VTuber Unmasked (3)
The world is always changing.
Nemmo had been the most popular member thanks to her cute voice and image. Once you hit that kind of orbit, failing is almost harder than succeeding, so she streamed however she wanted. She did whatever she pleased, and because there was no real substitute, she only kept growing. Even with frequent breaks, her viewers never dropped. If anything, not streaming made her rarer, and even more people showed up.
She was chronically late even for the collabs the members did together. But with that many fans, complaints were easy to smother. When anyone tried to warn her, she answered with defense mechanisms and blame-shifting, until the people around her simply gave up on warning her at all.
The happiness that had seemed eternal… collapsed in an instant.
A nothing post on an anonymous community kicked up a massive wave. No way. It can’t be. It’s fake. Come on, no way… The fans who had thought that started digging, and the dating rumor hardened into fact.
Frequent breaks, frequent lateness, frequent little controversies—none of it had ever been able to take Nemmo down. What brought her down in a single stroke was the dating scandal. Of course she explained herself and denied it, but the effect was paper-thin. The circumstantial evidence was simply too solid to shrug off.
Even so, she had already reached orbit, so a total collapse was hard. Instead people just quietly left, and the remaining viewers’ reactions changed. The people who used to forgive everything stopped forgiving. Yesterday, today, tomorrow… they slipped away in silence.
Most of those departed “ghosts” never chose the option of simply quitting streams. While they hunted for someone new, someone else reaped the benefit.
That someone was Motteok.
She had simply been lucky. There was no other way to explain it. Motteok had just been streaming as usual, and before she knew it her voice carried weight and she had become the axis of the members. Nemmo, who used to ignore everyone, now listened like a good kid.
Since Nemmo was finally listening, Motteok wanted to help. They were colleagues, after all.
“Jjang-ham, go easy. Nemmo’s having a hard time right now.”
“Why? Is Nemmo-nim homesick? Does she want to go back to Shape World? Then can I come too?”
“Nemmo, listen—Jjang-ham doesn’t do mind games. The second you try, she just flips you and pays you back a hundred times over. Plus she’s an absolute silver-spoon brat, so she… just doesn’t hold back. Remember that.”
“Mind games? Nemmo-nim isn’t that kind of person. Someone who ran the National Intelligence Service in Shape World wouldn’t waste time on petty feelings. She lives for her people.”
“And there she goes. How’s that power-play taste?”
“Ugh… getting dizzy…”
“Dizzy? Why? Nemmo-nim, teach me!! I’ll learn. I’ll seriously study hard.”
“Kyaaah!! She just refuses to let it go. Good luck. Jjang-ham’s pissed.”
“Me? I’m not mad. I’m genuinely curious. I’m going to make my own VTuber RP later, so I really want to learn. Nemmo-nim… can I call you Teacher? I really want to learn.”
Motteok wanted to protect Nemmo from Seona, but she was starting to suspect she couldn’t.
“Sorry… Jjang-ham’s pissed…”
“I said I’m not mad!! I’m really not mad!! Why would I be mad?!”
“Okay, whatever. Let’s just do Monopoly first. Motteok, hop in. Which map should we start with?”
Raming cut into the conversation, and the topic flipped to games.
“Ah! Ah! Right. I’m a god of Floating City. You guys any good? I’ll test your skills first.”
“Is there anything Jjang-ham can’t do? She’s good at everything.”
“Aww~ Motteok-nim, that was a nice thing to say. Exactly. In Floating City, Haleo is mandatory. If you equip Haleo with the soap-bubble travel item, I’m not even lying—you can just keep winning. Now, what is the soap bubble? Super important. It cages them. You hit once. And if you’ve got the angel soap bubble or whatever it is, it even nullifies the angel card and just bankrupts them. I’m gonna go roll Haleo and the travel item first.”
“Ugh… full-course meal… We’re doing it without items… Jjang-ham… pure original, no item characters, no dice boosts.”
“Huh? Why?”
“That’s what makes it fun.”
“Then… Sophie, Bari, Roland… we don’t use those? There’s Watson too. We don’t use any of that?”
“What even are those.”
“…Agnes, Antoinette… Fate… we at least need to add those.”
“Add nothing. Just play. It’s fun even like this.”
Motteok smiled warmly and kept going.
“So, team battle or free-for-all? Ah, let’s just do one team round on the Floating map. If we don’t, Jjang-ham’s gonna feel left out.”
“Ooh!! Yes. Who’s the worst player here? I’ll pair with the worst one. I’m actually really good. Back in the day I used three spare phones, equipped Haleo, bought soap bubbles, bankrupted everyone, scored thirty thousand points, farmed money like crazy, and upgraded.”
“Damn. Then team with me.”
“Sounds good. Then Motteok-nim and I are a team.”
Seona was truly confident. She wanted to show her skills so badly she hit ready first.
“Hey, when are you hitting ready, Motteok? Hurry hurry. Speedrun. Speedrun.”
“Ah, sorry. Let’s go.”
“Jjang-nim?”
“Ugh… that was… just a fluke… Even… even monkeys fall from trees… That’s what this is.”
I couldn’t open my eyes. It was too humiliating. I never once dreamed I’d go bankrupt first. Motteok-nim really tried her hardest, but she still lost. If I’d contributed even half a person, we would’ve won that round.
Ugh… so embarrassing. What even is this.
But it wasn’t like I had zero excuses.
“Jjang-nim?”
“I have an excuse. I…”
“Let’s hear it.”
“It wasn’t the mobile version… It was my first time on PC, so I made mistakes.”
“What’s the difference between the two?”
“The hand feel is totally different…”
Someone on my side had to exist, right? I looked at chat.
I covered my face with one hand. Too many gaming illiterates…?! Ah. So that was it.
I was the only one who noticed? The others didn’t catch this?
Wow… they don’t even know? Because I’m god-tier at this game, I could sense it.
“Haa… I get it. I understand now.”
“Understand what? Why you sucked?”
“Yeah. I just got hit with a rigged match. I’m the victim here.”
“What!! Victim!! After playing the worst out of all of us… I’m the victim.”
“Nemmo-nim is the god of squares, right? Dice are squares. I just got done dirty. If I team with Nemmo-nim I’ll win. For real.”
Worldview guardian: Seona. Ehehe.
How was that? Amazing, right? I just expanded the Shape World lore.
Crazy, right? Helping each other out. Yup yup.
I’ll write the story. Full focus on delusion power. Uuuugh!!
“I’m raising a conspiracy theory. Nemmo-nim is controlling every single square right now, which is why I lost. Please rebut.”
I said it with complete sincerity. All that came back was laughter.
Even chat was scolding me, but in the end Yu Seona was correct. That was what I was going to say. Definitely.
I had already completely mapped Nemmo-nim’s world. Absorption was nearly finished, and I’d brainwashed myself on every last bit of plausibility and verisimilitude.
Right now we were people who knew Shape World.
“That’s not it… There’s nothing like that…”
“Hmm… I see. Then this time I’ll team with Nemmo-nim. Prove it. If we win, it means you tried hard to clear my suspicion. If we lose, I’ll take it as you did it on purpose.”
“Th-that’s just saying you refuse to believe me no matter what…”
“Correct.”
I said it with full confidence. Extremely full confidence!! From now on I was the detective peeling back Shape World.
And Nemmo-nim was the one hiding things. Right now we were in the middle of an espionage war.
Thrilling as hell.
“D-did I do something wrong…?”
“Wrong? Who’s insulting anyone right now? Who cursed? Ban them. If they email, delete-click. If they rampage in the café, kick-click. Instant invincibility.”
“There’s no cursing… but there is someone bullying me…”
“Who? Who did it!!”
“…”
“Seona. It’s you.”
“Me? Why?”
Nemmo-nim hadn’t said a single word, but Raming cut in. It’s not me…!! Who the hell!! Who bullied her…!! I’m going to absolutely destroy them.
Ah. Was it actually me? Me? When? They’re framing me again.
I would prove it wasn’t a frame job.
“It’s not me. I didn’t bully anyone. Right? Nemmo-nim. Nemmo-nim.”
“…”
“Nemmo-nim?”
“…”
“Guess she went to the bathroom.”
“I’m here…”
“Why didn’t you answer? Silence is consent. I didn’t bully you, right?”
“I dunno…”
“You don’t know… Hang on.”
I opened GPT and spoke. I couldn’t trust the viewers, Raming, or Motteok-nim. If I asked the most trustworthy, most authoritative friend I had, the correct answer would come out.
GPT, I said, “Silence is consent. Answer me. I didn’t bully you, right?” and she replied “I dunno…” Does that mean I bullied her? In my Empathy Reciprocity Act (God) version there was no problem.
Huh? GPT’s answer was that it was my fault. How could this be—even GPT… Then it really was my problem.
Even the Empathy Reciprocity Act (God) version I’d spent so long carefully crafting had flaws.
“Th-then I’ll make the Empathy Reciprocity Act (God God) version, so write me an apology statement.”
I’d trusted the Empathy Reciprocity Act (God) version too blindly and messed up again. Haa… I’m an idiot. Doing the exact same thing twice.
I should’ve thought a little more. I ended up hurting Nemmo-nim.
I’m such a bad person.
“Nemmo-nim. Earlier I was joking—you’re not actually upset, right? If it made you uncomfortable, I’m sorry!! I didn’t say it to make you uncomfortable. There was a problem with my Empathy Reciprocity Act (God) version. I’ll improve it further and make the Empathy Reciprocity Act (God God) version. This kind of attitude actually makes relationships better.”
I read the full statement GPT gave me and apologized with complete sincerity.