I Want to Become a Whale for Big Man! - 1
Live Now: Gamer DoDa Regular Broadcast - We’re Playing a Stair-Climbing Game
DoDa’s weekday streams were quiet.
Unlike the older girls, who mostly did chat and singing streams, hers was game-focused, just as she’d introduced herself. That made the atmosphere in her broadcast unusually calm.
Silver-blue hair.
The girl, who looked as if she were living with only half her eyelids raised, spoke in an even tone.
“Tock-tock, login complete in my heart. I’m Gamer DoDa.”
Bigman has donated 2.5 million won!
“Oh. Thank you. He’s dropping blessings right on cue again. For the 2.5 million won reaction, DoDa will shake her head five times and call it a day.”
DoDa’s eyes, half-lidded until the moment Bigman’s 2.5 million won donation came in, snapped wide open. Then she shook her head five times. Compared with the other members, the reaction was almost offensively plain.
Shake.
Shake.
Shake.
Shake.
Shake.
It wasn’t that she felt ungrateful.
It was just that DoDa was a weird kid to begin with.
“...Thank you.”
The viewers looked on with equal parts calm and surprise.
They weren’t really used to it, exactly. They were just those kinds of people.
DoDa said, “Then let’s pray once and boot up the game.”
The VTuber, her viewers... and DoDa’s fandom, the Dodari, all prayed toward Bigman without a word.
“Bigman....”
...
...
...
DoDa lifted her head and said, “Then I guess it’s time to go suffer in a trash game again.”
When a competition-game season ended, she liked to play the trash games other streams talked about. As long as the controls were awful, the graphics were ugly, and the difficulty was brutal, she was satisfied.
...Mostly the viewers were the ones satisfied.
One hour later.
DoDa let out a sigh.
“Hah. Haaaaah... Haaaaaah....”
The game’s protagonist, a running man, tumbled down the stairs and returned to the section from forty-five minutes earlier. It was a viciously difficult game where you had to control every joint, leg, and foot with the keyboard.
“...”
DoDa hammered the keyboard and let out a miserable little voice.
Tap!
Tap!
“Ah, ahhh... ahhhh....”
Flat, but unmistakably trembling.
There was anger hidden beneath that youthful voice.
DoDa’s fandom hated over-the-top reactions. They preferred watching the process, the slow collapse of her deadpan composure. It was, frankly, vicious.
“...Hoo. Can’t I just play something else?”
At the pranksters’ teasing, DoDa let out another long sigh and resumed controlling the running man.
“Ah, seriously, my feet and knees and everything have to move... This is garbage. Honestly.”
The running man trembled all over and somehow managed to drag himself up the stairs one by one. By now, after adapting for dozens of minutes, it was a little easier than before.
Two hours later.
The running man lost his balance, slowly collapsed, and rolled backward.
Roll—
Back to the start point.
Now DoDa had begun to pant.
“Hahh, huff... huff....”
DoDa said in a trembling voice, “Please forgive me-nyang....”
If she wanted to give up, the room’s rule was to end the sentence with the catlike -nyang.
But the viewers did not grant mercy.
One sympathetic Dodari spoke up.
“Ah, I can’t, because I don’t have a console... nyang. And graphics cards have gotten way too expensive... nyang.”
“Blessing? The blessing... has its own settlement date, nyang. Unless it’s a special case like Aki-chan, you have to wait a bit, nyang.”
“Nyang nyang.... Actually, confession time. Aki-chan’s and DoDa’s phones are both broken, so we can’t even play mobile games. The company’s editing computer died too, and the VR gear has just been sitting there while everyone keeps saying it’d be nice to set it up. They said they’d handle it after the 3D debut... nyang.”
Bigman: Understood.
DoDa’s silver-blue eyes trembled back and forth.
“...Nyang?”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The next afternoon.
The youngest member of ABCD, Kang Do-dam, couldn’t believe her eyes the moment she arrived at the company. A huge truck was parked in front of Aurora Prism Entertainment’s office.
“!”
Delivery staff moved back and forth, hauling boxes.
“Boss! Where should we put the ten gaming consoles?”
“Ah, those are for our staff to take later.... Just leave four of them by the entrance for now.”
“Boss, should we set the three editing PC towers out in front of the office?”
“What? Uh... what?! One of those costs ten million won, and you bought three—?! What about the taxes?”
“Oh, the delivery side handled the tax issue all at once. The tax invoice has already been issued too. The full amount was paid during the ordering process. We’re just moving them.”
“Wha...?”
Kang Do-dam broke out in goosebumps.
“No way.”
One line from yesterday flashed through her mind.
Bigman: Understood.
“...”
She swallowed hard.
Because there were so many outsiders coming and going, she waited outside until manager Go Min-young contacted her.
Several dozen minutes later.
In front of Kang Do-dam’s returning gaze...
She saw boxes piled up like a solid fortress wall. They were all electronics boxes, worth anywhere from several hundred thousand won to several million won apiece.
Gaming consoles, VR gear, high-end computers, the latest tablets and phones... apples and galaxies everywhere....
Representative Baek Su-cheol was happily taking photos of the box fortress. It was obvious whose doing it was, so he was praising it with great enthusiasm.
“...”
All she’d done was complain a little.
And yet 300 million won worth of electronics had arrived.
Kang Do-dam’s head spun. All she could do was mutter weakly, “Big, Bigmaen—.”
Manager Go Min-young said to the staggering Do-dam, “Do-dam! Come here and pick up yours. Except for the boxes marked as shared, everything else was in the boxes labeled ‘member-exclusive.’”
“Y-yes?”
“Let’s see... two latest-model smartphones, one tablet, one laptop, one gaming console, and one VR device. You can each take one set like that.”
“Whaaaaaat...?! ”
“Is it too heavy? Then do you want to look at only what you’re taking right now?”
“Nya—?! Nyaaa, nyang—?!”
“Nyang...?”
Go Min-young tilted her head and dragged one box in front of Kang Do-dam. It was heavy, packed with several electronics.
When she opened it, the items she’d just mentioned were really inside.
One gaming console.
One laptop.
One VR device.
One tablet PC.
Two smartphones, one of each brand.
“...”
The wildest part was that he’d prepared phones from both Apple and Galaxy because he didn’t know which they preferred. That strangely meticulous consideration pushed Kang Do-dam straight into terror.
God does not know the human heart.
Humans can only look upon a god and worship.
Kang Do-dam dropped to her knees.
Thud...
Go Min-young was startled to see her like that.
“D-Do-dam...?”
“...”
Kang Do-dam raised her arms where she stood.
Then, in a low voice, she said, “Bigman...!”
In all twenty-one years of her life, she had never seen so many Apples and Galaxies.
It was the universe itself.
“Bigman—!”
That day, Kang Do-dam, not DoDa, became one of Bigman’s believers.
She came to revere him fervently in her heart.
Oh, God,
by your will.
I shall make streaming my life’s work...!
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
A studio apartment in Sinchon.
ABCD’s dorm room was packed with boxes. It took three round trips in Go Min-young’s car before they finally managed to move everything in.
“Oh dear... this is exhausting. It took three hours because it overlapped with the end of the workday too.”
“Thank you for your hard work....”
Clara, the eldest of ABCD, was Choi Ye-seo.
She held one of the latest smartphone boxes and, with a trembling voice, asked Kang Do-dam, “...They just gave this away?”
“Yeah.”
“I mean... because they heard you complain on your stream?”
“Yeah.”
“Seriously? Under the name ‘Bigman’? Not as a corporate sponsor or partnership?”
Kang Do-dam, with a VR headset on her head, answered without hesitation. She looked like a fanatic from a fantasy game.
“A sponsor for our company? There’s only Bigman-nim. Even if he doesn’t reveal his name, it’s an indisputable fact.”
“...”
No one does this for us except Bigman-nim.
One sentence was enough to defeat her.
In the end, Choi Ye-seo accepted reality.
“Is he really... really some kind of oil tycoon?”
Kim Ae-ri smiled bitterly. “Would there even be an oil tycoon in Korea?”
“...Right.”
“Anyway, this is really amazing. The smartphones aren’t just a matter of taste either; we can split them between work use and private use. Unnie, can I post this on the channel SNS?”
“Hmm, what would you say?”
“He didn’t reveal Bigman’s name, so it arrived anonymously.... I could just post something vague like, ‘Received this kind of gift well. Thank you so much.’ Then people would probably figure it out on their own.”
“...”
Choi Ye-seo thought about it for a long time, then nodded. It was a decision made only after checking several times that there were no legal issues.
“Then let’s do that.”
“What about A-yeong? Want to post with me?”
“...”
“A-yeong?”
Kim Ae-ri looked at Aki.
“...”
Aki was hugging her gift box tightly. With her eyes closed, she whispered little by little, and tears were starting to gather in them.
“Thank, you. Thank you, truly....”
“...”
“...”
“...”
It wasn’t just because the gifts were expensive.
It wasn’t just because they were things she needed.
It was something else entirely.
Someone was continuing to watch over her.
For orphaned Aki, aside from the mother who adopted her, this was the first time anyone had made her feel that way.
That was why she cried.
Choi Ye-seo and Kim Ae-ri couldn’t bring themselves to disturb that feeling.
“...”
“...”
Only Kang Do-dam, who understood that feeling, gave a bitter smile and hugged Aki. She patted her back and said, “Aki, we need to stream now. The equipment’s gotten way better, so let’s make the broadcast even more fun.”
“Yeah.”
“Go blow your nose in the bathroom and post your phone bragging on SNS.”
“...Yeah!”
Only then did Aki grin brightly.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“Ah, yes. You got it delivered properly? Good. Thank you for your hard work. No, it’s fine. You really did a lot. Then....”
I hung up the phone.
Now I was going to turn the computer back on and watch ABCD’s streams with their upgraded gear.
And as always....
Should I start with the regular ritual?
The moment the stream began, I was about to throw 2.5 million won.
The payment was canceled.
“?”
The payment was canceled.
“...?”
I tilted my head and studied the payment window more closely. An extra line of guidance had been added there, more than usual.
Daily donation limit: 500,000 won / Weekly donation limit: 2.5 million won
“Hmm...?”
What was this?
Why were they suddenly copying a major platform...?
I called the Live Future operations team leader.
Then, in a troubled voice, he answered.
“I’m sorry. Recently, too many people have been trying to imitate Bigman’s donation style. We received a correction request from a government agency, so we’ll probably have to keep this in place for at least a few months.”
“...”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇