21. Big-name Streamer
21. Big-name Streamer
***
"It's true that I met Rin completely by chance. Honestly, I approached her without thinking things through, and after I messed up, I ended up meeting her almost as if I were being dragged along. Um... I can't go into detail, but I really did meet her."
[Wait, you actually met the user named Rin?]
[????]
[But what the hell did you do to end up meeting Rin like you were dragged into it??]
[fr she's usually honest about just about everything]
[lmaooooooo Plea did you commit a crime or something?]
[lololol no way]
Because she'd deliberately baited viewers into gathering, chat was in even more of an uproar.
But even while acting for the stream, Sua couldn't help flinching at the word "crime" in chat.
It was true that she had followed the woman named Serin.
She hadn't approached Serin with bad intentions. It was that look Serin had given her at the cafe. She'd been scared to approach too casually and unsure how to start a conversation; her hesitation was what had let the misunderstanding snowball that far.
From a third party's perspective, it could certainly look that way. Maybe even to the woman named Serin.
Still, she couldn't tell the viewers all of that exactly as it was.
"...The thing is, for all the baiting I did, I can't tell you the conversation in as much detail as you're all hoping. And you know I obviously can't tell you anything about Rin's appearance or private information, right? I'm just going to tell you my personal impressions from meeting Rin."
[yeah, we know that]
[Is Rin a girl? A guy?]
[wow but you actually met Rin? is that even possible?]
[lmaooo you get our hopes up that much and then say that?]
[where did you meet? like how do you even meet by chance fr did Rin tell you they were Rin?]
[No but you idiots Plea already said she wouldn't share personal info or identity so why are you still asking??]
[fr Plea said she wouldn't say so stop asking]
Conscious of the varied reactions in chat, Sua prepared to add a little embellishment to the truth she had experienced.
Even if the immediate goal was entertainment and baiting for the stream, as she had said before, she had no intention of crossing the line when it came to the woman named Serin.
That was one of the biggest lessons she'd learned while researching other streamers before she started streaming herself.
Streaming was a profession extremely sensitive to incidents and scandals.
Was there any profession as sensitive to incidents and scandals as a streamer? She figured maybe celebrities or politicians were at a similar level.
It didn't matter how good an image someone had built up or how clean their record had been.
One mistake could slash their viewer count, of course. A streamer's entire career and image could vanish like foam in an instant.
And the more famous a streamer became online, the stranger their position was: despite that fame, they still weren't public figures.
Even so, as their name grew famous, there existed a "responsibility" that came with it.
Even if someone did "personal streaming," it was better not to mention personal political leanings, gender conflicts, or other sensitive topics, because that much attention was on them.
At a glance, they might just look like someone doing a personal stream from home or just another person playing a game.
Streamers had more influence than you might think. They could look insignificant from the outside while still having a very real impact.
It was fair to say that a popular streamer could have far more reach than a lower-profile celebrity.
And naturally, the more popular a streamer was, the more pronounced that influence became.
Unless it was a truly unusual stream, everyone was careful even about casual profanity.
And right now, the tweetie streamer Plea—she was one of those popular streamers that anyone would call a big name.
So Sua was being quite careful about what she was about to say next.
"So, where do I even start? Rin's name has become such a huge topic lately that I'm having trouble figuring out how to put this."
In truth, I had no intention of leaking personal information about the woman named Serin, or even hinting at anything that could let people guess her appearance.
Actually, more than telling the viewers watching her right now, Sua’s thoughts were on Rin.
In other words, she wanted to get her message through to Serin.
She was fully aware, watching the chat, that she had gotten off on the wrong foot from the start, so she wanted to speak in a way that wouldn't leave the woman named Serin feeling too upset even if she heard it.
But at the same time, she wanted to say something that Serin could not help but take notice of.
How to organize all of that—that was the main reason Sua couldn't easily speak right now.
Eventually, she managed to organize her thoughts.
"You know, at first Rin gave me the wrong nickname, so I don't even know how many times I sent friend requests to the wrong person. And among those..."
Mixing in other small talk like that, Sua continued talking on stream.
First, she was making it clear that she was quite interested in Rin.
And that she was also aware Rin had deliberately given her a different nickname.
That she'd told Rin at the cafe that her own nickname was Plea.
Those were roughly the three main points running through what she said.
And so, what Sua said next contained nothing as big as the initial fact that she had actually met the user named Rin.
To the viewers who had gathered because of the bait, it was the kind of content that left them feeling unsure even after hearing it.
But even so, every one of Sua's remarks spread rapidly across all sorts of communities.
Plea was a big-name tweetie streamer averaging over 10,000 viewers and currently ranked 8th in Another World, the undisputed number-one and most popular game.
Her words seemed light, but because she had rarely ever mentioned someone so directly before, they spread with real impact.
***
At first, it had been through a cheating controversy in one community that she had happened to learn about the internet broadcasting site called tweetie.
But now, Serin thought, it was actually kind of fun to watch.
She could leave a stream on like a radio to fill the silence, and streams were also useful for keeping up with the latest trends.
More than anything, when one streamer talked, viewers responded with all kinds of messages in chat.
It even felt like watching a cross-section of the world.
...
After getting home and showering, she briefly opened tweetie to browse streams before logging into Another World.
She could also log into Another World and watch streams from inside the game, but that was more tiring, like doing two things at once.
Considering how easily her body tired from even light activity, it was better to just turn on the PC and watch streams.
"She's streaming right now too."
Hana, the streamer she'd watched before, was live too, along with far more streams of every kind than she'd expected.
Some showed kitchen-like sets for what looked like cooking streams; others followed streamers walking around outside and talking to people.
Others watched videos together with their viewers and chatted about them.
Streaming styles varied wildly depending on the person.
"But with this many, I'm stuck on what to watch."
Muttering that absently, Serin scrolled down and browsed through the tweetie streams.
There was a saying that too many choices made it harder to choose, and it really was true.
There were certainly some streams that caught her interest, but actually picking one from among them wasn't easy.
At first she'd considered watching an Another World stream, but worried she might start posting toxic backseat comments again without realizing it, so she'd already ruled those streams out.
Actually, just the video the woman named Sua had shown her at the cafe today had been quite shocking.
The content of the video had bothered her too, but honestly, more than that, when her past chat history had been exposed, that had been the bigger wake-up call.
Even thinking back now, the chats she had typed in the streamer named Hana's stream were all close to toxic.
And now, in this situation, she was going to type that kind of chat again?
"...No way."
Letting out a hollow laugh, Serin scrolled down further.
On top of that, the tweetie site seemed to strictly allow only one ID—if your identity was verified, you couldn't create another ID—so she had to be especially careful now.
She figured it was probably to prevent people from using alt accounts to send toxic chat or harass streamers.
Streaming looked pretty fun too, and she found herself thinking she might try it someday, even if not right away.
And lately, she had clearly been trying to find one thing.
A sense of purpose.
Because that was more important than it seemed.
In the world of Black Ark, I had mostly adventured along the main storyline I was given, so I hadn't had those kinds of worries.
I just moved along with the quests I was given and carried out the hologram messages written there.
I acted as some unknown existence directed, and when I accomplished it, I received a set reward.
That way, I could pass the time comfortably, without any particular worries or thoughts.
At the end of it, the moment the flow of that massive quest came to an end,
I wandered the world adventuring.
Volunteering for adventures I didn't even need to do, deliberately taking quests to hunt thousands of monsters.
And conscious of the penalties and rewards contained within them, I acted that way.
That was certainly how it had been until not long ago.
In this world now, none of that existed.
Perhaps the most important thing, money, was sitting in my bank account in absurd abundance, and I had no trouble supporting myself.
Even if this body tired with strange ease, it wasn't anything like a major problem.
The only family I had was one younger sister, and right now she was at least one person I had started to genuinely care about.
Even so, in the end, this was a world where no one I had known before, no connections, existed at all.
What was I supposed to do with my life in a world like that?
Everything I'd achieved in the world of Black Ark had already been taken from me. In exchange, I'd been given this body that seemed to have belonged to my old character and a comfortable life ahead.
Maybe I could just live thoughtlessly, going with the flow.
Living like that probably wouldn't cause any major problems.
But if I lived like that, would I really be okay inside?
Now that I thought about it, simply drifting through life while mindlessly enjoying Another World because it interested me felt a little empty.
So a sense of purpose was something that 'I' absolutely needed.
And now I settled on an utterly simple goal.
Someone might ask if that even counted as a sense of purpose.
They might ask if, with all that money, all I planned to do was play games.
But so what if others said that?
Even if it looked trivial to others, I wanted to accomplish something I knew I could do.
That, at least, felt pretty good.
And so Serin set herself one goal right now.
For now, that goal was to reach Challenger, the highest tier in Another World.
"Should I log in?"