Chapter 78 : Donations Must Be Used Wisely (1)

The chat window, the donation alerts.

I had turned them all off.

But the stream itself must have still been going.

‘I didn’t cause any major incident on stream or anything.’

I hadn’t done anything particularly weird.

Still, one thing that worried me was the complete lack of moderation in the chat.

Since I had become a streamer, an AI bot would automatically moderate chat to some extent.

But its performance was still pretty poor.

Viewers could easily bypass it if they wanted to.

In short, my stream chat was basically in a state of anarchy, like Somalia.

‘…It’s not really my fault, right?’

While thinking all this, I opened the streaming program and saw a list of info about my broadcast.

[Current viewers: 9,488]

[Peak viewers: 42,177]

“…Huh?”

I doubted my eyes.

Nine thousand?

Peak viewers over forty-two thousand?

On my very first stream?

Sure, I had built up a decent number of viewers on Rydel’s stream,And I had gained some recognition, so I expected a fair number of people to come.

‘But this many?’

Just because a well-known name starts streaming doesn’t mean they’ll automatically succeed.

There are plenty of cases where viewership turns out surprisingly low.

A lot of people weren’t fans of the known player themselves, but rather of the chemistry they had with the usual streamer.

But over 42,000 peak viewers.

And still more than 9,000 people watching, even after the game had ended.

Of course, it probably wouldn’t stay like this forever, and it was likely that today’s chaos had drawn attention and aggroed viewers.

But even that was a staggering number to deal with.

While I stood there dumbfounded,The now-activated chat started scrolling like crazy.

「Oh」

「Looks like she just turned on chat lol」

「Yooha lol」

「Yooha~~」

「Lol」

「Salute」

「Salute」

「Finally looking at us now?」

「All our donos got ignored 🥺🥺🥺🥺」

「Silver-hair punch! Silver-hair punch!」

「Heuuung nuna I love you」

「Today’s stream was great lolol」

「Have you taken singing lessons before?」

「Fr, the singing was legit lol」

「But seriously, how did you make 1.5 billion won?」

Because I hadn’t moderated the chat at all, all kinds of messages were just jumbled together.

But once I started paying attention, things began to take a more coherent direction.

“Ah, aaah… I’m so sorry! I… uh, it’s my first time streaming.”

“I turned off chat and dono messages to focus on the concert. I really didn’t see any of them.”

「With that level of singing skill, it’s forgivable」

「Actually, I liked that you were focused during the concert」

「But turn them on when you’re gaming lol」

「Turn on the e-girl」

「By the way, your voice is really nice…….」

「Flustered cuteness? That’s a thumbs up lol」

「It’s fine」

Thankfully, the atmosphere wasn’t bad.

Probably because it was my first stream, people were being pretty forgiving about issues like this.

“Anyway…! Yeah! Did you enjoy today’s stream?”

“I think… I had fun. Hehe.”

“Now that the server’s shut down and all, I think I’ll wrap things up for today?”

I hurriedly threw out an ending comment.

Even though more viewers than expected had shown up.

This was the extent of what I’d planned for the day anyway.

Even if I wanted to do more, it was my first stream, and I didn’t really know what else to do.

「?????????」

「Wait, you’re ending already?」

“Don’t go don’t go don’t go don’t go don’t go”

“It just started, though 😊😊😊😊”

“Ah, don’t leave 🙂🙂🙂🙂”

“The stream did go on for quite a while. You just didn’t read chat.”

“When’s the next stream?”

[‘SilverHairStraightener’ donated 5,000 won!]

Let’s wrap up with a singing stream.

“Ah, SilverHairStraightener, thank you for the 5,000 won donation! Um, I was planning to do a singing stream later, once I had time to prepare…”

[‘Bangbaedong_ShinChangDol’ donated 300,000 won!]

Please sing a few songs.

“…I was going to wait until I was more prepared, but it’d be kind of a letdown to end it here, right? I only know a few songs, but I’ll do my best.”

「🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂」

「Did she just fold to capitalism? 😔😔😒😒」

「ShinChangDol! ShinChangDol! ShinChangDol!」

「No one can resist 300k」

「Fr, how can you say no to that 😔😔😔😔」

「😔😔😔😔This is the drift moment」

Originally, the plan was to end the stream here.

But… 300,000 won.

That was too much money to refuse.

“Hmm! Then…”

Clearing her throat, she sang a few songs she knew.

Fortunately, the concert setup earlier meant the audio was already configured, so there were no technical issues.

Thanks to a few more donations trickling in,she went on to sing everything from tunes she hummed often to songs she only vaguely knew the lyrics to.

“…Ahem. Th-that’s it. I really don’t know any more songs…”

「Kya」

「Kya」

「Seoyeon, you were great!」

「You’re seriously good at singing」

「Please don’t delete the VOD」

「She’s basically Soopjijik’s top singer at this point.」

「I want to use this as my morning alarm 😑😑😑😑」

Thanks to her passionate singing, the viewers seemed pretty satisfied.

“Th-then I’ll really go now. Uh, see you in the next stream!”

「Yuba」

「Yuba~」

「When’s the next stream?」

「Clap clap clap」

Receiving the viewers’ farewells, she quickly ended the stream.

“Phew.”

She let out a deep breath.

It felt like she had just wrapped up something huge.

As the tension drained from her body, she slumped.

‘Ah, right.’

There was still one thing she needed to check.

‘…I feel like I got quite a few donations.’

Especially from Bangbaedong_ShinChangDol.

That viewer, who had a strangely musician-like vibe, had dropped a whopping 300,000 won.

Even that alone was a lot of money.

“W-well then…”

Carefully, she opened the “Earnings” page.

And in the next moment, she gasped.

“Huuuh…!”

[Total Estimated Earnings: 3,273,500 won]

Three… hundred twenty-seven thousand won?

That was the amount she would receive after platform fees were deducted.

Except for the final singing session,she hadn’t even had donation alerts or chat enabled—she gave no reactions at all.

“A-amazing…”

Of course, it had been the server’s final day, with a concert, battles, ultra-rare pulls, and more.

Packed with highlight-worthy content,she had hit a peak viewership of 42,000.

So, it wasn’t completely impossible.

But seeing the money for real felt completely different from just imagining it.

Earning over 3 million won in a single day left her with a surreal feeling.

Of course, this had been her first stream—and she knew things wouldn’t always be this good.

Gulp.

Her dry throat instinctively swallowed.

‘With this money…’

One face immediately came to mind.

Her one and only adorable younger sister, Yoo Seoha.

‘I could buy her so much delicious food.’

A smile spread naturally across her lips.

Times like this called for some big sister pride.

She picked up her phone and dialed a familiar number.

Ring.

Ring.

After a few rings, a clear and cheerful voice came through.

〈Hello? Unnie?〉

***

With a sizzling sound, a savory smell hit their noses.

It was a high-grade cut of Korean beef—maybe sirloin or skirt steak—

grilling deliciously over charcoal.

Yoo Seoha looked at the scene before her with a doubtful expression.

“What’s going on? You actually bought all this meat yourself?”

She spoke in a half-teasing tone.

Her sister barely ever left the house.

She lived a turtle-like lifestyle, practically fused with her home.

But now she had called her out herself and even offered to treat her at such an expensive BBQ place.

No matter how she looked at it, it was suspicious.

She glanced at the price list and, as expected, the numbers were enough to make her hand tremble.

Would her sister’s wallet survive after this meal?

She was starting to worry a little.

“Hehe.”

But Yoo Seoyeon just giggled, seemingly unaware of her sister’s concern.

“I found a job recently, so I came into a bit of money.”

Yoo Seoyeon replied shyly.

“Oh, I see.”

Yoo Seoha nodded for now.

But the doubt still lingered.

Even if she had found a job, wasn’t it strange to treat someone like this before getting her first paycheck?

‘Unnie, don’t tell me…’

Yoo Seoha looked at her sister again with worried eyes.

That endlessly innocent-looking face.

That angelic appearance that sparked a protective instinct.

A creeping fear began to rise—what if she’d gotten caught up in something shady?

“Unnie, you didn’t… follow some weird old guy or anything, right?”

She couldn’t hold it in any longer and asked carefully.

“N-no! What do you take me for?”

Yoo Seoyeon waved her hands frantically.

She wasn’t a child, after all.

“I’m just joking. Just joking.”

Well, her sister was shy and naïve about the ways of the world,but she wasn’t the type to get involved in anything sketchy or dangerous.

It was just her standout looks that made her worry.

Maybe those very looks had helped her land a decent job.

Just a little while ago, people at the next table had been whispering, “Is she a celebrity?”

Maybe she was a model… or something in the entertainment industry?

But with that kind of personality, could she really be a celebrity?

The thought was suspicious, but still—whatever the case, earning her own money was a good sign.

As her younger sister, she felt proud that Seoyeon had finally taken her first step into society.

“Anyway, I’m glad, unnie.”

She had always been holed up in her room, and Seoha had worried a lot.

Turns out, she could actually pull things off when she set her mind to it.

Treating her to this fancy meat like it was nothing.

There’s no way she’d come to a place like this without a plan, so she must have really found a stable job.

“It’s all done grilling.”

Yoo Seoha placed the evenly cooked meat on Yoo Seoyeon’s plate.

“Is it good?”

“Yeah. It’s savory.”

Yoo Seoyeon nodded.

“Mmm. Wow, this really is delicious. Expensive meat is different.”

Yoo Seoha, who had taken a bite herself, spoke in admiration.

“Unnie. Thank you.”

“Yeah. Don’t worry about the price, just eat as much as you want.”

It was a blissful moment, with the savory juices of the meat filling her mouth.

‘By the way…’

When the meal had progressed somewhat,Yoo Seoyeon, still chewing her meat, felt her mind becoming cluttered.

‘What should I do for the next stream?’

Content worries.

Up until now, she’d just done whatever Rydel suggested, which had been easy,but now that she had to do it herself, she felt like she was floating in the middle of an endless ocean.

‘Wait, since I’m a VTuber, should I start by creating an avatar?’

With all these thoughts, she habitually pulled out her smartphone.

When she opened YouTube, naturally, a few recently trending games popped up according to the algorithm.

“….. This is it.”

“Huh? What is it?”

“Oh, it’s nothing.”

Yoo Seoyeon cleared her throat and took another bite of meat.