9. Don't Upload It to NewTube!!
9. Don't Upload It to NewTube!!
***
[Hana, I feel so bad for her...]
[Wait, that Rin girl moves like she's dancing. Is that a skill too?]
[for real, Rin! your character is so pretty!! please share your character customization]
[Isn't she a sociopath? She was smiling while dancing;]
[Hana, are we really supposed to just leave her like that? She looks so shaken?]
When Han Serin checked the chat, the hacking controversy had died down far more than she had expected.
The main content of the chat was mostly messages worrying about Hana's state, and the next most common were messages expressing curiosity about her.
'I'm pretty sure... the chat wasn't moving this fast before.'
The chat was scrolling so fast that it was actually hard to properly read the contents.
She checked the chat for a moment. There were still occasional messages calling her a hacker, but by now she just thought, well, that's how it is.
Those people had already branded her as a cheater in their minds. No matter what she said here, no matter how much skill or real ability she showed, they wouldn't believe her.
There was a saying that people only see what they want to see. And she was no exception to that.
Once someone had locked in a belief, they would only change it if you presented proper evidence and refuted it.
Han Serin was thinking about whether she should contact the game company and get an answer confirming she wasn't hacking, when—
"Ugh... G-go away!!"
Still sitting collapsed on the ground, Hana spoke while glancing at her as if terrified, and a sigh escaped Han Serin before she knew it.
Hana’s twin swords lay scattered across the floor while she curled in on herself, trembling. There wasn’t even a trace of will left in her to continue the duel.
No, it was hard to even call it a normal state.
'...Did I go too far?'
And seeing the streamer like that, Han Serin once again realized that this place was not the world of Black Ark.
This place was not the world of Black Ark, where she had staked her life slaughtering monsters.
The mercenaries who had once stalked through the city with murderous looks in that harsh environment were nowhere to be seen here anymore.
The faint power still flowing through her body felt far too weak compared to the infinite sense of omnipotence she had once felt.
Right, this was a game.
As those thoughts kept coming, she eventually let out a hollow laugh.
'What am I even doing, seriously.'
In the end, she had done something utterly cruel to an ordinary person.
It was the same kind of act as the trash classified as "jackals" in that world, toying with powerless people.
She had done such a thing.
Even now, the terror-stricken expression of the woman called Hana was in her view.
Her hands trembling.
Having her body move like a puppet—even if it was just a game, it couldn't have felt good.
Right. Even the streamer called Hana right in front of her was, in the end, just a user enjoying a game.
She wasn't the same "type" of person as herself, who had felt danger among monsters every day in the world of Black Ark, enjoyed that thrill, and swung her sword.
She was just an "ordinary person" enjoying a game.
So Han Serin slowly unequipped her weapon, the Crescent-Moon Weight, from her equipment window and carefully opened her mouth toward the woman called Hana.
"Hana...? I didn't do it on purpose either. If I hurt you badly... I sincerely feel sorry. I was only trying to show my skills to prove I'm not hacking. Did it... upset you a lot?"
"...Ah, I... um. Y-yes?"
At Han Serin's sudden change in attitude.
Still dazed, Hana mumbled through her words and stared blankly at Han Serin.
The sensation of her body moving on its own, controlled by someone else.
The moment she became conscious of her body moving in directions she never intended, Hana had screamed without realizing it out of boundless fear, and only now was she slowly coming back to her senses.
'Which side of her is the real one?'
The silver-haired woman who had just toyed with her, wearing a cold smile and moving as though dancing, was gone.
The silver-haired woman now apologizing to her with a serious expression felt like a completely different person.
Hana grabbed her still-trembling arm tightly with her other hand, as if to stop it, and pulled herself together.
"N-no... Rin. I mean, your skill was really amazing!?"
But even so, Hana couldn't help the trembling in her voice.
"If I stay any longer, I think I'll make you uncomfortable, so I'll stop here. And this is a late apology, but the messages I sent in your stream... I think they were too aggressive. I'm sorry."
"Yes. Yes! Th-then... please go."
With that short exchange, the character called Rin turned into a cluster of light and left the Colosseum.
"......"
Like someone picking through the ruins after a storm had swept through, Hana blankly picked up her twin swords and stored them in her equipment window.
'Ah.'
Then suddenly, she remembered that she was still live.
"Ah, shit."
Even as she registered the curse that came out on instinct, Hana quickly checked the chat.
[lolololololololololol]
[This is getting clipped forever]
[I don't know if she's a cheater or not, but lololololol Hana, what's with that dumb look on your face]
[Hey, but that Rin girl really doesn't seem like a hacker]
[I felt the sincerity in her apology just now too]
[I know it's a virtual reality character, but the way she spoke so gently almost turned me into a simp]
[Yeah, the moment you typed that, you were already a simp]
Hana clutched her head.
Her long black hair scattered everywhere, obscuring her vision, but more than that, Hana was filled with deep self-loathing.
"Aaaagh! I don't know, I don't know! And seriously, just in case anyone's thinking about it—if I see anyone uploading this to NewTube, I'll actually kill you. Ugh, I said don't upload it! I said it. Seriously! I really said it!!"
Even as she kept talking, Hana herself knew better than anyone that those words had no effect and no meaning.
But right now, she couldn't endure the self-loathing without screaming.
The duel that had just happened—no, not a duel, just her being toyed with from start to finish—would probably be all over NewTube within thirty minutes.
Even if she tried to fix her expression now, everything was already over. It was pointless.
[lololololol yeah it's already on NewTube]
[Hana screaming like she's about to cry, clipped forever gg]
[Ugh, go away! Go away!]
[You guys are seriously toxic lololololol]
[Aren't you the same people who were saying you were worried about her just now lololol]
[It was funny though lololol her trembling and screaming "go away" is a legendary scene lololololol]
"...Ugh, I don't know, seriously."
Screaming as if terrified. Answering with a dumb expression. If she had at least fought back properly, or lost a real duel, that would be one thing.
Thinking about how every embarrassing moment of herself would spread rapidly across NewTube, she just let out a hollow laugh.
Everything she had built up around her image, including her private pride in running a skill-focused stream among female streamers, was ruined.
Then suddenly, she saw the viewer count next to the chat.
—64,142 viewers.
'...This is insane. I can't even.'
Had the rumors about that user called Rin already spread everywhere? It was a viewer count she had never imagined.
No, sixty thousand? Even that woman called the "crazy bitch" of tweetie had never hit a viewer count like this.
The moment she saw the viewer count, Hana, who had been blankly laughing like she'd lost her mind, suddenly started pulling all sorts of items from her equipment window and throwing them across the Colosseum.
Thud. Ting. Whack. Clink.
As if venting her anger, all sorts of colorful objects crashed around the Colosseum with various sounds, and at the same time, Hana's sharpened voice rang out loudly once more.
"Ugh, I don't knooow. Seriouslyyyyy!! Die, all you shitty viewers!!"
Screaming in a voice filled with rage, Hana kept throwing things and flailing her body.
The sight of her only entertained the viewers even more.
[lolololololololololol]
[Ugh! Go away!]
[If you're mad, become a shitty viewer too~ nobody forced you to be a streamer lololololol]
[fr lol]
[Die, all you shitty vieweeeers~~]
Hana kept hurling items around like she had lost her mind as the chat raced by without pause.
Eventually, after a short while, as if she had composed herself, Hana muttered in a hoarse voice.
"...If my NewTube editor is watching, edit it fast and upload the video. Don't let someone else profit off it."
Letting someone else milk views on NewTube with her video? She absolutely refused to watch that happen.
She couldn’t stop people from uploading the video, but the thought of someone else making money off her humiliation made her seethe.
No, she would definitely track down every single one of those videos and report them herself—and on top of that, she'd make sure they could never even dream of monetization.
***
Along with the familiar sensation wrapping around her, her vision darkened once again.
————————
"...I'm tired."
Han Serin sat up from the Another World capsule, frowned, and felt how heavy her body was.
She had played the game for about five hours, watched a stream, then played again. There hadn't been any real physical movement, but the mental burden she felt was greater than that.
Now, as just a single woman, she had essentially exposed herself in front of twenty thousand viewers.
And speaking while being conscious of them had consumed far more mental energy than she expected.
Blankly, she gathered her silver hair, which covered her eyes, and tied it up high with a string she had left near the PC.
As she styled her hair into a ponytail, Han Serin let out a hollow laugh at her reflection in the mirror.
The silver-haired woman reflected in the mirror felt somehow unfamiliar to her.
How should she even express this feeling—so familiar, yet unfamiliar?
Unlike the version of herself who had lived in the Black Ark world covered in all kinds of equipment, seeing herself defenseless now in nothing more than an ordinary white T-shirt felt deeply alien.
"...I really should've made my character a guy."
If she'd known she'd end up living as her game character, she would've just made a handsome male character.
Then even if she'd fallen into this incomprehensible world, she might have resented it a little less.
"Ugh, what's the point of thinking about it now."
Muttering quietly, Han Serin threw herself toward the large bed.
Whump.
A soft sensation wrapped around her so cozily.
Han Serin buried herself in the bed, slowly pulling the blanket around her.
Still, the feeling of this moment wasn't so bad, and with a small smile, Serin drifted off to sleep.