Nightfall - First Stream (1)
"Hiii chat! Hello everyone, I'm Streamer Winter!"
The moment the countdown ended and the stream went live, Gyeoul broke into a bright, sparkling smile and struck a cute little pose. It was the kind of flirty aegyo she'd never once shown her family — or her older brother Yujin — the sort of act you'd pull on a boyfriend.
And the instant she did, the viewer count climbed fast, comments popping into chat one after another.
Barely a minute into the stream and the viewer count was already closing in on eight hundred, with more than fifty comments flying by. Less than I was hoping for, but still pretty solid.
Considering she'd been buried under finals prep and running errands for her professor to lock down a scholarship — and that this was basically her first stream in a week — a crowd this size was nothing to sneeze at. Sure, deep down she'd wanted to clear a thousand viewers without breaking a sweat, but that was pure greed given the circumstances.
So this is roughly how internet streaming works, huh.
Meanwhile, reading through the chat comments scrolling past at speed, Yujin was starting to get a feel for the kind of people filtering into the room. Looks like most of them got reeled in by Gyeoul's face.
She was his little sister, sure, but objectively speaking Gyeoul had the kind of looks that could pass for a beauty just about anywhere. Pair that with her playing a game known to be pretty hardcore while showing off serious physical skill, and of course viewers would find her more than a little appealing.
Yujin was still looking around with open curiosity when a bright chime rang out and a massive voice donation message boomed through the room.
"Thank you so much for the 1,000-won donation, IfYouBroughtAGuestIntroduceThem! And the gentleman standing next to me is not my boyfriend. Absolutely, positively not my boyfriend!"
As Gyeoul waved her hands frantically in denial, chat started looking like it was about to catch fire. But for her, that was half the point. Stirring up the viewers like this was the perfect natural way to introduce today's guest — her older brother — and pull every eye onto him.
"I'm serious, everyone! Even if we were the last two people left on Earth, this man could never be my boyfriend!"
"Absolutely not! Because… this is my actual blood-related older brother. We're family-registry mates!"
"Hello. I'm Streamer Winter's older brother. I'll be appearing as a guest on her stream today. Looking forward to hanging out with you all."
Yujin dipped his head in a polite bow toward the viewers, and chat absolutely exploded.
The second it came out that Yujin was Gyeoul's real older brother, the chat that had been one spark away from an inferno went dead quiet. Of course it did. The people watching Winter's stream right now were, in their own way, her most devoted fans. There was no way those people would get upset over her actual brother making a surprise guest appearance.
Having introduced Yujin without any real pushback, exactly as planned, Gyeoul decided it was time to drop bomb number two.
"Oh, and there's something I need to tell you all up front — today's guest, my oppa here, has never played a single virtual reality game in his entire life!"
At Gyeoul's bombshell confession, chat was instantly wallpapered in a flood of question marks.
Five years ago, virtual reality technology had gone mainstream, and ever since then VR had become something modern people simply could not live without. Workplaces and universities had adopted it ages ago — there was even a running joke that office workers took their vacations inside VR games. What more needed to be said?
"Honestly I can barely believe it myself, but it's true. Who knew a living national treasure like this still existed in this day and age? Oppa!"
Gyeoul jabbed a finger into Yujin's shoulder, and he gave a small nod.
"Virtual reality connect."
The moment the words left Yujin's mouth, a message window materialized in front of everyone.
This user has no prior history of connecting to VR games.
Would you like to create an ID?
"See? I don't know how to lie."
Gyeoul shrugged as she said it, and the viewers' eyes went wide as saucers.
The viewers were far more hyped than she'd expected, and Gyeoul's smile took on a faintly wicked edge as she continued.
"My oppa here has never connected to a single VR game in his entire life. Aren't you all just dying to see what content we've got planned with a guy like that? Heheh."
"Run? Absolutely not! Because the game oppa and I are playing today is none other than Nightfall!"
Nightfall.
Powell Software's newest title — a game where you play as a hunter stalking the beasts that roam the city of Arkham. Unlike other studios that at least pretended to care about accessibility, Powell Software did not give a single thought to beginners.
We just make the games. Whether you can beat them or not is none of our concern. Can't clear it? Refund it or don't — your problem.
That was the philosophy behind every Powell Software release: brutally unforgiving difficulty that showed newcomers zero mercy, paired with gameplay so addictive it hooked every player who stuck it out. Their latest, Nightfall, was no exception. In other words, it demanded extreme physical skill and split-second decision-making from anyone who picked it up. There were already countless people who couldn't even finish the tutorial properly, let alone actually play the game, and ended up refunding it through gritted teeth and tears.
And she was going to make her older brother — a man who had never once touched a VR game in his life — play that?
Today's stream was going to be packed with all-time legendary moments. Of course, what that really meant was that the viewers watching were about to have their stomachs turned inside out.
Well… it's not like there's zero chance oppa pulls off something unexpected on stream today.
After all, Yujin had been claiming he'd spent the last five years working as something like a secret agent. But even if he somehow tapped into that old field experience and showed off surprisingly solid mechanics, it wouldn't matter. She'd just shrug and say the stream concept was always supposed to go that way from the start.
Having finished running the numbers in her head, Gyeoul gave a satisfied little nod. Yujin, for his part, stared blankly at the chat for a moment before quietly opening his mouth.
"Hmm… I don't really know much about this stuff, but is Nightfall actually that hard of a game?"
Even as the viewers started chiming in one after another to talk him out of it, Yujin's mouth only curved up with genuine interest.
"That actually sounds fun."
"Hearing it's that hard just makes me more interested. Honestly I didn't care about Nightfall at all until now, but suddenly I really want to play it."
Two months since returning to Earth. For all that time, the only things living in Yujin's eyes had been boredom and restlessness — and now those same eyes were sparkling with real curiosity. Along with a faint flicker of anticipation: was this a game even he, a man once called a hero in another world, a man who had cut down countless demons, might not be able to beat?