The Incomprehensible (1)
The Incomprehensible (1)
《Streamer Sero's Chat Broadcast》
[Hello everyone! Your eternal stay-at-home friend, Sero, here!]
ㅡ Kyaaaa here!!! My daily dose of mental healing!
ㅡ Seha Seha!
[Did anything unusual happen to you all today? In the Neo Sanctum where Sero lives, the outer wall collapsed and toxic gas seeped in....]
[I want to move to Neon City too....]
[Anyway, I found out it happened near my place! And the correct answer! That was exactly why I couldn't turn on the broadcast yesterday!]
ㅡ Truly embodying the qualities of the No. 1 VTuber you worry about most when they don't stream;;
ㅡ lolololololol you've really got rotten luck lolololololol
ㅡ Quality?? You mean chubby morphing? (Really dunno) (This message has been deleted.)
[Oh, speaking of which. Everyone, did you hear that news?]
ㅡ ?
ㅡ What
[The news about the company that went completely bankrupt during a corporate war with Koozaka (コオザカ) this time!]
ㅡ lolololololololol I know right
ㅡ If you picked a fight with the world's 2nd-largest company by market cap and got destroyed, isn't that just natural selection?
ㅡ Seriously, what kind of guts did they have lolololol
ㅡ Pit Mac is fuckin strong lolololol they just ground up a whole corporation
[Actually, Sero... almost bought stock in the opposing company aiming for a jackpot....]
ㅡ Se-bung Se-bung-ah...
ㅡ lololololol you'd have to be insane to buy that.
ㅡ Glad you didn't buy it;; I checked and it's stuck at -99% now;
[Right? You're absolutely right! If you've got any sense, you shouldn't touch stocks like this! None of our Sero Squad members would do that, right?]
ㅡ Who would buy that lolololol
ㅡ fr lolol
ㅡ Seriously lolololol why buy it? (Chat I sent)
After sending the typed chat, I turned my head to check another screen interface.
At the edge of my gaze, a screen with various chart graphs remained stubbornly visible.
"Fucked."
At the end of the chart, a blue graph plummeting endlessly toward the bottom remained firmly in place.
It was a bitterly cold summer.
3. Incomprehensible Things (1)
To make my excuses in advance, it had been a decent stock when I bought it.
No, I was seriously frustrated.
I wouldn't be this frustrated if I'd bought the stock aiming for a jackpot.
When I did my research (a 30-minute search), there hadn't been any news about a corporate war going on.
The content was filled with nothing but so-called stock experts and talking heads claiming it was a stock with high peaks and high lows.
It clearly seemed like a stock full of promise when I researched and bought in.
When I briefly went into net space to check the shareholder bulletin board, it was nothing but wailing—no hope at all.
In short, it was a fucked situation.
[Current remaining credits──. This is lower than the average credits held in the lower layers of Neon City.]
"......Keuk."
Do you know an investor who went from riches to rags from a single mistake?
That's me.
Actually, not exactly a beggar.
Just infinitely close to being one.
Of course, I did do what they call 'diversified investing' that only wise investors do.
But what good is that, when unfortunately this stock—which now held less value than a scrap of toilet paper—had the highest proportion in my portfolio.
If I had to find a saving grace....
It was the fact that when I signed the contract for this place, I bought it outright instead of paying monthly rent.
Thanks to that, my fixed expenses weren't as high as I'd expected.
But should I really consider this a saving grace.
Anyway, even so, it wasn't like I had no fixed expenses (food, net fees, city taxes, private insurance premiums, corporate taxes), so finding a solution was urgent.
A problem was that my job was a 'freelancer' and a 'mercenary'.
It's the number one job for lacking a fixed income.
...Had I known it would turn out like this, I should have signed a contract with some corporation.
Come to think of it, among the mercenaries I knew around me, there were actually very few who only did mercenary work.
Some mercenaries leveraged their fame to shoot advertisements.
There were plenty of cases where they straight-up had a side job as a singer or ran an implant specialty shop.
I felt like I finally understood the reason now.
If I'd filmed a movie featuring a Mage with a 'lightning scar' on the forehead too, I wouldn't be worrying about credits now—but unfortunately, no offers came my way.
Anyway, that was the conclusion.
I had to scrape together credits to live on.
Now, borrowing money here is a low-tier move.
And earning money by working is a mid-tier move.
High-tier players like me leave behind a method to secure credits from the very beginning.
I connected a hologram call.
Since there weren't many numbers registered in my contacts, finding the number didn't take very long.
A refreshing city pop-style song, oddly mismatched with the cyberpunk world atmosphere, came through as the ringtone.
His taste really is unique.
The wait was short.
Not long after, the call connected.
A massive figure of a man, seemingly up to 2 meters tall, was projected through the hologram.
Though it didn't seem that way because of his height.
The man's race was dwarf.
He was also an ally of the protagonist in the game.
The top implant surgery authority I knew and simultaneously a high-grade cyberware expert.
He was also a highly outstanding hacker.
[Wow, what's the occasion. I think this is the first time in my life you've called me first?]
And for now, he was also my friend.
"Yo, 'Drex', doing well?"
[Right! I'm doing well, nothing special.]
After finishing the light icebreaker, I immediately got down to business.
"Then pay back the money you borrowed, you bastard."
Right now, he was just my debtor.
* * *
[Hahaha! Really. I wondered why on earth you'd call first.]
"......It's not that I deliberately didn't call, I had my reasons."
That reason.
Because I'm an 'I'.
Making the first call?
Not easy.
Drex in the hologram laughed loudly with a refreshing voice.
[First off, I sent it right away. I'd forgotten about it too.]
"Oh."
I let out a low exclamation.
A notification popped up on my vision interface indicating credits had been deposited.
I had thought he'd pay it back, of course.
But I hadn't expected him to send it immediately the moment I brought it up.
[So, nothing special lately? I've been hearing rumors that Catherine moved in next door.]
"...Don't even mention that."
Because it gives me a headache too.
Drex, giggling, pushed up the black cyber sunglasses he was wearing onto his forehead.
His green eyes emitted a round mechanical glow.
[Be nice to her, like I am to my girlfriend.]
"We're not dating like you and Lorenda, so what am I supposed to do for her."
[Ah jeez, this clueless little shit.]
I fell silent at the sudden curse that popped out.
At times like this, staying quiet was the answer.
Drex, who had been grumbling for a while, continued speaking.
[Come to think of it, a good implant came out recently. Any plans to install it?]
"I'd rather not. ...You know my constitution."
[Umm.... That is true.]
The sorrow of a sickly (true) pretty boy (not) who has to lie helplessly for a whole month after getting surgery once.
Since I had achieved my objective, I told Drex.
"Well, anyway, we talked, so it's fine. You seem busy with work, so I'll hang up now."
[Haha! Seeing you try to hang up right after your business is done, you really are the same as ever.]
That was a fact, so I had nothing to say in response.
The corner of Drex's mouth went up in a smirk.
His gold-plated teeth gleamed through the hologram graphics, flaunting their presence.
[Alright, take care. Next time you go to the pub, call me along with Catherine or something. Or drop by my workshop.]
"When I have time later."
[I'll just call you, so when I set a date, come.]
"......Fine."
Even after that, I had to promise several more times that I would definitely go before I could end the call.
Ugh.
I don't know why my friends are so clingy toward me.
Next to the now-off hologram call interface, the stock graph screen I'd left on earlier was still displayed.
I turned off the screen interface quickly with an irritable gesture.
It only annoyed me the more I looked at it.
Because even if I kept watching, a ruined graph wasn't going to come back to life.
Just turning it off and thinking of it as money I never had was easier on the mind.
(And now it literally is gone.)
...I'll have to take on a few requests later.
My hopeful retirement life.
It was replaced with a despairing labor life.
Anyway, right now, since I had gotten back the credits I lent Drex, I had a bit of breathing room.
'I guess I'll play today and think about tomorrow later.'
I pulled up the net streaming screen I had just closed earlier again.
Working tomorrow is for tomorrow's me.
Playing today is for the current me.
I lay down on my bed again, thinking about lazing around the room some more.
The excited voice of the illustrated woman came from the screen.
[Whoa! 'Cyber Mouse' sponsored a whopping 10,000 credits!! I'm going to be reacting all day today!]
ㅡ Whoa;; I guess they're a real Chairman
ㅡ It's the first time I've seen 10k credits drop in a small stream like this ㄷㄷ
ㅡ Fuck, I've been eating nothing but LAD nutrition tubes for the last 3 days!!! Is this life!
The timing wasn't good.
Ugh.
How much money is 10,000 credits, seriously.
From my experience, it felt like roughly 1,000 won per 1 credit....
Then....
.......
....
When I first fell into the game,
if I had started by changing my character's gender, wouldn't I have had a bright future like that.
"No, what a crazy thought."
Get a grip.
There were many precious things a man must not lose.
I had to learn to be satisfied with what I had and cherish it.
Eve asked me, as I was clutching my head in mental anguish.
[I question what thoughts you're having all by yourself.]
"......No, it's just, it seems like streaming is an easy way to make money."
Of course, I don't actually think so.
I wasn't naive enough to ignore the fact that broadcasters have plenty of difficulties too.
[Is that so?]
"Well, even so, I can't do it anyway."
And then.
I should have been questioning Eve, who kept asking about broadcasting.
* * *
It was a day like any other.
One day, when I was planning to kill time watching net streams as usual.
Hearing rumors that a major rookie VTuber with incredible graphics and concept had appeared, I was on my way to check it out.
[Humans, good to see you again today. I am the cutting-edge artificial intelligence AI Eve, who appeared to conquer this world. Thank you to 'Please Dominate Me' for the 100-credit sponsorship.]
"?"
Why are you here.
I couldn't come to my senses.