“I’m not sulking.”
“…I’m not sulking.”
She was sulking.
Yeonhee was sulking, her cheeks puffed up as she stared out the window, while the manager comfortably drove and dropped me off in front of my house.
“See you next time.”
“…okay.”
At least she responded properly to my words since I had been trying to cheer her up the whole way.
Right after she started sulking, she would either speak very quietly when I talked to her, or deliberately speak too fast to be understood.
Was losing the gonggi game really that frustrating?
Or was it because the viewers teased her too much?
Either way, this wasn’t the kind of sulking that would be resolved quickly.
Game streamers have strong pride.
Especially League players. That was the lesson I learned today.
Finally, I sent Yeonhee off by telling her that today’s stream was really comfortable thanks to her, helping preserve her pride.
If I wasn’t mistaken, I thought I saw the corners of her mouth twitch slightly at my last words.
“Phew…”
I just realized something while trying to boost Yeonhee’s spirits.
Today I finally understood the effort viewers put in when they desperately squeeze out compliments to take care of streamers’ mental health, and how exaggerated those compliments can be.
Maybe I should treat my viewers better from now on—
“Maybe not.”
I almost had a misguided thought while getting sentimental.
My viewers don’t even compliment me that much anyway.
Of course, I’m grateful that they watch me.
But maybe if a better stream appears, one that allows more swearing, they’ll just leave in an instant?
Though such a stream probably doesn’t exist.
After entering the house, I turned on the stream again.
“Well, good to see you all.”
[????]
[What’s this?]
[If someone threatened you to turn on the stream, please lick your elbow while doing a handstand]
[How would that even work lol]
“I turned it on myself. I just wanted to stream today too.”
[Basically saying you’re salty that only Yeonhee made money after streaming all day]
[We don’t like sharp ones like you]
[Since you got your wish without spending money, shouldn’t you give me all your savings if I ask?]
[Oh]
[What’s with the ‘oh’ lol]
That wasn’t really the reason, but after seeing that spacious house earlier, I had something I wanted to think about, so I decided to turn on the stream.
I could have done it alone, but the power of collective intelligence was great after all.
“When I first moved here, it was fully furnished so I just brought myself, but now I need to move my stuff and buy furniture to fill the empty house, so I thought we could look together.”
In other words, I don’t know what to do, so help me out.
That kind of feeling.
[Ah, you came to the right place. I’ve decorated interiors every time I moved, so I’m an expert now]
[Have you moved a lot?]
[About 40 times?]
[What the hell, are you a hermit crab?]
[Well, I’ve moved about 21 times too since my parents were teachers]
As expected, there were some viewers who seemed reliable.
Actually, the moving itself could probably be handled somehow by contacting professional movers, but I was worried about buying furniture and the interior design part of arranging it.
“Since I’m moving to a nice place, I want to decorate it stylishly.”
Saying that, I roughly drew the layout of the house I was moving to in Paint, as seen from above.
The sizes were a bit off, and the lines wobbled up and down like paper cut with pinking shears, but it was recognizable.
“What are some must-haves when moving to a big house?”
[Hmm… since you live alone and it’s that big, how about a robot vacuum?]
[Good idea]
[But what if it suddenly rebels while cleaning and strangles you with its hands?]
[A robot vacuum’s “hands” are just cleaning brushes, right? If you’re weak enough to die from that, you probably deserved it]
[Natural selection]
Robot vacuum.
I definitely hadn’t thought about it before, but it didn’t seem like a bad idea.
Looking it up, it was quite expensive, but it seemed worth putting on the list of things to buy.
A small worry was that maybe I was only thinking this because it looked too simple, but honestly, I wasn’t sure if something like this could clean properly.
“But does it clean well?”
[If you buy one with high suction power, it’s pretty good]
[Doesn’t “suction power” sound kind of erotic? A robot vacuum with high suction power? This is crazy]
[No… *sigh* Just buy it]
[Don’t give up on me! Stay strong!]
[But seriously, if you’re not confident about cleaning regularly, it’s worth buying]
Well, even living in a studio apartment now, I can’t confidently say I clean regularly.
Would I really change just because I’m moving to that spacious house? I’d probably put off cleaning even more. I added a reasonably priced robot vacuum to my cart.
This is a necessary expense.
I expected to spend a lot of money when moving anyway.
If it can clean for me, my quality of life will skyrocket, so this is a justified expense.
“Phew… okay, next!”
[In this day and age, you need an air purifier]
[That’s true, you need to take care of your health to stream, let’s buy one]
[Let’s get a humidifier too, your throat gets dry from yelling in the recording booth. A humidifier is essential for keeping your throat moist]
[While you’re buying stuff, buy me one of those health bracelets]
[What’s with this door-to-door salesman]
Have I become gullible?
Every time I heard a suggestion, it felt like I should have at least one of each thing at home, and it would feel lacking without it, so I looked up everything I heard. Except for the health bracelet – I felt uncomfortable wearing things on my hands, so I couldn’t wear it. That’s why even when I was young, I carried toy watches like pocket watches.
“…Ah, I’ll buy the air purifier and humidifier, they’re cheaper than I thought.”
[Wow, spending a lot today?]
[Fact) Still less than half of what was spent on gacha during the sponsored stream]
[It’s right to spend when moving]
[Maybe get a bigger bed size too, since we’ll be using it together]
[lololololol what nonsense]
As I added the recommended items to my cart one by one, it soon contained over 20 items of various sizes.
While I was at it, I tried arranging the items too.
But maybe because the house was so big, it still wasn’t fully filled, though this seemed enough.
That’s when I heard an irritated voice shouting “Augh!” from downstairs.
Wondering if it was because of me, I listened carefully, but the stomping footsteps weren’t coming up this way.
Still, better to lower my voice just in case.
[What was that? Did they get angry because Daeju was speaking quietly?]
[Probably the neighbor or downstairs making noise]
[Waaah, I’m a woman in my 30s, scared of high school girls]
[A woman in her 30s watching Daeju’s stream and acting cute is scarier, so feel proud]
“So… please understand even if I speak quietly from now on”
[What did he mumble?]
[Everyone turn up your speakers]
[Did anyone hear what he said?]
[I heard “dic…little…understand…clap clap”]
[He said “So from now on please understand even if I speak quietly.” You psycho, you heard it but only heard what you wanted to hear? Why did you hear two claps? You did that on purpose, right?]
It wasn’t easy to control my voice while trying to speak quietly.
First, I brought the microphone closer and spoke at the same volume as before.
“How’s this?”
[My ears are so ticklish]
[For real lol feels ticklish somehow]
[Feels like whispering, might as well say something s*xy]
[Give us some service]
“I’m not doing that”
Since I originally planned to just look at the house and end today, I didn’t have anything prepared, but I decided to tell the viewers about the content I planned to do after moving. This was something I heard from watching other streamers’ broadcasts.
There was a saying that if you announce content in advance, viewers who look forward to that content will help promote it by mentioning it frequently themselves.
I was experimenting to see if that rule would apply to our room too.
“After moving, I’ll do mukbang with jjajangmyeon, show off the house, and since the house is bigger, I’ll also do the VR broadcasts I’ve been saving up for.”
[Are you going to do VR Chat?]
[lololol I heard there are lots of women who get corrupted by men there]
[But I want to see you do it]
[Should we collect avatars for Daeju in advance?]
“I was thinking about doing it.”
I still have trouble talking with other people.
Could VR be the solution? Probably not, right?
It was also one of the representative content types that comes to mind with VR. I should try it at least once.
And lately watching YouTube, I saw some YouTubers getting lots of views with VR Chat, so I was thinking about that too.
Maybe I could also be chosen by the algorithm gods and my YouTube could take off.
[There are VR horror games too]
[Oh]
[But what if Daeju actually faints with VR?]
[We know where the house is anyway, can’t we just go wake him up?]
[True]
“Wow… you’re so reliable.”
I resent my past self.
The slightly very stupid me who revealed my address.
“I’ll skip the horror games… ah, and if you have any interesting recommendations for ideal type world cup, let me know”
And before various chats could come up, I got ahead of them.
“Only broadcast-appropriate ones”
[Really unique se*ual prefe… ah damn]
[lololololol]
[If you’re that picky, we don’t have anything to recommend… hehe]
[Sexual preferences should be okay, right?]
“Just tell me and I’ll look through them later”
S*xual preferences, huh.
If the pictures were normal, it might be barely possible. Looking at my chat room, the ban standards seemed quite lenient for text.
But pictures are absolutely not allowed.
I remembered the day I got suspended. Soo-ah’s picture, pictures are… not allowed.
[Time stop best video number world cup]
[Body parts world cup]
[Superpowers world cup]
[Worlds you want to visit world cup]
“Okay, person at the top gets banned~”
[Bye bye]
[Isn’t banning too harsh? Getting more viewers and losing your beginners’ mind tsk tsk][1]
[The person above just recommended an adult video world cup. Don’t get distracted~]
[lololol good try with the beginners’ mind talk when facing ban, bye~]
While weeding out what needed to be weeded out, I smoothly collected candidates for the ideal type world cup.
And thinking about having to keep my voice down, I decided to move as quickly as possible.
* * *
(End of chapter)
T/N:
- The “beginners’ mind” (초심) reference is about staying humble and true to one’s original values, often used when criticizing someone who’s changed after success.
