chapter_0137

137 – I’m a Live Broadcast Specialist

137 – I’m a Live Broadcast Specialist

After finishing the broadcast, it was only natural for the members to rush towards me.

Usually, when we do these collaborations, we rent out the entire motion capture studio, so I couldn’t even escape since we were right next to each other.

As the host, I had to keep pouring oil on the fire to keep the members fired up, so I dished out countless jabs like “You couldn’t even get that question right?”

It was only natural that I ended up like laundry in a washing machine, trapped in a barrier made of four people’s bodies.

As I was getting massaged by their hands, I got a call from the Boss.

“Yes, Boss.”

As soon as I said “Boss,” the other three quickly backed away.

They’re all surprisingly afraid of the Boss, you know.

Except for Rain, who acts boldly even in front of the Boss due to her long exposure to foreign culture, everyone else was watching nervously to see what I was going to say.

[Good job. You wrapped up the broadcast cleanly and well.]

“That’s a relief. I was worried I might have gone overboard.”

[Overboard? No, it was just right. Collaborating with the kids was a good move too. Though you probably didn’t intend it, there was an unexpected harvest.]

“Harvest? What is it?”

[Mugeon agreed to make some Shorts and put his new song on them.]

How many times have I said that while I dislike Mugeon, I have no intention of belittling his achievements and skills?

To be honest, I don’t know much about Shorts since I mainly watch live streams.

These days, everything is about Shorts.

And Mugeon is apparently someone who knows how to use Shorts to attract views.

The Boss has said several times that he couldn’t have risen that far with just a pro gamer mindset.

In fact, over half of his 2 million subscribers are foreigners, and he’s apparently very good at milking the overseas algorithms, so it should be quite effective.

However, there was one thing I was curious about.

“But what made him suddenly decide to do this?”

The Boss chuckled and said:

[I told you. It’s thanks to you.]

“?”

[Thanks to the snowball you unintentionally set in motion, Mugeon begged me.]

“…What? Did he say thanks for letting the kids play Black Warning?”

[He may have helped promote the first generation, but he’s not a VTuber fan, you know.]

“That’s true, but he’s been doing a lot for the kids lately. He even showed up in the chat sometimes during broadcasts.”

[He always appeared when you were there.]

Come to think of it, I do get the feeling that he always popped up and snooped around whenever I was doing something.

Then there’s only one thing he could want, right?

“Why? Is he asking me to participate in another internal competition?”

[No, it’s for a different reason this time.]

“Or does he want me to show him losing in a bet?”

[Why are your thoughts going in that direction… I just told him whether you were really quitting the company since he was curious, and got this in return.]

Is this how 2 million subscriber broadcasters usually make deals?

Anyway, since Shorts is an area I’m not very familiar with, I guess I’ll just have to accept it as it is.

[Anyway, if Mugeon’s Shorts blow up this time, it’ll be thanks to you. Look forward to your bonus.]

…But I can’t let this slide.

“No. The song belongs to the members, and I just added a little garnish. Why should that become my bonus?”

[Are you saying this because the members don’t need a separate bonus since they’ll get royalties if the song becomes a hit?]

“If you put it that way, I also have a contract with CAT, so I get royalties from there too.”

[Ah. So I can’t even give bonuses to my employees as I see fit?!]

“Don’t use company money as you please.”

[How is this ‘as I please’? If you don’t want to accept it, come to my office and explain yourself.]

“How is this something that needs explaining…”

While we were having this conversation, the members’ gazes seemed uneasy, probably sensing that the emotions between me and the Boss were getting heated.

“Anyway, I’ll see you in your office tomorrow. I have some things I want to discuss with you separately anyway.”

[Alright, see you tomorrow.]

As soon as the call ended, Maru asked:

“Was there a problem with today’s broadcast? What did he say was the problem?”

Maybe it’s because I make a lot of mistakes and cause trouble often.

They seemed anxious, wondering if I had done something wrong again this time.

However, there’s only positive news.

Though one question remains, that’s a personal matter.

As for Mugeon, I just thought of it as picking up a second-place lottery ticket while walking down the street.

However, the Shorts story about Mugeon is something the Boss will want to tell the kids, so it’s better if I don’t steal it.

I wonder if he’ll deliver it as a surprise announcement later when it properly bears fruit.

“No. He said the atmosphere was great, so just keep doing what we’ve been doing. So, when are you going to do Black Warning? Next week?”

The somewhat relieved members discussed briefly and then told me the date.

“Yeah. How about this coming weekend? Is that time okay?”

While Parallel was enjoying a pleasant time with expectations for Mugeon’s support and upcoming collaborations,

The rumors about Majiya’s reincarnation, transfer, and resignation didn’t lose their power.

As you can see from the fact that even Mugeon contacted us because he was curious if Majiya was really quitting the company, only the first generation-Majiya discord rumor was miraculously left out.

… ─ — Magia Mini Gallery ─ ─ — …

[If the gallery owner graduates, I’m going to quit my job too]

[Suddenly I don’t want to do anything]

[What’s the percentage chance that Majiya won’t graduate?]

[In the end, the gallery owner will like money and fame too, right?]

[I hope the job of utaite disappears tomorrow]

…

… ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ …

It’s funny to think that these are the same people who were causing trouble not long ago, urging for a debut.

This is ultimately the fans’ excessive interest in an ordinary person.

Since Majiya had never debuted as a VTuber, this was an issue that would naturally calm down over time.

Above all, if Majiya could succeed as an utaite, Cheon Do-hee was someone who wanted to firmly push her back to move in that direction.

Given her characteristic of preferring to watch broadcasts rather than doing them herself, that suited her better.

As long as she didn’t quit the company, Do-hee didn’t care what she did, but if possible, she wanted Majiya to do what she wanted to do.

There were many cases where unexpected benefits were gained when Jia suddenly scheduled broadcasts like this time.

However, Do-hee didn’t want Majiya to continue doing broadcasts she didn’t want to do just because she was swayed by viewers.

So the next day.

She checked the community unusually quickly and mentioned the related content to Jia, who had come to work.

Expecting that what she wanted to discuss yesterday might be related to her overzealous fan(s).

It was an attempt to show a somewhat boss-like appearance.

“The transfer, reincarnation, and all that fuss was bound to happen from the moment you decided on Fan_C as your utaite activity name, so don’t worry too much about it from now on.

After you do Black Warning with the kids, just focus on the given tasks, including the second generation debut.”

But would Majiya not have checked the community?

She had long since grasped the situation and thought of her own countermeasures.

It was the time-honored tradition of ‘just do your job and wait, time will solve it’.

“There’s no way I’d care about such things. You should turn on your broadcast instead of spending time looking at the community.”

“Didn’t you once tell me to keep up with industry insights… And I only looked for a few minutes?!”

“Looking at gallery reactions isn’t really industry insight…”

“That’s undeniable. …No, then what did you want to discuss with me?”

“That? This.”

Soon, Majiya showed the content of a conversation she had with a famous mod creator.

[trashit: I’ve made it reflecting all the modification requests you asked for]

[trashit: This looks like it’s going to be really fun lol]

[trashit: Please discuss it with Momo and let me know!]

[trashit: I’ll reflect and modify it right away!!]

[Majiya’s agent: Thank you]

[Majiya’s agent: Thanks to trashit, it seems like it will be an even more fun content]

[trashit: Oh my, I’m the one who should be thankful that Parallel requested this first haha]

It was about a mod that modifies or changes the monsters or game rules appearing in Black Warning.

Since Majiya had always been involved when members brought games that required the use of mods or servers, it was in a way an extension of her usual work.

Given how much talk about Majiya was circulating in the community, Cheon Do-hee, who had expected it might be a serious consultation, couldn’t help but sigh.

“Should I praise you for only thinking about work even in this situation?”

“I don’t understand.”

“…No, you don’t need to understand. So why do you want to use mods? Black Warning is fun enough in vanilla.”

.

A game where you go to a colonized planet that has become a ruin due to the spread of indigenous alien life forms, find valuable items, bring them to a black company, fill your performance, and survive day by day.

The atmosphere on each planet is dark and gloomy, and the monsters look grotesque, so it’s disgustingly scary to play directly.

Often, people who were just talking normally disappear with a scream in front of your eyes or behind your back.

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The dead person is dumbfounded. The person left alone becomes rapidly terrified.

So even if the broadcaster playing becomes mentally confused, for the viewers watching, there’s nothing more fun than this.

In a way, it could be called an upgraded version of slapstick physical comedy.

“I thought our four kids might overdo it a bit when they do it together. I felt some adjustment was needed.”

You need to unlock higher planets quickly to consistently provide laughter by encountering more diverse gimmicks and monsters and dying.

What would happen if they spent hours frying pancakes in the lower levels?

They wouldn’t even get to properly see the mid/high-level planets.

But all four members of Parallel’s first generation are cowards.

When they’re together, they’re relatively brave, but even Komari and Rain, who help carry logs, become cowards when left alone, so pancake frying is almost a given.

However, Cheon Do-hee also had something she was curious about as she listened.

“But you’re joining them too. Then it doesn’t seem like there would be any pancake frying…”

“I’m going to seal my attack ability with the mod.”

Majiya tends to overcome fear with destruction, so if she can attack mobs, her goal is to smash them no matter what.

This inevitably draws the spotlight to Majiya, whether she wants it or not.

It’s the situation Majiya wants to avoid the most, as she wants to direct attention to the first generation.

And what people want is to see how messed up the members get by the monsters, so if Majiya goes around destroying everything, many people might be disappointed that the picture they expected isn’t created.

“Hmm. Certainly, if you’re carrying a weapon, it seems like you’d smash all the mobs no matter what happens.”

“That’s why I’m just going to be a porter. Run away when monsters appear.”

“Okay. That makes sense. What else? You didn’t call a mod creator just for that one thing, right?”

“Double attack power for Dora and Maru. They probably won’t be able to attack much anyway, but this way they might be able to create variables occasionally. We’ll also see the two biggest cowards active more often.”

“That’s okay too. That seems reasonable enough. Anything else?”

“The game itself has already been used in several collaborations, right? To the point where there was a period of dominance for a while.”

“That’s right. It was a meta pick.”

“Since we’re doing it relatively late, I thought we needed some characteristics of ‘Parallel’s Black Warning’.”

In a way, this was the part Majiya paid the most attention to.

It’s a consideration for people who have seen enough of the ordinary Black Warning, and at the same time, a device to strongly instill a sense of belonging in the fandom.

“I added a few valuable items. Even if they can’t earn money by the deadline, it’s a device to make the members go out to earn money while taking risks, aiming for a one-shot reversal.”

“Oh. That’s good. What kind of items did you add?”

“You can see here, I roughly added things like fan character dolls of the members.”

The Boss’s face lit up as soon as she saw it.

“That’s cute. The fans will like this too, right? It can give the feeling that the fans helped the members. It’s also good for giving the impression that the members rescued the fans from dangerous places.”

And lastly, the minimum device for promotion.

Majiya also knew that too much could be poisonous, so she set up the mod to give just a subtle taste.

“Lastly, there’s a monster in the game called a boombox, right? It’s a walking cassette tape player.”

“Ah. I know. There were a lot of Shorts about that one too.”

“It’s originally a mob that plays a set song and then explodes, but instead, I want to make it play our kids’ original songs randomly.”

“It’s a bit bizarre… but it would be funny. It also gives a strong feeling of a Parallel mod.”

“Should I show you a sample? It’s like this.”

Soon Majiya played a video about a minute long, starting from the moment the mod creator encounters a boombox while wandering around a dark bunker.

As soon as the boombox recognizes the player, it presses the play button.

The latter part of the first generation’s latest song, , starts playing.

Simulating a real situation, the mod creator runs around here and there, and the boombox follows him, playing the song up to the highlight part, and then boom!

With a huge explosion sound, it sends him to the afterlife.

“…What’s this? It’s incredibly engaging. It also feels like watching a Short.”

Although it’s a short video of just about a minute.

It had excellent rising action and completeness as a video itself, without needing any additional explanation.

The background music also builds up gradually from the start and finishes right before the end of the video.

It was the very essence of the short-form content that’s popular these days.

“I just roughly cut and inserted the most fitting parts. Is it okay?”

“It’s perfect. Do you have versions with other songs?”

“I didn’t make separate videos, but the audio is prepared. Should I play them for you?”

“Wait a moment. I’ll call the team leaders and we’ll watch the video again.”

Soon, the planning team leader and PR team leader were summoned at Do-hee’s call.

After watching the video, they said something similar to Cheon Do-hee.

“It seems we can make it similar to the horror game Shorts the members were making. We just need to pick out the songs that weren’t made for short-form content…”

“I don’t know if it’s because of the characteristics of the video, or rather the game itself, but it feels like any song would fit quite well. Let’s try with all the good scenes we can get, Team Leader Ra.”

“Alright. We’ll know when we make them.”

The three of them continued their meeting, seemingly self-generating ideas.

Before long, they had satisfied expressions as if they had found a good lead.

Planning Team Leader Ra Seung-hyun even started gently patting Majiya’s head.

“Department Head Majiya. You’ve brought another interesting plan this time? These days, the more scenes that are good for making short-form content during live broadcasts, the better.”

It’s true that she feels proud that something she came up with has helped the company.

But since it’s such a professional conversation, Majiya was perplexed as she couldn’t understand it properly.

It felt like being a child who’s confused when adults all around start cheering and clapping just because she did a cute little act.

“Uh. I didn’t really intend anything…”

Author’s Note (Author’s Afterword)

Thank you for being part of Mangkbbang’s second 2 million.

It’s the same gratitude I always express, but.

Today, I’m 2 million times more grateful!

Thank you, readers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From now on, I will do 2 million bows in the direction of the readers!!!!!!!

Urgh! Urgh!!!