Nearing midnight.
"Damn it..."
In a small, five-pyeong studio apartment, illuminated only by the glow of a monitor, a woman sat chewing her nails, staring at the computer screen.
A blank, empty screen.
A computer that was nothing but a hollow shell, with nothing to be found even after attempting data recovery.
It had been formatted.
If you were to ask why she used the passive voice, it was because the employees who followed her home from the company had deleted the files from her computer.
Even the ones on her phone.
What did they delete?
The VTuber image files, and every other file related to the VTuber that had been saved on the computer to enable her to stream from this room.
"Damn it, damn it...!"
Suddenly unemployed and fired, the woman, Kim Mi-jeong, could do nothing but curse repeatedly.
She was afraid to complain anywhere, fearing a visit from the company's legal team. If she wrote about it online, she felt certain someone would immediately recognize it and call her.
Kim Mi-jeong had a sixth sense about these things.
It was thanks to that intuition that she had managed to avoid having a note like "was a delinquent" written in her high school records.
But what was this?
Because of a single social media photo she hadn't even posted, her path to becoming a glamorous 3D idol had been completely blocked.
"Damn it, if I had just a little more time, I could have been making easy money...!"
Kim Mi-jeong started chewing her nails again as she began to browse through an online community.
It was a slightly more obscure place, different from mainstream forums, where raw, unfiltered stories were posted.
-Is it true the 2nd gen girls are pulling in 100 million won a month?
-Of course, it is. Did you forget the rumors that Lady Evelyn got 20 million won for that Chinese mobile game ad last time?
-Let's not mention the nasty rumor that she blew all 20 million on gacha pulls to max out the character and get a cashback reward.
One hundred million won a month.
The words alone were violent.
Even someone earning 100 million won a year was considered to be "making good money," but a woman not yet 25 years old earning 100 million a month?
"Ugh... a woman who's uglier and shorter than me...!"
To Kim Mi-jeong, it was utterly absurd.
That a girl who wouldn't have dared to make eye contact with her in high school was now hiding behind the mask of a VTuber and raking in 100 million won a month.
And it wasn't just an empty boast.
Even if the actual amount deposited into her personal account was less than 100 million, how common was a job that paid tens of millions a month?
Better yet, it was a job where you didn't have to diet to death every season like a K-pop idol or obsess over your visuals. As long as the camera didn't see it, gaining a little weight was fine.
She had been just one step away from debuting.
With just a little more time, she would have debuted, and she believed that once she did, her past wouldn't have been a major issue.
As long as she debuted, she could have negotiated with the company and managed it as a calculated risk.
She had desperately wanted to earn that 100 million a month.
Since there was a senior from the same company who was actually earning that much, the figure wasn't just some empty fantasy.
But not anymore.
Kim Mi-jeong's contract had been terminated, and she was now just an ordinary, unemployed high school graduate.
"Ugh, ughhh..."
The only source of income she could expect was the severance pay the company had promised to deposit tomorrow.
But even that would be gone in a few months after paying off her credit card installments and rent. Kim Mi-jeong had to start figuring out how to survive from tomorrow.
"...Hee, heheh."
Tearing at her hair, Kim Mi-jeong began to scour the internet with a demonic look on her face.
"Oh, right. Let's see about this. You think I can only succeed if I have a company backing me?"
Kim Mi-jeong stared at the monitor with venomous eyes.
The new site she had pulled up was a freelance platform where many illustrators gathered.
"I'll... damn it, I'll debut one way or another and take the heads of all the 3rd gen members."
Violent words, unimaginable to be directed at those she had prepared to debut with, spilled from Kim Mi-jeong's lips, but in this small room, no one could hear her.
Except for one thing.
On top of the wardrobe in Kim Mi-jeong's room, a golden haze of light shimmered like a heat mirage as the moonlight caught it.
The haze resembled an owl but had no physical form, and Kim Mi-jeong was completely unaware of its existence.
"Just you wait...! The person who got my contract terminated, I'll definitely get my revenge...!"
She had no idea that someone was watching her.
"I'll definitely—Aaargh?!"
Crack.
The moment she leaned back, the chair broke, and Kim Mi-jeong tumbled backward.
Thud!!
That night.
An ambulance rushed to the officetel and carried away a drunk woman in her early twenties.
It also carried away the golden owl, which no one could see.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
A sudden invitation to travel to another world.
I had crossed over once before, but I never expected to do it so spontaneously.
"Is it because you're low on mana?"
"I did use a little, yes."
There was one unavoidable reason for this.
"Is the Cleaning magic really that inefficient? Or maybe this communication spell is a bit draining."
"It's not that. I used magic for a personal matter, so my mana depleted more than I expected."
"What about the food I had delivered for you earlier?"
"I used magic to get that, too..."
"Huh?"
Wait a minute.
"You used magic to get something from your front door?"
"Yes."
"Was someone watching your building or something?"
"I was practicing. I had been thinking of a way to remotely bring packages inside to prepare for such a situation. It's similar to telekinesis."
Rasian snapped her fingers.
Instantly, the space within her magic tower, which had greeted me as soon as I stepped through the portal, began to distort, and rows of clothes appeared, reminiscent of a department store outlet.
"Rasian, you seem to handle every little thing with magic, don't you?"
"It's more efficient than moving my body."
"Are you going to start moving your body with magic next?"
"That's also possible, but it's inefficient. If movement is the goal, using a teleportation spell is faster. Ah."
Rasian, who was holding a rack of various dresses, looked at me with a sudden realization.
"I don't have any men's clothes. What should we do?"
"Would it be a problem if I wore modern clothes? I can go back through the portal and change into a suit."
"A suit should be... fine, for the most part. But things like a smartwatch or a phone won't do."
"Of course, I'll leave those here."
I quietly set down the traces of my modern life at the entrance of the portal.
My smartphone, wallet, and a few other electronic devices.
Through my conversations with Rasian, I had already sorted out which items should never be brought into a fantasy world, so organizing my things didn't take long.
"The suit... should I go back through the portal to change?"
"No. You can wear this."
Rasian snapped her fingers again, and a set of clothes flew towards me as if it had a mind of its own, stopping right in front of me.
"A robe?"
"It is a robe from my magic tower. It has never been used."
The white robe, embroidered with patterns in gold thread, wasn't much different from Rasian's own mage robe.
The only difference was that if I were to put the hood up, it would give me the image of a stereotypical, suspicious-looking "White Mage A."
"I originally intended to give this as a gift if I ever took on an apprentice, or when that apprentice graduated, or if the first visitor managed to break through the barrier of the White Magic Tower..."
"But no one ever came?"
"Correct. It's a gift for a guest, but how could I give it when not a single guest has ever opened the door?"
"...Are you sure I can wear this?"
"Yes. It will just look like an old-fashioned robe. No one has ever worn it before. Besides, we're just going to grab a bite to eat, so what does it matter?"
"But if something strange spills on this white cloth—"
"Magic can solve that. With the power of Cleaning magic, I can remove even a coffee stain down to the last pigment. Hehe."
"What...! You mean I wouldn't have to go through all that trouble to wash out a coffee stain?"
"What do you think? Magic is amazing, isn't it?"
The world of magic was more wondrous than I had imagined.
"Magic can be utilized in more diverse ways than you might think, Producer. It's even possible to remotely deal with potential threats."
"..."
"What's wrong?"
"You didn't do anything weird to Kim Mi-jeong with magic, did you?"
Rasian was an archmage.
"Producer. I was at your house, not in Seoul."
"You're an archmage who can drop meteors on Earth. Casting a long-distance curse or something similar should be well within your abilities, wouldn't it?"
"It's not a curse—ah."
I knew it.
"...It's not a curse. It's just a precaution for when the kind of risk you're worried about might arise."
"What kind of precaution?"
"Let's call it remote, real-time eavesdropping."
"..."
"I will keep it to myself. Then, when the time comes that I must speak, I will tell you immediately. ...Do you dislike me using magic for this?"
"...I'm not sure if it's right, but risk management is important."
If only I'd had the power of magic back then, I could have stopped my old boss from running off with all the money.
"It's just that it feels like a waste for you to use your mana on a woman like that."
"...Hehe. In that case, I have all the more reason to go recharge my magic."
"Could you please stop with that expression?"
"Is there something wrong with the expression 'recharge magic'?"
Rasian tilted her head.
She asked with an innocent face, but I had a feeling she knew exactly what she was saying.
"Never mind. So, what are we going to eat?"
"Steak."
"Are you choosing meat for my sake? I do like meat, but what kind is it?"
"Dragon."
"?"
"Dragon steak."
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