Chapter 109

“Wow. Why do you look handsome even in toy version? This isn’t right. And sculpture vs shattered pieces? Are you insane, human?”

What?

Did a similar thing show up in Tae-woo’s stream chat too?

Seo-jun smiled as he scanned through the chat.

-The guy who donated is definitely crazy lmao donating at both streams at the same time like he prepared for it

-Hahaha. As a viewer it’s basic to watch two streams simultaneously

So they donated to both streams at the same time.

This really was incredible reflexes.

The moment the joke occurred to them, they had to enter both donation windows, write the same content, and hit send—all of this took less than 20 seconds.

‘Amazing.’

Seo-jun admired inwardly as he examined his avatar in front of the mirror.

The proportions and body stayed the same, but the joints had taken on a somewhat toy-like appearance, and most importantly, his face had changed to look like a doll.

However, when he turned his gaze away from the mirror to look at Tae-woo, he appeared in his actual form.

In other words.

“Seeing that I can only see that appearance in the mirror, it must be some kind of in-game presentation.”

It seemed like the world of this game-within-a-game was a world where toys lived and toys were the protagonists.

In other words.

“The developers who made this game probably wanted to express that the in-game developers who entered the game-within-a-game came in the form of toys.”

-?

-What nonsense are you talking about

-lol I understand sure, lmao

He doesn’t think the mirror being right there when they entered was just coincidence.

Anyway, seeing his transformed doll version was quite entertaining.

That said.

“Should I just smash this mirror?”

Tae-woo had gone dark.

-LOL The viewer who went to the other chat to keep teasing and came back is the streamer’s proud viewer, upvote LMAO

-Just stated facts

-The avatar’s toy version is pretty rough on him

Hmm.

This would probably be more fun to watch Tae-woo’s chat window too.

Viewers can split the screen on their own in Travel, but it wasn’t the broadcast chat window that streamers see directly.

“Hey.”

“Uh, everyone. What?”

“Let’s set up the collaboration properly. So I can also see your channel’s chat in streamer mode.”

“Why?”

Seo-jun wasn’t trying to enter Travel and watch Tae-woo’s broadcast, but rather wanted to see the chat as he sees it while streaming.

“It seems like it would be fun.”

-Lmao

-Can’t resist from the streamer’s perspective

-For real lol

“Hurry up and set it.”

“Got it.”

Seo-jun opened the Travel window and went to broadcast settings.

Then he connected with Tae-woo’s streaming.

Right away, his usual viewer chat appeared on the right side, and Tae-woo’s chat began showing on the left.

Looking at Tae-woo’s chat, the viewers were still teasing him.

-Hurry up and stand in front of the mirror

-Honestly I’m jealous of my friend yes or yes

-How can a doll face get so messed up?

-Shattered pieces incarnate lol

To be completely honest, Tae-woo’s appearance wasn’t on the ugly side either.

No, he actually fell into the decent category.

There’s a term called “camera massage.”

When your face appears in media, naturally learning how to better showcase your own charm and taking care of yourself gradually improves your appearance—that effect.

Tae-woo is in his 7th year of face-cam streaming.

Unless he had completely given up on his appearance and instead leveraged that as a strength to provide laughs, he was an ordinary guy in his twenties.

He was at an age where he’d naturally care about his appearance, so of course camera massage would take effect.

So while he was above average.

“No, everyone, it’s natural to get uglier!”

Seo-jun laughing annoyingly beside him was the problem.

“No, my face changed to a doll, so how could it get more handsome! If you look closely, Jin Seo-jun that bastard also got uglier in toy version compared to real life. It’s just that even his uglier version looks handsome so you’re all confused.”

Seo-jun looked at Tae-woo like he was an idiot.

Tsk tsk.

Instead of continuing to get teased, just take one step away from the mirror.

Seo-jun had already checked out his toy version and stepped away from the mirror to the side.

“Argh! I’m saying it’s only him! Wow. You guys should hurry and download this game too and post proof. Hurry!”

-Why would we?

-Advertising like this is disappointing

-Shouldn’t buy it. Because of you LOL

-Anyway, when you become toy version you get more handsome lmao. My face couldn’t get any uglier anyway…

-That’s a bit… lol

“Whatever, hurry up and come here. It looks like we’re supposed to go over there.”

“…Right. Everyone, please make sure to post proof. If you don’t want to buy the game, find some app on your phone or do whatever, just make sure to do it.”

Seo-jun ignored Tae-woo and headed toward the green circular marker.

There was another broken mirror there.

When he arrived around the marker, it disappeared and cut scene began playing.

[Damn, is this real? We’re toys?]

[No way.]

[What did you do! What the hell did you do! You damn bastard.]

[I don’t know either!]

While listening to the character dialogue, Seo-jun looked for the next marker.

A trash pile? Hill?

Seeing the green marker at the very top, Seo-jun gestured to Tae-woo.

Meanwhile, the cut scene continued flowing.

[Wait! Doesn’t this place look familiar?]

That was Seo-jun’s character speaking.

[What?]

[This junkyard feels familiar. All the trash being toy-related, and that disposal chute up there too.]

[What nonsense… Huh? This place?]

[This is where the protagonist in our game gets judged as defective for revealing what they want to become and gets discarded. Damn. What kind of weird dream is this.]

Seo-jun climbed up the trash pile.

There were large chunks like the box that had contained him, as well as small scattered debris.

“I’ll climb up first. This is how you do it, right?”

This kind of game was his first, after all.

Assassin’s Dawn was an open-world game where you could do whatever you wanted, and For the Murim was an online game, so Two Heads are Better was the first game of this type for Seo-jun.

-That’s right

-You’re doing well

-Really feel the disconnect every time you ask about basic stuff like this lol

-A cute newbie who doesn’t know much about games

-But would he still be a cute newbie even with a sword in his hands?

-Physical one-trick pony tsk tsk tsk. Can you really be good at games like that?

-He’s damn good though?

Seo-jun smiled and continued mountain climbing.

[What, really?]

[Yeah. You drew it, so you’d know better.]

[Damn. I think you’re right. Really inside the game? Does this make sense?]

[Sigh. What should we do?]

[What do you mean what should we do! We just wake up from the dream!]

Seo-jun listened to their conversation with interest as he reached the top.

Since the green marker wasn’t disappearing, it seemed Tae-woo needed to come too, so he decided to wait.

“By the way, I think I chose the character well?”

[Still don’t get it? This isn’t a dream.]

[What are you talking about. I need to wake up from this dream quickly. Even in a dream, even as a toy. Looking at your face is torture.]

[Fine, try your best to wake up. Hmm… For now, I should climb to the highest point. You follow too.]

[What? Why? Think I’ll listen to you? …Hey! Come with me!]

Based on the dialogue up to this point, the character Seo-jun chose was quite rational, and Tae-woo’s character.

Hmm.

Was good at denying reality.

“The cut scene ended here.”

Seo-jun said, and Tae-woo complained from way down below.

“Damn. But why is my character so emotional?”

-Agreed lmao

-But why can’t I imagine the streamer being emotional

-They both suit their roles well

Seo-jun looked down at Tae-woo climbing from the peak.

“When are you actually going to get here?”

“I don’t know either?”

Tae-woo pulls his hind leg that had gotten stuck in the trash.

Then he steps upward.

Rustle.

Clang.

Clang.

And small debris flows down like sand every time Tae-woo moves, and his body gets pushed backward by it.

Can-like scraps fall making clanging sounds.

“Ah.”

Eventually, Tae-woo, who had been struggling to lift his foot, lost his balance and fell.

So Tae-woo began crawling up on his belly.

“Lowering your center of gravity. Good choice.”

“If you’re not going to help, could you be quiet? But how did you climb up so fast? You barely got stuck at all.”

“Is this supposed to be difficult?”

Seo-jun tilted his head.

-Tae-woo just lol don’t ask anything

-Why does everything look so easy to that streamer? LOL

-He used qinggong

Qinggong my ass.

Seo-jun glanced at Tae-woo’s chat window and said.

“The path I took up might have been different. Let me go down your way and come back up once.”

Tae-woo, who had been crawling up, raised his head to look up at Seo-jun.

“Yeah. Come try it.”

Step.

Step.

Seo-jun walked down at a moderate pace, paying attention to his body’s center.

The ground beneath slid slightly, but he didn’t fall.

And Seo-jun passed by Tae-woo and went back up.

Tae-woo stared blankly up at Seo-jun’s back as he climbed back up.

“Is he really not a bug?”

-LMAO Really amazing lmao

-No matter how much there are tightrope walkers in the world, that streamer is good at everything

-Tae-woo hurry up and just climb

-Bug my ass lmao. Now you’ll directly experience the feelings of For the Murim and Assassin’s Dawn players

He didn’t know it then, but this was just the beginning.

* * *

Tae-woo arrived.

And opened his mouth.

The cutscene naturally began.

[Damn. Why did we climb up here.]

[Higher places have better views. And this is closest to the disposal chute. Most importantly, the protagonist of our game climbed up here too.]

[Right… Makes sense. But the disposal chute still looks pretty high?]

They looked around.

And Seo-jun’s character found a hook in the trash tower, grabbed it, and pulled hard.

Whoosh.

One corner slid down, and Seo-jun’s character was able to pull out a long rope.

[What’s that?]

[Grappling hook rope. Protagonist item.]

[Ah. That? But why are there two? There was only one in the game.]

[Probably. Our coming here wasn’t a coincidence.]

It was meaningful.

Seo-jun’s character shared a grappling hook rope with Tae-woo, then began spinning the hook.

The target was the disposal chute.

Swoosh!

But the length was insufficient, and the hook returned to Seo-jun like a wire without reaching.

[That… how did you do that? Pretty awesome?]

[It just worked?]

[Really? Let me try once… What, mine works well too? Ha. This really isn’t a dream?]

[Stop with the dream talk already alright? This isn’t a dream. You know that.]

[Yeah. Got it. I got it. So what do we do now?]

[I don’t know either… However.]

[However?]

[To find even a clue… We’ll probably need to meet the protagonist of this game. The rope being here means the game hasn’t even started yet.]

[That makes sense. We didn’t finish making the game either.]

[……]

[……]

Certainly, if Seo-jun were in the same situation, he would have looked for the protagonist first.

Or the final boss.

But the final boss would obviously be too far away.

[By the way, why did the lights suddenly turn on in this disposal site earlier?]

[That’s…]

That’s when it happened.

A door the size of a floodgate opened.

And a large garbage compactor truck (?) toy entered with shining headlights and engine sounds.

“Looks like the tutorial is starting.”

At the same time, Seo-jun’s view, which had been watching the cutscene, returned to normal.