Chapter 26: Can you put a cup of water on top of your chest?

It was a late night.

The time when good children go to bed and bad adults are left stirring pasta.

“So, the ‘water cup on chest challenge’ is hot these days?”

On the broadcasting platform ‘Pasta’, three female streamers were simultaneously appearing on a talk show.

The broadcast, titled ‘Spicy Talk of Married Women’, had thousands of viewers.

“What? There’s such a challenge?”

“There’s a lot going on in the chat… Is this a test to determine if you’re a busty streamer or not?”

“Can you even put a cup on your chest? Is that human? That’s a cow.”

All three burst into laughter, and the chat was filled with laughing emojis.

At that moment, a donation notification message rang out.

[Anonymous Donor donated 1,000 won]

[I don’t think the ladies here can put a water cup or even an empty cup on their chests. LOL]

The irritating voice properly provoked the ladies.

“Hey! I can put at least an empty cup.”

“To the person in the chat who said, ‘Is the lady in the middle a flat cup?’ please refrain from such harsh words.”

“What? There was no such chat! Where are you making things up?”

“Manager~ Please ban everyone who typed ‘triggered?’ in the chat~ My blood pressure is going up.”

“My blood pressure is rising because of you, not the chat! Ugh! My, my neck!!”

While the two streamers were bickering, the streamer on the right was trying to place an empty paper cup on her chest.

It seemed to hang precariously, then it fell.

It seemed to hold a little longer this time, but it fell again.

And the third attempt.

“It works! I can hold an empty cup~”

The winner of today’s gathering was decided.

“Wow~ It really works?”

“This girl, she seduced her husband with these!”

“It’s hard to put just one cup, so what about people who put a cup full of water?”

“I saw in the chat that streamers who broadcast on the Corn platform all did it once? I guess it’s already a huge trend there.”

The meme that dominated the Corn platform, where cam girl broadcasts were the mainstream.

It went through Tube and began to take over the Pasta platform.

“Hmm… I don’t like the shading when the arm folds, it’s too artificial… But if I increase the order of the light source calculation function here, it will be too slow…”

Jina sat in front of the monitor, fiddling with the keyboard and mouse, and muttered.

Today’s schedule was also to work on avatars commissioned by Cosmo Live.

Thanks to her hard work from the beginning, the base modeling and rigging were মোটামুটি finished.

[Youngjun: God Jina. I checked all 4 avatar prototypes.]

[Youngjun: I really want to give you feedback… but they are all so perfect that I can only praise them.]

[Youngjun: Regarding the project plan you inquired about, I will take care of it myself. You don’t have to worry about it, Jina.]

[Youngjun: Please continue to do a good job until the end.]

[Youngjun: When the work is finished, let’s have a dinner with our staff while watching the Seasons debut broadcast. I’ll take the company card from Sachyo.]

Daon, the president… well, she didn’t know about him, but the real power, Youngjun, was full of admiration, saying that they could debut as is.

The problem was, as always, the detail work.

For characters with many accessories like Spring’s avatar, the animation would be very awkward if the interactions between objects were not set properly.

For characters with special animations like Fall’s avatar, it couldn’t be perfectly implemented with AI learning alone.

The skeleton had to be meticulously adjusted one by one according to the timeline.

And for characters whose subtle costume changes were key, like Winter’s and Summer’s avatars, it was necessary to adjust them so that the models did not collide with each other.

It was a task that required the spirit of a perfectionist craftsman and meticulous calculations.

But today, her condition was off.

“Did I push myself too hard in the beginning?”

Jina was like a racehorse that ran too fast at the start and lost all its energy at the end.

“The deadline is still quite far away… Should I stop here for today?”

Jina casually grabbed the instant noodle cup, which served as a hot pack, but it had already cooled down a long time ago.

Just as she was thinking about going to bed early and waking up early to continue working.

[Ahaha! There’s no way that’s possible~]

A loud laugh suddenly burst from the speaker.

It was the sound from the Tube video she had been playing as background music while working.

She was sure she had been playing Han Ari’s healing radio.

What kind of algorithm did it follow?

A recording of a joint cam broadcast of two female streamers was playing.

She was about to play another video right away.

But an interesting phrase in the video’s subtitles caught Jina’s eye.

“Water cup on chest challenge…?”

Jina swallowed hard without realizing it.

This was an interesting topic.

[There’s no way you can do it.]

[What? I can? Look!]

[Puhut! Lying down and putting a water cup on top of it is also novel.]

[I put it on anyway! But you can’t do it lying down or sitting down!]

[What? Why wouldn’t it work. Look! Like this… Kyaak?!]

[Ah, Unnie! What are you doing, spilling water on the broadcasting equipment!!]

Watching what was happening in the video made her chuckle.

“Wow~ That’s not easy.”

Suddenly, Jina’s eyes fell on the small cup of instant noodles with a little bit of soup left.

And when she looked down, she saw two hills that took up quite a bit of her field of vision.

Could this… work?

Without thinking, Jina placed the instant noodle cup on her chest.

“…It works.”

She succeeded on the first try.

Too easily.

It didn’t even shake, and it felt comfortable and stable.

Ace Bed wasn’t far away.

While Jina drank the rest of the soup and threw away the empty cup, Tube played the next video.

This time it was Cherry and Mary’s joint broadcast from last night.

[Mary Mary~ There’s a trend these days to put a cup on your chest. Did you know?]

[…The Kitties have been asking about it in the chat since yesterday. But why?]

[Hmm, I was just curious. I wonder if Mary can do that too.]

Jina pulled her chair closer.

This was a very, very interesting topic.

It seemed like Jina wasn’t the only one who thought so, because a donation popped up in the video.

[StrayCherryCat donated 1,000 won]

[If a water cup or even an empty cup can stay on Cherry’s chest, I’ll give you 1 million won]

“I’m not really curious about Cherry.”

It was obvious… well, let’s stop here.

Then, a TTS message followed, saying that someone would not only invest all their assets in this safe asset but also take out a full loan.

Someone said they would bet the land deed in Giheung, and another said they would bet their apartment in Banpo and their villa in Hannam.

The 1,000 won punches kept poking Cherry’s chest.

…So, can Mary put that thing on her chest or not!!

[Ugh…! I remember all the nicknames of the StrayCherryCats who donated now! Just wait. Someday I’ll grow my chest and collect all the money!]

When Cherry hissed like a cat, the chat was filled with ridicule.

-So how is a VTuber going to prove it? LOL
-Let’s go red pill~
-If you prove it with a cam broadcast, I’ll really give you 1 million won

The moment she saw that chat, an idea flashed in Jina’s head.

“Can’t a VTuber show that too?”

After all, isn’t it just a matter of putting a cup object with a drink on the avatar’s chest?

Jina’s mind, which had cooled down, was rekindled.

“That would be quite a fun picture…?”

As soon as she got motivated, Jina immediately started working on fleshing out the idea.

She temporarily closed the 3D tool where she had been displaying the Seasons’ avatars.

The deadline for the avatar work was still a long way off, but this kind of fun content was a race against time.

Before the trend died down, before the wave passed, she had to show it quickly.

Content was ultimately about timing.

Jina opened a new 3D file and started by simply making a mug model.

It was a task that could be done with a single click.

It was one of the basic 3D objects provided by the modeling tool.

Since a basic mug would be boring, she modified the shape a bit.

She attached an illustration of an SD version of Hana to the outside.

It was a build-up for the release of Han Ari merchandise someday.

Yes, so far so good.

“The next part is the problem…”

The problem was putting water in this cup.

It would be easy if it were just about putting an object that looked like liquid.

There were many tutorial videos on Tube.

But it was not easy to naturally design it so that when the cup was shaken, water droplets splashed, and when it was overturned, the water spilled out.

She defined the substance that would act as the liquid in the cup as a fluid and took apart the embedded physics engine.

“…Why do I have to look up papers for this?”

She grumbled, but her expression was bright.

Of course, during the test, if an error occurred and the cup flipped over, or the program messed up, she would slam the keyboard without realizing it.

“Let’s not get too greedy… In the end, it’s important that it runs smoothly on the broadcast.”

After a long struggle, Jina completed the ‘cup with water’ 3D object she had intended.

She liked how the water sloshed whenever the cup moved.

…Now she was only halfway done.

After completing the water cup, she loaded Hana onto the 3D tool.

Jina’s masterpiece, dazzling as always.

Jina pushed the mouse wheel to zoom in on the avatar’s chest area.

She temporarily removed the bust morphing for the sexy appeal and refined the shape to be more realistic.

The reference material was, of course, Jina’s own chest.

After reshaping it, she carefully refined the colliders embedded in the chest area.

She paid special attention to the upper part of the chest where the cup would be placed.

Since it was the part where many viewers’ eyes would be focused, it needed to be implemented properly.

After the shape was roughly set, she placed the cup on her chest.

“It doesn’t feel right…?”

Upon closer inspection, the ‘indentation’ was insufficient.

She had thought about the thigh flesh being pressed by tight black stockings, so why hadn’t she thought about the chest being pressed?

“…Now that I look at it, the thighs were just slightly inflated polygons.”

Unless someone took the VRM file and analyzed it, it was a flaw that would never be noticed, but Jina still started to modify it.

This was the heart of a mother, no, a Mama, who cared for her daughter.

Applying the formula used to implement the movement of the liquid, she defined the material properties of Hana’s entire body to be ‘like a real person’.

Of course, she didn’t forget to specify different strengths for each body part.

The chest should be soft as if fingers could sink into it.

The thighs should be a little firmer, as if they were being pressed hard.

After finishing the modification, Jina placed the water cup on her chest again.

“Hmm~ Yes, that’s it.”

Seeing the softly indented chest, Jina nodded.

This was a perfect result.

Of course, Jina wouldn’t be satisfied with just this.

“…Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a function linked to this?”

After racking her brain, Jina finally smiled with satisfaction only after adding an ‘Easter egg’ that came to mind to Hana.

“Han Ari’s next broadcast will be worth watching.”

Jina sent the newly modified model and a simple content guide document to Han Ari.

“Now that I’ve had my fun, shall I get back to work?”

Then she stretched and began to refine the Seasons’ avatars again.

Since she was motivated, she thought she would work a little more and then sleep.

Outside the window, dawn was already breaking.

It was confirmed that she would be pulling an all-nighter again today.