Sponsored Broadcast (2)

"Huh? Another SSR. What's this one? Whoa! I think I've seen it on the tier list. The name was, um, um…… Oh! Kitasan Black. Is this a good one? Hmm. I really couldn't say."

Day after day, I was the one the viewers mocked and hounded. Today's broadcast, though, had flipped the whole arrangement. Twenty pulls so far, and nine of them had come up SSR—practically a hit every other roll. And most of those SSRs were actually decent, which only stoked the viewers' fury hotter.

"Mmm, three copies of Nice Nature, one Kitasan Black, one Vodka, two Tokai Teio, and two Twin Turbo. Is this any gooood?"

"Anyway, nine pulls left. I still haven't gotten Super Creek. Think I'll manage it before we're done? I really do seem to have terrible gacha luck."

"Everyone, it's just a game, so please don't get so angry. And look—how many jewels did I have when I started? Forty-four thousand. This is all a difference in spending etiquette. If you begin by politely observing the proper courtesy of paying the game company its due, you get rewarded. That's simply how it works."

I pushed through the rage and the jeers and finished the remaining nine pulls. Unfortunately my luck dipped at the end, and I only came away with three more SSR cards—though the viewers were still frothing that even this counted as outrageous fortune.

"All right, final tally. Twenty-nine pulls on the support-card gacha: three Nice Nature, two Kitasan Black, one Vodka, one Winning Ticket, two Tokai Teio, two Twin Turbo, one Seiun Sky…… twelve SSR cards in all."

And with that, the gacha was over. Watching the viewers seethe, I felt the stress drain out of me for the first time in ages. Right—who said I was the only one who had to take the hits? Every now and then the audience ought to take a turn.

I didn't forget my bearing as a professional BJ, either. I cleared my throat, loosened my voice, and spoke with the utmost sincerity.

"Wow! Horse Girls really does have wonderful pull rates. The good cards just keep coming. Doesn't that make you want to play? In other games you pour in a fortune, and the high-rarity characters and cards basically never show up."

"I'm glad everyone's taking an interest in the game. Then next, it's time to find the daughter I'll be raising…… no. The daughter I'll be adopting."

I left the viewers' reactions behind and used a ticket that let me choose a three-star horse girl to raise.

"All right, look at all these candidates for my daughter. Who on earth should I pick?"

I set the viewers' scattered opinions aside and looked over the candidates one by one.

"I looked it up, and from three stars on they have a unique skill, and when it triggers there's quite a flashy effect. I can't see it in here, so I'm going to watch a YouTube video for a second."

It was a game that had already exploded in Japan before it ever crossed over, so plenty of people had been lying in wait even before launch. Maybe that was why, only two weeks after opening, there were already a surprising number of players who had spent a fortune and owned every three-star character—and no shortage of YouTubers who had cut together the unique-skill effects and uploaded them.

"All right, in order. First candidate is Special Week. I told you I'd watched up through episode three of season one, right? This girl is the protagonist of season one."

The video began. Special Week sat in the brush atop a hill in a slightly rustic outfit, gazing at the sky, and far off a shooting star fell. She sprang to her feet. The trails of that beautiful falling light caught in her eyes, the countrified clothes glittered and became the racing silks she wore onto the track, and she broke into a run.

"…… Huh? I don't really get why looking at a meteor suddenly changes her clothes and sends her sprinting, but the graphics and the direction are certainly flashy."

"Next, then. Maruzensky."

Personally, she was one of the three characters whose skill effects I thought looked the coolest. Red from her hair down to her clothes, she ran through a tunnel with a crimson aura streaming behind her like a tail. She took a corner, and suddenly an image flared that called to mind a car's gearbox and instrument panel—and then the explosive acceleration began. A phantom of a sleek sports car joined the roar of a vehicle at full sprint, and together they sold the sensation of speed.

"Now, now, don't fight. Moving on."

Skill demos for several more characters followed, but none of them satisfied me, so I skipped through quickly. Then, near the very end, my hand stopped.

"This is…… the Emperor?"

A beautiful palace, and a character in a magnificent dress uniform walking a red carpet, step after deliberate step. Sparks leapt past her shoulder, giving form to the heavy air around her. She reached the throne, turned her head just slightly, and let out a low voice. Then, the instant she turned fully and swept her left arm wide, the space around her howled and submitted beneath the Emperor's majesty.

That overwhelming charisma.

Yes. I've decided. It's you.

The sponsored stream ended in triumph. I raised Symboli Rudolf—the one they called the Emperor—well enough to conquer the Twinkle Series without a hitch, and I toyed with the viewers thoroughly enough to wring the stress clean out of me. A good broadcast: I was satisfied, and so was the sponsor.

"This is good. Content like this, a sensibility like this—it lands on YouTube. I like it."

Pleased, Yoonjae took the footage with him, adding that around lunchtime he'd send over the video slated to go up on YouTube tomorrow. The next upload, only two days after the first. Faster than I'd expected.

"Hahaha. You're the one who told me to worry about the videos more than your health, Hani. You were joking, of course."

"…… Right."

A joke? I'd been dead serious.

Still, the results were good, so everything was fine. These days the stocks were paying off nicely, YouTube had started to cruise, and I'd even cleared my first sponsorship without a hitch. I was in a good mood. Lighthearted, I got up from the chair and started wondering what to have for lunch.

"If only good things kept coming like this, it'd be perfect."

But I should have known. The old saying hadn't a single word wrong—where blessings gather, demons are never far behind.