Nudge... 3
An internet VTuber community.
For the past week, it had been overrun with quote-titled posts.
Every one of them was a template that would get you a flood of upvotes if you posted it.
They were all built around Bigman’s famous lines.
- Damn, that’s insanely cool.
- I’m a guy, but I want to have sex with Bigman.
- That’s so gay....
- For real lol, even the uterus I never had is vibrating.
- I want to say that line when I get rich.
- But we don’t even know if Bigman is actually that handsome lol.
└ Money gives you a built-in buff to looks anyway, yeah.
└ One point for every 10 million won.
└ Shit, then 1 billion means a 100 percent buff.
└ A peerless handsome man indeed...
- Holy shit, lol. Why does that sound cool?
- If the buyer is classy enough, even cash-burn money smells cool lol.
- These Bigman templates are fucking hilarious lol.
- I’m a streamer trash and even I have to admit this man has insane charisma, lol.
- Is this the power of 1 billion won? lol
- Hm, is it really that much? Isn’t he just some asshole with money?
└ Oh...! Downvote naming and shaming, huh.
└ (A pathetic nerd with no money at all, arms crossed as he says this)
└ lol for real
└ lol for real
But as always.
There were people who went too far with their own interpretations.
- Is brain-dead overkill just a shut-in otaku thing?
- Wow, I usually ignore this stuff, but this is genuinely beyond unfunny.
- I feel bad because they probably thought it was funny.
- Not funny.
- Is this guy an idiot?
There were also all sorts of other healthy and productive discussions, like, “Can’t you just make a Bigman board and keep talking about Bigman there?” and “That quote-literature shit is such cringe loser energy,” and “I want to confess to the P.D.” and so on.
Then one user asked the sharp question that cut straight to the heart of the matter. Not about Bigman or the 1 billion won incident, but about the VTuber group that had actually received the donation.
- Who knows?
- Everyone’s been staring at Bigman templates, lol.
- Yeah, Bigman oppa’s money is so sweet, baby.
- There haven’t been any announcements since they said they’d properly allocate the 1 billion won and use it well for company operations. On stream they sang praise hymns to Bigman, got scolded by Bigman, and have been treating things like he’s both there and not there....
└ “Please act naturally.”
└ lol wait, the template fits here too.
└ Isn’t this all just bullshit anyway?
└ The president running off after saying he’d spend the money is standard small-company behavior.
So....
What exactly were they going to do with the 1 billion won now?
Why say they’d use it if nothing had changed?
That was the question.
And it was a perfectly reasonable one, too.
Up to this point, the actual shape of “what the ABCD members had spent a year preparing” still hadn’t been revealed at all. Aside from a slight rise in stream viewers thanks to Bigman, nothing had changed.
The community users guessed.
- Maybe they already ran off with the money?
- What if they’re frantically preparing 3D models now?
While those rampant guesses flew around, a new notice went up on the channel of one of ABCD’s members: Berry.
Broadcast Notice
Hello!!! This is Berry, the chatty one from ABCD!!! Today at 5 PM, I’ll be doing an offline collaboration with the ABCD members on my channel~!!! We’re planning to talk about everything that’s happened so far, along with lots of other news, so please watch and show us some love~~~!!!
The notice spread fast.
Even people who had no particular interest in ABCD itself became curious. From the words “everything that’s happened so far,” they guessed they might finally learn something about the company’s internal situation.
- Could this be follow-up news on the 1 billion won incident?
- Hmm, but an underground group collab? That’s a little much.
- A collab not long after debut?
- I’ll believe it if Bigman shows up and does a strip show.
- That’s so gay....
- Fact)) Surprisingly, this group has only been active for one year, and they’re the same debut generation as the second-wave members of Romantic Drive.
└ They debuted at the same time and still get treated like rookies lol.
└ T-to be fair, comparing them to groups averaging around 200,000 subscribers against people barely over a few hundred is kind of rude.
└ What are you even talking about, you VTuber idiot....
*
I was doing yoga at home.
I’d spread a yoga mat across the narrow floor of my studio apartment, sat down comfortably in nothing but my briefs, and followed the voice coming from my phone.
- The foundation of yoga is breathing. Focus on your breath. Inhale, and I’ll count from one to ten. Now, huff—!
“Huff...!”
- One, two, three... good. Now exhale slowly.
“Hoo....”
- Good. Then kneel down, extend your right leg back comfortably.... Twist your waist fully and adjust your hips. Keep breathing.
I knelt and stretched one leg back.
Then the muscles that had been bunched up twitched.
Tremble...!
That was the average body of a modern person who didn’t exercise.
“....”
Whenever I went back to the beginning of a cycle,
I couldn’t help feeling a sense of mismatch in moments like this.
If I’d known my body would fall apart this fast after the cycles where I got massages or took up exercise as a hobby, I should’ve at least gone to the gym before regression started.
But there was nothing to be done. My lazy body, Seonwoo Taek’s lazy body, was a risk I’d have to keep carrying forever.
The best I could do was simple bodyweight stretching like this.
“Hoo.”
- Good work. I hope all our subscribers have healthy days too....
I shut off the video on my phone. Then I saw the notification at the top of the screen: a community notice from one of the ABCD members I’d subscribed to.
It said they were doing a group offline collab this evening.
...A collab? Is Aki-chan in there too?
Still sitting there in my briefs, I scratched at the sole of my foot.
...
A woman whose pronunciation leaked all over the place.
A person who stayed with the company even after receiving 1 billion won.
A VTuber idiot who said she wanted to be an idol.
And.
The VTuber who had treated Bigman as a regular fan first.
...
I would be able to indirectly hear how she was doing.
Hm....
But if it was a collab,
the donations would only go to the host.
Are they all gathering on Berry’s channel? ...Well, I’m sure they know what they’re doing.
I liked the notice and turned off my phone. Then I put my clothes on and made up my mind.
Tonight, I should probably grab some alleyway dakgangjeong.
Even with 6.7 billion won in assets,
I still looked forward to the ten-thousand-won dakgangjeong from the back streets.
A little later.
I’d bought the dakgangjeong.
The moment I got back to my studio, I pulled a bottle of imported beer out of the fridge that I’d bought from a convenience store. After setting them up in front of my computer desk, I got ready to watch the stream.
“There we go.”
I kicked the computer awake with my big toe.
And the instant I entered the channel from my bookmarks,
“Oh.”
Was it because of the follow-up bait they’d thrown out in the notice? More people were in there than the combined average live viewers of all four members.
I quietly entered the room,
and was about to begin my regular ritual.
Namely, tossing in 2.5 million won.
Click—
“...?”
But I couldn’t.
What appeared after I entered was
a golden trophy drawn like crudely as possible in Paint by someone’s clumsy hand. Beneath it, in crooked writing that looked like it had been scrawled with a mouse, was the number “1 billion.”
That shabby trophy floated around on the screen.
The listeners saw it and prayed.
Like some primitive tribe bowing to a totem.
- Bigmen....
- Bigmen
- BM
- BM
- Bigmen
...
...
...
“?”
I was flustered by the bizarre scene.
This was...
what on earth...?
With that absurd trophy at the center,
the four members were introducing themselves.
*
The yellow side-tail, Aki-chan, spoke first.
“A star in your heart! I’m Aki-chan, an idol trainee!”
Next came Berry in a pink frilled dress.
“Ready to roll? I’m Berry, the chatty one who loves having fun together!”
The next turn belonged to Clara, with a ribbon tied into her scarlet hair.
“Together for shining moments! I’m Clara, the shining girl!”
The last was the youngest, DoDa, with silver-blue hair.
“To-ck, tock, tock. Login complete in your heart, I’m gamer DoDa.”
For the first time since the 1 billion won incident, the ABCD members were collabing together, and they shouted in unison.
[Running toward the light! We are ABCD—!]
The first to react were the tiny handful of hardcore fans who had been cheering for the once-doomed group.
- Holy crap, this is the first time I’ve seen them all together.
- Hearing the group greeting... for the first time in four months...!
- Tears are blocking my vision.
- This is all thanks to Bigman’s grace.
- So that’s why they’ve got the 1 billion won trophy displayed? lol
As if the 1 billion won trophy didn’t even exist.
The members began talking in calm voices.
Clara was the first to speak.
“Hello—! First, for those of you here for the first time, let me introduce team ABCD. We’re a VTuber idol group under Aurora Prism Entertainment, and more specifically, a group that especially aims for 3D performances!”
As expected, mockery immediately followed Clara’s words.
- A company group on the brink of collapse lol.
- 3D performances (none).
- There’s literally nothing here lol.
Clara ignored it and continued.
“For various reasons, things have been somewhat difficult so far... but we’re scheduled to receive our 3D models within the week. And our goal is to hold the mini live we’ve been preparing for since a year ago as soon as possible.”
- ???
- Huh??
- Straight to live??
- What? You’ve already prepared that much??
“Yes... it was only delayed a little due to ‘various reasons.’ We’d already gone far beyond the planning stage for several kinds of content from the beginning. The reason it could finally happen this time is....”
Clara didn’t finish the sentence. Instead, she quietly looked toward the trophy. The other members also silently looked at the trophy.
“....”
“....”
“....”
...Nudge.
With that single look, everyone could figure out the last stretch of the story.
- Ah, lol. So Bigman’s 1 billion probably paid off the debt they were buried under?
- They had the contents, but no money to actually take them out, huh lol.
- Is this all thanks to Bigman? lol
- Bigmen...!
Ah, how could we ever forget that grace?
Bigmen—!
A short prayer break passed.
The one who spoke again was Berry.
“Our members all had completely different broadcast directions we’d planned, and each of us had a strong individual style...! But because of ‘various reasons,’ things were a little tough. This time, though, we used the chance to reorganize everything and cleanly refine the content planning. Before long, we’ll be able to show you much more fun broadcasts!”
- Honestly, Berry’s mic noise is gone. It used to make that constant whooshing sound, like wind in your ear.
- Isn’t that a perk?
- So now they’re all doing full-time streaming only?
“Oh, so you liked my wind sounds? I’ll keep that in mind for future content! And as for the equipment... yes! We had a lot of good things happen this time, so each member’s broadcast gear improved a lot. Of course, the reason is....”
Berry quietly looked at the 1 billion won trophy. The other members also quietly looked at the trophy.
“....”
“....”
“....”
- lololololol
- This is fucking hilarious lol.
- Damn it, I trusted Bigman—!
- What kind of religious ritual is this? lol
A moment later.
Berry gave an “ah, right” sound and continued.
“...Ah! And I can’t tell you the details, but each of us is still doing a little bit of our own work on the side! Nothing got ripped away from us or anything, we just invested a lot into stream equipment. Still, that did reduce our free time a lot.”
It was a brutally realistic answer.
- Once you run 1 billion won through a company, it melts fast...
- Whoa, even if they’ve been getting nearly 2.5 million won every day for a week?
- I mean, with company splits and equipment costs, I guess it’d be hard to live off that forever.
Instead of being mocked,
the comments were oddly sympathetic.
With a relieved sigh, Berry kept rambling.
“Yes, especially Aki. She even put in her own money for the project...!”
“Berry unnie!”
“?!”
At Aki-chan’s interruption,
Berry shut her mouth.
But it wasn’t hard to infer the context.
- ?
- What?
- She added her own money too?
- Holy exploitation;
- Wait, then is Aki-chan just empty-handed?
Aki-chan hurriedly said,
“No! Not completely empty-handed... it’s just that I can’t talk about the detailed internal rules. I’m really not empty-handed! They paid me properly according to the rules! I just wanted the team to grow well... and the company has also been giving us lessons again and all kinds of things. Um, I’m really happy!”
As she said that,
Aki-chan looked at the trophy.
“....”
Everyone prayed together.
- Bigmen
- Bigmen
- BM
- BM
...
...
...
As if answering the prayer,
Bigman’s signature donation flew in near the end of the broadcast.
*
I was about to leave the broadcast with satisfaction.
So in the end, they reinvested it back into their work like idiots...
Then I’d just have to keep showering them with support.
That was what I thought.
At that moment.
A one-on-one chat came flying in from Berry.
I hesitated for a moment.
It was sudden, and I was thrown off by how directly she’d approached me.
...
But I had no reason to refuse.
They weren’t as close to me as Dr. Jang, the old man at the park.
In the end, I replied to her message.
[ABCD_Berry: Huh?]
And a little later.
One-on-one chats came flying in from the other members too.
Berry must have hurriedly relayed something.
The last to come was Aki.
It seemed she was late because she was writing something long.
“....”
I only said that much and ended the chat. Then I called the head of the Live Future operations team.
“Yes, it’s me. About the one-on-one chat feature, please delete it from my account from now on. I don’t think I’ll need to use it anymore.”
And then I hung up.