Rookie Streamer

A space that had to be at least fifty pyeong welcomed me, its floor tiled with precisely cut, interlocking stone.

“So this is the Tower.”

The interior was far cleaner than anything I’d imagined. I was gawking around like a caveman who’d just discovered fire when it hit me.

“Oh, right. The stream.”

There was just one problem. I had no way to hide my face on camera. If I showed this bare face of mine… getting plastered all over the community boards would be the least of it.

“Guess I’ve got no choice….”

I jammed on the black mask and baseball cap I’d worn to the Hunter Association, then hit the Go Live button.

“Did it work…?”

I’d only ever appeared on streams that were already running. Starting one myself was a first. Honestly, I still wasn’t sure it had even turned on properly. I stared blankly at the community ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠window until the viewer count that had been sitting at zero flipped to one.

A chat popped up out of nowhere asking if I was a newbie. Well, I was a newbie… so I figured I should answer as kindly as that woman Hunter I’d watched yesterday.

“Y-yes. Just became a Hunter yesterday. I’m Eastern Gunslinger.”

“Mine’s a handgun.”

I held the Avid up to the camera. A pistol that looked cool no matter who was looking. It wasn’t exactly what I’d ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wanted, but a gun was a gun.

There it was. The exact same situation as last night, when I’d been the one yelling at someone to start the clear. There was just one tiny problem.

“About that ‘clear’… how do you do it? Do I just walk forward?”

It stung, but this was the moment to play nice.

“Ahaha! Yeah, me and studying are mortal enemies.”

Oh. A little rough around the edges, maybe, but helping out a total rookie like this…!

“Aigoo, hyung-nim! Thank you! Starting the clear right now!”

Ready to shoot at a moment’s notice, I took a light breath and called out in a low voice.

“I’m starting the clear.”

The Tower began to shake hard. A moment later, the mission appeared in the community window.

Kyaek?

A single goblin appeared out of thin air. So it was a simple mission—just take down one goblin. Its appearance was identical to the ones I’d seen in webtoons. People said monster faces were ugly, but this was taking it too far. The unknown green drool trailing from its mouth was enough to turn my stomach.

I leveled my Avid at the goblin and fired.

Bang—!

A short, sharp recoil, and a blue bullet trail glowing with mana. My round punched clean through the goblin’s skull. It crumpled where it stood, sticky red blood seeping along the cracks in the floor from the ruin of its head.

Kieeek….

With a rather pitiful sound, the goblin’s strength left it for good. The instant it died, system messages bloomed before my eyes.

“Whoa….”

I wasn’t the only one stunned.

“Haha….”

“Is a perfect score that big a deal?”

It didn’t feel especially impressive to me. A goblin was a weakling any healthy adult could put down without breaking a sweat.

Apparently Tower clear scores used a point-deduction system. And because I’d lit the goblin up the instant it appeared, nothing had been docked from mine.

You could stream outside the Tower too, but my genre was Tower-clear streaming and nothing else. I had zero interest in sharing my private life.

“That’s it for the stream. Thanks for watching!”

The second that chat went up, a jingling sound effect chimed in.

“Aigoo, hyung-nim! A hundred thousand Coin…! Thank you so much!”

I dropped flat on the floor in a full bow.

“Ending the stream! See you again next week!”

The moment I hit End Stream, my vision blacked out the same way it had when I first entered the Tower.

Before I knew it, I was opening my eyes in Eun Hayoon’s room—the same place I’d started from. And the first thing that filled my field of view was Hayoon herself, sitting on top of me.

If she’d just been sitting there, fine. The problem was that she’d buried her face in my chest like a lead weight.

“What… are you doing up there?”

I’d left from the bed to clear the Tower, but somehow I’d ended up lying on it. And in that state, Hayoon was leaning over me from above.

“Oh… you’re up? That was really fast.”

Flushing red, she scrambled off me at once.

“Hayoon? I think you owe me an explanation.”

She babbled so hard it was tough to follow, but the summary went like this. My body, which she’d thought had vanished, had reappeared almost immediately. She’d hauled me off the floor onto the bed, then leaned in to check if I was still breathing—whether I was dead or not.

It was a reason I could accept. A friend vanishing and then reappearing only to collapse on the spot—an E-Rank Hunter friend, at that—would worry anyone. I never would have done it myself, but this was Eun Hayoon. The kind of friend who could be prickly as anything and still worry about you more than anyone else when it counted.

“S-so how was the Tower? You didn’t get wrecked and crawl back, right?”

Ha! E-Rank or not, was she seriously underestimating me that hard? Looking at Hayoon, whose head was clearly full of ways to tease me, I just smiled.

“What do you take me for? One-shot clear, new record and everything. Even got my first donation of my life!”

“Honestly, I don’t buy it. Got anything to show for it?”

Something to show, huh… Figured there’d be something on the community boards, so I opened them up. Sure enough—nothing but posts about me.

“See? Told you it was true.”

I pointed at the community window, and Hayoon scooted right up against my side.

“Oh. It’s real. But what’s with ‘Eastern Gunslinger’?”

“It’s accurate. Eastern Gunslinger.”

“Your naming sense sucks.”

“Excuse me?!”

While we were bickering, another post went up—and hit featured status the second it did.

This was a community where dozens of posts went up every minute. Hitting featured status there meant…

Views: 35,194

“Th-thirty thousand…!”

It meant a post that basically everyone clicked at least once. Comments stacking in real time, the view count climbing in real time. Hayoon’s mouth was hanging open so wide I had to wonder how hard this was for her to believe.

“Hey, you’re gonna catch flies.”

“We don’t have flies in this house.”

“It’s a figure of speech.”

Business finished, I stood up.

“See? Believe me now? I should get goi—”

Thud—

The pain only lasted a second. Hayoon had shoved me back down onto the bed, then clamped both hands tight around my wrists.

“Nobody’s coming into my house today.”

Her silver hair brushed my cheek, but I was too stunned to feel the tickle.

“…What does that have to do with this? You scared and want me to stay with you?”

“No.”

“Then why are you doing this? At least give me a reason.”

“That… I can’t say.”

I was going to lose my mind. What was with her today? Thinking back on it, nothing about Hayoon had been normal. At this hour she should have been in training. We shouldn’t even have had a chance to run into each other.

And she’s been weirdly physical today too….

One action after another that the usual Hayoon would never take. And what that meant was—

“Are you… getting bullied?”

“…….”

If that was it, her behavior made sense. Bullied and friendless, training would have been pure stress. Social as she normally was, the loneliness under that pressure would have hit hard. If she was trying to fill everything she was missing through me… it all lined up.

“Why so quiet? I’m right, aren’t I?”

“…Idiot.”

With that, Hayoon stared straight through me, her face burning red.

“How are you this dense? Do I seriously have to say it out loud?”

In the suffocating silence, she pushed herself up and finally opened her mouth.