Regarding the Respected Maru-nim Becoming a Baby Princess (1)
Stardew Valley. It's a really fun game. The gameplay is simple. You farm, expand your house, go on adventures… It's a good game. I poured myself into it for three straight days. As a result, I even got married. To three different women… Since the mission reward was 200,000 won, I got divorced once too. I'm a divorced man now, but I still live with three women under one roof. It's starting to get boring though. But that was inevitable. The fatal flaw of sandbox games. They're genuinely fun until you get tired of them, and once you do, you suddenly don't want to play anymore.
Still, I couldn't just quit. If I stopped, I'd have to find another game or another piece of content… and that sounded like a hassle.
“Hmm…”
Honestly, sandbox games are way more fun when you play them together with someone. I want to play with someone. It'd definitely be more enjoyable that way. No doubt about it. But who should I play with? Moddeok-nim? Hmm… I checked the café that Moddeok-nim and Raming share, and they were doing a collab today. So then… Maru-nim? Maru-nim would be difficult. Her level is way too high!! Way too high!! She's dozens of times bigger than me! No matter how much I respect her or how maxed out our internal closeness is… I just can't ask her.
You need to be at a similar level to comfortably ask for something like this… What I'm trying to ask for right now is exactly that. That thing. You know… leeching. The antis keep telling me not to leech off anyone. I don't check my mail, but the chat is flooded with messages telling me not to do it… It actually happens all the time. Whenever I collab with Moddeok-nim or Maru-nim… or Raming, some throwaway account always shows up and says “She's leeching.” I used to tremble in fear back then. Now that I have my own viewers, it's fine. They take care of it right away. They instantly spot the account and publicly execute them. It's terrifying. My fans are really reliable when they're on my side.
Should I give it a shot then? I do want to play a game with Maru-nim. Should I try?
“No!! What am I doing!! What the hell!!”
What am I doing!! I still thought I hadn't escaped my small-time VTuber phase, and now I'm trying to call Maru-nim? Me? Wow… I've really grown a lot. Seon-a has grown so much that she's bold now? She's doing things she never would've even considered before?
“I haven't done it yet…!”
I still haven't pressed the call button, you idiot. Pressing it is what counts as growth. So should I press it? What would I even say if I did? I'd like to play a game with you, Maru-nim. Would you like to join me? Press 1 for YES… Should I go with that? No. I need to make it sound appealing. I'm a broadcaster now too. When persuading someone, I have to explain the benefits of doing the content. That way they'll agree.
“Ugh…”
Growing up has its downsides too. Once you know things, you end up trapped in your own restraints. Back then I would've just done it without thinking. Now I've become an idiot who has to consider this and that. Like the Dunning-Kruger valley… As my knowledge increased, my confidence dropped like a rock.
“What should I say… what should I say…”
I flopped onto the floor and squirmed like a worm. What should I say? What? What do I need to say to play a game with Maru-nim? I don't know. I really don't. Why does the world keep giving me these impossible situations? It keeps forcing me to think on the spot!! It's bullying me again. Ugh… ugh… I don't know.
“I don't know. Just press it!!”
I hit the call button. If I keep overthinking it'll never end. The only way to escape this cycle of hesitation is to just do it. There's no other way but to charge in headfirst.
— Ring ring ring.
“Uh… Should I hang up now…? Uh…”
My heart suddenly drops. I shouldn't have called. Should I end it now? No, I worked up the courage to call, so I should wait? This is hard. It's really hard.
“Hello?”
“Uh… You don't sound like you just woke up.”
Normally at this hour I'd hear her sleepy voice.
“I woke up early today.”
“Why?”
“I ended stream early yesterday.”
“Aha! Maru-nim! Maru-nim.”
“Yeees~”
“What are you doing on stream today?!”
“Hmm… Probably League?”
The pinnacle of AOS games. A game I could never play. If I tried, I'd probably get flamed with every insult imaginable. That's how difficult it is for me. I like following trends too. I always want to try whatever everyone else is playing. Of course I tried it before. Monsters? CS? I spent ten minutes killing two minions that give gold and got every insult in the book from my teammates. It was just bad luck. The enemy team was too good, so I died thirteen times and couldn't farm. So I ran away to bot games. There was no paradise there either. I beat the beginner bots but died five times to the intermediate ones… My teammate said “mid is f**king trash” and I hit a wall and quit. I'm never playing again. No, I can't.
“Aha… Yep.”
“Why? Weren't you calling to say something?”
“Are you doing that alone?”
“Yeah. I think I'll hit Iron 2 today?”
Iron Man must be really strong. If she's Iron 2, she must be really good. I'm jealous. If I were good at a game like that… it'd be nice. AOS games are easy to get famous with, and if you're good, lots of people invite you… It's sad that I have no talent for it.
“Aha… Um, I'm playing Stardew Valley and I wanted to play together… I was going to ask if you didn't have any content planned, Maru-nim.”
“I can just play League later, so it's fine. What are you doing in it?”
“I… uh, just farming.”
“Pfft.”
Maru-nim burst out laughing. Was that really that funny? I don't know.
“Is that all?”
“Uh… I farm for a bit… and then farm some more.”
Farming is all I can think of. The good thing about farming is that it's pure mindless grinding. No matter how good or bad you are at games, farming makes everyone equal. No matter how fast your mechanics are, they're useless in front of farming. You can even do it with your brain turned off. You can chat while watching the chat too. Mindless grinding games are truly all-purpose content.
“While farming… we can just hang out.”
“What are we going to do while hanging out?”
“Uh… um… have fun conversations?”
“How?”
The pressure interview keeps coming. I was suffocating but strangely, I liked it. It made my brain work. As I desperately tried to come up with excuses, an idea for content popped into my head.
“Um… Ah!! Ah!! Let's do that! I'll show you.”
“Show me what?”
I sent Pyeongjipja-nim's approved RP worldbuilding to Maru-nim. I sent everything except the one Maem-nim sent that Pyeongjipja-nim rejected. If I showed Maru-nim the rejected one and she said it was good, then Pyeongjipja-nim would look weird. I have a duty to protect Pyeongjipja-nim. After all, I'm Pyeongjipja-nim's boss. Ehehe. I'm such a good boss.
“It's an RP world I made! Listen to it!”
“Uh… Okay. Do I have to look at it now?”
“Yes! Please look at it right now and contact me!!”
“Just a moment~”
“Should I hang up?”
“No, it's fine.”
“Yep!”
I held my breath and waited until Maru-nim finished listening. When would she finish? I hope she listens quickly. I put so much effort into this worldbuilding. I really used 100% of my brain to create it.
“Khh… Hahahaha. Seriously.”
I can hear Maru-nim laughing. Ehehe. It's fun, right? It caught your interest, right? Even though I'm bad at using my head, when I do use it, I really go all out. I put so much effort into this.
“No, Seon-a-nim. Seon-a-nim. Are you there?”
“Yep! I'm here!”
“What's Melon?”
“Melon? Ah… Melon-nim. Uh… Ah! Moddeok-nim.”
I almost said “Melon-nim is Melon-nim.” Melon-nim is Moddeok-nim.
“Then I'm the princess?”
“Yes. You're the princess.”
“What kind of princess?”
“Uh…”
What kind of princess? I hadn't really thought about it. Um… The respected Maru-nim I looked up to… became younger. So she became a princess. Uh. But I know the truth. As the knight captain, I know it's all part of the evil demon Pyeongjipja-nim's scheme. It's definitely not because Pyeongjipja-nim rejected my confirmation and I got petty about it. In my worldbuilding, Pyeongjipja-nim was a demon from the very beginning. Really. Don't doubt it. Pyeongjipja-nim used demonic magic to curse Maru-nim and turn her into a baby as a joke. Her IQ dropped to 60, lower than mine. So she keeps going “Uwee, Maru is a baby,” “Maru thinks one plus one is Maru, so cute!! Ehehe,” “Maru wants to eat a hamburger and is crying,” “Maru is sad without the captain and is rolling around.” That's how it is. So relatively speaking, I'm the adult here. Therefore…
“Regarding the Matter of the Respected Maru-nim Becoming a Baby Princess.”
“Puhahahaha. Wait, is this a light novel?”
“Uh… um… It's RP…”
A light novel? This is a perfectly legitimate someone's RP. It's not just writing. This is reality. It's a worldbuilding that contains someone's reality!!
“The RP is pretty grand. What time are you doing it today?”
“I… I can match your schedule completely, Maru-nim!!”
“Is there a story too?”
“Uh… I have to make one. But I can make it.”
Uh… Story. Story. Right. My greatest ability is delusion. Time to delude!! Ugh… ugh… So. Maru-nim. Princess. Kingdom… Stardew Valley. So. Pyeongjipja-nim's attack. Combine them. Make a delicious combination.
“Princess Maru became young… No. The kingdom collapsed. From the demon's attack!! But I'm Princess Maru's knight. I escaped together with Princess Maru.”
“Hahhahahaha. So you're going to keep calling me princess?”
“Yep! Of course!! Then I'll be the knight captain. I'm the knight captain.”
“Oh! That sounds good? My knight captain~”
“M… My princess!!”
Ehehe. Nice. I like it. As expected of Maru-nim, the one I respect the most. She accepted it right away.
“Then should we do it around 8 or 9?”
“Yep! I'll get everything ready!!”
“Okay~ See you then.”
“Understood! My princess.”
The call ended, but now I have a huge problem. I actually don't know how to do multiplayer. I just charged in without thinking. I didn't expect she'd actually agree. In that case… I need to quickly figure out multiplayer. How to do multiplayer. I posted on the café: “Looking for a Stardew Valley multiplayer expert. Please help.” Please. My angels, please help me!!