The door to my apartment was wide open, welcoming me in my empty lair, the only thing I could hear was the slow and subdued beat of my heart.

There was nothing noticeable in my apartment's living room, just a couch and a table with one chair, this apartment told absolutely nothing about me, just the way I liked it.

I sat on the couch and lit up a cigarette, to shake off of me the tiredness from work. Today had been a busy day at work, I had to trick people for the whole day, I was the best salesman in my company so my superiors had high expectations, it was hard but I took a lot of pride in it.

I loved deceiving people, it was the thing that made me feel the most accomplished and I was very proud of being a good liar.

It was a natural gift, after all, I was good at it since I was little and when I entered high school, I awakened my talent.

Before that I used to be the lonely kid sitting silently at the end of the classroom, I had few friends and girls didn't even look at me. But after I started acting like someone I wasn't, lying about my accomplishments, and faking the attitude of an alpha male, I managed to become the leader of a larger group of friends and became popular with girls.

I still wasn't devoted to lies though, and what made me take that step was the girlfriend I got at college, her name was Helen.

We got along at the beginning, but at a certain point, she started acting different and we grew more distant, I was afraid she would leave me. And one day, she said that my behavior didn't seem genuine, that she thought I was much more vulnerable than I looked.

At that moment I panicked and ran away before she could continue and I was faced with a decision: to continue my half-assed tough guy impression and have Helen leave me or to take lying to a step forward.

That's the moment I made deception the center of my life. At the moment I thought about what lying meant for me and for those I knew, and I realized human beings are all about lies.

People constructed their public image around how they wanted others to see them, they built links with other people by choosing the image they liked the most and convinced themselves they liked that lie, but at the end of the day, they couldn't really understand others, they only thought they could.

I realized that and decided that my public image needed to be shared with other people, I wanted to build the shiniest lie in the world so that everyone would like it and appreciate me.

I started paying less attention to Helen, I also cheated on her now that I think about it, and concentrated on my career and hobby. In the end, she left me anyway, but at the time I already gathered a decent amount of attention around my image with my hobby, so I didn't mind it too much.

Thinking about my hobby, today was an important day, I looked at the clock, it was almost time for the tournament.

I looked around for my sister, she was staying in my place for a few days, it was a real headache, but I couldn't help it, she had been pestering me about coming to my house for months.

I looked everywhere, she was probably outside.

I looked at the phone, there was a message from her.

She asked me if tomorrow she could bring here a friend she just knew.

I replied she couldn't.

She insisted.

I denied her again.

She insisted.

I sighed and consented, it was impossible to win with her.

I wrote her to not disturb me for a while and then turned off the phone.

I entered my bedroom and booted my computer, ready to pursue my hobby, a hobby that I planned to make my full-time job in the recent future: being a vtuber.

I took up this hobby during college, I started pretending to be a naïve and virgin 18 years old girl while using a voice changer, and with time, I became a relatively well-known indie vtuber with thousands of viewers every stream.

It was the perfect hobby for me, I created a character from nothing and used it to deceive thousands of people at the same time, sharing the false image I created and turning it into an idol, an object of worship.

I didn't do it because I hated those who enjoy vtubers, I actually came to respect the anime culture a lot of how much it was focused on escapism, I did it because I genuinely wanted to create an idol, a lie that could make people happy.

I mean I didn't mind being worshipped, but it wasn't my main objective, I wanted to matter to people, and I knew that only a lie could achieve something like this.

And today, the 19 July 2031, I would enter the biggest vtuber contest of all time, the Cuties' Ultimate Arena championship, and I was aiming for first place.

Cuties' Ultimate Arena was a VR fighting game created with vtubers in mind two years ago. Vtubers have been popular for more than a decade now so there is a lot of people that get themselves a 3d model just for fun and this type of game has been doing pretty well lately.

Cuties' Ultimate Arena, or in short CUA, was still the best of them though and in a way or another all famous vtubers played it, so this year, many of the major vtuber companies came together and sponsored a CUA tournament open to 128 vtubers chosen by popularity, and I was among those 128, I was the number 124.

I looked at the 3d model in front of me. I used the name Kokoro-chan and my model was a short pink-haired girl with a magical-girl-like white dress and red heart-shaped eyes.

I watched out of the window and saw the sun still out in the sky. I hated the sun, it brought things to light so that you could see them for what they were. Now it was shining on my frail and lonely frame, it made me feel uncomfortable, the lie in from of me was much better, it was a shining lie blinding and delighting thousands of people and I was going to make it the most brilliant lie in the world, more brilliant than even the sun.

I put on the VR visor, and then the sun went out, I overlapped the 3d model over my body and activated the voice changer.

I entered the waiting room of the CUA championship website and enabled the chat.

Suddenly comments from the spectator started to appear, greeting me, I could feel the comments of my fans appearing all around me in the walls of the room, I could feel my heart beating faster and stronger.

I stroke a pose, raising one leg and making a peace sign in front of my right eye, and said:

“Here I am, chat, Kokoro-chan is ready to conquer this tournament and your hearts.”

I spent about half an hour greeting my fans, it felt really pleasant.

After a while I was invited by one of the staff into another waiting room, here the streaming was off and I could concentrate before the match.

I didn't really feel too tense so I took the controllers, opened the game, entered the training mode, and tried some combos.

To play the game you used the stick in the left controller to move, while the controller in the right hand merely served to track your hand's movement.

To execute moves you had to move your hands, the normal attacks were pretty simple movements, like right jab for punch or left jab for kick, while special attacks, grabs, and ultimate attacks required more complicated movements and precise timings.

The game was thought with the idea of using your model in the game, so instead of characters, they created weapons to differentiate the gameplay.

Every weapon has different moves, a different style and also changed the player's defense and movement speed.

I used one of the most difficult weapons in the game, Umbra's maws, a pair of pitch-black daggers. They were the fastest weapon in the game, they offered a double air jump instead of a single one, and had a very powerful set of specials that could cancel your normal attacks and being mixed in the middle of combos.

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They had two great handicaps though: They also had the lowest defense in the game and all the specials raised a gauge unique to this weapon called Umbra's hunger, and, once full, it subtracted you half of your maximum life, the only saving grace was that if you were already low, it would leave you at 1 hp instead of killing you.

The main way to lower the gauge was to do combos, the longer the combo the more the gauge was emptied, one of the two ultimates also emptied the gauge completely, but it was hard to do and you could do it only if you had previously charged the energy bar by hitting the enemy enough.

That meant that these weapons relied heavily on doing long combos, but inside those combos, you had to mix normal and specials in a way that doesn't let the gauge go too high, otherwise you could go wild and then rely on the ultimate, but if you failed, you would lose half of your life.

They were pretty difficult weapons, especially at the beginning, and although they were pretty strong they weren't the strongest, so in the whole tournament, there was only another player other than me that used them.

I also didn't want to use them at the beginning, but after trying out their specials I fell in love with them, after all, the core of this weapon's playstyle was deception, this made them the perfect weapon for me.

I received a message from one of the staff, telling me it was time and sending me an invitation to a private room.

I accepted the invitation and was sent to a room resembling a stadium, in front of me there were two other vtubers, one was a girl I didn't know, probably the host of the match, and the other one was my contestant, a girl with blonde hairs and heavy make-up, wearing a Japanese school uniform. The uniform's skirt was quite short, and the blouse had its upper buttons unbuttoned, showing her generous cleavage. In the weeb community, she would have been called gyaru, but this girl had something more on her: dragon-like horns, fangs, tail, and wings.

She was Ryugal, the last descendant of a dragonkin race that went extinct and was summoned to our world after dying by being run over by a carriage, or at least that was her lore. Actually, no one knew who was behind the model, I wondered if it was a man, just like me.

The host was the first to talk.

“Nice to meet you Kokoro-chan and Ryugal, oh my god I always wanted to meet you, I'm Ao-chan, this match's host. We'll open the stream in five minutes, please be in position at the two corners of the ring before that.”

“Sure.”

“Got it.”

Ryugal looked at me and started to talk.

“Yo Kokoro-chan, we finally meet, I always wanted a match with you.”

I wore a courteous expression and said:

“Same here, I like facing Drachenblut's wielders.”

It was a lie.

We continued talking until it was time to start the show, the host then made us go into our position and she opened the stream for the viewers. The walls started to be filled with comments from the audience.

“Welcome viewers, I'm Ao-chan, and I'll be the host for this match. Now let me present you the two contestants of today's match, in the right corner we have the last descendant of her tribe, her passion will make your blood boil and her provocative attitude will make you love her, our first contestant, Ryugal.”

Ryugal stepped forward, smiled mischievously exposing her sharp teeth, and said:

“Sup boys, here's your favorite girl, ready to conquer the tournament.”

The crowd started to cheer her.

“And in the left corner, the idol that is accumulating more and more followers with her spontaneousness, she's a goddess of love came upon earth to make you have a good time, her voice will charm your ears, her smile will melt your hearts, let yourselves be enveloped by love and welcome our second contestant, Kokoro-chan.”

I made a heart with my hands and cheered my fans.

“Your idol is here, let me hear your love guys.”

I could see the cheers all around me, they were not real cheers, it was just a reproduction that became louder the more the people from home pressed the cheer button, but I still liked it a lot, I could feel my heart beating faster.

I looked at the VIP section on the wall, a small portion that listed all the VIP accounts that were watching the stream.

'She's here.'

I thought.

Among the various names there was one that caught my attention: Tsukiko, the number one vtuber in the world, and also the only other Umbra's maws user in the tournament, she was the one that I wanted to beat the most.

She was an indie vtuber that managed to rise to the top in a few years, what she did was a true miracle, a lot of big vtubers had agencies backing them, which gave them a head start and access to more events, but she didn't need any external help and became the number one with an ease difficult to believe.

I received a request for a match by Ryugal.

I had to focus on the match now.

I accepted.

I entered the weapon menu and choose my favorite, while my opponent chose Drachenblut, a two-handed greatsword with a great range, good damage, and good defense but a bad set of attacks for the close range.

This match would be all about how close I could get to my opponent.

A scenery representing a dragon-themed temple appeared, it was Drachenblut's scenery, of course as a dragon vtuber Ryugal choose a dragon-themed weapon. Actually, most vtuber choose weapons that were in theme with them if they could, I was one of the few ones that choose a weapon that had nothing to do with them.

Suddenly numbers appeared in front of me.

3

2

1

Fight!

I opened the match with a low kick, there were two types of attacks in the game, high and low, and both had a corresponding type of block, I was hoping Ryugal would back away or use the high block, but she blocked my attack correctly on reaction.

I followed with a combo of normal attacks, but she blocked everything, so I used a special attack that teleported me to the opposite side of the enemy and followed with a special attack, Shadow Leap. This attack needed to be blocked in the opposite direction than before so you needed good reflexes to block it, and she blocked it.

I tried a low attack again, then started a combo of normal attacks but canceled the last move, a high normal, with Shadow Morph, a special that launched a low attack from my shadow while I backed away and prepared to rush in in case it hit, my enemy blocked that too.

Ryugal caught the chance and started to attack, she had a good range so she needed just one step to come in range, she started hitting me with a combo, and by mixing in normals and special she managed to hit me with a two-hit combo of special attacks.

It was just two attacks, but since she had good damage she managed to make me lose a third of my life.

I managed to back away, but she rushed in again and started pressuring me again while I blocked.

I already filled half of Umbra's hunger, so I was in a pretty tough spot, but I didn't lose hope and waited for a chance.

And soon, it came. Ryugal showed an opening and I managed to connect a low kick, and although it was blocked, I had now the space to use Shadow Shift, now I could block the opponent in the corner where I was. I teleported on the opposite side of Ryugal and she blocked in that direction, but no attack followed.

What I used wasn't Shadow Leap, but Shadow Feint, a special that consumed the same amount of Humbra's Hunger as Shadow Leap, but teleported me behind the enemy without following with an attack, I couldn't trap Ryugal in the corner, but I had the chance of getting something better.

I used Shadow Leap and hit Ryugal while she was blocking in the opposite direction, my hunger gauge was being filled to the brim, but now it was combo time.

punch

Slash

low kick

heavy slash

Ryugal went flying, I used Shadow Feint and started to hit Ryugal while she was in the air.

Slash

kick

forward slash

low kick

I managed to connect eight attacks in a row, eating through a third of Ryugal's life and lowering the gauge barely enough to not activate the penalty.

I rushed in again and restarted pressuring her, but in the middle of my attacks, she made a complicated hand gesture, I canceled my attack with Shadow Stab and blocked.

Ryugal became surrounded by flames and she swung Drachenblut in a swing, hitting half of the arena. This was one of Drachenblut's ultimates, Dragon's Wrath, a swing that made you invulnerable and made a shit ton of damage if it hit.

But I managed to block it, and now I could safely use my own ultimate, but before that, it was combo time again.

I repeated the same combo as before, Umbra's hunger was already filled, but its effect would activate only once I finished the combo or I used a special, even inside a combo, I hadn't any intention of letting it activate though.

I canceled the last normal by slowly drawing a circle in the air with my hands, and then brought them at the center, facing my palms in opposite directions and suddenly opening my arms like I was opening a door.

A darker filter was applied to the map and the hunger's gauge disappeared, this was Umbra's Embrace, an ultimate that allowed me to use any kind of special freely for seven seconds.

I started to attack fiercely and, before the time was over, Ryugal laid defeated at my feet.

The first match of this best of seven was mine.

I looked at the ceiling, Tsukiko was still watching, I wanted to reach her place, I wanted to become the brighter star in the firmament that was the vtuber community so that I wouldn't need the sun again.

--Helen's point of view--

I was watching Kokoro-chan, my favorite vtuber. She won the first round with a fantastic feint and then never lost the lead, winning the series 4 to 2.

I was watching her from the VIP section using Tsukiko, my vtuber persona, I wanted her to know that the number 1 vtuber cheered for her.

I started following her back in college, I was living a very awful period because of Blake, my ex-boyfriend. I got with Blake only because I wanted to have sex with him, but with time he started to seem like a genuinely good person that forced himself to act like an idiot, but when I tried to deepen my relationship with him, he cheated on me and started acting like a true scumbag.

Kokoro-chan was a genuine person that truly enjoyed making people have a good time, and watching her helped me get through that difficult time.

I ended up developing another hobby to vent my frustration though.

I logged in on one of my secondary accounts, Darkmoon69, and started checking every thread or discussion where Kokoro-chan was mentioned, and if I found someone that said something false about Kokoro chan, I reported the guy on every social where I could find him and sometimes I sent threats.

I couldn't tolerate lies, they were what I hated the most, and punishing people for telling lies was what satisfied me the most.

That was also what I liked about vtubers, they weren't bound by society's rules and they could be whatever they wanted.

When in the middle of people everyone lied about themselves, in a way or another, even I had to do it, I had to hide my antipathy for people I dislike and couldn't always talk about what I liked for fear of embarrassing myself.

When I was a vtuber though, I could be the true me, I could say whatever I wanted, I could admit it if I didn't like someone and wasn't embarrassed about talking of weeb stuff or hentai.

I felt my phone vibrate.

I checked it and found a message from Clara, a girl I knew this morning in a manga shop and that invited me to the place she was staying in, her brother's house, the day after tomorrow.

The message said:

“Blake onii-chan said it's completely ok fine, see you the day after tomorrow, Helen-chan.”

She was a total weeb.

I replied that I looked forward to it and put away the phone.

By the way, it seems her big brother had the same name as my ex-boyfriend, it gave me bad memories, but what can you do.

It had been a while since I lost all my real-life friends, so I looked forward to having social interactions again after a while.

I hoped that the day after tomorrow everything would go well.