The Face of an Idle Game Character Is Revealed

The Republic of Korea has been making headlines in major powers' news cycles lately, with one unprecedented incident after another exploding like fireworks.

Anyway, amid all this chaos, certain posts kept appearing every single day.

She had posted a notice saying she'd be taking a break for a while to recover, but since she hadn't specified exactly how long, more and more fans were slowly losing their minds. In reality, she was using my recovery as an excuse to slack off and had completely abandoned streaming. That said, she wasn't just playing around either. She was busy writing manuals for dealing with formless monsters, demons, and other opponents, verifying the outsourcing of circles and mana circuits, and getting called out to various places. Especially the Magic Tower.

They showed tremendous interest in her 'mana bodily burden transfer' technique that used artificial hearts and mana puppets. They visited Siren every day under the pretense of seeking advice, and Siren—who had her time with me constantly interrupted—naturally breathed real fire and chased them away. But mages aren't called mad scholars for nothing. Since Siren herself had crossed dimensions just to find me, she knew her fellow crazies(?) at the Magic Tower wouldn't give up so easily.

Their demand was simple: share Avatar Casting exclusively with the Magic Tower. Their justification sounded reasonable too. While commercializing magic was undoubtedly a great achievement, without proper systems, laws, or comprehensive education across generations, making it public would cause unpredictable damage. Misuse of magic for personal revenge, crimes by unregistered mages and the difficulty of investigating them, the decline of mages' social standing—there would definitely be quite a few explosive side effects.

And so ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Magic Tower waved blank checks and proposed a deal. Of course, they weren't the only ones. Major guild alliances and even foreign governments reached out. The Association, surprisingly, stayed quiet. According to Yu Gang-hyeok, they would be grateful if we trusted them, but they would respect Siren's decision.

My impression while watching from the side was simple.

“This is straight out of a romance fantasy novel.”

A peerless beauty with incredible abilities being courted by a group of male leads. Male Lead 1 (Magic Tower) aggressively courting her and showing off his obsessive possessiveness. Male Lead 2 (major guild alliance and foreign governments) anxiously fidgeting and showing nervous trembling. Male Lead 3 (Association) with consideration, patience, and the flavor of an older man that triggers an older-man complex. In typical romance fantasy, the female lead is usually a saint or a mage, but since Siren is a magical girl, it's pretty close, right?

“Hyun!”

“Heh heh. Sorry.”

I apologized to Siren, who was glaring at me with a pout, then continued.

“Is there a side you're leaning toward?”

“The Association, I guess?”

“The Association? That's unexpected.”

“It's just... I heard some things about that uncle Yu Gang-hyeok. He apparently worked hard when the demons appeared.”

“Really?”

I had heard about what happened between Yu Gang-hyeok and Lee Seon. Rumors had circulated within the Association, so he contacted Lee Seon directly using the number she'd given him at the Magic Tower before, just to check if it was true, and confirmed it was.

“...That uncle? That's surprising.”

“I was surprised too.”

I'd thought he was just a clumsy fool, but it turned out he had that kind of decisiveness and drive. Siren and I nodded at each other, then our eyes suddenly met.

“Should we just go with the Association?”

“That uncle doesn't seem like the type to betray people.”

“Hehe. We can make the Magic Tower and the big guilds suffer. They were getting annoying anyway.”

“Our Iren has a wicked side, huh.”

“Call it my cat-like side, please.”

And just like that, full authority over Avatar Casting was given to the Association. As for Yu Gang-hyeok, who had suddenly become the protagonist of the "even if you do nothing, half the work is done" trope, his reaction was...

“It's fine.”

“It's fine.”

“Enough.”

They say he gave away so much that even Siren got fed up.

It was three weeks after the Dragon-Demon War when Siren finally turned on her stream. Ten thousand viewers hit the screen within ten seconds of starting.

-Why are you only here now!!!

-What have you been doing all this time!!

-She did a lot, lol.

-But where did the owner go after turning on the stream? There's no one on cam.

People were starting to wonder if she'd turned it on by mistake when I appeared.

“Yes, everyone. It's me.”

-Oha (meaning "Hi, Oppa")

-OhaWhyNi (meaning "Hi, Oppa, but why are you here again").

“This isn't the main broadcast. I just turned it on briefly to explain what happened during the break and our future broadcasting direction.”

I lightly ignored the reactions of "We get it, but why are you the one explaining?" and continued.

Avatar Casting had been fully handed over to the Association and would be released gradually. The "Raise a Mage Hyun" project would continue, but we wouldn't be revealing any magic with the same impact as the Dog-Eye Awakening Array or Avatar Casting. The Bukhan Mountain gate had been delayed for far too long, and we were finally going to tackle it. The next broadcast would be from the Bukhan Mountain gate, and so on.

That was when it happened.

“Ah, it's nothing serious. I was there during the Dragon-Demon War too. I got a bit hurt, so I used up some energy recovering.”

-Finally some worthwhile info twenty minutes into the stream lol.

-So it was just a flex after all.

-Five thousand people already left, isn't this basically ant terrorism?

-Spill the tea.

“It was Siren's solo subjugation. I was... um, the cheerleader? Pretty much exactly that role.”

“Yeah, it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠turns out they can. I didn't expect to get hurt that badly either. The fire dragon was no joke. I was pretty far away, but the heat still reached me.”

I gave a vague explanation.

“Wow, thank you.”

This was the first sponsorship of my life. I wasn't exactly in a position to worry about money anymore, but since it was my first time receiving one, I jumped up without thinking. I was trying to give a proper reaction, but nothing clever came to mind. Instead, moving too suddenly made my back and thighs hurt. The burns hadn't fully healed yet, so it stung like hell.

“Arghhh.”

-Lmao

-What are you doing? lol

-You're the cameraman;; Why are you so serious about reacting?

-Gourmet bro, how could you torment an injured person like this?

The broadcast atmosphere improved thanks to the unintentional physical comedy (or not), but one person couldn't join in the laughter.

“What are you doing!”

“Ugh. It stings.”

“Seriously. Sigh.”

I was standing there awkwardly, trembling, when Siren—who had been off-camera—finally came over to me.

-Wait, Siren. She was outside the camera the whole time?

-Why won't you acknowledge us!!!

-...Are we embarrassing to you?

-Siren, please awaken.

The chat exploded the moment Siren appeared. The viewer count shot up again. But soon, all the reactions converged into one direction.

-But what's Siren wearing today...?

-That's not the yellow magical girl outfit?

-Show us the front. Front. Front.

-Are jeans and a cardigan considered magical girl clothes?

-Look at that back view.

-Her, her face...!!

-Holy shit lol. Dressing her like this makes it impossible to even talk to her.

We still hadn't gotten a new magical girl outfit. So to avoid breaking the concept, I'd been the only one on camera... but in the end, Siren in casual clothes ended up appearing on stream. Since it was everyone's first time seeing Siren in normal clothes, it was bound to get noisy.

“Come over here.”

“Sorry.”

“Idiot.”

But the moment she supported me and turned toward the camera—

The instant her face appeared on screen—

-Huh.

-Gasp.

-Whoa.

The reactions changed again. Because—

-Upvote lol

-Clapping with my feet, upvote lol

-She's insanely pretty.

Siren looked at me.

“Well, I guess it's okay to reveal my face now.”

“You think so?”

“Who would dare mess with an archmage?”

And so, Siren's face was revealed to the world.