I May Be a Virtual Youtuber, but I Still Go to Work-Chapter 89
[Dingsam: You have been successfully registered as a participant, Magia.]
[Dingsam: The draft auction is on Friday, January 5th, so please keep that in mind.]
[Dingsam: Looking forward to your great performance! ^^]
[Assistant Manager Magia: Thank you.]
[Assistant Manager Magia: Wishing you a Happy New Year.]
[Dingsam: Same to you, Assistant Manager Magia.]
Whether it was thanks to Lupko’s quick work or just good timing, it took less than two days after the Pazizik year-end party for Dingsam—the event organizer—to contact me.
For the record, Dingsam was also part of the Makgeolli Crew, meaning he had gotten an earful from Crkemang two days ago.
The reason? He insisted on speaking formally to me, even when told to drop the honorifics.
...I couldn’t help but feel a sense of camaraderie with him.
Even if someone tells me to speak casually, I can’t do it unless I actually feel comfortable with them.
Anyway, my participation in the competition was now confirmed, and tomorrow, the finalized player list would be officially announced on Dingsam’s stream and the event page.
That meant it was time for me to start preparing in earnest.
You might think, “Doesn’t everything reset when teams are assigned?”
But in reality, competitive success isn’t just about the team you end up on—it’s about how well you synergize with them in the week leading up to the event.
No matter how good your FPS instincts are, if you don’t adapt to the game, you’ll fall behind in an instant.
And if there’s one thing I learned from managing the team on the Wicker server, it’s this:
In environments packed with streamers, people naturally gravitate toward competence.
If you’re good at what you do, they follow.
And if they follow? Networking becomes a whole lot easier.
Just look at Lupko.
Back during I’m Wolf, we barely spoke.
Now? He’s handing me a competition spot on a silver platter.
All because I helped bankroll a ton of in-game money on Wicker.
So, I had to go all out again.
Not just to avoid tarnishing Parallel’s name, but to actively boost its reputation.
* * *
The next day, I got a message from Serena.
[Serena: Want to practice Combative together?]
It was an unexpected offer, but honestly, perfect timing.
I’d been debating who to learn Combative from anyway.
Dora was busy with the Brass-Silver-Gold Invitational for Naore,
Komari was occupied coaching her,
Maru and Rain were drowning in ad campaigns and recording new cover songs,
And the boss—now deep into second-gen recruitment—had even less time for streaming.
A moment of silence for her dwindling work-life balance.
Anyway, this meant Serena was now my Combative coach.
So, I asked the most obvious question.
“What’s your Combative rank, by the way?”
Just like how Koreans instinctively ask each other’s age when they meet,
gamers—especially those grinding the same genre—always start with rank.
I was already a Diamond-tier player in Battle Colosseum, so if she ranked lower than expected... well, I wouldn’t hesitate to claim the top spot.
[I’m barely hanging onto Diamond.]
No matter how lenient the matchmaking is, Diamond is still Diamond.
“I’ll be in your care, sensei.”
[Ah, ugh... Please don’t say that. It makes me uncomfortable.]
Maybe because I’d gotten closer to Serena lately, I couldn’t resist messing with her a little.
“Sensei~ Arigato gozaimasu~.”
[No, please. I’m begging you. Just talk normally....]
I later found out something interesting.
Serena introduced herself as a healing-type VTuber—a soft, round-eyed, pink-haired sweetheart.
But the moment she booted up Combative, she became an entirely different person.
It was like how a normally polite elf suddenly turned into a raging trash-talker in Naore.
Except, in Serena’s case, it was a bit more refined.
She’d usually be muttering, “Oh no, what do we do? This is a disaster... Waaah.”
But in ranked matches?
She’d flip into clean, precise shot-calling and lead the team to victory.
She had already been scrimming for a few days since her tournament spot was confirmed earlier,
And despite this being her first competition, people were already predicting she’d be one of the highest-valued picks in the auction.
Of course, you can’t take everything diehard FPS fans say at face value.
Even I sometimes shower the boss with exaggerated praise on stream just to fluster her. (Usually, that’s the main goal.)
But after playing with her firsthand, I had to admit—she was a phenomenal teacher.
[—— Everything so far applies to all FPS games. From here on, I’ll focus on the key differences between Combative and Battle Colosseum.]
Since she knew I was a Diamond-tier Battle Colosseum player, she skipped over the basics and tailored her explanations to my level.
Honestly, if she had ever picked up teaching as a career, she’d probably be amazing at it.
Weirdly enough, despite being a former idol trainee, she claimed she’d never taught anyone before.
**[There are four classes:
Infiltration – disrupts the enemy with flashbangs and distractions.Striker – follows up and clears the enemy team.Defense – secures the site after a bomb plant.Tactical – controls vision and creates pathways using smokescreens.]**Combative was considered a spiritual successor to the old-school team-based FPS genre.
While it added hyper FPS elements with skills and abilities, it streamlined mechanics to make gameplay more accessible.
That also meant strategies were highly standardized.
Most teams followed the "meta composition":
1 Infiltrator, 2 Strikers, 1 Defender, 1 Tactical.
Unlike Naore, where movement paths were rigidly defined,
Combative still allowed for flexibility, but role distribution was crucial.
Naturally, I was drawn to the Tactical role.
You could use up to three smokes per round,
opening attack routes or blocking enemy advances.
It was exactly my playstyle.
Shotgun + smokescreen?
Count me in.
Or so I thought.
Listening to Serena’s breakdown, I quickly realized that Combative’s smoke mechanics worked nothing like in Battle Colosseum.
In Battle Colosseum, you could drop a smoke in the middle of enemy territory, slip in and out, and completely toy with your opponents.
But in Combative, smokescreens were primarily used for zone control.
Rather than hiding yourself inside the smoke, you placed it where enemies were likely to wait.
The goal was to force enemy movement or conceal how many attackers were pushing a site.
This difference existed because of the TTK (Time to Kill) disparity between the two games.
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
In Battle Colosseum, late-game fights could take upwards of five seconds per kill.
In Combative, with the right weapon, one well-placed headshot was all it took to drop someone instantly.
One-taps were a viable strategy.
Which meant assault rifles were king.
Instead of carefully aiming with a single-shot weapon,
it was often more effective to just spray down head-height while moving.
In other words, my beloved "smoke + shotgun" playstyle...
was useless here.
...Pain.
Serena seemed to understand my playstyle—favoring aggressive pushes and smoke tactics—and after some thought, she suggested:
[From what I can see, Gia, you’d be best suited as a Striker. It’s the simplest role—you just follow the Infiltrators, and generally, the best aimers are assigned as Strikers.]
“Can I use a shotgun as a Striker?”
[I wouldn’t really recommend it. Your opponents will be mowing you down with ARs (assault rifles), while you have to aim precisely and stay within a limited range. Assuming equal skill levels, a shotgun is only viable in very specific situations.]
“But isn’t that based on the pro scene’s meta?”
[Well... yes, but it doesn’t make much difference. You might get away with it here and there, but there’s always going to be a fundamental performance gap. Think of it like weight classes in combat sports—it’s a fixed disparity.]
“...Ah. I see.”
Battle Colosseum also had fluctuating weapon tiers depending on the patch.
It was common for a gun that dominated last season to get nerfed into oblivion the next.
And FPS games were inherently sensitive to balance changes.
Even Battle Colosseum, where kills could take seconds, had meta shifts—so in a game like Combative, where one-shot kills were possible, it was bound to be even more extreme.
So, there was no reason to argue against Serena’s suggestion to use a better gun and play as a Striker.
Still, maybe because she understood my preferences, she added:
[That’s why my recommendation is the Smoker role within the Strikers.]
“...Smoker?”
[Yes, it’s a Striker character, but unlike the others who mainly have movement and attack skills, this one carries smoke grenades.]
“You’re serious? I’m playing that character. No question.”
[Haha... I figured you’d like it, but I didn’t expect this level of excitement...]
“Playing without shotguns and smokes is just boring. So? Can this character use a shotgun?”
[No.]
“...Why not? Can’t I just use the smokes to close the distance?”
[The Smoker’s smokes are meant for escaping, not advancing. If you try using them to push, you’ll just get your head blown off. Combative isn’t Battle Colosseum.]
That damn one-shot kill mechanic.
In Battle Colosseum, you could weave around like a lunatic and still escape.
But in Combative, every move had to be carefully planned, like a game of chess. The whole team had to advance together in a structured, strategic manner.
In some ways, this game was way more suited for professional play—everything was standardized, regimented, and required near-perfect teamwork.
Which meant...
A game like this wasn’t for someone like me, who enjoyed running around with a shotgun and causing chaos.
I’d be dropping this game the second the tournament was over.
But... I still need to perform well.
With five days until the auction, I had to absorb as much as possible from Serena.
And once my team was finalized, I’d have to work on building synergy.
Of course, if the team leader botched the draft, we could end up with a horrifically bad team—one with zero chance of winning.
But that was a problem for later.
For now, my focus was improving my own skills.
“Alright, I’ll follow whatever you tell me to do.”
[No, please—just don’t call me ‘teacher’...! Also, besides shotguns, try practicing with other weapons—]
“If you don’t like ‘teacher,’ should I call you ‘master’?”
[...Ugh.]
* * *
Shockingly, news of me practicing with Serena spread within a day.
Whether it was the idol industry or VTuber circles,
obsessive fans always found out what their favorite streamers were up to in no time.
Maybe my Combative username was too easy to recognize?
I /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ had just used a standard tryhard sniper-bait name...
"KimchiPizzaTangSuyukIsDrenchedInSauce."
A totally common username, right?
─ — Lapits (VTuber) Gallery — ─
★ [Serena was playing Combative privately with Magia?]
★ [Why are they playing in private matches together?]
[Were they always this close?]
[Is this another sign of a Parallel-Lapits connection? 👀]
─ — Parallel (VTuber) Gallery — ─
★ [Shit, does this mean I have to watch Combative now?]
[Is Combative actually worth watching?]
[Battle Colosseum > Combative is the official ranking, remember that.]
[Tbh, Combative is more fun to watch than Battle Colosseum.]
For whatever reason, the hype and speculation around me grew even further.
Especially among Lapits fans.
The 𝘮ost uptodat𝑒 novels are pub𝙡ished on freeweɓnovēl.coɱ.
It wasn’t unusual for group members to be friendly on camera,
but I wasn’t just a regular member—I was Parallel’s staff.
So the fact that I was privately gaming with a Lapits member was fueling all sorts of expectations.
Of course, I wasn’t doing this for some deep, hidden reason.
I was simply treating Serena as my mentor.
And thanks to her, I had actually learned Combative well enough to hold my own.
[Honestly, I didn’t expect you to improve this fast. You’re actually a great shot even without shotguns.]
“...I’d rather not have to shoot at all.”
[Ahaha... well, maybe someday. But by the way, you always use the Mini-Barrel pistol, right? You do realize that’s a shotgun, don’t you?]
“That thing’s too small. I need something bigger and longer....”
This kind of casual banter with Serena would probably end today.
Once the tournament started, we’d be on different teams, competing against each other.
She clearly wanted to end up on my team...
But I was an unknown rookie, meaning my auction bid could easily flop.
Serena, on the other hand, was a Tier 2 shot-caller—every team was gunning for her.
I’d have to get incredibly lucky to land on the same team.
Only a 25% chance.
[Well, I have to go prepare for the auction stream now. It’s been fun the past few days.]
“Whatever happens, good luck in the tournament, Master.”
After four days, Serena had just started getting used to the title,
and she responded weakly.
[...Yeah.]
Joking around like this was my way of showing familiarity.
But... maybe she didn’t quite see it that way?
At first, I thought she’d quickly adjust to my teasing,
but she actually seemed more flustered than I expected.
Well, whatever.
Time to focus on the auction.
Tournament officials had asked participants to stream during the auction,
since there might be mid-broadcast interviews.
So, I logged into TalkCord in case I needed to respond.
I joined the official Pazizik channel hosting the draft,
and the viewer count was already at 50,000.
For just a player auction.
The actual finals would have at least 100,000 viewers on the main broadcast,
and if you combined all streams, the total could hit 300,000 to 400,000—similar to Wicker Town’s closing ceremony.
The sheer scale of these numbers felt completely different from what I was used to.
But realistically, hardly any of them would be watching me,
so I could just sit back and relax.
...Oh, it’s starting.
[The first streamer tournament of 2025—Combative’s draft auction begins now!!]
