Chapter 39: Protect the Baby!

Trzjij Space.

A voice-based live broadcast that streamers turn on when they’re bored.

I felt a little bad for my YouTube viewers, but today, I planned to stream on Space.

The reason was simple.

Today was my day off.

There’s no set schedule for my breaks, but every now and then, I get these lazy, absolutely unmotivated days.

Whenever that happened, I would take a break.

Of course, this was a one-sided negotiation—I decided it by myself.

And today just happened to be one of those days.

A day where I didn’t feel like working on anything, whether it was streaming or art.

I needed to prepare save clips for the upcoming Chuseok holiday, but the thought of it was exhausting.

Lying in bed, I briefly considered leaving it for future me to deal with.

“Wait… Can’t I just do a Space stream instead?”

That thought randomly crossed my mind.

These days, Space was completely dominated by VTubers.

It was a battlefield that had all but stolen the audience of traditional radio hosts and Spoon streamers.

But who was I?

I was KR Märchen Live’s 11th-gen Yuwol.

Technically, posting a break announcement and then turning on Space made no sense.

It was contradictory.

But… wouldn’t viewers prefer this over nothing at all?

First, I needed to ask Tsupi.

[Yuwol: Tsupi, Tsupi. Today’s my break day, right?]
[Tsupi: Hm? Yeah? Why?]
[Yuwol: What if I secretly turn on Space?]
[Yuwol: I need some footage for Chuseok anyway.]
[Yuwol: I can split it between raw and edited uploads. Is that okay?]
[Tsupi: Hmm. Give me a sec.]

She’d probably allow it.

I mean, why would she stop me from streaming?

[Tsupi: You can, but you should make it at least two to three hours long.]
[Tsupi: Or, you could just split it into two sessions later.]
[Yuwol: So I can start it now, right?]
[Tsupi: Yep! ^^ Hurry up and turn it on, I’ll listen while I work.]
[Yuwol: …Wait, you work?]
[Tsupi: ^^ Wanna find out?]

I quickly turned my screen and opened Trzjij.

Space didn’t require any fancy equipment.

All I needed was my phone.

“So many settings to adjust.”

Before starting, I tweaked the final settings that Tsupi had suggested.

The title couldn’t be changed after starting, so I had to set one now.

“I can just name it whatever, right?”

[#Yuwol]

Even I thought it was lazy.

But whatever.

Today was supposed to be my break.

I didn’t post an announcement about it.

Though, Tsupi probably would.

Normally, I would have posted one myself, but today was different.

Only those who happened to find me on Trzjij Space would get to watch.

Alright, let’s start.

Even though I called it a broadcast, Space was closer to radio than a livestream.

Some might wonder, “Isn’t this just Just Chatting?”

But Space had a major difference.

I could pick a viewer and talk to them directly.

It was a live call-in system.

Of course, that only mattered if I actually had viewers.

…No one’s joining.

Viewer count: 0.

Wow.

I know I just started, but zero viewers?

Oh, wait—one person just joined.

[Tsupi: I’ll post an announcement~]

My manager.

Seeing her message, I replied casually.

“Wanna chat while we wait for people to join?”

[Tsupi: Huh? No way, I have work to do.]

“Boring.”

[Tsupi: What are you talking about?;]

I sank into my bed, waiting for people to show up.

Before I knew it, the viewer count had passed several hundred.

• ????????????
• What’s going on?
• Wha—??????
• Wait, didn’t you say you were on break???
• HELLO??? LOL
• Yuwol, you missed us, huh…?
• ??
• What’s happening???

There were way fewer viewers than usual, but that was fine.

More would join eventually.

“Wuuuugh.”

• What the hell? LOL.
• Are you actually a baby??? You said you were on break and then immediately turned on Space. LOL.
• 700.
• Aww, our little warrior is babbling.
• 700.
• What is even happening???
• I have no idea what you want. LOL.
• 700.
• 700.

Burying my face into my pillow, I exhaled, releasing a muffled groan.

For reference, my phone was right next to me.

“Haaaah. Hello, everyone.”

Stretching lazily, I let out a soft groan before speaking.

The main reason for starting this Space was to record content for later.

But that didn’t mean I’d just slack off…

…Wait, couldn’t I?

That thought crossed my mind, but I quickly shook it away.

People joined to watch me, after all.

Since I was here, I might as well try.

“I know I said I was on break, but I got bored, so I turned on Space.”

After adding, “I was too lazy to work on anything else,” viewers spammed chat with ‘of course’ responses.

• What are you doing today?

“Today? Hmm. I haven’t thought about it. What should we do?”

Feeling drowsy, I buried my face in my pillow again and mumbled.

Since it’s Space, the content options were limited.

What else could I do besides chatting?

• How about playing ‘Would You Rather’?
• Just talking like this is nice.
• How long are you streaming?
• Why are there so many Märchen members in the listener list???
• Hey, don’t you guys have your own streams???
• Wait, LOL.

[Tsupi: ?]

[Viewer: Manager, please explain why all the other VTubers are on strike.]

[Tsupi: ?]

[Imari: …We got caught.]

“What? Senpais, you’re not streaming today either?”

I hadn’t noticed at first, but when I checked, there really weren’t many streamers online.

All those KR VTubers, and only about ten or so were active.

Where did everyone go…? Why are they all here instead?

Looking at the Space listener list, I saw several generations had joined.

I mean… I couldn’t just kick them all out, right?

With a sigh, I closed the list.

It wasn’t a problem anyway.

If my senpais wanted to listen to their junior’s radio, what could I do?

“Anyway, what should we do? I started this without a plan, so I don’t really have anything in mind.”

• “Just hearing Yuwol’s voice is nice.”
• “We can just chat like this.”
• [Akira: I wanna call Yuwol…”]
• “Akira, what are you doing here?”
• [Rumi: Let’s settle the hierarchy once and for all.]
• “What the hell is happening right now? LOL.”
• [Ilayne: Our precious youngest! Hihi.]
• “Why is she here too?”

“Alright, everyone help me think.

What should we do?”

• “Did he just refer to himself as ‘Yoo-side’…?”
• “Golden Yoo-side.”
• [Rumi: Ruu-side is here too, wanna play together?]
• [Anna: Rumi is a famous Ruu-side.]”
• “KR meet-ups always turn into big Yoo-sides.”
• [Kadena: Show us your face.]

“…Some of you are really pushing it.”

I clicked my tongue at my senpais’ antics.

Then, I remembered the chat suggestion about a call-in segment.

“Since so many people are here, why don’t we do a call-in with the senpais?”

• “Ooooh.”
• “This is it. This is the content we needed.”
• “LOA!”
• [Imari: …!!!]
• [Rumi: Get over here, you brats.]
• “RUMI, CALM DOWN.”
• “This is gonna be good.”
• “Damn, these cohort members are lucky. Why weren’t we born in a cohort?”
• “You guys should be grateful to be in a cohort. You actually get to call Yuwol.”
• [Ilayne: ?]
• [Imari: ?]
• [Angela: ?]

Of course, if I called in all 20+ senpais, this stream wouldn’t last just three hours.

It might take six.

So, I decided to limit it to five people.

Now, how should I choose them…?

Oh, that sounds like a good idea.

“There’s no way I can call in 20+ senpais at once.

So, I’ll limit it to five.”

• “You can call multiple people at once!”
• “…Why didn’t you guys tell me sooner?”
• “You’re really blaming us for this???”
• “It’s your fault for not knowing. LOL.”
• [Imari: HAHAAHAHAHAHA.]
• “Is Yuwol the official airhead of Cohort 11?”
• “There’s only one member in Cohort 11, dumbass. LOL.”
• “The only VTuber with both brains and stupidity in one package.”
• “Just invite five people at a time, then.”
• “We thought you knew, LOL.”

“Ahem. Well, I’ll start by inviting the first-generation senpais.”

At least having them fill in the silence was a huge relief.

Two hours into calling and chatting with various cohorts…

Even the VTubers who were currently live had heard about it and dropped in for a bit.

By the end of it, I had spoken to 43 different cohort members.

I, Yuwol, had officially called and talked to every single cohort.

Even VTubers who were taking a break today showed up just to say hi.

And it wasn’t just Märchen members.

Some other streamers also joined for a bit.

Like Yutongman, who I see a lot in Märchen Offline, and Baekdulgi.

They really didn’t seem to have anything better to do.

Hearing 30-something-year-old men whining about being bored on my Space…

That was something I never wanted to experience again.

“Grown men in their late 30s…”

After calling, chatting, and laughing for over two hours, I considered wrapping things up.

But since I had already started Space, I figured I might as well get more footage for the Chuseok videos.

Even though we had talked for hours, there was still zero structured content.

Thankfully, I had a secret weapon.

“Should I take a bath?”

Sometimes, I saw others doing these.

A ‘Bath Space’ stream.

• “…What.”
• [Tsupi: ?]
• “Excuse me?”
• “What.”
• [Rumi: FINALLY!!!] (User has been removed by an admin.)
• “While on Space…?”

Guess that’s a no.

• “PROTECT THE BABY!”
• “Understood.”
• “Wait, what.”