Chapter 42
Chapter 42
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 42
Chapter Title: A Tentative Step
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“Name?”
After finishing his assignment, Lee Shin headed to the hospital.
It was the same one he had been visiting since he was a child, and where Jeong Hui-seon currently worked.
Lee Shin answered the receptionist’s question.
“Lee, Shin.”
“Date of birth, 221117, correct?”
“Yes.”
“You have an appointment with Professor Kim Dong-wan in… Psychiatry. Please head up to the 7th floor and wait.”
As it was a familiar hospital, Lee Shin found his way to the clinic with ease.
[Psychology Department, Professor Kim Dong-wan.]
Originally, Jeong Hui-seon had personally handled Lee Shin's counseling.
However, once his condition began to improve, he started seeing a different doctor.
“Oh? Student.”
As he went upstairs, a familiar nurse recognized Lee Shin and spoke to him.
“Are you here for your session today?”
“Yes.”
“Then wait inside. The professor is out at the moment… I’ll call you as soon as he gets back.”
“Ah, okay.”
The private room the nurse guided him to was Jeong Hui-seon’s office.
Patients weren't normally allowed in a doctor’s office, but the nurse, knowing the relationship between Lee Shin and Jeong Hui-seon, made an exception.
She entered the passcode and said.
“There’s another one of Professor Jeong’s patients inside. You can wait with them.”
“Ah… then I’ll just wait outside.”
“No, it’s fine.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s someone you know. Just stay together.”
As Lee Shin was about to turn and leave, the nurse left him with those words and quickly departed.
‘Someone I know.’
There was only one patient he might know at the hospital.
‘Just as I thought.’
As expected, a student with a familiar face was sitting inside the office.
No, she was dozing off.
Lee Shin carefully closed the door.
*Click.*
It was a learned gesture of consideration, but the sound was louder than he’d intended.
“…!”
Startled awake, the person turned her head toward the sound.
“……”
Her expression was one of deep wariness.
Lee Shin took off his mask and said.
“It’s me.”
The wariness quickly faded.
“Sorry for waking you.”
She shook her head at Lee Shin’s soulless apology.
Then she stammered.
“………It’s okay.”
“……”
A voice as tiny as a crawling ant.
Lee Shin thought to himself.
‘Same as always.’
Lee Ji-a.
She was the daughter of a lawyer who was close with Jeong Hui-seon, and she and Lee Shin had known each other since they were very young.
A classic case of a parental friendship extending to their children.
However, they weren't particularly close, nor did they see each other often.
They literally just knew of each other.
It wasn't because Lee Shin had unilaterally cut contact, as he usually did.
At first, he had tried to act friendly out of consideration for Jeong Hui-seon’s reputation.
Even Lee Shin had that much sense.
No matter how much cutting people off was his specialty, he wouldn't do it to his mom's friend's daughter.
But there was one problem.
‘You have to be able to see her first.’
It was that he couldn't see her at all!
She was a shut-in of a severe degree.
No, calling her a homebody was an understatement; she was closer to what was known as a ‘hikikomori’.
She was on a level that couldn't even be compared to Lee Shin, who also liked being at home.
If their counseling sessions didn't overlap, it was difficult to even see her.
‘Did we see each other maybe once a year?’
It was that serious, but Lee Shin didn't know why she couldn't go outside.
He wasn't curious, so he never asked.
And she never brought it up herself.
He'd vaguely heard from Lee Si-eun a while back that she’d experienced a shocking, traumatic event when she was young…
But he didn't know the details.
Lee Shin sat down at a distance and said.
“Hey.”
Just a simple greeting.
But the reply came much later.
“H…ey.”
She did answer, but…
Her eyes darted about, unsure of where to look.
Her hands fidgeted, clenching and unclenching.
Even her posture was strangely awkward.
Perhaps because it had been a while, he could feel how difficult she found the whole situation.
Even in these adverse conditions, Lee Shin spoke again.
“What have you been up to?”
“…Home.”
“You’ve been at home? The whole time?”
“Yeah.”
“I see.”
“……”
“……”
The atmosphere was suffocating!
Lee Shin sighed internally.
‘She’s worse than me.’
Strictly speaking, their cases were different. For Lee Shin, it was a matter of whether he *wanted* to talk to others, not whether he *could*…
In any case, he could clearly see how awkward she was, so he ended the conversation early.
Lee Shin lowered his gaze to his phone screen.
[Can you all see this? What you see before you is the Hellfire Dungeon! We’re about to take on the challenge, and if we succeed, it will be a server-first achievement.]
[Please send us lots of support and tune in…]
‘Hmm.’
Lee Shin was watching a stream of foreign rankers playing Avala Online.
Not just any rankers, but high-rankers from the first page of the leaderboards.
It was extremely rare for Lee Shin to watch someone else’s stream.
The only times he bothered were when he needed to find a ranker’s location to hunt them.
Otherwise, Lee Shin couldn't care less what others were doing.
But this time was different. His thoughts had changed slightly after hearing Arthur’s proposal yesterday.
Lee Shin scanned the titles of the rankers’ streams.
‘Most of them are dungeon raids.’
More than half were dungeon raid streams, with the rest being hunting, exploring, viewer-participation quests, and so on.
The content was primarily PVE.
He could hardly find any streams focused on the Arena or PK.
‘Makes sense.’
There were plenty of marauding players, but it was incredibly difficult for them to succeed as streamers with that concept.
It was only natural.
Once you established yourself as a ranker or a streamer, relationships with others in the community became crucial. Someone who got famous for PVP would likely be ostracized by their peers.
Even those who rose through PVP tended to switch to PVE-focused content if they planned to do it full-time.
You had to avoid making too many enemies to avoid being targeted by other rankers and streamers and to have a long career.
But Lee Shin was different.
He was a player who had ignored such pressures and hunted down any ranker he saw!
And even while doing so, he had always remained a high-ranker until he quit the game.
There was no way he would worry about such external factors now.
‘This could work.’
That was Lee Shin's first thought after scanning the top streams.
Since there were almost no rankers specializing in PVP, he could at least secure a niche.
And his expertise(?) was beyond question.
‘…….’
As Lee Shin’s thoughts deepened.
*Rustle.*
“…Hm?”
He sensed a presence nearby.
Snapping out of his thoughts, he turned his head to find Lee Ji-a right next to him.
She had approached without a sound and was now staring intently at his phone screen.
Their eyes met.
“?”
“…!”
Lee Ji-a flinched.
She immediately shrank back like someone caught doing something wrong.
“What.”
“…Sorry.”
…An apology came out of nowhere, but he was used to it by now.
Lee Shin acted as if he hadn't heard anything.
“This? You can watch if you want.”
“Huh?”
“I said it’s fine if you watch.”
Lee Shin, having seen all he needed to, handed her the phone so she could watch comfortably.
Lee Ji-a, flustered, mumbled something, but her words no longer registered in Lee Shin's ears.
“No, I…”
“Go on, watch. It’s really fine.”
He continued his own train of thought, occasionally muttering unintelligible words.
“……”
At that, Lee Ji-a’s gaze returned to the screen.
On it was the stream of the ranker Lee Shin had just been watching.
Even Lee Ji-a, who spent most of her days in her room, knew what game this was.
It was just that famous.
And there was a personal reason, too.
She turned her head to look at Lee Shin.
‘…He’s playing again.’
Lee Shin didn't know it, but she knew him quite well.
Though they met infrequently, she remembered most of where, when, and what they had talked about.
It was because Lee Shin was the only person her age she met outside her home, so he was bound to be memorable.
And most of their conversations back then were about games.
He had changed a bit recently, but the old Lee Shin really only ever talked about himself.
He had no interest in what others had to say.
Thanks to that, their conversations were mostly about what happened at school or what happened in a game.
Things from another world.
And yet, Lee Ji-a quite enjoyed listening to Lee Shin’s stories.
Part of it was her interest in a life that was the complete opposite of her own…
But most importantly, it was because he really only talked about himself.
Lee Shin was genuinely not curious about another person's past or their scars.
It was an indifference that was far more reassuring than clumsy consideration or pity.
An attitude that never changed, no matter who he was talking to.
That’s why she liked it.
Of course, whenever they met in person, her social anxiety would flare up, and she couldn't speak first…
But inwardly, she was very happy to see him.
“……”
Lee Ji-a looked at Lee Shin.
He was muttering something rapidly, as if it didn't matter if she heard (since she had no one to tell anyway).
She couldn't understand everything, but she managed to catch a few words.
Game.
Stream.
Video editing, and so on.
Just hearing that much made it clear what Lee Shin was contemplating.
“……”
Lee Ji-a’s gaze fell back to Lee Shin’s phone screen.
* * *
“…It’s been a busy day.”
Leaving the hospital, Lee Shin muttered in an exhausted voice.
An assignment, a psychiatry session… He had met too many people in one day.
Separate from the fact that he was used to it, it was still mentally draining.
Lee Shin turned on his smartphone to check the time.
7:00 PM.
He had one missed call and two messages, both from Lee Si-eun.
[When are you done? Want a ride?]
The message was from an hour ago, so he replied telling her not to come and then opened his map app.
“Hm?”
Just then, his eyes happened to fall on the search bar, and he frowned in confusion.
Words he had never searched for were visible in the search bar.
Personal broadcast.
Streaming broadcast.
Stream manager.
……
……
Streaming platform.
YouTube donations.
‘What’s this?’
The search bar was flooded with streaming-related terms.
Since he didn't remember searching for them, it must have been Lee Ji-a.
‘Was she curious?’
It seemed she had looked it up out of curiosity after hearing him muttering to himself.
He would have told her if she had just asked, but with her personality, initiating a conversation would have been impossible.
Lee Shin went straight home and logged into the game.
By then, it was well past 8:00 PM.
-You’re here?
The moment he logged in, a whisper from Arthur arrived as if he had been waiting.
Lee Shin asked.
-Where are you?
-I’m in town. Where are you, hyung? Should I come to you?
-No. Stay in town.
Field hunting wasn't on the agenda for today.
It was already late, and now that he was high enough level to enter the Arena, he planned to just run a few matches before logging off.
And as it happened, he had just made a decision about his dilemma.
After meeting Arthur in town, Lee Shin asked.
“Can you enter the Arena?”
“Me? I can.”
“Good.”
“Why? Are you going to the Arena with me?”
Arthur asked, sounding surprised.
Lee Shin nodded.
“You can record the footage as a spectator.”
“…! Have you made a decision?”
“Just the videos for now.”
The conclusion Lee Shin had reached after much thought was to first post only videos, as Arthur had suggested.
He would post videos until the vacation started, and if the response was good, he would then consider live streaming.
“Can you record?”
“I can. My capsule is a full-option model, so I can record while spectating. I’ll send you the footage later.”
Arthur happily agreed.
He showed no signs of it being a bother; in fact, he seemed excited at the prospect of recording Lee Shin’s Arena matches.
He had been the one to suggest it in the first place.
“Should I edit them for you too?”
“Edit?”
“Yeah, I know how. I’ve even made compilation videos of you before.”
“……”
Editing skills forged by fanboying!
Lee Shin’s expression turned strange, an emotion that was hard to put into words.
“I can’t pay you, though.”
“That’s fine.”
But from a practical standpoint, it wasn't a bad offer.
Someone was offering to work for free out of pure passion. There was no reason to refuse.
“Then go for it.”
He accepted Arthur’s offer.
Lee Shin entered the Arena.
[Would you like to enter the Arena?]
“Yes.”
[An event is currently in progress.]
[<Spring Welcome Skin Scramble> Would you like to participate?]
“……?”