Please Save Me

The forum post appeared on my screen first thing that morning.

"Please save me."

It was nine in the morning. Anna was on her knees in front of my door.

"...What are you doing this early?"

"Please save me, Lora-sama..."

She pressed her forehead to the floor in a deep bow.

"...You can step on my head if you want. Just please, somehow, the horror game..."

"But I can't change my mind now, can I?"

I looked down at her. The perpetrators of this incident, the so-called TeroLoraists, had been sentenced to play horror games as punishment. It was an ancient tradition among VTubers. Even regular streamers did it all the time.

"Even if I did change my mind, the others wouldn't allow it."

The seniors wanted horror games. The viewers wanted horror games. If I suggested a different punishment now, it would probably fall on deaf ears. The backlash would only get worse.

"Y-you can use me as a chair...!"

"...Sitting on an actual chair is far more comfortable than sitting on a person. The height doesn't match up very well."

"How do you even know that...?"

Because I've done it a few times. As a villainess, I had to put on performances where I subdued others with showmanship. I once sat on a holy knight, and honestly, it felt amazing.

After that day, the Magic Tower Lord would growl at me every time he saw me, though.

The holy knight and the Magic Tower ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Lord had been involved with each other. Naturally, the Tower Lord openly hated me. All of that was just a memory now. I wondered what happened to those two afterward. They probably got married.

"I'll do anything, so please, please save me...!!"

Anna clung to my leg. ...She was becoming more and more of a questionable person. Still, her desperation was palpable. Showing up at my house first thing in the morning said everything.

"Then since you're here, help with the housework. I can't cancel the horror game, but I'll suggest something on the lighter side."

Rion was on the verge of retiring from VTubing. Having become more of a manager than a VTuber, she was coming to the office almost every day now. Lately she had been staying late, apparently preparing something new. Housework had begun to pile up.

Since monetization had been approved, the sixth generation would soon be doing their monetization celebration streams. Salaries would start next month, so I had been considering hiring a full-time housekeeper.

"Thank you...! I'll never forget this kindness!"

It wasn't exactly kindness. I had already told the viewers that the TeroLoraists would be playing horror games, but I hadn't announced which ones yet. Honestly, Anna would never be able to handle In Last. She was the biggest coward among cowards. The atmosphere was eerie from the very beginning; the chances of her rage-quitting within minutes were extremely high.

The viewers wouldn't enjoy that very much.

When a game had a strong story, viewers tuned in expecting to see the streamer's reactions to specific scenes. But Anna would drop out long before reaching those moments, leading to the dreaded "got bored watching" situation. Besides, forcing a terrifying game on a scaredy-cat would make the pacing painfully slow. I needed to pick something moderately scary.

I ended up using the high-ball strategy without meaning to. Still, picking something too tame would be awkward.

Examples would be games like The Witch's House or Ib that Chel had played before—free horror titles that had some horror elements but were mostly just slightly creepy pixel art. If we compared it to food, it would be like saying "ssamjang is spicy food because it has a spicy taste." Whether something counted as a horror game was entirely subjective.

In that sense, side-scrollers like Outside or games like Small Nightmares had horror elements but... the viewers probably wouldn't accept them as proper horror games. The Drifting Dawn series seemed like the absolute limit, but that game had surprisingly heavy physical elements that Anna would fail at.

What game would make people say I chose well? I thought about it for a while.

I realized something. Anna was absolutely terrible at housework.

"...How about you just play In Last?"

"N-no...! Give me a chance!"

She couldn't clean properly and was bad at washing dishes. It made me realize just how outstanding Rion was. Come to think of it, I had heard from Rion before that Anna had been completely spoiled at home. I vaguely remembered hearing that she didn't do any housework at all in her own apartment. I had been skeptical, but she really was hopeless.

...Then what exactly are Anna's strengths?

When I was teaching her Labyrinthos, I thought she was diligent and had some good points. Seeing her now, though, I could only shake my head. She had a kind heart, at least. She just couldn't do housework, and sometimes she made me feel uncomfortable...

"Just asking, but what do you think about romance or marriage?"

"I have no interest! To be honest, I wish you would raise me, Lora! ...Can I live here for the rest of my life?"

"Don't look at me with sparkling eyes. I have no intention of taking you in."

If she were good at housework, maybe. But I had no hobby of feeding and sheltering others. If I did, I would have bought dogs or cats long ago. If I had time to raise pets, I'd rather spend it playing another round of games. That suited my personality better.

I turned on the PC.

"Hmm."

The Discord window that launched automatically as soon as I turned on the PC. Reading the chat made me crave black tea. Too bad Rion wasn't here to brew it. I tested Anna by making her brew some, but it tasted strangely bland. She had used way too much water.

"The second gens are playing Mark again today?"

Maybe she realized her tea failure. Anna brought me freshly brewed coffee. The coffee was at least drinkable. I had heard that even though Anna was hopeless at housework, she could at least make coffee at home.

"Seems that way."

"The second gens have always played a lot of Mark. Especially Senior Mikael—he's basically a Mark specialist VTuber."

"Is that so?"

According to Anna, Tanaka Mikael was someone who traveled all over the world building structures. He had created multiple theme parks, an underwater city in the ocean, and even floating islands in the sky.

"That's impressive."

"Conversely, Senior Mikael was pretty much the only one consistently playing Mark. The rest of us VTubers, including me... we were losing interest in it."

That was inevitable. My seniors seemed to have exhausted all the content they could. Aside from the final boss dragon, Mark had almost no high-difficulty challenge content. Even that dragon didn't require much preparation. If you were confident, you could get by with an iron sword, armor, and a bow. Diamond gear wasn't mandatory. There were even RTA runs that killed the dragon in a single day, so the difficulty of clearing the end content was extremely low.

"They only hop on when there's a new update. Even then, most of them finish everything in about a week."

"That's because most updates just add new creatures or building materials. Occasionally they add new types of dungeons, but..."

There had never been any new end-game content. The final boss dragon was clearly the hard ceiling. So aside from someone like Tanaka Mikael, people had stopped visiting the Mark server. But after the recent incident, they had to do restoration work, which was why all the EYEAI VTubers had returned to Mark lately.

"Now that I think about it, the sixth gens' collab restrictions have been lifted too, right?"

"Not completely, but mostly."

They were now allowed to interact with the seniors inside the Mark server. The condition was that their voices couldn't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠be heard on stream.

"Couldn't you say all of this is thanks to me?"

Anna put her hands on her hips as if that had been her main point all along.

"I brought new life to the dying EYEAI Mark server and helped the sixth gens, who were trapped on a remote island, get help from their seniors. All because I stalked you, Lora!"

"So what exactly are you trying to say?"

"...Please acknowledge my great achievement. Please, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠somehow, spare me from the horror game."

It seemed like Anna had no intention of going home unless I eased up on the horror game punishment. ...Had Anna always been this annoying?

-Ding-ding.

A sound came from the speaker. When I looked at the screen, the original woman who loved bothering me was calling.

"It's Inagika?"

Anna wrapped her arms around my neck, resting her chin on my shoulder.

"Inagika is cute."

"You watch her streams too?"

"I watch quite a bit. She doesn't seem to have many friends, so I personally like her. The way she flinches and hesitates is like a rabbit, don't you think it's cute?"

"From a certain perspective, I suppose."

"Ah! Of course! I like you way more than Inagika, Lora! I've watched all your streams! Even the twenty-hour archives!! So please, the horror game..."

"Don't repeat yourself. It's getting tiresome."

I clicked the left mouse button and accepted Inagika's call.

"I see. What's up?"

"Ah, it's just... I saw you were online, so... I thought I'd say hi..."

"Heh. So this is what it's like talking with Inagika?"

Inagika was hesitating and mumbling. Anna, watching this, whispered quietly into my ear. I wondered how Inagika would react if she knew Anna was here. She might hang up immediately. Maybe Anna was being considerate of Inagika's personality by whispering like this. Seeing that, Anna really did have a kind heart after all.

"If you have something to say, go ahead, Inagika. I'll listen."

"U-um...! C-could you log into Mark...?"

Again? I had been planning to run some single combat matches in Labyrinthos. It felt like everyone kept calling me over to Mark lately.

"Did something big happen?"

I was puzzled. If it had been Sora asking for help, that would make sense, but Inagika requesting assistance was unusual. Among us, Inagika was the biggest Mark veteran. I might be better at combat and adventure, but Mark valued building and redstone knowledge far more than fighting skill. In that regard, Inagika had vast knowledge, and unlike me—who had quit Mark two years ago—she was up to date on all the latest patches. There shouldn't be anything she needed my help with.

"S-Sora and Chel went to the city... Right now I'm the only one at our base..."

Inagika's voice was trembling badly. It seemed like something had gone wrong. I had no choice. I logged into Mark.

"Hello? This is our first time talking like this, isn't it?"

An avatar I had never seen before stood in front of me. The voice that greeted me was slightly low and full of energy.

"My name is Kisaki Rinko. I'm a fan. I always watch your streams with great enjoyment."

She said it just like that.

Kisaki Rinko. One of the only two first-generation VTubers in EYEAI, and the one with the highest subscriber count among us. Aside from me, she was also the only VTuber in EYEAI who used Labyrinthos as her main content. Or rather, it might be more accurate to say she had used it as her main content.