Chapter 13: Virtubers don’t shed tears

[Astra’s regular joint stream announcement is up!]

If you’ve been holding your breath until now, Star-Dusts, give it up… shall we try it?

Cherunyang and Memung’s chat will be a mess again today.

The level of fighting, is this real? My heart feels small…
Who loses when Cherry and Mary have a joint stream?
Please be careful with the order. MA. RI. GOES. FIRST.

The fact that Cherry and Mary are the best is the academy’s lunch, and this is guaranteed by Namu Wiki.
So, has Cherry’s chest… surpassed Mary’s????

Ugh… You’re fighting with facts, you cowardly dog fans!!
[They say today’s joint stream content is a housewarming?]
Youngjun just posted an announcement

Are they finally going to reveal their real faces today????
No, it’s the first public release of Astra’s renewed fan site.
??? There was a fan site?

There is… It’s the worst code output, worse than a high school group project.
Then what will happen to the cafe now?
Don’t worry, they’ll get a lot and keep the cafe.

I don’t even have any expectations for the fan site or whatever…
Did they really have to dig up the dark history?
Late at night, Cherry and Mary quietly take their seats on the broadcast waiting screen.

“Ah ah~ Mic test. One, two, one, two~ Mary, can you hear me well?”
With about 5 minutes left until the start of the broadcast, Cherry checked the broadcast settings one more time.
She tested the microphone with an “Ah ah, hmm, hmm.”

She also checked if the red-themed avatar was moving properly. She tilted her head left and right and smiled brightly. She also made sure that the cat ears on her head were moving correctly. Perked up, standing up straight, then a big “Kyaaaak-” This should be perfect.

“Yes. I can hear you well.”
Mary answered in a low, husky voice.
The sharp-witted Mary had already finished preparing for the broadcast an hour ago.

Since it was a joint stream with Cherry, she checked it more thoroughly than usual.

It was because unexpected accidents always happened when she was with Cherry. The atmosphere in the chat room was also unusually tense.

Her calmly settled blue hair swayed lightly. She was properly dressed for the joint stream.

Mary’s outfit for joint streams meant a costume that completely covered her chest. It was Mary’s consideration for Cherry, who was absolutely lacking in that area.

…Although Cherry herself was hurt by Mary’s thoughtful consideration.

At the exact moment when the minute and second hands met at the number 12.

The broadcast turned on, and Cherry’s red avatar and Mary’s blue avatar appeared in the center of the screen.

“Kitties~ How have you all been? It’s been a while, Memung’s too!”

“You’ve worked hard today. For you who are tired and weary – Mary’s cheer broadcast. Today, I’m here with Cherry.”

With Cherry’s bright greeting and Mary’s gentle encouragement, the chat room quickly lit up.

The number of viewers also increased rapidly. 2,000, 5,000, 8,000, and then 10,000. Perhaps because it was a joint stream after a long time, the firepower was more intense than usual. 1,000 won donations and subscription notifications poured in one after another.

Whenever a large donation of over 10,000 won came in, Cherry’s cat ears perked up, and Mary’s languid voice expressed her gratitude. After a longer-than-usual intro, Cherry recited the prepared lines.

“Okay, okay~ Everyone’s seated, right? There’s big news today~”

“This time, our Cherry and Mary, Astra’s official fan site has been newly changed. Aren’t you curious?”

“We haven’t seen it yet either! Youngjun-nim told us to watch it together with our kitties and puppies on the broadcast, so he kept it a secret. Mary Mary~ Isn’t he too much?”

“But I’m glad that I can share the first time with everyone. Everyone, aren’t you excited?”

-I’m so excited I might die, Mary Mama…
-Mary the virgin killer! Mary the virgin killer!
-Kyaaak! Take my first time!!
“Aah! I can only see Memung’s in the chat! Cherunyang’s! Where did you all go!”

-Cherunyang’s all went to queue in the canyon LOL
[Anonymous has donated 20,000 won]
[Cherunyang’s speak with money]
“Aah! Thank you so much for the donation~ Hehe. Then shall we take a look at the fan page right away? Youngjun-nim said it’s completely changed, so I’m really looking forward to it! Okay, here we go?!”

“The manager just posted a link to the fan page on the cafe too. Everyone, try accessing it.”

Cherry and Mary shared the screen and displayed the main screen of the fan page on the broadcast screen.

Against the backdrop of a dark night sky, a large logo with SD illustrations of Cherry and Mary slowly emerged.

[CosmoLive! – Astra]
[Cherry & Merry]

Against the backdrop of a dark blue sky with twinkling stars, a red-haired girl and a blue-haired girl sing with their backs to each other.

The main BGM is Cherry and Mary’s first duet song.

In sync with the duet, Cherry and Mary’s mouths move. It’s as if the two are really singing.

Their hair and costumes sway in the air.

Stars floating in the darkness slowly rotate. Whenever the mouse moves, a subtle particle effect follows like a shooting star.

“Wow! Waaaaa!! It’s so cool! What do I do, I think I’m going to cry already!”

“…It wasn’t for nothing that the manager told us to look forward to it.”

Cherry and Mary showed their genuine reactions, forgetting that they were on a broadcast.

Of course, the chat also went wild.

-Insane high quality
-Our homepage has changed
-No, how much money did they put into the fan page?? Seriously
-The page isn’t loading right now, is this right?? Is the link correct?
-Yes~ It’s loading for me~
“Cherry, how many minutes have you been looking at the main screen? You have to introduce the other boards too.”

“Right! I was so moved that I lost my mind~ Next is… Huh? Metaverse experience?”

Cherry perked up her cat ears and clicked on ‘Metaverse Experience’ in the top menu.

Then, an ‘Enter World’ button appeared, and after a short loading period, a small 3D lobby unfolded on the screen.

Inside the small lobby, mini avatars of quick-witted viewers who had entered through the link were running around frantically.

In the middle of the crude avatars, Cherry and Mary’s SD avatars stood out.

“Waaaa~ The characters are so cute!”

“This is just like a game.”

“Right? It’s like a collaboration with an RPG game!”

Cherry and Mary each controlled their own avatars with the keyboard and expressed their admiration.

“The manager said that this is still a test version, so there’s a limit on the number of people who can access it.”

“To the Cherunyang’s and Memung’s who couldn’t get in, let’s do it together next time. If you’re already in… enjoy~ Have a drink~”

[SlowOldMan has donated 100,000 won]
[I… only have… money… Can you… let me into the fan page…?]

“Aah! SlowOldMan-nim~ Thank you for the 100,000 won donation!”

“Even if you can’t access the Metaverse world, you can still post on the free board. It’s a shame, but instead, here’s a hand heart from Cherry and me.”

After a short online fan meeting with the viewers in the Metaverse space.

Cherry and Mary entered the ‘Album Hall,’ which could be called the core of the new fan page.

When they clicked on ‘Album’ in the main menu, another 3D space unfolded after a short loading period.

Video thumbnails were arranged like tiles on the wall, and when the avatar approached, the video automatically played.

On the left was a sea and sandy beach shining with a reddish sunset, and on the right was a mysterious forest with a blue hue. It seemed that Cherry and Mary’s clips were separated.

“It’s nostalgic~ Why does it feel like I know what it is just by looking at the thumbnail?”

“Huh? Isn’t this the day Cherry was defending her demotion to Iron in the canyon?”

“…What? W-wait! Mary, you can’t play that!”

“Yes. But I was faster, right?”

Soon, a scene of Cherry shouting with a mentally broken voice was played on the broadcast screen.

One of the few days when Cherry picked up a log in the canyon.

She was desperate because if she lost this game, she would be demoted to the lowest rank, Iron.

But on this day, Cherry lost spectacularly after going 20 kills, 2 deaths, and 3 assists.

That day, the chat was filled with all kinds of ridicule, and Cherry wrote all kinds of creative insults in the chat and eventually received a one-week chat ban.

-The miracle of 20/2/3 kekekekeke
-Ah kekeke Cherry’s life game is 인정이지
-Namu Wiki, Controversy, Cherry’s Swearing
“Grrr… I’m going to play Mary Mary’s dark history too!”

The red cat avatar ran to the blue forest and played a video.

Mary’s first karaoke broadcast.

It’s quite an old highlight.

“Wow… I really couldn’t sing back then.”

She was so nervous that her pitch was unstable, and she made a few mistakes, but that purity actually attracted popularity.

Of course, she also got a lot of hate.

[Mary Mama ruining the song… this is rare.]
[Mary who was like that is now in the top ten of the Watermelon Chart and the runner-up in the Pasta Song Contest…]
“I also teased you with donations that day… Now that I think about it, I feel a little bad.”

“…I wondered who the anonymous donor was who kept donating every minute, it was you, Cherry?”

“Ahaha~ This is all my love to protect Mary Mary~”

-I wondered why the anonymous donor was so good at roasting kekeke
-Ah kekeke Cherry’s average kekekekeke
-Sniping your teammate? CherTube!
“…Let’s see how well Cherry sang, shall we?”

Next, a video of Cherry and Mary’s first joint stream was played.

It was the day when Mary, who had started to make a name for herself as a good singer after getting used to broadcasting, and Cherry, a streamer who just liked to sing, did their first karaoke broadcast together.

“Ah… I completely forgot about this.”

“I think it was around the beginning of our debut? When we were still awkward.”

-Discord duo kekekeke
-Healing voice vs. Killing voice
-There’s a streamer who sings in an omoshiroi way
-But at least their laughter was in harmony kekeke
Still, thanks to that broadcast, the current strongest duo was born, Cherry and Mary said, looking at each other and smiling.

A few more videos followed.

Cherry burst out laughing a couple more times with a hiss, and Mary lightly reminisced and communicated with the viewers.

But at some point.

“”

Mary was staring at the video without saying a word.

It’s an ordinary music video.

But Mary’s expression gradually hardened.

“…Sniffle.”

She made a choked-up sound.

Countless question marks appeared in the chat.

Then, chats asking what was wrong, don’t cry, and comforting her followed one after another.

“…Mary? What’s wrong?”

More than anyone else, Cherry was the most surprised. That’s because Mary had never expressed intense emotions on broadcast before.

“Come to think of it, this video…”

“Yes. It’s the solo song I released on our first anniversary, on my own.”

Mary bit her lip.

On the first anniversary of Cherry and Mary’s debut.

Unlike Cherry, who spent the day having fun playing games with viewers, Mary took a break.

She was hospitalized due to severe COVID-19 symptoms.

Instead of broadcasting, she uploaded a self-made music video.

She sang a song with lyrics from a letter she had written herself, as if she were reciting it.

She used a video editing tool that she wasn’t good at to create a clumsy music video.

A terrible song where the high notes couldn’t be reached properly.

A video that was full of flaws.

It had been neatly refined by ‘someone’.

Just like how the old fan page was transformed into a metaverse site with a virtual mini-world.

As if to say that this was the gift Mary really wanted to give to her fans.

“Even though my voice… was fixed so well, it’s still terrible.”

“Mary…”

“But I, I wanted to say thank you somehow…”

Honestly, she lacked confidence as a streamer.

Unlike the lively Cherry, Mary was timid. She was easily hurt.

She had been doing well since her debut, receiving a lot of love, but she was anxious about how long this popularity would last.

That’s why she was even more grateful to her fans.

For leading her this far.

For always supporting her.

When the song reached its highlight, Mary finally burst into tears.

She didn’t have time to change her expression card or apply a tear effect.

But the sight of her bursting into tears with her default expression felt even more sorrowful, and the chat also became a sea of tears.

Until the end of the broadcast.

Mary cried endlessly, sniffling and sobbing.

When time passes, today will also become a dark history, no, a memory.