Prank Function Goes Live – Study Mode Engaged
Finally, the rendering of Prank Function—the one that's ultimately, finally, for real, 1123's final version—wrapped up. Honestly, I wasn't even sure if this was okay; I'd deliberately pieced together only the parts I sang really well, so even to my own ears, the finished product made me think, Is this really me singing?
In my past-life memories as a guy, there were VTubers who couldn't sing but still made it as idols by fixing their weak spots with echo effects and editing, so this should be fine. A sudden chill ran down my spine, but I ignored it and fired up the search engine.
"Just need to sort out the thumbnail, and we're done."
I pulled up my bookmarked AI image generator site with practiced ease. I wasn't some national-power-level hunter or on par with the rice weevil, but cranking out free tokens felt like a prayer meta.
Phew... lucky I'm a high school girl?
For some reason, thinking about that national-power-level hunter made me realize he was only into middle school girls, so as a current high schooler, I was safe by a one-year margin. Of course, national-power-level hunters don't exist in reality, but every little bit of this delusion was fun. Prank Function was a bubbly, upbeat song, so the image needed to match—something lively.
Dorayaki popped into my head when I thought of Prank Function... you know, Japanese red bean pancakes. So I grabbed one from Dad's nearly empty snack stash, took a bite for the photo, and turned it into a prompt.
"Hmm... not bad?"
For my first song, Departure, I'd just filmed the program screen as the play button hit. For the second, Farewell Declaration, it was straight AI art. But this time, channeling my genius high-school-graduate-middle-schooler with a combined IQ of 200—or at least a cute 17-year-old me—I slapped on some Photoshop typography.
Prank Function - HALU VER
It was getting close to dawn when everyone starts nodding off, but better to strike first, so I hit the NewTube upload button right away. In the description, I copied the usual format: MR drive link and a polite "please take a look."
As the upload gauge crept toward 100%, my heartbeat synced right up with it. Once it finished, my racing pulse finally settled.
"Phew... my first song I've actually sung myself."
I closed NewTube for a bit and started posting promos in somewhat popular galleries like the 'Singer-Songwriter Gallery' and 'JPOP Gallery,' plus the ones I'd scoped out earlier that afternoon.
Of course, with subscribers already, the algorithm would handle views on its own. But since this wasn't made with a Vocaloid Program—not a target for the Synthetic Music Engine Gallery—I was hitting up the JPOP and singing-related spots.
The plagiarism notice I'd seen earlier had me a tad nervous, but with copyright registration wrapping up soon, I marched on boldly.
I posted it and started smashing F5—refresh—every five seconds. Thanks to the promo tag, views and comments piled up fast.
Most were meaningless spam, but hey, attention is attention—I loved it all. Reactions weren't bad, thankfully.
Truth be told, it hadn't even been minutes since upload, so most hadn't listened; they were just dopamine slaves smashing recommend and comment.
"Sigh..."
Every now and then, comments popped up that blurred the line between concept and real, echoing today's live stream weirdos. Whether it was promo magic or placebo, views and replies snowballed quick.
NewTube had its share of ambiguously conceptual weirdos too, but overall, the response was solid. Felt like I could take a composing break for a bit. Even I had to study sometime. If I didn't, Jisu might make me pay for all those "teach me" begs.
"Gotta actually study tomorrow... or Jisu'll chew me out."
Lying in bed, scrolling my phone, NewTube comment alerts wouldn't quit. Thirty minutes post-upload: 1,000 views broken. Total Lucifer... no, jackpot. Sleep tugged at me, but dopamine surged—I hopped out of bed laughing.
"Mwahahaha!!"
Yeah, this is the classic reaction. Next thing you know, like those blatant rip-offs, I'll get invites from overseas. I chugged kimchi soup fantasies hard. Thanks to Departure and Farewell Declaration, Japanese comments were rolling in too.
NewTube's auto-translate showed stuff like "Didn't know it was a girl" and "Cute voice"—people are the same everywhere.
"Night night, baby."
No one to drop a "sleep con" in real life, but I pulled up the covers. Exhaustion from nearly 10 hours of forced march work hit hard—eyes shut, lights out.
"Early bird rise!"
Sunday morning. Eyes open, straight to NewTube views: over 5,000 already.
Comments were a festival. Back in the Synthetic Music Engine Gallery days, a thigh sliver leaked from a pic—teased as bait but not confirming I was a girl. Now? Full party.
Everyone petting me in comments made me wanna scroll more, but I flipped my phone face-down.
"No... snap out of it, Lee Haru. Today is real study day."
I hypnotized myself. Nothing could stop me today. Invincible mode. Ultimate JPOP master with not one, but three bangers—triple invincible logic.
"Hupcha!"
I sat at my desk dramatically. Yesterday's Dongtan missy look? Deleted from my brain data ages ago. Now: comfy gray hoodie, hair tied back—optimized study Haru.
Started with my strongest: history and science. Skimming the textbook with past-life guy's knowledge, it felt like every word lit up and filed away in my head.
"Easy."
History was basically open-book; my brain had the whole thing stored. Science too—past memorization kicked in with one glance, locked and loaded.
"Clicking right into place."
But once the easy stuff ended, the real bosses loomed: Korean and math. Korean needs reading the examiner's intent; math demands independent problem-solving. Raw knowledge alone wouldn't cut it. Korean was doable by memorizing key passages and solutions, but math...
"Wait wait wait!"
At this rate... I'd become a math dropout. Guy's memories had me as an engineering major—gonna tarnish that? Solo study scrapped. Time for the nuclear option: message Jisu.
With Jisu's tips, I cracked open the textbook and brute-forced the predicted exam problems nonstop.
"Behold the next top-grade Korea Uni bound, combined IQ 200 JPOP legend (real)!"
Of course... no real confidence I'd actually go to Korea Uni. Past-life guy was above average, not all-subjects-perfect material.
But everything's mindset. I psyched myself up and resolved to crush it all.