The Stalker and the Thief

Stalker and thief Anna was watching Sora's stream. 'Lately, Teacher... No, that's not right.... I decided not to call her Teacher anymore.' Anna shook her head vigorously.

"It's been a while since I last talked to Lora..." Using a nickname she normally never said out loud felt a little embarrassing. Ever since Lora debuted, Anna had watched every single one of her streams without fail. And every time Lora's broadcast ended, she would send messages in Discord like, "Today's stream was so much fun! Especially the part where you chopped off the paladin's head—that was absolutely delicious!" But then she got a reply saying, "Please stop sending me these long essay-like comments every time. It's starting to weird me out a little," so she had been holding back lately.

Anyway, the point was that she was a huge Lora fan. After all, hadn't she recognized Lora's true potential even before her VTuber debut? Before Leon even suggested it to her, it was none other than Anna herself who had dragged Lora onto a stream. I marked her first...!

Of course, her ultimate favorite was still Louie, that fact hadn't changed. But Louie didn't stream twenty-four hours a day. So Anna spent her spare time watching Lora's broadcasts. ...In the early days of her debut, when Lora was streaming up to twenty hours a day, Anna thought she might actually die trying to keep up. But thankfully, her stream times had gotten shorter lately. What a relief. Leon-senpai must have scolded her. Leon-senpai saved my life.

'But somehow it feels like we're drifting further apart.'

She had been worried whether someone with such a peculiar personality could get along with the sixth generation at all, but surprisingly, they were getting along great...! If only they wouldn't get quite so close......!

From what she'd heard, Lora and Sora had even exchanged gifts. Sunglasses? Horror games? I've never gotten anything like that from her...!

It was only natural for members of the same generation to be friendly with each other as VTubers, but from Anna's position—banned from collaborations due to restrictions—it felt a little lonely. 'When is this collab ban going to be lifted, anyway...'

With a sigh, Anna logged into Minecraft. She never expected Lora to make a surprise appearance on Sora's stream. She had been keeping constant tabs on Lora's own channel, so she never missed those, but suddenly popping up on someone else's stream was much harder to catch in real time. Did this mean she had to start monitoring all the sixth gen streams from now on too?

Because of that, she had missed the beginning. But now Lora was saying she was going to fight the Three-Headed Specter.

'This... is my chance to watch in person.'

Anna thought for a moment. If Lora was going to fight the Three-Headed Specter, she would have to move away from the sixth gen base first, right? The boss turned everything around it into a wasteland. So maybe she should get ahead of her? Then she could pretend it was a coincidence when they ran into each other?

'I want to, but Lora hasn't turned on her stream...!'

There was no way for Anna to know where Lora was heading. Oh well. Guess she'd just quietly drink an invisibility potion again today. Gulp, gulp.

After drinking the invisibility potion and turning transparent, Anna downed a few more functional potions on top of it for good measure.

"Preparations complete. Now I just need to defeat the Three-Headed Specter."

"Can I come with you? I won't be much help, though."

"If things go wrong, the aggro might shift to you. And without proper equipment, one hit from the Three-Headed Specter would kill you instantly."

"I see. Then I'll just stay behind. Now that I think about it, I have some building to do."

Right in front of her, Lora and Sora were having that conversation. Soon after, when Lora started moving, Anna followed silently behind her.

This was how Anna had been spending her time lately.

'There shouldn't be any problem with this... right?'

Whenever Lora logged into Minecraft, Anna's routine was to follow her around like this in stealth mode. It couldn't be called stalking. It wasn't like she was doing it in real life—it was just in a game. Come to think of it, Anna herself had been on the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠receiving end of this kind of behavior from her upperclassmen a few times in games before. It was fun secretly watching juniors play, after all.

But more than that, Anna had grown even more curious about Lora. Lora was like a flower blooming on a cliff—someone you could reach for endlessly without ever seeming to touch. That was exactly what made her so captivating, a strange charm that made you want to risk your life. It was similar to the urge to leave a handprint on a perfectly clean glass window.

Beyond her usual confident and unshakable demeanor, Anna wanted to see all sorts of different sides of Lora. Her surprised face. Her flustered expression. If she could see those, it would be absolutely perfect for a filthy degenerate like her. With her own hands.

...With my own hands?

'...There I go having weird thoughts again.'

It seemed to be happening more and more often lately. Ever since that day, Louie hadn't done any viewer-participation streams either.

Anyway, watching Lora solo the Three-Headed Specter was going to be pure gold. With that thought in mind, the invisible Anna observed Lora's gameplay from afar.

'Whoa, what kind of positioning is that...'

Lora was effortlessly dodging all of the Three-Headed Specter's projectile attacks. At the same time, she never forgot to keep firing arrows. And every single shot hit its mark, of course. Anna thought Minecraft was an incredibly inconvenient game. Just thinking about other action games made it obvious. Parrying, rolling, side dashing—those were the usual ways to respond to attacks in action games.

But in Minecraft, there were only two ways to deal with enemy attacks: "dash forward" and "block with a shield." Since the Three-Headed Specter used explosive attacks, shields weren't very effective, which left "forward dash" as basically the only option. That's right—forward dash. Minecraft had no backward dash or side dash functions. The only dash available was in the W ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠key direction, which meant you had to move your mouse (camera) at the same time to dodge attacks. In other words, it was an insanely inconvenient game that didn't let you dodge while keeping your eyes on the enemy.

But Lora seemed to have excellent spatial awareness. The moment she dodged an attack, she would immediately raise her bow and aim precisely at the Three-Headed Specter. She steadily chipped away at its health like that. When the boss used its charge pattern, she dodged what she could and then immediately closed in to beat the crap out of it.

'I heard she was good at PC games, but...'

Would she be good at those super difficult games too? Anna wondered. As she watched in a daze, an explosion pattern sent Lora flying. The Three-Headed Specter activated its shield, summoned its minions, and flew back up into the sky. And then... it started chasing after her.

"...Huh?"

For a moment, Anna couldn't understand what was happening. Had it noticed her?

'Oh no, I'm screwed...! The invisibility potion effect wore off...!?'

She had been so focused on watching Lora's play that she forgot to drink another potion. The Three-Headed Specter was flying straight toward her at terrifying speed. And Anna was a huge coward. Without even looking back, she started running for her life.

"Hiiiiiiik?!"

Anna ran. Boom!Boooom!Kaboom!! The Three-Headed Specter kept spewing flames. If she drank another invisibility potion, would it go back to Lora...? She had no idea! She hadn't fought the Three-Headed Specter in Minecraft that many times!! Rather than testing that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠gamble, Anna just kept running and running. But there was no way she could escape from the much faster boss.

"So it was a rod of the void after all."

While Lora had set off on her adventure to defeat the Three-Headed Specter, Sora had been left behind at the sixth gen base. She was thinking back on the conversation she'd had with Lora earlier.

"If you're going to make a chandelier, a rod of the void would be perfect, but you can only get those in the late game."

'Hmm.... She said she wanted a rod of the void...?'

Lora had never actually said she wanted one, but that fact wasn't particularly important to Sora. Sora tapped away at her phone. When she searched for "rod of the void," it really did seem like it would go perfectly with a chandelier.

"How do you get this?"

Sora asked the empty air. Immediately, chat responded:

"I see."

From what the viewers said, if you defeated the final boss of Minecraft—the Ender Dragon—a new dimension would open up. It seemed the item could only be obtained there. Of course, for a complete beginner like Sora who had just started playing, it was an item beyond her wildest dreams.

"But is the rod of the void a rare item? As valuable as diamonds?"

"Then have the seniors been to this End place or whatever?"

So if she went to the city where the seniors lived, she could probably find a rod of the void in one of their storage chests. Since it was apparently a junk item, it wouldn't count as stealing if she took a little... right? It didn't seem like a big deal if she just borrowed a few.

'But going there alone feels a bit scary.'

So far, Sora had mostly focused on building. She had gone on one adventure to gather materials before, but the painful lesson she learned after falling into lava and losing all her diamonds still stung. ...And the monsters in Minecraft were scary too. Zombies, skeletons—why did only terrifying things spawn? If it was a sandbox game, shouldn't there be cuter, friendlier monsters?

That's why Sora generally didn't like leaving the base.

'Inagika... is she still not awake?'

She checked the Discord, but Inagika was still showing as offline. Inagika's sleep schedule had been completely destroyed for a while now. It was a common occurrence among VTubers. Oh well. With a sigh, Sora headed to the fishing spot.

"Chel."

She called the name. In truth, Chel had been logged into Minecraft since morning. But she was always so quiet. ...Why was she this silent all the time?

"Yes."

At least she answered when called. Sora didn't understand why she used polite speech with her fellow genmates. ...It created such a sense of distance.

"I'm going to the seniors' city. Can you come with me?"

"Understood."

Chel put down her fishing rod. If there was one thing Sora had learned about Chel, it was that this girl was surprisingly obedient. If you gave her instructions or asked for a favor, she would quietly comply.

'...I really can't figure her out.'

She was still an uncomfortable genmate to be around, but right now, having her was better than going alone.

"Then let's head out right away."

"Yes."

Sora made up her mind to sneak into the city where the seniors lived, bringing Chel along with her. This had all happened just twenty minutes before Sora would encounter the Three-Headed Specter.