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

As soon as Do-hee heard those words, she thought she might have misheard.
“Uh… You mean our Magia?”
[Yes, that’s right. I assume that if you and Maru join, the other first-gen members will also come and enjoy the server, but… I wasn’t sure about Magia, so I wanted to ask.]

Something felt off. There was supposed to be a clear line between Magia, the employee, and the members, but now it seemed like that line was disappearing.
Momo asked Wicker directly.
“You do know that Magia is just an employee and not a streamer, right? This is a streamer-only server. If someone who isn’t a streamer joins, won’t people start complaining about favoritism?”

Wicker chuckled.
[Of course, I know. But she hosted a solo stream on the official channel recently. I think that alone qualifies her as a streamer.]
“…Uh, well, technically, but… That’s just a monthly broadcast.”

[Her main content may be monthly, but she keeps appearing on other members' streams, doesn’t she? And she even has a properly rigged model.]
“No, no. I think there’s some misunderstanding. She really is just an employee…”
Wicker spoke firmly.

[Honestly, that’s what Parallel thinks. But do you really think outsiders see her that way? Even I don’t think of Magia as some random person with no connection to streaming. I see her as a very unique type of streamer.]
That response made Do-hee’s mind go blank for a moment.
Wicker was right.

Within Parallel, they had clearly established that Magia is an employee.
The fans also treated her as a staff member rather than a real VTuber.
But that only applied inside the fandom.
To outsiders who weren’t familiar with Parallel, the moment they saw Magia’s monthly review content, they would automatically assume—Wait, is she a streamer?

And if they voiced that question, the so-called “experts” in chat would bombard them with clips.
All of which would be clips from Magia’s broadcasts.
At that point, how could a new viewer not think she was a streamer?
They would naturally conclude—Oh, so she’s a streamer after all. Was the whole ‘employee’ thing just a gimmick?
They had worked so hard to brand Magia as just an employee,
but her sheer presence on streams was impossible to hide.

Of course, external perceptions aside, Wicker had another reason for bringing this up.
[And, well, there’s actually a reason I’m asking this.]
“…What is it?”

[Three people have already asked me if they could use their Special Invite Ticket to bring Magia into the server.]
In 64Cubix’s collab servers, there was an API system where, while playing on the server, donations converted into in-game currency.
For example, in Season 1, the exchange rate was:
₩10,000 = 1 Wicker Coin.

Each Wicker Coin could be used as a gacha token, which gave players useful server-related items.
And among those items, one had a 0.1% drop rate—
an item that was practically legendary.
The Special Invite Ticket.

In real money terms, you would need to dump at least 10 million won (~$7,500) into the system to maybe get one.
But its value was unmatched.
Unlike regular invite tickets, which required a full day or two of grinding to earn,
or required invitees to be registered streamers with a minimum follower count,
this ticket had no restrictions.

It was a wildcard—it allowed anyone to join, no questions asked.
If someone used the Special Invite Ticket on Magia,
there wouldn’t be a controversy.
It was literally made for that purpose.

Still, the fact that an external server had started talking about this before Parallel even discussed it internally was surprising.
Do-hee couldn’t help but ask, who exactly was making these requests?
[Mugeon asked about it first last month when he was confirmed as a starting member. Then last week, Ronze and Serena also got their invitations, and they both brought it up as well.]

“Mugeon and Ronze, sure, that makes sense. But… Serena?”
[Yeah, surprising, isn’t it? I thought about it for a long time too. But when I heard Magia was collabing with Maru today, I figured it was a good time to ask.]
Hardcore server veterans might still question whether Magia belonged,
but Special Invite Tickets were an accepted feature.

Normally, the server owner had the final say in cutting out problematic invitees,
but if Wicker was personally vouching for it, there was nothing left to argue.
[Anyway, I hope you consider it seriously. If Magia didn’t already know people in the server, I might have hesitated, but… She actually does. She has connections in Mugeon’s crew and Ronze’s gaming group. The synergy could be really interesting.]
Do-hee didn’t hesitate.

At this point, it wasn’t her decision—it was Magia’s.
“I’ll ask Gia first and get back to you. Is that okay?”
[Of course! I’ll be awake all night prepping the server, so just hit me up anytime.]

“Ugh… You always work too hard. We just get to enjoy the server while you do all the heavy lifting.”
[Hey, you’re doing another concert at the end of the season, right?]
“Ah, well, obviously. We owe you guys a lot too.”

[Then that’s more than enough. I’ve benefited a lot from Parallel, you know? I’ll be waiting for your reply.]
***
As soon as Magia arrived at the office, Momo called her in.

The news was… surprising.
Three people had already considered using a Special Invite Ticket on her.
In a server where countless small-time streamers were desperate to get in,
why her?

“…But why me?”
“Because you’ve done something, obviously.”
Momo paused, then rephrased.

“Okay, that made it sound like you committed a crime. What I mean is—these people know you. They have a connection with you, and they want you there. But since you work for our company, they wanted to check first.”
Magia tilted her head, struggling to follow the logic.
She wasn’t a VTuber, so she shouldn’t be getting an invite to a major streamer collab server.

More than anything, she could understand Mugeon and Ronze’s interest.
But Serena?
That was odd.

Serena was the same VTuber who had immediately run up to her and greeted her during I’m Wolf.
And she wasn’t just any VTuber—she was part of Lapits’ second generation.
Lapits, the corporate VTuber group that was constantly battling Parallel for second and third place in the industry rankings.

Recently, Parallel’s first-gen members had been neck-and-neck with Lapits in terms of average viewership.
Yet… a Lapits VTuber was trying to invite Magia to a server?
“…Why?”

Magia wasn’t sure if it was because of her ”oshi-like” aura,
but it didn’t make sense.
She hadn’t done anything for Serena.

Still, that was a problem for later.
“Would me joining actually help first-gen members?”
“That depends on how you handle it.”

“Can I openly promote them while I’m there?”
“Of course. If anything, these servers are the perfect place for shameless promotion.”
Momo smirked.

At that moment, Magia made her decision.
“Then I’ll join.”
Momo blinked.

“…Seriously?”
“If they invite me, I’ll make sure to support the members. I’ll work hard to make sure everyone knows their names by the time the server shuts down.”
 

“If I get invited, I’ll make sure to support the members properly. My goal will be to ensure that by the time the server shuts down, everyone remembers their names. I’ll promote them as much as I can.”
Momo looked at me with a concerned expression.
“…But you’ve never played 64Cubix before.”

“I’ve watched a lot of it. I have a general idea of how the server works. Plus, I’m playing 64Cubix with Maru tonight, so I can pick up as much experience as possible then.”
Momo smirked as she tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear.
“Well, yeah. You do learn games ridiculously fast…”

“So, who’s inviting me? You or Maru?”
Momo made a troubled face.
“You saw how bad my luck was in the last server, right? I have terrible luck with Special Invite Tickets.”

“Hmm. In that case, I guess I’ll have to break into my savings.”
“Hey, hey, hey! Don’t even joke about that! If you touch your savings, I swear I’ll break you first.”
“But if I don’t, we might not get the invite.”

This translation is the intellectual property of .
Momo sighed, rubbing her temples.
“…It’ll work out somehow. There’s no way none of the five of us will get a single Special Invite Ticket, right?”

I narrowed my eyes at her.
“You do realize you’re probably going to strike out again and immediately rage-pull, right?”
“HEY!”

***
The next day.
I logged on virtually at the office, having accepted Maru’s invitation.

As soon as I placed my model next to Maru’s, chat greeted me as if it were second nature.
— Maha
— Maha
— Maha?
— There are two Mahas now, lol
— Jaha~
— Jahahahahahahahaha
At first, I was a little concerned that our greetings overlapped, but now that this was our second collab, people had naturally started calling mine “Jaha” instead.
…Somehow, it felt like I could hear the laughter of a certain hairy pirate in the distance.

Anyway. 64Cubix.
As I’d mentioned before, it was a sandbox survival game—
Dig, mine, gather materials, craft, refine, make armor, forge weapons, and fight monsters.
For a first-time player, it took an average of 48 hours to reach the final boss.
If you wanted to fully explore all the content, you’d need at least three times that amount.

Once people had done everything, they would start modding the game, chewing through and savoring every last bit.
Because so many people played it, there were endless mods available.
If you really took the game seriously, you’d never run out of content.
And yet…

Maru had already consumed all of it.
But even then, she still got bored,
so she willingly reset her world to start from scratch—over and over again.
At this point, people were half-jokingly suggesting that her fanbase name, “Dongle” (Roundie), should be changed to “Kak-hyung” (Squarey) instead.
—Since 64Cubix was built entirely out of 64x64 square blocks.

In short, Maru was the perfect teacher.
I had zero issues learning the game.
[There are two ways you can start:
One, we go full survival, and you learn the game from scratch.
Or two, we hop onto the Parallel server, and I just show you the basics.]

Given those choices…
I immediately thought about what would make Maru’s stream more entertaining.
What would make her stand out more?
The first option.
I had watched a lot but never actually played.
And if I was going to be invited to the server, I needed to fully understand the game.

“I’ll learn from survival mode.”
[Hmm. I figured you’d say that, so I already set up a private server.]
“…”

Survival mode. No mods.
A pure vanilla 64Cubix experience.
As expected, chat loved the idea.
— Oh-ho-ho, so we’re doing survival?
— If API integration was on, this would be even funnier, lol.
— I can already imagine 39,515,012 different ways Magia will mess up.
— There are actually a lot of jump-scare moments in this game, lmao.

It seemed like they were expecting me to freak out over every little accident.
…Hadn’t I already said I don’t get scared if I have a weapon?
Did they all forget?

Either way, things progressed smoothly.
Maru was a pro, so anytime she explained something,
I would immediately catch on and respond with, “Ah, so that’s how it works.”
It was all thanks to how much I had monitored her streams.
I had never played before,
but I had watched it too many times.

[Alright, you made your wooden tools. Now, the next step is making stone tools.]
Of course, when it came to the finer details,
Maru was the expert.
A good teacher makes for fast learning.

[Okay, you’ve got all your stone tools. Next up—iron.
To get iron, we need to dig underground. But before that, we need to prepare.]
Surprisingly, there were a lot of things to prepare before going underground.
Maybe because survival mechanics were so important?

We had to stock up on water, food, and all sorts of materials before heading down—
so we could replace everything with minerals on the way back.
I had seen speedrunners charge underground with nothing but wooden tools,
but that must’ve been strictly for veterans.
We mined iron.
We fought off swarms of monsters in the dark.

[Aah! Zombie here! Skeletons! Witch! Aah, why are there so many!?]
“I’ll take care of it.”
— Headshots in this game too, lol.
— Dongle is losing their hearing today.
— Why is she so good at fighting???
— Wait, is Maru the real newbie here?
— Why is the newbie protecting the veteran? LMAO.
— This is NOT the newbie experience I wanted!!

We refined iron.
We processed ingots into armor and tools.
Then, we built an automated smelting system—
mined copper to create a small generator,
linked wires, connected a waterwheel, and started producing electricity.
Soon, our mined iron automatically traveled along a conveyor,
getting refined into ingots.

Maru and I high-fived as we watched it work.
Total time: 4 hours.
Our scheduled 4-hour collab was already over.

— Wait, it’s already been 4 hours?
— Survival mode is actually brutal.
— Yeah, no wonder people use mods to skip the early grind, lol.
[Phew. Still, that was pretty fast.
Most actual newbies die and get lost underground for ages.
Gia, have you played something similar before?]
“Nope, never. But it feels pretty natural. Especially fighting. Maybe because of the headshots.”

[…Yeah, I noticed.
Anyway, should we call it here?
I have a recording session tomorrow for a cover song, so I need to sleep early…
I’d love to keep playing all night, but I can’t. Sorry.]
“No, this was more than enough.”
[Mmhm. As long as you understand this much,
you’ll have no trouble adapting to a server.
Honestly, a lot of servers skip this whole early-game progression anyway,
so from here on, you can just play however you like.
Oh! Try mining diamonds next! The first diamond is always special.]

“I’ll mine some after work.
If I run into anything confusing, can I ask you tomorrow?”
Seeing how well I adapted, Maru got even more excited.
…And she ended up saying something she didn’t need to.

[Of course! Ask me anything!
At this rate, you’ll do just fine in Wicker’s server.
So? What do you think? Did you have fun?
Isn’t the whole tech progression system really satisfying?]
I paused before answering—
because I hadn’t told chat I might be joining Wicker’s server.
Chat, however, picked up on it instantly.

— ?
— Wicker’s server?
— Is Magia joining???
— What.
— MAGIA’S JOINING WICKER’S SERVER?????
— ???
— Is this real???
:: Anonymous donor has donated 10,000 clouds! ::
:: Of course the leak had to come from Matube, lol. ::