ALL NOVEL Chapter 15
While Miro was cheering with her fists clenched in excitement…
The community, too, went ablaze in response.
[Miro passed with flying colors, lololololol]
(Avatar picture of Miro)
What?? Miro didn’t pass?
No way, lol
From today, this gallery is ruled by Miro!
-It works out like this
Yeah, she was already at the top tier for viewers, so it’s weird for her not to get in, right?
-Dude, how does Harbin even come close to making sense against Miro?
-Who even is Harbin? lol
-Oh, just some rapper.
[From today, she’s the gallery master]
(GIF of Miro celebrating after passing the audition)
She’s pretty,
Her voice is nice,
And she sings well—
Just… the G.O.A.T. of auditions.
-Stop it already.
-How can you even judge someone’s looks when you’re broadcasting from behind a panel without knowing if you even have a good face, huh?
-Seriously, you think her voice isn’t good while looking like that?
-(What you think is reality, Kon)
[Miro swearing because she thought she failed]
(Clip of Miro mumbling quietly after the 5th person is announced)
-Damn, how did this even happen…
-I figured she’d definitely pass, but seeing her getting nervous made it kind of hilarious, lol
-What’s that “nervous” about?
-I was just playing League and chilling until they announced the participants.
[Hey, kids, we’ve played with these toys for a while, right?]
(Avatar picture of Miro)
Should we look for new toys now?
Hey, guys?
-You’re calling yourself a toy, gallery master? Ha… bring it on.
-This guy clearly isn’t in his right mind.
[Miro getting picked is ridiculous…]
While other kids were trying to maintain their viewers by bringing new games, creating content, and singing like mad,
What did that Miro do?
Just went live when she felt like it, chatted around, and bam, she’s got viewers and passed the audition…
It’s frustrating… If I had a good voice like that girl, I wouldn’t have to go out for labor tomorrow, right?
-This guy is unbelievable.
-If you’re jealous, why don’t you just be a girl? lol
-You’d still need to have a voice like Miro’s even if you were a girl, lol
-Just don’t try to understand it and accept it, you idiot, lol What can you even do?
-You think your words are profound?
-What’s it to you? Miro’s the one who passed, and you’re just some loser slogging away, lol.
-Deep stuff…
Even after the results were announced, the community continued to be set ablaze with discussions.
Once Miro’s broadcast ended, she was invited to a Discord Channel.
***
After all the results were announced, late in the night, the company arranged a meeting for chat with other successful candidates.
At the same time, they created another Discord channel that seemed like it would be used continuously in the future.
[Celestial Realm Project Season 1]
Looking at the fact that it’s called Season 1, does that mean there will be Seasons 2 and 3?
Or maybe they just slapped that on to sound fancy.
“Ah, uh, hello?”
Since everyone else had already jumped into the call, I felt a bit late as I entered, but other successful candidates greeted me warmly.
“Miro is here!”
“Oh! Welcome!”
“Nice to meet you!”
“Hello!”
“Come on in!”
Hearing the first greetings stirred some mixed emotions within me.
Have I really been influenced a lot by Female Kim Soo-hyun?
To be frank, the crowded atmosphere felt a bit overwhelming.
“Ahaha… Nice to meet you all.”
I answered a bit dazedly, and the women on the other end of the call burst into laughter.
“What’s this? Is that the vibe you were going for? Hahaha!”
Such a boisterous woman’s voice.
So that must be Mile?
I hear she’s been doing her own broadcasts for a while now.
She boldly made a new Dwitch account and applied for the audition under a new avatar, and she passed.
“You’re quite shy, huh?!”
That high-pitched voice… must be Maho.
She’s been posting J-Pop cover videos on YouTube for quite a while now, but does she speak with that kind of anime-like tone in real life? I thought that was just for broadcasts. Could it be she thinks this call continues with her job?
She’s, in many ways, a professional.
“Miro, are you really 21 years old?”
That voice belongs to… Haru, right?
It’s a rather youthful voice that appeals to a certain demographic.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Wow… can you call me ‘unnie’ just once??”
Unnie…?
That’s a title I hardly ever heard, even from Male Kim Soo-hyun, let alone Female Kim Soo-hyun…
Right, since we’ll be working in the same group now, I guess it’s fine to call this level of intimacy.
“Haru unnie?”
“Wow… this feels weird.”
“Weird in what way?”
“I hardly ever get called ‘unnie’ since I’m an only child.”
“Oh, me too. I don’t really have anyone to call me that except my cousins, so it’s awkward.”
It’s not just the title; this entire situation feels awkward.
Can’t we just talk without me in the mix?
“Oh? Then you should call me ‘unnie’ too!”
“Me too, I want to hear Miro call me ‘unnie’.”
“Me too!”
That was the chorus from Maho, Mile, and Loa.
Wait, am I the youngest here?
Well… at 21, I guess I’d usually be the youngest wherever I go…
“Alright, shall we create a group chat first?”
In this awkward moment, it was Anna, suspected to be the eldest, who came to my rescue.
Her gentle voice broke the tension, setting the topic toward creating that chat.
“A group chat? Sounds good!”
“Can everyone share their phone numbers, then?”
But a group chat?
I recalled my profile picture.
It was a shot of me holding a beer in front of a convenience store.
Personally, I think it’s a nice picture, but I decided to change my profile.
Because… if people were to see me like this now, wouldn’t they react like, “Wait, Miro, you were such a beauty?” later on?
After pondering which picture would work, I hastily saved a picture of a female character from a trending anime for my profile.
Isn’t that a bit too much nerdiness?
But… for a beauty like me to have an anime profile picture would be a reverse charm.
Perhaps I’d get messages from high school friends or college peers I didn’t really interact with much, going, “Hey Soo-hyun, did you see that too? I thought it was fun!” like that.
I might sound delusional, but if one were to look at my message board filled with unread messages, they’d understand how out of touch I am.
Quickly changing my profile picture, I left my phone number in the Discord channel, and Anna saved them all and created the group chat.
[Anna invited Kim Soo-hyun, Kim Ah-rin, Maho-hyun, Lee Yoo-ri, Han Na-ri.]
Everyone’s real names, huh…
Anna must be Anna, and Maho is likely Maho, right? The others are a bit confusing.
“Okay, everyone’s here? Now, could you leave your nicknames in the chat? As you can see, I’m Anna.”
(Lee Yoo-ri): I’m Mile!
(Han Na-ri): I’m Haru.
(Kim Ah-rin): I’m Loa.
(Me): I’m Miro!
(Maho-hyun): I’m Maho, Anna unnie took her name from yours too, right?
I double-checked my nickname and name two times and memorized them carefully. Except for Mile, most of the names had similarities to their real names, so memorizing them wasn’t too challenging.
“Isn’t it okay to just do this with our voices?”
“Still, sending them in this chat feels like there’s a trace of our conversation, right?”
“Oh, I see…”
Listening to the conversations of the other members through my headset, I examined their profile pictures one by one.
First off, Anna seems to have a white cat as her profile picture with a huge image of its face plastered on.
Mile’s got a group picture with a friend as her profile…
Haru has a picture from a trip with friends.
Loa, seemingly fond of cooking, has what appears to be a dish she made as her profile.
What the heck, why is everyone so normal?
Even Maho, who covers J-Pop often with a local flair in her speak, is cosplaying as a normal person with nothing but a dog as her profile.
And here I am, the only one with a profile picture featuring just the upper body of a female character.
“Oh? Miro, have you seen that idol’s eyes?!”
Just then, having spotted my avatar, Maho asked me with her signature upbeat voice.
“Oh, yes… I found it fun, so I put it up.”
“Oh? I know that one too. Viewers were talking about it! What do you think about it?”
As I responded to Maho, Mile chimed in.
“Well… I think it’s the best of the new releases.”
“Oh… Miro, you seem quite picky, huh? About manga or anime.”
How did she know that? Did she watch my broadcast?
“Did you watch my broadcast?”
“Of course! Everyone probably did!”
Mile’s words caught me off guard. Even though I’m at the top tier for viewers, I haven’t watched other participants for long stretches since there’s a time overlap with others.
“Why’s that?”
“Well… it’s always you coming up when I do an ego search in the community.”
“Ah ha…”
The one to answer my curiosity was Anna.
So Anna also searches her name occasionally.
“I also saw the community. Calling you the gallery master or something?”
“What’s that gallery master?”
“Oh, I think the gallery master is someone the community users like the most.”
Followed by Haru, Loa, and Mile’s comments.
So everyone saw me in the community and came to listen to my broadcasts.
*Sigh*… That’s a bit embarrassing.
Well… I ego search too, so I feel like it’s a natural thing for a broadcaster to do, especially since we’re all participating in auditions.
“Right, right!”
As I was feeling embarrassed alone, Maho, seemingly remembering something, clapped in excitement.
“Miro, that song you posted? It was really good! I’ve listened to other covers of that song, but yours was the best!”
“Oh right. After hearing that song, I started watching Miro more closely.”
That was Mile and Anna commenting in succession.
Compliments coming from a former musical theatre actress and a J-Pop cover YouTuber…
My shoulders lifted enough to reminisce about receiving compliments for my singing, which hasn’t happened often…
“Haha… you all sing well, though. I just practiced that song a lot.”
“Sure enough, it’s apparent you have a good grasp of singing.”
The understanding of singing? The vocal teacher said it’s important, and Anna also mentioned that.
“Is that right?”
“Yes, it is. By the way, what was your criteria for song selection?”
“Um… Something I like? Something I liked before.”
“Oh, it makes sense then… I could feel your love for the song.”
Anna, a former musical actress and thus a candidate for being a singing expert, continued to praise me.
Seemingly impressed by my singing, I thought I should sing for them after such praise, don’t you think?
“Ah, did you really enjoy it? Should I sing for you guys now?”
It seemed only natural to bring it up at this point.
Having learned, shouldn’t I show off a bit? I could try singing a song I learned recently, and since I learned it for a few weeks, I ought to be able to sing it decently for future colleagues.
“Yes? Really?”
“That would be awesome!”
Seeing the others cheerily react, I cleared my throat.
Right, these folks are decent singers, but I need to set the mood, even a little, right from the start.
I’m confident with this song.
With that, I adjusted the microphone, set the echo, and played the MR I had downloaded for my vocal academy sessions while recalling the theories I’d learned all this time.
Even moving the chair out to stand fully.
From my toes to the top of my head, singing is a full-body resonance.
I straightened my back and tightened my abdomen.
Slowly inhaling halfway, I waited for the perfect timing.
I had sung this song close to a hundred times.
I could nail the timing flawlessly.
As the prelude of the song finished, I sang confidently.
As expected, my efforts didn’t betray me.
“Wow!!”
“Incredible!”
“Wait, it sounds even better live!”
For the very first time, I heard genuine cheers not only from my vocal teacher but from other people as I successfully finished singing.
“Ah, I can’t just sit back and listen to this! Maho’s going next!”
“Well then, I’ll go next!”
And so, what I initially worried might be an awkward first meeting with the successful auditioners poured into an incredibly nice atmosphere, and we only disbanded late into the night.