Karaoke Collab on the Rank Climb

"Aaaah! That damn phantom thief again! Aaaaaah!!" Kim Ga-ram screamed.

Winning and losing is just part of the game. Even so, Kim Ga-ram considered herself someone who was pretty good at games. After all, she had climbed all the way to Diamond. Yet every time she queued, she somehow matched with "Glory of the Ducal House." It happened in two or three out of every five matches.

"Aurora, seriously…"

Kim Ga-ram let out a long sigh. The name ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had seemed familiar, so she looked it up and found the VTuber Aurora. The woman had already been streaming for over a hundred hours straight. She kept queuing without rest. Had she completely lost her mind?

Her skill was excellent, matches ended quickly, and she filled every possible queue slot right up until the login limit, even sleeping for ridiculously short periods. Avoiding Aurora while queuing was nearly impossible.

…Maybe I should just stop ranking for a while.

She could win during Aurora's forced logout windows. The moment the restriction lifted, though, they matched again. Sometimes they ended up on the same team and she got carried, but the most infuriating part was that Aurora always appeared as the gatekeeper precisely when Kim Ga-ram was in a promotion match.

"Or should I just say something to Aurora…?"

Tell her that her endless ranking was making it impossible for anyone else to climb. …Would that be too pathetic?

While she was still agonizing over the idea, her phone alarm went off.

"Ah, what am I even doing?"

Kim Ga-ram hurriedly turned off the alarm and started her stream.

With no other choice, I climbed out of the VR capsule to eat.

"Nobody here."

I glanced around the room. The once-busy area in front of the PCs was empty. Checking the time, it was 9:12 a.m. I wondered if everyone had gone home, but four tracking phones were still sitting in their usual spots. They were probably just still asleep.

"The timing's awkward. I was going to order breakfast delivery, but I don't know if any places are open this early."

I muttered into the desk mic. Even at this hour, several hundred viewers remained in the stream. Probably people who hadn't gone to bed yet, commuters watching on their way to work, or simply those with nothing better to do.

The chat scrolled with various comments, but nothing worth reacting to. My stream time had already surpassed two hundred hours. The actual calendar time hadn't passed nearly that much, thanks to the time-acceleration system. Chell had been staying at our place nonstop, and Sora and Anna showed no signs of leaving either. Lately they had even started borrowing Rion's computer to take turns streaming themselves. They had come because they were worried about me running myself into the ground, so it seemed they planned to stay until I reached Master.

At the latest, it'll be over in two or three days.

My current Gate Attack Mode rank was Diamond 1. Single Combat was also Diamond 1. I would probably hit my promotion matches in Gate Attack Mode today or tomorrow. Single Combat had taken a few losses lately because I had tried every character besides the Phantom Thief, but the mode's short match times meant it wouldn't take long to climb. The Fantasy League application deadline was less than a week away. Plenty of time.

"…What, you were already up?"

The door opened and Sora walked in. Her hair was slightly damp and she wore a simple white short-sleeve T-shirt. She had clearly just showered.

"I was about to order breakfast. Any recommendations?"

"Hmm…"

Sora frowned slightly. "We could just make breakfast…"

She muttered thoughtfully, then shook her head a couple of times. "Never mind. Don't order anything. I'll cook."

"Come on~. Making four portions is a pain. Let's just order."

The voice belonged to Anna, who had followed right behind her. She looked disheveled, still in pajamas with sleep crust in her eyes. She had come straight here without even washing up.

"I'll order. Anyone have something they want?"

"…Senior Anna, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠if we keep ordering delivery we'll all get fat. And none of us even exercise."

"Bringing up facts like that is cheating…"

Anna immediately shrank back. It was a scene I had witnessed several times over the past few days. Anna wanted to spend money; Sora wanted to cook. Their opinions always clashed at mealtimes. If Chell was a cat who knew how to clean, Anna was simply a cat. If she weren't cute, I would have thrown her out long ago. Her one saving grace was being a rich cat. Perhaps aware that she contributed nothing to housework, Anna always tried to pay whenever possible. Meanwhile, Sora had recently developed a strange pride in her cooking. Chell had become quite skilled at cleaning after staying here so long, so Sora seemed determined to hold onto the cooking role. Still, making four portions every single time looked exhausting.

"Anyway, I'll cook, so just wait."

When Anna and Sora clashed, Sora usually won. Honestly, Anna had already lost most of her senior dignity. She had been thoroughly outmatched by the sixth-generation members; it wouldn't be surprising if even Inagika started speaking casually to her soon.

After waking the still-sleeping Chell, we ate the breakfast Sora had made in front of the computers.

"So, what are you all planning to do today?"

Even though I was the homeowner, the streamer, and the channel owner, I had no intention of forcing anything on my guests. Those who wanted to leave could leave; those who wanted to stay could stay. The only condition was that if they stayed, they had to help with housework. As long as they followed that single rule, they were free to do whatever they wanted.

"I was thinking we could just watch Laura's rank climb together with the viewers. But just watching might get boring after a while."

Anna spoke up. "It does feel the same every time. Honestly, it's getting tedious, even if the stream itself is generating a lot of buzz."

"Oh?"

"No VTuber has ever streamed for two hundred hours straight before."

"Two hundred hours already, huh."

"That's right. Usually twenty-four hours is considered the standard for these kinds of streams."

Anna added her own comment to Sora's words. After running past two hundred hours myself, twenty-four hours felt laughably short. Still, streaming without any sleep at all was impressive in its own right.

"And even when people do twenty-four-hour streams, they usually split the content into parts one, two, three, four… They almost never stick ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to a single type of content the whole time."

That made sense. If the same screen stayed up for twenty-four hours straight, viewers would get bored. In fact, once I passed the hundred-hour mark, the live viewer count had dropped noticeably. The times when I switched to different content during login restrictions actually seemed to draw more concurrent viewers.

"But I have no intention of stopping the rank climb."

"I figured as much…. Still, it would be nice if something felt different."

"I have an idea."

Chell raised her hand. Chell had an idea?

"How about karaoke?"

It had been a while since I last entered Rion's room. I rarely walked around the house myself. Rion's room had a distinctly feminine interior, quite different from mine. I had never been particularly interested in interior design even in reality. Of course, as a noble daughter I knew how ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to make a room look glamorous, so I had considered decorating my room in an aristocratic style at first. But "glamorous" meant lots of decorations, which sacrificed practicality. I would rather play games. Compared to my room, which prioritized sleekness over flashiness, Rion's room felt more cute and cozy.

"I just realized the room has soundproofing installed."

"Senior Rion did a few singing streams here before."

"Oh, really?"

Sora sat down at Rion's desk and started operating the computer. After entering the password Rion had sent via DM, she adjusted various settings.

"We can do karaoke. Everything's already set up."

"Interesting."

This was an unexpected bonus. My own room lacked soundproofing, so singing there risked bothering the neighbors.

"All right, let's start the stream."

I launched the streaming software and went live.

"Ahem, mic test. Can you hear me? This is Ayanokouji Sora, the bard VTuber of EYEAI's sixth generation~. From now on, we'll be taking turns singing until Laura finishes her rank climb. Laura said it should take about two or three days, so we'll do our best to keep it going. Here we go!"

In a late-night Tokyo studio apartment──I was dreaming.