I May Be a Virtual Youtuber, but I Still Go to Work-Chapter 99
— Parallel (VTuber) Gallery —
[I Knew This Would Happen... Huh?]
———— View on Z ————
Parallel Official KR ☑ @Parallel_official_kr - 2 hours ago
<Parallel’s Illegal Duet 🎵> will feature Manager Magia as well!
A big thank you to all the Wol-Dungi who promised to support us on the day!😍
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What the hell is this.
Why is she actually singing?
(Upvotes 515 / Downvotes 0)
[Comments]
— Parallel983: ??
— Parallel721: ??
— Parallel614: This isn’t a private karaoke session, LOL.
— Parallel433: Uh...
— Parallel846: Karaoke (called by the viewers).
— Parallel785: Sweet donation farming, lol.
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The next day, as I arrived at work and confirmed that the bomb I had set up yesterday had gone off perfectly, I found Team Leader Ra Seung-hyun waiting for me in the building lobby.
For some reason, my own team leader was there as well.
The reason became clear soon enough.
"I came along so Team Leader Ra wouldn’t bully you, Gia."
"... The hell is this forced persecution complex? I’m just here to buy you coffee before the meeting. Let’s go."
Ra Seung-hyun.
A marketing expert so obsessed with results that she had been rated the top performer in her department for ten consecutive years at a major corporation.
She was the one who had put together that presentation for the pre-event night, making it feel like the first-gen talents were setting off on a grand adventure.
Despite the CEO’s constant applause for her work, Ra Seung-hyun was perpetually dissatisfied.
Not because she had a sharp personality.
In fact, it was mostly because of me.
Not for any particularly grand reason—just that every time I felt like it, I’d casually throw out suggestions to the CEO, saying things like, "Why don’t we do this content?" or "How about that one?"
And those ideas always ended up reaching the CEO a few hours, or sometimes days, before Ra Seung-hyun’s official proposals.
So, every time she confidently presented a plan she was sure would be groundbreaking, the CEO would say, "Oh, I already talked to Gia about that," immediately deflating her mood.
Of course, that would be frustrating.
But it wasn’t because she was incompetent.
I just threw out ideas whenever they popped into my head, without considering the aftermath.
Meanwhile, Ra Seung-hyun meticulously analyzed industry trends, predicted potential blowback, and submitted comprehensive reports—so of course, her process took longer.
When you think about it that way, both of us were coming up with ideas at roughly the same time.
Unlike me, who had been immersed in VTuber culture from a young age, Ra Seung-hyun had only been introduced to it three or four years ago, just like my own team leader.
And yet, in that short span of time, she had absorbed everything about the industry, skillfully pushed her team members to their limits, and produced well-timed proposals. That alone was proof of how much of an elite she was.
With someone like her heading the planning team, it was no wonder that everything—new songs, outfits, or seasonal content—came out at just the right time.
The Lunar New Year Singing Contest was also her creation, so I had complete and utter faith in her.
I considered her one of the greatest assets supporting our CEO.
That said, ever since I became smaller, even someone as composed as Ra Seung-hyun had taken on a strangely ambiguous expression whenever she looked at me.
She seemed a little annoyed, yet there was a subtle twitch at the corner of her lips.
Once we grabbed coffee and entered the meeting room, my draft proposal from last night was already displayed on the big screen.
The moment we sat down, she did something unexpected—she smiled.
"The draft is a bit rough, but I liked it."
"Thank you."
One of her team members had once told me that meetings with her were pure hell.
But this one proceeded surprisingly smoothly.
"That said, if you really want to do proper planning work, you still have a lot to learn. The proposal isn’t detailed enough to submit to the higher-ups as is."
"Well, I’m not actually part of the planning team."
"Considering the CEO told me to help you, I’d say she has other ideas."
"You think so?"
"More than that, planning and streaming are completely different environments. You need to break things down in meticulous detail, or people won’t interpret them the same way, and you’ll end up with practical issues."
"Ah. But I was planning to handle this one on my own. I figured this level of detail would be fine."
Ra Seung-hyun looked at me with wide eyes.
"You were planning to move forward with just this outline?"
"Yeah. I was just going to improvise the rest."
The look on her face could be summarized as:
"What the hell is this kid?"
And soon enough, she said something similar out loud.
"What about during the Movgun internal match?"
"Same approach."
"And the Wicker server event? The Combative tournament?"
"Didn’t really have time to prepare for those."
"... You mean to tell me, when you said ‘we’re so screwed’, you didn’t actually have a backup plan?"
Kang Ji-ho suddenly wrapped her arms around me.
"Team Leader Ra, you’re scaring Mapat."
"I haven’t even done anything? We were just having a normal meeting?"
Letting out a short sigh, Ra Seung-hyun muttered:
"Anyway, I get it now. It makes sense why the CEO keeps making Mapat stream these days."
"And why do you think that is?"
"There aren’t many people who can manage a stream even when things go to hell. Not only do you handle damage control, but you also shift the atmosphere completely to your advantage."
Hearing it phrased like that, you’d think I had some kind of brainwashing ability, capable of captivating anyone in an instant.
In reality, I was just barely keeping up internally.
Still, regardless of how I was perceived, earning Ra Seung-hyun’s trust was significant.
Unlike the other team leaders, whom I interacted with frequently through various side tasks, I’d barely spoken with her in a professional setting before.
But now that we were discussing a project, everything fell into place effortlessly.
I barely had to say a word—she filled in the blanks and turned my rough draft into a well-structured plan.
"Alright, let’s submit this report."
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
However, there was one major addition compared to my original draft:
A sponsorship deal with ‘Aurora’, which also came with a special prize named after the sponsor.
When I asked about it, she explained,
"We got a bottled water sponsorship for the singing contest."
On the contest day, the CEO and the members would gather in the 9th-floor motion studio, and they were even planning to set up motion-tracked water bottles for the event.
Ra Seung-hyun had apparently suggested running Aurora’s branding in the Illegal Duet event the day before, as a soft product placement.
The winner would receive 1 million won in prize money from Aurora Water.
"So, first place in the audience poll gets the cash prize. And for the original rewards, I pick two people, right?"
"Yeah. Since the CEO plans to join as well, she can give out one, and you can give out the other."
"Ah, got it."
...Wait, does the CEO actually have time for this?
Well, Ra Seung-hyun probably knows her schedule better than I do.
"Alright, I need to get going. I’m busy."
"Thanks for the help."
"Since I helped, make sure you do your best."
With a sharp huff, Ra Seung-hyun strutted out of the meeting room.
Still standing beside me, my team leader smirked.
"She always talks like that, but she’s such a tsundere."
"Come to think of it, you two seem pretty close?"
"Well, we’re the same age? And speaking of, what was it she said before? Something about hugging Gia—"
"Hey. Kang Ji-ho."
The team leader, who we thought had already left, was suddenly back, her glare so intense it practically shot lasers at Kang Ji-ho.
"Don’t run your mouth about useless things."
"Okay, okay, my bad. I won’t say anything."
"Tsk."
With that, the door slid shut again.
Kang Ji-ho barely held back her laughter.
"I didn’t know you two were on casual terms like that."
"Well, since I handle the members' external schedules, we end up communicating a lot. Naturally, we got closer."
"So... what was that thing about me?"
"Oh, that? You should ask Team Leader Ra yourself. If I say anything, she’ll probably show up at my house and rip me apart."
...Just what the hell was that about?
***
With Ra Seung-hyun involved, I wasn’t worried about the quality of the event.
But after a few days, when the official content announcement went up, I noticed an unexpected new sponsor attached.
— View on Z —
Parallel Official KR ☑ @Parallel_official_kr - 1 minute ago
🎎 Lunar New Year Special Viewer Participation Content
<Parallel’s Illegal Duet 🎵>
📅 2025.01.30 (TUE) 6PM
🎤 Hosts: Shirahoshi Momo, Manager Magia
🏆 Total Prize: 4 million won + Rare Merch Giveaway!
- Sponsors: Aurora, Pazijik
📌 Sign up & submit your video: m.site.pazizik.com/13Z6A
“...Why is Pazijik involved?”
The CEO shrugged like it was nothing.
“Remember the concert viewership during Wicker Town?”
“Yeah, it went over 300,000.”
“What about the Game Championship?”
“Around 250,000, I think...?”
“That’s why.”
She gave me a pointed look.
...Was she implying this was because of me?
All I remembered from those events was muttering Lapits Potion while beating people to death and cursing at the game’s mechanics.
It definitely wasn’t just my doing.
Of course, getting more sponsors was a good thing.
Since they provided production support, we could create higher-quality content.
"Anyway, because of that, the number of viewer-voted prizes has increased to four. Pazijik is contributing 2 million won for two winners, and Aurora added another 1 million won for two more."
"So a total of 4 million won... We're still giving away the merch sets, right?"
"Yeah. Since the prize pool got bigger, we didn’t want any internal favoritism accusations. To maintain anonymity, Pazijik will be managing the participant list."
"I really just wanted to do this for fun, but it’s turning into a huge thing."
The CEO chuckled.
"Our little Gia is still a rookie streamer, huh? Getting nervous over something like this."
"I’m not nervous. I’m more worried about you causing a scandal."
"Excuse me?! That’s my line!"
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fгeewebnovёl.co𝙢.
"If you purposely stir up drama on the official channel to push our revenue share up, I won’t sit quietly."
"You’re driving me insane..."
Honestly, the fact that we were casually joking like this showed how unconcerned I was at the time.
Even with sponsors, this was still an internal Parallel-only event.
The viewer vote system reinforced that this was a fun entertainment show, not a serious competition.
But the moment Pazijik got involved, rumors naturally started to spiral.
Pazijik is sponsoring it?!The prize pool is 4 million won?!Wait, is that per person?!With the rumors catching fire, another announcement popped up.
🥔 Nutube - Community Post
RoofKR | 1.09 million subscribers
💬 I was gonna take the whole holiday off, but...
💬 I’ll be streaming from the 30th, right at the end of the break.
📅 30th: Parallel’s Illegal Duet Watch Party
📅 31st: Watching Parallel’s Singing Contest with the Mad Dogs
🎉 After that, drinking stream + Parallel World Cup
RoofKR had been promising to do a Parallel World Cup for ages,
and now, out of nowhere, he slotted it in on the same day as our Singing Contest.
Since Pazijik was openly pushing our event, he probably figured it was the perfect timing and locked in the date.
And with the Mad Dogs Crew, who had a combined subscriber count of 3 million, the impact was immediate.
"Pazijik just told me that the number of applicants suddenly doubled."
"How many now?"
"210."
"...?"
"We don’t have access to the full list yet, but apparently, there are some big names in there... The most famous one has 2.5 million subscribers on Nutube."
"Did people get bored because the Lunar New Year break was too long?"
My plan had been simple—I’d bait some attention by announcing my anonymous participation,
but somehow, the scale of the event was ballooning out of control.
Still, I didn’t see it as a bad thing.
Having recognizable names in the contest was a huge win.
Our members were no slouches when it came to singing.
Hell, these big names weren’t even getting paid, yet they were lining up to sing with our VTubers.
Why would we turn down an opportunity like this?
I just hoped they’d make it past the qualifiers so we could showcase them in the main event.
Even better—this meant my chances of getting eliminated in the prelims went up.
If I didn’t make it past qualifiers, I’d get to sit back and judge the finals comfortably.
Everyone would be desperately trying to find me, while I’d ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ just be smiling, running the show.
"So... what song did you submit for the prelims?"
"It’s a secret."
"...You’re not gonna suddenly start singing a Lapits song, right? Not this time. I mean it."
"I didn’t."
***
Unexpected Variables Kept Piling Up.
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Parallel Official KR ☑ @Parallel_official_kr - 1 minute ago
📢 [<Parallel’s Illegal Duet 🎵> Finalists Announcement – 26 Contestants]
📌 Check the list here: m.site.pazizik.com/Az04q
Did you know?
Among these 26 finalists...
Manager Magia is hiding somewhere. 👀
...What.
For some reason, the video I submitted actually passed the qualifiers, and I made it to the finals.
— View on Z —
Eula☑ @Eula - 1 minute ago
📢 January 30th: No stream due to personal matters!
EulaFighting @fightwitheula
Huh? Did Eula apply for Illegal Duet too?!
↳ Eula☑ @Eula
(🤫 Shh meme of Seong Shin-jae)
With that, it was almost confirmed that Eula, the utaite with 2.5 million subscribers, had also joined Illegal Duet...
January 30th.
What was originally estimated to be a 25,000-viewer event had completely shattered expectations.
🔴 (Live) Parallel’s Illegal Duet 🎵
👪 58,437 viewers
#Parallel #Magia #Momo #IllegalDuet #KaraokeContest #ViewerParticipation
With nearly 60,000 people watching,
the Illegal Duet event officially began.
