Chapter 10

I Am at the Center of Attention

Starlight Media’s Rookie Development Team.

Yoon Dohyun sat at his desk glaring at his monitor as he poured cold coffee into his mouth.

On the screen, that scene from last night had been immortalized.

The chat message he had sent.

And the single line that had fallen over it.

‘Begone!’

Banned.

Permanently banned, at that.

“I’ve seen all sorts of things up until now.”

But this was the first time he had ever been blocked after making a scouting offer.

Rejections were common. Getting no reply was common too. Playing hard to get in order to raise one’s value was also common.

But this was not that.

“A vampire princess won’t join under a human company? There’s a limit to how far you can take a concept.”

Come to think of it, perhaps that was also why donations were disabled.

It did not fit the concept for a princess to live off money received from other people.

Someone who streamed four or five hours a day was going so far as to give up her own revenue just to maintain her concept.

And it was not as though she was someone already earning a decent amount and merely giving up part of it.

With donations disabled, her revenue was zero.

Of course, he could not entirely rule out the possibility that she had secretly signed with some company behind the scenes...

But what insane company would allow one of its VTubers to disable donations?

“Hahaha.”

He laughed in disbelief.

Normally, he would have given up at this point.

What great loss would it be to miss out on one roleplay addict who could not be reasoned with?

But from the moment he had been blocked until now, the name Lilith had remained stuck in Dohyun’s head.

The reason was simple.

The clip showing the moment Lilith banned Dohyun was still spreading everywhere even now.

[VTuber Who Banned a Scout.avi]

[Streamer Consumed by an Otherworldly Character Concept]

Because it was such an unusual case, the clips were sprouting up even in places unrelated to VTubers.

As if proving how intriguing the titles were, the view counts continued climbing by the minute.

Rejecting the contract was becoming a plus rather than a minus for a streamer named Lilith.

...Of course, with donations disabled, she still could not make money.

“Ah!”

At that moment, an idea occurred to Dohyun.

“Don’t tell me she’s planning to keep gathering people with noise marketing like this... and then take advertisements?”

That was plausible enough.

In the end, the idea that gathering enough people always turned into money was common knowledge in every field, not just the VTuber industry.

Once concurrent viewers passed into the thousands, you could receive quite a lot of advertisements, and even aim beyond that.

You could become a television celebrity.

This was an era when the center of media had shifted from television to personal channels accessed through smartphones. It was even common for people who gained influence on the internet to move backward into television.

And if you uploaded videos to sites like NewTube and built subscribers there as well, you could accelerate the effect even further...

“But this girl doesn’t seem to have a NewTube account or anything.”

Yoon Dohyun tapped his fingers on the desk.

“What the hell is she thinking? Is she a genius marketing strategist, or just a lunatic obsessed with her concept?”

Either way, the answer was the same.

They could not afford to let someone like this slip away.

The problem was how. She did not read emails, whispers and donations were blocked, and he had been banned from chat.

He had no communication channel left. Of course, Yoon Dohyun was not the only person at Starlight, so they could try contacting her again using another employee’s account...

“She’d probably block that one too, right?”

If she did not, would he almost feel disappointed?

“For now, I guess all I can do is watch.”

Yoon Dohyun brought up Lilith’s channel page once again.

— — —

“Hm? What’s this. A VTuber?”

Gomtaengi, a variety game streamer who casually pulled in two thousand concurrent viewers on an ordinary day.

A so-called major streamer.

During his Just Chatting segment—written as Just Chatting, read as time to milk money—a donation video from a viewer appeared on-screen.

Living up to his username, the massively built Gomtaengi slurped up the piping-hot jjamppong that had just been delivered while staring at the screen.

The video contained the full story of the contract rejection incident. From the moment Dohyun appeared in Lilith’s chatroom, through all of Lilith’s reactions and Dohyun’s contract offer.

And near the end of the video—

A beautiful vampire girl with a furious expression shouted.

‘Begone!’

Then came the chaos in chat after Yoon Dohyun was banned.

“Pffft!”

Gomtaengi, who had been eating jjamppong, quickly raised a hand to cover his mouth. A desperate attempt to prevent broth from spraying everywhere as laughter burst out.

“What the hell is with this person! Hahahahahaha.”

After swallowing the noodles in his mouth, Gomtaengi leaned back in his chair and burst out laughing.

“No, she banned the guy who came to scout her? That’s insane. Where does this person stream?”

-Ah, there’s this girl with a vampire concept

-The person who got famous from the moaning clip

-Tang hyung, you’re behind the times these days

-You don’t know anything

“Moaning clip? What’s that now?”

No sooner had Gomtaengi asked than another donation arrived.

This time it was a different clip.

‘Nghhh...! Ahaagh...!’

“Gah! What are you playing?”

Gomtaengi quickly turned off the video and let out an incredulous laugh.

“Isn’t this adults-only? I’ll get suspended if I play something like this.”

-No no, she was like that because she had muscle pain from working out lol

-It’s not erotic, it’s just funny

-Please watch it to the end

“You’re serious, right? You guys didn’t all coordinate this to trick me, did you?”

Though he muttered in disbelief, Gomtaengi played the clip again.

“Ahem. It’s a little embarrassing, but... yeah, it wasn’t a dangerous video. What kind of person is she?”

-If you watch the actual stream, she’s more funny than sexy

-She mostly plays games, but she also does this ‘culture lesson’ thing and talks about stuff from the 90s and 80s

-But she’s seriously terrible at games

It was not only Gomtaengi.

Throughout that entire day, Lilith’s clips moved from stream to stream like an infectious disease.

The word viral came from virus, and this truly was an internet disease in every sense.

“That obsession with her concept is no joke. I understand rejecting it, but doing it like that?”

“She probably apologized privately afterward and replied to the email, right? She must have. There’s no way an adult would actually behave like that. It may look funny on the surface, but that’s how you make enemies.”

“Judging by how vividly she talks about the 90s, she’s definitely an older woman...”

“I seriously can’t understand it. Wait, don’t tell me this was the point? Noise marketing?”

Each time a streamer added a comment, the people watching that stream searched for Lilith too.

Lilith, Lilith, Lilith.

Those three syllables were beginning to circulate throughout the industry.

— — —

“Ugyagyagya. Ubebebe.”

Today too, I returned to my room after finishing my workout.

After showering as well, my body felt light.

These days, I definitely no longer became a corpse even after exercising. Looks like my stamina really had improved.

Well, the only place I used that stamina was walking to my bed.

“Now then.”

It was time to begin today’s proper routine.

“Hehehe.”

I threw myself onto the bed and picked up my phone.

Shorts.

A magical screen where every piece of content in the world endlessly rises up with a single thumb.

A cat climbs into a box, someone cooks ramen in a bizarre way, a foreigner eats Korean snacks and looks shocked.

There is not a single scrap of substance, yet strangely my finger refuses to stop.

After watching one, I get curious about the next, and after the next, I wonder about the one after that.

Is this not the essence of modern civilization?

“My entire past life was such a waaaaste!”

There had been nothing like this in my previous life. Not that I would have had time to watch anyway.

I would work overtime until dawn, crawl home, collapse into sleep, then go back to work.

But now?

I have the freedom to lie down in broad daylight and meaninglessly swipe through meaningless videos.

Without anyone saying a word to me.

This is what it means to live.

“...Ow, my finger’s getting hot.”

Had I been moving my finger like that for about two hours?

I was starting to get bored of Shorts too.

“Maybe I’ll read some comics.”

I put down my phone, crawled over to the desk, and turned on the computer.

It was about time for a new episode of the comic I had been reading lately to go up.

A world where a mere flick of a finger brings comics from all around the globe into the palm of your hand.

If I showed this sight to my previous self, I would probably have cried.

“Mm. The next chapter is up. Nice.”

I had gotten permission to subscribe to the comic site with a premium account, so I could read any comic I wanted.

Of course, I could not read anything rated fifteen-plus or adults-only. Ah, and on top of that, anything Ms. Sejin selected as ‘bad for education’ was forbidden regardless of age rating.

“Tch. Censorship is bad!”

Anyway, comics are fun.

“Wow, the art is insane.”

Sometimes it is nice to immerse yourself completely in a story someone else made.

Because I do not have to do anything.

All I have to do is watch.

This kind of passive enjoyment is the greatest luxury permitted to the lazy.

As I remained absorbed in the comic for quite a while.

Knock knock knock.

“Miss, come eat dinner.”

“Yesh.”

Was it already this late?

The dining room was needlessly spacious as ever. A ten-person table with only me sitting at it.

By now, I was used to this sight too.

For a few months after my parents died, it had felt very lonely... but humans are creatures of adaptation.

Now I do not care much. Since it is so wide, I can even stretch my arms out as much as I want.

“What’s for dinner today?”

“Braised short ribs, your favorite.”

“Ooh. Is it some special occasion? It’s been forever.”

“You’ve been exercising hard lately and lost a lot of weight.”

“Cough. That’s why? So that’s why you weren’t giving me meat?”

“Of course. If I could see you gaining weight, how could I keep serving you meat?”

“Kgh...”

“If you want to keep eating meat from now on, you need to keep exercising consistently.”

I had uncovered a terrifying secret.

In the end, I was destined to keep exercising with food as bait.

“Thank you for the meal—. Ogogogog—!”

The moment I put it in my mouth, the meat fell apart so softly that I nearly came on the spot.

I’m happy.

“Aaaah... oooh... haaaangh...”

What worries could possibly exist in this world when there is short rib in my mouth?

“...Could you eat normally without making strange noises?”

“What can I do? It’s delicious.”

“Eat some vegetables too. You’ve had meat five times in a row already.”

“Eek, you’re keeping track of that too? This place is a prison!”

“...Do I look like I enjoy keeping track of every little thing like this?”

“Eek.”

The air grew heavy. If I say the wrong thing here, I die instantly—!

“If you would just manage yourself properly, it would be easier for me too. You’re already fourteen, Miss. You need to stop being picky about food.”

“But vegetables taste bad—!”

“They’re good for your body.”

“But—!”

“They are. Good. For your body.”

I dejectedly picked up some spinach.

While I was wrestling for a while with the green substance I desperately wanted to kill.

Bzzzt—.

Ms. Sejin’s phone rang.

“Excuse me for a moment, Miss.”

Ms. Sejin stood up and answered the call.

“Yes, this is Han Sejin. Ah, yes. Yes.”

Now!

While Ms. Sejin’s attention is off me, hurry and eat the meat!

Meat! Meat!

“Yes....I see. Understood....Yes, I’ll prepare things that way.”

Ms. Sejin finished the call and returned to her seat.

“Miss.”

“Yes?”

“You know next week is the Chairman’s birthday, right?”

“Ah, right.”

Come to think of it, Grandfather’s birthday was around this time. It happened every year, so there was nothing particularly surprising about it.

“He’ll be eighty-seven this year.”

Eighty-seven, huh. He sure has lived a long time.

To have that much energy at that age, he really is no ordinary old man.

I remembered that sharp, ringing voice from the New Year’s address in my previous life. He had not seemed much different at last year’s birthday banquet either. At this rate, he might seriously live to two hundred.

“So I just have to go show my face again, right?”

Go there, greet him appropriately, eat some food, sit among the relatives like a sack of barley someone had dumped there, then slip away at the right moment.

That was my strategy for clearing the birthday banquet raid.

“Well...”

Ms. Sejin trailed off slightly.

“This year will be a little different.”

“Different how?”

“All the elders of the family are attending without exception. And apparently the Chairman said he wants to personally see each person—no, each family—one by one.”

...Huh?

“He wants to see us personally?”

“Yes.”

I stopped chewing the short rib for a moment.

That’s strange.

In previous years, there were so many people that a kid like me would just bow once from far away and be done with it.

Grandfather had plenty of grandchildren, so he did not personally keep track of every single one of us.

But he wants to see every family personally?

Why? Why all of a sudden? That will take forever.

Calling the Shin family a large family was nowhere near enough. It was a super-super-super-super-super-sized family.

Grandfather, the king of virility, had three wives and fifteen children.

Naturally, he had well over dozens of grandchildren. He even had several great-grandchildren. One of them was actually older than me.

Maybe Grandfather’s eldest son, whom he had at eighteen, inherited some gene for marrying early, because he had a son at nineteen, and that son had a daughter at twenty-three, and that daughter is now twenty-seven.

So my niece is almost twice my age.

That is because I am the daughter of Grandfather’s youngest son. He had so many children that the age gaps are ridiculous.

Anyway, at the birthday banquet, among the people who can walk under their own power, I am the youngest. The other great-grandchildren aside from that twenty-seven-year-old niece are still babies.

“Hmm.”

...Well, whatever.

Thinking too deeply will only make my head hurt.

In the end, I just have to go, bow, listen to some nice words, eat, and come home, right?

It is probably just a little more formal than usual. What could possibly happen?

“Okay. I just have to go, right?”

“Yes. I’ll take care of the preparations.”

I brought my chopsticks back toward the short ribs.

“Miss. By the way, while I was on the phone, you kept eating nothing but meat.”

“Gah!”

You caught that?