chapter03 · 085-ep85
Episode 82: Birth of a Guardian Deity and the Final Trap (?)
The internet, thrown into chaos by Karin's abyssal descent and outrageous boss fight, was suddenly quieter than ever. The live thread for her stream had passed Part 800, yet it and countless social sites stopped receiving posts. Mitsuki became a still image in her own stream. Even Karin's chat, which had been pouring past in enormous quantities, fell empty as if she'd returned to her old dead-stream days.
But when Karin cleared the dust and declared, "I showed you something a little inelegant, but the abyssal boss is safely defeated, desu wa!"—and the screen showed the Humanoid being absorbed into the exposed dungeon wall—viewers finally processed reality and exploded at once.
【OOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAH!?】
【THAT OJOU-SAMA DID IT!】
【SHE ACTUALLY KILLED AN ABYSSAL BOSS!】
【AND SHE'S PRACTICALLY UNHARMED!?】
【A few strands of hair are basically UNHARMED! What IS this insane ojou-sama!?】
【Even anime characters rarely solo an abyssal boss without taking damage!?】
【That's something a final boss or the protagonist's mentor does!?】
【(They do it pretty routinely in Dungeon Alive, though)】
【She soloed an abyssal boss... You've got to be kidding...!?】
【Seriously!? Is this for real!?】
¥50,000 @Mitsuki
I was a fool to doubt Karin ojou-sama's strength for even a second
¥50,000 @Mitsuki
Rather than cut open my belly, I've cut into my savings for these superchats to show my remorse. Please accept them
¥50,000 @Mitsuki
Huh? I'm approaching my daily superchat limit?
¥50,000 @Mitsuki
Karin ojou-sama please give me your bank account number after all. Please let me pour every last drop of my sincerity into your bank account
【Mitsugi-sama's here!】
【She's completely broken, and now her word choices are scary lol】
【Mitsuki-chan revived, then started sending superchats up to the limit with that frighteningly straight face lol】
¥50,000
I have no choice but to throw money at this! It makes no sense, desu no!
¥50,000
This goes WAY beyond setting a world record!?
¥50,000
I've never seen worldwide trends dominated by Japanese like this! Karin ojou-sama, you're unbelievable!?
¥10,000
Even with overseas viewers pouring in, Japanese people are posting so much lol
¥20,000
The only English term that managed to trend is 'fake movie' lol
【Overseas bros escaping reality lmao】
【Can't blame them for not believing a country-toppling ojou-sama is livestreaming...】
【My own heart keeps saying 'This must be fake.' I can't make fun of them!?】
【Imagine the African Unification Dungeon Queen's exaggerated legends (with video) spreading live. That's what it must be like for them!】
【People even think dungeon-developing Japan's spreading propaganda lol】
¥20,000
They're saying, 'Japan would use an anime character in government propaganda! So this is an elaborate fake video from the Japanese government!' and 'Even their government lives in the future!' lmao
¥50,000
【Bad News】Overseas bros have seriously started treating Karin ojou-sama as an anime character
¥30,000
She'd be delighted...
¥10,000
Japanese higher-ups facing the nightmare of explaining this abroad: 'Can't we just say it's a fake propaganda video we made...?'
Chat had become ridiculous. Expensive superchats blanketed it, and even the video site's greatly expanded servers groaned. Cheers for Karin defeating an abyssal boss mixed with every other conceivable topic, along with horror, awe and amazement. Whatever their reactions, an astonishing number of people were watching. Her figures were just as absurd.
¥50,000
TWENTY MILLION concurrents!!! EIGHTEEN MILLION subscribers!! Congratulations, desu waaaaa!
【THOSE NUMBERS!?】
【And they're STILL rising!?】
【Twenty million concurrents! That's a whole forest of lmaos】
【THIS IS INSANE, DESU WAAAA!?】
【Wait wait wait wait wait】
【And that's while tons of people think the footage is fake because it's so incredible...】
【Won't she gain even more once the clips spread!?】
"!? Twenty million concurrents!? A-and so many subscribers... Th-those numbers are frightening, desu wa...!?"
The person most surprised was the one who had just done something big enough to move governments by soloing an abyssal boss.
(I-I came here because I thought a solo abyssal conquest would attract even more attention than the minor's world record in the deep layers, and that boss made for incredible footage, but... this is beyond anything I expected!? As I was thinking earlier, there must be plenty of others capable of this who just don't appear in public... It's rather awkward...)
It felt as if she were only a middling professional but television had introduced her as the industry's greatest authority, making her undeservedly famous.
"W-well, in any case, I believe I've thoroughly blown those accusations of staging away! We achieved the purpose of today's stream safely and Elegantly!"
【Staging allegations... Oh, right, those existed (distant stare)】
【We're way past just clearing her name】
【I'd forgotten, but Black Tiger's finished in every possible sense】
【I checked the operatives' accounts. Every last one deleted theirs and fled lmao】
【No way they're escaping after causing THIS big a scene...】
【Even I haven't done anything wrong and I'm shaking in bed tonight】
【Y-yes! Whatever else happened, those accusations have been completely destroyed, Karin ojou-sama! Whatever else happened!】
【Kasumigaseki's weekend was destroyed along with them】
【Woman attempts to extinguish manufactured controversy by blast suppression; blows away seat of government too】
【Congratulations on clearing your name, desu waaaaa! (laughing through the pain)】
【U-um... but in exchange for her innocence, international affairs...】
【A mega-famous streamer revealed globally that she could change international affairs (government officials are losing their minds)】
【International affairs? W-well, they'll probably work out somehow...】
【Now that the strength of this bottomless monster ojou-sama is public, we might actually be safer】
¥50,000
【Breaking News】Foreign fishing vessels that have recently been crowding Japanese territorial waters are reportedly turning back all at once lmao
【WHAT!?】
【No way!?】
【Wonder why (playing innocent)】
【That was fast lmao】
【She's literally a deterrent lol】
【She's already affecting international affairs!?】
【I was half joking when I called her a country-toppling ojou-sama, but...】
【S-surely it's a coincidence... (voice shaking)】
【She's a human nuclear warhead!?】
【An ojou-sama with the fighting power AND deterrent value of a nuclear warhead should be against the rules】
【Rules don't apply to ojou-samas】
【She's basically Japan's guardian deity now lol】
【None of these comments sound like they're about one streamer anymore...】
【Everything is too crazy and I can't even find words for it, desu waaaa!】
【Maybe Kasumigaseki's burden is actually easing now...?】
With so many people flowing in, chat continued to resemble every message board compressed into one. Topics jumped all over, many languages appeared, and people even talked about international affairs and fishing vessels, things that hardly seemed relevant to a stream. But no one doubted Karin's innocence. Karin was largely satisfied with the result—yet clearing her name wasn't the Humanoid's only gift.
¥30,000
W-wait, ojou-sama!? Isn't that an abyssal boss drop in the corner of the crater on screen!?
"Eh?"
【Eh】
【Eh】
【Eh】
Karin's voice joined a chat that suddenly converged on one topic.
"! The figures were so overwhelming that I failed to notice it until now, desu wa!?"
She headed into the crater with her floating camera. As the viewer had said, a piece of translucent skin and something that looked like an organ lay at its center. They were Humanoid drops that had somehow survived her devastating attack.
"Ahh! I did it, desu wa! Two of them! The material for an item box, and another I've never seen before! Either way, I have rare-boss materials! I simply can't throw these away... Perhaps I should quickly process them on the way back."
【!?】
【Seriously!?】
【She mentioned it before the fight, but that's REALLY item-box material!?】
【Two drops is incredibly lucky!?】
【She barely got any boss drops until now, and all her luck went into this!?】
【Wasn't item-box material rumored to have traded for tens of billions of yen!?】
【Some say the figure was hundreds of billions...】
【Either way, this is BIG!?】
【Are you SURE that's item-box material!?】
【Oh no! Karin ojou-sama's going to experiment with making item boxes other people can use!】
¥50,000 @Dungeon Bureau Official Account
Karin ojou-sama, please wait before processing that material! I'm Saito, director-general of the Dungeon Bureau! I'm arranging emergency special measures and a retrieval team right now! We'll pay you a reward, so please entrust it to the government for the moment! Please, please!
"Eh... What's this...?"
Karin frowned at the sudden superchat claiming to be from the Dungeon Bureau's official account and its director-general.
【It's the real official account lmao】
【Is the official account allowed to superchat? lol】
【Is Director-General Saito really posting a superchat????】
【The Bureau's official social media AND Saito's account released statements. It's real!?】
【No way lol. They moved so fast!】
【They were probably on standby since the abyssal boss fight began lol】
【Never seen a Japanese government office move so quickly】
【↑Given what's at stake, that's entirely reasonable】
【If even the director-general reacts like this, is that really THE material...?】
【Isn't he confirming it's item-box material!?】
【What can anyone do with that information anyway? Stopping our runaway ojou-sama and securing the material has to take priority...】
【Leaving that material with an ojou-sama who wanted to make a <Divine Artisan> item box anyone can use is terrifying...】
¥10,000
Ojou-sama, isn't this your chance to get a fortune before the superchats even pay out, and become a real ojou-sama!?
¥20,000
Buy plenty of food with that money! It's way more Elegant than making item boxes other people can use!?
The unexpected drops and government official brought chat together in a desperate plea that Karin not attempt a dangerous item-box improvement.
But—
"Eh, scary... Even I know a government official wouldn't superchat in a place like this just because rare abyssal materials dropped... Oh! I see what's happening!"
Her hair stood on end.
"It's a Black Tiger trap, desu wa!? Maf—my best friend told me Black Tiger were advisers to the Dungeon Bureau! You say you'll collect the materials under 'special measures' to get me to do something of questionable legality, then pin another crime on me!? I can't afford to let my guard down! I won't fall for that trick!"
¥50,000 @Dungeon Bureau Official Account
!? No, no! We have nothing to do with that problem clan anymore!
"Still trying, are you!? In that case... I'll at least start preparing the materials here! When I'm back in the safe deep layers, I'll finish processing them to the point where I'm allowed to take them out of the dungeon, so you can't accuse me of illegally smuggling them out in my item box!"
Tap, tap, clang!
¥50,000 @Dungeon Bureau Official Account
AAAAAAAAAAAAH!? Please listen to me, ojou-samaaaaa!
【Lmao】
【He sounds as mentally shattered as someone in an NTR video letter】
【Good job being suspicious of internet claims, Karin ojou-sama (dead-eyed)】
【The director-general's screaming from his personal account too lol】
【Please stop saying 'safe deep layers.' That's a contradiction in three words...】
【W-well, she has no proof Saito isn't working with Black Tiger...】
【Now that you mention it, the Dungeon Bureau DID employ Black Tiger as advisers. Why would she trust them...?】
【After being falsely accused, of course she can't accept 'special measures' without fear! (dead-eyed)】
【The Fist Fuck incident and Black Tiger's accusations have made Karin ojou-sama even more suspicious of everyone...】
【She took Fist Fuck and Black Tiger to both knees, making it even harder to teach her common sense...】
【Both knees of her willingness to listen are shattered lmao】
【What do we even do with this common-sense-defying monster...?】
【It's over...】
【Black Tiger might've cost us hundreds of billions...】
【There are two materials, so the estimated losses are... Let's not go there】
【Let's chalk it up to the government and Bureau's own fault for letting Tiger run wild...】
【Black Tiger, take responsibility】
【The director-general calling them 'that problem clan' on the Bureau's official account suggests they're already slated for total destruction】
Despite all this, Karin completed the preliminary processing before more abyssal monsters could approach, and nodded in satisfaction.
"There we are! We may have had one little trap (?) at the end, but I gained more than enough viewers and subscribers to clear my name, plus rare materials! This stream was a great success, desu wa!"
【S-sure...】
【If we're only talking about clearing your name, nothing could've done it better! (voice shaking)】
【W-well, things might work out after going around in circles three times!?】
【The ojou-sama's so terrifying that pressure and interference from overseas may actually stop...】
【It's all an absolute mess, but if Karin ojou-sama and her friends are happy, that's fine!】
"A dungeon conquest isn't over until one gets home! I'll stay alert on the way back, desu wa!"
Karin cheerfully put the partly processed materials into her item box and began returning to the surface, satisfied with a stream that had, for the moment, ended in great success.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes of that absurd stream—
"If it's come to this... if it's come to this, then..."
At Black Tiger's Okutama base, an atmosphere like a wake hung over a room where public opinion and everything else had turned against them. In the center, the clan master, every escape route lost, muttered with an exhausted face. He looked like a prophet struck by an incredible revelation. At last, as if convinced by the choice he'd questioned again and again, Kuroi said:
"That's right... For us to survive now... we have no choice but to go into the dungeon immediately... and crush Karin Yamada directly with all of Black Tiger's strength...!"
"""""Huh?"""""
What is this idiot talking about...?
The executives stared at him, aghast. Either <Advance Danger Sense> had broken, or the man himself had gone completely mad.
――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――
The deep-layer conquest arc (which isn't just deep layers anymore) grew rather long, but we're finally at the climax, desu wa! If you enjoyed it, I'd be delighted if you'd support it with stars or a follow...!
And what Karin makes with the Humanoid materials is something to look forward to later, desu wa.