Chapter 108

What are the advantages of corporate VTubers?

It’s simply that they are great for teaming up.

Current internet broadcasting has a structure where it’s hard to grow without a ‘crew’. Being a lone island has its limits.

There are several reasons for this, but the biggest one is definitely the limitation on possible content.

However, corporate VTubers solve this problem. They inherently have a ‘crew’ from the start.

Want to play a 2-player game? Just call a friendly member from the same corporate VTuber group. A 4-player game? Same deal.

The more players required and the larger the scale of the game, the stronger the power of corporate VTubers becomes.

Corporate VTubers continuously increase their numbers and expand their scale as a basic operation method.

A typical corporate VTuber can handle a 6:6 <Eternal World> internal match with just their own members.

Additionally, since they belong to the same corporate group, it’s easy to create a culture of mutual viewership, chemistry among members, and properly manage merchandise sales, which are the alpha and omega of the VTuber industry. While there are various advantages, the best one I think is ultimately the numbers.

Having a sufficient number of people makes it easier to implement any plan into reality.

This large server was no different.

‘Life Server’. It was a very famous format.

They take a game with high freedom, host a server, and accept participants.

And they require all participants to engage in ‘Hard RP’.

For example, in my <Cosmic Osuary>, if you chose to RP as an Imperial soldier, you had to play accordingly; if you chose adventurer RP, you had to play as an adventurer; if you chose pirate RP, you had to play as a pirate.

You couldn’t bring in real-life stories. That was against the rules.

You had to stick strictly to the designated RP and in-game situations…

The intensity of this varied by server.

Some were slightly loose, where it was obvious to everyone that it was WWE.

Others were deeply immersive, where even if the broadcasters were acting, the viewers saw it as UFC, sometimes even getting genuinely emotional. It was divided like this.

In the case of the server created by Novel Live, it seemed closer to the latter.

At least in terms of rules.

They asked you to act as if you had truly become the game character, which increased the likelihood of the latter situation.

Since all members were affiliated with Novel Live, there wouldn’t be any ‘conflicts’, but human affairs are unpredictable. It was too early to make definitive statements.

Anyway, being able to handle content that requires at least dozens of people with just internal staff.

That’s the power of corporate VTubers.

I checked out <Arcane Punk 1009>, the game chosen by Novel Live this time.

Hmm. Hm. Hmmm.

Not bad.

It had multiple applicable modes and a fairly high level of freedom.

The fact that multiple modes could be applied was the best part.

Suddenly, I had a fun idea.

I immediately sent an email to Novel Live.

The reply came quickly.

Author: Novel Live

Subject: We would appreciate it if you could do that

*

Kurohina Mai narrowed her eyes as she skimmed through the rules of the <Arcane Punk 1009> Life Server.

It would be fun, but it would be tiring for the broadcasters.

Well, the harder it is for the broadcasters, the more fun it is for the viewers, so it wasn’t a big deal.

Alright.

Slap. Mai slapped her face with her palm to psych herself up and created the RP she would use in the game.

“From the slums. Climbed up from the bottom but always cheerful…”

She stopped writing there.

And muttered.

“This might overlap with Akane’s image…”

But there was no choice. That was the only RP that felt natural and fun to her.

After completing the RP, Mai started creating her character.

She selected talents and set abilities. She added a slight penalty to earn points.

Finally, for the appearance, she decided to make it the same as her VTuber avatar. Truly hardcore servers require a natural look that fits the game, but Novel Live’s Life Server wasn’t that strict.

It just resembled a hardcore server in other aspects.

‘Done.’

After completing the appearance customization, Mai checked the time.

The server was about to open.

While spying on other broadcasts, everyone was already on, waiting for the server to open.

‘I should turn mine on too.’

Mai also turned on her broadcast to match the others.

―――

Entry complete

Mai is late again www

It’s natural for the senior to be late

―――

“Am I the last one?”

Mai’s slightly flustered tone made the listeners chatter noisily.

And that was why Mai, who normally hates breaking time promises, waited until the last moment to start her broadcast.

This was a kind of acting. Maintaining the position of the easy-to-tease senior by RPing as a laid-back senior.

If Akane used RP that was exactly like her real self to create Novel Live’s golden age, Mai was the opposite.

She thoroughly wore a mask and acted.

She found the best mask for the situation and wore it to entertain her listeners.

That’s why long-time VTuber viewers often marvel at Mai’s talent rather than Akane’s.

Maintaining a different persona from one’s natural personality in today’s environment where live streams are the trend is incredibly difficult.

Of course, such evaluations are for VTuber experts. At a glance, Mai seemed like just another common character.

And that was also Mai’s limit.

If she could have freely flipped into such a lively, outstanding character, she would have gone beyond “Buhwang” and become “Bushin.”

But she couldn’t.

In the end, it was because the masks Mai could wear had their limits.

It wasn’t for nothing that Akane had taken “Buhwang.” The public’s gaze was cold.

However, the mainstream opinion among the “Bubak” scholars was that she wasn’t as talentless as she was being undervalued now.

Mai logged into the server and pasted the character settings she had prepared in advance.

An RP of someone who had climbed up from the bottom but was always bright and full of energy.

Considering Mai’s natural personality, an RP of “overflowing with venom” would have been more fitting than “always bright and full of energy,” but the former suited the mask Mai had been maintaining for years. It was a strategic choice.

The game began.

The screen changed, and soon the world shifted to a first-person view, the kind commonly seen in VR games.

*Beep—*

Mai got up from her bed at the sound of a horn outside.

A very small one-room apartment. Indeed. It was a starting point that matched the RP.

When she opened the window, a dazzling yet somewhat gloomy city greeted Mai.

Then. *Bang bang!* Someone knocked on the door. Startled by the sudden noise, Mai tilted her head and approached the front door.

*Creak.* As she opened the door, a sharp-looking middle-aged woman greeted her.

The woman spoke.

“Do you know how many months behind you are on rent?”

So that’s the setting. Finding it amusing, Mai quickly opened her mouth.

“Mai. Are you behind on rent?”

“Behind on rent? That’s ridiculous. If you don’t pay by tomorrow, I’ll kick you out.”

“Wait—”

*Slam!* The woman, seemingly angry, slammed the door shut and disappeared.

Huh. Mai was taken aback. It was a bit different from what she had expected.

What does it mean for an open-world game to have a high level of freedom? It’s all about “how outstanding the interactions are.”

How well the game responds when you touch objects, talk to NPCs, or do something strange. That’s what determines the quality of an open-world game.

And as far as Mai knew, <Arcane Punk 1009> had excellent object interactions, but NPC interactions were just so-so.

So, to catch a good broadcast angle, she tried having a silly conversation with a dumb NPC… but it didn’t go as expected.

Was it a coincidence?

Well, even if NPC interactions were just so-so, they weren’t completely broken. There was a variety of variations. Maybe one of them just happened to align.

“It’s time to go to my part-time job.”

Mai decided to follow the schedule as written.

Mai’s part-time job was at a diner. With silver walls resembling train cars, a neon sign, an old jukebox, checkered floors, and red leather chairs, it was the kind of diner you often see in American movies.

After changing into her waitress uniform, Mai worked hard serving customers.

“The fried chicken here is always trash.”

“Wouldn’t even fried shoes taste good here?”

“This is the miracle of alchemy. The chef here chose the wrong profession. Someone who should’ve been a magician is frying chickens—how can the result be good? Hey! Sister! Add a burger here!”

“A burger might actually taste good.”

After finishing her shift, Mai muttered softly.

“This… feels a bit off.”

Directly mentioning that “the game feels off” would violate the rules, so Mai tried to phrase it as vaguely as possible.

In fact, even this kind of indirect phrasing should be avoided as much as possible. It breaks immersion.

Despite knowing this, Mai still brought up that something felt off.

That’s how strange the game felt.

There was a sense of dissonance. It felt like she had been dropped into another world, full of vividness. Yes, it was like playing one of Han Yoorim’s games—

……

Come to think of it, she had heard that Han Yoorim was also participating in this server.

Could it be that Han Yoorim, in collaboration with Novel Live, had done something strange to the server?

It was a very reasonable assumption. In fact, there was no other way to explain the current situation.

Han Yoorim again. Mai quietly rolled the name, which she had grown familiar with after hearing it several times recently, around in her mouth.

Suddenly, curiosity struck her. What kind of RP would Han Yoorim use on this server?

A mafia boss? That seemed plausible. Or maybe a fixer? That felt right. Han Yoorim gave off a strong vibe of someone who loved freedom.

Or maybe something completely different, like the youngest daughter of a mecha corporation—

“Please, just a penny. I haven’t eaten today. I’m so hungry.”

“……”

Or, yeah. The heir to a famous magic tower—

“If this keeps up, I’ll die of malnutrition. It’s so sad. Please save me.”

“…What are you doing?”

“Doesn’t it look like I’m begging? Are you seeing this for the first time? You must be from a pretty wealthy family.”

“Well…”

Mai was flustered. She couldn’t help it.

A familiar blonde, blue-eyed beautiful girl, smaller than she remembered, was begging. It would have been stranger if she hadn’t been taken aback.

The beggar, Han Yoorim, said,

“I believe you won’t just abandon a poor child like this.”