Episode 1: Beautiful Streamer: "Is This Unpaid Overtime?" → The World: "She's a Saint Who Fights at the Risk of Her Own Life!"
Episode 1: Beautiful Streamer: "Is This Unpaid Overtime?" → The World: "She's a Saint Who Fights at the Risk of Her Own Life!"
A beautiful girl with white hair and red eyes sighed deeply at the entrance to a dimly lit dungeon.
Her skin was like translucent porcelain.
Her eyes, like rubies, shimmered eerily.
Just a slight lowering of her gaze made her look like an angel who had stepped out of a medieval painting.
She possessed a national treasure-level fragility, as if she might disappear if touched.
But what was beneath that facade—
"...Haaaa. I was working 300 hours of overtime a month until yesterday, and now I'm suddenly told to be a beautiful streamer. To be thrown into the field without any handover or manual... that God, or rather, the incompetent upper management who absolutely don't know anything about the field."
Tachibana Kentaro, 38 years old.
A former overworked systems engineer at a black IT company.
After dying from overwork at the end of a , he somehow transformed as a stunningly beautiful girl of about fourteen-year.
Moreover, this world resembled the modern Japan Tachibana Kentaro knew, yet it was subtly different in its sense of normalcy.
The city had a streaming culture, explorers existed, and beneath the surface, there were otherworldly labyrinths—dungeons.
A God-like being simply handed her the responsibility with a smile, saying, "Enjoy your second life in this body."
"Before enjoying myself, I need living expenses. Don't throw me into the field with zero budget..."
Tachibana Ken—no, her current name is Stella.
She languidly tapped the start button on the dungeon streaming app, "D-Live," with her slender, white fingers peeking out from the sleeves of her baggy gray hoodie.
The location was a D-rank dungeon that had appeared beneath Shinjuku.
Commonly known as the [Kabukicho Underground Labyrinth]
In her hand was the heavy iron greatsword, one of her initial supplies. However, the way she was holding it was exactly like a middle-aged man coming out of a convenience store on a Friday night.
She was holding the end of the greatsword's hilt with one hand, letting it dangle and swing just above the ground.
Her shoulders were slumped.
The sparkle in her eyes was lifeless.
She looked more like a salaryman who had just finished work than a beautiful girl.
[Huh? A newbie?]
[White hair and red eyes! Her looks are so good my screen cracked!]
[Wait, isn't she too cute? I subscribed to her channel immediately.]
[Wait, you can't hold a greatsword with those skinny arms! It'll break!]
[The way she's holding the greatsword is just like the plastic bag you get when you buy fried chicken lol.]
Number of viewers: 3
There were still few other comments.
But Stella didn't care in the slightest.
Compared to the death-game-like progress report meetings at her previous job, the gazes of these three were like a gentle spring breeze.
"Ah, hello. I'm Stella. I'm short on money for living expenses, so I'll just quickly deal with this today."
["Deal with"? LOL]
[She said 'deal with,' not 'conquer,' this pretty girl, lol.]
[Her voice is so cute! My brain is melting.]
[Her energy level is so low, lol.]
Stella let out a small yawn.
"Walking around is a pain, so I'll gather all the weaklings in one place. Sites with poorly designed layouts usually end up burning down later."
[Site, lol.]
[Don't call a dungeon a site.]
[This girl's appearance and what she says are a crazy gap.]
That's when it happened.
From the end of the corridor, countless eerie footsteps echoed.
A horde of goblins leaped out like a tsunami.
One.
Two.
Ten.
—Roughly thirty.
If this were a beginner's solo stream, the screen would immediately go black.
It was a desperate situation, the kind that would force a live stream to end.
[Aaaah, run!!!]
[There are so many! We're completely surrounded!]
[Hey, someone call the Explorer Bureau quickly!!!]
[I don't want to see the newbie get minced!!!]
However, Stella just stared at the horde of monsters with sleepy eyes.
"Wow. It's like a crappy last-minute case that gets thrown in right before quitting time at 5:30 PM on a Friday."
[Last-minute case?]
[What is this beautiful girl talking about lol]
[Please, just run! RUN!!]
Stella picked up the greatsword she was carrying.
Not with any determination.
Not with a strong stance.
Just with a look of annoyance.
Like the face you make when fixing a paper jam in the office copier.
"Alright. Task processing, start."
The next moment, the screen flickered for a split second.
The camera couldn't track Stella's movements.
Her white hair swayed like a night breeze.
That was all.
Before anyone knew it, Stella was in the center of thirty goblins.
No preparatory movement.
Not even a hint of a lunge.
She had only swung her greatsword once, yet thirty heavy slashes exploded simultaneously.
BOOM!!!
With a deafening roar, the goblin horde was blown away without a trace.
The shockwave cracked the dungeon's rock walls.
Silence.
All that remained was the beautiful white-haired girl and a large number of magic stones scattered on the floor.
[…………]
[…………]
[Huh?]
[Eh?]
[???]
[What just happened????]
[I thought the screen glitched, but all the goblins were wiped out.]
[The effects and power are on par with the world's top-ranked players.]
[This girl is seriously dangerous. She's a monster despite her cute face...]
Stella looked down at the magic stone lying on the floor and frowned slightly.
"Isn't the drop rate a bit stingy?"
[That's your first reaction?!]
[Your comment after one-shotting thirty of them is about the drop rate lol.]
[A strong player's perspective is that of a hardcore gamer.]
"No, if they're going to spawn this many, they should properly design the rewards. The amount of work and the salary don't match."
[She's negotiating the salary with the dungeon management, lol.]
[Stella-sama, you're not just criticizing the enemies, but the management's philosophy too.]
Stella let out a deep, heavy sigh.
Then, with a rustling sound, she pulled out a wet wipe from her pocket.
A beautiful girl with a delicate appearance worthy of a national treasure.
Her face, which should be registered as a World Heritage Site.
She wiped it vigorously, like an old man in a bar under the railway tracks in .
"Gahhh, so tiring. The first step really hurts my lower back. I want to put on a ..."
[The way you wipe your face!!!]
[She just said "Gahhhh!" lol.]
[That's not a voiced consonant a pretty girl should make lol.]
[Her gestures are like an old man's, but her face is so good it's a huge gap.]
[What is your age now for you to say you hurt your back, lol.]
Stella then plopped down onto the cold floor at the end of the corridor.
There wasn't a shred of elegance.
There was no mystique whatsoever.
It was exactly like a salaryman sitting cross-legged on a train platform, despairing after missing the last train.
"Isn't the corridor in this dungeon unnecessarily long? Is the person who designed the basic structure a rookie? It's so inefficient. I really hate the walking-based design. I want it fixed by next time."
[She's criticizing the dungeon design lol.]
[She's not a dungeon conqueror, she's the one auditing the specifications lol]
[Wait, what? After using that divine technique, you were just like "I'm a little tired"?]
[Could it be a unique skill that sacrifices her own life force to unleash?]
[That was an overwhelming blow. There must be an unimaginable price to pay for it, both mentally and physically...!]
Stella was simply severely out of shape.
She was a 38-year-old with the sensibilities of a man in his late thirties, and her slender fourteen-year-old body was being pushed too hard, causing her muscles to scream in protest.
However...
Outwardly, she was a beautiful girl, so fragile she seemed about to break at any moment.
Her combat was in a realm beyond human comprehension, defying physics.
And her shortness of breath was incredibly fleeting.
As a result of this gap, the comment section began to overanalyze and rapidly descended into madness.
[She's sacrificing her own life fighting for humanity...]
[With such a slender body, to bear such a burden for the sake of the world...]
[I want to protect this girl!]
[No, if anything, we're the ones who being protected.]
[Stella-sama... how much of a burden are you hiding...!]
[That '' from earlier, I have a theory that it's an ancient extermination incantation.]
Before they knew it, word of mouth had exploded.
The number of viewers jumped from 3 to over 4000+.
Smartphone notifications blared like crazy.
Ring!
Ring!
Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring!
High-value red Super Chats began to flow like a waterfall across the screen.
[Stella-sama, please don't overdo it!]
[Please use it for medical expenses, no, for the price of your life!]
[Please, eat something good and survive!]
[【Breaking News】My is Instantly Recognized as a Saint.]
Stella's eyes widened slightly as she looked at the brightly shining screen.
"Oh. Money is falling from the screen."
[The way you say that lol.]
[Don't treat Super Chats like a natural phenomenon lol.]
"So this is the incentive I've heard so much about."
[Incentive lol.]
[Don't talk about it like it's commission-based work lol.]
Stella bowed politely to the camera.
"Thanks. Now I can have and tonight."
[...?]
[...?]
[I've never heard of it. Could it be a lost ancient secret elixir...!?]
[It must be a special, high-level recovery potion to alleviate the physical strain after a grueling battle.]
[Stella-sama, what kind of harsh living conditions do you usually live in...?]
[This is something the whole country needs to support!]
[Throw more! Offer the elixir to Stella-sama!]
Stella roughly picked up the magic stone that had fallen to the floor and tossed it into her hoodie pocket.
She treated it almost like loose change.
Then she rolled up her sleeve and looked at her watch.
"Okay. It's 5 minutes to complete today's quota. Well, it's my fixed time, so I'm going home. Overtime is bad."
[What!?]
[It's over already!?]
[I want to see more of Stella-sama's divine skills!]
[Wait, what do you mean fixed time!?]
["Fixed Time" Even those noble enough to save the world have great laws they must abide by...]
Stella waved one hand listlessly at the screen.
"Thank you for watching. Everyone head straight home."
'Click'
The stream ended.
Only five minutes after it began.
All that remained were 4,000 viewers with completely fried brains, and internet message boards that sprang up at lightning speed.
[Breaking News] The Emotionless White War Princess Descends Upon D-Live
[Sad News] Newbie Beautiful Girl Streamer Leaves D-rank Dungeon in 5 Minutes
[Analysis] Stella's "Fixed Time" is a code word for an absolute territory that humanity must not trespass upon
[Urgent Request] How to obtain the high-level recovery potions ''?
[Discussion] The divine economic philosophy behind "Isn't the drop rate a bit stingy?"
This day.
The world doesn't know yet.
The beautiful girl with white hair and red eyes, Stella, isn't some noble savior who will save the world.
She's just a thoroughly exhausted former corporate slave.
She has absolutely no intention of saving the world; she's simply completing tasks out of a single desire to "not work."
And later, a mysterious, massive ideology that would engulf the entire world and overturn the conventional wisdom of existing dungeon exploration—
The "On-Time Departure Cult"—was born from here.
Meanwhile, Stella herself was—
She was gazing lovingly at a pack of with a half-price sticker on it in front of the chilled food section of a convenience store near the station.
"...I got my incentive today. Maybe I'll just get one can of beer."
Stella hesitated for three seconds.
And in the end, she put her usual cheapest beer into her basket.
"No, if I get carried away, my fixed costs will die."
The world's strongest beautiful girl streamer.
Today's victory reward: 398 yen (after tax)
And, 20 yen left over.
For her, this was a more significant achievement than saving humanity.
[End of Episode 1]
Author Note:
Thank you for reading this far!
This was the first stream of Stella, the beautiful girl streamer with the mind of an old man.
Next time, a troublesome A-class streamer will be coming.
Author's Note
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