Really Useful Information I Wanted to Know!
Right after the conference wrapped, exactly as the director had promised, the official PV for Snow Queen Camilla dropped on Ionicx's Vtube channel.
Camilla, the dancing muse of the battlefield, does not stop dancing even in the dead of winter. Having seized a special power that only the winter battlefield can grant, she has become something far more formidable than before. Snow Queen Camilla. Beware her dance. The moment you stand entranced by its beauty, your feet will freeze solid — and you will find yourself unable to move.
The PV opened with that line, delivered in the distinctly over-the-top narration Abyss was infamous for — the kind most people called shamelessly weebish.
It was a different cut from the in-game footage shown at the conference, subtly but deliberately so. Before the demonstration footage even began, a short sequence laid out the character's story and the lore behind the skin, an indirect flex of just how much care Ionicx had poured into this one. Compared to every PV that had come before, both the opening and the runtime felt entirely different.
As if the internet itself wanted to reward the production team's effort, the view count started climbing at a ridiculous pace. The most expensive new skin in the wildly popular game Abyss — Snow Queen Camilla. In barely half a day, that PV rocketed onto the Trending list under a wave of pure praise.
The comments were overwhelmingly positive, too.
And nestled among all of that was one comment that had racked up a suspiciously massive number of likes and replies, standing out like a beacon.
Kayak's stream went live at one in the afternoon — a lunchtime slot completely unlike her usual schedule. Her broadcasts typically started late in the evening, around eight or nine. Yesterday she'd gone live at five because of the conference, and today, for reasons unknown, she was on at one.
Just two hours earlier, Kayak had left that comment on Ionicx's official Vtube. The fans who'd been hammering likes and flooding the replies under it poured straight into her stream.
Abyss's first official theatrical film, Abyss: The New World, would hit theaters the very next week — the same week Snow Queen Camilla launched. The conference had also revealed that the movie connected to every Abyss series that had come before. That was why people who'd never bothered with the cinematics, people who'd only ever cared about the game itself, were suddenly all saying they needed to catch up.
Of course, if you weren't planning to see the movie at all, there was no reason to rewatch the old cinematics. But Ionicx had announced that theatergoers would receive coupon codes for the skin, and under those circumstances, almost nobody was going to skip it.
The stream wasn't even on yet. The streamer who owned the room still hadn't shown up. And yet nearly three thousand people had already piled in, busy chatting about anything and everything related.
"Hey everyone. Today's stream is a full recap of the cinematics, from the very first one all the way to the latest. I might play Abyss after the cinematics, or I might not… honestly, odds are I won't, so if you came for gameplay, you can head out."
That was when Kayak appeared. A greeting, then straight to the point — today's broadcast was a cinematic screening. At the same moment, she worked the controls, and the very first cinematic began to play.
After that, Kayak barely said a word. Whether she was focusing for her own sake or trying to give the viewers immersion, the only sound that came through the mic was the occasional shift of her settling into her seat.
Long ago, chaos descended upon the continent of Abyss, and from every corner of the land, heroes of every kind began to rise….
The first cinematic was a perfect time capsule of early Abyss's every flaw, so the chat's reaction was inevitably rough. But once that roughly four-minute video ended and the next one started, then the one after that, people gradually began locking in on the footage itself.
Who are you? There's no way I wouldn't know a swordsman of your caliber….
…Lenok. The undertaker.
"Camilla's coming up soon."
For the first time since the screening began, Kayak — who'd been completely silent — opened her mouth to answer a viewer's question. And as if answering her words, Camilla appeared on screen almost immediately.
If everyone stopped fighting and just danced, the continent would be at peace…
That won't do. I'll have to bring peace to the continent with my own dancing.
That was when it happened. The donations, which had been quiet since the screening started, suddenly fired off a question at Kayak.
A donation that shattered the immersion in a single blow. The type who zeroed in on something nobody else cared about and dumped it without a shred of social awareness.
The chat's reaction was ice-cold. Kayak's, however, was a little different from her viewers'.
Click.
Kayak hit the spacebar, paused the video, and opened her mouth.
"Oh, you know Luwen van Eyck…! They say Camilla's actual modeling was based on that person's body movement! I can't believe someone other than me knows this!"
Her voice was noticeably excited, the words tumbling out in a rapid-fire stream.
"Even the way her left elbow pops out a little when she uses her Q skill — that's a physical characteristic of the real-life model…."
"Ionicx designed Camilla with that level of detail, which is amazing, and that's exactly why I can't help but love her—"
"There are tons of other hidden elements too, you know. Want me to go through them one by one before we keep watching?"
Kayak's explanation continued for roughly twenty more minutes after that.