NoveLight ™
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[Virtual AiTuber Gallery]
[Live Update] The gal star is on his 20th hour in the labyrinth, lol.
(Screenshot)
Help me...
Comments:
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[You have entered a duel.]
**Complete one of the following objectives to win:
After rolling as the Berserker a few times, I got the hang of it.
First, the Berserker's weapon, the oversized sword. This weapon wasn’t made to be used. It’s the heaviest and largest among all weapons in Labyrinthos.
Even though the Berserker is set to have superhuman strength due to experimental modifications, the sword was so heavy that even swinging it once wasn’t easy.
Let alone swinging it repeatedly. So, attack speed traits were almost mandatory, but using the oversized sword wasn't worth it.
The size was even more of a problem than the weight. Like the Paladins who use greatswords, the attack motions were inevitably large, making it easy for the enemy to predict the attacks.
And it's terribly inconvenient indoors. Try swinging downward, and you'll hit the ceiling. Try an upward strike, and you'll hit the floor. Swing horizontally? You'll hit the walls.
This is why discarding the oversized sword has become a standardized build.
<Scent of Blood>: You detect the smell of blood.
After discarding the oversized sword and running diligently, the smell of blood hit my nose. It was the Berserker’s passive skill, <Scent of Blood>. Surprisingly, the Berserker has a tracking skill.
Although it wasn’t as good as the Magitech Engineer’s <Unboxing>, it was enough for me, who was used to playing a Dark Knight. Following the scent of blood, I ran forward.
After running for a while, I saw a group of neutral mobs lying dead on the ground.
And stepping on the corpses, I saw horseshoes.
"A cavalry unit."
I muttered.
The cavalry soldier who had slain the last neutral mob turned to face me and readied his shield and lance.
The cavalry in duel mode felt slightly different from those in gate conquest mode.
In gate conquest, the cavalry serves as an initiator. They charge in with crowd control skills and disrupt enemy lines like tanks.
In duel mode, however, their specialization in kiting stood out more.
With the horse's fast movement and the lance's surprisingly long reach, it’s a character that uses superior mobility and range to harass the opponent.
‘He’s coming.’
Thump, thump, thump. The sound of hooves grew louder.
The sight of a horse charging was purely intimidating. It was a massive beast, about the size of a person, with a rider on top. Like any animal, facing something larger than yourself naturally instilled fear.
This psychological intimidation is part of the cavalry's strength, but fortunately, I was used to it. This wasn’t my first time facing a cavalry unit.
-Swish!
The cavalryman thrust his lance forward.
I dodged to the side with ease, causing him to miss.
The cavalry’s superior mobility and range come with their own limitations. Like most quadrupeds, they struggle with sharp turns.
As I dodged, the cavalryman passed by me.
Just as he passed, I bit into my own arm. Then, I tore it apart.
Rip!
Comments:
The chat exploded with reactions, but it couldn’t be helped. The Berserker's first skill required self-harm as a prerequisite.
Blood flowed from my torn skin, and I swung it.
Berserker's first skill, <Blood Manifestation>. The blood transformed into an arrow and flew forward.
The cavalryman was showing his back to me. His horse needed time to turn around.
This meant the blood arrow struck from his blind spot, an unavoidable attack.
Thud!
With a dull sound, the arrow pierced the horse's body. But it didn’t stop there. The arrow transformed again, turning into a long spike.
The Berserker is a high-risk, high-reward character.
Not only is it difficult to hit with skills, but every skill consumes HP. However, if you land a skill, the rewards are massive.
The blood spike extended like a staff and pierced through the horse’s body.
The horse trembled in pain and screamed.
With the horse out of control, the cavalryman was left helpless. Cavalry units are all about balancing risk, and the moment they take a hit, their risk skyrockets.
I sprinted and jumped.
The cavalryman tried to block my approach with his lance, but his attack was poorly aimed. I easily dodged and grabbed his collar, throwing him to the ground.
Thud!
“Ugh!”
The cavalryman fell back-first onto the ground. I kicked his hand, sending the lance flying, and then punched his face.
Over the past few days, I learned something. Punching someone to death takes too long.
Especially against a cavalryman. They are tanky characters in gate conquest mode, and considering he’d farmed some neutral mobs, it would take a while to kill him with punches.
'Although in duel mode, it doesn’t matter.'
In gate conquest mode, speed is key. You often need to quickly kill isolated enemies and rejoin your main forces. So, how fast you can kill matters a lot.
And the reason I’ve been practicing Berserker in duel mode is to prepare for gate conquest mode.
To practice as if it were the real thing, I shoved my fist into the cavalryman’s mouth.
“Mmph! Mmgh!!!”
Blood from my torn arm flowed. The blood dripped down my arm and into the cavalryman's mouth.
No matter how much someone works out at the gym for 10 hours a day, there are parts of the human body that can’t be trained.
For example, the eyes. For example, the eardrums.
And the mouth.
The slimy texture of his tongue, the sticky roof of his mouth, and his throat could all be felt by my fingertips.
Obviously, you can’t train your palate. Even if there were a way, would anyone in this world even bother?
"<Blood Manifestation>."
-Crack!
From within his mouth, blood spikes erupted, tearing through his flesh and emerging out of his skull like sprouts from his head.
By the time I pulled my fist out, the cavalryman had gone limp.
Becoming a VTuber doesn’t dramatically change your life.
I may have become somewhat of a star in the VTuber and labyrinth communities, but it’s hard to feel it if you don’t pay attention to the online forums.
After all, I just play games a lot. I don’t spend much time on community sites. In my spare time, I prefer playing games, reading web novels, or browsing webtoons.
Even when I do check the community, I’m more interested in the reactions to other VTubers’ streams, like Anna’s.
So really, nothing feels different aside from having a chat window full of viewers added to my usual routine.
"See? I told you, the Berserker doesn’t really need that giant sword."
Comments:
Having viewers to banter with has made things a bit more fun. As a villainess, it’s nice to be praised by people.
Sharing the fun of the game with others isn’t so bad either.
'Still, I don’t feel much yet.'
And that makes sense. Take Anna, for example—she does ASMR, sings, and hosts a variety of shows. But me? During the entire week since my debut, all I’ve done is Labyrinthos.
Oh, and I did those duel battles against people who tried to drag me down.
And for that, I got scolded by Rion big time after the stream. She even threatened me, saying if I kept pulling stunts like that, she wouldn’t help me style my hair anymore—a terrifying threat, honestly.
So, I’ve permanently sealed duels as a content option.
Basically, I’ve become a one-trick Labyrinthos VTuber, and besides the fact that I’ve started streaming, nothing in my life has changed dramatically.
But, that’s fine.
A life without too many changes isn’t so bad either.
["You know, I don’t think just doing Labyrinthos all the time is a good idea..."]
Just as I thought that, Inagika spoke up.
There haven’t been any big changes in my life, but small ones have happened. One of those is that my social circle has widened a bit. Although I’ve been in contact with Inagika even before my official debut, we’ve kept in touch since the debut stream as well.
"Really?" ["Yeah... Some viewers might get bored if you only do the same thing all the time..."]
Inagika still spoke with a slightly nervous voice. I shrugged as I listened.
Lately, I haven’t been joining the 6th gen’s voice channel as much. Spending most of my day streaming (which is basically just gaming) leaves me with little time to join voice chats.
So, these days, Inagika has been the one reaching out to me.
Considering how shy she is, it’s clear she’s been gathering a lot of courage to do so.
'...But calling me right after a stream is a bit creepy.'
As soon as a stream ends, she’d call me on Discord. And as soon as I wake up and log into Discord in the morning, another call. Other than the time I spend streaming, I’m almost always talking to Inagika.
["I think it’s great that Labyrinthos is your main content... You’re really good at the game, after all. But I also want to see other sides of you... I’m a little curious about what it’d be like if you did ASMR or a singing stream... Of course, I know those are difficult, so I’m not pushing you...! But maybe trying a different type of game could be good...? I’m sure your viewers would love to see more of what you can do..."]
"I see."
That’s pretty much how my conversations with Inagika always go.
It feels like she wants to get closer to me, or maybe she just doesn’t have anyone else to talk to, so she clings to me.
And, well, Inagika has always had low self-esteem. I get the sense she’s recharging her confidence by talking to me.
'Teaching others does come with its own kind of pleasure.'
You know how otakus talk endlessly when they explain their field of expertise? It’s because sharing knowledge feels good. It’s not just about wanting to help others learn—it also gives a sense of superiority.
In this field, I’m the expert. In this area, I know more than you. In this topic, it’s best to rely on me.
That’s probably the feeling.
Inagika is no different.
"What you’re saying makes sense. But I’ve never thought about doing other kinds of content." ["Well, how about starting with sandbox games...?"]
Inagika paused for a moment before suggesting it.
"Sandbox?" ["Yeah... As a corporate VTuber, you can’t really avoid sandbox games..."]
"Why not?"
["It’s a bit of a complex reason... but you’ve got over 100,000 subscribers now, right...?"]
That’s true. Soon, I’ll probably reach 150,000 subscribers.
'Now that I think about it, my peers' subscriber counts are pretty low.'
It’s not that I’m looking down on Inagika or Sora. But their subscriber numbers were way below what I expected. None of them have even hit 20,000 yet.
I remember Rion explaining that if there’s a VTuber with 300,000 subscribers, their peers usually have around 100,000 to 200,000.
Shouldn't Inagika or Sora be somewhere in that range?
Even though corporate VTubers usually start with a built-in fanbase, my 6th gen peers’ subscriber counts seemed quite low.
["Laura, some of your subscribers are people who were already into VTubers, and some were fans of EYEAI. But I think a lot of them just like you specifically... Especially, I think many of your subscribers came from the labyrinth community..."]
So, my audience isn’t typical?
["Yeah... I think your fanbase is quite different from the others at EYEAI. But from the company’s perspective, this is a new audience, and EYEAI probably doesn’t want only you to benefit from it..."]
And the best way to deal with that, she says, is through collaborations.
Currently, the "labyrinth community" viewers are only watching my streams. But if, for example, I were to collaborate with Inagika on my stream, a few of them might think, "Hey, she’s pretty interesting too."
Then, some of those viewers would subscribe to Inagika’s channel. And when I’m not streaming, they might even tune into her streams instead.
["And it works the other way around too..."] "You’re saying if you and I collab, the 'Inagika-only viewers' will subscribe to me?" ["Yeah, that’s right..."]
In other words, right now, the 6th gen’s audiences are completely separate. Since we haven’t done any collaborations since our debuts, our fanbases haven’t merged into one big "6th gen fandom."
["So I think there will be a 6th gen collab soon... That way, we can start sharing our audiences and creating a unified '6th gen fandom'..."]
After that, we’ll begin sharing subscribers with our seniors as well.
We’ll inherit the senior VTubers’ "established fanbases," and the seniors will gain our "6th gen fandom" as new subscribers. It’s a cycle of "subscriber sharing."
["That’s why sandbox games, like Fanworld, DARK: Survival, and CTA, are essential for corporate VTubers..."]
Sandbox games make it easier to interact with senior VTubers.
That’s what Inagika explained.
"Sis, there’s a 6th gen offline meeting this Sunday."
Just as Inagika had predicted.
As soon as Rion got home from the office, she told me this.
"Offline meeting?" "Yeah. It’s a pretty important one."
Rion nodded.
"It’s a meeting about monetizing the channel."