Just Stay a Noob Forever
Comparing the fantasy-filled world I once lived in with this modern Earth overflowing with technology, I naturally find my current life far more satisfying. It's not the kind of comparison where one place excels in some areas and the other in others. The two worlds are literally on completely different levels of quality of life. They're not even in the same category to begin with.
But that doesn't mean I hate the other world. The pure white breath I exhaled on the snow-capped mountains after slaying the eastern dragons. The world tree the southern elves showed me, stretching endlessly beyond the horizon. The watercolor paintings of fire and ice created by mages. Those sights you could never see on Earth were more than enough to etch unforgettable memories into a corner of my heart.
That's probably why I'm so obsessed with New Dimension. Just the fact that I could feel those same emotions again made my heart race.
…Well, if I had to nitpick, New Dimension is a bit too fantasy-like.
“Hoooo…”
My body feels freezing. Pure white breath flows from my mouth. I'd deliberately turned off the sensory dampeners in the settings, and it was enough to make me forget this was a game. The crunching sound of my footsteps and the footprints they left in the snow—knowing they were mine alone—sent a thrill through me.
“Haaaa…”
Before I knew it, the summit was coming into view. What kind of scenery would greet me once I reached the top? Just thinking about it made my heart soar with excitement.
And what I felt at that summit was—
“Whoaaaa…”
—a selfish desire to show this feeling to other people too.
“That was seriously amazing…”
The moment I logged out of New Dimension and regained consciousness in reality, a wonderfully pleasant wave of exhaustion washed over me. Of course, the bone-chilling cold I'd felt earlier was gone, but that didn't really matter right now. As long as I could feel those emotions and memories, it was enough for me.
“Uuuuugh…”
Stretching with a groan, I climbed out of the reverse capsule and immediately opened the closet. Instead of the neatly hung clothes, my eyes went to the items tucked away at the far left end. A pure white priest's robe. And a warhammer almost as tall as I was. They were the clothes I'd worn and the weapon I'd used in that other world.
I left the warhammer alone for now, rummaged out the priest's robe, stripped off my t-shirt and dolphin shorts, folded them neatly to one side, and slipped the robe on. Then I slowly walked over to the full-length mirror in the corner of the room. The familiar face and outfit I'd seen for so long greeted me.
Even though it wasn't what I'd wanted, I'd spent most of my life in that other world. So whenever those memories surfaced, I unconsciously found myself putting on these clothes. Of course, every time I did, unpleasant feelings would start bubbling up too…
“Hmm.”
My silver-white hair, long enough to flow all the way down to my hips, mostly covered the back of the priest's robe. In our order, covering the robe with long hair was considered tantamount to blaspheming the gods—one of the things you were absolutely never supposed to do. But in my case, they'd made an exception, saying long hair suited me much better. That had caused the old Pope to make a huge fuss, but what could I do? The god I served had commanded it.
…That shady bitch. A bitch who deserves every insult she gets. What kind of god acts like that?
She obviously did it because she knew I hated having long hair. Later she even tried to cut out the entire back of my priest's robe, claiming that the view of my back when my hair was lifted was the truly charming part. Thanks to the Pope and everyone else's opposition, plus my threat that I'd really kill myself if she did it, I managed to avoid that disaster.
The more I think about it, the weirder it gets. Why the hell would anyone worship a god like that…?
“Sigh.”
Let's stop with the pointless thoughts. I know all too well that once negative emotions start growing, they'll drag up even worse memories right along with them.
“Hoooo…”
“Lene unnie!”
“Hgyaaaaaack?!”
The sudden voice from behind me made my legs give out in shock, and I collapsed right where I stood. Of course, the owner of the voice was Bora. She was staring at me with wide eyes and a pouty lower lip.
“B-Bora… When did you get here…? I would've come out right away if you'd called…”
“I kept ringing the doorbell outside and calling your name!”
“Eek.”
So that's why she looked so sulky.
“Did you open the door with the electronic key?”
“Yeah. You gave it to me last time, remember?”
Right. I'd given it to her so she could come in and wait if I wasn't home when she visited. The way she'd laughed and said, “There's no way unnie wouldn't be home!” had stung a little at the time.
“So why didn't you open the door?”
“I think I was too focused to hear anything…”
“Well, if that's the case, I guess it can't be helped. …But unnie.”
“Yes?”
“What kind of clothes are those?”
…Oh. Right.
“Hiiik?!”
Bora's words finally made me realize what I was wearing. An outfit that couldn't possibly pass for casual clothes—it looked more like I was in the middle of cosplaying.
“What kind of clothes are they, unnie?”
The sparkling, curious eyes of a six-year-old pinned me in place. A wave of embarrassment surged up, and I could feel my face heating up. I wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and hide under the covers, but my legs were still too weak from the earlier shock to move.
“Unnie, you always wear the same clothes every day!”
They're all different outfits, though. I just bought a bunch at once because they were cheap and rotate between them. The colors are subtly different too.
“It feels completely different from usual! So refreshing!”
She's teasing me, isn't she? It doesn't suit me at all. I'm already eye-catching enough—why would I wear something like this? I was just reminiscing about the past by myself and…
“It looks really good on you!”
“…Huh?”
“You're so pretty, unnie!”
“…R-Really?”
“Yeah!”
Those innocent eyes that seemed to have never learned the word “lie” looked straight at me.
“…B-Bora. Is there anything you want to eat?”
“Pizza!”
Fine. Pizza it is for dinner tonight.
“…It's too expensive. Can't we have something else?”
“It's okay! Mom said I can use this card!”
“Ah, um… Th-Thank you…”
“You have to tell Mom yourself later!”
“Yes…”
“Bye-bye, unnie!”
“Thank you again for today, Lene.”
“Yes. Take care…”
After seeing Bora off, I sat down in my chair and quietly stared at the ceiling. The first thought that came to mind was, of course, worries about the future. The second was concerns about streaming. If I had to classify them, they'd fall into the same category… but they felt slightly different in tone.
I'd started streaming with the serious intention of making money, but my income was practically nonexistent, so I could quit anytime I wanted. That didn't mean I was ready to give up easily, though. I wanted to try everything I possibly could, and only give up if it still didn't work.
And among those worries, what was bothering me most right now was my stream setup. After learning about the VTuber direction, I'd felt a glimmer of hope, but I never imagined the costs involved would be this high. I'd even done my own research in case Tyuni had gotten something wrong, but it only turned out to be more expensive, never cheaper. If I'd started streaming a little earlier, before burning through all my living expenses, maybe things would've been different…
…I don't know.
Let's just stream.
I'd already announced yesterday that I'd be taking a break today, so there was no real need to turn the stream on. But I wanted to share the scenery I'd seen earlier with the Lene-bros as soon as possible. The break I'd taken to organize my thoughts had somehow become the reason I was turning the stream back on. Life really is full of things you can never fully predict.
With that thought in mind, I began preparing for the stream.
[Lene]
[Viewer Participation Content]
[New Dimension | 17 viewers | 0:00:13]
“Uh, um. Hello.”
I'd clearly said I'd be taking a break today, but the moment I turned the stream on, seventeen people showed up to watch. It was both embarrassing and genuinely happy. Even if they didn't know who I really was, it still meant they were supporting me. Sorry the screen is completely black right now, though.
“I was originally planning to rest today like I mentioned yesterday… but something came up that I wanted to do, so I turned on the stream.”
The chat seemed pretty excited about the viewer participation content title. To be honest, it wasn't anything that amazing, so I hoped they wouldn't get their expectations too high.
“It's neither PVP nor Tagirion. Just come to the location I'm about to share. I'll be leaving by thirty-five minutes at the latest, so please take care of me.”
The eternal land of winter—Niblord. An extreme region covered entirely in snow and ice. Even with sensory dampeners set to maximum in New Dimension, you could still feel your body growing cold. A land of permafrost and absolute zero. Because of that, there were almost no monsters or items worth getting here, which was why it was one of the least popular areas in the entire game.
In other words—
It was only natural that the Lene-bros' complaints would pile up against me for choosing this place as our gathering spot.
‘It's not even that cold…’
Lene, completely unaware that her standards were completely broken.