chapter02 · 040-ep40
Episode 40: The Three-Hundred-Million-Yen Woman and Ominous Moves
Several days after a major dungeon collapse on a weekend in Shibuya was suppressed with zero fatalities, the world still talked about Karin's feat. Karin Yamada had become the celebrity of the hour, especially online.
Clips casually racked up tens of millions of views. Threads proliferated. The area around the Shibuya Dungeon, still being restored, had become a pilgrimage site. Mochimochi Tamago-sensei posted fan art at a frantic pace. Every TV channel ran explorer specials featuring Karin; the Dungeon Bureau, eager to promote explorers, cooperated fully, leaving news programs oddly lopsided. It was practically an explorer boom.
Meanwhile, the very person behind that astonishing feat was at school, screaming inelegantly.
"Mafuyuuuu! Help meeeee!"
Clinging to her low-energy friend Mafuyu Sasaki, Karin held up her phone. "Videos of me acting disgracefully, the very opposite of 'Elegant,' are still online!"
It showed footage from the collapse: Karin pulling heavy magical weapons out of her mouth.
Days had passed, and her fans' mass reports had gotten most videos deleted. But the internet was vast. Some persisted on overseas sites that were harder to reach, and they were drawing plenty of views. People also couldn't stop talking. Though most tactfully avoided specifics, her shocking storage skill was still a topic of discussion, alongside the magical weapons. Searching "Karin Yamada" even suggested "that thing."
Karin was distraught. She'd dodged reporters who came all the way to school, shouting, "Please forget Shibuya already!" She'd put the flood of collaboration offers from various companies on hold until "the fuss dies down, desu wa!"—although that would defeat the companies' purposes. The only things she'd ecstatically accepted were a blurb for the new edition of Dungeon Alive and the inclusion of a new Karin-and-Setsuna illustration.
In short, Karin was avoiding any mention of the collapse. Mysterious pressure had somehow made the reporters at school disappear, thankfully, but the video at the root of it all was still around. As usual, she'd turned to her best friend.
"You're the only one on my side, Mafuyuuuu! Can't you do anything!?"
Mafuyu watched her, chin in hand. "...You say stuff like that to everybody, don't you?"
"I most certainly do not!?" Karin pointed toward the middle of the classroom. "Look at our classmates! Even our homeroom teacher's like that!"
"Yamada! How did you acquire that crazy skill!?"
"Was it that time at the middle-school cultural festival after-party buffet? You'd eaten your fill, but then said, 'If I can't take food home in a container, I'll take it home this way!' and stuffed your cheeks like a hamster! Was THAT how it happened!?"
"Karin-chan, could you swallow ME too?"
"I can't believe that Yamada saved Shibuya AND comes to school with her hair done properly every day now... Miracles do happen..."
"...Well, comparing me to that bunch isn't saying much," Mafuyu said.
"Then why are you sulking, desu no!?"
"I'm not sulking."
"You ARE! I can tell!"
Karin peered intently at her expressionless friend. Mafuyu gave in with a sigh. "You only notice the strangest things... I really am not sulking. My favorite teacup broke, and I'm a bit down, that's all. It's not your fault, at least. ...And about the video: like I said before, you'll have to live with it. This time your fans have been sending takedown requests, so it's already much better than the Fist F●ck incident. At this rate they might even get the overseas copies eventually."
"R-really...?"
"Yeah. So for now, keep streaming and change what people associate you with. That's your only real option, same as I told you before."
"I suppose that's true..."
Although somehow every attempt to improve her image by streaming had left her with an even more terrible nickname, Mafuyu was right. Mochimochi Tamago-sensei had been producing incredibly cool fan art—excluding 'that thing' in Shibuya—that helped her Elegant image. She couldn't waste the creator's kindness. She'd keep streaming and try to overwrite the footage.
"...Yes! Talking to you always helps most, Mafuyu! You're my very best friend, desu no!"
"...There you go again, saying whatever sounds good."
Mafuyu looked away. Karin thanked her and resolved to stream again. When Mafuyu acted like this, she was, after all, just embarrassed.
After school, Karin began a home chatting stream.
"Good day, everyone~ Things have been hectic, so it's been a while since I last streamed~!"
Between the shock of having <Internal Storage> broadcast to the world and the certificates of appreciation from the Dungeon Bureau and police, this was her first stream since Shibuya.
(I'd really rather clear away that image with an Elegant dungeon conquest stream...)
The incident had caused a far bigger commotion than Karin expected. She couldn't start dungeon streaming again without addressing it, so she decided to bring it up once at home.
(I want them to forget it, but ignoring it might make it drag on longer. Besides, I need to insist again that they forget that storage skill. I can treat this as practice after skipping streams for a few days.)
After her greeting, she looked at chat. Immediately—
【SHE'S LIIIIIIVE!】
【THE HERO OF SHIBUYAAAA!】
¥50,000
I've been 'WAITING' for this 'MOMENT'!
¥50,000
I was in Shibuya that day. Thank you, thank you so much...!
¥50,000
I'm here now because of you, Karin ojou-samaaaaa!
¥50,000
I dedicate this life you saved to you!
¥50,000
There's no other stream where I can donate the maximum so easily! LEEEET'S GO!
¥50,000
Without you, I would have lost my only daughter. Please accept this small token.
¥50,000
Thank you for saving my boyfriend! Honestly, I hated that he was obsessed with a female streamer... I was wrong. We'll both support you for life!
¥50,000
I can't believe I'm watching this stream with my girlfriend right now. I'll spend the life you saved cherishing her forever!
¥50,000
What, you two are watching as a COUPLE? You messing with me? Here, have a celebration gift!
¥50,000
Without you, it would have been a terrible tragedy. I couldn't do much on-site, so at least let me thank you. You're a wonderful explorer.
¥50,000
My shop is in the building where you fired those magical weapons. You saved both my life and my business, and now it's a pilgrimage spot and sales are soaring...! I'll support you for life!
"...Huh?"
Chat was literally solid red. More than that: not a single comment appeared that wasn't a maximum-amount superchat. Karin froze, failing to notice that an extraordinary 300,000 concurrents had joined within a minute of her starting. The red-superchat storm continued.
¥50,000
These comments are insane lol
¥50,000
Never seen a stream start with 300k concurrents OR a chat that's all red superchats lmao
¥10,000
What IS this lol My best attempt at a big superchat is being buried like trash lol
¥50,000
Everyone who was in Shibuya and their families have gathered lmao
¥50,000
It's not just the Shibuya crowd!
¥50,000
After seeing a miracle you wouldn't even see in an anime, my wallet's wide open!
¥50,000
Karin ojou-sama was hiding (?) for days, so everyone had plenty of time to prepare to donate lol
¥50,000
Few things feel this good to spend fifty thousand yen on!
¥50,000
A national honor takes time? Then WE'RE her national honor (in cash)!
¥50,000
If Shibuya's savior is upset over that video spreading, she deserves at least this much in return!
¥50,000
Anyone hesitating to donate to ojou-sama? Didn't think so!
"Wh-what on earth IS this!?"
Forgetting she was streaming, Karin screamed at the unending tide of red superchats. The viewers enjoyed even that and sent more.
"W-wait, seriously, what is happening!? Is this the Blood Pond Hell!? Have you all been tricked!? Thanking me for Shibuya!? O-of course I appreciate the thought, but aren't you donating far too much!?"
¥50,000
Ojou-sama, do you have any idea how much you accomplished...?
¥50,000
A rare chance to teach her some common sense and what the world considers normal Let's beat it into her with stacks of cash!
¥50,000
Blood Pond Hell lmao Honestly, the government should give Karin ojou-sama at least half the economic damage the collapse WOULD have caused
¥50,000
We know they can't do that, so we're paying instead!
¥50,000
Hey, government! Make donations to Karin ojou-sama tax-deductible! An ojou-sama tax break, desu no!
Her screams only made chat accelerate. Viewers poured in 'make-her-understand' red superchats as if to say, 'She really has no clue how grateful everyone is.'
¥50,000
Wow 'Red superchat,' 'superchat,' and 'lmao' are already trending lol
¥50,000
It's true lol Ojou-sama's influence has gone through the roof
¥50,000
Holy shit, this could break not just Japan's superchat record but the world's lol
¥50,000
World number one? I like that Might wash away the image of 'that thing' she's so desperate to get rid of
¥50,000
It would definitely wash it away at that point
¥50,000
All right! Let's drown her embarrassing image with our spending power!
¥50,000
I, a Karin Party samurai whose life she saved that day, am here to lend my sword for justice!
¥50,000
↑ First time I've seen that samurai meme where there really IS a just cause
¥50,000
Let's make her world number one!
"...!? ...!? ...!?"
The more she tried to stop them, the faster donations came. Karin was speechless. She forgot to remind them to forget the storage skill, and her stream became nearly a still image. The superchats didn't stop.
"...Th... three hundred... million...?"
After the stream, in which she'd somehow managed to say the bare minimum about Shibuya, Karin checked the superchat total and whispered through parched lips.
"Wh-what do you MEAN three hundred million yen!?"
Once her mind grasped the figure, she foamed at the mouth and collapsed.
While Karin lay at home with the whites of her eyes showing, the internet went wild over her stream. "The Three-Hundred-Million-Yen Incident of the Reiwa Era," "The Woman Who Makes Three Hundred Million Yen an Hour," "A Year's World Record in Superchats in One Day," and "Blood Pond Hell" swept Twiitter. Quite by accident, the superchat story partly displaced the image of her storage skill. Her channel surpassed five million subscribers as her achievement in Shibuya was recognized all over again.
●
Around the time donations had knocked Karin out—
"What!? You're leaving Black Tiger!?"
An angry middle-aged man's voice rang through a room filled with refined furnishings: the Tokyo headquarters of Black Tiger, an explorer clan vying for the top spot nationwide.
The clan master, Haramitsu Kuroi, who commanded some of the strongest explorers, continued with shock and fury. "What is this, Kagerou!? We raised you! We protected you from the consequences of your nuisance stunts!"
"I know that." Saiga Kagerou, who had just announced his departure, answered with irritation. "But protecting those streams let Black Tiger show off its political clout and warn people what it could get away with, yeah? I never crossed a line too big for you to cover up. You've helped me, sure, but don't act like you did THAT part outta kindness."
"Regardless, this is too sudden! Why would you leave Black Tiger, one of the country's strongest clans!?"
"No huge reason. This shitty clan's 'use any means to get ahead' policy suited me, honestly."
Asked why, Kagerou looked away and murmured, "I can't become like her if I stay here."
(Not that I can become her just by leaving. But maybe my chances'll go from minus one hundred percent to minus ninety-nine.) He kept that thought to himself.
"Anyway, that's that. Thanks for everything. Oh, and don't worry. Even if it takes years, I'll pay the contract penalty and whatever else I owe. My old man's company won't stop the loans it's quietly giving you either. Relax."
"That isn't the point—!"
"See ya."
Kagerou left the clan master's office, neatly leaving behind his Black Tiger emblem, resignation notice, and an address for the penalty bill.
"What now, Kuroi? Should I crush the brat?" said a low voice, following Kagerou's departing presence. The speaker was famous as Black Tiger's absolute strongest fighter.
"...No. His father's company is too big. We can't cut off that financing just to make an example of him. Tch. Sharp to the end. That was why I wanted to keep him as a pawn."
Kuroi scowled. His hostility shifted from Kagerou to someone else.
"Karin Yamada..."
On his phone was a madwoman in a frilly dress. She'd flattened Kagerou twice, humiliated Black Tiger, and probably driven him to leave. After seeing many powerful explorers, Kuroi could only call her monstrous achievements 'abnormal' and 'alien.' Whatever the damage she'd caused, trying to take her down immediately would not be worth the cost.
But still—
"...I should at least think of a way to bring her down while there's time."
Kuroi, a driving force behind Black Tiger's expansion, glared at Karin's picture with a sense of foreboding. There were, after all, other ways to destroy a monster than fighting it head-on.
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