Mazia Is a Famous Momo Stan
The sudden development seemed to worry the boss. That was why I tacked on the surface-level excuse of promoting the first generation. In truth, though, I had one more reason I needed to meet MoovGun even if it meant using that pretext.
‘I finally get to see him.’
I am Momo’s true die-hard fan. A fossil who has watched her streams for a full six years, a living history book. That means even after company work swallowed my time and I half-retired from sniping, I still remembered every detail of how MoovGun and the boss had been playing games together so amicably lately.
Of course, it was true that MoovGun’s ex-pro reputation had given the boss another chance to blow up. Becoming friends for business reasons was understandable. Broadcasters were all like that. Still, though. Wasn’t it a bit much to open up that easily?
Mazia had never once traded casual insults with Do-hee. It felt too close. And I still remembered. All those times he said she would have to live as a loser forever, that someone who wanted to climb ranks had no right to that attitude. Those words… those were mine to say. It was my right to roast the boss. I had been watching since she was a nobody. If you measured by subscriber serial numbers, there was an enormous gap between 369 and 692,333. Who did this salty veteran think he was, acting cocky and not recognizing his senior?
So I had been planning to meet him someday and flatten that nose of his. It was true he was an ex-pro still sitting in upper Master even two years after retiring. It was also true that I was just a Diamond sniper who had never climbed higher. Yet I was confident that even if I couldn’t win the whole game, I could at least land one kill the moment we met in-game.
Close-range brawls that began with smoke grenades and double barrels were unmatched when it came to creating variables. The opponent would have a hard time reacting quickly, and even a pro would inevitably panic once they actually faced me. Just lie down once. I would mock him for being a scrub who gets wiped by Diamonds. Scrub MoovGun, signal-flare MoovGun!
‘…I got a little too excited there.’
Anyway, I had to finish the job the boss assigned first. Whenever MoovGun came up, I couldn’t help myself.
Jia picked one of her rarely used sub-accounts and changed its nickname to “1stGen1stAnnivSongNovember5thRelease.” She deliberately left out “Parallel.” It exactly filled the twelve-character limit, and anyway, everyone would know the moment Mazia appeared.
Up to that point, the preparations had been fairly ordinary. If only Dora had not shown up with new information just three days after the discussion ended.
“Boss, I sent over the rough character sheet. Take a look~”
“Oh, mail’s here. Give me a second.”
What she called a rough was actually a detailed piece already halfway to final—something that would be finished with just another day or two of work.
“You… did you sleep at all?”
“Sleep? I got four hours.”
“Four hours is okay? No, even if you slept four hours… this speed is impossible.”
Dora snorted, looking smug.
“Something just… inspiration kept gushing out. So I ended up drawing without realizing it. Creation is supposed to go bang and then the lightbulb shatters while you go shashashashashack, you know~.”
The explanation was all over the place, but her intention came through clearly. The moment she thought about drawing Mazia’s face, motivation and ideas had flooded in, letting her work at more than double her usual speed.
Had she been that grateful when Jia went to help? When Komari had gone to assist Dora, it had simply ended with a normal late-night snack, so the difference must have felt huge.
“Anyway. Right. Are you sharing the progress with Jia?”
“Nope. I’m planning to show her when it’s finished.”
“What if she doesn’t like it? You know she’s the type to say whatever she thinks without hesitation. Wouldn’t it be better to make revisions while it’s still in progress?”
Dora laughed brightly.
“Well, it’s not like she’ll nitpick and nag for a whole day or two. If she says something, I can just fix it. But I think she’ll like it. I’m confident!”
Do-hee slowly examined the illustration again. The character base was, in fact, Jia herself. Black hair with a blue tint that appeared under light. Strikingly bright blue eyes unusual for a Korean. A blouse and skirt that somehow blended office wear with school uniform, topped with an oversized witch robe and hat, and a cutting-edge mechanical staff fused with rocket engineering slung across her back. An extremely cute little witch who could not hide the explosive mischief in her expression.
A witch. It really was an image that suited Mazia. Not an ordinary witch, either, but a grumpy, cheeky troublemaker.
“Well, even I think she’ll like it.”
“Right?! Also, I worked with rigging in mind. The hat and robe parts are separable. I was worried Jia might say the robe and hat were too much, so I paid extra attention there… And if you look at the next image, I made it possible to emphasize the office-worker side by hanging an employee ID around the neck. I even created a perfectly round pair of manager glasses that suit Jia perfectly, and below that, I made a whopping fifteen different expression sets. Aren’t they all just adorable?”
The detail was absurd, probably because the illustrator had poured her heart into it. The quality was almost on par with the first-generation avatars that had cost over a million and a half won. Unless the rigger was unusually incompetent, people would gasp the moment they saw the model.
Incidentally, requesting fast work from a popular illustrator usually required extra pay. Yet Dora was pumping out drawings at insane speed without any additional fees. If this wasn’t madness, what was?
Sensing something beyond simple fondness for Jia, Do-hee found herself asking before she could stop.
“Dora, did you always like Jia this much…?”
Apparently unaware of Do-hee’s sharpened emotions, Dora let out a bright giggle.
“I have a much younger sister. So, um. When I see someone like Komari or Jia, it’s like… maternal instinct? Maybe not exactly maternal. I just feel this urge to protect them and keep them close.”
“You weren’t like this before.”
“That’s because… I wanted to get close from the first time I saw her. But Jia! Seriously. She just nags all the time—don’t make that sound, don’t do that cute thing. She never acts adorable! How am I supposed to adore her if she won’t let me!”
It was an entirely fair complaint. For nearly a year, Jia had kept an invisible wall between herself and the members. She continued material exchanges but had never once shared emotions with them. That was why, unless the entire first generation gathered at the company or there was filming in the Motion Studio, she never joined any private meetups. Even at company dinners, if Do-hee hadn’t invited her, she probably would have gone home early to watch other VTubers instead of trying to mingle with the kids.
All because of that damn tambourine. If she could rap that well, she could at least join in and sing a song.
‘Well, getting close now is better than never.’
Above all, until now Do-hee and the operations team leader Kang had handled all direct in-person work—including mental care for the affiliated VTubers. As the CEO grew busier, they needed someone to take over. In the middle of that, Jia had stepped up so prominently that Do-hee naturally began considering a position change.
However, for that to happen, Mazia could not remain a mere employee. They needed to acknowledge her contributions so far by raising her rank and salary, then hand monitoring duties to a successor.
How long is she going to stay an employee who handles every odd job? Next year she would be in her fourth year. She was a veteran who had overcome every crisis without a single loud explosion.
“Anyway, don’t stay up all night. You’ll be late again and have to play a horror game.”
“Ack, no more being late!! But I’m definitely finishing this by Monday no matter what. Jia is going on an external broadcast, so even if I can’t finish rigging, I have to at least get the model ready!”
“Won’t it be too hard?”
“There’s the weekend! I can do it!”
Her will was so firm that stopping her seemed impossible.
“All right. Don’t overdo it. Prepare for the broadcast properly too.”
“Yesss~.”
Whether she knew the conversation had been about her or not, the moment the call with Dora ended, Mazia opened the office door and walked in with quick little steps, as if on cue. It was 2:30 p.m. Even if she arrived later than three, overtime was basically guaranteed, so it didn’t matter. Still, her arrival time had been getting earlier every week lately.
And as usual when she came in early, she brewed a capsule coffee and brought it to the president’s office.
“Boss. Morning coffee.”
When she had suggested going to the PC bang together next weekend, the boss had broken into a huge grin and spent the whole day smiling like an idiot.
“It’s already afternoon for me.”
“But it’s morning for me, isn’t it?”
“Sure.”
Do-hee accepted the coffee Jia handed her and took a sip. The usual strength, the usual temperature. Hot enough to warm the tongue but not scald it. Do-hee smiled contentedly.
“If you were to bring in your successor, what kind of person would you want?”
Jia tilted her head.
“A successor? Out of nowhere?”
“Your workload has been increasing lately. I think it’s about time we hired someone under you.”
“Hm? I’m managing fine right now.”
She came in at three, left at midnight, then monitored streams at home until five or six in the morning if necessary. On top of that she handled member care and broadcast appearances. If that wasn’t overwork, what was? And it wasn’t just watching streams. She tracked daily donation amounts, viewer trends, conversation topics the streamer and audience had enjoyed that day, future plans, and so on. She wrote reports so long they could crash a Word document, submitted them at dawn, then went to bed. If that workload doubled, she would not be able to play the games she loved, and she would have to give up secretly watching her favorite VTubers too.
Once the second generation debuted, there would be eight monitors to watch. No human being could handle that. She was not a bedbug or a spider.
“We’re recruiting the second generation starting in December. Once selection is over, they’ll be under you too. You know the work doubles when four members become eight, right?”
“That’s true, but can’t we think about it when the time comes?”
“If companies could run on that kind of sloppy planning, everyone would be an entrepreneur. We need to prepare the personnel plan in advance so there are no problems later. The HR manager said we can add another headcount, so don’t worry and just think about the kind of junior you want. That way we can evaluate properly during the interviews.”
Of course, even after hearing all that, Jia still did not seem fully convinced. Even when Do-hee stared at her with a heavy gaze, emphasizing how important it was, Jia only pouted.
“This won’t do. Think about the kind of junior you want and bring it tomorrow.”
“Tsk. Setting a sudden deadline like that.”
“No tsk-ing. Write it in detail on one A4 sheet, 16-point Myungjo font, and bring it. Understood?”
“Yeeeees.”
Jia grumbled as she left the president’s office. It felt a little pushy, but there was no helping it. If a frail girl like Mazia collapsed from overwork, her recovery would be much slower than others. How great would the worry of the operations team leader and Cheon Do-hee be during that time? Even the person temporarily assigned to cover her duties would probably jump in shock. You want me to do all this alone?
The next morning, Momo received an email. The sender was Mazia. The attachment was a single document filled with tiny text.
Must have enough affection to watch every single member live broadcast every day. However, must be capable of watching all broadcasts simultaneously.
Continuing from the above, must be able to summarize the broadcasts into documents at the same time.
In other words, multitasking is very very very very very very important.
Must be completely familiar with all slang used in the members’ broadcasts as well as all internet broadcasting terms used on Pazizik and Sabana.
Must thoroughly understand how to use every piece of broadcasting equipment the members use and how to handle frequently occurring errors (sound cards, audio interfaces, capture boards, motion capture equipment……).
Computer disassembly and assembly specialist (knowledge of core parts such as CPU, motherboard, RAM, GPU is a plus; for hardware issue response).
Must be familiar with every program used during the members’ broadcasts (for software issue response).
Malicious experience required — must have played over 200 games on Steam and at least 20 different online games for more than one month each.
Must be female. *Critical
…… … …
It looked like a protest because she was doing so much work and now wanted a raise, but that was not the case. The reason her salary had stayed fixed at 2.5 million won for three years was that she herself had stubbornly refused any increase. She claimed that just watching the kids’ streams was already more than enough to be grateful for 2.5 million.
In other words, the meaning behind this report was: Recruit an experienced new hire who can work like me the moment they arrive.
But if there were two Mazias in the world, why would they not have hired the second one already? They would have brought her in long ago and sat her right beside her to work together.
“What the heck does ‘malicious experience required’ even mean…”
With no other choice, Do-hee immediately sent a message. Jia had probably already gone to sleep, but she could not let this pass without saying anything.