Chapter 28: I’m not the one broadcasting

There are some days like that.

Days when your condition hits rock bottom and goes even deeper underground.

Days when nothing seems to go right.

Today was exactly that kind of day for Jina.

“Ah. I really messed this up.”

She felt like her insides were burning.

The avatar production work that had been proceeding smoothly until last night.

For some reason, nothing was going right today.

In the screen Jina was looking at.

There were only distorted arms and overlapping hair residues here and there.

A bizarre avatar that crawled out of the underworld was right here.

“I barely changed any parameter values… How did it turn out like this?”

A thick, annoyed voice lingered in the room.

It was definitely fine when she ran the last test before going to sleep.

But after a good night’s sleep, when she ran the experiment, the model was strangely twisted for some reason.

Even when a somewhat human-like result came out, the accessories attached to the avatar were distorted.

Jina lifted her coffee cup and took a sip, but the already cold coffee only tasted more bitter.

Eventually, after struggling for a long time, Jina took her hands off the keyboard.

She quickly decided that “it’s not going to work like this.”

“It’s chilly out anyway, so I might as well go out and clear my head.”

Jina leaned back in her chair and glanced out the window.

A strange winter light came into view, with gray clouds hanging over it.

Jina’s mind was already elsewhere.

At this point, today’s work was a bust.

Even when she was in the lab, there were days when she couldn’t produce any results no matter what she did.

On those days, rather than forcing herself to sit in her chair, it was better to go outside and kick a ball, play a game, or just do something fun.

Jina got up from her seat.

She tidied up the computer, turned off the stand light in the middle of the room.

She didn’t forget to collect her shattered mind.

Standing in front of the closet, Jina picked up the clothes she had bought with Hyoin.

A white T-shirt with a warm, sporty jacket.

Comfortable training pants.

She even put on a baseball cap.

“This is… fine.”

She had neither particular satisfaction nor dissatisfaction with her reflection in the mirror.

Just because she became a woman didn’t mean her original personality had changed, so she wasn’t particularly interested in fashion.

Jina grabbed her smartphone and wallet and opened the front door.

The winter air she had forgotten for a moment seeped in through the doorway.

She felt like the cold wind would wake her up.

An unfamiliar yet familiar air spread.

How long had it been since she had been more than five minutes away from home?

It was her first time since she met Winter.

After quitting the lab, she had almost no reason to go outside.

She left the alley where her studio apartment was and entered the main street.

It was still morning, but there were quite a few people on the street.

The hustle and bustle unique to a college town.

Jina put both hands in her jacket pockets and slowly walked down the street.

She had lived here for a long time, so the scenery was mostly familiar, but walking down this street at this time was quite new, so it felt a little unfamiliar.

Passing by college students who had skipped their morning classes to enjoy their youth, she turned at the intersection.

A three-story building in the alley, a familiar sign came into view.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been to this arcade.”

Jina muttered in a nostalgic voice.

It was a place she used to frequent when she was really into arcade rhythm games.

There was even a time when she rented a machine and played all night.

Like a salmon swimming upstream, Jina’s steps naturally headed for the arcade.

She didn’t have anything else to do, and it was still a long time until lunch, so it seemed like a good way to kill time.

She had enough coins.

She had received a lot of freelance work lately, so her bank account was a little full.

She also had a considerable amount of money from the contract with Cosmo Live.

A woman with enough wealth to play two or three games without any burden.

That was Jina.

…When expressed like this, it sounds very unimpressive.

The arcade was quiet.

Two men were excitedly turning the steering wheel in the racing game zone.

A couple was playfully teasing each other in the shooting game zone.

And a fighting game player who came up the stairs and seemed to have been here for quite some time.

Going up one more floor, she saw arcade rhythm game machines waiting for players.

Jina went inside and stood in front of a machine set up in a corner of the wall.

Dance Rush Stardom.

A rhythm game that was fun to watch, focusing on play based on shuffle dance steps.

“Let’s see, is the condition okay?”

Jina stood in front of the foot panel and checked the machine.

It wasn’t the latest model, but it seemed to be in pretty good condition.

Sometimes the foot panels were loose, which was annoying, but today it seemed like they had done some basic maintenance, and the surface was clean.

“Let’s start with a light song…”

Jina put a coin in the machine, tagged her personal card, and brought up the song selection screen.

Her body still felt stiff.

She chose a song with a moderate difficulty.

Before the song started, Jina slightly unzipped her jacket, caught her breath, and matched her steps.

Soon, red and blue notes began to fall from the top of the screen.

A rhythm of tapping the foot panels in time with the music continued.

At first, it was a bit awkward, as if it was creaking.

Because there was such a big difference between her old body and her current body, she felt like her center of gravity was shifting to the side every time she moved her feet.

It was a more serious s*x change issue than an age issue.

To be precise, it was a big chest issue.

Still, perhaps because of her experience in the past, she gradually began to adapt to her changed body.

In fact, by the end of the song, her judgment had become perfect.

A young and bouncy female body was much more helpful for playing games than an old and alcohol-soaked male body.

The two large masses were really a minor handicap.

When the song ended, Jina wiped the slight sweat from the tip of her nose.

“I think I’m in pretty good condition today?”

Her research condition was shattered, but her game condition couldn’t be better.

Jina glanced around.

Because it was early in the day, there were no people waiting.

She thought she could monopolize the machine for a while.

“Hmm… Should I take this opportunity to get some animation learning materials for the Seasons avatars?”

Jina placed her smartphone on the storage box and pressed the video recording button.

The height was just right, and Jina’s figure standing on the machine’s foot panel was fully captured.

Even when enjoying games, Jina was a true Mama who thought about the modeling of her Seasons daughters.

After the second and third songs ended, Jina remained on the foot panel.

Of course, she still had money left, and she still had stamina left.

More than anything, she felt like her body was really loosening up.

She felt like it was just the beginning.

“Then one more song…”

When she tagged her card and came back to the foot panel, she felt a gaze from the side.

She didn’t know when they came in, but three or four college students were looking at Jina from a distance.

Someone was sipping a can of soda, and another person was whispering to their friend in a low voice.

“That person is good, isn’t she?”

“More than that, aren’t they… big?”

“I agree.”

…I can hear you, you brats.

Jina didn’t react openly.

It was like, ‘If you want to watch, go ahead.’

She just pulled her cap down a little and naturally increased the difficulty of the song a bit.

Soon, the music started playing.

Notes poured down from the beginning.

But Jina calmly stepped on the steps without panicking and handled the notes.

She lightly pulled both feet back, and when the red and blue notes overlapped, she crossed her legs and turned.

The way her unzipped jacket fluttered slightly made it look like she was dancing.

Thump, thumpp, thump tap!

Every time she moved her feet and body to the rhythm, colorful effects exploded on the large monitor.

When the combo number continued naturally like flowing water, some people standing around the machine let out small exclamations.

She didn’t have time to turn her head, but she felt like the number of people had increased a little.

She could faintly hear the sound of someone pressing the video recording button and whispering.

Bam~!

When the song ended with a cheerful sound, a small round of applause erupted from everywhere.

Jina lightly wiped the sweat on her forehead with the sleeve of her jacket and stepped down from the foot panel.

“Wow~ You’re really good!”

At the sudden voice, Jina caught her breath and turned around.

Among the group of people, a short female student stood out.

Jina blinked slowly and asked in a languid voice.

“Are you waiting for your turn?”

“Huh? Ah, no… I just stopped by before going to eat…”

The female student couldn’t even make eye contact with Jina and trailed off.

Her face was red, as if she had a fever.

Meanwhile, the other female students were quietly squealing with excitement.

She didn’t know what they were so excited about.

“Ah, I see. I don’t think anyone put their name on the waiting list, so I’ll play one more song.”

Jina put in a coin, tagged her card, and checked her smartphone, which she had placed on the storage box.

She was worried that someone might have covered the camera lens, but fortunately, it was recording properly.

“Um… Are you a streamer by any chance?”

Then, a male student carefully asked Jina.

“If you’re broadcasting, can you tell me which platform you’re on? Can you tell me your channel name?”

He seemed to have guessed that because Jina’s play was so stable and she had even set up a phone for recording.

More than anything, her body was specialized(?) for streamers.

“I’m not a streamer.”

“…Yes?”

“I don’t broadcast.”

After firmly denying it, Jina started choosing a song again.

This time it was the highest difficulty song.

Before making the wrong choice of going to graduate school, Jina would have easily cleared this song, but now… well, she wasn’t sure.

It was obvious that it would be difficult because she had gotten older and her stamina had decreased, but she felt like she could do it with her current condition.

The foot panel emitted light with a brilliant opening sound.

This song was not only full of notes, but the notes also fell off-beat, so the moment you let your guard down, your judgment would collapse.

As the beat got faster, Jina’s feet, which were pressing the foot panels, also moved without rest.

Her whole body swayed as if she were dancing.

“Wow… That’s amazing.”

“Is she recording for Tube now?”

“I asked her, and she said she doesn’t broadcast.”

“Hey, that’s obviously a lie. How can she not be a streamer?”

“But if she were, she would have a lot of subscribers. I searched for Dance Rush on Tube, but I couldn’t find her.”

“Maybe she’s a VTuber or something? Maybe only her feet will appear later.”

As the whispering voices grew louder, the song was nearing its end.

The final bomb section.

Jina crossed her left and right feet and handled the notes one after another.

The more she moved her feet, the more she felt a heavy pressure building up in her legs.

Still, she didn’t waver until the end and somehow managed to step.

The combo that had been precariously maintained continued until the end of the song.

As soon as the song ended, Jina stepped back from the foot panel as if falling off.

As Jina wiped the sweat from her forehead, applause and cheers erupted from behind.

A group of students, and two office workers who joined them.

There were now over ten people gathered.

As many smartphones as there were people were pointed at Jina.

The rejuvenated play of TS Jina was worth recording.

Seeing the numerous camera lenses, Jina suddenly felt embarrassed.

Jina pulled her cap down deeper, grabbed her smartphone and wallet, and hurriedly left.

Of course, she didn’t forget to zip up her jacket to her neck to hide her chest.

Jina was a shy exhibitionist.

Still, she did have a desire for recognition.

She wanted a little attention.

However, she refused too much attention.

It was too much of a burden.

Seeing Jina’s retreating figure, the remaining people whispered with regretful expressions.

“See. I think she’s really a VTuber because she’s trying not to show her face.”

“But… who is she? I should know such a unique voice.”