Episode 2: [Official Apology] A-Rank Streamer's Brain Burned by Stella, Turning Himself into a "Fanatic"
Episode 2: [Official Apology] A-Rank Streamer's Brain Burned by Stella, Turning Himself into a "Fanatic"
Just ten hours after the initial stream.
Stella, a beautiful girl with white hair and red eyes—but inside, Tachibana Kentaro, a 38-year-old corporate slave—stared expressionlessly at her vibrating smartphone.
The notifications wouldn't stop.
Channel subscribers surpassed 100,000 overnight.
Over 9,000 unread messages.
Clip videos proliferated.
Discussion threads exploded in number.
"...This is bad."
Stella quietly turned her phone over.
'This is the same light that flashes when the production server goes down on a morning commuter train. Seeing it will kill your mind.'
Without hesitation, she muted all notifications.
'Let's pretend I didn't see that. Progress checks and push notifications are a bad invention.'
She was simply running away.
However, the internet fanatics trembled uncontrollably.
[Even in the face of 100,000 admirations, she doesn't even flinch...]
[A true war princess whose heart isn't moved by numbers.]
[Subscribers are nothing more than grains of sand...]
[Or maybe she just simply turned off the notifications?]
[Shut up, heretic!]
[Don't interfere with our faith!]
Unaware of all this commotion, Stella muttered as she crushed an empty can of cheap beer.
"With only D-grade magic stones, my fixed living costs will just eat it all up. I guess I'll go to a with a slightly higher rate today."
And so...
Stella arrived at a C-class dungeon that had appeared beneath Shibuya.
Commonly known as the "Shibuya Underground Labyrinth."
The same baggy gray hoodie as yesterday.
The same iron greatsword, one of her initial supplies, as yesterday.
And just like yesterday, she was holding the greatsword like a convenience store bag.
She dragged the end of the hilt dangling in one hand as she walked along, looking bored.
She looked like a national treasure-class beautiful girl. The person inside is an old guy after work though.
[Here she comes! Stella-sama is at work again today!]
[Wait a minute, isn't this C-class dungeon!?]
[She just left D-class dungeon in five minutes yesterday, and now she's at C-class dungeon the next day, lol.]
[She's still holding her greatsword like a fried chicken bag, lol.]
[Her eyes are dead and beautiful today too.]
One minute into the stream.
The number of concurrent viewers easily exceeded 10,000.
Stella glanced at the screen and sighed deeply.
"There are so many people... I don't like it, it's like a company-wide morning meeting."
[Morning meeting, lol.]
[Don't treat 10,000 people like a morning meeting, lol.]
[To Stella-sama, we were all employees...?]
At that moment,
A man with flashy blonde hair blocked Stella's path.
A red jacket.
An excessive amount of accessories.
Behind him was a professional-grade drone camera and a heavily armed entourage.
Visually, it was extremely distracting.
"Hey, hey, hey! Aren't you the rumored newbie?!"
The man grinned, looking directly at the camera.
"Just because you've gone viral for a bit doesn't mean you can be a C-class dungeon solo streamer, you know? I'll teach you the real strategy."
The man's name was Crimson Ryuji.
A major A-rank streamer boasting 500,000 subscribers.
And a professional at generating controversy by getting involved with newbies to boost his numbers.
[Whoa, it's Ryuji.]
[Stella-sama has been found by the worst guy.]
[That arrogant guy famous for crushing newbies.]
[Don't mess with our Stella-sama, or we'll burn you.]
[I mean, even though he's , he's the one getting on, lol.]
Stella looked at Ryuji.
And all light vanished from her red eyes.
"......"
[Silence, lol.]
[Looking at him like he's trash, lol.]
[Well yeah, he's definitely someone you shouldn't get involved with.]
Stella muttered softly.
"I knew someone like that in the sales department at my previous job. The type who would just secure the budget and then completely hand it over to the team without even looking at the specifications."
[Sales Department Ryuji, lol.]
[Treated as an incompetent with a strong title, lol.]
[That's too harsh.]
A vein bulged on Ryuji's temple.
"Hey, are you just going to ignore me? You're a newbie, but you're acting pretty big."
"I'm sorry, but I'm not currently accepting inquiries outside of business hours."
[Outside of business hours lol.]
[Don't treat that as an inquiry lol.]
[Stella-sama's customer service desk was closed lol.]
"The technique you used yesterday, it was just a one-time disposable artifact, right?! Your true power—"
It was the moment Ryuji roared.
Zunzunzunzunzunzun
The entire dungeon shook as if it had exploded from within.
The rock wall at the back of the passage crumbled, revealing a gigantic figure shrouded in a malevolent black aura.
Two reddish-black horns.
Arms like logs.
The sheer pressure it exerted was enough to make anyone lose breath just by looking at it.
A hidden boss that rarely appears in the deepest parts of a A-class dungeon.
A disaster-class monster.
Nightmare Ogre.
"What...?!"
Ryuji's face instantly turned ashen.
"Why a disaster-class monster on such a shallow level...?!"
The next moment, the sheer force of the boss's intimidation sent its entourages flying.
They crashed into the wall, their eyes rolling back as they fainted.
"No, you've got to be kidding me..."
Ryuji collapsed to his knees.
His arrogant expression from moments before vanished, replaced by chattering teeth.
"It's over... Is this the end of my life...!"
The Nightmare Ogre slowly spread its arms.
Then it took a deep breath.
ROAAARRR!!
A roar that shook the entire dungeon.
The air vibrated violently, and cracks appeared in the floor.
This is a long, drawn-out intimidation animation unique to disaster-level bosses.
Ryuji, with tears in his eyes, resigned himself to death.
The viewers were left breathless.
In the midst of that worst kind of despair.
Stella was completely bored.
"...That is one long cutscene."
[Eh?]
[Did she just say it's long?]
Stella thrust her greatsword into the ground and leaned wearily against its hilt.
She pulled out her smartphone with one hand.
With the other, she rustled open a pack of wet wipes from a convenience store.
A disaster-class boss roaring, shaking the heavens and the earth.
An A-Rank streamer on the verge of tears from terror.
20.000 viewers in despair.
Before all of this, a national treasure-class beautiful girl wiped her fingertips with the wet wipe, staring intently at her smartphone screen.
The contents of the screen were—
(Supermarket in front of the station - Today only time sale)
(Cabbage: 98 yen)
(Ten-pack of eggs: 128 yen)
(*Limit one per person)
"Ah, cabbage is cheap..."
[She's looking at the sale flyer lol.]
[Don't check the supermarket flyer right in front of the boss while he's roaring lol.]
[The saint checking the time sale items while wiping her hands with a wet towel, too much information!]
[No, that's not it! That gaze is the tactical calculation of a god...!]
['Cabbage 98 yen'... so that's a code to deal with the disaster-class boss within 98 seconds!?]
[There's so much coping mechanism going on here lol.]
Stella frowned, her beautiful eyebrows furrowed.
"Should I make ? But pork is expensive... Should I bulk it up with tofu and make Mapo Cabbage?"
[The price of pork is more important than the crisis facing humanity lol.]
[Is this God's cost calculation...?]
[Her troubled expression is so beautiful it's making my brain turns to mush.]
And then...
The roaring scene, which lasted for nearly thirty seconds, finally ended.
Nightmare Ogre was about to bring its massive fist down on the slumped Ryuji.
"Hieekkk...!"
The moment Ryuji closed his eyes...
Stella clicked her tongue softly.
"Tsk. No time to spare before the sale."
She put her smartphone in her pocket.
She rolled up a wet towel and stuffed it into her hoodie pocket.
She casually drew her greatsword from the ground.
"Alright. The last-minute case, processing now."
Stella cracked her head dismissively.
"I'm strictly on time. Overtime is bad."
The next moment...
The screen flickered for a moment.
The camera lost track of Stella's movements.
Her white hair swayed like the night breeze.
Her greatsword was swung just once, in the shortest possible arc.
That was all.
But thirty slashes simultaneously struck the Nightmare Ogre's massive body.
BOOM!!!
A tremendous shockwave swept through the dungeon.
The disaster-class boss vanished into particles of light before the echoes of its roar even faded.
All that remained was a mountain of magic stones.
And Ryuji, his brain completely fried.
"Ah... ah..."
Ryuji's jaw trembled.
He had seen it.
The overwhelming composure of a god, unwavering even in the face of a disaster-class boss.
The incredibly advanced tactical calculations performed amidst the roar that plunged humanity into despair.
And the absolute power to end a world crisis with a single swing.
Of course, in reality, Stella was simply calculating the cost of tonight's dinner.
But to Ryuji, whose brain had been fried, it no longer looked that way.
"Mi...."
He trembled, placing both hands on the floor.
"Miracle.... It's a god... a real, divine incarnation...!!!"
[Ah...]
[He's fallen.]
[Ryuji's eyes are totally those of a fanatic lol.]
[His brain has been fried successfully, lol.]
"Stella-samaaaa!!! I was wrong!!"
His scream echoed through the dungeon.
"You are the true savior!! Make me, no, accept me as your personal bodyguard!! No, I'll even be a dog, a rag, or a potted plant in the corner of the conference room!!"
[A potted plant volunteer has arrived lol.]
[Is this the man who was acting all tough thirty seconds ago? This is...]
[Ryuji's pride evaporated faster than a disaster-level event.]
Stella looked down at Ryuji with a look of utter annoyance.
"Uh, no. It would just increase my management costs."
"So there's a possibility you'll accept me!? Thank you so much!!!!"
[Don't be grateful after being rejected lol.]
[It's too late.]
Stella took out a new wet towel and wiped her face vigorously.
"Ugh, so tiring. These sudden, unexpected requests outside of work hours really kill my motivation. Next time, please schedule it properly in advance."
[She's asking the the boss monster for a schedule lol.]
[The woman who manages global crises with Google Calendar.]
[In Stella-sama's mind, even disaster-level events are treated the same as duplicate reservations for the conference room.]
Stella rolled up her sleeves and checked her watch.
"Okay. I'll make it in time for the time sale opening. Well, it's my fixed time, so good work everyone. Head home now."
'Click!'
The stream ended.
Only six minutes after it started.
Another overwhelmingly early departure from work today.
What remained were 50,000 viewers with their brains fried.
A-rank streamer prostrating himself on the floor, shedding tears of emotion.
And then, the internet message board's improvisational comedy scene sprang up at lightning speed.
[Breaking News] Crimson Ryuji confronts Stella-sama and prostrates himself in thirty seconds
[Sad News] Disaster-class boss treated as a last-minute task before a time sale
[Analysis] The deep-level strategy behind Stella-sama's "Cabbage is cheap"
[Urgent Request] Designation of the sacred cloth used by Stella-sama as a holy relic
[Congratulations] The On-Time Departure Cult acquires a major A-rank streamer as its foot soldier
And then, the next morning.
Crimson Ryuji's channel name had been changed without a trace.
[Official Apology] Stella-sama's Royal Guard Captain
(Former name: Crimson Ryuji)
In his profile, written with blood-like intensity, was this:
"Yesterday, in the Shibuya Underground Labyrinth, I saw the truth of the world—the god who governs on-time. My entire life is for Stella-sama!"
Meanwhile, at that time...
Stella herself, the very person who had shaken the world, was quietly standing in line at the supermarket in front of the station, wearing an oversized hoodie.
She clutched her shopping basket tightly, her eyes sleepy.
"Secured a head of cabbage for 98 yen. Secured eggs for 128 yen. Now...it's just a matter of when they'll put a half-price sticker on this pack of pork."
The white war princess who had struck fear into the world muttered with a serious expression.
"The real boss event of today starts now..."
Her expression was far more grim than when she faced a disaster-class monster.
[End of Chapter 2]
Author Note:
Thank you for reading this far!
Crimson Ryuji has successfully fallen to Stella's side.
While person herself cares more about time sales than saving the world.
Author's Note
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