I'll Become a VTuber
Yoo Arin.
Thirteen-year-old girl. Republic of Korea.
Diagnosed as vegetative after an unidentified illness, then miraculously recovered.
It took me two full weeks to accept that that girl was me.
"……."
I'd always prided myself on giving up and accepting things quickly, but there was a reason this particular adjustment dragged on so long.
"I'm starting to get hungry-desu."
Was it aftereffects from the accident? My mind was perfectly clear, but the words that came out never quite matched what I'd meant to say. They came out like a little kid's. And every so often, a verbal tic would slip free that made "childish" feel like an understatement.
"Ugh…."
Rustle—
After a final clean bill of health, today was the day I went home. While I waited for my new mother to come back from one last talk with the doctor, I tore open a bag of rice crackers from the shelf beside me.
So… how am I supposed to live from here?
Stay in this new family as a girl? There didn't seem to be any other option. The doctor who'd checked the records had said, "Arin was briefly dead." By that logic, the real Arin had died of an incurable disease, and I had taken her place in the body….
Does that even make sense?
Trying to accept a snack-culture plotline as reality only made me laugh hollowly. Was this what people called possession? In comics I'd always wondered what happened to the original owner of the body—I never imagined I'd be the one living the answer.
For now… I just have to live somehow.
What else was I going to do? If God said live like this, then fine. I had a family. I was young. Compared to my previous life, this was practically heaven—except for the part where I'd turned into a girl.
Click—
"Arin, let's go home now."
Looking at my new parents as they came through the door, I steeled myself all over again.
"Yes."
Adjusting to the new environment didn't take long. All I had to say was that I couldn't remember much. For parents grateful their daughter had miraculously come back to life, a little amnesia was well within the range of what they could endure. They walked me through everything from the beginning, so I never had to piece it all together alone.
Family really is nice.
Of everything I learned after that, the detail I liked best was that we were fairly well-off—middle class, if you had to put a label on it. Not having to worry about food, clothing, or shelter already felt like a cheat code to me.
And then….
"A soundproof booth?"
The next important discovery was the soundproof booth in my room. Inside: a high-end PC, a mic, a full set of streaming gear—even air conditioning. In short, an internet-broadcast starter pack. An extremely expensive one.
The original Arin had clearly been a kid obsessed with streaming.
Flip—
I wandered the room and eventually pulled out a notebook labeled "Diary," turning the pages. No class or student number—so it wasn't school homework.
Streaming is always fun. Because we play games together.
I don't get many viewers, but collabs give us so much to talk about that it's okay.
Someday I want to gather a huge audience with the unnies and become a real big-agency streamer!
So she really did stream live.
I skimmed the entry that had caught my eye, then flipped further.
The unnies made it through the first round. I didn't.
They said I was too young and to come back when I had another chance later.
Was it really just my age? Or do I just not have talent for streaming?
I sent them a recording where I tried so hard to talk a lot….
I hope at least the unnies make it to the final. Even if it means we drift apart, I'll be sad about that.
So she'd been ambitious enough to apply to agencies. If you could get into a name brand, your floor was basically guaranteed—it was the best route the market had.
There's a new place that's supposed to be VTuber-friendly, and they say they'll pay a signing bonus.
But when I asked Mom, she said I should avoid places like that if I can. If you have to sign a contract, you really shouldn't.
So I said I wouldn't go. It looks like the unnies are going to, though. They say once you're an adult you need a ton of money.
I don't hate them for it.
I hope they do well there and make all the agencies that dropped them regret it!
"……."
Such a pure kid. The complete opposite of me, you could say. For some reason that hit me like a shock—and a little guilt came with it. Even if she was destined to die, was it right for me to live in her place?
Even at the hospital they say they don't know the cause.
Dad and Mom say I'll be fine, but I know they're just telling me to hang in there.
I'm grown up now, after all.
I want to become a successful streamer someday so I can brag to them—and give them allowance money too.
I really hope it turns out that way.
Reading the last entry she'd written, I bit down hard on my lip. She'd tried so hard to live well. Sure, we'd grown up in different circumstances and with different mindsets—but looking at something like this, the life Kim Jio had lived felt pathetic.
"…Arin."
I gently closed the diary. Even if this girl's body was still unfamiliar, I'd been given a chance to live again in such a good environment. Paying that back somehow was the least morality and ethics demanded.
"That wish of yours—I'll make it come true."
I can do this. If it's me!
Inside the soundproof booth, staring at the computer, I let out a long sigh.
"…No wonder you never got viewers."
The account was even bookmarked, auto-logging into Fazijik. It belonged to a VTuber who'd streamed under the name Yoo Serin. I'd already known that much from the diary entries about agency applications and the rest.
"It's a frog-desu."
The problem was the avatar. The virtual model plastered on the profile picture was, charitably speaking, the kind of art style girls liked. The sort of thing that belonged in a shoujo manga, maybe? Put another way: male viewers wouldn't give it a second glance.
What was her average viewership, anyway?
I opened a new tab and went into the Fazijik dashboard. Typed in the three syllables of Yoo Serin.
"……."
The stats that came up were painfully sad.
Total hours streamed: 846. Average viewers: 9.
That put her somewhere in super-nobody territory even among nobodies. Normally a girl VTuber who put in eight hundred hours should at least be hitting double digits—even without talent.
Yeah. It's the model.
Coldly speaking, grabbing a free public model off the shelf would have looked better. What had those unnies she knew even been doing, not giving her advice? …Though telling a thirteen-year-old that the thing she loved was bad would have been hard.
"Money I have right now…."
First priority: a new avatar. With the goal set, I checked the allowance account on the phone. Thankfully the lock was face recognition, so I didn't have to visit a service center.
₩853,200
Nowhere near enough!!
For a thirteen-year-old's savings it was a lot, but for a decent Live2D avatar it was a joke. With compromise on top of compromise on top of compromise I might scrape something together—and then quality would be the problem. At that point the free public model idea from earlier might actually be better.
"…No. There's a way-desu."
A title I'd once seen on a VTuber sniping board flashed through my mind.
In China's current market, artists were tools and nothing more. With AI advancing, rates had hit rock bottom. The Live2D clips some gallery user had posted were seriously good quality—and the prices were dirt cheap. For around five hundred thousand won you could get something pretty solid!
The problem is….
Communication I could handle with a translator. Payment was the real issue. I'd need a VISA that worked for overseas charges, and the only debit card in this body didn't look like it had that feature. On top of that, Chinese sites made signup a nightmare for foreign minors.
Uuugh….
I turned the problem over and over—then a move ordinary kids used in situations like this, one my previous life had never given me, floated up. I drew a deep breath and yelled.
"Dad!!!"
"Eheheh."
I got lucky. Dad didn't just make me an account—he topped it up too?! Absolute jackpot of jackpots.
"Let's take a look, shall we?"
Grinning ear to ear, I scrolled the mouse wheel. The site had everything. The Live2D I'd come for, sure—but also waiting screens, backgrounds, banner images! Nothing was missing, and every price was a steal for the quality.
"Hmm…."
I started with people taking commissions rather than finished products. Buy something already made and I might accidentally unlock the unwanted power of the Multiplying Clone Technique. And a team that handled both the illustration and the rigging would be more convenient.
"This one's nice, but… a little expensive-desu."
The one I liked most got skipped for cost.
"Oh! This is exactly what I— ah, crap, completion rate's a bit low."
Request completion rate, on-time delivery rate—I checked everything carefully, filtering and filtering until two options remained.
"Tsk. Time for the final negotiation."
I rubbed my hands together, then opened the translator. Set it to Korean–Chinese (Simplified), and with those tiny hands I clattered away at the keyboard.
It was already a steal, sure—but cheaper is always better.