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

The first anniversary concert held the next day?

It was a massive success.

Tickets sold were nearly double the original conservative estimate—
A staggering 40,000 tickets.

Even after paying YouTube’s cut for handling ticketing,
The revenue was huge.

This was a jackpot.

Of course, there had been millions spent on the motion capture studio rental over the past month,
Plus all the production costs that hadn’t been recouped from the 3D showcase—
Modeling, rigging, song production, and a long list of other expenses.

Then, when factoring in future projects—
New content, new outfits, the second-gen debuts—
Not as much profit remained as it might seem.

At least, that’s what the CEO claimed.

Still, the fact that Do-hee’s entire demeanor brightened overnight proved that the concert had been a success.

If they kept stacking profits like this,
Kept attracting investors with good business performance,
Kept expanding the company step by step—

Maybe one day, they’d leave behind their tiny 15-pyeong studio on the 9th floor
And build a BachuuBachuu-scale mega-studio.

With a facility like that,
They could plan 3D content without limitations.
Any VTuber who wanted could come and stream—
It’d be a paradise.

Of course, BachuuBachuu’s motion capture studio alone had cost 30 billion won to build.
Even a mid-sized studio, large enough for 10 people to move freely, required at least 5 billion won.

Parallel still had a long way to go.
They needed to work even harder.

The Following Tuesday

Gia was practically fused to the office sofa.

Do-hee had been groaning for a while now.
But since she wasn’t saying anything,
Gia figured it must be something hard to talk about
And just kept scrolling through her phone in silence.

Then— THUD.

"This won’t do."

Do-hee slammed the desk and stood up.

She marched over to the sofa’s prime seat and plopped down.

Since Gia could see the CEO’s legs in her peripheral vision,
She instinctively sat up as well.

"I’ve been thinking about this for a while."

"About what?"

"You. Doing the review streams. There’s a problem."

Gia had offered to stream, and Do-hee had been on board.

But even though the idea sounded good at first,
Now that it was moving toward execution,
They kept running into obstacles.

"We’re too overworked as it is."

"I’ve been on a two-week vacation though?"

"Right now, sure. That’s why we had time to go to the PC café.
But once second-gen debuts, that’s out the window.
And if we do a monthly review, the chances of me having time are slim."

Long-term content like this had to be carefully planned
Because pausing it for internal reasons would be difficult.

If Do-hee ever said, "We need to take a break because I’m too busy,"
The fans would immediately go, "Knew it. Another half-assed commitment."

"For this to work, you’d have to stream alone when I’m unavailable.
Can you handle that?"

Gia paused to think.

The pre-show had lasted four hours,
But three of those hours had been Gia talking.

Especially during the review segments,
It had basically been a one-woman show.

Yet her throat was fine.
She hadn’t felt overwhelmed at all.

There had been a time when one hour of talking would leave her hoarse.
But now? She had vocal cords of steel.

Honestly, it felt like she had sacrificed some stats in stamina and size
To invest them in her voice and appearance.

So a solo 1-2 hour review stream?
Easy.

Materials?

Which left only one issue—
Gia’s conversation style.

The reason she could talk nonstop during the pre-show
Was because she had someone to bounce off of.

If there was no one to set her up,
If there was no one to react or engage,
The flow would die.

Gia had watched enough streams to know
That when the flow dies,
It frustrates the viewers.

"Would it be okay if I invited other members when you’re not available?"

"As long as they agree beforehand, sure.
But you would still have to be the main host.
I can’t expect them to memorize scripts on top of everything else."

"Hm. That’s fair."

"In the end, you should assume you’ll be doing most of it alone.
That’s easier for me, too."

And if Gia was going to solo-host,
There was one more condition.

"And if you’re going to be streaming,
We need to cap your weekly work hours at 40."

"Why?"

"Think about it.
If you collapse on stream, that’s a disaster."

That would be a national scandal.
Something that could hit the 9 PM news.

The CEO would be investigated.
The finance director would be arrested.
The operations team lead would be branded a negligent slave driver—

"I get it. If I want to stream, I work 40 hours.
Otherwise, I work 52 hours."

"You don’t have to push for 52 hours even if you don’t stream…
It’s not like we give out prizes for maxing out hours.
All you’ll do is make the Labor Department suspicious."

"But what about the overtime pay?"

"We’ll draft an amendment to your contract to cover the stream-related work.
So don’t worry about it."

To summarize:

1. Keep work hours at 40 per week.
2. Be capable of running a solo stream.

The more Gia thought about it,
The more she realized—

This wouldn’t be easy.

"I’ll think it over some more.
It’s not like we’re doing it right away."

"...You’re not giving up?"

"I don’t want to give up.
It’s something that will help Parallel."

"And you’re still going to stick to 40 hours?"

"Yep."

Gia’s lack of resistance made Do-hee… uneasy.

Was she scheming something again?

"You’re not arguing at all. That’s suspicious."

"I always listen to you, CEO."

"That’s not what I meant."

Gia smirked,
as if she knew exactly what Do-hee was getting at.

"I already framed you as an evil, tyrannical CEO during the pre-show.
That was enough."

Do-hee felt a sudden warmth in her chest.
Was Gia… actually growing as a person?

Had a tiny angel taken root in the heart of this troublemaker?

"Ack… but wait, ugh…"

"What?! What’s wrong?! Are you sick?!"

"My stomach… it hurts… I think only snacks and drinks can cure this pain…"

"……"

"If I don’t get them, I might… collapse again…"

Never forget.

When a devil says something sweet,
99% of the time, it’s a setup.

Do-hee whacked Gia’s head
before heading to the break room to grab some snacks.

Gia, rubbing the sore spot,
nibbled on her snack while furiously typing on her phone.

"...Why do you look so busy? Just relax."

"Oh, I’m managing public opinion."

"You’re monitoring the fan forums?
You already checked the concert feedback.
Don’t write anything weird."

"Come on. If I post, I make sure I never get caught."

...That’s not something to be proud of.

*

Gia had told the CEO she was monitoring the concert reactions.

But in reality, she had other business to take care of.

…──— Magia Mini Gallery —──…

[The new mod is insanely fast.]

You guys saw this coming?

Almost everyone from Employee-dee General has already moved to the backup shelter.

[Comments]
— 🟧Magia1: Was a mod at Employee-dee Gen. Saw the head mod getting ready to dip, so I prepped this in advance.
　ㄴ 🟧Magia1: Just had a bad feeling.
　ㄴ Magia335: Damn, a true sage, LOL.
　ㄴ Magia201: Someone else probably would’ve made a new one anyway, but still—nice work.
　ㄴ Magia866: Relocating was way easier thanks to this.

…──— ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─…

…──— Magia Mini Gallery —──…

[(NOTICE) Forum Rules]
[Posted by: 🟧Magia1]

1. No gross shit, no NSFW—immediate delete.
2. If you post something legally questionable, not my problem. I won’t defend you, and neither will the other mods.

Everything else? Figure it out yourselves.
If things get out of hand, do some damage control.

[Comments]
— Magia464: Upvote.
— Magia352: Respect.
— Magia004: Nice work.
— Magia530: Can I apply to be a mod?
　ㄴ 🟧Magia1: Welcome, slave.
　ㄴ 🟦Magia01: POWER FLOWS THROUGH ME.
　ㄴ Magia466: Bro’s born to be an unpaid worker, LOL.
　ㄴ 🟧Magia1: Nah, you get a 50,000-won gift card every month.
　ㄴ Magia466: ? I want in.
　ㄴ 🟧Magia1: Welcome, Momo.
　ㄴ 🟦Magia02: Greetings. They call me Mod.
　ㄴ Magia611: Wait, are you serious? I want in too.
　ㄴ Magia464: You really believe that, LOL?
　ㄴ 🟧Magia1: Believe it or not, up to you. But fine, Magia611 is now a mod.
　ㄴ 🟦Magia03: My life for Magia.

…──— ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─…

Just before Employee-dee General was shut down, two key accounts were still in the forum.

One was a mod account and the other was a regular user account.
Gia had used the mod account to set up a new forum beforehand—
Crowned herself head admin and declared it a "refuge site."

The reason she went this far?

She had learned management by watching the CEO.

After all, hadn’t Do-hee hired her the moment she started causing trouble?

Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.

By following that same logic—
Gia was now in control of every Employee-dee refugee.

And the best part?

She could enslave people for only 50,000 won a month.

"Where else can you get such efficient labor?"

If she were making more money, she might’ve paid them better—
But, alas, all her salary goes into lifting Parallel’s damn log.

Anyway, ever since Pino shut down Employee-dee General this morning,
Gia had been working nonstop to rebuild the network.

Moderating was more effort than expected,
But luckily, four volunteers had joined.

One of them?
Someone who was probably Pino.

She’d keep quiet for now.

Information asymmetry was a weapon.

For now, though, she could just let the system run itself.

What mattered now was—

…──— Magia Mini Gallery —──…

[Employee-dee Gen got nuked. There was a traitor.]

Bet they’re in here now, too.

This pisses me off. If I find them, they’re done.

[Comments]
— Magia035: If loving Magia is a crime, then I accept my sentence.
— Magia845: Damn it, can’t even oshi in peace anymore.

— Magia455: This is bullshit.
　ㄴ Magia455: We didn’t do anything wrong.
　ㄴ Magia455: We just wanted Magia back on stream, so we sent donations.
　ㄴ Magia455: But Magia took the money and dipped.
　ㄴ Magia455: WE’RE the ones getting screwed over!!

　ㄴ Magia560: Yeah, but we never explicitly asked her to stream again.
　ㄴ Magia560: It feels shitty, but what can we do?

　ㄴ 🟧Magia1: Don’t be too upset.
　ㄴ 🟧Magia1: If Magia has any thoughts, she’ll do something.
　ㄴ Magia455: God, I really hope so…

…──— ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─…

Before these pitiful fools completely lost their minds,
Gia needed to start the review streams.

At most, she had a month before things got ugly.

After that, suspicious IPs would start posting garbage everywhere.

If she could "crack their heads" before that happened,
They’d become loyal fans who’d lift the Parallel log with her.

She needed to handle this before the CEO got stressed.

"How can I change my speaking style…?"

Gia had learned social skills by working under Do-hee.

She had become optimized for adapting to others.

The stream host was the one who led the conversation.
As a shadow, Gia had always believed it wasn’t her place to be in the spotlight.@@novelbin@@

But now, for review streams, she had to be the main host.

A complete contradiction.

But for now, there wasn’t much she could do about it.

For now, she could only…

Stare at the ceiling in a daze.

BZZZZT.

• Incoming Call: Maru -

It was a familiar name.
But instead of TalkCode or DingTalk, it was an actual phone call.

Was it urgent?

Gia picked up.

"Hello?"

[Oh! Gia! How are you feeling? The CEO said you were sick recently! We were so worried!!]

Not many people were this loud on a one-on-one call.

Maru’s voice was so booming that Gia instinctively lowered the volume.

"I’m feeling a lot better. Almost back to normal now."

[Oh, thank God. You cannot get sick! Do you have any idea how worried we were after the concert?!]

"If I’d told you earlier, you’d have stressed out and messed up your preparations."

[Oh… yeah, fair point!]

Before, Gia wouldn’t have cared if they worried or not.
But after working with them, she could feel it.

They were protecting her.

Because she was small?
Because she looked fragile?

She had taken time off this week for a reason.
She didn’t want to burden people if she got sick again.

"Anyway, what’s up?"

[Oh! So, um… wanna play a game with me later?]

"A game?"

[Yeah! We suddenly got an I’m Wolf collab, but one of the participants dropped out.
Since this game is only fun when the lobby is full, everyone’s looking for a replacement…
Would you be up for it?]

Gia was mostly recovered.

She had nothing urgent this week.

And she had never collaborated with Maru before.
It seemed like a good opportunity.

Plus—

The game was I’m Wolf.

A Mafia-style game with extra roles and mechanics.
One of the all-time greats for collabs.

It would also be a perfect training ground for her conversation skills.

She was lost in thought when Maru called her again.

[Gia…?]

"Oh—yeah, I’ll join. When does it start?"

[The moment you get here—go time!]