Chapter 18
I let out a long sigh.
I really, really don’t want to debut.
Of course, if the CEO wants me to debut as a member, I’d do it. But I’d much rather stay as plain old employee Ha Yeon-woo.
Why?
Because I know exactly what it’s like.
I know the hardships the members go through and the brutal workload they face.
“I’ll give you as much broadcasting freedom as possible. Just do whatever you want.”
“……Really?”
“Yeah. Go wild.”
That’s exactly what the CEO said.
She’d give me maximum broadcasting autonomy.
She told me to do whatever the hell I wanted.
“In that case……!”
What’s the obvious answer?
The only option is to put on such an unbelievably trash broadcast that they’ll never be able to put “U Yeon-ha” on air ever again!
“……Heh.”
They have no idea.
What U Yeon-ha is actually thinking right now.
Pop──!
After confirming that we had broken past the maximum viewer count Star Live could pull—35,000—I loaded the virtual character assigned to me.
A third-generation character created to fit the concept tentatively named “Fantastic.”
Also known as the “Sage of the Labyrinth Forest.”
Yuuri Astina Eiyashat.
Commonly called Yuuri. This was simply her outfit modified into an office worker version.
The reason this character, which somehow strangely resembled my current self, had been given to me was simple.
“It was originally a character you worked hard to plan for the third generation, but three of them already blew up, remember?”
“Right?”
“And it just so happens to fit your current look perfectly, so you should use it.”
“Is that really okay?”
“Why wouldn’t it be? Worst case, we can just debut the third generation with four members instead.”
“Umm……”
That’s how it happened.
So the character I had originally named Yuuri was now, starting today, going by the name U Yeon-ha.
“Oh, and just so you know—if you cause another incident and end up debuting in the fourth generation, you’ll have to change your nickname back to Yuuri, okay?”
“Come on…… there’s no way I’d cause another accident, right?”
“Wanna bet?”
“No thanks?”
……Well, I might end up going back to being Yuuri someday.
“……”
To calm down the increasingly noisy chat, I slowly opened my eyes.
Golden pupils stared quietly at the chat window.
“God fucking damn it……”
It was funny when the other members had to deal with this, but now that I was on the receiving end, the strangely unpleasant comments kept coming.
“Oh, I forgot to turn the mic on?”
Only then did I realize I hadn’t turned on the microphone. I quietly switched it on.
Then I read the script I had prepared.
“……It’s me, you fucking bastards.”
The chat was instantly flooded with question marks and sickles, apparently overwhelmed by the aggressively confident opening statement.
But that wasn’t my problem, so I continued reading the script I had left on screen.
“A while ago, due to my mistake, I deleted Eos’s comment on the announcement. Everyone was going crazy saying the CEO deleted it, but it was actually me. You dumbasses couldn’t even figure that out?”
Maybe because the first greeting had been so intense?
The chat still contained nothing but question marks and sickles.
Everything was going exactly as I had planned.
“Come on, people make mistakes sometimes. Stop burning down the cafe over nonsense like discord or whatever. Thanks to you guys, managing the cafe these days is a total pain in the ass. Do you all want to keep working unpaid even after your shift ends? Huh?”
The viewers were slowly starting to deny reality.
Yeah, you get it now, right?
This is the real U Yeon-ha you all wanted so badly!!
“Thanks to all of you, the CEO grabbed me and made me turn on this explanation stream.”
“But let me say this in advance. There will be no further explanation regarding the comment deletion. Our company has always had a harmonious atmosphere. It’s a very family-like environment, so please stop stirring up drama about discord.”
Ahem! They noticed that too.
These bastards really only have sharp senses for the weirdest things.
“Anyway, that’s all the explanation I prepared. For the remaining time, maybe we can do some Q&A──”
I glanced at the chat.
Thanks to my overwhelming dynamic vision, I could catch a few questions slipping through the rapidly scrolling messages.
Nope! We’re done here.
Retreat! Full retreat!
“……I’d like to take questions, but looking at the chat, it doesn’t seem like there are any worth answering, so I won’t be taking any. Everyone, you can leave now.”
“Why did I turn it on? The CEO told me to, so I turned it on against my will. You think I wanted to do this?”
“What?”
Did they just say I act the same as the CEO?
I really can’t let that slide.
“Thank you everyone!”
I bowed my head first to show my gratitude.
“Since you all said I act just like the CEO, I’ll broadcast exactly like the CEO from now on.”
Click click!
I moved the mouse and launched a game.
I’d never really played it before, but with my current body, I had a feeling I’d be insanely good at it.
It was the representative hyper FPS title from an overseas game company.
Underwatch.
“From now on I’ll just be playing Underwatch, so if you have any questions, ask them in chat.”
I moved the character window to the bottom right corner and made it small.
It was basically telling them to watch the game.
I answered while queuing as DPS to the first question that flew in.
“Why would I?”
“You’re asking because you’re curious. I don’t have anything I’m curious about.”
“What, you bastards? I raised her perfectly!”
“You all said I was just like the CEO. So I’m answering in the CEO’s place.”
“Pfft……! As if.”
After I’ve been acting like this live on stream, there’s no way the CEO—whose eyes work just fine—would actually debut me.
That would be actual insanity.
Matching complete.
“Ah, queue popped. Everyone please be quiet now. I have to play the game.”
I immediately one-picked the famous ninja character known as the embodiment of loyalty.
Hmm…… if the official cafe burns one more time because of this stream, the CEO’s definitely going to scold me, right?
“Ah, if I win this match, I’ll answer one question. Just one. Nothing too personal like where I live.”
“I’ll answer anything except sensitive stuff like my address. Just one question.”
“Do whatever you want.”
But despite their words, the viewer count stayed rock-steady in the 30,000 range.
“Tsk tsk……”
As expected, our viewers are the type whose bodies are far more honest than their mouths.
[Agh! Our team is so fucking bad!]
“……”
Hiiro Karen stared at the screen, eyes closed, focusing all her attention on the voice coming through her headset.
The CEO had said it would be a debut using AI voice modulation to disguise a male employee as a net-kama.
……That’s what the stream was supposed to be.
“……No.”
But her ears were telling her otherwise.
This wasn’t AI modulation.
It was a real woman’s voice.
“What the hell is going on……”
On the screen she was watching, a beautiful virtual character with long silver hair was frantically controlling a ninja character.
Even as a complete Underwatch beginner, she could tell it was the perfect timing to wait for the team’s respawn and push together.
[I’m becoming a dragonnnnnnn!!]
But the ninja immediately popped his ultimate and charged into the enemy team alone.
He managed to cut down a few enemies with his incredible physical mechanics, but without any support from his teammates, he didn’t last long and was quickly suppressed.
It was the ultimate form of trolling in Underwatch—completely ruining both the team’s respawn timing and ultimate timing.
“That’s…… really Yeon-woo……?”
No matter how many times she watched, she couldn’t believe it.
That player with zero brain mechanics was supposed to be Yeon-woo?
The Yeon-woo she knew was a strictly calculated player who compensated for slightly lacking physical ability with perfect game sense.
[Stop trolling! You bastards!]
“……”
If—though it sounded completely ridiculous……
‘Could it be…… her body……?’
If something had gone wrong with Yeon-woo’s body.
And that was why she had no choice but to hide inside the CEO’s house……?
Grind……!
She unconsciously clenched her teeth.
It was something a singer should never do, but that wasn’t important right now.
The benefactor who had pulled her out of that distant, crushing despair where she had been ready to throw everything away.
The person she had decided to give everything she had to as Hiiro Karen.
Her head cooled instantly at the mere thought that something might have happened to him.
Even if the ones responsible were the CEO or the other members……
“……I need to check this myself.”
She stood up from her seat, stepped out into the second-floor hallway, and looked at the circular staircase.
What lay at the top was the third-floor iron door—the CEO’s private space.
“Wait for me, Yeon-woo…… I…… will definitely save you.”