Chapter 34
Chapter 34
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 34
Chapter Title: Tempted by the Stream
-----------------------------------------------------------------
After getting doused in warm water, my head finally started to clear up a bit.
I'd gotten used to checking the mirror every time I showered, and even my naked body—which had felt so utterly alien at first—was starting to feel familiar.
Humming my favorite songs with the water running was the same for my voice.
With such great vocal cords, singing was just plain fun.
I could see why people with good tones made it a hobby—no choice, really.
My low range had always capped my high notes, no matter how much I practiced, but this throat nailed them effortlessly.
At this rate, humming was gonna become a habit.
At coin karaoke, when my voice wore out, I'd pivot to rap... nah. With this tone, rap would sound killer too.
Truly selfish genes.
Compared to practicing alone back in the day, this was a world apart.
Though with a full body swap like this, dramatic changes wouldn't even register.
"Don't... even... get me... Did this song even come out?"
When was this released...
Pretty sure it dropped around now—has the album even hit?
Nah. If I'm not sure, better not sing it.
I might accidentally turn into a copyright pirate.
Drying off with a towel and grabbing another one just for my hair had become second nature.
Ripping through towels like this piles up laundry fast, but the washer here had a dryer built in—super convenient.
Money really was the best.
Speaking of money, I wonder how much my cut from today's stream will be.
Even a rough glance screamed "not small"...
They'd explained settlements and all that beforehand.
Problem was, I'd brushed it off figuring they'd handle everything.
Irresponsible on my part, sure, but what do I even know about streaming?
Platform fees, taxes... I should look into it, but with so many urgent things piling up right now...
I earned good money today, so let's push it off a bit longer.
I dried my hair, then grabbed a booze bottle from the fridge before sitting down.
The rum I'd stashed before the collab was nicely chilled.
Poured it generously into a glass (looked pricey), then topped with Coke.
No lime was a bummer, but with Pepsi Zero Lime, it kinda checks the boxes for a Cuba Libre, right?
No ice either, but the drinks are cold, so close enough.
In Tyr: Odin's Son, you couldn't send friend requests by nickname alone.
Whether in multiplayer or by creating a room directly, your account had to be logged for it to work.
So all those handshake requests were from the Odin's Son Minor Gallery crew I'd partied with in last week's 10-wins.
Just one stream and this many? Kinda overkill... but then again.
Even brushing sleeves can be fate, and we went best-of-10.
Hardcore shitgame veteran + S-rank beauty from this country.
If I'd brushed past a fantasy species like that, I'd probably send a friend request too.
Still, staring at the flood made me dizzy, so I sipped my rum and Coke.
I glanced back at the game window.
Tons of handshake requests, but the only online friend in my list was Hanami.
A few more offline... total unknowns, of course.
Probably the original owner's friends.
I'd been on edge waiting for them to message, but since they stayed offline, they didn't seem like avid gamers.
Makes sense. Guys that age are grinding games, but these are girls, right?
Just in case, I checked her game library—it was barren.
The fear hit that one might log in out of nowhere and drop a personal message...
What could I do? Pretend I didn't notice and look away.
Anyway, why so many messages?
I opened one experimentally, and it was pretty shocking.
Whoa... what a spectacle.
This guy had a real talent for killing the mood instantly.
In a huff, I took another sip of rum and Coke.
But now curiosity was kicking in.
"Let's see... middle schooler?"
Tempted to plaster his Insta ID raw on the Odin's Son Minor Gallery and dox him proper.
Kid. I went easy on you.
Know you lived thanks to juvenile protections—and watch yourself from now on.
The other messages were mostly fine, though.
Build questions, clan invites, that sort of thing.
Yeah, this wasn't an anonymous gallery—lawsuits hit like criticals just from grazing.
Every time I saw hordes of handshake requests like this, it hit me how strong my ripple effect really was.
Honestly, when I first showed up on YouTube, I figured it'd be no big deal.
But the view counts were skyrocketing unrecognizably every time I checked.
The viewer surge from this stream was insane too.
Never dreamed the gap between a shitfail game and a godgame would be this wide.
[Title: Is this for real?]
Fuck, hold up—I'm heading out to confess!
That's edited, I saw it
Or maybe not.
Could just be the gender gap.
The gallery was still buzzing with "big sis" talk.
I fled like the wind and hopped into Hanami's channel.
Hmm. Views up again, as expected.
Not just fallout from the stream we just did.
Maybe the whole commotion rode the algorithm? Hanami's YouTube channel views were trending up across the board.
This was an era where even mentioning VTubers got you that "You watch that?" vibe everywhere.
In the 2020s, when "Eww, what the hell!" reactions were the norm, this was a pretty huge boon.
An time when prejudice—or resentment?—against VTubers was widespread.
Even sussing out personal vs. corporate taxes was a hassle back then.
Hanami was a full-on big-corp streamer, but on the weak side among them.
She'd snagged her Silver Button ages ago, but growth had slowed to a stall.
Gold Button felt miles away—stuck in that mid-tier big-corp limbo, y'know?
Digging through memories, YouTube's vibe was like that for everyone around then.
No serious plans, but everyone and their dog started a channel anyway.
"Everyone's doing it, so I can't not?" That kinda peer pressure.
Post-corona, as time dragged on, it turned into a blood-soaked red ocean...
Only then did folks start bailing or cutting maintenance costs, I recall.
Eh, who knows how it'll play out in this world.
It's a worldline where the invincible god Tesla turned into a retard.
No room for rash predictions.
This Florence VTuber group was a name I didn't remember either.
Not 100% sure, honestly.
I wasn't the type to watch enough indie streams to memorize every streamer.
Hanami and the rest were big enough to call "big corp"... but maybe the VTuber side never took off.
2020 probably too early for VTubers, period.
Took years for the latecomers to carve out space and go mainstream, from what I know.
To some, just a few years; to others, an insurmountable cliff.
Yuuri had the foresight that VTubers would pop off...
But maybe she was a genius born in the wrong era?
Anyway, her eye and hustle seemed top-notch.
Think of it like a test.
VTubing's a brand-new subject this year.
Betting money, time, and your future on it? Takes real guts.
Tough sell for safety-first types like me.
"..."
But here's the thing.
I know the passers from years after it launched.
"Hmm... this is getting dangerous."
It's not like I hadn't considered it.
Setting aside obvious clichés, this face—or hell, just the voice—showed real potential.
But when push came to actually starting? Yeah, I hesitated.
Anyone can just "stream," right?
You need talent for banter, sense, all that.
Even as a total showboat, I wasn't brash enough to yak shamelessly in front of thousands.
But.
Once I tried it? Totally doable.
The more I thought, the more viable it felt.
And the more viable it seemed, the more my heart stirred.
"Ah... no, can't..."
My head was groaning in resistance, but my fingers were unconsciously tapping the search bar.
Shopping site... PC shopping section, yeah... let's see...
"Wonder how much streaming mics run..."
While I was racking my brain over the whole concept of a streaming PC...
The agenda for Florence's emergency irregular meeting was this:
"This girl's got talent."
"...Here we go again."
"We gotta snag her somehow."
"And how exactly?"
"That's for you to figure out!!"
"Ugh, seriously!!"
