Looks Are a Cheat Key
Seo-a isn't a free agent — she's a company head lmao
And honestly, why would Seo-a even go to Lethal Company?
Walk in there and you've won the "do all the grunt work alone" lottery lmao
I'd rather she tag along as a guide today when Bong-sik dips into the Rena server — they've got that MCK history together. Or her joining Bong-sik's company later wouldn't be bad either
My recent exploits were starting to pay off.
The nickname Seo-a, once something only virtual streamer fans cared about, was steadily pushing its way into the mainstream of Pangea TV. You could tell just from the hot posts lighting up FM Community.
Who would have guessed that the fandoms of Park Bong-sik — the man who ruled Pangea TV — and Kim Hak-do, the President of League, would end up sparring over me? Compared to my debut days, when any virtual-related post got hit with "they're all virgins" comments on sight, it was a completely different era.
It's a good thing. But don't get complacent.
As a former community addict myself, I understood the true nature of these places better than anyone. Fundamentally, they were dens of two-faced performers. A community could take a streamer drowning in praise and hurl them off a cliff overnight. Plenty of people would post glowing praise for the points and the fun in the morning, then drop a hit piece that same afternoon. And those posts didn't even represent the fandom as a whole.
Don't get swept up. Keep your center.
I had my own unavoidable streak of attention-seeking, so of course my heart was racing. To be the center of this much buzz... But interest in me cooled faster than I'd expected.
Three in the afternoon. The moment the pre-announced time hit, the community was carpet-bombed with coverage of Dananyang and Park Bong-sik's offline collab. The King of Pangea TV's hour had arrived.
If Rim-ani was Park Bong-sik's right hand in League of Legends, Dananyang had long held that same position in face-cam radio content — a core member of the Mu-line. Through a variety of radio formats, she'd built herself into a solid partner streamer, and she was making a big splash in Rena World as one of the earlier partner streamers to settle in.
Dananyang's grand first plan after founding Partner Company was the construction of the Hanok Village.
In terms of any single building's scale, it couldn't match Lethal Company's Do-zney Castle — but this was a full village. Dozens of traditional Korean houses lined up in orderly rows, and at the far end, a magnificent Gyeonghoeru pavilion rising beside a lake. No one who saw that vista would dare call it inferior to Do-zney Castle. And the real kick? It had been finished far earlier than the castle.
Do-zney Castle was pure visual excess — quartz at its core, every luxury building material imaginable poured into it. Hanok Village, built from relatively easy-to-source materials, had gone up fast. Having multiple people who could actually build made a huge difference too. Led by Na-ro-si, who was fighting for the top of the architecture rankings in Rena World, Subnitti and Ami-chan had each pulled their weight, and the rest of the roster were capable enough employees to handle material farming and more.
Hmm? Something feel off?
Right. That was the history from before the regression.
The butterfly effect created by the arrival of a certain someone named "me." With Na-ro-si joining Freeca in place of Kyu-rings, so many things had changed. The Hanok Village that should have stood complete and magnificent on the day Park Bong-sik came for a quick visit was left unfinished, with only the Gyeonghoeru sitting there alone. Na-ro-si was still in self-imposed exile, and Subnitti was walking on eggshells at V-Live Company.
In a way, was the rewritten history caused by my existence the single biggest blow to Partner Company? Two of their core members, gone.
Still, not my problem, right?
It wasn't like I'd asked for the regression and the gender swap in the first place. Your Honor, full responsibility lies with Ju-ttak, the Pan-beo-gal admin — please sentence that bastard to the maximum!
Anyway, even on a twisted timeline, the clock kept ticking. At last, the day of Park Bong-sik and Dananyang's offline collab arrived.
The concept was simple. Dananyang had once received a content wish ticket from Park Bong-sik, and she was cashing it in to summon him as a one-day "maid" manager.
Hmm? What's a maid manager?
Exactly what it sounds like. Park Bong-sik, dressed prettily in a full maid outfit, performing the duties of a broadcast manager... urp!
Honestly, given Park Bong-sik's looks, just putting him in that outfit was already cheat-key-tier content. You could stare at the screen doing nothing and still extract pure, primal laughter.
Sure enough, look at the chat.
"Oppa~ if you guys are too mean today, Bong-soon will be sad. Sob!"
A superstar who could toy with his entire audience using nothing but a few gestures, a handful of lines, and his face alone. Ah, how terrifying. So this was what it meant to be the King of Pangea TV.
The collab that followed was pure comedy gold. Dananyang put her one-day maid manager through every errand imaginable, starting with coffee runs. Bound by the wish ticket, Park Bong-sik couldn't so much as complain — he just had to do it. This was the absolute peak of primal-laughter face-cam radio. The waves of "lmao" in chat showed no sign of stopping.
Honestly, for virtual streamers who have to solve almost everything with their voice alone, this kind of broadcast is flat-out impossible.
Watching their offline collab, I felt the current limits of virtual streaming in my bones. Only technological progress would make everything possible, but in 2022 so much was still missing — and even by 2025, technology wouldn't be the only thing holding things back. Capital would too. Even a mid-sized virtual concert burned through twenty or thirty million won like nothing; corporate taxes alone made it no easy market.
Would 2030 make it possible? Or would it take even longer?
Still, I didn't look at the future of virtual streaming with pessimism. Technology would keep advancing and evolving, and by the time that incredible tech became commercially available, prices would have dropped significantly. The streaming scene would be full of far higher-quality virtual broadcasts than anything we had now. From that point on, virtual streamers would definitively overtake human streamers on the strength of pure technical capability.
Whether I'll still be streaming by then is another question.
Anyway, all of that was a distant story. What mattered was the reality right in front of me.
Before long, Park Bong-sik was cooking food himself and presenting it to Dananyang. The moment she took a bite, she unleashed a barrage of scolding — and the sight of him sitting pitifully on a corner chair, eating the leftovers, was a visual so broken it felt like cheating.
"I was thinking we might hop into Minecraft soon. Bong-soon, do you know about Rena World?"
"Yes. Unnie plays too, right? It seems really popular these days."
"...Let's drop the voice and the speech pattern. I can't take it anymore."
"Hey, Nanyang, this is too much. This isn't a wish ticket — this is a torture ticket!"
At last, Park Bong-sik shed the maid persona and returned as the King of Pangea TV. But he was still wearing the maid outfit, so the viewers flooded the chat with "lmao" all over again.
"Bong-sik oppa. You said you'd grant any wish. So stop complaining and do it like a pro. Hmm? Am I wrong?"
"...Fine, fine. Alright. What's next. Just devour me whole today."
"Alright, everyone — next up is Park Bong-sik's Rena World exploration content. Lock in those channels. Coming soon~"
Rena World's spectacular ascent was about to begin.