Anna was watching Sora’s stream.

‘These days, the teacher… No, wait. I promised not to call her that anymore.’

Anna shook her head to clear her thoughts.

“I haven’t talked to Laura in a while….”

Saying her name out loud felt strange, as it wasn’t a name she used often.

Since Laura's debut, Anna hadn’t missed a single one of her streams. After each stream, she would send Laura a detailed review on Discord: ‘Today’s stream was great! Especially when you decapitated the paladin, that was awesome!’ But Laura responded with, ‘Please stop sending long reviews every time. It’s making me uncomfortable,’ so Anna had toned it down.

In any case, Anna was fangirling over Laura.

She had recognized Laura’s potential long before she became a VTuber.

Even before Rion recommended VTubing to Laura, Anna had already brought her onto a stream. I staked my claim first!

Of course, Rui was still Anna’s ultimate favorite, but Rui didn’t stream 24/7.

So, in her free time, Anna had started watching Laura’s streams.

…During Laura’s early days, when she streamed for 20 hours straight, it was exhausting to keep up, but thankfully, her stream times had shortened recently.

Thank goodness.

Rion-senpai must have pushed her to cut down. Rion-senpai saved my life.

‘But somehow, it feels like we’re growing distant.’

Anna had worried about Laura’s prickly personality and whether she could get along with the 6th gen members, but surprisingly, Laura was fitting in well. Couldn’t they just be a little less friendly?

Word had it that Laura and Sora had even exchanged gifts. Sunglasses? A horror game? Anna had never received such things before…!

While it was natural for VTubers to be close with their peers, Anna, bound by the collaboration restriction, felt a little left out.

‘When are they going to lift this collaboration restriction…?’

With a sigh, Anna logged into Minecraft.

She hadn’t expected Laura to make a surprise appearance on Sora’s stream.

While she watched all of Laura’s streams religiously, it was hard to immediately catch surprise appearances on other channels. Was she going to have to monitor all the 6th gen streams from now on?

She had missed the beginning of this one, but apparently, Laura was about to fight the Wither.

‘This is… my chance to witness it live.’

Anna pondered for a moment.

If Laura was going to fight the Wither, she would have to move away from the 6th gen base, since the Wither would destroy everything around it.

Should I get ahead of her?

Maybe I could “coincidentally” run into her?

‘But Laura isn’t streaming!’

Anna had no way of knowing where Laura would be heading.

There was nothing to do but quietly drink an invisibility potion, as usual.

Gulp, gulp.

Anna drank the potion and vanished, adding a few functional potions for good measure.

“All prepared. Now, all that’s left is for Laura to defeat the Wither.”

“Can I come with you? Is there anything I can help with?”

“If you come, the aggro might shift to you. And without the right gear, one hit from the Wither will kill you.”

“I see. Then I won’t go. I just remembered I have some building to do.”

Right in front of her, Laura and Sora were chatting.

As Laura began to walk away, Anna quietly followed.

Lately, this had become Anna’s routine.

‘It’s not really a problem, is it…?’

Every time Laura logged into Minecraft, Anna would watch her while invisible.

It couldn’t be called stalking. It was just in-game, not real life. And, come to think of it, Anna had experienced the same thing from her upperclassmen a few times during her early days as a VTuber.

Watching her juniors play the game secretly was fun.

More than that, though, Anna wanted to learn more about Laura.

Laura was like a flower perched on a cliff—no matter how much Anna reached out, she always felt out of reach.

That was what made Laura so alluring, with a mysterious charm that made Anna feel like she’d risk everything just to be near her.

It was like the urge to leave a handprint on a perfectly clean windowpane.

Anna wanted to see Laura in different lights, beyond her usual composed and unshakeable self.

To see her surprised, flustered, or caught off guard.

If she could witness that, it would be a dream come true for any fan.

And if it were by her own hand…

…By my hand?

‘…There I go, thinking weird thoughts again.’

This had been happening more frequently lately.

Since ‘that day,’ Rui hadn’t done any fan participation streams.

Anyway, watching Laura solo the Wither live was bound to be entertaining.

With that thought, the invisible Anna continued observing Laura’s gameplay from a distance.

‘Wow, her spacing is incredible…’

Laura dodged the Wither’s projectile attacks with ease.

At the same time, she never forgot to shoot her arrows. And, unsurprisingly, every shot hit its mark.

Anna thought to herself, Minecraft was such an inconvenient game.

In most action games, there were ways to react to attacks—like parrying, rolling, or side dashing. In action games, there were usually options like that.

But in Minecraft, there were only two ways to deal with attacks: “forward dash” and “block with a shield.”

But since the Wither’s attacks were explosive, shields weren’t much help. So forward dashing was the only real option.

That’s right—forward dash.

Minecraft didn’t have backward or side dashes.

You could only dash in the W direction on the keyboard, meaning you had to move the mouse (camera) along with it to dodge attacks.

In other words, it was a highly inconvenient game that didn’t allow you to dodge while keeping your eyes on the enemy.

Yet, despite these limitations, Laura seemed to have a natural sense of spatial awareness. After dodging an attack, she would immediately raise her bow and aim straight at the Wither.

She carefully whittled down its health.

When the Wither started its charge pattern, Laura dodged and then rushed in, landing heavy blows.

‘I’ve heard she’s good at PC games, but…’

Would she be good at something like Getting Over It? Anna wondered idly.

She was so absorbed in watching that she didn’t notice when Laura was knocked back by an explosion.

The Wither activated its shield, summoned its minions, and flew back into the sky.

And then… it started chasing someone.

"…Huh?"

Anna couldn’t figure out what was happening for a moment.

Did it detect me?

‘Oh no…! My invisibility potion wore off!?’

She had been so engrossed in watching Laura’s gameplay that she forgot to drink another potion.

The Wither was zooming toward her.

And Anna… was a coward.

Without looking back, she turned and ran.

“Eeeeek?!”

Anna sprinted.

Boom!
Kaboom!
Ka-ga-ga-boom!!

The Wither kept firing its explosive projectiles.

Would it leave me alone if I drank another invisibility potion?

She wasn’t sure…! She hadn’t fought the Wither enough times in Minecraft to know!!

Rather than risk it, Anna kept running.

But there was no way she could outrun the much faster Wither.

-KABOOM!!

“Kyaaah?!”

Anna’s avatar was sent flying by the Wither’s charge attack.

【Shiroki_Anna has been slain by the Wither.】

“So it was a Void Rod, huh.”

Sora, left at the 6th gen base after Laura went off on her adventure, was mulling over their earlier conversation.

-“A Void Rod would be perfect for the chandelier, but you can only get it later in the game.”

‘Hmm… She said she wanted a Void Rod, didn’t she?’

Laura had never said she wanted one outright, but for Sora, that detail didn’t really matter.

Sora pulled out her phone.

When she searched for Void Rod, it did seem like it would pair well with a chandelier.

“How do you get this?”

She asked the air.

Then,

-Go to the Void
-Defeat the Dragon, and the Void opens up
-You can’t get it now

“I see.”

From what she gathered, defeating the final boss, the Dragon, would open up a new map, where the Void Rod could be found.

Of course, for a Minecraft beginner like Sora, that item was beyond her wildest dreams.

“Is the Void Rod as valuable as a diamond?”

-No, not really
-It’s just a junk item
-Once the Void opens, you can farm it easily
-It goes straight to storage

“So, have the seniors been to this Void place?”

-Yup, Rinko went yesterday lol
-You’re still in the Stone Age
-The seniors have already cleared all the Minecraft content

That meant the seniors had probably been to the Void, and there might even be a Void Rod sitting in one of their storage chests.

If it was a junk item, they wouldn’t mind if she took a little, right?

It didn’t seem like it would be a problem.

‘But going alone feels a bit risky.’

Up until now, Sora had focused mainly on building.

She had gone on one adventure to gather materials, but after falling into lava and losing all her diamonds, she had learned a painful lesson.

…Why are Minecraft monsters like zombies and skeletons so scary?

Couldn’t sandbox games have cuter monsters?

That’s why Sora didn’t really like leaving the base.

‘Is Inagika… still asleep?’

She checked the Discord room, but Inagika was still offline.

Inagika’s sleep schedule was completely destroyed. It was a common issue among VTubers.

No choice, then.

Sighing, Sora headed to the fishing spot.

“Chell.”

She called out.

Chell had been logged into Minecraft since early morning.

But she was always so quiet. …Why does she stay so silent?

“Yes.”

Chell replied.

At least she answered when spoken to.

Why does she use formal language with her peers? …It feels so distant.

“I’m going to the seniors’ city. Can you come with me?”

“Understood.”

Chell put down her fishing rod.

One thing Sora had learned about Chell was that she was surprisingly obedient.

Whenever Sora gave her an order or asked for help, Chell quietly complied.

‘…I still can’t figure her out.’

Though she was still an awkward colleague, it was better than going alone.

“Let’s head out right away, then.”

“Yes.”

Sora, taking Chell with her, resolved to sneak into the seniors’ city.

This happened just 20 minutes before she encountered the Wither.