The Giant of the Plains 4
Right on the heels of Grace, Irene dropped a nuclear bomb on the stream.
The camera just happened to be pointed at her, so every word of it was caught clean on the mic. Out of nowhere, Irene told me to give Han Se-ah a good, tight hug — and the chat window went from bubbling like an active volcano straight into a full-on detonation. Boom.
It literally exploded before the A.I. moderator could even slap on slow mode and the spam flood began.
"Out of nowhere?"
"Mmm… Hanna is a Hero, after all. I was worried she might be stewing over some trouble she can't bring herself to tell us about. …And it seems like Hanna has feelings for Roland, too."
"What?"
I snuck a glance at the chat. Thanks to the shady science of Vivi Games — virtual reality, A.I., the whole Earth-4 package — the window had already recovered, and every flavor of nonsense was pouring back in.
But more important than that was why Irene had suddenly decided to ship me and Han Se-ah. Grace was one thing — she was the teasing big-sister type who poked at your cheek for fun. Irene saying something like this meant it wasn't a joke. This was one hundred percent sincere.
So I ignored the camera creeping in closer, fidgeted with the hand I was holding, and looked into Irene's gentle golden eyes. What I found there was unwavering affection for me — and a compassion that said she was perfectly happy to share that affection with anyone.
…If I started thinking she was trying to turn me into some kind of communal mental-care resource, would that make me a complete piece of garbage?
"Well… among the three of us, we already have that kind of common ground, so we can talk about things openly… but Hanna doesn't have any of that. Even when it feels like she's gotten closer, there's still this strange wall she puts up. But the part about her liking Roland — that much is real."
I let the ugly thought that had flickered through my head for a split second drift away, and as I listened to Irene, the picture started coming together. The viewers, too, had either gotten tired of spamming consonants like overexcited apes, or were terrified of the A.I. moderator's butcher knife after the chat explosion — either way, they'd started analyzing Irene's words.
In short: this was a misunderstanding born from Han Se-ah being the player.
Of course it was. Han Se-ah was the player — and not just playing a game, but streaming it live, talking to her audience in real time. No matter how many times she used the "I'm a mage, I need to meditate" excuse, to Grace, Irene, and Katie it just looked like she was taking alone time way too often.
Ironically, it was also because Han Se-ah was too good at streaming.
She was the one I half-jokingly called a broadcasting genius. She hadn't built her following on looks and a killer body from fitness streams alone — she'd run game streams in parallel, pulling fans in with her signature banter and rock-solid radio talk.
That signature radio talk of hers hadn't gone anywhere. Even while playing Heroes Chronicle, she easily filled one or two hours just chatting with viewers, keeping their attention locked in…
Which, flipped around, meant she was voluntarily isolating herself from the girls in the party every single day. And Grace and Irene, talking it over, had landed on the misunderstanding that she was "shy little Hanna, pining in secret and keeping her distance from the party because of a one-sided crush."
"Hold on, what kind of nonsense is this. Me, keeping my distance from the party… me?!"
"Okay, I genuinely never saw this coming. So you're saying you watched me talking to the viewers and thought I was putting distance between myself and the unnies? And the reason I was putting distance was… um, because I have a crush on Roland, and Roland is, uh, close with the three of you?"
The silver lining, at least, was that there weren't any seriously blackened, jealous simps raging over me getting linked with Han Se-ah. Technically they existed, but against an audience of millions they were so few you couldn't even see them.
It might have been dangerous back when she was still doing fitness streams and the like — but by now her position as the number-one virtual reality gamer in the world had solidified into something unshakeable. For every simp hypnotized by her looks and body, there were hundreds of fanatics hypnotized by the world-number-one title.
"That's why I asked you. …What do you think, Roland?"
"I can't speak for Hanna's feelings on a whim, so… tabled for now. But I'll keep it in mind."
"Okay. Please, Roland. Even if it's something hard to tell us… as the senior adventurer who first formed this party, you might be someone she can open up to."
With that thought, I watched the chaotic chat and Han Se-ah thrashing around in it, while those unwavering, perfectly clear eyes looked at me and entrusted her to my care.
I, uh… I get the sentiment, but I can't just make a move on her out in the open…
The chat had gone wild off Irene's sudden bombshell. No matter how many ogre bait-hooks Han Se-ah threw out to put out the fire, public opinion refused to turn — so she made a decision worthy of a broadcasting genius.
"So… if I go on a date with Roland, is that a mission?"
A full frontal assault.
The viewers had been roasting her for trying to get an NPC boyfriend of all things — this wasn't even real life — but the moment Han Se-ah doubled down and offered to sell bodycam footage of Roland, they completely lost their steam.
Of course they did. What people like that actually wanted was the sight of Han Se-ah squirming in embarrassment. As if a broadcasting genius like her was going to shrink back over a few cheap jabs. Instead she charged straight ahead, brainstorming every monetization angle under the sun — honeymoon couple vlogs, a camera mounted on Roland's head for first-person harem POV, the works.
By that point, the people teasing Han Se-ah had long since vanished, and everyone was too busy airing out their own desires. From hardcore gamers yelling at her to quit the nonsense and go kill ogres, to suspiciously obsessed gay-gay friends fixated on my naked body — the chaos was richly diverse.
At some point the chat twisted into a bizarre direction where anyone requesting footage of Grace, Irene, or Katie got branded a pervert with abnormal tastes… but still. Better I become the toy than my girls become the objects of some low-rent fantasy.
And better Han Se-ah play the clown than I become the toy.
"Um… Roland?"
"What."
"No, you were coming over this way, so I wondered if something was up."
The howls demanding Noona's assets got buried under howls demanding Sensei's ass — but that didn't mean I particularly wanted to keep reading the gay-gay friends' cries aimed at my back and backside.
So I was going to mess with Han Se-ah.
We were mid-gate transit from the 60th Floor toward the outside of the Tower. I strode over, completely obvious about it, and planted myself at Han Se-ah's side — and every gaze in the area swung toward us. Jammin was still Jammin, busy talking monsters with the knights, but Grace and Irene watched me like they were cheering me on.
A few of the more interested knights caught the scent of a rom-com and turned to look as well, so even dense-as-a-brick Han Se-ah had no choice but to notice something was off.
"Nothing's wrong. I just felt like talking a bit."
"Uh, um, wh-what about?"
At least this time she didn't go Hanna-yaaak! and bolt. Small mercies.
Thinking that, I took one more step forward. The distance closed deliberately, and her small head tilted up with a soft little lift. The height difference forced her to look up at me, and the chat started shrieking like housewives watching a morning soap. Even through all of that, Han Se-ah kept the camera rolling diligently — and I dropped a single line.
"There's plenty to talk about… isn't there?"
"Hyeek?!"
In the brief window when the camera swung toward Irene, I gently stroked the back of her hand.
Han Se-ah jumped at that ambiguous little touch and let out a strange little noise — and in an instant the chat window was wallpapered in question marks.
Sorry. Take one for the team. My ass depends on it.