Chapter 10

Living Alone?

= Neruna emailed you asking to collab?!

Lee Ha-na raised her voice over Discord.

I told her I’d seen the email on my way back from the exam.

“Yeah. She said she wanted to talk about the story.”

= Really? Now it finally feels real that you’re streaming.

“That much?”

= It feels different because you’re appearing on a stream I already knew. Wow... You really did become a hot topic.

Apparently it was the biggest Neo Chronicle-related streaming incident in recent memory.

And since it hadn’t ended completely negatively, she figured a collab offer might come.

= The incident before that was kind of a mess. Someone defended the game company, got cursed to hell, and had a huge fight with the viewers.

= I think about two thousand people were watching then. Yeah. They said they’d settle it with a character-deletion match, but neither of them deleted their character, so it just fizzled out.

I’d heard that every Neo Chronicle character required a lot of money or time.

I suppose every properly raised RPG character is like that.

I couldn’t even imagine how heated their emotions must have gotten to wager something like that.

= Anyway! If it’s Neruna, do your best. It’ll help you a ton.

“I was already planning to ask her a few things after the stream.”

What being a full-time streamer felt like.

What happened if you kept streaming an RPG, things like that.

= Yeah, yeah. She’s been streaming since she was twenty and she’s almost twenty-nine now, so she’d know.

= But that’s not what I meant.

Lee Ha-na told me the size of Neruna’s stream.

= Five hundred viewers as a baseline when she plays variety games. A thousand if she plays otaku games, and two thousand on female-streamer days.

= Your attention spike only lasted one day anyway, right? Really make this one count.

It was two days.

Anyway, it was useful advice, so I kept it in mind.

She talked to me about streaming a lot even normally.

On days she watched my stream, she sometimes gave me long-form feedback too.

Lee Ha-na said, “One last thing,” and began heavily.

= One last thing... be careful when dealing with Neruna.

“Why? Is she weird?”

= I don’t think she is, but her simps are serious.

“Simps? What’s that... Ah. People who like female streamers?”

= You normally don’t call someone a simp just because they like one. Over there, they’re the real deal.

“But simps usually attach themselves to female streamers.”

= Exactly! She quit being a female streamer four years ago and they’re still like that. That’s why they’re seriously, seriously hardcore!!

Neruna had kept changing her concept over the long years she’d streamed.

At first, she was a VTuber.

Then she did partial-cam streams.

After doing female-streamer content for about two years, she switched to Neo Chronicle streams.

Now she had moved on to variety games.

= That’s. Why! There are people who stayed even though she changed concepts that dramatically!

= You should see how the turrets react whenever she does something like a female-streamer day!

= Keep your head on straight. Got it?

After saying I understood, I asked.

“But what’s a turret?”

= A simp who’s gone dark.

I thought that would be the end.

But she still wasn’t finished.

= And, and Neruna has what you’d call good instincts for content, I guess? If things start dragging or donations dry up, she tosses out risky jokes here and there. Dodge those properly.

= She can tap-dance beside a land mine and somehow survive, but I don’t think you can.

I repeatedly told her I’d listened carefully to her words of golden wisdom.

Do people just naturally love backseating?

The viewers too, and—

No.

Thinking about it, Lee Ha-na was a viewer who happened to be my friend.

So that’s why.

Having gained a new realization, I ended the Discord call.

_____________

The morning after taking the exam.

I washed up and was about to return to my room.

Since it was the weekend, Mom was home, and she called me.

“Son.”

“Yes?”

Since I’d completely bombed the exam, I turned around feeling slightly guilty.

But Mom still had her usual impassive expression.

“You’ve been very noisy at night lately.”

“Ah...”

“Please be a little more careful.”

“I will.”

Because I’d done something wrong, I unconsciously answered formally.

I thought that was the end, but she called me again.

“It doesn’t sound like you’re just playing games. May I ask what you’re doing?”

I remembered that I hadn’t explained a single thing to my family.

“I’ve been trying internet streaming lately. Do you know what that is?”

“Hmm... I’ve seen people walking around holding their phones and talking to themselves. Is it like that?”

From my parents’ generation’s perspective, I suppose that might be exactly how it looked.

The very slight furrow between her brows seemed to reveal how she felt about people like that.

“It’s similar, but a little different. Those people do it outside, right? I do it at home, studying together with people or showing them games.”

First, I emphasized that I wasn’t being noisy outside.

“I see. Still, the way the job works doesn’t seem that different. You deal with people and receive donations? Is that right? Isn’t that the sort of work it is?”

“...Right. Do you dislike me doing something like that?”

“As long as it isn’t illegal, if you can make a living, that’s enough. But do people really come to watch you? Our son probably only looks handsome to me.”

“Ah, Mom! I’m handsome enough that people tell me that wherever I go! And it’s not like people only watch handsome people.”

“It seemed kind of like being a celebrity. You can be ordinary and still do it?... Work hard.”

“No, you don’t believe me? I’m serious.”

“Mom’s going to watch TV now, so go to your room.”

Even when I clung to her side and repeatedly insisted that wasn’t true, she didn’t listen at all.

And I’m pretty decent-looking too.

It’s not like I’ve ever heard things like, “You look smart,” or, “Hey, your boyfriend’s walking by,” wherever I go.

I fussed a little longer out of frustration, then gave up.

Only after entering my room did I realize I’d been given a task.

“Was I that loud?”

Study stream from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Then Neo Chronicle until around 11 p.m. or 2 in the morning.

My parents usually went to bed around eleven, so they probably did find me loud.

“Then what should I do?”

Three methods immediately came to mind.

Stream quietly, move the gaming stream to the daytime, or install soundproofing.

Streaming quietly seemed difficult.

Sometimes my voice got louder without realizing it, and I guess I felt pressure to make my reactions bigger.

Things that would only make me frown once if I were gaming alone came out of my mouth aloud on stream.

Of course I couldn’t help being noisy.

Moving the gaming stream to daytime... I’d have to think about that.

If streaming were a business, it would be like changing the store’s opening hours, so of course I had to consider it carefully.

Lastly, I simply erased the idea of installing soundproofing from my mind.

If I was going to do that, I might as well move out and install it in my own place...

“Huh?”

Living alone.

Living alone, huh.

Suddenly, a very appealing phrase came to mind.

I’d originally planned to live on my own after getting discharged.

Spending two hours every day commuting during my freshman year had felt like such a waste.

I could just do that a little earlier!

Then I could install a soundproof booth in the apartment and solve everything!

I brought up the idea after turning on the stream.

- Liiiving aloooone?

- hahahaha This bastard finally looks his age

- Stay a kangaroo child, being a kangaroo is the best

- When you live alone, you lose money just by breathing lol

- The romance of living alone hahahahaha

- Yeah, what a brilliant idea lol

- Bullshit hahaha

- Your head is full of flowers because you’re eating warm meals at your parents’ house lol

I faced a barrage of criticism.

“No, everyone. I told you, my parents said I’m too noisy at night.”

- Then install a soundproof booth, idiot

- Want me to send you some bubble wrap?

- At least put up some cardboard

“How am I supposed to just do whatever I want in my parents’ house? No matter how I think about it, living alone seems better.”

[ AnalysisExpert donated 1,000 won ]

Did you bomb your exam yesterday? Trying to flee before the results come out?

“I did bomb the exam. But my family isn’t the type to give me trouble over something like that, so it’s fine.”

I denied it, but the thought did cross my mind.

Because deciding to live alone itself felt like putting more weight on streaming than studying.

But apparently there were more people traumatized by living alone than I expected.

[ SawTheTime donated 1,000 won ]

I commute just fine even though I waste three hours every day on subway+bus. Just leech off your parents.

[ Mittyni donated 1,000 won ]

Lived alone for ten years and I think I could’ve bought a house if I hadn’t. With a mortgage, obviously

[ KingPiece donated 1,000 won ]

This bastard finds a new way to lose his fucking mind every day

[ HoshinoSama donated 1,000 won ]

It’s not just rent, food and every kind of utility bill drain your money too???

[ PassingMaster donated 1,000 won ]

You won’t know till you try. Just do it. Try it and realize, ah fuck, this is why everyone tried to stop me~ Please live alone. Definitely do it. Absolutely do it. If you don’t, you die?

[ OrangeThief donated 1,000 won ]

But moving out because you don’t want to study is kinda lame though

...

...

The thousand-won punches kept coming.

So continuously that I couldn’t find a chance to speak.

They really seemed desperate to stop me from living alone.

This is incredibly profitable.

While thinking two things at once, I did what I had to do.

“This bastard always sneaks in insults. You go take a break for a bit. Anyway, guys, I understand what you think. I’ll think it over and handle it properly myself.”

- “Handle it myself” my ass

- If you were gonna handle it yourself, why mention it

- Bastard who doesn’t do anything properly sure talks big

“Everyone, I’m a beginner streamer. That’s why I stumbled around, but once I learned something, I did it pretty well, didn’t I?”

- You don’t know shit

- We have to forgive everything because you’re a beginner?

- Thinks the newbie badge is authority now

I started the stream by adding the living-alone issue onto the usual wrestling match with chat.

Even while doing this, my hands were working through my Neo Chronicle dailies.

The multitasking ability supposedly essential for streamers.

I smiled because I felt like I was gradually getting used to doing multiple things at once, and they immediately complained again.

- Why’d you suddenly start grinning?

- Must’ve checked his donation revenue

- Girlfriend?

“Please stop. I don’t have a girlfriend. I got discharged, did nothing but game, then started streaming. What girlfriend.”

- Your face is decent though

- Can’t be helped, you’re ugly as fuck

- How tall are you?

- (English address) <​<​<​ romantic dispute broke out right away hahahahaha

“Around 183. Romantic dispute? Seriously?”

A Neo Chronicle stream like usual.

I decided to skip studying until my exam results came out.

Even though I started during the day, nothing changed much.

Other than the viewer count dropping a little?

Even that became slightly higher than usual by evening.

Time seems important for streams.

11 p.m.

I’d planned to go until dawn, but remembering what I’d been told, I ended early.

The room felt like it had suddenly gone quiet after being crowded.

I rested briefly, then browsed streams on OnAiri and Live Cast.

From massive streams with tens of thousands of viewers to streams around my size or smaller.

I was curious about what kinds of content other people used and how they streamed.

I’d occasionally done this since starting game streams, but this time I watched a little more seriously.

While browsing, I suddenly remembered an email that had arrived during the stream and checked it.

[ Thank you for happily accepting! ]

An email from Neruna.

Along with thanking me, she asked how we should do the collaboration.

“...I assumed we’d obviously do it over Discord.”

Since we weren’t gaming together but doing a talk stream, was she asking if we should meet in person?

Lee Ha-na had said online collabs were the norm on OnAiri.

I shrugged and replied that either way was fine.

The very next day.

- Then would you perhaps be able to come here?

- If it’s too far, then it can’t be helped.

As soon as I saw that, I replied that I would go.

- Communicating by email is a bit frustrating too, so could I ask for your phone number?

= Of course!

The collaboration schedule was arranged quickly.

For this coming Friday.