The Community Uproar
As peaceful a Monday as ever.
Office workers and students went about their busy routines, living out their days in the bright world beneath the sun.
And in the darkness of the internet, there were also the guardians of that other world.
Monks of the present age, with VPNs and alternate accounts as their crosses to bear.
They kept watch over the internet twenty-four hours a day, spreading small bits of news and humor across every community they could reach. In doing so, they carried on discussions they believed would make the world a better place.
“Who would win, a zebra or an alligator?”
“Another legendary traffic TV disaster today.”
“Legendary reason for a divorce lawsuit.”
“The logical reason a young Korean man in his twenties and a Japanese woman are such a good match.txt”
“A manhwa about a gyaru who’s kind to otaku, leading to chaotic pure love.”
Then, in that playground of noble internet aristocrats, a special bulletin went up.
“Vtuber warning) A completely insane, legendary donation incident has occurred lol”
“!”
“!”
“!”
The guardians groaned.
“What the hell...!”
“What an arrogant bastard.”
“You dare talk about VTubers on our board, where even the shut-in nerds can’t set foot? You still haven’t been hit hard enough.”
“I’ll kill you, brat.”
“The moderators have really let things slide, huh.”
The guardians moved to deal with the troublemaker sullying this sacred place. But the moment they saw what the post was about, they had no choice but to freeze in shock.
【Bigmanhas donated ₩1,000,000,000!】
“?!”
“?!”
“?!”
- Okay, that’s fair.
The guardians rolled around on the floor and spammed upvotes.
Before long, the live thread was climbing sharply through the real-time rankings. Some people even captured the post and reposted it under new titles.
“VTuber) A chaebol fell in love with a tiny streamer”
“V) The most terrifying 1-billion-won whale in history appears lol”
“Warning - V) The most legendary sucker play in history”
Every post drew hundreds of comments.
And every one of those comments was packed with abbreviations and broken shorthand.
- This is insane lololololol
- A billion lololololol
- This is so fucking legendary lol
- That’s not broth, that’s a concentrated extract lol
- Isn’t that oil, not broth???
The post included a short video clip. It showed the donation message crashing into a tiny VTuber’s stream.
[A, Bigman! Thank you so much for the donatio... huh... huhm?]
The yellow-haired VTuber with the awkward way of speaking had gone rigid.
[....]
Her eyes were shaking violently.
[...Eh? O- one, two, three, four... ten...? Eh? L-lie...! Eh? Really? Eeeh?]
She frantically clicked the mouse.
Click.
Click.
Click....
[E, eeeh? Eeeeeeh—?!]
The VTuber said, on the verge of tears,
[A hundred million, donation... th-thank you very much....]
That was where the video ended.
It was a short clip, but it had happened to a tiny VTuber with only around ten live viewers, and that made it feel like pure magic. Naturally, it drew attention.
People went wild.
Because it was a crazy stunt that wouldn’t come back to hurt them.
- lol this is fucking hilarious lololol
- A ten-million donation would be stupid, but calling it a billion makes it feel like we’re riding the great happy mountain lmao
- That insane chaebol land-baron VTuber whale bastard lol
- Holy shit, if it’s a billion, isn’t that basically the lottery?
└ Fact) Not quite that much... if you factor in the actual payout and the agency split, they’d probably get less than a quarter of that in hand. Maybe 100 to 200 million? To be exact, it’s more like an instant scratch ticket. Don’t freak out lol
└ Fact) This guy has no idea whether 100 million is a big amount lol The way he talks makes it sound like he has no friends lol
└ lol
└ lol
The viewers of internet broadcasts were thrilled too.
It was something everyone had thought about at least once,
but reality had always blocked it from becoming anything more than catharsis.
- At that level, doesn’t it count as a genuine crush? I’m acknowledging it.
- A billion isn’t a joke, damn it. Honestly, she should be doing 1-on-1 fan meetings.
- Hhhnng, Lord Big One....
- At that point, the oshi should make him a dedicated voice pack lol
- The nerds crawling out in swarms because they saw their chance is killing me lol. How have they been living without showing it? lol
- Honestly, at that point he has to marry her.
└ Is it also templar behavior to take the red pill and sue?
└ You’re a really awful bastard lol
└ Ahem, facts are forbidden
Of course, the mood wasn’t entirely peaceful. Out of nowhere, people appeared just to pick fights with the internet-broadcast viewers.
“If you hate those VTuber whale bastards acting all full of themselves, upvote this lol”
“Why aren’t the moderators controlling VTuber bait?”
“Stop beating this dead horse already, this shit is fucking boring”
And naturally, people showed up to push back against them directly.
“Is a billion somehow bullshit? Let us laugh and talk shit in peace.”
“Fact) Without the VTuber 1-billion bait, all that’s left is boring vs-style nonsense.”
“Am I the only one bothered by this? = Then die (reasonable).”
In the end, the argument split into two camps over whether to keep the bait going or not. Before long, they were invading VTuber communities that had nothing to do with the matter and continuing the fight there.
A merciless war with old men everywhere and not a shred of decency.
That grand battle raged from lunchtime until evening.
- I just got off work, what the hell happened?
- Why did all the moderators get replaced?
- What, what? What happened?
By the time office workers and students got home and encountered the bait, a storm of blood had already swept through countless communities. The real-time trending lists on every social platform had long since been updated, too.
#BigmanChaebolTheory
#Bigman1BillionDonation
#BigmanVTuber1Billion
#1BillionVTuberAki
Once the anger died down, people began to wonder.
- So who exactly is Bigman?
- What kind of person throws around a billion won like that?
*
A man’s troubled voice came through the phone. He called one minute after I had dropped the donation and left.
- Hello. This is Live Future operations. May I confirm whether you are Seonwoo Taek, the person using the nickname “Bigman”?
I answered indifferently.
“Yes, I’m Bigman. What is this about?”
He spoke in a trembling voice.
- The thing is... you used our platform’s payment system to donate 1 billion won. We’re calling to confirm whether this was indeed your own payment. Would it be all right to verify that?
I answered readily.
“Yes, a billion. I did donate it to her.”
The operator’s voice trembled even more.
- A-ah... I see. Um... if you really did make a 1-billion-won donation of your own volition, then the Financial Supervisory Service or the National Tax Service may contact you separately.
A billion won was no joke.
It was an unprecedented event for a user with no prior payment history to suddenly throw away a billion won on the day they signed up. In ordinary common sense, the only thing anyone could suspect was tax evasion or illegal money movement.
...But then again, would someone doing that really make this much of a scene?
Still.
I understood perfectly.
From their perspective, they had to worry I might be involved in money laundering. For a new video platform, that would be a deeply nerve-wracking situation.
So I answered politely.
“Yes, I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you for calling.”
He hung up.
And then the calls came one after another.
- Hello, Seonwoo Taek. This is the National Tax Service. We’re contacting you because of an abrupt cash flow event...
- Hello, customer. Thank you for using our card. The reason for this call is that around noon today, a sudden large withdrawal was detected...
The National Tax Service went into emergency mode.
The card company called after hearing from the Financial Supervisory Service.
Suspicion was hidden inside every polite phrase.
- What the hell are you?
What they suspected was my source of funds, possible tax evasion, and signs of illicit money diversion. But since I had only thrown around legally obtained winnings, each suspicion was cleared in order.
Source of funds?
“Lottery winnings.”
Tax evasion?
“I paid the tax immediately when I received the winnings. It wasn’t a unilateral donation either; I handled it through a video platform. And I’ve paid my taxes properly all along.”
Illegal money diversion?
“Overseas accounts? None. Feel free to check.”
Result of the checks: a harmless lunatic.
“....”
“....”
They all clicked their tongues and said, “Understood. Thank you for cooperating with the investigation.” They stayed polite to the end, but their pity was obvious.
It doesn’t matter anyway, since I can cover it through regression.
I tossed the phone away, feeling relieved.
Then I let my body sink into the old bed.
My chest felt light, but also strangely ticklish.
“...Haa.”
The National Tax Service and Financial Supervisory Service combo.
It was one thing for the cycle to start on Saturday and for the lottery money to arrive on Monday. But if I splurged like this at the start of the round, that was just how the routine went.
At the beginning of every round, the same people call me, and now I’m starting to recognize their voices.
“...Hmm.”
Lying there, I scratched my stomach hard.
“....”
Scratch, scratch.
So what now?
For the record, I hadn’t checked the internet news or the communities.
I had no interest in being dragged around by insults and wild speculation.
What I wanted to see was only the reaction of the person who had received the money. I had no interest in the reactions of users who existed only as lines of text on a screen.
They’re probably digging into my identity and calling me some crazy bastard who throws money around. No need to wander in there for no reason; I should just stay still. I can’t remember which cycle it was, but there was some lunatic who figured me out through IP tracking in the end.
Instead of looking at my phone,
I closed my eyes and began to meditate while lying down.
Was her name Aki? So what’s she going to do now that she’s got the money? I should check tomorrow and see how she reacts.
And with the May breeze drifting in through the window, I slipped into a nap.
*
The new VTuber agency that had been on the verge of collapse, Aurora Prism Entertainment, had entered emergency meeting mode.
The CEO, accountant, manager, public relations chief, and technical director were all present. It was a small company to begin with, so there were only ten people in total.
They sat in heavy silence.
“....”
“....”
“....”
Of course, there was only one topic on the table.
The so-called Bigman 1-billion-won incident.
They were the very party at the center of the event that was still setting every community on fire. And the meaning of that incident was felt more keenly than anyone else’s by them.
Accountant Park Young-su opened his mouth heavily. He was a bald middle-aged man in his mid-forties.
“Live Future says they’ll take a 10 percent fee and deposit 900 million won into the corporate account. If the transfer goes through in the next few days, then according to the contract, we’ll just split it 5:5 with A-yeong.”
“....”
“....”
The talent under contract had earned money. After fees, the rest would be divided according to the agreement.
The logic was simple.
But the amount was anything but.
CEO Baek Su-cheol spoke to Park Young-su.
“...So, in the end, if we do things the usual way, how much will actually come in?”
“After the 10 percent fee, it’s 900 million. We give A-yeong 450 million as agreed, and after taking corporate tax out of the 450 million left for the company, it should end up somewhere between 340 million and 360 million. The exact figure will need to be confirmed after consulting with the tax accountant.”
“340 million for the company...”
“It’s practically life support at the brink of suffocation. This could cover about a year of operating expenses.”
“Huh...”
At that moment, there was a knock at the CEO’s office, where they were in the middle of the meeting.
- U-um... it’s Aki! I finished the broadcast and came straight over.
“!”
“!”
“!”
The CEO and the senior staff welcomed the day’s central figure.
“Come in.”
“Yes!”
A young woman in her twenties entered, her yellow-dyed hair tied back. She looked energetic, but she was sweating, as if she had run straight from the company dorm after finishing her stream.
VTuber roleplay: “Aki-chan, aspiring idol.”
Real name: Sakurai Aki.
After naturalizing in Korea, her changed name became Lee A-yeong.
In the end, she was a rather unusual person who used her real name as her VTuber roleplay name.
Unlike her usual bright self, Aki had a pale face.
As soon as she came in, Park Young-su got straight to the point.
“A-yeong, about this 1-billion-won donation.”
“Ah, u-uh... yes!”
“According to the contract, we’re supposed to give you 450 million, right?”
“Huh?!”
Aki went white as she heard the exact settlement amount. Raised as an orphan, it was the first sum of that scale she had ever heard of, even after being naturalized in Korea.
“Four... 450 million...”
The truth was that the idea of a 1-billion-won donation itself still didn’t feel real, but hearing it come out of Accountant Park Young-su’s mouth made it tangible.
Even split with the company, it was an enormous amount.
Her heart began pounding.
Her hands and feet trembled, and her teeth clacked together.
“Ugh...”
But the shock did not end there.
“The tax you have to pay, A-yeong, is no joke.”
“Eh? How, much is it?”
“Taking income tax into account, you’ll need to pay 200 million in taxes on that 450 million.”
“....”
200 million in tax.
Almost half of the settlement.
“Eeeh...?”