83. Ideal Type World Cup?
83. Ideal Type World Cup?
***
A streamer who is called a "true streamer" even among streamers.
—Plea.
She was a streamer so popular that she was often voted "the number one streamer people want to collaborate with" among other streamers.
She also had the nickname "crazy bitch," but strictly speaking, she was so impeccably clean in her dealings with people that she had never once been involved in a private controversy.
And over her three years as a streamer, Plea had never once had a failed collaboration stream. She had chemistry with nearly everyone she collaborated with. So it was perhaps inevitable that Plea became known for having a good personality.
The "crazy bitch" nickname was actually given to her because she was crazy about Another World.
Aside from that, the Plea people saw on the surface was utterly normal, and she didn't even have a single past incident that could be considered problematic.
On top of that, she was famous for her diligence, streaming almost every single day regardless of whether it was a weekday or weekend.
Through three years of consistently streaming, combined with looks that shone no matter who saw them and a clean personality with no fallout, she had earned great renown.
So while some people described Plea as a streamer who blew up overnight, others said there was no streamer as consistent as Plea.
Given the nature of the streamer profession, no matter how clean a person is, they usually have at least one or two major incidents or scandals in their past—but Plea had always been consistently spotless.
With her outstanding gaming skills, a soft voice that never once uttered a curse, and looks that rivaled a celebrity's, her fanbase naturally grew steadily.
Even her streaming style hadn't changed much, but viewers actually liked that consistency. A sunflower-like devotion to Another World that never strayed from the dominant game. The way she turned on her stream and only did Another World content and personal talk shows, with absolutely no sign of a private love life, felt almost tailor-made to the needs of men who loved gaming.
On top of that, she had very rarely collaborated with other streamers, and she had never once met anyone in real life for a collaboration. She was also famous for keeping a strict distance from male streamers.
Plea accurately understood "viewer needs," and she lived in a way that deliberately avoided giving any room for controversy in the first place.
And because of that, "Rin" was a streamer shrouded in great mystery even among streamers.
Not only had she become a huge topic in a short time, she even had a connection to Plea—a streamer who didn't collaborate often and wasn't easy to arrange a collab with.
Virtually every streamer knew that Plea had collaborated with Rin and hosted her stream on Rin's very first broadcast.
***
7 p.m.
When the time came, Sua turned on her stream as always.
"Hello~ Plea-lings! It's the Thursday, August 5th stream, starting now!!"
Since she didn't turn on her cam today, she started the stream with more energy in her voice than usual.
But then, conscious of the fact that someone was watching from beside her, she felt awkward even though she was putting on an energetic act.
[Plea ha]
[No cam?]
[P h]
[Ah why no cam]
[What do you mean short collab with Rin?]
[What's this all of a sudden fr]
[Rin? Isn't she suspended?]
[On the community, Rin's two-day suspension ends exactly right before Plea's stream starts]
[So there's no problem]
[It's been a while since a no-cam stream]
The chat was as lively as ever.
It seemed most viewers already knew about the collaboration with Serin from the cafe announcement.
"Ah, and I'm sorry but today, please watch through gifs instead of a cam! Due to circumstances, I can't turn on the cam!"
Since she had no intention of turning on the cam today, she replaced the background with gif files. There were hundreds of different gifs, so it was somewhat fun to put them up on screen.
She'd wondered when viewers had made these, but she'd saved the files because they were useful for times when she couldn't turn on the cam.
[Wtf who made these?]
[Every single gif is different lololol]
[Lolololol no seriously there are all kinds of gifs]
[Are you with Rin right now?]
[If Rin's there say something]
[Fr I watched her and now that I can't see her it feels empty]
[Real-life collab??]
"Ah, today is a real-life collab with Rin. It's a shame about the cam, but I think we'll be going no-cam. Rin is really, really pretty, so the moment I turn on the cam it'll be a problem. And having a collab guest here beside me like this is kind of new for me too. You Plea-lings know I've never done a real-life collab before, right?"
She dragged out her words, waiting for time to pass.
Serin's two-day suspension ended today.
Checking the time, it was until exactly 7 p.m., so I deliberately stalled until 7:05.
These things had to be clearly separated for both our sakes.
Once I was certain there was no problem, I turned my head and looked at Serin instead of the cam.
At my gaze, Serin silently mouthed, "Now?"
Maybe even the smallest things had appearance buffs, because that in itself looked cute again.
I nodded slightly and silently conveyed, "Now."
"Ah. Ahh, can you hear my voice okay?"
Serin leaned closer to the mic as if testing it, and hearing her voice through my stream mic felt strangely novel.
A pleasant resonance,
a voice that was neither too high nor too low—if there was such a thing as a simply pleasant, beautiful voice, this felt like it.
Like déjà vu, I felt as though I'd seen a scene just like this on Serin's stream a few days ago.
[Oh, what's this?]
[Rin??]
[Hearing her through Plea's mic makes her voice sound different again?]
[Fr I think I get what people mean when they say she sounds pretty just from her voice]
[What is this, a thousand voices? lololol how is it all different]
[Ah, can't you turn on the cam? I'm curious about Rin's real face too]
[Lolololol we already see her plenty without the cam, why turn it on]
[But who's going to tell a collab guest they're ugly lol]
"I don't know if the viewers will like this unexpected collab."
Serin spoke cautiously while watching my reaction, and it felt different from how she was during her own streams.
She'd seemed to barely react even when receiving huge donations, but now she was being so careful.
So I chimed in with a word.
"Actually, I've been streaming without a break lately, so I was going to take today off, but Rin thought about the viewers and told me to turn on the stream, so that's why we're on. So Plea-lings, hurry up and thank Rin, all of you!"
[Forced gratitude lololololol]
[There's a streamer who forces gratitude?]
[I did think it was about time for her to take a break]
[What even is Rin lololol]
[Wasn't it a thing that once Plea says she's taking a break, she won't stream no matter what?]
[It's famous that she gritted her teeth and took the next day off even when a ten-million-won donation dropped lolololol]
[Camcamcamcamcam!!!!]
[Even a half cam, I just want to see her for a second]
[Fr I'm so curious about Rin's real face]
[Isn't it rare to even find someone with a voice like Rin's?]
[How did the two of them get close? Seems like they collab a lot lately]
All kinds of chat messages came up, but they generally looked fine without any major problems.
The viewer count also started rising quickly as usual, reaching five thousand within ten minutes of starting the stream.
"Ah, and honestly, since this is an unscheduled collab, the content we prepared isn't that big."
I kept talking, slowly laying the groundwork.
Because honestly, for a truly sudden collab, there wasn't any separately prepared content.
So even when Serin suggested doing a short collab, I'd wondered what topic we should use.
Thinking really simply, what came to mind was "Another World."
And after agonizing and agonizing, what came to mind was again only Another World.
'But in real life, that's a bit much.'
During a previous personal stream, I'd once spent about four hours chatting about Another World, and watching the VOD afterward made it seem like a bad idea to repeat that.
Really, chatting about games in real life was just. It looked kind of lame.
I knew how lame that could look, so dragging Serin into another Another World-focused collab didn't feel right either.
So what I prepared was an "Ideal Type World Cup."
But now, again... an Ideal Type World Cup with Another World mixed in.
"Behold! The Another World Ideal Type World Cup!"
I deliberately raised my energy and announced it, but—
Seeing Serin staring blankly at me from beside me like she was looking at an animal in a zoo, I found myself resenting her after I said it.
'Isn't this the kind of thing you're supposed to play along with on your own?'
So I glared at her.
—Serin, hurry up and follow along too.
When I silently mouthed that, Serin reluctantly opened her mouth.
"...Another World Ideal Type World Cup."
Serin said it as if she were reading from a Korean textbook, and I let out a disbelieving laugh.
[No is this for real?]
[This is seriously the content?]
[You invited Rin and this is really the collab lolololol?]
[As expected of Plea lolololol seriously]
[Rin following along half a beat late is so annoying lololololol]
[Fr what even is Rin lololololololol]
[Lololol no what kind of chemistry is this]
"Ah, seriously, I don't know either. The collab schedule with Rin came together all of a sudden, so I don't know what to do... And taking questions or something seems like there'd be too many toxic viewers. But still, normally I'd be on a break instead of streaming! So today, Plea-lings, just roll with it. Got it?"
[Just roll with it]
[Fr, just roll with it...]
[Just]
[Roll]
[With]
[It]
[Then]
[So what kind of ideal type world cup is it?]
[Another World has all kinds of categories]
"Mm. First, starting with weapon types, there are all kinds of things like character-related stuff or main quest NPCs, right? If you pick what you like from those, wouldn't it be kind of fun..."
Honestly, even as I said it, I wasn't sure.
"...Are we really doing that?"
On top of that, Serin asked with a small laugh, which only made me more embarrassed.
"Rin, are you feeding me to the wolves right now!?"
"No, I mean... if it's an ideal type world cup, isn't what viewers usually want something like picking your ideal type among male streamers?"
Serin casually dropped a bombshell, and hearing it, my head spun before I knew it.
[Fr lol]
[Rin with no brakes, what is this lololol]
[If it's an ideal type world cup, fr you should reveal your ideal type among guys or say which celebrity is your type lololol]
[Agreed agreed who does an Another World ideal type world cup lololololol]
[Rin! Rin! Rin! Rin! Rin! Rin!]
[Now that I think about it, Plea never reveals her ideal type even if it kills her]
[It's about time she did lolololololol]
[Rin really knows how to stream lolololololol]
The chat reaction was blazing hot and fantastic, but I cut to the chase and turned off the mic.
"...Serin."
"Yeah?"
"No, how can you say something like that on a female streamer's broadcast!"
"Uh... isn't it an ideal type thing anyway? Is that really a big problem?"
'Ah.'
Seriously, she really doesn't know anything.
"Serin, you might not know this, but... I'm the number one ideal type among streamers."
"Huh? Well. Isn't that a good thing?"
"No... if I pick just anyone as my ideal type, I'll get caught up in rumors for no reason, okay!?"