HBWnovel Chapter 36
Chapter 36
30 minutes.
That was the time allotted to Ayanokouji Sora.
There was a time when VTubers would do their first stream for an entire hour, but nowadays, 30 minutes is the standard.
After all, the first stream is mostly just an introduction. And if you drag an introduction out for an hour, it can easily become boring.
So, from 8:00 PM to 8:30 PM,
Sora had to express who she was in that short time.
While a VTuber’s first stream doesn’t define everything, the importance of first impressions hardly needs to be explained.
Click
The sound of a mouse click.
And Ayanokouji Sora’s first words:
"Do not you gimme your love and passion?"
♬♪♪♩♪♪♩
♪♩♪♬♪♩♬
The guitar sound rang out, almost deafeningly loud.
The intro went on a bit too long. Once the performance had started, the urge to quickly get to the next line of lyrics coiled inside her.
However, when the time came to sing the lyrics, the thought hit her—it was an uncomfortable song.
Even though she was using the name "Ayanokouji Sora" to appeal to a global audience, Sora was still Korean at heart. She had studied foreign languages, but as a native Korean speaker, she couldn’t quite match the perfect pronunciation of native speakers. So, this performance would never be flawless.
But she had tried.
She had practiced endlessly for today.
Humans can’t live without thinking about anything, but in this moment of singing, she truly wasn’t thinking of anything at all.
All she wanted was to sing this song well. And if it wasn’t perfect now, she wanted to do better next time.
So, even if it wasn’t perfect, that didn’t matter.
By the time she reached the second verse, she didn’t even feel the viewers' gaze on her anymore.
When she sang the last line, the song felt shorter than expected.
In those 3 minutes and 30 seconds,
She had used more than one-tenth of the time she was given to sing.
As the clock struck 8:04 PM, the music faded, and only Sora’s voice rang out clearly.
"The jellyfish-like moon that hung in the night sky has burst."
At 8:05 PM, the next song began.
[Virtual Aituber Gallery]
[Live] Ah, that Sora person sings pretty well
Her voice is nice.
[Comments]
At least learn her name, lol.Her last name is kinda long.Wasn’t her name Aoi Sora?
ᄂ Gasp
ᄂ Gasp...
ᄂ You’re insane, lol.
ᄂ Isn’t it actually Aoi Sora?
ᄂ [Goodbye, lol.]She’s my wife now.
ᄂ It’s only been 30 minutes since her debut, what the hell, lol.Who’s Aoi Sora?
ᄂ You don’t know Aoi Sora?
ᄂ Is this a generational gap?
ᄂ Are you a kid? I’m jealous...
"Hmm..."
Looking at her phone, Sora made a somewhat perplexed expression. A strange meme was forming around her...
It was absurd, but being teased is probably just part of the VTuber fate. After all, even odd memes help with community spread.
"The debut went well, right?"
She sang two songs at the start, one in the middle, and two more at the end.
In that short 30-minute span, she managed to sing five songs.
Because of that, there was a little less time to introduce her profile, but she still managed to say everything she wanted. She also seemed to have succeeded in conveying her character’s personality.
She was just putting on a front to avoid looking desperate.
Sora repeated this thought to herself.
[Oh, it’s already this late....]
[Well, I should get going to prepare for my stream too...!]
At 8:50 PM, Inagika left the voice channel to prepare for her own stream.
Ten minutes later, Chell joined the voice channel, though she remained silent as usual.
Meanwhile, Inagika’s stream began:
[Ah, h-hello! I’m Inagika, an elf who lives in the forest....]
[I-I’m sorry, but for my first stream, I’ll be rolling gacha...!]
"......??"
The stream switched to a game screen.
[Can you all see the screen? Oh, you can? That’s a relief....]
[Today, Zhang Guifei is being featured.... Isn’t she beautiful? I’ve been waiting for her to be featured since I first started playing this game.]
[And now, it just so happens her feature coincides with my debut day? I feel like it’s destiny, and I hope it brings me some luck today....!]
[I’ve played many subculture games, and silver-haired characters always give off a noble vibe, don’t they? Their skin is always pale, giving them this sacred feel. But Zhang Guifei also has twin-tails, which makes her super cute, so I thought, ‘I really want her, I have to pull her!’]
[So, I’m going to go all the way and max her out!]
Click
Clatter...
[I just rolled a 10-pull...! Oh, I didn’t get her....]
[Well, of course, you don’t usually get what you want in just 10 pulls. The gacha system is designed so that you have to hit the pity ceiling, right? If you get her before hitting the ceiling, that’s considered lucky....]
[The important thing is whether you get her before hitting the halfway point.]
[Ah, I hit the halfway point, and it was a non-feature pull...! Well, that’s okay. It just means I’ll spend a bit more money, no problem....]
[Was my reaction too mild? But I’ve already decided to fully max out Zhang Guifei, so whether I spend a bit more or a bit less, it doesn’t really make much difference, right?]
"......."
...What’s with her? Why is she speaking so fluently compared to usual?
And what’s with spending over 1 million won on her first stream? Also, her eyes seem a bit off... it’s honestly a little scary...
"...Not a single easy opponent in sight."
Sora frantically kept refreshing her page.
Even though Inagika had shown a glimpse of madness, Sora still had more subscribers than her at the moment.
Perhaps it was because she was the first to debut, or maybe it was thanks to her strategy of singing. Whatever the reason, Sora decided to believe it was because of her song choice.
At least, for now, she was safe.
Sora wanted to convince herself of that.
[It’s about time for me to start streaming as well.]
Laura’s voice cut through the silence.
Sora suddenly felt like crying.