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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Simzy
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Unless my ocular cyberware had been hacked.
The identities of the people who had come up on stage were definitely ‘Eve’ and ‘Catherine’.
My energy must be really low these days.
I’m starting to see things.
I rubbed my eyes and looked forward again.
“……”
That’s strange.
Why are they still there?
Eve was in a maid outfit, just like usual. She had even bought a new one, and I was starting to wish she’d wear some different clothes.
Catherine, perhaps embarrassed to have her face exposed in a place like this, was wearing a mask like me and Julia, covering the area below her eyes.
The commentator’s bewildered gaze turned toward Eve.
《Haha…, I don’t think this is a special event match. You’ve come out in a very peculiar outfit. A maid outfit─.》
Suddenly, the commentator stopped talking.
《…….》
A heavy silence descended upon the dome, which had quieted as the cheers died down.
But the commentator, oblivious to the situation, muttered in a trembling voice.
《…Could the participant’s name be.》
He muttered to himself as he searched for the information.
《……Eve? Could it be, are you really ‘Streamer Eve’ herself?!》
The sound of him gulping was amplified through the microphone and transmitted to us.
《I’m a fa—, no, that’s not it. You suddenly stopped streaming recently, if it’s not too rude, may I ask why? No, let go of me. I am now speaking on behalf of her countless fans—.》
The caster next to him clamped a hand over the commentator’s mouth, bringing the situation under control.
《Hehe, this man, he’s always enjoyed streaming so much.》
A very quiet voice, sounding like ‘has he lost his mind,’ was heard.
In the face of a broadcasting accident that no one could have predicted, the caster tried to snatch the microphone from the commentator.
《Eve, turn your stream back on!! Turn it o—.》
In the end, he was forlornly dragged away by security guards.
Hmm.
What in the world was going on.
Between Smile John and everything else, it had been quite a while since I’d been able to watch Eve’s stream because of how busy things were.
It seemed she had quit streaming in the time I hadn’t been watching.
“……”
Well, that makes sense.
The reason Eve had started streaming, now that I thought about it, was to buy an ‘artificial body’.
And the credits she used to give me to support our living expenses were no longer necessary.
The credits Pete Mac had transferred were already filling my account to the brim.
Unless a sudden tax audit came and
the city confiscated all my credits, there was no need to worry about money anymore.
In the midst of this chaotic situation where the commentator had been dragged away.
Eve, the very cause of the commotion, walked over to the booth on stage where the virtual reality headsets were placed as if nothing had happened.
Catherine followed behind Eve with an unfittingly awkward gait.
No, seriously.
Why are you guys here?
But the people who could answer my questions were already on stage, so I had no choice but to shut my mouth and watch their match.
The caster wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead.
《…There was a brief disturbance. I apologize.》
The caster, his complexion darkened, tried to calmly regain his composure.
《……We will now resume the match!》
As the main tournament began, and the two teams on stage were selecting their characters.
I felt a headache coming on.
They say headaches are a chronic illness in the cyberpunk world, and man, the things that gave me headaches just didn’t seem to want to go away.
I calmly assessed the situation.
…….
Come to think of it, this was practically cheating.
Of course, the goal for me and Julia in entering the tournament wasn’t to ‘win’.
We had only entered to clear the suspicion of hacking anyway, and there was no need to absolutely win for that purpose.
However, It was also true that a concrete result was needed.
I carefully predicted a future in which we failed to win. I used as much imagination as I could.
ㅡ Rabbit was pretty good, right? Maybe it wasn’t a hack?
ㅡ lol they’re just ‘commoners’ who couldn’t even win anyway
ㅡ I was there in person and they weren’t as good as I saw online ㅇㅇ that’s a fact
ㅡ what else do you expect from a fcking hacker*
“Ugh.”
My head.
I grabbed my head as the headache returned.
No matter how I looked at it, this was a crisis.
Julia looked at me with a worried expression.
I waved my hand to signal that I was okay, then first checked the tournament bracket uploaded to the net data.
My and Julia’s team, 『WarriorsAreTheBest』, and Eve and Catherine’s team, 『Strongest Machine and Strongest Human』, were, for better or worse, I didn’t know, positioned at opposite ends of the bracket.
…Well, that’s a bit better.
Even if we were to lose in the finals, It seemed public opinion would be a little less harsh since we would have lost to the champions.
ㅡ It’s just Rabbit under Eve anyway, right?
“Keuk.”
The inner demons in my head just won’t disappear.
《……My god, the match is over! Team ‘Outer Raise’! They were unable to land a single hit against the player MachineStrongest and have been defeated! Everyone is buzzing at the appearance of a new dark horse!》
Something.
I had to find some way.
As if sensing my worry, Julia shook her head gently and said.
“…Don’t worry too much.”
“Is there some other way?”
Julia gave no answer to my question. She just clenched her two fists tightly.
It was a sign that she only trusted in her own wu, her martial prowess.
Is it because I’m playing fighting games? All these weird metaphors keep popping into my head.
In any case, there was still quite a lot of time left until the finals of the main tournament.
I had to find some clear method in that time.
I resolved myself firmly.
Just then, someone poked their head into the booth where we were staying.
“Oh, is this the place?”
It was a man with red-dyed hair, roughly slicked back.
“I saw the participant list and thought, ‘no way,’ but I never thought you’d actually be here. Huh? Isn’t it weird for anyone to believe this?”
Muttering to himself, he entered our booth as if it were nothing.
Who’s this now.
A camera drone flew in, following behind the man. It was the kind of thing that streamers who worked outdoors often carried around.
Despite the atmosphere being anything but welcoming, the man looked around the booth and then walked in my direction.
He extended a hand for a handshake with a confident demeanor.
I didn’t know why people who played fighting games loved handshakes so much.
For now, I ignored the handshake. Frowning at the uninvited guest, I asked.
“Who are you?”
“Ah, you don’t know me? That’s possible. I mean, a civilian might not know. You guys be quiet.”
Perhaps because he was a broadcaster, he muttered to himself a lot.
Then he added on, introducing himself.
“Hello, my name is Streamer Rococo.”
Ah.
He was the fighting game streamer who had targeted Julia in the video she showed me.
What was it this guy had said again.
[Ah~, that person? Probably not a hack. Even though they don’t show up to offline tournaments, react in single frames, and make absolutely no mistakes. I think it’s possible. I know because I got my ass kicked in ranked, too. For the record, that’s why I’m not playing that trash game these days, so don’t send donations telling me to play it.]
…….
First, I turned around to check if Julia was holding her folding katana in her hand.
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