Chapter 16
[Today's PawnWorld Wayoㅋㅋ]
(A pawn doing nothing but research in the settlement)
If it makes you laugh every time you see it, upvoteㅋㅋㅋ
-For realㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-This bastard just stands there watching even when enemies invadeㅋㅋ
ㄴ That's all the "what"ㅋㅋ
ㄴ It's whatㅋㅋ
ㄴ What does "what" mean?
ㄴ Wayo -> waeyo > what
ㄴ ?? If it's waeyo, it's "why," dumbass
ㄴ That's all the "what"
[Wayo's pawn traits]
(A trait panel showing Eccentric Genius, Incapable of Combat, Recluse, and so on)
It's a perfect fitㅋㅋ
-How did he get one like thatㅋㅋ
-How'd he manage to find one that looks exactly like himㅋㅋㅋ
-Does Incapable of Combat really fit him?
ㄴ He's perfect as an internet tough guyㅇㅇ
[Honestly, if you like him more than Seongwon hyung, upvoteㅋㅋ]
(Nguyen, a pawn in Wayo's settlement)
Father Nguyen, the industrial hero who saved the collapsing settlement
-For real, he did everything himself
-He just hard-carried the whole game
-Even has three wives.. the GOAT in alpha-male history..
ㄴ On another level from that tin-can beta male with robot arms
ㄴ For realㅋㅋㅋ
[But the game Wayo plays]
Isn't this originally a game about skinning people? It looks kind of like a cozy game.
-Wayo was just insanely lucky
ㄴ For real, he got carried ridiculously hard
-He got carried, but he also played well after looking at a guide
ㄴ And first of all, he was insanely good at combat
ㄴ A one-trick combat bastardㅋㅋ
-It's all thanks to Father Nguyen
ㄴ For real, Father Nguyen did everything
[I watched Wayo's stream for the first time yesterday]
Who is Seongwon, anyway? Why does he keep showing up?
Even the pawn's name was Han Seongwon.
-It's Wayo's boyfriend's name
ㄴ ?? For real??
ㄴ Yep
-This bastard doesn't know Han Seongwonㅋㅋ
ㄴ For real, fucking newcomerㅋㅋ
ㄴ (So who is he? emote)
-Is Seongwon hyung your friend? He was the man who almost killed Wayo once
ㄴ Great Seongwon, the Wayo Slayerㅋㅋ
ㄴ It was literally a funeral back then
ㄴ So who is he, fuck;;
[Breaking) Emperor Wayo taking a two-week break]
Wayo's loyal hounds are doomedㅋㅋㅋ
-Two weeks? He's going on an overseas trip with his boyfriend
ㄴ For real
ㄴ Fucking Seongwon;;
-??? Wayo's taking a break?
ㄴ He said next month
[February? That's way too on-the-noseㅇㅇ]
Looks like his boyfriend starts college in March
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-So that's what it wasㅋㅋ
-Is Wayo old enough to date a college student??
ㄴ What's stopping him if he's rich?
ㄴ Wayo's a third-generation chaebol, so it's possibleㅇㅇ
ㄴ ?? Why would a third-generation chaebol be a VTuber?
ㄴ That's exactly why he's Emperor Wayoㅋㅋ
[Official) “Wayo Dick” ]
(Wayo character illustration)
-Upvoteㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-The cartoon skin is seriously;;
ㄴ It's pretty, what are you hating on??
ㄴ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴ It's insanely otaku-looking, for real;;
[The red pill for Wayo's avatar]
(Wayo character Live2D)
This costs at least ten million wonㅋㅋ
-?? That costs over ten million?
ㄴ Yepㅋㅋ Wayo said so
ㄴ Wait, is he really a chaebol??
-It's just the price of Wayo's watch, what's with the hate?
ㄴ For real, it's just the price of one watchㅇㅇ
[But is Wayo really going on a trip??]
Isn't this bastard just slacking off and cramming all his work together??
-For realㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Does he even work 100 days a year?
ㄴ He only says he's busy, but looking at his streaming schedule, he's definitely not an office worker
ㄴ For real, he stays up all night whenever he gets the chance
[So what the hell is Wayo's actual job??]
What kind of job makes him busy in February and sends him on business trips at Christmas?
-He's an executive at a major corporation, isn't heㅇㅇ
ㄴ Is that actually true?
ㄴ You think??
-Seems like a freelancer
ㄴ That's probably the most likely answer
-We could figure it out if we at least knew what Wayo majored in
ㄴ Did Wayo graduate college??
ㄴ He said he only graduated middle school
ㄴ For real??
ㄴ You think?ㅋㅋ Judging by how he normally talks, he definitely went to college
[Wayo went to college???]
(A scene of him getting wrecked in Outwind)
(A scene of him getting solo-killed and yelling "jungle diff")
This bastard went to college…?
-Hard to believeㅋㅋㅋ
-Highly educated people are often the ones who switch their brains off
ㄴ For real, this bastard's brain must be detachable
-He vents his stress on streamㅋㅋ
[I don't know what Wayo's educational background is, but]
Any time his mentor comes up << he's definitely some old-school Chinese-character teacher
-For realㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Mentor-hyung's track record is insane
ㄴ For real, he seems to memorize only the best quotes and carry them around
**
Fashion show.
An event so important to models that it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say they spend the entire year working toward it.
For brands too, it's a hugely important stage where they announce in advance what image they intend to maintain for the next season.
Naturally, it's not an unfamiliar stage to me.
After all, even if I'd been practically a no-work youth for the past year, how many years of experience did I have?
Even when it came to overseas fashion shows, this wasn't my first time signing with an international brand, so I had plenty of experience.
“So we'll leave the country on this day, and after arriving in Paris first….”
That's why the meetings had proceeded smoothly as well.
I'd either cleared my various schedules in advance or hadn't made them in the first place, and I'd prepared reasonably well on the management side too.
Of course, if Andel asks me to lose weight, I'll have to.
But judging by how they hadn't said anything until now, it didn't seem likely.
Anyway.
So, while things on the main-job front were going very smoothly, as befitted Kim Ahyun, a model of seventeen years' experience, there was one thing that wasn't.
“Hmm, what should I do?”
It was the VTuber Wayo side of things, with Wayo still a baby newbie in his first year.
[Release Princess Wayo!!]
[Is this Ice Age thing real???]
[#WayoAgain]
After I announced the break last time,
Given how long the break was, the bulletin board had erupted, with people lying down in protest and making a huge fuss.
Of course, the viewers all knew that, since I had a main job, it was an unavoidable situation.
But reason and emotion are different things, aren't they?
More than anything, they all liked my stream, so that was probably why they were complaining like that.
Honestly, it was unfortunate, but it couldn't be helped.
I took the stream fairly seriously too, but my main job was modeling.
During fashion-show season, I needed the professionalism to go all-in on that.
Still, even so….
“Hmm.”
Even so, I thought of the viewers who seemed more depressed than usual at the news of the two-week break.
…They were the viewers who regularly came to a tiny stream like mine.
For some of them, watching Wayo's stream might be the only small joy in their day.
So, although it was only natural that they'd feel a little disappointed when I said I was taking not one or two days but a full two weeks off, I could understand it.
That's why I'd been worrying about it all this time.
Though Wayo was a cold city woman, with an MBTI T percentage nearing 70 percent and cold rationality flowing through her veins instead of blood,
I was warmhearted toward my viewers.
“Roselia.”
“Yeah?”
“Have you ever done an event or anything?”
That's why, after worrying about it alone for a while, I spoke to Roselia.
For reference, I was currently on my way to the next meeting location.
Roselia, casually driving the van with one hand, gave me a sidelong glance through the rearview mirror.
“Are you dating, Ahyun?”
“No. I was just thinking about something stream-related.”
“Yeah, I wasn't expecting that.”
…What did she mean by that?
Whether I raised my brows or not, Roselia turned her gaze back to the road and spoke.
“Hmm… I only know about events in France.”
“Really?”
“Actually, I haven't done many even in France.”
As Roselia said that, her forearm entered my field of vision.
Even though it was winter, Roselia wore short sleeves in the car with the heater blasting, and muscles were visible on the forearm gripping the steering wheel.
…Who would think she was a forty-something mom with a kid?
It was like looking at the forearm of a female athlete.
I guess Jun is going to skip puberty.
For reference, Jun was Roselia's ten-year-old son.
He was a taciturn kid, but very cute.
With looks like that, he'd probably make plenty of girls cry when he grew up.
“Ah, I see.”
Just as I was lost in thought while looking at Roselia's massive forearm,
Roselia smoothly turned the wheel and tossed out a remark.
“Valentine's Day is coming up, so how about making some chocolate?”
“Huh?”
Valentine's Day? Oh… right.
Come to think of it, it was soon, wasn't it?
I'd forgotten such an important day.
“That sounds good.”
It was the perfect event for viewers who were pouting with their lips sticking out.
*
Valentine's Day.
It's commonly known as the archetypal holiday where couples give each other chocolate, their own special day.
But in the VTuber industry, it's different.
Valentine's Day is famous in subculture too, so viewers have their own romantic fantasies about it.
And VTubers, bundles of otaku romantic fantasy that we are, can't exactly skip an event like that.
People often call it “reverse gifting,” I think?
Making and handing out chocolate oneself on Valentine's Day has become something of a VTuber tradition.
Of course, if it were the usual Wayo—a VTuber from a remote island and a lone wolf—I would've just queued up the Rift, but
since a two-week break was already scheduled, I decided to go along with the trend this once for the viewers.
"Why did you call me?"
However, cooking streams are inherently full of danger.
Especially kitchens, which are full of dangerous objects that reflect light at the drop of a hat—for example, ladles and spoons, aren't they?
It was one thing for an ordinary VTuber, but for me, whose main job was something else and whose face would show up if people searched the internet, the risk was extremely high.
Just imagine my face getting reflected in some spoon.
These distinctive features, seemingly beyond the limits of human uniqueness, would leave a powerful impression on viewers despite the spoon's distortion,
and a single such impression would be more than enough for internet users to find my photos scattered all over the internet.
But at the same time, you can't do a cooking stream without a camera.
So....
"Our Aseong."
"...What?"
My little brother is going to have to lend me a hand.
It's not like he has anything to do after getting accepted to college, right?
“You know how to make double chocolate cookies, right?”
“No, how am I supposed to….”
“You'll need to know, won't you?”
"...."
Even if he didn't know how, it wouldn't matter.
After all, I'd be the supreme commander of that day's stream.