151. Regarding My Sister Being a Popular Streamer
151. Regarding My Sister Being a Popular Streamer
***
White text on a black screen listed the contents of Parts 1, 2, and 3 of the broadcast. Other than that, only a soft, pleasant female voice flowed out.
In a world now overflowing with all sorts of unusual internet broadcasts, including various VTubers, it was a personal stream with nothing particularly special about it.
Personal streams with nice voices were a dime a dozen.
And yet, Rin's stream was easily surpassing 10,000 viewers and approaching 15,000.
—On Monday, the first day of scrims, I played ten 1v1 matches against the players. On the second day, I teamed up with G1 players for 3v3 team scrims. Even among the scrim details I can share, I think the focus will mostly be on the second-day team matches, which will be uploaded to NewTube soon.
Serin's calm voice had a distinctive, appealing tone that would be hard for anyone to dislike.
Her voice was so soothing to listen to that some people actually turned on the stream just to hear it.
[The scrim footage going up on NewTube was all agreed on, right? Playoffs are coming up soon]
[Lmaooo wait so G1 ran a gauntlet against a single streamer?]
[I'm so curious about day 1, Rin went 1v1 against all the G1 players]
[How do you 1v1 Kang Hyeok or Minseong as a Dancer, is that even possible?]
[Wow so they seriously scrimmed, not as a joke;]
The chat scrolled rapidly upward.
Watching that chat with fascination was a woman just over 160cm tall, with a cute appearance and short black hair.
Han Seoyun. She was currently in a quiet cafe with few customers.
And she was watching Serin's stream on her smartphone.
Seoyun's exam schedule had just finished, and with fall break right around the corner, she was enjoying some leisure time with a friend at the cafe.
"Didn't you say you weren't interested, Seoyun?"
Chaerin looked at Seoyun with obvious curiosity. No matter how much she'd talked about Rin before, Seoyun had never shown any interest, yet now she'd suddenly suggested they watch Rin's stream together.
"Yeah. You talked about her so much that I got curious and watched yesterday. It was more fun than I expected."
"Wow. All that talk about Rin every single day actually paid off, huh?"
Seoyun laughed softly at Chaerin's exaggerated reaction.
"Chaerin. 'Paid off' is a bit much."
"No, I mean, Rin is Rin, but the fact that you're showing interest in Another World, Seoyun—that's what I love."
Seoyun smiled faintly at Chaerin, who was beaming with a bright smile.
Since Chaerin lived and breathed Another World, Seoyun understood the reaction, but it still felt a little awkward inside. Because she wasn't actually interested in Another World—she was only watching because the person playing Another World on stream was her sister, Serin.
After hearing from Serin that she was working as a streamer, Seoyun had made a habit of tuning into Serin's channel whenever she had no other plans or appointments, always once it was past 4 p.m.
And every time, Seoyun couldn't help but be a little surprised. The Serin she knew was timid and easily frightened, so seeing Serin calmly carry on and run a broadcast felt so strange.
She thought, So my sister had this side to her, but at the same time, Seoyun couldn't quite believe it.
She'd looked into streamers and knew that their on-stream persona could differ from their usual self, but she'd never imagined the change could be this drastic.
Having met Serin in person just last weekend, Seoyun felt the difference even more acutely.
—I actually don't have any experience with team matches either, so going through proper team matches in scrims, it really was very different from 1v1s.
Listening to Serin's voice from the smartphone, Seoyun quietly turned her head to the side.
Right next to her, Chaerin was focused on listening to the stream.
Now that she'd handed over one wireless earbud, watching her sister's stream together with a friend felt really strange.
Because the one who'd always proclaimed herself a huge fan of the streamer Rin and kept recommending Rin's streams was none other than Chaerin.
'...It's awkward to bring up.'
No matter how she looked at it, saying the streamer Rin was my sister felt awkward.
Her sister had told her she was just starting out as a streamer, and Seoyun felt it wasn't right to go around telling people that Rin was her sister.
Seoyun, who had been watching Chaerin with those complicated feelings, casually opened her mouth.
"Chaerin. Is G1 a famous pro team?"
The name of the pro team her sister had scrimmed against—she was watching the stream, but she didn't understand.
TSJ, Jeanne d'Arc, Kang Hyeok, G1, ACK, Worlds... All the terms that came up in her sister's stream were equally unfamiliar to Seoyun.
"G1? They're super famous. Seoyun, haven't you heard the team name G1 at least once?"
"I don't know. I feel like I might have, but maybe because I don't play Another World? Honestly, I'm not sure."
She'd never had much interest in the first place, so even if it was a famous pro team, she'd usually let it go in one ear and out the other. She didn't really know what kind of team G1 was.
"To put it in terms you can understand, Seoyun, they're basically a skilled pro team that competes for first or second place in the pro league? Right now they're really on a roll, holding first place in the league, and they have a ton of fans."
"They're that amazing?"
"Yeah. They've been runners-up every league, so it's no exaggeration to call them an amazing team."
If they competed for first and second place, they must be an incredibly skilled pro team, Seoyun thought, but she still didn't understand.
'How is my sister scrimming against a team like this?'
As far as Seoyun knew, a 'streamer' was definitely someone whose job was internet broadcasting. But scrimming against an incredible pro team like Chaerin described—she couldn't wrap her head around it.
"Then, Chaerin. What exactly is Rin, who scrims against a team like G1?"
So Seoyun found herself asking directly before she knew it.
Just what kind of person was her sister, to be scrimming with a team that incredible?
"It's a little hard to put into words. Honestly, it just means Rin is that amazing? You could say that. She's a streamer, but her skill is so outstanding that pro teams reach out to her first for scrims."
"Rin is that good?"
"Yeah, she's that good. Even actual rankers who talk about Rin all marvel at her skill. I don't know much about scrims, but I bet even the G1 players were impressed by Rin's skill."
Seeing Chaerin describe it as incredible, Seoyun fell into thought.
She knew to some extent that her sister lived and breathed gaming.
But being good enough to scrim against pro players was truly unexpected.
'My sister was this good?'
—As for the team scrim results, to just give you the conclusion, it was 2 wins and 2 losses. It's a fifty-fifty result, but I don't think it's a bad record. I wasn't used to team matches either.
Then, through the earbuds, her sister's voice sounded somewhat excited.
Maybe the scrim matches had been really fun for her sister, because her voice as she explained this and that with such immersion felt a little cute.
'She's such a kid.'
Then, suddenly, Chaerin spoke up beside her as if in admiration.
"Look, Seoyun. She teamed up with pros and played matches, and her record is 2-2. Doesn't that alone mean Rin is at least on par with pros?"
"Right...? Rin must really be amazing."
And hearing her best friend praise her sister felt pretty embarrassing.
And funnily enough, the feeling wasn't bad at all.
Maybe because she hadn't told Chaerin that the streamer Rin was her sister, hearing Chaerin casually praise her sister was oddly entertaining.
—Since a lot of people are curious about the 1v1 scrims... if I may add just a little, I won more matches than I lost. That's all I'll tell you. I don't think I should go into the details of the matches, either. They were close—you can think of them that way.
[?????]
[G1 players lost 1v1s to Rin?]
[Wow that's actually insane]
[She seriously had a better win rate in 1v1s against G1?]
[Lmaoooo]
[If she lied about scrimming against pros she'd get caught immediately, why would Rin lie?]
[Ah seriously they need to upload the 1v1s to NewTube!!!]
[Fr the 1v1s are the main event]
Serin's statement that she'd achieved good results against the players. After properly checking the chat reaction, Seoyun looked at Chaerin with an expectant expression.
"How good are the G1 players individually?"
She already knew from the earlier explanation that the G1 players were outstanding, but Seoyun asked again anyway. The better they were, the better her sister was, and she wanted to hear it.
Chaerin, not noticing Seoyun's intention, began rattling off everything she knew, as if thrilled to be having a conversation with Seoyun about Another World.
"Excluding TSJ, they're definitely top-tier? Since they're currently first in the league, you'd have to say each G1 player's individual skill is pretty outstanding. I mean, they're all excellent players, so that's why they're first in the league, right?"
"I suppose so. Then, Chaerin, what about Rin, who faced those G1 players?"
"It just means Rin is even better. The more I think about it, the more amazing Rin really is. I don't know how she's so good."
While answering Seoyun's questions, which seemed to be asking her to talk about Rin, Chaerin watched Seoyun with a subtly odd expression without realizing it.
'Has she ever shown this much interest in someone before?'
Chaerin felt that Seoyun was pretty excited right now.
Normally, Seoyun responded to everyone as if she had no particular interest, so seeing her react so enthusiastically today felt strange—but ironically, Chaerin liked it.
Usually, to talk to Seoyun about Another World, she always had to buy her food or sweet-talk and coax her. But from now on, it seemed like she could talk freely about Rin or Another World without Seoyun frowning anymore.
Being able to talk with her best friend about a topic she loved was, in itself, a huge win for Chaerin.
"How should I put it—talking with you about Rin, Chaerin, I might actually become a Rin fan too."
"Really!?"
"Yeah. Even though I don't know Another World well, Rin was worth watching. Everything about her is flashy, and Rin is so pretty. Plus her voice is nice to listen to. Don't you think so too, Chaerin?"
Seoyun's words sounded almost as if they demanded agreement. Chaerin felt a faint sense that something was off, but she nodded along anyway.
"Someone like Rin really has no flaws."
She didn't know what Rin looked like in real life, but Chaerin thought that hardly mattered. The visible character of Rin was close to perfection in and of itself.
Then, suddenly, a thought occurred to Chaerin.
'So Seoyun has fallen for Rin too, in the end.'
Chaerin was quite pleased that even Seoyun, who knew nothing about Another World, was now showing interest in Rin.
***
Once she'd been talking about the Part 2 broadcast—the G1 scrims—for over three hours, Serin figured it was about time to wrap up Part 2.
"Ah. I'll take a short break, then move on to Part 3."
If she didn't cut it off here, she'd end up talking about G1 until midnight without even getting to the Part 3 broadcast.
'Did I really have this much to say...?'
Thoughts about G1 kept coming to mind endlessly, to the point where she surprised herself.
Starting simply with my own scrim impressions, then digging into the details, I found myself breaking down my impressions of each and every G1 player. What they had seemed like when I faced them in the Colosseum, or the strengths I'd noticed while scrimming with them. Once I started talking through those little details one by one, there was really no end to it.
Click.
I turned off the mic and played the background music I'd prepared, as usual.
As the calm background music filled the room, I sank into my chair and picked up my smartphone.
I'd muted it while streaming, so I hadn't checked it, but from the way the light kept flashing every so often, I knew quite a few BaTalk messages had come in.
Among the messages I checked, one stood out in particular.
Big Cat.
[Rin, if there's ever a day that works for you, please let me know anytime. I'll adjust my schedule to fit yours.]
Over text he seemed like a nice person, but I knew it was all an act, so it made me a little sick.
"How can I hit Big Cat where it hurts?"
I muttered blankly, still mulling it over.
Honestly, I really didn't want to do the collaboration stream Big Cat wanted. The collab itself would benefit him.
I had a rough idea of how much attention the name Rin drew and how much it boosted NewTube views. So the question was how I could hit him hard while refusing to do the collab no matter what.
In the end, the key was making Big Cat pay for badmouthing Soyul without giving him what he wanted.
Serin was still thinking about how to do that.
"First, I'll let him stew while I think it over slowly."
Honestly, pouring energy into someone not worth caring about was exhausting in itself.
Right now, Big Cat was nothing more than that to me.