The Roulette Spins and the Planet Calls
One thing I've been feeling lately with the roulette: “Hasn't the number of regular viewers gone up?” Yeah, the average viewer count seems to have increased a bit lately, right?
To be honest, there had already been a slow, steady climb before. But after the new year, the viewer count took a sharp dive. Probably because everyone vanished chasing their New Year's resolutions or whatever. Still, looking at the current numbers, it seems like most of them have come back.
“Well, I guess it's about time to step things up.”
“What's wrong with 50?” Lately it's been averaging around a fifty-person increase. Maybe a bit more during low-chat periods? Anyway. It doesn't really show during normal times, but when I'm gaming, the viewer count jumps out like crazy. Going from two hundred to two-fifty is literally a 125% increase, isn't it?
“This, this... feels like a big company is right around the corner.”
As expected, humans really are creatures that live off a sense of accomplishment. My tension shot up all on its own.
“I don't think I can stay a small-timer anymore? At this point... sigh, I'd say I'm already a solid mid-tier, right?” Unfortunately, I've grown way too big to remain one of those rare tiny virtual tubers. Oh no. I started this as a hobby broadcast, but what if it turns into an actual job?
“Anyway, it's really nice that the log gentleman crowd has been growing lately. Must be thanks to my excellent skills, right?”
“With that in mind, I'd like to give you all a special event today.”
The moment I said “event,” their interest spiked immediately, even though they were just insulting me a second ago. I grinned at their simple, predictable reactions and brought up the screen.
“Ta-da!”
The whole conversation up until now had been nothing but buildup for this. I'd been struggling to pick a game lately, so I downloaded something from the internet.
[Roulette Wheel]
“I've always been the one unilaterally picking the games, right? Today, I'm giving you all a chance to choose too.”
“Ah, yes.”
I added League to the roulette wheel first. But more importantly, how did they know it was gonna be a cop-out? Ha~ These days their senses just keep getting sharper and sharper.
Are you adding co-op games too?
“Of course~”
As I spoke, I made a light gesture with my hand. For reference, VTuber Wayo's equipment is so heavily invested in that it doesn't fall short even compared to big-company VTubers. One of those investments is hand tracking. My fingers moved smoothly, bringing my thumb and index finger together to make a circle while the other three fingers spread wide.
If you want to add more, feel free. On screen, Wayo was smiling brightly.
“As long as it's streamable, sure.”
It's a roulette wheel anyway, right? And genre-master Wayo can handle pretty much any game. Horror games... well, those might be a little tough, but how scary could they really be?
Pizza place part-time job let's go
Please play Toy Playtime
White Day no matter what
“...There are quite a lot of co-op suggestions, huh?”
I had expected it, but the inside of the roulette wheel was filling up with horror games at a terrifying rate. From famous horror games that even I knew to weird Tsukur horror games. In between, major titles like Battlegrounds and Minecraft took up space, along with romance visual novels I'd never even touched before.
...Did these people have this many games they wanted to see me play? Now that I was actually getting recommendations, I felt a little sorry for all the times I'd just booted up League again.
Pizza place 2 stacks added, co-op games let's go lololol
Even at this very moment, the roulette kept piling up. Seeing donations stack up at a level unbelievable for a small-time stream, I wondered if they'd all been saving up their money until now.
“Hmm, should we stop accepting them soon?”
More importantly, I really should stop now. The game list on the roulette had gotten so long that the text was barely even visible anymore.
...Looks like I won't need to look for games for a while. I can just pick whatever looks playable from here, right?
I closed the donations, genuinely impressed with my own brilliant plan that had caught two rabbits at once.
“I'll do it again later.”
“Looks like I need to grill some beef for dinner tonight?”
I laughed greedily while looking at the roulette. This was practically an all-time high in donations. Had I ever received this much before? The most recent time I got a decent amount was when I played Outwind. After I died, I got absolutely roasted with donations. But today the stream had only just started. So this is what wealth feels like.
There were a total of 163 votes on the one-thousand-won-per-vote roulette wheel. It was possible because some big spenders had dumped thirty or fifty thousand won each. Well, more than half of the wheel was horror games, so I was a bit anxious, but...
Well, as long as it doesn't land on one, it's fine.
“Who said it was gonna land on a horror game? You guys are already drinking the kimchi soup before the meal...”
This Wayo is someone chosen by the gods, you know. 'Though I haven't been to church.'
Still, I spun the wheel while hoping for an answer.
Clatter clatter clatter—!
The roulette wheel began spinning merrily.
“Please be League...!”
The more the chat stirred, the slower the roulette wheel became. Clat... ter... And by the time it had slowed enough for the previously unreadable text to become visible, the wheel was gradually coming to a stop on one of the largest horror games, which took up about twenty percent of the wheel.
It was a famous one. A horror game where you work as security at a pizza place and run away from possessed toys. ...It was pretty scary, I think. Should I ask Ahseong to buy me some calming pills? No, at this hour she's probably sleeping? ...Who cares if she's sleeping, she's done growing anyway. While I was thinking about how Ahseong would freak out if she heard me planning to wake her up, the roulette wheel slowly came to a stop.
And then.
“Huh?”
It had passed the horror game section and landed precariously on the very next slot.
Everyone had made the wheel hoping for co-op games, or failing that, visual novels or legendary trash games, but... there were also things that weren't those.
[Pawn World]
“What game was this again?”
Among them, a somewhat unfamiliar game had been selected. Pawn World. I thought it was a bit unfamiliar, but when I searched for it, I realized I did know the game.
“Ah, this. I know what it is, at least.”
The concept was crash-landing on a planet during space travel. You overcome all kinds of malicious hardship, develop technology, gather resources, raise your tech level, and ultimately build a spaceship from scratch to escape. Wasn't this a game that was pretty popular on JijiZik at one point? It had a solid fanbase even before that.
Now that I thought about it, there were occasionally people asking me to play it. Looks like the heavens helped me today. It was less than one percent chance.
“Such is life. Things don't always go the way you want, right?”
To be honest, I'm incredibly relieved it didn't land on a horror game, but... isn't this game's size a bit large? I don't really know how long the playtime is. Well, I can just do one casual run for now.
“Should I buy all the DLC too?”
“Really?”
Hmm, DLC, huh. Since they're on sale right now, should I just buy them all? It's fifty percent off, so it's really tempting.
“Since I earned a lot from donations today, I'll buy them all.”
“I'll just use the donations to cover it~”
Swipe, swipe, approved. Just like that, I swiped my card in an instant and bought every single DLC along with the game. First, I took a quick look at what kind of game it was.
“Ah, I heard it's a malicious difficulty game.”
There are some games where if you don't know anything, you get screwed over. The Pawn World I knew belonged to that category.
Of course, if I lowered the difficulty like the chat said, I could learn while getting hit by the malicious mechanics. But what kind of pathetic idea was that? I turned my eyes away from the chat window.
Nope, I don't want to~ I'm definitely going to raise the difficulty to the highest, beat it, and then brag about it~
So I quickly skimmed through the basic controls, thoroughly devoured the tutorial like it was kimchi, and then—
“Ah, should I open the gambling den?”
Before properly starting the game, I opened the gambling den first.
“You guys have quite a few points, huh?”
There must have been some people who went bankrupt from the recent League winning streak. Yet here they were, betting with their crumpled little points.
Anyway, only after receiving all the bets did I press the game start button. After fiddling with the early settings, the character creation window soon popped up.
“Hmm.”
In Pawn World, you start by randomly drawing three characters who will crash-land on the planet. Their abilities aside, I also had to name them. Naming sense is practically a broadcaster's destiny. That's why most streamers suffer quite a bit at this part.
Fortunately, that doesn't apply to our stream.
“Alright then, let's go with Seongwon.”
It's been a while. Shall we put in some Seongwon?