Hobbyist VTuber

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“People die when they do things they’ve never done.”

Even if it’s as trivial as taking steps towards the stairs instead of the elevator you always use.

– Wobble.

“… Ah.”

Losing my balance on the wet step I hadn’t noticed, I went tumbling down.

My whole body ached from the shocks that didn’t let up, but the pain in my head was particularly intense.

Not long after, red liquid dripped down onto my stark white patient gown.

I blinked once against the unbearable throbbing, only to realize I was being carried somewhere.

“You can’t sleep, patient! Keep your eyes open!!”

What I could hear was a voice laced with urgent panic.

What I could see was the blinding light of a penlight flashing in quick succession.

However, just before ten seconds had even passed—

– Swoosh.

I felt the boundary between consciousness and unconsciousness blurring and finally closed my eyes.

I didn’t want to know that I’d never open my eyes again.

As the famous saying from poetry or novels goes, it truly was a pitiful life.

*

– Pat pat.

– Pat pat.

A strange sensation.

“Oh my, who did she take after to be born so beautifully, our Ha-eun?”

“Hm, they say daughters usually take after their fathers…”

“What was that?”

A strange voice.

“Of course, we can’t ignore the mother’s DNA. No, looking at it now, she looks just like you.”

“…Really?”

“Yup, really.”

A strange ambiance.

In a scenery with nothing familiar, the hypothesis that this was all an illusion was completely denied.

The only conclusion I could draw from this surreal yet oddly realistic sight was reincarnation.

‘…What a strange feeling.’

Typically, good people go to heaven, and bad people go to hell.

As for me, was I sent back to this world for having done nothing during my living days?

Thinking about it didn’t seem all that weird.

Yeah, a life just suffering until the end wasn’t quite right.

“Our Ha-eun, let’s say ‘Mommy.’ Mom, ma!”

“What are you saying to a baby who’s not even one yet?”

“Who knows, our Ha-eun might be a prodigy of the century?”

Apologetically, I found myself growing a bit sleepy as I looked into the woman’s expectant eyes.

It seemed as though my drive to sleep was recalibrated to converge closer to zero as my life progress approached zero.

Not long after, I ended up in the land of dreams.

However, the inability to perceive the flow of time was a reality that could be said the same.

“Happy 6th birthday, Ha-eun!”

“Congratulations, our daughter.”

Opening my eyes, I realized I had now become an age where I could walk by myself and even say the word “Mom.”

Without me noticing, infancy and toddlerhood had been erased.

“To make your wish come true, you have to blow out all the birthday candles at once, Ha-eun. So, take a big breath and huff~!”

In a moment, the candles blew out with just a gentle puff.

Just like those extinguished candles, the fleeting moments we had felt regrettably gone.

Of course, while it’s true a child not yet in elementary school could do nothing but eat and sleep, maybe because of the memories from my past life that was akin to being on borrowed time, I wanted to spend even a little more meaningful time.

The morning right after my sixth birthday.

I picked up a small hand mirror from the dresser in the bedroom.

Looking at my reflection in the mirror, I attempted a somewhat serious conversation with myself about what I should do moving forward.

It was merely that the appearance of the young girl reflected in the little hand mirror hadn’t completely sunk in yet.

“Hmm…”

Like those who often experience unrealistic events like reincarnation, my appearance was quite cute and lovely.

Of course, my mother seemed to exaggerate a bit every time she saw me, dying from cuteness.

I couldn’t say I was ugly, not even in empty words.

When someone asked about my future aspirations, I could shamelessly say model or actress without feeling embarrassed.

However, it didn’t mean I had my heart set on becoming a model or actress already.

While my looks were perfectly average right now, there might be some shifts as I grew into adulthood.

As time went on, pondering long about the future of ‘Lee Ha-eun.’

‘…Why are the visitors so entertained instead of focusing on the patient?’

‘Ah, you see, this is a VTuber—’

A memory that had been sleeping at the bottom of my mind briefly awakened and lingered at my ears.

Come to think of it, that career path also existed.

Having read several stories about someone suddenly turning into a woman becoming a streamer or VTuber, imagining a future as a VTuber wasn’t hard at all.

At the time I read those stories, I never imagined I would end up being part of such an unrealistic situation… but what can I do?

Strangely enough, the more I thought about it, the more the option of becoming a VTuber didn’t seem bad.

Especially considering this was an era where the concept of VTubers didn’t even exist.

As for models or actors, the competition was fierce even now.

The entertainment industry couldn’t possibly be called a blue ocean.

However, if I prepared step by step to enter a profession that hadn’t even been developed yet, even before it becomes a red ocean, while patiently waiting for the moment that the impact of the internet surpasses that of traditional media, and then diving headfirst into the blue ocean of VTubers before anyone else,

There, I could grab onto what people commonly refer to as “success.”

No one can predict how things will turn out except for Deity, and that’s why I should choose the path with the least likelihood of failure.

With that thought, as I spread the memories of VTubers like a panorama and met the gaze of the still awkward-looking girl in the hand mirror, I carefully opened my mouth.

“Ha—p!”

In response to a VTuber’s pose inflating her cheeks in a playful manner as a thank you for a donation that came during a stream, I tried to replicate the appearance.

And not even a second passed after that.

“Ribbit ribbit. Are you messing with your mom’s mirror from the morning? Ribbit ribbit.”

“Ribbit ribbit. I guess the story of The Frog Prince you read to me last time left an impression. Ribbit ribbit.”

“…!…!!”

Before I knew it, the playful voices of two shadows standing behind me turned me into a frog.

My cheeks instantly flared bright red, brighter than a tomato.

I felt the emotions of those VTubers, having unintentionally revealed their ‘red pill’ while still an un-debuted little kid.

…It’s already not easy.