[PIN0: RELEASE STAFF-DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII]

    For a moment, Do-hee wondered if this person was also part of the notorious spam mail brigade, but she calmly replied.

    [Me: This is Pino, right?]

    [Me: You haven’t been hacked, have you?]

    [PIN0: I’m on my third can of Predator White. I have one project I need to finish today, another due this week, and three more due next month. Please save me. MiMax is trying to kill me.]

    Judging by the way he was talking, he was still sane.

    Even if he was barely holding it together because of the sheer amount of work.

    [Me: You have debts to pay, don’t you?]

    [Me: Gotta work hard, what else can you do?]

    [PIN0: KYAAAAAAAH]

    [PIN0: SO UNFAIR SO UNFAIR SO UNFAIR SO UNFAR SO UNFAHR SO UNAFR]

    [Me: Please calm down...]

    The amazing thing about Pino was that even in a state like this, his rigging quality never dropped.

    Some people claimed that once you reached a certain skill level, rigging was just a mindless, mechanical grind.

    But if you really approached it like a grind, it’d be impossible to add those little unique motions that matched a character’s personality and traits.

    The rig Pino sent of Magia was flawless for the amount of time he had put in.

    A smug smirk with one corner of the lips lifted, an awkward smile, a shadow darkening her face as if she had just seen something horrifying...

    It was so accurate that it felt like he had seen Magia in real life.

    ...Though, knowing her, she probably wouldn’t even use half of the cuter expressions he made.

    [Me: I’ll send you the commission request form.]

    [Me: You don’t have to rush. Take your time with the work.]

    [PIN0: I’ll finish it within a week.]

    [PIN0: Staff-D must come to life. That is my one and only mission.]

    That’s when Cheon Do-hee came to a realization.

    This guy... had made another bad investment.

    “He’s really the last person who should be putting money into anything...”

    4.5 million won lost in stock investments.

    3.5 million won lost in crypto investments.

    Luckily, he had managed to borrow money from his family to pay off his debts, but even now, he was still barely scraping by.

    And now, of all things, the new coin he was betting on was Magia.

    [Me: I’ll send the request form first thing tomorrow.]

    [PIN0: Holding my breath. Huuuup.]

    At least, aside from his terrible investment choices, he was a pretty normal guy, and his unique preferences were strictly limited to 2D characters.

    If she handled this well, she might be able to secure an external contract for the second-generation VTubers without much trouble.

    Back when they commissioned Komari’s rig, the dynamic had been completely different.

    It really was Magia magic at work.

    But the real concern was the inevitable escalation of the Magia Fanatics’ aggression.

    Just from revealing the rig alone, they had already received a thousand emails.

    If they actually showed Magia moving?

    She might have to hire someone just to clean out her inbox.

    “...First things first, I need to find a replacement for Gia.”

    There were plenty of ideas for how to utilize Gia moving forward.

    But for now, the priority was hiring someone to take some of Magia’s workload off her shoulders.

    * * *

    "Momo Shower Special Today ??""Momo says: Moe Moe Kyun~""If there’s no stream tomorrow, I’m setting other forums on fire."

    ...Hmm.

    Still, staying completely silent was getting a little boring.

    Maybe I should write something.

    — Parallel Staff-D Mini Gallery —

    [Guys, I figured out the magic spell to summon Staff-D. LOL.]

    [Author: Staff-D369]

    First, open any first-gen VTuber’s stream.

    Then, keep sending the same message using the 1,000-won Punch:

    "Holding my breath until Staff-D appears. Huuuup."

    If you punch a thousand times, Staff-D will appear.

    100% real.

    [Comments]

    — Staff-D301: Staff-D evaluation: Hmm.

    — Staff-D500: There’s no way anyone’s actually doing this, right?

    — Staff-D003: LOL.

    At first glance, it looked like some random nonsense someone just threw together.

    But this was actually a great way to catch certain problematic users.

    Set a trap, and there were always idiots who’d walk straight into it.

    I wanted to hit them with a full-year ban, but that felt a little too cruel, so I just told the managers to hand out one-week bans instead.

    * * *

    A few days later, on the day I was supposed to go to a PC cafe? with the boss.

    The first fool had taken the bait in the trap I set on the gallery.

    [Komari’s chat moderator 1: Someone sent the same 1,000-won Punch message every five seconds, thirty times in a row, so I hit them with a one-week ban...]

    [Komari’s chat moderator 1: But they seem like a well-known person.]

    [Komari’s chat moderator 1: I’ll leave the rest to you, Chief.]

    [Me: Got it.]

    Sending that kind of message every five seconds... that wasn’t just a troublemaker.

    A well-known person?

    Normally, I wouldn’t even care, but the mention of a famous name piqued my curiosity.

    Click.

    I logged in using the main moderation account.

    Then I checked the ban list... and when I saw the username, I blinked.

    [Global Ban (7 days) - pin0_live2d]

    (Click here to see the full list of banned channels.)

    Could be an impersonator.

    But usually, no one bothers copying a rigger’s ID.

    Compared to illustrators, riggers weren’t as well-known to the public, and there wasn’t much to gain from impersonating one.

    Still, I needed to confirm.

    I opened the Parallel Integrated Fan Cafe? and checked the "Jail" section.

    There it was.

    A fresh post from early this morning.

    The account’s ID? pin0_live2d.

    The fan cafe? username? pin0_live2d.

    Just in case, I checked Z’s profile as well...

    PIN0? @pin0_live2d – 2 hours ago

    "The world has stopped."