Let's Decide on a Fan Nickname
The timing was perfect.
I had been meaning to settle on a fan nick soon anyway, and with the sudden appearance of those transfer new girls leaving the fans dazed and reeling, I decided to run this content today to firm up their morale.
Yeah, it wasn't jealousy or anything.
It was just that the timing lined up perfectly… Hah! No. To be honest, it was jealousy.
I wanted the viewers to treat me as their favorite.
Greed? Could a feeling like this really be explained so one-dimensionally?
Everyone has a desire to be recognized by others. Back when I was just a viewer, becoming the president of Lucy's stream had satisfied that craving. But once I debuted as a streamer myself, the sheer scale of that desire changed completely.
Thousands of viewers flooding in just to watch my broadcast. "Thousands" sounds abstract, but if you actually gathered them all in one place they would fill a school playground and still overflow. That many people taking a genuine interest, reacting with passion to every word I spoke and every move I made.
It was a feeling you could never understand without living it yourself. A ticklish warmth that started deep in the chest and occasionally erupted like fireworks. In those moments I felt a sense of omnipotence, as if I had stepped outside my ordinary self and become someone truly extraordinary.
Was this why streamers found it so hard to quit?
It had only been twenty days since I started streaming. Without even realizing it, I was sinking deeper and deeper into that charm.
"Seo-a's Naming Agency content. Let me explain what this is first. Everyone, become a perfect chorus with me—hap!"
"Yes. Just like you all guessed from the title, this is a content where we all put our heads together and create nicknames. A simple example would be… hmm, who would be a good target?"
I scanned the viewer list with hawk-like eyes and immediately spotted a perfect impurity for this content.
"Ah! That one right there. WhyWatchSeoAStream! A nickname that desperately needs changing. No objections will be accepted. Manager, please mute that person for me."
WhyWatchSeoAStream has been muted for 5 minutes.
"Alright, from this moment we will use the power of collective intelligence to transform that unsavory nickname into one overflowing with respect and love for Seo-a. Everyone, recommend nicknames in chat."
"The person whose recommended nickname gets chosen will receive a Boost item so you don't have to watch ads."
"Excuse me? There are landmines mixed in there."
My grumbling only made the mischievous viewers cackle harder. I deliberately showed sulky, irritated reactions every so often. Playing the punching bag like this was exactly what got them excited enough to type even more furiously.
Even if they change it to SeoAStreamBoring or SeoAStreamShutdown, it doesn't really matter. The important part is the two syllables stuck on the front.
Those two syllables—"SeoA"—were the core. A nickname that made it obvious at a glance that the person watched Seo-a's stream. Yes, the fan nick I was aiming for was simply those two characters: SeoA.
"Nope, you absolutely have to include it. Why? Because that's my fan nick."
"Ahem. The quick-witted and sensible ones change their nicknames on their own even when it isn't their turn once I say something like this."
"……."
You really had to hand it to internet broadcast viewers for their mischievous streak.
After picking a few more targets from the viewer list and changing their nicknames, I decided to start taking direct applications.
"This isn't an opportunity that comes every day. A chance to change your nickname through Pangea TV's first pure-blood virtual streamer, Seo-a! Starting from 50 Candies."
The viewers reacted with playful teasing. When I kept whining and pushing them, they eventually donated Candies and applied as if they couldn't help themselves.
Among them was a viewer with a particularly memorable story.
"AingOing, it looks like your nickname is already matching… is there a reason you want to change it?"
"I-I see. Our SeoA Corps members will do their absolute best to find you a cool new nickname."
I soothed the viewers who grumbled about when exactly they had become the "SeoA Corps" and continued the content. But the nicknames these little demons kept recommending…
"You. Get out right now."
Dr.GetOutTomi has been forcibly removed.
"No, that person is not my viewer. Our SeoA Corps is pure and kind."
The sudden villain appearance made the atmosphere a little awkward, but we managed to move past it and finished changing the nicknames of everyone who had applied, one by one.
By the time the content was wrapping up, I checked the viewer list and saw that a solid number of people now had the fan nick "SeoA" attached right at the front of their names.
About a quarter of the current viewers?
It was a little disappointing, but I would have to be satisfied with that number for now. I couldn't keep wanting too much when I had only been streaming for twenty days. Starting with the first step I took today, I would gradually increase that number.
"Alright, finally done! Kyaa— today was originally an off day, but I still came and filled the whole stream with content. Seo-a's form is insane. Today's stream was peak, peak."
"Wallet, thank you so much for the donation. I will freely use this money to satisfy my own selfish desires. Then, goodbyeee!"
The broadcast has ended.
"Ugh……."
The moment the stream ended I stood up from the chair and stretched my stiff body every which way. I paid special attention to my lower back. I had heard that neck and back problems were the most common ailments among streamers, so I needed to be careful early.
After that I casually checked on how the competition was doing.
"……They're streaming for a long time."
Unlike me, whose throat still wasn't trained because I was a complete beginner, Choi Eun-bin and Sae-dal-com might have been small streamers but they were still proper veterans. Both of them had already passed the five-hour mark and were still going strong.
Seeing that, I logged into FM Community to gauge public sentiment.
If there had been a dedicated gallery I could have seen the rawer, unmasked public opinion, but since one didn't exist yet I had no choice but to check on FM Community.
"Just as I thought……."
Searching keywords like Seo-a, Choi Eun-bin, and Sae-dal-com showed that the mask games were already in full swing. People were conducting "favorability surveys" that casually ranked the three of us. There were also posts listing each of our strengths and weaknesses.
When someone wrote such blatant evaluation posts they usually got buried under downvotes, but there were always a few malicious types who found lighting the rivalry cup fire so entertaining that they willingly sacrificed their points to post them.
Of course there were even more posts praising us, but didn't celebrities always say the same thing? One bad comment always stood out more than a dozen good ones.
Honestly, this job is impossible if your mental is weak.
I found myself thinking of the streamers from before the regression who had quit because their mental health couldn't take it. I had seen the news in the galleries back then. At the time it wasn't even my main community, so I had just left a few comforting comments for the writers. Now that I was the one actually streaming, the feeling was strangely different.
Did all those people also endure this kind of stress until they finally broke and collapsed?
Naturally, no answer came.
It was the last day of September.