The Grand Collaboration Proposal (2)
Junsu felt a twinge of unfairness, but he chalked it up to the karma he'd accumulated over the years—the natural consequence of the aggro that came with being a YouTuber. Swallowing his resentment, he turned his attention to the chat window.
Staring at the chat, Junsu equipped his usual positive mindset and began flipping through the PPT, showing everyone what he'd prepared.
"Seriously, I picked out some real legends this time, so don't go regretting anything later."
With that, he clicked the mouse and advanced the slides. The chat's reaction flipped 180 degrees.
Watching the chat turn around, Junsu once again felt the satisfaction he'd known for the past ten years.
I guess I really am an attention seeker……
In a dark room, Mizuame Akari had nothing to do and no streaming content left.
"…What? The gukbap place with the auntie was Kei-hyung's restaurant!?"
Lee Haram lay sprawled in her tracksuit, staring at her phone.
"…Did they get bigger? Lying down like this makes them press down a little uncomfortably."
She muttered the kind of comment that would have made Jiwoo call her a cow and seethe with jealousy, but her expression was genuinely uncomfortable as she adjusted her posture. Soon her face relaxed. She moved her fingers and opened the stream she'd been supporting for a long time—almost since the beginning. Kei's stream.
As usual, Kei was drying his hair with a hairdryer, creating that awful noise. Watching him deploy what people called his "intimidation tactic," Haram frowned.
"Ugh… that's over the line."
The moment she said it, Kei turned off the hairdryer as if he'd heard her. Only then did Haram's expression soften, and she began typing furiously in the chat with her alt account.
Paying no attention, Kei once again displayed the words "Major Announcement" across the screen. Haram stopped typing, looking unimpressed.
"…He's pulling aggro again."
Most of the time when Kei did this, it was never anything important. It felt like he just posted "major announcement" whenever he was bored. If it were truly important, he would have posted proper notices on the café, so viewers had long since stopped believing the text on stream. Haram was no exception.
She moved her hand to type, but something told her this time might actually be important, so her fingers hesitated. It was just a casual tease about him being gay anyway.
"…Too much trouble."
Calling it a bother, she stopped trying to chat and simply focused on the stream itself. Soon she witnessed something shocking.
Alright, this is a server I personally commissioned developers to build!!
It's got plenty of capacity, and I'm planning to invite streamers from various platforms. They'll be able to buy invitation passes using in-server resources like diamonds and invite new people!
In other words, Kei was announcing the creation of a massive streamer-friendly Minecraft server. Haram's eyes sparkled at the news. She wasn't exactly lacking connections in the streaming industry, but that wasn't why she was excited. It wasn't even about building a relationship with Kei, whom she'd long supported.
It was because of her youngest daughter—her big sister, Suhyun. She thought this might be the perfect chance to properly expand Suhyun's streaming network. After all, Suhyun was still a small creator who hadn't even properly started on YouTube yet.
She seemed like she wanted to grow more, too.
With Akari and Kits already backing her, Suhyun had grown quite a bit, but she still seemed to be aiming higher.
"…She's my daughter. How could I just ignore this?"
Her maternal instincts flaring, Haram decided she absolutely had to bring Suhyun along. Then came one hopeful piece of news.
Ah, who are the first-generation residents? I haven't decided yet… If you send me an email, I'll be selecting the first-generation residents through interviews.
Kei still hadn't chosen the first-generation residents. Haram immediately got up, turned on her computer, and sent all her information to Kei's business email.
"I hope this works out."
She smiled faintly. Whether the heavens heard her wish or not, three days later—
Congratulations. You've been accepted.
"…?"
An acceptance notice—from Kei, or rather, from his manager—arrived in her inbox.
—Ding!
A text notification rang first thing in the morning. I checked it with bleary eyes.
I woke up at 9 a.m., yawned, and headed to the kitchen.
After receiving Jiwoo's usual caring message, I nodded and rubbed my eyes as I replied.
"Got it……"
Then I grabbed one of the apples Yeon-a had bought last time, gave it a quick rinse, and popped it into my mouth before sitting down at the computer chair. An utterly ordinary morning. With the apple still in my mouth, I wiped down Cutter Knife Teacher and looked at the now-lit monitor. As had become routine while streaming, I browsed the community for any new news. I also checked my own thread, greeting a slightly less gloomy morning.
lololol
You're a crazy lolicon
└But you can't resist this
└You can resist this? Are you impotent?
└The avatar's stacked though
└Oh, true
└Idiot
"Eh… really……?"
Blushing at the embarrassing comments, I instinctively pulled my hoodie down to cover my panties. I was surprised that I could become "that kind of person," but then—
"…Ah, the avatar is a bit bigger, so… I guess that makes sense."
If people were lusting after my avatar instead of me, it was understandable. Even though it resembled me, the feminine features were more emphasized.
"…They're good people, though… They like me……"
Timidly upvoting, I continued browsing the community afterward. I wanted to visit the café too, but with my limited connections, it was hard to hear about other streamers. Then I found a new post.
└Both of them are meat-and-veg, we're not
└lololol One's a crazy bitch and the first daughter drinks and smokes on stream
└W-wait, don't slander our GyulGyul
└The ashtray in the cam room is legendary
- GyulGyul got in, that's surprising lol
└GyulGyul has wide connections
└Her social skills are good
└But everyone says the same thing: "She's really quiet if you call her privately"
└Who'd believe that?
An interesting post. Reading it, my eyes lit up slightly. It seemed Haram and Yeon-a had been selected for something amazing.
"…Minecraft. I wanted to play it when I was little."
It was a game I'd really wanted to try as a kid. Of course, I'd only dabbled because it was popular among my friends, but the freedom to do whatever you wanted had appealed to me greatly. Back then, I couldn't because of domestic violence at home and financial hardship later on. It was a paid game, after all……
"…Now that I think about it again, I kind of want to try it."
But there was no way an opportunity like that would come my way. With so many active streamers, most of them outgoing, I didn't even want to join.
"I-I'd definitely get all my energy sucked out and die."
Chewing the half-eaten apple absentmindedly, I quickly pushed the thought away, nodded to myself, went to the café, and wrote a post.
ASMR
They'd probably like it no matter what you do lol
-[Gaemnyeo]: Just do whatever lol
"…Yuna-nim said she was at school, though."
I wondered if a high school senior had really abandoned studying.