An Explosive Response

Stream over! I managed to retain my viewers right until the very end. This was basically my first official stream after my debut, and maintaining over five thousand concurrent viewers for nearly seven hours is a massive success! My follower count had jumped by nearly ten thousand in just a single day.

"I feel great." It was a fantastic start. The viewers' reactions were amazing, and the community forums were...

I had only gone to check the community's reaction, but I ended up witnessing a live oshihen in real-time. "Hori" was a name I had come across back when I was researching VTubers in this world. If I recalled correctly, she was an indie VTuber with an average of about a thousand concurrent viewers. For context, oshihen refers to the act of switching one's favorite VTuber or leaving a fandom. An oshi means one's favorite, or "bias."

"The response is incredible. Hehehe." The forums were completely flooded with posts about me. While there were occasional mentions of Miho and Nina—meaning Seowoo and Jihae Eonni—the vast majority of the threads were about me. Today really had been a massive hit. It seemed to have generated even more buzz because it was the first stream right after our debut.

A karaoke stream is definitely a cheat code. But cheat codes shouldn't be used too often. I needed to keep karaoke streams as occasional treats. Hmm, maybe once a month? If I did it too frequently, the novelty would wear off. This wasn't an exaggeration; even if a VTuber was an incredible singer, if they only did karaoke streams, the audience would eventually grow tired of it. Just like how even the best song loses its charm when played on repeat, a VTuber's content becomes boring if they keep doing the same thing.

Now that I know how explosive the response to karaoke is, I'll limit it to once a month from now on. Of course, I would still hum and sing casually during regular streams, but I wouldn't set up a formal session like today's.

I'll have to cut out most of the VOD because of copyright issues. I edited the video to keep only the Just Chatting portion, cut out all the songs, and uploaded it to our YouTube archive channel. The resulting VOD was less than an hour long. If we had an editor, they would have handled all of this for me, but since we hadn't hired one yet, I had to do it myself.

Ding! Just as I was about to shut down my computer due to fatigue, a Discord notification rang out. It was the Starlight meeting room, where Jihae Eonni, Seowoo, and the President were. It looked like the President had called a meeting to give feedback on today's streams.

"Great job on your streams today, everyone." "Thank you, President!" "Thank you!" As soon as I joined the voice channel, the President showered us with praise. He had clearly been monitoring us.

"I have a bit of feedback for today. Hmm, let's start with Seowoo." "Yes!" Based on today's streams, the President pointed out minor areas of improvement and issues we needed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to address.

"First, Seowoo. Hmm, you laugh a bit too frequently. Laughing isn't a bad thing, but because you laugh whenever things get awkward, your laughter can sound a bit monotonous, which might eventually grate on the viewers. Just pay a little more attention to that." "Understood!"

"And Jihae. When your Just Chatting segment dragged on, you and the viewers started taking the jokes a bit too far. You tend to linger on a single topic for too long. Try to keep an eye on that." "Okay! Thank you for the feedback."

"Right, right. And finally, Minseo. Minseo, does your throat not hurt?" "Huh? Oh, no, I'm fine!" "You're seriously incredible. Even so, if you only sing, people will get tired of it quickly. Moderation is key. You know what I mean, right?" "Yes! I understand!"

He was pointing out the exact same thing I had been thinking. Just as the President said, singing too much would burn through my image too quickly.

"Honestly, all three of you are so stable that this is all the feedback I have. You all worked hard. The reception was great, too. Now, make sure to upload your VODs before you sleep, and definitely post the recruitment notice for editors. The sooner we get editors, the better."

"We should post it on the website and Twitter, right?" "Yeah. Post the announcement on both. I'll send you a recruitment template you can use as a reference. Securing good thumbnail artists and editors early on is crucial to getting your YouTube channels up and running quickly. Well then, fighting, everyone! Sleep well, and good luck with tomorrow's collab!" "Thank you!" "Goodnight, President." "Yep, goodnight~"

After advising us to find editors quickly, the President left the Discord channel. He was a busy man, so it felt like he had just dropped in to deliver the essentials.

"How did everyone feel about today?" "It felt pretty smooth? I don't think there were any major issues." "Really? I'm glad you felt that way, Eonni." "Wait, Seowoo, what's wrong now? Why are you sinking into depression again?"

"Ah... It's just, it's kind of hard. I feel like things aren't going as well as I hoped. Minseo looked like she was having so much fun today, and Jihae Eonni was so stable. But for me... I don't know, I feel a bit disconnected."

Seowoo, who was usually high-energy, tended to plunge straight down to the Earth's core once her mood started to tank. In times like this, she needed some unconditional pampering.

"You're doing fine, Seowoo. You were super cute today." "Exactly. I checked the forums, and you've already got tons of fans."

"Yeah, seriously. There's no need to worry. You haven't even shown half of your charm yet." "Right. It's only the beginning, so let's not rush. We still have a long way to go."

"Oh, by the way, I think you have the most fan art right now." "Really? Seowoo has the most?" "Yes, Jihae Eonni. Seowoo has the most. There's quite a bit of lewd fan art, too." "W-What?!"

Reacting instantly to the mention of "lewd fan art." That girl secretly loved that kind of stuff.

"Look at you getting all interested the moment I say 'lewd.' Hey, Seowoo, stop worrying over nothing and go leave likes and replies on your fan art." "Mhm! Thanks for the encouragement, you two!"

I loved how quickly Seowoo cheered up. When she fell into a slump, she hit rock bottom, but if you praised her, she bounced right back up. She was surprisingly easy to handle.

"Oh, right. About tomorrow's horror game collab, did everyone download the game beforehand?" "Yes, Eonni." "What about Seowoo?" "Uh, not yet..."

"Make sure to download and run it beforehand so we don't end up wasting stream time loading it. The chat will go wild if we stall." "Ugh, okay... I really don't want to do this." "Same here."

Seowoo and Jihae Eonni let out heavy sighs, clearly dreading it. But even if they hated it, they had to do it. It was homework assigned by the President. A horror game collab was a classic cheat code for drawing in viewers, so it was an unavoidable rite of passage.

"Then let's meet tomorrow at seven. Seowoo, don't spend too much time ego-searching. Goodnight, Jihae Eonni." "Goodnight, Minseo. You all worked hard." "Yeah! Goodnight, both of you!"

I left the Discord channel. Fatigue was finally catching up to me. I just needed to post the editor recruitment notice now. As for the thumbnail artist, I planned to look through the fan art later and contact someone whose style I liked.

Anyway, I wonder if I'll do well in tomorrow's horror game. Half anticipation, half dread. The game we were playing tomorrow was a cooperative horror ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠game for up to four players, where we had to enter an old mansion and perform an exorcism ritual. We had to search the mansion for specific items to complete the ritual, but the catch was that the ghosts would grow increasingly aggressive with every item found. It was notoriously difficult.

However, this game had a rather unique feature. Didn't they say you can fight the ghosts? Yes, strangely enough, this game allowed players to fight back. There were hidden weapons scattered around, and players could actually strike the creatures or the main ghost to temporarily drive them away.

It'll be a disaster if Seowoo and Jihae Eonni pass out from fear. I should act as the main tank. If I drew the ghost's aggro while the two of them searched for the exorcism items, wouldn't that be perfect?

Besides, the player fighting the ghosts usually gets the most viewers. Since I had absolutely no talent for finding hidden objects, I decided to focus entirely on tearing the mansion apart.

"Hello, everyone! Today is the day of Starlight's Gen 1 first-ever collab stream! You all know Miho and Nina, right?"

"Great! Today, I'm going to play a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠horror game with my groupmates! The game we're playing today is..." Ghost Phobia. The moment the game launched, my body was transported from the streaming room to the front of a massive mansion shrouded in pitch-black darkness.