You're the Cutest in the World - 1
Once upon a time.
There was a girl with pink hair.
A sixteen-plus-ten-year-old beauty in goth-lolita clothes.
Wherever she passed, people would say:
“Whoa! Look over there! It’s Berryri!”
“Berryri, you’re cute!”
“Berryri is the cutest in the world!”
“Berryri punch!”
“Berryri’s so pretty—!”
“Waaah, Mother, thank you for giving birth to me! Thanks to you, I got to see Berryri! I can die without regrets now!”
Her name was Berryri.
That perfect girl was cute, kind, pretty, stylish, neat, intelligent, pure and fragile, sexy, and even gentle-hearted.
If she had a flaw at all....
It was that she was too perfect!
“Hawawa....”
Poor but happy, loved by everyone, Berryri was visited by a miracle one day.
A very large fairy appeared.
That fairy’s name was Bigman. He approached, dragging along his massive body, and the delicate Berryri clasped her hands in astonishment.
“Eep!? Y-you are...?!?”
“Miss Berry, please act naturally.”
“A-ah!? Y-you are... the legendary fairy Bigman?!”
“Miss Berry, I am a natural disaster that scatters magic.”
“Hawawa.... I’m honored. But what brings you here?”
“....”
Bigman said nothing more and simply swung a cane made of money. At his gesture, thunder cracked in the sky and money began to rain down.
Pazijik—!
...
...
...
As money fell like rain, the villagers danced in delight.
-Bigman! Bigman!
-Bigmaaaan—!
-B-M
...
...
Bigman, scattering his rain of money, said:
“Tell me what project you want to do.”
“A-anything?”
“Anything.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“After saying that, you’re not actually trying to trick this cute, innocent girl, are you?”
“....”
Bigman ignored Berryri and started walking toward Aki-chan, who lived in the neighboring village. At once, Berryri grabbed the hem of Bigman’s trousers in a panic.
“W-wait just a second! That was a joke!”
“....”
“I-I mean!”
Berry cried out:
“Berry wants to play games with the viewers in a wonderful space—!”
“You mean a PC bang event?”
“No! A cute, cool escape-room cafe—! And if it had a show room where I could do cute and lovely broadcasts, plus a cute and stylish exhibition hall, that would be even better!”
“You seem very fixated on the word cute.”
“Berryri is the cutest in the world!”
“....”
Bigman did not exactly agree with the claim that Berryri was the cutest girl, but he swung his cane anyway. His perspective was a little different.
Whoosh—!
Then an astonishing sight opened up before Berryri.
“H-hawawa...?!?”
A huge, spotless building.
A twenty-four-hundred-million-won event hall had appeared before her eyes. From there came former attendants who had nearly been driven to the streets after a conglomerate withdrew its capital.
They wept as they spoke.
“O-our thanks, Princess Berryri.”
“Thanks to you, we didn’t lose our jobs!”
“From now on, this place is your castle.”
Berry was stunned.
“H-hawawa...?!?”
She had only meant it as a joke.
She had no idea he’d really buy the building and all its infrastructure outright.
“Bigman?! I-is this really okay—?! Isn’t this a little too extravagant...?”
“It’s fine. Overseas futures and options are invincible.”
“Bigman, you must really like traveling abroad! Berryri likes it too!”
“....”
The attendants praised Princess Berryri, and in just two days they transformed the event hall into a radiant pink wonderland.
“Long live Princess Berryri—!”
“Let’s make the greatest event in the world!”
“Berryri is the cutest in the world—!”
“Thank you, Berryri!”
Amid the people’s cheers,
Berry was happy for a very long time.
“Hawawa....”
And she said:
“Welcome to Berryri Land~!”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Live: Berryri and Yulra’s Wednesday Surprise ★Collab☆Broadcast~~♡ [ABCDxRD2] ***There may be a surprise announcement if you listen to the end...?!***
The laid-back, tall beauty blinked. She was the second-generation member of Romantic Drive, Yulhwa. And after hearing Berry’s announcement, she could say nothing at all.
“....”
She had been chatting away just a moment ago.
But after ten straight minutes of announcements,
she had lost her mind and gone silent.
The chat room was just as chaotic.
-?
-??
-What is she even saying
-?
-Berryberryy....
-Brrly is cute
...
...
...
“Hoo....”
Yulhwa’s tolerance for nonsense couldn’t withstand Berry’s kawaii world. In the VTuber subculture, it was a level of roleplay almost never seen, utterly unrivaled.
Yulhwa sighed and said, “Big sister Berryri, that’s just embarrassing....”
“W-what? What? Huh? What are you even talking about?”
“This isn’t right.... What kind of delusion is that?”
“W-what! What is it!”
With that one line,
the chat, frozen for a moment, exploded.
-lololol
-Wow, that felt great lol
-Hahaha
-Brrly is cute
-Whoa, this is what a VTuber is supposed to be lol
-Berryriiiiii
-My brain just froze for a second lol
-These idiots all got stunned together, this is hilarious lol
-What on earth were the ABCD fans fighting about
-I’m a boomerang, can’t Yulhwa keep coming back? lol
-Ahhh lol
-We... understand... how much... pain... this has caused us...?
-Brrrlyyy
-Hey! R.D.! You’re going all the way with us?
-lol what is this lol
-Of course, "money"!
-So they weren’t the problem, Bigman was lol
Berry puckered her lips, but while reading the donation window, she answered in turn.
“Thank you for the ten thousand donation! ‘So what was it you were trying to say’... Huh? Were you not paying attention to Berryri? I’m disappointed! And thank you for the five thousand donation too! ‘Hey, are you ready, R?’ Of course I am!”
“Huh? I’m the R you’re talking about, aren’t I?”
“Then let’s see if we match.”
“Ready, ‘money’?”
“Of course, ‘R’!”
Even while she was talking with Yulhwa,
Berry kept reading the nonstop flood of chat and donations. She could smoothly keep pace with a stream in the thousands now. Compared with a month ago, she had become astonishingly comfortable with it.
“....”
Leaving aside the otaku-style delusions, she’d also somehow learned to keep up with memes and internet slang that had once felt out of sync with her. More importantly, the frequency with which her mental state had been shattered had gone down too.
Berry smiled to herself.
So it really does help if you keep dealing with viewers. I guess I’ve naturally improved. Reading chat feels easier now, and I think I’ve learned how to react to donations too.
It was obvious, really.
If you take lessons, you get better at dancing.
If you stream, you get better at hosting.
But....
Even though that was how things should have worked,
the opportunity never came.
Berry felt satisfied.
“Hehe...!”
“?!”
Her face grew hot with the black history she had forgotten.
Then Yulhwa perked up with interest.
“Oh? What’s this? Have you ever faked something, Berryri?”
“F-fake? What fake...! I didn’t do anything like that.”
“Looking at the chat... ‘Got caught running stealth ad placement with a burner account before,’ ‘I panicked when they said they’d track my IQ’...? Ahaha! Big sis Berryri really does only Berryri things.”
“A-anyway!”
Berry seemed to hate the subject, so she hurriedly repeated the announcement.
“P-please look forward to Berryri Land opening tomorrow~!”
“Please look forward to it~!”
-You stretched out that one-line announcement that much? lol
-Whoa lol
-B-M
-Announcement for tomorrow lol
-Kek... now this is the taste I’ve gotten used to
-This is the big plan lololol
-B-M
-Bigmen....
-Damn, let RD join too—!
-Yulhwa collab, let’s go
...
...
...
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The last Wednesday of June.
I was sitting alone at an outdoor convenience-store table.
“....”
The money had increased.
No matter how much I spent, it didn’t go down.
It was always like this around this time of year.
Remaining balance: 6.1 billion won
“....”
Of course, that wasn’t corporate money.
It was the private investment reserve I’d grown from a little over three billion won by mid-June. Just like the coin surge at the end of May, whenever July drew near, sudden changes came roaring in.
Some stocks soared.
Some stocks crashed.
Companies went bankrupt out of nowhere.
The scale of it was too huge. Even investors with billions in assets were turned into ants. No variable could stop the wave.
If there was ever a moment when my regression knowledge was absolute....
It was right now.
Just as June had been relatively quiet, July would come storming in like this.
I quietly wired 1.1 billion won to the Big Plan account. Even after spending corporate funds like that, the total had risen to 12 billion won.
At this rate, even with no return, the expiration date has probably stretched to two years. If returns come back, it’ll grow a little more every time.
Surprisingly, Big Plan was generating revenue.
That was because the members had grown to a certain scale. The unusually high ratio of loyal fans also helped.
[ABCD_Aki channel 88,000]
[ABCD_Berry channel 91,000]
[ABCD_Clara channel 82,000]
[ABCD_DoDa channel 102,000]
Merchandise.
Music sales.
Memberships.
Broadcast revenue.
Money was coming in from all sorts of directions.
It was nowhere near enough to surpass the deficit entirely, let alone exceed my own returns. But at least it was enough to postpone the company’s dissolution, little by little.
The fact that the membership conversion rate is above ten percent is a good sign, and the internal cohesion at Big Plan is better than I expected too....
Big Plan was running itself into a frenzy, pumping up its excess assets.
Even if I tried to burn off the surplus,
the money was making more money, and the whole thing was overheating.
-Preparing new 3D outfits
-Planning a summer festival
-Negotiating a resort collaboration
All things I can’t even see.
And probably each member was making over eight million won a month by now? That would keep increasing too. I’d already prepared for the sabotage that could derail their growth momentum.
At this rate, I’d probably make it through the “incident” in July just fine.
“....”
I wasn’t sure whether we’d be able to pull off the live performance perfectly, though.
“....”
I turned off my phone.
“....”
What am I supposed to do with five billion won now?
I’d already bought a building.
I’d already covered Big Plan’s funds.
And yet the money kept growing without restraint.
Should I buy another company?
“....”
I didn’t know.
There didn’t seem to be anything I immediately needed.
CEO Baek Su-cheol, Lawyer Kim, and the other company heads were already in an overheated state as it was. Even if I added more work on top of that, it didn’t seem like the efficiency would improve.
“...I don’t have anywhere to spend it.”
The moment I muttered that,
my phone rang with a text.
Ping!
“!”
“....”
Ping!
“?”
I looked.
There was nothing there.
Ping!
I sent 100,000 won.
The conversation ended like that.
“....”
What is it they even want to do?
I sat there with my eyes closed. With an exhaustion I couldn’t quite explain, the timing of the regression knowledge I had left flashed through my head like a reel of film.
“....”
Then, from far away, I heard a man’s voice.
-H-hey?! You!
“?”
I opened my eyes.
An old man in shabby clothes was approaching while pulling a handcart. The cart was piled high with boxes.
Seeing that, I said, “We’re out of spare boxes today. Still, since you came all this way, have a glass of cider before you go.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“?”
“You, you’re that guy from back then, aren’t you? Tapgol Park.”
“Tapgol Park?”
The old man clapped his hands and shouted, “That’s right! The guy who handed out soju by the box! Dr. Jang was looking all over for you.”
“Ah.”
A memory rose in my head.
A voice full of regret.
A much-worn bucket hat.
And the ten million won placed inside it.
You mustn’t become like me....
“....”
The old man laughed heartily and said, “You know Dr. Jang went to Europe, right?”
“I didn’t.”
“Well, after he came back from there, he practically set his eyes on fire looking for you. He kept saying, ‘Please find the guy who handed out the drinks back then!’”
“Is that so.”
“But I had no idea the man was here playing convenience-store owner. Hah-hah-hah! Fate is a strange thing.”
“....”
I had no choice but to agree with that.
Does this convenience store have some kind of special energy or something?
The encounters just kept coming, one after another.