What About Aegis's Joint Stream Without Me? (2)
I almost didn't recognize her — she'd changed that much.
But there was no mistaking it. That was Baek Jiyu.
She and I had known each other since we were kids. Childhood friends, in other words.
I'd been an orphan, bounced from one orphanage to another.
By chance, we'd ended up in the same class in elementary school. That connection was enough for Jiyu's parents to take me under their wing.
They loved it whenever I played games with Jiyu.
Both of us passed the Awakener aptitude tests, so we went on to the same Awakener middle school together.
Back then, during middle school breaks, I'd sometimes stay at Jiyu's place for weeks at a time.
Her parents treated me like their own son. I still owe them a lot.
From the high school academy onward, I felt too guilty about imposing, so I stuck entirely to the dorms.
Still, Baek Jiyu made it all the way to Theia Academy with me.
So yes — we really were childhood friends in every sense.
But during our academy years, An Yumin got in the way. Especially over the past year, Aegis activities kept me from hanging out with Jiyu much.
We still logged into Northern Warworld together now and then, of course.
When I stayed quiet for a moment, Baek Jiyu hung her head.
"S-so it is weird, right? The hair color and the style. It doesn't suit me at all, does it?"
At that, I looked at her again.
She'd changed so much that even I, her childhood friend, almost failed to recognize her.
Jiyu used to have messy black hair long enough to hide her eyes — a gloomy, withdrawn look. Honestly, she barely had any friends at the academy; most of her friends were online gamers.
Now she was completely different.
Light blue bob. A baseball cap. The hoodie and varsity jacket suited her perfectly.
She looked every bit the bright, energetic college freshman.
As her friend, I wanted to praise her — she'd gotten that pretty.
With looks like these, her shut-in loner life was definitely over.
Should've dressed like this sooner. Enjoyed being young a little.
Childhood friends, as a rule, are doomed never to end up with the male protagonist they secretly pine for.
Fortunately, Baek Jiyu was an exception.
Her only childhood friend — me — was an extra, not the original protagonist. And the original protagonist was a woman to begin with, so that trope didn't apply to her.
Unlike me, a two-star extra from the original, Baek Jiyu was a natural four-star with solid performance.
More importantly, Jiyu and I were genuinely close friends.
The idea of seeing each other romantically had never even been on the table.
"You look really pretty. The guys at the academy are going to be all over you. Plenty of guys out there love a gamer girl like you."
I wasn't just saying it.
I'd been the manager of Saintess TV, after all.
A cute girl who loves games — especially a shy, probably-never-dated gamer girl like her — is perfectly optimized for streaming popularity.
"W-what are you talking about!"
Baek Jiyu shook her head frantically this time.
The image had changed, but the gloomy shut-in loner core was still very much intact.
Even her 1st Awakening authority fit her — her class was Assassin.
Anyway, she was this flustered over a simple compliment.
Compared to Ha Yeeun, who would nitpick endlessly and demand I redo the whole setup even when I told her the camera looked fine — night and day.
I pressed down on the top of her cap and chuckled.
"What? That happy to get a compliment from an old friend?"
"Th-that's not it! You just suddenly started saying pretty this and that… it's embarrassing."
"We're friends. Can't I say that much? Ah, well — you're not supposed to comment on a girl's looks casually, I guess. Haha. Sorry."
We were close enough that the two of us settled into easy conversation right away.
Then I belatedly looked at her monitor again.
"Huh? What's this? Are you streaming?"
A broadcasting program for TwkaTV streaming was open. And next to it, a live TwkaTV broadcast was running too.
Aegis, mid joint stream.
At my words, Jiyu frantically waved her hands in the air.
"Th-that's… that… that…"
She was the type who couldn't lie to me. The fact that she couldn't deny it meant it was true.
"…I'm not really doing it properly yet… I just like games, so… I was thinking of streaming some no-cam play footage…"
That was a great idea.
She might be a timid gamer girl, but Jiyu had talent.
I've seen her skill firsthand. No doubt about it.
Before I streamed the original mobile game in my past life, I'd streamed other PC online games. I was good enough to occasionally beat semi-pro gamers.
She wasn't at my level, but Jiyu definitely had talent of her own.
She could've started streaming ages ago.
But she was so shy and withdrawn.
I'd tried helping her a few times when she said she wanted to stream, but she couldn't get a single word out for hours on end. There was nothing I could do about it during our academy days.
"If you've got questions about streaming, ask me. I know my way around that side of things."
"Yeah… you handled all of Aegis's live streams, right? And you were the manager for Saintess TV too… Ah!"
She stopped mid-sentence, looking apologetic.
At the end of her gaze was Aegis, currently on stream.
"Um… bringing up Aegis… is that weird?"
"Nah, it's fine. It was just a high school club activity."
Right after the exile, the shock had been bad enough to trigger panic attacks. But now, thanks to the hidden title, absolute emotional equilibrium toward those three was locked in place.
So when it came to those three, not even a flicker of emotion stirred.
As I kept looking at Jiyu's monitor, she looked guilty.
"Uh… this is some other streamer's broadcast, but they're doing a collab right now… and Aegis just happens to be on. Sorry… I'll turn it off!"
"Hold on. You don't have to."
I was actually interested.
I wanted to see how well Aegis was doing after kicking me out. So Jiyu and I watched the stream together.
An Yumin felt like she was about to explode.
Lately, nothing seemed to go right.
She'd graduated from the academy and become a full-fledged hunter. She'd planned to help even more people — the pitiful, the desperate. As a proper hero.
With the current Aegis members… we should be more than capable…
The three of Aegis.
They were still novice hunters, fresh out of the academy.
But as a hunter party, the composition was ideal.
An Yumin the Warrior. Through her 2nd Awakening and the acquisition of the Wind attribute, she'd reinforced her original Water attribute into Ice. Ice's nature also let her tank.
Then Song Sia the Mage handling sub-DPS. And Ha Yeeun the nun covering overall support and buffs.
A perfect DPS-tank-healer party composition.
So when she'd driven out that shameless Lee Junwoo, she'd pictured days filled with heroic glory.
Why… why isn't it working?
The party was grinding so badly it was giving her a nervous breakdown. And it wasn't even about their combat skill, not really.
Just a few days ago, they'd done hero work on the outskirts of Gyeonggi Province.
A civilian request to clear a dungeon. The memory came back.
Of course they'd gone to help free of charge, without a second thought. The other two hadn't looked thrilled, but there was no good reason to refuse.
A dungeon rated D+ for its boss. Not hard for the three of them. The clear had been smooth enough.
A little strangely, their combat record numbers were lower than when they'd cleared same-rank monsters a few months back — but that wasn't a real problem.
The problem wasn't their skill. It blew up somewhere else entirely.
"Why won't you clear the dungeon on that hillside over there too!"
An Yumin was caught off guard.
"The only place you requested from us was this dungeon right here…"
"But as you can see, Association hunters barely ever come out here! So if you're real heroes, shouldn't you try a little harder?"
The three of them had just finished clearing a dungeon.
Instead of a warm welcome, the villager in front of them kept piling on more demands.
Song Sia spoke up in place of the flustered Yumin.
"We did scout that one. It's a full rank higher than this one. We already burned stamina on the clear just now, so back-to-back runs aren't realistic…"
"I heard you cleared multiple dungeons in other villages! Are you looking down on us just because we're from the sticks?"
An Yumin stepped back under that glare.
Why… why are they like this…? We came here to help them…
Ha Yeeun joined in with the resident as well.
"Last time we had one more member, so we had enough gear, but not today. We need more recovery items and extra clear equipment…"
"What kind of heroes are you? Even if you're helping for free, you can't just show up half-prepared!"
Those words drove into An Yumin like a dagger.
Half-prepared… half-prepared?
It wasn't wrong. Lee Junwoo, the party's pack mule, was gone.
And it hit her — in the dungeon just now, the tactical operating Lee Junwoo always handled hadn't been there either.
It had been less a party clear and more a clear finished on individual ability alone.
No. It's not because Lee Junwoo is gone. It's just… we used to work as four, and now we're trying to make a three-person combo work, so it feels awkward…
Just because they were missing one useless member who only cared about women.
Just because that bastard was gone, Aegis wasn't going to fall apart that easily.
Not the Aegis she led as party leader.
"An Yumin. Let's just go. These people aren't listening."
Song Sia, who'd been dealing with the villagers, turned and whispered.
In that moment, An Yumin remembered.
Whenever trouble with civilians came up, Lee Junwoo was always the first one out there talking to them.
Why did I think of that?
Lee Junwoo was a troublemaker who always ended up arguing with the desperate civilians who'd asked for help.
So it had nothing to do with this situation. An Yumin shook her head quickly.
Right. We'll just recruit a new operator soon. That bastard… that womanizing bastard being gone doesn't create a single problem!
Reliving the events of a few days ago, An Yumin lost focus on the live stream for a moment.
"…Yumin? So how was it, catching that villain back then? Like, were you super scared too?"
Someone's face appeared in front of her, talking to her.
A famous TwkaTV streamer. Probably the one named ClumpyQ.
"Huh? I asked how it was?"
That impatient look made irritation surge up all at once.
"I don't know, okay! Stuff like that!"
Silence fell over the studio.
ClumpyQ's eyes flicked toward the chat. His expression hardened too.
"Uh… Yumin's just not used to collab streams, so she's nervous. Th-that's it, right? Hey! Chat!! Don't go overboard~! Yumin's not some random civilian~!"
Ha Yeeun's face went pale at the runaway chat.
She hurried over to An Yumin and whispered in her ear.
"Yumin, are you insane? We're live right now! Why are you going full real-talk all of a sudden?"
That made her even more furious. She hadn't wanted to do this collab in the first place. She'd only shown her face because of Ha Yeeun.
And this studio's lighting was way too strong and bright.
Used to the soft lighting Lee Junwoo's authority — his mirrors — produced, she found the studio broadcast lights deeply irritating.
Under Junwoo's lighting, even a streaming-clumsy girl like her could at least manage some reactions.
Wait. Why am I thinking about that bastard again… If I keep this up… it'll look like I regret kicking him out.
Never. She would never regret it. Lee Junwoo had only ever gotten in the way of hero work.
He wasn't someone who helped.
An Yumin stayed silent.
A startled ClumpyQ tried talking to her again, but looking at that annoying face only made her angrier.
This isn't what a hero should be doing!
In the end, An Yumin didn't say another word until the stream ended.
"Whoa… the community is a mess. Public opinion is tanking. Why is An Yumin acting like that on stream? ClumpyQ is huge on TwkaTV — collabs with him are hard to land."
Baek Jiyu looked stunned.
There had been some signs, but An Yumin had ultimately caused a scene on the collab.
ClumpyQ — a streamer who'd been blowing up lately.
Aegis had visited his studio. But An Yumin had sat through the whole stream with a sour face and her mouth shut.
Well… not that surprising.
An Yumin had been negative about streaming throughout Aegis's activities.
Starting Aegis's broadcasts had only become possible after recruiting Ha Yeeun into the club.
Aegis was a high-school-level hero club. Doing more hero work meant needing a lot of gear and money.
Even with academy scholarships, they couldn't cover the level of activity An Yumin wanted.
I'd funded it through internet stream donations and ad sponsors.
Things improved somewhat when Song Sia — daughter of a famous guild — joined, but even her guild kept demanding streams to build Song Sia's reputation.
One way or another, internet streaming was essential even during hero work.
An Yumin never understood no matter how I explained it.
So I took on all the operational side and the adult politics myself.
Which eventually led to those three absurdly accusing me of embezzlement.
Anyway, the reactions flooding TwkaTV-related communities were no joke.
ClumpyQ was ultra-major even among major streamers. Aegis was going to get absolutely roasted.
Of course, Ha Yeeun the streamer will have the worst headache.
My 1st Awakening authority.
Peacefully glittering mirrors. A truly garbage power.
But at least for streams or public interviews, it was useful for party members.
Excellent lighting effects, plus a buff that made people say nicer things.
Anyway — none of that mattered to Aegis anymore.
I played a few rounds of Northern Warworld with Baek Jiyu, then stood up.
"I've got to go train. You can keep playing a bit more. You're still good."
"Where are you training?"
"A park near here?"
"A park? Why would an awakener train there?"
I belatedly explained that I was currently lodging at this net cafe. She immediately cried out.
"Then come to my room! Don't stay somewhere this uncomfortable!"
I froze for a second.
"Jiyu… your room?"
Childhood friends or not, we were past the age of sharing a room. Belatedly realizing what she'd said, Jiyu waved her hands wildly through the air again.
"Th-that's not what I meant, you idiot! Come to my house! Y-you should be able to figure that out…"
Jiyu still lived at her family home. I'd already imposed on her parents far too much, so I refused.
But once Jiyu dug her heels in, there was no talking her out of it.
"Fine. I should go see your dad and mom anyway. Just for today…"
The two of us headed to her place. Being Sunday, both of Jiyu's parents were home.
Her dad, whom I hadn't seen in a long time, was still going strong.
Shaved head. Massively muscular middle-aged man. And he made an offer I hadn't expected.
"Junwoo. Come work with me for a bit."
A proposal that would cover both training for the class placement evaluation after enrollment and my immediate shortage of living expenses in one go.
Her dad — Jiyu's father — was a construction contractor with ties to the underworld.
At his invitation, I decided to stay at Jiyu's place for a while. And I learned something unexpected.
Jiyu was a more devoted Saintess TV viewer than I'd thought.