Contemplation
The moment I woke up and got my bearings, I reached for my phone out of pure habit. The goal: community recon.
Normally I would have spent the time reading whatever new posts had gone up while I was asleep — the usual chatter about who did what to whom out in the world.
But today was different. I had just finished an official broadcast with Ionic the day before, and curiosity about the reaction finally got the better of me. I picked up the phone.
"Lenok isn't even a hero that takes much mechanical skill, and physical stats don't matter that much for him either, but his current performance is way too good."
"He shouldn't have been adjusted — he should have been nerfed. I'm a little disappointed in Ionic's balance team."
"Hmm…."
To cut to the chase, the reaction wasn't bad. The usual flood of compliments about my looks — stuff I'd heard so many times the words had practically grown earwax in my brain. It started with "she's pretty" and branched out into all kinds of chatter about who I was and what I did.
There were also a few Lenok defenders airing minor grievances about me… but it looked like my fans had dropped the coordinates and gone full raid mode. The firepower gap was so overwhelming you could feel it just glancing at the thread — those guys never stood a chance.
Before long, the original poster had undergone a full ideological conversion, declaring that he actually preferred Camilla — who looked like Kayak — over that stinky, generic male hero Lenok that everyone and their mother played. What on earth had my fans done to this man.
Yesterday, I'd finished the broadcast and made it home without issue.
I'd been a little worried, honestly.
I hadn't planned it that way, but the official broadcast had drifted pretty hard into roasting Lenok territory. Fortunately, according to Honggyun, it hadn't caused any real problems. The viewers watching along hadn't reacted badly either.
If anything, Honggyun had kept telling me to keep broadcasting as freely as I had today.
Even I felt like I'd gone a bit off the rails with the broadcast today. Was it really okay to act that unhinged somewhere that wasn't even my own personal stream?
Eh, whatever. If I'd crossed a line, Honggyun would have said something already. He might not look it, but when it came to work he was a professional.
If the client himself was asking me to do it the same way, I just followed orders. Nothing worth losing sleep over.
There was something more important anyway. Namely, the thing I'd arranged with Honggyun — Camilla's new skin.
Since you're getting a skin out of this anyway, why don't we go over the design together and lock it in.
Wait, for real?
Honggyun was a more generous man than I'd expected. Not only had he accepted my condition that they make a Camilla skin, he'd gone and let me participate in the production process itself!
There was a reason he had a fanbase among the players even as a director. Honggyun was a better person than he seemed.
He'd introduced me to a bunch of staff as the experts who made skins, and everyone had treated me with genuine goodwill. Though their faces had immediately soured the moment I asked them to make a Camilla skin.
Along the way, I'd also met someone particularly memorable.
I, uh… I'm sorry….
Huh? For what?
I think I might have made Camilla based on you, Kayak. I didn't realize it at the time, but….
That was Yu Seongmin, the designer who developed, designed, and shipped Abyss heroes. The man who had actually designed Camilla was wracked with guilt, convinced he'd unconsciously modeled her after me.
He'd apologized to my face several times over, and apparently he'd even sent massive donations to my livestream. Knowing the actual truth, I just found the whole thing awkward.
If anything, this guy was basically the one who'd created my current appearance. Stretching it a little, you could almost call him a father figure and I wouldn't be able to deny it. Thanks to him I'd been reborn in this perfect body — I was the one who should have been thanking him.
But it wasn't like I could just spill that truth. If I told him what really happened, I'd be lucky to get off with being treated like a lunatic.
Anyway, today I'd finished the official broadcast, gotten introduced to the staff involved in making Camilla's skin, and afterward even wrapped up a small company dinner for team bonding.
Thinking about it, I'd packed quite a lot into one day. Compared to my usual schedule, you could call it a forced march without exaggeration. All that outside activity had left me pretty wiped, but for a Camilla skin I could breeze through a schedule like this no problem.
The real question now was how I wanted them to make Camilla's skin….
According to the art team and Yu Seongmin, the designer who'd created Camilla, I didn't need to overthink it. Just come up with a concept — something like a cool summer getaway or a Halloween party — and they'd handle the rest.
I'd daydreamed about Camilla getting a skin for ages, fantasizing about what kind of look I'd want… but the moment the choice was actually in my hands, my thoughts started spiraling.
One decision from me would lock in a skin Camilla would wear for the rest of her existence. A single offhand "it'd be cool if she looked like this" would send her entire wardrobe spinning off in a new direction. Of course I had to be careful.
I was sprawled out mulling it over when my phone started buzzing.
— Streamer Nikang.
"Ah."
The name on the screen jogged my memory.
Right, I had plans. Today was Tuesday, and it was around five-thirty in the afternoon.
"Kayak, where are y—"
The second I confirmed the date and time, I shot up from my seat with my voice raised.
"I'll be right there!"
"You forgot?"
"Yeah… I'm sorry."
In the end, Kayak had shown up about an hour late.
Nikang, who normally took punctuality seriously, had been about to get angry — then she looked at Kayak's face and the anger just drained away.
How to put it. A rain-soaked puppy… no, more like a cat?
Either way, when someone stared up at her with a face like that, getting mad was simply impossible. More accurately, the anger just evaporated on its own.
She's insane, seriously.
An oversized hoodie and sweatpants. She'd clearly thrown on whatever was closest without a second thought, and even when she'd come scrambling up looking like a complete mess, all Nikang could do was marvel. Now that Kayak was making this face on top of it, words failed her entirely.
"It's fine. I'm not even that mad."
"Hehe… I won't be late next time."
Watching her, Nikang let out a short laugh and kept going.
"Your boyfriend must have it nice, Kayak."
"Huh? Boyfriend?"
"You've had a boyfriend before, right?"
"No, last time I…."
At Kayak's mumbled reply, Nikang's eyes lit up like she'd just remembered something.
"Oh right, you said you were a total single. Wait — is that actually true? You're not lying?"
"…Why would I lie about that."
"I figured it was just you being coy or something. Guess that's not really your personality though."
Technically, what Kayak had said was that she'd never dated a guy — but Nikang had taken it to mean she had no dating experience at all.
Which was fair enough. The person Kayak had actually dated was a girlfriend, not a boyfriend. Realistically, hearing "I've never dated a guy" and jumping to "so she dated a girl" was a bit of a stretch for most people.
"Then when you get a boyfriend, you have to tell me, okay? Telling me after you're already dating is too late — tell me before."
"Uh, sure…."
From Nikang's perspective, the idea was to vet whoever it was on Kayak's behalf, since Kayak had no dating experience. From Kayak's perspective, she mostly just wondered whether that day would ever come.