I May Be a Virtual Youtuber, but I Still Go to Work-Chapter 186

I returned to All Might Production with Iyura.

Producer Sun Woo-hyuk stopped the meeting mid-sentence and ran out to greet Iyura.

It looked like the two had something important to talk about, so I stepped aside quietly. A composer, who’d been peeking out from the meeting room, slowly crept over and asked me,

“How did this happen?”

“Well, it just kind of happened.”

“...?”

It took about ten minutes for Iyura and Producer Sun Woo-hyuk to finish talking.

Once they wrapped up, Iyura headed to the restroom, while Producer Sun Woo-hyuk approached me with both hands clasped like a praying believer.

“Thank you.”

“No, I should be thanking you. You’ve always been considerate.”

“Exactly. We’re both thankful. But I’m more thankful. We don’t have to go to the board meeting!!”

At those words, the recording director and composer came over too and threw their arms up in celebration.

...What exactly is going on at CAT that I don’t know about?

Soon after, Iyura returned and we chatted a bit before parting ways—she headed toward the bus stop, and I made my way to the subway.

I’d gone about five stations when I got a call from Producer Na Hyun-gon.

[What exactly happened?]

“Producer Sun Woo-hyuk said the same thing.”

[That’s how surprising this is. When I was talking to Iyura earlier, I never imagined it would turn out this positively.]

“Mm. Well, somehow, things just aligned. That kind of feeling.”

[Like before, it was you who persuaded her, wasn’t it?]

Normally, I’d explain that I didn’t do all the persuading, that the timing just worked out, that we were lucky—going into a whole detailed explanation.

But today, I was tired from recording.

It’s work I love.

You know, watching the members’ streams, managing the operation room, streaming together with them—that kind of stuff is fun.

But recording a song with full sincerity is the kind of task that really drains me.

“Let’s just say that’s what happened. It’s complicated to explain. But even if I hadn’t done it this way, didn’t you already have other ways to persuade her?”

Producer Na Hyun-gon let out a chuckle.

[Well, when there’s pressure involved, it always ends up causing a headache. It doesn’t help anyone when resentment builds between the company and the artist.]

“Yeah, that’s true.”

[And I had a feeling that if I waited, there’d be good news eventually, since Ms. Iyura still wanted to work with you. I just didn’t expect it to happen so soon.]

To summarize, because of my closeness with Iyura, he thought that continuing to work together might gradually bring her around.

Rather than pushing her into a confrontation, he chose to wait patiently with open arms.

If Iyura had taken on a song as Natsuki Luna that resembled her previous style and dragged over her old fans, that would be one thing.

But she’d made a complete shift and built an entirely new fanbase.

[In any case, it’s fascinating. Ever since you started working with us, every major problem seems to solve itself.]

“It’s just a coincidence.”

[It’s happened enough times now that I’ve lost count. Like with Sena.]

But Ena’s debut was something everyone at the company worked together to make happen.

It doesn’t seem right to chalk all that up to me alone.

Still, like I said, I was exhausted.

Iyura had wrapped up in just an hour, but it had taken me five.

I had the right feeling from the start, but shaping it into something polished enough for release took a lot more effort.

Anyway, I was running low on energy.

I needed to get back to the office and watch the girls’ streams.

So I just wanted to wrap up the call quickly.

“I just did my best. Thank you for always being so supportive.”

Producer Na Hyun-gon didn’t offer any more compliments after that.

Maybe he sensed from my voice that I wasn’t my usual self.

The conversation didn’t drag on, and we quickly exchanged goodbyes. Around that time, the internal meeting at All Might Production must have ended too, because he added this:

[It sounds like the recording went well. I’ll give it another listen tomorrow and make the final decision, but based on what I’ve heard, we’ll probably move straight into post-production. If all goes smoothly, digital distribution should be ready within two weeks.]

Today was September 10th. That means, around the 22nd, different teaser versions will go up on mine, Iyura’s, and CAT’s YouTube channels.

Then, on September 29th, the full track will be released and registered on the charts.

For one week after that, we’ll count the views, and if it passes a million, we’ve hit our goal.

Then, I’ll accompany Iyura to that networking event she mentioned, and we’ll meet even more contacts.

With those connections, maybe I can create a new breakthrough for Parallel.

“I hope the song turns out well.”

[It will. Actually, since we’re talking about it, let me ask you something.]

“What is it?”

[Gia, how proud are you of your singing? Do you believe you sing well enough to stand among top-tier artists? Do you think people will love your voice?]

“Hmm.”

To be honest...

As of today, I’m finally confident in my singing.

I didn’t want to overshadow the members’ voices, so I shaped my tone like baby’s breath in a bouquet—delicate, subtle.

At the same time, I didn’t want to drag them down, so I fully committed to the vocal training CAT provided.

That started back in April. It’s September now—five months of effort.

And now, I think I’m good enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with Iyura.

The reactions in the recording studio.

Iyura’s wary glance at me as she followed from behind.

All of that confirmed it.

I’m a really good singer.

“At the very least, even if I were to work on a song with Maru—the best singer in Parallel—I don’t think I’d be a hindrance.” frёewebηovel.cѳm

[...That’s all?]

“Yeah, just that much.”

But I won’t forget.

I started using the name Fan_C because I didn’t want to steal attention that should go to the members.

That hasn’t changed.

Everything I do as an utaite is for Parallel.

I want to raise Fan_C’s name as high as I can so that people take notice of Parallel through me.

The people who shaped my current voice. My role models.

The artists I’ve supported and protected all this time.

I want to give them a shout-out for how proud I am of them.

By saying: “No matter how well I sing, I’m still not better than Maru, the strongest in Parallel.”

Maybe he understood how I felt, because Producer Na Hyun-gon laughed for a while before asking,

[Then, if you weren’t standing next to the members—would you say, ‘I’m the strongest’?]

The song that came to mind in that moment was The Strongest by Kiri.

A genius singer with over ten million subscribers.

The very utaite-turned-artist that Maru idolizes.

I took a line from The Strongest, changed it just a little, and gave my answer to Producer Na Hyun-gon’s question.

“The strongest me. Strongest because we’re together.”

***

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

[Did you guys see this, Pellbros?]

————— See on Z —————

Fan_C☑ @imacommonfan – 1 hour ago

2nd single <Frenemy>, with Iyura

9/29, 19:00 Nutube Premiere (UTC +9:00)

Thank you

—————————————————

Fan_C’s new single is coming out next week and it’s a collab with Iyura. Holy crap.

CAT is really going all-in on this one.

[Comments]

— Parallel940: As soon as they saw the potential, they started spoon-feeding the runoff

— Parallel035: Damn

— Parallel351: What even is that teaser LOL

— Parallel854: Just the teaser alone hit hard, damn

... ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ...

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

[But doesn’t this mean CAT is]

focusing more on Fan_C than on Parallel?

Are we being pushed to the side now...?

Are we already getting thrown away?

[Comments]

— Parallel904: Hey hey hey

— Parallel741: There they go spinning up another smear campaign

— Parallel482: You gay

— Parallel747: CAT already gave us two group songs and solo tracks are rolling out one by one—getting “thrown away” is a joke lmao

ㄴ Parallel009: Paranoia’s hitting max levels over here

ㄴ Parallel213: But come on, the way they shoved Fan_C into the group song feature—that was clearly a push

ㄴ Parallel080: True, but it was a win-win for everyone

ㄴ Parallel332: CAT’s gotta run a business too, and their interests aligned. No one really gained or lost anything specific; it just worked out that way

... ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ...

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

[Some of y’all are so paranoid it’s suspicious]

Whining about treatment and favoritism

Desperately trying to turn it into a controversy

If you don’t know anything about Fan_C, just shut up instead of exposing yourself as a newfag lmao

[Comments]

— Parallel080: FR LOL

— Parallel774: FR LOL

— Parallel114: FR LOL

— Parallel129: But like seriously, why are Pellbros happy when Fan_C does well?

ㄴ Parallel559: Sweetie, go read six months of archived trending posts and get back to us

ㄴ Parallel094: FR LOL

... ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ...

Whenever someone suddenly gets famous, haters and conspiracy theorists always follow.

We saw the same kind of people pop up when our members started blowing up, so dealing with them wasn’t too difficult.

Before I realized it, two weeks had passed—it was September 22nd.

The teaser for my collaboration with Iyura, Frenemy, had just been released.

After watching all three versions of the teaser, I absentmindedly fiddled with the calendar on my desk and thought,

“Why is it already the 22nd?”

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

With everything happening at once, it’d be a lie to say time wasn’t flying.

I’d wake up, review backlog clips all night, shower, go to work and check more backlogs, review yesterday’s report, attend meetings if there were any, stream if there was one scheduled, monitor, help review junior team reports before logging out, then lie down and fall asleep watching streams—over and over.

Even without any new recording sessions recently thanks to Frenemy’s release schedule keeping CAT busy, my days were like that.

Next month, when we start recording again, it’s going to be back to the hamster wheel from hell.

And sure enough, after blinking once—it was September 29th. Release day for Frenemy.

Another blink, and it was October 6th. The day we’d check if we hit the one-week 1 million views goal I talked about with Iyura.

Since I’d made it clear to the company not to bring up Fan_C’s activities or view counts during work to avoid distractions,

No one mentioned anything about it for a week.

And I didn’t go out of my way to look it up, either.

Giving it attention would just pull focus from work.

If it happened, great. If not, oh well.

So today—Saturday.

The CEO, who’d gone into the office, came home after overtime and asked me while I was flopped on the couch,

“Hey, did you check Frenemy’s views yet?”

The reason she seemed more interested than I was probably because I’d explained what would happen if we passed a million views.

When I said I’d get to meet famous utaite singers, she got way more excited than I expected.

She even offered to cover my plane ticket if the exchange event ended up being in Japan.

Said we could take a trip while we’re at it or whatever.

But when I told her we’d need to bring the other girls too or it’d feel weird, she immediately shut it down, saying, “It’s an important time—what trip?”

So I just threw her words right back at her.

It is an important time. No need to jump the gun. The event depends on everyone’s schedule. It might even be held online instead of in person.

She backed off, a little disappointed.

Still, she clearly cared more than I did.

I pushed myself up from the couch.

“No, I haven’t checked yet. The girls started season 2 of Cubix Parallel server today, so I was watching that...”

The CEO muttered, clearly dissatisfied with my unbothered tone.

“This could be a huge turning point in your life, you know. You’re way too chill about it.”

“Could you save that kind of language for # Nоvеlight # when I actually quit Parallel?”

“That’s a loaded comment...”

“It just means don’t be so dramatic.”

“Fine, sorry. But go check already. The view count is weird.”

Weird? Does she mean low?

Or maybe... the opposite?

Still, since we set 1 million as the benchmark, maybe we didn’t quite hit it.

Iyura hadn’t been very active for a while, and no matter how often I sing, I still only have around 300K subs.

We didn’t even do a big event push like we do when the girls release a track, so I wasn’t expecting much...

[🥔Nutube]

Frenemy – Fan_C x Iyura

Fan_C | 352K subscribers

1.92M views | 1 week ago | #Fan_C #Iyura #Frenemy #CAT

She handed me her phone.

On the screen was the music video, showing nearly double the target views.

But that wasn’t the end of it.

Turns out CAT had gone all-out with marketing.

As soon as the CEO searched the song title on YouTube Shorts, dozens of videos popped up.

There were two main types.

The first was the classic “OO vs XX” rivalry format.

It was super easy to understand and really made you think.

The themes ranged from anime, to real-life actors, to movie characters.

They’d pair a “growing character” with my part of the song, and an “absolute powerhouse” with Iyura’s part—the contrast made the background music hit perfectly.

The second type was “before and after” transformation shorts.

They’d show a clumsy version of a character followed by their fully powered-up self.

Over that, they’d play the first part of the song I sang (the raw, unsure section) and transition into the last part (the refined, confident one), creating a dramatic, satisfying arc.

Even though they only used clips, the impact stuck with you.

After showing me everything, the CEO said,

“This was CAT’s crazy planning, but the singers went even crazier. It’s like the moment right before a trend explodes.”

In other words, my singing hit home with people.

And like a wave, it’s only going to grow bigger with time.

Naturally, the image of our hardworking members came to mind.

And instead of basking in praise, I ended up saying this to the CEO:

“I guess I should be thanking you for gathering a group of growth-type idols.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“While I was recording, I kept thinking about how the girls developed before debut. It helped a lot.”

“...Wait, you still remember their old vocal techniques?”

“Of course. I even remember yours.”

“Why the hell would you remember mine?”

“To tease you.”

“You little menace.”

“Kidding. I don’t remember everything. Except for Maru, they all had rough patches. Those memories stuck with me. The girls really grew through streaming. I also used the footage we had stored in the NAS.”

“Oh right, that was a thing.”

The CEO clicked her tongue, then ruffled my hair.

“Anyway, good job. Even if our company tanks, you’ll still have a way to make a living.”

“What are you talking about? If the company tanks, I’m investing every cent I’ve earned as an utaite into it.”

“Please, let me handle the business funds. Spend some money on yourself for once...?”

“I mean, I don’t plan to invest right this second, so please manage things well. I’m already investing the leftover money elsewhere.”

“Elsewhere?”

I opened a finance app and showed her.

The portfolio section had all sorts of entries.

An Individual Savings Account (ISA),

A CMA account with a brokerage,

And a personal trading account where I invested in stocks I liked.

Since moving into Do-hee’s place, all the money I earned from appearing on streams—after spending on the girls’ merch and donations—went into investments.

Split evenly across those three, I’d already saved up over ten million won.

“...You’re saving pretty responsibly, huh?”

“If it looks like the company’s liquidity is in trouble, let me know. I’ll pull everything and hand it over.”

“And how did you end up picking only immediately withdrawable assets...?”

“I asked around. The CFO, Producer Na. Diversify, invest regularly. No day trading. If you don’t know, just buy Berkshire.”

“So you’re gonna invest everything you make as Fan_C into that too?”

“Yup.”

Once the initial costs from my debut are recouped, I’ll start receiving real royalties.

CAT figures Frenemy’s success marks the start of that phase.

Since utaites don’t need stage performances like traditional idols, the recovery period for investment is way shorter.

“You know, right? I only started all this for Parallel.”

The CEO shook her head like she couldn’t deal with me and sat beside me.

“Fine. But for now, can you prioritize yourself over the company? You’ve got a concert next month, and if your throat isn’t in shape, we’re screwed.”

“I’ll take care of myself while taking care of the girls.”

“Good. So that exchange event—when exactly is that happening?”

“I need to ask Iyura.”

Speak of the devil—

Zzzing. My phone buzzed.

It was Iyura calling.

I nodded toward the CEO and answered, only to be greeted with Iyura’s voice yelling through the phone.

[Gia! It’s time to talk about the exchange event!]

“I was about to call you. When and where is it?”

[Turns out everyone’s schedule lines up, so we decided to meet in Japan for a day. I also happened to have a Bachubachu HQ meeting then, so it worked out perfectly.]

“Ah. So it’s kind of like a business trip, huh?”

[Exactly! It’s a one-night, two-day thing... And don’t freak out, okay? We’re meeting at Kiri’s house!]

“Oh. Kiri.”

I repeated the name in my head a few times.

Kiri. Kiri...

Kiri?

The Kiri with ten million subs?

“...Wait. You mean Kiri, the one who sang The Strongest?”