Chapter 17: KongKong Town (2)

Another peaceful day on the KongKong Town Season 2 server.

The scenes from various parts of the server, automatically broadcasted by numerous virtual streamers, continue to sail smoothly with massive viewership as always.

“Kyyeeeek! It’s an invasion of machine civilization!!!”

“…That’s not a machine civilization, it’s just an iron golem. Seriously, you’re such a dumb elf.”

“Wait a second, what did you just say?”

Though there are some scuffles, it’s still technically running smoothly.

“It’s an assault from the Righteous Faction! If we lose our guild coins again, we’re doomed!”

“Oh my, saying it like that makes us sound like the villains. Fufu~”

“Because you are! We’re Joseon-era contract… VTubers, and if Chinese folks are attacking us, then you’re the bad guys!!!”

…Anyway, smooth sailing.

“Seiko! Don’t you remember us?”

“Come back to us! Please!!”

“Foolish heroes. Seiko has been a spy from the start.”

“…Is it really okay to drop such an important plot twist during a Minecraft guild siege?”

To tell the truth, it’s not actually going that smoothly. 

In reality, every moment is a sequence of small-scale battles or full-on wars.

KongKong Server Season 1 had a much more peaceful and wholesome RPG vibe, but in the latter half, content shortages became a serious drawback.

To address that, the admin team ramped up the RPG elements and introduced immersive settings and features en masse.

Additionally, there were exclusive perks just for VTubers—referred to as “Contractors”—including extra benefits from the Dimensional Broadcast Council for the top-ranked guild.

Those additions alone were enough to turn KongKong Town Season 2 into a battlefield riddled with betrayal and cunning schemes.

Some viewers have expressed nostalgia for the sweet and peaceful vibe of the previous season, but those are only a minority.

Currently, the viewership for KongKong Town Season 2 is already far surpassing the total accumulated views of Season 1.

So, if one had to summarize KongKong Town as it stands today, it’s basically an all-out warzone for everyone.

Whether they’re good-aligned RP VTubers, villain RP VTubers, or neutral ones, they’re all starved for blood and carnage.

Good thing the base game is still the cutesy sandbox game Minecraft. If it weren’t, half the VTubers might’ve broken character by now.

[Warning! System announcement.]

Anyway, it was on a day like any other, filled with simultaneous conflicts and battles across KongKong Town—

[A non-standard lifeform classified as 001-EX has entered the dimension.]

A server-wide alert, which usually only shared system notices, maintenance info, or guild conquest updates, suddenly fired off this red warning message to every VTuber at once.

“…Huh?”

“What the?”

“Eh…?”

And less than a minute after that alert, all the small and large battles in KongKong Town abruptly came to a halt.

-What’s this? What’s a non-standard lifeform?

-Lol this must be a raid boss teaser, right?

-Honestly, all the constant fighting was getting a bit stale—guess the admins finally got their act together

-Let’s rally the guild and go open-run this thing! GOGOGO

Of course, the viewers watching the stream just assumed it was teasing an upcoming major event.

-Non-standard lifeform classification 001-EX?

-Huh, that looks familiar…

-Wait… our Shia is that much of a world-class being…?

Some of the Abyss subscribers did realize that the message might be connected to Minater Shia—but only a tiny few.

Even though her debut stream exploded in popularity, Shia had only debuted less than a week ago, and her fandom was still small, making her a mid-level newcomer at best.

So the odds of her becoming the central focus of a main event in a giant server full of VTubers several times her size seemed incredibly low.

[Minater Shia: Where is this place?]

[Minater Shia: Was there a dimension I couldn’t observe before?]

Until Minater Shia’s message appeared in the Kong Kong Town global chat, everyone had been thinking the same thing.

-?

-?

-Huh?

The question marks from a few viewers who recognized Shia quickly vanished beneath the flood of comments from others who assumed this was just the start of a new large-scale event.

“Huh, haha. What is this?”

“Uh, everyone, I’m going to step away to the bathroom for a bit…”

“…Th-this wasn’t part of the script.”

Normally, VTubers would match this kind of hype with an appropriately dramatic reaction. But this time, most of them had frozen in place.

And not just metaphorically frozen at their desks—they were literally frozen in place.

All of them were logged into the Minecraft world using avatar devices provided by the Dimensional Broadcasting Committee.

And those who already knew that an “Out-of-Standard Lifeform Classification 001-EX” had recently infiltrated Earth couldn’t help but tremble in fear—even if they knew they were just avatars.

Because anyone who had seen her true form floating above the skies even once… knew exactly what those cursed tentacles were capable of.

[Jupiter Nazma has used a Locator.]




[Asteria Leon has used a Locator.]




[Bellatus Lunya has used a Locator.]

That said, not all VTubers were frozen in fear.

“Hmm… I was starting to get bored anyway.”

“Hehe, perfect timing. Time to finish the revenge I didn’t get last time.”

“I’m just an avatar now, right? No need for faith points to respawn—this is perfect.”

For example, some of the EN Gen 1 members who had joined in collaboration to help launch the upcoming GloVerse-KR project.

[Cheonma Wolhyang has used a Locator.]

“This time, I’ll cut through the heavens and slice her again.”

With her usual pitiful behavior gone, the woman now exuded killing intent as she drew her sword (a diamond one, of course).

“…Everyone back off. I’ll take care of that bastard myself.”

“U-Um, can a hero really say that…?”

“…Shut it. Stay out of this.”

“This is why she’s more popular with women than men… Eek! Sorry!”

Even though the Demon King’s guild base was right in front of them, this hero from another world turned her back on it, consumed by a pure desire for revenge.

[★Magical Girl Yuhanul★ has used a Locator.]




[Charlotte Sherinford has used a Locator.]




[Kurogami Izuna has used a Locator.]






[Kangshim has used a Locator.]




(and so on…)

The strongest beings from across various dimensions all used their Locators in a frenzy, almost like they were competing.

[Admin: Emergency Notice Incoming]

Just as a strange atmosphere began to settle over the once-“peaceful” Kong Kong Town—

[Admin: Starting at 13:27, the server will undergo an emergency one-hour maintenance. We apologize for the sudden notice—]

Right when the chat window was flooded with Locator usage logs, the admin announcement popped up.

[Connection Terminated] 

[Reason: Emergency Maintenance]

And with that, everyone was forcibly logged out of Kong Kong Town.

***

Meanwhile, back in the office where Haru and K were staying…

“What? What did you just say?”

“…I have no excuse.”

“No, K, you don’t need to be the one apologizing.”

After hearing the whole story from K, Haru looked down at her, brow furrowed as she knelt in a dogeza.

“The dev team responsible for this disaster was just fired. If you’d like, we can arrange further disciplinary action…”

“…Wait. Is Kong Kong Town also under the Dimensional Broadcasting Committee?”

“……”

“Sigh.”

Haru clutched his head again, as if he’d just swallowed a red pill about the true nature of Kong Kong Town.

“Mind repeating what you said earlier?”

As he asked in a cold tone, K began to sweat, opening her mouth again.

“…Please click the email link again, and cross over to that dimension.”

“……”

“You’re the only contractor capable of stopping that unchained sky-octopus…”

Even K herself seemed stunned by what she’d just said and shut her eyes tightly in disbelief.

“Sure, why not.”

“…Huh?”

To her surprise, Haru agreed far too easily. She shot him a startled glance.

“But I have one condition.”

“Wh-what is it?”

“…Heh.”

But when she saw Shia’s smile faintly reflected on Haru’s face, she began sweating again.

“You said a dev was just fired, right? That means there’s an open admin slot now, doesn’t it?”

“W-wait a minute.”

“Or not. We can just leave Shia on auto-hunt over there.”

“…I’ll do a dogeza naked if that’s what it takes. Please, just let this go.”

“Request denied. That thought alone is terrifying.”

“Ugh…”

And so, about an hour later—just before Kong Kong Town reopened—a familiar nickname quietly appeared on the server admin list.

“Alright, let’s hop in, shall we?”

“…I wanna quit everything.”