234. Her and Her and Her
234. Her and Her and Her
***
Serin had let the words slip without much thought.
"So, anyway, should I whisper Plea or Jeanne d'Arc? Which of the two should I message?"
The aftermath those words unleashed was nothing short of a storm.
[Jeanne d'Arc is showing up here?]
[Rin's class is insane lol]
[Jeanne d'Arc! Jeanne d'Arc! Jeanne d'Arc! Jeanne d'Arc! Jeanne d'Arc! Jeanne d'Arc!]
[A streamer proposing a gamble to Jeanne d'Arc, damn]
[Plea!]
[This is obviously Jeanne d'Arc lol]
[Plea had her stream on, wouldn't Plea be more comfortable for a casual thing?]
[Is Jeanne d'Arc online right now?]
[Definitely Jeanne d'Arc!! Show us exchanging the rings together!]
[Scrim time's coming up soon though]
[Lol she just said she'd send a whisper and chat's already losing it]
[Look at the people who said they'd buy Jeremian's Ring suddenly changing their tune lol]
[If it's Jeanne d'Arc, that's a yes from me]
[Rin's talking about Jeanne d'Arc and Plea, how do you even get in there lol]
The chat had been settling down as the stream neared its end, but now it blazed back to life as if the calm had been a lie.
Startled by the explosive reaction, Serin stared blankly at the chat with a hint of fascination.
Then even donations began bursting in one after another.
—Ding!
『 naerae donated 100,000 won!!』
《Show us you meeting Jeanne d'Arc!!》
『 PIA1615719336756 donated 100,000 won!!』
《You literally collabed with her just last week, so obviously it's Jeanne d'Arc》
『 openmu donated 100,000 won!!』
《Plea even skipped her stream yesterday to watch Rin, doesn't she deserve a little consideration?》
"...naerae, PIA, and openmu, thank you all so much for the donations."
Serin, who had been blankly expressing her thanks for the donations, quickly added more.
"Hey, everyone. I did bring it up, but... it's not like Plea or Jeanne d'Arc has actually agreed to anything, right? I'm just going to send a whisper."
As she spoke, as if making excuses, Serin couldn't hide her fluster from her expression.
She had brought it up half as a joke, but the reaction had been far more explosive than she expected.
[Is this all the firepower Plea's fans have? No, seriously, at least spam chat!!!]
[Chat's going crazy lol]
[No, when has Plea ever lost in fandom firepower? lol Do you think it's common for a streamer to sell out large-scale merch in an hour every single year?]
[Chat is hilarious lol]
[Honestly, this is Jeanne d'Arc]
[You're talking about fandom firepower in front of Jeanne d'Arc? lol]
[Plea's fans are so cute lol]
[Yeah, Rin's going to pick Jeanne d'Arc anyway]
[Gotta latch onto whoever's worth latching onto lol]
[I want to see Jeanne d'Arc!!!]
[If Rin's a real streamer, we all know who she'll pick lol]
The chat, surging more explosively than ever before, had completely gotten out of my hands.
Split between Plea and Jeanne d'Arc, the chat was clashing with every kind of comment imaginable, and the chaos was beyond description.
'Seriously, what is all this.'
Serin found the heated reaction absurd and regretted bringing it up.
She had unintentionally set the two fandoms against each other.
"Hey, viewers, please refrain from getting too hostile in chat. And we don't even know if either of them will accept, so...."
Just as she was speaking.
Ding-a-ling-a-ling!
『 blackrockshooter donated 1,000,000 won!!』
《J E A N N E D ' A R C》
The massive alert sound and the huge donation message filled the stream screen.
"blackrockshooter has donated a huge sum of one million won..."
Serin, murmuring blankly, stared at the enormous donation and felt as though she had touched something she shouldn't have.
She hadn't even sent a whisper yet, and already a donation this large had gone off, leaving her flustered.
'If I send a whisper and get rejected...'
If that happened, she felt like it would leave a strange taste in her mouth.
On top of that, the situation had grown far too big to simply brush aside, and she couldn't back out now.
"First, I'll send a whisper to both of them."
As if turning away from the chat that was blazing, split into the two factions of Plea and Jeanne d'Arc, she manipulated the hologram and hurriedly sent the whispers.
—[Rin : Eunha, do you have a moment?]
—[Rin : Sua, sorry to bother you during your stream, but can you spare a minute?]
Whispers sent to Jeanne d'Arc and Plea respectively.
Since Sua was likely streaming at this hour, Serin worried she might be interrupting her broadcast, and in Eunha's case, Serin knew she was at the pro team dorm, so she might not have any free time.
Still, Serin hoped at least one of them would respond.
She wanted to exchange the ring as quickly as possible to calm the blazing chat, even a moment sooner.
Several seconds passed after she sent the whispers.
Ding! Ding!
The alert sounds rang out simultaneously, as if overlapping.
"...Ah."
***
—Outlaw? It doesn't matter much. I just set it to public because I thought it'd be fun if someone came looking.
On the tablet screen, the silver-haired woman, completely disheveled from fighting the Arch Lich, was visible.
And Eunha, watching that tablet, had an expression she couldn't help, her lingering attachment dripping away without her realizing it.
She had lost track of time watching Serin's stream, but she couldn't watch it to the end.
"...What a shame."
Eunha murmured quietly, and at last, as if shaking off her lingering feelings with hands that refused to let go, she turned off the tablet's power.
Swish.
Eunha placed the tablet in her personal storage space and let out a small breath.
She was disappointed she couldn't watch Serin's stream to the end. But still, personal free time was personal free time, and scrims were scrims.
She couldn't let greed cause problems for the scrim she was committed to.
Checking the time, it was already 7:39 p.m., time to prepare for the scrim.
Knock, knock.
—Twenty minutes left until the evening scrim.
When one of the coaches knocked lightly on the door and spoke, Eunha logged into the World early, as she always did.
After that, even as Eunha logged into Another World and warmed up in her personal space, the question of what reward Serin had received wouldn't leave her mind.
"I need to finish this quickly."
With that, Eunha was thinking she wanted to end the evening scrim as fast as possible and check the VOD later.
Ding!
—[Rin : Eunha, do you have a moment?]
A whisper suddenly arrived from Serin.
Eunha blinked in surprise, but immediately sent a reply.
—[Jeanne d'Arc : I think I can spare about ten minutes. What's going on, Serin?]
......
Meanwhile, Plea—Sua—was running her own personal stream.
"Honestly, when I saw Rin get a hidden class, I was jealous too. Actually, I was watching her stream today before I turned mine on, and all her new skills are amazing, right?"
And she was chatting with her viewers about Serin.
Normally, mentioning other streamers was against the rules, but it wasn't the viewers who brought it up first.
Sua, the streamer running the broadcast, simply couldn't resist mentioning Serin first.
A newly revealed hidden class was always a hot topic, and for Sua, who was deeply interested in Another World, that was even more true.
Sua was as happy as if she herself had gotten it that the person she was closest to these days had obtained a hidden class, but at the same time, she couldn't help feeling envy she couldn't hide.
"...Seriously, if they gave me a hidden class, I'm confident I'd work harder than anyone."
Sua grumbled as if throwing a little tantrum, then glanced at the matchmaking timer.
—6:52.
Nearly seven minutes had passed since she queued for Another World Arena, but a match still hadn't been found.
[lol you're saying you'd grind Another World even harder?]
[Declaring 16 hours a day, damn]
[Plea's Solo Queue score has gone up like crazy lately]
[Rin seriously soloed the Arch Lich?]
[Plea should try it too?]
[Seeing her change into the Moon Dancer or whatever, Rin really is insanely pretty]
[Honestly, isn't the hidden class kind of broken?]
[When you see someone like Plea who's grinded tens of thousands of hours over nearly three years still not getting a hidden class, it really is unfair]
[Still, I'm glad Plea turned her stream on today lol]
[Is this chat really Rin's stream or Plea's stream?]
[lol it's because of the hidden class]
Sua, who had been waiting for a match, shook her head slightly and burst out laughing.
"Hey, what's the big deal. When it comes to mentioning other streamers, let's make Rin an exception just for today. And the first-ever hidden class was revealed today, right? Even if I told them not to, wouldn't you Plea-lings bring her up anyway?"
[For real lol]
[That's true lol]
[How could anyone resist mentioning a hidden class]
[Wasn't Plea the first one to mention Rin today? lol]
[Breaking!! Rin got her reward!]
[Whoa, wtf, what's Rin's reward]
[Rin got two legendaries]
[She got the Arch Robe, wtf]
[What's Jeremian's Ring lol]
[Rin really is a luck character, I swear]
"Even if I said it's okay to talk about her, is that all you guys can do—mention Rin? Plea-lings... are you trying to make me feel a little hurt?"
Sua deliberately put on a coy expression and spoke in a foxy tone, while keeping an eye on the chat mentioning the rewards.
'The Arch Robe and Jeremian's Ring—that's an insanely good haul.'
She sympathized with the chat calling Rin a luck character, and a laugh escaped her before she could help it.
[What's with the sudden aegyo lol]
[Is this matchmaking wait time even real?]
[Rin and Plea both showed up?]
[Rin just mentioned Plea as a ring partner]
[For real, she mentioned both Jeanne d'Arc and Plea]
[Plea isn't going to miss this chance, right?]
[lol no, Jeremian's Ring gamble, let's go]
"Huh? Me, as a ring partner? Rin said she'd do that?"
Even as Sua spoke, she wasn't sure.
Knowing Rin's personality, she had assumed that even if Rin got Jeremian's Ring, she would sell it.
On top of that, she couldn't even tell whether this was viewers joking or not.
[Yeah, Rin's chat is going crazy right now]
[It's real lol]
[Jeanne d'Arc vs Plea lol]
[But Plea's losing in firepower though]
[Whoa, Jeanne d'Arc's fandom firepower is insane, seriously]
[Still, Plea shouldn't be treated like that, right?]
[No, seriously, can you stop relaying Rin's stream so much? It's a bit much]
[How about whispering her first?]
"If it's true that she's looking for a ring partner... well, I'm fine with it, but wouldn't it look weird if I whispered Rin first?"
Jeremian's Ring was clearly a legendary item close to a gamble—just an item too valuable to attempt casually.
Amid all these thoughts, Sua found herself growing self-conscious.
'Why did she have to mention Jeanne d'Arc along with me?'
And because the other person was Jeanne d'Arc, it left her feeling oddly unsettled.
The odds that Rin would choose her seemed very low.
Ding!
—[Rin : Sua, sorry to bother you during your stream, but can you spare a minute?]
At the whisper that rang out right then, Sua's lips curved into a smile before she knew it.
"I just got a whisper from Rin, so does that mean I've been chosen?"