60. 412 Emails
60. 412 Emails
***
Sluuurp.
Serin sucked once on the straw stuck into her apple juice pack and quickly ran her eyes over the notes written in the notepad on her screen, one line at a time.
—Check video quality and polish.
—Video length between 5 and 10 minutes.
—If the flow breaks while watching, skip to the next video without hesitation.
......
These were notes Serin had jotted down in her notepad during breaks in the collab, worried she might forget some of the advice Sua had given her.
"There really is no such thing as an easy job..."
She muttered that, but still checked every single note she'd written.
Now that about an hour had passed since the collab started, Sua looked different to me.
'How does Sua know so much?'
From the flow of NewTube to knowledge about NewTube editors, to what points matter when watching a video—she kept explaining one thing after another.
Without realizing it, I started to wonder if the Sua on screen was really the Sua I knew.
—Word will definitely spread, and even a few well-known editors will probably apply. The short deadline is a bit of a concern, but for someone like Rin...
Even the way she carefully continued speaking looked new to me.
Long wavy brown hair, and beneath it an impression like a haughty cat.
The refined college girl I'd seen when we met in person was nowhere to be found. In her place was a woman who could easily be mistaken for a celebrity.
I'd assumed that with Sua's looks and gaming skill, she might cut corners a little, but what I saw on screen was incredibly thorough.
As a streamer, she managed everything meticulously—from her broadcasts to her makeup, her self-care, even her NewTube channel. I couldn't help but think she was impressive.
When she'd come over in person to help with my stream setup, I'd thought she was a sharp, put-together girl. But Sua was so knowledgeable that I found myself realizing all over again just how much thought she put into things.
And maybe because she was so articulate when explaining things to me and the viewers, the more we talked, the more clearly her words landed, as if she were whispering right into my ear.
It felt like receiving professional instruction from a famous star lecturer.
[Watching this stream and thinking about becoming an editor lololol]
[Wow... big-name NewTubers really are different]
[There's a reason big names are big names]
[I thought Plea only played Another World lolol]
[Why does Plea look so different today fr]
[If there are editors watching, Plea's stream today is a goldmine]
[Plea is seriously dedicated to Another World, you can really see how smart she is]
[True, even when other streamers try to latch on, Plea always draws the line clearly]
—Do you have any other questions, Rin?
"...No. I think you've covered everything. Thank you so much. Plea, if there's ever anything I can help you with, please don't hesitate to ask. I'll do my best to help too."
So I felt like I wanted to do something for Sua as well. When I thought about it, today had just been Sua readily agreeing to my sudden request.
Whether as a streamer or a NewTuber, Sua had things worth learning from in every respect. My current relationships were so lacking—no, there wasn't even anything worth calling a relationship—so I felt incredibly fortunate that Sua seemed to like me.
Human relationships are ultimately a continuous process of giving to each other. I couldn't just keep receiving.
—Oh! Rin!? Did you just promise that? You can't take it back later and say you never said it, okay?
"Yes. Don't worry. And with 20,000 viewers watching right now, would I say something I don't mean?"
—Wow!! Plea-lings, I just scored big. Rin says she'll do anything I ask!
Sua beamed brightly on screen. Watching her, Serin found herself smiling without realizing it.
"Well then, Plea? I'll go check the editor-related emails now. And to the viewers too... you all probably came to watch Plea, so I feel a little bad that my collab took up your time... I'm sorry. Next time I'll let Plea know sooner so this doesn't happen so suddenly."
I figured I should leave more room in my schedule going forward, and that I should be a bit more careful about asking Sua for things.
I'd asked for help because it was urgent, but the more I got to know Sua, the more I realized she wasn't the kind of person to treat carelessly.
—Oh, come on, Rin, you're too humble. More people watched my stream today than usual, you know? I'm sure plenty of them came to my stream just to hear your voice.
[I came to hear Rin's voice lolol]
[Ah lolol busted]
[Why does Plea feel so fake today, she's not normally this sweet]
[Fr, this feels really different from the collabs I usually watch?]
[But Plea like this is really nice to watch lololol]
[I think she's just being nice because it's Rin? Plea's favoritism toward Rin lately is honestly obvious]
[Ah lolol here we go again]
[What do you mean favoritism lololol]
[What's this, what's this?]
[Watching Plea talk, doesn't it seem like she'd be great at educational content?]
[Didn't you see Plea's Another World educational stream? lolol]
When I checked the chat, there were all sorts of messages, but I just typed out my closing remarks.
"Well then, Plea, I'll be going now. Thank you so much for today."
—Sure, take care!
After that, I completely closed out of Bardcord, the voice chat program.
Click.
At the same time as the disconnect sound, I slowly leaned back.
I closed my eyes for a moment, letting my body sink into the soft backrest of the chair that wrapped around me.
"Hoo."
Like that, I briefly reflected on the day.
Waking up, washing up, checking the community while preparing for stream, then after my personal stream ended, eating dinner, and then collabing with Sua again.
A schedule that continued almost without rest.
And now that it was over.
There was still one thing left on the schedule.
Checking the emails that had come to the business email address listed on my channel.
I vaguely figured there were probably quite a few emails.
Sua's words calling me humble suddenly came to mind, but I had a rough sense of where I stood now.
The goose that lays golden eggs.
No, maybe that sounded a bit odd, but I was exactly like that goose right now.
I already knew from watching the community and NewTube over the past few days that topics related to me had been boiling over from the community to NewTube day after day.
So I didn't have the slightest thought that the channel I was about to start would fail or flop.
And that would soon mean big money.
Even without the 2.7 billion won sleeping in my bank account, it was easy to guess that I'd be able to earn enough to live quite comfortably from now on.
"When money's involved, people get more serious than about anything else..."
So it was obvious that plenty of people would have applied to be editors.
Tap tap tap.
An email address made directly from my tweetie ID and nickname.
I logged in and checked how many emails had arrived.
—Inbox 412.
"Ha."
The moment I saw the number 412, a hollow laugh escaped me.
I wondered when I'd ever get through that many emails, but then a thought struck me.
"Those... can't all be editor applications."
I'd clearly written that it was a business email on the channel, but I figured there would definitely be people trying to troll me.
I skimmed the email subjects.
Sure enough, there they were.
—Rin, I love you!!!!
—Editor application portfolio.
—Rin, can't you turn on your cam? Or if not, could you at least send a photo to this email address...
—I became a real fan after watching your NewTube videos, so...
—This is an editor application email. What style do you like...
—This is an editor application email! It's my first time but I'm confident I can do well...
—I'm streamer xxx. I'm really sorry to ask, but regarding a collab...
Among the NewTube editor application emails, there were plenty of suspicious messages or ones with blatantly weird intentions.
Emails that weren't editor applications and whose subjects alone seemed off—I blocked the senders without even checking the contents.
Click.
Click.
I kept blocking them one by one, but there was truly no end in sight.
When I scrolled down and opened the next page, similar content filled nearly half the screen.
—010xxxxxxx This is my number, please contact me.
—Just hearing Rin's voice, I can tell she's pretty...
—Rin, what color underwear are you wearing today? Please answer...
"...There really are a disgusting number of crazy bastards."
I couldn't help but curse as I kept blocking.
I couldn't avoid looking at the subjects, so I was blocking based on subjects alone, and even those subjects were revolting more often than not.
Then how disgusting must the contents inside actually be?
Since I'd attracted quite a lot of attention in a short time, I'd honestly expected this kind of baiting to some degree.
There are a lot of people in the world, and plenty of trash among them.
Isn't there that famous saying that out of five people, one is trash?
I'd thought that toxic people or obvious weirdos would latch on, but actually facing it was worse than I'd expected.
There were even worse emails that were too vile to put into words, and just seeing them made revulsion surge up.
While blocking them, one of the warnings Sua had given me a few days ago while helping with my stream setup suddenly came to mind.
—There are people who send weird photos or try to approach you through email, so be careful, and make sure to block anyone who sends emails like that!
Thinking of that naturally brought Sua to mind.
"If it's this bad for me without a cam, then Sua, who does cam streams, must..."
Even among the tweetie streamers I'd seen, Sua's looks stood out clearly.
Just looking at Sua on screen today, she was pretty enough to feel comparable to the celebrities I often saw on websites.
I'd heard she'd been active as a streamer for several years already, which meant a girl barely in her early twenties had gone through all of that. And on top of it, she was now streaming without batting an eye and even running a NewTube channel.
I kept blocking as I registered that fact.
I didn't have much time to sit around admiring Sua.
Click.
Click.
After about 30 minutes of blocking everything that needed blocking among the 412 emails, I saw the number of emails I'd set aside.
—Inbox 165.
Serin stared blankly at it and lightly swept back her silver hair.
That was the number of editor application emails she needed to check.
Serin fiddled with her silver hair for a moment, then muttered weakly.
"Will I be able to sleep tonight...?"