Watch the Broadcast as a Broadcast
I woke up as usual. I felt oddly refreshed, so while I was still lying there, I checked my phone—and realized it wasn’t morning anymore.
When I picked up my phone, the time read 11:38. As I sat up, the noon sun spilled across my face.
So I’d failed my wake-up mission. But it didn’t matter. I didn’t have anything scheduled for the morning anyway.
When I opened the fridge, it was completely empty. Apparently I’d already finished all the side dishes I’d made.
"Ah, there’s nothing to eat…."
Even the eggs I’d bought were gone, which meant that on my day off I’d have to buy ingredients and stock the fridge again.
But before that, the urgent problem was lunch.
"Guess I have no choice. I’ll have to go to the convenience store…"
My hair was a wreck and my head felt foggy, but first I needed to get something in my stomach.
If I didn’t eat anything, I had a feeling I’d never be able to shake yesterday’s memories from my head.
'Tomorrow, let’s do a collab stream, just the two of us.'
To shake off that voice ringing in my ears—and filling my head—I gave my head a hard shake, grabbed my hoodie and cap, and stepped out of the apartment.
As I went down the stairs, I opened Watch on my phone. It wasn’t like much could change in a single day, but that wasn’t what I was curious about.
I tapped the highlight clips tab and sorted by views. The video I’d checked after yesterday’s stream was still sitting proudly in first place.
In fact, because people had apparently kept watching it all night, the views and likes had gone up even more.
"It’s probably the first of its kind in gaming history. Who the hell catches a hacker like that?"
Hackers were natural disasters. That was why, when someone stopped one with human power, it made for a great YouTube clip.
Most “teach the hacker a lesson” videos were really just clips of veteran players—people like Killer Sniper and Red—showing off their god-tier skill by apparently possessing the hacker’s body. But my situation had been so bizarre that it was drawing even more attention.
"Still, if people keep coming in through that, my viewer count should go up, right? But if I want to keep them, what should I do next…."
While I was thinking about that, I arrived at the convenience store and picked out a triangular kimbap and a cup ramen for something simple.
"I’m here to pay."
"Yes—"
I brought my things to the register and spoke to the clerk, but the video playing on the clerk’s phone happened to be that clip.
Was this the Truman Show or something? Maybe it was because I was a no-cam streamer who broadcast without turning on a camera, but the clerk didn’t even seem to notice I was standing right there and just kept scanning the barcodes.
"That’ll be 2,700 won."
"Ah, just a second."
Maybe because the clerk reminded me of my past self, when I used to work part-time while struggling to make it as a streamer. Or maybe because it just felt like I’d met a fan.
Probably both. Whatever the reason, I turned back to the fridge for a moment and grabbed one of the buy-one-get-one drinks from the beverage shelf.
"Please ring this up too."
"That brings it to 4,000 won."
After paying on my phone, I set a can of the drink on the counter and took the other one with me.
"You’re working hard, so please have this."
I was just about to turn and leave when the clerk’s voice stopped me.
"U-um, I have a boyfriend…."
Huh? That’s not what I meant. Since I already had my hand on the door to leave, I answered without turning back.
"It just made me think of myself back in the day, so I wanted to give it to you."
She looked like a college student at a glance. Hang in there.
With that, I pushed open the door and stepped outside. Come to think of it, what had I even done in college?
I’d worked part-time, blown all the money on drinking, then gone back to working part-time because I was broke again, then blown all the money on drinking again.
I’d also spent my time goofing off, so my grades weren’t anything special either.
"If I hadn’t started streaming, would I have been unemployed?"
Well, I do work hard as a streamer. Maybe I should have a drink—no, not a drink. I should probably go home and have the beverage I just bought.
*
"Oh, it’s the famous Potato Man."
"Wow! Hazy, I’ve been a fan since your very first chicken dinner."
"So what game are we playing today?"
I felt like I was losing my mind. No, I already had. To steady myself, I tried to think carefully through the chain of events that had led to this.
After lunch, while I was idly looking around YouTube, SiA sent me a Discord message.
[Luccia]:
After seeing the message, I joined the voice chat room I’d entered yesterday. And for a while now, it had been like this.
"Was it really your first time playing an FPS?"
"When’s the YouTube video of last night’s game going up?"
"We already did that one last time, so let’s make the second half something like Biggin or Fogin—one of those mafia-game-type things. Then what should we do for the first half?"
"Hey, that guy already did this one last time."
I think I’m going insane. Just when I was on the verge of dropping my guard under the sound of everyone talking over one another and filling every inch of silence, someone briefly took control.
"Hey! Why is everyone so loud? Shut up!"
"Nope."
"N-no."
"I di—"
"The third person who speaks gets three strikes, and I’ll beat the crap out of them, so keep that in mind."
At the threat—say one more word and I’m really going to hit you—the speakers went dead quiet.
Except for me.
"Hic!"
An awkward silence spread through the room. Since voice chat showed exactly who was speaking, there was no way to wriggle out of it.
Why did I have to get hiccups right now…
"I’m sor—hic!—ry!"
I felt like I might die of embarrassment. Of all times, why did I have to hiccup while apologizing…?
"Pfft!"
"Hic… seriously, I’m losing it."
"Hey, why are you putting our Hazy on edge like that? You startled him!"
"N-no, I didn’t mean it like that…."
I’m sorry….
Where had that charismatic voice from earlier gone? Now it had turned all small and timid as it apologized to me.
Since the hiccups wouldn’t stop and I couldn’t say anything, SiA spoke up.
"Um, I forgot to mention this yesterday. Today’s collab stream is actually with my friends…."
"…Hic."
"Heh, I called them in so you could at least say hello first. I also wanted to explain that since I forgot to mention it yesterday."
I gathered the last bits of my sanity and checked who was in the voice chat.
"Since you said you watch my YouTube, I’m sure some of them will be familiar to you."
Yuki, Naguri, Saengsam, LaDechi, SnowMap, Yura, and finally SiA.
Even if they weren’t streamers themselves, anyone who watched internet-broadcasting content on YouTube would know these names. All of them were here.
"Well, now those are names I know."
At my joke, all sorts of different voices burst out laughing from the speakers.
I wondered if it was rude to say that on our first meeting, but I’d guessed from their broadcasts and YouTube clips that they’d probably like that kind of banter. Thankfully, the reaction was good.
"Whoa, this is amazing."
"No, his streaming sense is really intact. Why aren’t we live right now?"
"Can you keep doing that later too? Seriously, this is hilarious."
I’m the kind of person who gets worse the more people set the stage for me….
I couldn’t quite bring myself to say I wouldn’t be able to do it in front of these super-E personalities, so I swallowed the words back down.
Wow, this is even more uncomfortable than a bed of nails.
"I told you he was fun."
"I can’t trust your judgment when it comes to what’s fun."
"Exactly. You laugh at the tiniest things."
It seemed SiA had introduced me to everyone beforehand, before I’d joined. Thanks to that, I figured my first impression might have come off better than I’d expected.
After that, we did the usual round of introductions, chatted for a bit, and then got to the main point.
"All right, let’s get to the point. We’ve already decided the second-half game for today—it’s Fogin."
"I didn’t hear that."
"That’s because you were talking over everyone. Anyway, that’s what we decided, but we still haven’t settled on the first half. Hazy, is there anything you’d like to do in particular?"
Maybe it was just my imagination, but a memory suddenly rose up in my head.
Back when I was a freshman in college, before orientation had even started, I’d gone touring around campus with a friend and ended up meeting a neighborhood older brother and his friend.
They said it was nice to meet us and that we’d be juniors soon, so the senior was going to buy us a meal. But when my friend said anything was fine, the older brother’s friend said this:
“That’s what seniors say when they’re buying for juniors. Go ahead and pick the most expensive thing if you want.”
In the end, my friend and I couldn’t make up our minds and got stuck with choice paralysis, and the older brother’s friend got impatient enough to just order a lunch-course set for all four of us.
It was really good, too…. No, that wasn’t the point. Anyway, the reason that memory had suddenly surfaced was simple.
I had a gut feeling that if I said anything like “anything’s fine” here, I’d be in serious trouble.
"You’re not going to say anything’s fine, are you?"
"Of course not! Of course not. By the way, do any of you know a game called Karider?"
"Ah! The one that just shut down and got a reboot!"
"Oh, that’s not bad. Good idea."
"Uh, but has anyone here actually played Karider?"
At SiA’s question, Saengsam and Naguri answered. Come to think of it, Saengsam had even entered an amateur Karider tournament way back when.
Of course, he’d been knocked out in the quarterfinals of the singles bracket.
"Naguri’s better than I am."
"Look at this guy talking like he ever had pro-level aspirations."
"You lost in the quarterfinals and got humbled by a wall, so you never went pro, did you? And you—weren’t you in the Classic Guild?"
"The entrance test wasn’t that hard back then. Hey, you could get in now if you wanted to."
"Whatever. Then let’s make the two of us team up later."
And just like that, the discussion kept rolling. They talked about whether they should add some handicap since the two of them were so good, and then the conversation drifted off into something else halfway through, then somewhere else after that.
Since it was my first time taking part in a collab stream, I wondered if everyone else always did this sort of thing before their own broadcasts, so I asked in the middle of it.
"By the way, do you normally all meet up like this before a stream and discuss what you’re going to do?"
"Huh? No?"
"We don’t do that."
"Normally, the very first thing we say when we just meet up is, ‘So, what are we doing today?’"
"Then is today like this because of me?"
"Yes."
"We usually don’t decide what we’re doing even when we’re streaming alone, so collabs are the same."
Ah.
So I wasn’t the only one with no plan.