The Aftermath of the Awards Ceremony

It was an impulsive remark, completely unlike my usual self.

It wasn't as if our crew had been the ones getting flamed, and they were virtual streamers from other crews anyway. Image rehabilitation would have come naturally once the Rena World period passed—so why had I stuck my neck out like that?

Regret arrived far too late. Maybe the end of the year had briefly turned me sentimental. Or maybe it was still the lingering aftershock of that unfamiliar "Day of Magic."

Damn it. Enough.

The deeper I dug, the more it felt like I was only hurting ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠myself.

The stream itself had ended on a surprisingly cheerful note. Everyone declared that my sudden sentimental turn would become legendary black history and that they would tease me about it for ages. Looking at the chat, there were even people saying they liked me more because it made me feel human.

The community consensus after the broadcast was largely the same. The virtual streamer fans, in particular, were on fire.

At first the public opinion was evenly split—virtual streamer fans burning with fighting spirit on one side, and fans of face-cam streamers arguing that the careless remarks themselves were the real problem on the other.

But once screenshots of the official broadcast chat started getting uploaded in real time, the tide had no choice but to turn. There weren't many people shameless enough to keep defending after seeing a chat window packed with every kind of insult, belittlement, and curse.

FM Community, being the land of mask-wearers that it was, flipped sides almost immediately and started taking my part. The virtual streamer fans in particular were treating me like some kind of "Virtual President" for defending virtual human rights.

Reactions across the various galleries were more mixed. Places with a high virtual streamer presence were full of praise for me; galleries that mainly covered face-cam streamers either treated me like a complete nobody or decided I was full of myself.

The absolute worst among them was, of course, Panbang Gallery. The same malice they had poured into manufacturing public opinion against Mist and me was now roaring back to life—they were determined to make me taste hell all over again over this incident.

Still, this is about as good as it gets.

Those Panbang Gallery psychos would have their scopes trained on me even if I sat perfectly still. What surprised me more was how many of the face-cam-focused galleries were actually split fifty-fifty.

After lurking through a few posts, I understood why.

Right. All that goodwill farming with the big-agency streamer fandoms wasn't wasted after all!

Kim Hak-do's fans and Park Bong-sik's fans. They made up a serious chunk of the face-cam streamer fandoms, and they were quietly taking my side. I guess all that effort hadn't betrayed me.

"Whew. Barely scraped a one-coin win."

In a period when public opinion toward virtuals was already ice-cold, I had gone and made a principle statement on a stage as big as the year-end awards. Cold sweat had been running down my back without me even noticing once it was over.

Still—I won Rookie of the Year, so cheers!

In its own way, it was a happy ending.

Saturday, December 31st.

The final morning of 2022 finally dawned. After today I would be twenty-four, right? Originally I should have been thirty-year-old Seo Minjun. Turning into Seo Min-ah and still having years left before my thirties—was that a win?

Either way, today was packed with an absurdly busy schedule. First of all, the fallout from the 210,000-Candy roulette had been enormous. An insane pile of homework was waiting for me.

Just the N-rank Bang-sels alone were that many. Factoring in the rest of the homework made even organizing it dizzying. The core 0.5% probability prizes had also produced a surprising number of winners.

How am I supposed to clear all of this in one lifetime?

I should at least send the manager a few gift cards for the hell of sorting it all. And I must not lose my original heart. Back before the regression, when I was active on Pan-beo-gal, how hard had I slammed virtual streamers who let their Bang-sels and homework pile up as irresponsible? If I became the one with the backlog and lost my principles, that would be the purest hypocrisy.

Besides, I had raked in a full 210,000 Candies. Remembering that fact, the homework wasn't a burden—it was something to be grateful for.

Right. First I'll make a systematic plan and clear the homework as fast as possible…

Even setting the homework aside, today was going to be busy. As I kept emphasizing, it was the last day of the year. We had a special crew content planned exactly as I had mapped it out in advance. So of course my head was going to be spinning. There was so much to worry about that I hadn't even managed to eat breakfast.

But what's this ominous feeling? Come to think of it, it always happens like this. The moment I'm exhausted or swamped, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the call comes with supernatural timing…

Sure enough, Rena-ttang was no gentleman. The second the thought crossed my mind, her call came through. I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠managed my mental state with a deep sigh, then accepted the Discord call in a calm voice.

"Seo-a, hi? Congrats so so much on winning Rookie of the Year yesterday."

"Ah, thank you. Rena-ttang-nim, your hosting of Part 3 yesterday was so so cool. That real pro vibe!"

"Aww, come on. That's just everyday life for me. I've done tons of MC work, run events all over the place… you know how it is."

Judging by yesterday's hosting ability alone, Rena-ttang had every right to hold her nose that high. A career professional really did feel different. The male streamer who handled Part 1 had looked nervous and couldn't even enunciate cleanly—he'd dropped lines here and there too.

"More importantly, Seo-a. You know the announcement I put up, right?"

"Announcement?"

"Yeah. The one about inspecting My Houses this weekend."

"Ah…"

"I'm doing it tomorrow."

"…!"

I had briefly forgotten because of the year-end rush, but of course Rena-ttang was blazing hot as ever. She was going to start the new year on January 1st by cleanly cutting out every annoying person. Of course, she already had the justification. The server owner had that authority, she had announced it in advance, and she had given more than enough time for My House construction.

Still—taking something that could have ended as pure stream content all the way to actual bans? From here on it was Rena-ttang's choice. Honestly, this kind of thing always came back as karma later.

"What do you think, Seo-a? Am I being too hasty?"

"No. It's not hasty. You already gave more than enough time. It's just… you don't necessarily have to ban people…"

"Oh my! Seo-a, if you put it like that people will get the wrong idea. It's not like I'm ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠determined to pick ban targets no matter what. If during the inspection we find people who show zero affection or sense of belonging toward our server, then of course we'll have to take appropriate measures."

"Ahaha, right. Exactly that."

Why is she like this to me first thing in the morning!

I agreed with everything Rena-ttang said as hard as I could, doing my best social-life performance so I wouldn't get on her nerves. I already had more antis than before—there was no need to make an enemy of Rena-ttang on top of that.

Annoying as it was, I had gotten good intel, so the moment I hung up with her I needed to contact the crew members and every streamer I was friendly with. Better safe than sorry—tell them to put a little extra care into their My Houses today.

Suddenly one more thing I have to worry about.

From the mountain of homework, to My Houses, to tonight's crew content—a packed schedule was waiting for me.