Sora-san's Dungeon Stream: The Expressionless Girl Is Actually a 38-Year-Old Salaryman - The Expressionless Lost Child and Her Only Understanding Ally

A week had passed since the stream began. Souji sat at the small desk in their apartment, staring intently at the laptop screen. DeepCast's streamer management dashboard. Every number displayed was close to zero. Peak concurrent viewers: two. Total watch time: under one hour. Total donations: zero yen. "Hm." A flat voice echoed in the quiet room. At the edge of the screen, the only comment they'd received was displayed. *'Boring.'* That was it. Someone must have written it in passing and left immediately. *(Efficiency is what matters, so it's not a problem.)* Souji concluded this with an expressionless face. No emotion, no wasted movement, gathering materials methodically. That was Sora's streaming style. They had no intention of entertaining viewers. It was simply a means to earn a living. Their small hand operated the mouse, checking today's stream data. The first and second floors of Twilight Hollow. Every day, they followed the same route, defeated Stone Rats, and harvested Glow Moss. Average daily income from material sales was about ten thousand yen. Still short of the monthly target of ninety thousand yen, but by their calculations, it should stabilize by next week. *(And the data is accumulating, too.)* Souji opened another file. A map of the dungeon. Points on the first floor walls where Glow Moss grew densely, areas on the second floor where Stone Rats were likely to appear, the locations of water sources, and potential hidden passages—all meticulously noted. Using the scant viewer data they'd received, they analyzed monster movement patterns and updated the safest, most efficient route daily. This wasn't information meant to be shown to anyone. It was simply a habit. Fifteen years as a systems engineer had made them far too accustomed to organizing data and deriving optimal solutions. They viewed the dungeon as a single system. *(And my tactical options have expanded, too.)* Souji opened and closed their small hand, making a fist and then spreading their fingers. They had no strength. Their reach was short. With this frail body, fighting head-on would be suicidal. So, they used the terrain. Luring enemies behind rocks, calculating ceiling heights, drawing them into areas with poor footing. Everything was calculated. A crow cawed outside the window. Nine in the morning. It was almost time to get ready. Souji stood up and donned their usual equipment. The white half-mask, the voice changer "Muse Link," the black hooded cape. In front of the mirror, they put on the mask. Long silver hair spilled out from under the cape. Only their large gray eyes were visible above the mask. Expressionless, impossible to read. The streamer "Sora" was complete. "...Alright." They rode the bus, heading to Minase Hill Park. The scenery visible from the window was unchanged from a week ago. They got off at the entrance of the small park and headed to the Dungeon Agency's management gate. They held up their license. An electronic beep sounded. Today's staff member was a young woman. She looked at Souji and frowned slightly. "...Please be careful." Her voice had a worried tone. "Yes." Souji answered curtly through the voice changer. They walked down the stairs without another word. A dimly lit passage leading underground. The air was cool and damp, with a faint smell of earth and iron. Their footsteps echoed off the walls. They started the stream at the usual spot. They set their smartphone on a dedicated tripod and confirmed the Muse Link connection. They pressed the "LIVE" button on the screen. Viewer count—zero. Unchanged today as well. Silently, Souji walked deeper into the dungeon. On the first floor, pale blue Glow Moss covered the walls. It was a beginner-friendly area with almost no danger. A few Stone Rats leaped out from behind rocks, but Souji dispatched them with minimal movement, striking them down with the tonfa. One, two, three. They collected the fangs, scraped off the Glow Moss, and put them in their backpack. Not a single wasted movement. Actions as precise as a machine. *(The unit price per fang is about two hundred yen. Glow Moss is three thousand yen per kilogram. On today's route, there are two more Glow Moss clusters ahead. In another two hours, I should reach the target amount.)* Numbers and routes whirled around in their head. They descended the stairs to the second floor. The rock surface turned blackish, and the air grew a degree colder. The Glow Moss was sparse, and visibility was poor. Even so, Souji's feet moved forward without hesitation. Then— A single comment scrolled across the edge of the screen. *'Aren't you scared?'* Probably a passerby viewer. Souji stopped for just a moment and looked at the camera. Expressionless, they answered flatly. "I'm calculating, so it's not a problem." Saying just that, they faced forward again. *(Efficiency is what matters. Emotion is unnecessary.)* That day, Souji was careless. They continued the stream as usual and finished collecting the target materials in about two hours. Heading towards the second floor exit, they operated their smartphone to end the stream. But that's when it happened. *DOGOOOOON!!* A sudden tremor. Small stones pattered down from the ceiling. *(...This is—)* Souji turned around. Deep in the passage, in the darkness, a massive shadow was moving. A giant body over two meters tall, skin like armor made of rock, and—on its head, a protrusion like a misshapen crown. Goblin King. A mid-level monster, danger rank C, that shouldn't normally appear on the second floor. *(The spawn rate should be below 0.3 percent, but it seems I've drawn the short straw.)* Souji's mind was already calculating the next move. They had no chance in a head-on fight. But this body was small. The terrain here was narrow, and the ceiling was low. *(I can use the rock outcropping on the left. I'll lure its charge and make it crash into the wall. In the moment it's stunned by the impact, I'll strike its joints.)* The Goblin King let out a roar. *GYAAAAAAAH!!* The giant body charged straight forward. Souji shifted half a step to the right. The wind pressure made their silver hair whip violently. The next instant, the Goblin King's fist cut through empty air. *DOGAAH!* The wall was gouged, scattering rock fragments. But Souji was unfazed. Expressionless, they dashed towards the left rock outcropping. The King pursued. *(Three more steps, two—now.)* Souji hid behind the rock. The Goblin King, unable to stop its momentum, crashed into the wall. *DOGOOOON!!* An even greater impact. The King's massive body lurched and tilted. Souji didn't miss that opening. Their small body ran up the King's arm. A fluid motion, as if climbing stairs. Knee, hip, shoulder—and then, they reached directly above the crown on its head. Souji switched the tonfa to a reverse grip, put their entire body weight into it, and slammed it down onto the joint. *GAGIIN!!* A hard sound echoed through the cave. The Goblin King let out a cry of agony. It fell to one knee, its giant body slowly crumbling. Souji landed on the ground and watched it, expressionless. The King's body vanished into particles of light. What remained was a fist-sized black crystal—a "Heart of Rock." Market value, about eight thousand yen. A fine piece of loot. "...Efficient." Muttering just that, they picked up the material. They put it in their backpack and tried to end the stream— *(...Ah.)* Looking at the smartphone screen, they realized. They had forgotten to press the stop streaming button. The entire battle had been automatically saved as an archive video. *(Well, whatever. No one's watching anyway.)* Not particularly bothered, Souji cut the stream. --- The next morning. Souji opened their laptop as usual and froze. Numbers they had never seen before were lined up on the DeepCast management screen. Archive video views—120,000. Number of comments—over 800. Channel subscribers—had surpassed 2,000. "...Huh." They said just that, in a flat voice. The cause was immediately clear. The battle video against the Goblin King, recorded because they forgot to stop yesterday's stream. Someone had reposted it on social media, and it had spread with the headline: *'Video of an expressionless, trembling girl confronting a giant monster.'* Shares: over 30,000. They opened the comments section. *'Poor thing... she's so scared she can't even make a sound.'* *'Where are her guardians? It's wrong for such a small child to dive alone.'* *'Someone must be forcing her. What are the police doing?'* *'But she's so brave. It brings tears to my eyes.'* *'I want to help this girl.'* The screen was filled with comments of sympathy and concern. "...A misunderstanding." Souji, their bare face exposed with the mask off, murmured. *(I wasn't cowering in fear. I simply chose an efficient tactic. Those were calculated movements; I wasn't trembling with terror—)* But there was no one they could explain this to. They looked at the video thumbnail. A small silhouette in a white mask stood before the giant Goblin King. Certainly, from an objective viewpoint, it looked like nothing more than a frail girl taking on a reckless fight. *(Well, if it earns me a living, that's fine.)* Souji concluded. Their emotions weren't particularly stirred. It was simply a matter of efficiency. --- At the same time, on the third floor of a small building a five-minute walk from Minase Station. In a room of the streaming consultancy "Nova Base," a woman was staring at her computer screen as if devouring it. Kanata. A former pro gamer, now working as a consultant for streamers. Her black hair, reaching her shoulders, was tied back carelessly, and the eyes behind her glasses were tracing the details of the video. She had already replayed the spread archive video over ten times. "...No." Kanata murmured quietly. The girl on the screen—the streamer calling herself Sora—certainly appeared to be trembling. But there was clear intent in her movements. *(This child isn't scared.)* Kanata advanced the video frame by frame. The moment Sora dodged the Goblin King's charge. A half-step lateral movement. This couldn't be a coincidence. It was a movement impossible without a complete grasp of the opponent's attack range and speed. Next, the footwork leading it towards the rock outcropping. *(That step... this is—)* Kanata caught her breath. She had experience winning numerous tournaments as a pro gamer. In the competitive dungeon-crawling game *Depth Runner*, she had held the world ranking number one spot for two consecutive years. Even to her eyes, Sora's footwork was abnormal. There was absolutely no wasted movement. Precision as if they had simulated the enemy's behavior patterns in advance and derived the optimal solution. *(And the timing of switching the tonfa to a reverse grip. That was aimed precisely at the joint. An attack absolutely impossible without understanding the monster's skeletal structure.)* Kanata leaned back in her chair and looked up at the ceiling. The public's reaction was the complete opposite. *'A frightened lost girl,' 'Poor thing,' 'I want to help her.'* But that was wrong. These movements were *calculation*. "This kid... knows exactly what she's doing." Kanata was certain. She immediately searched for Sora's streaming channel. Subscriber count was still only around two thousand. She checked all the past archive videos. A video of silently hunting Stone Rats. A video of quietly gathering Glow Moss. A video of using the terrain to handle three monsters simultaneously. All of them were methodical. But in every single one, a terrifying level of calculation was at work. "...Wonderful." The corners of Kanata's mouth relaxed just a little. She opened the comments section of Sora's channel. It was overflowing with nothing but words of worry and sympathy. No one had noticed their true natu

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Episode 2

Name: Sora-san's Dungeon Stream: The Expressionless Girl Is Actually a 38-Year-Old Salaryman
Author: Novelia

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