Ch 14: First Collaboration Stream Part 1
「Hey there! I’m Raika Hanabi, a member of the Denjilas Fourth Generation! Today’s the long-awaited collaboration episode, so let’s give it up for Botan!」
“You’re way too excited, aren’t you? …Anyway, thanks for waiting, folks. I’m Botan, a super hunter affiliated with Denjilas. In many ways, I’ve kept you waiting.”
: Kichiya!!
: We’ve been waiting for this!
: Finally, the collaboration between the same year students is unlocked. It’s been a long time.
: You can already tell how close they are at this point.
: Hana is so excited and cute!
: Does Hana call Botan by her first name?
The stream starts and at the same time, the comment section starts to speed up. Particularly today, perhaps because Raika-san is here, the comments being dropped feel a little different from usual. There are comments about being cute and such that can be seen here and there.
「Man, it was really long, as everyone is saying in the comments! We’ve been waiting forever for this collab with our fellow genmates, and it’s finally been announced! We’ve been talking a lot behind the scenes, but it’s great that we don’t have to be secretive anymore!」
“Do we really need to talk about what’s happening behind the scenes? Can’t we just enjoy the stream without throwing fuel on the fire?”
: Lmao
: They’re being really candid right from the start, I’m laughing so hard
: It’s good to see that they seem to get along better than I expected
: Hmmm, even the unicorn is probably teary-eyed from this
: I guess they’ve been holding onto some frustrations after all
See, people are already saying all sorts of things about us. I bet the post-stream ego search is going to be crazy. When troublemakers start making noise, we have to go through the trouble of taking screenshots, so I’d rather they didn’t stir things up too much…
“Haah. Let’s quickly move on to the main topic so it doesn’t spread any further.”
「Eh, why not? Let’s chat more about being classmates Ze☆.」
“On my channel, it’s default to move quickly to the main topic. Please follow suit when in Rome. Besides, we need to explain the details quickly. The listeners are also curious, you know.”
This collaboration is focused on creating an impact, so we haven’t disclosed any details about the content. We haven’t even revealed that it’s an off-collaboration. This is partly to avoid causing trouble with the anti-fans, but it’s also about creating an element of surprise.
「Oh, indeed. Then let’s reveal the information! Today’s collaboration project is… ‘We got your promise! So we won’t let you go. Chef Yamakami’s luxurious dinner.’ We have prepared a studio just for this, so Hanabi will do her best!」
“So basically, it’s a project where I cook using dungeon ingredients for you, right, Raika-san? You’re taking advantage of the promise you made during the previous anniversary stream.”
「Taking advantage? That sounds so bad. You agreed to it right away, didn’t you?」
: So does that mean it’s an off-collab!?
: They’re going full throttle all of a sudden!
: Maybe that’s the reason for the high tension!
Mikoto Miko: Huh? I can’t allow only one person to have a luxurious dinner?
: What? They’ve been avoiding each other until now, but suddenly they’re meeting for their first collab…
: Miko-sama is here again.
: They’re trying to exterminate Unicorn, LOL.
: It’s in the studio, so it must be officially sanctioned by the management, but it’s still pretty bold, isn’t it?
: Well, the management is probably getting fed up with the anti-fans, and they probably want to eradicate them all at once when Yamagami becomes popular…
It seems like the overall vibe of the comments is on the border of being acceptable. There are some concerns, but generally, it feels like it’s being accepted. Even so, some comments are being deleted from time to time, which makes me think that people are really energetic.
I briefly make eye contact with Raika-san and decide to let things go without addressing negative comments too much.
「Okay, now that we’re done with the rough explanation of the plan, I have a question for you, Chef Botan. You didn’t tell us what the menu is for today since it’s a surprise. So, what’s on the menu?」
“As requested, it’ll be seafood-based. I’ll make sure to serve something luxurious for you all.”
「Luxurious?! Can you give us a specific idea of how luxurious it will be?」
“Well, it’s market price, so it’s hard to say. But there was news about some high-end sushi restaurant buying dungeon-caught fish for around 2 million yen. If I were to sell it, it would at least be twice that price, right?”
「Wait, what?!」
: Heh!?
: Hanabi is at a loss for words, lol.
: Did you say double as in 4 million yen…?
: Is your sense of money bugged?
: Did this guy bring ingredients from the lower or deeper floors again? He’s seriously a monster.
: I don’t really understand what he’s saying.
The comment section is accelerating, as it has become customary. Meanwhile, the studio is frozen stiff, led by Raika-san. It’s an interesting contrast.
「Wait a minute, Botan! Are you serious? I only thought of something that’s a little expensive, like maybe some kind of premium meat or something like that. But that’s way too much, it’s not a joke, you know!」
“Well, if you put it on the market, it’s worth that much. But for personal enjoyment, the price doesn’t really matter. It’s like eating fish caught by a fisherman.”
「Huh…」
: What the heck…
: Could you please refrain from diving into the lower layers with your hobbyist sense?
: Is it okay to say such things as dialogue…? I wonder if Yamagami-san accidentally committed tax evasion or something?
: When the financial sense is this loose, it’s kind of scary in various ways.
Hmm. That was a slip of the tongue. A rather unfavorable suspicion has arisen.
“Just to clarify, we have hired a specialist tax accountant to handle taxes properly. And using dungeon ingredients for our streaming is done within the legal framework. We have repeatedly conveyed this during our streams, but I wanted to make sure to mention it again.”
Dungeon-produced items are generally treated quite leniently if the premise is not to distribute or transfer them to others. There are some exceptions, such as dangerous goods, but the default is to calculate the fair market value of dungeon-produced items.
Even if a fixed price is set, it is difficult to stably and abundantly procure them, and various processes are difficult to handle because unknown items appear at a reasonable frequency. Therefore, the country decided to change its approach and intervene and manage at the stage where they enter circulation.
This has in turn made it much easier for explorers to handle dungeon-produced items personally. To be precise, they had to loosen restrictions in order to make it work… Of course, even if the regulations are lenient, if you violate the law, you will be caught and punished severely.
“Well, for those who are interested, it might be interesting to look into the laws regarding this. Anyway, what’s important here is that I’m paying my taxes properly and doing the streaming within the legal limits.”
I want to strongly assert this point. Otherwise, it could become a strange spark. There are still many antis who are trying to burn me, so I need to make it clear.
“Actually, it’s just a fundamental difference in perception. I don’t need to do something like that because I can make as much money as I want. I just pack some store-bought explorer equipment sets, along with preserved food and water, in my backpack and stroll through the dungeon with a tree branch in hand for two or three days. Then, if I get some items, I just hand them over and that alone can earn me ten times the average annual salary of a company employee. At this point, there’s no benefit to committing crimes or tax evasion.”
If you live a normal life and leave the money matters to a tax accountant, you can live a luxurious life forever. If you want more money, you just need to increase the frequency of diving into the dungeon.
As it gets to this point, the risk and return of committing a crime are completely unbalanced. That’s why I live an honest and clean life.
「…I feel like I just heard something amazing. Can explorers really make that much money?」
“Well, that’s assuming you can go solo without any equipment and walk around the lower levels. Anyone who can meet those conditions can easily make this much money. …But most people say goodbye to the dungeon and their lives before they get to that point, so I definitely don’t recommend it.”
「Really…」
: Are you seriously saying you can earn eight digits in one exploration?
: So explorers can earn that much money? (trembling voice)
: Based on their previous streams, it doesn’t seem like they’re lying about that, which is not funny at all.
: Don’t speak about the perception of an extraordinary person as if it were common sense!
: Don’t be fooled, ordinary listeners. The lower levels of the dungeon are like a dangerous area that the special forces of the Self-Defense Forces would tackle with full equipment. It’s an area that only a handful of geniuses can even approach, and anyone else wouldn’t even be able to make it to the lower levels.
: It’s a pointless gamble with a 90% chance of losing. And as Yamagami-san said, the only things you can bet are your life and your future. It’s not much different from committing suicide.
It seems like some listeners who seem to be part of the explorer community are warning. Well, I guess from the perspective of people involved with the dungeon, it’s all well-intentioned advice.
「Well, I understand that Botan is unimaginably wealthy, but I just can’t accept things that are too expensive.」
“It would be a failed plan if we didn’t include expensive items. Dungeon food is usually expensive anyway. You should have known that expensive things would come out.”
「I knew they would be expensive, but I didn’t think they would be this expensive! I was planning on paying for it myself because I thought it would only be a few tens of thousands of yen at most! I don’t want to be a burden, so I was going to pay for it in secret!」
“I won’t take shortcuts with something meant to be served to others. I appreciate the thought, but I won’t accept any money because it will just be a hassle for me. Now, please sit down and be quiet.”
「I don’t want to cause a scandal by taking something super expensive, you know!?」
That’s old news, isn’t it? The off-collaboration already had all the elements to make it exciting, so just accept it and move on.
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