Pretty Girls x100 - 1
1. Rent out an internet cafe.
2. Decorate it with ABCD-themed merch.
3. Set up the relay camera.
4. Hang out, laughing and chatting, with a hundred DoDa’s friends.
Kang Do-dam smiled with a tired look on her face.
“What do you think?”
“....”
“....”
“....”
The notes on the paper were pathetic.
This was the plan she had improvised and resubmitted. There were really only those four lines written on the A4 sheet, and the people in charge of the Big Plan stared at it with hollow expressions.
“....”
“....”
“....”
What made it even more absurd was this:
It actually seemed pretty plausible.
There’s nothing in the idea itself, but it’s the kind of thing you can stuff with all sorts of extras like an American warehouse.... And it still doesn’t lose sight of the theme of ‘playing games with a hundred viewers.’
Aurora Entertainment’s CEO, Baek Su-cheol, tapped his forehead. Then he looked at the head of publicity, Jo Eun-bi, and spoke.
“Setting aside the fact that the proposal is barren, it’s not bad for producing content in the short term. Internet cafes are everywhere in Seoul, and it’s not even something that’s never been done before.”
“Yes. It’s an event that mobile game companies and VTuber companies have already run before, so I think an agency would take the contract quickly, too.”
“But themed items? Can we even prepare those on our end?”
“That’s....”
The person who picked up the thread was Ha, the goods distributor.
“The ‘box’ part of the All-Star Box is already plenty. If we stack them like a pyramid, they’ll make perfectly good interior props. And if we display ABCD members’ merchandise on pegboards or wire mesh, it’ll also give off a temporary-store kind of feel.”
Next to speak was Seo, the record label producer.
“If it’s an internet cafe, it’ll already have basic soundproofing, or else be underground. Then if we just set up a few speakers, it’ll work as an event hall in no time.”
“Running wires should be easy too, so setting up the relay camera shouldn’t be a problem. Wouldn’t it be better to even put in a big TV or a projector and do a real-time interactive event?”
“If we connect the relay cameras on-site and have the members come directly to the studio, live broadcasting shouldn’t be an issue either.”
“If we designate a separate relay-camera area and have the members interact on a schedule, it should be realistic.”
The conference room kept heating up.
The ABCD members added their opinions as well.
- Tape up member illustrations to give it a theme-park feel, and keep it open for a set period.
- Ask an event agency to station staff there full-time.
- Designate separate entrance and exit routes to manage turnover.
- We need to plan the partitions with panels or fencing in advance.
- First-aid kits and defibrillators are important too.
- Rent a nearby cafe or event hall and use it as a waiting area.
...
...
...
As they kept bringing up ways to improve it, a surprisingly wide range of situations linked together on their own.
“Then the next step is finding an internet cafe with at least a hundred seats....”
“It has to have at least three bathrooms. I don’t care about anything else, but if the bathrooms get backed up, the event’s reputation can turn to trash.”
And the one who put the finishing touch on it was Do-dam.
“There’s an internet cafe I used to hang out at when I was younger. The bathrooms there are huge. It’s near Hongik University Station, and I slipped by there recently and it was pretty quiet. I think they rent it out a lot for mobile game events these days.”
“!”
A few staff members got up and wrote down the address and contact information of the internet cafe Do-dam had mentioned. Then the accounting staff member seated in the center of the conference room quickly put together the budget draft.
Manager Go Mi-yeong came back holding her phone.
“I just called the cafe owner. He said we can rent it for more than a week. He also said the interior is fine as long as we properly remove the fixtures.”
“Then let’s organize the budget and assign duties first.”
“Well, that should go quickly.”
From the start, only people at the representative level were gathered here, and there was no separate process of getting approval from investors. And just as they said, the design itself was finished quickly.
“The estimated budget should be around sixty million won. Since that comes straight out of the one-hundred-million-won content investment line, just hand over the detailed items to accounting.”
“That’s cheaper than I expected. Should we increase the scale of the merch?”
At one employee’s question, the general affairs manager, Park Yeong-su, broke into a cold sweat.
“C-cheaper...? At this level, it’s about a year’s operating expenses for a decent company.”
“Ah.... Right. My sense of money’s already broken.”
Baek Su-cheol crossed his arms and clicked his tongue.
“Wow.... So it all comes together like this? Was this idea submitted with all that in mind too? Ye-seo, Do-dam seems like a genius after all.”
Choi Ye-seo gave a wry smile and answered.
“I think she just smashed it with intuition. She always decides what to stream five minutes before going live.”
“Hah, that’s impressive in its own way too.”
Then the two of them looked at Do-dam.
Do-dam was puffing herself up with a proud expression, shaking her head back and forth. Then she made the sign of the cross and muttered,
“Bigman. According to the will of the holy one.”
“....”
“....”
Baek Su-cheol and Choi Ye-seo shook their heads. And Kim Ae-ri, a devout Christian, rolled her eyes and pretended not to notice her younger sister’s idol worship.
Once the meeting wrapped up, everyone stood to push forward with the work they were in charge of.
Those who already had money in their pockets moved fast.
“First let’s go scope out the internet cafe and get a real estimate. It might be different from what we expect when we see it in person.”
“!”
Do-dam yawned as she stood.
“I’ll go too and take a look.”
“Huh? You too, Do-dam?”
“It’s fine. I mean, it’s a place I used to run around in when I was a tiny kid, so nobody there knows my face. And I don’t think anyone’s dying to know the unmasked face of a small-time VTuber anyway.”
“Still....”
Do-dam casually took off Aki’s baseball cap from where it sat beside her and put it on her own head. In an instant, her face was hidden.
“This okay? Let’s just say I’m some kind of manager or something.”
“Isn’t that a little too sloppy....?”
“You’re all taking this way too seriously. Please act naturally.”
“....”
“Come on, let’s go. We’re a natural disaster that showers people with money.”
“You really do like Mr. Big Plan’s CEO, Do-dam.”
“What’s not to worship?”
“....”
Toward her like that,
Aki grumbled under her breath.
“Do-dam, that’s my hat....”
“Yep, I’m borrowing it~”
“Ugh, fine.”
As the on-site inspection team left, Aki ran a hand through her yellow hair and tidied it up.
I’m glad I showered this morning.
CEO Baek Su-cheol and General Affairs Manager Park Yeong-su chatted quietly in the suddenly hushed conference room. Then they nodded and called out to Aki.
“A-yeong!”
“?”
Aki tilted her head and looked back.
*
Ping!
Ping!
“!”
While I was stretching on the rooftop of the convenience store, my phone buzzed and two texts arrived at once.
Strangely enough, both were about one hundred million won.
....
I replied to each of them separately.
And the reply that came back again was from A-yeong’s side.
Ping!
She sent me a gift certificate.
It was a crispy, golden chicken that looked delicious.
....
So when she gets money, she likes to share it with other people.... I can’t really say much, but I think she should invest a little more in herself too, beyond lessons.
It wasn’t that I wasn’t grateful.
....
So I sent my thanks.
A-yeong replied with an emoji of a rabbit bouncing up and down. I couldn’t quite figure out what it meant, but it seemed like she was trying to express happiness.
....
I closed the messenger app. Then I opened the stock chart again. As I scrolled down the long list, I checked my investments.
“...No big changes.”
My personal assets had smoothly grown to three billion won. Because I had deliberately avoided entertainment-related stocks, I’d been able to enjoy the benefits of my regression knowledge without trouble.
The ten-billion-won Bigman incident and the incorporation are already enough to throw the flow of entertainment stocks far beyond my predictions. It’s probably tangled beyond recognition by now.
With that thought, I checked the related stocks.
As expected.
The related stocks were shaking violently. It looked like the aftereffects of ABCD and the Bigman incident.
ABCD’s activities are going to keep drawing attention in the entertainment market anyway, so I should stay away from this side.
Just as I was settling on that conclusion, I found something that caught my eye.
“?”
A pharmaceutical company’s stock price had surged.
It was a stock that should normally have risen next month, but instead it was shooting up dramatically. Just like a sudden drop, a sudden rise was also a bad sign.
It was the butterfly effect.
Did something happen to that pharmaceutical company without my knowing? Or did the capital that flowed into Big Plan set off a chain reaction...?
I thought about it carefully.
And then I found the answer.
DCBA Pharmaceuticals.
....
No way....
Is DCBA Pharmaceuticals’ stock price surging because of the incident where the ABCD group came back to life? It has nothing to do with VTubers at all, does it?
....
I didn’t understand it, but on the Korean stock market, that was perfectly possible.
It’s the kind of place where seafood stocks rise when there’s a fire in Nevada....
Nodding to myself, I sent another five hundred million won to Big Plan’s corporate account. Then I instructed Lawyer Kim to route it toward operating funds for each company.
The reply to that instruction came back immediately.
....
For a contract moving money in the hundreds of millions, all he had to do was handle the paperwork, so he was brimming with enthusiasm.
He’s someone I run into every time I set up a corporation, but the fact that he works properly without any emotion as long as you pay him makes him convenient.
I lay back on the yoga mat spread out on the rooftop.
“Hoo....”
The blue sky was visible overhead.
It was the sky as the June heat slowly began to build.
....
Everything was going more smoothly than I’d imagined. The soil that supported ABCD, “Big Plan A Company,” was growing rapidly.
It was starting to develop a life of its own.
As Bigman, all I had to do was send the money, and it would take care of itself.
...That’s the power of a system independent from the market. Even small companies tucked away in alleys can enjoy the same momentum that only conglomerates usually get.
But.
....
This is too much power for small-time acts. It was like a bird flying freely with wings, gliding over ants scrambling and crawling in a maze.
And birds stand out.
VTubers are a niche subculture, so it’s unlikely a major company will be able to stop them from running wild.
But the magic of the stock market was impossible to predict.
So I had no choice but to keep an eye on it.
Predators showed up in the strangest places.
....
Please,
before I regress again....
I need them to fly far enough that nobody can touch them.
Only then could I keep my promise.
She would stand onstage
and show the most incredible performance in this world—
and I would watch it.
That was the promise I’d made.
The most incredible performance in the world....
Would I get to see it?
....
Honestly,
I wanted to.
Ping!
“!”
I picked up my phone.
It was A-yeong.
She’d sent me a coffee gift certificate too. Along with it came an emoji of a curly-haired rabbit dancing wildly.
....
*
As the ABCD fandom grew larger, a community that talked only about ABCD naturally sprang up as well. And in there, people were busily talking about the “lottery.”
- Wow, rare nick, whoa.
- Damn, I got dropped from the lottery.
- Die.
- So jealous.
- Handshakes my ass, they’ll smack your cheek.
- Why are you doing that when you’re not even a DoDa fangirl?
- Sniffle... please... spare some... for... the old man...
- This is a DoDa event, damn it.
In the middle of that,
there were also people who couldn’t keep up with the conversation.
- Dopamine will be maxed out, lol.
- Yes, time to spend recklessly lol.
- Do you doubt Bigman?
- That kind of question feels unnatural.
- So what event is it, damn it? Why is nobody answering?
└ A theme park is planned for the Hongik University Station internet cafe for three days, from Friday to Sunday.
└ Theme park?
└ I guess the first hundred people get to play games with DoDa.
└ Sounds like the members will be chatting with people in between, too.
└ lol no way lol what kind of anniversary event from some other house is this lol
People were excited,
but they couldn’t quite hide their disbelief.
No way they really made it into a theme park, right?
They probably just slapped some decorations on it....
And then.
That belief was shattered on Friday.
“Holy shit, what is this....”
The internet cafe had really been transformed into something like an ABCD theme park.
---