“…That’s terrible…”
When Oniisan found Shiro-san and the others, and while listening to the person named Hinata speak, I started to feel sick.
I don’t know everything about Shiro-san, but there’s talk that people with exceptional jobs should belong to the same community, and even that marriage between such people is encouraged.
It seems that since dungeons appeared in this world, traditions like arranged marriages between prestigious families have resurfaced. It’s not completely unrelated to me either, but to be honest, I think it’s pretty outdated.
And Hinata-san was too focused on earning evaluation points.
Without considering Shiro-san’s feelings, Hinata-san acted on his own, only to be rejected by Shiro-san—and then he was attacked by that masked monster.
“Fujiwara-kun, don’t fight! Run…!!”
It was a voice like a scream. I felt the same as Shiro-san.
It’s strange for such a strong monster to appear here. And it’s pointless to try to face it—there’s no way we could fight it. That’s what I thought.
“Cipher, we have to survive no matter what…!”
“…Understood.”
It wasn’t me who replied, but the AI.
The AI I had trained was braver than I was. But because of that, I think I woke up.
After a fierce battle, just before Oniisan was about to be attacked—I, along with Shiro-san, was able to attack the masked monster.
I was completely absorbed in the moment. I didn’t even notice the worried nurse watching from the room until it was all over.
◆◇◆
I showed the nurse, Seno-san, the footage captured by the camera.
She’s like a big sister to me, though calling her my partner in crime sounds a bit bad—she’s more like a mischievous friend who goes along with my plans.
“…How is it? Pretty amazing, right?”
“…I almost wet myself. What is this, a movie? A horror movie villain appeared, and at the end, the heroine gave the hero CPR…”
“H-Huh… That couldn’t be helped. It was really dangerous, so Shiro-san was desperate too. Umm, did you really…?”
“No, I didn’t. It was just a feeling. Like, I almost got soaked… But I probably shouldn’t say that to you, Sana-chan.”
“…Are you taking this seriously?”
“I’m dead serious, don’t worry. But at the end, I was curious—why did Fuji-kun say ‘handled’ like that?”
That part bothered me too. I rewound the footage to check how it was worded.
“Sensei, we handled that monster.”
Oniisan had certainly defeated the “villain” that Seno-san mentioned. Using compressed attacks from the purple balloon, he had dealt a major blow to the villain.
After that, the villain disappeared. Oniisan saw it too, but he used the word “handled,” which made the teacher think the monster had fled.
“…Maybe because he’s a ‘baggage carrier,’ he thought no one would believe him if he said he defeated it?”
“…That’s… so wrong…”
“Sana-chan?”
That’s not right, I thought. My heart raced, and the beeping alert went off for a second.
What Oniisan did can’t be described properly with the word “handled.” If it ended with the vague idea that he just “dealt with” a monster Hinata-san couldn’t defeat… just thinking about it filled me with frustration.
“He doesn’t know about the video you shot with Cipher, does he? Since he just enrolled, he might not even realize videos can be used to prove his achievements.”
“…That might be true.”
“The S-Channel automatically reviews uploads within two hours, so I think Fuji-kun’s evaluation will be confirmed. If we do nothing, instead of ‘defeated a boss-level monster,’ he might just get credited with ‘driving away a monster.’”
I can’t let that happen to Oniisan.
But I really want everyone to know what Oniisan did. He seems fine with “handled,” so I can’t ask him to change that—if I act on my own, he might hate me for it, but still…
I just can’t stand the thought of Tsukasa-san’s achievement going unrecognized.
It’s all selfish of me. Even if I end up being seen as an overly obsessive fan, I can’t stop.
“Should we go for it? Let’s edit the footage with a little more flair than the last doll-cam video. A lot of S-Channel videos are pretty flashy, though some people get in trouble for over-editing real events. But don’t worry, I won’t make that mistake.”
“…I’m so glad Seno-san is my friend.”
“Huh, a friend? I think of you as my best friend, Sana-chan. Heh heh heh… Alright, let’s get to work. Now that the red alert’s gone off, just take it easy from here on.”
Seno-san placed her laptop on the bedside table so I could see and started editing. She humbly says it’s just a hobby, but she puts real effort into everything she does.
“…We’ll need to protect their privacy for this life-saving scene, right?”
“Y-Yeah, of course. We don’t want to cause trouble for them.”
“Sana-chan, your face is all red. Falling in love really changes people, huh? You’re still in elementary school, but you’re already so mature.”
“Ahh… Don’t tease me! You’re going to make my heart rate go up!”
“How about this for a safe video title on S-Channel? I’d really like to add more flair, though.”
“Seno-san, how long do you think it’ll take?”
“With this kind of editing, I can get it done in two hours. The lab PC’s specs are top-notch, so it’ll be quick.”
At that time, I didn’t fully understand.
Even though I knew how amazing Oniisan was, I had underestimated just how incredible he truly was.
That same day, I tried to upload the video to S-Channel—and made one mistake.
I accidentally posted the video on my main account, the one I’ve been using to upload doll-cam videos, with over 100,000 subscribers, and left it public for one hour.
“Super-tier Monster Appears in Beginner Academy Dungeon! Freshman Rookie’s Solo Defeat!”
At first glance, it was just another video that could easily get lost among the others.
But then my followers started sharing it, and major explorers both in Japan and overseas noticed it.
By morning, it had hit seven digits in views—and I had to wake up a still-sleeping Seno-san with an urgent nurse call.