[Me: Mugeon is a famous Momo anti-team]
[President Nem: Hey]
[Me: Haha, got it~]
[President Nem: Be serious]
[President Nem: You're not taking this lightly, are you?]
[Me: UwU]
[Me: Threatening me]
It was a sudden development, so the president seemed worried.
I'd added the official excuse of promoting the 1st Gen, but...
Truth be told, even with that pretext, I had one more reason why I absolutely had to meet Mugeon.
'Finally, I get to see him.'
I'm President Momo's diehard fan.
A fossil who's been watching her streams for a full six years—a living history book.
In other words, I clearly remembered how, after I got too busy with company work to snipe as much, Mugeon and the president had been playing games all chummy lately.
Sure, Mugeon giving her another big boost with his ex-pro cred made business sense.
It was understandable to become friends on a professional level.
That's just how streamers roll.
But,
still,
isn't it too much to get all buddy-buddy like that so easily?—Magia still hasn't traded insults with Dohee.
It just feels too close.
And I still remember.
Stuff like how you'll live as a total scrub forever.
Or how someone who wants to climb ranks doesn't have the right posture.
Things like that.
Only I get to say them.
Bashing the president is my privilege.
I've been watching since the very beginning.
If we go by subscriber numbers, mine's 369 compared to his whopping 692,333.
What a cocky noob vet acting like he doesn't recognize his senior.
So I'd planned to meet him someday and flatten that nose of his.
Yeah, he's an ex-pro, and even two years after retiring, he's still Master tier top ranks.
And yeah, I'm just a sniper who's never even hit Diamond.
But I'm confident I can snag at least one kill if we face off as enemies, even if I can't win the whole game.
Smoke and double barrel kick off a super close-range brawl that no one can match for creating chaos.
It's hard for the opponent to react fast, and even pros would panic once we're face-to-face.
Just you try lying down.
I'll mock you right there as a scrub who gets wiped by Diamonds.
Scrub Mugeon, Mugeon who hides under signal flares!
'...I'm getting a bit excited without realizing it.'
Anyway, I should wrap up the task the president gave me first.
Whenever Mugeon comes up, I just...
[Me: I decided]
[Me: Parallel1stGenNewSong1105Watch]
[President Nem: ?]
[President Nem: Where's the song?]
[Me: Hit the character limit lol]
[President Nem: (Facepalm emoticon)]
* * *
Jia picked one of her rarely used sub-accounts and changed the nickname to '1st Gen 1st Anniversary Song November 5th Release.'
She deliberately left out "Parallel."
It fit exactly into the 12-character limit, packed tight, and anyway, everyone would figure it out once Magia showed up.
Up to that point, it was pretty standard prep.
If Dora hadn't brought new news just three days after they'd wrapped up the discussion.
[Sent you a rough on the president's character sheet—check it out~]
"Oh, email's here. Hold on."
Rough draft my foot—it was half-finished, tweaked for final submission.
Like, one or two more days of work and it'd be done.
"You... didn't sleep?"
[Sleep? I got four hours a day?]
"...Four hours and you're fine? Even then... this pace doesn't make sense?"
Dora snorted smugly.
[It just... inspiration hit like crazy. So I kinda drew non-stop. Creation's like that, right? Bam, something strikes, the lightbulb shatters, and whoosh whoosh whoosh~.]
Her explanation was all over the place, but the intent came through clear.
Thinking about drawing Magia's fanart had sparked so much motivation and ideas that she worked at over twice her usual speed.
Was helping Dora out that big a deal for her?
When Komari went to assist, it was just snacks and done, so the difference must've felt huge.
"Anyway. Are you sharing progress with Jia?"
[Nope. Planning to show it once it's complete.]
"What if she doesn't like it? You know she'll say it straight up. Wouldn't it be better to tweak during the process?"
Dora giggled.
[What, your nitpicks and nagging are daily routine. Fix whatever she says. But I bet she'll love it. Confident!]
Dohee slowly examined the illustration again.
The character base was Magia herself.
Black hair shimmering with a blue aura under the light.
Unusually bright blue eyes for a Korean.
Office blouse and skirt blending with school uniform vibes, topped by an oversized witch robe and hat,
and for some reason, a high-tech mechanical staff fused with rocket engineering on her back.
An utterly cute little witch, but one whose explosive mischief shone right through her expression.
Witch.
It fit Magia perfectly.
Not just any witch—a bratty, tiramisu-tough imp.
"Yeah, I think even I'd like it."
[Right?! I'm designing it with rigging in mind too. The hat and robe parts are separable. Figured Jia might say they're too much, so I planned ahead...
Next image shows her with an ID badge around her neck to emphasize the office worker vibe. Perfect round manager glasses that suit Jia, and below that, a whopping fifteen expression sets? Aren't they all adorable?]
The detail work was insane, packed with the illustrator's effort.
This rivaled the quality of the 1st Gen fanart they'd shelled out over 1.5 million won for.
Unless you handed it to a total hack rigger, people would be wowed by the fanart alone.
Popular illustrators usually charge extra for rush jobs.
Yet Dora was cranking this out at breakneck speed, no bonus.
If this wasn't madness, what was?
Feeling something beyond mere fondness for Jia, Dohee couldn't help asking.
"Dora, have you always liked Jia this much...?"
Oblivious to Dohee's sharpened emotions, Dora laughed brightly.
[I've got a much younger sister, y'know? So when I see someone like Komari or Jia, it's like... maternal? Not quite. More like... wanna hug 'em close.]
"It wasn't this intense before."
[Well... I wanted to get close from the start. But Jia! Seriously. Always nagging no crooked postures, no pouting. How can I when she won't do cute stuff! I wanna adore her but she won't let me!]
Spot on.
For nearly a year, Jia had kept a transparent wall up with the members.
Material support, sure, but emotionally? Never together.
So unless the whole 1st Gen gathered at the company or for motion studio shoots, no separate meetups.
She'd probably have dipped early from company dinners too if Dohee hadn't dragged her—off to watch other VTubers instead of hanging with the crew.
That damn tambourine.
If you're that good at rapping, mix in and sing a song already.
'Well, better late than never to bond.'
Plus, Dohee and ops team lead Kang had been handling all direct face-time, including mental care for the VTubers. With President Dohee getting busier, they needed a replacement.
And here Jia was stepping up perfectly—Dohee couldn't help thinking of a role shift.
But for that, Magia couldn't stay stuck as a regular staffer.
Time to recognize her contributions: bump her rank and pay, hand off monitoring to a successor.
No more doing every odd job as a peon forever.
Next year she'd hit four years, a vet who'd navigated crises without a hitch.
"Anyway, don't pull all-nighters. You'll be late again and stuck on horror games."
[Eek, no lateness!! But yeah, I'll finish by Monday no matter what. Jia's doing external streams—can't skip rigging, right? Fanart at least to make it look good!]
"Won't that be tough?"
[Weekend's there! I can do it!]
Her resolve was ironclad—no stopping her.
"Fine. Don't overdo it. Prep your stream well too."
[Yep~.]
Whether she sensed it was about her or not.
As the call with Dora ended, Magia trotted into the office right on cue.
2:30 PM.
Coming after 3 meant OT anyway, no biggie.
But lately, her arrivals had been progressively earlier.
And as usual, she'd brew capsule coffee and head to the president's office.
"President. Morning coffee."
Invited her to PC bang next weekend, and now she's all grins.
Smiling dopily through the day.
"I already had lunch."
"But it's morning for me?"
"Fine."
Dohee took the coffee Jia offered and sipped slowly.
Same strength as always, same warmth.
Just right—not scalding the tongue.
Smiling contentedly, Dohee said,
"Hey, if you're bringing in a junior, what kind of person would you want?"
Jia tilted her head.
"Junior? Out of nowhere?"
"Your workload's piling up lately. Don't you think it's time to hire someone under you?"
"Hm? I'm good as is."
Clock in at 3, out at midnight, monitor streams till 5-6 AM at home if late, plus member care and guest spots—not overwork?
If it was just watching streams, fine, but she compiles reports bursting Word docs: daily donations, viewer trends, fun convos between streamer and audience, future plans—submits at dawn, crashes.
Double that, and she'd lose game time, her secret VTuber binges.
2nd Gen debut means 8 monitors to watch.
No human can handle that.
Not a spider or bedbug.
"We start 2nd Gen recruitment in December. They'll be your charge too once selected? Four to eight doubles your work, you know."
"Yeah, but... can't we think about it then?"
"Companies don't run on seat-of-pants. Plan manpower ahead or problems hit later. HR says we can add T/O, so no worries—think about your ideal junior type and tell me. That way we evaluate properly at interviews."
But Jia didn't seem convinced.
Even as Dohee stared intently, emphasizing its importance, she just pouted.
"No dice. Figure out your ideal junior by tomorrow."
"Tch. Setting a deadline out of the blue."
"No tch-ing. One A4 sheet, Ming-style 16pt, detailed. Got it?"
"Yeees."
Jia grumbled out of the office.
It felt a bit pushy, but no choice.
A frail thing like Magia collapses from overwork, recovery'd be slower than most.
Imagine ops lead and Dohee's panic.
Substitutes jumping in would freak too?
Me handling this solo?
* * *
Next morning, Momo got an email.
From Magia, attached: a single sheet crammed with tiny text.
[My Ideal Junior Type]
— Must love members enough to watch all their lives every day. Must watch ALL streams simultaneously.
— And while watching, summarize into docs at the same time.
— I.e., MULTITASKING extremely extremely extremely extremely extremely important.
— Master all member slang from streams, in-game terms from Ppajijik and Savanna.
— Know usage and common fixes for all stream gear (sound cards, audio interfaces, capture boards, mocap gear...)
— PC disassembly/assembly expert (bonus for CPU/board/RAM/GPU know-how, hardware troubleshooting)
— Master all software used in member streams (software fixes)
— Malicious viewer experience essential
— 200+ games in Steam library, 20+ online games played 1+ month each
— Female *IMPORTANT
...
...
...
Looks like a protest for a raise since I do so much—but no.
Her pay's stuck at 2.5 mil for three years because she insists against raises.
"Watching streams deserves 2.5 mil? Grateful already."
Meaning: Hire a newbie vet who can match my output day one.
But if another Magia existed, they'd have snatched her ages ago.
Plopped her next to Jia, working tandem.
"No way 'malicious viewer experience essential' is a must..."
No helping it—Dohee messaged back right away.
Jia's probably asleep, but couldn't let it slide.
[Me: Teacher]
[Me: Not list your own tasks]
[Me: What you want junior to help with?]
[Me: Giving you till tomorrow...]