The Menhera Goes Live
After the first broadcast attempt, things inevitably turned into another drinking session. Soyun was drunk and clinging to Iseo, while Sumin had wandered off to Soyun’s room at some point to play games. “Mmm, I think I’ll… head in now….” “Sure, get some rest.” Iseo seemed to hold her liquor well—she’d drunk quite a bit yet still looked perfectly fine. I was fine too, but god, I was exhausted. I hurried into my room, booted up the computer, and sank into the chair with a sigh. “Haaa….”
As soon as the screen lit up, I launched the game and opened Sumin’s stream. “Hmm….” He was already hammered, yelling about how he was going to game on stream tonight. His viewers were sweating bullets trying to talk him down, fully aware he’d rage-quit and ghost the next day with some excuse about “serious grinding.”
“Nooo! I just went to my sister’s place… and Menhera’s here too!”
I nodded to myself and launched the game. At least he wasn’t spilling that I was living here yet.
“Whoa, guys—Menhera noona just asked me to queue with her.”
“Pfft.” I immediately invited Sumin to the party and started matchmaking. While waiting, I kept watching his stream until someone knocked on my door.
Knock knock—
“Mind if I come in?” Iseo’s voice came softly from the other side.
“Yeah, come in.”
The door creaked open slowly and Iseo stepped inside carefully. “I came to tell you about some changes to the debut plans. Are you busy?”
She glanced at my screen, so I shook my head. “No, it’s fine.”
“Good. We had a meeting and decided the third-generation members will debut as just the three of them.”
“…Huh?”
“Instead, Eunseo, you’ll be debuting solo instead of as part of the group.”
Solo? Was that really okay? Not that I minded, but…
“Don’t worry. We thought it through carefully before deciding.”
“Hmm… well, your streaming style is pretty different from the other VTubers, right?”
“…I guess so?”
“So we figured it’d be better if you just used your original nickname as-is for the debut.”
“Okay…”
“If you want, you could try streaming right now. Interested?”
“Uh…”
“Would that be alright?”
“Yeah. Honestly, I think you’d pull in even more attention that way.”
“Then… I’ll give it a shot.”
Following Iseo’s suggestion, I opened the streaming software Soyun had installed earlier and hit the broadcast button. Everything was already set up, so it was pretty convenient. I closed Sumin’s stream, entered my own studio view, and checked that the overlay and chat were working. A single message popped up in chat.
“…Hello?”
“…What.”
Matched!
While I was still feeling weird about the sudden attention, the queue popped. I picked my blessing.
“Eunseo, check the chat.”
“…Huh?”
“Whoa, there’s a lot of people.”
The viewer count exploded in seconds and chat started flying. Most of it was just people cursing at me, but I was used to that by now.
“Hellooo.”
I waved at the camera even though it wasn’t even on. Chat exploded again. I wanted to keep chatting, but…
“Ah, game’s starting.”
Games first, obviously.
*
“Okay, here you just roll to dodge, then dash straight in.”
“There’s a pretty long gap before the next pattern.”
I rolled through the boss’s attack and sprinted right up to it, unloading skills. Slash—crunch! The boss’s health bar visibly dropped. I glanced at chat while confirming the damage.
“Yeah, if I can do it, there’s no reason you guys can’t.”
“Look, the boss is raising its sword but its hand is slightly off, so it’s gonna do two slashes.”
Just as I predicted, the boss swung twice.
“Next it’ll probably spawn flame pillars from the ground with high probability.”
“Like this.”
I rolled through the rising pillars and popped my ultimate. Vwoom—!
“Seriously, give me the greatsword buff already.”
I clicked my tongue at the flashy but weak ultimate and kept hammering the keyboard. I rolled through another attack and backed off while waiting for cooldowns.
“See? Right now I have no cooldowns, so I have to back off, yeah?”
“Instead of just standing there, since parrying’s possible, you should stick to the ranged DPS and parry for them instead of attacking.”
“What? You guys can’t parry?”
“It’s easy though.”
I parried the boss’s attack while voicing my confusion at the chat. Clang—! A clear sound rang out as the boss staggered.
“See? Skills are off cooldown now. Just use everything.”
“Prioritize faster-casting skills first.”
“Or higher-damage ones if you want.”
[Huff—!]
[This’ll finish it!]
While I was spamming skills and basic attacks, Sumin fired his ultimate from the backline. Bullets kept landing and the boss’s health drained rapidly until it finally collapsed.
“Alright, you remembered everything I explained, right?”
“That’s how you do it.”
“Anyway, that’s it for today’s stream. Byeee.”
I ended the broadcast and closed the game. As I slumped back in the chair, Iseo spoke from behind me.
“See? You’re plenty good at this.”
“…I was just doing whatever I wanted though?”
“If the viewers aren’t complaining much, that means they’re treating it as part of your concept.”
“Plus, you already have that usual image of yours…”
“Hmm…”
What exactly was my image that made people say I was good even while getting flamed?
“Anyway, I’ll send you the finished avatar tomorrow.”
“Ah, okay…”
“Alright, I’ll head out now. See you next time.”
“Take care.”
I waved as Iseo left, then sat there blankly staring at the dark monitor. Chat was still scrolling rapidly even though the stream was off—people begging me to come back, threatening to shit on the street if I didn’t… what the hell was wrong with these lunatics.
“Pfft…”
The thought of so many people getting mad or laughing at my every little action made me chuckle. I moved the mouse, restarted the stream, and turned on the mic.
“Ahem.”
“Everyone, I’m debuting as a VTuber soon—”
“Woo, clap clap—”
Clap clap clap—
A small round of applause echoed in the room. Chat was probably clapping too. I checked.
“……”
“Okay then, no more streaming.”
“Pfft, okay. See you tomorrow then.”
I smirked at the chat and ended the stream. Now that everyone was sure I’d stream again, the chat was flooded with messages hoping tomorrow would come faster. Some guy was even threatening to knock himself out by hitting his own head… was that really okay?
“Haaam…”
Yawning loudly, I wandered into the living room. Soyun was sprawled out on the floor while Sumin—apparently done streaming—sat at the table munching on snacks.
“…Why’s she like that?”
“Uh, she’s just sleeping. Leave her.”
“……”
I sat across from Sumin, who was waving his hand dismissively while stuffing his face with crackers, and opened another bottle of soju. He stared at it for a moment before suddenly speaking up.
“By the way, you’re actually really good at games.”
“How do you even do that?”
“…I just watch and dodge.”
“……”
“Your reaction time is insane.”
Sumin shook his head like he was sick of it and held out his glass toward me. “Want more?”
I gave him a look that clearly said “we’re out of alcohol so please don’t,” but he just nodded.
“Yeah.”
“……”
“Haa.”
“…What’s with the sigh?”
When I sighed, Sumin narrowed his eyes and growled. So I answered honestly.
“It’s a waste of alcohol.”
“…This bitch?”
He swore at me. Honestly, it didn’t really bother me, but I decided to mess with him a little by pretending to be hurt.
“Whoa.”
“That actually hurt…”
“People who are actually hurt don’t talk like that.”
“And after what you pulled on my stream? If you were the type to get hurt over stuff like that, you would’ve quit stirring shit up a long time ago.”
“…This is why perceptive people are annoying.”
“Anyway, my arm hurts. Hurry up.”
“……”
Glug glug, I filled his glass and set the bottle down in front of him. A small revenge for seeing through my joke and hitting me with facts.
“Hah.”
Sumin let out an exasperated sigh at the sight, then picked up the bottle and filled his own glass. “Phew…”
“Kuh—!”
“…You really sound like an old man.”
“I am an old man, you know.”
Oh, right. He’s over thirty.
“Pfft.”
“…You’re dead.”
“Ah, sorry.”
Yeah, better just drink quietly… If I keep poking him I’m actually gonna get hit.