Chapter 107

[Starting stream]

Seo-jun’s stream came on at 5:50 PM, earlier than usual.

[(Homework) Collaboration stream with streamer Kim Tae-woo]

A new type of game.

Essentially his first advertisement stream.

‘Come to think of it, is this also the first time doing collaborative gameplay in a collab?’

Even if today’s results might not be critically important, Seo-jun felt excited as so many unfamiliar things were overlapping.

“Hello everyone.”

He was going to play various games from now on, but it wouldn’t be easy for viewers to watch all of those games.

Main game.

The game that takes up the most time during a streamer’s streaming hours—even variety game streamers needed one.

However.

‘I don’t plan on being tied to just one.’

How many games exist in the world?

He just wanted to stream whatever he felt like playing.

He didn’t want to stream while thinking of it as work, making excuses about viewers, or worrying about income.

But he also didn’t want to become a streamer that people wouldn’t visit.

So.

He needed to make people come looking for Jin Seo-jun himself, not Jin Seo-jun playing some specific game.

‘How can I do that?’

He didn’t know yet.

But if he continued streaming step by step, steadily, wouldn’t he figure it out someday?

“Are you saying I’m no longer the Heavenly Demon? Yes.”

There’s no Demonic Cult anymore.

-So decisive lol

-Maintaining roleplay outside the collab is kinda…

-Abandoned Demonic Cult members crying LMAO

If his main game had been For the Murim, that would be different, but in his current situation, having the Heavenly Demon image stick too strongly wouldn’t be good.

“What’s a Heavenly Demon? I really don’t know.”

That’s why he’d deliberately maintained this speech pattern with viewers even when he was in character with game users.

To prevent people from seeing streamer Jin Seo-jun and game user Heavenly Demon14 as too much of the same person.

-Brazenly drawing the line lol

-Don’t know?

-Ah he really doesn’t know lol. Keep following him and I’ll report you! Cult members!

But there was no need to actively block For the Murim talk.

They’d naturally talk about the stream once the game started anyway.

“Well then, shall I accept an invitation? Oh, you don’t need to tell me how in chat.”

Someone had been very verbosely explaining how to go to another streamer’s lobby since earlier.

They were definitely teasing him.

Seo-jun skillfully found and opened the invitation window that had one notification.

[Kim Tae-woo invites you to his lobby.]

-He’s definitely mastered it

-Woooooo! Master!

-Back in the day he couldn’t find this and asked Alpaca directly lol

-He was the master but his credibility plummeted

The pure white room with just basic objects like chairs sitting around was replaced.

‘I should change my lobby too.’

Lobbies were frequently used as meeting spaces when inviting other streamers.

There weren’t many spaces in-game that were suitable for chatting before or after collaborations.

So streamers put quite a bit of effort into decorating their lobbies.

Like streamer Alpaca, who had a highland background with actual alpacas implemented, matching the habitat of real alpacas.

“There you are.”

“Hello.”

“Me too. Hello everyone.”

And now Tae-woo’s lobby was simply designed like a quiet resort.

Emerald seas and beach.

And a hotel visible along wooden walkways over the water.

“Oh.”

Seo-jun slightly opened his mouth and showed his admiration.

It really felt like being at a resort.

-First Neanderthal seeing fire lol

-Ah ah, this thing called civilization

-Streamer should change his lobby too lol

-But are they Neanderthals?

Seo-jun looked around and said.

“Isn’t it Homo erectus?”

The first humans to use fire.

But he didn’t know what that had to do with anything.

He hadn’t changed his lobby simply because there wasn’t anything he wanted among the store items.

Not because he’d put off changing backgrounds and settings thinking it would be difficult.

That’s too much, really.

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh. Viewers called me the first Neanderthal to see fire.”

“Haha. How do you like this body’s lobby?”

“Nice. But is it a mass-produced item?”

Chat was saying they had the same one too.

Tae-woo made a pitiful expression and acted sorry.

“Yeah. No one would make me a custom one…”

But he got caught immediately.

“No? Someone in chat said they sent you an email but you ignored it.”

Why act pitiful then?

Tae-woo’s expression instantly changed.

“Who was that? Our loyal viewers should come over here instead of staying on that side.”

“They say they won’t come because they’re not loyal.”

“Hmm…”

“That’s right.”

“Damn. Anyway, hurry up and come over.”

They say they don’t want to.

If they were going to do that, they would’ve been in your room from the start, Tae-woo.

“That aside.”

“Yeah.”

“Did you install the game?”

“Of course.”

The release time when the game would be available to play was exactly 6 o’clock.

One minute left.

‘Given the indie game characteristics, there probably won’t be many users trying to pre-download and play immediately upon release.’

If it were a famous developer, they might gather gamers’ attention even before production.

If a distributor pushed hard saying this would definitely succeed, they could also build recognition.

But this game was neither.

So their advertisement was bound to be important.

‘They could have scheduled the stream after seeing what the game was like post-release, but they deliberately scheduled it for release day because…’

Probably confidence?

That must be why.

Anyway.

“Everyone, you can buy this game on Stream.”

Seo-jun said that while watching the time change.

“Let’s start.”

He launched the game.

[Two Heads are Better]

The game’s logo appeared first, then the start screen came up.

The start screen was split in two, with Seo-jun’s name on the right side.

“Should I send an invitation?”

“Probably?”

Tae-woo, who had been looking into empty space beside him, responded to his words and continued.

“Then should I invite you?”

“No. I’ll invite you.”

Seo-jun answered.

“Why?”

“Just because?”

“No, why?”

Really just because.

“Pfft. You have a persecution complex.”

“?”

“You don’t think I’m looking down on you for being tech-challenged, do you?”

He’s already starting to needle him.

But Tae-woo.

This is a co-op game, you know?

-LOL

-They’re trying to fight even before starting

-Seeing them bicker over nothing really shows they’re close friends lol

Seo-jun lightly ignored him and invited Tae-woo.

“Done.”

“Yeah. Got it. Oh, it appeared.”

Both Seo-jun and Tae-woo’s names appeared on the screen that had been split in two.

And the game start button at the bottom became active, brightening and lighting up.

Seo-jun shrugged and said.

“Looks like we can start the game now. If you don’t have friends, this would be completely…”

Tae-woo laughed and cut off Seo-jun’s words.

“Hey, you can’t say things like that.”

Hmm?

Oh.

Friends.

-T_T

-A game you can’t play without friends

-Stop hitting me

-LMAO The viewers unintentionally got sniped and jumped in surprise lol

-Game maximum requirements: Friends

-No multiplayer? No multiplayer? No multiplayer? No multiplayer? No multiplayer? No multiplayer? No multiplayer?

Seo-jun acknowledged his mistake.

He’d failed to respect the concept of viewers who always complained about having no friends.

Originally, among people who complain about having no friends, there’s never anyone who isn’t actually popular, but he should let it slide.

“Sorry everyone. Then you could play with your boyfriend or girlfriend. Right?”

“Wow. Are you doing this on purpose?”

-???

-Is he really going to do this?

-Sigh… someone give me the streamer’s address…

-Even if you’re the Sword God, you can really get killed

Meanwhile, in Tae-woo’s chat,

-Why are we also getting splash damage LOL

-Stop the collab right now!

-Hehehe. Kids these days have absolutely no business ethics… drool

-Lmao

Tae-woo thought he’d never seen anyone as good at teasing people as his friend, shaking his head.

“Should we start?”

“Go ahead.”

[Jin Seo-jun – 19,000 viewers]

[Kim Tae-woo – 15,000 viewers]

* * *

[Two Heads are Better]

The game started like a movie, with the title appearing first against a dark background.

The screen gradually brightened.

The background now being illuminated was a cramped office with only two single desks.

The camera angle was positioned in one corner of the office, looking up from below.

Crash!

The door opened and two people entered, their faces obscured by shadows and not clearly visible.

They began talking to each other, pointing fingers at one another.

You couldn’t hear what they were saying and couldn’t see their expressions clearly either, but it wasn’t hard to realize the atmosphere was hostile.

[……]

[……!]

[……!]

Soon, shaking his head, one person grabbed the jacket hanging on his chair and left.

The remaining person also seemed annoyed, scratching his head before turning off the computer and lights, roughly gathering his things, and heading outside.

Creak.

‘What’s this?’

The door closed.

And the camera slowly began to move.

From bottom to top. Drawing large spirals around the perimeter to show the entire office.

Simultaneously, sunlight streaming through the window caused the office to brighten and darken repeatedly, expressing the rapid passage of time.

The office remained abandoned for several weeks.

Half-eaten snack bags, socks, messy power cords, liquor bottles.

What was this space for?

That curiosity was resolved when the camera, which had been circling around, briefly stopped while showing a whiteboard.

Numerous character photos stuck to the large whiteboard and the outline of some story.

It could only be a game.

“Looks like they were developing a game.”

Seo-jun spoke quietly.

He couldn’t move his body, but his voice came out.

Chat was also visible.

-Seems like it

-What a mess lol

-Looks like indie game development lol they always fight lol

The camera that had been slowly showing the space moved to in front of a monitor.

And.

Flash!

Suddenly the monitor in front of them turned on.

And the mouse cursor moved on its own as if it had been hacked.

-What the hell lol scary

-I’ve had that happen. It wasn’t hacking, it was a faulty mouse!

-Me too!

The mouse cursor then rummaged through folders and executed a file.

Suddenly, countless black-backgrounded windows appeared and disappeared on the monitor.

-Was that a malfunction?

-How defective would a mouse have to be for a computer to do that lmao

-That’s kind of scary?

Countless windows continued opening and closing repeatedly on the monitor.

Then.

Flash!

The monitor turned off and on again.

And the background that appeared was different from before.

Had a game been launched?

A character rendered in dots was walking along a path in that 2D space.

Step, step.

“Looks like the character we saw on the whiteboard earlier. The one that was marked as the protagonist with a circle.”

The photo on the whiteboard hadn’t been 2D, but this seemed to be the start screen.

Step, step.

-Oh

-Who turned on the game!

-Are you the protagonist?

Below, the text ‘press start’ was blinking.

Step, step.

The appearance of the character presumed to be the protagonist was simple as he walked.

A typical hero wearing somewhat sleek-looking heavy armor.

When that hero reached about the middle of the monitor.

Creeeeeak!

Suddenly, with an enormously loud creaking sound, the hero stopped and began moving his head.

A frontal face rarely seen in 2D dot graphics.

It felt like making eye contact with the hero.

-??

-What, is this horror?

-Why is there such a scary sound…

‘I don’t think it was this type of horror.’

Seo-jun waited with a smile.

Fortunately, his guess was correct.

Through the gap in the window, a special green wind that anyone could see was extraordinary entered, gently swaying the curtains, and stopped in front of the monitor.