I May Be a Virtual Youtuber, but I Still Go to Work

One week later.
After being invited back as a guest on Wanggu’s show and once again proving her skills, Orca successfully solidified herself as Parallel’s go-to Soul Clash streamer.
Let’s take a look at the post that got the hottest response:

… ─ — Pazijik Gallery ─ ─ — …
[Wanggu’s Post-Stream Orca Compliment Recap – Today’s Stream]
First off, just to be clear, I’m not saying any of the other trainees who went through Wanggu’s class were bad.

It’s just… Orca has that unique Soul Clash gene.
If I had to pick the two best things about her:
1. She didn’t grind ranks with cheese tactics.

Most Taesan mains just spam cheesy pressure strings, shoot up the ladder, and flex their rank.
But her goal wasn’t to rank up—it was just to be good.
So she kept grinding in Gold tier, testing out counters for every character herself. It was honestly kind of shocking.

(screenshot_of_review_notes.jpg)
She took notes like this.
Tell me you’re desperate to win without telling me ㅋㅋ
2. She listens to the coach. Like, really listens.

People who stay in one tier too long tend to pick up bad habits. And those are hard to fix.
But Orca? She hears the feedback once and adjusts it by the next match. ㅋㅋ
I’ve never seen a new player this responsive.

Someone asked if it was three years of military service that turned her into such a “yes girl”?
…Maybe?
I dunno. Doesn’t seem like the kind of personality you develop in the army. If anything, I came out more rebellious. ㅋㅋ
Anyway, with a good coach and consistent effort, I think Orca could make it to Master someday.
Gia?
Not sure. She seems like she plays for fun, so I doubt she’ll stick around long.
But I will say—when it comes to raw fighting game talent, Gia has a slight edge.

Can’t say about tiers, but Diamond’s a lock, for sure.
That’s my take.
(Upvotes 551 / Downvotes 0)

[Comments]
— pazijik091: Did Wanggu actually say all this?
ㄴ pazijik115: He said something similar last week too, I just didn’t watch all the way through then. Yup, he meant it.
— pazijik389: This guy’s an angel on stream but roasts you hard in post-training gunfights. What’s with all the sweet talk now?
ㄴ pazijik846: Both trainees were genuinely good this time, that’s why.
ㄴ pazijik471: First time he ever said someone could go Master, ㅋㅋ

— pazijik702: If Parallel takes first in the next “Smash-It” tourney, I’m throwing in a mega-like, lol
ㄴ pazijik406: Mega-like for real
ㄴ pazijik900: (Mega-like sticker)
ㄴ pazijik511: Ever since Gia showed up, that “Parallel sucks at games” rep’s been totally gone, lol
ㄴ pazijik366: Let’s be honest, the same folks win every time, but somehow their results are always solid, ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
In the end, Orca firmly secured her spot.
Most likely, when the tournament circuit kicks off after our offline concert in November, even more people will start noticing her.

It felt like an especially lucky turn for Parallel, mostly because of the two people who’d already surged ahead.
Miho had, in just two months, crushed every deduction game out there with her stellar analytical skills and established herself as Parallel’s top intellect.
She never held back when someone crossed the line—whether it was a senior collab or an external one, she’d charge in like a bull and absorb a ton of floating viewers.
And Ena? From the very start, she charged straight into Magia’s harem arc, going toe-to-toe with Maru and the CEO without blinking. She’d been in the lead ever since.

Compared to those two, Orca had lagged a bit. But thanks to this Soul Clash breakthrough, she’d rocketed forward.
Team Lead Ra was especially grateful, saying he had a lot less to worry about now.
“You always manage to scratch the exact itch I haven’t even mentioned. I don’t even say where it itches, and somehow you hit it. It’s wild.”

“Like I told the CEO… it’s just dumb luck.”
“Still, Orca had been hiding that Soul Clash skill this whole time, and you helped bring it out. That’s a win in my book. I was actually thinking of assigning her a special segment after the concert to catch her up, but now? No need. This is perfect.”
“You’re always perfect too, Team Lead.”

“Save that line for after the concert. It’ll hit twice as hard then.”
I chuckled and nodded, wrapping up my chat with Team Lead Ra as he headed to the restroom.
Then I made my way to the CEO’s office, where she poked her head out from between the books on her shelf and asked,

“You’re flying to Japan this Saturday, right?”
“Yep. Day after tomorrow.”
“Alright, have a safe trip. I can’t go with you this time, so don’t overdo it. Just treat it like a sightseeing trip.”

“There won’t even be time for that.”
“You said you and Iyura might get to walk around the city for an hour or two.”
“That’s only maybe. Honestly, I’d rather stay indoors. I’ve seen enough of Japan—I’m good.”

“How many chances do you get to fly business class to Japan? At least relax a little.”
I shook my head.
“I’ll relax when we go together with the others. That’ll be way more fun.”

The CEO smiled warmly at me.
“Who knows when we’ll even get to do that.”
“True. But we can’t just keep running forever. We need breaks too.”

“I get that. But this timing is just too good to waste, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, I agree. Honestly, I think I should push hard at least until winter.”
We stared at each other for a moment, then I gave a small nod.

“What should I bring you back as a gift?”
“Don’t bother. Just don’t miss your flight because you’re shopping. These days, you can get most of that Japanese stuff online anyway.”
“Really? But three years ago when we went, you stuffed my suitcase full of snacks like there was no tomorrow, saying we couldn’t get them after that day.”

“Have you never opened the pantry at home? It’s still packed with those snacks.”
“Yeah… I avoid eating your snacks. I don’t want to get smacked.”
The CEO sighed and came around her desk, pressing her palm onto my head.

“We live in the same house. What’s wrong with sharing?”
“I don’t want a smack for grabbing the wrong thing—like that milk pudding in the fridge.”
“…How’d you know? That pudding was a rare find. You would’ve gotten the knuckle.”

“The aura coming off that pudding was terrifying.”
“Oh, please. Aura? Anyway, now that you know, help yourself to the snacks when you’re hungry.”
Then she popped open the little fridge in her office and pulled out a pudding.

“This one’s for you.”
“What about Seung-yeon and Jae?”
“They already had theirs. Don’t worry about it.”

“Thanks. I’ll enjoy it.”
“Eat up. And get off work early tomorrow so you can prep for the flight.”
“Yesss, ma’am.”

“…What’s with you listening so well all of a sudden?”
“I’d rather not miss my flight like I did three years ago.”
“Pfft. Right… that did happen.”

The reason the CEO laughed like that was because, back then, I’d packed everything except my passport.
I only realized once I’d arrived at the airport.
In the end, I had to go home, grab the passport, and take a flight two hours later.
Luckily, I’d gotten to the airport two hours early and the local schedule had a buffer.
If not, I would’ve stood up the local expert who’d agreed to meet me.

When Iyura casually brought up a story about someone who lost their passport on the day of travel and I just brushed it off—that’s because I’d done the same thing once.
Seriously, it’s a rule of life: your first trip abroad is guaranteed to go wrong somehow.
If someone’s going overseas for the first time, always message them the day before and tell them to put their passport in their wallet.
This translation is the intellectual property of .

“Don’t laugh. This isn’t the time ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ to be laughing, you know.”
“How am I not supposed to laugh?”
“You do know we haven’t filled all the seats for the concert yet, right?”

“Okay, what is this—are we in a UFC press conference now?”
“It’s important, that’s why.”
Ticket sales had opened that Monday.
Of the 6,000 total seats, 4,000 were sold on the first day.

Over the next three days, sales slowly picked up, bringing the current total to 5,600.
We pushed hard on both our first- and second-gen members.
I bundled my own limited-edition merch with on-site goods.
We used Fan_C and Iyura’s songs to pull attention.
CAT Entertainment leveraged every media channel for promotion…
And yet—we were still 400 seats short of a full house.

At the end of the day, online broadcasting is an online culture.
Our fanbase just isn’t that used to offline events yet.
If we had gradually expanded our presence offline—opened pop-up stores, set up booths at Mafe, and so on—it might’ve been different.
But until now, Parallel had avoided low-efficiency external events, focusing solely on building strong in-house value.
So now that a concert was suddenly happening, the gap was inevitable.

It’s a long-term issue to solve, but right now, filling those concert seats was the top priority.
“I already bought about 50 tickets and handed them out to my parents and people I know. Told them, ‘Come watch our company’s idol concert.’”
“I gave them all out too. Still… we’re 400 seats short.”

From the outside, our first concert would be judged by one thing: whether it sold out.
A full house was critical.
We’d hoped the members could fill it on their own, but with time running out, we couldn’t afford to be picky.
So I brought up something I’d only hinted at to the CEO before.

“I’ll try to fill at least 100 seats myself.”
She caught on immediately.
“You mean the networking meetup?”

“Yeah. If I get lucky, Kiri might sing one of my songs.
If Fan_C blows up from that, and the song she sings gets attention, we can add it to the concert setlist—not as a feature, but as a full guest appearance.”
That should be good for 100 seats, right?
As for the remaining 300, all we could do was push hard over the next two weeks and pray they sold.

Of course, the CEO was always against me overextending myself for the company, so she looked at me with concern.
“If she becomes a guest, you’ll have to go on stage and give a greeting or something. What’re you going to do about that?”
“We already decided I’d use a silhouette panel. I’ll do it behind that.”

“I mean your voice, not your looks. You can hide how you appear, but not how you sound.”
“I’ve got a plan for that too.”
She stared at me for a long moment, then sighed.

“Fine, I get it. Just don’t push yourself. When people try too hard, that’s when they mess up. I don’t want you ending up on Kiri’s bad side because of us.”
“That won’t happen. I’ll be careful, I promise.”
“Of course I trust you. I just don’t want you forcing yourself to do something you hate just to fill some empty seats.”

I wanted to ease her worries, so I ended up telling a small lie.
“I’m not overdoing it. Part of why I’m going is to get some advice from a senior in the industry.”
“Oh, come on. You don’t even like singing that much.”

“I’m starting to, little by little. Like you said before, if I keep at it, at least I won’t starve.”
She gave me a suspicious look for a while…
But in the end, she snorted and patted my head.
“Alright. Just be careful. If I send you overseas alone and you come back hurt, it’ll break my heart.”

“I’ll be with Iyura.”
“She’s not your mom or your big sister, that’s why I’m saying this.”
“You’re not my mom either.”

“Hey! Do you ever let me have the last word?!”
***
Two days passed like that.

The day of the Japan trip arrived.
I met up with Iyura at the airport as planned,
and we boarded our early-afternoon flight.
I’d flown this route before, but the difference this time was riding in business class—
and Iyura quietly filming her vlog next to me.

Maybe it was because I’d gotten shorter compared to before,
but the space was ridiculous.
When I reclined the seat all the way down like a bed, it felt like even two of me could lie there comfortably.
Surprisingly, Iyura didn’t ask me to be part of the vlog.
She said this was more of a personal shoot for her visit to the Bachubachu headquarters,
and having someone else’s voice on the recording might cause unnecessary rumors.

So this time, she said it was better to film alone.
Which meant I spent the whole flight lying down, catching up on missed stream clips,
then sitting up for the in-flight meal, and going right back to lounging around.
When she finally finished recording and put her camera away, I asked,

“There’s something I’ve been wondering.”
“Yeah?”
“Your schedule with Bachubachu is on Sunday, right? Will there actually be people there?”

“Oh, yeah. There’ll be at least one or two staff assigned to us. Since people come from all over the world to visit their HQ, they keep it staffed on weekends too.
I guess it’s hard to meet everyone if they only do weekdays.”
VTuber activity is always busiest on weekends, after all.
Seems like Bachubachu deals with the same issues we do.
But that wasn’t the point.

“So while you’re there… should I just wander around on my own?”
“…Please don’t say stuff like that. If someone sees someone like you walking around alone, they’ll think you’re lost.”
“You sound just like the CEO…”

“She gave me very clear instructions.”
I didn’t think she’d go so far as to brief Iyura too…
“Anyway, I’ll be with you the whole time, so don’t worry.
Bachubachu has a separate lounge for artists’ family and guests.
Just stay there for two hours or so.”

“Two hours’ll fly by if I’m watching streams.”
“And, um, this is kind of funny to ask now, but… have you been practicing Soul Clash?
I saw a bit on stream, but it cut off right in the middle.”
The most important part of this networking meetup was making a statement in Soul Clash.

There was no way I’d half-ass that.
“Don’t worry. I’ve prepared everything.”