Is Communication Necessary?
If only for the sake of one's own clear conscience, a person always needs to be honest.
But sooner or later, life hands everyone a moment when lying is the only option.
"You can do this at home! Why are you so dead set on a PC bang?!"
Apparently, for me, that moment was now.
How exactly was I supposed to say that an eleven-year-old elementary schooler from an orphanage didn't have a home?
…No matter how I spun it, every scenario looked terrible.
"It's more romantic this way?"
Since I'd already decided to accept Neo's help, I settled for a roundabout answer.
Going it alone without Neo was always an option, of course—but for the essential know-how of stream setup and the like, I needed the help of someone who was both experienced and, frankly, an expert. No matter how vast the internet's store of information, it had its limits. And more than anything, hunting everything down from scratch was just a pain.
"Haa…"
I could feel the irritation threaded through Neo's deep sigh.
"Even male streamers have serious stalker-fan problems… Do you have any idea how much worse it is for female streamers?"
"I'm not aiming to get that famous."
"You hit Master using nothing but Monk, didn't you."
"Uh… yeah."
"Do you understand how insane that is?"
"Ahem…"
Well, the highest tier any other Monk player has reached is Diamond, so…
Yeah. It was pretty insane.
"And you're a girl."
"…I suppose so?"
"…If you stream, you'll blow up. Guaranteed."
"Come on, no way."
I hadn't revealed my age, my background, or my face. And yet Neo was already forecasting the rise and fall of my entire streaming career. Wasn't he getting a little ahead of himself?
"No. Go home."
"…Then I'll just try it on my own."
In the end, that was how I managed to wring help out of a Neo who was practically screaming at me to stop.
An eleven-year-old elementary school girl with a pretty face, streaming at Master rank… plus she'd already shot a movie.
Just hearing it was pure clickbait. And given that every word of it was true, Neo's prediction of a massive hit probably wasn't far off.
But I decided to strip away every one of those titles and leave only the gameplay.
Being a girl was unavoidable—I'd just have to live with it. It wasn't as if I were Jekyll and Hyde; wanting two coexisting selves was pure arrogance. Still, the other identity thrashing around inside me was hard to ignore completely.
Is there a button somewhere that just click-changes your entire way of thinking?
Idle thoughts kept swirling through my head, and that spiraled into further mental expansion.
What if I used a voice changer and pretended to be a guy?
Yeah… that's a hard no…
There were lines a person simply did not cross. As a bare-minimum compromise, I stuck with the original plan: hide the voice, and just play the game endlessly. I'd already made a solid chunk of money from the film, so there was no reason left to sell my soul for cash either.
"…"
From a corner seat in the PC bang that felt more awkward than usual, I swept a glance around. An eleven-year-old streaming from a PC bang… the sheer absurdity of it made the back of my neck burn, like I was some kid clinging to a hopeless dream.
I'd decided to stream on Flick, one of the two titans of popular streaming platforms. There wasn't any deep reason. It was popular, and I was familiar with it.
Everything else is fine… just please, please hide the PC bang location. Please!
Recalling everything Neo had hammered into me, I started setting up the screen. I installed external software to cover the PC bang logo just in case of accidents, and locked the broadcast output to Rune Breaker. As for the mic test… all I could do was hope the headset mic of indeterminate age still worked.
People who stream tend to settle into a concept—and so do the people who watch them.
OurVillage.
A username lifted from a famous manga meme, and one of Neo's dedicated viewers. Also, something of an internet ghost.
…Huh?
While browsing the stream list as usual, he spotted a familiar name.
Delent. Zero viewers.
Half-convinced it couldn't be real, he clicked in—and there was the familiar Rune Breaker nickname.
Delent123.
It's the real one!
The mysterious powerhouse who, ever since appearing on Neo's stream, would occasionally show up for ordinary duo queues. A small fanbase had formed around Neo's viewership, drawn in no small part by the fact that she was an unidentified female high-ranker.
The stream title was Rune Breaker Grandmaster Climb.
"…Ah. Hello."
A voice filtered through a terrible-quality mic. Whether this streamer had any intention of actually broadcasting or not, she lapsed back into silence. And the moment a match queued up, she wordlessly locked in Monk.
Time passed, and viewers began trickling in one by one.
A troll dropped in mid-stream with nonsense chat, but Delent paid it zero attention.
"Hmm… the team's reactions are pretty interesting."
That was because she was already drawing heated attention before the game had even started.
…How does she drop over ten kills every single game?
Regardless of the chat, OurVillage couldn't help but marvel at Delent's match history. A total record of fifty wins and three losses—and every single one of them on Monk, no less.
Normally, a win streak would eventually throw you against skilled opponents and cost you a game or two. Delent maintained that destructive record without so much as a hiccup.
While he was still browsing the stats, the ranked game began on one of Rune Breaker's signature maps: Crimson Fortress. Built around a large central clearing, three branching paths led toward each team's heart—the Rune.
It was the kind of map so straightforward that the standard opening was for both teams to gather and race to mid for a five-on-five brawl. That made high-mobility characters who could claim the center first a major variable—and Monk was among the most mobile characters in the game.
Whoosh!
From the jump, Monk activated Mist Dash and tore across the map, arriving at mid first as expected. Around the same time, Amber—another high-speed character—came into view.
"Spear guy's here."
Stating the fact calmly, Monk tried to close the distance despite the massive range disadvantage. But the opponent wasn't an idiot, and there was no way they'd simply allow it.
In a game where range was considered one of the most critical factors, Monk was, without question, the character with the shortest arms. Soloing through a spear's long reach should have been impossible.
…It really should have been.
In a flash the screen spun, and only a beat later did OurVillage realize the spear tip aimed at her forearm had cut through nothing but empty air.
Amber yanked the spear back and retreated, then swung again. Yellow particles flared—she'd used her Attack Empower skill. Without any wind-up, the strike cracked out faster and harder, like a bowstring loosed in an instant. An ordinary player would have taken the hit and scrambled to recover—or simply died for free.
…What is she doing?
But Delent didn't dodge. She met the spear head-on.
And then—
CLANG!
"…Huh?"
OurVillage had watched it happen right in front of him and still couldn't process it for a second. Not some fluke lucky block—a deliberate, full-frontal skill parry, aimed and executed on purpose.
The viewer count hadn't even cracked ten, but it was the kind of play that pried open the mouths of even the deep-sea lurkers—people famous for keeping quiet. With the vanguard fight over before either full team had even come into view, the rest of the skirmish was a one-sided slaughter.
It had all happened so fast that even the people watching could barely follow—but Delent simply continued the game in silence.
For the entire match, Monk's kill feed decorated the top of the screen. The game ran about fifteen minutes, and in that time the viewer count climbed to forty. For a brand-new no-name streamer who'd started with zero help, it was practically a miracle…
"…It's almost time to eat. I'm heading out."
With those final words, Delent's stream ended just like that.
What is with this person?
There was a saying about making hay while the sun shone. This streamer had taken one look at the rising tide and shut off the faucet.
Unbelievable.
Thinking as much, OurVillage naturally toggled on the stream-start notification for Delent.
Was he still carrying guilt over accusing me of hacking? I barely thought about it anymore, so his fretting just made me feel more awkward than anything. If anything, once I got bigger, I'd be the one who ought to give him a shout-out.
Anyway, I considered the first stream a decent success. There'd been zero real interaction—mostly just me muttering whatever came to mind—but by the end, the viewer count had edged a little past forty.
Do I need to talk?
I was doing this half as a hobby, and nothing was dumber than opening your mouth and getting your personal info leaked. So rather than speak up and invite disaster for no reason…
"A-yeon, look at this."
"…Huh?… Mmph."
A lollipop was shoved into my mouth. Sweet strawberry flavor bloomed across my tongue and lit up the tip of it.
"Mmm…"
Why did this candy taste so good? The tension drained from my shoulders, and my mind went soft and loose.
"You were off in your own head again, weren't you?"
"Mm-hm. Mmmpf."
Lately I'd been noticing that Lee Hye-yeon was getting better and better at reading my thoughts. Taking it as proof that we'd grown closer, I couldn't exactly feel bad about it. Smiling as she watched me, Hye-yeon stuck a candy of her own in her mouth and said,
"Heh-heh. A-yeon goes all quiet the second she gets candy."
"…No I don't."
I wasn't a dog. Going docile just because someone stuck a lollipop in my mouth? That didn't make any sense.