Noa's voice rang out rather loudly.
The other SerenadeKR senior VTubers and staff turned their gazes to Noa for a moment, but Noa didn’t care and thrust her phone toward Shina.
"What is this?"
"It's about Dungeon Seeker. Aurora apparently discovered a method to farm parasitic spiders."
"Again with Aurora…?"
Shina made a face that screamed she was fed up.
As soon as Dungeon Seeker was mentioned, Changyoung, who was nearby, reacted unconsciously.
"Making money by selling infected allies? In that case, wouldn’t it be possible to capture monsters alive and sell them too?"
"Would that even work? Monsters in Dungeon Seeker are all so strong. I don’t think it’d be easy to catch them."
"That’s true. Capturing monsters might be harder. Infecting an ally and selling them off sounds way more efficient."
They continued such a conversation.
These days, SerenadeKR was busy.
In fact, the end of the year was a hectic time for most VTubers for various reasons.
Some were hosting 3D broadcasts for Christmas, others were preparing New Year’s voice packs, and some were working on new outfits.
Among them, a few were also attending external events, and Shina was scheduled to attend an event called Badario Festival in January.
With so many events lined up, meetings were naturally endless.
Today, especially, was a day when quite a few VTubers had gathered at the SerenadeKR office.
"Who cares about farming efficiency? The real problem is Aurora."
Leaning against the wall, Mashina let out a deep sigh.
"Why are you so hung up on her, Senior Shina? Didn’t Laura donate a ton during your birthday stream?"
"Typical Mashina being a tsundere. Noa, just let it slide."
"I’m not a tsundere! And why are you two acting so chill about this? Leviathan is currently in first place with their funds!"
Mashina made a frustrated remark.
"Aurora’s been pulling some weird stunts, and now Leviathan has 200,000 gold. At this rate…."
"Rider."
"Changyoung oppa, do you want to die?"
"You set it up so well I couldn’t help it. Sorry for cutting in, though. At this rate, what?"
"Leviathan’s going to feast on meat!"
"Hmm."
Mashina’s outburst left Changyoung and Noa looking uncertain about how to react.
Meat was delicious.
Meat paid for with someone else’s money was even better.
Meat was undoubtedly a serious matter.
But… shouting about it like that just didn’t seem right.
Worst case, they could just buy their own meat. It wasn’t like they couldn’t afford it.
Besides, they all knew Leviathan’s 200,000 gold came from Aurora’s generosity.
Honestly, Leviathan could have easily secured first place, but Aurora had intentionally forgiven 300,000 gold. At this point, even if another team won first place, shouldn’t they send Aurora some meat as thanks?
With such mixed feelings in their eyes, Changyoung and Noa looked at Shina.
"Um, Senior Shina… do you want to eat meat?"
"Isn’t it obvious? Don’t you like meat?"
"Of course, I like meat too…. But Aurora seems to find you cute—um, I mean, she seems to like you a lot, Senior Shina. If you asked her for a piece of meat, I bet she’d give it to you."
"Do I look like a beggar? Beg Aurora for food?"
"Didn’t you say you got rekt in school? Something about your grades getting totally shredded?"
"Ugh…."
Mashina closed her mouth.
There wasn’t a shred of seniority left in her, and even the youngest member of SerenadeKR, Elenoa, was outperforming her. This made it clear how shallow the hierarchical relationships between VTubers really were.
Shina lacked the dignity of a senior and didn’t even have the vocabulary to persuade the two.
Then, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed "someone" sitting leisurely in the distance.
"Senior Narin! Leviathan is about to secure first place—are you going to just let that happen?"
Currently, Gryphon had the worst performance in Dungeon Seeker.
Knowing that Narin hated losing, Shina believed she would surely side with her.
With that in mind, Shina sought help from Son Narin.
"……."
No response.
She might as well have been a corpse.
Son Narin was slouched in her chair, practically buried against the backrest.
With wireless earbuds in both ears, she sat quietly, her eyes closed.
"…Is she asleep?"
"Senior Shina, was that a joke? Is she sleeping-shina?"
"Why are you like this too? Am I being hated these days or something?"
"She looks like she’s sleeping, so let’s not disturb her. She seemed to be streaming late last night too."
At Changyoung’s words, Shina and Noa moved to a corner of the lounge. There, they began conspiring to overthrow Leviathan and Aurora (a plan that was almost entirely delusional).
For the record, Narin wasn’t asleep.
She was merely lost in thought, focusing on the voice in her earbuds, which was why she hadn’t heard Shina’s voice.
Yes, it was a voice.
She wasn’t listening to music.
[──You’re going to live here forever.]
A voice echoed in her ears.
[Oh my, it’s snowing. Though, of course, it has nothing to do with you.]
[Snow is much filthier than it looks. Letting it touch your skin would only harm you.]
[Just watch it with your eyes.]
[Don’t even dream of leaving.]
She wasn’t particularly fond of voiceovers.
Narin had come to the SerenadeKR office for meetings, but the wait time had been longer than expected, leaving her with idle time.
Narin didn’t like being idle. If she had spare time, she preferred to practice her games or stream more.
So, she had simply turned on a voiceover instead of music to kill time.
That’s all there was to it.
[Lunch is served at 11:45 a.m. No exceptions.]
[Of course, I won’t serve you tea either. Caffeine is the most unnecessary substance in your life.]
[After Meals, Brush Your Teeth. Bedtime is 11:55 PM. And take your shower an hour before that.]
[Oh, is it hard to remember? It’s fine if you can’t. I’ll remember it for you.]
[You’re going to live here forever.]
"Hmm."
The voice really was good.
Ah, but there’s something I must not misunderstand.
I wasn’t particularly enjoying Aurora’s voice. Nor had I become a fan of hers.
If anything, I was closer to disliking her.
There was no way I’d start liking Aurora.
‘…She really knocked me out cold last time.’
I still hadn’t forgotten what happened at Rinco’s house not long ago.
Because of Aurora, I had the best sleep of my life at Rinco’s place.
And because of Aurora, my viewers started teasing me as a sleepyhead.
I was supposed to stream that day, too.
Sigh.
Son Narin let out a small sigh.
‘I never intended to lose in the first place.’
But at the very least, I really wanted to beat Aurora.
However, I just couldn’t imagine actually winning against her.
Not that I thought I’d lose—it’s just that the image of defeating Aurora didn’t form clearly in my head.
Definitely a lack of information.
Thus, the conclusion I arrived at was this: “Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will win every battle.”
If I knew myself and knew Aurora, I could win.
‘But I hardly know anything about Aurora.’
The only things I knew were that she roleplayed as an exiled noblewoman, for some reason her model looked almost identical to her real face, she had exceptionally beautiful eyes, a good voice, an arrogant attitude, a habit of drinking tea, she was a short sleeper, good at games, around 160 cm tall in real life, and sometimes crossed her arms.
When she wanted to put others in an uncomfortable spot, she had a gesture of placing her hand on her cheek.
Oh, and one more thing.
Her forehead flicks were seriously, ridiculously painful.
...They really hurt.
In any case, since I didn’t know much about Aurora, I’d been analyzing her whenever I had free time.
That’s why I’d even bought her voice packs to listen to.
Next month, Aurora and Chel’s yuri voice drama was coming out, and I was planning to buy and listen to that as well. It was already added to my shopping cart.
Of course, this isn’t something to misunderstand.
This wasn’t fan behavior; it was purely an effort to analyze Aurora.
‘I’ll definitely make her apologize for what happened at Rinco-senior’s house.’
Son Narin repeated that to herself.
For the record, Gryphon vs. Leviathan was scheduled as the 5th match.
There was about a month left until Aurora and I would face off in the Fantasy League, but the sooner, the better. That’s why I started analyzing Aurora an entire month in advance.
***
【This_Code: One-on-One Chatroom with Son Narin】
Son Narin:
[Hello, this is Son Narin.
It’s been a very long time since I last contacted you—when I messaged about the donation during Shina’s birthday stream.
Putting that aside, would you apologize for knocking me out at Rinco-senior’s house? My viewers have been teasing me about it lately.
If you play a game with me, I’d consider that an acceptable apology.]
Aurora:
[That’s an elaborate way to request a collab.]
[If you’re going to invite me for a collab, attach the proper time and stream details.]
Son Narin:
[Ah, you’re right. I’m sorry.]
Aurora:
[You’re asking for an apology, but you’re the one apologizing first?]
Son Narin:
[True.]
[Are you not going to apologize, though?]
Aurora:
[You said you wanted to play a game together.]
[I’m currently playing Dungeon Seeker. Want to join?]
Son Narin:
[Ah, sure.]
[Uh, wait.]
[When I said sure, I meant I’d like to play Dungeon Seeker together, not anything else.]
Aurora:
[I don’t know what you’re suddenly rambling about.]
[Stop wasting time and just come already.]
Son Narin:
[Ah, okay.]
[I’ll head over now.]