The Sakura petals drifted down lazily over the crowd of students.
The class announcements were just posted, and the students were too busy finding their names to appreciate the natural beauty around them.
While I stood there waiting for my turn to peek at the announcement board, I was doing some mental math for the falling speed of the Sakura petals.
‘Five centimeters a second, huh? That’s actually pretty quick.’ I mused.
I’d been at AniMeta University for a few months now and had enjoyed my Minami Mistress as a fun, if spicy, class to use.
However, since Momo upgraded her Kyoko to the Senior Streamer Job, I’d been wanting to join her for some streaming shenanigans.
Luckily, I already had my Bachelor’s Degree and was able to transfer my Minami to an Associate Streamer without too much trouble, but I had to apply for the Magister Degree curriculum to get that coveted Senior Streamer job.
So it was back to school for me. ‘Yay… Fun…MORE School…’ I thought while sighing. ‘At least when I upgrade the job I can earn more $ANIMA!’
The crowd was starting to disperse, so I walked towards the board for a better view. Moving along, I found the Magister Degree section and scanned it for my name.
‘JacksonsWang, JakeFrmSt8Farm, Jeezylouisy… Sheesh, this list is long and suspicious,’ I thought while moving around the board looking for my name.
After what felt like an eternity, I found it. ‘Jimin, Magister Degree Student Number#: 42069’.
I must have been super lucky, or super unfortunate, but I wanted to grab a picture of my student number for some social media clout.
I was admiring the picture I took when someone poked me rather firmly from behind.
“Can you like, move? I’m trying to find my name here, and I can’t see through you!” she said.
I turned around to look at the rude poker and jumped a little in surprise when I saw her.
Her icy blue eyes seemed to stare a hole through my very soul. She definitely saw my jump, and her expression turned a little more sour, yet she was still stunningly beautiful.
“Are you gonna gawk at me? Or are you gonna get out of my way?” she asked rather harshly.
I wasn’t able to muster up a response and simply stepped aside.
As she moved toward the board, I noticed the crowd was keeping their distance from us, and heard whispers from among those watching.
“Whoa, that person got in the Ice Queen’s way and made her angry!” someone said.
“Yikes! They're not gonna make it here if they get on her bad side,” came the reply.
I looked around but couldn’t see who was whispering and snuck a peek back at the Ice Queen.
She was looking intently at the board and before I knew it, I had walked over and stood next to her.
“D-Did you find your name?” I asked, grimacing at my stutter.
Silence. She didn’t even look at me and simply pointed at a name a couple of columns over from mine. ‘Lena, Magister Degree Student Number# 44444’.
“Lena huh? Seems we’re both in the Magister program. I’m Jimin, nice to meet you. Maybe we’ll even have a class together haha. What Senior Job are you aiming for?” I said, offering my hand for a handshake.
She looked at me, then looked down at my hand, and then back at me.
She seemed to be thinking something over when suddenly, she flipped her long burgundy colored hair with an aggressive “Hmmph!” and walked off, leaving me there with the peanut gallery to gossip about my actions and embarrassment.
After that little incident, the rest of the day was a blur. Momo apparently heard about someone upsetting the Ice Queen and she was shocked to hear it was me.
Apparently, Lena was a well-known fashion designer, and her icy demeanor was just as famous, if not infamous, online.
I didn’t want to spend too much time dwelling on the interaction and spent the weekend filling the void inside me with Starcrane items.
Before I knew it, Monday came, and with it, the first day of the Magister Program.
My curriculum was tailored for the Senior Streaming job and included a fair share of technical content. However, aside from the Camera Angles workshop and the Only Friends Marketing seminar, I was looking forward to the Audience Engagement & Simping 101 class the most.
Walking into the classroom, I noticed a head full of very familiar burgundy-colored hair sitting in the very first row. I walked over and sat down next to her.
“Well, well, well, Lena. Hi! Remember me?” I asked with a smug grin.
She stared at my face with a confused expression, and then it clicked.
“Oh no… It’s you. Jimin was it?” she said with a sigh.
“Haha, you remembered. Fancy seeing you here. Are you aiming to be a Senior Streamer too?”
“Yes. It’s an extra $ANIMA income stream, and I want to connect with people more. I really enjoy video games so it made sense,” she said.
“Plus, I want to be known for more than just being the ‘Fashion’s Ice Queen’ and I… wait, why am I explaining all this to you?”.
“I’m a great listener,” I said with a smile.
Before she could respond, the instructor walked in with his assistant, and they headed to the front of the classroom.
“Hallo, I am Professor Nono, and this is my assistant Dunning, and starting today we will grow your Streaming Audience and build your Simp Army,” the instructor said before ripping off his shirt to expose his beefy, sculpted body.
His assistant proceeded to mist him with baby oil and the class broke out into applause. A couple of the female students even fainted at the sight of his chiseled physique.
“Now that I have your attention, let’s begin the class!” Professor Nono said before leading the class through the guiding principles for Streaming Audience Engagement.
Afterwards, he made the class partner up to practice the Engagement activities on their own. Luckily for me, I was partnered up with Lena who was anything but excited to practice.
“Let’s just get this over with,” she said before giving me a very stiff wink.
I did everything in my power to hold back my laughter and followed her performance with the textbook example of blowing the perfect kiss to the audience.
In this case, Lena was the recipient of this wayward kiss, and as she was fumbling about in her seat, the Professor walked by.
“I see you have broken the ice with the famous Miss Lena here. Great work Jimin! Haha!” he laughed while patting Lena on the shoulders.
“I’m glad you two are in my class and look forward to guiding you through the Streamer Magisters Degree curriculum,” the Professor added while flexing his chest muscles.
“My classes will not be easy, no-no, but they will be fun, and when you complete them, you will be as famous as those, how do you say, VTS boys?” he said.
“Ah no, not VTS Professor, it's BT—” I started before Lena cut in.
“Professor, will these exercises really help me make it as a streamer? I swapped from a Designer to an Associate Streamer, but are these really Magister-level techniques? I feel so dumb doing these activities, especially since I’m partnered with Jimin here who is practically a natural!”
‘Oh? Was that a compliment? Maybe Lena isn’t as bad as she seems,’ I thought while feeling my face flush slightly.
“Lena, darling, you’re gonna make it. I promise. You’ve got the looks. You’ve got the style. I hear you’re pretty good at video games. You just need to show your audience the cute side you’re showing now,” Professor Nono explained.
“What? Me? Cute? Professor! No! I mean… Huh? Wait…” Lena fumbled over her words and turned fifty shades of red.
The Professor and I looked at each other and nodded approvingly. We’d just witnessed culture in its purest form and knew Lena was going to become an amazing streamer.
“Lena, I know we just met, but I think you’ll do great as a Senior Streamer. We’ll both work hard, and I’ll introduce you to my roommate Momo who is also a Senior Streamer. Let’s take over the world by storm!” I said while offering my hand.
She calmed down a bit and looked at my hand and back at me a couple of times over.
This time, however, she grabbed my hand, and while looking me in the eye, gave me a firm handshake.
“I-I look forward to learning with you Jimin,” she said. “Let's graduate together!”.
And we did just that. Lena and I both upgraded our girls to Senior Streamers.
Surprisingly enough, after meeting Momo, Lena moved in with us so we could produce collaboration streams.
The bonus $ANIMA income allowed the three of us to focus on Anime Metaverse full time. So we said goodbye IRL 9-to-5 daily grind!