After the Heavenly Realm Project audition ended, we officially began preparing for our debut.
First, we signed the contract remotely. Then, during a group meeting with the manager I had met when I visited the company before, we were briefed on the overall plan for how the debut would proceed.
The schedule was extremely tight.
We would start with recording the debut song, then hold a showcase, and on top of that, there were promotional collaborations with famous streamers affiliated with The Six.
One fortunate thing was that the company clearly intended to fully back us, and the support was massive. One of the biggest perks was the avatar.
"Is this… my avatar?"
[Yes, that's correct.]
I examined the avatar moving on the monitor in front of me.
My previous avatar had already cost a decent amount of money, but this one was on a completely different level.
Not only did it recognize my face and change expressions accordingly, but the overall quality had gone up another notch.
The light pink hair gleamed with shine, and the pale white face looked far more lively than before.
As I stared blankly at my avatar, realizing once again that there's no end to quality, the voice of my former prepare—now officially my manager—came through the headphones.
[And it looks like the debut song will be finished around tomorrow. I'll connect you with the composer, so you'll need to record.]
My mouth fell open at those words.
A debut song! I knew it was coming, but now it really hit me that I'd passed the audition.
"Hah… I'm nervous."
[Haha, you'll do great. Oh, and this is a secret, but…]
As I admitted my nerves, the manager chuckled lightly and paused, as if about to share confidential information.
"What is it?"
[You can't tell the others, okay? I heard the composer is really looking forward to you.]
"What? Why?"
[Apparently, they really like your vocal tone.]
"Wow, really?"
Hearing that a professional composer liked my voice made my lips curl up into a smile on their own.
'Guess I should throw away the rest of my cigarettes.'
Even though I'd mostly quit and kept them stored away, I couldn't justify keeping them anymore.
It hadn't been that long since I'd become a woman, so it was a blessing that my voice hadn't changed much.
I'd been really enjoying vocal practice lately—no way I was going to ruin that with smoking.
[Anyway, I'm sure things will turn out well. I need to go deliver avatars to the others, so I'll get going.]
"Wouldn't it be better to give them all at once?"
[Receiving a gift alone feels the best.]
"Ah…"
[Alright then, good work today. And please take care of tonight's collaboration.]
After ending the call with my manager, I stared blankly up at the ceiling.
When I first became a woman, I had no idea what to do—but now I'd passed an audition, and the day I record my debut song was just around the corner. It felt surreal.
How long had I been lost in thought, staring at the ceiling?
My phone suddenly started vibrating.
Bzzz—bzzz—
When I checked it, I saw messages piling up at a frightening speed in the Heavenly Realm Project group chat.
It seemed everyone had heard that the debut song was coming.
Ever since our first meeting, we'd constantly been on group calls or messaging, so even though only a few days had passed, we'd grown fairly close.
We were around the same age and did the same kind of work, so we never ran out of things to talk about.
Besides, being a VTuber can be a lonely job. Having people you could call peers made everyone happy.
I was no exception—I actively chatted with the others to get closer as well.
When I entered the group chat to reply, the topic had already shifted to streaming.
(Mahohyun [Maho]): Is it okay if I mention recording the debut song during today's collab??
(Anarin [Anna]): Wasn't today's collab set up specifically to talk about that?
(Hannari [Haru]): I'm excited for the debut song www
(Kim Arin [Roa]): What's with that way of talking?
(Hannari [Haru]): Learn the culture of our mainland seniors
(Kim Arin [Roa]): (Trembling bear emoticon)
(Mahohyun [Maho]): Oh right, Suhyun—can I say that during the collab?
Scrolling down, I saw that they were talking to me.
(Me): Say what?
I asked, confused, and a reply came almost instantly.
(Mahohyun [Maho]): The time you sang when we first met! I wanna brag to the viewers!
(Me): Yeah yeah, it's fine
Of course it was fine.
If anything, it was good publicity for me.
(Mahohyun [Maho]): You don't really sing on stream, so I wanted to check!
(Me): (Thumbs-up emoticon)
(Hannari [Haru]): What? Then I wanna say it too
(Anarin [Anna]): I'm gonna say it first~
As the others also jumped in to get permission, I gave vague approvals, grabbed my coat, and headed outside.
There were still a few hours before the collab started, so I figured I'd grab some food.
Instead of my usual soup place, I ate a filling meal at a new tonkatsu restaurant. After buying some snacks, I returned home and noticed that everyone was already gathered in the Heavenly Realm Project Discord channel.
'But the collab doesn't start for another hour?'
The company had already taken care of all the preparations. We only needed to start our streams about 30 minutes early, chat briefly with the prepared streamer, and then jump straight into the game.
Wondering why everyone was already there, I put on my headset and joined—only to immediately understand why.
Here is a natural, fluent English translation of the passage, preserving the pacing, humor, and streamer-chat tone:
[No, delete that too!]
[Ah—uh… yes!]
[Hurry! There's only an hour left!]
From the looks of it, Roa was still struggling to install the game, while the rest of the members had all gathered around to backseat her.
[Oh? Miro's here?]
"Yeah. You still haven't managed to install it?"
[Yeah! I'm losing my mind! She's completely computer-illiterate! But it's almost done!]
"Hmm… hang in there. I'm gonna go grab some snacks."
[Huh?? Aren't you way too relaxed??]
"Too many captains sink the ship."
With that, I left the call, finished setting up my stream, and lay down to read a few martial arts novels. Time flew by, and before I knew it, it was almost time to go live.
As notifications popped up one by one showing the others starting their streams, I pressed the "Start Broadcast" button as well.
[King of Singers Miro has joined the Bongbong Gathering
hi hi miro hi Finally started What the hell is "Bongbong Gathering"?
"Ah, so Bongbong Gathering—there's this thing in wuxia novels called the Dragon-Phoenix Assembly, where promising youngsters gather. Dragons and phoenixes meet, right? Men are dragons, women are phoenixes, so—"
Can't you just shut up? Avatar quality went up lol
"Anyway, today's a collab stream! Wow, I pass an audition and suddenly collab schedules start rolling in."
Wait, a collab? With a guy? Hmm…
Damn it—just saying I'm collabing with guys makes the atmosphere turn hostile.
They're always calling people 'this bitch' and 'that bitch,' but looks like they're actually serious about me?
"Alright, since we still have some time, should I report on what I've been doing while I wasn't streaming?"
Just play a game of LoL Did you level your account at least?
"I played a few games, but not that much."
[Donation: 10,000 won from Master Miro]
Then what the hell were you doing???
"Thank you for the 10,000 won! What do you mean resting? Ever since passing the audition, I've been in meetings, setting schedules, listening to explanations, setting things up. That's why my avatar changed too. Isn't it pretty? Look—face tracking works."
As I said that, I tilted my head toward the camera and made a few expressions. The character's face mirrored mine perfectly. Feeling satisfied looking at the well-made avatar, I logged into the game in advance.
"Today's game is Royal Ground. You all know it, right?"
Royal Ground.
A battle royale game where players loot weapons and fight inside a circle that gradually shrinks, until only one winner remains.
"There are six of us, right? So we'll split into two teams of three, and one famous The Six–affiliated Rog streamer will join each team."
Who the hell are they to join? Miro… my horns hurt… Miro… my horns hurt… Miro… my horns hurt…
"Why are you guys reacting like this? When the game starts, don't go poking at them for no reason. I'll get dragged into the hate too."
Self-centered bitch… Done for you~ Let's go in~ Let's go in~
"If you post weird stuff in their chats and get caught, I'll check your usernames and ban you from my channel too."
They were probably just being loud in chat, but I felt uneasy, so I took a hard stance. Only then did the chat finally quiet down.
"You really don't listen unless someone raises a stick."
[Donation: 1,000 won from ○○]
Viewers aren't animals, why are you raising a stick? Apologize right now.
"Thanks for the 1,000 won. Alright, I'll head into the voice channel now."
After smoothly acknowledging the donation, I peeked into the voice channel. The two Rog streamers from The Six who were collabing with us today were already there.
Ding—
"Hello."
With a cheerful connection sound, I joined the call.
[Oh, Miro's here!]
"Hi hi."
[Ah! Nice to meet you, Miro. I'm Hangal, a Rog streamer.]
[I'm Nathan.]
Hangal and Nathan.
They were the Rog streamers joining us for today's collab.
Since we hadn't met beforehand, this was our first time talking.
"Yes, please take good care of me, both of you."
Honestly, I didn't think much of the two of them.
They each had hundreds of thousands of subscribers, sure—but whatever. It was probably just a one-time thing anyway.
[Alright, since everyone's here, shall we get started?]
Hangal mostly took charge of the flow. He was the most well-known person there and spoke well, so it was natural for him to lead.
[Do you all have experience with Rog?]
[Ah, yes! We can all play it to some extent.]
Anna answered on behalf of us. She was the oldest among us and very popular, so that was also natural.
We took turns introducing ourselves, chatting, and easing into things.
Once the atmosphere had loosened up, teams were decided randomly.
[Alright, Maho, Haru, and Miro are on Hangal's team.]
[Then Anna, Mail, and Roa are on Nathan's team.]
The two invited streamers, both highly skilled and experienced, became the captains of each team. The rules were simple: both teams enter the same match, and whichever team gets first place wins.
[Alright, let's split into our team voice channels.]
With the group divided in half, the atmosphere grew a bit quieter.
[Um… are you all confident?]
Unable to stand the silence, Hangal spoke first. To lighten the mood, I quickly answered.
"Ah, yes. I'm confident."
[Oh? Really? How confident are we talking?]
"Confident enough that if someone unplugged their LAN cable, you wouldn't even notice the empty spot."
Rog is an extremely famous game.
Which means both male Kim Suhyun and female Kim Suhyun have played it.
On top of that, I'm pretty confident in my gaming skills. I'm in the top 3% in LoL, after all.
I play ADC too, so it's fair to say I'm good at FPS games as well.
[Alright. Let's see what you've got!]
Maybe he liked my confidence.
With Hangal's excitement rising, the collab stream officially began.