One of the most active communities discussing VTubers is the “Korean VTuber Gallery.”
Coincidentally, the topic there revolved around Sera.
<So, Mia finally graduated.>
(VTuber Mia’s graduation announcement)
Her average viewer count kept dropping, and she seemed less energetic and more troubled during streams—so I guess this was inevitable.
No, my precious little Mia!!!!
Who the hell is Mia?
Why are they always talking among themselves?
You don’t know the daughter of the Korean VTuber Gallery, Mia?
There was this VTuber the gallery hyped up like crazy, but she ended up dying.
There’s this theory that all VTubers heavily pushed by the gallery eventually graduate.
I absolutely love this theory.
Still, Mia lasted quite a while—six months.
Mia was fine, but she felt too corporate… Like, she was supposedly a rookie new to streaming, but she was way too skilled, which made her feel off…
But she said she had been watching streams for a long time, lol.
So basically, you’re disappointed because she didn’t act like a streaming virgin?
Oh….
A VTuber who’s not a streaming virgin, huh?
As expected, the Korean VTuber Gallery is the ultimate purity test, lmao.
<Mia seemed to be genuinely into the virtual world, though.>
Is there a specific reason she suddenly graduated?
She always used to repeat that she’d keep streaming consistently.
It’s real-life issues, obviously, lol.
She wasn’t even making minimum wage—how could she keep going?
She didn’t seem particularly financially struggling, though.
Only rich kids who don’t have to worry about making a living can afford to keep doing something that neither makes money nor builds a career.
If we look at past graduation patterns, it’s always one of three reasons: real-life issues, personal information getting leaked, or joining a company and reincarnating.
Which of the three do you think it is this time?
Could be reincarnation.
Mia had a great voice and talent, so she might have gotten into a company.
But that’s just wishful thinking…
The fact is, if gallery users had kept watching her, Mia wouldn’t have graduated and would still be streaming.
That’s a fact.
When the gallery used to relay her streams, she sometimes hit 100 viewers.
Damn, did you guys kill another one?
When a VTuber becomes a “gallery pick,” they end up being a toy for the users, losing viewers, and ultimately dying.
You trash bastards, bring Mia back!
These guys deliberately hype up small-time VTubers in the gallery, give them false hope, then drop them just for fun.
They’re seriously the worst kind of scumbags.
<Star Record’s 3rd Gen Debut Schedule Announced>
(Official announcement of Star Record’s 3rd-generation VTuber debut schedule)
Stop talking about Mia or whatever and check this out instead.
The avatars look really nice this time.
Oh, looks like it’s four of them this time.
Mia… are you there by any chance?
Mia fans can’t shut up about her no matter where they go.
They’re literally Mia fanboys, lol.
Red, blue, yellow, green—lol, what is this, a traffic light?
At least their hair colors don’t overlap, so it’ll be easy to tell them apart.
Personally, I like these avatars better than the 2nd-gen ones.
Look at that blonde with the big tits, lol.
Booba, lol.
Of course, they probably added jiggle physics too.
That sky-blue-haired one is seriously hot, you guys don’t know anything.
But… she’s flat.
Usually, blue-haired VTubers tend to do well.
Out of the 3rd-gen, Sera will probably be the most successful.
Who’s Sera?
The one with sky-blue hair.
Her name’s literally written below the illustration.
Star Records is working hard… Didn’t they just debut the 2nd-gen?
And now 3rd-gen already?
Probably because 2nd-gen flopped, so they rushed out 3rd-gen.
Their CEO even went live the other day, complaining about how they hope this new batch actually listens.
Well, they should’ve picked better candidates then.
To be fair, 2nd-gen had star potential.
That CEO, Si-eun, is good at spotting entertaining streamers.
This new batch is promising too.
Time passed and finally, the day of the debut stream arrived.
Mia’s old account had posted a graduation announcement, stating that she would no longer be active due to personal reasons.
Having followed her for six months, I felt a bit sentimental reading it.
But it couldn’t be helped—one has to survive, after all.
Objectively speaking, this was the right decision.
“Wow, over 5,000 people are watching the debut stream.”
Even though it was just their first stream, an insane number of viewers had gathered.
Of course, I knew this was just a temporary surge.
It was thanks to the foundation built by the previous 1st- and 2nd-gen talents at Star Record, as well as the company’s extensive promotional efforts.
That 5,000-viewer count was simply the number of people curious about the rumored 3rd-gen.
Keeping them around and turning them into loyal viewers was entirely up to us.
Still, there was no denying that the starting point was completely different.
When I thought about all the desperate stunts I had to pull just to gather around 50 viewers, just to catch the eyes of passing viewers, I could clearly understand why VTubers go so far as to reincarnate and join companies.
At the very least, a certain level of audience influx was guaranteed.
Even if just one-tenth of the debut stream viewers became my fans, that would already be 500 people.
Anyway, it was almost my turn now.
For the debut stream, the four of us would each take turns streaming for two hours, making a total of eight hours.
I was assigned the last slot.
I had said that I didn’t care about the order, so I guess they just put me at the end.
I had expected to be in the middle, since usually the first and last spots get the most attention.
It was unexpected in many ways.
As I waited, I watched the streams of the three members who went before me, and to my surprise, they were fun to watch.
Among the four of us, only two—including myself—had prior streaming experience, but even the two without experience were surprisingly engaging.
Maybe it was thanks to the training the company provided beforehand.
I also took a quick peek at the community’s reaction while monitoring my teammates’ streams, and the feedback wasn’t bad.
People were saying that we were just as good as the 1st and 2nd generations, that we were fresh and cute—those kinds of comments dominated the discussions.
In the end, all that was left was for me to do well.
“Haa…”
I let out a small sigh and moved my body around.
My avatar followed my movements accordingly.
Long, smooth silver hair, bright blue eyes, and streaks of blue highlights scattered through my hair—
it resembled me more than I expected, which made it feel natural rather than uncanny.
The high-quality model helped too.
The way it mimicked my every movement made it feel almost like having an actual face cam on,
making immersion easier.
My chest was a bit smaller than in real life, but well, that wasn’t a big deal.
Oh, and my VTuber name is Sera.
The company had some concerns about me using a name identical to my real one, but I figured it was fine.
I mean, who the hell would try to deduce my personal information from my VTuber name?
No sane person would assume a nickname is someone’s actual name.
In fact, this was even safer—hidden in plain sight.
Plus, it helped with immersion.
With all the final checks done, I waited, and soon, the signal came.
With a slightly nervous heart, I started the stream.
“Ah, ah, can you hear me?”
[Whoa!]
[It’s Sera, it’s Sera!]
[Hello!]
[What’s with that voice….]
[Noona, you’re so pretty.]
The chat started flying by at a speed I had never seen before in both my past and present life as a streamer.
I couldn’t help but be amazed.
“Wow… the chat is moving so fast. So many of you came to watch. Thank you!”
[Her reaction is so cute.]
[So this is the goddess noona from the PV.]
[Her voice is sexy as hell…. – Message deleted]
“Ah, right! Let me introduce myself first. My name is Sera. I’ve prepared a PowerPoint, just a moment.”
I pulled up the PowerPoint presentation I had prepared with the company.
It contained my profile as VTuber Sera.
There was nothing better for a debut stream than a proper introduction, after all.
“My name is Sera! Um, my height is 152cm. And my age is… 600 years old… Lastly, my race, my race is… a water spirit….”
[Why is your voice getting quieter toward the end?]
[A water spirit? LOL]
[Wow! A water spirit!]
[That’s just the lore.]
[It matches the avatar well.]
[152cm, lmao.]
[Hehehe….]
[I kinda wanna make her cry.]
[Is she getting shy? LOL]
[Is she the “pure” one of the group then?]
[A water spirit being shy?]
[600 years old? Damn, she’s older than my grandma.]
[That’s pretty standard in the VTuber industry.]
Introducing myself as a spirit was honestly so embarrassing.
And yet, this was still one of the better lore options I had to choose from.
“Pure one…? Yes, that’s right. I’m the… pure one. Yeah….”
To be honest, I had no clue what being “pure” was supposed to mean.
My manager, Hyejin, had explained that it meant being elegant and clean, like a lone flower blooming on the edge of a cliff.
I thought that explanation was more confusing than the concept itself.
But since the company had decided to position me as the “pure” one, I just went along with it.
From there, I kept interacting with the viewers, talking about my lore, my favorite things, my hobbies, my avatar, etc.
Just reading and responding to chat messages was enough to keep the stream going.
I didn’t even need to fill in the silence myself.
Is this what life in a big company is like?
What the hell were all my past streams, then…?
I was chatting and laughing with the viewers when suddenly—
[Sera, what’s your special talent?]
[Earlier, Qri whistled and sang a pop song.]
[Sera noona, heueung….]
“A special talent? Hmm… a special talent….”
Was this supposed to be a talent show moment?
What would be something entertaining enough to grab people’s interest?
“Oh! Let me try this—motorcycle sounds!”
I rolled my tongue in my mouth to imitate an ignition sound.
“Vrrrrr—”
And then,
“Vroooom! Vroom! Brrrraaaaang!”
[Oh!]
[That’s actually kinda good?]
[Cute, lol.]
[Sera noona can ride a motorcycle too?]
[If it were a bit lower in pitch, it’d be perfect.]
Maybe it was because the chat reacted positively, but I ended up getting overly excited like a kid being praised.
“Hehe, does it sound accurate? Then how about this one—do you guys know vape sounds? Let me try that!”
[Wait, what?]
[What did you just say?]
[Uh, no, don’t do that.]
[Aren’t you supposed to be the pure one?]
[Vape? LMAO.]
The chat freaked out, trying to stop me, but I was already too hyped up to notice.