Chapter 16
「Tutorial Guy, thank you so much for today! See you later!」
「Thank you very much!」
With those words, the young couple disappeared from sight.
「Phew. I should probably get going too…」
The clock had already passed midnight.
Isamu has a part-time job in the morning, so he decides it’s time to call it a night and rest. To end the game, he opens the menu window.
「Um, Sieg!」
At that moment, a woman’s voice calls out from behind him.
Responding to the call, he casually turns around to see――
「Oh, Elena! Long time no see!」
The famous streamer Elena.
However, her streaming panel is nowhere to be seen.
She must not be broadcasting right now.
「Yes, it’s been a while! Thank you so much for the other day! …So um, do you have a minute?」
「Yeah, of course! What’s up? Do you have a question about the game or something?」
「No, that’s not it. Actually, I have a favor to ask… uhm, you see…」
Elena looks up at him timidly as she hesitantly conveys her request.
「Wh-What is it? If it’s something I can help with, I’d be happy to, but…」
「Really?!」
Upon hearing his response, Elena’s expression brightens, clearly quite pleased.
Judging by how delighted she is, Isamu grows a bit anxious about what exactly he’s being asked to do as he continues the conversation.
「Y-Yeah. So, what’s this favor…?」
「Well, I want you to have a one-on-one match with me!」
「A match? You mean PVP?」
「Yes, that’s right!」
Her request is a serious one-on-one battle.
The fact that she’s politely asking him rather than suddenly attacking means she must want a fair and square test of strength.
In that case, there’s no reason to refuse.
「Oh, is that all? I’m totally down! In that case, let’s――」
As Isamu speaks, he gets into a fighting stance with his sword.
「Thank you so much! But, I don’t want to fight right now… I was hoping we could battle sometime soon while I’m streaming!」
「Huh? What do you mean?」
「Well, you see――」
Elena passionately explains to Isamu:
The archive video of when he appeared on her stream before has way more views than any of her other videos
When she looked into it out of curiosity, she realized it was because he’s become famous
She thinks if she streams a serious match against such a celebrity, even more people will tune in to watch
That’s the favor she wanted to ask, and she’s been waiting this whole time for him to be alone
In other words, she wants to use Isamu to attract more viewers.
「I see. I can’t imagine I’d draw that much of an audience, but… if you’re okay with that, I’ll do it!」
Although it ended up happening by chance, Isamu is able to enjoy the game now thanks in part to Elena.
So as a way to repay her, he decides to cooperate.
「Wow! Thank you so much, Sieg! I’ll be sure to give you a generous appearance fee!」
「Appearance fee?」
「Yes! I make quite a bit, you know!」
Elena is a popular streamer who attracts an average of 100,000 viewers.
She gets a substantial, no, a massive amount in ad revenue. She must be raking in the cash.
Certainly way more than Isamu makes at his convenience store job.
「…No, you don’t need to pay me. I mean, we’re just going to fight, right? I’m looking forward to the battle itself!」
He’s barely scraping by and could honestly really use the money.
But no matter how much she makes, as a grown man, he feels uncomfortable accepting cash from a high school girl for various reasons.
So after some deliberation, Isamu declines the reward.
Less for Elena’s sake and more to preserve his pride as an adult man.
「Huh? But I was planning to pay you for this… Are you sure you’re okay doing it for free?」
「Yeah! It’s fine! Don’t worry about a reward!」
「Thank you so much! Sieg, you really are so kind! I might just fall for you!」
「Ahaha…」 Isamu gives an awkward laugh at her overly cliched flattery before steering the conversation back on topic. 「So anyway, what should we do about the rules and date and time?」
sz
The two of them then proceed to have an in-depth discussion, completely forgetting about their part-time job and school in the morning.
☆
Three days later, in the evening.
Isamu finishes work, hurries home, quickly bathes and eats, then logs into Dream Fantasy.
Today is the promised day with Elena.
They agreed to meet in front of the fountain in Starting Town, so he heads there to find――
「Ah, it’s Tutorial Guy!」
「Hey, Tu-Guy! I heard about it! You’re going one-on-one against the Elena today, right?」
「I’m sooo excited! Tu-Guy, show us what you’ve got!」
「Good luck, Tutorial Guy!」
The players he previously taught come rushing over.
They already know about today since Elena announced it ahead of time.
「Y-Yeah. Thanks, everyone!」
「Siiieg!」
Right after he responds to them, he hears a voice calling his name.
Glancing over, he sees Elena running towards him.
「Hey, is that…?」
「Oh my gosh! It’s the real Elena!」
「No way! This is huge!」
「Ah, I gotta get her autograph!
In that instant, the already lively plaza grows even more clamorous.
(Wow… Elena is seriously popular.)
As Isamu thinks this to himself, Elena arrives next to him.
「Sorry for the wait! Thanks for doing this today!」
「Yeah, same here! Well then, shall we?」
「Yes!」
☆
The two of them, along with a large crowd of players, transfer to the battlefield—Rookie Forest.
「Huh…?」
In that moment, Isamu doubts his own eyes.
As far as he can see, it’s people, people, people.
It’s packed to the brim, like a concert venue.
(Holy… crap.)
「Everyone, excuse me! Could you please make some space?」
While Isamu is paralyzed with shock, Elena remains unfazed and directs the gathered audience.
The players obediently follow her instructions and move.
Soon, as if a hole suddenly opened up, an empty space appears in one particular spot.
「Thanks guys! Okay Sieg, let’s battle over there!」
「O-Okay.」
Elena and Isamu walk a short distance to that open space.
The surrounding players then maintain a set radius around the two of them.
It’s starting to look like a gladiator arena.
「Alright, let me turn on the stream!」
Saying that, Elena operates the menu window.
A transparent panel appears in front of her eyes.
「Hiii~! It’s everyone’s little sister Elena! And also――!」
「H-Hello there. I’m Sieg… I mean, I’m Tutorial Guy. Nice to meet you all today.」
Isamu greets the viewers according to the rehearsal he was made to do the other day.
Timidly peeking at the chat log:
『Hey old man, long time no see!』
『Tutorial Guy! Thank you for the other day!』
『Old dude hype!』
『Show us a hot battle, man』
It’s all positive messages.
Seems like he’s being well-received, so Isamu breathes a sigh of relief.
「Whoa! That’s amazing! H-Hey Sieg, take a look at this!」
「Hm? …130,000?!」
130,000 concurrent viewers.
He was already floored by the previous 100,000, but now it’s jumped up another 30,000.
「It’s all thanks to you, Sieg! I really appreciate it!」
Elena whispers this to a stunned Isamu, his mouth agape.
He leans in close as well to quietly reply so it doesn’t get picked up on the broadcast.
「No way, I doubt I have anything to do with it…」
「That’s not true at all! Even when I go all out on planned events, my max was 105,000 viewers. Thanks to you, I broke my record!」
「I-I see. Well, I’m glad I could help out.」
When Isamu says this, Elena gives him a cute wink before pulling away.
Still operating the panel with her hand, she walks a short distance then stops.
「Let’s see, I’ll fix the panel around here. How’s this, everyone? Can you see? Okay… Looks good! Well then, I’m gonna do my best!」
Having finished talking, Elena skips back over.
「I’m all set! Shall we get started then, Sieg?」
「Oh, wait a sec! Just to double-check, you leveled up to 13 like I asked, right?」
The other day when she made this request, Elena was still only level 9, likely from not playing very heavily.
Isamu on the other hand is level 13. If they fought as is, he would dominate and totally kill the vibe.
So in order for it to be a close match, he had asked Elena to grind up to the same level as him.
「No worries! I worked hard and got to level 13!」
「Oh good. That’s a relief. In that case, let’s both give it our all.」
「Yes! Oh, and like we agreed, no holding back please—fight me seriously!」
「Of course!」
The two shake hands then create some distance and ready their weapons.
Isamu has a one-handed sword while Elena wields a staff.
「Excuse me, mister over there! Would you mind giving us the signal to start?」
「You got it, leave it to me! Put on a good show you two! Alright then, Elena vs. Tutorial Guy—Battle start!! 」
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