Master's Guest Seat (1)
Master's Guest Seat.
It was the fixed Saturday content Hanbyeori ran every week—a broadcast where she invited guests from various fields. Of course, given the nature of her stream, most of those guests were LoL players.
The people who appeared on Master's Guest Seat generally fell into three types.
Players who had hit rank one, or who sat near the very top.
One-trick players who had ground a single champion into the dirt.
And lastly, the reverse high-elo types—the deep sea of the deep sea.
Back then, I'd gone on as the season's POG number one.
In my previous life, after finishing first in season POG—Player of the Game—I'd appeared on Master's Guest Seat, and the memory of it was a good one.
But that had been when I still carried the title of pro gamer, along with the achievement of POG number one.
So why on earth was she offering me a seat now?
When I didn't answer right away, she started trying to persuade me in a visibly frantic tone—offering double the usual fee, or saying I could appear online if I preferred.
It might actually be fun to see unnie again after so long.
I still had things to do, so I queued up a game and let the earlier conversation drift back through my mind.
I should at least ask.
Ever since I'd been given this new life, there was one rule I always kept.
Aside from becoming a pro gamer, I did my best not to go against my parents' wishes.
From my previous life's experience, I knew how hard it was to earn money out in the world. Since we were living on what they brought home, I tried as much as possible not to do anything they disliked.
And if they opposed me going pro...
In my past life, when I'd said I wanted to join a team as a trainee, my mother had refused until dirt filled her eyes.
Things might be different now that I'd turned into a girl—but there was no guarantee she wouldn't still object.
Well... if it came to that, so be it.
I'd just win it later and pay them back.
"Mom."
It was a rare dinner with the whole family gathered. At Yoon Seoha's sudden call, her mother, Choi Hyunseo, felt a flicker of surprise.
Her daughter usually ate in silence at mealtimes—even if she never ate much—so the fact that she was speaking up was unusual.
"Hmm? What is it?"
"I want to go to Seoul next weekend."
"Seoul? What for?"
"I want to go on a broadcast."
A broadcast.
Her daughter did have the occasional out-of-nowhere streak—like the time she'd begged for a new computer—but a broadcast was still far too sudden.
"It's not that kind of broadcast."
Yoon Seoha got up from her seat, came back with her phone, and showed them a YouTube channel.
"She's a game streamer. She wants to do an interview and some other stuff with me."
"Even if you spring something like that on us all of a sudden..."
Choi Hyunseo looked over at her husband, Yoon Jinseong, with a flustered expression.
Unlike her, though, her husband's eyes were shining.
"Whoa, our daughter's already rank four hundred?"
"Yeah. I hit Grandmaster on Monday."
"At this rate she's really going to go pro."
Unlike herself, who had never cared for games, her husband's love of them had been obvious from the day they first met. Even so, watching the two of them talk like that—leaving her out every time—never sat entirely well with her.
"Is this person that famous?"
"Ah, right, you wouldn't know. Her YouTube subscribers are... what, four hundred thousand now?"
At Yoon Jinseong's words, Yoon Seoha nodded with her spoon still in her mouth.
"Four hundred thousand is impressive."
"She hasn't even been streaming a full year, I don't think? Yeah, it's impressive."
"So what would Seoha actually be doing there?"
"Seoha started playing this break, right?"
At first, watching her daughter pour every free hour at home into games—so different from before—had worried her. But Seoha was still holding top scores on her academy tests, and she didn't seem to be pulling all-nighters, so Choi Hyunseo had more or less let it go.
"She hit a high rank, and they reached out saying she was amazing."
"How high?"
"Uh... well. Grandmaster is the top 0.05 percent, so... about like getting a top grade on the college entrance exam?"
In any other household, that would have been the moment for parents to tell their kid to spend that gaming time studying for a top grade instead.
But Yoon Seoha already pulled at least a second-tier grade on practice exams no matter what, so there wasn't much to say.
"But is the game that fun? Whenever Mom and Dad are at work, it seems like all you do after academy is play."
"It's fun."
"More fun than going shopping with Mom?"
"Uh... no. Going with Mom is more fun."
She hesitated for a beat, but the answer was satisfying enough that Choi Hyunseo smiled.
"You asked because you want to go, right?"
"Yeah."
"Then go. But take Dad with you."
At that, Yoon Jinseong—mid-sip of water—shot her a look of pure injustice.
"I've got overtime booked solid all next week...?"
"So you'd send a kid who's still only in middle school to Seoul alone?"
"Well, when you put it that way..."
"Then should I go instead, with my business trip next week?"
"No, I'll go..."
"If anyone seems even a little off, you pull Seoha out of there immediately. Got it?"
"Obviously."
Looks like I'll have to run the stream alone.
In a corner of a famous apartment complex in Seocho-gu, Seoul—one everyone knew by name—Hanbyeori was busily prepping for the broadcast.
Two weeks had passed since she'd invited the mysterious female player named para onto Master's Guest Seat, and today was finally the day.
Ah, should I give her a mask too?
Even though she'd already finished talking everything over with the girl's parents, she still got up in a hurry to dig for a mask, just in case.
Why do all the designs look like this...
The masks she finally found in the drawer all had pro team logos stamped on them.
Come to think of it, if any of them had been a clean design, there wouldn't have been a reason to stash them here in the first place.
She figured she'd hand one over for now and buy a new one if the girl didn't like it—and that was when it happened.
—Beep-beep, beep-beep~
Someone had pressed the call button at the parking garage entrance.
She checked in a rush. It was the car number she'd been messaged earlier.
She opened the gate and pulled on the hooded zip-up she'd tossed over a chair.
The underground parking here had a notoriously complicated layout; first-time visitors had a high chance of getting lost.
Her name was Yoon Seoha... right.
In the elevator heading down, Hanbyeori ran through the information she'd been given one more time.
Name: Yoon Seoha.
Age: fifteen, middle school.
Apparently she'd been playing LoL for less than three months.
She's a complete monster.
It wasn't as if minors had never appeared on Master's Guest Seat before. A few high school pro hopefuls and amateur high-elo players had come on.
But no one like Yoon Seoha—Grandmaster in three months, and a girl at that—had ever existed.
Still turning that over in her mind, she arrived at the parking garage.
"Ah, yes. Just come to the front of Building 108."
Not long after the call, a fairly large man and a young girl appeared from the opposite direction.
"Hello!"
She greeted them with the same energy she used on stream—and then, looking at the girl who had come up right in front of her, her words died in her throat.
...Insane.
Hanbyeori had been born into a well-off family and was used to being told she had a refined air about her.
Even she found herself thinking, What kind of person is this?
This is fifteen?
Her black hair fell all the way to her waist, not a single strand out of place, as if it were managed every single day. Against that, her skin was so pale it almost looked translucent. And those eyes, tinted red, carried the natural gaze of someone from the upper class.
Give her just a few more years...
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say she was already finished. Looking at her as a person alone—could anyone really be this perfect?
"Ah. A-ah, hello. Nice to meet you. I'm Kim Hanbyul."
Realizing she'd been staring blankly at someone she'd just met, she hurriedly reintroduced herself.
"Hello. I'm Yoon Seoha. Looking forward to working with you today."
Her overall impression was that of a sharp beauty, but her voice was soft. On top of that, an air that didn't match her age layered on an extra touch of mysterious charm.
"I'm Seoha's dad. Thank you for inviting her."
"Ah, no! I'm the one who should be thanking you for coming."
Hanbyeori took the hand Yoon Jinseong offered with a good-natured smile.
"Shall we head up and talk first?"
.
.
.
"For today's stream, I was thinking you'd play about one or two solo queue games, and then give me feedback while I play. How does that sound?"
"Okay."
Hanbyeori was starting to seriously doubt whether the blank-faced girl answering in front of her was really the same person who'd been demolishing Grandmaster and Challenger queues.
With a face like that, she spent all day playing LoL?
In a certain sense, that was impressive in its own right.
"Is that okay with you?"
"I don't mind."
"Haha, as long as my daughter is fine with it."
After laying out the stream plan, Hanbyeori handed Yoon Seoha the mask she'd set on the desk.
"And I prepared this just in case. Feel free to use it if you want."
"Ah..."
Seoha took the mask and simply stared through it, as if she had something to say.
Did I mess something up?
But only for a moment. Seoha casually pulled the mask free and settled it over her mouth.
"Let's start the stream soon."
The logo on the mask she'd chosen was ARK.
ARK... it suits her.
For reasons she couldn't quite name, Hanbyeori felt that ARK and Yoon Seoha went well together—and with that, she started the stream.