"Wow, why are there so many messages...?"

Saturday morning.

The rain clouds that had persisted throughout August had finally cleared, leaving the outside bright and sunny.

Basking in the soft sunlight streaming into her home, Harmony sat in her gaming chair, checking the flood of messages she had received recently. The notification showed not "99+" but "999+," a bold red mark demanding her attention.

Unlike Yujin, whose body seemed made of steel and high-powered engines, Harmony’s reality was much softer and more fragile. Though she had recently started going to the gym for cardio, it had only been about four weeks at most.

In short, Harmony didn't have the stamina that Yujin did. As a result, she often collapsed in exhaustion soon after her streams ended, sometimes even delaying communication with her editors until the next day.

It was already 1 PM.

Harmony had woken up late that morning and finished a half-hearted lunch at home. Since eating a small lunch would make her crave snacks later, she supplemented her lack of fullness with some konjac jelly.

Lately, her mornings and afternoons had been hectic. As her collaborations with Yujin had become more frequent, her skill and mental fatigue increased simultaneously. This meant she had to handle tasks in the morning that she used to do in the early hours.

Harmony often wondered if this was what a day in the life of an office worker was like.

Buzz.

The countless unread messages, linked to her VR machine, appeared before her eyes. They ranged from personal to professional matters.

However, her phone was where the more personal conversations happened, which meant the messages there were often more important.

She quickly went through the messages she hadn’t read, starting from the top.

The first was from a group chat with her editors, mostly about videos being uploaded to YourSpace. There were also some questions about editing, but since she hadn’t checked in time, they had been buried.

She left a greeting, but no one was around to see it. They were probably still in bed after working late into the night.

The second set of messages was the regular check-ins from her parents. Since being a streamer wasn’t particularly stressful, she replied that everything was fine.

As she read through the messages one by one, the 999+ notification eventually dropped to 128. There was one group chat she had deliberately left unread.

This was the last one.

-[Dol: Yaaaaaah!]

-[Dol: I’m being honest here!]

-[Aurora: --------StopThisNonsenseCutHere--------------]

-[Dol: Wow, that’s just too much.]

-[Dol: Look at how the numbers don’t disappear.]

-[Dol: Moni!!!!!!!!!]

-[Dol: At this rate, we’re all going to die!!!]

"What are these guys up to now?"

Just like anywhere else, when three or more people gather, they form a group.

Whether it’s a simple friend group or something more organized to achieve a goal, the group takes on a shared direction.

This was true for the streamers in Harmony’s MCN group, BangBangHammerBrotherhood.

<Even Seeing Their Ugly Faces Is Fun>

What started as a small group had, over time, unearthed hidden gems, much like jewels buried in sand. The chat room, once created to boost each other's popularity through collaborations, had since evolved into a space for random chatter among major streamers.

Despite this transformation, the room still served its original purpose. The 120 or so messages currently filling the chat were all about a potential Dark Zone collaboration.

She wasn’t entirely sure why they were focusing on her, though.

"It’s true, I haven’t been in touch for a while."

Though it hadn’t been that long, in an internet-connected world where people could exchange greetings in less than a second, a few days of silence felt longer than it was.

Having grasped the gist of the messages, she exited the chat and checked the message from Dol, one of the streamers she had known for a long time. She could guess the content.

And she wasn’t far off.

-[Dol: Yaaaaaah]

-[Dol: Moni~~]

-[Dol: You’ve been really into Dark Zone lately…]

-[Dol: I figured you’d be doing the main missions with that mentor of yours, but how about we catch up sometime?]

It was always such an odd way of speaking.

But since she understood the meaning, she replied, and as if Dol had been waiting, the "1" indicator disappeared immediately.

-[Harmony: Sure!!]

-[Dol: !!!]

-[Dol: Wow, finally got a reply, LOL]

-[Dol: Let me know when you’re free!]

Free time.

This weekend was a bit tricky. Starting today, a virtual reality stadium broadcast was set to be created, and with the preliminary ranks still ongoing, Harmony wanted to watch Yujin's matches.

Plus, the main story wasn’t fully completed yet. The storyline she needed to finish to reach max level was entering its latter stages, so by Monday, that issue would likely be resolved.

Finally, there was the issue of her skill. Just yesterday, she had mentioned wanting to improve, and the training for that was set to begin today. Just like one needs to dress up to meet people, she needed to be at least somewhat proficient in the game to play with others.

With everything calculated in her mind, she replied.

-[Harmony: I’m free any day next week^^]

-[Dol: You’re more flexible than I thought??]

-[Dol: How about next Wednesday? Is that good?]

-[Harmony: Sounds great~~]

-[Dol: Hahahaha, okay then!]

And so, a new plan was set in motion.

As this was happening, a notification appeared before her eyes.

-[Warning: 30 minutes until your meeting with ‘Mentor.’]

Not a notification—a warning.

She had set it that way intentionally, but… it probably didn’t make much difference in reality.

She saw Stone’s late text, but her mind was already occupied with the recent messages. This might have been anticipation—or perhaps anxiety. Either way, it was the first time since kindergarten that she felt such pressure.

She typed out a reply as if in a trance.

-[Dol: Are you super busy these days or what? It’s so hard to get in touch.]

-[Dol: You’ve been spending a lot of time with that streamer Yujin.]

-[Dol: If it’s tough, just take it slow, LOL!!]

-[Harmony: Oh, it’s not that…]

-[Harmony: Nah, I’m the one asking for all this, LOL.]

-[Harmony: Actually, we’re meeting up today too!]

-[Dol: Whoa, scary.]

-[Harmony: I’ll reach out again before the stream, okay? Bye~]

-[Dol: ???]

-[Dol: Hey, hey]

-[Dol: Where are you going!!!!!!!!!!!]

Later, Dol would describe feeling as if he had been cheated on.

It was just another typical snowball effect caused by Yujin.

Meanwhile, 30 minutes earlier.

"Aaaaah! It hurts! I won’t be able to compete if this keeps up!"

"Did you really think you could say something like that and then compete with a clear conscience?"

"I’m sorry! Aaaah! I’m so sorry──!!"

Slap! Slap!

Dice tapped the floor with her left hand, desperately pleading for mercy, while Yujin, with a small smile on her face, executed a textbook-perfect armbar. The reason for this situation was simple.

-[Playing: She’s not human… Oh, I feel like I’m going to get armbarred again later. I’m in trouble. You can edit out what I said, right?]

You reap what you sow.

The sharp pain in her arm—virtual reality had a built-in function to block pain above a certain threshold—was the reason why Dice, despite her cries, wasn’t asking any questions like "why" or "how."

After some time, the excellent demonstration came to an end. Dice barely managed to sit up on the sofa in the makeshift space, still feeling the effects, and spoke.

"One match could be the difference between being in the top 100 or not."

"If your placement depends on such variables even after I’ve trained you, maybe you should consider handing your spot to someone else?"

"Why are your standards so high!?"

"I’m actually one of the more lenient ones."

Dice pouted, but upon reflection, she realized that Yujin’s words made sense.

After all, how many times had she been calmly trained by someone with the kind of insane skill that could crush her opponents? Someone who didn’t even get angry while training the SSM rookies—children, skill-wise.

When you consider the training videos of foreign pro gamers on YourSpace, where trainers and instructors often yelled during the game…

Yujin was definitely impressive in many ways.

That didn’t make the tingling in her arm go away any faster, though.

"So, what have you been up to lately? Still grinding through missions? I thought the main missions would be super easy and you’d breeze through them."

"All missions have a baseline difficulty of ‘very hard,’ so… it wasn’t that easy."

"…What?"

"It’s a trait of hardcore players, or so they say."

Memories flashed through Dice’s mind.

Yujin’s infiltration of West Point on her first attempt, the numerous Artemis missions that followed, and all the subsequent infiltration operations…

Was all of that done on a difficulty level that most max-level players only start to tackle? And she completed them all with a "Clear Difficulty: Omega" rating? And she did it while dragging along Harmony, who was practically a casual player?

Dice’s disbelief evaporated in real time.

"…Is that even possible without being max level?"

"That’s why each mission takes up to two hours."

"Two hours… on hardcore…."

Unbelievable.

Considering that regular people collapse from exhaustion after just a bit of strenuous activity while fully geared up, Yujin’s stamina—allowing her to leisurely compete in a tournament, take first place, and then return to grinding missions—was…

Dice’s disbelief was reaching its peak.

"Is it any wonder I question whether you’re human or not? Everything you do is so extreme, it’s beyond what a person can handle!"

"If you had only said that here, I might have given you the benefit of the doubt."

"I’m sorry…."

Dice quickly dropped to her knees, begging for forgiveness.

But just then, a recent piece of news popped into her head.

Struggling to sit up, Dice added while perching on the edge of the sofa.

"…Anyway, I saw your recent match. You’re getting a lot of attention from interviews lately, aren’t you?"

"Interviews?"

"…Yeah?"

"I haven’t heard anything about that."

…What?

Their eyes met, but it was clear Yujin genuinely had no idea.

Dice laughed incredulously and began typing.

"How could you not know? The whole scene blew up after Corvus’s interview last night, yet you’re the one person unaware!"

"Because I really didn’t know."

"Oh my…."

At the same time, a screen popped up.

It needed no explanation. The screen Dice brought up was the very interview they were discussing.

Yujin’s gaze fixed on the screen, curious to see what had been said. After a brief buffering, the interview began in earnest. An avatar appeared on screen, sitting in a chair. The microphone clipped to the collar was notably clear.

Long hair, reminiscent of a crow, draped down to the shoulders.

A comment was casually thrown out.

"Why do people here like to make their avatars female?"

"…But Yujin, your avatar is female too, right?"

"…."

Yujin’s expression soured as if she had more to say, but she kept her mouth shut. The interview continued, and Dice, fiddling with the time controls, found the spot she was looking for.

The voices of two women became clear.

"Here, right here."

-[Q: …Yes! Thank you so much for your answer. Now, moving on to the next question. Just last night, it was announced that Xi and Icarus are collaborating on a horror-themed cinematic video, scheduled to be released within a month.

-[A: Yes, that’s correct.]

-[Q: I’m really looking forward to it. Corvus, were you aware of this? If so, when did you find out?]

-[A: Haha, I actually found out on Friday. You know, I met a rather cinematic end around that time, right? My clip was apparently so impressive that they asked if they could use it in the video.]

-[Q: Haha, so it’s that scene. Then the other party must have been contacted as well by now, right?]

-[A: Yes, that’s right.]

Cough.

A strange sound escaped.

The interview continued.

-[Q: That’s a really bold decision. If it were me, I think I’d hesitate to let something like that go public, especially after dying in such a memorable way.]

-[A: I thought the same at first. But after a while, I started to feel a kind of respect for it. And… I’ll just say it. It’s not every day you encounter a player like Yujin. When I replayed the clip, the look and the gameplay were so impressive that I figured it deserved to be shared with the world, rather than just being buried.]

-[Q: Haha, I see! That was a very impressive response. With that, the interview is over. But before we wrap up, do you have any final comments?]

And then, the last part.

The moment that almost made Dice roll on the floor laughing the first time she heard it.

-[A: Oh, um. Go Axe Goddess Yujin! Fight on!]

-[Sound of laughter from off-screen.]

That’s how the interview ended.

Once again, she couldn’t hold back her laughter.

Yujin stared at the screen with a strange expression, letting out a dry laugh, while Dice, who had been trying to stifle her giggles, finally gave in and started laughing hysterically on the sofa.

The last shred of sanity prevented her from uttering the phrase "Axe Goddess" out loud.

"…Pfft, hahaha… Oh, that’s too funny, haha!"

"…Heh."

Preliminary ranks.

A place where even those with skill couldn’t survive if they were clumsy.