LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 40 - Do You Still Love Me?
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【Virtual VTuber Gallery】
[Broadcast] The gallery master has been stuck in a Labyrinthos prank for 20 hours straight, lol
(Screenshot)
Save me…
[Comments]
– Didn’t she play for 20 hours yesterday too?
ㄴ (Author) She logged back in as soon as the restriction time ended and started again…
ㄴ She’s like some sort of cyber wraith…
– Isn’t she going to die at this rate?
ㄴ (Author) She’s insanely healthy, damn it…
ㄴ Her stamina is off the charts, lolol
– How long has she been streaming? Already passed 100 hours of total stream time?
– Isn’t she at least eating while doing this?
ㄴ (Author) She eat while keeping the stream on.
ㄴ Wow, truly a role model VTuber~
– Do you still love me..?
ㄴ (Author) I’m dying just trying to keep up with her..
– Well, there’s no boyfriend drama, at least, lololol
ㄴ Of course, because she’s “A-Grade Virgin.”
===
【Duel has been matched.】
【Please satisfy one of the following victory conditions:
– Defeat the Dungeon Boss.
– Defeat another Adventurer.】
After running the Berserker a few times, I was starting to get a feel for it.
First, the Berserker’s weapon, the Giant Greatsword.
This weapon wasn’t made to be used. Among all the weapons in Labyrinthos, it’s the heaviest and the largest.
Even though the Berserker is set to have superhuman strength due to experimentation, the sword was so heavy that even swinging it once was difficult.
Not to mention, doing multiple swings in a row was even more of a struggle.
That’s why traits related to attack speed were almost forced upon you, but I had no desire to use the Giant Greatsword, even with those traits.
The size was more of a problem than the weight.
It shares the same weaknesses as the greatsword used by Paladins—its attack motion was inevitably large. This meant that, from the opponent’s perspective, it was easy to predict attacks.
On top of that, it was really inconvenient in indoor battles.
If you tried to strike downward, it would hit the ceiling; if you tried to strike upward, it would hit the floor; if you tried to swing sideways, it would hit the walls.
So, abandoning the Giant Greatsword at the start had become a standardized build.
【
After abandoning the heavy Giant Greatsword and running hard, I started to smell blood at the tip of my nose. It was the Berserker’s passive skill,
Of course, it wasn’t as effective as the Technomancer’s
As I kept moving, I soon saw the corpses of a bunch of neutral mobs lying on the ground.
And on top of those neutral mob corpses, there were hoofprints.
“A Cavalryman.”
I muttered to myself.
The Cavalryman who had hunted the last neutral mob quickly turned to face me, adjusting his shield and lance.
In Duel mode, Cavalryman felt slightly different from how they did in Gate Assault mode.
In Gate Assault mode, they were more like initiators. They used crowd control skills and charged into the heart of enemy lines, creating chaos—a character that felt more like a tank.
In Duel mode, however, their specialization in kiting stood out more.
The fast movements of the horse, combined with the unexpectedly long reach of the lance.
Using superior movement speed and range, they were a character that could easily toy with their opponent.
‘He’s coming.’
Thud, thud, thud.
The sound of hooves echoed loudly.
The sight of the horse charging at me was purely intimidating.
It was a beast as large as a person, and on top of that, there was another person riding it. No matter what animal it is, anyone would feel fear when something larger than themselves rushed at them.
That was part of the Cavalryman’s strength—they could instill psychological intimidation in their opponent. Fortunately, I was used to it. After all, it wasn’t my first time facing a Cavalryman.
-Swish!
The Cavalryman thrust his lance forward.
I casually dodged to the side. Just that was enough to cause a loss of damage potential for him.
Despite the Cavalryman’s superior movement speed and range, there was an unexpected limitation. As with most quadrupeds, making quick directional changes wasn’t easy.
After dodging the attack, the Cavalryman sped past me.
As soon as the Cavalryman passed by, I bit down on my own arm.
And then, I tore it off.
Riiiip!
-Ugh…
-That hurts just watching…
-Why does she self-harm like that, lololol
-Please take better care of your body!
‘
– “Wow, you’re pretty wild ㄷㄷ…”
The chat window was exploding with reactions, but it couldn’t be helped. The Berserker’s first skill had a prerequisite: self-harm.
Blood flowed from the torn skin, and I wielded it.
Berserker’s 1st skill,
The blood droplets shifted in form, transforming into arrows that flew toward the Cavalryman.
The Cavalryman had his back turned. It would take time for the horse he was riding to turn back around.
Thus, the arrow crafted from blood was an attack from the Cavalryman’s blind spot.
It was an unavoidable blow.
-Thud!
With a dull sound, the blood arrow lodged itself into the horse’s body.
But it didn’t end there. The blood arrow morphed again, extending into a long spike.
The Berserker is a high-risk, high-reward type of character.
Not only was it difficult to land a hit with the skills, but each skill consumed HP.
However, if you managed to land a hit, the return was significant.
The blood spike extended like a magic staff, piercing through the horse’s body.
The horse screamed in agony, trembling in pain.
As the horse became uncontrollable, the Cavalryman on its back could no longer do anything.
The Cavalryman was a character that required ‘tightrope walking’—in other words, the risks skyrocketed when they allowed themselves to be hit.
I sprinted forward and jumped.
The Cavalryman tried to swing his lance to block my approach, but it wasn’t a precise attack. I dodged easily and grabbed the Cavalryman by the collar, slamming him into the ground.
-Thud!
“Gah!”
The Cavalryman crashed to the ground, landing on his back.
To prevent him from trying anything unnecessary, I kicked his hand, sending the lance flying. Then, without hesitation, I drove my fist toward his face.
Something I’d realized over the past few days:
It takes too long to kill someone by pummeling them with your fists.
Especially since the opponent was a Cavalryman.
In Gate Assault Mode, Cavalrymen often played the role of tanks, and he had farmed quite a few neutral mobs. Beating him to death with my fists would take a considerable amount of time.
‘Of course, this is Duel Mode, so it wouldn’t be a problem to do that.’
But in Gate Assault Mode, you shouldn’t do that.
In Gate Assault Mode, you often needed to quickly kill isolated enemies and regroup with your allies. So, how quickly you could kill an opponent became an important factor.
And I was practicing the Berserker in Duel Mode to prepare for Gate Assault Mode.
To simulate real combat, I shoved my fist into the Cavalryman’s mouth.
“Mmph! Mmmmph!!!”
Blood was still flowing from the wound I had earlier ripped open.
The blood flowed down my arm and into the Cavalryman’s mouth.
Even if you work out at the gym for 10 hours a day and become a muscular beast, there are still parts of the human body that can’t be trained.
For example, the eyes.
For example, the eardrums.
And the inside of the mouth was no exception.
The sensation of his soft tongue.
The sticky texture of the roof of his mouth and throat could be felt at my fingertips.
Naturally, there’s no way to train the roof of the mouth, at least not as far as I know. And even if there were, who in the world would bother to train their palate?
“
-Splat!
A blood spike burst out from inside his mouth, piercing through the flesh and emerging.
It shattered the skull, sprouting like a shoot from the top of his head.
By the time I pulled my fist out, the Cavalryman was already limp.
***
Becoming a VTuber didn’t dramatically change my life.
Sure, I seemed to have become a bit of a star in the VTuber and Labyrinthos galleries, but if I didn’t check the forums, I wouldn’t even notice it.
After all, I just play a lot of games. I rarely visit community sites.
If I had free time, I’d rather spend it gaming, and if I wasn’t gaming, I’d spend my time reading web novels or webtoons.
Even when I did visit the forums, it wasn’t to check reactions to my streams, but rather to see how other VTubers’ streams were being received—mainly Anna’s, for instance.
In any case.
It feels like the only real difference in my life is that now there’s a viewer chat accompanying my routine.
“See? I told you, the Berserker doesn’t really need a Greatsword.”
– I don’t think so, though.
– Liar Deswa~
– Crazy… she pulled down a Cavalryman bare-handed…
– Laura, what are you even saying?
– If you’d used a weapon, you could’ve won even faster!
– If you say so, it must be true…
– Special Forces Soldier: Humans can fight bears with their bare hands.
Having viewers who hang out with me like this makes things a little more enjoyable. Since my true nature is that of a villainous noblewoman, it feels nice to be praised by others.
It’s not bad sharing the fun of games with other people either.
‘Still, I don’t feel much excitement yet.’
And that was understandable.
Take Anna for example—she does things like ASMR, or singing streams. Compared to her, all I’ve done since debuting this past week is play Labyrinthos.
Aside from that, the only other thing I’ve done is a character deletion deathmatch against those trying to defame me.
And even that deathmatch got me a serious scolding from Rion after the stream. She even threatened me that if I did it again, she wouldn’t style my hair anymore—a terrifying threat.
So, the character deletion deathmatches are now permanently sealed off as content.
Basically, I’m a VTuber who only streams Labyrinthos, but aside from streaming, there haven’t been any major changes in my life.
Well, I guess that’s fine.
A life without change isn’t necessarily bad.
[Still, I think only doing Labyrinthos isn’t a good idea…]
Just as I was thinking that, Inagika spoke up.
While my life hasn’t undergone any big changes, there have been small ones. My social circle has expanded slightly compared to before.
I’d been interacting with Inagika even before my official debut, but after my debut stream, I’ve been in touch with her more frequently.
“Really?”
[Yeah… some viewers might get bored if you keep doing the same thing…]
Inagika still spoke with a bit of a tremble in her voice. I shrugged as I listened to her.
These days, I hadn’t been entering the 6th Generation voice chat channel much.
Most of my day was spent gaming (i.e., streaming), leaving me little time to join voice chats.
Perhaps because of that, Inagika had started reaching out to me instead.
Considering Inagika’s timid nature, I could tell she was being pretty brave lately.
‘…Though it’s a little creepy how she contacts me right after a stream ends.’
Right after a stream, she’d call me on Discord. As soon as I woke up and came online in the morning, there’d be another call waiting for me. Aside from when I was streaming, I was almost always on a call with Inagika.
[Lo-Laura, I think it’s great that you focus on Labyrinthos as your main content… you’re really good at games.
But I’m also curious about seeing a different side of you… like, I wonder what it’d be like if you did ASMR or a singing stream…
Though those things are difficult, so I’m not pushing you to do them! But maybe trying out other types of games wouldn’t be so bad…?
I’m sure your viewers would love to see different sides of you…]
“I see.”
This was how most of my conversations with Inagika went.
It felt like she wanted to get closer to me, or maybe she just didn’t have anyone else to talk to, so she clung to me.
And since Inagika lacked confidence in herself, it was like she used our conversations to recharge her self-esteem.
‘Teaching someone can also be oddly satisfying.’
Otaku tend to talk a lot when explaining their area of expertise.
Part of it may be that they want to share as much as they can, but it’s also because showing off one’s knowledge can give a sense of superiority.
In this area, I’m the expert.
In this area, I know more than you.
In this area, it’s best to rely on me.
It’s something like that.
Inagika wasn’t much different, I suppose.
“You’re making sense. But I haven’t really considered doing other types of content.”
[Then maybe a sandbox-type game…]
After thinking for a moment, Inagika suggested that.
“Sandbox?”
[Yeah… as a corporate VTuber, you can’t avoid sandbox games…]
“Why is that?”
[It’s a bit complicated… but your subscriber count is over 100,000 now, right?]
That’s true. I’m probably about to hit 150,000 soon.
‘Now that I think about it, the other 6th Gen members have relatively low subscriber counts.’
It’s not that I’m looking down on Inagika or Sora. But their subscriber numbers were lower than I expected. None of them had even passed 20,000 yet.
Didn’t Rion explain this before? She said that if a VTuber had 300,000 subscribers, their peers would typically have around 100,000 to 200,000 subscribers as well.
Shouldn’t Inagika and Sora have at least reached that level too?
Especially considering that corporate VTubers usually start with a built-in fanbase. Yet, the subscriber counts of my 6th Gen peers were quite low.
[Laura’s subscribers… There are probably some who already liked VTubers, and some who were fans of EYEAI. But I think a lot of them are purely fans of Laura… I think a lot of them came from the Labyrinthos Gallery…]
So, my audience base is different from the usual?
[Yeah… I think there’s probably a big difference between your audience and those of the other EYEAI seniors… But from EYEAI’s perspective, that’s a new audience. And EYEAI wouldn’t want to let you have that audience all to yourself…]
The best way to resolve that, she said, was through collaborations.
Right now, the “Labyrinthos Gallery audience” only watches my streams.
But if I showed myself interacting with Inagika on stream, for example, some people might think, “Oh, she’s pretty fun too,” and start subscribing to her.
Then, some of the “Labyrinthos Gallery audience” who only watched my streams might start subscribing to Inagika.
And when I wasn’t streaming, they might watch Inagika’s stream instead.
[And it works the other way around too…]
“If you and I collaborate, then the ‘Inagika-only viewers’ would start subscribing to me too?”
[Yeah, exactly…]
In other words, the 6th Gen subscriber bases were currently separate. Since we hadn’t done any collaborations since our debut, we hadn’t fully merged our fan bases into the broader “EYEAI fandom.”
[So, I think there’ll be a 6th Gen collaboration soon… That way, we can start sharing subscribers among ourselves, and a “6th Gen fanbase” will be created…]
After that, we’d start sharing subscribers with our seniors as well.
Our 6th Gen would inherit the seniors’ “existing fanbase,” and the seniors would welcome our “6th Gen fanbase” as new viewers—a mutual exchange of subscribers.
[That’s why games like Fanworld, DARK: Survival, or CTA —sandbox games—are essential for corporate VTubers…]
Sandbox games make it easier to interact with senior VTubers.
That’s what Inagika said.
***
“Hey, there’s going to be a 6th Gen offline meeting this Sunday.”
Maybe Inagika’s prediction was spot on.
As soon as Rion returned from the company, she told me this.
“An offline meeting?”
“Yeah. It’s a pretty important meeting.”
Rion nodded.
“It’s a meeting for channel monetization.”