This Is My Solution
The trial ended in a complete mess thanks to Komari and Maru(?) bickering the whole time. By the next trial, yet another person had lost their life to my fangs. Grr, scary, right? Werewolves tear people apart, after all. As a result, only three of us remained: me, Komari, and Maru.
The two who had been at each other’s throats during the last trial, accusing one another of being the werewolf, immediately squared off again. Under normal circumstances, I should have been the one getting voted out, ending in a human victory. But thanks to making excellent use of the Silent One’s ability, I had already slipped off the list of suspects.
Watching the situation unfold exactly as I had planned, a thought I had forgotten suddenly resurfaced. It was the idea that had occurred to me while I was struggling with how to handle the monthly review content. Maybe this style of conversation could become the breakthrough I needed.
When I first joined to help Ronze, I had simply gone with the flow. But after he was confirmed as the werewolf and became obsessed with the trials, I was on my own. I had to survive no matter what, so I used every means at my disposal to prove my innocence. The result was that I had worn Maru’s mask using the Silent One and voice mimicry… but in the end, I succeeded.
Leading the conversation on stream the way I wanted.
A mask, huh…
I’ve always found it difficult to be the first one to speak. Doing it on stream is even harder. To me, that act itself feels like giving a speech in front of a crowd. I think like this! Something like that.
But I suspect most people are similar to me. When someone else is talking, don’t they often hide behind phrases like “My friend said…”? I believe it’s all because they’re afraid of the stones of rebuttal that might come flying the moment they express their own thoughts.
And among those, a review broadcast is particularly tricky. It’s the same as me, the representative of Parallel, standing up and declaring, “This is what was really fun for us this month!” I’m nothing more than a lowly subject receiving a salary from the boss. For me to speak freely on a review program? And on top of that, for those words to potentially be distorted as the opinion of Parallel and the boss herself?
If the boss were beside me, she could correct me at any time or clearly draw the line and say no. But the thought of having to do it alone without her made it incredibly frightening.
The promotional stream I did during MoovGun’s civil war was official, sure, but there’s a world of difference between casually going to enjoy a game and showing one video versus running content on Parallel’s official channel. Since it’s the official channel, the expectations from viewers are naturally much higher.
…However, if I avoided everything just because it was difficult, would I have been able to support the boss in so many different ways until now?
I never expected to come up with the idea while playing a game, but anyway, all it took was a shift in perspective. If I didn’t like throwing out topics myself, if asserting my opinion to people was hard, then I could just have the viewers throw them out instead, couldn’t I?
Just like how I borrowed Maru’s voice to deceive Komari.
If I could draw out the topic “I thought this scene was fun!” from the viewers, that would do it. In other words, chat messages, donation notes, café review posts—anything and everything the viewers expressed. The plan was to gather all of it and use it as the topics for the review content.
That way, even without anyone beside me, I could respond as if someone had started the conversation and I was simply playing along. It made me realize once again how fortunate it was that Parallel had such a solid fanbase. No matter where you go in the internet world, there are always comments from the Woldungies, opinions, and thoughts. All I had to do was watch, pick them up, and hang them up.
This is this week’s topic!
There would definitely be people who would like that. Wouldn’t it feel good if a comment you left so long ago you don’t even remember it suddenly appeared on stream and got a shoutout? Among donors, there are people who donate just because they like hearing the streamer say their username. So if I mentioned them, I figured everyone would enjoy it.
It was a special case, but even I had felt good when the boss got angry and called me “You signal flare bastard!”
I got lucky.
I had simply never played with Maru before, so I ended up naturally joining the collab. At first, everyone rushed at me so hard it was overwhelming, but thanks to that, I got a good result. I should take better care of her when we go on the trip next week. Not to mention, I felt sorry for making her fall so hard for my trick today…
Even now, the two of them showed no signs of stopping their argument, using the five minutes of trial time to the fullest.
It was probably a bit exaggerated for the sake of the stream, but the two of them often clashed over T and F issues even normally, and they could genuinely fight, so I figured it was about time to step in.
“Both of you, please calm down for a moment. I’ve made up my mind.”
I voted for Maru and muttered as if I were disappointed.
“Farewell, Miss Maru.”
Komari burst into laughter, but her joy didn’t last long.
Maru’s character was banished to the bottomless well in the center of the village. After a brief high-pitched scream from the female character, the screen went dark, and the game result window appeared.
The moment the results were revealed, the sound exploded.
After the people who had died first and the viewers who had been talking about me for a while all started chatting noisily, it naturally became Komari and Maru’s turn.
I hadn’t prepared anything special. I was going to say I had simply benefited from the lowered audio quality unique to in-game mics to make the game atmosphere feel more realistic, but Maru cut in first.
* * *
After that, I took on various roles, but it wasn’t easy to create the same impact as when I played the wolf (Silent One). Probably because people’s suspicions had grown, so the number of times they immediately voted me out with “Isn’t Mazia the Silent One again?” increased as well.
Still, it didn’t really matter. I had gotten what I wanted, and spending the remaining time supporting the others while staying in the background as a supporting character wasn’t bad either. It had been a very satisfying collab, so right after the stream ended, I separately thanked Ronze as well.
“Thank you for accepting the invitation. I had a lot of fun, Ronze.”
“Oh come on, it’s not that much…”
I smiled awkwardly and scratched the back of my head.
As a fan who loves Parallel, Ronze’s words contained several necessary points, so I took separate notes. The fact that people had many questions meant that the amount of information we were delivering through announcements alone was insufficient. Since I worked at the company, I couldn’t stay perfectly in sync with the viewers on this, so I had to diligently gather information at times like these.
“I’ve noted your feedback. I’ll discuss it with the boss when I get back. Is there anything else you’d like to say? I know you watch your streams often, so if there’s anything you feel is lacking lately or anything more you’d like to see, I’d love to hear it.”
“Ah, I thought so too. I’m feeling a bit burned out myself.”
Our opinions matched on this point. I also estimated the viewers’ sage time threshold at about two weeks. Precisely next week, after the kids returned from their 1st anniversary trip. After that, the kids would have to start running hard again. They had received 3D avatars, and there were so many things they could do now.
Ronze seemed to be expecting something else besides that, though…
“I’m not sure if I’ll play any champion other than Aegipola, but since you mentioned it, I’ll think about it.”
With that, the call ended. I immediately left the Pazizik streamer talk channel I had joined for the collab. Stretching with a groan, I checked the time—10 p.m. It couldn’t be helped that I was leaving work late, but it had been pretty fun. I thought about stopping by to help Seung-yeon with some work before heading home and grabbing some fish cake on the way. As I was turning off the streaming computer, my phone buzzed.
- Incoming Call: Maru -
It was Maru’s second call—the same Maru who had invited me to the collab today. Thinking it must be urgent, I answered immediately…
“Hic… Hngh. Hngh. Heek……”
An emotional flood. A great deluge had struck Maru City.