Ch.163158 – The Search Volume Showdown

I had just returned to my private room after ending the stream.

I knocked on the door a couple of times to respect Adella’s privacy.

In response, Adella came running with what looked like the most exaggerated frown possible and lifted me up with ease.

“What are you doing? My armpits are ticklish, can you put me down?”

“Hey! NoName sis! Why are you only coming now?!”

“‘Hey’?”

“Let’s go to the amusement park together!”

“What? The amusement park? Now? At this hour?”

“Yes!”

Adella gently placed me back on the floor and started up the projector.

She put on glasses from who knows where and began a grand presentation with a thin pointer stick.

[Reasons Why We Must Go to Tokyo Desireland VR World Right Now!]

“Go ahead. I won’t stop you.”

“Nooooo! Just listen to the end, pleeeease.”

“Fine.”

Using a rainbow background with a Bonobono template PowerPoint would make even my willingness to approve disappear.

That’s why I gave my approval as quickly as possible.

Anyway, I watched Adella passionately explain and came to a conclusion.

“So you want to go see the fireworks tonight, right?”

“And it’s a special show that happens once a year! They say they synchronize the real-world show with this world! Don’t you want to see it?”

“What’s the difference between synchronizing it and just creating it in virtual reality?”

“There’s probably no difference… ugh, you really have no sense of romance, sis!”

Adella took off her glasses and placed them on the desk. Looking again, they were frames without lenses.

“So you’ll come with me, right?”

“Huh?”

“You weren’t planning to refuse after hearing all that, were you?”

“I get it. You can’t access servers in other countries because of the national firewall, right?”

I was wondering why this kid who usually plays well by herself was suddenly so clingy today.

“Tch! This is why perceptive kids are…!”

“Is that how you ask someone for a favor?”

“Please, I beg you, onee-sama! I really want to go to Japan!”

Since I had Professor Cheon as my nationally certified strong backing as family, there was no protocol issue with me going to the Japanese server.

However, to bring Adella along, I needed at least two guardians, and I wondered if there was anyone besides me who had access to the Japanese server.

I scrolled through my short friends list.

I’d never heard of Sia unnie playing LoL on another server.

The same would probably be true for other clan members.

Suddenly, Kariri’s status changed from offline to online.

With her suspiciously large number of Japanese viewers, she might work.

* * *

Yoonseul was shocked to hear they were heading straight to the Japanese server.

“I have time… but… wait, if we’re going, let me quickly change my avatar first…!”

“No way! The world is about to hit its 50,000 person limit. We need to go now!”

Adella kept rushing her.

But Yoonseul was extremely anxious.

Her current body wasn’t Kariri’s.

It was small, skinny, and without any special charm.

“What’s the big deal?”

Name asked, not understanding.

“We’re just going for fun, not streaming, right? Isn’t it uncomfortable to spend too long in a different body?”

Virtual reality avatars weren’t all-powerful.

The human brain always tends to maintain homeostasis.

In the VR World, users could create various avatars as they wished, but the physical disconnect that occurs during long periods of connection inevitably affects the user in some way.

Name pointed this out while tugging at Yoonseul’s sleeve.

“If we don’t take Adella today, she’ll complain all day, so let’s hurry. Besides, you’re pretty like an idol anyway.”

“Hurry! It’s at 49,500 people now!”

Adella, tired of jumping around, directly led the two of them out to the VR SPACE.

[VR – Tokyo Desireland 20:00 ~ 22:00 (49819/50000)]

[IEEE 903.18: Approved.]

[Waiting…]

“Ugh, why is this line so long?!”

As Adella lamented, there was a long entrance line even in the VR World.

In other servers, you’d normally just drop into the middle of the world upon entry.

But not here.

If you’re wondering why they verify identities manually through security personnel instead of digitally in a VR world, the answer is quite simple.

Because it’s Japan. Don’t ask questions, it’s just Japan.

Name thought it was fortunate they made it within the 50,000 limit.

Otherwise, she’d have to deal with Adella complaining for hours about breaking promises, like when they didn’t let her explore outside during their visit to Korea University.

Meanwhile, Yoonseul, unable to hide her anxiety, kept biting her thumbnail.

When the crunching sound reached Adella’s ears, she asked irritably:

“What’s been bothering you this whole time? What are you so anxious about?!”

“Well… that’s…”

“What’s wrong, unnie? Are you sick?”

Name was also curious about Yoonseul’s behavior, which was completely different from usual.

She seemed like a totally different person.

“They might recognize me… I can’t be seen with this face…”

Her gaze trembled anxiously.

Adella and Name looked at each other and tilted their heads, not understanding.

“They… they all think I’m the one who caused Chena unnie’s death…”

“Chena?”

Adella had no idea who that was, but Name had heard of her.

A Korean singer who ended her life due to depression last year. After wracking her brain trying to remember where else she’d heard the name, she recalled it was linked in Kariri’s Triwiki entry.

[Regarding Idol Chena’s Death]

“No one seems to know you though?”

“No, they’ll definitely know…”

In news reports about Chena’s death worldwide, Yoonseul’s own photo was always prominently displayed.

The video that Yoonseul and Chena briefly streamed before entering their capsules was still being illegally circulated.

Above all, there were too many people.

Without Kariri’s body to protect her from people, Yoonseul found this atmosphere unbearable.

What if someone recognized her? Here were not just Japanese people but people from all over the world.

If hundreds of millions of people knew Chena, then half the people here would have seen her face at least once through the news…

And if any of Chena’s fans were here, how could she face them?

Yoonseul couldn’t find an answer.

What pulled her from her thoughts was Adella’s sharp voice.

“Hey, look at this.”

Suddenly, Adella lifted Yoonseul, who was crouching, to her feet.

“Your name is Seol Yoonseul, right?”

A blue window opened in front of Adella.

She entered “Adella” and “Seol Yoonseul” in the search field.

[Extracting search volume data]

“Ah…”

“You’re quite self-conscious, aren’t you?”

Adella swiped the screen interface with her hand and passed it to her.

Yoonseul stared blankly at the screen.

[Search volume: Adella (83,103,380)

Seol Yoonseul (20,494)]

“8 million? No, 83 million? 83 million people searched for me? Compared to that, you’re only at 20,000?”

Adella wagged her tail back and forth proudly as she spoke.

“I don’t know what you’re so worried about, but nobody here knows you. Acting like you’re some star.”

“Ah…”

At her words, Yoonseul felt like she’d been hit in the head with a hammer.

“Whereas I actually am a star, hehe.”

Adella lightly brushed her nose.

“That self-praise came out of nowhere.”

“Would it kill you to just agree with me?!”

“Hurry up and apologize to Kariri unnie.”

“Tch! You call this little squirt ‘unnie’ so respectfully, but you keep telling me to call you ‘unnie’… this world is completely backwards!”

While Name and Adella were bickering, some passersby approached and asked:

“Umm… are you…”

“Huh?”

“Are you really Adella? Wow, it is you! Amazing!”

“Hehe. Want an autograph?”

“Really? Wow! I’m definitely buying a Lotto Seven ticket today!”

“Me too, me too, Adella-nim!”

Starting with the request from two men with white headbands, a crowd suddenly began to gather around the three girls.

“It’s true! A World of Arsheria NPC has appeared!”

“She looks completely real!”

“Adella-chan, you’re so pretty! Please, just one autograph for me too!”

“Wait, everyone get in line properly!”

The line instantly split into two.

One for Desireland entry, and another long line of people waiting for Adella’s autograph.

“Hehey, see? This is how I live! Name unnie should appreciate this too… Hey, you guys, I won’t be signing once we’re inside the park, so figure out where to cut the line yourselves!”

Adella couldn’t hide her satisfaction even as her hand moved non-stop signing autographs.

Yoonseul looked somewhat dazed at this ridiculous scene straight out of a comedy show.

“Our Adella is a bit self-centered, isn’t she?”

Name squeezed her hand tightly.

It was an impossibly small hand to feel reassurance from.

“I don’t know exactly what experiences Kariri unnie had before. Even if I did know, I probably couldn’t fully empathize with your feelings.”

Humans are fundamentally indifferent to others.

Yuna’s case was an easy example of this.

In the Academy’s elementary division, most students were inevitably wealthy.

At that age, early education has more influence than innate talent.

Even in that situation, no student knew that Yuna was a basic livelihood recipient.

If all students had shown a little interest, perhaps Yuna wouldn’t have gone astray.

Above all, Name herself had been forced to realize this fact through seven years of experience.

Could she blame people who thought someone should be recognized after playing LoL for 50,000 hours over seven years?

Name herself had no right to judge, as she didn’t even know who had played World of Arsheria and Resonance the most.

“People are surprisingly uninterested in others, but there are people around who understand your situation well. Right? I think that’s enough. It’s not like you did anything wrong.”

In Name’s case, it was Cheon Se-min; in Kariri’s case, it was her brother Seol Tae-yang.

“I heard that even fairly famous celebrities often go unrecognized when they walk down the street. So I hope you won’t worry too much about what others think.”

Name had gone through Kariri’s controversy sections,

And couldn’t find anything where she had done something seriously wrong.

She even wondered if the public opinion that Kariri was involved in too many incidents was unfairly stigmatizing her.

[The Desireland 7Wish Festival will begin shortly. Please enter Main Street in an orderly fashion following the guidance of our staff.]

“Shall we go see the fireworks? Adella, are you almost done?”

“Just a minute, unnie! Hey, you! As promised, you need to sign here before you go! Don’t you see this text: ‘Adella is not an AI’? How can you just take an autograph and leave, you Japanese jerks!”

“Let’s abandon her.”

“Ah… fine…!”

“You guys wouldn’t really do that! Hey, waaaait!”