There is a term called "dawn emotion."
They say it’s influenced by hormones, and people are more likely to feel emotional at dawn.
Thinking about it, Anna had been drinking before coming here.
And so, the battle of the abyss began.
"When I was in high school, my friends told me to play Mabinogi. You see, I had already been playing Mabinogi on the R server, but all my friends were on the W server, so they kept asking me to switch over. So, I used a server transfer ticket and moved there. But once I joined the W server, one by one, my friends all quit playing. The one friend who did play Mabinogi complained that the W server was like a countryside server with no people and ended up creating a new character on the R server. Does that even make sense?"
"Anna-senior, th-that must have been tough…. Oh, is it my turn next…?"
“This isn’t my story, but about some high school kid. She wanted to make friends but didn’t have the courage to approach anyone, so she tried to create opportunities for others to talk to her. That’s what happens when you’re an outcast.
She thought that if she did something unusual, someone would start a conversation. So, she decided not to register for school lunch and instead woke up early every morning to stop by a café on her way to school and buy honey bread.
While everyone else went to the cafeteria for lunch, this student stayed in the classroom, eating the honey bread she had bought in the morning. She did that all year long."
"……."
"She deliberately created an excuse for someone to talk to them…. But in the end, no one noticed for the entire year, and no one spoke to them. The only person who remembered them was the café owner, who recognized them as 'the high school girl who likes honey bread.' That’s the story. Haha…. I guess that wasn’t a very fun story…."
Inagika let out a laugh, but her eyes didn’t smile at all.
– "Whatever it is, this feels like our fault somehow."
– "At least I wasn’t that bad, lol."
– "This is making my stomach churn…"
– "Please, stop…"
Inagika was fundamentally different from Anna.
The two had an inherent gap in their personalities.
Anna simply found making friends to be a hassle.
She didn’t like the effort of approaching someone herself. Even if she managed to make friends, she hated the idea of spending resources to maintain those relationships.
In short, Anna just preferred being alone.
On the other hand, Inagika had a massive desire to make friends, but things just didn’t work out for her.
"……I lost."
It was an indescribable fear, the kind you’d only encounter in the Cthulhu mythos.
Faced with that, Anna had no choice but to kneel.
Resisting was meaningless.
Every story Inagika unraveled drained Anna’s mental strength, and who in the world would willingly listen to all of Inagika’s tales?
While there might be people who enjoy physical suffering, there likely aren’t any who enjoy mental anguish.
At least, Anna had no hobby of torturing her own mind.
"Anna-senior…. You’re an amazing extrovert."
"…I’ll keep that in mind."
Thus, Inagika defeated Anna and claimed the title of EYEAI’s number one outcast.
What meaning this held, only Inagika herself would ever know.
***
After that, Anna and Inagika grew close.
‘Surprisingly, she’s someone I can talk to easily….’
That’s what Anna thought.
At first, she was seriously worried about whether they could get along, but after talking, she realized they had a lot in common.
"Come to think of it, both of you enjoy subculture games. I’ve seen your gacha streams a few times," Laura remarked as she observed Anna and Inagika.
"Since you’re meeting anyway, why don’t you chat about subculture games? Things like Authority of Gods or Blue Record, for example."
Anna primarily focused on ASMR and singing for her main content as a VTuber, with one-off and gacha games as her subcontent.
Lately, due to the Fantasy League, her Labyrinthos streams and collabs had increased, but originally, she had always enjoyed gacha games.
Being a born otaku and a trust fund baby, she had no financial worries when it came to playing them.
And Inagika? There was no need for further explanation.
It wouldn’t be surprising if most of Inagika’s VTuber earnings went straight into gacha games.
Authority of Gods, Destruction: Moon Rail, Illumination: Lighting Wave, Dragon Musume Predator Derby, Blue Record, Idol Producer: School Days, Girl GOP2: Phantom, Princess Connection Revive, First Origin, Trick Color Bible, and so on….
She had tried almost every gacha game imaginable, and even for those without a Korean server, she played them in Japanese, making in-app purchases with yen just to stream them.
Since they both loved gacha games, once they started discussing subculture, they found themselves connecting more than expected.
‘…I should have started with subculture as the topic.’
She didn’t want to hear any more of Inagika’s college failure stories.
Once they found this shared interest, the two grew close at a rapid pace.
In fact, it had been odd that Anna and Inagika weren’t already close, considering they were EYEAI’s biggest otakus.
The more they talked, the more Anna felt a strange sense of satisfaction.
That was because Anna rarely shared her preferences with others.
Think about it.
Could she ever gush to Laura, saying, ‘This new character is amazing! Look how huge her chest is! Isn’t she so sexy!?’
Laura would undoubtedly glare at her coldly and tell her to stop being vulgar.
It wasn’t just Laura. Not many senior VTubers at EYEAI shared this kind of enthusiasm.
There was a reason for that. VTubers didn’t stream gacha games as much as one might think.
Streaming gacha gameplay was great when pulling characters or progressing through the story.
But once those moments were over, it became a grind-heavy game—a chore.
The streaming potential would drop, and maintaining consistent daily streams became tough. After finishing the story, streaming efficiency plummeted.
On top of that, the games were often expensive, with characters requiring heavy spending to obtain. Even minor breaks would lead to a mountain of new content to catch up on, and viewers often expected VTubers to max out characters, which only added to the pressure.
For these reasons, many VTubers played gacha games briefly and then quit.
"Aah, Jenny, right…. I’m planning to pull for Jenny, too…. That decadent vibe is just too good…."
But Inagika happily continued the conversation.
"You’ve got great taste. Isn’t she so pretty? She doesn’t show much skin, but she’s incredibly seductive!"
"That’s exactly it. She’s like a tired office lady, and it’s so appealing…."
"Right? That’s why I’m going to max her out once I get her!"
"…If you’re planning to max her out, you’d better farm diligently. By the way, Anna-senpai, I don’t think you’ve been farming properly. Have you at least cleared 40 stars in the Tower of Trials…?"
Of course, there was a minor downside—Inagika was extremely strict with casual players.
Anna was comparatively more of a light user, but luckily, she managed to earn a passing grade from Inagika.
In truth, Inagika had always wanted to find someone to play gacha games with.
Inagika was someone who spent an extraordinary amount of money on gacha games.
And heavy spenders often felt a sense of fulfillment when helping newbies with their super-characters.
In that sense, Anna was the perfect match to fill the void in Inagika’s confidence.
By the end of the practice dating stream, they had even promised to play multiplayer together. Unlike the painful start that scarred everyone, they were able to end the stream on a positive note.
"It’s a relief to see you two getting along. Inagika, I have something to tell you."
As soon as the stream ended, Laura had a word with Inagika.
She told her that Anna had a punishment game coming up. The task? A one-on-one date with Rui, which had Anna incredibly nervous.
Laura suggested that, since they had gotten closer, Inagika should stay by Anna’s side for the time being.
At the same time, Laura encouraged Inagika to participate in more streams.
"…3D?"
"Yes. Sora and I are entering 3D production."
"I-I see…."
There was also surprising news. Or perhaps it wasn’t so surprising after all….
With the start of the Fantasy League, Laura had finally surpassed Rinco’s subscriber count.
And this was even before Team Leviathan’s matches had begun. Once those aired, her subscriber count was expected to rise even further.
Laura was now undoubtedly EYEAI’s flagship VTuber.
The difference in their worlds was undeniable—it was so vast that it didn’t even evoke inferiority, but rather awe.
"I hope you and Chel can achieve 3D as well."
"Because of the 6th Gen’s One-Man Live…?"
"That’s right. So how about engaging in more external activities?"
Laura also briefly mentioned the Aurora Competition, confirming that Sora would be participating, and Chel was one of the candidates being considered.
"Of course, the 6th Gen’s One-Man Live is just my personal idea. If you don’t want to, there’s no obligation to help."
Laura didn’t bother saying the rest.
She already knew Inagika wouldn’t refuse. After all, wasn’t it Inagika herself who had suggested "youth" as the theme for the One-Man Live?
"O-okay…."
She lacked the courage to refuse and didn’t have a valid reason to decline either.
More importantly, she genuinely wanted to give it a try.
"So, I just have to help Anna-senior do well on her date, right…? I’m not sure if I’ll be any good, but… I’ll try…!"
"Alright. Then I’ll leave Anna in your capable hands."
***
For the next few days, viewers got to see Anna and Inagika collaborating.
More specifically, Anna was doing collabs with other VTubers, and Inagika seemed to be tagging along as if inserting herself into the interactions.
For example, Anna once invited Chel to her channel.
Although Anna and Chel were acquaintances, they weren’t particularly close.
So, Inagika joined the stream, acting as a mediator to help bridge the gap between them.
‘She’s doing better than I expected.’
On the first day, it was Chel. On the second, it was Ainatsu. On the third, it was Rinco.
It felt like Anna and Inagika were meeting EYEAI’s VTubers one by one.
Anna was probably calling on colleagues she wasn’t very close to, using it as practice for the upcoming date.
This arrangement didn’t seem bad for either Anna or Inagika.
After all, strengthening bonds with coworkers in the same agency could only be beneficial.
That aside,
[Laura, are you ready?]
"No issues here."
[Then write down the ‘command’ on it.]
Rui’s voice echoed, and a white interface appeared before my eyes.
After thinking for a moment, I wrote down the following command:
《Suggest bungee jumping as the after-date activity.》
After sending it off, Rui’s voice rang out again.
[Alright. It’s working fine. Tomorrow’s stream should go smoothly.]
Rui spoke cheerfully.
The punishment game was now just around the corner.
This event had a total of four characters involved:
- Anna: The protagonist of this "dating sim."
- Rui: The heroine of the "dating sim."
- Laura: The spectator and Player 1 who proposed the punishment game.
- Sora: The spectator and Player 2, determined to watch the stream live.
"Heh. So if I write a command here, it’ll be sent directly to Anna-senior?"
Sora smirked from the side.
"Shiroki Anna, you’re finished."
【Spectator POV】 I Made the Date Awkward I Can Control Shiroki Anna 【Ayanokouji Sora/Aurora】