The Villainess VTuber Rips People Apart-Chapter 189

"? Are you staying here?"

Seeing Shina standing vacantly, Louis asked.

"Well… I’m staying here."

"Huh? Why?"

"If I chase after them now, I'll just be a latecomer, right? To have a chance for a comeback… I think I have to do something others wouldn’t."

Shina said so.

Half of it was an excuse, and the other half was sincere.

The three Auroras on the screen.

Were they really just running away from the participants without any plan?

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Perhaps they had a destination, and that final destination could be this very starting point… Shina gambled on that faint possibility.

'…Since I’m outclassed financially, I can’t compete with the other participants.'

With only 8 points, Shina found it too difficult to stand a chance against the other participants. So, it made sense to gather more information while aiming for a comeback.

In this place, she could observe the Auroras, so there was a chance to gather vital information.

And on top of that, she thought it might be a good opportunity to get closer to Louis.

'Now that I think about it, I don’t really need to win, right? My goal is to connect with Louis.'

She didn’t care much about impressing Aurora. After all, her goal was to be in Louis’s good graces.

"Really? Then do you want to sit next to me?"

Louis casually offered a chair.

Shina hesitated and sat next to her. Somehow, she felt a little nervous…

"I think it’s the first time we’re talking alone, right? Oh, well, not exactly the first time."

Realizing that Shina was awkward, Louis started a conversation.

"We met at the Badrio Festival, right?"

"Ah, yes. That’s right. I went to greet you there, Louis-senpai."

"You can drop the ‘senpai’~. I told you you don’t have to use that!"

Louis said with a smile.

"And I don’t like being called ‘senpai.’ You know that, right?"

"Ah, right... Ah, honorifics..."

Shina made another slip-up, and Louis shrugged as if it didn’t matter.

"Did you use the gift I gave you?"

"Ah, yes! I’ve been using it well!"

"I heard you like the ‘Your Harmony’ character. That’s why I gave you a few accessories."

Louis casually explained to the viewers about the time they met at the Badrio Festival.

Meanwhile, the fierce battle for Aurora was unfolding on the monitor.

Sora shooting at Chel.

Chel swinging a crowbar at Sora.

Aurora leaping over Sora's head.

Chel throwing a bomb.

Sora swinging an axe and severing Chel’s arm.

Smoke grenades exploding.

Suddenly, Nalim crashing into the truck.

[How did they know...?]

The most surprising thing was that the person who was supposed to be Aurora was actually Inakika.

"Wow… I thought it was Aurora."

"Inakika is great at acting, despite her appearance."

"Really?"

"She does TRPG broadcasts. She’s the GM… no, I think she’s the Keeper. To be a TRPG Keeper, you have to play a lot of NPCs."

"I’ve never done TRPG."

Shina had never watched Inakika’s broadcasts.

Sometimes, highlights of Inakika failing at a gacha would pop up in the algorithm, but she had always thought Inakika seemed like a timid person.

"When Inakika switches on, she doesn’t stutter."

"You know her well."

"I’ve done TRPG with her on her channel. She’s good at following a set script or guidelines."

So that’s how it was.

Well, EYEAI was a relatively well-known VTuber company in Korea. The sixth batch was selected through auditions, so it was clear that each of them had their own unique abilities and personalities to make the cut.

Anyway, once it was revealed that the Aurora they were chasing was actually Inakika, everyone let out a sigh.

[Sora, what should we do now?]

[We have to think logically, right? One of them is probably Mero-senpai, and the other one is Inakika.]

[That’s probably right? But Anna is already chasing the middle Aurora.]

[Still, we should go.]

So Sora and Nalim drove the truck toward the ‘middle Aurora’ that Anna was chasing.

[What about Chel...?]

[I’ll chase after the Aurora on the far left of the screen.]

After colliding with the truck, Chel quickly recovered and started talking to Inakika.

It wasn’t really a life-or-death game, after all. No matter how much damage you took, the game was designed so that you would recover with the passage of time.

[Ugh…]

[Don’t you want to go back to your original form?]

[Well, about that… Until the game ends, I have to stay in Aurora’s form…]

[It’s really uncomfortable.]

Chel said that, and without chasing anyone anymore, she went after the last Aurora.

Speaking as Aurora, Inakika definitely had a sense of detachment.

Later, when Anna watched the replay, she responded with "This is kinda hot," and Nalim also thought, "Maybe this has its own charm?" Some viewers even thought it was okay.

But that was all in the future.

"The person in the best position right now is Anna."

Anna had been chasing the middle Aurora from the beginning.

Having purchased a motorcycle (10 points), she was speeding down the road at full throttle.

"Sora and Nalim are chasing, but the gap is too big. It seems Anna has a higher chance of catching Aurora first."

"But is the one Anna’s chasing really Aurora?"

"I can’t tell you that, can I? You’re a participant too."

"Ah, too bad."

She had hoped to get some inside information but failed.

…Anyway, this was starting to feel dangerous, right?

One of the three Auroras had already been exposed as Inakika.

The other was likely to be caught by Anna soon.

The last one, Chel, was still chasing after it.

'…The three Auroras don’t seem like they’ll all return here.'

If they did come back to the high-rise building, Shina’s plan to take the first move was quickly becoming impossible.

In fact, all three were moving farther from the high-rise, and Shina’s thoughts were nothing but 'It’s over.'

…Would the viewers criticize her?

She had participated in such a big broadcast but ended up doing nothing, just standing still.

It wouldn’t be the first time she was criticized, so she tried to brush it off.

But she couldn’t just do nothing.

To show that she hadn’t given up until the end, she needed to focus on targeting Louis, the host of the event.

"By the way, we’re doing the song relay project, right?"

She casually started a conversation.

"Right? But has the list of song relay participants been announced?"

"It’s already been announced on Sora’s channel. Ah, can I promote it? We’re doing a Fantasia League song relay."

"Should I explain it too? Sora planned the song relay, and I helped gather the participants."

"Really? But, Louis-senpai... Ah, I shouldn't call you 'senpai'... Louis, did you decide on the setlist? Since we participated in the Badrio Festival, it might be a bit tough."

"Yeah, that’s true."

Louis nodded.

"But we have to make it work. We need subscribers to survive, right?"

"You’re worried about subscribers too."

"I always talk about it! I know you’re a huge VTuber, Shina, but for a small-time VTuber like me, I have to do everything to survive."

"I’m not that amazing either..."

Shina flinched, worried she might have upset Louis.

Then, she paused, keeping quiet for a moment.

"…"

"Shina? Why are you suddenly so quiet?"

Louis gave her a curious look.

Shina sat still, staring at the screen.

On the screen, Anna had captured Aurora.

[Wait?! Really? Is it really her?]

Anna looked shocked on the screen.

And the Aurora on screen said,

[Ah, I got caught. I wasn’t supposed to get caught~.]

That voice was Aurora's.

It was probably a recording of Aurora’s voice, which had been taught to others to mimic.

But the expression was someone else's.

Hanabane Louis.

[Louis-chan! Then who was the Louis-chan we saw earlier?]

[Hmm, I wonder who that could be.]

"…Are you Aurora?"

Shina stood up absentmindedly from her chair.

Louis, with her innocent face.

But somehow, she had her arms crossed, and her legs were crossed.

She smiled.

"Did you just figure it out?"