Two in the afternoon.
I woke, sat up from habit, and went straight to the computer.
Ah. I should work out.
But I also needed to research VTubers…
Both mattered. For now, though, VTubers came first. Exercise could wait.
I powered on the PC and opened a browser—and suddenly remembered something Hina had said yesterday.
BC Inside…
According to her, there was no better place for an ego-search.
I had never once typed my streaming nickname into a search bar. Hina had claimed the place was full of praise for me. Honestly, I was curious. How did viewers talk about me when they weren't in my chat?
Hina had said she checked BC Inside regularly just to understand what her audience wanted. So this, too, was research into viewer needs…
…Who am I even making excuses to?
I snorted and searched BC Inside without hesitation.
The main page was simple. Gallery, Minor Gallery, Mini Gallery, Person Gallery… and so on, lined up across the top. Beneath that, Real-Time Best posts…
How was I supposed to get where I wanted?
With no better idea, I typed Unknown into the search bar at the top.
Posts cascaded down the screen.
— Digimon Gallery
[Unoff] Is this thing broken or what?
Opened it free with Magner 'cause there's no Unknown—what else do I need?
— Indie Game Gallery
[Casualty Unknown? Watching someone play this]
Feels like it was made by a dev with extremely specific tastes. The furries are a given, and those scream descriptions are… a lot…
— Virtual Gallery
[Unknown Daisy Gold live clip]
Professor's voice is pha-pha
Scattered among the results were a few posts that seemed to be about me.
Virtual Gallery…
Probably a board for talking about VTubers?
I clicked the board name and landed easily in a place called Virtual Gallery. And after carefully reading through it…
"……"
I could only sit there blankly for a moment, overwhelmed by a festival of incomprehensible slang. Were these people conversing in some kind of password system?
New posts appeared with every refresh. None of them were specifically about me…
I scrolled down and searched Unknown again.
[Unknown this absolute bitch lmao]
[Hina << why is this girl covering for a boring ass like Unknown]
[Unknown's way of talking is trash but her voice is so good I feel conflicted as hell]
[Unknown professor poison-cup one-shot moment lmao]
[Unknown's Daisy Gold from yesterday already hit 100k on Shorts]
[Unknown's streams are fun but they're way too formulaic]
Among the flood of posts, the one that stood out most was [Unknown this absolute bitch lmao]. I clicked it.
The content was…
⭐ Post
— OP
Her voice rings in my ears every day.
I've been so Unknown-pilled I can't function in daily life…
Thankfully, it wasn't a hit piece. A few posts were less than kind, but just as Hina had said, most of what people wrote about me was positive. Scattered in between were fair critiques of the stream, too—mostly variations on the broadcast is the same every single day.
Well. My stream was nothing but counseling sessions and the Philosophy Courtroom, so… I probably needed to think seriously about content.
After reading a few more posts, I finally understood why celebrities ego-searched.
This… quietly fills up your self-esteem, doesn't it?
Feeling oddly proud, I clicked All Posts. Among the flood of posts arriving every minute, one caught my eye.
[What do you think Unknown's IRL looks like lmao][25]
IRL…
That had to mean a VTuber's real appearance, right? With twenty-five comments, it was clearly no ordinary thread. Curiosity got the better of me. I clicked.
— Virtual Gallery
[What do you think Unknown's IRL looks like lmao]
VTuber special trait: washouts from real life who hide behind a tablet. Judging by Unknown's voice tone, 99% chance she's a massive wild-boar type with fat hanging off her. Hilarious how a bunch of lonely losers simping for some shut-in who doesn't even have the confidence to show her face are glazing her so hard lmao
— Anonymous
Here we go again
— Anonymous
Where'd you get that 99% figure? Your own head?
— Anonymous
The fact is her voice is genuinely amazing
— Anonymous
Go look in a mirror lmao
— OP
God this is actually frustrating. That's what the stats say. Look at every VTuber whose IRL got leaked. All ugly. That's data.
— Anonymous
Where's your sample? You only collect the ones who got doxxed and call it stats while leaving out everyone who didn't. What kind of statistics is that
— OP
Not showing is proof they're ugly? If they were hot they'd show. No reason not to lmao
— Anonymous
At least make your sophistry sound halfway plausible lmao. If you call them ugly when they show and ugly when they don't, you've just decided the conclusion and are forcing it
— OP
I'm not forcing anything, it's just true lmao. Why is it wrong to call an ugly person ugly?
— Anonymous
How is it a fact when you've never even seen them lmaooo
— OP
I know without looking.
Ordinarily I would have ignored a post like this. Just the common ressentiment of one anonymous person dumping on another. No matter how much this person rambled about Unknown being hideous, Jeong Eun-gyeol's appearance was blindingly beautiful—there was no way I would take damage from it.
And yet one sentence kept catching my eye.
A shut-in who doesn't even have the confidence to show her face…
That one stuck.
This troll had no idea. He didn't know what kind of person Jeong Eun-gyeol had been. A girl who thought a guy asking for her number was a penalty game. Who mistook a part-timer's shy trembling for fear of her. Who stood in front of a mirror with that beautiful face and wrote in her diary about her unlucky-looking self.
Jeong Eun-gyeol was someone who chose to throw herself among people even with her face hidden, just to overcome her own complex. Mocking that kind of courage…
No matter how I turned it over, it soured my mood.
"Tch."
I clicked my tongue. It was an anonymous site. Leaving one comment and bailing should be fine.
I set my display name to OO and started typing.
— OO
Interesting. Why insist so specifically on the wild-boar metaphor?
— OP
Cuz she clearly is one
— OO
You believe you are attacking Unknown and her fans. In reality, you are attacking yourself. You project onto Unknown the imaginary image of a "failed human" that lives in your head, then freely mock that image to confirm your own sense of superiority. In other words, to you, Unknown is not a human being in her own right—she is merely a punching bag that props up your ego.
— OP
Holy shit what is this nightmare wall of text
— OO
Defining others by their appearance is the cowardly survival strategy of people who have no way to prove their own inner worth. Anyone who fails to meet your standard of beauty ceases to be human in your world—they become something ranked beneath you. And then you feel relieved. "Ah. There is someone worse than me."
— OP
Say whatever you want Unknown is a wild boar pure and simple
— OO
In truth, that cycle of contempt is aimed at yourself. When the person in the mirror fails to satisfy you, you try to compensate by labeling someone else "ugly." It is genuinely pitiful. If you were whole on your own, you would not treat other people's looks—beautiful or not—as targets of attack.
— OP
Your tone is so fucking annoying lmao
— OO
The classic behavior of someone whose arguments have run dry. If you have nothing left to refute, quietly turning off the computer is also a form of intelligence.
— OP
Blah blah blah say whatever you want Unknown is a 5'1"/180lb wild boar
Well. I already knew logical persuasion was impossible with a troll. Dragging this further would only pile stress on me, so I should stop here.
Still, something residual kept me refreshing.
— Anonymous
Wait that way of talking is weirdly familiar
— Anonymous
Oh shit no way
— Anonymous
Is this Unknown herself?
— Anonymous
The tone is identical to her stream lmaooo
— Anonymous
Ego-searched, got pissed, and jumped into a flame war lmaoooooo
— OP
Was it actually her lmaooo
— Anonymous
A VTuber only needs a good voice, what more do you want?
Sh-shit…
I'd been caught. What was I supposed to do—run, or stay?
— OO
How sharp of you. Yes, it is me.
Already fully exposed—better to own it cleanly.
— OP
Wild boar lmaooo nice to meet you lmaooo if you're mad go verify then lmaoooo
— OO
Since I've revealed myself, allow me one more remark. That wild-boar metaphor is wildly divorced from my actual appearance. If anything, I am quite far from a wild boar. I would go so far as to say I am confidently above average.
Above average? What am I saying.
She's top-tier in the province. No—nationally?
— Anonymous
Sudden self-glaze lmao
— Anonymous
Bro this is so unlike her, bragging about her own face lmaooo
— Anonymous
This person isn't the type to make things up… is she actually drop-dead gorgeous?
— OP
So are you showing or not? If you don't, you're a wild boar by default
But I was not about to fall for a troll and strip my face bare for the world.
— OO
There is an experiment known as Schrödinger's cat. It is famous enough that I will spare you the details—but until I turn on my camera, I exist for you in a superposition of wild boar and beautiful woman. I have no particular desire to collapse that fascinating quantum state your impoverished imagination has so thoughtfully constructed.
— OP
The bit is genuinely unmatched lmao. Anyway if you don't show your face you're a wild boar, deal with it
I left that final reply and closed the browser window.
"……"
Then I dove onto the bed and thrashed like a madwoman.
Damn it!
Not only had I started a flame war on an anonymous site—I'd gotten myself identified on top of it! And then I'd tried to prove to a bunch of random strangers how pretty I was…!
Aaaaaargh!
My hands and feet were curling into themselves!
I knew it instinctively.
Today's memory would stay with me for life!
A lifelong blanket-kick moment—and if my instincts were right, the viewers weren't going to let this slide either…
That night.
The moment I went live, more people poured in than usual. Viewership hit a full eight hundred. But I doubted any of them had come to actually watch the stream.
[Oink oink! Buhihi! Buhihi!]
[Is this where Schrödinger's Wild Boar streams?]
[Until observation, wild boar and beautiful girl are in superposition whoaaa]
[lmaoooo quantum mechanics wild boar lmaooooo]
[Damn the influx is insane]
[So from your own mouth you're a mid-to-upper-tier beautiful girl lmaooo]
[Can we kick all the shit-stirrers]
Apparently the keyboard battle I'd started that afternoon had spread through every community imaginable.
Haa…
Reaped what I sowed. Nothing to complain about. What now.
"Everyone…"
["I would go so far as to say I am confidently above average." "I would go so far as to say I am confidently above average." "I would go so far as to say I am confidently above average."]
[A pack of beasts has entered the sacred lecture hall]
[Professor please purge them all]
[Lonely guys defending the wild boar is so tearjerking lmao]
My temples started throbbing. I picked up the squeaky mallet and gave the desk a light thump.
Beep—!
"Today's lecture topic will be mob psychology. How fortunate—we've been blessed with a splendid abundance of specimens."
[lmaooo we just got called specimens]
[Not even mad—she just turns it into a lecture lmao]
[As expected of Wild Boar Professor]
