Part Two: Accept the Refugees
The collab between Curry and Barcode drew an enormous amount of attention.
Even during the opening segment alone, the reactions had been explosive.
But once the collab between Barcode and Curry truly got underway, the viewers' responses split cleanly into two camps.
The so-called "comfort police" tore into Barcode for tearing into Curry.
In a way, that atmosphere was only natural.
Curry's content had been built around videos featuring a vicious stream sniper known as "NayeonQueen," and those videos had been blessed by Mutyube's algorithm, rocketing him into a massive surge of popularity.
Of course, even before that surge he had already been a major Mutyuber, so a steady stream of new viewers had always been flowing into his broadcasts. Most of those newcomers were relatively ordinary people who knew nothing about the old Norang City atmosphere of Curry's past.
Naturally, from a newcomer's perspective, watching their favorite streamer get unilaterally roasted by some nobody on day one of streaming did not look good.
But where there are haters, there are always stans.
Viewers who had been watching Curry since the Norang City days rose to Barcode's defense.
From the perspective of people who had known Curry for a long time, the chemistry between Barcode and Curry was ridiculously entertaining.
And if Curry had genuinely felt that Barcode's roasting had crossed a line, the stream's atmosphere would have already gone to hell. Curry was the kind of person who got angry at anyone, whether the stream was on or not.
The firepower of the Norang City veterans — those internet ghosts — was tremendous. The newcomers may have had the bigger numbers, but the difference in intensity proved that quality beat quantity every time.
Of course, the chat managers rapidly deleted messages that were escalating the conflict on both sides, so things never fully descended into chaos. They set the chat delay to one minute and blind-filtered any viewers whose only goal was to stir the pot.
After thirty minutes of locking down the chat, the atmosphere naturally cooled. When you snip the sprouts of conflict at the root, it would be stranger if things didn't settle down.
Thanks to the quiet efforts of those manager allies, the collab proceeded without any real problems. There were still people who found Barcode's presence uncomfortable, but at least the majority of viewers were enjoying the spectacle of Barcode roasting Curry.
Part of it was that Curry had spent so long strutting around and mouthing off at his own audience. And more than anything, for a supposed nobody, Barcode was projecting a very distinct personal charm. She herself probably didn't think she was projecting anything, but from the viewers' side it came through loud and clear.
Even when Curry refused to board the bus and smashed the windows out, Barcode's Yone grabbed him by the collar and drove the bus herself. Curry's Jake kept dying over and over under endless roams and ganks — but Yone solo-carried four people's worth of the game and completely detonated the match.
In the end, the game finished with Barcode's Yone destroying the Nexus, and the chat room heated up all over again.
Even with Curry's Jake strapped on as a sandbag, Barcode carried the game — and the chat's mood completely flipped. The people who had been uncomfortable vanished, and now only messages friendly to Barcode filled the feed.
After that, everything Barcode did — the little Yone tech she explained herself, the hidden tips she shared — pulled reactions that were dramatically more positive than the start of the collab. In particular, obscure but useful information like the tech for clearing two walls with Yone's ultimate, or the tip that a blackened E mark meant it was kill angle, had viewers each typing thumbs-up emotes to express how they felt.
Once the tip-and-tech showcase wrapped up, Curry and Barcode ran a few more duo ranked games. Time flew, and the "Meeting the Craftsman" content reached its final stretch — which meant the collab itself was about to end.
"You've worked so hard today. I can't believe time flew by like this already... it's really a shame."
It seemed like Curry's end-of-stream remarks would wrap the broadcast up for good — but then:
"Huh? What are you talking about. We still have our Part Two stream left."
"...What?"
At Barcode's sudden declaration of a Part Two stream, Curry carefully shifted his gaze to check the mood in chat.
"We agreed that for Part Two, Curry would play Yone in solo queue while I give real-time feedback, remember?"
"When did I ever..."
Public sentiment was scraping the absolute floor. Of course, it wasn't truly ruined yet — but the moment Curry so much as pressed the end-stream button, the playful freefall into hell would turn completely sincere.
"I didn't even turn on my own stream and helped with yours the whole time, and now that you've sucked everything dry you're just going to throw me away..."
As Barcode's words, laced with a trembling near-tears quality, continued, the half-joking freefall of public sentiment flipped to deadly serious in an instant.
It was a situation no different from being surrounded on all sides. Curry kept silent for a while, then finally forced his mouth open with difficulty.
"Fine. Alright. Let's do the Part Two stream..."
The moment approval for Part Two left Curry's lips, public sentiment — which had been plummeting into the depths of hell — began rocketing back up.
"Once Barcode turns on her stream, I'll host over and we'll start Part Two..."
Watching public sentiment soar, Curry swallowed a sigh inwardly.
Current Viewers — 0
Followers-Only Mode (7 Days)
The moment I went live, I immediately activated followers-only mode. Among the massive wave of refugees about to pour in, there would definitely be spam bots. Threats like bans or ending the stream simply couldn't control that many viewers. And these weren't even ordinary refugees — they were Curry's audience, the ones known as the "detention camp."
Being thoroughly prepared would be better for both me and the stream. With every precaution in place, I waited for Curry's host.
Curry has hosted 32,846 viewers.
About thirty seconds after I went live, Curry hosted — and thanks to my thorough preparations, I thought I'd at least prevented the chat from being completely spammed into oblivion...
...Or so I had thought.
Watching the chat room get completely gutted in an instant, I felt like I was about to lose my mind. How on earth had Curry been streaming with these vicious bastards all this time? The spam was so disorienting it almost inspired respect.
Ding—
Ding—
Ding—
How was I supposed to fix this mess? The moment I started fretting over it, Discord notification sounds rang out one after another. I brought the minimized Discord window back up and checked the messages that had arrived.
I followed Curry's instructions and delegated both IDs as moderators. Immediately, the braindead spam began vanishing at high speed. Messages noting that content had been blind-filtered started popping up more and more throughout the spam-flooded chat, and only then did the vicious spammers notice the managers' presence and scramble to hide.
Judging that the situation had been cleaned up enough, I opened my mouth to proceed with Part Two.
"Shall we start the Part Two stream now, then?"
"Haaaa..."
Curry, still in the same call, let out a sigh so deep it sounded like his soul was leaving his body. I ignored the sighing Curry and tried to move Part Two forward. But then it occurred to me — to do a coaching stream, I needed to see Curry's screen. The problem was that Curry was currently hosting me, which meant there was no way for him to share his screen.
I know Discord has screen share, but...
I'd tried Discord screen share once before, and the quality had been so absurdly terrible that I'd given up on the spot. The memory was still vivid. Running a coaching stream on Discord screen share was, no matter how I looked at it, completely out of the question. I had no choice but to slightly revise the content of Part Two.
"To coach you I need to see your play, but since you're hosting there's no way to watch. Looks like we have no choice but to duo queue together?"
"You say 'no choice,' but is it just my imagination that you look pleased about it?"
"Yes. It's your imagination."
"...I'll take your word for it."
Curry's low energy was something you would never see on his solo streams. That limp, drained voice of his was enough to make a person drowsy. I sent Curry a game invite. But time passed and he still hadn't entered the lobby, so I had no choice but to speak up.
"Accept it."
"Yes ma'am."
The moment I said it in a cold voice, Curry answered instantly and entered the lobby. His reaction was so absurd I almost let a laugh slip out.
Once inside, Curry set his primary role to mid and secondary to top. For smooth coaching, I set my primary to jungle and secondary to mid. Even if I didn't get jungle, I could just swap with Curry.
With preparations complete, we queued up — and before long, a match was found.