The next morning.
Dohee woke up and checked the TingTalk messages she'd received overnight, only to spot one from a familiar face.
[Mu-gun] (3)
"...What's this? What's up with him?"
Mu-gun, real name Lee Dong-gun.
A former pro who'd swept awards at various international tournaments up until two years ago, when the Battle Colosseum league was booming. He'd been hugely popular among active players back in his prime.
Now retired, he streams Battle Colosseum skill showcases using his old nickname "Magnet Aim" as his main gimmick.
For reference, he and Dohee had become friends after teaming up at a streamer tournament, and these days they greeted each other with "you bastard" and "you bitch" the moment they met—true old pals.
Anyone who's watched a bit of VTubing would naturally think this at this point.
Wouldn't the unicorns and those toxic shippers have thrown a fit on stream over her getting tangled up with a male streamer?
Had she maybe even swapped out her viewers once already?
In reality, the early backlash from malicious unicorns was intense whenever the two played games together.
Rumors flew about secret meetups, weekend dates, plans to get married—you name it.
But as time passed, one fact came to light and shocked everyone.
Mu-gun was a die-hard Battle Colosseum addict who'd never even met Momo in person.
Someone checked his ranked game logs after he appeared on Momo's stream, and excluding time spent gaming with her or others, he'd been grinding solo ranked matches for 16 hours a day.
His lines on Momo's stream were practically scripted.
"Battle Colosseum's calling. Need a duo. Oh, Momo's live. Wanna play? Two hours in. Good game."
Then he'd dip out coolly, making it impossible for even unicorns to spin any bait.
He was the type to hyperfocus on games, too—his nagging at Dohee mid-match put mother-in-laws to shame.
Stuff like, "That's why you'll stay diamond forever."
Or, "You wanna climb ranks with that posture?"
Dohee snapping back or getting pissed off became fan favorites—especially since she was so prideful about Battle Colosseum that she only listened to top-tiers like Magia or Mu-gun.
That naturally got viewers hyped for collabs with him.
But as mentioned, he usually hit her up during streams. And only when she was playing Battle Colosseum.
So Dohee couldn't help but be puzzled.
Not only had he messaged in the dead of night when he should be streaming, but he was using some weird sales-pitch polite speech instead of his usual casual tone.
[Mu-gun: How have you been, boss?]
[Mu-gun: Just checking in.]
[Mu-gun: Do you have someone named Signal Flare at your company?]
Already suspicious with the sudden contact, and the reason was Signal Flare?
Wondering what business he had with Magia, Dohee called him right away.
...Except it was 6 a.m.
For a streamer like him, he should've been asleep hours ago.
No point calling now, she thought, moving to end the call.
[Hey, long time!]
Evidently not asleep—Mu-gun's voice sounded fine.
"What? You weren't sleeping?"
[I just wrapped streaming. About to crash.]
"So. What's this about? Why Signal Flare?"
[What? You haven't heard?]
Dohee's phone buzzed soon after.
A TingTalk from Mu-gun.
She switched to speaker and checked it: a clip from Dora's live stream last night.
[That's your staffer playing. Insane luck on those shots.]
"...?"
Dohee was baffled.
What the hell happened overnight for one of her employees to top real-time bests?
But that worry stemmed from her own shady past.
The truth was totally different.
'Jia played on Dora's stream?'
The clip showed none other than Magia demolishing Pandemic Village's final boss in under two minutes.
From the heated comments, Dohee pieced together yesterday's events: Dora had taunted, and Jia had taken the bait.
Jia took a taunt?
'First the house visit, now this. Has she really changed her mind...?'
That shot accuracy was nuts, though.
Boss hopping across floor, walls, and ceiling in a frenzy, and she nailed twelve shots right into its googly eyes.
She even stayed cool and pumped bullets in right up to the moment it lunged to bite her.
Dohee, awed by the beautiful marksmanship, was about to rewatch when Mu-gun spoke.
[Anyway. My crew's got an intra-team match next week. One guy's out for personal reasons, so we had an empty slot. Then I saw this clip. Didn't know at first, but checked the wiki—you're talking someone pretty famous?]
"Ah."
[So, one day—no, not even. Just two games? One warm-up, one main. That's the plan. Can you intro us?]
Even intra-team matches got streamed.
His crew was all ex-Battle Colosseum pros, after all.
Meaning Magia would end up on stream whether she wanted or not.
"Yeah, I'll talk to her."
But Dohee could already picture Magia's reaction to Mu-gun's offer.
She liked Battle Colosseum, sure. But she wasn't the type to go out of her way, especially not to show her face on an unwanted stream.
One thing Dohee overlooked, though, was the shadowy Magia Love Squad who casually trashed her skills on forums.
Of course, Magia hadn't been directly hurt by it.
But denying it didn't faze her would be a lie—she secretly wanted to prove them wrong someday.
"Sure. When is it?"
So Magia accepted Mu-gun's offer readily.
A chance to test her skills against full pros and their opponents?
Pros joked that "diamond" wasn't even a tier.
Anything above—master, challenger—was god tier.
You rarely ran into masters even in ranked.
This was her shot to see the difference up close.
Dohee, surprised by the news of her participation, asked,
"You know who Mu-gun is, right?"
"Yeah. Ex-pro. Impossible not to know from your streams, boss."
"Yeah, and that gets streamed. You cool?"
"It's not like I'll die on stream. Just two games."
"...Well, true."
"And it's online anyway, right?"
"Yeah."
"So match the date for me. Next Tuesday?"
Next Tuesday was the 1st Gen's 1st anniversary song motion capture day.
External schedule, intense full-body movement, so they'd all announced breaks in advance.
Meaning after tending to 1st Gen at the studio, Jia had nothing that night.
Perfect for something special.
But if Jia appeared on Mu-gun's stream that day, something big would happen.
'This could...'
Mu-gun didn't pre-announce guests.
He'd bring them on, intro naturally via chat, or skip if they preferred.
Since invitees were always pro-level talents, viewers sought them out anyway—no intro needed.
So news of Magia joining Mu-gun's crew match would break after stream start—once her nick and voice dropped.
A cute, bright voice amid drab guy chatter on a skill stream?
Instant attention.
Someone overlapping Battle Colosseum players, Momo fans, and Mu-gun fans would say it.
Hey, that's Signal Flare!
Word would spread to Parallel Gallery—hungriest for staffer updates—and related boards.
Parallel fans would be down that day anyway.
Momo and all 1st Gen off for shooting.
Usually, if Oshi skipped, refugees hit fellow gens' streams. But total blackout.
That gloomy fandom hits news of their staffer holding her own among pros?
Dohee respected Magia's skills enough to bet on it.
Fandom would unite and swarm Mu-gun's stream.
Excluding overlaps, average concurrent for Momo/Parallel hovered around 23,000. At least half for Magia.
'Plus Mu-gun's viewers...'
His 1.8M-sub Battle Colosseum streams pulled 10K easy despite surprise starts.
Total: 20K viewers.
Seeing Magia's Battle Colosseum prowess and her obsessive double-barrel grip.
Impossible not to blow up.
"You planning to run double deagle again?"
Magia nodded without hesitation.
"Yeah. Curious if it'll work on pros."
Magia.
Do that, and if you don't debut, people will lose it.
The world will shove you into the spotlight like swollen creek waters after rain.
...But Dohee couldn't warn her outright.
It might come off as "the tide's turning—maybe debut time?"
Couldn't block her from Mu-gun's match either.
Let it go, though, and chaos.
Managers could handle streams.
But each stream's junior managers might hound Jia.
Just debut already.
Chatting's a nightmare.
That pressure would push her to debut.
'No.'
Dohee wanted to respect Magia's choice, but had to figure out how to scatter 20K eyeballs.
How, though...
"Boss."
Then Magia spoke.
Like she knew exactly Dohee's dilemma.
"But with the kids all off stream that day, won't a ton flock over? Mu-gun pulls big crowds anyway."
While Dohee blinked in surprise, Magia continued.
"So, get permission to use a bit of the 1st anniversary song sample for a teaser video. Show it that day? 3D's just details left—silhouette should work..."
Magia wasn't proactive or initiative-taking.
But even she stepped up at unbearable moments.
She watched so many streams her ideas outpaced Dohee's sometimes—like now.
What did that mean?
Magia was shedding her office drone skin, gearing up for the broadcast world.
D Rain collab, Battle Colosseum joint, shining on Dora's stream.
Resistance to streaming gone for someone who aced every task.
Always exceeding expectations.
Growing right under Dohee's nose again.
"Yeah, I'll check. I'll handle that side—you plan how to shine in the match."
So Dohee delegated full presentation reins that day.
Normally needed promo team input, but she was curious what Magia would do.
"Nothing else?"
"Nope. That's it. Play after promo."
"Got it."
And since it was special work she didn't usually do, reward time.
"Also, free next weekend with the match? Wanna game together?"
Magia blinked like stunned.
"Uh, sure. Why. Don't wanna?"
"No, just didn't expect you to ask first, boss."
"..."
"I mean, you always make excuses about being busy. Never bring it up unless I do."
"Okay, okay, forget it. My bad."
"Huh? Then no promo."
"You little."
Magia giggled cheekily and bolted from the office.
"Almost said~."
* * *
Mu-gun gladly accepted Cheon Dohee's request.
[Do whatever. Can pin the link in chat.]
He never stopped guests from promo-ing.
His name value was huge, so smaller fish hesitated out of courtesy.
As long as no 10-minute snoozefest intros tanking vibe, he'd even carve out time.
[But if promo-ing, maybe change the nick? Come incognito.]
"...Ah. Right?"
[Yeah? Every time I read it mid-game, free promo. Guy went from 10K to 50K subs that way.]
"Yeah. I'll check."
Promo expert here was Magia over Dohee.
Her nicks alone had cracked people up with insane sense.
[Me: Jia]
[Me: Can use nick for promo too]
[Me: Covering change fee—think of one?]
Magia's reply was lightning.
[Jia Manager: GuanroDongSashimiMasterLetsGo]
[Me: No joking]
[Me: I'll die]
Took serious Magia two minutes.
Reply?
[Jia Manager: MuGunIsFamousMomoAnti]
[Me: Hey]