26. Challenger Rank 8, Plea
26. Challenger Rank 8, Plea
***
And before she knew it, Serin was watching the streamer Plea's broadcast as if entranced, to the point that her original goal of striking up a conversation with Plea had completely slipped her mind.
When Plea suddenly dismissed the Crescent-Moon Weight, Serin let out a sigh of disappointment without realizing it.
"Why already?"
She'd wanted to see the Crescent-Moon Weight in action a little longer. Watching someone else use her own niche weapon was inherently fascinating.
And it wasn't some newbie or mediocre player, but a ranker using it with real flair, so what had started as idle viewing had turned into complete immersion before she knew it.
"...Still, it really is absurd."
No matter how times changed, the saying went that in any field, the true top of the top didn't seem human.
She was starting to understand that saying a little.
Plea had clearly looked like she was picking up the Crescent-Moon Weight for the first time, yet in that brief span of just a few swings, she'd grasped the concept of force control, the concept of distance, and even the concept of the returning weight.
Plea understood all of it.
By the time Plea was addressing her viewers about force control in a tone that suggested she'd noticed something different, Serin had caught herself admiring her without even realizing it.
And gradually, in a different sense, the thought crossed her mind: 'Is she seriously insane?'
"You know... everyone."
Then, when Plea, who seemed to have dismissed the Crescent-Moon Weight, suddenly spoke with a serious expression, Serin found herself focusing on what was about to come out of her mouth without meaning to.
She wondered if Plea had something more to say after using the Crescent-Moon Weight.
"That user Rin, you know. Seriously, I'm starting to think they might really be on my level."
She said it with such a serious expression that Serin, who had been listening intently, let out a dumbfounded sound without realizing it.
"What?"
At Plea's sudden baiting remark, Serin stared at the screen with a blank expression.
Being suddenly praised like that out of nowhere made her feel like her hands and feet were curling up in embarrassment.
Reading about it in a hot topic post and hearing someone praise her in real time were two entirely different kinds of embarrassment.
Her face flushed hot, and her hand twitched involuntarily.
"No..."
How was it that my face was burning hotter than Plea's when she was the one who'd actually said it? Then I checked the chat, and as expected, it was in an uproar again.
[You set that up like a major announcement and that's what you say lolololololol]
[Plea: Rin, you are my equal or above]
[No but stop overhyping that Rin person or whatever for real lolololololol]
[If that was supposed to be a joke then I'll allow it lol]
[Seems like Plea tried the Crescent-Moon Weight and realized it's a trash weapon too]
[lolololololololololololololol]
In the meantime, hoping this situation would just blow over quickly, I found myself typing in chat without thinking.
[lolololololololol]
"Rin? You're watching the stream right now, aren't you?"
Not long after I'd sent the message, her sudden words made me yank my hands off the keyboard.
For a moment I thought, 'Did I just send some toxic chat again?' But then I remembered that the only thing I'd typed was the laughter shorthand and breathed a small sigh of relief.
"What the—how did you know?"
It gave me goosebumps.
I'd sent exactly one message, and even that was just laughter shorthand, yet the moment I sent it, Plea immediately noticed I was watching the stream. It was bewildering.
"I can see all the chats you send, Rin."
Plea said it with a beaming smile on screen, and I wondered if streamers had some special way of picking out specific users.
Then Plea seemed to wait quietly, as if hoping I'd keep chatting.
[Wait is that Rin person actually in this room?]
[lolololololol sudden collab?]
[Found Rin in the chat user list]
[Wait that's real but didn't they have whispers blocked?]
[lolololololol what even]
Watching the chat scroll rapidly again, I wondered what I was supposed to type here.
From my perspective, the streamer Plea had clearly baited me as her target, and now I'd taken that bait.
But I wondered if ordinary viewers would see it differently.
[Rin: Let's talk for a moment.]
In the end, I typed the safest message I could think of.
Given that Plea had reacted even to the laughter shorthand I'd typed, I figured there was no need to say anything grand.
"Plea-lings!! Give me just a moment to talk with Rin!!"
Plea, visibly pleased enough that even the viewers watching the stream could tell, manipulated the hologram to find Rin and typed out a chat.
Ding. Along with the notification sound of an incoming chat, an alert indicator appeared on the window Serin was looking at.
"Streamers can get through whisper blocks too, huh?"
After the baiting incident in the streamer Hana's room last time, she'd kept getting whispers from all sorts of weird users, so she'd applied a setting to block whispers from users who weren't on her friends list—yet now, rendering that pointless, a streamer's whisper had arrived.
—[Plea: Hello!]
At the cheerful greeting, she just got straight to the point.
—[Rin: Yes. Well, you know who I am...?]
—[Plea: You're 'KALUA.' Of course I know!]
She still remembered the fake nickname Serin had deliberately given her at the cafe yesterday. And the way she emphasized it by writing 'KALUA' made Serin feel a pang of guilt.
"She remembers that."
—[Rin: No, honestly, we didn't exactly start off on good terms, right? That's why I did it. Not because I had any ill intent or anything.]
—[Plea: Well, I was the one in the wrong at first, so I understand why you'd want to avoid me... But I just felt like it'd be such a shame for things to end like this.]
—[Rin: Then let's just call it water under the bridge. And you were baiting me, right?]
—[Plea: Was the baiting that obvious...? If it upset you, I'll apologize! I didn't have any ill intent either!!]
—[Rin: Honestly, I was surprised. Mentioning me in Another World is one thing, but you can't say anything about me in real life. This isn't a request, it's a warning.]
And she led with the most important point directly.
The reason she'd taken the bait, knowing Plea was baiting her. The biggest reason, above all, was that she still needed time when it came to her real-life self.
Rather than having her appearance or anything like that become known, she just wanted to adapt slowly.
—[Plea: Of course. If mentioning you in Another World also upset you, I'll refrain from mentioning you going forward!]
—[Rin: I don't really care about mentions of my game character. But Plea, there has to be a reason you went to all this trouble baiting me. Did you have something you wanted to ask me at the cafe?]
She seemed like someone you could talk to, but this was actually the biggest question on Serin's mind.
Why go to such lengths to bait her and draw her attention? Did she have something she was curious about?
—[Plea: Could you accept my friend request?]
—[Rin: Don't tell me it was just for that...?]
"What the hell. She pulled all this baiting... just to get a friend request accepted."
Even as she typed, a deflated voice slipped out without thinking.
—[Plea: If I had to name the biggest reason, then yes, it's the friend request. And honestly, a skilled user who uses the Crescent-Moon Weight—that's just so fascinating. So really, the friend request... is there any way you could accept?]
—[Rin: I have all friend requests blocked in Another World right now, so I'll send you one myself after I log in. My nickname is Rin (rinhh), so... check and accept it.]
—[Plea: Thank you so, so much!! And this time you really have to keep your word!]
—[Rin: Don't worry.]
With the "don't worry" chat sent, she took her hands off the keyboard for a moment.
The feeling was truly strange.
They said there were all kinds of people in the world, but still.
At most, a woman in her early twenties around Seoyun's age, crazy about games, playing over ten hours a day for years—it felt so alien.
And that such a person had gone on stream and baited her just to get a friend request accepted.
"Really, all sorts of things happen."
Muttering that, she found her eyes drifting to the rapidly scrolling chat without meaning to.
I'm not even a streamer, yet checking chat reactions was strangely addictive.
[????]
[No but what the hell why are they only talking to each other]
[fr fr hurry up and tell us what you talked about]
[What's with Rin blocking whispers? -_-]
[Plea do your stream]
[No but watching them grin and chat with just each other is pissing me off]
[No but say somethinggggggggg]
[Spamming fire emotes]
Probably because Plea had spent roughly three minutes chatting only with me, the chat was on the verge of exploding.
"...Is this really okay?"
It wasn't even my stream, but chat was getting so heated that I found myself worrying. I'd never seen chat this intense before, and just watching it left me bewildered.
On top of that, I felt like I'd unintentionally helped rile chat up, which left me a little uneasy.
Then a notification suddenly sounded from the chat window I'd closed.
Ding!
[Plea: Um... Rin, I'm really sorry, but would you be interested in doing an arena match with me?]
[Rin: My gear is really bad.]
I'd considered just accepting, but honestly, my current gear was so bad that if I accepted as-is, I'd probably get stomped.
I knew full well Plea was ranked 8th in Challenger Tier, and the gear gap was bound to be severe. I had no intention of getting stomped in front of over ten thousand viewers.
Ding!
[Plea: What if I helped you out with some gear support!?]
[Rin: Right now every single piece of my gear is rare-tier.]
[Plea: Then what if I set you up with a full unique set, starting with the Crescent-Moon Weight and all the rest of your gear—deal!?]
"...A full unique set."
Wouldn't that cost a fair amount? I'd had no intention of spending real money on gear, so I'd stuck with Rare items, but now an opportunity to get gear for free had suddenly appeared.
Buying gear with real money and having someone gift it to me were different things.
Right. This was a gift.
[Rin: Deal!]
And before I knew it, I'd already finished typing my response.
"Ah, ah, I'm really sorry!! The conversation's over now, Plea-lings!"
At the same time, as if she'd confirmed it, Plea on screen finally broke her long silence and opened her mouth.
She wore such a bright, cheerful smile that even I felt a little better just looking at it.
"So hey! Rin and I are going to have an arena match!"