chapter01 · 006-ep6

Episode 6: The Plan Going Forward

"Mafuyuuu! What IS all this, desu no!?"

"Oh, the thug ojou-sama video? I laughed my ass off too. No wonder it went viral."

"'No wonder it went viral' is not the point, desu wa!?"

After fainting at the sorry state of the internet, where a video of her own thuggish behavior had gone viral, Karin had quickly woken up thanks to an explorer's distinctive healing ability. She'd made it to school at breakneck speed, enough to make up for oversleeping. Even though her hair was black rather than the color it was on stream, she could feel eyes glancing her way. Hiding her face behind her bag with an "Auu, auu," she dashed into the classroom before homeroom began.

An utterly ordinary public school in Tokyo.

Seated in the corner of that classroom was Mafuyu Sasaki.

A beautiful girl with glossy black hair cut to her shoulders.

Mafuyu's unapproachable beauty was sometimes likened to ice, but Karin ran straight up to her without hesitation.

Pointing at her phone, where footage of her delinquent behavior—so far from the 'elegant and lovely ojou-sama' she aimed to be—was being shared for everyone's amusement, she pleaded with Mafuyu.

"C-can't anything be done about this, desu no!?"

"Obviously not. Just give up. Once an image or video is out on the internet, you can't get it back. Especially one this viral—forget 'delete it and it multiplies,' you can't even delete it in the first place."

"Ugh, why did it have to come to this... My words just got a little rough in an emergency, desu no..."

Looking down at her phone, she saw the videos' view counts climbing and climbing, despite it being a weekday.

The most watched had already passed four million views. "Thug Ojou-sama" remained firmly planted among the trends.

Karin Yamada and the defeat of a nuisance streamer were still spreading.

Along with a false image of her as a thug...

"Hey, Yamada! The hair's a different color, but that thug ojou-sama video is you, isn't it!?"

"I knew you were weird, but I didn't know you were THAT weird! That's awesome!"

"Hey, Karin-chan, can you scold me a little too!?"

"Shut the hell up, desu wa! I ain't got time for this right now, desu no!"

Karin cut her suddenly excited classmates off.

The dishonorable title of "thug ojou-sama" had already invaded the real world.

'It would not be Elegant to boost my videos with sympathy views from people I know, desu wa!' For that reason she'd kept her streaming secret from everyone but Mafuyu until now... and it had come out in the worst possible way.

"Ughh, is this the price of going viral, desu no...?"

Ignoring the classmates having fun calling out to her, Karin clutched her head.

And speaking of the price of going viral, she had other concerns.

"Actually, now that I've calmed down, the thug thing isn't the only problem. With yesterday's incident spreading this far... I'm not going to lose my explorer's license, or even be arrested, am I, desu wa...!? Ugh, I feel sick..."

Karin's face went pale.

She was just starting to take in the unprecedented viral hit and the sudden explosion in subscribers that came with it, but given a little time to think, all sorts of worries were surfacing.

Whatever the extenuating circumstances, it was a fact that Karin had pummeled a fellow streamer inside a dungeon.

For some reason the guard hadn't reprimanded her, and she knew in her head that stopping a blast stone from being detonated was nothing she deserved punishment for. But the internet could turn an incident glossed over among those involved into the end of your life in society the moment it spread.

The pressure of going viral for the first time kept bringing one awful possibility after another to mind. But—

"It's fine, it's fine."

Mafuyu waved away Karin's fears lightly.

"Usually these things get tangled up in a he-said-she-said, but this time there's video. Clear as day, on his camera. It's a ten-to-zero split of blame, all on him. If it went to court, even Kagerou's lawyers would tell him not to fight it. Thank god for dashcams, basically. Not even the contrarians have come crawling out. And look—maybe that Kagerou guy was just really hated, but the internet's all praise. Even if some nutjob shows up to defend him, they'll get washed away."

"I-is that so, desu no?"

Karin's expression brightened as she looked at the posts on Mafuyu's phone.

The online response Mafuyu showed her was only a tiny part of the whole.

There could well be trouble brewing elsewhere.

But more than anything, Karin trusted Mafuyu's word.

Mafuyu was always low-energy and seemingly uninterested in everything, yet what she said was always on point, and she'd helped Karin since long ago. If Mafuyu was this confident, Karin could set her mind at ease for the moment.

"So backlash isn't a problem. What you should be thinking about is what to do next."

As color returned to Karin's face, Mafuyu held up an index finger.

"These people who've gathered are just jumping on the latest craze. They're not your fans yet. You need to work on turning those gawkers into fans while you've got their attention. Get complacent now and you'll be right back where you started."

"Th-that certainly is true, desu wa..."

Even Karin, who knew little about the ins and outs of the internet, understood that much.

The online content world moved fast. Hundreds or thousands of accounts became famous overnight only to be forgotten two or three months later. If she rested on one fleeting viral moment, she'd soon be back in the void of zero concurrents.

"My recommendation? Before you rush to stream a dungeon run, do a chatting stream as soon as possible. I said you don't need to worry about backlash, but what you did yesterday was a huge shock. I don't mean this as criticism, but some people still half suspect it was staged by an agency. Before all kinds of rumors spread, wouldn't it be better to talk things through yourself?"

"People are saying that, desu no?"

Karin's eyes widened at this unexpected suspicion.

Still, if strange speculation like that was spreading, Mafuyu was right: she should talk things through on a stream from home right away.

And although Mafuyu had assured her she was unlikely to face backlash, she wanted to address the streamer she'd beaten up as well. Opening with a chatting stream was probably the best move at the moment. She could try to win over lasting fans with her dungeon streams afterward.

Once she had a plan, the light returned to Karin's eyes.

"I was scared out of my wits and completely confused... but I was right to talk to you, Mafuyu."

Karin took Mafuyu's hand and gave an emphatic little huff.

"I shall do my utmost to make the most of this chance, desu no! Not just the agency rumors—a bizarre image of me as some sort of thug has spread too. I shall correct it by streaming my true Elegant self, full throttle, and win over regular fans, desu wa! I doubt I can keep even one tenth of those four hundred thousand with the abilities I have now... but I shall start streaming this very afternoon, desu no!"

In stark contrast to her earlier panic, Karin announced her newly decided course with spirit.

Mafuyu quietly averted her eyes.

"If you stream 'Karin's true Elegant self,' I think people will end up with an even crazier impression of you than they have now—at home, never mind in a dungeon. But that'd probably bring in more subscribers, and you couldn't pull off a calculated act to save your life anyway... Yeah. I'm just glad you're feeling better. Good luck."

She muttered almost all of it under her breath, letting Karin hear only the encouragement at the end.