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

After that day, Magia began lining up broadcast schedules one after another.

Most of them were sponsored streams, but either way, they were all Magia solo streams.
For the Slug Squad, it was nothing short of a festival.
The very first step in the long-awaited debut of their beloved VTuber.
A solo broadcast by Magia herself.
Even the Slug Squad, who’d been lurking around the Parallel gallery while she only showed up in collabs for a while, naturally returned and revived the Magia Mini Gallery.

Because they needed a space just for themselves, a cozy little living room to talk only about Magia.
…
── — Magia Mini Gallery — ──

[Why the hell is the mini gallery coming back from the dead, 😂😂😂]
Normally, when a mini gallery goes cold, it’s dead for good, but this one’s resurrecting, lmao.
[Comments]
— Magia835: The gallery admin came back to life, of course the gallery follows, 😂😂
　ㄴ Magia311: Hey now, the gallery admin was never dead, you blasphemous bastard
　ㄴ Magia835: Oops my bad

— Magia126: If the gallery admin's been killing it with streams lately and you’re loving it, hit that upvote lol
　ㄴ Magia126: I’ll go first then, 😂😂😂
　ㄴ Magia009: Good
　ㄴ Magia772: Good
──────────────
…
── — Magia Mini Gallery — ──

[The Slug Squad's Service Creed]
[Posted by: 🟦Magia01]
Everyone memorize this and take it to heart. For real.
‘Service Creed (Our Pledge)’
We are the Lunar Slugs who pledge loyalty to Magia and Parallel.

One, we defend Magia’s streams and become the driving force behind her debut.
Two, we constantly push favorable narratives to raise Magia up.
Three, we follow Parallel’s rules and stay alert to Magia’s mood.
Four, we uphold honor and trust, united in unbreakable camaraderie.
[Comments]
— Magia825: ^^7
— Magia224: ^^7
— Magia123: ^^7
──────────────
Unlike the fans of other members, who tend to lash out the moment something rubs them the wrong way…

The Slug Squad had long since learned that doing that to Magia was pointless. Maybe that’s why their compliance rate was unusually high.
More accurately, they had evolved into an even shadier kind of fandom—one that operated behind the scenes to push for Magia’s full debut.
But since there was no way Magia would ever fall for such schemes, it ultimately remained the Slug Squad’s own ambitious dream.
More than anything, the gallery admin of the Magia Gallery was still Magia herself.
No matter what tricks the Slugs tried to pull inside that gallery, it was set up so Magia would notice them instantly.

What’s funny is, back during the “Defeat Magia” content event, it was revealed she’d infiltrated the gallery as a guest user—
But the people who’d sniped her made a group chat to cover it up, so to this day, nobody knows the truth.
Which just made things easier for Magia.
She never really cared what the Slugs did as a group to begin with.
And now, she had even less reason to care.

It wasn’t even a secret space—they were literally talking about her in a place she openly monitored.
That was actually a huge relief for Magia, who’d been so swamped with work lately that she could barely keep up with live streams.
How were things going with her FanC activities, the ones she’d been focusing on for a while?

Ever since passing one million subscribers, she’d been cruising along smoothly, now closing in on 1.2 million.
CAT did some promotion, and thanks to some connections through Kiri’s side, it quietly started spreading via word of mouth—
People just going, “Hey, this song’s actually pretty good,” and passing it around.
There wasn’t much that needed her attention anymore, so Magia focused more on her solo streams, steadily raising the quality of her sponsored content.

By the time half of December had passed, a new buzz started spreading through the industry.
If Magia could make ads this entertaining…
What would the NeoCal server she was reportedly involved in be like?
Wouldn’t it actually be a loss not to sponsor it?
If the server really blew up, maybe it was smarter to get in on it now.

That’s when companies slowly began lining up to sponsor the NeoCal server.
The more sponsors joined—
And the more famous those sponsors were—the higher the server’s prestige rose. Naturally.
Things got loud again when Mimax, who initially just commissioned an ad from Magia, decided to jump in as a sponsor.

…
── — Pazijik Gallery — ──
[Mimax joins as a sponsor]

Just how flashy are they planning to make this server, damn.
Is this really doable in just two weeks?
This thing’s gonna be huge.

[Comments]
— Pazijik908: There’s even talk about possibly extending the event or increasing the number of participants.
　ㄴ Pazijik002 (Original poster): Increasing beyond 300? 😂😂
　ㄴ Pazijik908: They originally said 300–400, but now they’re mentioning 400 alone since they’re worried the server won’t hold up.
　ㄴ Pazijik574: This is seriously getting massive, damn.
　ㄴ Pazijik719: Isn’t this a first in Pazijik history?
──────────────
…
── — Pazijik Gallery — ──

[But big servers aren’t always a good thing]
How many streamers on that list are people you’ve actually heard of?
Even if I count generously, it’s not more than 50.

In other words, we’re gonna get a bunch of no-names in the server, yeah.
Some of those nobodies are gonna try to cozy up to the big companies.
Some won’t know their limits and act out.
Some are just painfully unfunny and are gonna kill the vibe.
You sure y’all can handle that?

[Comments]
— Pazijik098: Either way, this gallery’s gonna blow up, 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
　ㄴ Pazijik855: There’s literally not gonna be a single quiet day, 😂😂
— Pazijik651: Honestly, this all comes down to how central control is handled, yeah
　ㄴ Pazijik651: If it’s not a small server, the admins have to manage it well
　ㄴ Pazijik295: But there’s a limit to how much the admins can handle
　ㄴ Pazijik295: As long as there’s enough fun stuff to do, that’s enough
　ㄴ Pazijik295: If there’s enough dopamine, people will be too distracted to care about small problems, 😂😂
　ㄴ Pazijik797: That’s facts, 😂😂😂
──────────────
Either way, the server was starting to get a lot of attention.

The big question was: just how much content was actually ready?
Maybe because they were aware of this growing community buzz, the third NeoCalifornia server planning meeting—attended by Magia, Lupko, and key members of Parallel and Mind Network—was filled with tension.
The main issue was the friction between the designers—Magia and Lupko—and the server development team, who handled programming.

“I’m sorry, but that feature just isn’t implementable.”
The current issue on the table was allowing citizens to autonomously form crews, pool money, acquire businesses, and run them independently.
To explain simply: at the beginning of the server, a list of businesses would be published.
Until someone bought them, each business would provide basic services by default.

A repair shop would offer car repairs.
A restaurant would sell food. Basic stuff.
This translation is the intellectual property of .
But once a business was acquired, the entire crew would need to divide responsibilities and actually run it.

Someone would gather ingredients.
Someone would cook.
Someone would promote the business.
Basically, it was a system meant to turn the RP server into a functioning society.
If the system lacked detail, it would lose immersion.
But if it felt real—if people actually felt like they were running a business—they’d be way more invested, even when taking losses.

Depending on the situation, they might even need someone to act as security.
Since NeoCalifornia was a game where looting and raids were part of daily life, it was totally possible for someone to rob a shop and steal food.
But this whole setup was coming from the designers—Magia and Lupko—who were responsible for planning the content.
The programmers, the server team, made it clear that implementing it was extremely difficult due to a high number of bugs.

For instance, if a store was acquired mid-session, items sold before the acquisition could vanish—just one of many issues that could come up.
“So this is just a NeoCal limitation?”
“Yes. The game’s several years old now, and although this kind of system has been attempted before, bugs always ended up killing it. So we’ve decided not to build that feature.”

“Wouldn’t that just deflate the whole vibe? Gia, what do you think?”
“It is a shame. Without that, ordinary citizens won’t really have much to do.”
“Right? So like, is there any workaround to offer something similar? I mean, there are lots of jobs available, but none of them are about actually being part of something, right?”
Lupko started launching into a mini-speech.

“Sure, the game’s built around blowing things up and causing chaos, but even so, there are people who’d rather just live a normal life in-game. That’s why this business system is non-negotiable. If we skip it, at least half of the 400 players won’t be satisfied.”
Magia nodded beside him, backing him up.
“If we don’t implement it, the citizens are just gonna end up being tools for the mafia or public authorities. Please do your best to find a way to make it happen.”

The server dev lead let out a pained groan.
In the end, if the community got upset, the dev team would be blamed too.
And this was Lupko, who’d survived more controversies than anyone could count.
And Magia, who somehow turned every collab she touched into gold.

It wasn’t something they could just dismiss.
Finally, the dev lead sighed and gave a small nod.
“Understood. It won’t be perfect, but we’ll try to implement it as best we can.”

“Even if the execution’s a little rough, as long as the basic setup’s there, it’s fine. If they’re real streamers, they’ll take the idea and run with it.”
“I agree.”
“Alright. We’ll work on it as fast as possible and keep refining it through feedback.”

Flap flap.
The sound of printed materials being flipped echoed as the meeting participants moved on to the next pages, until Magia mumbled with a puzzled look.
“This next page… how accurate is this list of expected MCN participants?”

The reason was, she’d spotted a few names from Bachubachu.
Not all of them, but apparently some members had expressed interest in joining the project.
Notably, Kuroboshi Taro and Natsuki Luna were on it.
And supposedly two more of their close associates might be joining too.

The person in charge of participant management from Pazijik spoke up.
“We asked Bachubachu, and they said Taro and Luna are basically 100%. The other two are still working out their schedules.”
“100%, really?”

“Yes. They’ve already announced their February schedule, and it looks like they’ve committed both weeks in late February to NeoCal.”
“Hm.”
Being such a large group, they typically focused on their domestic audience.
But it wasn’t like Bachubachu never did collabs with Korean streamers or other MCNs.

Still, a large-scale server like this—
One that included unvetted and lower-profile streamers—
It was rare to see them participate in something like that.
It made sense though.
Their agency was extremely protective of their brand image.
Even when choosing collab partners, they only picked those with a matching status or no risk of causing problems.
But this was the Pazijik Grand Festival.

There were gonna be a lot of mid-tier and lesser-known streamers, some of whom weren’t even verified.
To see Bachubachu members joining that kind of server…
It was no wonder Magia found it odd.
Taro, being a veteran of the indie streaming scene, would probably navigate things just fine.
But Natsuki Luna—Iyura—might be a seasoned utaite, but as a streamer, she was still a total newbie.

Not to mention, she had a habit of getting easily swayed. She could slip up.
If Taro were taking her under his wing, that’d be one thing.
But this server had a rule:

Even if you know someone in real life, you treat them like a stranger in-game.
Since everyone uses RP personas in the server, saying “Nice to meet you!” had to be the default.
Trying to say, “Hey, we met in a past life!” as an excuse to connect usually got called out as forced.
Taro probably had a reason for dragging her into this…
But honestly, Magia couldn’t help but worry.

Sure, she always called Iyura a backstabber as a joke—
But thanks to her, Magia had met Kiri, built relationships with famous singers, and even pulled off a successful concert.
And besides, Natsuki Luna was a proper VTuber now too.
‘Luna should probably be put in a public role.’

People who weren’t used to RP and had a high risk of messing up were best placed in positions with clearly defined responsibilities.
Give them a fixed role and boundaries, and they’d mess up less—and naturally adapt to the RP environment.
Magia turned another page.

This one listed the major roles within the partially completed server lore.
She pointed to the topmost one—NeoCalifornia Police Department.
“If their participation’s confirmed, there’s one thing I’d like to recommend.”

“Yes, go ahead.”
“I think we should assign Luna as a police officer.”
“Uh… but the police are basically part of the admin team. Wouldn’t it make more sense to use someone from Parallel first?”

“No need to worry. We’re planning to have Orca join too, and we’ve already got the perfect candidate for the Chief.”
The person Magia had in mind was a particular Slug.
Someone who, even though he constantly got smacked around by her on stream, had never done anything that ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) made viewers uncomfortable.
Someone who understood the art of balance.

A top-tier FPS player, perfect for taking down NeoCalifornia’s crime.
And with 2.2 million subscribers on YouTube, he had serious clout behind him.
“Let’s appoint Movgun as Chief of Police.”