I May Be a Virtual Youtuber, but I Still Go to Work-Chapter 169

Twister.

In the U.S., it’s a well-known game with simple rules—families often play it during holidays like Thanksgiving just for fun.

But for Korean audiences, it’s not so familiar.

Especially for people who are into subculture, it usually doesn’t evoke warm family gatherings—

What comes to mind first is a harem rom-com scene where the protagonist and heroine get tangled up on the mat, squealing in embarrassment.

And let’s be real, the main demographic watching VTuber streams overlaps heavily with the subculture crowd.

So naturally, our fans were expecting exactly that.

————— Seen on Z —————

Morisaki Ena ☑ @Morisaki Ena

Do you guys know the game Twister? 🔴🟡🟢🔵

I’m gonna play it later today with Gia after we finish moving!

————————————————

ㄴ nanananatmal

What.

ㄴ eraierai

Wha-wha-WHAT? You're doing WHAT?

ㄴ giamomo

Boss! They’re doing something indecent!!!!! 🤯🤯🤯

ㄴ marudog

Oh no Maru yaaaaaaaaahhhh

————————————————

From people excited for a spicy Gia-and-Ena Twister stream,

To fans scrambling to snitch to the CEO or Maru—

Chaotic speculation was forbidden, of course.

But since both the CEO and Maru regularly check social media, they caught wind of it fast.

—————————————————

ㄴ Nezumi Maru ☑ @Nezumi Maru

Why me? Why me? Why me? Why me? Why me? Why me? Why me? Why me? Why me? Why me? Why me? Why me?

ㄴ Shirahoshi Momo ☑ @Shirahoshi Momo

Gia is going to live at Ena’s house forever.

—————————————————

The CEO, responding playfully.

Maru, seemingly one breath away from crashing the stream in person.

Their polar-opposite reactions gave the Parallel Gallery and other communities plenty to talk about, pumping energy into the fandom and fueling the ever-churning content cycle.

Seeing all that gave me a strange sense of peace.

Even though the stream was still hours away, at least I didn’t have to worry about today’s content while hauling moving boxes.

All I had to do was let Ena take the lead and go with the flow.

No matter what she had prepared beyond Twister, I just had to roll with it and do my best.

***

As it turned out, Ena had prepared for the stream meticulously.

Which, given her flawless debut broadcast where she didn’t stumble even once, wasn’t surprising.

She really was her father’s daughter—Na Hyun-gon’s genes in action.

The moment we arrived at her place and saw the setup, both I and Seung-hyun—who’d come to help—were awestruck.

“I told my dad I needed it for a stream, and he let me borrow it.”

“Hoh.”

“Whoa... I’ve never even seen a mic like this before!”

It was the kind of top-tier mic used in professional radio studios—

Capable of picking up every little ambient sound with crystal clarity.

Her usual mic was already high-end, but this? She’d brought in the big guns.

Probably thanks to her dad’s C-level position at CAT and all the connections that came with it.

She mounted it on the ceiling directly above the Twister mat—

And just like that, even the faint rustle of fabric was captured perfectly through the audio interface.

So every grunt, whisper, and gasp we made would be relayed directly to the viewers.

No need for visual narration.

Sound alone would send their imaginations spiraling.

If the room had been small, it might have messed with the spatial acoustics.

But Ena’s room—despite being soundproofed—was at least twice the size of the one-room apartment I’d been living in.

“Being the daughter of the chief producer really is an S-tier cheat code.

But I thought you didn’t want to rely on your dad?”

“Y-yeah, I didn’t... but I guess I got a little aggressive without realizing it, ‘cause I really want this content to blow up...”

Imagine this: your daughter borrows a studio-grade mic from you, says it’s for streaming...

And you later find out it was to broadcast every breathy sound in high-fidelity during a Twister game.

Describe the father’s emotional state. (5 points)

...Actually, does the producer check Ena’s streams every time?

Even if Ena keeps her content on the wholesome side, she’s definitely not shy about going full ham when the moment calls for it.

Is he watching all of that?

No way, right?

Or maybe, like any idol producer, he’s keeping tabs on VTuber trends as professional research?

Just thinking about the possibility that he’s watching makes my usual discomfort about the weird noises I make on stream turn into full-on dread.

Still, letting that distract me would be amateur hour.

If we want today to be a hit, we’ve gotta fully commit—physically, vocally, emotionally.

If anyone holds back or gets self-conscious, the stream turns awkward instead of immersive.

Once I locked in that mindset, Ena and I took our places on the Twister mat.

Meanwhile, Seung-hyun began setting up her assigned tasks—Team Leader Kang was covering monitoring duty just for today.

Aside from checking the stream and chat from the main broadcast PC,

Seung-hyun also had one more job.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

“You’ll be using this 3D posing tool to show our current positions and movements on-screen, like this. Right in the center of the stream overlay.”

“Ah, okay. Got it.”

It was the same kind of tool illustrators use to block out poses and angles—

She’d use it to visually represent our positions based on what the audience could hear.

“If I’m standing on one foot like this, what do you do?”

“Move the little kid model here... and lift one leg like this...”

“Exactly. Do the same thing when Ena moves too. That mic’s super sensitive, so it'll catch everything. Just make sure your voice doesn’t get picked up on stream.”

“Yessir!”

The models were all bald, which made it kind of funny.

But that was the point—it acted as a sort of "over-immersion speed bump."

Like how a romance scene suddenly cut by a gag kills the mood instantly,

This was just a reminder: we’re only teasing your imagination.

We’re not actually tangled up in skin-on-skin affection, so let’s all remember—it’s just a stream.

Soon enough, Ena came back from her shower.

She shook out her well-dried hair and chirped cheerfully,

“Finally feel fresh again.”

“Sorry. The place was still kinda dusty, huh? I cleaned up in advance, but I guess it wasn’t enough.”

“Even if you clean ahead of time, dust behind closets and desks is impossible to get. Still, it was way better than most moves I’ve seen.”

Her damp hair was wrapped in a towel like a turban, and she was wearing pajamas.

The collar was wide enough that I could almost see her underwear—

And unfortunately, since I was shorter, my gaze naturally landed near her chest.

I had to tilt my head upward to look at her face, and my neck was starting to ache.

She kept moving around for a while, applying creams to her face, drying her hair, slathering lotion on her arms and legs.

Then she came up to me and asked:

“Aren’t you gonna wash up? You got covered in dust too.”

“I don’t have a change of clothes.”

“Still. Want me to help you wash your hair? Doesn’t your scalp feel itchy?”

“I’m fine. I’ll just head home after the stream and—”

But just as I was about to decline, a thought hit me.

Wait... did she shower so she wouldn’t smell bad?

Twister’s a game where your bodies end up close together the whole time.

Like it or not, you’re constantly catching each other’s scent.

We didn’t just get dusty from moving today—we sweated a ton too.

It’s summer. We could’ve shut the windows and turned on the AC, sure—

But since Ena has to protect her throat, we kept the windows wide open and carried everything in the heat.

In other words, Ena showered because she didn’t want me to smell her.

Which meant that, conversely, I should shower too. It’s just common courtesy.

I’ve spent enough summers knowing I don’t reek when I sweat,

But body odor is one of those things you can’t really smell on yourself.

Just in case—better to wash up.

Even if I couldn’t change clothes, it’d still be better than not showering at all.

“Actually, yeah. Probably better if I wash.”

“Bathroom’s right outside and to the right. You remember from last time, right?”

“Wasn’t there another door inside too?”

“Yup yup.”

It was a really nice, spacious apartment.

The bathroom was double-structured.

Basically, there was a dressing room in front of the bathroom.

You could toss your used clothes into the laundry or a hamper, grab a fresh outfit, and head in to shower.

She even had a top-of-the-line washing machine. I mean...

“There’s a washer right by the door—just throw in everything you wore and start a quick cycle. It’ll be dry in under thirty minutes.”

“That fast? That’s about how long I usually take to shower.”

“Exactly. I use it all the time when I wanna wear something from the day before. Here—towel. Want an extra?”

“Nah, one’s good. Thanks.”

Perfect.

No more worrying about smells.

All that’s left is to give it my all during the stream.

*

Shhhhhhhh.

Water flowed from the showerhead in the bathroom.

Seung-hyun had stepped out to take a work call with Team Leader Kang.

Left alone in the room, Ena glanced back—

Then quietly spun the Twister roulette on the floor.

The circular wheel was divided into quadrants—left hand, right hand, left foot, right foot.

Each limb section had red, yellow, green, and blue spaced evenly around it.

In total, there were sixteen possible combinations of limb and color.

Usually, trying to land on one specific combo is really difficult.

But that’s only when you spin the wheel wildly without control.

If you don’t just fling it around and actually adjust the force?

You can at least aim for the general body part.

And if luck’s on your side, you might even get the exact limb and color you want.

“...Got it.”

She had also implemented a difficulty modifier rule.

The Twister mat had four colors arranged in six columns each—24 circles total.

Between the two of us, we’d only use 8 limbs total—

So we added a rule that you couldn’t place another limb in the 8 squares surrounding your current one. (For someone short like Magia, that meant 4 tiles in each direction.)

In other words, if you spun the wheel right, the game would flow exactly how Ena wanted.

She didn’t just bring in a pro-grade studio mic—

She’d spent all of yesterday practicing how to manipulate the wheel to paint her perfect scene.

This was her first public collab with Magia since the cooking battle.

She had gone all-in.

“This way... I’ll get to stick right next to Gia...”

If it all went # Nоvеlight # according to plan, today’s stream would be a full-on declaration of war against Momo and Maru.

She’d write a miracle—defying the 1-in-16 odds again and again with each spin.

Closing the distance whenever Magia tried to move away. (Via audio cues, of course.)

She’d show the world that she was Magia’s destined one.

In a way, it mirrored Magia’s own strategy—

Provoking Momo and Maru to react and pushing the next content arc forward.

With Magia doing her best to match Ena’s pace,

And Ena charging forward at full throttle,

They were the perfect combo—and the impact would be multiplied.

And so, a brand-new chapter in the chaotic love triangle brewing inside Parallel

Was just about to begin...