"Thank you for the 10,000 Clouds. Last week, I took my paid leave and still went to work. Thank you."

    From the bottom of the chat, a massive hook shot up like a waterspout.

    — ?

    — ??

    — What?

    — Wha—

    — Wha—what;

    — ?

    — ??

    — Eh?

    — What;

    — What did you just say, Gia Gia?

    Do-hee was taken aback. She hadn''t expected Magia to say it so straightforwardly.

    But being called a demon king, a tyrant boss, or a dictator wasn’t new to her.

    Besides, in this situation, any attempt to explain would only make things worse.

    So Magia’s next ad-lib came out naturally.

    "Hey, what are you saying? There were... circumstances."

    "Even if there were, it’s still true."

    "Come on, even if it’s true, do you have to just say it like that? What does that make me?"

    — She snapped, so she’s definitely guilty, lol.

    — The stream was going so well, why are they fighting now, lol.

    — Did we just switch to UFC mode?

    :: An anonymous donor has donated 10,000 Clouds! ::

    :: Momo, release Magia nowwwwwww! ::

    "Thank you for the 10,000 Clouds. Sorry, but this was my own choice. I wasn’t imprisoned. I willingly became a slave."

    "Hey. ''Slave''?"

    — What?

    — Wha—what;

    — But... didn’t you do it voluntarily...?

    — LMAO

    — Oh...

    — Goddamn corporate slavery, wtf

    — Parallel’s applicants are running for their lives right now

    :: An anonymous donor has donated 10,000 Clouds! ::

    :: But at least you''re getting paid a lot, right? ::

    "Thank you for the 10,000 Clouds. I get paid for the work I do. And then I give it all back to Parallel. But don’t misunderstand, it’s voluntary tribute."

    — Wha—what;

    — ??

    — What do you mean, you give it back?

    — How badly did they brainwash her?

    — Hypnosis apps are real, wtf

    — This world is insane

    :: An anonymous donor has donated 1,000 Clouds! ::

    :: What do you mean by ‘giving it back’?! ::

    —

    —

    — Bitch.

    —

    —

    As Magia kept responding to each new 10,000 Cloud donation, her character naturally took shape.

    And from the viewers’ perspective, there was no one more pitiful.

    :: An anonymous donor has donated 1,000 Clouds! ::

    :: So let me get this straight. Most of your salary goes back to the company, you work a full 52-hour week, your shifts run from late afternoon to dawn, you work weekends until the VTubers’ streams end, and when they ask you to appear on stream, you show your face too? ::

    — Wtf

    — Why is this real life?

    — Is she Superman?

    — Bro, how is this even possible, lol

    — (Momo) "She’s not human..."

    :: An anonymous donor has donated 1,000 Clouds! ::

    :: Our Great and Noble Gia. ::

    :: An anonymous donor has donated 1,000 Clouds! ::

    :: Momo, you’ve been overworking her for three years, maybe let her go now? ::

    — LMAO

    — Employees should flee Parallel ASAP, upvote if true

    — Me first, lol

    :: An anonymous donor has donated 10,000 Clouds! ::

    :: By the way, who gets today’s donation money? ::

    At that, Magia stole a glance at Do-hee.

    The viewers laughed as they noticed her subtle glance.

    — The hesitation lmao

    — After saying all that, why is she looking at the boss now, lol

    — Does she have survival instincts or not?

    Do-hee gave her a silent nod, signaling her to just answer as usual.

    So Magia added a single extra line to her previous statement.

    "Thank you for the 10,000 Clouds. Some of it goes to the streaming platform Pazizik as a processing fee, and the rest is all Parallel’s revenue. I don’t take a cut, so don’t worry."

    — ?

    — What?

    — So that means... Gia gets nothing?

    — That’s insane.

    — How is that reassuring, lol.

    — "Don’t worry," she says, but why does that make me worry even more, lol

    :: An anonymous donor has donated 10,000 Clouds! ::

    :: Honestly, if Momo had a conscience, shouldn’t she at least split the stream revenue with Magia? Lol. ::@@@@

    :: An anonymous donor has donated 10,000 Clouds! ::

    :: Wait... so every time Magia appeared on stream, all donations went straight to Parallel and the first-gen talents? ::

    Even though Magia was quickly becoming the most pitiful figure ever, and Parallel was now seen as the villain...

    "Yes. Every donation goes to the company and the first-gen talents. So please, donate with peace of mind."

    Magia herself was actively accelerating that perception.

    — Nooo!

    — AAAAAAGH

    — Damn it, if only it weren’t for this week’s showcase!!!

    — Isn’t this technically Parallel’s fault for making their 3D models too good?

    — My wallet is dead...

    — You evil, tyrannical, exploitative company...

    The chat was in an uproar, but their tone was that of defeated villains.

    "Damn it, we lost! But we’ll let it slide just this once!"

    "And with that, let’s officially begin the first-gen one-year anniversary concert pre-show!"

    ***

    Even if the start looked like a complete mess, the pre-show itself went smoothly.

    Regardless of whether it was true or not, Magia taking on the "exploited, pitiful employee" role was huge.

    "Isn’t this fun? The CEO and I sacrificed our sleep to prepare this for you."

    And then, she pulled out this completely unfair line, forcing the audience to focus on her words.

    How could they just passively watch when a poor, overworked employee had sacrificed her sleep for them?

    Especially when they wanted to throw money but had already emptied their wallets.

    To make things worse, the conversation went like this:

    "Gia, do you remember this moment?"

    "Of course. I still have Rain’s voice echoing in my head. ‘Enemy! Enemy! Kill it! Kill it, psycho! Psycho bastard! Hah, got it!’"

    "...That was actually my head."

    "But honestly, CEO, isn’t it your fault for running into the line of fire? You should’ve expected that Rain might teamkill."

    "Wow, Gia, you’ve been on my case all night!"

    "Well, after that stream, Rain insisted she did nothing wrong. And besides, tomorrow is the first-gen anniversary concert. Can’t you just take some blame for today and be a little more generous?"

    "What does that have to do with this?!"

    — LOLOLOLOLOLOL

    — Okay, but honestly, Rain was a little out of pocket for that one.

    — Agreed.

    — This one is 100:0 Momo’s fault, lol.

    At this point, the viewers had no choice but to think:

    "Wait... does she actually love her job this much?"

    The more Magia shared past stories, the clearer her true character became.

    "I’ve seen plenty of people fail stealth missions, but that was the first time I saw four people all fall off together.

    "But the funny part is that wasn’t even the end of it. The next day, they tried again off-stream.

    "And look! I have the clip right here—bam, they die in the exact same spot.

    "I swear, I couldn’t sleep that night from laughing. Every time I tried to close my eyes, I kept remembering it."

    — LOL WTF

    — THIS WAS A THING???

    — HAHAHAHAHA

    — HOLY SHIT LOLOLOLOL

    — WHY ARE YOU HIDING THIS FROM US?!?!

    Somehow, the viewers felt like they had been transported back to that exact moment.

    Most of the time, Magia spoke with the sharpness of a hedgehog.

    But when she started sharing stories about the first-gen members, she became a natural-born storyteller.

    Her impressions weren’t perfect, but they had charm.

    And she sprinkled in behind-the-scenes gossip from Parallel that only she could know.

    It was a storytelling feast like no other.

    — She really looks like she’s enjoying herself, lol.

    — It’s like sitting down with a hardcore Parallel fan and listening to them go off.

    — For real, lol.

    — She’s not just a regular employee. She’s a full-blown Parallel fanboy.

    — I thought she was an outsider, but her lore depth is deeper than ours, LMAO.

    The viewers couldn’t help but be impressed.

    At best, they thought Magia was just a somewhat talented staff member.

    They had assumed she wouldn’t know as much as the true hardcore fans.

    But then, she went and delivered the most engaging, detailed, hilarious retelling of these stories.

    She was exactly what Do-hee had hoped for.

    And Do-hee wasn’t the only one who felt that way.

    — Forget debuting, can’t she just handle the review content every quarter? LOL.

    — Momo, give her a content segment and raise her salary!

    — For real, LOL.

    — It’d be a waste to just make her a regular streamer.

    — If she did a monthly review show, I’d gladly watch it.

    — Not monthly. Weekly.

    ...──— Parallel (VTuber) Gallery —──...

    ★ [Momo, why don’t you just give Magia the quarterly content segment?]

    [At this point, just put her in charge of something, lol.]

    [What does "Magia" even mean? People have asked 3,859,219,230 times.]

    [No, seriously, CEO Momo is so out of touch this time.]

    [All the official channel donations should go directly to Magia. Agreed?]

    ★ [Momo has no right to be CEO, LMAO.]

    ...

    ...

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