The Broadcast-Crazy Bastard (2)
The live ad for Dungeon Runners this time was a mix of large streamers and public streamers. They matched teams randomly in 2v2 on stream, and obviously if only hakos got paired together the viewership would tank. There were “main guests”—famous streamers the game company had paid big money to bring in. The format was to team those main guests up with one other public streamer each and run the matches. They’d probably cooked up this strategy to chase both the big streamers’ recognition and the hakos’ freshness at the same time.
Anyway, that was exactly the part I’d been aiming for. Getting even a short collab with a large streamer for free was a huge plus, and if I could show something fun there, maybe a few viewers would stick around afterward. But—
I never expected I’d actually end up collabing with a streamer of this caliber. Arine. She started streaming around the same time as me, yet she casually broke into four-digit viewer counts within a year. Now in her third year she’s sitting comfortably between five and seven thousand average viewers, never once dropping out of Naty’s upper ranks—a monster. Looks, singing, dancing, gaming, collabs… her content range was absurdly wide, and because she used to be an idol trainee her singing and dancing were on a level ordinary people couldn’t touch. She was the popular female-cam streamer known as “Naty’s Idol.”
When I glanced at the cam feed of her that appeared on stream, I couldn’t help holding my breath. Silky black hair cascading down, large sparkling eyes, her signature black tank top and thin white cardigan. Beneath that, an enormous chest. Her face looked pure and her figure slender, yet her body was anything but pure. …Guess she really was an idol trainee. She’s insanely pretty. Seriously.
Of course there was cam correction and lighting involved, but even taking that into account, I’d never seen a woman this beautiful in real life. She had the kind of visuals you only see on TV. I was one of those viewers who occasionally tuned into her stream when I was bored or wanted some eye candy.
Viewers losing their minds at the sound of a woman’s voice for the first time in a while. It was annoying, but I probably would’ve reacted the same way if I’d been in the chat, so I let it slide. The truth was, the moment she spoke, the voice coming through my earphones melted my ears. Every single word was so sweet it felt like feathers tickling the inside of my ears.
I swallowed the urge to shout “I’m a fan!” right then and there. That wouldn’t fit the broadcast-crazy concept I showed on stream, and it wouldn’t help the collab either. It would turn the collab into a fan meeting instead of a streamer-to-streamer collab. I pressed down my racing heart and held my breath. Better to pretend I didn’t know her. And while pretending, focus only on drawing out a fun broadcast. That was the right move both as a fan and as a streamer.
Arine’s voice struck my ears again. Only then did I pull my mind back to reality and put on a smooth act like I hadn’t noticed her until now.
“Huh, it’s me? Ah, hello. I’m streamer Do Doyun, broadcasting on Naty!”
My dumb act must have landed, because the viewers just laughed, thinking I’d zoned out. Arine chuckled and replied.
“Ah, no no. I’m not nervous. My hands are just a little sweaty, that’s all. Yeah.”
She let out a soft laugh at my nonsense, sounding genuinely amused. She really was exactly like the image I saw on her stream—her reactions were always bright and pleasant. Just being next to her felt like you’d absorb some of that energy. I could see why her stream was so popular. If a girl this pretty reacted this well to everything I said and laughed at my jokes, who wouldn’t like her?
Anyway, moving on—I started crafting lines to steer the broadcast flow my way. I didn’t need to be intimidated just because she was a popular streamer. She was human, I was human. The only difference was popularity. We were colleagues in the same industry. I spoke in my usual natural streaming style.
“How about you, Arine-nim? Have you played this game before?”
That made sense too. Since it was a new game, first-time reactions were probably important.
“Okay. Sounds good. Then let’s die spectacularly together.”
Arine’s confused reply came back. I’d already played a few rounds. The game files had been sent out before the stream, so I figured it was only polite to try it first. That way I could find fun angles, right?
“I tried the game beforehand. The highlight of this game is when you die. Let’s try to die as entertainingly as possible today.”
Arine’s dumbfounded laugh echoed through the Discord. Hearing it, I thought the start was going pretty well.
Arine couldn’t hold back her laughter as she watched the chat exploding. After all, the streamer she’d been matched with was completely insane. In a 2v2 team match game, some weird streamer who was already looking for ways to die the moment it started. Whether he was running a broadcast-crazy concept or not, the tough-sounding line didn’t match the cute name “Do Doyun.”
“Ah, sorry. My true feelings slipped out without me realizing. The speech bubble changed on its own.”
He smoothly caught her line with that shameless reply. From his quick wit, it was obvious he’d been streaming for quite a while. She’d done a few events collabing with hako streamers before, but most of them couldn’t react this naturally in these situations. They either tried too hard to be funny and overdid it, or got overwhelmed by her popularity and froze up. One or the other.
Do Doyun. She usually checked top-tier streamers for market research, but she’d never heard that name even once. Judging from the fact that he’d been picked through the public streamer recruitment, he probably wasn’t a big name. Yet he had this kind of entertainment sense that could make people laugh on his first try, and he was still a hako. The streaming industry really wasn’t easy.
……Honestly, she hadn’t had high expectations for a new-game announcement ad stream. But this might actually be more fun than she thought? It was hard to pull entertaining moments out of ad streams. You had to find unconditionally positive things to say about the game and play it in the most fun way possible. Plus, it wasn’t even a collab between large streamers—it was random matching. So Arine’s expectations had already been low. She’d been thinking she’d just carry alone and wrap it up quickly, but who would’ve guessed she’d get matched with such a broadcast-savvy and cheerful streamer in a random pairing?
……And on top of that, this guy wasn’t conscious of her at all. Even though he was a guy? She couldn’t tell if he genuinely didn’t know her or was just pretending not to. She knew exactly how much fame the name “Arine” carried. Not to brag, but objectively speaking, her position in this industry was enormous. Not only among viewers, but she also knew she had tons of fans among other streamers. So when she collabed with people who weren’t large streamers, most of them got intimidated. Or they’d gush about being her fan. Especially guys—many of them would freeze up because they were overly conscious of her voice or looks. Most men who met her in real life acted the same way. Maybe it was only natural, considering she was both a popular streamer and famous in person. But her opponent was a hako streamer whose name she’d never even heard before. Despite that, he’d made the viewers laugh with just a few lines from the very start and pulled the flow of the stream toward himself. Like he had zero interest in her and was just focused on doing a good broadcast. That was a little annoying, but at the same time it felt comfortable. So her first impression of him was favorable—that was the most accurate way to put it. She always felt uncomfortable around people who were overly conscious of her or had fantasies about her.
After chatting with Doyun for a bit, the waiting period ended. The screen loaded up and the two of them booted up the game, preparing for their first match.
With the host’s loud shout, the match began. The opposing team was paired with a popular male streamer named Haengbyeongcheol. The two characters dropped from the sky. Dungeon Runners was an arcade competitive game. Simply put, players had to complete missions given on random maps and escape the dungeon by clearing three maps faster than the enemy team to win. And the first map given to Arine and Doyun was called “Two Paths?”
When Arine read it with a puzzled tone, Doyun answered like he already knew. After a rough explanation of the map and looking at the structures, she quickly understood. There were two routes: the right route was safe but took longer. The left route had a high chance of death but was much faster. That was because, unlike the right route, the left route had landmines on the floor. More precisely, explosive magic that looked like landmines.
Arine’s playstyle was the definition of solid—she pursued stability and avoided risks. She was the type who believed the slower path was the fastest. So naturally, her eyes went to the right path.
“Let’s take the right path? If you try to rush these things you’ll just keep dying and end up slower anyway. If we want to win, the longer route is better.”
The chat’s reaction was good too. Just as Arine was about to push forward with her decision, thinking she was right—
“……What? No. Wait a second—”
But Doyun acted like he hadn’t heard her at all and just charged straight into the minefield path by himself. And at full sprint speed, too.
And despite the confident-sounding bluff and the tremendous battle cry, he only took a few steps before—boom. A magic circle beneath the path he was walking on lit up and sent his character flying through the air. To Arine, it looked like slow motion. Then—thud. He fell helplessly to the ground and disappeared in a blur, dead.
A hollow voice followed. The scene was so absurd that Arine burst out laughing.
“Agh! I told you to take the safe path! You don’t listen at all!”
She acted like she was scolding him while playing along with his crazy stunt, and the viewers all started bursting into laughter at the scene. Then Doyun respawned from the air, dropped back at the starting point, and shamelessly said—
At that cheeky line, Arine let out a dumbfounded laugh and thought—
……This guy is kind of funny no matter what, huh?