Bottom-tier voice actress wants to become a big star on VTuber.

During this period, I only practiced this section every day, but the effect was far more than 1+1=2. The barrage of comments that are flooding the screen like a waterfall is proof of this.

Book 1: Chapter 3 Willing to Serve

VTB stands for YouTube Virtual Streamer. Of course, streaming platforms are not limited to YouTube; Twitch is also one of the mainstream platforms.

On Bilibili, Chinese V-rated accounts that stream live are generally referred to as VUPs.

Right now is a crucial time for the V-circle to expand its territory, and established video platforms are gradually falling behind the times due to various factors.

Last year, when the first generation members, such as Tsukino Mito, first debuted, Nijisanji, which was ridiculed for its poor 2D character designs, experienced a period of rapid growth.

Although its early approach of letting things run wild and later cultivating them like venomous insects is indeed somewhat inhumane, Qing Shui Tou really had no other choice.

Even if Anzu existed in this timeline, he couldn't possibly wait until the HoloStar project was announced before debuting, could he? By then, it would be too late!

The advantage of debuting as a solo artist is that you don't have to share money with the company, but the disadvantage is that you not only don't have a big company to rely on, but you also have to spend your own money on costumes and planning.

If Shimizu Toru were a girl, she could get a suit from Parry and register it under the P-family name, but it's really too difficult for a male VO to get ahead without a corporate background.

Until he transmigrated, most of the top male VTubers were from Nijisanji, and people enjoyed seeing them engage in CP (couple pairing) activities with female members of the company. Unlike Xingnan, who not only failed to gain popularity but also faced backlash.

For her debut performance, Shimizu Toru didn't intend to imitate a certain Japanese maid to create a show effect; she just followed the pre-prepared procedure.

After introducing myself, including my name, hobbies, and artist, I chatted with the audience and answered their questions. Before I knew it, it was time to go off-air.

Of course, considering that relying solely on being a trilingual broadcaster would make it too difficult to truly break out of the niche, he still prepared a surprise for the audience.

In terms of gaining followers, in an era where even Kizuna AI, the top figure in the Vocaloid community, only has a few hundred thousand followers, even if he can create as many interesting content as Salome, getting a Silver Shield won't be easy, since the pool is only so big.

However, in order to monetize the content as quickly as possible and achieve the goal of expanding his fan base and gaining wider reach, Shimizu Toru had no choice but to resort to a tactic that could only be used once and for a limited time – plagiarizing songs!

Although VTubers like Chima Machida, Midori Sen, and Chitose Kuon, who have outstanding singing abilities, have already debuted, and Kaede Higuchi held Nijisanji's first solo live at the beginning of the year, there are still not many people in the group submitting cover songs, let alone original works.

Coincidentally, as a newcomer in the trend of idolizing voice actors, Toru Shimizu began receiving professional vocal training as early as the second day after joining ARTSVION.

Because of the guidance and support of his mentors—he has a wide vocal range, good timbre, and outstanding control and expressiveness—after correcting his previous bad habits, he is already at a level where he can debut as a mainstream solo artist.

By the standards of a certain content creator who updates annually, she would be considered a near-excellent singer (B-), but debuting as a VTuber is actually a case of being outclassed.

But there's no way around it; the voice acting industry is just too competitive. The cast of today's popular anime series is still the same familiar faces, and newcomers have no chance to stand out.

Even someone like Hina Yoshimiya, who is backed by Aoni Productions, took four years to get her first lead role and won the newcomer award the following year.

The others in her band were practically unknown, aside from the BonBon Project, making their situation truly miserable.

Toru Shimizu doesn't want to follow the same old path as most veteran voice actors: one year as an extra, two years as a supporting role, and three years as a lead role. He has his own plan for how to start his career.

But I digress. Let's get back to the live stream.

As the initial one-hour broadcast was about to end, Shimizu Toru said, "Thank you everyone for joining me today, see you tomorrow~".

The live stream interface, which should have switched to the ending animation, suddenly went dark for a second before two beeping sounds like telegrams.

Then three cartoon characters with a style resembling Fujiko F. Fujio, also known as Doraemon, appeared on the screen, and Toru Shimizu's singing voice began to play.

"Hi, happy to help! I'm at your service anytime!"

"Hey, I know~ I'm happy to be there for you anytime you need~"

That's right, Shimizu Tosho's first song was "Willing to Serve" released in 2024 by Kansei Kento, the younger brother of Kansei Masaki.

How popular is this song?

Released only six months ago, it was featured on the year-end Red and White Song Festival and has over 1.5 million views on YouTube, earning it the nickname "Working People's Little Song".

Toru Shimizu doesn't actually have many songs available, only a dozen or so in total. The reason he played his trump card right from the start was to make a name for himself immediately.

He even spent money to make a music video for it. Fortunately, the animation for "Willing to Serve" is simple. If it were like the original songs by Sister Xing and Captain, where you could see a list of familiar faces in the industry when you opened the staff list, he would rather do it like everyone else and make it a one-image video.

Although it was released a few years earlier than expected, the audience—especially those who have already started working—still felt a strong connection to the lyrics.

Even setting aside this segment of the audience, the song's highly addictive nature is enough to captivate the ears of the vast majority of people, and the barrage of comments instantly began to flood the screen.

Especially at the end of the music video, when the lyrics, music, and vocal sections all displayed the name "Toru Hanyu," the barrage of comments went wild.

In other words, in order to improve his live stream performance, Shimizu Toru upgraded his graphics card and other hardware for games that have high equipment requirements, otherwise his computer would freeze.

【Huh? An original song?】

White teeth? What kind of deity is this?

Mommy, come out and see God!

Is he really a genius?

"That concludes today's live stream. The music video has been uploaded to YouTube. If you liked it, don't forget to follow! See you all tomorrow!"

Shimizu Toru's end-of-stream waiting animation was also drawn by someone she commissioned, and it's somewhat similar to Ange's later end-of-stream ending theme.

It's a live wallpaper featuring a virtual avatar resting its chin on its hand, holding a mouse in one hand, and blinking every two seconds.

The opening animation shows a virtual character running with big strides, with a constantly spinning Earth beneath their feet.

Including the cost of upgrading computer parts, purchasing sound cards, microphones and other live streaming equipment, as well as producing music videos, he basically spent all the money he earned as a personal shopper after transmigrating.

If this can't be monetized soon, I'll have to ask the landlord for leniency next month's rent. Hopefully, YouTube will give Nijisanji some face.

After the broadcast ended, the staff member responsible for communicating with Shimizu Toru called immediately: "Toru! You're going to be famous!"

"The data is good?" He took a sip of warm water infused with dried sea buckthorn fruit, and the clear water made him relatively calm.

After all, he even brought out a powerful weapon like "Willing to Serve". If he didn't get any feedback, wouldn't that be too bad?

"The highest number of simultaneous connections reached 12,000! And it's already on the trending list!" The staff member's voice trembled with excitement, even more so than Shimizu Toru, the main character.

"Ten thousand connections? Well, that's not bad, it's a good start."

Having witnessed Salome's incredible achievements—100,000 followers on her debut day and a million subscribers in just half a month to earn the Gold Shield—Shimizu Toru's judgment is undoubtedly exceptional.

However, in an era where only a handful of members in Nijisanji can consistently achieve 10,000 simultaneous connections, his achievement is indeed commendable.

He had already made a plan for how to proceed steadily and surely.

Volume 1: Chapter 4 Voice Acting Offer

Just like in the original timeline, "Willing to Serve" generated a great response as soon as it was released.

So much so that the next day, Shimizu Toru could be heard discussing the song at the agency, but no one was discussing [Hanyu Toru].

That's not surprising. There are plenty of people whose songs are popular but who aren't. Otherwise, there wouldn't be the saying that Nan Yihuan is popular while Jing Tian is not, or that Zhuang Xinyan is popular even though she sings.

Moreover, he was just a new VTuber. At that time, VTubers were still a small, self-contained circle, far from the popularity that Hideo Kojima later gained by planting Easter eggs in Death Stranding 2.

Fortunately, Shimizu Tomo has a whole set of strategies for breaking into the mainstream. If one song isn't enough, just release a few more.

If Zhuang Xinyan could have several hit songs on every album like Milk Tea Lun did before he gained weight, how could she not become famous?

Moreover, his selling points go far beyond just his singing ability; Shimizu Toru hasn't forgotten that he's a game character.

Unfortunately, the most popular games right now are either PUBG or Pot Man, and the game that can showcase his extraordinary skills won't be released until the end of the month.

As for APEX, which later saw widespread participation, although it had been online for a month, many members of Nijisanji had streamed it at the beginning.

However, due to issues such as optimization problems, frequent bugs, and server instability, there aren't many people playing Pie now, and it's still far from the large-scale events with hundreds of participants like in the later V-League.

There aren't many games that are most suitable for Qing Shui Tou's live stream right now, but the one that can attract the most attention is still MC, or [Minecraft].

The 19 Rainbow Robe series was full of amazing episodes, with a large-scale drama unfolding every day that no one could predict.

Shimizu Toru was lucky enough to catch the first MC battle royale on the Rainbow Server, but the project hasn't started yet, so tonight's live stream content is actually a collaboration with Otogihara Eryo's classmates.

"Tou-kun, you've passed the audition for the role." Just then, his manager, a regular employee in his early thirties, walked in.

With a broad smile, he clapped his hands and said, "Your first voice acting role is a character with a name and a surname. That's a great start. Keep up the good work!"

"It's all thanks to the agency and you, Sakazaki-san. Otherwise, even if Furukawa-senpai needed to focus his energy on One-Punch Man 2, I would have had a hard time getting this benefit."

Shimizu Toru quickly stood up, humbly playing the role of a newcomer in the Japanese workplace, otherwise her reputation would be damaged.

The Furukawa-senpai he mentioned is Makoto Furukawa, who voices characters such as Saitama and Miyuki Shirogane.

The anime that the two were competing against each other single-handedly boosted the sales of the original manga, making it the number one best-selling anime in Japanese history, "Demon Slayer."

Just by looking at the voice cast, you can tell that Ufotable is aiming for year-round dominance. The main characters, the nine Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps, and the twelve Twelve Moons are all voiced by well-known voice actors.

Even though they only appeared in one or two episodes, the lower-level demon with eyes growing from its palm was voiced by Jun Fukuyama, while the hand demon was voiced by Takehito Koyasu, a professional pervert.

Shimizu Toru passed the audition and got the role of Goto—not Pochi-chan—who made an appearance when he delivered Tanjiro to the Butterfly Mansion.

He originally wanted to compete for the role of Murata, the swordsman who used Water Breathing on Mount Spider, because he would have more screen time later on, since he survived until the end.

His voice is also similar to that of the original voice actor, Koki Miyata; both are androgynous and suitable for voicing teenagers.

Given that the other party has basically retired and hasn't been involved in work for the past few years, the difficulty should definitely be lower. Unexpectedly, when one thing fails, another succeeds.

"By the way, the audition you asked me to send to Sony, I've already asked someone I know to help me deliver it to them. Do you really think that game called 'Genshin Impact' is that good?"

Sakazaki Daisuke took a glass of water but didn't drink it. He just held it in his hand and said, "I don't know where you heard that, but the game hasn't even started its closed beta yet."

Genshin Impact's first closed beta test was on June 21, and the PV "The Wind Catcher in a Strange Land" was only released on Bilibili on the 28th, so it certainly wasn't very good-looking.

Shimizu Toru, on the other hand, clearly knew how big a trend Genshin Impact and its successor Honkai Impact 3rd were, and how many previously unknown low-tier players had turned their lives around and become famous through Genshin Impact.

In addition, Old Mi is known for his preference for using acquaintances. As long as he can get an offer from Genshin Impact, he can get on board for Honkai Impact 3rd and even the Nexus Zero.

If you're incredibly lucky and manage to get a popular character like Xiao or Tartaglia, the popularity can even benefit Toru Shimizu himself, making it a win-win situation.

"There's no other way. There aren't many opportunities in anime productions, so I can only take on more work in the gaming industry. I have to make a living, after all."

Shimizu Tomo subtly changed the subject, as it wouldn't be appropriate to say that he was reborn and even knew what the next era name would be.

"As for games... our company recently received an invitation to do voice acting for a Chinese mobile game called 'Langrisser.' Would you like to give it a try?"

Langrisser?

I vaguely remember this game, Shimizu Toru. I think it was a strategy RPG mobile game, based on an old Japanese IP, and developed by Zlongame.

He originally thought that if Old Mi didn't think much of him, he would try his luck with Hypergryph. He had to catch up with either Genshin Impact or Arknights, right?

However, since a job has come knocking on my door, I can't just turn it away, especially since I haven't even secured next month's rent yet.

"Understood. Sakazaki-san, please send me the requirements, and I'll go for the audition tomorrow."

Seeing that he readily agreed, Daisuke Sakazaki, as if he had thought of something, revealed a mischievous smile and said, "Alright, I'll send it to your email right now."

After finishing his drink of water, he left the lounge in a few steps, and a few minutes later his clear Google email account received a new email.

Then a character design image that was likely to fail to pass censorship appeared before his eyes.

—No? Wearing black stockings and a school swimsuit with arm guards over them, even a little brother would get a slight erection as a sign of respect.

The female character, whose heart is bigger than her head, is still quite outrageous. Is there some mistake?

It's not that Shimizu Tomo can't be paired with female voices; thanks to his wide vocal range and his naturally neutral voice, female voices are actually within his comfort zone.

By simply raising the vocal position slightly, she can produce a girlish voice that is in no way inferior to Akari Kitō's.

But starting with a female character in drag, isn't that a bit odd?

What if Langrisser ever starts broadcasting? Wouldn't that be a total disaster?

It's still the 1080P ultra-high definition kind, that kind of future, ee-ya-da!

Book 1: Chapter 5 Ovdose

The initial release and the popularity brought by "Willing to Serve" were like the dazzling neon lights of Ikebukuro at night—brilliant but short-lived.

Looking at the backend data, Shimizu Toru saw that the number of channel subscribers was indeed steadily increasing, but there was still a visible but intangible distance before monetization and the Silver Shield.

Just then, a new message popped up on Line.

"Tou-kun, your song 'Willing to Serve' has become popular on Nico Nico Douga, and many singers are covering it."

The staff member in charge of him has the online name "Cirno is not stupid" and her profile picture is of an ice fairy, so everyone usually calls her "chan".

Shimizu replied with a meme of Reimu drinking tea, but her inner thoughts were as blank as when Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact—completely devoid of Poland.

These days, his songs are popular, but he himself isn't. The traffic belongs to the platform, the popularity is short-lived, and not a single penny of the money goes into his pocket.

He stared at the glaring balance on his mobile banking app: 83500 yen.

The rent for that studio apartment in Ikebukuro is due on the 5th of next month—85000 yen, not including utilities, internet, and even the most basic food expenses.