live with the penalty… But at least Nia thought that part made her incredibly trustworthy.
A person as transparent as a glass bead, with her insides completely exposed, was showing that she truly liked Nia. Who would dislike that?
…Of course, this might be a favor born from Menchi's lack of fatal flaws and her extremely beautiful face.
“Menchi-nim, who is so honest I want to emulate you. Please tell me. What kind of reason is there? I won't get angry at all.”
Nia approached the petrified Menchi who wasn't moving and placed her hands over Menchi's with both of hers and asked that way.
And the eyebrow raise she'd practiced for some time, thinking she might use it someday on stream.
It was a special move that, because Menchi was taller than Nia, could one-shot down the opponent.
“A-ah, um, th-that… I'll tell you…”
The effect was amazing. Menchi's face instantly turned as red as a tomato, and she lowered her head while stuttering.
After all, a cute face is a fatal weapon. That is, Nia was the strongest in the world.
And after hearing the whole story, Nia finally understood why Menchi had suddenly brought up such words at this point.
“Hee… So the Goro Kedan is planning a big ruckus on the collab day…”
“B-but it's only some of them! Not all Goro Kedan are bad…!”
“…Well, that makes sense. In fact, when Menchi canceled her viewers before, the broadcast just flowed naturally without any issue.”
Actually, even in Nia's fanbase, the Parang-dan, there were always some bad Parang-dan who suddenly screamed Nia fan songs.
Releasing Oparts for free on the internet was like the actions of a saint, and they said they were a knight order that worshipped such saints…
Honestly, Nia felt bad and quickly traced their accounts to warn that if they did something like that again, they would never be able to enter the broadcast again, and they disappeared in an instant.
Thinking about that, Menchi's claim that not all Goro Kedan were bad was quite reasonable.
“Well, whenever people gather to the point where they become a fanbase, there are always some pathetic people….”
“Mmm!”
“But it's a bit strange. If I don't like it, I could just go to my personal broadcast and cause trouble, so why come to the collab to cause trouble? Wouldn't that put the party involved, Menchi-nim, in harm's way?”
“Um… That might be… Maybe it's not just a warning to Nia-nim, but also to me…”
“A warning? Ah.”
…I see. So while claiming not to collab with Menchi, they're also warning Menchi not to collab with other streamers.
That was… an utterly absurd statement. Whether a streamer broadcasts with whom is up to their own heart. Why would viewers forcibly try to control that?
'I never thought that when I was a viewer.'
It was truly vicious. It was clearly an intention to ruin the broadcast with all kinds of troublemaking, blame it on Menchi, and isolate her.
Even thinking that this might be the first time this had happened, Nia's arms wrapped around Menchi's hands tightened.
“…I'm sorry. It's because of me. Really, I'm sorry…”
“Sorry? You really think that?”
“…Yes…”
“Then… I have one request.”
Maybe because she'd been living too peacefully lately, Nia felt her insides bubbling.
Individuals are weak, groups are strong. So there are so many things people can do when they gather, yet they use that great power just to bother streamers.
The fact that such people had been doing this and still held their heads high with pride was incredibly irritating.
“If you're sorry, then… Let's do the collab. Cancel what you said earlier.”
“…Eh?”
So this was all for Nia's sake. A childish thought to relieve the irritation she'd felt for the first time in a long time.
“I'll crush those damn turret bastards so that such things never happen again.”
Nia smiled with a grin at the corner of her mouth as she looked at Menchi.
If all the pieces of the puzzle in her head assembled, her declaration would not be impossible.
That's why she asked her first.
“Do you have any instruments you can play?”