Welcome to My Arcade - 4
<Live: The first apostle of "God" shall stand in the sky.>
Concurrent viewers: 1,266
The broadcast had begun.
It was the sort of stream you could find anywhere, the kind run by a small VTuber agency with fifty thousand subscribers. But today’s stream was different. There was no cheerful background music, no bouncy backdrop.
Only silence and darkness.
An endless black screen.
And at the center of it, a girl with short blue hair.
True gamer.
ABCD’s prankster.
A beauty who had everything except the chest to match.
DoDa said solemnly, “A VTuber is modeled after the viewer. A god is modeled after the VTuber.”
-?
-What kind of opening line is that, lol
-??
-Why is she like this?
-That intro is extraordinary
The stream had opened with a line that came completely out of nowhere.
As always, DoDa didn’t bother with greetings or anything as limp as that. She covered her face nobly with one palm and set the other hand on her hip. It was an absurd pose, to put it mildly.
The Doda-dori were flustered.
-Who showed her a weird anime, lol
-DoDa-chan, get a grip!
-Why is our glue stick acting like this today....
-Dodadadada
-Heh, this gimmick is hot
-You keep tormenting her, so of course the poor girl’s broken lololol
“There’s no need to be surprised. I was merely offering a greeting.”
-What is she even saying, lol
-Has she switched to a menhera route? lol That overlaps with Berry though
-Ha, seriously lol
-What even is this, lol
-Wait, hold on, lol
...
...
...
Leaving the Doda-dori in a state of confusion behind her, DoDa kept spouting nonsense.
“Don’t use weak words. Do they make you look strong?”
The whole thing had the air of a sulking adolescent boy unlocking forbidden power from his right hand after going dark. So the Doda-dori could only sigh and conclude that this idiot had finally fried her brain on nothing but trash games.
“Trash games exist for the sake of those who cannot survive without clinging to them.”
-Sorry, I’m really sorry T_T
-I’ll stop making you do trash games, so come back....
-Maybe that staircase-climbing game challenge really was too much....
-Ah?! DoDa’s broken.... She really has been running on this for a while~
-Why is my heart doing this, lol
-I’ve never seen her drag it out this badly, lol
DoDa held firm.
“Now, shall we go? To the foothills of the god-tier game.”
And she clicked the mouse.
Click—!
With that, a small mini-map appeared on the black screen. It looked almost like a section of Seoul had been lifted whole and set there.
-??
-What kind of game map is this?
-Isn’t that just a portal map site?
-Isn’t that Hongdae? lol?
-Wait, so it wasn’t a game, it was reality? lolol
-Game(real life) lol
-Holy crap, the red pill... damn.
-That was the scariest red pill of them all;
-I’m sleeping with my mom tonight....
Separate from the Doda-dori’s terror, DoDa rolled the mouse and began her explanation. The shift back to her normal voice was a bonus, since the concept voice wasn’t suited to conveying actual information.
Rrrrk.
Rrrrk.
“Here. See the place marked on the mini-map? If you go down the alley, the arcade’s right there. Come hang out together.”
-Uuu... BuBui... I’m not an extrovert, I don’t know that
“Don’t worry, niieun-niieun. It’s a newly renovated place, and it’s the kingdom of introverts. Even the coin exchange and the drinks are fully automated. For the record, I talked it over with the owner and we’re doing a collaboration.”
-A collab?
“So this weekend I’m doing a relay broadcast there. If you want to come, come by and play a round with DoDa. Since it’s a remote connection, there’s no need to worry about the red pill, niieun.”
-A relay broadcast???
Information poured out in one rush.
For a moment, silence fell.
The Doda-dori were stunned. Then they exploded into reaction.
-What? For real?
-Seriously?
-Wait, what the hell, lololol, what are you talking about from earlier to now, lololol
-You actually rented an arcade?
-Whoa!! We’re getting a real-life event!!
-Wow, you really did spend some money this time
-How long has it even been since they escaped small-company status, lol
“Niieun-niieun, it wasn’t rented. It’s a collaboration.”
-Lol, that’s the same thing, isn’t it?
-Wow, they’re really doing an in-person collab;
-You can get there just by taking the subway, huh. Should I go? lol
-Wow, this’ll be fun, lol
-What are the hours?
“Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I’m thinking evenings. Once you get inside, everything will be posted. Everyone who participates will also get a fat stack of beauty idol photocard merch.”
-Oh lol, Aki-chan goods
“That bastard is banned. Obviously it’s DoDa merch.”
-She’s calling her own merch fat, lol
-Where’s the conscience?
-But were there Korean VTubers doing stuff like this?
-Romantic Drive had, what, a cafe concept? They did some interactive stuff, yeah.
-Still, we’ve got an arcade, lol
-For real, this is the superior version
-They really just dropped a huge event out of nowhere, lol
-Isn’t this basically corporate-level?
-Sob... they only have fifty thousand subscribers, but their spending is corporate-level
-Seriously, these guys are going to be big, yeah
...
...
...
An in-person collaboration, of all things!
For a company like ABCD, with only a few tens of thousands of subscribers and still just taking its first steps, it was an audacious event. And it wasn’t even a simple joint stream; it was something closer to venue sponsorship.
A participation event that had started so suddenly, made for the viewers.
The Doda-dori began looking forward to it. And once those who had gone on advance scouting trips started reporting back, their anticipation swelled even further.
-Whoa, isn’t that place newly opened?
-How did you line up a collab this fast, lol
-And the arcade’s even called “D Gamers,” lol
-Was it booked to match the alphabet theme?
-Doda-kun really has taste.... That sense is good, though....
-Sex?
-Would you get hard looking at a washboard too?
And the ones full of anticipation weren’t just the Doda-dori. The organizer of this event, ABCD’s company, Aurora Prism Entertainment, was excited too.
*
Aurora Prism Entertainment.
Some people called it “OF Ent” for short, or just “Aurora.” The company was busy. The employees each had a phone pressed to one ear while handling their assigned work.
-Is the banner for the arcade ready?
-I’ll check the interior cleanup staff once more.
-Please confirm whether there’s any broadcast delay on the field display.
They were intensely motivated.
And that motivation came from the “support funds” sent by some sponsor foundation. Support funds generous enough to replace every employee’s phone and every in-house computer with the latest models and still have money left over.
“Hahaha! So this is what my rotten luck was saving itself for!”
Representative Baek Su-cheol grinned from ear to ear.
Surviving the terrifying financial crisis that had hit earlier this year, thanks to Aki’s efforts, had already been a major event. But now even greater good fortune was waiting.
The first piece of good fortune was the project started by Aki and DoDam.
The summer live and the arcade event.
For a mid-sized VTuber group, they were projects at a scale that would normally be nothing but a dream. That is, if Aurora’s finances had still been hanging by a thread.
Baek Su-cheol swallowed hard.
“....”
If both of those go well, maybe catching up to Romantic Drive won’t be a dream. The content is built for that kind of buzz.
What’s more, the project costs were being covered by the talents themselves.
By lottery winnings, no less.
Baek Su-cheol muttered blankly, “So the lottery they bought on the way back after eating dinner together actually hit.... I thought there was no way something that ridiculous had happened. And it really was true.”
At first, he had taken it with a grain of salt.
But once the proof was shoved in front of him, he had no choice but to believe it. He had briefly wondered whether he could spin that into the group’s narrative, but in the end he kept it internal, sharing the information only inside the company.
If word gets out that they won the lottery, they could get tangled up with ugly rumors or greasy opportunists.
First, though, he was proud of them.
That much money was enough to buy them the kind of financial freedom where they could simply walk away and live for themselves. But instead, they had come back and reinvested it into the company and their dream.
They had poured their own assets into the names and IP entrusted to the company without hesitation.
Aki and DoDa.
As the CEO, he couldn’t help respecting their choice.
“....”
Which means I have to protect them even if it kills me.
And just as he was about to step forward to seek new support and investment...
The second piece of good fortune arrived.
It was the funding that had flown in from a cultural sponsorship foundation. The conditions were bizarre beyond belief, yet somehow they fit Aurora’s situation with uncanny precision.
1. Companies that have nurtured at least four talents for one year or more in advanced IT cultural creation fields, including metaverse or VR cultural businesses.
2. Companies that can demonstrate one year or more of performance centered on commercially viable content, including music and performances.
3. Unlisted startup companies with an independent decision-making structure.
4. Companies able to submit at least two project proposals of a certain scale (100 million won or more).
5. Companies meeting the above four requirements will receive support worth 600 million won in expenses (200 million won for equipment support / 400 million won for individual content support).
Number one?
It was a VTuber company.
Number two?
ABCD’s activity record proved it.
Number three?
There weren’t many startup companies crazy enough to do something like this.
Number four?
Aki and DoDa had submitted their proposals.
So...
They received 600 million won.
With absurd ease.
As if it had been prepared as a gift.
The support funds were deposited. And with that money, it took less than a day to fix up the company interior and add to the two projects assigned to the girls.
It seemed the backer simply hated complicated, nitpicky procedures.
Baek Su-cheol laughed in disbelief.
“Huhahaha! Well, this is... should I call it big-hearted, or what....”
And then he looked at the business card.
It had been handed to him by a blank-faced agent when he received the support-fund procedure. The agent had passed it to him privately and said:
-This is the business card of our company’s owner. He’s interested in revitalizing the subculture market. He mainly works overseas, but he’ll be establishing a domestic corporation soon and officially expanding his sponsorship business.
The name was one you couldn’t not know if you knew even a little about the VTuber scene.
Because he was the perfect sponsor.
His name was...
“...BigMan.”
BigPlan Holdings
Big Man
An oddly generous contract.
A capitalist hiding his identity.
A business card with no title listed.
A suspiciously young agent.
Every last one of them was suspicious.
And yet, once all that suspicion gathered together, it felt like it turned gray somehow. Like this man was truly just a colossal player moving the market with no agenda at all...
“He’s fucking cool as hell, damn....”
Baek Su-cheol shivered.
He had admired this sort of thing ever since he was young.
But why VTubers...?
*
I was riding a sky bungy in front of the convenience store, thinking. The spring’s periodic squeak settled my mind.
Boing.
Boing.
Boing.
....
If I had to name the one regret from the previous timeline...
There were honestly countless ones.
Still, if I had to pick just one, it was the design of BigMan.
From the start, I hadn’t planned this out long-term, and I didn’t have that much capital to begin with. I was focused only on helping Ms. A-Young, so I missed a lot of things.
For example.
BigMan had ended up feeling like ABCD’s “direct superior.”
Sure, Aurora had seemed to gain a lot of confidence from that solid connection. But if you looked at it from another angle, it gave every other market player outside Aurora the impression that BigMan was an unfair cheat code.
So aside from ABCD and RD, which later joined in, I hadn’t been able to draw much sympathy or response from other VTubers.
BigMan was their own personal god.
....
But this time is different. I drew goodwill from the market as a whole, and beyond that I reduced the sense of alienness to a minimum by infiltrating with something bland and unremarkable.
This was also for A-Young and ABCD’s independence. From here on out, they wouldn’t need to design BigPlan projects just to “prove” themselves to anyone.
BigMan is nothing more than a system that takes money out when the conditions are right...
And one more thing.
For the rapid acquisition of RD, which was bound to be cast aside eventually.
I needed to lower Jeong Yu-ri’s guard. As the one with actual management power over Studio Romance, she was wary of BigMan suddenly appearing out of nowhere and pushing only specific groups.
....
She even managed to uncover part of my identity. And that was using only legal means.
To numb that level of possessive vigilance, simply bringing in a lot of money wouldn’t be enough. I had to make her so busy she wouldn’t have room to even think about RD.
In other words, I had to force a promotion.
I sent an email to Jeong Yu-ri, Team Leader of Investment Strategy Team 2 at Arc Network.
....
Handpicked momentum stocks.
Short-term explosive economic issues.
And all kinds of futures blowing up overseas.
If Team Leader Jeong picks just a few of these, she’ll get noticed by the head of the investment division and be so swamped she won’t have time to breathe.
I pressed the button for the evil little magic trick.
Get busy.
Click—
....
She won’t get suspicious and ignore everything, will she?
With that unease in my chest, a new BigPlan began.