An Unexpected Invitation
Seong Eunha tried to collect herself as she checked the chat that had just come in.
Stay calm... just stay calm.
She drew a careful breath and started sorting through her thoughts at speed. Honestly, she had never imagined Unknown would actually accept. She hadn't even believed her snipe would land in the first place.
There had to be tens of thousands of players sitting in Bronze and Silver alone. Even if you watched a stream and queued at the perfect moment, the odds of landing in the same match were vanishingly small — buying a lottery ticket might have been the better bet.
When those odds actually broke, Seong Eunha forgot she was live and let out a scream. Thank god she had no viewers. She'd nearly made a complete fool of herself on camera.
Matching into the same game as Unknown was one thing. What came next was what actually mattered.
The whole reason she'd done this was to get attention — to advertise to Unknown's audience that someone like her was streaming too. For that, she needed to do something outrageous.
Winning on skill was obviously out of the question. After a lot of thought, the move Seong Eunha settled on was a one-on-one request.
Of course, she hadn't expected anyone to accept a chat like that. Unknown might be sitting in Bronze, but her actual skill was at least Master or higher. Someone stuck in Silver wouldn't even register. She'd been ready to be ignored — or, in the worst case, roasted on stream.
But Unknown had accepted her rude demand so readily it was almost embarrassing, especially after she'd packed the message with bait just to get noticed.
An invitation has arrived from Unknown.
"She actually... sent the invite."
She tried not to show it, remembering she was live, but she couldn't keep the corners of her mouth from climbing. Well — no viewers anyway. Did it even matter?
That was when chat, which had been a dead void, started filling up.
Had someone told Unknown about her broadcast? Seong Eunha — no, the streamer Amber — stared at a chat window that had filled in an instant and had no idea how to react.
For someone who'd been holding a four-viewer average, it was a number she had never seen in her life. Chat was scrolling so fast she could barely get a word in. It was nothing like the old streams, where a comment or two would trickle in now and then.
The shock at this unprecedented chat firepower lasted only a moment. Then came the mix of hollowness and awe — that a single mention on Unknown's stream could balloon her numbers like this.
She looked at the scrolling chat and hit the blinking hologram accept button, as if it were urging her to hurry up.
Her vision shifted, and a single figure came into view.
"Wow..."
Seong Eunha stared at Unknown and let out a dazed breath of admiration. Chat exploded even faster, independent of her awe.
Chat was flying, but she was staring so hard at Unknown she barely registered it. It was a different feeling from watching on stream.
Pale skin, long black hair falling down her back. Anyone would call her a beauty. There was a strangely magnetic quality to her, as if she'd been modeled on some famous actress or supermodel.
A finely drawn, lovely face — and on it, an expression utterly without emotion.
I bet she'd be gorgeous if she smiled.
The thought rose unbidden. The looks alone drew a gasp. That cool, indifferent expression even carried a faintly otherworldly air, as if she'd stepped outside the world itself. All those small, extraordinary impressions stacked together and locked Seong Eunha's gaze in place, as if someone had physically fixed her eyes on Unknown.
"Shall we start?"
Then the woman's lips moved, and a cold, beautiful voice snapped Seong Eunha back to herself.
"Ah— I'm sorry. Thank you so much for accepting such a sudden request. And I apologize for the bait in the chat. I just... didn't think I'd get any attention otherwise..."
Seong Eunha bowed her head and offered the apology. She was live. No reason to leave a bad first impression. First impressions mattered most, as the saying went — apologizing for the provocative chat she'd used for aggro was the smart play.
And considering most of the people who'd just come in were new arrivals from Unknown's room, there was no reason to make herself unlikable from the jump. She had to keep in mind they might become her viewers later.
The hologram window at the edge of her vision was scrolling so fast she didn't even need to look at chat to know it had gone feral.
Right. Looking ahead is smarter than cheap aggro right now.
Honestly, she hadn't expected Unknown's pull to be this strong. She knew Unknown was popular, but the streamer hadn't been at it that long. The current audience was viewers Jump had siphoned over. Give it a little time and the bubble would pop.
She didn't bother denying that thought. In a way it was a cheap, cowardly way to rationalize the envy and jealousy she felt toward Unknown — the idea that these fans were just a swarm of ants that had gathered for a moment, that almost no one actually felt real fandom for Unknown.
It was a pathetic thought.
Even as another woman, Seong Eunha found the looks and the atmosphere magnetic. Add overwhelming game skill and that soft, pleasant voice, and even without Jump she would have risen eventually. She had a fundamentally different kind of charm from Seong Eunha herself.
Before she knew it, Seong Eunha had started to give Unknown her heart.
"Ah— ahem. Mm."
She cleared her throat, collected herself, and carefully opened her mouth again.
"Um, Unknown?"
Unknown didn't answer. She just stared at Seong Eunha. Had the apology not landed? Her expression seemed faintly tighter. A restless impatience burned in Seong Eunha's chest.
"I'm sorry for offending you with my rude behavior. Even if it was to get attention..."
"Ah, it's fine. Don't worry about that."
In truth, Unknown hadn't even kept the provocative chat in memory. Provocation only meant something if it actually made the other person angry. By that measure, Seong Eunha's bait hadn't landed a scratch. If you were going to provoke someone, you at least needed a personal attack.
Unknown had accepted the request simply because it looked like it might be fun. Crushing someone at Silver skill wasn't hard. But what she was about to show wasn't a simple duel.
In a way, Seong Eunha was a toy Unknown could use to test a lot of things — streaming-related, and Last of Quantum system-related alike.
"Thank you for accepting the apology."
Unknown, who had only been nodding, answered with a slightly looser expression. Seong Eunha's face brightened. She swallowed and pressed on.
"S-so, are we doing the duel? I don't know if I'll be able to show you anything with my skill, though."
It was, in a way, the obvious thing to say. Unknown's tier might be Bronze, but her actual skill was Diamond or higher — arguably Challenger-level. Seong Eunha, who'd been stuck in Silver for a year since she started playing, was never going to be a match.
Fights had variables, and a match could flip in an instant — sure. But no matter how much an ant thrashed, it couldn't beat a human. That was reality. For the record, she was the ant.
A fight with an obvious outcome. Seong Eunha knew viewers wouldn't find that entertaining. There was also the anxiety that they'd just look at the faces and leave. Unknown would know it wouldn't be fun either. Even if the fight actually happened, she'd just get bullied for the whole duel and that would be it.
She didn't want to throw away a chance she'd worked so hard for, but this was reality. As she was now, she couldn't leave any real impression on Unknown, or on Unknown's viewers.
That was when an answer she hadn't expected at all came out of Unknown's mouth.
"What?"
It was an unexpected invitation.