231 - Artireal's Design Factory, the Avatar Company with a Racism Problem
"Is this really what came out of semi-automatic avatar generation?"
A dwarf-like middle-aged man fiddled with the mouse, rotating my World of Arceria avatar model as he gave his critique.
"Semi-automatic avatar" refers to tech that detects the user's brainwaves and reflects their personal tastes. Back when I first created my World of Arceria account, a silver-haired saintess named Silvia Alpenheim popped out, leaving me pretty flustered.
"Is that such a big deal?"
"Of course it is! Kid, you hit the jackpot—like winning the lottery."
There are "fully automatic" methods where the avatar AI handles everything from the start at 100%. Then "manual" ones, like homebrew crafting or outsourcing to humans who tweak settings directly. In contrast, "semi-automatic" is infamous for spitting out crude results, forcing you to pour in insane amounts of time or trust your own aesthetic sense.
"Nailing the exact look of a human is something only a select few chosen ones can pull off. For example, can someone imagine a pretty hand and try generating it semi-automatically?"
Yoonseul stepped up as the volunteer, attaching the brainwave electrode to her forehead for the experiment. And sure enough, a skeletal clump popped up on the screen.
"That's the classic mistake normals make—they think 'pretty hand' means long, slender fingers. The AI reflects that literally, and boom, skeleton hand."
I got the gist. Without specific knowledge of human anatomy, the AI interprets honestly, leading to these grotesque outcomes. That's why pre-studying your desired model is essential for semi-auto generation.
"But this model is too original. Samuel, do you know any celeb or actor who looks like that?"
"Not in Hollywood, at least."
"Then she beat insane odds to generate it. What a letdown—no secret trick after all."
"Must be nice. Kid, think of it as making at least 100 million won off one click."
They were appraising my old body like it was merchandise, which made me deeply uncomfortable, but I couldn't think of any grounds to protest, so I kept my mouth shut.
"So, a safari animal concept VTuber avatar, and next... what was it?"
"Adella."
"Adella?"
"Yes. Adella from World of Arceria. Please approve her VTuber debut."
"Please, please approve it! We're begging you!"
Yoonseul bowed her head beside me, looking ready to drop to her knees. And then she actually did.
Was unnie's knee that light?Shh, quiet!
And wasn't that a dogeza, not a bow? Now it felt like we were at some formal marriage meeting.
"Adella? That's the character they deleted from World of Arceria."
"She was deleted from World of Arceria, yes. But Adella is still active in VR."
I pulled out the pre-prepared hologram projector.
Scan complete.
Hologram projecting aligned to the coordinate system. Please do not move the device.
While heading from the hotel to Artireal, I'd had Adella wait in a private room. The full view of the private room lit up, revealing a figure with twitching cat ears.
Adella glanced around, looking a bit tense.
Just do it like we practiced.
We all mouthed encouragement to Adella in unison.
"Ahem. Hello, everyone at Artireal. I'm Adella, the cat of dawn. It was quite the ordeal getting here. At first, I was just a character in the game—"
"Hold on, hold on, hold on!"
The man suddenly cut her off.
We're screwed.What went wrong?What do we do? She forgot her next line!
The ominous vibe didn't last long. He glanced at Adella and said,
"Her translation magic isn't working? I only caught the 'hello'—nothing else."
"Ah...! Right, Adella's been in VR."
Born from German design, implanted with British software, and raised by American hands—this chimeric cat hybrid unfortunately...
"Uh, guten tag, everybody? Is that right? Hehe... hehe..."
...had a Korean language patch.
With the language issue resolved, Kariri and Adella were busy discussing avatar designs with the Artireal staff.
While Gu On-yu, the principal, stepped out to the Frankfurt General Consulate, she handed me a "lost child prevention sticker." What a tacky thing.
Left behind with Danielle, we returned to the quiet alley off Römer Square—where we'd been pickpocketed yesterday—and idly fed the pigeons.
"Do cats live in the savanna too?"
"I asked the boss lady yesterday, and she said we could just pass Adella off as a Savannah cat."
"That was a joke, though... Oh, right, Niel unnie—Savannah cats are brown, aren't they?"
"I looked it up, and there are gray ones too."
"Oh, for real?"
"And the animal you have in mind is probably a serval. Savannah cats are a cross between servals and Siamese cats."
"So Savannah cats don't live in the savanna?"
"Probably not?"
Ecosystems are profound. So many animals I don't know about.
"Did you sleep well last night, Nami?"
"Sharing a bed alone with the principal? Of course not."
"Same here, honestly."
Principal and student, boss and employee—neither is a comfy dynamic.
While Principal Gu On-yu and I chatted about academy life yesterday, the others had a deep discussion on future plans, she told me.
"Did Yoonseul unnie give you any VTuber advice?"
"That's the problem, Nami. The boss lady didn't tell me anything. She just said to show my true self on stream."
That's weird. The character Kariri that Seol Yoonseul plays is pretty much the polar opposite. Giving that advice to Danielle instead was unexpected.
"She must have her reasons."
"What do I do? Is it too late to back out now?"
"Unnie covered your flight ticket too."
"Hng... kkh... I'm doomed..."
She'd already crossed the point of no return. The path to VTuber corruption.
"No one nails it from the start. You gotta go through failures—"
"The boss said if I fail, she'll hire me as a maid."
"You absolutely can't fail then."
I couldn't even imagine what they talked about. Danielle had such striking looks that VTubing felt like a waste—she was hiding one asset, so finding appeal elsewhere was key. But even introverted Yoonseul turns ultra-extroverted on camera. Judging personalities is tricky.
A text from Yoonseul chimed in.
"Unnie's VTuber outfit is set."
"What animal?"
"Ever heard of a black mamba?"
"Black ma...?"
"World's second-longest venomous snake after the king cobra."
"Wh-what?! How am I supposed to act that out?!"
Mountains beyond mountains. It wasn't my issue, so I stifled a laugh.
"Don't laugh... This is serious..."
"Cute but deadly concept? Something like that?"
"I don't know. Don't know, don't know, don't know."
"Oh, it's perfect for you right now, Niel unnie. Kinda suits you? Confidence is key in streaming, after all."
"Confidence?"
"Yeah. The confidence to captivate the masses. The confidence to ban annoying viewers. The confidence to miss a stream slot once in a while."
"Pfft, what?!"
"Just a figure of speech."
The pigeons scarfed up every crumb we'd shared and flapped off into the sky. I thought they didn't know gratitude, ditching us once the food ran out—but that wasn't it.
"Hey yo! Ni hao!"
Four burly men approached us. All in black tank tops, flashing inscrutable smirks and cocky poses.
"Die Chinesen sind wirklich überall." (Chinese are really everywhere.)
"Ching chong! Ching chong chang!"
And they even pulled their eyes wide with their fingers in threat.
"Nami, let's ignore them quietly and go... They look dangerous."
Danielle grabbed my hand, head down, trying to slip through the crowd. But the men kept blocking our path, laughing boisterously.
"You mother? Ah no? Where is mama?"
"Vielleicht ist er bereits krank und gestorben!" (Maybe he's already sick and croaked!)
"Hahahahaha!"
"Cough cough! Corona! Corona!"
I'd endured enough. I shook off the man tugging my sleeve and said,
"Hau ab, bevor ich deine Eltern töte und sie in Sauerkraut verwandle." (Get lost before I kill your parents and turn them into sauerkraut.)
"...?"
"Huh?"
They hadn't expected me to understand and speak German—they all went speechless. As their faces hardened and they closed in seriously, Danielle whispered in my ear,
"Nami, what did you just say to them...?"
"I said we have to go eat sauerkraut, so move aside."
"Y-you sure? They look like they took it totally different..."
So what if they did?
"Confidence to stand up to racism is basic VTuber素养 too—watch closely."
Can't use magic here? Aura works instead. How many independence fighters shouted "Long live Korea" with just a wisp of aura in barren lands without magic?
Time to channel their spirit. Even if in my past life I was part of imperialism, as Shin Chae-ho said, there's an "ah" in "via"—even outsiders resisting unjust violence and oppression would understand my side.
But my body is still weak. Even a blue-eyed nineteen-year-old Ban So-wol could overpower me, so I was ready to pull Chemsit if needed.
Golden aura exploded in a vortex, gathering in my right arm. Up close, these guys were dangerous too—they handled aura well. Snake tattoos covering their arms had mana flowing orderly like magic circuits etched right into their skin.
No mercy then.
"Sorry? Nami, they just said sorry—"
"If sorry fixed it, why have laws or fists?!"
Should've just killed that pickpocket then too. Aura barriers my ass. Particles this, particles that. Modern duels are all rotten. In reality, the only reliable barrier is your own aura.
And with this much charged, no turning back.
All Stats +100%
Kaizen-Style Uppercut
"Scheiße, we're screwed!"
Macky, the German TikToker running under the channel "Justice Macky," faced the biggest crisis of his streaming career.
The plot—hired actors threatening weak civilians, then Macky swooping in as the hero—always drew huge views. It tapped into hero worship and vicarious thrills.
But "prank" content labeled as such overseas always needed caution. Mess with the wrong person, actors get hurt, cops get called—not once or twice for him.
Once he gained fame and cash, he hired actual skilled bodyguards as actors.
"How the hell..."
The scene was a nightmare. The biggest guy, 2 meters tall, took a solar plexus hit and flew back into the opposite wall, out cold.
The others tried restraining the rampaging girl, only to eat fists to the face, noses gushing blood as they crumpled.
Macky learned noses could bleed that much. A barely conscious man helped staunch his buddy's flow, but the stone pavement was soaked in dark red.
If she'd been from a powerful politician family or an aura martial artist, he'd have bolted. But four grown men downed by a girl too young for a car seat? Unbelievable.
The golden aura's purple electric sparks began fading.
To avoid passersby, the cameraman waiting 100 meters away rushed over then.
"Macky! What the hell happened?! You pulling a reverse prank on me?!"
"Ambulance."
"What?"
"Shut up and call a damn ambulance, you bastard! They're dying!"
Abandoning the guards and approaching the scary girl weren't options. Macky gnawed his nails in despair.
The girl exchanged words with the fallen man, scanned around, and spotted Macky.
He cursed inwardly.
Why come here...! Stay away!
Up close, the Asian girl looked even younger than he'd thought. With each step nearer, her apparent age dropped a year. He bit his lip hard without realizing.
11? 10? No, even 8-year-olds aren't that small...!
Finally stopping right in front, she barely reached his waist.
She fluently activated translation magic on her phone and spoke.
"Let's go to the station together. I know the chief there. Though we haven't hit restaurants or saunas yet."
This wasn't just wrong—it was catastrophically so.