My First Broadcast Is a Little Shameful 2

A single drone camera cost an average of seventy million won. The most expensive ones — military-grade units — climbed past a hundred million.

Why? Because every drone camera moved autonomously, capturing its subject in breathtaking ultra-high definition, dynamically adjusting like a film or drama set to frame the scene from the most optimal, immersive angle possible, all according to the subject's condition and surrounding environment.

This was what the Vice Minister of Returnee Management and roughly a dozen other VIPs had unanimously agreed upon:

"Ms. Lee Jaehee may well become the new standard-bearer of our era!"

"Exactly! We are a generation that can no longer properly listen to music. She can restore the heritage of the past!"

"We shall reclaim what our era has lost. Ms. Jaehee's performance will be the first step."

And so, with towering expectations heaped upon Jaehee's performance, the distinguished gentlemen had gathered in the broadcast screening room, hearts aflutter with anticipation.

What greeted them, however, was the sight of the Succubus Empress — so devastatingly beautiful that even her sleeping form mocked the heavens themselves — lying utterly motionless in bed.

"Coool…."

"No, this…."

"Hooo…."

The audience's reaction was not so different from the distinguished gentlemen's: the face of someone whose anticipation had been betrayed without mercy.

The plan had been for the screen to show the gracefully elegant Succubus Empress offering a greeting, giving a brief self-introduction, and then playing the violin to captivate the ears and hearts of all humanity.

Not snoozing away like this!

"What on earth is that woman doing right now???"

"…Sleeping, sir…."

Dan Ahyeon, serving as the manager for the broadcast, thought to herself.

As she watched the screen, her other hand was meticulously cutting off anything beyond the line — vicious profanity and sexually harassing remarks alike — moderating the chat window with the practiced precision of a veteran.

But Dan Ahyeon was every bit as dumbfounded by Jaehee's sleep broadcast as anyone else.

'Goddammit. I knew this would happen…!'

"N-no, but why on earth isn't Ms. Jaehee performing? I went so far as to take a day off for this…."

"Ah, ahahaha…."

"Hehehehe… Assemblymen, is this really acceptable?"

With Jaehee doing absolutely nothing — much less performing — several of the assemblymen who had been expecting classical, soothing orchestral music wore expressions on the verge of tears.

It had been twenty years. Over two decades since they had last heard the timeless violins of Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, and Paganini — the concertos, the orchestras.

Music had never been their particular hobby, but after the Great Cataclysm, being suddenly unable to hear what they had once taken for granted had dealt them an enormous sense of loss. How crushing had been the despair of realizing that even such ordinary music could no longer be heard in their era?

And now, just when they thought they might finally claw it back, the performer herself was sleeping soundly in bed.

"This is outrageous! What kind of nonsense is this!"

"Wake Ms. Jaehee up at once!"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Please, calm yourselves! What if Ms. Jaehee decides she doesn't want to perform at all because of this?"

"What 'what if'? We rescind the funding, all of it, and issue an administrative order—!"

"To her, sir?"

"…."

Only then did the heated assemblymen remember exactly who Lee Jaehee was.

The most dangerous individual in the government's custody among all Special Management Returnees. A being for whom it was a blessing that she currently lived as a human. Someone who deserved a bow of gratitude merely for not becoming a villain, a terrorist, an actual devil. A highest-tier demon race still living quietly, humanly, among them.

To put it crudely… the only person alive who could turn the entirety of South Korea into her 'worshippers' overnight and march them straight down the highway to hell.

"N-now, now. Calm down, everyone. Ms. Jaehee may simply have been tired, no? It seems she had some work to do the night before."

"I heard that woman is an unemployed freeloader?"

"…Ahem. Officer Dan, forgive me, but might we have something to dr…ink…"

"Ah, I already ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ordered just now. Would beer be all right? Anyone need a baduk board or a card table?"

"Oho, that'll do nicely."

"I've also ordered Dongin-dong braised short ribs and pork belly bossam. If any of the assemblymen would like something, please let me know."

"Is there anything for a hangover, by chance? I drank far too much yesterday…."

"Would soybean sprout and dried pollack soup do?"

"Oho. Very capable indeed, Officer Dan."

One way or another, Dan Ahyeon managed to deftly soothe the assemblymen's grumbling complaints.

In truth, these were not people who were all that 'busy.' The genuinely busy ones were the field workers — these men, at best, stamped the final approval line, skimmed a document here and there, and signed off on permits.

So as long as she provided food and drink suited to their age — a soup or stew to go with the beer — they would entertain themselves just fine.

The problem was the viewers' reaction.

'This is driving me insane. Why on earth is Ms. Jaehee doing this?'

And yet, somehow, she could understand it.

The human Lee Jaehee held a slightly contradictory, subtly twisted way of thinking.

At her foundation lay the Succubus Empress's instinct — the endless, insatiable craving for the attention and love of others. But layered atop it, the human Lee Jaehee ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠harbored a contradictory, opposing desire all its own: 'Ah, but that much attention is a bit too much….'

And so, an internet broadcast? Jaehee surely knew that even if she did nothing at all and simply ran a 'by-the-book broadcast,' people would flock to her like storm clouds.

But a by-the-book broadcast… hmm.

As a highest-tier demon race, wouldn't that be boring?

That had to be her reasoning!

An ordinary person could never think like that, you say?

But Jaehee is a demon race. The highest-tier demon race at that!

No matter how humanly she lived, no matter how much she aspired to humanity, it was simply a fact that a highest-tier demon race would have at least one severely twisted screw somewhere in her head.

Dan Ahyeon was fully aware of this fact as well.

In other words, Jaehee had deliberately half-assed her first broadcast in order to moderately restrain the 'excessive attention.'

'Right — honestly, even if Ms. Jaehee just sloppily broadcasts however she pleases, people will swarm in anyway… but too much attention could actually be poison for her. So she's deliberately thinning the crowd out….'

Having reasoned her way to a passable understanding, Dan Ahyeon banned every obscenely crude sexual remark and curse in the chat window with surgical precision. And comically enough, a few viewers were already visibly falling under the spell of Jaehee's mere sleeping form.

Even the viewer count behaved in a deformed way. Those disappointed by the sight of nothing but sleep logged off without regret, while word of mouth drew new people in and drove others away — yet the overall numbers continued a steady upward climb.

"…Haaaam."

And so, Jaehee finally awoke.

For the entire hour, the excessively ultra-high-fidelity recorder and cameras had captured nothing but the sound of her irregular breathing, so the mere breaking of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that silence carried a surprising dramatic weight.

And the moment she opened her eyes—

"Ho."

"Gasp."

"Ah."

"Whoa."

The viewers on the other side of the screen stopped breathing all at once.

The first thing visible were her violet eyes. Glinting with a cold light, they seemed to pierce the darkness of the room and meet every viewer's gaze in unison. That single look froze the audience mid-breath; as her gaze tilted ever so slightly to one side, it sparkled like a star shining in the dark.

The Empress of the Nightmare rose slowly — and with unbearable grace.

"Haaaam… good morning…."

Her movements as she awoke from sleep were as smooth and delicate as a cat's. The wrinkles that had creased her business suit smoothed away, and as Jaehee's body traced a flawless curve, the viewers erupted in one gasp of admiration after another, utterly unable to close their mouths.

Beautiful people were fairly common on internet broadcasts these days.

Awakened, as a rule, had mana sculpting their bodies toward the ideal, making them near-universally stunning, and even celebrities and actors received mana-based cosmetic treatments that elevated their entire appearance. In a world like this, ordinary beauty simply couldn't hold a viewer's eyes.

But Jaehee could.

She wore no elaborate makeup and lived her life with nothing more than simple toner and lotion — and she was the Succubus Empress, the very apex of seduction and nightmare. Hers was a demonic temptation that could not be defied even with a psychic barrier installed in every household.

"…Haauuu."

Jaehee was sleepy. Because she had binged the entire Alien series the day before.

Sure, Officer Dan and the other VIPs had insisted that 'Ms. Jaehee must surely have some scheme or intention behind this!' — but in truth, there was nothing of the sort. Jaehee had simply been sleepy and gone to sleep, and felt no particular need to put effort into the broadcast.

And above all—

'I'm beautiful, so it's fine.'

Therefore, at the very latest—

Sleeping a little on a broadcast—

Could absolutely never be criticized by anyone.

Within Jaehee's mind, the angel Succubus Empress whispered.

— Even so, sleeping through your very first broadcast without even a greeting was going too far.

Then the devil Succubus Empress beside her whispered.

— But I'm beautiful, aren't I?

And so the angel Succubus Empress replied.

— Well, of course!

— Beauty shines all the brighter and holds all the more worth precisely because it cannot be possessed, cannot be grasped. Thus, to spread my beauty freely to all while alive and moving would be to appraise my beauty's value far too cheaply, you see.

— Ah! So that's why only those patient enough to wait through a first broadcast of pure sleeping deserve to indulge in my beauty!

— Exactly so!

As the two angel-and-devil Empresses whispered together, Jaehee vigorously shook her head back and forth.

Huh? No, she just fell asleep because she was tired.

There was no intention, no scheme, none of anything.

In the meantime, Jaehee — even mid-yawn — brushed the blanket aside with the light, butterfly-like flutter of a wing, revealing smooth skin and an elegantly refined outfit. She had been asleep mere moments ago, yet her hair was perfectly groomed, and the lighting accentuated the lustrous glow of her face.

Each time Jaehee waved a lazy hand through a yawn, the cameras automatically captured every elegant wrist-turn and the soft tips of her fingers in exquisite detail.

The woman who had done nothing but sleep since her first broadcast was already demolishing the photo shoots of any A-list celebrity you cared to name.

Anyway, Jaehee was thinking absolutely nothing.

No sense of alarm, no deflated realization that she ought to be doing something on her first broadcast. Nothing at all.

Just as beautiful and elegant as always.

The viewers who had begun the stream pouring out complaints and curses could only stare blankly at the screen, transfixed by that proud yet utterly natural composure. The chat window, once thick with profanity, filled with reactions of awe and wonder.

"Ho… holy sh…"

"That's not a person, right??"

"Wow, look at that face."

"We're all so screwed, for real."

"That woman… I know we share a fate… we met on the street once… please… just once, be this old man's handmaiden… (You have been blocked.)"

"Fuck, with a face like that no WONDER she's been fucking sleeping since her first broadcast."

"'Fucking sleeping'?"

"Gasp."

"Wait…."

Jaehee still hadn't offered so much as a greeting, simply drifting lightly around the room as she gazed at the camera. Her gaze alone radiated a charm that seemed to pierce straight through the viewers' souls, and every last complaint dissolved into admiration and wonder.

The viewers thought to themselves, 'Wow. Holy shit. This woman is just openly doing pretty things at us. Fine. I'll take it. Gladly.' — and lost themselves in nothing but the spectacle of Jaehee's face.

Of course, Jaehee was thinking absolutely nothing of the sort. She was simply, dazedly and cluelessly musing, 'Why is the camera floating around the moment I open my eyes? Oh right, I said I'd do a broadcast. So… what should I do?'

Then, a message from one viewer caught Jaehee's eye.

"Oh my, how did you know? I don't have a mom."

And so, the very first words of the very first broadcast began thus: "I don't have a mom."