Chapter 4: GenMates

Next day came in a blink of an eye. Hiro sat down in a lounge trying to relax. His demeanor was suspicious. On one hand, he was trying to relax, however trying to relax too much might be considered rude, so he adopted a formal pose like a youth waiting for an interview. His suspicious behavior elicited a few curious gazes as he was dressed formally. While the receptionist wanted to speak with him, his usual RBF faces was intimidating. Making him isolated.

“Hiro? You already accepted in this company right? Don’t be so tense. And you also arrive too early.” Marie said three hours later when she arrived.

Hiro looked at the clock and it said two PM. He tilted his head trying to grasp the meaning o her words. Unbeknownst to him, who only watched the recordings. Vtubers usually worked late during dinner time or even straight at midnight. The employees here such as janitor, receptionist, or accountants has normal working hours. But he didn’t know he was an exception. He purposely arrived slightly late at 11 AM trying not to bother his seniors but even he was deemed too early.

“Sorry. I didn't know when senpais will be working so I arrive at noon, slightly later than working time.”

https://youtu.be/YngOkFvZOto

“Justina, Me, and Sherly will prepare our streaming at 4PM. I will stream at 5 while Justina at 6 and Sherly at 8. Ruru often guerilla’d her stream, so she arrived at random.”

“Alright. Thank you for the information.” He nodded. The automatic door opened up again revealing an unknown girl as she greeted Marie.

“Good afternoon, Marie senpai.” she said. Hiro immediately deduced that she was his new coworkers. While not as good as Marie, she also dressed fancily and exudes a mature woman aura. She looked calm her voice was quite soothing to hear.

“Hello I am Hiro.”

“Hello. My name is Lucy. Marie, should I tell her my vtuber name? He worked here right?”

“Ah! Yes, let’s move to the streaming room.” Marie said. After we are inside, Marie explained to her that Hiro is her coworker.

“Lucy, This is Hiro, your new coworker at VeeIdol company. His avatar is named Lily. Hiro, this is Lucy. Your coworker here in VeeIdol company.  Her avatar is named Luna Wayfarer. She will debut with you in three weeks.” Marie introduced Hiro and Lucy.

“Hello.” Hiro spread out his hand for a handshake.

“Eh? A man? Vtuber? But Lily seemed like a girl’s name.” Lucy was perturbed.

“Yes. He was the recruiter from that ads our CEO put on social media….”

“Ah… the female character ones.” Lucy nodded.

“Yes.” Marie nodded.

“Our CEO sure likes to play around isn’t he? Do you think he could play as a female characters?”

“I have talked to him and he said that as along as we could guarantee the secrecy of his identity, we could get away with it. The worst case scenario would be his fans left him.” she replied.

“Alright. I am new to this. Please treat me well.” she bowed again.

“Me too.” Hiro bowed back while retracting his hands. She was blonde, but she behaved like a Japanese person with bowing. Hiro was confused but they followed up nonetheless.

“What should we do on preparation?” Lucy asked.

“We opened the OBS and then, set up the scenes and then do rehearsals about what we should stream today.”

“Eh? That’s all?”

“Depend on what you planned to stream, it could be a lot. Games for example, needed to be installed from steam and then carried on your external SSD. Remember that this computers might be shared to fellow streamers.”

“Only with this company’s vtubers, right?”

“Yes. We have all the applicant signed NDA agreement. However, you still need to be careful. That’s why I elected to came here early. You need to be polite if next streamer decided to use this room.”

“I see. How many rooms do we have?”

“We have about 4 rooms now.”

“That’s a bit lacking isn’t?” Lucy commented.

“Well, There used to be only one booth for streaming. Even when we grew up to four members. I didn’t see it as a problem that time since we stream at different times. Moreover, some members streamed from their own computer at times. However, if they wanted to do collabs, they needed to be here. That’s why we have four computers now.” Marie explained. Hiro understood this. Even he planned to stream from his own computers at home. For collabs, you would need to link the computers together or use a single one high computer capable of running two OBS and two live2d at once. Moreover, you also needed two cameras. That’s still possible for individual person with gaming computers but it required a bit of money which this company understood well.

“I see. Thank you.”

Marie was a hardworker. Before streaming, she had a side job of helping David manage the company’s official website. She was basically a bridge between the busy talents working as vtubers and the ordinary employee.

Then the promised tie came and Marie finally start streaming. Hiro opened up his smartphone to compare what she did in reality and what appeared on YouTube. Since Marie has told them to be silent,  hiro took out his earphone to listen the stream. With one ear listening to the stream and the other listening to real Marie. Hiro frowned as the sound was slightly different.

He might needed to scrap his plan to stream from home and stream exclusive from the office until he got a better microphone. The sound was just different.  However, he didn’t know how to operate a soundboard. The microphone the company used needed to connect to a soundboard then to a laptop. That’s where he presumed Marie’s voice was being modulated. Her voice was clear in the stream. Unlike zoom call where a lot of noises and buzzing sound permeated the sound.

Twenty minutes into the stream, Lucy nudged Hiro to exit the streaming room. Marie was in her own world with her viewer and thus, she didn’t notice nor did she care that we left the booth. Hiro walked out and Lucy then sat at the booth.

“It was quite tiring isn’t? “ she said.

“Yeah.” Hiro imagined how Marie worked. She talked like normal person. However, he could she that her eyes flitted between the first monitor and the second monitor repeatedly. Both looking at youtube chat and the other looking at her obs. Preparing for her next scene.

“So, what kind of content will you play?” Lucy asked.

“Just the usual. Playing games and possibly making memes.” Hiro said. He has never dabble in creative works and he wanted to be normal like everyone else, so he decided to simply copy what other vtubers do.

“I see.”

“What content will you show then, Lucy?” Hiro asked.

“I think I will have personal chat with my fans on top of playing. She nodded down. Hiro raised his eyebrows. Lucy seemed like a shy girl, but he quickly dismissed his concern. She has the looks. Moreover, Hiro believed she is more social than him as a real women. She didn’t need any help. It was him that needed help.

“hello! Lucy! You came early!’ the other members arrived an hour later. Hiro frowned at their easy going group. Marie was streaming for an hour already. She was almost done with her streaming and they just come?

“Nana and Luna! How are you?” Lucy asked

“You came before Marie streamed? How is she?”

“ah yes. I think Vtubing will be harder than it looks. Marie was looking at two monitor at once. By the way, have you prepare for the debut next week? What will you  be streaming?”

“Ah, I will be playing games. I am an FPS streamer.” Nana said. She then showed off her phone to the others. “Look! I already have a thousand subscriber!”

“I see. How nice for you to already have fanbase.”Lucy whined.

“Yeah. I think it is clear who will be the leader for our generation.”

“Ah. Did you know that there will be a male vtuber that will be joining our generation? Marie senpai told me last night.” Nana whispered a little loudly. She looked just like the gossiping girl that Hiro hated. He always hated real world women but Hiro started to like her even less.

“Ah. I know. His name is Hiro. Here he is.” Lucy answered. Both of their expression sank with disgust.

“Hello. My name is Hiro. My in-game name is Lily, a female character Vtuber.” Hiro smiled stiffly. He tried to smile as naturally as possible but he was unable to since Nana’s presence made her uncomfortable.

“What is Mr David thinking when he hired him? I thought he was a feminine male. But he was an obese disgusting male. Well, he got the otaku look though. Maybe that’s what he saw in him?” Nana spat out her words in disgust. Hiro was hurt by her words but he already got used to it that he no longer mind. With a mind like a terminator, he responded robotically.

“Nice to meet you.” Hiro put up a customer service smile. Surprisingly this artificial smile didn’t put off the girls but they smiled in return. Hiro started to wonder if all of his mental training in interview was finally worth it. He didn’t like it when he has to give superficial smiles not from the heart like this. However, since they seemed enjoy it more than his sincere smile, he decided to treat them like an interviewer which he hate the most.

“So, did you guys wanted to see Marie stream?” Lucy asked.

“Not really. I jus wanted to see the new members. We are going to be in the same team. So, need to know you guys better. Wanted to hang out, Lucy? Ah, and I invite you too. Hiro.” Nana replied. Just like Hiro, she also put her professional smile with her.

“Sure!” Lucy replied.

“The debut is next week! As usual, I will be streaming my fps game! What about you Hiro?” Nana, the de facto leader of the team took charge of the conversation. They are now at a family restaurant and Hiro being the only male members among the girls was getting some looks but he ignored it. When Nana said she wanted to hang out, she simply asked for permission at the receptionists desk and went out their way. Hiro was amazed at the flexibility of these Vtubers. They could work anytime they wanted. According to his superficial knowledge, normal workers usually can't leave their workplace until the time is over.

“I will be streaming games too. But, it will be mainly visual novels or anime games.” Hiro replied. “I sucked at FPS.”

“Visual novel? I see. We could use that too huh? Luna, your voice is soothing. You could play cheap visual novel games and voiced out its female cast.” Nana replied.

“Ahh, you are right! Thanks Hiro. As expected of our otaku councillor.” Luna replied. She smiled now. Hiro didn’t mind his idea being stolen. He need to give something in return for their friendship. He planned to leech of some followers from Nana after all.

“What about you Lucy?”

”I will play some casual game like candy crush and chat with my followers.”

“I see. Then, we will all have our specialties. Luna will be playing visual novels, I will play FPS, Hiro will play open-world games or RPG. And you will play casual games.” Nana nodded. Everyone followed Suit.

“Alright! See you on debut!” Nana said and everyone went home.