Chapter 52: “Suspiciously, an overwhelming number of applicants are flooding in.”

<Honestly, if you want to worship the gallery owner’s mammary glands, upvote lol>

<So, are they natural or fake?>

<An early adapter gamer who also created a gallery turns out to be a super big-busted beauty? Enough with the lies, lolol.>

Click, click.

In a dimly lit room, a woman frowned as she moved her mouse back and forth.

Each time she hovered the cursor over a button and clicked, posts were deleted, and users were banned.

Cans of highly caffeinated energy drinks were scattered across her desk, and dark circles shadowed her eyes, evidence of her exhaustion.

It was clear she hadn’t slept, her appearance marked by fatigue.

But sleep was a luxury she couldn’t afford.

She had a mission to accomplish, especially now when management was more crucial than ever.

The current time was 4 a.m., well past the hour when most ordinary people would be fast asleep.

Why was she awake?

Because she was the administrator of a particular community.

Specifically, she was a moderator of Abyss Gallery, a major online community in South Korea known for its considerable size and activity.

The woman, Abyss Gallery’s moderator, Yoo Si-a, muttered in irritation.

“They should learn to tone it down… Can’t they filter their words a bit?”

As the saying goes, “Wherever there are five people, one of them is bound to be trash.”

True to this wisdom, Abyss Gallery was far from clean.

The moment administrators weren’t watching, the forum would be bombarded with drama, attention-seeking posts, and nonsensical bait to rile people up.

It wasn’t all that different from other large communities.

However, today was worse than usual.

Perhaps it was because of something that had happened just hours earlier.

The chaos began when it was revealed that Kayak was a woman.

Back then, the gallery was in an uproar, but now that her appearance had partially been unveiled, the impact was even greater.

The magnitude of the frenzy was easily double what it had been when her handcam was revealed.

“She really did look… striking…”

Thinking back to the broadcast that was deleted a few hours ago, Yoo Si-a’s face turned slightly red.

That size.

Although she had attended an all-girls middle and high school, she’d never seen anyone of that magnitude in her life.

Buzz buzz—

Catching herself lost in thought, Yoo Si-a turned her head, shaking off her musings.

There was no time to get caught up in such distractions.

Although there were other moderators managing the gallery, right now, she was the only one on duty.

As she diligently carried out her tasks, Yoo Si-a sighed deeply.

The culprit behind the gallery’s current state—Kayak—came to mind once again.

“To think she’d be so careless…”

Back when they played Abyss together and even when they co-founded the gallery, Kayak had always been a sharp and reliable person.

So how did she end up exposing herself so vulnerably?

“Well, three years is a long time.”

Three years of silence.

The time Kayak had disappeared following the shutdown notice for Abyss.

Though they weren’t in regular contact, Kayak’s sudden disappearance left a void.

She returned eventually, but it was clear she wasn’t the same person she used to be.

Undoubtedly, a lot must have happened during that time.

Yoo Si-a couldn’t even be certain if the current Kayak was the same person she remembered.

The one she had known back then and the one streaming now were similar yet different, leaving her hesitant to call herself close to Kayak.

Perhaps she had only thought they were close, and it was all one-sided on her part.

She spent the late nights talking with Kayak, learning how to deal with the bad guys in the gallery, and making Kayak’s highlight reels.

Now, those faded memories were all that Yoo Si-a had left.

At least, that’s how she felt.

Even though Kayak had returned, she never reached out to her like she used to.

“It can’t be helped…”

Due to the unspoken rules, they had never shared their real names, ages, or genders with each other.

In fact, Yoo Si-a found herself regretting that secrecy now.

Although she felt a sense of disappointment toward Kayak’s attitude, she decided to understand her.

There must be a reason why a popular streamer couldn’t have a personal relationship with a community moderator.

Yoo Si-a, for her part, could only watch from a distance, wishing for Kayak’s success.

Recently, as her streams gained more attention, Yoo Si-a felt genuinely happy for her.

“Should I make more videos when I have time…?”

This thought crossed her mind when, in a rare moment of free time, Yoo Si-a’s attention wandered.

Taking advantage of the slow post regeneration, a new post appeared.

In no time, the entire gallery was lagging from the influx of comments.

“Uh?”

Noticing the unusual activity, Yoo Si-a quickly found the post that was causing the stir and checked its contents.

From the very title, it was clear this post wasn’t ordinary.

<Hello, it’s Kayak.>

Her immediate reaction was, Is this a troll?

Others who frequented the gallery late at night must have had similar thoughts, as their comments were filled with suspicions about whether this was an impersonator or someone just trolling.

However, Yoo Si-a knew instantly that this was the real Kayak.

“Galog…”

To be precise, she recognized the username.

No one else in the gallery had this name and activity history except for Kayak.

Sure enough, underneath the post, there were more comments from users who, like her, had figured out the identity of the author.

It was no surprise the gallery was in an uproar.

After all, the very person who had stirred up the drama was now visiting the community.

Why would she choose to sneak in and post now, of all times?

Yoo Si-a couldn’t fully understand Kayak’s actions, but still, she quickly blocked some of the inappropriate comments.

Comments about her chest size and remarks about wanting to grab hold of it, made by people who didn’t even respect her as a fellow woman, made Yoo Si-a’s face burn with discomfort.

Despite having developed a thick skin after years of managing the gallery and dealing with countless offensive posts, these sexually suggestive comments still made her feel uneasy.

It was possible that Kayak, as the target of such comments, had long since grown immune to them, considering her experience in the community.

But for some reason, Yoo Si-a couldn’t help but feel more uncomfortable, wondering if Kayak would be upset by these comments.

So, Yoo Si-a carefully monitored the post, keeping an eye on the situation.

After some time spent filtering out the offensive comments, Yoo Si-a was finally able to focus on the content of the post itself.

Though it wasn’t a short read, the message was simple.

The post was about looking for an editor to edit her VTube videos.

“Editor…?”

After reading the entire post, Yoo Si-a’s eyes sparkled in the darkness.

“Hmm…”

Meanwhile, I was sitting in front of my computer with a serious expression, looking at something.

That something was a video of my broadcast that had been edited.

I had already made it clear that I was looking for an editor.

It was a bit embarrassing, but I left posts on Abyss Gallery, which is like my home base, and on the Twitch broadcast feed.

I considered posting elsewhere, but when I thought about it, there wasn’t really anywhere else to post.

When I asked around, most people post on their social media accounts to interact with fans, but since I didn’t have one of those, this was the best I could do.

Another option was to go live and advertise that I was looking for an editor every day, but I still didn’t want to start streaming yet.

I wasn’t ready.

But I couldn’t just sit idly by, so I was doing what needed to be done outside of streaming—looking for an editor.

I was going through the submitted videos, and there was a surprising number of them.

It hadn’t even been two days since I posted, yet the submissions were already piling up so much that I might end up watching videos all day long if this keeps up.

I might have to close the applications earlier than I expected.

“Wow, there are so many applicants…”

A hum escaped me.

Despite the hassle of having to watch all these videos, I felt really good.

Honestly, I hadn’t expected many people to apply, especially considering the conditions weren’t that great.

I couldn’t offer a high pay, and since I hadn’t even started the channel yet, I couldn’t be sure if VTube would even be successful.

Yet, here they were, lining up to apply.

Was this what it felt like to be the CEO of a startup, with employees eager to join?

Nothing had been decided yet, but this feeling was certainly pleasant.

That’s why I was taking the time to carefully watch each video and make sure to be as thorough as possible.

I couldn’t just skip over the videos and dismiss applicants for having lower quality or skills after watching only a little bit.

After all, they were all people who applied because they wanted to work with me.

I wasn’t the type of person to just coldly dismiss my fans.

It was during this careful review process that I noticed something.

“Wait?”

A familiar feeling, a nickname.

A video editing technique I recognized.

“This person…”

One of the applicants caught my eye.

It was the person who had made my highlight reel and the video I submitted for the recent competition.