Aware... - 1
I bought a computer from an online shopping mall.
It wasn’t one of those high-end rigs that cost several million won. I didn’t need anything like that just to watch internet broadcasts. It was a value model, good enough to run a few games and not much else.
What mattered more was the monitor.
Like a two-headed beast,
my dual monitors would lead me into the world of VTuber degeneracy.
Their luminous glow made me feel satisfied.
This way... I can become a true ace, a boomerang, a Carat, and a flatfish too. This round, I’ll definitely spend my time doing proper, satisfying nerd stuff.
The tiny room was filled with soft, beautiful light.
Shimmer.
Shimmer.
I even bought a new desk. Now the place looks like some hacker’s apartment straight out of a movie. Even if, in truth, I barely know how to use any computer programs.
Maybe I should live the life of a hundred-day hacker sometime.
Just as I was entertaining that thought, the installer sent by the online shopping mall spoke up. He had been grunting and straining for a long while to fit the monitor arm into place, and now he looked relieved.
“You must be pretty serious about stocks, huh?”
“...Huh?”
Oh no.
How did he know?
Was he some kind of stalker following me around?
It happened to be the third week of May.
I had just made a profit on a few stocks I’d been watching. This villain was clearly after my delicious fortune of 6.2 billion won.
I swallowed hard.
Then I brought my hands together, shielding myself.
“...”
Was he planning to blackmail me like some villain from an ecchi manga?
If he was really going to threaten me like that...
I might be willing to pay up to 200 million won for the refreshingly new kind of fear.
But he wasn’t a villain from an ecchi manga.
“I only guessed because you went all-in on a dual monitor setup and a motion desk in a studio apartment like this. My friend trades stocks too, and he set his place up exactly the same way.”
“Ohh...”
Awkward.
I shook my head.
“No, I just wanted to watch VTuber streams on a big screen.”
“Huh? Vee... what?”
“VTuber. I wanted to watch internet broadcasts. There are four people I personally support, but they all stream around the same time, so it got annoying to keep switching windows.”
“Oh. I see. You watch internet broadcasts.”
“Yeah, they’re fun. Want to stay and watch with me?”
“Ah, haha...! Oh! Looks like the installation’s done too.”
The installer snapped his head away in a hurry. Then he grabbed his bag and hurried out of the studio apartment.
“W-well then, I’ll be going.”
“Take care.”
I waved him off.
Hmm, doesn’t seem like he’s very into internet broadcasts.
Thinking that, I turned on the computer with my big toe.
Light flooded both monitors. Then I stood them vertically and laid out the ABCD members’ channels in a checkerboard-style two-way split.
Over the weekend, they’d only been doing evening streams, but now that Monday had come, they were going live in the afternoon.
The first stream to begin was Aki-chan’s.
Live Now: Aki-chan Regular Stream - Idol Karaoke Time~!
Live viewers: 121
“...”
A miracle where ten thousand becomes a hundred.
Since Friday, when she returned, Bigman hadn’t said much all weekend. Did everyone decide it was boring and run off?
I hoped so.
She probably did too.
Aki-chan seemed like the type to take pride in being an “idol,” after all. No matter how many viewers she gained, she wouldn’t be happy if the stream was running on Bigman’s charity like a parasite.
Such an inefficient bundle of emotions.
I snickered.
...This is fun.
The interesting girl greeted me.
A of ABCD! A star in your heart! I’m Aki-chan, an idol hopeful—!
“First, let’s do the regular ritual...”
Tap.
Bigman has donated 2.5 million won!
As soon as the stream began,
a clean 2.5 million won slammed into the donation box.
It was the maximum possible donation under the limit.
-...!
Aki-chan flinched. But unlike over the weekend, there was no fear or tension. In a slightly higher-than-usual voice, she replied.
“T-thank you for the donation...! 2.5 million won, yes! Really, really, really, thank you so much! Let’s start Monday strong! Ace viewers, did you all have a good weekend?”
“...”
So I’m past the stage where my money makes her cry and panic, huh.
Over the two days of the weekend, I’d seen Aki-chan cry about three times. In the end, I’d been forced to type in chat because I couldn’t stand watching her bawl for over five minutes, saying she didn’t know how to repay me.
Bigman: Just treat me like I’m nobody. Like a natural disaster that rains money. Keep showing us what you were going to show us in the first place.
The weight of money, huh.
I’d only thrown it around without thinking, but somehow it felt like the weight of that money was swallowing up the emotions they showed me, until those emotions stopped being fun.
I don’t want them to tremble and bow because I gave them money. I want to see what they’ll do with it.
Fortunately, after that chat, Aki-chan’s emotions returned to something much closer to normal.
And it wasn’t just the VTubers who had adapted over the weekend.
Comments started pouring into the chat window.
-Bigman
-Bigman
-Bigman again today
-Ooh, Bigman’s bringing us the gospel again today
-Aki-chan’s living expenses deposited lol
-Buy yourself something tasty~
-Bigman
-Bigman
-Why’s that bastard taking credit when Bigman paid for it lol
-Bigman
-Bigman
A brief prayer session.
Then it went right back to the usual greeting.
-Hey, Aki-chan
-Hey
-Watching this at Monday lunch is pure bliss
-Phew, so I’m not the only unemployed one...
Maybe because they’d gotten to know each other over the weekend?
The ace comrades had also moved past the stage where they cartwheeled around cheering just because I gave them money. They kept a sort of seasoned warmth, like a gentle fire sharing heat with everyone around it.
...Now that’s sex.
The electronic comradeship shared by aces was warm. But even in a relationship like a married couple’s, there was always some sunburned guy barging in.
-Bigman is fucking hilarious, these dumbasses are sucking his ass dry lol
Swish!
But the sunburned guy disappeared fast. And once he was gone, the aces mocked him mercilessly.
-Interceptor working perfectly lol
-Interception system operating normally lol
-This is the first time I’ve ever seen trolls disappear this fast lol
-Honestly, I don’t even care about Bigman. This is just insanely good for filtering out trolls lol
-Honestly, I watch ABCD just for the troll-cutter lol
“...”
I could guess the identity of that suspiciously competent moderator. When I became a VIP on the Live Future platform, I’d seen the explanation.
Comment moderation for the smooth viewing experience of VIP members.
So it’s a system that gives priority to certain nicknames if they get mentioned... that’s kind of dystopian and creepy.
And there was another chilling feature that only VIP users knew about.
Next to Aki-chan’s channel icon.
A secret button, glowing a vivid green.
1-on-1 Chat While Live
Regular users couldn’t even see it in the system.
In other words, I could secretly have a one-on-one conversation with Aki-chan while she was broadcasting. It was the ultimate expression of cash-is-king ideology.
Aki-chan was still broadcasting innocently.
-Ace viewers—! Today, it’s been a while since I did a song stream...
The listeners were all messing around with each other.
-Really? Does Aki-chan sing well?
-She sang a little on Sunday, yeah
-She has suspiciously good pronunciation only when she sings lol
-That part was weirdly impressive lol
Awkward...
Right now,
if I pressed that button.
A secret chat between Aki-chan and me would begin.
A conversation the ace viewers wouldn’t know about...
“...”
Hmm.
Was this some kind of red pill?
Whoever designed it
had made it in a deeply sleazy way.
It was probably a feature meant for a different kind of broadcast.
I hadn’t even pressed it, and already my imagination was fermenting. There was no way this had been built for VTubers.
“...”
I ignored the button.
There was nothing I needed to say anyway.
Bigman was, after all, nothing more than the members’ ATM.
That was how I’d decided it.
-Then I’ll start singing now—!
Listening to Aki-chan sing, I turned my attention to the other ABCD members. The one who started next, right on cue, was Berry, who held down the “B.”
Time for the ritual again.
*
Live Now: Berry Regular Stream ☆Chatterbox Talk Show☆
Live viewers: 97
“B of ABCD—! Ready to roll? I’m Berry, your chatterbox buddy for fun!”
An absurdly good English pronunciation.
Onscreen, the pink-haired beauty shook her head playfully. Her especially white teeth stood out. The white frills of her outfit rippled with each movement.
Berry spoke in a voice so high it was almost comical.
“Everyone—!”
Then, the listeners who had been trained over the weekend answered on reflex.
-Good after noon~!
-gaftn
-Good afternoon~
-gaftn
-rdvxs
-gaftn
-Gay panties man?
-Get that bastard out of here
-gaftn
Berry beamed and said, “Good~ after noon! Nice to meet you—! Did everyone have a good weekend? Hmm? What you doing? Did you sleep well yesterday? Did you say good morning? Hmm? Let’s chat together!”
-Berry, this is killing me
-Way too much for a hardcore introvert
-Ugh... that extrovert energy is too strong...
-D-don’t greet people like such an extrovert...
“Ahaha! I just wanted to see my boomerangs~!”
-Boomerangs?
-Spy detected lol
-That’s her fandom nickname lol
-Why boomerangs?
-Because they come back
-(thump thump♡)
“Ah! So you guys are... without me...”
At that moment.
Bigman appeared.
Bigman has donated 2.5 million won!
-The timing says he came over from Aki-chan’s stream lol
-Bigman
-Bigman
-Ugh, Bigman...
Berry shut her mouth, which had been spilling words like a river. Her eyes darted around for a moment as she thought. It was such a different look from the way she’d just been acting.
“...”
But she opened her mouth again very quickly.
“W-w-wah...! Thank you for the donation! Thank you! Welcome—! Thank you so, so much for the 2.5 million won donation!”
She acted as if she had no idea who Bigman was, as if she’d received a donation from a complete stranger.
If anything, the viewers were the ones who got flustered.
-?
-That’s not the reaction you’d give Bigman...
-Honestly, shouldn’t you be singing a ballad of praise to a ten-billion-won donor?
-Bigman ballad, whoa
The boomerangs, trained by Bigman over the weekend, answered in her place.
-You guys are probably the ones who didn’t watch the weekend streams lol. Bigman hates it when people waste time on reactions.
-Just treat Bigman like he isn’t there lol
-“He is a natural disaster that rains money.”
-Money just appears when the stream turns on? Whoa
-At this point he’s basically the company ID badge for Off Enter lol
-Off Enter?
-Aurora Prism Entertainment, yeah
-They shorten everything, damn
Berry jumped in at this awkward moment and quickly lined several short videos across the screen.
“More importantly! I brought a funny meme...”
*
Aki ended the stream and turned off the computer.
“Hoo...”
He had come again today.
And once again, he had tossed money around without saying a word.
It was clearly something she should not be getting used to.
And yet, the fact that she was slowly getting used to it felt strange.
...Though it’s also strange to get used to someone who gives 2.5 million won every day.
Still, she had to treat him like an anonymous donor, not as the one and only Bigman in this world.
She felt truly sorry to the point of shame, and no amount of gratitude would be enough, personally speaking...
But idols exist
for their fans.
That was one of Aki’s strongest beliefs. It didn’t change just because she was a VTuber.
-Keep showing us what you were going to show us in the first place.
And she wanted to believe that.
“...”
I’m sorry.
Thank you for helping.
Thank you for understanding.
Thank you...
After silently thanking Bigman about ten times in her head, Aki pulled a baseball cap low over her face, still wearing her practice clothes. Then she picked up her bag and opened the door to her room.
Bang!
The dorm where the ABCD members lived together came into view. A studio apartment with four bedrooms... This was where they handled both streaming and daily life.
Wasn’t this originally something they’d rented cheap after another streaming company was done with it?
Then it happened.
The door across from where Aki was standing opened.
“!”
The second person to finish streaming was Berry... Kim Ae-ri. She had just come out drinking water, and her eyes widened.
“Huh? A-yeong, where are you going?”
“...”
Aki grinned.
“Lesson.”
“Oh...! Starting today? Pronunciation correction class?”
“Yeah. Starting next week I’ll be getting private lessons too, and when group lessons start up again, I’ll do those too. I’m off then, sis.”
“Okay!”
Aki opened the front door and stepped out.
“...”
Kim Ae-ri stood there blankly and watched her go all the way until the door closed. Then she sighed and muttered to herself.
“I guess she’s still only in her early twenties, so her adaptability is amazing. Going to take extra lessons with her own money too. I still can’t get used to a 2.5 million won donation.”
If there had been a person actually giving her money, she would have studied a separate reaction in advance. That was why, every time she received 2.5 million won, her brain felt like it stopped. All she could do was stammer and speak as loudly as possible.
Of course, after the company took its cut and settled up,
she only ended up with about 1.1 million won.
Still, when you thought of it as money coming in every single day, it was enough to make the skin crawl.
During the weekend streams, she’d bowed her head for ten full minutes, chanting thank you over and over. She even started singing.
Then Bigman told her off.
“Please just act naturally.”
“...”
After that, she managed to reduce her reaction to the bare minimum, just enough that his chat didn’t even seem to appear anymore.
Kim Ae-ri quietly prayed.
Bigman...
The members had held a meeting and decided that, in the stream, they should treat him as normally as possible. But they still couldn’t ignore their gratitude.
He seems like he wants to stay quiet like that too.
That was a relief.
“But what kind of person is he, anyway? Is he some oil tycoon...?”
The boss had even made a plaque of appreciation and tried to deliver it personally. But Live Future kept Bigman’s identity strictly hidden. Instead, they conveyed his meaning indirectly.
-We tried contacting him from the operations team, but he said he’d prefer to just accept the feeling and not meet in person.
After that, every official invitation or message from the company was refused.
In the end, the plaque of appreciation was only posted as an Aurora Prism Entertainment SNS post.
Even if you want to thank someone, if they don’t want it at all...
At that moment.
Kim Ae-ri’s phone rang.
It was a call from Jo Eun-bi, the head of PR.
“!”
She answered it.
“Hello?”
“Oh, hello? Ae-ri, I wanted to ask you something.”
“What is it?”
“Do you happen to know about the VIP 1-on-1 chat feature? Live Future called and asked why we’ve never used it, and whether there’s some kind of problem.”
“?”