The scenery of the VR space began to shift. This wasn't particularly surprising; it was a visual transition similar to those seen when moving into a battlefield. However, the problem was the sight that greeted me once the change was complete.
A series of rooms stretched out, dominated by a sense of claustrophobia, as if iron boxes had been lined up one after another. From a distance, I could hear the sound of metal grinding and creaking. Inside the rooms, illuminated by the faint glow of guidance lights in the dim darkness, rows of old, box-shaped monitors stood side-by-side.
I recognized this place. It was a sight I had seen once before in a dream. It was a memory so vivid that I couldn't believe it was just a dream, and I remembered it clearly.
"Wha—ha?! What's happening... where the hell is this?! I don't remember making a stage like this!"
It seemed this situation was unexpected even for Milky, the creator of the game. 'He' was panicking, making gestures in the air as if typing on a keyboard. He was likely operating a computer or something similar in the real world.
Milky... or rather, the person I assumed to be Milky, had taken on a form completely different from their previous appearance.
"Wait, this is... the avatar's visual settings have reverted to default?!"
First of all, the gender was different. It was a man, and a significantly obese one at that. Furthermore, he was wearing the same clothes as before: a bunny-girl-style magical girl costume. It was in such a state of ruin that it barely functioned as clothing. From the fleshy midriff bulging out of the leotard to the legs where the meat was squeezed tightly into the mesh of the fishnet tights, everything was a disaster.
This was likely the person inside the VTuber, Magical☆Milky-chan. Because of the sheer impact of the sight, I found myself staring intently. My eyes met Milky's. He quickly tried to hide his body with his hands.
"D-Did you do this?! How... no, more importantly, what's your goal?!"
I had no idea what was happening either. In any case, an abnormality had occurred in this VR game, and it seemed to be a situation that even the creator himself couldn't get under control.
"Ha! Don't tell me... are you planning to expose my true identity on the internet?! That's it, isn't it?! Stop it! You'll regret this... don't think you'll get away with your life if you make an enemy of the Zoldyck family of assassins!"
He started rambling about an assassin organization, which was part of the lore for Magical☆Milky-chan. He seemed so frantic that reality and delusion were becoming blurred. To calm him down for the time being, I told him that I had no intention of doing anything that would cause him harm.
"Liar! You're just like everyone else...!"
Milky looked down and fell silent. Since he had closed his mouth, there was no way to know what he was going to say next. Anything I thought would just be my own selfish assumption.
I often watched Magical☆Milky-chan's videos. I was a subscriber, and I had even secretly practiced her finishing move. At first, I had tried to learn from other iTubers. I looked at how they made videos, but what I focused on most was how they built their characters.
I didn't know what kind of person 'Six' was. Was this personality, housed within the body of an insect, enough to truly form a human being? Perhaps I tried to become an iTuber as a way to find that answer—to gain a character named Six who would be recognized by many people.
Milky and the other iTubers were 'models' for me. While I admired them for their brilliant performances on the other side of the screen, I also thought that I could never be like them, no matter how hard I tried. I had convinced myself that they were distant existences that I could never reach.
However, by actually meeting the iTubers through this offline meetup, I realized that those thoughts were a misunderstanding. It wasn't that I was wrong, but I wasn't entirely right either.
Blade Max was obsessed with boasting about his muscles, Noah Heliodor was an eccentric who called me 'Mother,' and Velvet Alecto showed the spitefulness I expected, but she wasn't a truly bad person. And Milky was actually a man and a pervert who wanted to strip people's clothes off under the guise of a game.
They had good points, and they had points that were pretty hopeless. That was only natural. I only knew what was shown in the videos. Because I didn't know them, I could impose my own selfish ideals on them.
Even if I chased such ideals, I would never be able to reach them. What I truly needed to know lay within the things I 'didn't know.'
I walked toward Milky, who was bracing himself fearfully.
The man slowly removed his helmet-shaped VR device. He tapped frantically on the keyboard and checked the laptop placed on the desk. The monitor only displayed error screens, and no further operations were possible. In short, it had become useless.
He let out a sigh and threw his weight back into the chair. The chair groaned under his massive frame. That man, Milluki Zoldyck, stared at his own hand as if he were in a daze.
The conversation he'd just had with Six was extremely baffling to him. His security, which he was confident could repel any group of hackers, had been easily breached, and he had committed the blunder of having almost full control of the game stolen from him. And as for Six, who had managed such a feat, she didn't demand anything.
She didn't try to blackmail him using the scandal of Magical☆Milky-chan's true identity. She didn't ask for money or an apology. Because her objectives were so unclear, he couldn't predict what she was thinking, which actually made him more anxious. To every suspicion he threw at her, Six simply shook her head in denial.
Naturally, there was no way he could believe her. Faced with Milluki's paranoia, the only action Six took was to hold out her hand. At first, Milluki didn't know what she wanted, but then he realized she was asking for a handshake.
He didn't respond at first, but he eventually gave in to Six, who continued to hold out her hand in silence, and he took it. It was a hollow interaction in a virtual space, without even the sensation of touch. Yet, he felt the meaning behind the action.
'Sniff... I'm sorry for being mean. To tell the truth, Mil-pyon just wanted a friend who was also a magical girl...'
'You might think it's weird if I say this... but if it's okay, would you be friends with Mil-pyon?'
"D-Dammit...!"
As if to shake off his own past statements that had surfaced in his mind, he began to devour the snacks spread out on the desk. He shoved them into his mouth, unconcerned that crumbs were spilling everywhere.
"That brat... getting in the way of my perfect plan."
The annual iTube year-end offline meetup was special this year. Driven by the hype of an event expected to have unprecedented excitement, Milluki, who rarely ever went out, had actually hauled himself to the venue. However, once things kicked off, this was the result.
Confronted with the start of an unexpected death game, Milluki hadn't been that panicked. Since he had always avoided being known as the performer behind Magical☆Milky-chan, even the management didn't know his true identity. When entering the venue, he had gone out of his way to obtain a general admission ticket instead of using the special ticket distributed for the 'Children.'
As for the game itself, the presence of Magical☆Milky-chan was completely sidelined by the radio interference that occurred throughout the ship. Infuriated by this, Milluki had launched a hack into the ship's control system.
With only a single laptop and a security level higher than he expected, it took a bit of time, but he managed to break through. He reset the ship's flight path to the nearest airport where it could land. Along the way, he planned a solo live performance for Magical☆Milky-chan as entertainment until the ship arrived, but he was met with unexpected interference, leading to the current situation.
The control of the ship had likely been seized by the management again. Milluki couldn't predict how they intended to resolve this ship's situation or this game. The series of destructive plans forced through by the management made their true intentions even more confusing.
In fact, the explosions occurring in various parts of the ship were not orchestrated by Milluki. He didn't have the time to go around planting bombs, nor did he bring the equipment. He had only changed the ship's route. The bombs had been prepared by the management.
The management, having lost control of the ship to Milluki, had staged the bomb attacks as if to say they would rather make it impossible to fly if they couldn't have their way. Even Milluki felt a bit of a chill at that madness.
"Well, it has nothing to do with me."
The locations of the bombs had been identified through his hacking. It seemed the enemy was going around destroying them manually, but in any case, as long as he wasn't personally harmed, he had nothing to say.
He wasn't worried. This was because he had already achieved his primary objective through the hack. While making the ship head for the airport was one goal, he wasn't that concerned about it because he knew from the start it probably wouldn't succeed.
At the speed of this giant cruise airship, it would take more than a day to reach the nearest airport no matter how much they hurried. It was difficult for Milluki to maintain control of the ship's systems for that long. It seemed the enemy also had some fairly capable hackers, so even without the incident with Six, it was only a matter of time before the enemy regained control.
So, why did Milluki initiate the hack? It was to access 'a certain device' that he believed the enemy possessed. It was a device that allowed communication with the outside even during radio interference.
The waves emitted by this device had a powerful jamming effect in themselves and were typically used as military weaponry. It wasn't the kind of equipment that would normally be on this ship, but Milluki had predicted that the enemy would bring it on board.
His prediction was correct, and by accessing that device, he sent a distress signal outside the ship.
However, he knew that asking for help from law enforcement or other security organizations would be meaningless. If the mastermind had planned an incident of this scale, they weren't someone an organization composed of ordinary people could handle.
Since the mastermind was thinking of making Nen users fight each other, they would surely be prepared for combat against Nen users. He didn't know how well a collection of average practitioners would hold up.
To truly crush this game, he needed someone with the strength to make it possible. And Milluki had just the person in mind. He was the second son of the legendary Zoldyck family of assassins, and an assassin himself beyond any doubt. While he wasn't particularly suited for combat, the other members of his family were all monsters.
The one he had summoned was his grandfather, Zeno Zoldyck. Although he had stepped down from his position as head of the family, his strength undoubtedly made him one of the world's most powerful Nen users. Using Zeno's ability, Dragon Head, approaching an airship drifting over the ocean would be easy.
Calling his family to this location carried the risk of exposing him as the performer behind Magical☆Milky-chan, but he had no other choice. This was a request based on a formal 'transaction.' Zeno, having accepted the job, wouldn't pry into the circumstances of his client, Milluki, and even if his secret was discovered, he wouldn't speak of it to others. He had promised a reward that included those conditions.
Until Zeno arrived, Milluki just had to wait by hiding or running. He was technically a Nen user and, as a fledgling assassin, he could at least protect himself. Milluki confidently downed a carbonated drink from a plastic bottle.
"Burp! This is the end. They're unlucky to have made an enemy of the Zoldycks."
First, killing the mastermind of this game was a given, and many people from the management who were complicit would likely die as well. As for other targets to kill...
The face of a certain girl flashed in Milluki's mind. She knew his secret. That alone was worth ten thousand deaths, but Milluki couldn't decide on a clear answer.
For now, capture her, then torture her, and then, if she didn't show a rebellious attitude toward him...
"Maybe a collab stream between Magical☆Milky-chan and Six wouldn't be a bad idea... Hehe... Hehehehe..."