It's Game Logic
"First, I'm s-setting a trap."
I tried to think back over everything I'd been through in Ashen City. I'd run a PK stream for the fun of it and gotten attacked by my own genmates and seniors. In the war I hadn't even been the one to use the nuke, and they'd still scolded me because the whole thing had started on my account. When I pranked Miss Koga, the Iztomo hadn't stopped me in time, and I'd ended up in tears. Even the trip to Oceanus, which I'd taken only because I wanted to see it, had ended with Nacchan betraying me.
After that, everyone just kept at it. Miss Koga set off a bomb at my base. Senior Namikawa, in an aim duel, shot me instead of the target and killed me. And losing every last material at the casino was obviously because the rest of them had cooked it up together and left me out.
Which meant that if I quit Ashen City today, I would have spent the entire game getting wrecked, and that would be the end of it. Whatever else, I didn't want that.
"I'll make a b-big trap and teach every one of them a lesson..."
"It's a l-little different from then. Back then Miss Koga didn't know anything, and I was p-picking on her..."
But now everyone, Miss Koga included, had gotten used to the game called Ashen City. So if I dug a trap, getting caught in it would be the victim's own fault, wouldn't it? I didn't have anything like hesitation left.
"The warehouse with all my m-materials and items. I'll tell anyone who comes to my b-base that I'm quitting, so they should take everything in th-there—but the moment they open it, boom. Wouldn't that be fun?"
"I'm not planning to c-call anyone myself. Everyone's used to it n-now, so if I invite them they'll start by getting suspicious..."
It would never work on Miss Koga, who read my mind, or on Miss Aki, who was actually good at the game. If it was going to land on anyone, wouldn't it be Senior Kurokami?
"I already said I'm q-quitting, and that today's the last day... so they'll probably only be a little suspicious, right? And if it's free, I think people will t-take it unless there's a real reason not to."
Even then, I was sure it would never work on Miss Koga. That was fine. If even one person got caught, I could be satisfied. Ideally, I wanted that person to be Miss Akabane.
Ah. This cool, heavy feeling. So this was a first.
That long stretch of humiliation and being pushed around... I was sick to death of standing on that side of it.
It was time to go back to being Kaino Izumi, the elite-gamer VTuber with a clear of Arcana Shooter: Purgatory on her record.
The Iztomo in chat were busy praising me. Well, of course. They never would have guessed I'd come in with this much content ready.
There was the warehouse that killed you in a blast the moment it opened, a dance stage built out of acceleration fields, a roller coaster made from sliders. And, on top of that, a planetarium where you could watch the constellations at night. I'd burned through almost every material I'd been saving, but this was the last one. I had to go at least this far, didn't I?
I checked who was playing Ashen City right now. Nacchan, Miss Koga, Miss Akabane, Miss Aki, Miss Utsumi, and Senior Kurokami. Six in all. All that was left was to wait for one of them to come. Who, I wondered, would be the first sacrifice.
"...It's g-game logic."
"...That's too mean!"
Even so, I'd said today was the last day I'd play Ashen City! Couldn't at least one person have come?
"Uuugh..."
Before I knew it, it was ten. For someone who usually falls asleep around eleven, drowsiness was already creeping in, and my eyes kept blinking. I was streaming this late to mark Christmas and winter break. It couldn't just end with nothing happening at all....
"...Let's wait thirty more minutes."
I said that, and thirty minutes passed, and still not a single person had come to my base.
"Yeah... maybe that would be better."
But inviting them myself felt like losing, and I hated that.
The moment I thought it, Miss Koga's message came up.
Was this an opening? I turned it over for a second, but no matter how I looked at it, Miss Koga would read what I was thinking and I'd be the one who got hit instead. Even so, you don't throw back a fish that's already on the hook.
Ashen City chat was visible, by default, to anyone connected to the server. Said like this, it would look as if I were talking to Miss Koga, while still baiting everyone else's interest. Miss Koga coming by was fine too. A little scary, but fine.
"Alien creatures...?"
Now that I thought about it, two days ago Miss Aki had said she'd pushed the tech all the way to alien level. Alien-creature hunting was new content that had shown up after I'd stepped away from Ashen City, so I'd only ever seen it in videos.
"B-but I already wrote that today is the last day of Ashen City..."
"A m-man doesn't pick back up what he's already said."
What I wanted to say was that I was, in fact, a sturdy, handsome middle-aged man with the mental age of someone in his forties. Not that anyone was going to believe it. A truly regrettable state of affairs.
"What do I do..."
They'd already said the whole group was going alien-creature hunting, so nobody was going to visit my base. I also hated the thought of throwing away everything I'd spent nearly an hour carefully building. More than that, the clock was already pointing at eleven. Even if I joined the hunt, I'd probably get sleepy halfway through and have to leave. Honestly, I was incredibly sleepy already. And then I'd just be a nuisance.
But no matter how I turned it over, I couldn't see a way to have it both ways.
"I'll just... try the stuff I p-prepared by myself, and then end it..."
"...What do I do. Doing it a-alone really isn't any f-fun."
"But all my weapons are already b-burning over there..."
My base was already roaring with flame. The items and materials were all in there too, of course, and there was no way to get them out. No chance I could join alien-creature hunting—one of the endgame activities—on the basic gear.
"Still, it kind of feels like watching a C-Christmas party, in its own way, so it's f-fine, isn't it?"
"Ah, it all burned. ...Th-then I'll go. B-bye, everyone..."
"...Damn it."
The moment I ended the stream, regret came flooding in. Should I have just joined the alien-creature hunt, the way the Iztomo said? They were all kind. If I'd asked up front whether it was all right to leave midway, that would have been enough.
It wasn't going to blow up into a Calamity just because I was the only one who sat out while everyone else was doing something together, was it?
Thinking about it, I hadn't even needed to burn the whole base down. Wouldn't it have been fine to log in now and then, whenever I got bored?
"...Uuugh."
I was an idiot. Why had I done that? I hoped they wouldn't think I was strange....
"Oh..."
While I sat there regretting it, I happened to look out the window, and pure white snow was already falling. It hadn't been coming down at all before the stream ended. The clock read 11:50.
"...Still, it's a white Christmas, in its own way."
And with that, this year's Christmas came to an end.
"...Aaah!"
The rest, until I fell asleep, was kicking the blankets.