Chapter 985

EP.985 [Real Life Side Story] How to Spend the Golden Holiday No.11 – Kim Penril

“Thank you today, nya! See you all tomorrow, nya! Penba!”

-Penba

-Penba

-So, wearing mint-colored panties today?

<Deleted Message>

With a cheerful and lively voice, she greeted her viewers.

The broadcast ended, and after tweaking a few settings on her streaming setup, she promptly shut down the computer.

“…Haa.”

Both the streaming PC and broadcasting PC—she turned them both off, which clearly meant she was pretty exhausted today.

“You’ve worked hard.”

“Mhmm.”

I handed her the mint chocolate ice cream I’d bought in advance for her.

“How was it today?”

“I just wanna quit.”

As soon as she sat at the kitchen table, chopsticks in hand, she took a bite of the ice cream and immediately face-planted onto the table.

“Bro.”

“Yeah.”

“When can I stop doing these streams?”

Unlike her usual energetic stream persona, right now she seemed calm and quiet.

“It’s getting tiring…”

“Are you burning out?”

“Nope, not burnout. Remember when I took three days off last time? Even then, I was busy thinking about content.”

“That doesn’t count as rest though.”

“No… I really rested. It’s not because of burnout.”

While maintaining her ‘nya’ cat concept despite her exhaustion, even with such an absurdly imbalanced character setting, Kim Penril still had plenty of fans.

“I want to quit streaming…”

But she’s under immense stress.

Is it because of the so-called “keyboard warriors” trolling her?

Or people making sexual jokes at her as a VTuber?

Or maybe from juggling her real life and virtual life as a VTuber?

Nope.

Kim Penril’s broadcasts are actually quite clean. Her quirky charm appeals across genders, with a nearly 7:3 male-to-female viewer ratio—an unusual structure in the VTuber world.

While there *are* some troublemakers, the community usually polices itself to protect her mental health.

There’s only one reason why she feels this way.

One single factor that makes her consider quitting:

“I need to have a baby soon.”

“Wha—”

She has two things she wants to do right now.

One is streaming.

The other is getting pregnant.

Ironically, these two goals are difficult to balance.

“Did you know? The older women get, the higher the risks of miscarriage or birth defects during pregnancy.”

Kim Penril—or Kim—

“Bro, were you trying to call me by my real name?”

“…We’re not on stream now.”

“Just call me Penril. We’re not grocery shopping or anything, and we should maintain the concept at home too. Accidentally exposing my real name would be bad.”

“…If that’s what you want.”

Kim Penril buried her head in her hands.

“When I have kids later, I can say their dad works as a PD, but how can I tell them their mom is a VTuber?”

“Why not? These days, some people introduce themselves as web content creators.”

“Nah, being a housewife or analyst sounds better. At least then kids won’t ask questions like, ‘Why does someone keep meowing in a weird voice that sounds like Mom?'”

She stopped eating her beloved mint chocolate ice cream and began scraping it absentmindedly with her spoon, looking serious.

“Anyway, I’m not young anymore. Money aside, I want to become a mother.”

“Already? I hate to say this, but you’re still young.”

“That’s why I’m saying this now. Bro, remember how I cleared that 33-hour game without sleeping? What powered me through that?”

“Donations from the viewers?”

Bang!

Kim Penril threw her arms up dramatically.

It was a reaction from her broadcasts, but honestly, that’s just who she is.

“It’s because I’m in my early twenties! The youthful stamina that lets me stay up all night and feel fine the next day! Do you know why?”

“Because of the love from the viewers?”

“To prepare the strength needed to bear and raise a child!”

Kim Penril puffed her cheeks and gave me a pointed look.

“If I can’t even get pregnant? If I knew this, I wouldn’t have started streaming!!”

“You chose to be a VTuber. Stubbornness and determination got you here…”

“Do you know how low the birthrate is in this country? I want to help increase it, yet why are you stopping me?!”

“I’m not stopping you.”

“Then quietly throw away all the condoms already!”

“…”

At Kim Penril’s tantrum, I sighed involuntarily.

I knew exactly what she wanted more than anyone else, but I couldn’t shake the unease about what would happen once she officially “graduates” from streaming.

“Penril, you’re not independent; you’re part of a company.”

“Yeah.”

“I work as your manager.”

“Mhm.”

“At the very least, shouldn’t we honor the contract period?”

“We’re good enough to ignore that kind of thing, right?”

Kim Penril pulled out her phone and showed me our channel stats.

2 million subscribers.

Based on the videos I edit from her streams and upload to YouTube, we earn approximately 30 million won per month just from YouTube ads alone.

Factor in donations, tips, sponsorships, and other small earnings, and the two of us are running something that could easily be called a “company.”

We joined the agency mainly for scheduling and hiring extra managers to handle overwhelming chat moderation, along with legal matters—not necessarily for money.

“The contract explicitly states that if I get pregnant, I can quit without penalty. Just walk away!”

“Don’t forget—you’re at the top of this industry.”

“Can top-tier VTubers not retire to have kids?!”

“It’ll cause trouble for newcomers.”

What started as a casual hobby turned into a massive hit, catapulting Kim Penril to the top of the VTuber scene.

Originally, Kim Penril did stream, but always kept her face hidden due to personal preference.

Honestly, if she revealed herself, she’d definitely rank among the top five beauties on the platform—but she didn’t want that, so there was nothing I could do.

Because of that, I’m the only one who knows her true appearance.

Our first meeting happened when I was uploading fan-edits of her streams, and she asked if I’d be interested in becoming her editor.

She transitioned fully into VTubing, and I helped rig and model her avatar, leading to a successful second debut.

Now, we live together in a house equipped with an office space—all paid for by Kim Penril’s earnings. Thanks to her success, we lead a fairly affluent life.

‘How did things turn out like this?’

I often wondered how we reached this point, analyzing videos about her rise to fame multiple times.

While Kim Penril has many memes, her biggest appeal lies in her “physical abilities.”

No matter what game she plays, she performs at an extremely high level, resulting in numerous inquiries for collaborations through the company or directly via email.

The issue isn’t that she’s merely “good”—she excels in ways that are perfectly optimized for YouTube video content.

Her 33-hour marathon gaming session brought tears to everyone’s eyes.

She defeated former pro-gamer Nalbil in Warcraft III but maintained a win rate below 22.2%.

And cursed by the dice gods, she always collapses right before first place in board games or gets pushed to second place by meta strategies in RPGs.

Her chemistry with other VTubers also shines, creating legendary collaboration videos every time they team up. Despite consistently hitting 200k+ views per YouTube upload, Kim Penril remains perpetually in “I want to quit” mode.

Financially, quitting now would be foolish.

But if this is truly what Kim Penril desires, then supporting her decision is the right path.

Fortunately, thanks to proactive negotiations with the company, this clause was included in the contract.

“It’s sad to be a woman sometimes.”

“Why?”

“If men said they wanted to have kids, they could just bring the baby on screen and do parenting content, but it’s harder for women.”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

Given the nature of VTubing and streaming, transitioning to parenting content would pose various challenges for Kim Penril.

“Haa, seriously… I just want to have a baby already…”

“…Are you serious?”

I locked eyes with Kim Penril seriously.

“Pursuing pregnancy might mean leaving the workforce permanently. You might never return to the VTuber scene. Are you okay with that?”

“Yeah.”

Kim Penril’s resolve was firm.

“I don’t want to live forever as Kim Penril. I want to live as Brother’s wife and mother to his children!”

“Money?”

“We can survive on what we’ve saved so far. And since I’ve been taking care of myself, I could probably reach out to fashion magazines where I used to work.”

“What? Haven’t heard from them in ages?”

“Actually, I’ve done a few substitute jobs recently. Hehe, that’s how I bought you the 3080.”

“…Anyone listening would think I’m obsessed with gaming hardware.”

Kim Penril’s determination is genuine.

As a man… as a husband, there’s no choice but to support her resolve.

“Alright. Let’s switch.”

“What?”

“The person inside.”

I explained the PPT I had prepared in advance after consulting with the company.

Kim Penril listened intently, nodding while reading through the slides, but her expression remained heavy as she looked back at me.

“Bro, are you sure about this?”

“Yeah, it’s fine.”

“No, what I mean is…”

Kim Penril grabbed my face and leaned closer.

“Working with another woman, will you really not waver?”

“Of course not.”

“…This won’t work.”

Slurp.

“We need to seal the deal tonight.”

Kim Penril licked the remaining mint chocolate from her lips.

Chomp.

Later, the debut of Kim Penril Mk.2 was confirmed, allowing the original version to take a well-deserved break for nearly a year.