[Me: Mugeon is a famous anti-Momo.]
[Boss: Hey.]
[Me: Haha, just kidding~]
[Boss: Be serious.]
[Boss: This isn’t something to take lightly, okay?]
[Me: Uh-oh.]
[Me: Is that a threat?]
It was a sudden turn of events, and the boss seemed genuinely concerned.
To ease the tension, I added a surface-level excuse about promoting the first-gen group. But, honestly, there was another reason I needed to meet Mugeon, even if I had to come up with such pretexts.
“Finally, I’ll see him.”
I’m a hardcore fan of Momo’s stream.
A relic who has been watching since six years ago—a living history book.
In other words, I clearly remembered how, after I got too busy with work to continue my semi-retired sniping career, Mugeon and the boss started playing games together recently in such a friendly manner.
Sure, it’s true that Mugeon, as a former pro, gave the boss another chance to blow up in popularity.
And yes, I understood how becoming business buddies made sense.
That’s just how streamers operate.
But still…
Wasn’t becoming this close a bit too much?
Take Majiya and Dohee, for example—they’ve never even traded insults with each other yet!
It feels too intimate, you know?
And I still remember…
The time when you said stuff like, “This is why you’ll always be stuck as a noob,”
and “If you want to climb the ranks, your attitude needs to change.”
Those words, yeah…
That’s my privilege to say.
I’ve been here since the small-time days.
If we go by subscriber ID numbers, there’s a staggering difference between 369 and 692,333.
And this low-ranked scrub doesn’t even recognize their senior?
The audacity!
So, I had been planning to meet him someday and put him in his place.
Sure, he’s a former pro, still a top-tier Master rank even two years after retiring.
And sure, I’m just a Diamond-level sniper who’s never climbed higher.
But still, I was confident I could at least score one kill if we met as opponents.
Close-range skirmishes that start with smoke grenades and double-barrels?
They’re second to none when it comes to creating unpredictable scenarios.
Even pros struggle to react in time when ambushed face-to-face.
Just wait and see.
I’ll call him a scrub who got stomped by a Diamond player.
I’ll shout, “Scrub Mugeon! Bottom-tier signal flare Mugeon!”
…I guess I got a little carried away there.
Anyway, I need to wrap up the task the boss assigned me first.
But still, whenever it’s about Mugeon, I just can’t help myself.
[Me: I’ve decided.]
[Me: Parallel 1st-gen new song 1105 hype.]
[Boss: ?]
[Boss: Where’s the rest?]
[Me: Character limit, haha.]
[Boss: facepalm emoji]
* * *
Jiya logged into a rarely used alternate account and changed the nickname to “1stGen1YearSongNov5Release.”
She intentionally left out “Parallel.”
This was partly because the 12-character limit had her packing it in tightly, and partly because everyone would figure it out once Majiya made her appearance anyway.
It was a fairly ordinary step in the preparation process—
at least until Dora came back with some unexpected news just three days after they wrapped up the discussions.
[Sent over a rough draft of the boss character sheet—take a look!]
“Ah, got it. Checking the email now, hold on.”
Though she called it a rough draft, it was more like a half-finished illustration, just needing some final detailing for completion.
It seemed like another day or two of work would be enough to finish it.
“Did… you not sleep?”
[Sleep? I slept, like, four hours a day!]
“…And you’re okay with just four hours? Even then, this speed doesn’t make any sense!”
Dora snorted, clearly proud of herself.
[You know how it is—when inspiration just floods in, you can’t stop. Like, boom, a light bulb shatters, and you’re just sketching away! That’s how creativity works, right?]
Her explanation was all over the place, but the point came across.
She’d suddenly been hit with a surge of motivation and ideas while working on a design for Majiya, which had boosted her productivity to an unusually high level.
Did she feel so grateful that Jiya had helped her?
Well, considering how Komari’s visit to help Dora had just ended with a casual late-night snack, the difference must have felt significant.
“Anyway, are you sharing your progress with Jiya?”
[Nah. Planning to show her the final version.]
“What if she doesn’t like it? You know she’s the type to say that kind of stuff without hesitation, right? Wouldn’t it be better to make adjustments during the process?”
Dora giggled sheepishly.
[Come on, it’s not like her critiques and nagging are anything new. If she complains, I’ll just fix it. But I’m pretty confident she’ll like it. Trust me!]
Dohee took another close look at the illustration.
The character base was, without a doubt, modeled directly after Majiya herself.
Glossy black hair with a hint of blue under the light.
Bright blue eyes, unusually striking for a Korean.
A mix of office wear and school uniform—a blouse and skirt—topped with an oversized witch’s robe and hat.
On her back, a futuristic mechanical staff that seemed like it came straight out of rocket science.
The result was an irresistibly cute little witch with a mischievous grin that couldn’t quite hide her playful nature.
A witch.
It suited Majiya perfectly—
not just any witch, but a cheeky and impish trickster.
“Yeah, I think she’ll like it.”
[Right?! Also, I’m designing it with rigging in mind! The hat and robe are detachable, by the way, since I figured Jiya might say they’re over the top.]
Dora beamed with excitement.
[And check out the next image—she can wear a staff ID badge around her neck to emphasize her office-worker side. Plus, I made round manager glasses for her, which totally suit Jiya’s vibe! Oh, and there are a whopping fifteen facial expression sets. Aren’t they all just super adorable?]
Even the effort of the illustrator seemed boundless, resulting in an absurd level of detail.
At this point, the quality was nearly on par with the first-gen model plates that cost over 1.5 million won to produce.
Unless you entrusted the work to a particularly subpar rigger, people would likely be stunned by the plates alone.
For reference, when you ask a popular illustrator for a quick turnaround, you usually have to pay an extra fee.
Yet Dora was churning out artwork at an insane speed without any additional charge.
If this wasn’t madness, then what was it?
Feeling a sense of emotion from Dora that went beyond just caring for Jiya, Dohee found herself asking impulsively,
“Dora, did you always like Jiya this much…?”
Unaware of Dohee’s tense tone, Dora laughed brightly.
“[I have a much younger sister, you know? So, well, when I see people like Komari or Jiya, it’s like… maternal instinct? Maybe not that exactly, but I kind of… feel like I want to take care of them.]”
“You weren’t this way before.”
“[Well, I wanted to get closer from the start, but Jiya! Seriously! She’s always saying, ‘Don’t clench this, don’t puff that,’ just nagging all the time! And she never does anything cute, so how could I adore her? There was nothing to adore!]”
Every word rang true.
For nearly a year, Jiya had lived with an invisible wall between herself and the other members.
Even though there were material exchanges, there had been no emotional bonding.
She didn’t attend gatherings unless it was when the entire first-gen team was at the company or at the motion studio for a shoot.
At company dinners, if Dohee hadn’t called her personally, Jiya would likely have left early to watch other VTubers’ streams instead of hanging out with the group.
And that tambourine.
If she was that good at rapping, she could’ve at least sung a song to blend into the atmosphere.
‘Well, better late than never to get close.’
More than anything, Dohee and Team Manager Kang from operations had been handling all direct interactions and mental care for the affiliated VTubers so far.
But with Dohee becoming increasingly busy, it was clear they needed someone else to take on the role.
Now that Jiya was stepping up like this, Dohee couldn’t help but naturally consider a shift in roles.
However, for that to happen, Jiya staying in her current entry-level position wasn’t an option.
It would be necessary to recognize her contributions so far by raising her rank and salary while transferring monitoring duties to a successor.
How much longer could she stay as a staff member doing all the odd jobs?
Next year would mark her fourth year, and she’d weathered countless crises without any major fallout—a true veteran.
“Anyway, don’t pull too many all-nighters. If you’re late again, you’ll have to do another horror game stream.”
“[Ah, no way, I can’t be late again!! But still, I’m absolutely finishing this by Monday. Jiya’s going on an external broadcast—how could I not get at least the plate ready for rigging?]”
“Are you sure you’ll be okay?”
“[There’s the weekend! Totally doable!]”
Her determination was so firm that trying to dissuade her seemed pointless.
“Alright, just don’t overdo it. And make sure the broadcast is well-prepared.”
“[Yessir~.]”
Whether she knew they had been talking about her or not, just as the call with Dora ended, Majiya entered the office almost on cue, walking in with brisk steps.
It was 2:30 PM.
Even if she arrived after 3 PM, overtime was guaranteed, so it didn’t matter.
Still, her arrival time had been getting earlier over the past few weeks for some reason.
And as always, when she arrived at work, she prepared a capsule coffee and brought it to the president’s office.
“Boss, your morning coffee.”
Ever since Dohee casually suggested they visit a PC cafe together next weekend, Jiya had been beaming.
She spent her day with a wide, silly grin plastered on her face.
“I’ve already had lunch, you know.”
“But it’s still morning for me.”
“Fair enough.”
Dohee accepted the coffee Jiya handed over and took a sip.
It was just the way she liked it exactly the same strength and temperature as always.
Warm enough to coat her tongue but never too hot.
With a contented smile, Dohee asked,
“If you were to have a junior to help you, what kind of person would you want?”
Jiya tilted her head in confusion.
“A junior? All of a sudden?”
“You’ve been taking on more and more work lately. Don’t you think it’s about time we hire someone under you?”
“Hmm? I think I’m fine as is.”
Fine, huh? A schedule that started with arriving at work at 3 PM, leaving at midnight, then heading home to monitor streams until 5 or 6 in the morning before finally sleeping. All this while taking care of the team, appearing on broadcasts, and so much more.
It wasn’t just casually watching streams, either. Jiya meticulously wrote reports filled with details like daily donation amounts, viewer trends, memorable conversations between streamers and viewers, and future plans. These Word documents were so extensive they could almost burst at the seams. She submitted them in the early hours before finally going to bed.
If her workload doubled, she wouldn’t have time to play her favorite games anymore, let alone sneak in time to watch her beloved VTubers.
With the second generation debuting soon, the number of monitors she’d need to watch would jump to eight.
It was an impossible task for any human—she wasn’t a spider or some multi-eyed creature.
“We’re starting recruitment for the second generation in December. You know those new hires will be under your care too, right? Four members will turn into eight. That’s double the workload.”
“True, but can’t we deal with it when the time comes?”
“If running a company were that simple, everyone would be in business. Planning ahead prevents problems later. The HR manager already said they could add to our team’s headcount, so don’t worry about it. Just think about the kind of junior you’d like and let us know. That way, we can evaluate candidates properly during interviews.”
Even with Dohee’s logical explanation, Jiya didn’t seem entirely convinced.
Despite Dohee’s pointed gaze emphasizing the importance of the matter, Jiya simply pouted and stuck out her lips.
“You know what? Think about the kind of junior you’d want and let me know by tomorrow.”
“Tsk. Giving me a deadline out of nowhere.”
“Don’t ‘tsk’ me. I expect a detailed description on one A4 page, in size 16 MingCho font. Got it?”
“Yeeees.”
Grumbling, Jiya shuffled out of the president’s office.
It felt a bit like pushing her, but there was no other choice.
Someone as frail as Majiya would likely take much longer to recover if she collapsed from overwork.
Imagine the panic it would cause for the operations team leader and Dohee herself.
Even whoever was assigned as a temporary replacement would be shocked.
“You expect me to handle all this on my own?” they’d probably say in disbelief.
* * *
The next morning, Momo received an email.
The sender was Majiya, and the attachment was a single-page document densely packed with small text.
[The Ideal Junior I Hope For]
– Must be passionate enough to watch every member’s live stream daily. However, they must also be able to watch all the streams simultaneously.
– Connected to the above, they must be able to summarize the streams into documents while watching them.
– In other words, multitasking is extremely, extremely, extremely, extremely, extremely important.
– Must know all the slang used in the members’ streams, as well as streaming terms used in Crackle and Savanna.
– Must be familiar with how to operate all the broadcasting equipment the members use and know how to handle common issues (sound cards, audio interfaces, capture boards, motion capture equipment…).
– Must be an expert in assembling and disassembling computers (deep knowledge of core components like CPUs, motherboards, RAM, GPUs is a bonus, for handling hardware issues).
– Must know how to use all the software the members rely on during streams (for handling software-related issues).
– Trolling experience required.
– Must have played at least 200 single-player games and at least 20 online games for a minimum of one month each.
– Must be female. Important.
This document might look like a protest demanding a pay raise for myself because of all the work I do, but that’s not it.
The reason her salary has been fixed at 2.5 million won for the past three years is that she has stubbornly refused to raise it herself.
She insists that earning as much as 2.5 million won just for watching streams is already more than enough.
In other words, the real purpose of this report is to request that a new hire, as experienced as herself, be brought on board to work like she does from day one.
But if there were two Majiyas in the world, why wouldn’t they have hired one already?
They would have long since put her next to Majiya and let them work together.
“Seriously, what is this trolling experience required nonsense…”
Dohee had no choice but to send a message right away.
Majiya had probably gone to bed already, but there was no way she could let this slide without saying something.
[Me: Teacher.]
[Me: This isn’t about listing everything you do at work.]
[Me: Can you write down what you hope your junior could help you with?]
[Me: I’ll give you until tomorrow. Try again, please…]
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