Now This I Can't Pass Up

Unforgivable. That's what this was.

Ziiiing─

"......"

I was back in the real world.

As I rose from the virtual access pod, the difference between the me in there and the me here on Earth was stark. My stomach growled.

How long had I been in there?

I turned on the computer in my dark little room to check the time.

"Eleven o'clock..."

I'd started at four, which meant I'd spent a full seven hours inside that virtual reality game.

I fumbled my way into some clothes and opened the door. Sitting right in front of it was a delivery meal, stone cold.

I'd originally planned to stop after three hours or so, but meeting Yena had pushed things back a fair bit.

It was fun, though.

The delivery was a lunchbox packed full of meat. I peeled off the plastic wrap, left the clear lid resting loosely on top, and slid it into the rattling microwave for two minutes. That anxious little whirrr ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠filled the silent room.

I really need to buy a new one of these before long.

"Should I find a new place?"

I looked around. I hadn't noticed while I was busy stuffing myself into the access pod, but this space was definitely on the cramped side. When all I had was a desk with a computer and a bed, there'd been a reasonable amount of room, but with the pod squeezed in as well, it was now officially too small.

Then again, with barely twenty million won to my name, finding anything roomier would be a stretch. Even if I did manage it, the money would hit rock bottom in no time.

"...Hmm."

I sat down at my desk-monitor combo and ate the lunchbox while replaying everything that had just happened.

After the duel, Yena had offered me a streaming career, and I'd turned her down. The only reason I'd gone along with her wishes at all was that a debt received must be paid.

I had no intention of streaming for anyone's sake.

'Really? I think you'd be great at it.'

'I'm not that into it. What I did back there was just for fun, that's all.'

'Then... okay, I understand. Please accept my friend request at least. I'll reach out again sometime.'

'We're wrapping up for today, then?'

'Yep. Though the viewers are going to lose their minds...'

Showing them everything from the start would kill the fun, after all.

She'd flashed a satisfied grin and said her goodbyes, and I'd returned to reality.

I clenched the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hand that had gripped that window frame.

As I thought — it seemed I couldn't break free of that place after all.

Sunlight crept through the room's single tiny window and tickled my eyes awake.

Morning already?

The alarm was broken, so I had no way of knowing the exact time.

"Seven o'clock."

The computer clock read 7 a.m. precisely. So I'd woken up right on the dot.

I folded my blanket, made a quick meal out of the bread I'd stocked up on, then took a shower.

I'd bought the bread at a little bakery in front of my villa, where the owner always asked if I was a foreigner. I'd said something close enough. From a certain point of view, an otherworlder counted as a foreigner too.

Looking into the bathroom mirror, a beautiful Lily stared back and held me captive. If I went out looking like this, the stares would follow me again.

I tied my hair back and pulled on a black cap to hide the blue. My face still insisted on asserting itself, but while no one in DeoEn would care, the single most eye-catching thing about me on Earth was that blue hair. Then again, unless someone is truly impossible to ignore, people surprisingly pay very little attention to strangers.

From the handful of clothes in my closet, I picked out the most presentable option. Adding "buy clothes" to today's to-do list was looking like a necessity.

"Alright."

Preparations complete, I opened the door and stepped out. The crisp, cool air greeted me.

"Perfect."

A high-rise apartment with an unobstructed view of the city skyline and the Han River through floor-to-ceiling glass. Yena — partner streamer, rising star of the moment, and self-proclaimed hot potato — lived there, and she was nodding along as she watched the video she'd uploaded to her NewTube channel.

It was a short clip, barely ten minutes long, yet in just a single hour since going up it had hit nearly a million views. An achievement without precedent in Yena's NewTube history. At this pace, her experience told her it would blow past ten million within two or three days, easy.

Already, others were rushing out their own Lily-related clips and sucking up views by the hundreds of thousands, but—

"I already took the biggest bite~"

The moment the stream had ended, her editing team's group chat had already been buzzing with half-finished cuts. Yena's editors had worked with her steadily for three years, and even without being told, they were primed to move the instant a stream wrapped.

They could already taste the victory. Sure, the title did a lot of heavy lifting, but anyone who saw Lily's face on that thumbnail physically could not scroll past without clicking it.

That sky-blue hair and those blue eyes, like the open sea. A face that would ensnare anyone, regardless of gender. And not a single wrinkle on that pristine white outfit.

How was anyone supposed to just walk past that?

Wearing a satisfied smile, Yena turned to her Twitch community page — her so-called TwiGather. Posts were already flooding in, a chorus of people demanding she release Lily to the public.

Normally she'd have gleefully swung the banhammer at any mention of other streamers, but right now it was exactly the opposite. This bait had to keep burning.

Where else would she ever find an aggro magnet this good?

Yena was certain: this aggro magnet would become the single greatest asset of her streaming career.

"Miss Lily really should become a streamer."

She didn't seem like a newbie at all. Skill like hers was far beyond anything a genuine beginner could produce.

'So whose alt is she?'

That was the dominant theory filling most of the community right now, and Yena herself was fairly convinced of it. And yet, paradoxically, no "main account" displaying movements reminiscent of Lily's could be found anywhere.

It wasn't as if pro players were incapable of moving like that. Yena herself could manage that level, and even amateur trainees who weren't pros could pull it off.

'Assuming they have the gear and the stats for it.'

With the plain, unboosted stats of an ordinary newbie, movement like Lily's was simply impossible. No amount of skill compensated for that.

Ding~

The manager's Discord. During the stream she'd had the donation sounds turned off, so the donations had quietly piled up. The sheer size of the crowd played its part, but Lily's impact had been so enormous that the amount that rolled in was frankly staggering.

I should send Miss Lily her share too.

"Uhhmm..."

"Thank you, come again~"

Ziiiing.

After hitting every stop on my itinerary for the day, I made my final purchase at the phone store — a new phone. The latest model, on a twenty-four-month contract. The world had changed by barely three years, and yet the phone series had long since blown past the twenties.

The D 27+, apparently. Made by a company I'd never even heard of — not the one I remembered — and supposedly this was the most famous phone brand in Korea now.

Then where on earth did the S series I knew go?

"I did spend quite a bit, huh."

I hadn't planned on buying the latest model. I'd meant to pick up a plain, functional phone that did the basics, but the features were so absurdly advanced that I'd bought it before I knew what I was doing. The virtual reality gear wasn't the only thing that had leaped forward — phones had undergone their own quantum jump.

I checked my mobile banking balance. The ten-million-won range had already crumbled away. I hadn't exchanged currency yet, but I had ten million won's worth of gold coins, so surely I'd manage somehow?

That was the comfort I offered myself. Right. Money comes and goes — that's just how it is.

In the world I'd possessed, I had rarely, if ever, been rich. I wasn't the type to hoard money in the first place, and even when I did have some, it never dramatically changed my life. As one descended from an angel's blood, even when I couldn't wash or eat for lack of coin, I always stayed clean and never suffered from hunger.

So naturally, I'd never had to scramble and scrape to earn money.

On Earth, though, I was a different story. Skip a wash and you got filthy; skip a meal and your stomach ached. And Earth had far too many delicious foods. Delicious food costs a fortune. Life on Earth made you spend money like water.

"Eh! ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I'll just earn more, that's all!"

I believed in my own abilities. Even without going back to broadcasting the way I used to, I could make plenty—

Plink!

My phone rang. Companies had changed, but KaTalk lived on. Looking closer, the angel and demon emblems that symbolized DeoEn were etched subtly into the icon. DeoEn was the nation's game, so a collaboration with the nation's messenger wasn't exactly a strange arrangement. Everywhere I'd wandered today, DeoEn merchandise had lined the shelves.

A message from Yena. Free? Did she mean streaming?

I'd received something from her, so I was willing to do a stream or two more, but I had no intention of jumping straight into it today.

I was composing a refusal when my fingers suddenly stopped.

Now this I couldn't pass up.