Virtual Bloodbath
Maybe because it was the start of the semester, time flew by.
The group I was in, Team 3, spent that time preparing props for the talent show and practicing songs. Of course, I was included in the singing practice.
On the way out of the coin karaoke where we'd gone to practice.
Areum, who'd joined me for my practice, said.
"Geez, Kkangcheol, you have no confidence. I'm telling you, you're good at singing."
"No, even if you say that..."
Now I knew. When people told me I sang well at karaoke, they weren't just being polite—they meant it. I hadn't realized it myself, but I was actually a pretty good singer.
But singing well and singing on stage are two completely different things! Just thinking about it made me so nervous that my heart felt like it was going to leap right out of my throat.
"Sigh. Can't back out now, anyway."
"Yeah, yeah. Nothing for it. More importantly, Cheol-jin."
Suddenly, Areum called me by my name instead of my nickname. When she did that, it usually meant one of two things.
First, when she had something serious to talk about.
And the second...
"Can I come over to your place today? Huh?"
Areum stealthily grabbed my arm and pressed herself close. Her blessed D-cup chest pressed against my arm. Reflexively, both my head and my lower half tried to nod in agreement.
But I was a pro. I exercised tremendous patience and shook my head.
"Sorry. I have some stuff to do today. I need to get it handled before the MT."
"...Jerk!"
"I really am sorry. Of course I want to do it, too..."
"Whatever! Kkangcheol, you idiot!"
Tap-tap-tap! Her soft, cotton-ball fists drummed on my shoulders. Not that any of them hurt.
"I'm leaving."
"G-Get home safe! I'll see you at school tomorrow!"
"Whatever!"
Her pouty, 'whatever' act was cute. If I followed my heart, I'd scoop her up and run straight home. And then all night long!
"Ugh. I really wanna do it too..."
But what could I do? I'd taken on too much work.
The work I did wasn't just illustration commissions.
*
Digital Content department. After enrolling and experiencing it firsthand, it was a much tougher major than I'd thought. The moment OT week ended, they started tearing through the curriculum at a crazy pace right from the start of the semester, then dropped a bomb of assignments on us.
The one silver lining was that I'd already self-studied parts of it thanks to my hobbies.
I could handle most basic design programs like Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator. I'd also self-taught simple 3D modeling, video editing, and programming by watching Wetube.
I was making a living off these skills. I worked as a freelancer, unaffiliated with any particular company, taking jobs on a per-project basis.
"Whew. Today I need to finish up some video editing..."
The problem was that I'd gone and taken on a bunch of work with the mindset of making as much money as I could while I could. Even after finishing the job for Yusi, my regular client and big spender, I still had five illustrations and three video editing projects left.
I wrapped up two of the edits and opened the last video. I skimmed the roughly two-hour-long video at high speed, chuckling to myself, then suddenly spat out in irritation.
"This guy's stream was fun, but he did everything however the hell he wanted. An editor wasn't his goddamn servant."
His broadcast schedule, the content, even the way he outsourced his videos—everything was far too self-centered. He had a nose for streaming, but he felt like someone who hadn't fully matured. The kind of guy who could cause a huge accident at any moment and fall straight into the abyss.
I thought it over for a bit and made a decision.
"Let's just do this one last time and be done with it."
It wasn't like I was his exclusive editor—I'd taken the job on a per-project basis. Sure, business ethics said you shouldn't just quit out of the blue, but since he'd been the one to break those ethics first, I felt no guilt whatsoever. He'd missed payment deadlines more than once or twice, and his specialty was leaving my messages on read.
I finished up the editing, sent it off, and checked the time. It was already 11. I needed to get to bed soon if I was going to go out for my morning workout tomorrow.
But you know how some days are like that.
Days where your mind is strangely wide awake and sleep just won't come.
Today was exactly that kind of day. My head was pointlessly clear, and even lying in bed, I didn't feel like I'd fall asleep.
...Was it because I had too much pent-up sexual energy?
From working out, I'd realized that sexual vitality definitely seemed closely tied to physical stamina. Running around every morning until the soles of my feet were sweating had my lower half springing to attention at all hours. It had been like that before too, but lately it had gotten even worse.
It was probably because I hadn't had sex with Areum for a whole week, being busy. Normally, I would've at least jerked off with my onahole, but after experiencing real sex, jacking off somehow felt like a waste.
"Maybe I'll watch some streams for the first time in a while."
One of my hobbies was watching internet broadcasts. That small hobby had started it all and eventually led to illustration work and video editing.
There were several internet broadcasting platforms in Korea, but the biggest ones were Twatch and Awesome.
I'd originally been a viewer on T Platform. But then T Platform abruptly pulled out of Korea, C Company took over its predecessor, and A Company rebranded under a new name, claiming it was shedding its old image.
The ones left after that were Cheese and SuperTime.
So I moved my home base to C Platform, which had taken over the predecessor, but then the streamers I liked migrated en masse to S Platform, so I followed them there too.
In the end, I settled on S Platform now.
Not only because there were a lot of streamers I liked to watch, but because the field I was interested in was starting to blossom there, however faintly.
I set the category to 'Virtual' and browsed through it.
"As I thought, there weren't many virtual streamers. Still, this place had more than most."
Virtual streamers. That was the decisive reason I'd settled on S Platform. Virtual streaming, which still hadn't received much attention in Korea, was slowly taking root here.
'Virtual is the future.'
I was convinced that virtual had a future. This wasn't me just being a weeb thinking this. How many people were out there streaming with 2D images on screen? Virtual was clearly a superior version of 2D. It was just unfamiliar now; over time, more people would put virtual characters on their broadcast screens instead of flat drawings.
That was why I'd enrolled in the Digital Content department.
Since I was confident in its marketability, I wanted to learn the skills needed to create virtual characters. In an ideal world, I'd have gone into a department specializing in virtual, but unfortunately, no such department existed yet.
'Still, better than teaching myself.'
Among the things I was learning in the Digital Content department, there were several skills related to virtual production.
3D modeling, texturing and shading, rigging and animation, etc.
Anyway, while browsing the Virtual category, I spotted a thumbnail and stopped. Because the virtual character was pretty? No, the opposite.
"Wow, it's ugly as sin."
It was seriously ugly, like it'd been fished out of some trash can. To the point where I thought the character I'd made for practice was way better.
When I joined the stream, it wasn't just the character that was the problem. Whatever they'd done with the settings, and whatever bygone era their computer specs were from, the lag was horrendous. The stream itself was okay, but the character's motion was lagging.
"Ugh, even the sound settings were all wrong. Were they a streaming newbie? No, they'd been at it for two months already?"
I checked the channel creation date, and it'd been almost two months. Shouldn't they at least know how to do basic sound settings by then?
But here's the funny thing.
This stream was weirdly entertaining.
- Uheheheh! Look at this, look! See, I told you I'm Diamond? This is my account! Everyone who doubted me, apologize! I'll accept your apologies in donations!
The streamer who'd scored a solo kill spoke in a voice full of confidence. It was definitely a play good enough to be that cocky about.
Surprised reactions popped up in chat too, though there were fewer than five viewers.
"High energy."
Setting aside the sloppy stream setup, the streamer themselves was fun. Maybe because they were a top-tier player, their play was clean and had that satisfying, reckless charging-in style. And a female gamer in Diamond tier? That, I couldn't resist.
- Acha! Hard carry! I'll be taking the Bada mission money!
Was Bada their name? I checked their nickname and it was 'Pibada'. Damn, a girl with a name that intense.
Just then, a paid chat came up.
[Are you a girl?]
Pibada responded.
- Nope. My gender is attack helicopter? AH-64 Apache.
"Pfft."
A small laugh escaped me.
Attack helicopter was a foreign meme that satirized the free-for-all around gender identity that's been causing a stir worldwide lately.
They'd say 'So I can set my gender to whatever I want? Then I'll be an attack helicopter,' and mock the idea. The AH-64 Apache, by the way, was a famous attack helicopter model.
Well, it didn't seem like this streamer was using the meme to make any kind of critique. They were probably just trying to hide their gender. Now I realized the voice changer on their voice wasn't due to noise—they'd deliberately set it up that way.
"Hmm. The stream itself was entertaining... but the settings were such a shame. And the avatar was crap too."
I thought about it for a moment and decided to help this streamer out.
'I'll give them the avatar I made for practice. I wasn't planning on selling it anyway.'
I'd been wanting to see an avatar I'd made being used on a stream anyway. I would use this streamer as my test subject. While I was at it, I'd help them out with their stream settings too.
I wrote a private message and sent it, then clicked the 'Donate' button.
[Steel has donated 100 berries.]
One berry was a hundred won, so 100 berries was ten thousand won. Not a small amount for a new streamer.
- Ah, Steel, thank you for the generous 100-berry donation!
Pibada expressed their thanks.
Right after, the text I'd typed with the donation appeared.
[Steel: Please check your DMs. You can check them after the stream ends.]
I was waiting for a reply.
- Ah, sorry, no personal-interest DMs. Please read the stream rules.
"What the fuck?"
I retyped into chat.
= No, I said you can check after the stream ends?
= [Steel has been banned from the channel.]
I paid money and got banned...
*
Fortunately, I cleared up the misunderstanding with Pibada.
They'd said 'no soliciting via DM,' but it seemed they checked the message after the stream.
A long apology and a thank-you message came back.
- Lately I've been getting malicious DMs, so I overreacted. I unbanned you right away o(_ _)o
- I'm really sorry TT^TT
- I'll redo my settings the way you told me. Thank you for the support. Really.
- I know it's shameless of me, but I'll leave my Elcode address here...
I was a little peeved, but in the end I decided to help them out.
I needed a test subject myself, and I could more than understand why they'd reacted that way.
Streamers really got harassed by trolls. Especially female streamers—they attracted perverts that defied all common sense.
You say it's fine because they don't show their face?
No, the world had far more insane perverts than you'd imagine. There were loads of guys who'd get horny just looking at 2D art—did you think they wouldn't do the same for virtual? That was exactly why she disguised her voice and made jokes about being an attack helicopter.
But when Pibada got my Elcode, her reaction was a bit strange.
While we were exchanging voice greetings, she saw my nickname and...
- Ehh? Kkangcheol?
"Yes, I'm Kkangcheol. Ah, on the stream I chatted as Steel. The nickname was already taken."
- Ah, no, not that. Wait a sec!
Why was she using banmal with me right off the bat?
I frowned, and was just thinking I should maybe find a different streamer to help.
- Kkangcheol!
Her voice changed.
The voice that had been mixed with a voice changer suddenly brightened and rose in pitch.
It was a voice I knew well.
"Ah, Areum?"
- Yeah! I'm Areum! I'm Lady Pibada!
Pibada was Areum? The 'Pi' in Pibada was from her surname?
No, that wasn't the important thing.
I immediately lowered my voice and said.
"Areum."
- U-Uhuh?
"Give me my ten thousand won back, you shit."