Is This Really Our First Meeting?
Saturday arrived, and Marty and Ggumyong's stream began.
"Hello, everyone! Marty here~"
"And I'm Ggumyong~! Marty, how have you been?"
"I've been great~ What about my Ggumyong?"
"I've been doing well too~"
My hands and feet were already curling from the sheer cringe. I honestly had no idea why viewers loved this We Got Married stuff so much.
"Today, we've invited some nice friends to play with us! Come on out~!"
At Marty's cue, I spoke up first.
"Hello, I'm Dodo, Marty's lackey."
"Hello, Dodo~"
"Yes, hello."
If you wanted to get technical, Ggumyong and I were already acquainted.
We had done a few collab streams together through Marty before.
However, we had never contacted each other privately, nor had we ever done a stream just the two of us. We were literally just 'acquaintances of an acquaintance.'
Perhaps because of that, Ggumyong and I greeted each other with the utmost politeness.
Next up was that girl's turn.
"I also brought a reeeally cute younger friend with me! Come on out, presto!"
As if responding to Ggumyong's cue, she made a grand entrance with a sickeningly sweet voice.
"Hello~ I'm Vini~ Nice to meet you all~!"
"Hello, Vini~"
"Marty! It's been a while!"
Vini. I had to chuckle at how incredibly lazy that nickname was.
Just lazily using her own name to make a handle—it was obvious she had benchmarked mine.
Suppressing the disgust rising from just hearing her username, I forced a smile and greeted her.
"It's our first time meeting. Nice to meet you, Vini."
"...Yes~ Nice to meet you too, Dodo! Please take good care of me today!"
Wow, how could she greet me so brightly?
Her absurdly cheerful tone made the back of my neck stiffen.
The Lee Yebin I knew was absolutely not like this.
There was a reason why I never watched her streams, even though I kept tabs on her live viewer count, Newtube views, and Newtube subscribers.
I absolutely did not want to hear her pathetic, fake-cute act. I never wanted to subject my ears to that.
So, I grit my teeth and resolved to endure Yebin's aegyo, no matter what.
"Then let's introduce today's game, Lumensis, before we begin~"
A quick three-line summary of Lumensis:
1. Retrieve valuable items from inside a specific building and return to the bus.
2. Avoid the monsters encountered along the way at all costs.
3. Among the monsters, the 'Lumensis'—which mimics the players' appearance—learns and copies the players' voices.
Alright, explanation over.
"Let's make a password just in case we run into a Lumensis."
"What should the password be?"
"I'll call you by my pet name for you, Marty. What about you?"
"I'll call you by my pet name for you too, Ggumyong~"
These two were already dripping with sweet, romantic vibes, leaving me with only one thing to say.
"Excuse me, if you two decide on something like that, us singles will cry! A single guy is weeping here! I'm a solo-since-birth!"
"Ah, sorry."
"I didn't know that~"
These people did this on purpose. This wasn't in the script.
For context, we had received a brief script before the collab and had memorized it to some extent.
The password we were actually supposed to make was "Candy" and "Please."
Candy was the donation currency on this platform, Peonchi, which viewers used to sponsor us.
So, the password was basically asking for money.
It was pretty clever, and I liked it because it fit Marty's money-grubbing streamer persona, but it made things hard for us if they hid ad-libs like this.
"Then... how about 'Candy' and 'Please'?"
"Sounds good."
"Simple and clean. Our viewers heard that, right? Candy, please? Got it?"
"Candy! Please! Got it memorized!"
I checked the chat while gauging everyone's reactions. The messages scrolling up immediately were...
It was just one-sided teasing directed at Marty.
But the fact that they were typing those messages in my chat meant they were either Marty's viewers or people who watched both of us.
This was the power of a collab stream. Collabs were meaningful because they allowed you to draw in another streamer's audience.
You could call it a synergistic effect from combining our respective channel sizes.
Meanwhile, there were a few viewers who started crossing the line.
Call Lee Yebin by a pet name? Seriously? Who would do something so crazy?
I felt like quietly hitting the ban button, but since that level of teasing didn't even qualify as trolling, I decided to let it slide.
WGM shippers could be toxic, but right now, they were just engaging in some light WWE based on the stream's context. It was the kind of banter I could play along with if I wanted to, or just ignore.
Of course, I was going to ignore it.
"Then, let's get started right away~"
"Our ace, we're counting on you, okay?"
"Hyung, is this why you invited me?"
"Yep!"
"Wow, you really have no shame."
Naturally, I was the ace of this party.
Neither Ggumyong nor that brat were streamers known for their gaming skills, and Marty deliberately played the clown.
Since I was the type to play the clown while also showing off decent gaming skills, I had naturally assumed I'd take the ace role.
I had no idea back then.
I had no idea what kind of narrative would be spun out of this stream.
After heading to the easiest map, we got off and immediately entered the building.
As soon as we stepped inside, three paths branched out before us. Marty and Ggumyong immediately picked one.
"Marty, let's go to the right together..."
"Alright~ In that case, we'll leave the rear to you guys!"
"Go flirt somewhere I can't see you, shoo, shoo."
"Then... I'll go this way..."
Yebin looked around hesitantly before choosing the left path, which naturally left me with the middle one.
But as soon as I took the middle path, I saw it.
A dead end.
"...This way's a bust."
The viewers were telling me to go to Vini... to Lee Yebin.
In reality, that was the correct decision right now.
The couple on the right was probably acting all lovey-dovey while exploring the map, so going there would just interrupt them.
I could spin that into a funny situation, but doing it right at the start was pushing it.
...But I really, really, really, really didn't want to go left.
I had to go where Lee Yebin was? Seriously? Why should I?
Wouldn't it be better to just go outside and enter through the back path?
"I'll head outside and try the back path. No one's gone that way yet anyway."
With the viewers' approval, I was legally allowed to take the back path instead of going to where Lee Yebin was.
I went outside, then re-entered the building through a back door tucked away in the corner.
And the moment I stepped inside...
"Candy! Candy!!"
I heard Lee Yebin shouting the word "Candy."
The moment I heard it, I reacted instantly.
"Please~"
"Ah, ahhh... It's a person..."
I hadn't exactly wanted to run into Lee Yebin.
But now that we had met, there was no helping it. We just had to stick together.
Sighing inwardly, I walked forward, but then...
"Kyaaaah! Save me! Save me! Save meeee!!"
Suddenly, Yebin screamed for help.
I couldn't miss such a hilarious sight, so I immediately ran toward her.
There, I witnessed Yebin being grabbed and eaten by a Lumensis.
"Save meeee!!! Kyaaaah!!!"
Listening to her screams, I decided to save her for now.
If our real-life relationship were public, or if we already had an established, entertaining dynamic on stream, it might be different. But right now, we were supposed to be strangers.
It was only right to save a fellow streamer who was about to die when meeting them for the first time.
Thwack!
I whacked the Lumensis on the back of its head, saving her.
A Lumensis was completely defenseless while eating a player. If you attacked it during that window, you could rescue the victim.
"Hit it!!"
I immediately ordered her to attack the monster.
Unlike monsters in other scrap-collecting games, a Lumensis could easily be defeated with just the default weapon, a broom.
However...
"Kyaaaah! Get away from me!!"
Thwack!
Yebin suddenly hit me.
Why...?
Before I could even process my confusion, the hit staggered me, and the Lumensis didn't miss the opportunity.
Chomp!
"Hey, save me! Save me!! Vini! Vini!! Save me!!! Hey!!!"
I screamed for help, but Yebin had already run away.
Watching her flee, I cleanly unleashed the pure rage boiling inside me.
"Hey, you crazy bitch!!!"
Crunch!!
And so, as payment for saving Yebin, I was eaten by the Lumensis...
"Kyaaaah!!!"
Crunch!!
It didn't take long for Yebin to get caught and killed by another Lumensis as well.
Meanwhile, the couple, who were doing their jobs while flirting, remained alive and well.
Only Yebin and I were left in the voice channel for dead players.
What did we have to say to each other here?
"You hit me there?! Are you insane?!"
"You answered with the password there and got me killed, you crazy bastard!!!"
Mutual mudslinging, a total UFC match of valid criticisms and absurd accusations.
Our roleplay of being 'strangers meeting for the first time' was completely shattered just five minutes into the collab.