The Unlovable Person

The last day of the clan war.

In a tiny one-room apartment, a woman was streaming on the internet.

Her room was a mountain range of trash bags she couldn’t bring herself to throw out, delivery boxes, and a laundry basket stuffed so full of panties and bras it looked ready to burst.

"Of course I can clear it!! Do you know how hard I worked to calculate this tactic?!"

The woman was streamer Heretic, sitting in front of a dual-monitor setup, frantically scanning the chat while clearing the boss fight.

In one corner of her desk sat an ultra-expensive pen display tablet. That was her real line of work, but today she had no intention of drawing.

Heretic curled the corners of her mouth in a grin at the voices coming through Discord. She loved being recognized like this.

With ten thousand followers and an average of five hundred viewers, her channel—despite its middling size—had drawn a massive crowd today. Two thousand people were watching the exact moment her clan took first place.

Hwamuhwamuhwa

Clan War Ranking: 1st ↑

"Clan war’s ov—! Everyone, good work!"

With a bright smile, Heretic tilted a glass beaded with cold condensation and took a drink.

Unlike Kwon Seah, Heretic had managed to keep firm control of her clan through Discord.

From the beginning, she had known exactly which characters were best to use in this clan war. That was why she had gone so far as to announce how to spend their limited Trailblaze Power, which characters needed skill upgrades, and who absolutely had to be raised.

Given that, it was only natural for her clan, Hwamuhwamuhwa, to take first place.

"Thanks, everyone~ From here on out I’ll keep showing you all kinds of strategies and tips for clan wars, so don’t forget to follow, subscribe, and favorite the channel!"

Wearing a black short-sleeved shirt, she smiled with a bottle of Zero Cola in one hand and spoke to the stream.

She hadn’t even put on much makeup, but no one in chat was shocked by that.

She was a VTuber.

On the stream screen, a virtual avatar with purple hair and a sky-blue butterfly pin was moving nonstop, and the figure’s proportions were strikingly good. This avatar, too, was a work she had created herself.

The first clan war ended very satisfyingly.

All thirty clan members had pulled off their three hits at precisely ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the right timing, with not a single person left behind.

Thanks to people who had performed far beyond their combat power, Hwamuhwamuhwa’s rank would never fall.

Heretic could only be sure of that. Everything had gone exactly according to her calculations.

Hearing the voices through Discord, Heretic frowned.

"What about that clan?"

"Uh... they’re in second place. But their clan leader is saying there’s still one three-hit run left, so maybe first place could change?"

"What kind of... ridiculous nonsense are they talking about?"

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Heretic snapped at them, then checked the rankings.

Heretic’s Hwamuhwamuhwa and Kwon Seah’s HawawaMiddleSchoolGirl were monster clans that had already crossed the so-called impossible wall of 1.05 million points.

Their battle for first place had reached the realm of star wars, of heaven’s war—something any Galaxy Express player would have to care about.

"What... they’re still a thousand points behind. At this rate, they can’t beat us."

Heretic said it in a confident voice.

Hearing the chat shower her with praise again, Heretic let out a relieved breath. Her self-esteem was so fragile that even this blatant flattery made her feel better.

"Listen carefully, everyone~ Galaxy Express is definitely a game where spending money matters, but if you want points, you have to clear the dungeon, right? You need to understand each skill properly and play well if you want first place in clan wars."

Heretic hated Kwon Seah.

It was because she knew that the combat power ranking of the Full Limit Break and Full Materials Serena she had painstakingly raised was second, while Kwon Seah sat in first.

To put it bluntly, she was totally stung by it.

"Even if you hit first place in combat power, you can't win if some idiot who doesn’t even know how to use the character is playing it!"

Heretic crossed her legs with a satisfied expression.

"Oh? Looks like they cleared it?"

"So what place are they in? How many points did they get?"

"Uh, uh, uhh...?"

With a look that said no way, Heretic hurriedly hit refresh.

Her calculations had been perfect.

There’s no way they should’ve even been able to clear it. Huh? How did they clear it?

"Ah, ha... hahaha! Ten points! Ten points apart! Not even a tie! Ten points!"

Heretic laughed in relief and clapped her hands.

"Hah... listen, everyone. Just clearing it and getting the extra points from a three-star clear, plus the carry-over party system, is ridiculously lucrative, you know?"

If you use carry-over parties well, you can even turn a party that normally can’t get three stars into one that can.

You have to use that strategy properly and control your clan members if you want first place.

But Kwon Seah’s clan wasn’t like that.

Since they weren’t using Discord, they had no idea whose carry-over party still remained; they were just clearing things however they pleased, more or less.

The fact that they had matched Hwamuhwamuhwa’s score was purely the result of their own raw scale, a cheerful rebellion of rich idiots who had spent absurd amounts of money.

"Well, anyway, it looks like that clan worked hard too, but they still can’t beat me—"

"Oh? Heretic? Their clan leader says there’s still one hit left."

"... ... Huh?"

Heretic froze.

"W-what are you talking about?! I can’t even understand how they ended up with the exact same score as us in the first place!!!"

"N-no, wait, look at the post I sent you on Discord."

[Leader, pwease!!!! Just hit the last one!!!!!]

(Clan war UI photo)

Stage 44

[4/4 stages in progress!]

(Clan war UI photo)

Pippi did her best!!

Leader Pippi, please land the last hit and make us first place

"Wh... what?"

Heretic’s mouth fell open as she touched the monitor with trembling fingers.

"Guys... w-why are they on Stage 44? We’re only at Stage 42, aren’t we?"

It was inefficient.

"Huh? You’re right. If they’ve got more stages cleared than us, why are they still behind on points?"

"Did they seriously just ignore carry-over parties and everything else, brute-force the whole thing, and miss out on the extra three-star points?"

This wasn’t how clan wars were supposed to be cleared, like some primitive caveman method.

"Oh! Ohhh! The rankings changed!"

"Whoa... those guys are complete lunatics. Absolute lunatics."

"There are actually people who can just smash through it with money like this?"

As the voices around her broke into shocked exclamations, Heretic clicked refresh with trembling hands.

"A thousand... points?! A thousaaand points?! That’s impossible! It can’t be! This is cheating! Cheating! It’s cheating! Everyone, this is cheating!!!"

Heretic screamed in a voice so pitiful it was almost heartbreaking.

"Aaaagh!!! H-how can idiots who don’t even know tactics beat our clan!!!"

"P-please calm down..."

"Aaaaaagh!! This isn’t how it’s supposed to go! This isn’t how it’s supposed to go!! I’m the one who worked hard to calculate everything and control everyone, so I should be first!! That’s, that’s what’s fair!!!"

"Clan leader, take a look at this... I think we were never going to win from the start."

— Ding!

"What do you mean, we couldn’t win? Why couldn’t we win? It’s not even like this game is ancient, and the only thing she has over me is that Serena’s combat power is number one..."

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Heretic was huffing in anger when she suddenly stopped speaking.

"What the hell... what did this woman do?"

Heretic trembled as she touched the monitor with her fingertips.

"Why are all the four-stars... max level? Why? How?"

Kwon Seah’s final party didn’t have just a maxed-out Full Limit Break and Full Materials Serena.

The four-star Prosperity character her clan members had enthusiastically recommended was also maxed out, and so was the four-star Preservation unit she had leveled with the intention of using and discarding it in this clan war.

"Trailblaze Power... ah, ah, AAAAAAAAAH!! Is this girl a psychoooooo!!!"

Heretic clutched her head with both hands.

She’d been greedy for first place in the clan war too, so of course she had considered raising four-star characters.

But Trailblaze Power was equal for everyone.

"Why would you raise this! Why would you raise this!! What the hell were you thinking, raising this thing?!"

Four-stars were ultimately disposable.

If you were going to spend limited Trailblaze Power anyway, then rather than raising a four-star character that would be discarded in the next version, it was better to improve the specs of the five-star characters you already had.

"How much did you spend? How much premium currency did you recharge?! To raise all of this, you’d have to do it at least a hundred times...! This is completely insane!!"

After letting out a howl, Heretic eventually muttered in a voice thick with grievance.

"Crazy girl... I’ll beat you in the Colosseum..."

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

Maybe because they had taken first place in the clan war, the mood in chat was even warmer than on day one.

"The Colosseum was what again...? Right, PvP! Of course I should try that too! But there’s something more important than that~"

Winning the clan war had its own satisfaction simply because it was a win, but there were also rewards to match.

They’d been written about in great detail on the website, in a way that practically shouted for you to want them, and the moment I saw that, the thought of needing to take first place got hammered straight into my brain.

"They said the settlement would be finished tomorrow and the reward would arrive in my mailbox, right?"

Just thinking about the clan war first-place reward that hadn’t even arrived yet made my heart pound dangerously fast.

Ah, I really wish tomorrow would hurry up and come already! Then I can brag in the gallery and maybe make it to the featured posts again...!