Seona Takes on a Horror Game
The server still hadn't come back up, so I just browsed the café all day and that was that.
I really hoped it would be restored today.
I even prayed about it. Today it should work, right? If it did, Neoul said he'd contact me.
But still no message.
Don't tell me my prayer never reached God? Well, fair enough. I don't usually believe in Him. I only call on Him when things go sideways for me.
"Ugh…"
But isn't God supposed to answer even when things go sideways? So why am I the only one getting hardstuck by the universe?
I was torn. Should I message Neoul? Or not?
Even so, I was the boss in name, and fretting and rushing around wasn't cool.
Getting all antsy and pinging him over and over… that was something I needed to rein in. It was a matter of principle.
A boss always had to look cool.
I was the best, after all. And the best always had to be impressive. That was how the underlings believed in you and followed you. Yeah.
"W… wait."
I had to wait it out to the end. Good things come to those who wait. Good things would come.
I was going to hold out all the way. If I held out, I could eat five hundred marshmallows.
Marshmallows were the market. The harder it was, the more they paid!!
"Nice job holding out…!!"
Hoo. I threw myself into some serious mind control. The more I controlled it, the more my head turned into pure chaos—aaargh!!
The urge to just ask kept climbing. The higher it climbed, the more my hands shook like crazy.
Hold. Don't hold. Hold. Don't hold.
Pros of holding out: lots. Pros of not holding out: I find out right away. This was genuinely hard.
Either way I picked, I got something nice out of it!!
— Knock knock.
"Yes. Seona's here."
"Seona. Time to go."
"Ah… yes!!"
I'd waited so long the whole day was gone. Could've just told me sooner. Ugh. I was dying inside.
"I'll call you a taxi. Head out right away."
"Yes!! I'm already packed and ready. I even packed the fruit container. I just have to walk out the door."
I'd been ready this whole time. All I'd been waiting for was Neoul's message.
I shouldn't wait any longer. I should just go.
If I went to the office, Pyeong-nim might know something. Yeah… but still. I wanted to know.
"Turn off the computer before you leave."
"Yes…!!"
Mom's word was law. When you had no good argument, following along was the right call.
I could do it at the office anyway.
Ah!! Right. I should ask under Pyeong-nim's name instead of mine. That was a solid plan too.
The second I walked into the office, I hunted down Pyeong-nim.
"Pyeong-nim!! Pyeong-nim!!"
"Yes? What is it?"
"Is our server up?"
"The server? Didn't you say you were switching it? He hasn't contacted you?"
"Contact!! We should check, right?"
Yes!! Perfect. This way it counted as Pyeong-nim being curious and asking, not me.
I wasn't the one who was curious!!
"I'll message him, then."
"No!! No. I'll do it. I'll ask Neoul myself."
"Uh… sure. Understood."
Permission secured. Time to ask right away. This way I still got my marshmallows and the info I wanted.
I fired off a Discord message to Neoul on the spot.
I stared a hole through the screen. Please reply fast. Please. Please!!
"Nice to know. Ehehe."
I was happy. This was what I'd wanted. I had my answer, so… what now for today? What until dinner? Until dinner. Hmm… hopping into GTA with nothing to do wasn't exactly easy.
Nem-mo was doing GTA in the evening, so I planned to time my entry with hers.
Maybe just a quick simple game?
Honestly I should've finished everything yesterday—yesterday was when the hype was still hot—but it all got wrecked. I could still make it fun if I played, though.
Getting hit with that DDoS garbage… ugh. Everything got tangled up.
"Today… hmm."
Reality hit me all at once. This was not a situation to be celebrating over something like that.
What I was actually supposed to be worrying about was what to stream today.
I was browsing through games when a thought suddenly struck me.
"Is there anything I can't do?"
You had to try hard games if you wanted to get better. Was I going to run away every time something looked hard? If I kept at it, my skills would grow.
Look at me. I worked hard at streaming and grew, and now I was decent enough.
Games were the same—if I played similar ones and built skill… wouldn't that work?
"G… good!!"
Start easy. I searched YouTube for horror games.
Among the ones I could actually handle… and then I found something incredible.
"This is it. This is the one."
Why were horror games even scary in the first place? I needed to find out for myself.
I picked my horror game and even finished downloading it.
This one. Ehehe. It was a masterpiece not just Maru and Motteok… and Raming had played, but even Nem-mo.
The chaotic tale of an ex-employee who sneaks into a toy company.
The description called it a series masterpiece. Game chosen. Time to dive in, right?!
I chewed up the last of my cherry tomatoes, stood up, rinsed the fruit container clean, and headed off to stream.
I was about to hit go live right away, but I got so drowsy I nearly fell asleep.
"Hello, everyone."
Chat was flying up the screen like crazy. The topic was simple.
Was I doing GTA today, or not.
Still, once you start something, you see it through. Even if you start weird, finishing strong is what matters.
That was how I'd been taught.
"I do need to wrap it up. But I'll probably hop in this evening, write a couple of light articles, and end the stream. Before that, though, I brought a horror game. People say it's famous, so I'm gonna try it."
It was a proven game, so that wasn't the problem. The problem was just—
Me. I was the problem. I had no fear. Should I at least fake being scared? Or should I show them something cool instead?
That was the dilemma. Which one should I pick? Just fake the fear?
When I watched other streamers, they all looked like they were about to pass out.
Honestly I didn't get it. What part of it was even scary? I wanted to figure that out.
"I'll explain the horror game's story… The monsters in an abandoned toy factory got mad!! Waaah!! That's the plot. But before we start—chat. Chat, I've got a problem right now."
I said it as I launched the game. Honesty was always best in moments like this.
On live streams, enough people stuck around no matter what I did that I didn't worry much. I used to worry, sure. These days that worry had mostly faded.
YouTube, though, was ice cold.
Worse than live. Live still had people who watched to the end… people with attachment.
YouTube had none of that. They just subscribed and never watched at all.
Like, never. And the problem was I did the same thing. So I had no room to talk.
I subscribed to tons of people too, you know? And then never watched. Of course everyone else did.
I'd been shocked plenty of times seeing million-sub channels with views that barely scraped ten thousand—not even a hundred thousand—or three-hundred-thousand-sub channels stuck in the thousands.
There were so many streamers left with nothing but a hollow sub count shell. I was still growing, so stuff like this made me think hard. Back in the day I wouldn't have bothered and just abandoned the YouTube channel.
Now… because I was growing, there was a lot more I had to take care of.
"Seona, who doesn't get scared by horror games… should I at least pretend to be scared? If I'm thinking about the YouTube cut, do I need to fake the fear?"
"Is that so? I don't get scared by horror games at all. I played them before and I was so unfazed I actually shocked myself. I tried one people called the scariest horror game ever… I think that was with Maru. But I wasn't scared even a little, so… I was surprised."
I might not know much else, but horror games did not scare me.
Why? I was just born like this. People can be born with stuff, you know?
Did a clueless person have to be clueless at everything? I was allowed to brag about at least one thing.
"Ah. Whatever. If I just play, the answer will show up."
I launched Poppy Playtime Chapter 1. A game about investigating an abandoned toy company. Go on, try to startle me. Heehee.
Thirty minutes into the game.
Right now, chat was scarier than the game. Cold sweat was rolling down.
I'd only done ten attempts. Why were they this mad already? This was just moderately bad. They usually only started yelling around attempt thirty.
Chat had changed. It was completely different from the old days.
I felt it again over something this small. I'd really changed a lot too!!
"I've only… tried ten times. Chat. Why did you change on me. You used to keep the manners chat going until attempt thirty. I haven't even done that much yet."
I never thought I'd get stuck on the tutorial of something hard. I figured I just had to climb up, but it was not going well.
If the early game was like this, the late game—I didn't even want to think about it. Focus on now.
This was harder than I expected. Pointing and grabbing was hard, okay?
My skill really was the horror.
After dozens more attempts… I finally made it.
"Whoa!! For real. Success!! Game clear!!"
"What do you mean end it. We go all the way. I'm playing until I beat this today."
One-sitting clear declaration, locked in. I'd show them the cool side of a fully committed Seona.
I wasn't turning this off until I beat it.
It had poked my competitive streak. If it was a horror game, I was going to terrorize it right back.
Trying to scare people with the game controls? Oh, you were getting it now. This was unforgivable.