The Stream I Stumbled Into at the Last Second (2)
[Subway-Old-Man-Denture-Stealer has entered the room.]
The moment I entered the room, my glorious, villainous nickname popped into view. Sure, anyone would wonder why I'd picked such a ridiculous name after I'd stripped away the target streamer's nickname for the sniper shot—but whatever, who cares about that now? What mattered was this room.
The second I stepped in, the song from the room's host, a streamer named RenaP, filled my ears.
She's actually pretty good at singing?
The audio quality was trash—anyone could tell she wasn't using an expensive, high-end mic—but even through that mess, her voice rang out clear and pure, unburied and crystalline. To pull off a voice like that in this setup? Honestly, I was impressed already.
And since she was so caught up in her singing, she hadn't noticed me entering yet.
I listened for a bit.
Not bad at all.
As she sang, her cute Live2D avatar swayed side to side in an endearing way. Long pink straight hair with a gradient of white at the tips— the kind of style that screamed refreshing at first glance. Her eyes had a unique sun-like pattern inside them. Probably riding the trend of hearts or stars in the eyes. Sure enough, the hairpin on her left side matched the eye design perfectly.
And what else caught my eye? Yeah, the bust size. She'd gone full massive-tits concept; it was huge. The only issue was the bizarre outfit that hid it all completely. The character was cute, but the clothes? Total mismatch. Some fantasy armor topped with a multicolored raincoat—it wasted the adorable face she'd crafted.
Still, the avatar's quality was top-notch, so her little mouth movements syncing with the singing came off as pretty charming. No way she'd gotten that level without some serious investment. I wasn't deep into VTuber culture, but even I could tell it was cute and natural.
How long did I watch her solo concert? When the song ended, she launched into her closer.
"...And... done! Thanks for listening! Wow~ clap clap clap~!"
She grinned brightly—or rather, her avatar did—and amped up the energy with fake applause sounds from her mouth.
But I'd watched enough internet streams to spot it: she was forcing the hype, squeezing out every last drop of energy from deep inside.
"Even with all these thanks... no one's here to hear them, right? Ahaha! What a joke, me!"
Her avatar flapped its arms side to side again. The chat was dead silent. With only me watching, that was expected.
She should at least see that I joined, though?
Even after the song, she hadn't noticed. Maybe after just 100 days of streaming, she wasn't fully used to the UI yet...
Isn't 100 days enough to get the hang of it?
Anyway, she kept rambling to herself.
"So... I sang today, and that's all the content for my 100-day special stream. I did Warcraft earlier too, so... yeah..."
Her voice started trembling. Nothing her pretty, smiling avatar could convey.
She was on the verge of tears.
"Y-yeah! I worked hard on all this content... and now it's done."
Silence stretched on. No new messages in the chat next to her avatar.
"I prepared something special for the 100-day milestone—a phone date with the first viewer to show up? B-but... no one's come yet... so..."
No one during the whole 100-day special? Not impossible, but if even one person popped in and out, she'd hit the jackpot on slim odds.
On her 100-day milestone stream, of all days.
I thought about typing in chat to let her know someone was here, but I held off, fingers hovering over the keyboard.
No clue why, but I was curious what she'd say next.
"Um, everyone. I think I worked really hard these 100 days. Even with no viewers, I kept streaming without breaks, making it easy for anyone who wandered in to follow... something like that."
"The longest anyone stayed was 7 minutes. Eheh... Wonder if they'll come back. It was fun that day."
Her voice grew quieter. She was clearly scraping for words right now.
"So... I decided I wouldn't cry at the end of today's stream."
"It's 100 days, but... it's no big deal. Just another stream in the pile."
"So I should just... end it properly, rest up, eat something tasty, sleep it off, and stream strong tomorrow."
By now, she was straight-up bawling. Not just sniffles—full-on sobbing.
"...Sorry. I tried not to cry."
"This is so hard."
The avatar smiled beautifully. But the girl behind it? In tears.
"I... I don't know if I can keep this up."
"I wish I had zero talent for streaming—then I could quit clean. But I'm mediocre, so I can't succeed at anything."
"I splurged on this cute avatar... but now I'm losing confidence."
She sniffled for a while after that, then spoke in a heartbreaking whisper—words she'd never expected anyone to hear, bottled up inside.
"I... I want to succeed."
"Get famous... and become a beacon of hope for tons of people."
"So just today... I'll cry today."
"Just grieve today... and starting tomorrow, I'll... push through. So please..."
Now it was just her sobs echoing.
No reason to stay silent anymore. I tossed in a casual 1,000-won donation.
[No sob story selling]
The TTS read it out, and she cut off her wailing mid-sob, stunned into silence.
"............Huh?"
Her avatar's face looked blankly shocked. Probably mirrored her real expression. No idea if it tracked facial recognition, but anyway—she froze solid.
A few seconds later, she finally clocked it and yelped loud enough to blow the speakers.
"Whoaaaaah! Wh-what, what, what is this?! What's going on?! Whaaaat~?!"
She went full freakout mode.
"Uh... S-Subway-Old-Man-Denture-Stealer...? Th-thank you so so much for the 1,000-won donation!! Kyaa!! My first donation ever!! Wait, waitwaitwait, hold on!"
"There... was someone here? A person?!"
That's when I finally jumped into chat.
"No way, for real?! You listened to my song? Huh? How'd I miss that? Wow, thank you so much...!! Y-you're my first guest!! No, customer? Wait no, not that! First viewer! My first viewer today!!! Subway-Old-Man-Denture-Stealer!!!"
Didn't even comment on my nickname. Pro streamer material.
"Your name's... uh... f-funny!"
...Hmm.
"Anyway, nice to meet you! I'm RenaP!!! Newbie VTuber, day 100 today! Wow... total beginner VTuber here! Uh, where was I? Oh, about my eyes..."
Was she excited or panicked? She was laying it on thick either way.
I figured out why her stream hadn't blown up in 100 days, but no need to be harsh on the way out. Didn't want to hurt feelings needlessly.
Chill out first, no need to freak
"F-freak out? Oh, you mean making a fuss?! Yeah! I know that word! Learned it in the gallery!"
Real essential info there.
She was still going nuts, but for a streamer, high energy beat flat any day.
Right as I pondered where to start...
"Ah! Right! Um... Subway-Old-Man-Denture-Stealer!"
A girl saying my name in her girly voice felt weirdly surreal.
"Y-you won! Or, like, you're the winner. Phone date!"
Oh yeah... she mentioned that earlier.
100-day special: phone date with the first arrival. It clicked.
"I'll send the link! Do a phone date with me!!! Oh, um... if Subway-Old-Man-Denture-Stealer is okay with it... you won, hehe."
Phone date, huh. Isn't chat basically 1-on-1 anyway? I almost typed that, then changed my mind.
Fine. Last good deed.
"Yes! One sec."
And just like that, I ended up on a call with a total newbie hakko VTuber out of nowhere.