Chapter 9

What I Can Do

It was seven o’clock, and time for the second part of the stream.

I was going to organize the entire Neo Chronicle story.

“Stories are originally created by the writer, but completed by the reader. You know what I mean, right?”

It was time to give my own interpretation and analyze how the foreshadowing had been resolved.

Since everyone already knew the overall plot, I wasn’t planning to go into too much detail.

The problem was that people’s reactions were unexpected.

- Fuck, I thought you’d go straight to a dungeon after finishing the story in one go

- Mom! I told you I hate eggplant!!

- Fucking hell, he’s boiling the same old bones again when not even plain water will come out

Is the Neo Chronicle story... not fun?

I spent my day off making a mind map, preparing how the relationship chart changed over time, and even gathering images I’d need for the explanations?

But there was more resistance than I expected.

The fifty or so viewers who came in as soon as I started were clamoring.

For a moment, I wondered if I really shouldn’t go through with it.

“You said you liked Neo Chronicle. You cursed me for criticizing it without even playing it.”

Just listen.

I’ll make it fun.

- Fuck, the vertical-content addicts did the cursing and we all have to suffer

- Is this what they call collective responsibility?

- Give me your email address. I’ll send you the usernames of the guys who cursed you.

- If those bastards aren’t here, they should get permanently banned

The atmosphere was turning toward acceptance.

Then let’s get into it.

I skipped things like the overarching theme or the writer’s intent.

Guessing the writer’s intent?

That’s something you quit doing the moment you graduate high school.

No matter how entertainingly I tried to explain it, it felt a little like a liberal arts lecture.

I was even planning to use a PowerPoint, and if it felt like a class, even I would get sleepy.

Besides, these people had probably seen the story countless times while going around watching reactions.

Because of that, I’d prepared all sorts of stories and analogies.

I matched each part and the major characters to famous content.

“You remember the mercenary company founding episode in Chapter 1, right? There’s that quest where you do odd jobs because you don’t have enough founding money. And when it’s still not enough, here. This merchant shows up.”

I put up an illustration of what you could call the stereotypical greedy merchant.

An obnoxious character who passes by early on.

Then I immediately put up his changed illustration.

“Suddenly, Sharok’s eyes look kind. This is after the bandit suppression, you know? But that’s weird.”

“Do you guys think a person can suddenly change? Just because they were moved by something?”

At that, the people who had only been typing things like wake me when it’s over started reacting.

- No way lol

- Don’t talk to me, I’m sleeping

- You can’t fix people~

- Did something happen?

“What makes the developers seriously nasty bastards is that if you look closely, there are details hidden in here. Here, look carefully at the accessories in this first illustration. The accessory with the red gem. And then... here.”

I played the scene from the story where they paid the mercenary company’s founding funds.

Several small images flashed by along with the dialogue.

“Here! See the accessory with the red gem lying underneath the gold here? When I saw this, I became sure.”

“He got reeducated.”

“Maybe it’s pride or whatever, but he insists until the end that he’s only lending it to them, right? Then that means the mercenary company owes him. A debtor-creditor relationship has been formed.”

“But have you guys ever seen any Sharok story after that?”

Once I said that much, people finally started laughing a little.

- hahahahaha

- lol You’re saying they buried him?

- Are you fucking insane? hahahahaha

Thinking that what I’d prepared had worked, I almost smiled without realizing it.

I struggled to control my expression and continued.

“Even if he never showed up in the story again, maybe they settled it behind the scenes.”

“However.”

As I continued, I switched the screen.

I opened Neo Chronicle, brought up the map, and showed them where it was.

The capital of the Kingdom of Rodelin, the setting of Chapter 1.

More specifically, the cemetery map.

A place you had no reason to visit after finishing the ghost disturbance side quest.

“I went around checking every grave just in case, and I found this here.”

[ Sharok ]

A farsighted merchant who provided the Shining Road’s initial funding

Finding the grave had been pure luck.

While searching for stories related to Sharok, I saw a post someone had made.

The kind of post asking, When did this guy die?

He was an NPC who passed by early on, so the foreshadowing never really went anywhere.

I brought it in like this.

“Someone died! No, this is on a completely different level from just robbing him! Somebody one hundred percent had this guy killed. Look, it says ‘provided the funding.’ I’m telling you, one hundred percent.”

I kept talking excitedly like that.

I even speculated on who might have done it and whether there were other similar cases.

- You said you were organizing the story, you crazy bastard hahahaha

- Jeong River: Shining Road is a criminal organization

- What kind of lunatic interprets it like this hahahaha

People’s reactions gradually came alive.

There were far fewer viewers than last time, though.

[Viewers: 211]

I wasn’t disappointed.

Lee Ha-na had already told me.

On the first day, the sheer number of viewers itself had probably become a source of attention.

‘It might even be hard to stay in the triple digits. But even that’s huge. You know that, right?’

Of course I knew.

My company in the military had around a hundred people.

This was two of those. That was a lot.

Thanks to that mental conditioning, I could calmly keep going with the content.

I explained the main plot broadly.

Then I played around by connecting details scattered throughout it with all sorts of wild theories.

I’d hesitated over whether I should talk about the things I usually imagined by myself, so this was a relief.

I think I’ll periodically turn my private theories into stories like this.

- What else is there in Chapter 2?

- You’re ending here?

- Got any stories about the dungeons?

The response was good too.

It was hard to explain everything in one day, so I gave a rough excuse.

“This is going to be a series. Jeong River’s Story Theories, something like that. How’s that?”

- That name sucks.

- Are you an old man?

- Show us your ID. Feels like the first digit of the back half is gonna be 1

“You guys really complain about everything. Anyway, I need to organize things too, so I’ll continue this later.”

After saying that much, I cleared my throat.

“In that spirit, to make it easier to come back next time, please follow on OnAiri, favorite me on Live Cast, and subscribe on MeTube.”

I chatted with people saying they’d clicked twice while getting ready to enter a dungeon.

- VERTICAL CONTENT KIIIIING

- How much horizontal content are you going to force-feed us

- It was fun, but Neo Chronicle really is about the dungeons

Let’s see just how fun they are.

_____________

About a week passed.

After spending a long time making Neo Chronicle gear, just before ending the stream.

I briefly announced that I had an exam tomorrow.

“Guys, I have an exam tomorrow. So I probably won’t come? No, I definitely won’t.”

- What exam are you taking.

“You know I study for the TOEIC during the day. I registered for one beforehand.”

- Fuck, what kind of streamer takes the TOEIC

I picked my words, unsure how to respond to that.

It wasn’t easy to talk about money to people who had come to watch my stream.

‘If my stream were bigger, would I not have to say something like this?’

What I said after softening it was somewhat predictable.

“It’s hard to completely ignore real life. Kind of like insurance? Something like that.”

I did occasionally receive donations of a thousand or ten thousand won.

It was genuinely amazing, and I was grateful.

I guess you could say the streaming income still wasn’t enough for me to throw everything away and commit completely.

I didn’t want to talk seriously on stream, but I had no choice.

- Sorry we viewers are poor T_T

- Ah~ is there no chairman around~

- It’s not easy for a guy to get a chairman

- A big streamer whining, fuck

Because otherwise we’d all get awkward.

“How am I a big streamer? I’m tiny.”

I hovered between one hundred and three hundred viewers.

Whenever I ran dungeons, it dropped to the one hundreds like clockwork.

When I talked about the story, around three hundred watched.

Anyway, because of that, there was a limit to the donations I received.

- Do you know how many streams are below you

At times like this, ignore the chats that are hard to read.

Around the time we were talking about full-time streamers, a donation came in.

[ LemonTtyuttyai donated 50,000 won ]

So you mean you don’t have enough justification to go full-time

“Oh my, thank you! Thank you, sir! May peace and happiness fill your household!”

- Right, right, 50,000 won deserves the highest honorifics

- Is bowing only once really enough...

- Don’t treat him too well, he’s quitting streaming soon

- You’re giving him money even though he announced he’s going to take it and run

“What do you mean I’m quitting? I work really hard at streaming.”

- You do

- But if that’s your best, then kind of

“Ah, come on, stop it. Someone just made a big donation, don’t ruin the mood.”

Messages saying free viewers should shut up started flooding in.

I was used to it now.

At first, my heart had dropped because I thought they genuinely saw it as discrimination, but they really were just saying it.

Afterward, some slightly more serious advice followed.

- At least open a business email

- You need to actually manage your MeTube if you want to make money

- You can’t make money from RPGs, maintaining your current level is the best you’ll do.

I took the actual content seriously.

And responded vaguely, as though it were a joke.

Anyway, after that brief incident, the next day.

On the way back after taking the exam, I got an email notification.

[ Hello, I’m Neruna, a streamer on OnAiri. ]

I realized there had been at least one genuinely useful piece of advice among all the backseating.

Because an actual collaboration offer had come through my business email.

Even if it didn’t immediately make me money, well.

I roughly knew who Neruna was.

I’d found out when the clip of me bawling went to her stream and came back with her reaction attached.

= The foreshadowing you just mentioned really is also a clue for saving Victoria, but...

I knew her as someone who knew the story in detail.

Now she was a senior streamer who played various games.

As expected, the stream she proposed was related to the story.

[ You seem to have a new perspective on the story, and I think it would be fun to talk about it together. ]

Talking about it together seems better than telling stories alone.

If I said that thought on stream, there’d probably be another uproar, right?

- Right, we’re just text.

- Meaning we’re not people

- There are people on the other side of the screen!!!

I snickered to myself on the bus, then hurriedly controlled my expression.

These days, even when I’m not streaming, I think about streaming a lot.

Things like what would be fun, what would get a good response.

When something I thought hard about works, it feels satisfying, and when it doesn’t, it’s embarrassing.

Anyway...

I think I completely bombed the exam.

There were hardly any questions I answered with confidence.

I even skipped streaming to take the exam.

“Ha...”

It’s because I started gaming streams right when I was trying to increase my study time.

There’s no way I’m bad at studying.

For now, I should just do what I can.

[ Thank you for the invitation! Thank you so much for inviting me to what sounds like really fun content. ]

I sent Neruna a reply.

It was too good an opportunity to sit around feeling depressed over the exam.

One of Neo Chronicle’s former Four Goddesses was asking to stream together. I couldn’t hesitate.