I May Be a Virtual Youtuber, but I Still Go to Work

The Next Morning.

Do-hee woke up and checked TingTalk messages that had arrived overnight. Among them, she spotted a message from someone unexpected.

[Mugeon] 

“…Huh? What’s this about?”

Mugeon—real name, Lee Dong-geon.

Until two years ago, when Battle Colosseum League was at its peak, he was a former pro who had competed in multiple international tournaments, sweeping awards and enjoying massive popularity among Battle Colosseum players during his prime.

After retiring, he leveraged his infamous "Magnet Aim"—a nickname from his pro days—to carve out a successful career as a high-level Battle Colosseum streamer.

Do-hee had gotten close to him after they ended up on the same team during a streamer tournament. Now, they were at the point where their first words to each other were "You bastard" or "You bitch," exchanged with equal affection.

At this point, any VTuber fan would naturally wonder—

Wouldn't there have been chaos in the chat from unicorns and blackened broth fans, raging about her interacting with a male streamer?
Did she already purge her audience once?

In the beginning, there was definitely backlash whenever the two played together.

The rumors ranged from "They're secretly dating," to "They meet every weekend," to "They're planning to get married."

But as time passed, one undeniable fact came to light that completely shattered all speculation—

Mugeon was a hardcore Battle Colosseum addict who had never even met Momo in person.

Someone had looked up his ranked match history after he first appeared on Momo’s stream, and aside from the time spent playing with Momo or others, he had been grinding ranked matches for 16 hours a day.

Even his appearances on Momo's stream followed a fixed pattern:

"I feel like playing Battle Colosseum.
"I need a teammate."
"Oh, Momo's streaming."
"Wanna play?"
Plays for two hours.
"Alright, thanks. Later."

And then he’d just leave.

Even the most rabid unicorns couldn’t spin that into a romantic narrative.

Moreover, he was so obsessed with the game that his nagging at Do-hee in matches made him sound like an overbearing mother-in-law.

"This is why you’ll forever be stuck in Gold."
"You say you wanna rank up, but your mindset is all wrong."

Since Do-hee was the kind of person who only took advice seriously from top-tier players like Magia or Mugeon, her inevitable frustration and snappy comebacks became a hit among viewers.

Before long, even the audience started looking forward to their collab streams.

That said, Mugeon usually only contacted her during streams—and only when she was playing Battle Colosseum.

So it was strange.

Not only had he messaged her in the middle of the night, when he should’ve been streaming, but he was also using a weirdly formal, almost sales-pitch-like tone.

[Mugeon: How have you been, boss?]
[Mugeon: I have an inquiry for you.]
[Mugeon: Do you happen to have someone named ‘Signal Flare’ at your company?]

The fact that he was reaching out out of nowhere was already suspicious, but on top of that—Signal Flare?

Why was he looking for Magia?

Do-hee immediately called him.

…Only to realize it was 6 AM.

Considering he was a full-time streamer, he should’ve been asleep by now.

Just as she was about to hang up, the call connected.

"Oh, long time no see!"

Apparently, he wasn’t asleep yet. His voice was still sharp.

“What the hell? You’re still up?”

"Ah, I just finished streaming. Was about to sleep."

“So? What’s all this about Signal Flare?”

"Wait—you don’t know yet?"

At that moment, her phone buzzed.

A TingTalk notification from Mugeon.

Switching to speaker mode, Do-hee opened the message. It was a clip from Akari Dora’s stream last night.

"That player—your employee. Their aim was insane."

“…?”

Do-hee was baffled.

Just what the hell had happened overnight that one of their employees ended up in the real-time best category?

Then again, that was just her initial concern as an ex-troll.

The reality was something else entirely.

"Magia played a match in Dora’s stream?"

The clip showed a Pandemic Village final boss getting shredded in under two minutes.

And the player? Undoubtedly, Magia.

Judging from the heated arguments in the comments, the sequence had unfolded after Dora had provoked Magia, and Magia had taken the bait.

Magia took the bait?

"She even visited her place the other day… Has she really changed her mindset?"

More importantly, the aim was downright terrifying.

The boss was darting between the floor, walls, and ceiling, moving erratically, yet Magia landed every single bullet—twelve consecutive shots, all clean headshots to its grotesque, dangling eyeball.

Even when the boss lunged at her, poised to tear into her, she stayed eerily calm and emptied the last few rounds straight into its skull.

It was almost… beautiful.

Do-hee was watching the clip again in awe when Mugeon spoke.

"So, here’s the thing—we’ve got a crew match next week."

"One of our members had to drop out, and I was wondering how to fill the slot—then I saw this clip."

"Didn’t realize she was that well-known until I checked TriWiki."

“Oh.”

"So yeah. Just two matches—one warm-up, one main event. Could you introduce us?"

Even though it was a crew match, it would still be streamed.

Considering that their crew consisted entirely of former Battle Colosseum pros, Magia would end up on a broadcast whether she wanted to or not.

“I’ll ask her.”

But Do-hee already had a good idea of what Magia’s response would be.

She liked Battle Colosseum, sure.

But going out of her way to play an event match—especially one that would put her on stream?

Not likely.

However, there was one thing Do-hee overlooked.

The Dark Magia Fan Club, a group notorious for downplaying Magia’s skills, had been growing in numbers lately.

Magia had never been openly upset by it.

But to say she hadn’t been bothered by it would be a lie.

There had always been a part of her that wanted to prove herself.

"Sure. When is it?"

So, Magia accepted Mugeon’s offer without hesitation.

The entire opposing team was made up of former pros.

Wouldn’t this be the perfect chance to truly test her skills?

Pros often joked that Diamond rank didn’t really exist.

Above Diamond was Master, and above that was Challenger—the top echelon.

Even in ranked, running into a Master was rare.

This was an opportunity to face them directly.

Do-hee, stunned, asked, “You do know who Mugeon is, right?”

“Yes. He’s a former pro. I watch the boss’s streams—I’d have to be blind not to know.”

“Right. You also know this match is being streamed, yeah? You okay with that?”

“I’m not gonna die just because I show up on a stream. It’s just two games.”

“…I mean, yeah, but—”

“And it’s online, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then just tell them to schedule it for next Tuesday.”

Next Tuesday was the first-gen anniversary motion capture session.

Since it was a physically demanding shoot, they had all planned a break afterward.

Which meant Magia would be free that night.

It was the perfect date for something extra.

If Magia showed up on Mugeon’s stream that day…

This was going to be interesting.

Mugeon wasn’t the type to announce guests in advance.

Usually, he’d just bring someone in, let the conversation flow naturally, and if the guest didn’t want to be introduced, he’d skip it altogether.

Since everyone he invited was already skilled enough to hold their own against pro-level players, introductions weren’t even necessary—viewers would take notice of their skills and become fans on their own.

In other words, the fact that Magia was participating in Mugeon’s crew match wouldn’t be revealed until the stream had already started—only after her username and voice were exposed.

A Battle Colosseum stream usually filled with nothing but the gruff voices of sweaty male players… and then suddenly, a cute, sharp-toned voice joins the mix?

Of course, that would grab attention.

Fans of Battle Colosseum, Momo’s audience, and Mugeon’s regular viewers—someone among them would put two and two together.

"Wait, isn’t that Signal Flare?"

And just like that, the news would spread like wildfire across Parallel Gallery—the go-to place for people obsessed with keeping tabs on the company’s employees—and all the adjacent forums.

It just so happened that Parallel’s fanbase would be feeling a little down that day.

After all, Momo and the entire first-gen lineup would be on break due to their recording session.

Normally, if their favorite wasn’t streaming, fans could just hop over to another first-gen member’s stream, but this time? Parallel would be completely silent.

A dead zone.

So imagine their reaction when, in the midst of this depressing silence, news broke that one of their own was casually holding her ground against former pros in a Battle Colosseum match.

Do-hee wasn’t sure how the audience would react—but she did know one thing for sure.

She respected Magia’s skills.

If nothing else, that was enough to predict what would happen next—

The entire fanbase would rally behind her and flood Mugeon’s stream.

If you discounted duplicate viewers, Parallel’s dedicated audience was about 23,000.

At least half of them would go watch Magia.

And if you added Mugeon’s regular viewers into the mix…

Mugeon’s Battle Colosseum streams, despite being unannounced, always pulled in a solid 10,000 viewers.

That meant at least 20,000 people would witness Magia’s skills and her unholy obsession with double-barrel shotguns.

There was no way this wouldn’t become a hot topic.

“You’re gonna use double-barrels again, aren’t you?”

Without hesitation, Magia nodded.

“Yeah. I wanna see if it works against pros, too.”@@novelbin@@

Magia.

If you do this, and then don’t debut—people are going to riot.

The world will force you into it, like a raging river sweeping away everything in its path.

…But Do-hee couldn’t just say that outright.

If she did, Magia might take it as pressure to go with the flow and debut, whether she wanted to or not.

And it wasn’t like she could stop her from participating in the crew match.

But if she did nothing, the fallout would be unavoidable.

Managing the stream itself wouldn’t be an issue—the managers could handle that.

The real problem was that the junior managers of various streams might come at Magia, begging her to just debut already because they were tired of moderating chat.

And that, too, would become pressure on Magia to debut.

"That’s not happening."

If Do-hee wanted to respect Magia’s choice, she needed a way to redirect the attention of those 20,000 viewers.

A distraction.

A countermeasure.

…But what?

“Boss.”

Magia spoke up.

Like she already knew exactly what Do-hee was struggling with.

“But, uh… if all the first-gen talents are off that day, a lot of people are gonna show up, right? Mugeon already has a big viewer base, too.”

Do-hee blinked in surprise.

Magia continued.

“So what if we get permission to use a short sample of the first-anniversary song? We could make a teaser and drop it that day. The 3D models just need finishing touches, so a silhouette preview should be fine…”

Magia wasn’t usually the type to take the initiative.

But sometimes, something would spark her interest enough that she moved before anyone could even ask her to.

And because she watched streams even more than Do-hee, she could think faster than her in certain situations.

Like now.

This could only mean one thing—

Magia had completely stopped resisting the idea of being part of the broadcast world.

She had already shown up on D-Rain, Battle Colosseum collabs, and Dora’s stream.

Now, even the one employee who just wanted to do her job well had stopped actively avoiding the spotlight.

She always delivered beyond expectations, but—

At some point, without Do-hee even noticing, she had grown again.

“…Alright. I’ll look into it. I’ll handle that side of things, so you just focus on how you’re gonna play in the match.”

And so, Do-hee left everything about the presentation that day in Magia’s hands.

Normally, she would have the PR team handle it.

But she was just a little curious—what would Magia come up with?

“Anything else you want me to do?”

“Nope, that’s it. Once the promo’s done, just have fun.”

“Okay~.”

And since she was asking Magia for something outside her usual duties, she needed to offer a reward.

“…By the way, are you free that weekend? Wanna game together?”

Magia blinked, as if she’d just been hit by a stun grenade.

“…Uh. Wait. You? Asking me?”

“Why? You don’t wanna?”

“No, I just— I didn’t expect you to bring it up first.”

“….”

“I mean, come on. You always make excuses about being busy. If I don’t ask, you never—”

“Alright, alright! Forget it. I take it back. That was a mistake.”

“Whoa, whoa, wait! If you cancel, I’m canceling the promo, too.”

“You little—”

Cackling, Magia bolted from the office.

"Just kidding~."

***

Mugeon immediately agreed to Do-hee’s request.

[Do whatever you want. I can even pin a link in chat.]

He never stopped guests from promoting their stuff on his stream.

It was just that, because of his status, smaller streamers usually hesitated to take advantage of it.

As long as someone didn’t drag things out with a ten-minute boring monologue, he was more than willing to help.

[By the way, if you’re gonna do that, you should probably change your nickname, too.]

“…Oh. Yeah, that makes sense.”

[Right? I mean, I’ll be saying your username constantly during the match. There was this one guy who went from 10k to 50k subs just because of that.]

“…Alright. I’ll talk it over with her.”

Frankly, Magia was the expert here.

The ridiculous usernames she had come up with in the past had made plenty of people laugh.

[Me: Hey, Magia.]
[Me: You can use your username for promo. Wanna come up with something? I’ll cover the rename fee.]

Her response was instant.

[Magia Manager: (Brackets) Work-in-Progress-Sashimi-Master-Let’s-Go]
[Me: Don’t mess with me.]
[Me: I will end you.]

She only needed two minutes to get serious.

Her final suggestion?

[Magia Manager: MugeonIsAWell-KnownMomoAnti]

[Me: …HEY.]