I May Be a Virtual Youtuber, but I Still Go to Work - Chapter 66

“Hey, is there any chance that Majia Assistant could be invited to this server?”

Dohui had to question her own ears.

“Um, you mean our Majia Assistant, right?”

“Yes, that’s correct. If Momo and Maru join, I feel like the other first-gen members would come and enjoy the server too… but I was uncertain about Majia, so I wanted to ask.”

There should be a clear line distinguishing Majia as an employee from the other members, but that line seemed to have vanished. So, Momo decided to ask Wicker.

“You do know that Jia is one of our employees and not a streamer, right? It’s a streamer server, so I’m worried if someone who isn’t a streamer joins, it might stir some unfair controversy or something.”

Wicker chuckled softly.

“I know, but Majia did a solo broadcast on the official channel this time. I think that’s enough to recognize her as a broadcaster.”

“Uh, well… that’s true, but isn’t that just a monthly broadcast?”

“Sure, the main one is monthly, but you see her face on the members’ streams all the time, right? She has a properly rigged character too.”

“No, no. I was just clarifying because I thought you might be mistaking her for a VTuber. She’s really just an employee…”

Wicker spoke firmly.

“To be honest, only the Parallel crew thinks that way. Other people don’t view her like that. I think of Majia as a unique streamer, not as just an ordinary person completely unrelated to broadcasting.”

Hearing that made Dohui’s head spin.

Wicker was right.

Within Parallel, they had firmly established that “Majia is an employee,” and people treated her as an employee wearing a VTuber disguise, but this perception only existed within the Parallel fandom.

People who were less familiar would likely see Majia’s monthly review content and immediately question, “Is this person a broadcaster?”

Then those who knew Majia would throw clips left and right, but those would all showcase the presence she’s displayed on broadcasts.

New viewers coming in from the broadcasts and clips would think, “Whoa, she’s a broadcaster? Was the employee act just a concept?”

While they had ingrained the idea that Majia was just an employee, they could never hide her sparkling talent.

Of course, separate from these external circumstances, there was another reason Wicker was being so active.

“And the reason I’m asking this is…”

“Uh… what is it?”

“Three people have already asked me, if they can call Majia in with a special invitation.”

In the 64Cubics joint broadcast server, if you have an API integration set up, the amount of support given during server play accumulates as server coins.

In Season 1, the exchange rate was one Wicker coin for every 10,000 won.

One coin becomes a gacha token, producing various items that help enjoy the server in the gacha… and among them, there’s the item that appears with a 0.1% drop rate—the “special invitation.”

To get this item, you’d need to spend around ten million won in Wicker coins.

But it’s so valuable! Unlike a general invitation that requires hours of grinding on the server, the special invitation doesn’t require a specific follower count or even to be a singer, making it the ultimate joker card.

In other words, using the special invitation means inviting Majia to the server should raise no eyebrows.

After all, it was a rare item created for that very purpose.

However, there hadn’t been any related discussions within Parallel, so an external invitation request?

Dohui couldn’t help but wonder who had asked this question.

“Movgun asked last month when he called for the starting members. Last week, Ronze and Serena also got the invitation, and they asked me a few days ago too.”

“Okay, I can understand Movgun and Ronze wanting me, but… Serena?”

“Curious, right? I thought about it for a long time too. By the way, I heard Maru is going to join today, so I thought I’d ask.”

The stubborn hardcore users might still question Majia’s credentials, but inviting someone with a special invitation was a privilege permitted by the server master.

Even so, anyone problematic gets cut off by the server master.

Since Wicker, the server master, had already approved it, there was no point in questioning it further.

“Anyway, I hope you’ll consider it positively. If Majia joins the server, she won’t have a single acquaintance, and I would have hesitated until the end. But it turns out there are quite a few people from Movgun’s crew and Ronze’s gaming group who know Jia? I think the synergy in a joint stream could turn out pretty well.”

Dohui didn’t hesitate long.

At this point, it was ultimately Jia’s decision, not hers.

“Well then… I’ll ask Jia and get back to you right away. Is that okay?”

“Of course~ I’m preparing for the server today, so just let me know whenever!”

“Wow… you always work so hard. We just have fun each time, and we barely can return the favor…”

“Eh, you’re going to perform again at the end, right?”

“Oh, that’s a given. Of course I’ll do that. It’s all about promoting the kids and mutual support after all.”

“That’s enough for me. I really owe a lot to you business owners. I’ll be waiting for your contact!”

* * *

Right as I arrived at work, the President called me. What she shared was surprising.

Three people were actually thinking of using a special invitation on me.

There were plenty of eager streamers clamoring to join the server, so why me?

“Why me though?”

“Because you’ve been doing your thing until now. No, that’s a weird way to put it. Well, it’s because we have a connection. But since you’re our company’s employee, I wanted to ask for permission first.”

I tilted my head, unable to follow the story’s flow.

I shouldn’t be getting invited to a large merged server like Wicker Town since I’m not a VTuber…

More importantly, I get Movgun and Ronze, but why is Serena trying to invite me?

She’s the VTuber who ran up to me and introduced herself right when I joined I’m Wolf.

One of the second-gen of Rapitsu, who often competes with us for the 2nd and 3rd spots in the industry.

We, the latecomers, have been trying hard to catch up, and lately, we’ve been fluctuating between the average viewers of the first-gen, but for a VTuber from a competitor to try to invite me…

That’s really puzzling.

I mean, when I’m being invited to join my own company’s server, I can’t help but wonder if she’s already maneuvering to poach me.

But since I’m just an employee, I sidelined that thought for now.

“Did she think of me as some kind of prize?”

But that reasoning also didn’t hold up.

I hadn’t really done anything remarkable for that to happen.

… For now, I’ll just ask later.

“If I join, will it help the first-gens at all?”

“Well… that depends on how you handle it, right?”

“Is it okay if I just go around promoting the first-gen on the server?”

“Sure, it’s even encouraged to do it blatantly on a big server like this. Sometimes they ask you, ‘Could you introduce yourself?’”

Right. In the first season of Wicker’s 64Cubics server, the President took the members around with their mounts to introduce them to his friends.

It’s all about the self-promotional age, isn’t it?

As long as I can introduce things without making anyone feel burdened, it can only be beneficial.

And as for me not needing to introduce myself? I’m practically the reliable worker of Parallel.

I can just go and loudly promote our kids saying, “Hey, try this out!” and someone’s bound to get interested.

Like with Movgun.

When I went to promote, he used to say stuff like, “Why would I watch VTubers?” but now, he occasionally shows up at Rain’s stream to support her and quickly comments under cover song uploads to get pinned at the top of the comment section.

Nobody knows when someone will get hooked.

The more promotion, the better.

“If only our promotion team could join; but that’s not the case.”

I suppose I’ll have no choice but to seek out Team Leader Oh Seok-Jae from the promotion team.

I need to know how to promote without making the other side uncomfortable.

Maybe it would help to get some tips from him.

I don’t want to just ask him to dish out trade secrets.

Maybe I should at least buy him a drink.

“By the way, I heard there’s a rumor that BachuKR is coming too. What’s the situation on that?”

“Oh, we don’t know yet. Wicker sent them an invitation as well, but they didn’t respond positively, so we haven’t received a definite confirmation.”

I thought this way of thinking was a bit macho.

BachuBachu KR is number one in the industry.

We’re still just a little sparrow struggling to compete with that giant T-Rex.

So I was relieved thinking they probably wouldn’t come.

Even if our kids were neck and neck with Rapitsu, we can’t beat BachuBachu KR.

They build a studio that costs 30 billion in Japan, and whenever they feel like it, they invite their members from the Korean branch to generate quality content.

I’ve heard that not only in Korea but also in EN, IN, and other distant countries, if the content is good enough, they cover the full flight costs for the staff.

Just how robust is their funding?

And that’s not all. Whenever they hold a 3D concert, they drive people crazy with their patented state-of-the-art hologram technology. With no such funding or technology, we can only gaze at them enviously.

Anyway, such intimidating competitors make for tough rivalry.

Our kids are doing great, so I personally don’t feel the need to avoid them, but from a corporate standpoint, it’s in our best interest if BachuBachu doesn’t show up for a while.

And when they’re absent, we have to work even harder.

Market share! Popularity! All these are metrics that can’t be obtained without promotion.

“Okay then, I’ll join the server.”

“Really?”

“If you invite me, I’ll do my best to support the members. Before the server ends, I’ll aim to make sure people remember all the members’ names through promotion.”

The President looked at me with a worried gaze.

“But you’ve never played 64Cubics before, right?”

“I’ve watched plenty of it. I roughly know how the server works, and I happen to be joining Maru for 64Cubics tonight, so I think I’ll be able to get a good experience then.”

The President chuckled, hair tucked behind her ear.

“Yeah, well, you do learn games at lightning speed…”

“So, is it you inviting me, or is it Maru?”

The President looked troubled.

“You know from the last server that I really have terrible luck with special invitations, right?”

“Hmm. Then I guess I’ll have to break into that savings I’ve been saving.”

“Hey, hey, hey! Don’t say crazy things. The moment you break your savings, it’s your head that’s going to crack.”

“But if I don’t, I might not get invited.”

“Well, we’ll figure something out. Surely, one of your invitation tokens will pop up among our five.”

I looked at the President suspiciously.

“I just know it’s going to end up not being drawn and you’ll blow a fuse.”

“Hey!”

* * *

The next day.

Receiving Maru’s invitation, I logged into Virtual while still at work.

Setting my board right next to Maru’s, everyone greeted me as if they were now familiar with me.

— Maha

— Maha

— Maha?

— Two Mahas? LOL

— Jaha~

— Jihahahaha

I was a bit concerned about overlapping greetings with Maru, but since it’s the second joint stream, it quickly became “Jaha.”

… I suddenly felt like I could hear the laugh of some furry pirate from somewhere.

Anyway, 64Cubics.

As I previously introduced, it’s a sandbox survival game where you dig, mine for ores, gather materials, craft items, make armor, weapons, and fight monsters.

The average playtime until you defeat the final boss is quite lengthy—about 48 hours for the first run. To fully enjoy all content, you need three times that.

And those who devour this entire experience can bring in modes and get busy munching on more. With so many players around, there are tons of modes out there, and if you really get into the game, you’ll never run out of content… except Maru had already devoured most of that content.

Still, she often casually abandons the worlds she was playing to start anew.

It’s no wonder her fan name is “Donguri,” with talks of changing it to “Kakyeongiri” — since 64Cubics consists of a world made of blocks that’s 64 pixels in width and height.

To sum it up, Maru is the teacher here.

There really isn’t any issue with learning.

“There are two ways to do this: starting from complete wildness and learning the game from scratch or learning what kind of game this is roughly on the Parallel server.”

So, when given this choice, I first think about how to make Maru’s stream more fun. How can I highlight Maru even more?

The first option was the one I hadn’t played but had seen much of.

But since I’m invited to the server, I thought I needed to know it perfectly to help out the members.

“I’ll learn in the wild.”

“Aha, I thought that’d be your choice! I prepared a separate server for that, anyway.”

A server with nothing—vanilla version of 64Cubics—prompted bursts of laughter from everyone.

— Hehe, so this is wild then?

— It would’ve been more fun with API integration, oh well. LOL

— I can already imagine about 39,515,012 scenes of the Assistant fumbling around.

— It’s a surprisingly game with many surprise elements! LOL

It seemed like they were just waiting for me to startle at various accidents.

I clearly stated I wouldn’t get surprised in a game with weapons, but apparently, it seems no one has remembered that.

Well, whatever, there wasn’t much in the way of progress anyway.

Whenever Maru taught something, I often got it right where I’d say, “Oh, that’s it,” picking up quickly.

All thanks to having monitored Maru’s streams for so long.

Not that I was completely new to playing, just new to participating in it.

“I’ve made a wooden tool. Next, I need to make a stone tool.”

But ultimately, the details belong to Maru, the expert.

I liked having her as a teacher, and her explanations were easy to understand.

“Okay, I’ve made the full stone set. Time for iron! For iron, we need to dig down a bit, so we need to prepare before going down.”

Surprisingly, there were lots of preparation materials to collect before heading underground.

Must be due to it being a game with many elements related to survival.

It felt like one had to fill their bags with items like water, food, and others to leave those spots filled with ores on the way back.

Speedrunners seem to dive straight down with just wooden tools as soon as they start, but I guess that’s limited to the skilled ones.

So, going down, mining iron, fighting off the monsters that emerge from the darkness, battling fiercely.

“Ahh, zombies here! Skeletons! A witch! Ahh, why are there so many?!”

“I’ll handle it.”

— Getting headshots all over again! LOL

— Donguri is losing her hearing again today!

— Why are you holding your own? LOL

— I just figured it out, Maru’s a noob?

— Why is a noob protecting PaYoN? LOL

— This isn’t the kind of noob I was hoping for!!

After smelting iron, crafting armor and tool sets, constructing an automatic system that turns the mined iron ore into ingots, and assembling a small generator with mined copper to produce electricity linked to a waterwheel, it took four hours until we managed to high-five each other upon watching the processed iron flow down the line.

Before I knew it, the promised four-hour joint stream had passed.

— Wait, it’s already been 4 hours?

— Wild really is tough!

— For real.

— There’s a good reason why players use shortcuts in the early stage on a server! LOL

“Phew, but still, that was quick! Newbies sometimes d*e or struggle trying to get here, you know? Jia, did you ever play a similar game before?”

“I’ve never played before, but surprisingly, I’m getting the hang of it. Especially fighting mobs is fun—maybe because of the headshots?”

“… Yeah, it shows. Anyway, should we call it a day? I have to rest early for my cover song recording tomorrow, so I can’t keep streaming all night with you. Sorry about that.”

“Nah, this was enough.”

“Right. As long as you understand up to this point, you won’t have trouble adapting to most servers. In fact, many skip all the way to that level, so you can play however you like beyond this. Yes, definitely mine for diamonds first. Your first diamond is special.”

“I’ll try to mine some when I get off work later. Can I ask you tomorrow if I come across anything I don’t understand?”

Seeing I seemed to have adapted well to the game, Maru was all pumped and excited.

… I ended up casually saying something that didn’t need to be brought up now.

“Of course! Just ask anytime! At this pace, you’ll be fine on Wicker’s server too. So, how was today? Did you enjoy it? There’s quite a thrill in teching up and growing, right?”

I paused before responding and glanced at the chat.

I hadn’t said that I might be able to join Wicker’s server yet.

— ?

— Wicker server?

— Majia’s involved too?

— What?

— Is this real?

— Seriously???

:: Anonymous Donor has donated 10,000 clouds! ::

:: Ah, leaks are from Matube! LOL ::