Chapter 24

Dirty Methods

The first thing the Stone Golem said when he came into the dining room where I was waiting with Ms. Sejin the next afternoon was this.

“Hey, clone user. Been well?”

“What. Why are you here so early?”

“I need to talk to you. I skipped practice and came.”

“Whoa. Is that why you’re in uniform?”

“Yeah. I came straight here without stopping by home.”

“Aren’t you gonna miss the draft or whatever if you keep skipping practice?”

I was genuinely worried in my own way, but Woojin looked at me like I was pathetic.

“You really don’t know anything.”

“About what?”

“You don’t have to worry about something like the draft at all.”

“Huh? I looked it up online, and it said the draft is super important for high school baseball players??”

“Normally, yeah, but for me it’s actually better if I don’t get picked.”

“Huuuuuh?”

Confusing. So confusing.

“You don’t even know what our company is called, do you?”

“Why wouldn’t I? It’s Shinil. Shinil Steel, Shinil Trading, Shinil Electronics—.”

“You don’t know the Shinil Titans?”

“Ah.”

“Even if I don’t get drafted, I can just sign as a developmental player. It’s not like I need the money.”

P-Parachute hiring!

School ties, regional ties, blood ties! Oh, Republic of Korea, what a wonderful country to live in!

Unable to withstand the shocking reality of corruption I had just heard, I dropped my jaw open, and Woojin snickered.

“Whoa... I can’t believe Oppa was the kind of person who used such dirty methods.”

“Hey, that’s harsh. Anyway, enough about that. Let’s talk about you.”

For reference, I had spent the whole day very wholesomely. By wholesome, I mean lurking on community boards with my phone.

Lurking was basically part of my daily routine anyway, but today the situation was a little different. Everywhere I went, there were posts about me.

You do not know what it feels like to read posts mentioning yourself unless you have experienced it.

My face gets hot, but somehow my finger keeps moving to the next post. Scary.

Of course, I still went through my whole daily routine. Morning exercise, classes and all.

“You’ve become a total star.”

“Kyaaagh.”

On the phone Woojin held out was a post of unknown origin that had been reposted somewhere.

[Breaking News) Vampire Princess (14), Uses Clone Technique]

“...”

I had already seen it.

“I’m not looking. I said I’m not looking.”

“This is tribute offered by your subjects. Please accept it.”

“Kyaaagh. Don’t talk like that. It gives me chills.”

“How about this one? Someone even made a relationship chart using your clone setting. Lilith is the original body, Lili-chan is Unit One, and beneath that they predicted Unit Two and Unit Three that’ll appear in the future.”

“...What? Why are they deciding what my clones are?”

“Oh, you didn’t deny it. So they really are clones?”

“...”

“Hehehe.”

A mere familiar mocking its master. This is outright insubordination.

As the two of us kept chattering, Ms. Sejin spoke as though she had waited long enough.

“Miss. Sit down.”

“Yup.”

“You too, Young Master.”

Once the two of us sat side by side, Ms. Sejin pushed a teacup toward each of us and began speaking.

“Miss, you really worked hard yesterday. You must have been flustered, but you handled it very well.”

“...You’re not going to scold me?”

“Why would I? It’s not as though you caused the incident.”

“Hm.”

Is that so? I guess it kind of is?

“And strictly speaking, it was my fault that my voice got picked up.”

“But calling that your fault is... the crazy one was the bastard who deliberately turned up that tiny sound just to listen to it.”

“Anyway, you did well covering it up with that clone story or whatever. The atmosphere was much better than if you had denied it. You really did well.”

“Whoa. Praise.”

“That isn’t praise. I’m just整理ing the situation.”

It is praise. She is just embarrassed for no reason.

Woojin, who had been snickering beside me, immediately went quiet after a single look from Ms. Sejin.

This person can suppress both the grandson and granddaughter of the great Shinil Group chairman with just her eyes. Just how strong is sheee!

“There are three things we need to settle now.”

Ms. Sejin raised one finger.

“First. You’re taking a break from Lili-chan activities for the time being. Even if Ms. Hwang Ara contacts us again, not right now.”

“Huh? Why?”

“What do you mean, why? The entire internet recognizes your voice right now. Standing in front of an outside microphone is basically leaking your identity one clue at a time. There may be people who pick up on tiny hints like this again.”

“...True. There really are a lot of lunatics out there.”

Well, it is not like I am disappointed. It was fun, but going outside is still exhausting.

...Seriously? I said I am really not disappointed.

Pop. A second finger went up.

“Second. Naturally, you may keep streaming. What happened this time couldn’t be helped, and Young Master and I will continue monitoring from now on, so you can relax.”

“As for me, I do have practice, so I’ll be joining a little late...”

“That’s fine.”

“Third. Hmm...”

Ms. Sejin paused for a moment to choose her words.

“Now that this has gotten this big... I think there’s a chance the Chairman may hear about it someday.”

“...Whoa.”

“As I promised, I won’t be the one to tell him first. Still, keep the possibility in mind.”

“Yup.”

Grandfather.

That tiger-like old man finding out that I play vampire princess every night.

“...That’s freaking scary.”

“What is?”

“What do you think would happen if Grandfather found out?”

“I don’t know either.”

“Ugh...”

“Don’t worry too much. Why are you worrying so much about something that hasn’t even happened yet?”

“Is that so...”

Well, I guess I can think about it when it happens. As long as it’s not meeeee!!! No, in this case it is definitely me!

“All right, meeting over. I’ll prepare dinner. Young Master, stay and eat too.”

“Yes. Thank you for the meal.”

“What’s on the menu today? There’s meat-meat, right? Is there meat with meat?”

“If you exercised hard.”

“Gyaaah! I worked very hard!”

“Your PT trainer said you rested for thirty minutes because you were tired from going to bed late.”

“Kyaaagh, guwaaagh—!”

Anyway, that more or less settled things. Now all that remained was to carry on with my routine while streaming as usual.

— — —

“Thank you for being captivated by my singing again today. Everyone, get home safely.”

With her final farewell, she read through the list of donations she had received today one more time. One thousand won, one thousand won, three thousand won. Adding a heart to each name.

“See you on the next stream. Bye.”

Only after pressing the end-broadcast button could Seira peel the smile off her face.

Final viewer count: 97. Total donations today: seventy thousand won.

After talking and singing nonstop for hours, that was all she had to show for it.

“...Haa.”

Her throat felt scratchy. She drank about half a bottle of lukewarm water she had taken from the refrigerator and sank back into her chair.

VTuber Seira. A siren concept that enchanted sailors with song.

It had been two years since she started streaming. Even back then, when she jumped into the already oversaturated VTuber market, she had ambition.

‘I’ll stand at the top.’

Half a joke, half serious.

Rain or snow, unless something special happened, she streamed diligently without fail and consistently uploaded cover songs to NewTube.

Even now, with the broadcast off, the model blinking on-screen was something she had commissioned by breaking into her savings. Illustration separately, rigging separately. She had waited a long time to receive it.

After doing this much—

After grinding herself down this much.

Shouldn’t she have become something by now?

She pushed out a sigh and picked up her phone. In the group chat made up of VTubers around the same size, dozens of unread messages had piled up.

-Hey, have you guys seen that girl Lilith?

-The clone joke clip going around is fucking hilarious

-I heard she hit 2,500 yesterday

-Seriously? She hasn’t even debuted that long ago

-Fuck, this is ridiculous

That again.

For the past few days, she had seen that name everywhere. Community boards, group chats, even the NewTube algorithm.

Almost out of habit, Seira tapped the clip.

A cheap-looking model floated on-screen. An obviously low-budget one at a glance. The rigging was crude beyond belief... at this level, it was almost embarrassing to call it a VTuber.

That shabby model was brazenly talking about clones in an archaic historical-drama style while the chat scrolled upward like crazy.

“...”

The content was some chatting and a little gaming. No singing. No planning. She did not even have NewTube videos, and every edited clip going around was made by viewers.

Donations, completely disabled.

“...What the hell is this.”

Then why even stream?

It was just a hobby. Something she turned on for fun because she was bored.

And that kind of stream had two thousand five hundred people.

Seira suddenly opened NewTube and pulled up her own channel. The cover song she uploaded last week. A video she had spent three nights without sleep recording and even mixing herself.

1,800 views.

Meanwhile, the clone-joke clip of that girl uploaded the same day was already racing toward six digits.

And that girl was fourteen.

Fourteen. Meaning when Seira debuted, that girl was still in elementary school.

“Hah.”

It was not a laugh from amusement.

“This is fucking bullshit.”

Seira opened a community summary post. It laid out chronologically how the stream of the girl called Lilith had grown.

For nearly the first two months, it had been a stream watched by anywhere from twenty to at most forty people.

That was not surprising. Seira herself had been like that in the beginning. In fact, an average of thirty viewers was really good for the early stages.

Then by chance, the voice of someone called a maid(?) leaked and became a topic. Then despite being just a brat, she drew people in by making suggestive moaning sounds. Whether it was real or not, she supposedly banned someone who came to scout her and went even more viral...

And that was not the end.

By chance, she fell asleep with her stream on and clips spread around. By chance, she met a NewTuber with 1.5 million subscribers at an art museum and did a joint broadcast, and as if that was not enough, by chance, the voice of that maid or whatever got picked up again and started an identity mystery?

That damned coincidence sure happened suspiciously often around that girl.

“...”

Seira stared at the post for a long time, then scrolled upward through the participant list of the group chat.

Names in similar situations passed by one after another. People like her, stuck with double- or triple-digit viewers for years, yet faithfully turning on their streams day after day.

If they just sat still like this, nothing would change. Two years would become three, three would become five. And in the meantime, kids like that would keep shooting upward.

Well, it was not like she was suggesting anything huge. They could just talk a little. Everyone probably felt the same way anyway.

And—

Bringing down the hammer on some brat who used dirty methods to stir up attention was by no means a bad thing.

-Guys, you asleep?

-Wanna talk for a bit?