71. I Didn't Ask for It This Time
71. I Didn't Ask for It This Time
***
As she clicked "Write Post" on the community site and began typing about why her stream had ended and how she'd been suspended for not enabling the 19+ setting, Serin couldn't help wondering if this was the right move.
'But there's nowhere else I can really post about it.'
The site she was writing on was called Another Level. Its main user base was veteran players, but it was also a site many other Another World users visited.
And of all the Another World communities I knew, it was the one where people talked about me the most.
Proof of that was the fact that even now, several of the trending posts on Another Level were about me.
So she was writing a post on that site explaining why she'd been suspended, but the whole time she kept thinking, is this really the right place to post this?
But as far as I knew, there was no other way to let people know why I'd been suspended and why the stream had ended.
She couldn't even contact Sua right now, the person she relied on most when it came to tweetie.
"So during the suspension period, I can't appear on another streamer's broadcast..."
She couldn't reach out to Sua right away because of tweetie's suspension rules.
After looking through tweetie's regulations, she found that a streamer suspended for any reason could not appear on any other streamer's broadcast during the suspension period.
If a suspended streamer was exposed on another streamer's broadcast through deliberate contact during the suspension period, that in itself would be grounds for additional disciplinary action.
So even if she did contact her, she'd have to wait until after Sua's stream ended—meaning she'd have to call sometime past midnight at the earliest, and by then it would be too late.
While she was waffling like that and typing "This is streamer Rin..." into the community post, her phone suddenly rang.
The default ringtone, and a name displayed on the smartphone screen.
—Yoon Sua.
"...This time I didn't ask her to."
I muttered that, but I was glad to hear from Sua. At the same time, though, I felt cautious.
***
Rin's stream had suddenly ended.
With no warning or sign, right when she'd started fighting the Outlaw, the stream had cut off.
At first, viewers waited, figuring she'd turn the stream back on.
But minutes passed, then tens of minutes, and the stream never came back.
When even the chat window went gray as the stream shut off, the nearly 20,000 viewers who could no longer type in chat eventually tried to resolve their curiosity through other streamers or communities.
......
[Anyone know why Rin ended her stream?]
[??]
[Why would you look for that here]
[No, it ended so suddenly, that's why this stream's viewer count went up]
[I was watching Rin too and the stream suddenly cut off, so I came here]
[Go look somewhere else, you're being a nuisance]
[fr this is so annoying]
—...Um, viewers? I don't know anything about Rin's stream ending either. I'm sorry, but could you please focus on me?
Some streamers were flustered by the unexpected influx of viewers.
......
[Rin's stream ended so weirdly]
[fr and she hasn't gone live since]
[Plea, do you know anything?]
[???]
[Why would you look for that here]
[Plea's pretty close with Rin, isn't she]
[Maybe something happened while she was streaming?]
[I was enjoying the arena and suddenly what is this]
[Why is the chat like this fr]
[No, this is Plea's stream]
The viewer count suddenly swelled and the chat scrolled up at a steep pace.
Even as the stream's atmosphere was muddied by it, there were streamers who instead took an interest in Rin.
"Rin's stream ending... was weird?"
As the chat suddenly became flooded with talk about Rin and the situation turned strange, Sua found herself more curious about how a stream ending could cause this much chaos in her chat than inclined to stop it.
—Ding!
So she declined the ranked queue that had just popped. She stopped matchmaking entirely and tried to figure out what was going on.
"How on earth did she end her stream... Everyone, slow down with the chat a little."
The chat was moving so fast she couldn't keep up even when she tried to read it.
[yeah]
[The stream ended really weirdly]
[Just watch the VOD once]
[No lolol]
[Right, even watching the VOD it's seriously weird]
[Didn't Plea hate it when people mentioned other streamers?]
[Doesn't that just mean she's close with Rin?]
[No, no matter how close you are, coming into someone else's stream and spamming chat to stir things up is too much]
[First time I've ever seen Plea decline a ranked queue;]
[fr this really does feel like stirring shit up]
"Everyone, stop. The chat's getting way too heated right now. I'll check the VOD first. It's not like Rin and I aren't close. But if I check and it turns out to be nothing, and you all spammed chat like this—be ready to get banned, okay?"
Even as she struggled to read the chat, Sua's curiosity kept growing.
Actually, today she'd only watched Serin's stream up through the second segment where she picked editors. Starting from the third segment, the Another World part, their stream times overlapped, so she hadn't been able to watch the rest of Serin's stream.
'Could something have happened in that window?'
So how had Serin ended her stream that her viewers would come all the way to my stream and spam chat like this?
She immediately manipulated the hologram and opened the tweetie site.
Tap tap tap.
She connected to tweetie, searched for Rin in the search bar, entered the broadcast channel at the top, then clicked the videos tab to check the recent broadcast.
She clicked a random point in the latter half of the timeline, and whether by coincidence or not, it started from the moment a golden burst erupted and Serin held up a ring.
That golden light was something Sua had experienced before.
It was the flashy effect that only appeared when you acquired a treasure.
At the scene where Serin held up the radiant red ring and coyly asked, "Everyone, is this a good item?" Sua just let out a dumbfounded laugh.
Since it was near the end, she watched the video without skipping or fast-forwarding.
The video continued playing.
Serin was suddenly ambushed by what looked like an Outlaw archer, and the way she reacted purely on instinct made Sua dumbfounded all over again.
The actions and movements that followed.
Even every little thing about the way she spoke seemed pretty.
And even in actions she couldn't tell were intentional or not, there was a subtly different charm.
What showed on screen was obviously a character, but the fact that the appearance was identical to Serin's real-life looks was fascinating.
It felt similar to how the incredibly famous pro gamer Jeanne d'Arc used a character customization matching her real appearance.
'Come to think of it, I wonder if her skill is similar too...?'
Watching the video, Sua couldn't help but admire her, thinking a person could really be this pretty.
While checking the video, she spoke without thinking.
"Viewers, isn't Rin seriously pretty even on a rewatch?"
[lolol no what's with Plea's face]
[Even on rewatch she's insane fr]
[The Dwarf's Ring actually dropped?? lololol]
[lol I thought Plea was the only streamer who'd actually gotten it after trying]
[Rin got it in less than an hour too]
[No, she wasn't even trying lol She was like "should we go somewhere?" took a vote, went, hunted, and got it lololol]
[No, her asking "is it good?" is so infuriating lololol]
[fr she's so pretty]
[Rin is such a fox...]
[That coy way of talking and her expressions, total fox]
[We agreed to call that feminine charm]
[lolololol]
Sua already knew about Rin getting the Dwarf's Ring because the chat had been in an uproar over it. And rather than feeling envious, she'd just thought, 'Serin is someone who was meant to make it.'
Treasure items weren't something you could just easily get.
Sua knew because she'd once spent about five months straight hunting nothing but dwarves in the Dwarf's Cave.
Grinding for a treasure was truly, genuinely garbage.
At least she'd gotten a treasure herself, so she was lucky—most people gave up without ever getting one in reality.
So how had the stream ended at the end of the video? As the video timeline gradually approached the end, that was the only question on her mind.
There was no way some Outlaw could land a hit on Serin.
It probably just ended anticlimactically.
"Huh?"
The moment Serin thrust her Crescent-Moon Weight through the white smoke.
The video suddenly cut off.
The stream had ended with truly no warning at all.
Seeing that, it clearly wasn't an intentional stream ending.
'It's definitely weird...'
If she'd turned the stream back on afterward, there wouldn't have been any problem.
But...
"After that... don't tell me Rin didn't go live again?"
She asked, half in disbelief.
[She didn't]
[No word at all yeah]
[Nothing on the channel feed or anywhere]
[Couldn't it be a power outage?]
[lolol what era do you think this is, a power outage lolol]
[In the first place, Another World capsules have their own backup power so they don't just cut off instantly. PCs all have built-in support these days too, since losing connection mid-ranked is a huge loss]
[And Rin always says she's ending the stream every time she ends. She's never just cut off like this]
[The key thing is her saying in that wistful voice "I'll end the stream here today" fr]
[No, Rin's still a newbie, so couldn't she have just ended it?]
[There are plenty of newbie streamers who just do things recklessly yeah]
[Rin's the type who prepares a ton, what are you talking about]
[fr that's what people who don't watch Rin's stream say]
[She prepared a ton for picking editors today too. She doesn't end streams carelessly or disappear without a word]
The more she read the chat, the more Sua felt that Serin's viewer base was really solid.
Chats you'd expect from devoted fans. Even at a glance, the proportion of chats with that nuance was very high.
And the stream ending was definitely weird... but Sua felt the situation was a bit off.
A stream cutting off all at once like that was really rare.
'Ending like that only really happens when you get suspended, doesn't it?'
But in the broadcast she'd just checked, there was no reason for a suspension, nor any sign that Serin's past behavior had violated the guidelines.
"Viewers, give me a moment. I'll try calling Rin."
......
'Right... just in case.'
What if an actual robber or intruder had broken in, or some genuinely dangerous situation like that?
It was an absurd probability, but she needed to check on Serin's condition first.
So Sua exited Another World, returned to reality, sat up in the capsule, and before anything else moved the mouse to adjust the stream settings.
Just in case. She made sure to mute the stream mic and picked up her phone.
She called Serin using the contact info they'd exchanged a few days ago while helping with her stream setup.
The utterly boring default ringtone rang for only a moment.
Click.
—Hello?
Serin's soft voice came through.
"Ah, Serin, it's me, Sua."
—Yeah. Sua, are you streaming right now?
She was a little taken aback that Serin asked if she was streaming the moment she picked up.
Of course she was streaming at this hour, but she wondered why Serin was asking.
"I am streaming right now, but I've muted the mic so the call can't be heard."
—Ah. Really? That's a relief. So, Sua, why the sudden call?
Hearing her speak so nonchalantly, Sua figured there was no immediate problem, but she also wondered what was up with this woman.
'There doesn't seem to be any immediate problem...'
Then why hadn't she turned the stream back on?
"It's not for any other reason... it's about your stream today. You suddenly ended it, right? I was wondering what happened."
—Ah. I got suspended from tweetie.
She said something so bizarre in the same casual tone as "I went outside to eat," and for a moment Sua couldn't process it.
She blinked blankly, then asked again.
"...Suspended?"