Chapter 6: I’ll put your drawing skills to good use.

Korean VTubers are quite different from mainland Japanese VTubers.

The mainland is characterized by features represented by gachikoi, RP (Roleplay), and persona.

Simply put, it means creating a virtual character (RP), performing method acting (persona), and engaging in romance with fans (gachikoi).

Although recently there’s a trend towards becoming lighter even on the mainland, the existing core structure is generally maintained, so it can be seen as the identity of VTubers.

While there are certainly Korean VTubers who follow this basic framework of mainland VTubers, Korea was generally slower to adopt VTubers, the inherent nature of the internet broadcasting scene itself is strong, and resistance was also quite significant, so there are many different aspects.

To put it simply, if Japan is closer to a virtual character actually debuting with the person inside acting, Korea has a strong tendency for the person inside to simply borrow the avatar (*virtual character) to broadcast.

Therefore, most VTubers seen domestically are, in fact, mainstream unorthodox VTubers whose identity is closer to Dullahan, just wearing a VTuber skin.

Honestly, seeing things like that,

“This kind of thing is a VTuber…?”

The words just come out.

Though this is the reality of the Korean VTuber evaluation.

It’s hard to pinpoint the exact reasons why these things happen.

But if I had to pick one, I believe the fact that the pie VTubers can build independently is overwhelmingly smaller compared to Japan holds the largest weight.

In Japan, VTubers can sufficiently self-regulate even while collaborating internally and externally, but that’s not possible in Korea.

It means that no matter how much of a VTuber you are, you’ll fall behind if you don’t interact with other broadcasters.

Well, if there were a company in Korea with the scale and viewer base capable of self-regulation, like, for example, Hololive, the story might have been different.

“In my opinion, that’s why Kanghyun-hyung seems to want to keep releasing new generations, not just the 2nd gen…”

No Rainbow would be unaware that this 2nd generation debut announcement isn’t the end.

From some point on, he continuously sent signals through the manager that he would keep increasing the generations.

Actually, Kim Kanghyun initially took a lot of flak from the 1st generation Crystal fandom.

The reason, again, was interacting with other ‘normie’ broadcasters, an element that inevitably made the unicorn VTuber otakus cough up blood.

[Why do I have to watch our idols kiss up to those normie b*stards?]

Honestly, seeing them go on external collabs and talk with normie streamers makes it seem like they can’t escape the Korean VTuber stereotype either.
Would it kill them to just do internal collabs;
Do they have to act like non-virgins?

Recommended: 12 Not Recommended: 68

• Seriously keke Non-virgin confirmed keke
  └ The horns… are broken…
  └ This is insane;

• Wow, the concentration ㄷㄷ

• You belong on the mainland, go to the Hololive gallery ㄱㄱ

• Idiot..

• Seeing them act like queen bees confirms they’re wh*res kekeke
  └ Ajumma…
  └ Just leave

At the time, troll posts like this appeared in the gallery almost daily, but even some fans got swept up, terrorizing not only the collaborating streamers but also the company’s email.

It’s a comedy from afar, but this is the true face of the creatures known as VTuber otakus.

Of course, I didn’t do that. Yep.

Back then, I was scanning barcodes at the convenience store to hand out burgers to the pissed-off gallery members while continuing the war against trolls…

Anyway, Kim Kanghyun, who sought collusion with the trends to survive in the Korean internet broadcasting scene, seemed to want to create a Korean version of Hololive after getting burned badly back then.

But perhaps his initial strategy wasn’t entirely wrong?

Indeed, the period when Bellus was most active in external activities and participated in large collaborations was their peak.

His belief that there’s a Korean way of survival in Korea was definitely correct.

Even the mainland doesn’t completely avoid external collabs or interactions with male internet personalities.

But perhaps he also thinks that if he could create a mega-virtual group in Korea capable of functioning solely through internal collaborations due to the self-regulation of numerous generations, the merit would be even greater…

Since the mainland VTuber scene grew that way, it’s Kim Kanghyun’s grand plan to benchmark them and build a huge VTuber pie in Korea… or so I speculate.

Anyway, the reason I’m saying this is because, again, I can hear a normie’s voice on my wife Haruka’s broadcast.

Ugh… My horns are breaking…

“– So the 2nd generation is really debuting? Official?”

“– It’s official, but I can’t say more than this.”

It feels like discovering the stockings of the innocent female lead from Architecture 101 in a close senior’s apartment… just kidding, that normie is the administrator of our Bellus’s private Minecraft server.

That person, who also managed large servers held several times on Twitch and AfreecaTV, is a great figure who thankfully created a healing Minecraft server for our kids.

So just because she’s talking with a normie,

• So jealous

There’s no reason to type such low-level chat messages!

Tap tap tap… So… jealous… Enter.

Hehe.

“– Oh~ So Haruka-nim is a senior now too?”

“– Eh? Is that so~? Maybe I’m kinda cool?”

“– Hahahahaha!”

Dammit, don’t laugh so heartily in front of Haruka with that deep, handsome ikemen voice. So jealous!

Are you trying to kill me twice when I can only make sounds like a snot-nosed kid now?

Growl-

“Heung…”

Anyway, maybe because I haven’t been eating properly, I’m starving like crazy.

The little money I had in my account was almost all spent on the subway fare on the interview day. Now, I’m barely surviving on rice mixed with water during the day and soy sauce egg rice in the evening, along with the 10 eggs I bought when trudging home.

I scrapped the initial ideas of braised eggs or rolled omelets.

Come to think of it, even eating one egg a day wouldn’t be enough.

Thankfully, my stomach is small, following this tiny body.

Or is it just fuel-efficient?

Anyway, I get full quickly even with a little food, so I’m somehow managing, but at this rate, I’ll starve to death waiting for the interview results announcement.

I tried to get a job scanning barcodes at Coupang or a logistics center, but they wouldn’t accept me, maybe because there were no openings, and other monthly-paid part-time jobs pay too late.

“In that case, perhaps…”

I turned my gaze away from Haruka’s broadcast screen, which was switching to the ending chat as the time approached.

Haruka’s miniature character eating cheesecake on a small coffee cup was so cute I wanted to stare at it all day, but I held back.

It’s already been almost two weeks since I started watching the members’ backlogged VODs, focusing mainly on Haruka’s broadcasts like this all day.

Now, I really have to do something.

The rice is about to run out too…!

Clutching my aching stomach, I lowered my gaze, and below the monitor, diagonally, I saw the display tablet.

Honestly, I was so hungry I considered selling it, but I haven’t fallen so low as to sell off this girl’s hand-worn belongings, which might as well be her mementos.

Should I turn it on first?

Turning on the screen revealed the familiar monitor background: Haruka’s birthday concert poster.

After gently caressing the monitor, I briefly minimized Haruka’s broadcast and opened the illustration tool installed on the desktop.

Thankfully, perhaps because ‘remember ID’ was checked, the ID was displayed. I quickly jotted it down and somehow found and wrote down the password too.

And now, the moment of truth.

I learned the basics of using the tool by watching YouTube videos, but now that I’m about to start, it feels awkward.

However, after momentarily losing focus and regaining it, a reasonably sized canvas had been created, and my left hand was positioned precisely over the shortcut keys.

“A ghost…?”

Startled for a moment, I looked around with wide eyes, but as expected, only the dust of the rather old studio apartment was visible.

If Woo Seowoo isn’t coming back to reclaim this body, is this that ‘muscle memory’ thing or something?

I couldn’t understand it at all, but since coming into this body was a supernatural phenomenon in the first place, I just accepted it.

First, pushing away distracting thoughts, I picked up the pen and drew a line on the layer.

If the body remembers, it should be different, right?

“Um…”

The first line drawn was irregular and awkward, as if an earthquake had occurred.

Taking a deep breath, I focused again and drew.

This time, I was surprised. A truly clean straight line appeared on the screen.

“Wow.”

So you can draw such a perfect straight line even on a screen.

But that wasn’t the only important thing.

There’s definitely something there.

I don’t believe in the occult or gods at all, but at this point, I felt I had to admit it.

It seemed I could now use the talent of this body’s original owner, Woo Seowoo.

It’s a truly unexpected ability.

Alright. Then let’s work on it like this.

The first drawing is the scene that comes to mind first. The pen pressure is perfectly calibrated to me, so let’s not touch the settings and just trace the line art.

Wait, what’s pen pressure?

“……!”

Contrary to my silent screams, my hand began to realize what I was imagining with surprising naturalness.

First, it drew the human figure model to establish the basic skeleton, then quickly sketched out the background lines.

Opening a new layer, it started the line art. The lines flowed smoothly, gradually taking shape.

Adding another layer and laying down the base colors overall, the entire mood of the picture began to emerge just from this.

Sky-blue hair resembling the blue sky, tied up high in a ponytail.

Confident eyes and jewel-like blue pupils matching the hair color were drawn, and a choker was placed around the porcelain-white, smooth neck.

After coloring the luxurious off-the-shoulder dress she always wore, which daringly revealed her clean skin, her fan character, the yellow canary ornament, was added to her head.

Then, the background was colored, and the screen was briefly zoomed out using shortcuts to check the overall balance.

“Th-this… I drew this?”

However, contrary to my inner thoughts, my hand moved the pen relentlessly, as if saying it was still far from finished.

Add a multiply layer, lay down shadows, then use special layers again to express light.

Matching the concert venue setting, dark but bright where the lights hit, and overall cool tones.

Unifying the overall color scheme with cool colors, speed was increased using the airbrush and lasso tool.

‘No, what the hell is that, you otaku.’

I was confused, but paradoxically, I was immersed.

The more I understood the movements my body remembered with my head, the higher the quality of the drawing became.

Shadows drawn with the multiply layer filled the areas untouched by light.

Then, raising the layer again, reflected light and the background drawn so far were finalized, and the layers were merged.

Finally, through correction work, the overall proportions were adjusted, and the lines were cleaned up.

Don’t know what I’m talking about? It’s okay. I don’t really know yet either.

It just… works.

It feels like I’m dreaming.

“Wow, wow. Wooooow……”

The cheering crowd and frantically waving lightsticks.

Haruka, standing before them, holding her in-ear monitor, smiling brightly and singing.

‘To the Kanaris who always supported me… and the Rainbows who came to my concert, thank you so much! Thanks to you, I was able to hold this concert… Today really feels like a dream. I’ve gained the strength to work even harder! I’ll work hard and definitely hold a group concert with the members next time!
Okay, the next song is the original song I’ll be releasing this time! I believe you’ll like it… So, so please, stay with me in this moment just a little longer…! I love you all…!!”

That scene from that concert I saw sometime ago comes back vividly.

I felt like crying.

“Wow, f*cking crazy.”

Ego-strong body owner.

You were an amazing friend, huh?

Alright. I don’t know why you didn’t take commissions, but I need to earn some money to survive.

“I’ll put your drawing skills to good use. Hic“

Whether it’s possession or body snatching, I don’t know, but for now, I’m the owner of this body.

And I was originally the type who found it frustrating when characters in novels held back out of respect for the original body owner or whatever.

If it’s useful, you should use it all.

Besides, I paid my respects to Woo Seowoo by diligently participating in the interview she applied for, and if I pass, I’ll repay her further by working diligently to debut as best as possible.

Since Woo Seowoo also seemed to be an ardent fan of Haruka, wouldn’t she like it if I became close friends with Haruka in this body and did some safe baby-making girl-love heart-pounding stuff?

Growl-

“Heung.”

Right. Those who need to live must live.

Come to think of it, I stayed up all night drawing without eating while hungry.

Haruka’s broadcast ended long ago.

I thought it would take just a few hours, but illustrations take much longer than expected.

Well, if illustrations could be completed with little effort, AI wouldn’t be so hot right now.

Maybe it finished quickly this time because I was immersed as if possessed?

To maintain focus without breaks in between, it seemed I’d need to allocate around two to three days leeway to draw something of similar quality.

Anyway, I decided to think about commissions after getting some sleep and yawned while cracking the last remaining egg.

(Featured)[Super Pretty Concert Haruka.jpg]

(Haruka drawn by Woo Seowoo)
Grabbed from the fan cafe
It’s been a while since I saw this person’s art, still so f*cking good ㄷㄷ

Recommended: 155 Not Recommended: 2

• Wow holy sh*t

• Perfect for desktop background

• Does this person have Twitter? Want to commission them
  └ (link) Just opened today kekeke
  └ Oh nice
  └ Wow thanks
  └ Price is insanely cheap ㄷㄷ 50k for this quality?
  └ Looking at the commission post, seems like a young fan who doesn’t know the rates, don’t rip her off too much ㄴㄴ
  └ Watching
  └ Watching
  └ Was waiting for them to open, and they opened exactly today keke

• Haruka will love this during her fan art review

Thus, the flawed commission post uploaded by Woo Seowoo, who had never even seen a commission before, unexpectedly gained popularity due to its insanely cheap prices, far below the market rate.

Woo Seowoo’s Twitter DMs exploded.