351 - Side Story - Streamer Han Se-ah
TL/Editor: raei
Schedule: 5/week
Illustrations: Posted in discord
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Like most people who drift through life without a clear career goal, Han Se-ah never imagined she'd become an internet streamer.
In her childhood, internet streamers were seen as little more than cyber prostitutes who wore skimpy outfits on camera to fleece viewers.
Back then, male internet personalities were either lunatics screaming at the camera covered in food, or troublemakers committing petty crimes for content. Women used sex appeal for self-promotion before cozying up to rich CEOs.
It's no wonder hardly any students listed "internet streamer" as their dream job in those career aspiration classes.
"...And now I've become one of them."
Thankfully, that chaotic era was short-lived. Just as technology advanced rapidly, so too did personal streamers evolve.
Thanks to that shift, Han Se-ah's first stream started without much pushback. Just as someone might upload study videos, she naturally got into streaming by sharing her workout videos.
A casual video to check her form, viewer comments mixing advice and questions, idle chatter during recording... The result? A million live viewers and tens of millions of followers.
"What a world."
-Whatnowwhat?Whatnowwhat?Whatnowwhat?Whatnowwhat?Whatnowwhat?Whatnowwhat?
-Mamacold...Mamacold...Mamacold...Mamacold...Mamacold...Mamacold...Mamacold...
-Killed the 50th floor boss and got patched lol
-Other people aren't getting patched, must be an individual thing rather than server-wide? novelbuddy.cσ๓
"Oh, really? Now that you mention it, you're right. Well, since I've got time, why don't I check out other people's streams?"
It feels strange sitting in her own room rather than inside Heroes Chronicle, thanks to the forced patch. The plush chair and all the streaming equipment feel unfamiliar.
Even so, her streaming instincts hadn't disappeared.
By now, sharing warm soup at the inn's table with colleagues who felt like family had become routine. And while the lights and cameras cluttering her desk felt awkward, she'd spent far more time here than anywhere else.
Even with slow mode on, the chat floods in like a torrent. She's cleared the 50th floor, the insane amounts of donations have been settled, yet people haven't left. They're all busy letting their imaginations run wild in the chat.
Sure, some people have left... but roughly speaking, a million-plus viewers has become nine hundred thousand-plus. Even with one chat per 5 minutes instead of one per minute, it's impossible to keep up.
"Well then... Wow. Were there always this many people streaming Heroes Chronicle?"
Read latest chapters at freёweɓnovel.com Only.
-Of course lol It's a virtual reality game, who wouldn't play?
-Even non-gaming streamers are trying it out, so naturally there's a lot
-Last I checked, even science and social commentary streamers were playing HC
-Seems like all kinds of streamers started streaming in HC because of the freedom
-HC teacher, HC camgirl, HC vlog, HC healing, what the hell lol What is this?
She reads only the chats that catch her eye, going with the flow. Even with just ten thousand viewers, it'd be impossible to interact with each one, let alone a million.
The list keeps scrolling down endlessly as she turns the mouse wheel. Feeling a bit overwhelmed by the seemingly infinite list, as unreal as her viewer count.
She knew people would be interested, being at the top of the game, but seeing it directly felt different.
"Oh, I think I've seen this person's videos before. Wasn't he a science streamer? And this one's a mage I collabed with ages ago.
Oh, the fitness trainers who corrected my form are streaming HC too."
The whole world is Heroes Chronicle.
Muttering this, she keeps scrolling, constantly spotting familiar faces. There's the younger streamer she competed with in an FPS tournament, and the ex-pro gamer who coached during an AOS tournament.
"She started gaming too? She'd freak out just seeing bloodstains in horror games, so she definitely won't be fighting, right? ... Hmm, maybe I'll throw her a donation."
"No way, here...? Huh? A million? For real? Oh!"
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Raei Translations
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The next day, after spending a day casually browsing Heroes Chronicle streams thanks to the patch:
"Yeah, Mom. How's the trip? Is the food okay?"
"I'm fine, sweetie. Your dad even ate so much at the hotel buffet he had to take indigestion medicine."
Han Se-ah called her parents, who she'd sent on an overseas trip after taking a big break from streaming, to check in on them.
While her parents' generation could barely grasp that Han Se-ah had established herself as a streamer, they struggled to accept that she was getting hundreds of thousands or millions in donations daily just for topping a game.
So she resorted to the easiest way for a successful child to prove themselves - a full overseas vacation package.
She booked business class flights and 5★ hotels from Southeast Asia to America, stuffed their account with spending money, and practically shoved them out the door. No wonder her mom sounds so cheerful on the phone.
Paying hundreds for a 2-hour ride in a spacious bed-like seat, another hundred for a night's lodging, and yet another hundred daily for massages and skincare...
Receiving such lavish treatment, even the most close-minded would come to understand their daughter's sudden success.
"Anyway, don't overdo it and just relax since you went there to rest."
"I'm not sure if I can relax, honey. The bed is so soft I'm thinking of sleeping on the floor,"
"Se-ah? The lamb here is really delicious. It doesn't even compare to Korean hotel buffets!"
"Oh my! Dear! If you shout there, can the child hear well? You're just hurting my ears!"
After finishing the call, Han Se-ah, left alone in the living room, mutters:
"...So what should I do now?"
She had logged into Heroes Chronicle every day without fail, regardless of whether she was streaming or not. Now the patch was in its final stages. But starting a stream again felt wasteful after declaring a break, and she had no idea what to stream anyway.
She'd already checked the edited videos to be uploaded, finished her workout, and called her parents.
But maybe she'd devoted too much time to Heroes Chronicle? Even after all that... the sun hadn't even set outside.
She paces between the streaming room and the living room, turns on the TV but finds nothing to watch. The thought of going out doesn't even cross her mind - she's been so focused on the game that she doesn't even know what movies are out. So she ends up back at the computer.
"This level of addiction is serious..."
Even so, she wasn't starting a surprise stream for her viewers.
She sat down to check the footage captured by Heroes Chronicle's flying drone. There's a clear difference between gameplay from a personal perspective and footage shot through a camera.
Even if the editors cut this footage to create an exciting video, there's something special about watching the long original.
Just as there's demand for what most viewers find boring - the barrage of questions from Magic Tower geezers, or videos of uneventful exploration - under names like "Full Se-ah" or "Long Se-ah". She never understood why people would watch 3 hours of aimless chatter while walking through a forest... but today, she could relate.
"Wow, seeing it like this, Katie really times her steps well."
"Grace is really skilled too, probably because of her hunter background."
"Hmm... Oh, looking at it this way, it seems like they're surrounding and escorting me."
Video appreciation continues from late afternoon until dinner, which she orders in. Watching the footage of her party members captured by the drone makes her feel good and think all sorts of things about Heroes Chronicle.
So this is addiction, that news article I saw yesterday was right.
As she's having these thoughts, one long video ends and the next one begins. The camera that had been showing the forest path now steadily follows the back of a drunken Grace as she pushes into Roland's bedroom in the dim evening inn.
"Ugh, sh*t. I left this in here too. That could've been bad..."
She shivers at the thought of what might have happened if she'd sent this file to the editors along with the others. But the mouse in Han Se-ah's hand doesn't move towards the stop button.
It only fast-forwards, skipping to somewhere past the 5-minute mark in search of important highlights.
One passionate youth left alone in a spacious house meant for three families, with parents sent abroad. There was plenty of time, no one to interfere, and even less self-control.
