Mayday, Mayday: The Perpetual Motion Device
Have you ever heard of a perpetual motion device? You give the disk a light push, and the metal balls attached to it start rolling around, generating propulsion. That force spins the disk, which moves the balls again, and the cycle continues. It’s one of those common scams you see all the time in Shorts. In reality, it’s completely impossible due to friction, air resistance, and a dozen other factors. Most of them just hide a motor somewhere out of sight and dress it up to look convincing.
But the conversation I was having with the boss was a genuine perpetual motion machine. Unless one of us said “Let’s call it here,” it was like a bull that had slipped its reins, an eight-ton truck with failed brakes, or a locomotive barreling across bare earth after the rails had vanished.
“…Boss, aren’t you hungry?”
“Ah.”
When I finally came to my senses, it was already nine at night. The boss should have gone home hours ago—and thankfully there was no stream scheduled today—while my stomach was growling loud enough to file a formal complaint. Seung-yeon, who had clocked in at three, had been left unattended for six straight hours.
“Let’s stop here for today and pick it up tomorrow.”
“Yeah, let’s go get some food.”
“I have to check on Seung-yeon first. I’ll just order something quick.”
As I turned to leave the president’s office, the boss hesitated and asked,
“Um. After all the busy stuff is over… once we come back from the trip with the girls, want to do some gaming streams again?”
She already knew I had no reason to turn down such a welcome suggestion.
“Just pick a date.”
Luckily, Seung-yeon had been carrying an entire person’s worth of work without me even telling her what to do.
“Ah, Team Leader! You’re back?”
“Sorry. The conversation with the boss ran longer than expected.”
“You two were so focused that the other team leaders kept peeking in but didn’t dare come inside.”
“Really? I had no idea.”
“Yeah. But nothing urgent came up, so everyone went home early.”
If I had kept the boss tied up and caused any disruption to actual work, that would have been a problem. We were in an extremely important period leading up to the first anniversary event. Still, the fact that everyone had left early was a relief.
“What about dinner?”
“Oh. The team leader bought pad thai. After seeing you glued to the boss, she figured you wouldn’t be coming out anytime soon.”
“That’s good to hear.”
“What about you, Team Leader? You haven’t eaten, right?”
“I’ll eat now. There’s some pizza left over from yesterday in the fridge. I’ll have that.”
Pizza after a six-hour extended meeting had a special flavor all its own. Seung-yeon gave me a strange look, but I pointed at the half-written report she was working on and said,
“There. Typo.”
“Ah!”
She had written “Komaru” instead of “Komari,” and “Mari” instead of “Maru.” It was the kind of mistake that crept in when you typed too fast. Aside from that, though, the overall tone of the report wasn’t bad. It looked like she had referenced the one I wrote yesterday. It had a similar flavor to mine but with its own distinct differences. That was interesting.
“I didn’t even tell you how to write reports, but you’re pretty good at this.”
“Ah, r-really?”
“Thanks to you, I have one less thing to worry about. I was starting to think the long talk with the boss would push today’s tasks into tomorrow, but if you’re backing me up like this, I’m grateful.”
“Hehe… thank you. You seemed really busy, so I just tried to follow what we did together yesterday. I’m glad there weren’t any problems…”
“If you keep this up, you’ll settle in quickly. Does the work suit your personality?”
“It’s literally perfect. I already loved watching the girls’ streams, but being able to watch four broadcasts at the same time on these monitors is insane. The headset is ridiculously good too. I don’t know what kind of post-processing they use, but the voices sound so clean.”
“You’re watching at the office instead of at home?”
“I’m getting paid! Getting paid to watch streams, then using that money to send more support. Isn’t this the ultimate creative economy? Before, the most I could do was five hundred one-dollar punches a month. Now I can do fifteen hundred!”
Among the dedicated supporters, there were people like Seung-yeon who sent a huge total each month but split every bit of it into one-dollar donations. They were the infamous one-dollar punch squad. It was a vicious type that was hard to view favorably, but if it was Seung-yeon, she would probably walk that tightrope well. Plus, her mindset was so identical to mine that I couldn’t hold back my laughter. I pressed both hands over my mouth to calm down, and Seung-yeon spoke again.
“By the way, Team Leader, did you get any sleep?”
“Yeah, I slept like usual. Why?”
“Your dark circles look a bit darker than yesterday…”
“…You can see that?”
“I’m pretty observant and have good instincts. Even the slightest change in Komari’s voice lets me tell whether she caught a cold, went to vocal training yesterday, or visited the hospital.”
She had occasionally watched the boss’s or the girls’ streams and asked if they were feeling okay or if they should rest. But this was the first time someone had turned that worry toward me. Still, I had only ever collapsed from overwork once in my life, and that had been because I really had pushed myself too hard. This time I hadn’t gone that far, so I lightly waved it off.
“Thanks for worrying, but don’t pay it too much mind.”
“Team Leader, are you trying to jinx yourself? I’m saying this because I’m genuinely concerned.”
“I told you. If I were going to collapse, I would have done it long ago.”
“Ugh…”
Judging by Gong Seung-yeon’s expression, she clearly thought I was being stubborn. Damn it, I wanted to wrap her up like a bossam and drag her to the hospital, but as her team leader I couldn’t do that. I really was fine, though. The dark circles had always been there to some degree; at this point they felt like close friends. Besides, there were still streams I hadn’t watched. Rather than go to the hospital, I’d rather watch streams and send support and so on. I wished a single day had forty-eight hours. Live broadcasts were warmer and more satisfying than edited clips, after all.
One day.
“If you stab there like that, it’s UFC.”
“Didn’t you used to respond exactly like this, Boss?”
“I’m saying it because I realized it was a mistake.”
“I see.”
Two days.
“Boss, that was seriously boomer behavior just now.”
“What?! When did I—”
“As expected, the egg dish is approaching, so day by day…”
“You wanna die? I’m still in my mid-twenties, you know?”
Three days.
“Hey. Be honest—you only offered to help with the stream so you could fight with me, right?”
“Fight? I was just sharing my impressions. And we have to do BangBang, Boss.”
“BangBang… ugh.”
Four days.
“For this part… yeah, doing it your way seems correct.”
“Oh. First time you’ve accepted my opinion without a counter, Boss.”
“That’s because you only scratched just enough to make me react.”
“It was a scratch, huh?”
“I swear I’ll just—”
Incidentally, that evening at seven the first-generation 1st anniversary song was also released.
Just one day after upload it had already racked up an unbelievable 240,000 views, breaking the record for any song posted on the official channel. It climbed the trending charts, got picked up by the algorithm, and the numbers kept climbing steadily. The comments were almost entirely glowing praise. It was exactly the reaction we had hoped for from the teaser. The 3D modeling and background quality were incredible, the tracking was buttery smooth, the girls’ singing and dance skills seemed to improve every day, and during the rap part I almost pulled out my 8-bit sunglasses and started dancing on the bed. The first-gen members’ hard work was clearly paying off, and the positive buzz continued into the next day.
Five days passed like that, and on the sixth day—November 7th—the first 3D showcase of the first generation belonged to Akari Dora.
Because all attention had to be focused on one person, Momo and every other member were on break. Even taking that into account, the turnout was extraordinary. During the Halloween collab when all four had appeared together, the peak had been 11,000. This meant the anniversary song had brought in a massive wave of new viewers. And the showcase was captivating enough to hold their attention.
Even the boss and I—who had already seen the short rehearsal video—stopped our meeting to watch Dora’s 3D stream from the president’s office and couldn’t stop exclaiming in awe.
“The polygon count on the hair is insane no matter how many times I see it. The rigging looks perfect too.”
“Right? We poured an unbelievable amount of money into it.”
“We’re not going bankrupt, are we?”
“It’s all investment. There’s so much you can only do in 3D, so it can’t be helped. From now on, the important part is directing the girls so they can create a wide variety of content.”
“Hmm. At this rate, even if Dora just keeps jumping around like that, the money will roll in on its own.”
“That’s true, but… aren’t you staring at her chest a little too much?”
“Chest physics are a critical matter. Besides, you’ve been watching them the whole time too, Boss.”
“No, well… they really are bouncing a lot…”
Dora was already wearing a dress with a small fabric area and high overall exposure. With the breast physics working so well, the chat window was temporarily paralyzed.
It was the same character simply recreated in 3D, yet the reaction was this explosive. It was a fresh reminder of just how important visual stimulation is to humans. Latudy’s illustrations could already convey a sense of “she’s really alive.” But they also gave the feeling that “I’ll probably never meet her in real life.” That sense of longing remained—an idol trapped inside the cage of a screen.
Once you had 3D, however, the virtual and the real became connected. With AR and VR now quite widespread, fans gained something close to certainty that their idol could leap out of the screen, stand before them, and sing or dance just for them. In other words, adding a 3D avatar meant “expanding into an infinite stage of real-world possibility.”
If your oshi, who had only ever moved her upper body, turned out to be a hyperactive puppy-like person with incredible stamina. If she turned out to be an amazing dancer, or conversely, completely uncoordinated. The moment fans saw the real side of their oshi—habitual gestures that reflected her personality, every little movement that illustrations alone could never show—they couldn’t help but feel it. So this is what it feels like to meet my oshi in person and play together.
After all, communication between people isn’t just about words. You must never forget that body language, including facial expressions, makes up a huge part of conveying meaning. You could create situational skits from various angles that made viewers feel like they were really in the same space as the VTuber. Physical collab content could deliver bigger laughs than most variety shows. Concerts, of course, and the chemistry and skinship between members that could previously only be described in words could now be shown in rich detail.
What Dora’s fans enjoyed today was, among those things, the experience of being a one-day part-timer hired by the beautiful dragon tribe boss. Passing the interview. Sitting across from her for a meal. Learning how to make coffee from a distance close enough for their shoulders to touch. Catching a sudden bug for her. Walking together down a dark road after work. Most of the fans who experienced raising a glass together at a bar ended up like this:
They became unable to escape from that VTuber. Even though it was only a short one-hour showcase, the amount of support relative to the time was enormous, and the viewer graph was astonishing. If I said almost no one who entered at the start left until the end, would you understand?
It’s hard to put this soaring feeling into words. Of course there’s the excitement that comes from being a fan, but it also felt like hearing that a friend who had been preparing for a difficult exam had passed with flying colors. My chest grew hot for no reason and my head felt feverish. It was almost painfully throbbing. And there were still three more days of broadcasts like this? It was a complete dopamine festival.
The prophets of VchuVchu must have enjoyed this kind of thing first—though honestly I had watched all of their 3D streams too. Dora’s gallery was already in chaos, and the factory managers who couldn’t hold back were already churning out fan art.
“I’ll go check on Seung-yeon for a bit. It’d be bad if she got too excited and couldn’t work properly.”
“Sure. Go ahead.”
I shot up from my seat. The preparations for the eve festival with the boss were going smoothly. If things continued like this and we safely made it through the eve festival on the 11th, it would be perfect—
“…Ugh.”
My vision rapidly turned white and tilted diagonally. What my eyes saw went from the door of the president’s office, to the corner of the desk, to the floor. Thud.
“Jia!!”
The last thing I saw was the boss’s face.