Chapter 30. Playing Games Is Also Cultivation

Realizing this, Ariko Asano immediately began to take this vengeful spirit seriously.

She thought that since they had now encountered such a vengeful spirit, it was likely they would meet others like it in the future. When it came to this particular type of apparition, Ariko Asano could not think of any way to break the curse. All she could do was watch Qiao Qiao intently.

"It's simple," Qiao Qiao concluded in a second. "All you have to do is create a flaw in this memetic pattern. In other words, defeat this boss, and the spirit will be destroyed."

So simple.

Listening to Qiao Qiao, Ariko Asano thought to herself.

"But..." Shin'nosuke Arai, however, looked troubled. "This boss was already hard to beat, but now it's got a bunch of new moves that weren't in the original design. Beating it is going to be tough."

"Um... may I give it a try?" Ariko Asano spoke up at that moment.

Everyone immediately turned to look at her, half afraid she would propose something like "Why not just destroy everything with an EMP?"

"...I'm actually quite confident when it comes to playing games," Ariko Asano said.

A miko who can play video games?

Qiao Qiao was a little surprised. In his mind, mikos were those who spent every day sitting in their rooms meditating, or else drawing their bows in archery practice, or even sitting beneath waterfalls to meditate as the water poured over them. Their lives, he thought, should have little room for entertainment. Could a miko like Asano really play video games?

Though he found it hard to believe, Qiao Qiao still handed the controller to Ariko Asano.

After taking the controller, Ariko Asano did not immediately challenge the boss. Instead, she went into the settings menu, and with practiced ease adjusted several control settings before exiting and stepping into the boss arena.

Once the battle began, Qiao Qiao was stunned.

She was strong—unbelievably strong.

Wait, was this really within the reach of a human being?

On the screen, Ariko Asano moved as if this were not her first time playing the game at all. She deftly made use of every game mechanic—dodging, blocking, attacking—and, bit by bit, whittled down the boss's health bar.

Watching this, Qiao Qiao understood.

He had been too shallow.

Was spiritual practice really just sitting in a room, repeating ancient scriptures over and over? No. Spiritual cultivation was not so limited. As long as one had the heart for it, sitting is cultivation, walking is cultivation. Shopping, gaming, singing karaoke—these, too, are forms of practice.

Perhaps Ariko Asano had improved her gaming skills alongside her spiritual training.

Qiao Qiao imagined himself playing games while trying to cultivate spiritual power. He gave up quickly.

He simply could not picture it.

And thinking of Ariko Asano in this way—

He couldn't help but suck in a cold breath.

So this was an apprentice miko from Atsuta Shrine.

While Qiao Qiao was musing, Ariko Asano set down the controller.

"Is it over?" he asked, looking at the screen.

YOU DIED.

Even the miko had failed.

At the very end, when the clown boss had a third of its health remaining, it suddenly pulled out seventeen throwing knives, attacking from all directions and instantly killing the miko's character.

This was cheating!

On the screen, the clown let out a derisive laugh. Black malevolent energy surged towards Ariko Asano. She simply waved her hand, and the evil aura dissipated.

At least, it seemed, the two of them could keep trying to defeat the boss without worrying about being haunted by the vengeful spirit.

"It seems that defeating this boss by normal methods will be extraordinarily difficult," Qiao Qiao said. He did not know much about games, but if even the miko could not win, it was probably impossible.

As he pondered, Shin'nosuke Arai suddenly seemed to realize something. He came right up to Ariko Asano.

"That voice, those gaming skills..." He seemed about to take her hand, but restrained himself and just asked, "Could it be—are you the Vtuber from that gaming channel, Alice Asano!?"

At the mention of that name, Ariko Asano's face flushed bright red. She turned away. "No, you've got the wrong person."

"I understand, I understand," Shin'nosuke Arai replied with a knowing look. "It's a rule in the community not to pry into a Vtuber's real identity. Even if you really are Alice Asano, I'll forget it immediately. Ah, but miko Asano, could you give me an autograph..."

Vtuber? What was that?

Qiao Qiao was not very familiar with online things. It seemed to be some sort of video platform content creator, but different from traditional streamers.

"Alice Asano... oh, is that the streamer you often talk about, Arai-san? You really are a fan," said President Owada, recalling something.

"No, no, I'm just an ordinary fan..."

While the others chatted, Qiao Qiao surreptitiously checked his phone, opened the video site, and searched for Alice Asano's channel.

As soon as he opened it, he saw the list of donations. One, two, three, four, five, six... seven digits. The top donor had given over five million yen.

What did that even mean? Normally, for each exorcism commission, Qiao Qiao earned between 100,000 and 150,000 yen. Five million yen was the equivalent of exorcising more than thirty vengeful spirits.

And this channel had only been live for two or three months. Adding up all the smaller donations from others, in just this short time, the miko had earned far more than Qiao Qiao had in half a year.

It was terrifying.

A saying from China popped into his mind: knowledge is power.

Perhaps the miko was using this channel to teach people about supernatural phenomena, showing them how to guard against such things in daily life. Compared to Qiao Qiao's simple door-to-door exorcisms, what Ariko Asano was doing was far more educational.

This, too, was a form of spiritual practice.

With this in mind, he hit the subscribe button, planning to watch and learn when he had the time.

Wait—could he open a channel of his own, demonstrating new exorcism techniques to viewers?

The idea struck him.

He imagined himself on camera, explaining in detail how to disassemble firearms, the uses and precautions of different types of bullets, and finally, streaming the expansion of a hollow-point round.

"Better not," Qiao Qiao muttered, shaking his head to banish the image.

At the same time, he noticed Ariko Asano's predicament. Though everyone said, "It's okay, we won't connect your real self to your Vtuber persona," they continued to bombard her with questions about her streaming activities.

The miko was clearly embarrassed.

"I'm not, I didn't, please stop making things up," she could only deny.

Realizing this could affect the upcoming exorcism, Qiao Qiao cleared his throat.

"Everyone, we should focus on dealing with the vengeful spirit," he said, pulling the group—who were gradually losing themselves, zombie-like, in the conversation—back to reality.

Saved at last.

Ariko Asano looked at Qiao Qiao with genuine gratitude. As President Owada and Shin'nosuke Arai gradually calmed down, Qiao Qiao made a suggestion: use a cheat device.

If normal means wouldn't work on the boss, then unconventional means were needed. He knew that in testing there was indeed a console to adjust various parameters for convenience—after all, testers couldn't be expected to play from the beginning every time.

With this console, they could max out all the stats.

Qiao Qiao asked Shin'nosuke Arai to give it a try.

"Hmm?" Shin'nosuke Arai tapped out a string of commands on the keyboard connected to the console, then made a puzzled sound.

"The console's not working?"

He fiddled for another fifteen minutes, but still couldn't bring up the console.

"I see," Qiao Qiao said after thinking for a moment. He understood. Looking at the hideous clown face on the cover, with its mocking grin, he realized—

This vengeful spirit demanded that the player defeat it honestly, within the proper bounds of the game.