The first anniversary concert held the next day?

    It was a massive success.

    Tickets sold were nearly double the original conservative estimate—

    A staggering 40,000 tickets.

    Even after paying YouTube’s cut for handling ticketing,

    The revenue was huge.

    This was a jackpot.

    Of course, there had been millions spent on the motion capture studio rental over the past month,

    Plus all the production costs that hadn’t been recouped from the 3D showcase—

    Modeling, rigging, song production, and a long list of other expenses.

    Then, when factoring in future projects—

    New content, new outfits, the second-gen debuts—

    Not as much profit remained as it might seem.

    At least, that’s what the CEO claimed.

    Still, the fact that Do-hee’s entire demeanor brightened overnight proved that the concert had been a success.

    If they kept stacking profits like this,

    Kept attracting investors with good business performance,

    Kept expanding the company step by step—

    Maybe one day, they’d leave behind their tiny 15-pyeong studio on the 9th floor

    And build a BachuuBachuu-scale mega-studio.

    With a facility like that,

    They could plan 3D content without limitations.

    Any VTuber who wanted could come and stream—

    It’d be a paradise.

    Of course, BachuuBachuu’s motion capture studio alone had cost 30 billion won to build.

    Even a mid-sized studio, large enough for 10 people to move freely, required at least 5 billion won.

    Parallel still had a long way to go.

    They needed to work even harder.

    The Following Tuesday

    Gia was practically fused to the office sofa.

    Do-hee had been groaning for a while now.

    But since she wasn’t saying anything,

    Gia figured it must be something hard to talk about

    And just kept scrolling through her phone in silence.

    Then— THUD.

    "This won’t do."

    Do-hee slammed the desk and stood up.

    She marched over to the sofa’s prime seat and plopped down.

    Since Gia could see the CEO’s legs in her peripheral vision,

    She instinctively sat up as well.

    "I’ve been thinking about this for a while."

    "About what?"

    "You. Doing the review streams. There’s a problem."

    Gia had offered to stream, and Do-hee had been on board.

    But even though the idea sounded good at first,

    Now that it was moving toward execution,

    They kept running into obstacles.

    "We’re too overworked as it is."

    "I’ve been on a two-week vacation though?"

    "Right now, sure. That’s why we had time to go to the PC cafe?.

    But once second-gen debuts, that’s out the window.

    And if we do a monthly review, the chances of me having time are slim."

    Long-term content like this had to be carefully planned

    Because pausing it for internal reasons would be difficult.

    If Do-hee ever said, "We need to take a break because I’m too busy,"

    The fans would immediately go, "Knew it. Another half-assed commitment."

    "For this to work, you’d have to stream alone when I’m unavailable.

    Can you handle that?"

    Gia paused to think.

    The pre-show had lasted four hours,

    But three of those hours had been Gia talking.

    Especially during the review segments,

    It had basically been a one-woman show.

    Yet her throat was fine.

    She hadn’t felt overwhelmed at all.

    There had been a time when one hour of talking would leave her hoarse.

    But now? She had vocal cords of steel.

    Honestly, it felt like she had sacrificed some stats in stamina and size

    To invest them in her voice and appearance.

    So a solo 1-2 hour review stream?

    Easy.

    Materials?

    She could reference Do-hee’s old reports and adjust accordingly.

    Even if Do-hee got too busy, she’d at least have time to review the notes.

    Which left only one issue—

    Gia’s conversation style.

    The reason she could talk nonstop during the pre-show

    Was because she had someone to bounce off of.

    If there was no one to set her up,

    If there was no one to react or engage,

    The flow would die.

    Gia had watched enough streams to know

    That when the flow dies,

    It frustrates the viewers.

    "Would it be okay if I invited other members when you’re not available?"

    "As long as they agree beforehand, sure.

    But you would still have to be the main host.

    I can’t expect them to memorize scripts on top of everything else."

    "Hm. That’s fair."

    "In the end, you should assume you’ll be doing most of it alone.

    That’s easier for me, too."

    And if Gia was going to solo-host,

    There was one more condition.

    "And if you’re going to be streaming,

    We need to cap your weekly work hours at 40."

    "Why?"

    "Think about it.

    If you collapse on stream, that’s a disaster."

    That would be a national scandal.

    Something that could hit the 9 PM news.

    The CEO would be investigated.

    The finance director would be arrested.

    The operations team lead would be branded a negligent slave driver—

    "I get it. If I want to stream, I work 40 hours.

    Otherwise, I work 52 hours."

    "You don’t have to push for 52 hours even if you don’t stream...

    It’s not like we give out prizes for maxing out hours.

    All you’ll do is make the Labor Department suspicious."

    "But what about the overtime pay?"

    Keep work hours at 40 per week.Be capable of running a solo stream.No gross shit, no NSFW—immediate delete.If you post something legally questionable, not my problem. I won’t defend you, and neither will the other mods.

    One of them?

    Someone who was probably Pino.

    She’d keep quiet for now.

    Information asymmetry was a weapon.

    If they caused problems later, she’d just pull the leash.

    For now, though, she could just let the system run itself.

    What mattered now was—

    ...──— Magia Mini Gallery —──...

    [Employee-dee Gen got nuked. There was a traitor.]

    Bet they’re in here now, too.

    This pisses me off. If I find them, they’re done.

    [Comments]

    — Magia035: If loving Magia is a crime, then I accept my sentence.

    — Magia845: Damn it, can’t even oshi in peace anymore.

    — Magia455: This is bullshit.

    ? Magia455: We didn’t do anything wrong.

    ? Magia455: We just wanted Magia back on stream, so we sent donations.

    ? Magia455: But Magia took the money and dipped.

    ? Magia455: WE’RE the ones getting screwed over!!

    ? Magia560: Yeah, but we never explicitly asked her to stream again.

    ? Magia560: It feels shitty, but what can we do?

    ? ????Magia1: Don’t be too upset.

    ? ????Magia1: If Magia has any thoughts, she’ll do something.

    ? Magia455: God, I really hope so...

    ...──— ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─...

    Before these pitiful fools completely lost their minds,

    Gia needed to start the review streams.

    At most, she had a month before things got ugly.

    After that, suspicious IPs would start posting garbage everywhere.

    If she could "crack their heads" before that happened,

    They’d become loyal fans who’d lift the Parallel log with her.

    She needed to handle this before the CEO got stressed.

    "How can I change my speaking style...?"

    Gia had learned social skills by working under Do-hee.

    She had become optimized for adapting to others.

    The stream host was the one who led the conversation.

    As a shadow, Gia had always believed it wasn’t her place to be in the spotlight.

    But now, for review streams, she had to be the main host.

    A complete contradiction.

    But for now, there wasn’t much she could do about it.

    For now, she could only...

    Stare at the ceiling in a daze.

    BZZZZT.

    Incoming Call: Maru -

    It was a familiar name.

    But instead of TalkCode or DingTalk, it was an actual phone call.

    Was it urgent?

    Gia picked up.

    "Hello?"

    [Oh! Gia! How are you feeling? The CEO said you were sick recently! We were so worried!!]

    Not many people were this loud on a one-on-one call.

    Maru’s voice was so booming that Gia instinctively lowered the volume.

    "I’m feeling a lot better. Almost back to normal now."

    [Oh, thank God. You cannot get sick! Do you have any idea how worried we were after the concert?!]

    "If I’d told you earlier, you’d have stressed out and messed up your preparations."

    [Oh... yeah, fair point!]

    Before, Gia wouldn’t have cared if they worried or not.

    But after working with them, she could feel it.

    They were protecting her.

    Because she was small?

    Because she looked fragile?

    She had taken time off this week for a reason.

    She didn’t want to burden people if she got sick again.

    "Anyway, what’s up?"

    [Oh! So, um... wanna play a game with me later?]

    "A game?"

    [Yeah! We suddenly got an I’m Wolf collab, but one of the participants dropped out.

    Since this game is only fun when the lobby is full, everyone’s looking for a replacement...

    Would you be up for it?]

    Gia was mostly recovered.

    She had nothing urgent this week.

    And she had never collaborated with Maru before.

    It seemed like a good opportunity.

    Plus—

    The game was I’m Wolf.

    A Mafia-style game with extra roles and mechanics.

    One of the all-time greats for collabs.

    It would also be a perfect training ground for her conversation skills.

    She was lost in thought when Maru called her again.

    [Gia...?]

    "Oh—yeah, I’ll join. When does it start?"

    [The moment you get here—go time!]