A Red Book?

The otaku special celebrating the premiere of the opening and ending was over, and the end of that special meant the broadcast was over too. Flush with the satisfaction of having lived another day to the fullest, I should have shut the computer off and gone to wash up and get ready for bed, same as every other night.

I did not.

"Maybe I'll play the alt just a little longer!"

I flung out that overflowing burst of motivation and booted up my Raider alt.

Sure, I was brimming with drive right now, but even I had no idea how long it would last. The main account—the one steeped in time, memories, and money—was always going to hold more of my affection. So while the fire was still lit, I meant to push as much progress as I possibly could.

"Record it...? Ah—yeah. I'm recording."

It wasn't for the live broadcast, of course. If I played both my Raider main and my alt on stream, the people watching would get sick of it too. The real heart of raising a Raider alt, then, was the recording itself. I'd capture the gameplay, then lay my own voice over the edited footage afterward. That would give birth to a kind of video Märchen's NewTube had never shown before.

Plenty of NewTubers already edited that way. But for me, a streamer who doubled as a NewTuber—and for Märchen's NewTube in particular—it was a brand-new experiment.

"I hope a lot of funny moments turn up...."

I mumbled it while, in the back of my head, turning over how I ought to write the script. My fingers, naturally, never stopped moving the whole time I was thinking.

And so, thanks to that alt-account session, Miss Lee Hari went to bed a full three hours later than usual———

"I'm sleepy...."

"What on earth were you doing last night...."

—and treated Eunha to the sight of me jogging while half asleep.

...Right. I had forgotten there was a morning jog.

Five days had passed since the music video for Märchen-tic You went ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠public, and the view count had broken two million.

This much I could say for certain. When the time came for my room coming-out with my aunt, this MV would be the best card in my hand. The numbers proved it, objectively. I'd managed to shake off that last scrap of hesitation with the MV's performance, so now it was time to lock in exactly when the reveal would happen.

The deliberation didn't take long. I could always just call her right now and spill everything.... but it would be better to do the room coming-out when I saw her at Chuseok, wouldn't it? The harvest holiday was less than a month away, so I might as well start planning immediately.

How should I reveal it so the image stuck in a good way.... Save the MV for the very, very end. First impressions mattered, so I'd lead with my cutest self. And then....

"The biggest question is whether my aunt will look kindly on the otaku side of me, and I have absolutely no read on that. This is an Otaku Major World, though, so maybe she will."

For now, the figure-panty appreciation session and the faceplant into the chest mousepad would have to be packaged as acting I'd had no choice but to do, because the viewers loved it.

I muttered that inwardly and tried in earnest to build the plan, but I simply could not concentrate. I couldn't help it. Jobs other than the coming-out plan were shimmering right in front of my eyes.

Besides planning the reveal, I needed to start getting ready for the broadcast celebrating five hundred thousand NewTube subscribers. Only four days after hitting four hundred thousand, five hundred thousand was already creeping into view. Half a million was a number with a certain weight of its own—halfway to a full million—so expectations for a 500k celebration stream would be considerable. And because I'd skipped the 400k celebration entirely, those expectations had only grown larger.

On top of that, this was the exact moment the tide was slamming in. Pull off a proper 500k stream while the viewers were flooding in like this? Do it right, and I might go past rowing the boat and just bolt a motor onto it.

The alt-account raising content that had sprung up out of nowhere during yesterday's broadcast needed steady progress too. If I could help it, I wanted to attempt new challenges while the water was crashing in and pour on the acceleration. There was no spare time to lounge around and prepare at my leisure.

...And here I'd thought I'd get a little breathing room after the MV dropped.

"Being busy hasn't changed one bit!"

I shouted it at full volume. While physically fused with my bed. Saying something like that flat on my back left me with a strange feeling. I was sampling passion and laziness at the same time when my phone gave a buzz.

Let's see.... a text? Spam, maybe?

"...It's here!"

If someone had asked me, up until a few days ago, what was so great about signing an MCN contract with AY Entertainment, I would have said it was getting to take on all kinds of new challenges.

The me of right now would answer like this.

"...I really thought the day would never come when I did this content again. A fan-gift unboxing, of all things."

I was glad I could receive fan gifts.

Until now, my home address couldn't be made public, so there had simply been no proper way to get presents by delivery. The only fan gifts I'd ever actually received were the one from my first meeting with Eunha, back when she class-changed into an editor, and the one a viewer named MärchenBreastMilkDispenserSuckSuck had passed along through Yeryeong. But now I could receive gifts through AY Entertainment.

Why? Because if the entire nation felt like it, they could already look up AY Entertainment's address! And because my manager knew our home address!

"Honestly, I thought about saving this until the 500k celebration, you know? But an unopened delivery box shimmering right in front of my eyes is something I just cannot endure."

Frankly, I think this ought to be forgiven. It's a racial trait of Koreans.

Petit Märchen, who lived inside my heart, nodded furiously and fully endorsed my logic.

Thank you, Petit Märchen...! I'll give today's stream everything I've got!

"First, one announcement before we start. For the sake of protecting my personal information and my sanity, the gifts get screened once on the way to me. So if your gift isn't here, just understand that it got filtered out along the way."

"I say that, but almost nothing is actually going to get filtered. I told them even a large chest mousepad was fine."

"If I open the gifts right away, it'll feel kind of bland and be over too fast, so shall we guess them first?"

With that, I opened my eternal friend: Notepad. And without a moment's hesitation, I wrote the first gift prediction across my friend's flawless, pale skin.

"Anime merch is probably going to make up the biggest share. Send anime merch and my reaction is guaranteed to clear average, minimum."

"Honestly, a figure as a gift has a certain king-tier utility, doesn't it? ...Oh, and there's definitely going to be a bunny-ear headband. Or a hat with bunny ears that move. At least one person absolutely sent one."

There were ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠still quite a few people posting boing-boing prayer threads on the fan cafe's wish board, after all. Thinking that, I wrote the second prediction onto my friend's pale, tender skin as well.

Of course, even if I really received one and was forced to wear it, the word boing-boing would never, ever pass my lips.

Never!

"Other than that.... people probably sent things that might actually help me, right? Oh, I bet some health stuff came too. The same way I handed out red ginseng sets to Medongbu at our last staff dinner."

That was about everything I could think of on the spot. Time to start the unboxing, then?

I drew a box cutter smoothly through the tape sealing the box. And the moment I flipped it open, the very first gift to welcome me was...!!!??

"...A red book?"

I blinked once, then twice, and looked at the cover again. Looking at it did not, as it turned out, change the cover. It was exactly as I'd first seen it. In the end I pulled the book out of the box and held it up for everyone.

"A red book in this sense."

The moment the chat laid eyes on the cover stamped with an R-18 label, the reaction was immediate.

...A NewTube thumbnail, already, from the very first gift.