Have I Become an Idol?

On the way back to the dorm, I was wrestling with a serious problem: if Exusiai’s saliva tasted sweeter to me than the juice itself, then why was I still drinking the juice? Wouldn’t it be more wonderful to abandon the bottle and drink directly from the source?

The thought made my heart pound. I stole another glance at Exusiai, and she was still looking at me, too. Her ruby-like eye seemed to be fixated on my lips. It went without saying that she was thinking the exact same thing.

I subconsciously licked my lips and saw her swallow. The eager look on her face was like that of a starving child entering a high-end restaurant for the first time in three years.

Seriously, could anyone even survive three years of starvation? Wouldn’t they be a ghost by then?! Could it be that the true meaning of this metaphor was that Exusiai was actually a starving ghost… for affection?

How fitting. My metaphors are…

Fortunately, it was late, and we were all exhausted. In our sleepy state, other thoughts and desires were significantly dulled, and no violent incidents involving mouths slapping against other mouths occurred.

Just as before, with Saber’s help, we retraced our steps and climbed back into our dorm room. In the darkness, we put our things back in our lockers and climbed into bed.

There was no way I was getting up on time tomorrow morning.

…

The night was deep. Most people were already lost in their dreams, but the audience that had just witnessed an incredibly bizarre and thrilling livestream on Tw*tch was wide awake.

Setting aside the young lady who had wet her bed and was now trapped in the dilemma of not wanting to get up and change the sheets, let’s talk about Qin Qiong’s dorm. Not a single one of the four guys was asleep.

Qin Qiong was the sole viewer who had been following the stream since its DOTA days. He’d even sent a private message to the streamers earlier, asking if they were the same ones who used to play DOTA, and had received a shocking “yes” in response.

Qin Qiong had been stunned for a long time, his mind struggling to process it. The delicate and cute Kiriko, the handsome and cool Exusiai, the beautiful and refined Yukinoshita Yukino, and the stunningly heroic Saber—the image of these four beautiful boys or girls sitting in a row at an internet cafe playing DOTA was practically performance art.

It was too postmodern!

The moment the stream had gone live, Qin Qiong had excitedly shared it with his three roommates. At first, the other three guys had refused. They couldn’t just believe that Kiriko had jumped into the real world just because he said so. A video could be full of special effects, making Kiriko all boing~boing~ and lifelike, but in reality, no such Kiriko existed. It had to be fake.

But when the three guys were forced to watch the beginning of the stream, they were utterly shocked. They even began to suspect that it wasn’t Kiriko who had crossed over into the real world, but that they themselves were living in the world of Sword Art Online or Gun Gale Online. That they were the 2D characters!

Putting aside those wishful thoughts, the chubby guy, glasses guy, and lanky guy were completely hooked. They huddled around the computer with Qin Qiong, staring at the screen as intently as if they were watching a certain kind of unmentionable film.

Take the chubby guy, for example. At first, he was just amazed by the streamers’ heavenly looks; simply put, he was lusting after their bodies. But soon, the content of the stream itself had him captivated. When he saw the hair in the trash can, he genuinely shivered, his back went cold, and the hairs on his arms stood on end. He kept telling himself it was all fake, just flashy special effects. But as the stream progressed, the fingernails, the teeth, and the eyeball that flashed across the screen, many things seemed far too real to be faked.

By this point, the chubby guy was in complete awe of the four seemingly delicate streamers. If he and his roommates had encountered such a situation, they would have probably been scared witless. They could never be like these streamers, who charged forward as if they could die twice and still come back for more.

Later, when that gnarled, misshapen figure, who could have been human or ghost, appeared without warning, the chubby guy nearly jumped out of his chair. He stared at the screen, transfixed, and even long after the police sirens could be heard and the cute and brave Kiriko ended the stream, he remained lost in a daze.

The screen went dark, but the chat was still on fire.

Besides the many comments about how terrifying and exciting it was, many people were also debating the authenticity of the event. After someone posted, “The cops showed up, how could it be fake?” the discussion shifted to what had actually happened in that abandoned dorm. The whole situation was so complex that no one knew what to make of it. But the one point of consensus was that this was, without a doubt, the most brilliant and thrilling livestream anyone had ever seen.

The topic shifted when someone posted, “Kiriko is so cute! I’m gonna be a Kiriko-stan~”. After that, the barrage of comments changed from discussing the stream itself to debating which streamer they liked the most.

There were girls saying, “Exusiai is such a flirt, I think I’m in love UwU”.

There were guys proclaiming, “Yukino is the truly beautiful one, this must be my first love…” (despite having had countless “first loves” before).

And there were the more open-minded individuals anxiously asking, “I wonder if Saber is a boy or a girl? I like them so much, if they’re a boy, I’d totally be down to get topped by them!”

If Saber saw that comment, she would probably burst into tears, crying, “Why is it that the one person who finally likes me has to be a perverted old man?!”

Compared to all the comments arguing over the streamers’ looks, Qin Qiong was disdainful. He had long since moved past such base tastes as lusting after someone’s body. He was more focused on higher, more refined things, like the content of the stream itself.

After watching the whole stream, while others were left thinking about how exquisite Exusiai’s collarbones were, how lewd Yukino’s exposed ankles were, or how perfectly Saber’s monocle suited her… Qin Qiong was different. His thoughts were much purer. For example—

“Kiriko lickinglickinglickinglickinglickinglicking!!!”

“I love girls who are like little waifu, it just hits the spot for me!”

“Must pat must pat must pat must pat must pat!!”

“Just too cute… I’ve decided, I’m a Kiriko-stan!!”

So… this is what you call “more refined things”?! Your “focus on the content of the stream” is just drooling over Kiriko??? You only like Kiriko, how pure of you!!!

Wait a minute… that first comment that started the whole debate, “Kiriko is so cute! I’m gonna be a Kiriko-stan~”… You didn’t happen to post that, did you?!”

Bingo. Qin Qiong was the one who posted that comment.