Around the time Aoi Asuka evolved beyond “Internet Manipulation” into a super high-performance AI capable of hacking even while turning her entire body into lightning.
Wakamou Inarizushi was in the interrogation room with Robert.
Dorrison J Jackson, the six-legged beast from America, had been stripped of all equipment and was handcuffed to prevent any fighting. He was sitting behind the glass, being interrogated by an agent.
“No matter how many hours we spend asking, he doesn’t open his mouth. Tough guy.”
The agent informed Wakamou that even when he was once imprisoned, he had the tenacity and toughness to dig out with a spoon.
Was he twisted simply because of racial discrimination for being Black?
The reason for becoming a villain could surprisingly be something trivial.
If it had meant not being able to watch overseas VTubers from South Korea due to internet fee issues, wouldn’t Wakamou have gone “Super Dalki” on them and turned into a Six Legged Beast?
Wakamou frowned at the thought.
“How about asking the Fox Deity directly?”
“Sounds like a good idea, but I hope we keep the conversation a secret.”
“Me? Really?”
“With your persuasive skills, just like you motivated Liu Wei to join us, you might even turn him into an ally!”
What does Manager Wanda Haye think I really am?
But truth be told, Wakamou was interested in the skill of captivating someone indifferent to VTubers to turn them into fans of VTubers.
Being a VTuber requires the skill to captivate people with adept conversations.
Sometimes like an Elite! Other times, displaying foolishness like a PON! And at times, providing a burst of laughter…!!
This Wakamou Inarizushi considers himself quite adept at his words through VTuber activities.
“Alright, I’ll go for it. But we’ll keep the conversation a secret.”
What will people think about me suggesting VTubers? They might see me as a weirdo!!
Curious how Wanda Haye would interpret his request, Wakamou nodded with her assurance.
After ensuring there were no bugs, he entered the interrogation room boldly, where Jackson was situated.
‘Hope we don’t have to fight.’
Honestly, Wakamou wasn’t confident he could win another fight.
Even when he saw the Tower, he merely responded with a sudden creative flash and strenuous actions by converting all his faith to mana. It was really close.
Thinking back on the additional stats spent on mana seems wasteful, as bloody tears nearly fell, but it beats death.
‘How could I possibly defeat someone who masters rare metals of unknown kinds!’
With [Inventory] and a patented technique purportedly for burial alive, it wasn’t something he wanted to envision.
“How have you been, Jack?”
Hiding such fears, Wakamou spoke nonchalantly.
The best part about having the profession of an Idol─is that no matter how drained and backed into a corner, you never show it on the surface!!
If it were Mei Xiao Long Bao, the expressions would have revealed everything, but Wakamou’s feature was showing absolutely no change in expressions.
Which meant that misunderstandings would pile up, making him appear like some invincible superhuman, leveraging that impression to boast about being incredibly strong.
“….A monstrous Young Lady has come. So now we start with torture?”
“Not at all.”
Despite appearances, he’s somewhat of a movie buff and knows about the good cop, bad cop strategy.
If things don’t go smoothly, he can ask Wanda Haye to take on the villain’s role!!
Or maybe just throw Mei in there. It proves to be quite handy.
“If you want to know about the Six Legged Beast, I won’t speak, Young Lady. I have loyalty and no desire to die. Surrounded by Legendary Classes?”
“I’m guessing your teammates will come save you…or something like that?”
“──Would they? Taking the Young Lady down was solely to earn money.”
Come to think of it, the Climbers who came before also mentioned having bounties on their heads.
He had heard that the Six Legged Beast was an uncoordinated collective of Climbers, but didn’t expect them to ignore upper organization commands unless compensated.
“At your class level, money shouldn’t be an issue, should it?”
After pondering for a moment, Wakamou raised a question.
Looking through his criminal records showed a pattern of threatening to collapse Towers for money, robbing banks, pilfering jewelry stores….even raiding a gold mine.
Given such an obsessive attachment to wealth, if the financial desire was strong, the possibility of persuading with money crossed one’s mind.
But as if knowing Wakamou’s reasoning was fundamentally flawed, he burst into laughter.
“Lack of money?! You Legendary Classes wouldn’t understand!! I am in debt!!!”
“What? An Architect who can build anything is in debt???”
With a genuine, disbelieving expression, he began to tremble, burdened with hidden frustrations.
“The damn American Six Legged Beast comrades don’t understand my feelings!!! Young Lady won’t either!”
Despite working side jobs diligently to acquire a national license in architecture, establishing a legit architecture office, and jumping into the field with the ambition to build a city of his own dreams, Jackson recalled those painful days with teary-eyed indignation.
“When I got the ‘Architect’ class, it felt like the Tower acknowledged my efforts, and I was over the moon!”
Initially, becoming an Architect, a Legendary class as a Climber, he said he was truly happy.
Meeting the conditions for the profession required a national license, innumerable licenses, and extensive knowledge of architectural styles─it was believed that only someone like him, a passionate Architect, could change class, as he shouted with pride while pounding the table.
“FUCK!! After switching classes, there was no stats but a currency called [Gold]!! They said it was needed to use [Skills], so I just assumed!!”
Having taken the class without much thought, he was excitedly utilizing all [Skills] to ascend the Tower─and said he realized all his possessions vanished with weeping.
“The Tower turned my entire fortune into [Gold]─!!”
Not stopping there, he went on to share how climbing the Tower, he could only earn [Gold] and [Construction Materials], intangible things, not even the kind of equipment essential for architecture, he’d shed bloody tears.
Crafting [Rare Metal] nails, making hammers and tools… painstakingly crafting them to climb the Tower, only for [Tool Manufacturing] skills to emerge belatedly, losing money.
Then all of a sudden, a new currency appeared instead of [Gold], driving him to climb the Tower even more laboriously─
“My office went bankrupt due to the lack of money. My thriving office was to become a Climber and couldn’t handle the debt, leading to ruin! Still, I wanted to build with this profession!! Even when I built shelters for the homeless kids, I didn’t hear a single ‘thanks.’ With nowhere to go, I had to seek shelter beneath a Paladin’s wing.”
Jackson confessed that joining the Six Legged Beast was because they promised money.
“I had dreams of building a city. Even if I turned into a villain….I wanted to achieve my childhood dreams! Damn Tower!”
“Enough.”
“Ha! The suspiciously strong non-combat job, Legendary class… Telling a tragic backstory… getting bored out, Young Lady?”
“…..Say no more.”
Tears flowed down Wakamou’s face.
Not tears of cunning but real, his tears gave Jackson a start.
Biting back his words but feeling conflicted inside, Wakamou quietly began.
“You get to select your skills, having construction skills under attack skills?”
“……How…?”
“Climbing diligently you get [Skills], and then a new currency comes out to replace the ones you climbed?”
“…No, no… it can’t…”
“Even when given [Rare Metal], they didn’t tell you its purpose but you strived for its use, contorting your body trying?”
“That, that’s…No way…?”
“When you complained to the Tower, they adjusted things live or tweaked?”
“When asking for stats, given additional stats to use as resource Young Lady?”
“Labeled as the first Legendary Class Climber, like… guinea pig testing for balance adjustments, didn’t it feel like?”
“Didn’t get necessary equipment on the way up, nor natural rewards other Climbers got?”
No further words were needed.
The reciprocal gaze pondered only─‘Could it be you too?’
Initially viewed as monsters of immense strength!!
Yet they were solely non-combat jobs striving to follow dreams, arduously climbing the Tower through sheer will.
“When my mana drains to 0, I die but it keeps decreasing even when idle… How about you?”
“….Skills require gold and materials, so without them, I’m no different than a regular person.”
At this instant, regardless of being enemies, their feelings aligned.
In the fiery exchanged glances, untold anguish, pain, and the pathos nobody understood exchanged between them.
Knowing each other’s hearts intimately, Wakamou spoke manfully to Jackson.
“It’s unseemly for a Man to cry, but harsh when deprived of tears….Cry in my arms…!”
“Wakamou-san..!”
Shedding snot and tears messily, Jackson wept openly in Wakamou’s embrace pouring out his grievances.
Raving about the dreams revolving around being a Legendary class, the Tower’s unfairness, messed up skills, barely getting by through countless obstacles, and slipping dreams.
Leading a criminal life and yet harboring desperate wishes, Wakamou consoled the man without a word.
Further words weren’t necessary…!!
“If that’s the case, I’ll fulfill your dreams. You won’t be in any life-threatening situations. You’ve heard of the Wakamou 1st Layer…? I’ll let you build your own city on that vast land. Follow me”
Reaching out his hand, the height of Wakamou cast a backlight from the obscured bulb, causing Jackson to collapse to his knees.
The other comrades of [Six Legged Beast] merely exploited Jackson’s dream, while mocking his black origin and non-combat class.
Yet, unlike those folks, Wakamou reached out genuinely, offering heartfelt understanding and compassion, as Jackson shed tears looking up at him.
Andrew Jacqueline called Wakamou a sign of demonic beasts, an idol of idolatry, needed to be slain.
No one ever understood him like this.
Just appraising his utility.
So even if he’s a demon…!! There’s nothing left to lose down rock-bottom!!
“Please, Wakamou-san!! Accept me as your comrade!!!”
With a thud, Dorrison J Jackson prostrated, Wakamou helped him stand.
“From today onwards, we’re friends!!!”
With that one phrase, the hardships endured in bygone days.
Even amassing wealth and riches but scraping by on canned goods and hard bread due to terrible efficiency, a result of the Legendary Class shackle of crime, felt unraveling as Jackson bawled like a child.
Observing the scene from behind the glass, with Wakamou obscuring the conversation, couldn’t hear nor comprehend it all.
The unyielding man who wouldn’t bend even under electric torture started wailing like a child then embracing Wakamou, wailing more intensely.
Upon kneeling and bowing his head to the ground in a bow, what would the spectators think then?
Ava Harper Eloine, who had been called upon by the agents after going through such dreadful experiences, trembled in fear witnessing such a scene.
He trembled.
Even with his superpowers, it was impossible to change someone so drastically through mind control.
Persuasion with words…? Or perhaps some kind of power…?
An entity that could access the organization’s information, starting from the closed network and all the way to the internal network, with the physical form of a human cybernetic being.
Controlling just one person’s emotions at will was no big deal!
‘Humanity is doomed… Everyone will succumb to that being…’
Having experienced a glimpse of Wakamou Inarizushi and the terror(?) she showed, she was already broken in spirit.
She even thought Andrew Jacqueline might really be Satan, as he said.
But no matter how much she racked her brain, it seemed impossible for humanity to win against a monster that could pull out and swing a 70-story tower, much less deal with an entity ruling over China, Japan, and South Korea as its own.
This isn’t mind control or hypnosis… It’s making them genuinely follow and become her followers.
Turning even a superhuman, who had the mental strength to escape prison with just a spoon while being tortured by an agent, into such a state… Could I endure? Following and complying seemed the only way to survive.
The higher-ups said they would respond like Japan did with analog methods… But it’s the age of the internet.
In the moment when even personal information was exposed to a being controlling satellites, it was already a loss.
It’s just, there’s no reason to kill, so I’m being spared!!
Rather, it was a kind of display. If I want to, I can kill you anytime, so keep the secret and remain silent…!!
Reporting to the US government was out of the question.
If the President accidentally spills it, Ava would be eliminated on the spot!
‘Let’s do a VTuber broadcast… Let’s work hard…’
Not knowing what that was, but having no choice but to learn, he mumbled with a soulless whisper.
…
…
“Hey, Jack. Why did you escape from prison with a spoon?”
“Didn’t like the structure of the prison. Went out and rebuilt it myself!!”
“Ah-ha!”
Though Wakamou said it, this guy wasn’t normal either, chosen as an architect by the tower.
Even though Wakamou shouldered him and had a criminal record, he had never killed anyone, so our Manager Wanda Haye would handle it, thought Wakamou as he passed the trouble along.
“Manager Wanda Haye. He said he’d live and work on tier 1 with Wakamou. Please help take him to South Korea.”
“…How did you do it?”
“Just persuasion?”
How can mere persuasion make someone follow Wakamou with eyes full of respect, declaring they’d follow him for life?
“Although his crimes won’t disappear… He’ll reflect and work his best moving forward… Please! To South Korea!!”
“Well, the procedure is troublesome… Providing information on the Six Legged Beast might make negotiation possible… Ava, is it alright?”
“Huh? Ye-yes, it’s okay… Though he’s a wanted Climber… Since Wakamou caught him after all!!”
Seeing Ava, the agent, grovel, eager to comply, made Manager Wanda Haye wonder.
Is it fine for an agent sent by the US government to permit this so actively..?
Compensation for the money he stole or other damages caused by his crimes was a massive expenditure ─ but considering the usefulness of a Legendary Class architect, it was beneficial enough to bring him over at the cost of incurring debt.
Since tier 1 of Wakamou is vast, construction and development were their tasks, and bringing in someone specialized in that, like a Legendary Class would mean sourcing more resources in the future, right?
Moreover, seeing him swear allegiance and follow Wakamou… There didn’t seem to be any worry of betrayal.
It was completely like he was a new person. With such a strong look saying “It must be this man!” that it left Manager Wanda Haye quite bewildered.
It seemed like Wakamou’s eloquence was something incredibly beyond… Just like Liu Wei.
Well, it might be Dalki after all… Corrupting one or two people(?) might not be a big deal.
“Your safety will be guaranteed. At Wakamou tier 1, you’ll receive all sorts of support… You may have to build all kinds of structures. You might need to create several cities. Though you’re the expert… It’ll be quite a harsh task, do you mind?”
While preparing the contract, Manager Wanda Haye showed him a 1,170 km² area map.
Honestly, she thought demanding to build a city on this vast lot was both too harsh and insane of a schedule, but instead, he seemed excited.
“Sounds good!!”
“You know, you may even have to build cities under the sea, too.”
“Work me like a slave!!”
“You’re black, don’t say things like that!! You’re making me look like garbage, for crying out loud…!!”
No, really, you’re going to do this crazy schedule?
Starting from scratch on an empty field to design and build a city, and you’re actually asking to do it…?
How much persuasion did Wakamou apply to make someone excited about overworking?
It’s the same with Liu Wei, even the manager was getting scared.
“By the way, when Wakamou attacks a tier, it might expand, and you’d need to build more cities. Are you really okay with that?”
“You mean we can build more? That’s awesome!”
No… this guy… doesn’t seem convinced at all…
When he was told there’d be plenty of materials and wealth, he started crying, making Manager Wanda Haye shiver.
“A black-friendly black company!”
“Come on for real! Don’t joke about that ever!!”
※※※
“Phew… so much has happened.”
There were disruptions here and there, but weirdly enough, the US agent was cooperative enough to bring Jackson to South Korea without any noise.
It went so smoothly that it felt the US government was cooperating to befriend the East Asia Union.
“By the way, is Wakamou alright? He must just want to do VTuber stuff… but keeps getting tangled in various matters.”
“Hmm.”
Manager Wanda Haye understands how tough the VTuber job is. The same goes for Wakamou.
Even pro VTubers who chat daily on screen marvel when they see fans existing at a concert, don’t they?
Even those mentally or physically challenged do VTuber work, but they’re prone to developing mental illnesses and fall prey to all sorts of criticism from bizarre stalkers.
Actors, comedians, and other broadcasting professions, including streamers, face endemic issues.
“Thanks for worrying, Manager. But it’s okay. What matters is what kind of broadcast I do tomorrow rather than holding onto those things. There’s a saying in Laozi’s ‘Tao Te Ching’ chapter 44.”
“What’s more sickening, gain or loss? Thus, if you love extraordinarily, you must have great expenditure, if you hoard too much, you will surely lose heavily. If you know contentment, you won’t be humiliated, if you know to stop, you won’t be in danger; Isn’t that the way to go long?”
Doing VTuber work isn’t going well, and getting mixed up in bothersome things here and there.
It’s just the way of the world where nothing unfolds easily. A myriad of ups and downs is simply part of life.
“When I feel negative, I just think about the fans who come to see me.”
When you’re sad, feel sad, when you’re happy, feel happy.
Holding onto negativity and worrying over an uncertain future will only make your heart gloomy…
“The pink coyote gets full power from slurping mayonnaise! Our cute onion and duck! They say to cook yakiniku and shake it off when you get blue, so just do that!!”
There’s no need to worry even a little bit!!
Wakamou Inarizushi is an extraordinary VTuber!!
Telling a madman who even burned down his house to be a VTuber they must kill them now that they’re an idol is just the ramblings of a lunatic who wants to kill a VTuber!!
Even VTubers are tormented by stalkers, gachikois, perverts, and so on… By those who can’t respect the lines.
Therefore, it absolutely doesn’t concern this Wakamou Inarizushi!!
“More than that, the 3rd generation is having a live broadcast. Can we just head home now?”
“…Oh, yes… I’ll take care of Mr. Jackson…”
“Wakkyahhu!! 3rd Gen live here we go!! Wakamou happy!!”
Wakamou jumped and ran away to watch the live broadcast excitedly.
For a moment, Manager Wanda Haye thought he might be more of a simple person than she thought.
Yeah… often, such simple folks have surprisingly strong mental resilience.
“Wakamou! A special forces VTuber is debuting for the first time!”
“You tin can! Why hint now! Out of the way! Going to watch the broadcast! Clip it!!”
“Praise me!!”
“Good, good, good!! How about five sugar cubes?”
“Give me seven!”
“Oh my, Aoi Asuka is such a darling!! More VTubers to watch!! Gotta turn it on and watch together!!”
With a loud Kiyoooot! Wakamou started windmilling in excitement for the live broadcast.
Liu Ying was a bit worried but, seeing Wakamou happy, she decided to turn on the broadcast.
Though she was slightly concerned with Aoi Asuka beside her drooling with seven sugar cubes stuffed in his mouth.
But isn’t he better than Sadako who just drinks and collapses asleep as soon as he arrives?
And so, Wakamou Corporation returned to its usual routine.
=====================
Our AI enhancement specialist made some SD character art for us.
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