LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 32
#32 Episode: Incident Occurs
“Ughyaaaah! Gyaaaah!”
A young woman let out a scream that seemed inappropriate for her mouth, while Lunara flailed about wildly.
“What’s going on! Why is everyone blaming me!? It’s those guys who exploited the bug, right!? I was just doing what I had to do, why am I the one being cursed!?”
Holding onto a large doll, she pounded it and hit it here and there, causing the staff working with her to shake their heads in disbelief.
“Looks like her mental state has completely shattered.”
“Well, she got beaten verbally by the viewers for almost half a day. She must have ingested insults that could last a year in one go, it’s no wonder.”
Lunara was in a group graveyard raid led by Erin and Nadia.
Having declared a reset without thinking much, Lunara met with an enormous backlash, and in a rush, she tried to retract her statement, but the incident was far from over.
Viewers watching the players on the Alpha server were criticizing how poorly the game was being run, while viewers observing players from other servers were berating why the cheaters weren’t being punished, and some viewers were pointing fingers at others, claiming that if the operator chose to do something, why did they interfere this way, while others, stirred by that, were arguing not to mindlessly shield them.
Eventually, a complete chaos erupted among the viewers, using the donation chat to hurl insults and personal attacks at each other, and Lunara found herself in a situation where she couldn’t move either way, desperately flailing to calm the situation.
Other staff members broadcasting with Lunara were similarly drained from managing the chat.
While everyone was completely worn out, the exhausted staff lying around looked meek compared to Lunara, who still seemed to have the energy to squawk despite her suffering, making her a conspicuous figure in a different sense.
One of the young staff couldn’t help but chuckle at the absurdity of the situation.
“Wait, you know, it’s kind of funny. Lunara didn’t do anything wrong, did she? The ones who played outside the intended plan were those guys, and Lunara was just trying to fix it, so why is she the one getting blamed?”
In response to his words, a scruffy-haired guy with a cigarette in his mouth replied.
“It’s not that they broke the rules, but they committed actions that weren’t even in the rules. If you’re just trying to comfort them, that’s one thing, but if you’re trying to forcibly suppress them, they might feel it’s unjust.”
“That’s what’s strange. When did the viewers ever care about the grievances of those barbaric guys?”
The staff’s statement wasn’t wrong.
Lunara’s broadcasts always had this style.
Empowering the powerless to see how far they spiral out of control, or executing power plays against those who show off.
Behaviors that manipulate the weak and foolish from a position of overwhelming superiority.
Lowbrow and base, yet that’s why a certain level of subscribers has consistently existed, as it surely satisfies murky desires based on preference.
Had Lunara acted like this in the past, she’d have received shouts of “Well done!” and “Do more!”, but not insults like she was receiving this time.
“The situation is different from before. First of all, the scale of the incident has grown, leading to a significant influx of new viewers differing in mentality from the existing ones… Above all, the broadcast has been split. There are now more viewers investing in the players over Lunara.”
Of course, it was a situation that couldn’t be helped.
BE was a game that ran 24/7 with hardly any breaks, meaning the broadcast ‘content’ was also continuously coming out.
It was impossible for Lunara to continue commenting live without breaks, so whenever she took a breather, if players died en masse, it wouldn’t take much for the viewers’ enjoyment to be shattered.
Thus, the notion to set up a few key players so that viewers could watch them at any time they wanted wasn’t unreasonable.
From the selected players’ perspective, they’d be under observation 24/7, but if individuals cared about that, they wouldn’t even attempt such a plan.
Even with the scruffy-haired guy’s explanation, the staff didn’t appear to be convinced.
“Wow, really. Empathizing with barbaric guys, what bizarre tastes people have.”
“…Huh, yeah, well.”
The scruffy-haired guy thought there was no point in trying to persuade the staff, as he was sure there would be a reaction of disbelief over how the barbarians could be seen as the same human beings.
Actually, the scruffy-haired guy didn’t want to lose his job trying to rescue players, so he thought criticizing others was hypocrisy.
‘Now that I think about it, splitting the channel was an idea from that donor. Did they foresee this? Sure, despite the backlash, the ratings are doing remarkably well.’
As he scratched his head and turned his gaze toward Lunara, he saw her throwing a tantrum against Nebula.
“Hey, you rusty piece of junk!! What are you going to do about this? I’m being cursed because you didn’t fix the bug properly!!”
《I have progressed with system modifications in accordance with the commands given. The elements you are mentioning are not included in the commands.》
“No! Do I have to tell you that when I ask someone to clean, to first lift the dust with air magic, and use incineration magic outside? You should just know how to do that!!”
《If you provide a detailed explanation for the ‘air magic’ and ‘incineration magic’ you mentioned, I will do my best to produce results that are closer to what you wish for next time.》
“Magic is magic! What detailed explanation!? Just do it properly!!”
《To perform that request, it is necessary to increase the autonomous judgment and autonomous action authority of this system. Currently, the autonomous judgment authority is set to ‘lowest’ and the autonomous action authority is ‘normal’. Would you like to increase this?》
“Go ahead and increase it, just handle this mess so it doesn’t happen again! Got it!!”
《I have confirmed the command. The autonomous judgment authority of this system is now ‘high’. The autonomous action authority is ‘high’. To change it to ‘very high’, a joint approval from the administrator account and the sub-administrator account is necessary—》
‘…Huh? Isn’t that a bit dangerous?’
As the scruffy-haired guy pondered whether to step in or not, the staff, who had changed the subject and were chattering amongst themselves, turned to him.
“What do you think, senpai?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“A promising candidate that seems good for increasing viewership. I think this player Nadia would be the best.”
“No way, she’s not it. She acts like a total bore. I’d say this ‘Karshe’ guy is the real deal.”
“His actions do seem a bit wacko. Using other players as bait to score points in the first trial, and being the first to conquer the dungeon in the second trial. I’d say he’ll be in first place again this time too. Isn’t he basically the strongest player?”
“Well, I’d guess that the ‘True Overlord’ is the strongest when it comes to fighting. This guy’s combat sense is on a different level. Just going by how he cut down those other players without hesitation shows he’s crazy enough.”
“Guys! You’re butting in so much that senpai can’t speak!”
“Uh….”
The scruffy-haired guy hesitated for a moment before eventually shrugging.
“Well, I guess it’s Nadia?”
“Any particular reason?”
“Lunara has a fit just by looking at her. Originally, 70% of our channel’s audience came to see Lunara bossing people around, and another 70% enjoyed watching her suffer.”
“Isn’t that over 100%?”
“40% is overlap. It’s people who like watching her scream when things don’t go well after her power plays. Although there are a lot of newcomers now, we’ve got to consider the base.”
“Pff!”
“Oooh, good point!”
“Hey!! Is everyone not going to be quiet!? Is this how you respond when the team’s ace, leader, and the flower among flowers is suffering!?”
In the noisy atmosphere, the scruffy-haired guy dismissed his thoughts of scolding Lunara.
There were minor troubles, but the broadcast itself was going smoothly.
Seeing that there hadn’t been any particular remarks or interference from the major sponsors thus far, it probably meant this level was acceptable.
Thus, a seemingly trivial but significant turning point was crossed.
*
Beyond is a series work.
Before Beyond existed as a virtual reality game, it first made its name known as a gacha game.
At first, the older brother seemed rather displeased with the fact that he had to create a game other than what he wanted, but once he dove into game production, he appeared quite spirited and passionate about it.
Thus, “Beyond: The Lost Era” was undoubtedly a considerable success.
The scenario and gameplay were at least of a mid-high level, the monetization wasn’t too harsh, and moreover, the update speed was overwhelmingly faster compared to competitors. After all, there’s no way making it by grinding manpower is the same as asking the ultra AI to make it.
– Ah, I want to marry the Saintess.
– She’s my girlfriend.
– She’s my mistress.
– (Comment deleted.)
– What crime has the Saintess committed, you crazy guys.
– Isn’t Iris too traditional for a knight? I’d prefer having someone exuberant like Brynhildr beside me.
– Sounds like you enjoy thrills.
– My small precious Pandora. Let’s be happy together for a hundred years.
– Hey, why isn’t anyone talking about brother Hector?
– Gay gay ya….
And the fact that the gacha game succeeded meant that many popular characters emerged.
If characters in a character collection game aren’t popular, it means the game has no charm.
Kainix, who seemed to be aware of this reaction, made a proposal one day.
– How about introducing characters from the Lost Era in the Elysion?
Honestly, I think it wasn’t a bad proposal commercially.
From the perspective of players deeply attached to specific characters, seeing their beloved character pop up in a sequel would surely be a pleasant surprise.
However, the older brother was not particularly excited about it.
Unless a character like the ‘Reincarnated Saintess’ could fit in any era without issues, introducing characters that aren’t could require a lot of effort to make it work.
It was possible but would seem overly contrived, or something.
Me? To be honest, I was ambivalent.
I’m the type to think that once the settings are made, it doesn’t really matter, so I wasn’t concerned about historical accuracy like my older brother, but when considering from the player’s perspective, it was questionable whether having their favorite character appear in a sequel was always a good thing.
Of course, it’d be nice to get close to my favorite character. However, since there’s only one NPC, while there are countless players.
What if a character I love dearly gets close to other players? No, even beyond that, what if they end up dying? How could I deal with that heartbreak?
Hmm, the NPC system my older brother set up seems quite foolish in many ways. If only it were set up like other MMORPGs where romance with NPCs only affects my account without impacting others, I wouldn’t have to worry about this at all.
Even my older brother seemed to have no sharp solution for this, so he ultimately resolved it by giving some characters the setting of ‘divine’.
The character itself is inscribed within the world, so even if their physical body dies temporarily, they can resurrect like players, and they also have the power to manifest avatars, meaning when it comes to unique skills or quest-related companion events, it’s the avatars moving instead of the main body.
Right now, at the point where the third trial hasn’t even been announced yet.
The NPC ‘Brynhildr of Desire’ that I intended to recruit as a secret weapon before being noticed by the management was one of those characters.
In the Lost Era, she was undoubtedly one of the goddesses, particularly one of the mightiest among them, and as a Valkyrie sealed on Earth due to defying the orders of her father Odin, she was in a profound slumber.
The crystal palace where she was sealed and sleeping was not only difficult to find but filled with traps of tremendous difficulty, meaning that to meet her, numerous deaths would be required. After all, it was designed for dying while overcoming the traps.
When I said I would go to the crystal palace, my older brother wasn’t just surprised out of the blue. One misstep could mean instant death, regardless of health.
However, for the ultimate victory, sometimes it was necessary to act boldly. If I was going to hold back, I wouldn’t have entered a game run by enemies in the first place.
I stood resolutely in front of the crystal palace.
“…… What’s this?”
Bang! Boom! Rumble!
I beheld the scene of the crystal palace beginning to crumble as if a monster was rampaging inside.