Issue Maker (1)
Ara had taken to occasionally searching her own name on the internet ever since that strange controversy reared its head a while back.
Where there is praise, hate is always close behind.
Being loved by absolutely everyone was, of course, impossible.
So — was Ara hurt by any of this?
Not even slightly.
"Hah."
She was, in fact, laughing at them.
Only the reason was a little different.
"That's what you call hate? Maybe someone should teach you how it's actually done."
The Rift — a battlefield. The top lane — a hallowed warzone where she had weathered countless conflicts and flame wars.
Every enemy Ara had ever fought there was a monster, one and all.
Masters of rhetoric, grandmasters of profanity.
Wizards of language, virtuosos of negotiation and gaslighting.
For someone who had grown up in that crucible, there was simply no way a post like this could leave a scratch.
Tap-tap. Tap-tap.
This time, she had entered Giljabi — her own fan cafe.
A place only for people who liked Ara.
Ara, who had a healthy appreciation of herself, had naturally signed up as well.
Without revealing her identity, of course.
But this cafe…
Something was off about it.
The categories were divided to match the name "Giljabi" — "Pathfinder" — but the names they'd been given were a bit strange.
[Lee Eun-ju's Path]
In practice, this was the board known as "Gwang-nyeon's Path."
[Choi Su-yeong's Path]
There had been talk of "saint" in the old days, but these days it was just known as "the Zombie's Path."
"Aw, come on, they're fighting again."
The members had split into factions and were perpetually at each other's throats.
"Wait. Aren't these people my fans??
This wasn't some Three Kingdoms saga. It was absurd.
"Hmm…."
Good point, actually.
Either way, one thing was certain: people said she was crazy, but the crazy ones were these people.
She was the one being slandered here.
Tatatatatak—
Ara typed away, light and quick.
"Oh, come on."
How did they know?
Then again, people were always starving for drama, and behind the shield of anonymity they never stopped fighting.
And the end of every one of those fights was always the same.
Keep fighting, everyone, and it's a ban.
"Aaahh… Guild Master…."
Deus ex machina.
The one they called the chairman — the Guild Master.
The strongest being in this world.
He would descend upon them and personally send the crowd scattering.
Tap—
Thanks to him, Ara scattered along with everyone else.
"That aside, though…."
Stalker — 4.3 / 5
It had gone up.
That was definitely not the number last time.
"I'm pretty sure it was 3.8… what happened?"
The difference between then and now came down to one thing.
Whether the casting had been filled.
Ryu Mi-so, and Kim Jae-jun.
Their involvement had probably nudged the score upward.
She'd looked Kim Jae-jun up separately later, too — like Ryu Mi-so, he turned out to be a fairly successful actor.
With every actor now secured, all that truly remained was the shoot itself.
According to Director Bong Jun-seo, location scouting would be wrapped up and he'd be in touch afterward.
The shoot would take three days at the very most, he'd said, so it wasn't much of a burden.
Until then, as always, Ara's job was to diligently memorize her lines, and yet…
"Should I squeeze in a game or two?"
Today was a very, very special day.
So where had Ara spent all the money she'd been saving up?
Almost all of it was still sitting untouched in her bank account.
There was hardly anything she needed to buy, and she'd never been one for luxury in the first place.
But there was one place even Ara invested her money.
Her computer.
"You're finally here. My very own super computer."
A rig built to the single most expensive spec money could buy right now.
The price? Somewhere well north of ten million won — a good deal over seven thousand dollars.
Then there was the monitor: a super monitor matched to the graphics card, pushing frame rates to absurd heights!
And what about the mouse?
A super gaming mouse built for split-second reactions.
The price was, frankly, beyond imagination.
And finally…
From a box she had been keeping safe and sound, Ara drew out something long and flat.
Silver-gray, with a peculiar, weighty presence.
"It's… it's magnificent…."
Ara had a habit of smashing keyboards to pieces.
For her, a "good" keyboard meant a keyboard that could survive.
So she'd commissioned one.
A superalloy titanium keyboard.
Custom-made, no less.
"Just you wait, you demons."
Thus goes HoldBreathTopDive (Ara), warrior of Valhalla, goddess of the noble top lane.
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^O^: The mushrooms this year are very gentle~~
"Badger, you f—!"
CRACK! SNAP!
"AAAAARGH!! NO!!"
And so another trophy was added to the collection.
The next day.
"Ara, is something going on?"
"Huh? Oh — no, nothing."
Ara was visiting the YW Entertainment building for the first time in a while.
"Good, then. Here — these are the offers that came in for you."
Jeong Yeo-un showed her a neatly organized stack of papers.
"Everything from variety shows to YouTube invitations, so take your time and look through them."
"Yes. One moment, please."
The papers were genuinely stuffed with offers from all manner of variety programs and major YouTube channels.
Thinking about it, that was only natural.
A madwoman of an actress who had appeared out of nowhere like a comet.
An issue maker with both the looks and the talent to back it up.
Public interest was burning this hot, and yet Ara had made exactly one broadcast appearance.
Not even a solo talk show — a group talk, at that.
And even that had been nothing but promotion and damage control.
A broadcast that contained not one scrap of Ara as a person.
So the people interested in Ara were always left thirsty.
Fans and anti-fans alike.
Or just ordinary people, too.
Drama is always delicious, after all.
The biggest slice of the pie, naturally, was talk variety.
'Variety, huh… Maybe I should try going on one?'
She owed CEO Jeong Yeo-un a great deal, and even if only for her image rehabilitation, she could feel the need to get out there.
'But what exactly should I go on?'
Hmm…
Just as Ara was mulling it over—
"Why? Anything in particular you want to do?"
"No."
Jeong Yeo-un spoke up to the deliberating Ara.
"Then what's the problem?"
"Nothing, really. I just don't know what I should go on."
"Hmm… Want me to recommend something?"
'A recommendation… actually, not bad?'
Surely he wouldn't suggest something bizarre. He knew far more about this world than she did, so he was trustworthy.
"Yes. I'd appreciate that, sir."
"Sure, hand it over. There's too much — I'll go through it again myself."
"Okay."
Hmm…
And so Jeong Yeo-un began deliberating in Ara's stead.
'What do I send her out to do?'
Just think about last time.
Their Ara, sent out to clear up a controversy, had come back with her image gutted.
If he sent her out carelessly, there was no telling what strange stunt she'd pull next.
'Is Ara good at talking?'
Hard to say.
What was certain was that she was utterly fearless.
To put it uncharitably: absolutely no brakes.
Still, there were things he could rule out in advance.
Yu Ha-yeong's words, from before.
"CEO! Absolutely do NOT let Ara play games!"
"What? Worry about yourself! Reading light novels again? I saw one lying around, by the way?? Clean up faster!"
"No! That's not the point I'm making!"
That had happened back when Ara was staying at Ha-yeong's place for a spell.
Tremble, tremble—
Yu Ha-yeong had said, her whole body shaking.
"Sh-she's a demon… I'm telling you, when she plays games, she turns into a demon?"
"…?"
Recalling that moment—
Tap—
he struck every variety show with game elements off the list.
'Just to be safe….'
Ha-yeong was a little off herself, sure, but she wasn't a girl who talked nonsense.
'Hmm. Games are out. Talk shows? On hold for now. Isn't there something safe?'
Something safe.
Jeong Yeo-un found exactly one.
A reasonably short interview appearance.
Better still, it meant showing her face before a massive public crowd with zero chance of her causing an incident.
"Say, do you like baseball?"
It was the ceremonial first pitch.
"Baseball? Why do you ask?"
Ara showed interest.
"Want to throw out a first pitch? It's a nice, safe way to start, right? And the first pitch is the kind of thing only the most popular people get asked to do — it came in for you, so what do you say?"
"Hmm… Yes. I'll do it."
And so, variety show or not, Ara found herself with her first-ever solo public appearance on the schedule.
"By the way, is there a team you root for?"
"Hmm. Then…"
Ara named a team.
"Really? Unexpected. All right, then. Let's take this one step at a time, starting with that."
"Yes."
Ara's schedule grew by one line.
Hanbat.
That is the old name for the city of Daejeon.
And there stood Hanbat Baseball Stadium, which had kept that old name alive.
The team that called this place home was—
None other than the Hanha Hawks.
"A first pitch, huh."
But how did one actually go about it?
Gil Ara.
Since being reborn, she had cut all ties with athletics of any kind.
Naturally, she knew next to nothing about baseball, either.
And the reason she had picked Hanha of all teams was nothing special at all.
"Dunno. My gut just told me to."
Some deep resonance in her heart had whispered the name Hanha.
Tatatak-tatak—
Her typing keyboard clicked softly under her fingers.
"Let's see what we've got."
It was her first event, after all — if she was going to do it, she might as well do it properly.
First, footage of ceremonial first pitches.
"Aha. So that's how it's done."
Next, she dug up clips of famous pitchers.
And somewhere in that rabbit hole, she stumbled across a single video.
"Wh… what is that…"
The footage was blurry, badly degraded.
It looked to be quite old.
So why, watching it, did Ara's eyes go wide?
"The pigeon… exploded…?"
A legendary clip.
Randy Jones's pigeon-vaporizing pitch.
"Unbelievable…"
Curiosity piqued by Randy, Ara went digging for everything about him.
And when she opened the autobiography of his she'd found—
Target discovered.
"I'm sorry — what?"
HONK!!!!!! HONK-HONK!!!!
The blare of car horns filled the air.
This was the parking lot in front of Hanbat Baseball Stadium.
A place that swelled with enormous crowds whenever there was a ballgame was even more packed today.
The reason was none other than—
Gil Ara's arrival, plain and simple.
"Holy hell. Is this crowd for real?"
"It is seriously packed today."
Two men in Hanha uniforms looked ready to keel over from the crush.
"You boys scalping tickets?"
"No, we've already got ours."
"We're fine."
The scalpers, too, were busier than ever today.
"Tch. Hanha bastards getting all high and mighty."
"Agreed. Dead last last year, and now they're strutting around."
The men having this conversation were dressed in Lootde uniforms.
"Damn it, I'm jealous, I'll admit it."
"Anyone from Lootde even showing up?"
"Does that matter right now? Gil Ara's the biggest draw here, period."
"Fair point. God, it's infuriating, though! Damn it — if we lose here, my mood is going to be absolute garbage later."
The point of view shifted once more.
YW Entertainment.
"Do well out there, Ara. Don't cause an incident."
Jeong Yeo-un was watching the day's baseball broadcast on the TV in his office.
["Yes. Today we have the Hanha versus Lootde game, which has been quite the hot topic."]
["That's right. Today's ceremonial first pitch will be thrown by Gil Ara-ssi, who has been absolutely everywhere in the news lately."]
["It's her first time appearing at a solo event, which I imagine is why it's become such a big story."]
["Yes, exactly. Oh! Gil Ara-ssi has just begun making her way up to the mound!"]
["Then — let's watch, shall we?"]
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—Ladies and gentlemen, Gil Ara-ssi!! Please give her a huge welcome!!!
WAAAAAAAH-!!!!!
With the stadium MC's announcement, a thunderous roar erupted.
Amid the fans' welcoming cheers, Ara climbed the mound.
'Whoa. This is way bigger than I imagined.'
The stands were packed to the brim — not a single empty seat in sight.
—"Then! Let's have a short interview! Gil Ara-ssi! First, please introduce yourself to the fans who've come out to welcome you!"
The MC held the microphone out to Ara.
—"Yes. Hello, everyone. I'm Gil Ara. It's a pleasure to meet you all."
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A simple, understated greeting. And then, to the beat of drums, the crowd's roar exploded.
—"Yes! Now, a few quick questions for the fans!"
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.
A few questions asked, a few answers given.
And then only Ara remained alone atop the mound.
"Well done, Ara."
The interview had gone off without a hitch.
"But we do have a problem."
Ara had come clean about her hobby being gaming.
Game-related offers were bound to come flooding in from now on.
"Oh well. Nothing to hide, really."
Being told to hide it would have been strange in the first place…
All Ara had left to do now was throw the pitch, watch the game, and head home.
"Well, there's no room left for her to cause trouble, I suppose."
Jeong Yeo-un settled in and watched the TV with an easy mind.
["Oh! Is Gil Ara-ssi throwing from the mound itself?"]
["It would appear so! Women usually lack the arm strength, so they typically throw from just in front of the mound!"]
["Yes. And another thing worth noting — Gil Ara-ssi is wearing a left-handed glove."]
"Was she left-handed???"
She was not.
In Jeong Yeo-un's memory, Ara had unmistakably written with her right hand.
"What is going on?"
["Oh! She's set!"]
Wherever she had learned it, Ara settled into her stance — and the ball left her hand.
WHAM!!!
The crack of the mitt rang out clear past the edges of the TV screen.
"?"
["?"]
["?"]
—?
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【Sensory Sharing: Randy Jones】