That's a great saying: "Get up wherever you fall!" Well said!
But Hayden immediately shook his head: "That's impossible. It's impossible to perform a second autopsy on you right away."
What?
Why! ?
The answer is actually very simple.
"How much do you think that dismemberment ceremony cost in total last time?"
Hayden spoke with a calm and cruel expression.
“Miktikahiva has completely handed over your operations to me. In other words, I have to bear all your current operating costs and expenses myself. She won’t give me funds for nothing.”
"If you calculate the cost of that last dismemberment ritual, it would be enough to power a small company army for at least a month. Do you think I can just casually throw around that much money for you to squander again?"
Pania was stunned.
"Uh... But, uncle, aren't you the son-in-law of the Peacock King?! How come you don't have money?!"
"No."
Hayden shook his head.
"I do have a very good relationship with the daughter of the Peacock King, but it's not that kind of relationship. And as I've told you before—I like women with Angela's style!"
Angela, who was following behind Hayden, frowned and looked somewhat worried when she heard this.
Unfortunately, Hayden didn't see it. Ignoring Panya's bewildered expression, he continued, "So I can't ask the Peacock King for that much budget, and I can't just throw money into the water like Miktikashiva did to help you with the ritual—the next dismemberment ritual must be successful in one go. And before the ritual, we have a lot of things to prepare."
"For example, your next live stream. We need to rebuild your fans' trust in you."
Pania was taken aback for a moment, but she immediately nodded: "Okay. That's not difficult. I just need to fight a few more illnesses like a magical girl..."
But Hayden immediately shook his head: "The technology that Smoke Mirror Company gave you before, which materializes diseases from the human body and extracts them into disease demons, requires an extremely large amount of energy—and each of those disease demons has the combat power of a mid-level demon. How much energy do you think it takes to materialize them? I can't afford that money, at least not often."
Pania was speechless.
Now even she should understand, right? Her power as the [Magical Girl Pazuzu] is actually fake, empty, like water without roots, a warship without oil and ammunition. Once she loses the support of capital, all her power is just an empty shell.
...However, Hayden did not come here today to mock her.
"In short, your old show is basically unplayable after losing Miktti Kashiva's support."
So he just calmly said...
"First, we need to help you come up with a new plan."
Pania immediately raised her hand: "Sing! Even without the boss's support, I can still sing normally!"
The result is probably self-evident.
Hayden shook his head again: "No. Because you can't compare to the other streamers."
These words finally made Panya's expression turn to one of near tears.
“Okay, that’s a bit unfair. Your singing is actually better than most streamers. If it’s out of 100, you’d get at least 80 or higher.” Hayden sighed as he said this. “But those professional singing streamers, those virtual idols with company backing, their singing is at least 95. The quality of their music can be worlds apart depending on whether they have a team supporting them.”
"Virtual streamers without company support will never be able to compete with those who have company support in this highly professional and competitive field. The efficiency difference is too great."
Panya was at a loss for words in response to Hayden's words, which were devoid of both dreams and hope.
“Competition is a cruel thing. I guess you mean to fight tooth and nail, right? I know you like to fight tooth and nail and don’t value your life—but if your basic qualities are ten times worse than your opponent’s, what’s the use of fighting tooth and nail? Can you put in ten times the effort? In fact, if the other party only needs to work hard for three hours a day, you will never catch up with them no matter what. After all, there are only twenty-four hours in a day.”
Hayden coldly said,
"So you have to come up with new ideas. You have to come up with new ideas that are original to you. Otherwise you won't be able to attract viewers or retain your old fans, and no one will watch even if the market is big."
噫
Hearing Hayden say such things, Panya felt her image of this middle-aged man in her mind crumbling. Even so, she knew Hayden wasn't joking.
"...I thought the uncle didn't really want to make money as a virtual streamer."
That's why Pania couldn't help but ask that question.
“I’m not actually trying to make money from this, but we need your fans,” Hayden raised an eyebrow. “We need a lot of admirers to observe your dismemberment ritual based on idol magic principles. Otherwise, what idiot would broadcast such a magical ritual live? I wouldn’t want to!”
"So from now on, you can still sing, of course. It's best to record two songs every week and upload them to keep things fresh for your fans and audience. You should still continue to use your star power to heal your audience. This kind of thing can greatly enhance your fans' admiration for you, but you can't do it as fancy anymore. It has to be simpler. But if you only have these two things, you can't build a die-hard fan base. Because you can't compete with other companies' people just by working hard on your own."
Hayden's statement was powerful and his theory was flawless.
Pania felt there shouldn't be any, but she still felt her throat was dry. Every word struck her heart, freezing her to the bone.
Are there no independent VTubers these days who aren't affiliated with major corporations? Of course there are, but times have changed. The days of independent VTubers achieving stardom without corporate support are a thing of the last century. Corporate VTubers now have better voices, more attractive costumes, and more sophisticated and engaging content. Individuals simply can't compete with corporations in this cutthroat world.
Therefore, if an individual wants to carve out their own niche in the arts, they cannot compete with companies or actively get involved in the most competitive fields.
Individuals must be original.
"Starting tomorrow, you'll change the character design of [Magical Girl Pazuzu]."
Therefore, Hayden said this.
"Pazuzu was originally a great demon of ancient Sumer. So you should start doing live streams explaining ancient Sumerian magic!"
? ? ? ? ?
"No no no no no no!"
Pania could no longer hold back.
"What the heck is this live stream explaining ancient Sumerian magic?! It's so stupid! So niche! It's going to flop horribly! How many people will even watch it?!"
However, after hearing her words, Hayden coldly laughed and replied, "Being niche is actually a good thing in this kind of thing."
Why?!
“A niche audience makes it easier to maintain the purity of thought within a small fan base. Don’t you still understand why you failed last time? To a large extent, it was because you had too many fans and viewers, and their worship of you was too chaotic and full of impurities, which ultimately added fuel to the fire.”
Hayden's indifferent commentary
"Instead of finding a bunch of fans who don't know why they worship you, it's better to maintain a small but pure fan group. That way, you're less likely to go astray during your next self-dissection ritual. Don't worry, a university professor I know and I will help you prepare the material for your live stream, so that you can have something to say. Something to say, originality, and no competitors—that's how you'll have a niche fan base."
That being said, Hayden was actually hiding something.
He just forged a sword yesterday that could cut through even souls and thoughts. If the number isn't too large, even if the idol worship in the fandom is too chaotic and full of impurities, Hayden has a way to wield his sword and cut away those impurities.
However, this would not meet Hayden's own needs.
What he wanted was a proven and repeatable technique for resurrecting corpses through dissection. If this technique required Hayden to wield a unique sword and relentlessly hack away at impurities, then it would be a failure.
Hayden needs technical skills now.
Since it's technology, he should stand outside the ceremony, collecting data, observing and improving it, rather than standing inside the ceremony with a sword to cut off the audience's distractions.
Of course, some people might ask at this point—since the distractions of worship are so troublesome, why not just use the [Kowtowing Bug] system to cheat? That way, there would be no need for any audience or fans at all.
That's actually a really good question. And even Hayden is hesitant. The [Kowtowing Bug] system is just too useful. It can make those chipped clone brains endlessly produce faith and worship without much trouble or effort, and it's extremely pure, completely without any impurities!
However, Hayden's intuition told him that if he cheated using the [Kowtowing Bug] system and accepted this tempting bait, he would inevitably have to pay back the debt in the future.
Panya, however, had no idea why Hayden dared not use the [Kowtowing Bug]. The more she listened, the more puzzled and confused she became, until finally she couldn't help but ask, "Uncle, if you're not trying to make money, what exactly do you want to do with this corpse-dissection god-making technique?"
"good question."
Hayden glanced at her face, as if to end the conversation, and said this...
"【Magical Girl Pazuzu】is derived from the remains of the Great Demon Pazuzu, right?"
Pania nodded blankly—so what?
"Let me put it this way. If the remains of the Great Demon Pazuzu can complete this ritual and resurrect your true god-like self..."
Hayden raised his eyebrows.
"Then the remains of the Demon King Mara should be able to complete the same ritual, right?"
167: Storytelling
Soon, half a month had passed since the operation of [Magical Girl Pazuzu] was handed over to Hayden.
Spring has ended, and it is now summer.
For citizens living in modern cities under climate control systems, seasonal changes have a negligible impact. And for the wealthier Protoss, the impact is even less significant.
Micket has been busy increasing investment in the virtual idol business lately, focusing almost entirely on the internal disputes and decisions within Smoke Mirror Company. She actually agrees with Hayden's assertion that idol groups are better than individual idols. Moreover, Micket wants to explore the secrets of death further, so naturally she wants to increase the production of this technology as much as possible, creating more new virtual idols.
Thinking further, even a single "Magical Girl Pazuzu" possesses combat power equivalent to at least a squad of War Gods (approximately five to ten people). If Smoke Mirror Corporation could mass-produce these virtual idol gods to replace the original War Gods, their military strength would be significantly enhanced.
Thinking further, even without reaching the level of resurrecting the dead, simply being able to extract massive amounts of energy from death using this new technology is already a huge gain. Death is part of entropy; what kind of behavior is it to deceive death and steal energy from it?
This is the possibility of a perpetual motion machine.
This is the opposite of entropy!
Although the goddess Micket isn't exactly a small, white creature that's neither cat nor rabbit, she's clearly very interested in this technology. So, not long after, Smoke Mirror Company launched a new magical girl virtual idol group with the core concepts of "jaguar," "eagle," and "feathered serpent."
Being so busy, she naturally hasn't had much time to pay attention to Hayden and [Magical Girl Pazuzu] lately. At most, she's only occasionally heard Ms. Eko report on the strange things happening on Hayden's side, such as:
“For the past week, every morning after getting up, Hayden has made Panya exercise.”
Miktikahiva: ? ? ?
Why should Pania, who is just a virtual streamer, have to get up every morning and go to the stadium at Evergreen State University to run, do push-ups, pull-ups, and squats?
Do virtual YouTubers need to exercise?
If anyone else had seen Hayden doing this, they might have wondered what he was up to or if he'd gone mad. However, Goddess Mikter genuinely believed that Hayden was a remarkable technical genius, a magical master who could potentially usher in a new era—in short, from her perspective, Goddess Mikter didn't think Hayden would make Pania do something meaningless, so she was rather curious.
Unfortunately, she really didn't have time to deal with this lately, so she could only tell Ai Ke to keep an eye on the reports while she went about her own business.
Then another week passed, and Ms. Eck came to report again:
"Pania has started doing live talk shows."
Live chat?
The goddess Mikkuri suddenly felt something was off.
So-called "casual talk live streams" refer to live streamers interacting with viewers, chatting, and engaging in back-and-forth conversations.
For someone like Hayden who doesn't usually watch virtual YouTubers, it might seem puzzling why someone could simply sit in a livestream wearing a virtual suit and chat with viewers, and still receive donations—however, this type of livestreaming is actually one of the oldest and most basic types of virtual YouTubers. It's an activity that existed eighty or ninety years ago when the first generation of virtual YouTubers appeared.
So why does Mikkuri still find it strange? Because virtual YouTubers, in modern theory, should already be outdated. Big companies want to create idols, IPs that can generate revenue. When a virtual YouTuber becomes an idol with millions, tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions of fans, it goes without saying that she won't truly empathize with or interact with individual fans and viewers.
Idols neither do nor need to interact directly with individual fans, because there are simply too many fans! How can the human mind truly interact with millions, or even more, individual fans? Not even through the internet!
An idol is something that lies between humanity and divinity. A human might notice a mouse on the floor, but an idol cannot notice an ant in a crack in the ground. This is a limitation imposed by its size, something beyond our control.
Therefore, smart companies will keep idols and fans at a distance.
Idols need to maintain a distance from their fans so that fans can become worshippers, believers, and begin to develop genuine affection for their idols and treat them like fathers.
Why would Hayden let "Magical Girl Pazuzu" do a talk show livestream?
Therefore, the goddess Mikkuri immediately asked, "What is she talking about?"
Ms. Eko honestly replied, "I talk about my own life, what I eat every day, how I'm exhausted, what interesting things happen to me, what I want to do, and I often introduce ancient Sumerian magic to the audience."
The first half was fine; virtual YouTubers often did this kind of thing. But the second half, this "explanation"... where did Panya get her knowledge of ancient Sumerian magic?
The goddess Mikkelsen immediately thought—was it Hayden who was behind this?
But why is that? Live streaming is such a niche content, so the number of viewers and fans will decrease.
It just so happens that [Magical Girl Pazuzu] is currently streaming. Goddess Micket opened the company's server and watched the stream with Ms. Eiko.
This magical girl is actually explaining ancient Sumerian mythology to her viewers in a live stream!
"This ancient god is named 'Damu,' also known as 'Tamuz,' and is the god of spring vegetation. When the shadow of death surged out from the underworld to hunt him down, he hid in the bushes at his sister's house."
"This elder sister goddess was also very clever. When the shadows of death arrived, she immediately began to wail loudly, tearing at her clothes, grabbing her hair, ripping off her ornaments, and throwing sand from the ground onto her head, pretending that Damu was dead, trying to deceive the shadows of death. The shadows of death were half-believing and half-doubting, so they promised the elder sister goddess that they would give her fertile fields and a sweet river, so that the wheat would roll and the harvest would be plentiful year after year, as long as she agreed to hand over her brother."
"But the sister god resolutely refused to budge, still insisting that her brother was dead. So the shadows of death could only sigh and say, 'Who under the sun has ever seen a sister betray her brother?' and ran to Damu's friends to inquire about the matter. As a result, Damu was betrayed by his friends and was captured and killed by the dead."
"He was dragged out and killed by death in the autumn. It is said that his blood dripped onto the ground and turned into anemones."
There's a real knack to storytelling. 【Magical Girl Pazuzu】sits atop the tower in her StarNet livestream space, draped in a cute costume of an ancient Sumerian demon, and tells mythological stories to her viewers in a rather magnetic voice, and surprisingly, quite a few people are watching.
"The elder sister goddess wept bitterly, mourning the death of her brother. She cried out that her only brother could not die like this, and therefore volunteered to die in Damu's place. So the goddess of the underworld agreed that she and her brother would spend an equal amount of time on earth. Every autumn, Damu would die, and then the following spring he would be bathed in the water of life, anointed with fragrant oils, and dressed in red clothes, before returning to earth from the underworld to bring new life to the land, causing fruits and vegetables to grow luxuriantly and the fields to yield abundant harvests. At the same time, the elder sister goddess would be imprisoned in the underworld in Damu's place for half a year, until autumn came again."
This is the ancient Mesopotamian, Sumerian mythology of spring and autumn, the flourishing and withering of plants—of course, [Magical Girl Pazuzu] doesn't delve into overly technical details. She simply tells the audience about the growth and decay of plants, the divinity in birth and death, and the ebb and flow of the power of gods and goddesses in that era, the powerful force behind the cycle of seasons.
She simply recounted the ancient legends of eternal death and rebirth, revolving around the cycle of birth, death, and regeneration. Gods and goddesses also lived and died in the same way as humans, just as the world experienced spring's rise and winter's fall.