Chapter 17
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: Am I Now a Proper Virtual YouTuber?
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1.
The incident started with a call from my sister.
"Do you remember when you were little and it was thundering at night? You got scared and climbed into bed with me?"
"...That never happened."
"It did! You were hugging your pillow, sniffling and waking me up. You were so cute..."
"I said it never happened!"
We were sitting on the living room sofa, laughing as we reminisced about our childhood. That's when the cellphone on the small table started ringing.
"Hold on a sec."
I handed her the phone, and she said "Thanks" before checking the screen. She soon tilted her head in confusion.
"What's up?"
"I got a call from someone I wasn't expecting. We're not close enough for them to voice chat me like this."
"...A guy, maybe?"
I pressed my lips together tightly. My brows furrowed on their own, and my voice came out sharper. She blinked in surprise before speaking.
"No. It's another Virtual YouTuber. Someone from the same team in a big collab stream. Obviously a girl."
"Then why are you so flustered?"
"Well, we haven't talked or collabed even once since then? When someone you're not close to suddenly calls out of the blue, it feels off, right?"
"Yeah, fair enough."
It was true—sudden contact from an acquaintance always made you wonder what their angle was.
"Just pick up for now."
"...Guess I should."
She stared at the screen with her lips pressed tight. The phone trembled slightly in her hand.
'She's still not okay after all.'
She'd been so bright and playful lately that I'd thought her anxiety was gone, but apparently not.
'Makes sense. Emotional scars don't just heal overnight like some fairy tale.'
I took the phone from her hand.
"I'll get it."
"Ah, no. I should... Siwoo..."
"You're shaking like that—how are you gonna talk? I'll handle it, so just sit quietly and listen. Rely on me a little."
"...Okay."
She answered glumly. I could read her mind: she was probably beating herself up again.
"We'll fix it bit by bit. Right?"
I hugged her tight and patted her back.
"...Yeah. You're right."
Her expression brightened a little, so I felt relieved and answered the call.
"Hello?"
-Hello? Is this... uh, well...
A clearly flustered voice came through the phone. She was hesitating, unable to continue, which almost made me laugh.
'Sounds like Elena.'
She probably couldn't bring herself to ask, "Is this Noir's phone?" My sister might be keeping her VTuber identity secret from people around her.
"My sister's sleeping right now. What's this about?"
-Oh, um... it's kind of urgent. So, uh...
I could sense her consideration in her tone. She was carefully choosing words to avoid outing my sister as a streamer.
"Is this about streaming?"
The conversation wasn't going anywhere, so I took the lead.
-Ah, yes! When your sister wakes up, tell her to check her DMs, okay?
"Got it."
The call ended after that.
'If she just wanted me to pass that on, why not say "check your DMs" in the message?'
It was puzzling, but there must be more to it.
"What'd she say?"
"Just to check her private messages."
"Oh? Hang on."
She took the phone back from me and opened the messenger. As she scrolled through the chat, her eyes started shaking.
"What's wrong now?"
Her uneasy look worried me again. Why was she so easily rattled, like some kind of mackerel?
"Look..."
She showed me the screen with a dejected face.
Noir, people from the community are swarming me out of nowhere, demanding I bring you out!
(Crying cat emoticon)
What the heck is going on...!
The first messages were exactly like that—pure confusion at first glance.
(Screenshot summary of a community thread)
Probably this. As you can see, hit me up!
But really, nothing bad happened, right...?
(Wary cat emoticon)
About 30 minutes later, it seemed she'd figured out more about what was going on.
(Shivering cat emoticon)
Another hour passed, and that was the last message—sent exactly 20 minutes ago. She must've been so worried something happened that she called.
I tapped the link Elena sent and entered the community site.
───
[General] Summary of the Noir Situation So Far
1. Someone called Carrier openly declared they'd snipe Noir on Elena's stream.
2. Noir lost the game, got mad, and reported Carrier for sniping.
3. But then heard Carrier was about to start streaming soon, so Noir messaged saying she'd apologize to avoid a ban messing up her schedule.
4. They said they'd talk it out and vanished. After that, things went as posted in the main thread lol
5. Refer to main thread posts for the rest lol
6. A whole day passed, no reactions yet. Regular stream time's already passed.
7. Jobless Streamer Gallery dwellers are now harassing every streamer connected to Noir
This seems serious. Kinda worried tbh;
Fuck. You call this a summary? Seven lines and calling it a summary lololol
One-line summary: Noir seems in danger!
Good.
But seriously, did something happen? She suddenly burst into tears and freaked me out;
What the fuck did Carrier say? I'm dying to know;
VTuber talk belongs in the VTuber gallery, fuck off
Old fart lol Don't you know VTubers are the trend now???
This is trending? Korea's fucked lol;
"Hm."
From an outsider's perspective without knowing the truth, it definitely looked suspicious. They'd gone off to talk privately and then shown that much emotional swing.
"...What do we do?"
She asked my opinion with a frightened look. It had to feel burdensome.
"You know this needs resolving ASAP, right?"
"Yeah. Elena's taking the heat for it."
Good—she wasn't avoiding it. She hated causing trouble for others, after all.
"Simple solution: go on stream together and explain everything. Done."
Truthfully, there was no other way. Hiding it with lies could make things worse.
"The issue is I can't reveal returning from another world or the gender swap... We'll just gloss over that suitably."
"What if viewers ask for details? Like why we were separated?"
I thought for a moment before speaking.
"How about I was the only one adopted? We grew up together in the orphanage, then I went overseas and you stayed in Korea."
"Hm. That'd be pretty convincing. In this tech-savvy era, family losing contact sounds unrealistic—unless it's a situation like that. Makes sense."
We were kids with no say back then. A clean break would be believable.
"If they pry deeper, say it's family matters and refuse to answer. Sound good?"
"Perfect. But let's flesh out the backstory more thoroughly. Can't have it feel off. I'll help."
"Sure."
She got up from the sofa and fetched a notebook. She handed me a pen, and we started building the details.
"This takes me back to playing drawing games together at the orphanage."
"That was fun."
She giggled.
We focused back on the notebook, carefully crafting our story. It had to be airtight.
"Done!"
About an hour later, we'd nailed a solid, persuasive backstory.
"Feels like I'm a real webnovel author now."
"Tell me about it. But this should do it. Right?"
"Yeah."
I read through the notes one last time to check, and suddenly burst out laughing.
"Why the laugh?"
"No reason. Just... building this lore and plot, it kinda feels like I've become a VTuber too. They call this RP, right?"
"Exactly. What we're doing is RP. Siblings separated by family drama in childhood, miraculously reunited—RP!"
"Not wrong, is it? Difference is, it wasn't a 'miracle' but our desperate wishes that made it happen."
Maybe human will is greater than any miracle.
"Alright. Time to get up and do the clarification stream. Only one capsule here, so I'll have to head to the capsule room."
I didn't ask her to come along. Going out might be tough for her.
She hesitated for a long time, then bit her lip quietly. With trembling hands, she took mine and whispered.
"...Let's go together."
"For real? You sure?"
"Yeah. Alone, I'd never make it. But now it's fine. You've got my back, Hayul."
"Great. Let's go."
I grinned wide and squeezed her hand tight.
Just like on my first day of elementary school, when she held my hesitant hand at the strange school gates and led me to class.
Like how I drew courage from her warmth that day—this time, I hoped she could draw hers from my hand.