First Broadcast
The Celestial Project had already advanced to the third round.
As a result, the audition participants had begun opening their personal livestreams one by one, and the streamers belonging to The Six, the company running the project, were streaming themselves watching those participants.
[Whoa, is that one of the interviewers?]
"Hey, I told you brats not to make it obvious!"
LOLLLLLLL
No chance
Tester call on
Bear the weight of Taesan
Meanwhile, Taesan, a well-established mid-tier streamer under The Six, wanted to watch the participants' streams but was constantly hindered by his viewers.
"Calm down already, you guys. Because of you, no one's able to stream properly."
Whenever he tried to watch, dozens of viewers would flood the chat, spamming and startling the participant—or even directly addressing him, asking what they should do—completely breaking the flow of the broadcast.
In the end, Taesan left the participant's stream again and went to check out others.
"This time, don't cause trouble. I just want to see the participant's natural stream."
Ah, yes lol
You all heard him, right?
scratch scratch
Sighing deeply at his useless warning, Taesan scrolled again—when a certain broadcast title caught his eye.
(A Needle in a Pouch – Miro)
"A Needle in a Pouch?"
Since Taesan had been scrolling from the bottom to check the less-viewed streams first, it wasn't until later that he found Miro's broadcast—already boasting 50 viewers, compared to the usual 20–30 others had.
"Isn't this the otaku one?"
Yeah lol
Got a decent number of viewers
I dropped in earlier, it was pretty good
Honestly, the voice alone carries
Recalling Miro's performance during the audition, Taesan entered the stream.
Onscreen was a typical streamer's content: an "Ideal Type World Cup" bracket, this time with famous J-pop songs.
[What should we do this time?]
'The voice really is nice.'
Everyone's voice is different, but by Taesan's standards, this was easily among the top-tier tones of all the participants.
[Huh? The chat's moving a little fast.]
And the moment Taesan joined, his viewers followed in droves, wrecking the chat.
"Damn it, you guys again!"
He scolded them sharply, but they didn't care—in fact, even more of them piled into Miro's stream.
Growing anxious, Taesan watched closely.
Then, Miro's avatar frowned and spoke while glancing at the chaotic chat.
[Taesan? Who's that? Anyway, let's do this one.]
LOLOLOLOLOL
Taesan's a has-been hahaha
How can you not know Taesan if you're streaming on Dwitch? Yeah, she's hopeless
Just washed-up trash lol
Technically, this was a participant who didn't even recognize him—a second-round interviewer, no less. But Taesan let out a quiet sigh of relief.
I stared at the waiting screen of the J-pop "Ideal Type World Cup" bracket.
"Should we do a 64-song bracket?"
Three minutes per song, 64 songs total—that was nearly 190 minutes.
No no no
Go for 128
Taesan showed up, at least greet him
We've got time, let's do 256!
Shut up, Taesan stans
Glancing at chat, I saw people pushing for 128 or even 256 songs.
'Isn't that way too much?'
128 songs? That's insane.
"I'd like to listen to each song fully before deciding… wouldn't 128 be too many?"
If they were famous J-pop tracks, I probably recognized them from memory—but recognizing and actually listening weren't the same. I knew the lyrics and melodies, but this was my first time really sitting down to hear them.
It was a good chance to explore songs I'd missed and gauge which ones my viewers liked. Still, 128 was too much.
But if you do 64, too many songs get left out
Yeah, everyone goes for 128
Wow, ignoring Taesan like that ;;
I frowned at the chat.
'Who the hell is this Taesan they keep going on about?'
Just now, a flood of viewers had barged in. Even with follower-only chat on, some disruptive messages slipped through.
If I were a desperate contestant chasing numbers, I'd welcome them with open arms. But me? Not so much.
Even when I had only 50 viewers, I was running things just fine. Now it had doubled to 100, but nothing really changed.
"Give me a second."
Reluctantly, I opened another window off-stream and searched up Taesan.
'Oh, he's that interviewer.'
A streamer under The Six, the company running this Celestial Project. He was the one who had smoothly handled that ad-lib I threw out during the audition.
'And so what?'
I'd been grateful then, sure—but right now, he was a nuisance.
Gaining viewers was nice, but I wasn't in such a rush.
So I made a bold decision.
"Taesan, you're watching right now, aren't you?"
The chat instantly stirred, and soon a verified streamer's message popped up.
-(Taesan): Yes, I'm very sorry. I just wanted to check out the participants, but my viewers ended up causing trouble.
"No, no, no need to apologize."
I smiled—and clicked on his ID.
"I'll unblock you later."
And with that, I banned Taesan on the spot.
Sometimes, you had to cut the problem at the root.
After all, the people disrupting chat were all his viewers. Without him, they'd leave soon enough.
I turned my eyes away from the chat.
"Alright then, shall we listen to the first song?"
The chat was no doubt on fire, but I ignored it and clicked the music video.
"I'll focus on the song for now."
And so I did. Normally, I preferred to close my eyes while listening, but since I didn't know Japanese, I kept them open to read the subtitles while the melody flowed.
"Nice."
On screen, a female singer stepped forward with a guitar slung over her shoulder, strumming along with the band as she sang.
The lyrics—longing for a man she'd dated for years and then lost—resonated with me somewhat, and the highlights scattered throughout were pleasing to the ear. The instrumental was flawless, and above all, the singer's delivery was excellent.
Damn lol
This is it
The goat..
Auto-win
When the song ended and I checked the chat, things had calmed down a bit—everyone was posting their thoughts on the song.
"This one's famous."
Recalling the details I had deliberately pushed aside while listening, I gave my evaluation.
"The song and the performance are flawless, and the emotions of letting go after a long relationship—longing yet relieved—were expressed beautifully. So, my objective score: three points."
???
Why only 3?
At least a 4, no?
Out of 5, right?
"Yes, it's out of 5. As for the missing 2 points—well, first of all, I can't really relate to the lyrics."
?? Why not?
Never had a breakup?
Guess they've never been in a long relationship
"I've never gone through a breakup, so I can't connect with breakup songs. And while the song's good, I'm not a fan of ballads in general."
That was one of the few things male Kim Soohyun and female Kim Soohyun had in common.
Ballads… to be honest, weren't they just for karaoke? For some reason, they never really stuck with me.
Then—ding!—a donation alert popped up.
[OO sent 1,000 won. Thank you.]
Do you have a boyfriend?
"Boyfriend? I'm an idol, so of course I can't have one."
That was my personal belief.
An idol is supposed to be a symbol for their fans.
An idol with a boyfriend?
Sure, idols are still young people with every right to date. But at the very least, they shouldn't flaunt it in front of their fans.
Not that I carried any real sense of "idol duty." What I was doing was more like pseudo-idol work anyway. Still, the fact remained: I didn't have a boyfriend, and I didn't think I'd get one anytime soon.
And besides—
'Isn't this exactly the kind of stuff they eat up?'
I couldn't deny there was a bit of calculation in my answer.
"Oh? Suddenly all these subscriptions? Thank you so much."
See?
Just by revealing that I had no dating experience, five out of fifty viewers immediately subscribed.
I read out each subscriber's name with thanks, hiding a smile.
'Five subs… how much does that add up to?'
Probably more than minimum wage once the payout came through.
Keeping a straight face, I queued up the next song.
This time, it was a male singer.
The music video showed a gentle-looking man strolling through quiet streets, singing a love song. It carried that uniquely Japanese neighborhood vibe. His smooth voice, paired with a distinctive melody, made it one of those songs that was simply satisfying to listen to.
Damn lol
This one hits too
Auto-advance
So good
The response was positive again. Well, of course—it was a famous track, and the kind of song every otaku viewer who tuned in for a VTuber like me would already know.
[From: Music Critic Miro, 1,000 won. Thank you.]
What score do you give this one?
I mulled it over.
"Hmm… I really like this unique melody. And the atmosphere of the MV is wonderful."
Having never traveled abroad, the imagery of strolling through Japanese streets tugged at something in my heart—it felt oddly romantic.
"My personal rating: four points."
With that, I advanced the male singer's track.
Why deduct a point?
"Why? Because I don't really like love songs. Minus one point for that."
I shrugged as I said it.
And while listening to the next round of songs, I noticed more paid subscriptions coming in, and I couldn't help grinning to myself.
'Well, I wasn't lying anyway.'
Since it was my genuine opinion, everything was perfectly fine.