She's a Super Shut-In Who Can't Even Make Eye Contact
“Pfft……”
Trailing Seong Jinwoo through the front entrance, Bangbang clamped down hard on a laugh that was trying to escape.
A fiction-perfect pretty girl who, in real life, couldn't even look someone in the eye — and the second she hit the stream, she came out swinging with:
It's me, you fuckers.
Sure, most streamers kept a separate mask for the camera. But that line, that concept — no ordinary junior employee pulled that off.
“So why'd Yeonha end up streaming with a concept like that, anyway?”
In the end she couldn't hold the curiosity in. She tossed the question back at Kang Haneul, who was following right behind her.
Past the chat that clearly hadn't followed her question, Kang Haneul answered with a weary sigh — exactly the answer Bangbang had been fishing for.
“Because I trained her wrong.”
“Heeh…… you did?”
Hard to believe that was the CEO who'd raised ten major VTubers speaking. Then again, thinking about the rest of the Star Live roster…… it didn't exactly sound wrong either.
Bangbang knew what the Star Live members were really like, and none of them had a gap quite as brutal as Yeonha's.
“Ah, well……”
Was she even allowed to say this?
She hesitated a moment — but Kang Haneul didn't step in with any restriction, which she took as silent permission. So she opened her mouth and kept going.
“In real life, Yeonha's a total shut-in who can't even make eye contact with people.”
“From the first time I met her she just hid behind Boss Kang and wouldn't come out. I seriously thought I was looking at a kindergartener.”
“She's always been really shy with new people. Like, extreme levels of shy.”
“You guys think it doesn't add up either, right? But I'm serious. In real life Yeonha is incredibly shy.”
“Well……”
That was exactly what Bangbang had been wondering herself.
“I taught the kids that way a while back,” Kang Haneul cut in from behind, saving her the trouble.
“Being grateful to your fans is fine. But don't show them anything too soft. Do that and the viewers will eat you alive.”
“Just because of that?”
Wasn't streaming with a concept that hard a little overkill?
“Plus she didn't want to debut, so she half-threw the streams on purpose. That's my read, anyway.”
“Ahh……”
That clicked instantly.
Even if streamer or VTuber was the dream job of this generation, there were always going to be employees who didn't want to debut.
“Hold on. Where the hell did that bastard Seong Jinwoo go and not come back?”
Belatedly sensing something off, Kang Haneul scanned the pitch-dark surroundings for him.
A moment ago he'd slipped off claiming he'd spotted an item. Where he'd headed was obvious without looking.
“Ah, he snuck off to go watch Yeonha.”
“……What?”
Of course he had. That side was bound to be way more entertaining than this one.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
“Uweeh……”
I climbed the emergency stairs, every step ringing out with that uncanny metallic racket.
“H-here, I think……”
A red emergency door filled my vision. This had to be the rear entrance Seong Jinwoo had mentioned.
Creeeak──! Clunk!
I pushed the door open, and the screen shifted with another grotesque sound.
A steel-plate walkway — the kind you'd only ever see high up on a construction site or in a factory. Perforated metal panels laid end to end in a single line, with nothing but a bare railing on either side to keep you from falling.
“I-I'm not scared. Not scareeed……”
The map was darker than I'd expected. The corridor I was standing in at least had one overhead light, so it was manageable — but further in, it was pitch black enough that there wasn't a scrap of light at all.
“I-is this actually the right place……?”
A corridor so black that something leaping out at any second wouldn't have been surprising in the slightest. I stopped in front of it and just…… circled. Round and round in little nervous steps.
If I'd still been Ha Yeonwoo instead of Woo Yeonha, I'd have charged straight in to keep the stream going, die or not — but……
“I-it's scaaary……”
Apparently turning into Woo Yeonha had also obliterated my courage stat. I couldn't dredge up even a scrap of nerve to go in.
“Hiiing……”
M-maybe I should just keep spinning here and quietly head back?
I was still debating it, half-turning the other way, when —
Farm properly. If you don't hit quota, you're getting it from me.
“Uweeeh……!”
The boss's threat flashed through my head, and I forced my feet into the black corridor.
Hissss──!
“Hiiik?!”
Somewhere, the sound of gas leaking.
Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!
“Hieeeek?!”
Suspicious footsteps from the floor above.
“R-right-click, he said……?”
Beep-beep──! Beep-beep──!
I kept mashing the scan button Seong Jinwoo had taught me and swept the dark corridor.
A green scan-light raked a corner and lit up a single object.
Plastic Fish
$29
“I-I found one!”
I scrambled over and picked it up. One of my four inventory slots was finally filled.
“H-heh! Easier than I thought! This game!”
Before we'd split into teams, Bangbang had said:
Once we're in, everyone grab exactly two items and come out. Got it?
I'd already secured one. One more and my quota was done.
“Just one more……”
I lifted the mouse to fill that last slot —
And then: pure black.
Nothing but pitch darkness flooded my vision.
“……Huh?”
……I was lost.
Step…… step……
“B-Boss……?”
I just kept walking somehow, and eventually a corridor with light appeared.
“Bangbang……? Jinwoo……?”
The problem was that I had no idea where “here” even was.
And also……
Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!
“Hiek?!”
The footsteps from above were getting louder.
“J-just let me out already…… I wanna go baaack……”
I was ready to go home. I'd only filled one of my two slots, but I'd tried hard enough that surely everyone would believe me.
So please, just send me home……
Hiiing……
Beep-beep──! Beep-beep──!
I kept hammering right-click scan, hunting for the path back.
Thud!
“Aaaang……!”
A wall greeted me instead. I'd taken a wrong turn, apparently.
“C-can I just go into the stream and ask?”
Sharing intel over the broadcast was basically taboo for collab members. Should I risk it?
I was seriously considering it when —
Beep-beep──!
Steel Plate
$22
“I-item!!”
The last piece of my quota — the one that would finally take the weight off my chest. I bolted over and grabbed it.
Thud!
“Hoo……”
Now I just had to get back. That thought alone had me turning around when —
Sliiide──!
“Uh……”
A vent? Or just a plain air duct?
From a square hole in the wall where the cover had somehow already fallen off, a spider of a size that absolutely should not have been able to fit through that opening hauled itself into view.
“Nuh-uh, there's no way that's a spider……”
……Anyone with eyes could see that was a monster king crab.
I was standing there locked in quiet eye contact with the thing, entertaining that useless observation, when —
Skitterskitterskitter!
“KIYAAAAAAAH!!”
The spider charged straight at me. I spun and bolted from the spot.
“Save meee! Save meee! I won't even taste good if you eat meee! I barely even got any looot!”
Skitterskitterskitterskitter!
But the monster king-crab spider did not care about my desperate screaming and kept coming.
“Uwaaaaaaaah!!”
I ran like a maniac and somehow ended up somewhere I'd never seen before.
A gap in the railing, with a long steel rebar laid diagonally across the space between. The kind of terrain that screamed: Step on this and cross to the other side!
Skitterskitterskitterskitter!
“I-I don't wanna!!”
I threw myself over the railing onto the rebar anyway. I ran along the diagonal beam and jumped for the far side —
Catch──!
“Huh?”
I'd burned all my stamina fleeing the spider. My body snagged on the railing and didn't make it over.
Whooooosh── Splat!
A sound like a tomato getting crushed, and a single line of text bloomed across my monitor.
Life Support: Offline
“Ah……”
……The boss was going to kill me.
“No, Yeonha. What are you doing making some big resolution out there?”
“We farmed our asses off, and Yeonha came back empty-handed?”
“Haa…… What are you even good for? Seriously.”
“Hiiing……”
The second I respawned, all three of them tore into me.
Fair enough. Boss and Bangbang had hauled in items totaling over a hundred dollars between them. And the most hardcore veteran of the bunch, Seong Jinwoo —
“Still, good thing I yanked the core on the way out, right?”
— had secured an eighty-dollar Planetary Core right before extraction and more than carried his weight.
Meanwhile I……
Corpse ×1
−20%
“Ah, we barely even had any money and we still got docked.”
“Yeonha, you're not throwing on purpose, right?”
“N-no, I'm nooot……”
The fall death had wiped every item I'd picked up, and I hadn't even managed a corpse recovery — so I'd slapped the whole team with a −20% fine.
The one mercy was that we hadn't actually made real money yet, so the amount wasn't that huge.
“Alright, now that everyone's got the basic controls down, we move to a different map?”
“Let's go!”
And so Lethal Company kept going.
Apparently the first planet had been enough to learn the basics, because from there on the maps got harder.
Of course, Woo Yeonha's age of suffering continued right along with them.
Sliiide──! Gurglegurgle──!
“……Huh?”
Life Support: Offline
“Ah!! Yeonha!!”
“Stop protesting already!!”
“Why would you jump in carrying all the loot!!”
“I-it's not like thaaat!!”
I'd finished farming, slipped on the way back, fallen in the water, and drowned.
Thud!
“H-huh?”
“Yeonha!!”
“Let our Yeonha go!”
Gulp──!
Life Support: Offline
Stamina bottomed out, a giant called a Forest Keeper grabbed me, and I got eaten.
“Ah, for reference, some of the emergency exits are fa—”
Screeeeeeeech──!
“Ah?”
Eaten by a mimic disguised as an emergency exit. Dead.
Almost every single round I failed to farm properly and just kept being a burden on the team.
“Fine. Yeonha, you saw that?”
“Y-yes……?”
“If you die on the next stage too, I'm debuting you for one more day.”
“Th-that's……!”
I wasn't dying on purpose. That was a little……!
“Ah, Yeonha.”
“Y-yes…… Jinwoo……”
“If you die without doing anything again this time, next time I do something you come on for one guaranteed appearance. Thanks in advance.”
“N-no……”
I kept telling them I wasn't a streamer?!
I was grinding my non-functioning brain as hard as I could, trying to refuse properly, when —
“Oh? Then I should put something on the line too.”
Bangbang hopped on the last train and cut me off with her own proposal.
“If you die on this stage, you take one couple photo with me.”
“Hawawawawawa?!”
With a couple photo on the line, there was nowhere left to run.
Woo Yeonha's greatest performance of her life —
Splat──!
Life Support: Offline
“Ah……!”
……Yeah, right.
I died immediately.
The reason?
“Nice!”
“Naisha!”
“Perfect. Us.”
“This is NOT faaair!!”
The section where you ride the rebar across from the railing. With perfect focus, stamina managed, weight managed, I leapt for the far side —
Whack──!
“Boss?!”
— and Boss brought the shovel she was holding straight down on my head and knocked me off the railing.
In other words: teamkill.
“Sorry. Accident.”
“Don't you DARE lie to meee!! For real!!”