The Villainess VTuber Tears People Apart

Rion Taking The Damage

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【This_code】

【EYEAI Entire Server】

#General Chat Channel

Nekozuka Rion

[Just a brief announcement as staff.]

[There’s a small controversy, but the company will handle it.]

[So, Virtual Talents, please don’t cancel your broadcast schedules and continue as you were.]

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It had been a long time since I last streamed.

After announcing that I would be transitioning from a VTuber to a staff role, I barely streamed anymore.

Even though becoming a staff member didn’t mean I was completely quitting being a VTuber.

Honestly, I had no intention of streaming anymore.

– “Since things have come to this, why don’t you take on a role like B-chan from Horizon Air, Rion?”

– “It’d be good for us to have someone to represent the company’s stance.”

That’s what the boss had said.

It sounded nice—representing the company’s stance—but in reality, it wasn’t much different from taking the heat.

‘In some sense, this is utilitarianism.’

VTuber companies get a lot of hate, by default.

The history of VTubers began in 2017 with the ‘first-ever VTuber,’ and now it’s 2024.

It’s only been about eight years.

A short history means that less expertise has accumulated compared to other industries, which also means more mistakes have been made.

So many incidents had occurred as the industry grew.

Many VTubers left the industry during that time.

Every time a VTuber retired, the company inevitably faced criticism.

Why didn’t the company protect the VTuber?

Why did they allow the VTuber to retire?

Why didn’t they care for the VTuber before their mental health deteriorated?

Even if it was just the company taking the heat, that would be fine, but other colleagues get criticized too.

Although I’m not sure, when I posted my announcement about quitting as a VTuber, my fellow VTubers might have been blamed by the viewers.

You should’ve looked after Rion better. You should’ve guided Rion more. You should’ve collaborated more with Rion to share some subscribers.

And maybe even Rion’s seniors were blamed, or juniors like Anna might have been criticized as well.

‘Maybe it’s better if I take all the heat from now on.’

Is this the so-called world where no one gets hurt?

It doesn’t feel particularly pleasant.

But having turned my back on the fans, I figured this would be my fate.

“I’ll start once a few more people gather.”

-Nyan ha

-Why don’t you add nyan anymore?

-Nyanyanya, why no nyan???

-Where’d you sell off your concept?

“Well… I have something important to talk about today. So, I’m trying to avoid anything that might seem playful.”

I spoke politely.

…Ugh, it’s giving me chills.

As a manager, I had tried to be mindful of how I spoke. …A manager saying “nyan nyan” would sound ridiculous.

Still, while I could use formal language in chat, saying it out loud felt incredibly embarrassing.

It was the backlash from having played the role of a concept-heavy VTuber for so long. …If I had known it’d be like this, I should’ve gone with a more ordinary style like Anna.

“The reason I started streaming so suddenly today is because I need to explain something. I want to clarify that Aurora, our company’s new VTuber debuting this Saturday, has never engaged in smurfing, nor is she a secondary account.”

I displayed several documents on the screen.

“These are official documents issued by Deadraus Korea, the company that operates Labyrinthos VR. I personally took my unnie, Laura, to Deadraus Korea to get these.”

“Some personal information has been redacted to prevent misuse, but these records show Laura’s account history. As you can see, Laura has never created an alternate account through bypass authentication.”

“Additionally, I’ve prepared records showing that before playing Labyrinthos, Laura was playing Heroes. I’d like to emphasize that Laura only started Labyrinthos relatively recently.”

“…And in case anyone thinks the documents were forged or don’t belong to Aurora, I’ve also prepared a recording of a Deadraus Korea employee verifying them.”

I played the recording.

While rare, there are cases where a VTuber retires right after their debut.

In most cases, it’s because their past wasn’t exactly clean—perhaps a history of compensated dating or a one-night stand.

Of course, a tainted past can easily lead to a loss of public favor.

So I did everything I could.

“And here are records of the biometric authentication for the VR capsule, Laura’s Heroes playtime, and her purchase history for PC equipment and VR gear…. I gathered as much evidence as possible, thinking it would help convince everyone. Honestly, it nearly killed me trying to get all this together.”

-Why so thorough? LOL

-Where are all the jerks who called her a smurf?

-They just sucked and blamed her for being a smurf~

-So she’s just pure talent???

-She’s a total genius…

“Yes. Laura is really that skilled… That’s why our company brought her on board.”

I subtly exhaled with relief. It seemed like the suspicions surrounding Laura being a smurf had finally been cleared up.

But a few challenges still remained.

【OO has donated 1000 won.】

【But how did Rion’s cousin end up debuting as a VTuber?】

“…Ah, I should’ve turned off donations for this stream. Give me a second to disable that.”

Receiving donations during an explanation stream doesn’t leave a good impression, so I hurriedly turned off the donation feature.

“I’ve already announced that I’d be transitioning to a staff role. But I want to clarify that this has nothing to do with Laura’s debut.”

“I’ll explain more in my personal stream, but my transition to staff was decided a long time ago. Laura’s debut was only decided recently.”

“Laura hasn’t even debuted yet. So, before her first stream, I’m here as staff to explain all this in advance.”

“And, well… it’s true that I was the one who convinced Laura to debut as a VTuber. So you could say I’m taking responsibility for that by doing this stream.”

-Trying to boost your performance?

-Rion, I didn’t think you were this scary.

-Ambitious much?

-Rion, you had such ambition!

“Performance…. Let’s just say it’s something like that…. If Laura succeeds, it’s all thanks to me for bringing her in…?”

Even though they were misunderstanding something, it wasn’t entirely wrong, so I decided to accept it.

I knew. The more you try to come off as perfect, the more things tend to fall apart.

Better to embrace an odd meme than try to act flawless and end up in worse shape.

‘…Rather than having my unnie or the company take the blame, it’s better for me to be seen as an ambition-driven lunatic.’

It didn’t feel entirely fair, but what could I do? …If I was going to take the heat, this much was nothing.

In fact, it was almost satisfying. Being labeled as someone obsessed with promotion wasn’t the worst misunderstanding.

…Right?

“And another thing… ‘Since Nekozuka Rion is the princess of Cat Planet, is Aurora also from Cat Planet since you’re related?’ I’ll leave that to your imagination. Please look forward to Laura’s debut stream.”

After that, I answered several more questions from the viewers.

Is it true you’re living with Laura? What was that appearance on Anna’s stream before the debut? When exactly was Laura’s debut decided?

There were a lot of questions, but with the big smurfing controversy resolved, the rest went smoothly.

Except for one.

-So why did she behave so poorly?

“…….”

I hesitated for a moment.

I hoped it would get buried by the rapidly flowing chat.

But reality rarely unfolds as optimistically as one might hope.

-Why did she teabag people?

-Stop dodging. Explain the bad manners.

-Okay, she’s not a smurf, but why did she do that?

-There’s clearly an issue with her personality.

“Well, about that…”

That was something I couldn’t prove with documents.

I had brought proof that Laura had never been warned or restricted for bad behavior in-game.

But then they’d probably respond with, ‘Just because she wasn’t penalized doesn’t mean it’s okay to behave that way.’

In the end, people see what they want to see, and hear what they want to hear.

When it comes to abstract concepts like morality, this is especially true.

Some take thoughtless actions or remarks way too seriously.

And arguments intended one way often get twisted to mean something else entirely.

Small things often turn into big deals.

How many VTubers had to apologize for petty reasons over the years?

‘…Looks like a signal was sent to the Labyrinthos Gallery.’

Some people probably hated Laura after losing to her. Some had complaints about her and vented on the forums.

And then some used Laura to rile up those with grievances. Maybe even fans of rival pro teams that had lost to Laura.

So, they ended up disliking Laura even more.

Maybe they didn’t like the idea of someone they disliked becoming a VTuber. But since she wasn’t a smurf, they ran out of things to say.

So now the only thing left was to attack Laura’s personality.

If an argument about her personality grew big enough to force her into early retirement, someone would definitely feel satisfied.

I don’t know if it’s because modern society makes them crave instant gratification, or if that’s just their nature, but…

Sigh.

I let out a sigh.

“Laura is—”

Screech.

Before I could finish my sentence, the door suddenly opened.

“Oh….”

I was caught off guard by the unexpected situation. My door had never opened like this before.

Of course, Laura always called me on the phone if she needed me.

Laura had never come to find me in person.

“…Uh, unnie?”

“Mind moving aside for a moment?”

Laura approached with a gentle smile.

As always, her steps were elegant and relaxed.

But so natural that I couldn’t read her movements.

So, when I realized it, she was already standing right next to me.

When did she get this close?

Before I could even wonder, Laura leaned in to look at the monitor.

“Nice to meet you all. I’m Aurora.”

She spoke directly into the microphone.

Naturally, I had been using that microphone just a moment ago. It was positioned close to my face.

As a result, her hair brushed against my cheek.

A shampoo scent, like the fragrance of roses.

For some reason, I felt dizzy as the scent filled my nose.

If I turned my head, our cheeks would probably touch.

Still, just from glancing at her side profile, I found myself holding my breath.

“I’ll start my stream soon. See you all on my channel.”

-Tap

With those words, Laura placed her hand over mine.

Her slender fingers pressed down on the back of my hand.

Soft. …Hard to believe from someone who spends all her time playing games.

It felt like my soul was being stolen by a devil.

-Click

Laura applied a bit of pressure, gently pushing down on my index finger.

With that, the mouse I was holding clicked, and the ‘End Stream’ button was pressed.

The stream ended.

“…What? Wait…! Unnie, what are you doing? Why did you end the stream on your own…?!”

“You looked tired, Rion.”

-Swish.

Her hand left the back of mine.

But her warmth still lingered on my hand, like a memory.

“Take a rest.”

“……”

I opened my mouth, but no words came out.

Laura simply smiled and left the room.

***

@Aurora_EYEAI

[I’ll be doing my first stream as a test before my debut.

【Viewer Participation】 How well does tea pair with a retirement cake? 【Aurora/EYEAI】

I look forward to your participation, everyone.]