— Lapits (VTuber) Gallery —
[ㅁㅈㅇ What’s up with them?]
What is this? Is this a resignation signal?
[Comments]
— Lapits835: No way, lol.
— Lapits732: If you check the neighboring gallery’s updates, they’re completely loyal to Parallel. No way that’s happening, lol.
ㄴ Lapits919 (OP): Then what the hell is this? LOL.
ㄴ Lapits732: Dunno, lol.
— Lapits671: How the hell are we supposed to figure out what a hardcore sniper is thinking, lol.
ㄴ Lapits919 (OP): Are all snipers usually like this?
ㄴ Lapits671: Probably.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
— Lapits (VTuber) Gallery —
[Holy shit, is it just you guys at Parallel getting this trickle-down effect?]
I had a slight feeling when I was making gear with Serena,
but now it’s really hitting me hard.
This is basically melted candy water.
It’s so damn sweet. Tasty as hell, lol.
[Comments]
— Lapits702: The guys are losing their minds right now, lol.
— Lapits126: This is a festival.
— Lapits252: Serena is on the verge of tears, lol.
ㄴ Lapits351: Holy shit, 15k viewers? Damn.
ㄴ Lapits511: They all rushed over because of Serena’s potion, lmao.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
It wasn’t just Lapits-affiliated VTubers.
The entire Lapits fandom was getting overwhelmed by the sudden influx of attention.
Especially the second-generation members.
Parallel’s first-gen VTubers usually pulled in 4,000–5,000 viewers on average.
Since the second-gen debuted later, their numbers were still at around 2,000–3,000.
Even with the special boost from Wicker Town, they rarely went beyond 4,000.
But after Magia started mumbling Lapits Potion Good, Serena suddenly had 15,000 viewers.
And the other second-gen members, her peers, naturally climbed up to 6,000.
Considering that the trickle-down effect even reached first-gen members,
15,000 was an insane number.
That was the same as Iona, the top first-gen Lapits member and their “big sis,”
who currently had 15,000 viewers on her live stream.
But it was hard to just be grateful when the one responsible for this “promotion” was Magia.
Did she have some kind of agenda?
It would be weird not to look into it.
Ding! Ding!
[Incoming call: Momo]
Right on cue, Momo sent a voice chat request.
“Guys, give me a sec. Gotta take a call.”
Iona immediately muted her stream mic and entered the voice chat.
[Hello, Iona? Can you hear me?]
“Yeah, I hear you.”
[So, um. That thing with Gia mumbling about the Lapits Potion? We didn’t tell her to do that. I think she’s just really into her Demon King role right now.
It looks like a lot of people are suddenly flooding toward Lapits, so I just wanted to clear up any misunderstandings.]
Momo wasn’t lying.
After all, she didn’t fully understand Magia’s thought process either.
It wasn’t like Magia hadn’t surprised them plenty of times before.
This was just another one of those moments.
And to be fair, Serena’s potion was legitimately effective.
But Momo also knew that Lapits found the meme "Parallel flop = Lapits boom" to be frustrating.
So she could at least guess that Magia might be trying to clean up that perception.
If left alone, it would blow up during the Gald Cup,
and then she, Seung-yeon, and the chat moderators would have to deal with all the chaos.
In reality, Magia’s move was working surprisingly well.
Even while other forums were debating, "Is this just an elaborate way of mocking us?",
Lapits’ gallery was simply celebrating.
A flood of new viewers was rushing in,
and their VTubers were getting a massive boost in numbers.
Even if the one responsible was Magia, an employee of Parallel.
Even if there was a bit of trolling mixed in.
What did it matter?
At the end of the day, the one who had helped Serena the most was Magia.
Anyone who had been watching /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ this server event could see that.
So even Parallel’s own people weren’t really worried.
— Parallel (VTuber) Gallery —
[There they go again.]
What the hell has she latched onto this time? LOL.
[Comments]
— Parallel934: No idea, but from the perspective of the ones getting targeted, it’s just hilarious, lol.
— Parallel732: Magia’s just vibing. Random Potion, Random Potion, Potion Select, Potion Select... R P C H, R P C H, R P C H, R P C H...
— Parallel241: She never fails to surprise me, lmao.
— Parallel820: Are there too many viewers? Did her brain short-circuit?
ㄴ Parallel363: Yeah, even for Magia, 50,000 viewers is no joke, lol.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Maybe she really was just shocked at the fact that 50,000 people were watching.
Even Do-hee could only sum it up by saying,
"Magia just did a Magia thing again."
[I mean, she’s been hanging out with Serena this whole server event. They’ve been helping each other a lot, so maybe she just figured she’d promote her while she had the time...?
But like I said earlier, the most likely explanation is that she’s just having fun playing the Demon King role.
If this causes any issues, I’ll take responsibility later.]
“......”
But Iona couldn’t easily believe that.
They were rivals.
And Magia had been aggressively promoting Parallel from the very start.
Sure, she might have helped Serena because of their past connection in the I’m Wolf collab.
But there was no reason for her to support all of Lapits.
And Lapits had thrown down the gauntlet in this competition.
As a Parallel employee, wouldn’t Magia at least hold some resentment over that?
“...Doesn’t Gia like Momo and the Parallel first-gen members the most?”
[Yeah?]
“Then there’s no real reason for her to help our members, is there? We’re competitors, after all...”
That question might have irritated Momo.
But Iona couldn’t help asking.
She simply couldn’t understand Magia.
From what Momo knew, Magia was wholly dedicated to making Parallel the top VTuber group in Korea.
Day and night, she worked toward that goal.
... But even with that dream, Magia had never once considered trampling others to rise to the top.
She believed that Parallel could climb high without resorting to such tactics.
There was a CEO leading the company.
There were top-tier entertainers handpicked by that CEO.
And if those entertainers, along with their support staff, worked hard enough, success was inevitable.
More than anything, Magia saw all VTubers as potential oshi.
She didn’t care about nationality or company affiliation.
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
Would she have helped Serena, who was struggling alongside Merisha like two lone survivors, for no reason?
No, it was because their situation reminded her of Parallel’s first-gen members pushing forward without a CEO.
That similarity had tugged at her heart.
[At the very least, the Magia I know just likes VTubers. Of course, she has preferences, so she does have oshi and non-oshi within that group. But as long as you’re a VTuber, you can easily enter Magia’s sphere of interest. That’s probably why she helped Serena.]
“...But still...”
[Just because someone is a competitor, does that mean we have to attack them? To slander them? Isn’t that the real abnormal mindset?]
“......”
Iona felt too ashamed to say anything.
She hadn’t assumed that Magia was actively trying to screw them over.
But she also hadn’t considered that she might be genuinely helping out of goodwill.
“...I’m sorry. That was an inappropriate question.”
[No, it’s fine. Honestly, I probably would’ve asked the same thing. Because, well... even I don’t always understand what Gia is thinking. But one thing I do know is that she’s not doing this out of spite for Lapits. Everything else, I’ve already explained.]
Iona’s face was burning.
[If you’re really curious, why don’t you join us for the Demon King Castle raid later?]
“...Huh? Why?”
This chapt𝒆r is updated by frёewebηovel.cѳm.
[You’ll see for yourself. Whether Gia truly favors only our members... or if she just genuinely loves all VTubers.]
Of course, there would be a difference in how she treated them.
Magia had a clear sense of loyalty, and she truly wanted Parallel to succeed.
But when it came to situations like this, where she could mess with VTubers (in ways that weren’t physically harmful, at least), she never held back.
She would absolutely prank everyone equally.
That was just the kind of person Magia was—an ex-elite VTuber troll.
She never passed up an opportunity.
[I can guarantee this—Gia will screw with all of us equally. She’s such a menace that she lives for moments where we suffer. I’ll probably be the one who gets it the worst, though...]
Iona hesitated.
Was it the right move to accept this alliance?
If she did, the company might give her a warning.
They might ask why she’d align herself with Parallel in such a risky way.
But... she was curious.
Iona wanted to see with her own eyes and hear with her own ears whether Magia truly treated everyone equally.
And if she had been wrong about Magia,
if her assumptions had been mistaken,
she wanted to acknowledge that and reflect on it properly.
“...Alright. We were short on people anyway. Let’s form an alliance.”
***
[Next round, Parallel-Lapits alliance incoming.]
“Seriously?”
[Yeah. They’ve joined hands.]
The news that Parallel and Lapits had formed a joint raid group reached me soon enough.
Movgun, who had taken it upon himself to manage the Demon King Castle raid queue,
let me know that they were coming up next.
I couldn’t hide my excitement.
So I turned off my screen without a second thought.
— Wait, what?
— What the hell?
— Nooo, I can’t see!
— My eyes!
“Just one minute. I prepared something special for the VTubers’ arrival.”
The Demon King Castle ran in 30-minute cycles,
with the next 30 minutes dedicated to adjusting the monster placements and structure of floors 3 and 4.
And this game—64Cubix—allowed me to save multiple floor layouts as presets.
Truly an incredible system.
Considering it was originally built as a 3D programming tool,
I could see how that development history played into its mechanics.
Anyway, I quickly loaded my preset and turned the screen back on.
Movgun had already run up to the fourth floor and was utterly shocked by what he saw.
[Oh. So that’s why people have been freaking out after getting past floor 4...]
“The version you just saw is exclusive to VTubers.
And, by the way, there’s even more in the Throne Room.”
[Wait, so... what was up when Lupko and the other streamers came by earlier?]
“Oh, that? That was different.
For them, I just compiled all the most embarrassing videos of the players on this server and played them on repeat.”
One example:
Lupko once played Baseball Manager and pulled a Korean player card with terrible stats.
His immediate reaction?
He cussed it out.
...And then he realized what he had just done,
apologized profusely,
and even bowed his head in shame on stream.
The situation was eventually resolved amicably,
and he even collaborated with that player later on,
but still.
It was undeniably a black mark on his career.
So naturally, when he saw it being played back,
he froze in sheer horror.
[Why... Why would you do this? You’re a truly wicked being, Demon King...]
And the reason?
It was simple.
If people got angry, they would attack me more aggressively.
The more aggressive they were, the faster my HP would drop.
And the more HP I lost...
...the more opportunities I’d have to drink Serena’s Potion.
For that to happen,
the players had to hate me enough to go all out.
Never forget.
From the start,
I had only one goal today.
Lapits Potion... really is the best.
‘...I wonder if they’ll even make it past floor 4 in time.’
The fourth-floor exhibit was a collection of every VTuber’s debut stream—
A full-on blackmail showcase.
Would they make it through?
...Well.
If they didn’t,
I’d just pocket their entry fees.