Became the Mother of Virtual YouTubers - Chapter 126
“Jin Ha~ You know that our Jinro World opens in exactly three days, right?”
Roji’s bright and cheerful voice felt unusually sharp today.
Jin Ha glanced at the little witch avatar tapping away on her virtual keyboard beside her and slowly nodded with a reluctant expression.
“…I know.”
“Until a few days ago, we really had a great atmosphere, didn’t we?”
“Well… yeah.”
It felt as if the conversation and mood were like a couple who had just fought and were briefly reconvening in a cold war state.
…Is this right?
“No matter where you look, the Pasta channel is just filled with Jinro World tags, and the streamers are all busy analyzing trailers or extracting information from beta testers.”
Roji muttered as she folded her fingers one by one before letting out a quiet sigh.
“But what about now? Why is everyone so obsessed with this jumping game?!”
“True… haha…”
“What are you pretending not to know? That game was made by you, Jin Ha!!”
Despite saying this, there was a sense of admiration deeply embedded in Roji’s voice. As a fan who respected Jin Ha, it was unavoidable that she delighted in her success.
“I mean, there is such a thing as ethical standards! How can you release a game that targets streamers’ feelings before the project opens?!”
Of course, to be a bit more honest, there was a sprinkle of disappointment and a cute grumble mixed in Roji’s voice.
“I’m a victim too if you want to get technical…”
Jin Ha awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck. But in fact, she, alongside Roji, was one of the only two key developers of Jinro World.
“…Well, that’s not entirely wrong. But Jin Ha, you’re really amazing. You must have been busy just with the development of Jinro World, when did you make Jump Up?”
At Roji’s incredulous reaction, Jin Ha lightly shook her head.
“To be precise, I didn’t really ‘make’ the game; I just thought it would be nice to help people get used to the feeling of floating in VR space, so I created a light simulation.”
Truly. Really. Just as a way to take a break and cool her head.
But it was an excuse that didn’t hold any weight for Roji.
“If that’s the case, why didn’t you just not release it! Or delay it completely!”
It’s not like you can just let it all air out right before the game opens! Why is the timing so exquisite?!
If it weren’t for Jin Ha, the little witch would have been extremely angry, her cheeks puffing out.
“…I didn’t know either. I didn’t expect a similar game to become this popular.”
Jin Ha was honestly quite taken aback.
“I had no intention of releasing it in the first place. But people kept asking for it…”
After the mutually resolved collaboration stream for Jump Up between Spring and Fall—despite barely clearing it, they ended up taking a two-day break (fainting) afterward.
When the other CosmoLive members turned on their streams, the chat was flooded with requests for the release of Jump Up.
Despite the comprehensive manager Young-Jun sending out warnings and numerous bans on spoilers, the game release villains made such a huge fuss that Jin Ha ultimately stepped in.
“I can’t interfere with my daughters’ broadcasts since I became a Mama, can I?”
After making appropriate adjustments, she uploaded the game to the store.
For the adjustments, there wasn’t much.
They merely expanded the playable number from one to four players and added an easy mode that allowed saving checkpoints at intervals.
Pricing? A mere ‘4 dollars.’
You might think, who in their right mind would pay over 6,000 won for such a junk game…
But lo and behold. Within just one day, it climbed to the top of the store’s download ranking.
Even more surprising was that it received ‘very positive’ reviews.
The reviews were uniformly full of praise.
[The boss is crazy.]
[This quality is unbelievable for this price.]
[I definitely smelled poop, but when I tried it, it was delicious fermented soybeans…]
[I watched streamers suffer and it got finished in a day.]
[Why is this… tasty?]
Naturally, the response among streamers was exceptionally good.
While the controls were easy, clearing it was tough, and most importantly, players could show off reactions at the moment of falling.
Thanks to these game characteristics, content around speedruns and chaotic collaborations flourished.
“Honestly, everything Jin Ha makes seems to blow up. It’s not even surprising at this point.”
Roji reviewed the uploaded store comments and the mad movie shorts featuring streamers returning to the primal village, bursting into a laugh of disbelief.
“Honestly, this one’s kind of… I’m feeling a bit strange myself.”
While she could understand when well-crafted content succeeded, witnessing underdeveloped content thrive still puzzled her, prompting Jin Ha to shake her head.
Looking back, it had been similar when the SoDa model once dominated the streaming world.
She thought it was undoubtedly a failure, yet the market’s reaction was incredibly hot.
As Jin Ha lamented about the SoDa model, Roji tilted her head in confusion.
“What about the SoDa model? My avatar is an improved version of the SoDa model, after all.”
“Oh, right. That was it?”
“From your perspective, it may seem trivial, but for me and others, it is definitely a distinctive item.”
That’s why Jin Ha couldn’t help but be a fan, as Roji giggled giddily.
“By the way… I’m worried. With Jinro World receiving so much investment, Jump Up getting all the hype will spread interest thin…”
At Roji’s words, Jin Ha pondered for a moment before slowly speaking.
“I don’t think the Jump Up trend will last that long, you know?”
Right now it might be hot, but ultimately, content that goes up is everything.
“So how about we just delay the world opening by a week? Now that we have the time, we can improve the quality a bit more.”
“Well, is that okay? Won’t everyone get mad?”
When she said that, Jin Ha shrugged and smiled.
“If a critical issue has occurred, what can we do?”
Regular maintenance, temporary maintenance, extended maintenance, and emergency maintenance.
For any game, those four types of maintenance are the truth.
*
About two weeks later, on the third day since Jinro World officially opened, the streaming platform, Pasta, embraces an actual golden age of Jinro World.
It wasn’t that the popularity of Jump Up had entirely plummeted.
It was still nestled within the top ten download rankings of the game store.
Furthermore, it served as a rare breathing space for the low-tier streamers who couldn’t get invited to Jinro World.
The problem was that Jinro World’s popularity exceeded expectations, literally obliterating the streaming platform.
All of the top streamers in terms of average viewership were ‘living’ in Jinro World.
At this point, reality seemed to take a backseat, and Jinro World became the main attraction.
In light of this phenomenon, viewers began to recall the game that inspired Jinro World, raising a reasonable suspicion that there might not be a logout button.
Of course, there was a perfectly functional logout button, and the game that served as the inspiration wasn’t Somaon (Sword Master Online) but rather its sequel, Elfion (Elf Fairy Online).
Simply put, the streamers had removed the button themselves and were enjoying a self-imposed d*ath game.
This outrageous fervor also spread to the viewers.
To be sure, the game itself was not only very well-made.
It made people’s hearts race just by observing.
– This is real RPG!
– K-game companies should learn from this!
– Please reveal all of Jinro Worldㅠㅠㅠㅠ
Occasionally, when Jinro World underwent temporary maintenance—for the nominal reason of server checks but actually to forcibly put the streamers who had been gaming all day to sleep—Jin Ha and Roji would try as hard as possible to shut them down.
Among them was Wugi’s channel.
(Live) I’ve kidnapped the captain (w. Rat brat, Han A-ri)
Wugi
Viewer count: 10,448 people
Even in this worst time slot for streamers, this late at night, the viewership has easily hit five digits.
This is Wugi class.
The streaming screen showed Wugi and Rat sitting side by side at a long desk.
Up to this point, everything seemed normal.
However, from the viewer’s perspective, at the 5 o’clock angle of the streaming screen, a distinctly highlighted illustration was visible.
It was none other than Han A-ri, dressed in a pilot uniform.
[Anonymous Sponsor donated 5,000 won]
[Wow, it’s fine for Wugi, but I’m watching Rat collab with a VTuber lol]
– Lol
– ???: Female streamer? VTuber? They’re all terrible at the game.
– Haha
– But she totally dominated, didn’t she? lol
As Wugi glanced at the chat reactions, he spoke playfully.
“Alright, our captain! I don’t think there’s anyone who doesn’t know you, but could you please briefly introduce yourself!”
[Ah, hello everyone in Wugi’s stream… I am Han A-ri, a thousand-year fox who has been blending into the human world for over twenty years…]
“Whoa! A fox? That’s not right!”
Rat, who had been quietly listening beside them, suddenly perked up with sparkly eyes and interrupted. Han A-ri flinched, looking surprised, and asked back in a flustered voice.
[Huh…? So, what should I say…?]
“You’re the captain. The second captain!”
Meanwhile, Rat subtly implied that he was the first captain.
“That board showing in the stream? It’s actually a capture of the outfit I wore in today’s broadcast intro, isn’t it?”
It was clearly a day they had designated to tackle the first-floor boss, and he had even come in uniform!
While Rat was grinning, Han A-ri was simply bewildered.
[That wasn’t what I intended; it’s just that the outfit changed because of the donation linking feature, I think…]
“Anyway! What’s important is that our captain was the one to deal the finishing blow to the first-floor boss and even took the MVP all for herself, right? Agree? Yes, agree~”
Just because they’re out of Jinro World doesn’t mean you can drop the roleplay, right?
Wugi added playfully, and Han A-ri stammered as if embarrassed.
[W-Well, that’s just a coincidence, or perhaps I was just lucky…]
“Come on~ Even luck twice is a skill, Captain.”
“That’s right. At this point, I can’t deny it either.”
With Wugi’s exaggerated excitement, Rat nodded along in agreement.
[Thank you… But could you send me home? I’m so sleepy…]
On the top right of the screen, the clock reads 4:44 AM.
But Wugi and Rat, still buzzing with dopamine, had no intention of letting Han A-ri leave quietly.
“What are you talking about? This is the captain’s home.”
[…Huh?]
“If you’re going to sleep, just do it. Keep the mic on and take a nap.”
[Whaaaat?!]
“Isn’t it cozy here? After spending several years here, I can tell this is the best place around.”
[Is that so…?]
Caught up in the secretive invitation of the two suspiciously popular streamer uncles, Han A-ri unknowingly began to grow her stature little by little.