Chapter 62: Akane’s Victory and Thierry’s Revelation

I watched Akane’s intense performance from the perspective of the GM.

Truly a legend, unyielding as ever.

Case by case, international streamers generally broadcast for shorter durations compared to Korean streamers.

Especially among VTubers, streams exceeding 10 hours were rare, with most ending within three hours.

But Akane was different.

Of course—sticking to her RP meant not giving up. Short broadcasts would have been strange for her.

More than 10 hours had already passed since the collab began, yet Akane seemed to be just warming up.

Moss’s main character, Ishikawa Yuzuru, launched into action with his wire skills.

Steel threads, controlled telekinetically, pierced through walls, fixing themselves in place again and again—dozens, hundreds of times.

Blades attached to the threads swirled in all directions, cutting through the air.

In this chaotic scene, Akane, like Ishikawa Yuzuru, jumped onto the steel threads.

Blue wisps rose from her shoes, signifying she had enhanced them with magic.

This allowed her to tread on the steel threads without needing specialized footwear.

Akane moved across the threads in a predetermined order.

After dozens of attempts, she had memorized Yuzuru’s attack patterns.

Dodging blades and evading Yuzuru’s electric strikes with almost acrobatic finesse, Akane’s sword gleamed.

A blue afterimage lingered, followed by faint wisps dispersing into the air—proof her mastery over magic control had reached its peak.

At this point, Yuzuru was no longer a match for her.

Slash.

With a single, decisive strike, Akane cut him down and triumphantly raised her sword.

I applauded her as she approached.

“Akane, you’d do great in the Hell Mode Tutorial Tower.”

“Yurim, sometimes I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

“That’s perfectly normal.”

She sheathed her sword and asked, “Yurim, how long did this game take to develop?”

“Not very long,” I replied casually.

“Really? Is that even possible?”

“Nothing’s impossible.”

As I answered, Akane glanced at the bottom-right corner of her screen to check the stream timer.

“Already 10 hours?”

“As expected from you, Akane.”

“The game’s fun, but honestly, I wanted to chat with you today. Maybe I’ll stop after beating the next boss.”

“You’re not ending the stream until then? Are you sure that’s okay?”

“I don’t remember saying that, but yeah, I’m fine.”

“Works for me.”

“Let’s finish this quickly so we can chat! I’ve prepared a ton of questions!”

With that, Akane hurriedly stepped into the portal.

I couldn’t help but admire her.

What a true legend.

Refusing to end the stream until defeating the next boss—this was exactly the resolve of a shonen manga protagonist.

10th Floor

Master of the Elements

Footsteps echoed in the hallway as I walked, leading to a grand hall.

Light streamed through the stained-glass windows, illuminating the space.

A massive throne came into view.

From atop the throne, someone gazed down at Akane.

When she stepped into the center of the hall, the figure rose from the throne with a swish of their white dress and descended gracefully.

Step, step.

The sound of footsteps filled the silent hall.

When the figure stopped, they faced each other.

Akane recognized the figure—Han Yurim, no…

Thierry.

A boss with the archetype of a magic swordsman. This was going to be fun.

Thierry unsheathed her sword, and so did Akane.

Akane’s blade radiated a blue aura, while flames ignited along Thierry’s.

Crash!

Without hesitation, both lunged forward at the same time, slamming into the ground with force.

Akane darted like a bullet, only to have her view obscured by the earth rising before her.

Despite the sudden obstruction, Akane didn’t panic.

If she couldn’t attack Thierry, the melee boss couldn’t attack her either.

Calmly, Akane moved around the wall and emerged.

Just then—

Swish!

A watery soldier’s spear thrust toward her.

She dodged, but an arrow followed, chipping away at her health.

She hadn’t expected summoned soldiers.

Elemental skills like these were rare in Eternal World, so they’d slipped her mind.

But now that she had confirmed it, she could respond accordingly.

Akane cut down the three summoned water soldiers with a magic-infused sword and searched for Thierry.

Where was she?

Left, right, forward, above—nowhere.

Where had she gone?

Stab.

A blade pierced through Akane’s chest.

Thierry had struck her from behind.

‘It was from behind?’

Back on the empty 9th floor, Akane quickly reentered the portal.

A boss that attacked sneakily from behind—whose playstyle had inspired this mechanic?

Meeting Thierry again, Akane faced the same charge, wall creation, and summoning pattern.

This time, when Thierry tried her underhanded backstab, Akane turned sharply, dodging the attack.

Thierry’s sword cut through empty air, throwing her off balance. This was Akane’s opening.

She swung her sword immediately.

Slash!

A gash appeared on Thierry’s shoulder.

Akane wasn’t satisfied with that and went for another attack.

Clang!

Thierry deflected Akane’s blade and leaped backward.

From Thierry’s body, a radiant light began to shine—it was a healing skill.

Akane knew that this skill required time to cast.

She couldn’t allow it.

Akane lunged at Thierry, pushing off the ground.

But then—

Thud!

An unexpected dark orb struck her, halting her mid-air.

Whoosh.

Thierry’s flaming sword burned through the atmosphere.

Once again, Akane was sent back to the empty 9th floor.

This time, Thierry had mixed in darkness-element skills.

Now that she had confirmed the pattern, it was time to adapt.

Compared to the bosses so far, Thierry wasn’t particularly difficult.

In comparison to Maville Plail, which required extreme reaction speed, or Ishikawa Yuzuru, which demanded excellent spatial awareness, Thierry already showed hints of a strategy.

‘This could be cleared in about ten tries.’

Akane, who had just gone through the encounter → standoff → charge → earth-wall-summoned-creature pattern again, spun her body and swung her sword.

‘The next pattern will be distancing and healing, so before that—’

Thwack.

Akane stopped mid-spin.

Someone stabbed her with a sword from behind—no, from what had been the front just moments ago.

Now that she thought about it, the appearance of the earth wall was slightly different from earlier.

The end of the wall was slightly curved, making it perfect for someone to hide and ambush from.

Akane understood what Thierry had done, but she couldn’t understand why.

‘Why didn’t Thierry circle around the earth wall for a sneak attack this time?’

‘Why did the pattern change?’

‘Why… was it the thigh and not the heart?’

As the sword was withdrawn, blood spurted out. Limb damage.

This meant Akane was temporarily unable to fight.

Collapsing onto the floor, Akane looked up at Thierry.

Their eyes met. Thierry was holding a bloodstained sword.

“How strange.”

Thierry opened her mouth.

‘She can talk?!’

Akane was briefly shocked, but Thierry continued speaking.

“This should be the first time you and I have met.

Yet you move as though you can predict me. Why is that?”

“Akane is—”

“Reading my thoughts? If that were the case, you wouldn’t have been surprised just now. So the answer is obvious.”

Thierry’s gaze darkened.

“You are cursed by time, aren’t you? A returner. Do you think what you’ve gained is a blessing?”

Slice.

Akane found herself back on the desolate ninth floor, a tinge of unease creeping in.

This was only her third attempt at clearing Thierry.

The enormous hall’s central floor was a chaotic mess of elemental attacks.

Akane remained motionless, her head buried there.

I cautiously approached her.

“Are you alive?”

“…”

“You seem fine.”

I glanced at the stream time.

[34:12:38]

‘She’s got great stamina for her age. Is she really going to push through to the end? Truly a boss-fighting king.’

“…Ah.”

A tiny voice came from below.

I prodded her with my finger, curious, and Akane mumbled:

“Akane… won.”

“You did well.”

“She was relentless.”

“She was modeled after my gameplay.”

“…I don’t think I want to play games with Yurim-san anymore.”

Perhaps the conversation helped her regain her composure.

Akane rose as though she were reborn and brandished her sword.

“Akane! Big victory!”

“As expected of you, Akane-sama.”

“You’ve been saying that for a while now. Is that some kind of catchphrase Yurim-san is pushing?”

“The key to comedy is repetition.”

Akane burst out laughing, checked the time, and spoke wistfully.

“I had so many questions prepared, but Akane’s too exhausted to ask them now.”

“That’s okay. We’ve already had plenty of conversations, haven’t we?”

Thanks to visiting the boss whenever I died to throw quizzes at her, we had exchanged a lot of information.

Now I even knew that Akane liked chicken galbi and tteokbokki.

Akane nodded knowingly and asked,

“So, this game has up to the 191st floor?”

“Technically, there are 192 floors. A hidden final boss awaits there.”

“Heh. Akane’s a little curious about that.”

“Make sure to try it. I’ve put a lot of effort into it.”

“Mm. I promise.”

A promise from the boss-fighting king carried weight. Thanks to that, I felt relieved.

Not only would she face Thierry, who was modeled after my old master-level physical skills, but also a full-power Thierry equipped with my current abilities.

And since I’d even prepared a scene where the ‘Han Yurim’ I was controlling merges with Thierry, I absolutely wanted her to see it.

I urged her once more.

“Please, make sure to see the game’s ending.”

“Akane promises.”

My collaboration with Yukimura Akane ended with great success.

How do I know?

If it caused such a ripple effect that Novella begged for an official game release, what more proof do you need?

They even offered to take only the most modest royalty while handing over all profits.

Since there were no copyright issues once Novella granted permission, I gladly accepted.

And the sales of my game skyrocketed even further.

Thanks to the boss-fighting king exceeding 500,000 live viewers while climbing Akane’s Tower and the VTubers from Novella Live, who had obtained my permission to play the game.

As a result, the game’s name was temporarily changed to Novella Live’s Tower Climb, with every Novella Live VTuber made into a playable character.

We diversified skill trees to match this, which received positive feedback.

Seizing the moment while the tides were in our favor—that’s a basic skill for a super developer.

It wasn’t anything special.