This Is ABCDRD United Territory Now - 1
Last weekend was a shock and a nightmare for the RD fandom.
It all began on Sunday evening, while people were quietly preparing for Monday, when a sudden announcement declared that all activities were being suspended. The news, released at 7 p.m., spread through every corner of the community.
Even people who had never cared about domestic VTubers caught the news as a joke, and the ripple it caused was enormous. And for the RD fandom, that same ripple marked the beginning of a merciless stretch of time.
Then came the signs of company downsizing, discovered one after another, and the graduation announcements from the first-generation members that went up all at once....
With one hopeless piece of news after another, the community exploded. And because the traffic surged so suddenly, every other community picked up the story and ran with it, feeding the vicious cycle.
...
...
...
Some people cursed. Some people posted hate images. Some people finally aired out old grudges.
Everyone poured everything they had into it.
Hours passed.
A day became two.
What remained was a silent despair.
How peaceful ordinary life had been, and how quietly despair could sink to its lowest point.
I never would have imagined it.
And then.
I never would have imagined that hope could feel this desperate, this electric....
I never would have imagined it.
The community ignited again. But this time it was not the wildfire of despair, but a beacon of hope. It was the kind of delicious reversal no one had felt before.
They cheered. And when the next piece of news arrived, they raised their voices even higher in praise. I could understand why the people living in a giant’s kingdom worshipped him so fervently.
“Link please. Roughly summarized, they’re saying they’ll start broadcasting again on Wednesday, lol. ABCD’s seniors are busy preparing for next week’s live, so RD’s doing a studio planning stream this week, lol. Is that speed even real?”
And so.
Relief and cheers.
Amid the thrilling worship....
Wednesday arrived.
*
Shimmering Romantic Drive logos were stamped all over the bright 3D studio. Then the door at the corner of the studio flew open, and the RD members walked in.
First out was Dan-hwi, the beautiful girl with straight black hair. Just like her habit of calmly doing bizarre things, she dropped a bomb the instant she started.
Dan-hwi covered her mouth and looked around.
“Huh...? This is an unfamiliar ceiling. Is this the Big Plan studio...? Where is this? It feels a little different from the place we usually broadcast from. Could this be the other world I only heard rumors about...?”
“Somehow it feels like the company changed, or maybe that’s just my imagination? I’m getting kind of lonely, and kind of awkward too....”
At that, Yul-hwa, the tall one, and Oi-ram, the short one, reacted.
“Eh? W-what is this. Why are there tears?”
“Sob... I-ram can’t even remember the company name, the name....”
Amid the flood of ridiculous reactions, Dan-hwi spotted Hae-rin, the languid beauty with purple hair.
“What about you, Hae-rin? Do you remember anything?”
Hae-rin shook her head from side to side and said, “Nope, Hae-rin knows nothing.”
“Really?”
“I went to Japan and came back, and everything changed.”
“Oh no! What were you doing in Japan?”
“Well....”
All of a sudden, Hae-rin clutched her head.
“Guh?! The sealed memory...! My memory...! In the new studio, Hae-rin’s memory got sealed away!”
“Remember! You have to remember!”
“N-no! If I remember, my current life will turn into my past life!”
“Don’t run! Fight back!”
A short comic skit of goofy fanservice.
But it was also self-satire about Romantic Drive’s business failures and the irrational regulatory situation they had suffered through over the past month. It was naked criticism that would have been unthinkable under a big company’s roof.
Now that the bait they’d been forced to keep under wraps had been released, the viewers felt a strangely satisfying sense of vindication.
Dan-hwi expressed, in a skit, the upper limit of what they were allowed to say, and at just the right moment, she refreshed the mood.
“Well... then maybe it’s just my imagination? In that case, let me greet you again with a fresh new feeling!”
At the same time.
Dan-hwi, Hae-rin, Yul-hwa, and Oi-ram all greeted the viewers.
[One, two, three! With happiness! We are Romantic Drive!]
The greeting ended.
The familiar faces sent donations.
As if welcoming them to this place.
Dan-hwi saw it, and answered warmly.
“Yes! Nice to meet you, seniors!”
“Please take care of us, seniors!”
“It’s nice to meet you for the first time, seniors!”
“It’s nice to meet you too, seniors~!”
...
...
...
*
ABCD’s practice room, during lessons.
The members were resting in comfortable clothes.
Aki and Kang Do-dam were snickering at their phones. They were the two who had suggested hitting send right as BigMan’s donation came in.
Do-dam tied back her sweat-soaked bob and said, “Phew.... At this point, everyone seems to think we’re hanging out with a god. But the privilege of seeing His face isn’t something just anyone gets, you know.”
“....”
“Aki?”
“Mm?”
“Why are you grinning like that?”
“Hm....”
Aki let out a sly laugh.
“Well, think about it. No one knows what ‘BigMan’ looks like, right? A view nobody else knows.... They’re definitely jealous....”
“?”
Do-dam tilted her head.
For some reason, Aki, who usually had such an innocent face, was wearing an unusually filthy, perverted old-man smile. He looked like some nasty villain who toyed with women through money.
Did the brutal pace of lessons fry his brain or something?
Just as she was about to ask, a groan sounded from beside them.
It was Kim Ae-ri, who had been looking at her phone and then collapsed face-down with a cramp. Next to her, Choi Ye-seo was sweating as she worked the stiffness out of Ae-ri’s leg.
“Hyah?!“
“Honestly, Ae-ri. You weren’t doing anything during break, and you still got a cramp out of nowhere....”
“I-I just moved suddenly, that’s all.”
“That’s because you don’t exercise enough.”
“I do... exercise.”
“Taking walks is not exercise.”
“I’m just gonna regret it when I’m older. We’re both nearly thirty, so we really need to be careful and take care of ourselves.”
“It’s you who’s nearly thirty. I’m only six....”
A melancholy conversation among women in their late twenties.
As for Do-dam, who was twenty-one, she somehow fell into a solemn mood and missed her chance to ask about it. Even then, Aki kept smiling at his phone.
By the time the cramp in Ae-ri’s leg had eased, the quiet practice room door opened and the instructors came in.
Bang!
“All right, shall we start practicing again? There are only ten days left until the rehearsal, so let’s work as hard as we can!”
“!”
“!”
“!”
“!”
All of the ABCD members stood up.
Eleven days until the live.
The intensive training period had begun.