Duo
[Ah! Ah! Moshi moshi?]
The voice that came through my earphones made me pause in admiration.
So this was the voice of a 1.6 million-subscriber VTuber? I'd thought it before, but hearing it again—it really was nice.
"Ah, can you hear me?"
[Hai!]
"Uh, uh, um…"
What should I even say? My brain froze for a moment. Should I start studying Japanese?
[Long time no see!]
And then—
What came out was surprisingly decent Korean.
What the—? They were way better than last time.
"Oh, have you been studying?"
If they could speak Korean this well, maybe I didn't need to cobble together fake Japanese.
[Yes, I studied!]
"Wow… that's amazing."
It was a genuine compliment. After all, learning another language isn't easy.
I remembered struggling like hell with study back when I was preparing for the college entrance exams.
[That's right! It was hard! I studied so I could play with Miro, but you never logged in!]
"Uh… go, gomen nasai."
[Ah, no problem! Let's start the game!]
"Ah, yes."
And so, with only a slight language barrier, I queued into a match of Royal Ground with a fellow VTuber.
In that game, if you landed away from the hot spots, you got some peaceful looting time.
As we went through houses, farming endlessly, we chatted.
"So, what should I call you?"
[Eh… Tenshi-chan?]
Tenshi-chan?
"Chan" felt… awkward.
Maybe normal in Japan, but for someone who'd lived all their life in Korea, it was a bit embarrassing.
"Uh, Tenshi-san."
[Tenshi-chan!]
"Tenshi-san, where should we head?"
[Miro, you meanie.]
"Well, the circle's closing. We should hurry."
It was nice being able to speak naturally, knowing they understood—
[Eh, nani? C-could you say that again?]
"Uh… time's almost up. We need to go."
[Ah, hai.]
Ah, too complicated sentences were still tough, huh?
This was tricky—I couldn't tell what level of speech was safe.
While I was worrying, Tenshi-san, sitting virtually next to me in a car, spoke first.
[I watched Miro 24h!]
"Huh? You watched that?"
[Yes! It helped my Korean a lot! And it was really fun!]
Oh… I did notice a few Japanese in chat during Miro 24h, so Tenshi must've been one of them.
"You must've improved a lot from watching my streams, huh."
Internet streams really are steeped in domestic culture. Not like dramas or films. Pure local flavor.
For a foreigner to find it fun… they must've studied a lot.
[Ah, no. I didn't understand a lot, but the atmosphere was so good, I kept watching.]
Atmosphere?
What kind of vibe did Miro 24h have again?
Well, the start was fine, mid-way there was that cooking accident, later it was games and some late-night chatting.
Oh, and the oversleeping meltdown at the end.
But then the members all showed up and it ended lively enough.
So overall, yeah, not bad.
"I see. Do you watch my other streams too?"
[Yes, sometimes… but…]
"But?"
[Why do you only play weird games lately?]
"Huh?"
[And stop attacking Japan so much.]
Ah…
Right. In Civilization lately, I'd been stomping Japan pretty hard.
Once equal to my Germany, Japan had sunk into being a beaten nation, constantly getting hammered.
Well, they'd overextended in wars and drained all their resources. Pillaging was the only way forward.
And come on—it's just a game.
[And chat keeps bashing Japan too. Miro-dan is mean.]
Hmm…
"Uh… gomen nasai. That's my fault for not managing it better."
It was only right to apologize. To us, it was just memes, but to a Japanese viewer, it might sting.
[It's fine. I know you don't mean anything bad.]
Thankfully, Tenshi was understanding.
She was a VTuber herself—bigger than me, in fact—so she was probably more used to this kind of thing than I was.
"Thanks for understanding. Arigato."
[Then, could you maybe stop playing that game? It's too hard to watch.]
"Uh, sorry. That's not possible."
Well, I would stop eventually, but I at least needed to finish my campaign.
[Miro, you're bad. You're just like Miro-dan.]
"Whoa, that's harsh."
To compare me to my own fans—was she picking a fight?
That was too much!
[Ahaha, I'm joking. But seriously, Miro—want to collab?]
Collab?
That was sudden.
[It'd be fun to game together on stream! You're really popular with my listeners too.]
A collab with a major VTuber like Tenshi would only help me.
The fact that she was offering first was already a huge sign of goodwill.
But…
"Thanks for the offer, but gomen nasai. I have no plans for that right now."
[Ehh—? Really?]
Regretfully, I turned it down.
Why? Civilization.
Of course it was fun, but more importantly, I wanted to build a smaller, loyal audience base.
If I collabed with someone like Tenshi and attracted tons of new viewers, it'd ruin that.
Besides, if I'd wanted collabs, I would've done them already.
"Maybe later, when I'm ready. I'll reach out then. Okay?"
[Hai! But also—don't bother with clumsy Japanese! You don't need it!]
"Uh… hai…."
It was supposed to be polite, but I guess it came off awkward.
[Miro, you care in weird ways!]
"Tch, was that a compliment?"
[Yes, a compliment!]
"Oh… thank you."
[Don't mention it!]
Still, she was really cheerful.
Brighter than when we'd gamed before, even.
Not even on stream right now, and her energy was sky-high.
No wonder she was so popular in Japan.
A great voice, bright personality, good gamer—who wouldn't watch her?
That's something I could learn from, as a junior VTuber.
[Enemy ahead! Be careful!]
"Ah! Hai!"
And so, I played three matches of the roguelike with Tenshi-san.
We had some hiccups trying to exchange contacts afterward—different messenger apps, so we ended up friending each other on Discord—but eventually it worked out.
We promised to play again sometime.
By evening, after a hearty dinner with Madam Jang, I went live with my main job: streaming.
[Oh no, not that again]
"Hello everyone, welcome back."
—Ugh, not Civ again.
—When is this gonna end?
—Please… stop already.
—Nah it's fun, stop whining.
—Yeah, Civ is great~
—The real problem is the people saying it's fun.
They'd already started fighting in chat before even greeting me.
"Why are you all fighting right at the start? Cut it out."
—They started it!
—He just needs to stop playing Civilization??
—I like that he streams a lot, why stop him?
—If you don't like it, just leave, dumbasses.
"Hey, hey, calm down. Civilization ends today anyway, so stop fighting."
I only said that because I figured I'd finally see the ending today, but chat instantly exploded.
—Really?
—Then it's the final showdown.
—I actually liked Civ, can't you just keep it going?
—Damn it, so now we're stuck with two-hour streams again, huh.
—No, let's just keep playing Civ.
…?
Wait, what?
So they liked it after all?
"Why are you guys reacting like this? Shouldn't you be happy if I stop?"
[Thank you for the ₩1,000 donation, ooo-nim!]
Come on, isn't it common sense that it's better to play Civilization all night than just two hours? Are they dumb?
I felt like I'd been tricked.
Didn't most of them hate it?
So it was all good cop/bad cop?
But… I did notice some viewer drop-off though…
—Honestly, the more you watch, the better it gets lol
—I bought Civ because of you, please keep playing
—Next time, conquer Japan
[Thank you for the ₩10,000 donation, ArtisanMiro-nim!]
Honestly, if the streamer himself enjoys Civ, then what choice do we have but to watch.
—True…
—It's not like we can stop him
—And now that we understand the game, it's watchable anyway
Ha… so they did like Civilization all along.
Then does that mean my original plan failed?
No, no.
The fact that there were no noisy newbies flaming in chat meant my filtering strategy worked.
"Haa… Still, once I finish the ending today, I probably won't touch Civilization again for a while."
Truthfully, I did want to keep playing.
But it was getting exhausting.
Staying up until dawn every day streaming—it was okay once or twice, but any more would break me.
Female Kim Soo-hyun's body had many good points, but stamina was not one of them.
Maybe I should hit the gym?
Or take over Boksil's walking duty from Madam Jang.
Since I was home most of the time anyway, it wouldn't be hard to do it myself.
—Kek~
—Honestly, I'm not sad lol
—It was fun, but you'll just do something else next
—League next?
—How about some roguelikes too
[Thank you for the ₩1,000 donation, ooo-nim!]
Miro-nim, you've built up a lot of fan café posts while you were playing Civ—will you go check them out later?
"Ah, should we take a quick look before Civ then?"
I actually liked checking the café.
They used my memes, and the posts were from my own fans after all.
Fun for me, fun for the viewers—a win-win.
"Okay, let's hop in before we start."
—Ohhh lol
—Da Miro!
—Kya hahaha
—Let's just spend today reading café posts instead
"I'll only skim the popular posts. We'll do a proper deep dive later."
Even if my viewers didn't use the café much, it had grown large enough that content was always being uploaded.
Look—this one just went up, but it already had high views and hit the trending list.
[I searched Miro's match history today, is this real??]
Hmm, strange title.
—???
—What's that?
—Click it, hurry!
"Hahaha, actually, I got bored earlier and played a few rounds of Rogue."
[Thank you for the ₩1,000 donation, ooo-nim!]
I saw that post too—it says you duo'd with that Japanese VTuber? Miro-nim, I'm actually mad right now.
"Oh, well… I logged in for a bit and they asked to play together."
—Then you should've streamed it, damn it
—If you had time for Rogue, why'd you play Civilization yesterday???
—Kyaaa!! Anna!! Mile!!
Explosion.
All the bottled-up frustrations came pouring out.
The viewers who had reluctantly thought "Well, if Miro wants Civ, guess we just enjoy it"—
The ones who consoled themselves with "At least the streams are long"—
They were all erupting in unison.
—Why the hell did you play Rogue off-stream?!
—Turn the stream on when you do that!
—Wait, with that Japanese VTuber? Did you record it or not?
—Why did I even watch nine hours of Civ yesterday…?
"Uh… well…"
What should I do?
I mean, is it really my fault?
I just wanted to play some Rogue quietly.
And also, I wanted some off-stream conversation.
Streaming was fun, yes—but it was still work.
Every word I said was heard by thousands live, archived forever.
I might act casual, but subconsciously, I was always mindful.
So…
The only answer was—
"Th-then tomorrow, I'll stream Rogue properly…."
Sigh.
That was the fastest solution.
Another day, another peacekeeping duty on Miro's stream.
So this is what it means to be responsible. It's exhausting.
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