“Does that mean my sister could have ended up like that?”
Claire said it with such a serious face that I shook my head.
“There was almost no chance of that happening to me. I’m a completely different person after all.”
Of course, the Sylvia in the game spoke formally like me and acted emotionlessly in front of people. If someone didn’t know me well, they might not be able to tell the difference between me and that Sylvia.
“Well, to be fair, Sylvia does have a bit of a careless planning style.”
…No, that’s not the kind of distinction I was asking for.
When I turned to look at Alice after hearing her words, Charlotte chimed in.
“Actually, it’s more accurate to say that it’s not that the plans were immaculate, but rather that she succeeded by trying again and again even after failing.”
“That’s true for the game’s Sylvia too, isn’t it?”
“But the game’s Sylvia had zero humanity compared to you.”
“True.”
Claire responded to Alice’s remark.
Hmm… While I appreciated the comment, I thought I shouldn’t agree with the accusation of being humane in front of Mia, who had been staring at me since earlier.
If I really wanted to know how things got this way, I could just play the game right now.
But if I did that, I wouldn’t be able to show a genuine response during the stream. The viewers don’t really like it when we are playing games without streaming.
“Let’s start preparing soon.”
At my words, all the kids went into the rooms they had decided to stay in.
Then everyone came back out with blankets.
We had beds, but none of us actually used them.
How strange.
*
During the day we played, in the evening we streamed, and our routine included preparing together and checking how brightly the Zibo was shining.
Today, Zibo was shining quite brightly.
“But it’s not as bright as when Mia and Charlotte came over.”
“Why is that? We should be way more famous now than we were back then.”
Mia tilted her head in confusion.
That was a fair point.
Considering that our names had been formally introduced online, and we received requests from broadcasting stations or other streamers asking to collaborate, it was clear we had gained significantly more fame than when the three of us were just hanging out.
“Maybe it’s because people have adapted to us.”
I said, looking at Zibo.
“It might be that now, having two additional people joining the stream seems more natural to everyone than when the three of us first started.”
“Plus, unlike back then, we’ve adapted to this world much better now.”
I thought winning the lottery was surely the Goddess’s trick to keep me from leaving this place.
If that thought was correct, then the current situation was indeed going as the Goddess intended.
“It seems we might need to change the content of our streams a bit.”
At my words, the kids all looked over at me.
“How?”
“It’s important that people don’t think we’re just doing… ‘cosplay’.”
I slowly opened my mouth.
“Rather than appealing that we differ while playing the game, I think it would be better to properly tell our story.”
“Oh, like we did last time?”
Charlotte asked.
“Exactly. We can emphasize that the stories we share are real experiences, regardless of whether anyone believes us or not.”
“That sounds fun.”
Alice said with a smile.
“Honestly, I’ve got quite a few stories I wanted to share anyway. It wouldn’t be bad to let it all out at this opportunity.”
…Seems like she has a lot built up.
Did losing to me during childhood really affect her that much?
It probably did, for sure. It would be less frustrating if it was just because of a lack of ability, but I had been using cheap tricks all along.
“So, will we get to hear all about Sylvia?”
“Huh?”
I found myself inadvertently asking that in response to Charlotte’s question.
“I meant, like how we each have stories we’ve kept inside, doesn’t Sylvia have her own stories too?”
“……”
“Now that we’ve come to this world, didn’t she have a family here?”
Hmm…
“I had thought about maybe going to meet them…”
But still, it’s a bit awkward to have a stranger follow you around, especially since we stand out so much.
Even if I tried to watch from a distance, who knows when or how my family would show up. Even if there were some patterns, spotting them within that pattern would be even tougher. Standing outside during rush hour would certainly get me noticed.
“If it’s uncomfortable to meet them, then you don’t have to force it… but this is a story from your past that you’ve never shared, so why not share it?”
“……”
A story from my time in this world.
There’s not much special about it.
If I were some big shot with tons of friends and experiences, I might have some stories to tell. If I had a girlfriend, I could share dating stories.
But before going to this world, I just repeated the grind between home and work, played games in my free time, and met up with friends for a drink whenever I had some spare time.
And other than that… perhaps stories about my time wandering the internet?
“……”
So, um, I don’t think I was being a troll, but I certainly wrote some random nonsense while posting on the Azernar Chronicles forum.
But that was something people commonly did on the internet, and truthfully, I wasn’t saying anything problematic about real people.
I’ve made a fuss about winning before, tweaked my translations to make them slightly more palatable, and had my攻略 posts rebutted. But still, it didn’t really seem like I was actually harming anyone, so what’s the big deal?
…Yeah.
There’s no need to talk about that. Who shares what they read on random websites with everyone?
“I don’t have much to offer, but I could share a few stories from my childhood.”
That was all I managed to say.
*
The next day.
Just because we’re together doesn’t mean we have to be out all day.
By nature, I was someone who preferred to stay indoors, watching streaming sites or movies, dramas, or reading comics during my free time.
Though Claire is generally pretty social, she doesn’t spend all her time away from home.
Charlotte has a moderately social personality but doesn’t venture out much alone.
Alice surprisingly leans strongly towards being a homebody, and Mia, well, there’s no need to explain her.
Today, no one said, “Let’s take the day off at home.” But somehow, a mutual desire to relax at home manifested, and we ended up all staying indoors together.
“……”
Strangely, while everyone was in the living room, we were each deeply focused on our respective tasks—
“Pfft.”
Claire let out a laugh.
Since she was right next to me, I felt a little concerned, but I generally didn’t like it when others meddled when I showed that kind of side.
So I intended to ignore her until—
“Sister, look at this.”
Our social butterfly Claire didn’t seem content to keep laughing about it alone.
Well, since I was a little interested, I followed her words and glanced at her smartphone, instantly freezing in shock.
From the looks of it, Claire hadn’t seen it.
Azernar Minor Gallery.
……That was a site I frequently used before. It was a gathering place for people playing my favorite series, and I had become somewhat known there.
“This person apparently wrote about the follow-up to the Chronicles of Azernar last year, but it looks like everything was wrong. They went missing after getting flamed all over.”
[Didn’t they get every prediction wrong regarding the vibes? LOLOL]
This post titled that compared everything I had written against the latest work and was openly bashing me.
“……”
“Hey? Sister, what’s up?”
“Oh, it’s nothing.”
Seeing me start to sweat, Claire asked, but I shook my head.
Could it be that as we gained fame, the gallery was revitalized?
It was only natural, considering that was the very first place I’d gone after our first stream to check responses.
“More than that, this person apparently used to say a lot of weird things because they wanted to win?”
“……”
“They would get way too into their characters and even fight with people. I heard someone said ‘Claire’ and they ended up writing a lengthy rebuttal.”
My shoulders relaxed a bit.
Phew.
Thinking back, I often messed with the settings but never outright bashed any characters, so that’s a relief.
The only character I outright roasted was Sophia.
……
Though that is definitely something that must not be revealed.
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