An Editor with Good Instincts
After that conversation with the Representative, Elia truly began to grow.
The streamer who had once done nothing but show off her own skills—the girl who, at best, could manage a little banter with other people—
"Aaaaaaagh!! Whyyyyy! Why am I dying here of all places?!"
—had become an excellent opposite version of Ruru.
Her streaming style was similar to Ruru's. She would play along normally, then explode in rage and volunteer herself as the viewers' punching bag. But the process was completely different.
Elia's strength was, of course, her monstrous gaming skill. On par with Aris—and when you considered the breadth of games she played, she surpassed even Aris as a gamer girl. Her skill was, without a doubt, the overwhelming number one when you totaled up all six of Fantasy Live's first- and second-generation members.
That was a definite merit, an advantage most VTubers couldn't even begin to imitate. She couldn't abandon that strength now. So she carried her gaming prowess with her as far as it would go.
Only, where she had once brushed off her own mistakes casually or gotten mildly annoyed—
"Aaaaaaah, for real!! Why am I losing?! Why am I losing!!!"
—she now threw clownish tantrums like this.
"No, no matter how you slice it, a seventy-percent crit rate landing six crits in a row is straight-up cheating!!"
Venting her rage so naturally while bantering with the viewers gave Elia a charm that was unmistakably different from before.
Of course, there were still people who preferred the old charm. Some said they had liked the Ruru copycat—the Ruru copycat who was good at games. But now? She had strengthened the punching-bag personality that was Ruru's strong point while still keeping her own appeal intact.
And compared to Ruru, she had another advantage as well.
"Nice~ Carry~ Great work, everyone~"
Overwhelming gaming skill that Ruru simply didn't have. So if the point with Ruru was that viewers roasted and tormented her as naturally as breathing, the point here was waiting for a single opening and then pouncing. Outside of that? She could fully enjoy the advantages of being a VTuber who was absurdly good at games.
Fundamentally skilled—but with delicious reactions the moment she slipped up or lost. That was Elia's growth. And that growth had taken all of two weeks. It was deeply satisfying.
"Is this what it feels like to raise a daughter…?"
Just two weeks ago she had still given off that unpleasant Ruru-copycat vibe. Being a member of the Ruru Corps myself might have made me feel it more sharply, but basically she had looked truly similar to Ruru. Now, though, the distinction was clear.
I had talked a lot of this and that, but maybe Elia was the exact character so many gamer VTuber viewers had been wanting all along. A cute, pretty VTuber who was insanely good at games—and who got mad when she lost, just like the rest of us. Streamers like that weren't completely nonexistent, but the facial control and rage skills she had learned from Ruru gave Elia a new point of difference. On top of that, the high-quality model only Fantasy Live could provide rounded out the package.
Anyway, thanks to all that, editing Elia had become far more enjoyable than it had been in week one. Seriously—during that first week the Ruru-copycat feeling had been so strong I genuinely hated editing her. I must have zoned out at least twenty times while trying to work. That was how little I wanted to touch the footage. Now it was more than tolerable. I even found myself thinking it was fun quite often.
What a relief. I was going to have to edit this VTuber named Elia for at least a year, and it looked like things might actually work out pretty well.
Of course, spending so much time on Elia's edits meant I hadn't been watching Ruru's streams as much lately. At best I caught about an hour after Elia's broadcast ended. Even that short window produced more than enough material for clips, so I finished Elia's work and then edited Ruru's in the leftover time. My bedtime had gotten ridiculously late as a result, but that didn't really matter.
Why?
Because it was vacation.
"Hwaaaaah… What time is it…?"
After finishing even Ruru's clips and checking the clock, it was a full six in the morning. Getting to bed even later than before my editing speed had improved was a little startling, but that wasn't the important part. The important part was that, as Ruru's clipper and Elia's editor, I was living a fairly successful life.
Meanwhile, the fact that Elia's editor was Mangjjonku had become something of a topic in the community as well—under the title "Elia's editor who clips Ruru as a hobby." Some people called me a traitor to the Ruru Corps, but those words vanished the moment my carefully made clips went up. If anything, more people were worrying whether working this hard would leave me exhausted or sick.
But I was genuinely fine. The financial therapy was working, and I myself felt it was good experience. Besides, I only had to make two videos a week for Elia, so strictly speaking the busy days were only two. Wasn't that excellent?
"Okay, seriously, sleep…"
The yawns kept coming; staying awake any longer was impossible. So I simply collapsed into sleep.
……And when I woke up again.
"……You awake?"
An impossibly pretty voice reached my ears.
"Yeah… I'm up…"
I answered without thinking, then slowly considered. There was no way someone with a voice that pretty lived in my house. On top of that, a strangely sweet, pleasant scent hung in the air. The second that judgment hit me I sat bolt upright, and the person beside me—Rua—jumped in surprise.
"You startled me… Why'd you get up so suddenly?"
"No, that's not—why are you here?"
"Am I in a place I'm not supposed to be?"
Rua tilted her head a little as she asked, and I immediately shook mine.
"No, it's not that…"
"Then?"
"Exactly what I said. Why are you here?"
She answered as if it were nothing.
"Some nice fruit came in, so Mom told me to bring it over…"
"And?"
"You were sleeping so deeply I just… stayed and watched."
"……Are you a pervert?"
"You're the pervert."
Utterly flustered by that reply, I rubbed my eyes and got out of bed.
"Wait a second. Let me at least wash my face."
"No, it's fine. You must be tired—sleep more."
"How do you know whether I'm tired or not?"
"I heard from Junwoo oppa. He said you edited until dawn yesterday. Said you've been getting a lot of editing work lately."
My brother had probably covered for me with a rough excuse. Hyung, thank you so much. I decided to roughly match the story he had given her.
"…Yeah, something like that."
Rua stepped closer and looked straight into my eyes.
"……Jinwoo."
"Hm?"
"Don't push yourself too hard. You don't even need to watch my streams. You watched yesterday too, didn't you."
"…That's why I texted you."
"If you're really tired, don't watch. Got it? Use the time you'd spend on my stream to finish your work and sleep properly. Or just sleep."
"……Ruru's streams are too fun. I can't help it."
"Then I guess I'll have to stream half-heartedly so you get bored."
"Just hearing your voice is fun."
"What are you even saying. You're the cute one."
Listening to Rua grumble cleared my head a little. At the same time I felt so grateful to her. She shared her secret with me as if it were nothing, and beyond that she thought of me as a friend and a viewer and worried about me.
"……Ruru, is our Ruru Corps worrying about you a lot?"
She even gave me rewards like this.
"I'll make sure to protect my sleep schedule."
"Yeah. Please do."
She nodded and looked up at me with a small smile. I checked the time once. Exactly noon. So I had slept about five hours. That much sleep was enough. Today I only needed to edit Ruru clips and then sleep, so I could get more than eight hours.
Which meant…
"Rua, want to eat something before you go?"
I might as well feed Rua. But she immediately shook her head.
"Ah… that might be tough. Sorry."
"Why?"
"Well… it's almost that time for us."
"Ah……"
The moment I heard those words I understood. Kuroa Ruru and Sweet Mare's debut day had been the last day of January. And right now it was mid-January. So they were preparing something again.
"…Getting ready for the first-anniversary live, huh."
"Yeah, more or less."
"Didn't rent a stage or anything, I guess."
"We're not quite at that weight class yet for renting one."
"I feel like you could."
"……I have to think about the other unnies' weight classes too."
She was being honest again at times like this.
"Once the other unnies get bigger, maybe they'll really rent a stage and do a live one day?"
"Think you'll sing in person?"
"Probably?"
"I'll look forward to it."
"Don't look forward to it that much. Our company's still in the stage of building up its foundation."
It definitely didn't feel like a major company yet. A fairly strong mid-tier firm, or a powerhouse small enterprise—that was Fantasy Live right now.
"Hang in there, Rua. Don't push yourself either."
"Yeah, I won't. Thanks, Jinwoo."
Rua waved lightly and went outside, and watching her go, I decided to put some strength into myself as well.
Right. If Ruru was working that hard, her editor had to work hard too.