Chapter 14: The First Collaboration with Tsupi (1)

A Week After My Debut

A week had passed since my debut.

During that time, my daily routine had become busier. Well, I was already busy, but it felt like my workload had increased by at least 1.5 times.

“Jiwoo, the folds on this outfit look a little awkward. Could you adjust them to curve inward slightly?”

[Oh! I’ll fix it right away!]

“There’s no need to rush. We still have some time before the deadline.”

[Got it. By the way, EN sent in a request…]

“Why would that be sent to you? Just forward it to Tsupi. Honestly, I’m not very familiar with Märchen’s inter-regional matters. Anyway, great work today. You don’t have to rush the 7th-generation deadline, so take your time.”

[Understood! Great work to you too, Muil!]

Part of my day was spent consulting with Jiwoo and working alongside him. Of course, I also kept up with my streaming schedule, making sure to hit my average hours.

“Ugh, haaa.”

Stretching my arms, I glanced at the clock on my desktop.

It was time to stream. Although my daily life had become busier, it wasn’t overwhelming.

Plus, I still had breaks here and there. Since this was one of those breaks, I got up from my chair for a moment.

“But why did EN reach out? And why to Jiwoo, of all people?”

I headed to the kitchen, grabbed a glass of milk from the fridge, and sipped it while thinking about the situation.

Officially, there was almost no publicly available information about my alias, “Muil.” Just my alias and an email address—that’s all that was exposed.

Everything else was just my artwork. Even when communicating with me, Tsupi used email because she didn’t have my direct contact information.

‘Not like she didn’t try asking for it, though.’

Even though I’d signed a contract with KR Märchen, I wasn’t fully affiliated with them. You could say I was more of a freelancer.

I could have signed an exclusive contract with KR Märchen at any time, but I chose not to.

I preferred working in multiple spaces rather than being tied to one.

Although, admittedly, all of my illustrations ended up with KR Märchen.

Love calls and scouting offers for “Muil” were plentiful. Out of every 10 emails I received, 9 were requests for work.

‘But I rejected them. KR Märchen offered better pay.’

Some offers were even higher than Märchen’s rates, but deadlines were always tight, and I couldn’t take on additional work while maintaining my commitments to Märchen.

So, I ended up declining all requests except those from KR Märchen.

‘Guess I was already locked in for life.’

Thinking about it, I felt like I’d been subconsciously brainwashed. Märchen could be terrifying.

Anyway, setting aside unnecessary thoughts, why had EN reached out?

Probably 99% of it was about me. I should check my muted email notifications.

I returned to my room and opened the inbox for “Muil.”

“Hmm.”

My suspicion was correct. The inbox was filled with official emails from EN Märchen Live, taking up an entire page.

Official emails, no less.

How urgent must it have been for them to send emails every hour?

When they couldn’t reach me, it seemed they contacted Jiwoo instead.

Both my and Jiwoo’s emails were listed on KR Märchen’s official site.

‘Still, I can’t really handle inter-regional collaboration.’

Unlike JP’s Auka, where I’d set up a meeting beforehand, this felt different. Sending just an email and expecting action was, well… presumptuous.

For now, I’d leave it to Tsupi to review and decide.

Closing the inbox, I prepared for my stream. There was a lot on my mind, but nothing I could do immediately.

Well, they’d contact me again if it was important.

Ten minutes later, viewers started gathering.

As the warm-up stream ended, I activated my avatar—Yuwol—and brought her onto the screen.

“Hmm. Good evening, everyone.”

– Yuhwa (greeting)!
– O o
– What are you eating right now?
– I ran here the moment the alert popped up.
– Isn’t today the day group collab restrictions lift?
– O o
– What are you eating? Yuhwa!

“What am I eating? The innkeeper made me a strawberry salad, so I was having that.”

– Whoa, that sounds delicious.
– Who even is this innkeeper?
– I’ve never heard of strawberry salad, but it sounds tasty.
– Healthy eating, huh…
– Yuwol needs to gain some weight.
– Please eat meat. How can someone live on just vegetables?!
– The innkeeper is terrible.

“I had protein for lunch.”

– Tofu and fish don’t count as protein.
– Ask the innkeeper to cook you some meat.

I really did eat meat at lunch—pork belly, no less.

I made an exaggerated expression of frustration, but my viewers didn’t believe me. Since I was always eating vegetables or fruit during streams, they were adamant about feeding their “baby hero” some proper meat.

– I’ll give you money, so please buy something delicious.
– Tsupi, is this acceptable?
– How can a hero so light protect the world…

“You’re all overreacting.”

I popped a strawberry slice into my mouth as I replied.

By the way, the dressing for the salad was kiwi-based. It was delicious, and I debated asking my mom to send more. Then again, since I’d be visiting her this week, it might be easier to bring it back myself.

After putting away the half-eaten salad, I continued the stream.

“Well then, how about we chat for a bit and take a look at the fan café?”

“Wait, you already finished eating?”

“Yuwol, eat a little more, okay?”

“She was probably eating even before the stream started.”

“Fan café time!”

“If you check Yuwol’s fan café, there’s already a ton of posts piling up.”

“My guess is she only ate half of that salad.”

“I won’t say anything until she finishes all of it.”

“Wow… How did you know I only ate half? Are you psychic?”

– ?????

“Finish it all, Yuwol.”

“ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ”

“Why did you buy beef if you’re not going to eat it?!”

“Yuwol, you’re such a picky eater…”

What am I supposed to do if my stomach can only handle this much?

Still, under the pressure of my viewers, I reluctantly reopened the salad container.

“I’m already full…”

– Oh no, no excuses!

– Yuwol, you’re a baby, so you need to eat more!

– If you feel full, you can still eat twice as much!

– LOL.

– She looks so sulky now, LOL.

– “I’m full…” Isn’t that way too cute?

– Still, you have to eat for your health.

– True!

“Alright, fine.”

After finally finishing the salad, I felt incredibly full—or maybe it was just in my head.

Despite feeling full, my body didn’t show it. What kind of metabolism is this, honestly?

“Ugh, I’m stuffed.”

– LOL, but that’s how you gain weight!

– Yuwol, you need to eat more regularly.

– True!

– Isn’t today an all-call collab?

– The group collabs between generations start next week. Today’s collab is with your manager.

– Oh, right!

That’s true. Today marked my first collaboration as a VTuber and also the day the collaboration restrictions were lifted.

Previously, when there were fewer VTubers in each generation, collaborations were mainly within the same group.

However, since the 5th generation, each manager was required to coordinate about three collabs per week for their assigned talents.

I heard that managers even trained us for collabs, though I didn’t understand why that was necessary.

It seemed more like Märchen was forcing content ideas. Honestly, being a manager looked like a tough job.

“That’s right. Today, I’ll be doing an online collaboration with my manager, Tsupi. Many of you probably already know about Märchen’s communication room broadcasts, but I’ll reintroduce it later during the stream.”

DË TË TË TË TË TË TË TË TË TË TË TË –

– The communication room… It’s become Eunhye’s sanctuary now.

– Following Tsupi’s lead, she ended up in the communication room prison.

– “Tsupi: ^^ I’m watching you all~”

– Gasp!

– Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!

– Maybe it’s time for Tsupi to debut? The communication room is practically as big as any generation now.

– Gasp!

“Manager, I’ll call you when it’s time, so go do your work.”

– “Tsupi: Why are you so harsh with me?! You promised to drop formalities!”

“Hurry up and finish your work. The hero needs to be fed.”

– “Tsupi: You’re lucky you’re cute, so I’ll let it slide.”

– LOL.

– Right, someone has to feed our hero!

– What’s Tsupi even doing, not feeding our hero properly?

– “Tsupi: I literally bought her food two days ago…”

– That was two days ago! This is now, you fool.

“Well then, how about we explore the fan café while we wait for the collab?”

– Let’s go!

– Oh, fan café time!

– Time to check it out!

– Move along, Tsupi.

– Imari: I want to collab too.

– ???????

– Wait, why is Imari here? LOLLLLL.

– Gasp!

– A senior from the 3rd generation, showing up in person!

Why are you doing this to me? Seriously.

#Nutube

[Yuwol Ch. Märchen Live-KR: 210k Subscribers]
{Chatting (Online Collaboration) – with: Tsupi}
Viewers: 11k
[#First Meeting of the Hero and the Spirit]

#TzzTujijik

[YuwolUWAR: 110k Subscribers]
{Chatting (Online Collaboration) – with: Tsupi}
Viewers: 8.2k
[#First Meeting of the Hero and the Spirit]