The Frustratingly Embarrassing Command
I woke up.
My sleeping position had been incredibly restless.
The body and mind were both too exhausted to sleep properly, so I must have actually dozed off, yet I kept tossing and turning, my mind hazy as if crushed by a paper cutter.
Even after sleeping, I felt more tired than before.
A slight headache and muscle soreness so intense I could barely move confirmed how drained I had been the day before.
I found my phone with my mind barely awake.
The phone's light flashed brightly for a moment, blinding my eyes to the point of pain.
I furrowed my brows and hurriedly lowered the brightness before checking the time.
It was already past eleven in the evening.
I must have met MyaMya around two in the afternoon, so I had slept for more than five hours.
This meant my day-night cycle would be completely reversed again.
Well, for someone like me, a former NEET, that wasn't a big problem anyway...
The fact that my lifestyle had become increasingly unsustainable since my late teens was undeniable.
My body wasn't what it used to be.
I couldn't sleep three hours like before and game, nor did a daytime nap restore fatigue like a full night of sleep.
It seemed like the first signs of aging.
I was barely twenty, yet people in the age group that actually starts to age were casually deciding to grow old.
"Ugh..."
Because of what happened earlier, I had been maintaining a strict rule of always sleeping before midnight, but now here I was again.
I closed my eyes to sleep, but it was already too late.
My mind gradually cleared, and the sensation of my limbs sharpened unnaturally.
I tried changing my sleeping position to force myself back to sleep.
But instead of finding comfort, only sharp muscle pain remained, and I couldn't even support my body properly.
Sleep had completely left me.
My head wouldn't activate when I needed it, but once I needed it, it went full alert.
Realizing I couldn't sleep any longer, I reached for the phone I had turned off earlier, unlocked it, and turned it on.
The first thing I opened upon turning it on was the VR game community bulletin board.
I searched for "Dark Warrior" as if it were a daily task and scrolled through the posts.
[Title: Why isn't Dark Warrior broadcasting in the evening?]
[Content: Fuck, it's ridiculous.]
[You girls harass people all day, and you still want to broadcast?]
[No, it's not harassment, it's praise.]
[Heh, mind your own business. Because of people like you, I can't even watch games anymore.]
[What?]
The comments below were nothing but filthy words spilling out unnecessarily.
I quickly scrolled past and clicked on another post.
[Title: Dark Warrior is really out of this world.]
[Content: I was watching a clip someone uploaded to YouTube today and I couldn't even try to follow it. lol]
[It's not some kind of macro, but the movement algorithm for skipping clips is random, so macros couldn't cover it anyway.]
[They didn't even rank 1.]
[Yeah, but she's a girl, so she couldn't rank 1.]
[Heh heh heh heh heh, she's amazing.]
[Some insane sex criminal, get out.]
It was beyond awe-inspiring. How could such posts exist...
By the way, clips.
As I read the post, the clip video I had seen in the afternoon flashed back.
I quickly opened the app and found the video in the recent recordings.
[4.6 million views]
What the hell...?
"Is this for real...?"
An involuntary murmur slipped out.
The unedited video I had seen in the afternoon had over 4.6 million views. Upon closer look, it had already entered the trending video rankings.
I didn't know whether I should feel happy or annoyed about this interest.
My photo and voice had already spread so widely across the internet that nearly everyone who didn't know me knew them, and even in the video's comment section, people who had never played the game were flooding in to say they knew all about me.
For someone else, this might have been the perfect moment to break out of obscurity and debut, but...
I didn't understand it at all.
I sat in front of the computer with a complicated heart.
I opened two internet windows, one playing the broadcast and the other playing MyaMya's broadcast.
[11:28]
The time when their broadcasts ended had just arrived.
They wrapped up their content and slowly transitioned to chatting, talking about all sorts of things.
Both broadcasts had a new chat rule: "Dark Warrior mention = ban."
The topic must have grown quite large, because if I had to respond to comments about me, normal flow would have been impossible.
Also, they probably wouldn't have been happy about mentioning others on their own broadcast.
I split the screen exactly in half and watched both broadcasts blankly.
Their virtual avatars kept overlapping with the real women I knew.
A strange, indescribable emotion kept rising inside me along with an uncomfortable sensation in my lower abdomen.
Did I like them?
The question appeared, accompanied by a sudden, inexplicable feeling that I wanted to like them but couldn't bring myself to.
The warmth they constantly reached for had been nice, but the more I felt it, the more I kept imagining the day that warmth would vanish, and that confusion of mine was unbearable.
The desire to reach out to them might just be the beginning of the pain I would feel someday.
"...Hah."
I turned my eyes from the overwhelming mix of emotions and glanced at my phone.
[New message 1...]
One message I had missed caught my eye.
The message saved as ♡MyaMya♡ appeared.
[Read and reply. For sure.]
...
[Just woke up]
After sending the message, I reflexively looked at MyaMya's virtual avatar on the monitor's right side.
"Ah, my meows, hold on a sec... I need to use the bathroom."
As soon as my message sent, she asked the viewers for permission on her broadcast.
I had mentioned bathroom only because someone might be contacting her at this time and it could cause misunderstandings among viewers who loved her.
A moment later, the sound of her leaving the broadcast echoed as a text came in.
[Did you sleep well? How's your body?]
[Headache a little and muscle pain is really bad.]
[Ah... I see.]
[I put painkillers on the living room dining table. It's an anti-inflammatory, so take it when you need it.]
[Thank you.]
[Hey, what~ heh heh. Good thing you contacted me before twelve.]
[??]
[I'm still doing the cat thing for the whole day today. You know it's not finished, right?]
[..Oh, right?]
In the brief gap when she sent the message, an uneasy premonition grew uncontrollably.
[Before the cat thing ends, I want to see some really craving, hot, and lewd photos... heh heh]
And of course, the uneasy premonition never missed.
[..Huh?]
[I understood]
[......]
[I'll go back to the broadcast first. Please keep watching the broadcast. I'll explain the exact requirements on air.]
[..Huh? Wait a second.. You said you'll explain on the broadcast?]
[Yes yes, and]
[If you don't do it, I'll take the whole day off tomorrow?]
[Excuse me?]
[MyaMya-nim?]
[If you don't do it, why take off again...]
...
No matter how much I sent, MyaMya didn't reply.
Taking the whole day off... It meant she would come find me if I didn't comply with her demands.
"Yeah, I'm here."
She was probably addressing the viewers, but I felt as if the real her had approached me right in front.
...Explaining on the broadcast, what exactly...
She cleared her throat to resume chatting.
"By the way, today I saw a really cute long-haired cat on my way."
..Ah
As soon as her chat started, I realized what she meant by "explaining on the broadcast."
...She hadn't said it directly, but it was clearly about me.
"His limbs are perfectly straight, his features are flawless, and his body proportions are golden ratio. I couldn't believe it was a long-haired cat at all."
Even after taking the medicine she had left, I felt my headache worsen.
...My fever was rising a little.
"So she came this way~ and called? But that one really came and rubbed her body against me, and she was putting on a lot of aegyo."
...I had never done aegyo.
"Anyway, she was so cute, so I sent her back, but it's such a shame I couldn't take a photo..."
"If only I had taken photos of her belly exposed, tongue out, front paws extended... or the scene where she leaned against the wall cutely with her firm rear sticking out. It was really a waste."
...!
Did she mean... to send those exact photos...
MyaMya's virtual avatar winked. As if to say, "You figure it out."
[Even a first-time cat posed like that?]
[Heh heh heh, MyaMya would be perfect at it]
[Wow, just imagining it makes my heart race]
[Just reading the words makes me want to laugh cutely]
[Please have MyaMya-nim perform it again?]
"......Ugh.."
I turned off her broadcast and let out a huge sigh.
The reactions in the chat seemed to be projecting MyaMya's true feelings perfectly.
I thought about just refusing, but...
[If you don't do it, I'll take the whole day off tomorrow?]
MyaMya's message flashed through my mind.
......Ugh... really...
...Why do they all... only give me embarrassing commands...
I hesitated to even undress for the embarrassing photo from the start.
But to take a photo that would satisfy her, I had no choice but to take off my clothes.
...I lay on the bed and felt the cool touch of the blanket on my bare skin.
The cool sensation disappeared almost immediately, allowing me to instantly sense my current state.
...But that didn't mean I could stop being embarrassed.
Since this had happened, I might as well just do it quickly and get it over with...
I hurriedly assumed the pose.
According to MyaMya's request, belly exposed... front paws... no, hands extended... fists clenched like a cat, wrists slightly bent... mouth slightly open, tongue out...
"..Kyahuu..!!"
At that moment, my eyes met those of the lens holding me.
My whole body trembled as if electrified, and I tossed the phone onto the bed.
...It took another ten minutes after her broadcast ended for two photos to arrive in MyaMya's messenger.
[Waah~ I love it, your expression is the cutest! lol Were you very embarrassed? Later if you want, I'll take a few more and send them heh heh]
[No need]
[Heh heh heh heh heh heh. Sleep well~♡ Dream of me]
That night was almost the first time in my life I went to sleep without my phone. I had even turned it off and placed it on the computer desk.
Of course, because I had tossed and turned until dawn, my day-night cycle eventually reversed...