Returning Transcendent Opens an Idol Agency

A beautiful and colorful landscape as vivid as a child's fingerpaint project in artclass. In other words, completely splashed with random colors in every direction, with some splashes mixing into an icky black or brown color.

Rhea wringed her hair, watching with bleak eyes as brown muck dripped down. "...I'm all for the realistic game, but did we *really* have to have stick and drench mechanics?" She tugged her shirt, causing it to let out a squelch. When she heard it, Rhea shuddered.

xxx

[boredMoth] Hah! I knew Titor was a man of culture!

[obsessedPepper] Those are some *really* realistic sticky mechanics...

[mercifulLemur] So Rhea made it lewd in the end again anyway...

[wingedCod] Are there even any seiso idols in Project MirAIs?

[offendedMussel] What do you mean? Alfi-sama is totally seiso

[wingedSeagull] Why do I feel like Alfi is just being coy and is really a

[relievedSalami] <message deleted>

[hushedBass] YABE

[wakefulChamois] Sooo. About those membership announcements?

[mildEagle] Let's just ignore all that unseiso stuff for now...

[blissfulOtter] Clippers, you know the drill.

xxx

Miya felt a shiver of disgust at the thought of being covered in sticky fruit gunk like Rhea had been.

Although Rhea had caused it by not being careful, the fact that something like that was possible in this 'game' was surreal.

...Then again, considering the VR experience they had last time, it was to be expected. Mister John and his company had some suspiciously advanced technology that seemed more like magic and science fiction than anything else...

But anyway.

Miya sighed and started wiping the gunk off her katana by using the hem of her shirt.

xxx

[pridefulShads] BELLY

[truthfulRice] :nosebleed:

[blissfulCaviar] can you guys be normal for just ONE second?!

[lovesickSnail] I can't wait to go look at the lewd fan art later

[offendedSnipe] bruh

[morbidTortoise] Go back to watching Aoko you trashy bastards

[worriedCaribou] Hey! We ki-sama might be trash, but we have standards!

[humorousToucan] Yeah! Those are just pervy brats, not us!

xxx

Miya glanced at the stream of messages flying past in her window and decided to ignore them.

Like what Aoko-senpai and Manager-san said, it wasn't good to feed or acknowledge bad behavior.

...Huh. Was that why Rhea kept getting into these situations? She was definitely encourage bad behavior, so maybe that was why it was coming back to bite her...

Anyway.

Miya finished cleaning her sword and then took a better look at her surroundings.

Tsubame was using her staff and skills to clean Rhea and Kuromi who were both covered in fruit gunk.

Rhea because of the whole being swallowed part, and Kuromi because she kept blasting the fruit monsters apart with her bare hands.

Fortunately, <Sticky> was treated as a status ailment, so when Tsubame activated her healing skills to cleanse the status effects, the fruit juices and gunk evaporated.

That didn't stop Rhea from shuddering in disgust though.

As for Kuromi... instead of being disgusted, she was curious about all the fruit bits, casually taking small pieces to taste.

xxx

[outlyingFish] You know, I wonder how that smells?

[zestyMoth] The <Fruity Woods> monsters are made of actual fruits, so it should smell good right?

[peach_enjoyer] 10/10 would recommend the <Peach Bosoms>

[fondDunbird] @peach_enjoyer You mean <Peach Blossoms> right?

[peach_enjoyer] :)

xxx

Beyond the girls, the surroundings had changed quite a bit.

First of all, the colorful fruits that had been hanging in trees and shrubs all around had been destroyed.

Mostly by Rhea in a fit of rage after she was freed.

Of course, she made sure to stay far away from the fruits and just snipe them this time.

Second of all, a lot of the trees had shriveled away or destroyed due to mostly being monsters.

Third, and most important of all, there was now a glowing portal in the shape of an apple floating in the distance with a glittering diamond apple hovering in front of it.

Miya nodded and said, "It looks like we've cleared all the monsters now."

Rhea wiped down her now clean clothes and then scowled. "We better have. I'm going to file a report to HR after this if it isn't."

Kuromi blinked and said, "...Isn't Mister Titor a part of a separate company though?"

Rhea glared at Kuromi.

Kuromi shrugged.

Tsubame walked over and then took a cautious look around. "...I believe that should be everything. Ah." She turned to Miya and then said, "My apologies. I forgot about you, Miya." With that, Tsubame waved her staff, causing soft light to shimmer around Miya.

Miya felt a warmth spread across her body, followed shortly by the scent of cherry blossoms. After that, she noticed that all the fruit gunk on her clothes had vanished.

Tsubame nodded and said, "There you go."

Miya smiled and said, "Thank you, Tsubame."

Rhea let out a deep sigh and said, "Can we just do the membership stuff now? I wanna log off and take a warm shower."

Kuromi tilted her head and said, "Eh? Already?" She frowned and said, "But we barely beat up any monsters!"

Rhea clicked her tongue and said, "You battle maniacs can go have your fun later. I'll just wait for the inevitable fire arms patch before playing this game again." She picked up her flintlock pistol and scowled. "Damned primitive technology..."

xxx

[excludedTruffle] Should we tell her about the <Engineering> path?

[similarPretzels] As a prodigy, you could always do it yourself...

[resolvedLocust] Speaking of, anyone see that Starlight Sculptor guy?

[scornfulOil] Forget about him, did you see that Greedy Blacksmith guy who got a legendary class?

[dejectedStork] This game has classes?

xxx

Miya glanced at the chat and then nodded. "It looks like everyone's had a good time-"

Rhea interrupted and said, "I didn't."

"...So let's finish with our Membership Announcements." Miya ignored Rhea and continued.

xxx

[peskyCurlew] lol

[pridefulFlamingo] Rhea's GOTTA be doing this for the content

[resolvedCaviar] Did you see her last stream? She's definitely doing it for the content

[kindDotterel] Is it just me, or does Prodigy have tense vibes?

[annoyedOil] Yeah. Rhea seems a little distant from the others.

[dream_commenter] Well, geniuses don't get along well.

[smart_alek] @dream_commenter It's genii.

[dream_commenter] @smart_alek kys

xxx

Miya swiped her hand to bring up the menu and fiddled a bit with the settings. "Let's see. Manager-san and Mister Titor said <Streamer Mode> should let you do overlays and special effects by connecting our accounts-"

*POP*

Party streamers suddenly appeared overhead and exploded, sending glitter and confetti all around.

Rhea groaned and said, "Come on, Mimi! I JUST got clean!"

Miya rubbed the back of her neck and then let out a sheepish smile. "M-My bad. B-But anyway!"

Although it didn't show up around the girls, in the camera view and live feed screen, golden letters shimmered into view overhead before spelling out <Enjoy a Prodigious Membership!>.

Miya clapped her hands and said, "Memberships are opening after this stream! Hooray!"

Rhea stared at her livefeed and then said, "...Let me design the graphics next time, Mimi."

Miya muttered, "I would have if you hadn't been-" She shook her head and said, "Never mind." Miya put a smile back on and said, "We'll all have a short stream after this to go into more details, but how about we all give a brief overview of what the memberships will give, everyone?"

"Ooh!" Kuromi stuck her hand up and said, "I'll go first!" She turned to her camera and said, "We'll be making fighting movies!"

xxx

[Alex_Frivolous Ch.] Ayo?

[bruise_li] TAKE MY MONEY!

[gongfu_pandabear] LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOO

xxx

Kuromi grinned and said, "I can't wait to show you guys what I can do!"

Rhea sighed and said, "Before talking about that, shouldn't we talk about how much it costs?"

Kuromi blinked and then rubbed the back of her neck. "Aha... right."

Miya cleared her throat and then turned back to her camera. "Continuing on..." She stuck up three fingers and said, "For all of us, we'll have three tiers."

She glanced off to the side, reading a script floating in front of her and said, "The first tier will be for those who just want to support us and get the cute little icons in chat. The second will be for people who want access to the membership streams and community posts, as well as some more goodies. And the last will be for the people who really want to help us with our big projects."

Miya moved her hand and said, "Um... I think this should work... Ah! There."

On the livefeed, more text appeared, listing prices for each tier.

xxx

Tier 1 - $1.99 USD each month

Tier 2 - $9.99 USD each month

Tier 3 - $99.99 USD each month

xxx

[dearBobolink] 2 bucks a month sounds pretty good

[wingedTomatoe] Ew. We're using USD?

[chicPonie] Doesn't John have like infinite money? Why so expensive?

[peskyDinosaur] 10 dollars for goodies? Bet.

[bubblyGranola] I pay that much for games anyway each month, aha...

[crummyHeron] So you're saying I could gacha OR I could support my oshi?

xxx

Miya glanced back at her script and said, "Um. We'll go into more details for what each of our memberships will be in our streams. But for now, we can give an overall idea." She glanced at the other girls and said, "Kuromi already went, so... Rhea?"

Rhea nodded and said, "Yeah. We'll be making stuff." She turned to her camera and said, "You guys already saw the last stream. We'll just be doing more of that. Bigger. Better. Stronger. Deep-"

Miya cleared her throat.

Rhea rolled her eyes and said, "Anyway. More fun stuff like that. Animations, games, manga... cool stuff." She looked at Tsubame and said, "Tsu-chan?"

Tsubame nodded and then turned towards her camera. "Yes." She glanced back at the other girls before saying, "Unlike my dear friends, I do not have much to offer. However."

She looked back at the camera and said, "I will do my best with what little I have, esteemed viewers. Fortune readings, perhaps some intimate conversations..." She smiled and said, "We will discuss this further in my stream, but I hope it will be enjoyable for everyone involved."

Finishing with another bow, Tsubame looked up and said, "Miya? It is your turn."

Miya nodded and looked at her camera. "It'll be more of the usual for me. Cooking streams, maybe making recipes you send me..."

xxx

[Alex Frivolous Ch.] AYO?!

[dreadfulTermite] Cooking with the waifu?

[adoringPie] Can you open up a pop-up restaurant?

[fondTortoise] Ah, the real girlfriend experience... :melt:

xxx

Miya glanced at her chat and blushed a bit at the messages streaming in. She cleared her throat and said, "A-Anyway! We'll try to have some fun and make good food! Now..." She glanced off to the side to look at the time on her UI and said, "Should we clear the dungeon and end the stream? It's getting late."

Rhea threw her hands up and said, "Finally!" She immediately started walking towards the gate and said, "I'm going first-!" She paused, suddenly thinking it through, and said, "A-Actually, how about you go first, Kuro-chan?"

Kuromi laughed and said, "Leave it to me!" With that said, Kuromi dashed forward to grab the diamond apple.

Miya's eyes widened and she said, "Wait, Kuromi!"

Kuromi grabbed the apple.

Miya grabbed her sword and tensed, prepared to draw it.

But nothing happened.

xxx

[peacefulPoultry] Aw. That's it?

[ecstaticSalt] I mean, they *did* play Fruit Samurai with the entire forest.

[gutturalLemur] No more culture today, I guess...

xxx

Miya let out a sigh of relief.

Kuromi tossed the apple up in her hand and said, "Ooh!" She looked at the others and said, "The apple says it's Prism Rare!"

Rhea rolled her eyes and walked towards the gate. "You mean the system says it's <Prism Rare>."

Kuromi tilted her head. "Eh? No, the apple is saying-"

At that time, the surroundings started to distort, dissolving away like water running on an unfinished painting.

Miya noticed and then grabbed Tsubame's hand before running forward. "Talk later, leave now!"

Tsubame was a bit shocked but quickly nodded. "Y-Yes, Chef!"

Miya blinked. "Yes Chef?"

"A-Ah." Tsubame blushed and said, "I was watching some streams of people playing games quickly and-"

Rhea jumped into the gate and said, "Whatever! I'm out!" She waved at the camera and said, "Stream soon! A Rhea Dechi!"

Kuromi waved at her camera as well and said, "See you soon! Tek it easy!"

Seeing the surroundings dissolve faster, Miya swept Tsubame up in a bridal hold and ran towards the gate. As she did, Miya said, "Why are you guys so cheesy?!"

Tsubame giggled and said, "Maybe you simply think that way because you cook often, Miya?"

"...Did you just make a joke about-"

xxx

[Livestream offline. Thank you for watching Miya Musashi Ch.]