Chapter 19 : What is a Virtual Streamer

What exactly is a virtual streamer?

Even before I reincarnated, in 2025, questions comparing virtual streamers and female streamers never stopped.

“Virtual? Isn’t that just ugly people hiding their faces while streaming? Honestly, if they were pretty, they’d just be female streamers.”

This was one of the most common claims.

To be honest, I partly agree.

Even when virtual streamers accidentally reveal their real faces, and if someone is pretty, there’s definitely an advantage—no reason to hide it.

But streaming isn’t all about looks.

If that were true, all top streamers in the industry would be filled with female and male streamers based on their looks.

But look at reality.

Is there even one top streamer with outstanding looks?

Ah, of course, I’m not insulting their appearance.

I’m just trying to be objective, objectively.

Better wit than others.

Creative planning that produces entertaining content.

Control that excites viewers.

They had talents in streaming that shone even brighter than their looks.

Virtual streamers had that too.

At one time, virtual streamers were called ‘mercury’ just by their existence due to their outstanding voices.

Many virtual streamers could sing well.

Since their basic voice was already good, they were highly rated…

But it stopped there.

If you look, even among female streamers, some have good voices, and even if you can’t sing, dancing is a totally one-sided battle.

Is that all?

Famous tournaments on Pangea TV are based on offline events.

Starleague, Destruction Battle, and so on.

Big content works the same way.

But virtual streamers are excluded from the mainstream because revealing their real face is difficult.

In this unfavorable streaming ecosystem, what strengths can virtual streamers have?

Before reincarnation, I wouldn’t have known, but Seo Mina, who returned from 2025, knows.

It’s the power of technology.

With advances in technology, virtual streamers have infinite possibilities.

They can create dazzling concert stages that human streamers can never make and perform, and escape the limitations of space to swim through game worlds.

Damn, thinking about it, it’s all just a waste of money.

Yes. If you blow money on tech, nothing is impossible for virtual streamers.

Why am I saying this now…

“Zero Two costs 500 candies, sir.”

“No, please, can you lower it? This is way too expensive.”

“Hey! You don’t know the market. Let me ask, do you know VRChat well?”

“…I’m a beginner.”

“Oh dear. That’s why you don’t know the world. If you go somewhere and ask to see Zero Two for 100 candies, you’ll get slapped.”

…

LOL, a 91-born getting scolded by a 00-born for not knowing the world

• A head of a household struggles so hard to earn money ㅠㅠ
• Honestly, it was boring until a while ago but now it’s hilarious lol
• Is this SeoA? It got really fun once they came on

[“Ssayo Neun An Ssayo” donated 500 candies.]

• I’ll donate instead. Our Ssayo has diabetes and a disc problem, poor guy, please take care of him.

“Oppa, why do you keep standing with sore legs? This is a good spot to see well. Sit comfortably.”

“Uh… okay. So how do I sit?”

“Want to press the C key? Yeah, just press it there.”

• Money Miser on
• LOL, the sudden change of attitude is crazy
• Our streamer is embarrassing no matter where you put them ㅠㅠ

Ssayo’s avatar was seated slightly off the center stage.

While filming with the staff, we confirmed that this position showed the screen best. The composition was good too.

Huh? Who’s the staff?

It’s a VRChat veteran I hired.

They do various jobs in VRChat.

I also signed a contract with them in advance for two months to prepare for this audition.

Ha, so now I’m truly broke.

Worrying about rent and living expenses.

But they definitely had skill and helped the VRChat newbie like me a lot.

The map I’m on now was made by that staff member.

“Yeah. Actually, Saedalkom’s problem started with the map.”

The strength of virtual streamers lies above all in their freedom from spatial constraints.

The vast world of VRChat.

If you want to increase viewers’ immersion even a little, you shouldn’t choose a map with a big lake under a blue sky as a background.

“Let’s start.”

“…”

There were many words back and forth, but the highlight of today’s broadcast had to be the Zero Two dance.

Because this moment was made due to my verbal slip-up.

‘It’s awkward. But… I have to do it, right?’

The still unfamiliar world seen through the VR device.

The weight of the sticks in both hands and trackers attached to the waist and legs felt just as awkward.

Still, every day after the broadcast ended, I connected to VRChat to practice and got feedback from the veteran staff.

Money really is good.

If I had tried to get used to it alone, it might have taken over a month.

To shake off my nervousness, I gripped the sticks tightly and gave a signal.

The staff hiding in the dark corner of the map operated the equipment, and soon a familiar song started to play.

The time to prove myself had come.

The biggest attraction of internet broadcasting is live streaming.

The fresh, raw charm that recording can never match.

However, the problem was that there were too many variables, and things could be swept in a direction different from the original intent due to the atmosphere or situation.
And for Ssayo, that’s exactly what was happening now.

The original plan wasn’t like this.

The initial idea was to visit various virtual streamers’ broadcasts one by one, in a sort of tour format, using witty banter to create entertaining moments.

Then, at an appropriate time, everyone would log into VRChat together, and PangaeaTV viewers would be introduced to the charm of virtual streamers for the first time.

But the plan derailed right from the start.

They tried to showcase each virtual streamer’s charm through witty exchanges, but very few responded well.

The conversation with Choi Eun-bin was decent, but the rest were underwhelming, and as the chat window gradually quieted down, Ssayo had to prematurely bring in their ace, Saedalkom.

Huh? What’s this?

The trusted axe struck their own foot.

When watching without logging in, Saedalkom seemed like a skilled streamer, but when the actual witty banter started, she completely froze.

With 10 years of broadcasting experience, Ssayo noticed it right away.

Ah, she’s a stiff in collabs.

There are cases where someone is great solo but freezes up during collaborations—Saedalkom was exactly that type.

They even tried the Zero Two dance just in case, but calling it a success was a stretch.

Sure, a 3D avatar—not a female cam streamer—dancing was a fresh and unique visual, but some viewers actually felt uncomfortable with that, and above all, there was a clear “flaw.”

“She’s clearly lacking in skill. Can’t be helped. It’s not like dancing was her main content to begin with.”

On PangaeaTV, female cam streamers dance in response to candy donations every day.
And the viewers had become used to a certain level of dancing skill.

Unless you were pretty skilled, most viewers would just nod half-heartedly and move on.

Female streamers who know they’re lacking often wear more revealing outfits or appeal in a sexy way to catch attention, but for Saedalkom, that wasn’t easy.

There were already viewers with a bias against virtual content—trying to appeal through exposure? That would obviously backfire.

“Today’s content… is it a total bust?”

Ssayo’s energy began to crash, and right as the chat window was about to go off the rails—

The cuckoos began flying in.

A surprise appearance by Seoa.

Seeing the chat heat up, Ssayo realized this was the only chance to resuscitate the failing content.

Everything progressed smoothly after that.

They engaged in witty banter with Seoa to pull the audience in, then logged into VRChat and moved to the invited map.

And now, Ssayo was staring at the monitor with a trembling gaze.

Looking at Seoa, standing on a circular stage.

“……”

Gorgeous black hair, and red eyes.

They hadn’t noticed before, being focused on the content, but Seoa’s avatar was different.

Unlike Saedalkom, whose avatar looked a bit flat, Seoa’s was slender, and the shape and placement of the eyes were much more polished.

“I always thought Seoa’s avatar was pretty… But seeing it right after Saedalkom’s, the difference is huge.”

At that moment, the music began.

The lights across the map turned off, and darkness spread across the screen.

“Huh?”

Surprise lasted only a moment.

With a pop- sound, a beam of light descended from the ceiling above the stage.

A dazzling spotlight glittered like club lighting.

The extraordinary production made it impossible to look away.

As she began to sway gently to the rhythm, Ssayo’s shoulders began to move unconsciously.

“Seriously? Is this real?”

Ssayo knew the truth.

That the Zero Two dance isn’t as easy as it looks.

Most of the versions uploaded to YouTube cut off the lower body and just show the upper body swaying left and right—a bunch of cheap knock-offs.

A proper Zero Two dance requires the upper and lower bodies to move in opposite directions, tracing arcs in rhythm.

And on top of that, from the front view, the hips must alternate vertically, making it difficult to bring out the full appeal without solid skill.

Huh? Why does Ssayo know all this in such detail?

Don’t ask.

While preparing a performance for last year’s end-of-year awards show, they picked this dance as a candidate, but gave up after ten days because the difficulty was too high and switched to another dance.

The dance instructor had been so passionate, insisting on teaching the official version and not a knock-off.

But incredibly, the dance Seoa was performing right now was about 60%—no, almost 70%—identical to what that instructor demonstrated.

Compared to Saedalkom, the difference was even more obvious.

Saedalkom had mainly moved her upper body, while Seoa had a lot of lower body movement, and the way her hips projected forward made her movements feel three-dimensional.

And then, the breast morphing that protruded and demanded attention—ahem!

• Uh??
• This is seriously on another level. Who is she? Former cheerleader? Dancer?
• I felt weird seeing a “graphic” dance earlier, but this is just unexpectedly good so now it’s just funny lol
• Is this really live? Not a replacement or some pre-programmed movement? ;;
• How does a character—not a real person—move like this lol the clean lines of the dance are shocking

Viewer reactions poured in in real time.

Ssayo unconsciously rubbed both arms.

Maybe because they never imagined seeing such a stage performance?

They had goosebumps.

“This is amazing. This is seriously just…………”

Suddenly, the dream Ssayo had been envisioning for a year shimmered in their mind.

PangaeaTV’s first virtual idol audition.

And in Ssayo’s eyes, Seoa’s figure filled the entire vision.