We Are Colleagues

Anyone who wants to get ahead of the pack needs a plan and a vision. That much I believe.

Turning on a mobile stream today was never an impulsive decision.

Even pearls, they say, are worthless until you string them together. There had to be a reason I'd been given this face after regressing. Leaving it idle would be like letting treasure rot.

The virtual scene was already a brutal arena of competition and conflict. My mindset was simple: use every tool available. And by that logic, even if a full-face cam stream was out of the question, a half-cam still had more than enough utility.

Half-cam's pretty common even ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in Japan, the birthplace of virtual streaming, and there's plenty of demand for it on Rabbit TV too.

It was a ridiculous double standard, but that was the internet broadcasting scene for you. Go full cam and people would scream that you weren't virtual anymore, raining down hate and insults. Flip on a half-cam, though, and it was treated as a special event stream — something that actually drew praise. I had no idea what logic that followed, but if that was how people saw it, I might as well exploit it for all it was worth.

And with looks like mine, firing up a half-cam every now and then was a serious advantage. No matter how much the virtual scene grew, the mainstream and the majority still belonged to streamers who turned on their cameras. Half-cam was how you appealed to their audiences — the ones who normally recoiled at anything virtual. A way of saying: look how captivating the person behind the avatar can be.

I'd said it a dozen times already: the virtual pie was limited. To keep growing, you eventually had to pull in not just people who already loved virtual streamers, but the ones who only watched human streamers too. After all, most of today's virtual fans had been watching cam streamers before virtual even existed. Drawing them over was absolutely doable.

Plenty of viewers flooded into the virtual scene that way through Rena World alone.

I took confidence from the precedent of my previous life. So I'd deliberately talked Lucy into joining a mobile stream and boldly put my charms on display.

And the result was a complete success.

Terrifying chat firepower. And a viewer count rocketing skyward.

Of course, not just anyone could pull this off. Plenty of virtual streamers had tried half-cam even before my regression, but the ones who actually cracked four-digit viewers were a rare few. Most of them desperately fished for new blood and ended up with nothing more than a little fan event.

But I'm different. Looks are looks, sure — but I've got real reach.

I hadn't been rolling around in the mud for attention for nothing. How hard had I worked all this time? I'd pulled every kind of aggro imaginable, written promo posts on community boards with alt accounts, and even taken risks going up against big-agency streamers. All of that effort was finally paying off.

Nothing ever happens overnight.

I tilted my phone to show the tabletop and murmured in a leisurely, honeyed voice.

"Baby, why are you whining again? Come on now."

The explosion of anticipation aimed at me wasn't enough — it spilled over onto Lucy too, with a rain of requests to show her side of the table.

Hmph. Not a chance.

My bias was for my eyes only.

I cast my mind back roughly an hour earlier, to the moment I first met Lucy.

Song lyrics rang through my imagination, matching the moment with uncanny precision.

I'd arrived at the restaurant we'd agreed on about ten minutes early, sat down at a table, and waited for Lucy. And then, at last, I could receive her.

Neatly styled bobbed hair. An oversized trench coat draped casually over her shoulders. Even though she ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was only twenty-four — still young — there was a strangely mature air about her. And the moment our eyes met, I found myself looking into pupils like a deep lake, the kind you could fall into and never climb out of.

It was only a first impression, but she didn't feel like an easy person to approach. More like someone who put up walls — the kind of presence that made people around her keep their distance.

"Ah!"

She'd spotted me sitting at the corner table. She raised a hand slightly and opened her mouth.

"Seo-a, Seo-a, hi! It's our first time meeting, but it feels like I've known you forever. I'm so glad!"

She came straight over and greeted me, and that cold first impression shattered into pieces. The way she grinned so brightly, dimples faintly showing — why did she look so adorable? Was this what they called gap moe? Watching someone who'd seemed so frosty melt into something soft and clingy made my heart skip a beat without permission.

"Hi, Lucy unnie. It's so nice to finally meet you like this. Freezing out there today, huh?"

"A little? But Seo-a, you're so pretty."

"Ahaha…"

Lucy was exactly the same online and offline. She'd put up walls at first, but once you got close, she treated you like her best friend in the world. Experiencing it in person was a little disorienting. I wasn't exactly used to dealing with women, after all.

And I'd expected it when I suggested meeting up, but…

There was definitely a reason for her confidence. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠A cool beauty with a slightly chilly air, maybe? She looked about three or four centimeters taller than me as I was now — nearly 170 centimeters.

"I got your almost-there message and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ordered already. You should order too, unnie."

"Okay, got it."

Lucy sat across from me, placed her order, and we fell into all kinds of conversation — how we'd each started streaming, what our crew activities were like, the content we wanted to try going forward. It was a remarkably strange experience.

Meeting your bias in real life. Not exactly something just anyone gets to do.

And some things were different from what I'd expected. I'd thought that meeting Lucy would make my chest swell, that three years of memories would leave me feeling sentimental — but I was surprisingly calm about it. Or more precisely, the sense of her as a fellow streamer, a colleague, hit harder than the old feeling of being her "fan" from before the regression. So contrary to what I'd imagined, I found myself treating her comfortably right away.

Still… I never thought a day like this would actually come.

The excitement was milder than expected, but the wonder of it was still wonderful. We shared a delicious meal, and then, at my suggestion, decided to start a mobile stream.

"Just your voice is enough, unnie. I won't point the camera your way, so don't worry."

"Okay. Got it."

When I'd first brought up the mobile stream, Lucy had clearly hesitated. We talked about it briefly — apparently her family was extremely strict. Huh? What did that mean? Wasn't Lucy living alone? Curiosity stirred, but her expression had gone cold and stiff, and prying further felt like bad manners. So I just kept stressing how careful I'd be, and left it at that. We'd make sure not a single detail of Lucy's personal information got out.

After that we moved to a café, fired up the mobile stream, tested the waters a little, and then — pretending it was a mistake — I deliberately let myself appear on camera. Naturally, I framed it so only everything below the neck showed. I still had that bet with Ju-ttak, after all. I had to keep at least the "virtual" nameplate intact.

"……"

Men truly were pitiful creatures. Fine — for the sake of old camaraderie from when I was the same gender, before the regression, I'd throw in plenty of service scenes.

I kept it up for a while, and the barrage of Candy donations pouring in made it hard to even keep my head straight.

Huh? What's with this guy? Wasn't he a virtual fan? Didn't expect him to go this hard for half-cam.

I got to watch the vice-chairman's meltdown as a bonus, and the mobile stream wrapped up in spectacular fashion. Viewers, Candy donations, buzz — a perfect trinity of everything.

Afterward we moved again and had a proper chat session with Lucy. It would have been a shame to part ways this early. Still, we both headed home before it got dark. Tomorrow's stream was waiting, so I needed to go back, prepare ahead, and get some rest.

And just like that, I saw off the bias of my previous life.

Now, we were colleagues.