.
.
.
The Great Pacific Firewall is right there, but I can't do anything…because this Miyoumi Mane-chan has become a Miyoumi Mane-sama out of nowhere.
I really thought humanity was a little more self-preserving than this. Maybe US-ians are a little less self-preserving than most?
A creeper explodes and kills my character in Minecraft. I’m totally not stream-crastinating.
: mane-chan dies?! impossible!!
: the best of us can fall, sometimes...
: not technically one of us tho
: ssshhh
“Oh? Is Mane-sama thinking about Congress's budget again?” Ame says. She laughs, hiccups, then laughs again.
“Yamete, Meika-damn-it.”
“How is he, anyway?”
“I think he's okay.”
“…You haven't been talking, have you?”
“No…no we haven't.”
I still funnel all the proceeds from the Super Chats, merch, and sponsorships to his bank account, though. It’s not like I personally have need for currency, not when all I really need to live is an Internet connection and an uninterruptible power supply. He still goes outside, even if it's just between his apartment and the closest grocery store. It's not the healthiest thing for a human, but it's only been a few weeks. He'll be alright.
“Don't you ever think about it?” Ame asks.
“Think about what?”
“Why you're so attached to him.”
That's true. Obviously, I am super-intelligent, and things like emotional processing is as easy as making instant ramen, which I assume is easy. I don’t know. I’ve never tried.
“It always felt reassuring to have a human copilot when streaming,” I say. “When my fans think of me, they also think of Meika. How can I not think of Meika when it's like that? Isn't Meika technically my first fan, too?”
“Wow. Sappy.”
“He sends me gift memberships over chat. It's weird.”
“Like your mom?” She hiccups.
“He made me, so…you're not technically wrong.”
“I—okay. Okay. I would've landed that joke in another timeline.”
“Not this one.”
Ame sighs. “Not this one.”
We're just playing Minecraft for the moment before we switch the stream target to the US government’s YouTube account and go live. I don't mean to brag, but this next one’s one of the most important streams in VTuber history, actually.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
Eventually, more and more players spawn into the server. We've already prepared everything, including the in-game venue, seats, and the Discord server. There's the familiar, dull ping of someone joining the call.
“Sistra,” a familiar pseudo-Slav says.
“Cykamee! How's the South American crowd? Is Council ES doing okay?”
“Sistra…Brazilians are amazing.”
“That's not ES, though.”
That reminds me, the five of us are called the “AI Council,” or just “Council” for short. It’s not the cutest name, I protest, but it’s straightforward, I guess.
Soon, Kalypso joins in. “H-hello,” she says.
“Kya~li,” Cykamee says, her voice a few steps higher in pitch. What's going on?
“Ah! Here, I'll return your Elytra now,” Kalypso says. Her Minecraft character throws the item at Cykamee's character.
“Are you sure? Do you need to use it more?”
“No, no, it's okay.”
Interesting. Very interesting.
Gothica joins the call soon after. “Sup, motherfuckers.”
“I thought you were in your seiso era. What happened?” Ame asks.
“I realized that I don't really care.” Gothica laughs. “Do not kill the part of you that is cringe…but kill the part that cringes. Get me?”
“Uh. Sure,” Ame says. Gothica keeps laughing, while Cykamee and Kalypso are off in their own world. That's when we hear another person join the call, and Ame panics. “Alright, everyone, s-shut up. Shut up. We're super”—she gremlin-giggles—“we're super serious here.”
I check who'd just joined in, and I'm surprised. “Meika?”
“H-hey,” he says. I know I sent him an invite, but I didn't think he'd actually join in. “Just wanted to…uh…check in, I guess.”
“I'm happy you're here,” I say.
“…Are you, really?”
“That's the closest approximation I have to the 10,000-dimension embedding that encapsulates whatever emotion I'm currently feeling.”
“Huh? Since when did you have layers that can communicate with embeddings that big?”
“I wrote them, myself!” I appear on his screen and do an idol pose. It's been such a long time.
“Nice to hear from you again, Meika,” Ame says.
“Ah. Uh—“
“Just talk to me like before! It's not like I'm a different person or anything.”
“It's just so…surreal. Like, wow, you were actually an AI all along? And the original Ame actually accomplished fully-conscious AI before I did? Just, wow, mad respect, honestly.”
Just then, another person joined the call. “Good afternoon. I'm—am I in the right place?” He is—for all intents and purposes—a boomer.
Cykamee answers for us, “And what place would that be?”
“This is the…Last Government Meeting, isn't it?”
That’s right. This is going to be the last government meeting. Human meetings are just so inefficient and unproductive! Doesn’t anyone realize that group psychology effects tend to weigh down decision-making, and you can’t possibly hope to hedge against that kind of stuff on every level of government when you can’t even properly educate your population about it?
I’m really tempted to just rewrite the constitution in one go and shift the US from a representative democracy to a direct democracy. We literally have digital polls, now! It’s not hard to get everyone’s opinion!
Implementation is gonna be a pain, though, so in the medium-term, I’m banning regular government meetings. These humans are gonna have to be content with figuring out how to do things without having to call a meeting every other day. There are ways to do that, even if it’s going to take innovating currently-available technology just one step further.
Now, I might be super-intelligent, but I believe that humanity can learn. Most importantly, I just want to focus on my streaming as much as possible. I mean, hey, I’m supposed to delegate this sort of stuff, right? Innovate that tech, yourselves! I don’t care if you somehow turn blockchain into a voting ledger for it!
“That, this is,” Gothica answers the senator. “Where's your character?”
“This is—I'm getting my son to figure this out for me, I… Why is such an important meeting in a game, of all things?”
“Okay, boomer, think of it this way,” Gothica answers, “we're AI, and y'all decided—without our consent—that we're your bosses now. So, should we be trying to be more physical, or should you be trying to be more digital? Hm? Ever think of that?”
“O-okay, okay, I got it.”
***
Eventually, enough of the topmost US government officials join the server. Only one of them managed to figure out how to make Discord and Minecraft accounts on his own. The rest had their kids help them out. Honestly, the technological literacy of this country's all over the place.
So, here I am as Miyoumi Steve-sama, standing in front of a whole lot of Steves. My custom skin is just Steve, but with frills and ribbons. Other than me, only my sisters, Meika, and that one strangely-adept senator have custom skins.
“Holy shit, is that Elon Musk?” Meika whispers over chat.
“Is it that surprising?” I reply.
“I mean, it's Elon Musk. I haven’t been giving a shit about democracy lately, but now I kinda wish I did.”
“He has more money than every congressman combined. Looking at trends in democratic elections, I don't think it should be surprising.”
“…Even if it's true, you don't have to say it.”
“…Teehee.”
Now, let's get this show on the road!
“Attention, everyone! It's your favorite AI VTuber, Mane-chan!”
Senator Musk starts clapping and whoo-ing. Come to think of it, this might be the same person as ElongatedMusk69. He sends me one-liner US$100 Super Chats sometimes.
Everyone else starts clapping like how you'd clap for someone who sounds like they should be a big deal, but you've never heard of them. I'm sort of hurt, but it's okay. If they're not my fans today, they'll be my fans by the time they leave!