19. Fight Fire with Fire
19. Fight Fire with Fire
***
"That's an interesting nickname."
With those words, I had no intention of telling her my own nickname.
Rin was going to be me soon enough, so there was no point in revealing it now. More than anything, I had no desire to ever meet this woman named Sua in front of me again.
So, while I was trying to brush it off and wondering what other nickname I could give her—
I noticed Sua staring at me with an odd expression after my answer.
Her lips kept hesitating, like she had something to say.
"...Is that all?"
She carefully opened her mouth, looking like she had expected me to say more.
"Does the nickname Plea have some other meaning?"
But at Serin's indifferent question, Sua finally looked away from her with disappointment.
'I'm still... not there yet.'
Still, she had been streaming on tweetie for over a year now, and her NewTube subscribers had long since passed a million.
So she had assumed that Serin, as an Another World player, would recognize her the moment she said her nickname.
She had been worrying about how to respond if Serin recognized her—but she had been counting her chickens before they hatched.
Then, suddenly, a nickname popped into Sua's head.
It wasn't something she normally said herself, but she wondered if maybe even Serin would know it.
"Serin, then... do you happen to know... a user called Crazy Bitch?"
Serin couldn't believe her ears for a second.
"Crazy Bitch...?"
At Serin's questioning look, Sua flustered slightly and continued in a small voice.
"Yes... I was just wondering if you knew a user called Crazy Bitch."
"You can make a nickname like Crazy Bitch in Another World?"
At Serin's surprised tone, Sua quickly shook her head.
"Oh, no. It's fine if you don't know."
She didn't actually know if such a nickname existed, but Sua just shook her head.
From that reaction, Sua was certain.
She knows nothing about me.
Serin, who had been watching Sua's strange behavior, did feel a faint sense of familiarity a moment later.
'Crazy Bitch...'
At first she thought it was an insult, but from the way Sua asked, it seemed like there really was a user by that name.
It did feel familiar.
She thought she might have glimpsed it a few times on the Another Level site...
"And my nickname is KALUA."
Sua slowly spoke as she subtly held out her phone, where the video had ended.
It was the name of a character from a novel she had read in the past.
"KALUA... that's a pretty unique nickname. Kal, lu, a—right?"
Sua gave a small nod at Serin's deliberate, syllable-by-syllable confirmation.
"Yes. It's KALUA, just like you pronounced it."
After that, as Sua murmured "KALUA, KALUA" to herself several times, Serin thought she had nearly gotten herself tangled up with this woman for good.
This woman named Sua had brought up words like fate and destiny. Honestly, none of it resonated with her at all.
After being thrown into a game world for no reason, and now suddenly living in this world—
Fate? Destiny? For someone like me...
It was utterly absurd.
Serin opened her mouth, ready to leave.
"Sua? I think I should... get going now."
"Oh, yes. Serin, I'm... really sorry about today. And I'll send you a friend request in Another World, so you have to accept it!?"
She emphasized the word "have to," and her earnestness pricked Serin's conscience.
"...Yes, I'll accept it if you send one. And I'll probably be able to log into Another World late this evening."
She shamelessly made a promise she had no intention of keeping as she slowly rose from her seat.
As she watched Sua stand up as well, Serin felt something strange.
When Sua had first entered the cafe, her hands had been trembling like a criminal's. But now she looked perfectly composed.
It was almost surprising how freely people could change their attitude.
Thinking about it now, it was also ridiculous that this woman had followed her today just because she resembled a game character.
'...How much do you have to love a game?'
From suddenly bringing up stalkers out of concern for her, to speaking passionately about Another World—in a way, she was endlessly pure.
'Now I feel bad for no reason.'
The more she thought about it, the more she wondered if she should have just admitted she was Rin to someone with such pure passion for the game. The thought came a little too late.
"See you next time."
The damage was already done. It seemed too late to take it back, so she said goodbye and stood.
After all, they would never see each other again after today.
"Yes. Then Serin, you absolutely have to! log into Another World!?"
Watching her emphasize "absolutely" kept pricking Serin's conscience.
"Yes. I'll log in today."
Under a different nickname, of course.
And so, saying things she didn't mean, Serin parted ways with Sua.
As she mused that a passing connection was nothing more than that, she felt it anew.
I really was toxic after all.
"A nickname like KALUA... there's no way it actually exists."
She had just made it up on the spot, and it wasn't a common name, so she never imagined anyone would actually use it.
With that, she headed straight home.
***
Sua logged into Another World with an excited heart. The first thing she did was think of the woman she had met today and send a friend request.
—No user information found for 'KALUA'.
"...?"
But for some reason, only a hologram reading "no user information found" filled her vision.
'This is definitely right.'
She had deliberately asked again after hearing the nickname to make sure she wouldn't get it wrong.
So the nickname she had been given was definitely this one. She had even repeated it out loud several times, so there was no way she had misremembered it.
—No user information found for 'KALUYA'.
—No user information found for 'KILLUA'...
No matter how many variations she tried, the same "no user information found" hologram kept blocking her view.
"What the hell."
As she blankly kept typing in IDs, Sua grew more confused.
'What the hell, seriously?'
Why does it keep saying no such user exists?
All sorts of thoughts ran through her head without her realizing it.
Starting with the thought that maybe she was so obsessed with Another World that she had hallucinated the whole thing.
Or that the user named Rin, who was currently a hot topic, was actually a stalker.
Or the possibility that a character with the nickname KALUA had been deleted.
Or that the woman named Serin had accidentally given her the wrong nickname...
Truly, all sorts of thoughts ran through her head.
After parting ways at the cafe, she had spent time gathering information at a PC cafe. She killed time, had dinner, and arrived home at 7 o'clock.
She changed clothes, took a shower, and immediately logged into Another World. That was Sua's current situation.
Then, suddenly, Sua latched onto one possibility.
Maybe she needed to type it in English.
—Friend request sent to user 'KALUA'.
"Oh, it worked."
The woman named Serin had said it in Korean, and even when Sua asked again, she hadn't given any spelling, so Sua had naturally assumed it was a Korean nickname.
But come to think of it, a nickname like KALUA would be weird as a Korean ID.
Seriously... it would have been nice if she had just given the spelling from the start.
—User 'KALUA' has accepted your friend request.
Not long after, a whisper arrived.
[Who?]
[It's me. Me. Plea, Yoon Sua.]
[Plea?]
[No, we met at the cafe today.]
[Really... Plea?]
[Yes, yes. It's me.]
Even as she answered the whisper, Sua's heart was racing.
How would she react when she recognized me? If the person she had coincidentally met turned out to be a ranker in the game she played, what kind of reaction would she show? Sua was already looking forward to it.
But she had her usual stream time in 30 minutes, so unfortunately she couldn't keep the conversation going. She needed to prepare before turning on the stream.
[Sorry, but I won't be able to answer whispers for the next few hours.]
Since she hadn't recognized me, she was probably a casual player.
So Sua was about to phrase it more indirectly.
[Yes. It's because you have to stream soon, right, Plea?]
At the sudden whisper, Sua's hand, which had been manipulating the hologram, stopped on its own.
"...?"
She knows I stream?
When they met today, she had clearly acted like she didn't even know the nickname Plea.
The sense that something was wrong was overwhelming.
Sua felt goosebumps rise on her arms without realizing it.
As strange, indescribable emotions crawled over her body, Sua's lips moved blankly.
"Th-this person... isn't her."
She immediately pressed the delete friend button. Then she added 'KALUA' to her block list.
It felt like goosebumps were spreading across her entire body.
Someone she didn't know had pretended to be someone else. Worse, they had known who she was and approached her pretending to be friendly. It was absurd.
As Sua slowly composed herself, she replayed her memories.
The way she had watched the Rin video with interest. The way she had looked at a character so similar to herself without showing any sign of discomfort.
And the way she had reacted flustered when Sua mentioned stalkers.
Saying she could protect herself and not to worry too much.
As those moments surfaced one by one, Sua finally reached a conclusion.
'Rin.'
Han Serin was Rin.
Thinking back to how Serin had initially said she wasn't Rin, why had Sua believed her so naively?
Maybe she had been so scared of being caught for following her that she couldn't even think straight at that moment.
Serin had said it was fine to her face, but in the end, this had to be some kind of joke at her expense for stalking her.
"She really is toxic..."
She had seen the NewTube videos about Rin being toxic or having personality controversies, but she had just brushed it off. Now that she had experienced it firsthand, it was unbelievable.
Sure, she had been wrong to follow her in the first place... but still, Serin had told her it was fine.
'She really said that...'
The more she thought about it, the more deflated she felt.
She had thought Serin was a good person, someone she could talk to. She had genuinely wanted to be good to her in Another World.
And yet...
"How can a person be this awful..."
She felt toyed with. Was she supposed to just let this go?
At the very least, she wanted to make the user named Rin accept her friend request.
She wanted to talk to her again.
There were only 20 minutes left until her stream.
"...Seriously."
Letting out a sigh, Sua was about to prepare for her stream when a phrase suddenly came to mind.
'Fight fire with fire.'
A player in the same Challenger Tier as me.
It was something Gosu said almost out of habit.