Chapter 75
Chapter 75
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 75
Chapter Title: The World's Best Collaboration
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It was 3 AM in South Korea.
Which made it roughly 2 PM in New York, USA.
Myth, Sarah, and I had gathered at the company since the crack of dawn.
The president really wanted to come, but he had a crucial meeting tomorrow and needed to manage his condition.
Two hours before the broadcast was set to start, the English-speaking world's biggest community site, Reddit, was already littered with countless bits of bait tossed out by RayShojo's VTubers.
Reddit was quite literally on fire with all those baits.
It's testimony from a reliable source. Apparently, they've all agreed to leave RayShojo internally.
Hold up, RayShojo's name is missing from the Corolon Plus donation banner this time?
More baseless speculation. When the hell are these conspiracy nuts gonna disappear?
Reading Reddit, I was more surprised than I expected.
In Korean communities, they'd be drowning in curses too filthy to repeat, turning the whole place into chaos by now.
But Reddit was actually trying to analyze the situation somewhat intellectually.
"Reddit talks more intellectually than I thought."
"That's all translations. The originals are full of way dirtier slang than you can imagine."
"Slang?"
"It means profanity, Seol-ah."
"Wherever people live, it's all the same. Just differences in tendencies."
Sarah shrugged.
She tapped the mic, spun around in her chair, preparing for the broadcast.
She seemed a bit distracted, but it looked like her way of easing tension, so I left her to it.
If even my heart was pounding watching from behind, hers must be racing.
"It's the usual notice, but it feels fresh today. Heh. Gotta write it like always."
Sarah smiled as she posted the notice on her Nutube community.
Ding. The alarm popped up on my phone too.
『Sarah's stream in 5 minutes!』
Myth's eyes narrowed as she saw it.
"What? You were subscribed to Sarah too?"
"Did it last time. We're working together nonstop—can't not subscribe."
"I didn't say anything about it?"
"Myth, your eyes aren't smiling right now."
"My resting face is serious."
"Liar."
"Heh heh heh."
I poked her cheek, and only then did Myth smile.
I knew she wasn't the type to get mad over something like this, but every time she pulled a prank like that, my heart skipped a beat.
"Must be tough. Legend oppa."
Sarah grinned mischievously.
We'd grown close over a week of working together, so she'd switched to a more casual way of addressing me.
But Sarah, saying that at a time like this is just pouring oil on the fire.
I could feel the killing intent radiating from her again at that deliberate move.
"...Who said otherwise."
"Huh?"
"Just kidding, kidding. Myth, I can joke once in a—Ack! Not the neck, please don't bite the neck!"
"No way, it's punishment."
I lightly smacked the back of Myth's head, which had gotten unusually affectionate and rough lately.
Five minutes to broadcast. American viewers who'd bitten the bait were flooding Sarah's stream.
I couldn't read English, but the chat window looked like it was exploding.
"Umm, good, very good."
Sarah laughed like she was enjoying it.
She was just sitting there smiling, but somehow her vibe had shifted.
From the image of a soft, sweet girl to something a bit more ferocious.
"Come to think of it, have you ever watched Sarah's streams, Seol?"
"Just a few lives for meta-checking lately. I'm a pure-blooded Korean, so I don't handle English or Japanese."
"Good thing then."
"Myth, even so, 'good thing' is a bit..."
"No, not like that. Hmm... How should I put it? Sarah's streams are—"
Myth's words cut off at zero seconds.
The broadcast went live, and Sarah's avatar appeared on screen.
Huh? What'd she say?
Hello mother... fuckers? Did I hear that wrong?
No matter how bad my English is, I wouldn't mishear something that obvious.
Screech. Creak.
My head turned toward Myth, who gave a wry smile and said,
"Put it nicely, it's raw and real. Put it badly, it's full of swears."
"Is that okay?"
"There's a niche demand for it. I don't get it fully either, but overseas, they might be more lenient with cursing. If you dropped F-bombs right at the start in Korea, you'd plummet."
"American sensibilities are beyond me..."
Whew. Sarah spat out the curse refreshingly and glanced at the chat.
All her fellow RayShojo members weren't streaming, so every single viewer from RayShojo was focused here.
The perfect stage to vent her rage and spread it to everyone.
"Hey, everyone. Hope you're having a good lunch."
It was dawn here, so the greeting felt funny, but what could you do?
All streams revolve around the viewers.
"You all must be wondering about suddenly deleting RayShojo from our Nutube links and unfollowing them. Lots of questions, right?"
The chat erupted with pleas to tell the truth, demands for what's happening.
The viewers were probably the most confused and scared right now.
The VTubers they loved might vanish for good.
The merch they'd already paid for might disappear.
Everyone was in pandemonium, waiting for her next words.
Yeah, if they're expecting it, time to deliver.
The shock rippled straight through the chat.
Some refusing to believe, others saying they knew it—more of the latter.
The divided chat started burning even hotter.
They should've just fallen on their own, but no, they dragged all our money down with them like total assholes.
The chat ignited further at Sarah's words.
Raw hatred for RayShojo surged, censorship ramped up, but people kept raging anyway.
Sarah herself had once wondered if RayShojo might really be paradise on earth.
But the world runs on capitalism, and no utopia exists detached from capital.
Sarah exposed RayShojo's misdeeds one by one, the abuses they'd inflicted on their young juniors.
Amid the furious, colorful tirades, some treated it like entertainment and trolled.
Chats that would've pissed her off normally.
But right now, they were more than welcome.
Ah, thanks, troll bastards. Acting exactly as predicted, not a deviation in sight.
Makes my stream even richer.
Sarah raised her fist and slammed the desk.
The chat froze.
One million dollars. No small sum. To regular folks, it's astronomical.
Articles hailed it as proof of Sarah's popularity just for gathering that much for charity.
And that money... gone? All of it? Embezzled? By RayShojo's president?
The viewers' shock was visible as chat slowed, then exploded.
Concert?
Another fundraiser concert like before?
The reaction was lukewarm.
The internet craves change.
A today different from yesterday.
Something to pump more dopamine.
In that sense, English-speaking viewers were fatigued from RayShojo's nonstop lives and concerts over the past three months.
They donated because it was good cause and VTubers were cute, but the same concerts and lives again?
That thought wouldn't fade easily.
Sneer.
Sarah's lip curled up.
Yes, this is it.
I predicted this reaction. I wanted it.
So I prepared for exactly this.
The most beautiful hope. A miracle.
The screen switched to a black background with stylish font spelling out "Sarah Iris."
What on earth is she planning?
The entire chat stared at "Sarah Iris" with doubt and suspicion.
Then, two lines slashed across Sarah Iris's name.
X
Two crossing lines.
X? What, canceling Sarah Iris? Deleting?
The chat sentiment was still sour.
Whatever, didn't matter.
I'll turn those jeers into cheers soon.
Sarah clicked.
Once.
A magic button to flip the entire battlefield like a nuke.
Next to the X, another name appeared.
Bang!
Sarah pointed like a gun at the screen and mimed shooting.
Exactly as Sarah predicted. Of course.
The chat went berserk.