Only My Friend Exists. Really!! (1)
I spent two whole days figuring things out. Minecraft is a game that's both hard and easy. Once you get used to the controls, they come naturally. The real challenge wasn't the controls—it was learning how to find ore veins. How did I do it back in the day? I was sure I used to be good at it. Starting over, I'd completely forgotten everything and had to struggle just to adapt. Still, effort always wins in the end. After putting in serious work, I finally figured out how to mine diamonds. Feeling proud, I went to log into the server… but first, I needed to learn about Bana, so I checked my own YouTube VODs. Honestly, I barely remembered Bana. When was the last time I'd even seen her? I scrolled through the archives and found it. Whoa. It was almost five months ago, on a healing server. I checked other streams too and saw Maru openly showing her inferiority complex toward Bana. So that's what she's like. Hmm… the memory was fuzzy, but one thing was clear—she had great game sense and was really skilled. That wasn't enough to understand her properly, so I looked her up on the wiki. I read Bana's wiki page. I wanted to summarize it in three lines, but I held back. I forced myself to read it line by line. I could've just asked GPT for a three-line summary, but… no. Important people deserve to be read properly, with care.
"Bana… a skilled gamer streamer who's been playing Minecraft for a long time… Wait, seriously? Is she a Minecraft pro?" Whoa!! Bana started as a no-cam streamer. She'd been broadcasting for over ten years. She was part of a famous Minecraft crew. No wonder her Minecraft experience was on another level. "I should ask her about that later. Yeah." I needed to ask how she got so good at the game. It took me forever to find diamond veins. If my luck was bad, I could spend an entire day and come up empty. Asking her for tips on finding veins—that went straight into my notes app. Heh heh. Next… I read her biography. She used to be a no-cam streamer. More precisely, she started as a viewer of a male Minecraft streamer named Luca. She ranked first in the high-member selection process and became the very first high-member. Whoa… She really is something. The bio was way too long to finish, but anyway, she's a VTuber now. Moving on, I checked her relationships with other streamers. Luca—recent. No need to read that. Himaru—she met by chance on a Minecraft server and they got close fast. There were plenty of others too. Got it. I'd learned a lot about Bana. For the rest, I just had GPT summarize it in three lines. "Hmm… I see." Surprisingly, one notable detail was that she really loved the song "Fox." GPT even told me that? She must love it a ton… I wrote it down anyway.
I spent the next thirty minutes diligently studying Bana's YouTube channel. By the time I checked the clock, it was already 2 p.m. But there was no need to worry—today's server opened at 6 p.m., and I'd already told everyone I'd start streaming at 4. This server was a raiding server. If you saw someone, you could just kill them. Guilds existed, everything was allowed. But that was only for regular servers. On a streamer server, your "weight class" mattered. Weaker streamers got treated like doormats on raiding servers. They had to give up weapons, gear, and time. These servers only worked if there was a proper owner. Still…!! I was fine. I wasn't going to cause trouble. I'd just quietly play and leave. No showing off… just having fun and going home. I wasn't even going to kill anyone. Okay, that was a lie. I wanted to get kills and make friends too. But I had no confidence. Joining on the first day was risky—who knew what would happen? The first day was always the most important. If I could wedge myself in on day one and luckily make friends or join a guild, I'd have a real shot!! Thinking back to my school days… it was always like that. Everyone stuck with the people they'd gotten close to on the first day. Since I couldn't break in, I was always alone. Even if I tried to approach them the next day, the group never accepted me. The first day was everything. I even had a serious discussion about it with my viewers once. They all agreed, especially the ones who'd been through university. "If you get left behind during freshman MT, it's over." They empathized hard. Even if you were two days late, you absolutely had to show up on the first day and give it your all. You had to stamp your face into everyone's memory!! "Ah…!! Right." If I wanted to stream for a long time, I needed to hit the convenience store. I'd grab some energy drinks and prepare properly. I threw on some clothes in a rush. It was probably cold outside, but I had to go. I needed those drinks. I couldn't afford to fall asleep today. As I got dressed, I kept convincing myself: This time would be different. Don't buy random stuff—just get what I actually need. This time, really different. I bundled up warmly and stepped outside.
I was supposed to start at 4, but I went live at 4:50. The reason? Buying at a big supermarket near the convenience store would be cheaper. So I went to the supermarket instead. I picked up sushi for dinner, drinks, energy drinks, and snacks. "Phew… Hello. Huff… I really went to the supermarket. I got sushi and energy drinks. Huff… Hello." I greeted everyone while catching my breath.
"I'm not late! I never said exactly what time I'd start today. I just said I'd come on a bit early!! Ah, I'm hungry, so…" Yesterday I'd clearly said that since I was joining the server tomorrow, I'd log on before it started. Anyway, I was starving, so I pulled out the sushi. "Time to stuff my face with sushi." I brought over some chopsticks and started eating piece by piece. Even though it was supermarket sushi, it had everything. The shrimp sushi was delicious, the octopus sushi was delicious… the salmon sushi was delicious… Everything tasted amazing. I really went to town on it. But there was one downside. Since there was no competition, I got full way too fast. If I were eating with someone, we'd be competing and I'd eat more. That part was a little disappointing. Still, while eating and chatting, time flew by and it was already 5:30. "Whoa!! This is seriously good. You guys should get sushi too. You won't regret it. Ten out of ten." I'd finished the sushi. "But… ugh, I'm sleepy. Am I the only one who's sleepy?" I was really sleepy. I almost fell asleep just now. I rubbed my eyes and glanced at the chat.
"No… don't you guys get sleepy after eating?" I wanted some empathy. Everyone gets sleepy after eating, right? Did you never get sleepy after lunch in school? Throw stones at me if that's you. Everyone got sleepy!! "I'm sleepy!! Empathize with me!!" I just wanted empathy!! No arguing!! I'll seriously go lie down. I really will. After I sleep, I'll get indigestion? Ugh… I regret it? No, right? I'm right, right?
Some couldn't empathize, but most of them did. That was good enough. They really were kind angels. Heh heh. I kept chatting in the pre-stream until 6. "It's 6. It's 6, right? Let's go right now!!" I connected to the server immediately. Wait… that was weird. When I launched the launcher and logged in, an illustration popped up. On the right was a female character holding a dagger, and on the left was a male character holding a sword. It wasn't the usual blocky Minecraft graphics—an actual illustration appeared. This felt promising. "Wh… whoa, fancy." I tried to join the server… but it wouldn't let me in. "Why isn't it working? Guys?" I clicked three times, four times, but the server still wouldn't let me in. I started to panic. Did I get banned? I didn't even do anything! Why would I be banned?
Looking at the chat, I understood!! It wasn't a permanent ban—the server had crashed. Right. It crashed. I hadn't done anything wrong, so getting banned would've been too much. I almost felt hurt. "Ah, what the heck!! So when are they fixing it? Whose room? Bana's room? I'll know if I go there, right?"
The server was back up after twenty minutes. "I'm in!!" "Looking for a guild!!" "Hello everyone!!" "Whoa, what is this?" "The quality is insane, whoa!!" "Oh… this is crazy." I finally got in. The moment I entered, it was complete chaos. Way too loud. If I couldn't adapt to this… I wouldn't make any friends or join any guilds. But it was so noisy I couldn't even think straight. I had no choice but to turn the volume down. I never dreamed there'd be this many people… How many had joined? I pressed tab to check the player count. 102 people… Whoa!! This was huge. "Seon-a. Seon-a." This was insane. I couldn't believe Maru recommended this server to me. Maru really was an angel. An angel sent down from heaven!! "Seon-a. Seon-a." Maru wasn't on break right now. God must've been rewarding her. How could she come up with such fun content… Maru must've ascended to heaven. "Seon-a. Ahh. Seon-a. Seon-a." I could almost hear Maru's voice from heaven. Was she watching me from up there right now? "Seon-a!!" But Maru never called me Seon-a like that. Wait, whose voice was this? "Ah!! It's Raming." "Yeah. Do you know how many times I called you?" "I don't know!! But why? Why'd you call me?" "Seon-a, are you playing solo? Are you alone on this server?" "I'm alone. Why?!" "Wanna play together then? I'm alone too." "Oh? Really? For real?" For real? That was perfect for me. I'd joined on the first day because I wanted to play with someone… playing alone would've been lonely!! Of course I'd accept an invitation like this!! My only friend was Raming. Sob sob. "Of course. Let's play together. Let's build a house together." "Whoa!! Got it. I'll head over right now. Let's go!!" Yes!! My friend Raming!! I'll work really hard. "Ah, wait no!! Raming, you build the house. Raming, I'll go mine a ton of diamonds!! I'm the overseas-offer-level diamond miner. Just trust me. I'll bring back a hundred. A thousand. No, I'll mine every single diamond on this server. Build us a pretty house. Mwahahaha." "Leave some for the others~ Other people need to use them too. Heh heh heh."