VTuber Seria

Activity name: Seria. Real name: Cecilia Artimedes had lived an unfortunate life. Born into a fairly wealthy family as an ordinary human, she had grown up under a strict father and endured countless forms of oppression. At first, she worked hard to meet her father's expectations. She cut back on playtime, threw herself into her studies, and wanted to prove she was their success story by living a more accomplished life than others. But her father demanded far more than she had imagined. First place… nothing but first place. A world where no one even remembers second place. Under that constant gaslighting, she managed to reach a prestigious university while bottling up her stress, yet the resentment finally erupted when she looked at her more carefree acquaintances—people who weren't even real friends. That became the turning point. She dropped out of the university she had fought so hard to enter, moved alone to the capital city of Jardin, found a job, and began living on her own.

After cutting ties with her parents and finally living freely, she felt happy at first. But society never accepted her easily. Her beautiful appearance attracted all sorts of pests, and things escalated to the point where her mere existence threatened to collapse entire organizations. Exhausted by interpersonal drama, she was eventually fired from her company, gave up on everything, and became a complete shut-in. Living off unemployment benefits, she suspected she might become another statistic in an era where youth solitary deaths exceeded twenty percent. In that desperate situation, her eyes landed on a recruitment notice.

YOLO Live. That became the turning point of her life. She decisively changed direction at the crossroads, auditioned based on her usual interest in subculture, and to her surprise received an acceptance notice. She debuted as YOLO Live's second VTuber. At the time, YOLO Live was still a new company, so growth came faster than for most rookie VTubers, but it was never easy. Sitting alone in front of a monitor and talking to countless people for hours—easy to say, but doing it every single day, stretching past two hours into five hours or more, was grueling. Worst of all, the revenue wasn't nearly as high as she had hoped. Initial influx ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠happened, but then sudden drops in new viewers dragged on.

'Haah, is this really the end?' Just as she sighed and was about to give up—

"Ah…"

It was her very first donation. For so long, no one had found her worth supporting, yet finally one person had appeared. Overwhelmed with gratitude, Seria nearly cried. But as a VTuber meant to bring smiles and joy, she couldn't let herself weep.

"Yes! Thank you! Strawberry believer! It's not much, but please take care of me from now on!"

With the appearance of Ddal-syong and his adorable nickname, Seria's streaming life began to grow rapidly.

He was rather lewd, but it was also endearing, so she could never stay mad at him.

"Yes, God will forgive Strawberry believer's sins."

"Of course! I forgive Strawberry believer too!"

"Huh?! Wait! Strawberry believer! Are you really okay?! No matter how I look at it, this amount is way too big!! O-of course the previous ones were big too, but you really don't have to go this far! Just you showing up makes me happy enough."

Ddal-syong was truly an incredible person. What started as small donations gradually grew larger and larger. Remarkably, he had never once spoken to her through regular chat. At this point, Seria began to worry he might be going into debt just to support her.

"But it shouldn't interfere with your personal life. If my stream ends up ruining Strawberry believer's life, I don't think I could keep broadcasting."

Other viewers were moved by her sincere concern. Normally, saying she would be sad would be enough, yet she had essentially declared she would quit streaming if it harmed him.

"All right. Then promise me you won't overdo it with these donations. Got it? Ah, and you don't have to donate just to reply!"

Just as promised, Ddal-syong showed up every single day without fail. Even if war broke out in the country, even if riots erupted—whenever she went live, he was always there to encourage her. More than anything, his presence became a huge source of vitality for the stream. While others might see him as nothing more than a cash cow, Seria never used his donations for personal luxury. In return for his massive support, she invested in new content to repay his feelings. Every time her viewers enjoyed an event, and especially whenever Ddal-syong seemed pleased, she felt warmth in her heart.

"Oh? My clip videos are starting to appear."

Was it fate? The one uploading her clips turned out to be none other than Ddal-syong. He had even created a personal channel, and his clips—expertly edited to capture the best moments—naturally drew viewers in like a black hole. His work as a clipper was an enormous help to Seria.

"Someday, I really want to repay him properly."

She wished she could meet him in person to express her gratitude and treat him to something. But she was a VTuber. She couldn't possibly feed a fan the red pill, and she felt pathetic for not even having that option.

One day, she noticed other people's videos appearing on his channel as well. There were other VTubers, and it seemed he watched female cam streamers too. Of course she had no right to restrict him from watching other streams. If anything, it was only natural. Still…

"Somehow, I don't like it."

A strange, tightening feeling in her chest. It was the first time she had ever felt this way toward someone whose face and name she didn't even know. The fact that a girl who had never even met a man was thinking like this was almost laughable.

It was the female cam streamer Lily. Even she, a succubus leveraging her alluring appearance, had Ddal-syong appearing in her streams.

"…"

A peculiar jealousy stirred within her. When she visited his channel and checked the videos, she saw that Lily's clips had grown to rival the once-dominant number of Seria's own clips. He was essentially a general clipper, but his main focus was clearly on Seria and Lily.

'The one he should be pushing hardest is me.'

Yet some female cam streamer was standing on equal footing with her? Even if she took two days off a week, how could that woman compare to her?

"As long as his feelings for me don't change, I'll keep believing in Strawberry believer."

Seria made up her mind.

"Everyone, I'm going to stream seven days a week from now on."

To make Ddal-syong watch her more, she would broadcast on more days. She even deliberately aligned her streaming hours with Lily's schedule, believing he would come to watch her instead. But there was one thing Seria had overlooked. If he couldn't choose just one—

…there was his bold decision and incredible ability to simply watch both streams simultaneously.

At his shamelessness, Seria let out a small laugh and replied.

"Hehe, that's fine then. A satisfactory answer."

"Aaaah!! Strawberry believer!!!!"

Watching that short clip of her reply, Lily muttered with a deeply unsettled expression.

"Ddal-syong oppa, you haven't even said you like me once… and you're doing that kind of data fragment thing with her?"