Brewing the Broth

"Hello everyone! As everyone knows, the color of a VTuber king is blue! And with ruby-pretty eyes, that makes Ruby. Put them together and you get Blueby. So nice to meet you all!"

At last, virtual streamer Blueby had debuted on Pangea TV.

She'd gotten a promo segment on Lucy's news broadcast, and the moment that corner wrapped, she flipped her own stream on to announce her debut. Looking at the high-quality avatar filling the center of the screen, I felt a slight burn in my gut.

I never should have introduced her to Bebe-ttang.

It had been payment for helping persuade Lucy to switch platforms, sure — but the heart you walk into the bathroom with is never the same one you walk out with. I clicked my tongue, wondering if I'd just done a competitor a massive favor for nothing.

Blue hair rendered so finely you could see the tips of every strand, elegant enough to feel expensive, and those intense ruby eyes that snagged your gaze and wouldn't let go. A mini-sized crown tilted slightly to the right, perched on her head as a finishing touch.

"I'm twenty-four! And I'm friends with Lucy, who promoted me on the news broadcast today."

I was reminded all over again — that voice really was one in a thousand.

My memory hadn't been wrong after all.

Two months ago. I'd gotten her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠number through Lucy and called Blueby for the first time, and the moment I heard her voice, I'd nearly jumped out of my skin. The person answering sounded nothing like the Blueby I remembered from before the regression. I'd double-checked the number, half-convinced I'd dialed the wrong person.

But after talking, it was definitely Blueby — and a few theories started forming.

Had she been using a different voice for streaming than her real one?

Today, that question finally got its answer.

That's not even her real voice, and she can talk that naturally?

It was a genuinely incredible talent. Separately from how much I disliked her, credit where credit was due. It wasn't just the voice work, either — before the regression, Blueby's stream hours hadn't been short.

I always heard that using a non-natural voice puts a ton of strain on your throat.

And yet she'd kept that voice going without a hitch all the way through 2025. Special talent? Or just technique?

I set the curiosity aside and kept watching. Blueby's debut stream was a runaway success. Lucy's news promo had helped, sure, but Blueby herself had come prepared. First of all, the avatar — the virtual streamer's calling card — had turned out absurdly well. No VTuber fan could resist a high-quality avatar staring them down from a thumbnail.

On top of that, the PPT and materials for the debut stream had been meticulously put together, and her streaming ability was proven the moment she casually handled a chat of over five hundred viewers like it was nothing.

And she's calling this a debut stream? Unbelievable.

Nobody watching would take Blueby for a beginner. She clearly had a "past." The only frustrating part was having no way to prove it.

Tch. For now, just focus on locking down the home front.

Blueby stuck in my throat like a fishbone, but at this stage she wasn't exactly a major rival. From my perspective — and V-Live's — the real ones to watch were Decrescendo and Pocotin, both steadily building power. The virtual-streaming pie on the broadcasting scene wasn't big enough to carve up generously for everyone.

Gotta keep the house rabbits happy. V-Live still isn't tight enough yet.

Decrescendo had come through the Wooga-dol audition with a fanbase of terrifying ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠loyalty, and while Pocotin wasn't quite on that level, they still had core fans who'd followed them over from Rabbit TV. Unfortunately, our V-Live was lacking on that front. The fan devotion just wasn't that deep yet. Plenty of viewers weren't locked onto V-Live alone — they had one foot in other crews as well.

Right. I was going to upload bang-sels today anyway. Perfect chance to tighten the ranks.

It had been a while since I'd last had the chance to brew some broth.

The longer you simmer the broth, the richer it gets.

Make that your main course and you end up with what's commonly called a gachi-koi stream — the pseudo-romance kind. The upside of that format is fan loyalty that borders on the absurd. Back on Pan-beo-gal, fans like that used to get called unbreakable concrete. Or, measuring by viewer count, the Thirty Warriors, the Forty Warriors, and so on.

Having a lot of high-loyalty fans is great. But that kind of stream isn't without its downsides.

The defining trait of gachi-koi streams is how close the distance between viewer and streamer gets. That breeds a heavy "there, there, good boy" culture of coddling the streamer, and new incoming viewers naturally struggle to adapt to the atmosphere. The existing viewers and the streamer are so tightly bonded there's no room to squeeze in — you end up feeling like a lonely outsider. Everyone's laughing "haha hoho" like old friends, trading inside jokes only they understand. Of course you'd feel shut out.

In the end, streams like that struggle to pull in new blood. Without some kind of singularity event, they stagnate. The stream can't grow any bigger; it either slowly withers or flatlines into maintenance mode.

So is the opposite approach always better? Funny enough, no.

Streams overflowing with dopamine, wildly generous to casual drop-in viewers. That type draws crowds whenever something happens or a decent piece of content drops. Awareness and buzz run high. But that popularity is always temporary. The second a substitute appears or the fun dips, they stampede out. Plenty of viewers only show up for the interesting content and spend the rest of their time on other streams. Streamers like that naturally get classified as "named small-timers" — the ones who grew on the runoff from big-corp streamers usually fall into this category.

There's no perfect method in this world. What matters is the middle path.

Take the strengths of each approach and minimize the weaknesses. That was the ideal every streamer should aim for. And in that sense, today was a good opportunity. I had a natural "justification" for brewing some broth.

All the bang-sels sold last week had finished production. The handwritten letters had gone out two days ago; now I just needed to upload the bang-sels to the buyers' channel pages.

Right. That's the important part. The viewers' channel pages.

A viewer's channel page might look like nothing special, but dig into it and it's a goldmine of information. The list of dedicated fans recorded on the page. Bang-sel photos posted on the board. Messages left in the guestbook. Every single one was a valuable clue. And with material like that on hand, manufacturing a situation was child's play.

"Alright, alright, way too many buyers, so we're moving fast. Is TwinsFan here? Knock knock! N-rank bang-sel delivery!"

The first deliveries went smoothly. Even so, fans who plastered their channel pages with bang-sels and reverse-fan merch were a minority. But I wasn't worried in the slightest. I still had more candidates than I knew what to do with.

"Knock knock! Delivery! Shall we take a little look around our SeoAIsCute's channel page? Wait—?!"

And then the opportunity arrived. For starters, the nickname showing on the channel page wasn't "SeoAIsCute" at all. That had been a decoy sub name. The real nickname was MuyoIsABaby, and both Muyo and Baiyo were sitting right there on the dedicated fan list.

Perfect. Let's go.

I deliberately cut my eyes sideways and puffed out my cheeks. A black-haired, red-eyed beautiful-girl avatar wearing a headset, doing that — it looked cuter than usual.

"Cute, I never took you for this kind of player. Quite the player, aren't you? Even the nickname was a disguise. Hmph! And here I was being sincere."

Too sharp or too pressuring and it backfires. The vibe had to stay light — the kind of mild jealousy you'd get from a situationship girl or a close female friend. Meanwhile, off-camera, I quickly searched the other party's ID. Data management these days was so thorough that a streamer only needed a few clicks through the broadcast data menu for a viewer's entire info to spill out in a cascade.

"I think I've seen you in my stream about ten times this month. Not much chatting, but you did donate. And then I find out you've been with another girl… sob!"

Getting focused attention from the streamer you love? Absolutely irresistible. And if you can wring your memory dry ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠enough to name-drop that viewer's chat history or Candy donations, the game is basically over.

Wait — she was paying attention to me this whole time?

Sadly, it was nothing more than the streaming industry's version of keeping multiple lines in the water. But our poor sucker didn't know that, and his head cracked open into a nice rich broth. The truth is never pretty. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss.

And this isn't even the end. The real highlights are still stacked up waiting.

Viewers who'd bought N-rank or R-rank bang-sels were just the kindling to warm up the atmosphere. The real core of content like this was always the dedicated fans — the majority shareholders holding the biggest stake in a streamer's broadcast.

Right on cue, it was time to deliver the SR-rank bang-sels. First up: the atmosphere-maker of my stream, Vice-Chairman Seoah Not Streaming.

"Hmph! Don't even need to look. Our Vice-Chair, scattering himself all over the place with zero loyalty."

His brazen confidence made me want to mess with him, but verification came first. I raided the channel page.

Huh? The main display was clean. Last time there'd been another female streamer's bang-sel right there.

I sat there blinking, and Seoah Not Streaming puffed himself up, demanding an apology for ever doubting him.

Hmph. Not a chance.

If I were actually a two-month rookie, I might've fallen for it.

Seoah Not Streaming's trick was simple. In a tucked-away corner board, I found a pile of secret posts — posts set so visitors couldn't see them — all hidden away.

"Plus every single edit timestamp is within the last ten minutes. Still got something to say?"

"You can eat this! Reflect on yourself until the stream ends today."

I specially served him a sixty-minute chat ban. For Seoah Not Streaming, who typed more than any other dedicated fan, that would be genuinely suffocating.

"Thank you so much for the bail money, Mr. Vice-Chairman! A refined gentleman of social standing like yourself — why would you do that? Let's not have a repeat, okay?"

And so, starting with the Vice-Chairman, the SR-rank bang-sel deliveries wrapped up. All that remained was the long-awaited SSR-rank bang-sel — and the President of our stream, Seo-a-ui-bin-ji-gap.

"Moshi moshi. Mr. President, you're watching my stream, right? You're not multi-viewing some other camgirl unnie's stream, are you? I— I trust our President. We even talked about our small wedding. When I go into ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠your channel page, all those hot unnie photos from before will be cleaned up nice and neat."

Ahem. A hundred thousand Candies? Demanding a full cleanup might have crossed a line. I glanced at the chat's mood and dialed the intensity back.

"Th-then even if a full cleanup is too much, at least the main display should be me. Right? Our President wasn't even using a decoy sub name last time I checked. I'm going to believe in you."

I said it that way while deliberately making my hands tremble, putting on a worried act. That way the viewers would have angles to tease me in chat and have even more fun. I'd also finished prepping the BGM I'd set aside in advance.

And then, at last, I entered Seo-a-ui-bin-ji-gap's channel page.

"Ah! I— I believed in you. That my bang-sel would be the main."

Sitting in the main display, same as last time, was a famous camgirl's bang-sel. As if I'd been waiting for this exact moment, I hit play on a trashy drama theme song.

"Revenge… I'm going to get my revenge!"

If I could put a beauty mark on the avatar's face right now it would be perfect, but that would be overinvesting. I threw myself fully into playing the betrayed tragic heroine.

Alright. Let's hear your excuse, you shameless President.

"……."

Ah. Right.

In that instant, an avalanche of viewers calling me an idiot and roaring with laughter poured in. From the female-friend-style jealousy concept of brewing broth all the way to a streamer with real impact — a perfect build-up. Even the blunder at the very end. Would you believe me if I said this was all planned?

……No, I'm serious.