The third round of auditions had been going on for a while now and was finally nearing the end.
And my stream… had gotten pretty weird.
[ElderCenterGoBoardFlippingMasterMiro님 donated ₩20,000! Thank you!]
What are you doing today?
"Thanks for the 20,000 won, Gyeongbadeui-nim! I haven't decided what I'm doing today yet!"
She's just saying it outright now lol Are you even trying to stream properly? In the room next door… with 20,000 won… they sing… at least two songs… tsk… Why doesn't this person sing? Shhh, Miro-nim doesn't do things like singing~
So basically…
…the atmosphere of the stream had gone completely to hell.
The person who just donated, with that ridiculous "Elder Center Go Board Flipping Whatever" name, was—shockingly—the so-called "chairman" who accounted for over 50% of my channel's total donations.
At some point, malicious trolls from the community started flooding into my stream, and those guys ended up settling down here permanently.
If you looked at the other audition participants' streams, no matter what they did, the viewers would defend the streamer and hype each other up.
My stream, on the other hand… something was clearly wrong.
My viewer count was competing for first or second among the contestants, but the quality was terrible.
In wuxia terms, it was like a demonic cultivator who used Absorbing Energy Arts—lots of internal power, but when you actually look at it, there's no substance.
"Um, Chairman… do you have any plans to change your nickname?"
I knew it wasn't a good idea for a streamer to address a viewer this personally, but from where I stood, the chairman was a big part of why the atmosphere had turned out this way.
If the biggest donor acts like that, won't everyone else just follow his example?
[ElderCenterGoBoardFlippingMasterMiro님 donated ₩30,000! Thank you!]
Do you have a problem with my nickname?
30,000 won?
Coming on a bit strong, aren't you?
With 30,000 won, you could eat three solid meals in a day.
In hourly wage terms, that's almost three hours of work.
Any small-time streamer would've bowed their head immediately—but I'm different.
I used my keyboard to make my character's face on stream turn red.
"W-Well… if it keeps going like this… I might have to ban you?"
I gave a warning, but left an escape route where it could still be taken as a joke.
If you don't do that, there's a high chance someone will post something like 'VTuber who treats viewer donations like trash' on some community.
Yeah. That's from experience.
That happened a few days ago.
Gasp What Ah Oh Hup
[ElderCenterGoBoardFlippingMasterMiro님 donated ₩50,000! Thank you!]
Seriously?
50,000 won? Ha…
This was it.
A battle of nerves.
I could just laugh it off and pocket the 50,000 won, but if I did that, I'd lose control of the stream.
I changed my avatar's expression on screen to a deep frown.
"Clench!!"
Then I pulled up the viewer list, right-clicked the chairman's ID, and forcibly kicked him out.
Wow lol She actually did it lol So 50,000 won is nothing to her, huh? Explaaaain Kicking is a bit much;;
Just as expected, the chat stirred up for a moment.
But I didn't think it was a big deal.
Honestly, from another viewer's perspective, how would they feel seeing a chairman—who wasn't even them—get kicked after donating tens of thousands of won?
They were just reacting strongly to see my response.
Dealing with this kind of situation is simple.
Just say whatever nonsense comes to mind and divert attention elsewhere.
"The weight of my convictions is as heavy as the heavens. Do not dare think you can buy the sky with gold."
Wuxia again? Old. What are you even saying Her voice is kind of broken though, sounds like a game line
Lately I've been mixing together random lines from wuxia novels and blurting them out as they come to mind.
I only started reading wuxia recently. As an audition participant, the only places I ever went out to were the convenience store or my vocal lessons, so lying around at home, it became a hobby.
I started with all the famous wuxia novels everyone knows—by "female Kim Soo-hyun," so to speak—and they were surprisingly fun.
Anyway, if you keep talking nonsense like this…
[ㅇㅇ님 donated ₩1,000! Thank you!]
So what are you doing today?
There's always at least one person like this—the kind who actually wants the stream to move forward.
"Oh right. Let's decide what we're doing today first, then?"
***
If you keep the stream going by responding to someone like that, what just happened naturally gets buried.
Whew… am I becoming too much of a streaming genius?
Party game? Finish that World Cup thing you were doing Don't you play games like LoL? Let's check out some new Steam releases Just do Just Chatting
I leaned back against my chair and read the scrolling chat, thinking about what to do today.
"Should we just do Just Chatting?"
Just Chatting.
Short for "Just Chatting," it's exactly what it sounds like—a stream where you turn the broadcast on and just talk with viewers.
To put it bluntly, it's a free ride kind of content only streamers with a decent viewer base can pull off. You just sit there, read chat and donations, and talk about whatever's on your mind, and viewers eat it up.
Of course, if you get careless and misspeak, you can fall straight into the abyss—but I figured the odds were low.
Plus, my stream had a fast chat speed relative to its viewer count, so new topics kept coming up nonstop.
Okay No games? This bitch is really freeloading;; Ahh, feels good lol What are you doing today? Ugh, at least bring some content
Well, some people in chat grumbled, but whatever… you can think of it like elementary school kids teasing a girl they like.
"What did I do today? I woke up and turned the stream on right away."
Zero work lol Miro-nim, our daily routines are similar I'm a professional home guard, that's correct
[ㅇㅇ님 donated ₩1,000! Thank you!]
Why did you wake up so late?
"Ah, thanks for the 1,000 won. I was watching anime until dawn. You know, the one you guys recommended yesterday."
Since I'm always talking about manga, viewers had made a list of anime they wanted me to watch.
I said I'd pick one from the list, and I did watch it before bed yesterday—but to be honest, I only made it to episode three before turning it off.
It was刺激적인, sure, but honestly… not that fun.
LMAOOOO You actually watched that? Which one did you watch How was it?
"I'll hold back on what I say, just in case the original author or the animation staff are watching my stream."
Then why did you trash other manga? Only now you're being careful? Yesterday you went hard on that trash isekai otaku anime
Yesterday?
I thought back to yesterday.
By chance, I'd come across an anime bingo card, and most of the titles on it were ones "female Kim Soo-hyun" had already seen, so I casually evaluated them based on memory.
"But I wasn't wrong yesterday, was I?"
Gasp Ah What
"Modern Japanese manga is just… never mind. Tsk. Back in my day, we'd go to rental shops and agonize over what to borrow, tearing our hair out. These days, nothing really grabs me."
[ㅇㅇ님 donated ₩1,000! Thank you!]
Then can you recommend some anime?
"Thanks for the 1,000 won~ Recommendations? I actually prefer manga over anime—can I recommend manga instead?"
[ㅇㅇ님 donated ₩1,000! Thank you!]
Manga recommendations are fine too
"But I don't know what you've seen and what you haven't. Have you watched all of One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach?"
You gotta see those Too many episodes, couldn't get into it Aren't those old? Only watched the beginning
[ㅇㅇ님 donated ₩1,000! Thank you!]
How long do I have to keep paying 1,000 won just to get answers? Is this donation bait?
"Caught you."
I said that and opened Notepad.
Wow this bitch lol Ruthless So this is how she pulls money;;
"I'll just do a proper Miro's Manga Recommendation Show today, so you're all watching everything on this list—whether you've seen it or not."
I actually had a bit of pride when it came to manga.
How should I put it… that vague sense of superiority from having read old masterpieces in rental shops that kids these days haven't touched.
On top of that, after gaining "female Kim Suhyun's" memories and becoming well-versed in modern anime as well, that pride only grew stronger.
Works that female Kim Suhyun considered masterpieces were, by my standards, at best merely good.
Without hesitation, I started typing manga titles into Notepad.
***
[Slam Dunk]
"If you haven't seen this, just turn off the stream right now and go read it properly at a manga café."
I only watched the movie Ugh, dentures smell Slam Dunk is [something that is ] accepted /recognized as good ] though It's a masterpiece Doesn't it smell musty in here? So is he better at sports than Ohtani? The movie was pretty fun
Watching the chat writhe violently, I let out a deep sigh inside.
Kids these days…
How on earth are they surviving in this harsh society?
Where do they even learn grit and passion—things textbooks don't teach?
"Tsk, doesn't it smell like school lunches in here…? So we've reached the generation that looks down on Slam Dunk."
But there was no point saying more—these weren't viewers who'd listen even if I told them to—so I clicked my tongue once and moved on.
[StationeryShopEraserThiefMiro님 donated ₩1,000! Thank you!]
Ma,, did ya,, watch K-On,, back in my day, tsk,,
"K-On? I haven't seen it."
I'd heard it was a classic, but neither male Kim Suhyun nor female Kim Suhyun had seen it.
And even now, I didn't really feel like watching it.
?? ? So you were acting all high and mighty? Damn brat… freak!
"What… isn't it basically like Bocchi the Rock? It looks fun, but I feel like it's kind of overhyped?"
No That's kinda true All the denture-wearers get out lol Bocchi the Rock is legitimately good/acknowledged though.
[StationeryShopEraserThiefMiro님 donated ₩1,000! Thank you!]
Thought you were a manga expert but you're just a surface-level poser ㅇㅇ;; didn't even watch K-On lol
"Hey, is it really that serious? Okay, I'll watch it tonight before bed."
Sensing that if I kept talking about K-On I'd get branded as a fake manga fan, I said that and cut the topic off.
Of course, I had no intention of watching it.
"Alright then, next manga—everyone's seen this one, right?"
[Dragon Ball]
I typed exactly four characters into Notepad and looked at the chat.
"Raise your hand if you haven't seen it."
✋ Of course I've seen Dragon Ball Hand There are people who haven't seen this?? Dragon Ball really smells like dentures Just two words in Notepad and the musty smell reaches here
Watching the masterpiece that once made my young heart race get treated like a relic of a bygone era, I finally felt something boil over inside me.
"Halt!! "
That day, my stream ended with me doing nothing but endlessly explaining the Dragon Ball story.
The next morning.
I frowned as I checked a message on my phone.
**Hello, Miro. This is Lee Ha-yeon, the manager in charge of the Celestial Tier Project.
I'm contacting you because…**
In short, it was a very polite proposal asking whether we could meet to discuss something related to the audition.