NOVEL NEXT chapter 243
Getting in touch with Darami turned out to be way harder than I thought.
Usually, hobby streamers feel a lot of pressure when someone with a higher status reaches out. So when a big-name streamer suddenly contacts them, they tend to reply quickly.
(3 days ago)
[Me: Hello, Darami-nim]
[Me: I’m Assistant Manager Magia from Parallel’s streaming division]
[Me: I’m reaching out because we’ve received a joint sponsorship proposal]
[Me: Since we were connected through Thunderbolt Metropolis, I thought it’d be great to collaborate]
[Me: Please DM me if you’re interested]
(Today)
[Me: Darami-nim, if you see this message, please get in touch]
Even sending DMs through Pazijik Streamer Discord didn’t get a single reply.
That went on for an entire week.
“Seriously, she’s incredible in so many ways.”
Does this person just… not do social interaction?
I already had the impression she didn’t really enjoy hanging out with people.
But her standing has changed.
She used to average under 50 viewers, and now she casually pulls 1,000.
At that level, even if she doesn’t want to, collab offers come in naturally.
Is she really ignoring all of them?
Or is it just uncomfortable for her, so she’s forced to avoid them?
Eventually, I ran out of patience and decided to just show up on her stream.
If she doesn’t check Discord or personal messages, fine—that’s her style.
But she can’t exactly ignore someone who shows up in her chat or drops a donation.
[Darami]
[(🔴Live) DARAI NEVER DIE] 👪 2,194 viewers
#Mephisto #VTuber #RPHouse
So after a few days, I visited Darami’s stream—and wouldn’t you know it?
She just happened to be doing a DARAI RP live on stream.
I’d peeked in on her a few times since Thunderbolt Metropolis ended.
She’d usually just do her usual streams, but today—since she was playing a game called Mephisto—she seemed to have slipped back into RP mode.
Mephisto is a TRPG-style game, where players write their own storylines and enjoy the dopamine hit of random dice rolls.
She must’ve wanted to play a villain again after a long break.
In that case, maybe it’s better if I suggest just playing together for now?
Interrupting her mid-game with “Hey, let’s do an ad together” might come off rude.
“She’s not gonna reply with ‘Who are you?’… right?”
I thought it over, then cautiously typed in chat, one character at a time.
It’s not like I go around making public appearances in other people’s chats very often.
— Assistant Manager Magia: Whoa, it’s Darai in another world 😨😨
— ?
— Uh
— ??
— Wait what, it’s Magia 🤣🤣🤣🤣
— Magia? 😂😂
— LMAO
— Manager Gia noticed this stream!
— Wait, what’s Magia doing here?
The streamer herself was too deep in her RP to notice, but the chat freaked out.
Some viewers were worried I might be waiting too long, so they started sending donations to get her attention.
:: Anonymous donated 1,000 Clouds! ::
:: Hey hey hey hey heyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yaaaaaaaaaaaa ::
:: Anonymous donated 1,000 Clouds! ::
:: Look at the damn chatttttttttttttttttttt ::
:: Anonymous donated 1,000 Clouds! ::
:: Yo you goddamn mule LOOK AT CHAT!! ::
:: Anonymous donated 1,000 Clouds! ::
:: What are you, a racehorse? ::
— 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
— She really never checks chat, huh 😂😂😂😂
— Just look!
— Why do people even watch if she doesn’t interact?
— Because it’s hilarious
— Yeah, honestly… because it’s funny
— Watching her is just funny lol
— No one came here expecting communication anyway 😂😂
Eventually, 1,000 wasn’t enough, and people started dropping 10,000.
That finally made Darami notice me.
[Who showed up? Manager Magia? Who’s that supposed to be?]
— ?
— ??
— ?
— I’m shaking
— No f*cking way 😂😂😂😂😂😂
— She still hasn’t looked up the Thunderbolt Metropolis RP?
— Nope
— She really hasn’t lol
— What even 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
— Girl please catch up already 😂😂😂
:: Anonymous donated 1,000 Clouds! ::
:: We screamed and begged and she STILL didn’t look it up ::
:: Anonymous donated 1,000 Clouds! ::
:: She’s a menace in every sense of the word ::
:: Anonymous donated 1,000 Clouds! ::
:: I’ve been watching her for 3 years. Please understand. She’s always been like this… ::
The native fans started calming me down, hoping I wasn’t too pissed.
But honestly, I wasn’t mad.
If anything, it was refreshing.
Lately, when our members collab with others, the other side acts so timid we have to reassure them just to talk normally.
Darami, though?
All she did after Thunderbolt Metropolis was send one quick message to Pino and me saying we did a good job.
Then she vanished back into her isolated corner, streaming solo ever since.
Anyway, I was just about to donate ₩100,000 to reveal my identity properly, but…
[Ma…gi…a… Ma…na…ger…]
Darami finally opened the search bar and started typing my name.
Boom—my TreeWiki page popped up right at the top.
Below it, a list of YouTube videos.
First, the Tia memorial edit on Parallel’s official channel.
Then, the Red Hood Extermination from Mugeon’s POV.
As soon as she saw them, it was like something clicked.
She opened the TreeWiki article in full.
I heard a few scroll noises, and soon enough she landed on the Thunderbolt Metropolis section and took a deep breath.
[…This person is Tia? Why?]
She sounded genuinely shaken, and the chat exploded.
— We told you about this already?!
— Crunch snap crunch snap crunch snap crunch snap crunch snap
— LOL
— Seriously lol
— You forgot everything we told you after Thunderbolt ended, didn’t you?
— Did she even read chat back then? 🤣🤣
— I swear she actually didn’t know…
— This is the real horror arc
— Snap crackle crunch
Anyway, I must’ve been a big enough guest.
Darami quickly scrambled to give me a proper welcome, raising her voice:
[Wait, are you seriously that Tia? Tia for real? No, wait—should I not be using casual speech? Are you… Tia-nim? What am I supposed to call you?]
:: Anonymous donated 1,000 Clouds! ::
:: Just give her the silver sword, lol ::
:: Anonymous donated 1,000 Clouds! ::
:: There’s too much damn chat, she can’t tell who’s who ::
[Ah, the silver sword. Right, of course.]
Thankfully, she had plenty of experience appointing chat moderators to people who dropped by, so soon enough my username had a blue sword icon—signifying chat manager status.
Normally, only folks like me, Seung-yeon, and Jay got that.
But sometimes it was used to mark close streamer friends as special.
[Tia, say something. No—Gia-nim? Say something!]
— Just pick one already 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
— 😂😂😂😂😂😂
— This or that or this or that
— Aaaargh I can’t
— 🗡Assistant Manager Magia: Speak.
— Aaaah I’m losing it
— Oh my god
— 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
— Kyaaaagh
[Ooh, now I can see it. What brings you here? I mean—what brings you here, respectfully?]
If I left her alone, she’d probably keep mixing up Tia and Gia until the stream ended.
Anyway, I’d come to suggest playing Mephisto together, so I decided to slip into Tia RP mode a little.
— 🗡Assistant Manager Magia: Puhuhu, still as scatterbrained as ever, Boss?
— Ohhh
— What the
— IT’S TIA!!!!!!!!!!
— They’re together again!
— Wait, can we even call them “bodies” if they’re both dead?
The viewers were losing their minds.
And just as I expected, Darami’s energy spiked instantly.
[Hey, hey, Tia. I’m the biggest baddie in this world now, okay? Got a 200,000 Lord bounty on me.]
As always, this person’s immersion level cranks up the moment someone plays along beside her.
Whether or not the viewers like it...
For now, it seemed easier for her to stay in the Darai–Tia dynamic, so I leaned fully into the RP.
— 🗡Assistant Manager Magia: 200,000 Lord bounty? Sounds like a cute little rodent.
[Excuse me? You think you can talk big when you don’t even know what’s going on?]
— Oh
— Five
— Are we reassembling Red Hood in a fantasy world? 😂😂
[…Hmph. Tempting offer, but I’ve got it handled just fine on my own. You can just sit back and watch from the sidelines. Why? Because I can use magic now. Those bounty hunters coming after me? I knocked them all out with a single Fireball. Want a demonstration?]
— 🗡Assistant Manager Magia: Now you’ve got my attention.
[Right? I’ll help summon you in the village, so let’s go on an adventure together. We’re gonna flip this world upside down.]
— 🗡Assistant Manager Magia: Sounds good. I’ll be there soon, so keep adventuring while I catch up. Fufu.
[Good. I was getting hungry anyway, so I’ll eat and take a short break. Don’t take too long. This boss doesn’t like waiting.]
— 🗡Assistant Manager Magia: Got it, heh.
That Darami’s viewer count started spiking over the next thirty minutes was only natural.
I’d left enough bait at the end of Thunderbolt Metropolis.
Some of the viewers who enjoyed Red Hood’s story arc wanted to see what we’d do next, if anything.
Other groups—like the police, hospitals, businesses, and mafia—had all done collabs and built rapport throughout the week.
But Red Hood? We all went off to do our own thing. (Except Darami.)
Maybe that’s why today felt like a rare chance.
News of the reunion spread quickly through the community, and even Pino showed up in chat.
— Park Inyeong: This might… be the birth of a dangerous combo (quee~)
— You of all people shouldn’t be saying that 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
— 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
— She actually said it herself 😂😂😂
— This is Red Hood 🤣🤣
— I missed this chaos 😂😂😂
Of course, just like when I showed up, Darami didn’t recognize Pino either.
[Park Inyeong? Who’s that supposed to be?]
— Agh
— Seriously
— You absolute gremlin
— AHHHHHHHHH
— She’s unbelievable
— ROFLMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
It didn’t help that Pino’s streaming username is “Park Inyeong.”
After a long back-and-forth with the chat, Darami finally figured it out.
[Holy crap. You’re the Aimu papa from Coral Blue? No way, no way, no way.]
— 🗡Park Inyeong: Yep, I handled all the short and bob cuts.
— Damn
— Big Pino
— Her rigging skills are elite
— But her investments suck
— You though 😂😂😂😂😂
[I love Aimu. I was actually just watching a dubbing clip of her on YouTube the other day. The voice acting was amazing. Can’t remember who it was though.]
— ?
— ?
— ??
— Just shut your stream down and go live a normal life
— ?
— Ma’am, it’s time to retire
— Haa…
— ?
— ??
— You’re unreal 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
— ?
— 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
— Fuuuuuuuuuuuckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
Then, once she realized I was the one who did the Aimu dub, Darami straight-up performed a grand bow to the camera, her face completely out of frame.
[I’m so sorry!! I’m a worthless piece of trash for not recognizing that!!]
— Yeah yeah
— Do better next time
— Sorry… she’s just like this…
I could hear her thumping the floor and squeaking out apologies—it wasn’t hard to imagine the chaos. I was already logged into Discord and could barely keep from laughing.
Classic Darami.
Honestly, it had been ages since I laughed this hard during a collab. Which only made it even more fun.
Anyway, after a bit more time, the three of us finally logged into Mephisto and met up in a multiplayer room.
Pino made the first jab.
“Still bad at the game, huh, Boss?”
Darami snapped back with a toss.
“Hey! I told you—I’ve got a 200,000 Lord bounty on my head!”
And I finished it off with a clean spike, officially confirming that Red Hood was back.
“Pino-unnie, don’t trust a word the Boss says. I mean, she claims she’s got that bounty, but I ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) seriously doubt it~ Hehe.”
“Right? I figured as much too.”
“Argh! Seriously. If you’re just gonna talk smack, get out of the party! Leave already!”
“Nope~.”
“If Tia stays, I’m staying too.”
“Hah. Some crew you guys are…”
— Let’s goooo
— Time to dive in~
— Red Hood fantasy arc, LET’S GOOOOO 😂😂😂😂
— This is so unhinged I love it 🤣🤣🤣
— Man, I missed my spicy Red Hood stew 😂😂
— Been only a week but it feels so good to see them again, damn