So, Is Mazia Debuting?

"So, is Mazia debuting?" "...If you don't like it, you can give it back."

The members stared at one another for a long moment, eyes darting, before they burst out waving their hands in frantic denial.

"No! Absolutely not!"

"Thank you so much, Jia!"

"Mazia, you are the goat. The goat of all goats."

"Hehe, I'll put it to good use, Jia-nim~."

They turned toward the team leader and the CEO. The team leader spoke first.

"I'll save it for later. Thank you."

The CEO snatched my phone in one swift motion. The bottom section of the Cheon Do-hee Free Use Coupon, complete with its expiration date, was promptly ripped away with a loud tear.

"...Your own coupon is unlimited, so the birthday coupon I gave you can't have an expiration date either."

A week had passed since that chaotic trip. Mazia's monthly review content, now officially titled Fantasia, was coming together smoothly. The travel vlog teaser was also uploaded to the official Nutube channel.

The teaser’s subject had clearly hit the maximum hype threshold; the view count was climbing at an alarming rate. All because of one short scene that lasted less than ten seconds.

Even though the bait had been floating around multiple times already, Mazia had never once mentioned debuting. She simply kept doing her job with quiet determination. So most fans assumed this was just another round of the usual family entertainment show and that the hype would die down quickly.

They were wrong.

The very next day, an official notice posted on ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Parallel’s channel poured gasoline on the flames.

The ripple effect was immediate. On December 2nd itself, Mazia’s stream drew a massive audience from the very beginning.

That number had appeared even before the actual broadcast started—while the waiting screen was still up. Considering it was still early afternoon and none of the other members had gone live yet, the amount of VTuber traffic flooding in was staggering.

Normally when someone debuted, at least a few people would drop by, give the stream a quick taste, and if they liked what they saw, they might stick around. But Mazia had never officially announced a debut, yet here they were, all piling in with coordinates locked.

Of course, many would leave just as quickly. Still, these transient viewers performed a valuable service: they inflated the all-important first-impression viewer count and acted as a bridge for the streamer and the company. They were, in that sense, quite welcome.

However, once the stream actually began and Mazia greeted them, the number exploded.

Fifteen thousand people. All of them suddenly Mazia’s responsibility alone.

Even Cheon Do-hee, watching from the side, couldn’t help but worry. Would Mazia be able to get her first words out smoothly? No matter how capable she was, handling this many people solo had to be tough…

Right as those concerns were swirling, Mazia paused for a moment to let the flood of chat messages roll by, then spoke with perfect composure.

“Have you all been well?”

After that, the broadcast flowed so smoothly it was almost unreal.

“The trip went without any major incidents and everyone had a great time. As you saw in the teaser, we’re turning the travel stories into short animations, so it will take a little more time. They should be ready in about a week, so please look forward to the full video as well.”

“Anyway, that’s enough for the brief greeting. Let’s move straight into the main content. Our streams are one-hour long, so we can’t drag things out too much.”

“I recently signed a subsidiary contract, and the maximum length is two hours.”

“I get paid by the hour, so if I fill the full two hours I’d be taking money from the CEO. To ease the CEO’s burden, I’ll only do one hour.”

“You’re annoyed? Ah. So you don’t want to watch the stream. Should I end the broadcast here, then?”

Far from being swayed by the fifteen thousand viewers, she was the one training them. Whether it was raw talent or the fact that she herself had the mindset of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a viewer—“stop bothering me and go watch actual VTubers”—she never hesitated even once amid the nonstop barrage of messages. The constant demands for a debut were filtered out so cleanly it was as if she couldn’t even see them.

“...She’s good.”

Whether she had talent as an actual performer was another story, but the broadcasting talent Cheon Do-hee had just witnessed was undeniably real. The girl who barely spoke in everyday life somehow became eloquent and calm the moment the stream started.

The only worry Mazia herself had mentioned—“potential misinterpretation of official statements”—turned out to be almost nothing once reviewed. There was simply nothing to nitpick. After all, Mazia had never once done anything that could tarnish the company’s image. If anything, her quick responses had helped restore and preserve it. She had never dropped a bomb that sent them plummeting.

The black company comment on the eve of the anniversary? That had actually drawn positive attention rather than damaging the image. Having an employee who worked that hard only increased trust.

The number of 2nd generation applicants pouring in had already long surpassed last year’s eight hundred. It was all thanks to Mazia.

Parallel gained nothing but profit from Mazia’s existence. She was the only one who didn’t seem to realize it—how much value her presence preserved and created.

The only time she had directly mentioned anything close to “something like an audition” was during the trip, and that had only happened because Jia’s emotional intelligence was nonexistent… The very next day she had handed out free-use coupons.

“...If you don’t like it, you can give it back.”

That was exactly why everyone had simply stared at her in disbelief. She really was the kind of person who would only stop once she had dried up completely and not even roots remained.

Fifty minutes later, the first episode of Fantasia wrapped up cleanly. Cheon Do-hee had only needed to step in a handful of times, an extremely small number. If one were to summarize it in a single line, it would be that Mazia’s meta of “taking the viewers’ own words as topics” had been a resounding success.

Perhaps it was because, just as she had said, she could watch the broadcast while streaming it. True overlap of hobby and work. When you streamed while indulging in your own fandom, there was no way the broadcast could fail.

Just how well had it gone? The absolute chaos in the chat right before the stream ended told the whole story.

But Mazia had already finished preparing to end the stream. The members had started their own broadcasts and were ready to catch the viewers who would spill over. There was no reason not to end it.

“It looks like the 1st generation members have begun streaming and are ready to meet you all. I hope you have a wonderful weekend with the 1st gen, and with that, I’ll be signing off now.”

She ended the broadcast without the slightest hesitation the moment she finished speaking.

People felt hollow, but there was nowhere to vent their resentment. Any furious transients who went to spam the other members’ streams or cause trouble would simply get banned. The regular fans were dumbfounded, but what could they do except go watch the 1st gen streams?

Even though she now had a fully rigged model and even a voice that sounded like a VTuber’s, she was still just a Parallel employee who had never debuted. Harassing a regular person would only cause more problems, so once the stream ended, everyone had no choice but to restrain themselves.

The most heated among them gathered in the Mazia Mini Gallery, but that place was already firmly in the palm of Mazia’s hand…

“Hello?”

A few days later.

The day the long-awaited 64 Cubics collab between Mazia and Maru was finally happening, Cheon Do-hee received a call.

“Hello, Momo. Have you been well?”

It was Wicker, leader of the Wicker Crew—the 64 Cubics specialist Nutuber who had been the super president before Taniping came along. These days he regularly ran massive 64 Cubics servers with hundreds of participating streamers and helped foster friendships among Pazizik streamers.

“Oh, Wicker! It’s been a while. What’s the occasion?”

“Nothing major, but our server is opening soon.”

“Yes, Maru and I are both on the starting member list.”

“This might be a strange question, but… I was just curious?”

Pazizik had twenty thousand live streamers. Even if a collab server accepted hundreds of people, the number who could actually enjoy it was limited. In a way, it was a stage reserved for the privileged.

From the server operator’s perspective, they naturally wanted only verified people who wouldn’t cause trouble. A referral system was ideal for that, and the easiest starting point was popular streamers with over ten thousand Pazizik ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠followers—like Momo. The friend invitation tickets obtainable in the server were also restricted to accounts with at least two thousand followers, so random people simply couldn’t join.

Of course, the operators sometimes sent separate invitations to draw attention, but those were usually reserved for celebrities, pro gamers, or other famous figures whose streaming schedules were irregular or hard to contact directly.

That was why Wicker’s suggestion was enough to surprise Do-hee.

“Would it be possible… to invite Assistant Manager Mazia to this server as well?”