Chapter 4: Debut Broadcast

Seoul suburbs. 

An unspecified dark space located in a secluded alley.

Swish, swish…

Yoo Haneul, who had come outside without even washing her hair and was anxiously looking around with uneasy eyes, soon muttered a keyword in a low voice.

“…Come true, power of love.”

Immediately after, a light mixed with sky blue and pink filled the deserted alley.

“…….”

When the flash disappeared, what appeared was none other than a top-tier magical girl VTuber who had never once fallen out of the top ten in Korea’s virtual streamer donation rankings.

“Ugh…”

Holding back her still-nauseated stomach from a hangover, she forced herself to step into the dark space.

“…Phew.”

“What the hell, why are you so late?”

“S-sorry.”

With the appearance of the final tardy participant, all members summoned under the X-class dimensional emergency protocol were now gathered in one place.

“…….”

And then, a brief silence passed.

“Shit, you reek of alcohol. Sis, did you drink again?”

“…I-I didn’t.”

“Please, get your act together. You skipped your stream today because you got drunk and didn’t feel like it, so you just posted a reservation notice, right?”

“Enough with the nagging…”

“Ugh, and she’s supposed to be one of Korea’s representatives.”

Right after that, fierce criticism from her fellow magical girl VTuber group members and peers began to pour down on Yoo Haneul.

“Thanks to you, the already tense atmosphere has hit rock bottom.”

As they said, the mood in the meeting room connected to the inner part of the dark space was extremely cold.

“…Well, even if Haneul wasn’t late, it would’ve been the same. Those people fight whenever they meet.”

“Geez, watching them makes me wonder how they manage to dance together during festivals.”

“Hehe, that’s the power of business.”

“Haneul, read the room and shut up.”

Well, it was inevitable. 

Because both top-tier corporate VTubers and indie VTubers had been gathered together, naturally clashing relationships and VTubers from the same dimensions were all forced into the same space.

“That goddamn Demon King bastard should know better than to show up in a situation like this, right?”

“…H-hero, are you allowed to use such harsh words?”

“Shut up, you damn bitch. Do you know what kind of humiliation I’ve had to suffer because of you…?”

For example, the Hero Party, who had been scouted by a major MCN and received extravagant support, and the Demon King’s Army, whose members sadly had no agency support and were barely managing as independent streamers.

“The righteous factions’ brats—what do they think they’re doing coming here? They should be cultivating more martial arts instead.”
 
“Huhu, compared to you washed-up old men of the evil sect who only boil soup, I think we might be more helpful after turning over a new leaf.”

“You brat!!!”

Or the Wuxia-world VTubers who had completely taken over the Chinese market but had to urgently flee to Japan or Korea due to recently announced devastating policies.

“The Neo-Tokyo terror incident—you’re behind it, aren’t you?”

“Who knows? Even if I told you, could you useless heroes do anything about it?”

“Yeah, keep denying it till the end, you damn villain bitches. We’ll lock all of you up.”

The Class of 1st and 2nd Gen Qseishu Media VTubers, who had just gone through a large-scale shonen anime scenario-level event both in real life and virtually about a week ago, were now on high alert toward one another.

“Things are particularly noisy today.”

“Huhu. It seems those dimensions are still fighting between good and evil.”

“Their gods must not be reading the trends. These days, the trend is for good and evil to merge.”

“…By merge, you mean working together, right?”

Of course, the members of the top MCN, GloVerse-EN, maintained a nearly detached attitude, as if their divine status hadn’t gone anywhere.

“Please maintain order.”

And just then, while the chaotic atmosphere continued—

“As you all know, armed conflict on Earth is a violation of the dimensional treaty. If you want your contracts terminated without warning, please feel free to continue.”

A woman wearing a staff name tag stepped forward and announced in a flat tone to everyone present, and the noisy meeting room instantly fell into silence.

“Now then. Let’s begin the briefing.”

After glancing once around the room, the woman turned her gaze to the paper in her hand and opened her mouth again.

“I believe you all know the reason we called you here today.”

“…Ugh.”

At that moment, Yoo Haneul, who had rushed here the moment she sobered up, made a weird noise from her seat, but everyone else focused on the woman’s words with serious expressions.

“Let’s look at the footage.”

Then, what appeared in the air for everyone to see was a broadcast standby screen.

[Abyss 1st Gen – Minater Shia Debut Broadcast]

At first glance, it looked like an ordinary debut broadcast UI, but upon seeing it, everyone’s faces started to distort in unison.

“That’s really… that monstrous lifeform that ravaged dimensions?”

“…It’s the end times.”

“What’s with the cute SD character…?”

The black terror that once unilaterally ravaged the dimensions they lived in.

Although everyone here had managed to repel that invasion at least once, the memories of that time were more than enough to leave them all with trauma.

“Countdown ends in approximately two minutes.”

Even the woman staffer, who had maintained a stoic expression, now showed slight tension as she continued the briefing.

“The owner of that debut broadcast, which has not been authorized by the association, is, of course, someone I believe you’re all familiar with.”

“…Yeah, the very reason we’ve ended up doing this clown show in this ‘peaceful’ world.”

“Yes. The reason you were all gathered here is to hear your opinions on this situation and to come up with a solution.”

Then suddenly, a hero raised her hand and interjected.

“Why do we have to come up with a solution?”

“…….”

“Shouldn’t this be handled by your higher-ups?”

At her question, the VTubers who had been holding back all began speaking up at once.

“She’s right, after all. You guys have connections to all the global broadcast platforms.”

“We’ve seen what you do to terminated VTubers until now.”

“Anyway, can’t we just talk to the platform and shut down that broadcast?”

The staff, who had patiently waited until their reactions died down, finally sighed and opened her mouth.

“First, we can’t ignore the number of viewers.”

“Well, that’s because you people gathered all of us here.”

“And with that incident, of course all the viewers would flock there.”

“Exactly. What were you thinking, doing something like that?”

But as complaints started erupting again, the staff, maintaining her emotionless expression as if used to this, sighed once more and resumed her explanation.

“The reason we gathered you all here is to prepare for an emergency.”

At her next words, everyone who had looked ready to burst out quieted down.

“We still don’t fully understand the power of that extra-dimensional lifeform. If it starts gathering strength through the broadcast, we don’t know what kind of influence it might have on currently active contractors.”

“……”

“If the Dimensional Secrecy Treaty is broken in the process, we’ll have no way of stopping it. That’s why we urgently halted all broadcasts and summoned you here.”

Indeed, her words were sound. 

Everyone present had witnessed the descent of the extra-dimensional monster with their own eyes, and silently nodded in agreement.

“We understand that. But still… the fact remains that an overwhelming number of viewers have flocked to that broadcast.”

“…Right. At this rate, it’ll debut with at least a mid-tier scale. But the end is coming regardless, isn’t it?”

And so, with more caution and concern in their voices, they began to share their thoughts.

“Still, we should shut down the broadcast by force…”

“Second, forcibly shutting down the broadcast is not possible.”

But the suggestion mumbled by the Demon King in a barely audible voice was immediately refuted by the staff.

“Is it a technical issue? If that’s the case, our youngest could just hack into it…”

“…There’s no technical issue.”

The villain group, who had been quietly listening, offered to provide support, but the staff firmly shook her head and continued.

“The problem is that the extra-dimensional lifeform—tentatively called ‘Minater Shia’—is not under contract with us.”
“…What does that mean?”

“Even we, whom you refer to as ‘upper management,’ are bound by dimensional contracts. Terminating the broadcast of an entity we have no contract with could be considered a major violation.”

As those words ended, murmurs and voices once again filled the meeting hall.

“Wait, aren’t VTuber broadcasts only possible through contracts with you guys?”

“…Generally, yes. But it seems this lifeform found a contract partner that’s not us.”

“How is that even possible? If that were doable, you people wouldn’t have been able to monopolize the industry in the first place…”

“We’re still investigating that part. But for now, the problem is that we have no information.”

By that point, everyone’s expressions grew more serious.

“Then… are we just supposed to sit and watch this invasion happen?”

“That’s why we’ve gathered you here. Of course, part of it is for your protection, but we also need your cooperation in finding a solution.”

Once the staff finished speaking, a heavy silence fell over the meeting room.

“……”

And then, right at that moment—

The countdown on the standby screen hit zero, and the debut of the extra-dimensional being began.

“Hello?”

Everyone, holding their breath and watching the scene in real time, suddenly doubted their own ears.

“Nice to meet you all. Everyone who’s taken interest in the Abyss channel.”

Instead of a foreign-looking avatar appearing on screen, the voice of a man was heard.

“…No way, is this that pattern? Where a male manager introduces the stream before it starts?”

“This might actually be easier than we thought.”

“Haha, what a rookie mistake. I mean, what would a black blob from some floating dark dimension know?”

The VTubers, who had momentarily been stunned by the man’s voice, soon couldn’t hold back their laughter and started chatting amongst themselves.

“If it continues like this, we might be able to identify the entity that made the contract with the extra-dimensional being.”

The staff member, who had been watching the screen expressionlessly, also began to speak with a slight smile.

“If that happens, you can all relax. Once identified, the higher-ups will take care of it…”

“…N-No way.”

Only Yoo Haneul, breaking out in a cold sweat, was trembling.

“And it’s been a while.”

Everyone else remained focused on the screen, paying no attention to her. 

But their faces began to harden the moment they heard the next line.

“To all the subscribers of the Haruhanjang channel.”

The reason was incredibly simple.

“Today, I’d like to talk about a new challenge I’ve been preparing for a long time.”

12 million subscribers. 

Not just in Korea, but the overwhelming number one personal illustration, shorts comic, and animation channel worldwide.

And the owner of the Haruhanjang channel, who had disappeared due to false accusations, and whose eventual vindication had turned them into a virtual saint awaited by everyone—

The man who just moments ago they had assumed was an uninformed manager…

Was in fact, the one who had made a contract with the extra-dimensional being.

“G-Good lord.”

“…T-This is bad.”

But the shock that overcame everyone wasn’t just because the contract partner was that big of a figure.

“C-Can this even be handled by the higher-ups?”

“I-I still have a contract pending…”

Naturally, most of the VTubers gathered here were top-tier talents backed by major agencies.

And nearly all of those top-tier VTuber models—whether public avatars or custom designs—had been created by the very owner of the Haruhanjang channel at the dawn of the industry.

Of course, there were a few VTubers who had models designed by other illustrators, but even most of them had grown through outsourced animation and promo videos from Haruhanjang.

“Starting today, I will be launching a virtual streamer MCN.”

In short, he was the only individual in the VTuber industry who held absolute power.

“…And now, let me introduce the person who’s taking the first step with me.”

Whether it was through legal contracts in this world or via dimensional agreements she herself wasn’t aware of—

This man had become the key that changed everything.