I May Be a Virtual Youtuber, but I Still Go to Work-Chapter 191

The impatient Movgun, praying for the stream to end quickly, was growing anxious.

The second match began, with Wanggu now using his real techniques.

And once again, something unbelievable happened.

[Wait, are you blocking lows on reaction?]

“Ah, yeah. I could see it. Except for Falling Palm, I think?”

Wanggu had been trying all kinds of low attacks, assuming that beginners are usually weak to them—and love using them too.

But unlike the quick lows like Falling Palm used for mixups, Magia blocked every single one of the slower lows.

Slow low attacks can deal heavy damage or start air combos, but if blocked, the attacker is left heavily disadvantaged.

Usually, blocking one means the defender gains the upper hand and takes back the turn.

In other words, even just being able to block slow lows is enough to climb all the way to Silver tier.

The loop of block → take your turn → counterattack will naturally lead to wins.

[Hah. Reaction speed like that... You're totally made for Soul Crash. You gotta play it.]

— Here he goes again

— As if Magia’s gonna keep playing Soul Crash lol

— This newbie... tastes delicious!

— But honestly she might be the most talented student he's ever taught, reaction and understanding both

— Magia’s always been good at games lol

— Still, he’s laying it on a bit thick lol

When someone says you can reach Diamond, they usually mean “you’ve got the talent, so if you put in the time, you could make it.”

But with Wanggu, it also secretly meant: “Please don’t quit this game. We need you. The game’s doomed without players like you.”

Of course, even if he said it like that, it was doubtful Magia would understand what he meant.

She was only learning Soul Crash to expand her network and be useful to Parallel. She was a company loyalist, after all.

Not to mention, the current viewers were overwhelmingly Slugs—watching with wide, expectant eyes—so Wanggu couldn’t very well plead with her to stay forever, either.

:: Anonymous has donated 1,000 Clouds! ::

:: Bro, when are you gonna teach her how to punish after blocking those slow lows? ::

:: Anonymous has donated 1,000 Clouds! ::

:: You're not pretending not to know just to stretch out the lesson time, right? ::

[Okay okay, calm down, everyone. I was going to teach it while reviewing the replays.]

Delay catch.

Once you understand that, you're officially a Soul Crash kid.

When you block an enemy’s move,

If you understand how much frame advantage you’ve got,

You can hit back with a guaranteed punish.

In short: it's a way °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° to chip away at the opponent's HP without taking any risk.

It’s often said that if you don’t memorize these, you can forget about reaching Gold or higher.

Usually, you punish slow lows by launching into air combos,

Or, in Alice’s case, by throwing out a shotgun barrage after blocking heavy moves.

[Let’s practice that a bit.]

“Okay.”

Wanggu started a practice match and showed her some of Smith’s unsafe moves.

Slow lows → air combo.

Fast lows or big swings → shotgun barrage.

If you block a downward smash and end up crouching → wake-up kick.

Magia didn’t even have to learn any more than the 16+ moves she already knew.

Just knowing them was enough to get it done.

So in 30 minutes, Magia had already mastered the basics of delay catch.

:: Anonymous has donated 1,000 Clouds! ::

:: At this point, she’s ready to jump into ranked, no? ::

[Whoa whoa, hold on. You’re all rushing way too fast. I haven’t even covered grabs, Soul Bursts, or Supers yet....]

— So teach her then

— Let’s go now

— Let’s gooooo

:: Anonymous has donated 1,000 Clouds! ::

:: Maybe it’s just that the teacher’s really good—progress is fast lol ::

— fr lol

— Great student, great teacher lol

— The speed Koreans love

— She might graduate early at this rate

[Ugh... Anyway, Miss Gia, once we cover those topics, let’s jump into Ranked properly. Sound good?]

“Oh, so now I’ll be playing against real people?”

[Yeah. But the queue might take a while. Most newbies have dropped off already.

And even if you find a match, don’t expect them all to be new players.

This game has a smurfing problem—people making new accounts just to stomp newbies.

If you run into one, I’ll let you know right away, so don’t get discouraged if you lose.]

“Okay.”

And with that, the real battle began—not just in the game, but in chat.

Wanggu’s longtime viewers and the Slugs who’d shown up with Magia began clashing.

:: Anonymous has donated 1,000 Clouds! ::

:: What if Magia beats smurfs too? At this rate, she could wipe real newbies in 3 minutes and hit Silver in no time ::

— Ditch Battle Call, time for Soul Crash

— hey hey hey

— What do you mean ditch Battle Call?

— Are you saying she’s betraying us and switching games?!

— Betrayal, huh lol

— Magia and Battle Call are inseparable

— Soul Crash Defense Force, please calm down ㅠㅠ

— Soul Crash Association lol

— Isn’t it the Battle Call Alliance?

Really, this was expected.

A talented newbie like this was rare.

Watching them grow was half the fun.

Sure, now she was learning quickly because she had a teacher.

But even talented newbies eventually hit a wall.

And how they overcome that wall determines their future in the game.

With Magia, it felt like she’d just smash right through it and carve her name into Soul Crash newbie history.

But now the Slugs she brought along, led by Movgun and Pino, were subtly pressuring for the lesson to wrap up already.

That didn’t sit well with Wanggu’s camp.

And tensions hit a new high when Magia absolutely obliterated her first Ranked opponent in a 3–0 sweep.

Even worse, when the panicked opponent tried to spam grabs...

She broke almost every single one, shocking everyone watching.

[Wait... were you breaking grabs on reaction?]

“I just went with my gut...”

[Jesus. You’re using telepathy now? You have to play Soul Crash. How can talent like this not play Soul Crash? It’s a fucking global tragedy.]

— hey hey hey

— No way

— 🗡movgun: 👀

— Don’t you dare poach our Battle Call prodigy!!

— She’s goooone!

— Soul Crash! Soul Crash!

— It’s time! It’s time!

— Nope~ No chance. She’s sticking with Battle Call lol

But Magia was simply doing what Wanggu taught her.

If it’s a left grab, it’s easier to break—so if it’s not that, it’s either right or both.

So press right-hand first. If it’s still a grab, then press both.

What if they grab again?

Then it’s a mind game.

Act accordingly.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

“I just did what you said, and guessed on the third one...”

With things like this, the debate around Magia only grew more intense.

— Honestly she could graduate today lol

— She’s already covered in fur

— If she keeps going tomorrow, she’ll hit Diamond for sure

— Three days in, she might be Master

— Master? lol come on now

— Waaah Magia’s an Amazon furbeast... we need to graduate her...

— Grad! Uate! Grad! Uate! Grad! Uate! Grad! Uate! Grad! Uate! Grad! Uate! Grad! Uate! Grad! Uate! Grad! Uate! Grad! Uate!

— Go~ away~ Go~ away~ Go~ away~ Go~ away~ Go~ away~ Go~ away~ Go~ away~ Go~ away~ Go~ away~

— Beep beep, graduation time

— Shouldn’t we send her to college at this point? Why graduate her now?

— Escalator education, let’s gooooo

— Yup~ Elementary, middle, high school, university, grad school, PhD, all of it lolololololol

Magia herself gave no reaction.

It wasn’t like the situation had become a full-on brawl that needed moderation.

The stream had just gotten a little heated.

And this? This was her favorite temperature.

Like a 42-degree Celsius bath—just right.

What she was focusing on was the missions.

She needed that money—to pay her teacher, and to donate it back to the company.

“But... aren’t you going to mark those missions as complete? I won the first match, and I used all four forms.”

[Ah, you’re right. Could you guys mark those as cleared, please?]

And with that, both camps realized what they had completely forgotten:

Magia had cleared two more missions in the meantime.

:: Mission Complete! ::

:: Win the first public match – 565,000 won ::

:: Mission Complete! ::

:: Win using all four Alice forms – 582,000 won ::

The Slugs had to spend the money—they needed her to graduate.

But it still hurt.

— KRAAAAAH

— My safe assettttttt

— URGHhhhhhh

— When the hell did she use all four forms? lol

— She’s raking everything in?

:: Anonymous has donated 1,000 Clouds! ::

:: I’m gonna live off superfood corn powder this month lolololololol ::

:: Anonymous has donated 1,000 Clouds! ::

:: Whatever. I’m unemployed. I’ll just survive on a single ramen a day anywayyyyy ::

— lolololol

— Look how desperate they are lol

— Poor Slugs...

To make it worse, Wanggu’s fans took the opportunity to land a few jabs of their own.

:: Anonymous has donated 1,000 Clouds! ::

:: If you don’t graduate her, you could’ve saved 500k. Wanna rethink? ::

:: Anonymous has donated 1,000 Clouds! ::

:: Wow, one more day of lessons could’ve saved 5 million won lol~ ::

But the faster she won, the faster her rank rose.

If she kept climbing, graduation was inevitable.

— KRAAAAAH

— Nope, not letting go lolololol

— Fact: Magia is graduating today. As solid as Thor’s hammer

— But Thor’s hammer broke against Hela

— Pfft

— Nah nah it’s fine. Borrowed mom’s credit card

— lol

Even through the pain, the Slugs never canceled the missions.

The total was steadily climbing... and finally broke the 5 million won mark.

:: Graduate kindergarten today – 5,080,000 won ::

They were losing money, sure.

But for the Slugs (Movgun included), did money even matter right now?

Graduating Magia today—

That was the only happiness they needed.

***

About 30 minutes later.

After racking up a string of easy wins, Magia had now reached the very edge of Bronze tier.

An unstoppable momentum, plain and simple.

Whether Wanggu was right about her being able to skip Gold and even aim for Platinum or Diamond—who knew.

One more win, and she’d be in Silver.

But by now, the chat had started raising some suspicions.

— Aren’t there way too many newbies?

— fr

— It wasn’t this easy to get queues earlier lol

— These weekday afternoon queues are kinda cracked lololol

The more matches she played, the more off everything felt.

Where did all the smurfs go?

Matches were instant, and everyone matched was a local newbie.

And then, as if on cue, both Wanggu and Magia noticed something weird about their next opponent.

[Don’t you feel like... we’ve met this person three times already?]

“That’s what I thought too! I’m not imagining it, right?”

— ?

— Huh?

— Wait, you’re right

— What the heck

If there weren’t many players, running into the same one repeatedly wouldn’t be strange.

But these queues were instant, and this was the third time.

That meant sniping.

The weird part was—this sniper wasn’t some toxic veteran trying to mess with Magia,

but a clumsy player seemingly trying to feed her wins.

Every single one of them was a local, completely new to the game, totally clueless.

It almost felt like someone was deliberately trying to push Magia to a higher tier and graduate her today.

Magia couldn’t help but suspect one person.

The kid who dropped a hundred grand first thing today and went full maniac mode over her.

“This is probably Pino.”

— What?

— Pino??

— Are you serious?

“If you check the ID, those who know will know.”

{{ Get ready for the next battle! }}

{{ magia1122 vs Iloveyoufather }}

The moment Pino realized he was being accused, he started panic-donating.

:: PIN0 has donated 10,000 Clouds! ::

:: This is slander ::

:: PIN0 has donated 10,000 Clouds! ::

:: This is some high-level trolling T_T ::

:: PIN0 has donated 10,000 Clouds! ::

:: Papa was just watching quietly!!

No one could be operating a character and donating at the same time.

Which meant Pino’s innocence was immediately confirmed.

“Okay. I believe you.”

:: PIN0 has donated 10,000 Clouds! ::

:: Whew ::

:: PIN0 has donated 10,000 Clouds! ::

:: But ngl, there are hella snipers rn, so I get why you’d suspect me ::

But regardless of who it was, it was now clear that snipers were flooding in.

If things kept going like this, Magia’s rank would skyrocket—

but the training wouldn’t mean anything if her skills weren’t properly tested.

And if Magia declared her graduation in that state, not everyone would accept it.

With the judgment call getting blurry, viewers might start fighting amongst themselves.

Wanggu had no choice but to step in.

[I’ll bring in someone I know in Silver–Gold tier to play against you. It’ll take about 15 minutes—can you hang out and chat with the viewers until then?]

“Ooh, a scrim?”

[Yeah, kinda like that. I think it’s the only way we’ll be able to make a clear judgment on whether you’re ready to graduate.]

“Sounds good. With a big mission like this on the line, we should make sure everything’s solid.”

[Thank you for understanding. I’ll go make some calls.]

“Yep.”

With a 500-point mission hanging in the balance, the viewers were all eager to see who the mystery guest would be.

And just then, while Magia was sharing her screen on Wanggu’s stream, messing around in the practice room—

ping ping!

A whisper notification popped up.

[hanaumi7: Yo]

[hanaumi7: Manager Gia, you doin’ solo queue?]

[hanaumi7: If you’re down, wanna play a round together?]

It was Orca—

and the military tone in her messages came from her insistence on staying in-character unless explicitly told otherwise,

just in case her screen ever ended up on someone’s stream.

She always said she wouldn’t do it on broadcast because she wasn’t confident in her skills.

But off-stream, before or after her scheduled broadcasts, she’d occasionally play Soul Clash to blow off steam.

It was 4 p.m.

Plenty of time to play a match and get ready for her stream.

‘Huh, this is...’

Magia hadn’t set an exact end time for today’s stream,

but once the other members started going live, she was planning to wrap up this group stream gracefully.

Probably in about an hour or two.

After the scrim, a debrief with the coach, and a final judgment on her graduation.

That way, she could pass on some of the viewers she’d gathered here.

But Orca showing up on her own?

This could allow her to pass on a whole lot more than just a fraction.

There was no reason not to accept.

[magia1122: Sounds great]

[hanaumi7: I’ll send the invite!]

And since the coach was still looking for someone to play with,

Magia figured she might as well take this chance to see what Orca had been hiding.

Then—

A gold emblem suddenly appeared.

Orca, who always went on about how terrible she was at the game,

left Magia tilting her head.

[magia1122: I thought you said you were trash]

[hanaumi7: Got beat down by my seniors in the army all the time... they called me deadweight...]

[magia1122: You’re Gold tier, though...?]

[hanaumi7: I don’t really get what tier means]

[hanaumi7: The break room had a game console, so I just messed around with that...]

Meanwhile, the viewers were also quick to connect the dots. ƒгeewёbnovel.com

The username had her surname, Hanaumi, and the military tone...

It was clearly Orca.

:: Anonymous has donated 1,000 Clouds! ::

:: Is that Orca?? ::

— ???

— If Gold is “trash,” then what are the rest of us, lmao

— That’s still top 40%, you know? lol

— If you’re Gold, you should just stream it already lmaoooo

— Truly the lowest self-esteem of all 2nd gen members lol

At that moment, Magia had a thought.

Orca, who hadn’t even mentioned her skill level during her debut stream because she was so embarrassed—

Was she okay with showing it off now?

[magia1122: Didn’t you say you were too shy to show your skills on stream?]

[magia1122: Is it okay now?]

There was silence from Orca.

And then—

[hanaumi7: Wait... this is a stream???]

Magia’s group stream had come together so suddenly that Orca must not have realized it was live.

She was probably overwhelmed with her own streams, collabs, and concert prep lately.

[magia1122: Sorry, I figured you invited me after watching Wanggu’s stream]

[hanaumi7: AAAAAAAAGH!!!!!]

But for Magia, this was more of an opportunity than a mistake.

‘So this is the prodigy hiding in plain sight?’

No matter how much praise she got, Magia had no intention of sticking with Soul Clash long-term.

Even if she got closer to Kiri and Kiri personally asked her to keep going,

she probably wouldn’t go as far as taking formal lessons with the coach.

But Orca was different.

She was Gold, but she’d internalized all that scolding from higher-ranked teammates

and convinced herself she was garbage—

when in reality, she was full of potential and actually enjoyed the game.

And November was coming.

After Parallel’s offline concert, there’d be a Soul Clash tournament.

1st-gen had gone in the first half of the year, so now it was 2nd-gen’s turn.

And if Orca were the representative?

If she placed first and came back victorious?

It would be a huge win for Parallel.

[magia1122: Anyway, no pressure—let’s just play one round together]

[magia1122: I’m having trouble finding a proper opponent right now]

[hanaumi7: You sure I’m okay...?]

[magia1122: I’m a total newbie. You could destroy me.]

The viewers, too, were thrilled at the idea of a match against Orca.

:: Anonymous has donated 1,000 Clouds! ::

:: Time for revenge on that seafood sauce jjamppong moment lol ::

— fr lol

— Oh that one LOLLLLL

— Right, right LOL

— Let’s gooooooo

Either way, the decision was up to Orca.

She could run away in embarrassment—

or take the stage, and soak up a good chunk of the spotlight Magia had gathered.

Everyone was holding their breath.

And then Orca said—

[hanaumi7: I ch...]

[hanaumi7: ...I challenge you.]