A "Normal" Stream

The next morning.

Or, to be more precise, I opened my eyes around 1:00 PM.

"Ugh. I'm exhausted."

I’d gotten sucked into a vortex of Tube Shorts and Insta Reels from last night and hadn't been able to crawl my way out.

"I'm hungry..."

I opened a delivery app, ordered a simple bowl of seolleongtang, and sat down in front of my computer.

"This is the one thing that's convenient about being a Virtual Avatar streamer."

The fact that I can start a stream whenever I want, as long as I warm up my voice, without having to shower or put on decent clothes. It’s one of the biggest perks of this gig.

"Whoa, you scared me. What's the problem now?"

"...But they only know I stream, right? They don't know my streaming handle yet."

"...Doesn't look like it, does it?"

Even if I managed to keep my mouth shut, I definitely wasn't confident I wouldn't get caught. If someone listened to my stream for even a little while, it felt like they’d eventually figure out what kind of conversations I have, who I collab with, and so on.

"Then, does that mean it doesn't matter if we meet in person first?"

"Oh... but is that allowed? Changing the rules on a whim?"

"Tsk. Fine."

What a brat... but I guess if it's fun for them, that's that.

"*Gack!*"

My breath suddenly hitched.

"*Haa, haa.*"

'Ugh...'

I stopped thinking and steadied my breathing.

"Until the East Sea's waters..."

I sang the legendary song that clears your mind all the way to the second verse, then prepared to go live.

"*Ahem.* Testing."

My voice was fully warmed up by now.

I started the broadcast immediately.

Then, I waited about three minutes for the viewers to trickle in.

"Oh?"

Way more viewers than I expected.

"Quite a few more people than I thought, huh?"

"Ah. Just a second."

I pulled up my virtual avatar and struck a little pose.

"How is it? Pretty, right?"

"So cold."

"Ah, I've been thinking about that... I'll add one game that you guys want, and we'll handle the penalty separately!"

"No, I'll use whatever game suggestions I see in the chat, but... maybe donations get weighted?"

"Hurry up and suggest some games."

I demanded game suggestions with confidence.

"If no games come up, I'm playing whatever I want!"

"Ah. I already did a horror game with Gwangpal, so that's banned!"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Yeah... that was a slip of the tongue. Well, I'm sure she won't care."

I brushed it off and added the games from the roulette wheel.

"I'll only take 20."

After a little while, 20 games had piled up.

There were famous games like Rules, Witch, and Battlegrounds, but there were also games I’d never even heard of in my life.

And the one I wanted to play the least was...

"Can't we really just exclude the dating sims?"

Dating sims.

In my original world, it stood for "Pretty Girl Dating Simulation," but in this world, it’s short for "Pretty Boy Dating Simulation."

And the dating sim recommended this time was a game called Netkama-chan, which is about seducing a man who is secretly pretending to be a woman on the internet.

'It's strangely similar to my situation.'

Of course, the guy in the game only pretended to be a girl on game voice chats or in communities, but it felt like a similar situation to mine.

"But isn't the weight too high? Almost half of it is Netkama..."

Most of the people donating wanted me to suffer, and since I was clearly showing how much I hated dating sims, the donations were bound to lean toward them.

"...Fine. Time's up, so I'll spin ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it now."

'Please, please, please!!'

I pressed the spin button while praying in my heart that it wouldn't land on a dating sim.

"Tsk."

Honestly, I expected it. It’s only natural that the one with the highest probability would land. It wasn't a huge shock, but I wasn't happy about it.

"What's so good about this piece of data..."

The chat window was in chaos in an instant.

"Hehe, I'm just kidding. Just kidding. Why are you all being so serious?"

"Hey. Obviously, I'm the same as you guys. Living at home, earning pennies, ordering delivery food every day, not exercising... Sorry."

"Cam?"

I started chatting with the viewers while downloading Netkama-chan.

"If I had any intention of showing my cam, I wouldn't have become a virtual streamer, right?"

"I don't think I'll do a partial cam either? And I don't plan on doing any external activities if I can help it."

"No, I just mean... anyway, I want to protect my identity as much as possible, so please just think of it that way."

I stated my refusal clearly and waited for the game to finish installing.

"Why is the file size so big?"

"This... I can't finish this in one day?"

"Ah."

My head started spinning at the thought of staring at an illustration of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a young man in revealing clothes for several days.

"Do I need to put a 19+ age restriction on this?"

"Really? Then I'll just..."

"Ah, it's 15+? Then I guess I don't need to put a restriction on it."

I trusted the anonymous donor and didn't bother with a 19+ restriction.

"But I'll ask for your understanding if anyone is uncomfortable with the exposure!"

"Ugh."

I made a face like I'd seen something filthy and started the game.

"Ah."

But what greeted me on the game start screen was an even filthier character.

A young man who looked like he wasn't even 160cm tall, wearing nothing but a tank top, with his cheeks flushed red.

"..."

"Starting right now!"

I made a decision.

From now on, I am a dating sim speedrunner.

///

I finished the dating sim in seven hours.

If you exclude the time I wasn't focused because I was eating seolleongtang, the time would have been even shorter.

A feast of "Ruined" spam in the chat window.

"No, why! This is an ending too!!!"

In the end, I blocked Haka, the target of the game, from ever going outside, turning him into a shut-in who only operates on the internet.

"No. He said he didn't want to get caught being a man, so I helped him out, what's the problem!"

I can proudly say I was faithful to the game in my own way.

It's just that the direction was different from the developer's intent.

"Look, this is a valid ending too. Don't you see the achievement pop-up?"

After clearing the game, I could see the "Eternal Solo" achievement mark in the bottom right corner.

"If you really want to, go to another room... honestly, I failed to do it, but I didn't *not* do it, right?"

"No, why are you talking in circles like a man... tsk."

"That's true. Come to think of it, I'm a man, right?"

While playing the game, I got confused about the differences between men and women again.

"Sorry, I'm not really close with data."

"Anyway, I've been streaming for a long time. Let's finish the penalty I couldn't do yesterday."

I had a bad feeling, but a promise is a promise, so I turned the roulette wheel back on.

"...Wow. Our SpicyChallenge donated 10,000 won... I'll add it to the roulette right away."

Started off ruined from the very beginning.

Freddy's Pizza Shop.

A very representative and classic horror game.

"Okay..."

"Void Dragon? I haven't even made it to Hell yet?"

"Ah. Okay."

I added catching the Void Dragon to the roulette without a word.

"Excuse me?"

"Youngsu?"

I checked the nickname of the anonymous donor.

"Youngsu. How could you do this to me!"

He didn't seem to know there was a way for me to identify anonymous donors.

"Ha. I'm disappointed in you, Youngsu. Don't think you'll be able to talk to me on the phone anymore!"

"Fine... I'll take 5 more minutes."

///

"Spinning it now?"

The roulette currently had various spicy foods, horror games, and difficult challenge missions.

"Here we go!"

I pressed the spin button, and...

"Ah. Shit."

"What kind of aegyo does our slave Youngsu want to hear?"

I asked through gritted teeth.

"Really? Fine. You stay behind after the stream ends."

I went into a generative AI and entered a request for aegyo.

"You're really making me do this?"

"Ha."

"H... H-honey~ I'm so happy you came to see me today, nya!... Ha... shit."

I ended the stream right there.

___

Below is an illustration!

Virtual Hakuryu doing aegyo!