44. ACK (AW Champions Korea)
44. ACK (AW Champions Korea)
***
After finishing dinner and chatting with her viewers, Serin quietly opened the tweetie site once it passed seven.
It was time to host, and she felt she had interacted with her viewers enough. She decided it was time to end her stream by hosting Sua.
Since Serin had already said she would watch Plea's stream, the viewers seemed to be catching on that a host was coming.
—Hosting.
It meant a tweetie streamer handing their viewers over to another streamer who was currently live.
Usually, big-name streamers hosted people they were close with, or smaller streamers, to help them out.
Or streamers of similar size hosted each other to help one another.
Other cases existed, but they were rare. A streamer sending fewer viewers than the receiving streamer had was awkward for both the giver and the receiver.
To put it in perspective, it was like someone who wasn't well-off donating to someone richer than them.
So fundamentally, hosting carried a strong meaning of helping another streamer by sending viewers their way.
But now Serin, a "newbie" streamer, was about to host Sua, a "big-name" streamer.
It was ironic. But that was the actual situation.
Because right now, both Serin and Sua had similar viewer counts of around ten thousand.
"I'll host now and go watch Plea's stream too. See you tomorrow at four."
She gave her closing remarks and announced the host.
[go go go]
[But seriously, three hours is way too short for a stream]
[Right, just play Another World a little more]
[A day-two newbie streamer hosting a big-name streamer?]
[lololol a newbie matching viewer counts with a big-name streamer]
[I got off work and just tuned in, so I didn't even get to see the Another World gameplay]
[Then watch the VOD]
[fr today's arena was fun]
[Are you gonna chat in Plea's stream, Rin?]
"No. I won't be chatting."
With that, I set the hosting target to Sua in the streamer settings, entered the host, and pressed end stream.
Soon, along with the familiar end-stream message, my channel's screen switched to Sua's channel.
—Rin hosted 11,000 viewers over... Ah! Thank you so much! Actually, you know what, everyone? I watched Rin's stream today. She was way more natural at streaming than I expected.
"...She was watching my stream?"
I was surprised that Sua had been watching my stream. But then I thought about it, and it made sense.
She'd helped me set up yesterday. If someone I knew had just started streaming, I'd probably take an interest too.
Sua on screen looked pretty glamorous. A complete 180 from how she'd looked at home yesterday.
Her dolled-up appearance drew the eye all on its own.
Her long straight hair had been styled into waves, and her refined college-student features had been transformed into a haughty, catlike look. Even watching her, the difference was striking.
"I really wouldn't recognize her if I ran into her in real life."
Honestly, even now, Sua's on-screen appearance felt unfamiliar.
—You know, Plea-lings, wasn't Rin cool with that greatsword today? I was watching her and she seriously surprised me.
Her tone was more high-energy too, so her voice felt a little different.
—Watching her wreck that Archer and then seeing her silver hair flying at the end—I seriously couldn't help admiring Rin.
Gradually, Serin started to feel like something was off about Sua's words.
Why did my name keep coming up at the end of every sentence?
—No, in Rin's Platinum Promotion Series, the opponents even felt kind of underwhelming...
It had already been over ten minutes since the host, and Sua was still talking about me.
"Did she watch my entire stream or something? How does she know everything that happened in the arena?"
I muttered blankly, wondering what was going on.
Everything she said sounded like shameless flattery, and it kept making me squirm with embarrassment.
Like hearing "you're cool," "you're pretty," "you did well," "you're beautiful" right to my face. An embarrassing feeling.
[Stop talking about me. I sent you a host, so if you only talk about me, it's pointless.]
So in the end, I sent Sua a whisper telling her to stop.
I'd hosted and sent viewers to help her out, but she was just talking about me in front of nearly 20,000 viewers. What was even the point?
—Ah! Rin says she's embarrassed and to stop talking about her. Isn't Rin really cute when she's like this?
It was getting worse and worse, with her saying all sorts of things like calling me cute.
"...Is this her trying to hype me up or something?"
For a moment, even that thought crossed my mind.
As if yesterday's generosity hadn't been enough, it felt like she was now shoving a straw straight into my mouth and forcing me to drink.
Just as I was having all sorts of thoughts, Sua suddenly changed her attitude.
—Ahh. Then let's wrap up today's Just Chatting here and head right into Another World. I have content scheduled.
[No, do the cam stream a little longer]
[She got all dressed up, what a waste]
[lolol so she just talks about Rin and then goes straight into the game?]
[Today's Just Chatting ended with nothing but Rin admiration]
[Plea really seems to want to get close to Rin lolol]
[Who's she collabing with today?]
[lolololololol]
[The homebody is so obviously excited about having gone to someone else's house yesterday, why is no one picking up on it lolol]
[fr someone acknowledge it lolololol]
[What content?]
Looking at the chat reactions, I wondered if she really did want to get close to me, but the word "content" made me curious about what it was.
—Hey, I'm already close with Rin. I just thought it was cute that a brand-new streamer was hosting me, you know? That's why I talked about her a little.
—And today's Another World content is going to be a conversation with "Gosu" about the "Pro League" that's been really hot lately.
'Pro League?'
The unexpected mention of the Pro League piqued Serin's interest a bit more.
She didn't know who Gosu was, but if Another World had a Pro League, that meant there were people who were even better at the game.
[Ooooooh!!!]
[holy shit they're doing this?]
[Pro League, which pro team??]
[She never does it even when we beg her, and now this?]
[What is this insane content lolol]
[Gosu, that bastard isn't even streaming right now, is this a collab?]
[That guy just does it as a hobby so he barely streams lolol]
Then Sua disappeared from the screen, apparently about to connect to Another World.
A "Connecting to Another World" indicator stayed in the center of the stream screen for a few minutes. Then the screen changed.
***
—Another World.
A virtual reality game in the truest sense. It was praised as the leader and the pinnacle of the virtual reality industry.
Before Another World launched, there had already been games claiming to be virtual reality for years.
In the genre called VR (Virtual Reality) games.
But every VR game that actually released fell short of the polish, detail, and systems gamers of the time expected.
So the only people buying VR games back then were those with a particular interest in VR, or streamers and other internet broadcasters who bought VR games and equipment to show them off.
But gradually, even those gamers and streamers grew disappointed with the quality of VR games and stopped buying VR games and equipment.
Just as VR games had become an awkward niche—neither commercially successful nor something users cared much about—
Another World suddenly launched, and the landscape began to completely change.
Senses such as pain and taste were strictly limited, so users could experience only reduced versions of them, but the virtual reality system itself was revolutionary.
A game that seemed to have implemented the exact system every gamer had dreamed of. Another World was, in itself, a game ahead of its time.
Just like when smartphones first appeared. Gamers began to go wild for Another World.
The Another World connection device, which maintained a price of around four million won in its early days, sold like crazy despite the high cost. Now, three years later, even though mass production had lowered the price, it still held at around three million won, and more people began buying it.
No matter how deflationary the economy was or how much consumption had contracted, this was an era where prices rose little by little as incomes rose.
You could say the Another World capsule was expensive, but if you asked whether it was so expensive that people couldn't buy it at all, that wasn't the case either.
The high-quality virtual reality game Another World, released domestically, became a sensational hit. Even considering the expensive connection device, it didn't take long for it to claim the number one market share in the domestic game market.
Once gamers experienced Another World through its capsule-style interface, they lost much of their interest in PC games. Even ordinary non-gamers became curious about virtual reality.
So now, three years after Another World's release, it had firmly established itself as the undisputed number one game.
Riding that sensational popularity, a "Pro League" naturally emerged as well.
The Pro League had been growing explosively since the year before last, with more and more people trying to go pro. Viewership for the professional league, ACK, was also rising day by day.
Overwhelming graphics that went beyond what people expected from a game.
The vivid, lifelike quality of virtual reality.
It had visual beauty in itself, making it more entertaining than most anime or video content.
Its competition format had players point swords, spears, axes, bows, and other weapons at one another in the Colosseum, with everything from individual matches to 5:5 team battles.
So even people who didn't play Another World themselves had started watching the Pro League, ACK.
—ACK.
Its name came from "AW Champions Korea," with AW being short for Another World.
Overseas service had also begun last year. Starting this year, multiple Pro Leagues had launched in other regions as well.
The Korean league was called ACK, and each region had its own name.
APL (AW Pro League, China), ACS (AW Championship Series, United States), AEC (AW European Championship, Europe), and leagues in other major regions had been established.
As Pro Leagues opened across multiple regions, they grew at a remarkable pace, but ACK in Korea still had the largest scale.
And in the first half of this year, the "AW World Championship" was scheduled to be held—the largest tournament in the world, where the top pro teams from each regional league would compete.
The user known as "Gosu" was actually one of the pro players competing in ACK.
His connection times were irregular, and while he streamed on tweetie, he had no set streaming schedule and didn't go live often.
In truth, it was a pro gamer's "alt" account, so he deliberately avoided connecting or streaming frequently.
......
As a cluster of light formed at one side of the Colosseum, a waiting male character holding a greatsword gave a slight nod.
Kang Hyeok—a current pro gamer using the Another World nickname "Gosu"—spoke indifferently.
"You're here."
Then the light faded, revealing a female character.
The woman who appeared looked like a blonde princess: Yoon Sua, "Plea," Another World rank 8. She frowned at Kang Hyeok.
"Hey, why aren't you streaming?"
"Too lazy."
At Gosu's indifferent answer, Plea sighed and shook her head as if giving up on talking.
"Just so you know, I'm not splitting the donations with you. Same for NewTube."
Gosu chuckled at Plea's words and looked at her.
"Forget it. I'm rich."
"How rich, exactly... Anyway, I'm turning on the stream now, so act accordingly."
Sua, not bothered by Gosu's attitude, reconnected the stream.