Chapter 78 : A new house, and… (more)

The landlord.

And the neighbor next door.

And the neighbor next to that one.

Even the ones upstairs and downstairs.

The moment had come to apologize to all the neighbors.

Well, I did think—do I really need to apologize, when I’m moving out tomorrow and will never see them again?

But then again, thinking about the trouble I’ve caused the neighbors over the past two months, that thought vanished real quick.

A lunatic in the next unit who’s always shouting and stomping around because of some crazy livestream?

If it were me, I would’ve shown up with a baseball bat already.

Noise pollution is no joke—it’s seriously stressful.

Wait a minute.

Stomping and screaming.

Uh.

Hmm.

Surely… no one is misunderstanding this in that weird direction, right?

Yeah, no way.

Right?

Probably.

Better to take the hit first—so I contacted the landlord.

Then I told them the truth.

That a huge crack had formed on the floor.

Of course, I couldn’t say it was from smashing my head into it, so I lied and said I dropped something heavy.

The landlord was furious, obviously.

But once I said I’d pay triple whatever the repair cost turned out to be, their tone softened immediately.

[“I see, Miss Jiah in Unit 302. You’re not hurt or anything, are you?”]

“Not at all.”

Money doesn’t guarantee happiness, but…It definitely increases the odds of it.

A little financial therapy worked wonders.

The floor issue and landlord situation seemed more or less handled.

The problem now was: how do I apologize to the neighbors?

Should I just bring cash?

But that feels too soulless.

Yeah, best to go with universally liked gifts—gift cards and beef.

So I headed to the supermarket and bought a bunch of premium beef for gifts.

Then I stopped by the convenience store and bought some gift cards too.

The convenience store clerk looked familiar.

It was the guy I saw every day.

Suddenly.

I bowed my head to the part-timer and said,“Thank you for everything.”

We weren’t that close—we’d only exchanged a few words here and there—so I honestly didn’t know why something like that suddenly came out of my mouth.

The part-timer looked momentarily flustered at what I said.

Then, stammering a bit, he asked,“A-Are you moving out?”

“Yes, that’s how it turned out.”

“Ah, um…”

He fidgeted like he had something he wanted to say.

I quietly waited for him to speak.

Then, with a determined expression, he finally opened his mouth.

“I-I’ll always keep watching your streams! Thank you!”

I wasn’t all that surprised.

I’d sort of expected it.

I had wondered why he seemed to treat me unusually well.

I mean, how often does a convenience store part-timer start conversations with customers?

Come to think of it, he’s probably a true believer too, like that guy from the PC room.

Even though he knew who I was, he never spread rumors in any online communities.

These viewers of mine… maybe, despite how they look on the outside, they’re actually kind-hearted people like little Adoongs.

As a bit of fanservice,I said one thing before leaving the convenience store.

“May the glory of Beachy Mutbyeol be upon you.”

* * *

I was already familiar with the neighbors.

Since there was a set time for taking out the trash, I’d often run into them during those moments.

So knocking on their doors wouldn’t lead to anyone yelling, “Who the hell is this crazy pink-haired chick?”

I roughly planned the apology route.

Start from the unit upstairs—the one that complained the least—and go down from there.

I left the construction worker downstairs for last.

The neighbor upstairs wasn’t home.

I left a handwritten letter I’d prepared along with the gift card and beef wrapped in an icebox in front of their door.

The neighbor two doors down was also out.

The exam prep student next door… probably home, but I didn’t want to interrupt their studying.

So I gently left the gifts at their door too.

The final one was the construction worker downstairs.

Ugh.

Should I knock or not?

He probably holds a huge grudge against me, without a doubt.

There’s no benefit to us seeing each other face to face.

I made up my mind.

I’d just leave the gift and quietly disappear.

Just as I thought that.

Clunk.

The front door opened.

And I found myself face-to-face with the construction worker downstairs, with stubble covering his face.

“Ah.”

“Ah.”

Judging by his appearance, it looked like he was on his way down to the first floor for a smoke.

I was a little flustered, but still, I greeted him first.

“…Hello?”

“302. What is it? Why’d you come here?”

As expected, his reaction was sharp.

Well, I was the one in the wrong, so I bowed my head right away.

“I’m sorryyy!”

“…”

“I’m really, really sorry for being so noisy all this time…! I’m moving out tomorrow, so there won’t be any more disturbances.”

“…”

“…”

“…”

Gulp.

I waited for him to speak.

What kind of words would come out of his mouth?

If it wasn’t a string of curses, that’d already be a win.

Finally, the construction worker sighed, long and deep, as if the ground itself would cave in.

“Haah… What a letdown. I was planning to come yell at you soon, but I didn’t expect you to come apologize like this.”

“I-I’m sorry…”

“It’s fine. Still, it’s good to see a young woman with a conscience. You look about the same age as my daughter, but my kid—man, she’s got zero manners.”

“…”

“So, this is just out of genuine curiosity—not trying to accuse you or anything—but what was that banging sound? It didn’t sound like someone stomping their feet.”

“Ah, that was…”

“I’m seriously asking. Just wondering, that’s all.”

I totally didn’t expect that question.

I hadn’t prepared any sort of excuse.

Caught completely off guard, I blurted out whatever came to mind.

“Um… I was praying.”

“Praying? What kind of religion prays in such a bizarre and loud way?”

For a second, I considered lying.

But if I did and ended up getting punished for blasphemy right in front of this guy, that would be beyond humiliating.

“It’s the Church of Beachy Mutbyeol.”

So I told the truth.

The construction worker gave me a bewildered look.

Then, as if everything suddenly made sense, he nodded.

“So you were a fanatic from some cult. That explains the noise.”

No, I.

Uh.

Not exactly a fanatic.

No, never mind.

I am a fanatic.

Yeah, fair enough.

***

The apology definitely got through.

Maybe I reminded him of his daughter or something, because the construction worker downstairs dropped his grudge and instead launched into a long lecture about how getting into a cult ruins three generations of a family.

How should I even explain it?

It’s more like, if I don’t get into this religion, three generations will be ruined instead… but I couldn’t exactly say that.

So I mumbled something vague and returned home.

The next day.

Moving day.

I didn’t hire professional movers.

The Awakened Association helped me move.

I don’t really know why they go out of their way to help with such trivial stuff,but hey, they offered first, so I didn’t argue.

Out of all my belongings, the most important was obviously my computer.

Anything else could break and I wouldn’t care, but if that thing gets damaged?

Disaster.

The move ended almost anticlimactically fast.

Moved the computer.

Moved the coats and underwear crammed into the closet.

That was it.

I didn’t really have any furniture worth moving.

The folks from the Awakened Association who came to help looked kinda baffled by how little stuff I had.

Anyway.

New home.

The house provided by the Awakened Association was way too big.

So big I couldn’t handle it on my own.

With a place this spacious, I probably won’t even manage to keep it clean.

It felt like it would take a long time to really settle in.

I didn’t need a big house,but I did need a studio for my streams.

Setting up the computer in the studio wasn’t all that difficult.

Mr. Kim Jung-hwan had already done most of the setup,so all I had to do was plug in the cables.

With that, I now had the perfect environment for motion capture streaming.

Ah, no—let’s get it right.

Not motion capture, but Mut-capture, mm-hmm.

V-World has tons of extra features based on its tracking system.

In my old place, I couldn’t make proper use of that system.

It was just way too cramped.

Of course, when I appeared on Ayase’s “Narak Show,” we did use the tracking system then, too.

But since Narak Show was the type of content you could do while sitting still, there was no need to move around much.

I may have been forced to become a VTuber,but precisely because of that, I feel like I have to constantly show new sides of myself to the viewers.

Beachy Mutbyeol probably expects that from me, too.

The duties of the Official Scribe get updated monthly.

It’s not like I’d been given any heads-up about what kind of ridiculous duties would be added next month.

There’s no harm in working hard on my streams.

Making money is just a bonus.

Anyway, just because I have a studio now doesn’t mean I’m going to jump into tracking-based content right away.

Even without tracking, I needed a proper streaming studio.

Now, I can bang my head all I want without worrying about the neighbors giving me side-eyes.

If the floor breaks or something.

I’ll just call Kim Jung-hwan and ask him to fix it.

Kim Jung-hwan.

Fix it.

Even though I didn’t have much luggage, unpacking and memorizing the layout of the new place took some time.

Before I knew it, it was already past midnight.

I didn’t stream today.

I already did a rebroadcast 12 hours later yesterday, just in case, so the monthly duty was fulfilled.

That meant I didn’t have to go live today.

And yet, I turned on the stream.

It’s like, if I don’t go live now, something feels empty inside.

I kinda want Beachy Mutbyeol to notice how hard I’m trying.

***

It was well past noon when I finally woke up,and I realized I had several missed calls from Kim Jung-hwan.

I didn’t pick up because I’d been asleep, but he was probably calling to ask if I liked the new place.

But why did he call three times this early in the morning?

It couldn’t be a request to resolve an Anomalous Phenomenon.

The month isn’t even over yet.

Today is the last day of the month.

Just as I was hesitating about whether or not to call him back,I got a call from Yui Seul at the perfect (or worst) timing.

Without thinking, I answered it.

“Hello?”

[“Hey, why are you waking up so late!?”]

“Ah, I moved yesterday and streamed too, so I went to bed kinda late. Anyway, thank you, Seul. Thanks to you, I found out about the Awakened Housing Support—”

[“Shut it. Don’t care. Not interested. I’ve got something to say.”]

“…”

She really has zero interest in other people’s stories, huh.

She didn’t have to cut me off so aggressively though.

Then, Yui Seul—very uncharacteristically—started to stammer.

[“I really don’t ask for favors unless it’s serious, you know? But this… haah. This is the first time I’ve ever dealt with something like this, so I don’t even know how to explain it.”]

“What’s going on?”

[“Let me get straight to the point.”]

And what she said next…made my face twist in real time.

[“I need your help resolving an Anomalous Phenomenon. I think we’ll need your ability for this one.”]

Ughhh.

The month isn’t even over yet.

And I haven’t even finished exploring my new place!

[“I’m coming to get you. I got your address from Kim Jung-hwan.”]

Don’t come.

[“Actually, I’m already here. You don’t even have time to shower, so hurry up and get outside. Right now. Immediately.”]

Ugh, damn it.

This is a violation of my human rights!