NoveLight ™
"Your expression is quite discontented."
"True. I’ve never been this eager for a return before."
Traveling down the North American coastline through Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington D.C.
Unless it was a major city, America’s main roads were quiet, and the path crossed by the Range Rover carrying the three members of Team Dagger was no exception. The grass, mountains, rivers, and occasionally visible small towns only hinted that they were moving, albeit slowly.
After the Final Championship, everyone returned to their respective places. They were no exception. Rorentina, who had taken nearly four weeks off, had to return to DEVGRU, and Anthony Owens, who belonged to the same unit, had to do the same. Only Logan, who was essentially jobless until Delta issued orders, had nothing pressing to do.
Of course, she knew how to make better use of her time and resources rather than spending it boringly in a penthouse in New York, and this was the result.
She willingly offered her Range Rover to drop off Rorentina and Owens—it was almost like they were carpooling, but practically, it made little difference.
And so we return to the beginning.
"Is it because you’ve tasted the mundane world?"
"Well, I suppose that could be said… these past three weeks were the most stimulating days of my life."
The first destination was Norfolk, Rorentina’s destination.
A grand journey of 600 km. Not only was the road wide open and refreshing, but the unavoidable time loss from passing through major American cities meant that those who had left at 6 AM were still only two-thirds of the way to their destination by 11 AM, approaching noon.
Of course, there was no major issue. In a world where self-driving was commonplace, there was no need for the person in the driver’s seat to hold the steering wheel and maneuver here and there. In reality, Logan, the vehicle’s owner, reclined his seat all the way back and leaned back instead of gripping the wheel.
In that position, the conversation continued.
"I wonder when I’ll be able to come out. Of course, since a new year has started, there shouldn’t be major issues with future vacation usage…."
"You should save as much as you can. The youngest isn’t going to suddenly come to the U.S. to play games, so we’ll have to go find him ourselves from now on."
"It looks like I’ll spend all the money I’ve saved on plane tickets."
"That guy, with a company to run… he could at least ask for the cost of a ticket to Korea."
"Isn’t that a rather disgraceful thing to do?"
Naturally, Logan didn’t mean it seriously.
As laughter passed between them, Rorentina spoke up.
"By the way, since we’re talking about the youngest, his stream started a few minutes ago."
"The youngest is streaming?"
"Yeah. Everyone was still fast asleep, so I didn’t notice… well, the senior officer is still asleep, though."
The two began to sift through their memories.
They weren’t trying to recall anything particularly important. Strictly speaking, they were just thinking about whether they had ever watched the youngest’s streams—though it wasn’t much. It was probably just a couple of times. They couldn’t help but be intrigued. Without even coordinating, both immediately logged onto the Tricky site.
Normally, it wouldn’t be surprising if a streaming channel site had no connections in life. Thus, their subscription list only had one name. Of course, even if it had none, it wouldn’t have been a significant issue, as Yujin was currently at the top of the list among ongoing tournaments or New Year’s special broadcasts.
Real-time viewers: 500,000.
It was as if the entire population of a decent-sized city had gathered to watch Yujin's stream.
"To think that’s all viewership. There are people making money on YouSpace, so it must be for a reason. Maybe she’s earning close to three times my salary in a single day…."
"Are you planning to stream too?"
"We’re not in the position to stream; we’re more like the ones attacking terrorists occupying the broadcasting station."
"Haha."
It was indeed a morbid joke. However, it wasn’t exactly wrong. What special forces do is precisely that—though it was also somewhat realistic since they had dealt with terrorists occupying broadcasting stations in the past.
Amidst such unsettling talk, the two became immersed in the fact that there were 500,000 viewers. They were assigned to the chat and began to engage actively.
In the midst of this, a ding sound rang out. It wasn’t from Logan and Rorentina’s devices but from where Yujin was streaming live. At that moment, the expressions of those involved stiffened.
Then, they quickly typed, and a message popped up in the Team Dagger chatroom.
"…Our youngest has a rather unique taste in games."
"That’s a bit dizzying."
Poop Hunter.
Rorentina and Logan learned that there was a game featuring a poop-killing monster that punishes those who have not flushed the toilet in this world.
Of course, no one would want to know about that.
"…Well then, since the mood has settled down a bit, let’s get back to the stories from that time."
Poop Hunter.
Ending a game that sounded like it would smell just from the name concluded the brief settling down. When you cram hundreds of thousands of people with a common denominator into one corner of a chat room, all sorts of nonsense arise, and especially since I had just arrived in Korea a few hours ago, I was the center of attention, a blue-chip rising to the heavens.
Therefore, if you let the viewers run wild, it’s only natural that more people would start expecting something more. Young chicks will eat whatever the mother bird gives them as long as it’s not something they cannot eat at all, but human greed knows no bounds. And so, I only awakened the hearts of those young chicks.
Furthermore, the game itself wasn’t even one I had recommended; it was one that had received the most recommendations from the game recommendation category on my personal Tricky website. Of course, I didn’t want to include such a terrible game in my game library, so I created another account to keep it separate.
Yeah. Once you know the context, you can understand why I suddenly played such a ridiculous game.
Of course…
'…I never expected the seniors who didn’t know the context would come in to watch the stream all of a sudden…!'
Because of that, I had to give a clarification that was utterly unnecessary.
Whether these people would believe me was uncertain, but it was still better than saying nothing at all. If I hadn’t even offered an explanation, my chances of being branded as a weird vyan who likes strange games by Logan and Rorentina would have been significantly higher. Though I felt it was already a bit too late for that…
Anyway, after about 30 minutes of playing that terrible game, I switched back to AFK mode. My real body moved normally again. As the virtual reality mode turned on, the chair that had been converted to allow me to lie down returned to its original form. The box of leftover chocolates caught my eye again.
I popped one into my mouth and popped up a photo on the stream screen. It displayed the grand Incheon Airport Terminal 2. While the airport itself couldn’t be called a major topic, as soon as services for first class started to appear, which I suspected not many of those currently crowding the chat had experienced, everyone began to exclaim in admiration.
"…This is the first-class check-in counter. This is what it looks like inside, and the next photo shows the various refreshments brought by the staff. Of course, they were delicious."
"Next is the inspection of items and bodies, so I can’t show you that, but let’s quickly move to the inside of the first-class lounge."
At that, even more "wow" responses flooded the chat. It couldn’t be helped; the facilities were impressive. Thinking back, it was more like a small buffet than an actual lounge. That was probably the original intent.
I then began to show the various things I had eaten there. There was a whole abalone porridge, delicious grilled short ribs, fruits and salads, cup noodles and kimchi, poached eggs… of course, I ordered the abalone porridge three times.
As there were three different angles of abalone porridge photos, someone chimed in, seemingly incredulous.
<The person with the nickname "Snake Tail" donated 10,000 won.>
"Thank you for the donation, Snake Tail. But everyone, what you bring back from a trip is always food. I know it’s a bit inappropriate to show food photos at this hour, but I hope you understand."
These days, it seemed that even eating a lot got you looks of disbelief.
Of course, humanity's three basic needs had long since become content in this society. And no matter what these people said, my food photos weren’t about to end. Ignoring the outcry of the viewers, I briefly showed the inside of the duty-free shop, followed by photos depicting the inside of first class on the flight to America.
The first-class seat with my name on it had a storage space for my tail, unlike the other seats. I explained that as well before quickly scanning the chat. Naturally, this time, there were a plethora of people yelling that they wanted to smash their heads in, calling it a toilet, and as a response to their kindness, I hit them with a wide area 10-minute ban.
Damn fools.
"This is not your everyday banter, everyone. If you create this much noise, I can’t help but react. So please stay quiet for ten minutes."
As always, the chat quickly quieted down. Of course, that didn’t mean it was truly silent; it just meant the frequency of nonsense chatter had decreased.
Meanwhile, the screen showed an airplane preparing for takeoff. The roar of the aircraft soared, and the ground quickly receded. Only after reaching a high enough altitude to capture the entire skyline of Seoul did the plane turn toward the East Sea. Just a few minutes later, the aircraft entered the airspace over the East Sea and began its long journey toward America.
Of course, the next thing I would show was the meal photos. Unlike the usual airplane meals, they looked more like a course meal. Everyone seemed to understand that part, but when I mentioned that I ate ramen four times during the 16-hour flight, the viewers erupted into laughter.
<This isn't a game! donated 5,000 won.>
"Thank you for the donation. Of course, I asked just in case, and they told me they loaded about 30 packets of ramen onto the flight. So I don’t think there’s a big problem."
As I chatted about this and that, it was almost 3 AM.
In the midst of it, when someone mentioned what I had done in America, I kindly added.
"If I go on about what happened in America like this, I might get into it in just a few hours, but if we start talking about the soloing stories from the Final Championship, it’ll take at least three days."
Of course, that didn’t hold any water.
In this world, there was a sequence and order to things, and if there’s a cause, there’s also an effect. The storytelling stream wouldn’t stop, but I never said I would reveal everything today—though the viewers would be going crazy, that didn’t mean I would be.
In the midst of that, a message flew in through the EnGram.
…Why is that a troublemaker?
Anyway, if you’re really curious about something, it might be good to go ask Harmony when she streams later. Unlike me, she might provide a different story. Though I didn’t say that out loud.
As I calculated when I should push Logan and Rorentina regarding the Invasion mission, my mouth began to describe the past events depicting the Korean representative team landing at JFK Airport in New York.
Of course, it was getting late. There was nothing more to be done. Since today’s stream was meant to be a service, it would be problematic if I stayed up too late.
"I’ll talk about the arrival at the airport, the movement to the accommodation, and the location and internal facilities of the accommodation during the first part of the storytelling broadcast tomorrow. I think I’ve eaten quite a bit of chocolate, so I’m feeling sleepy."
At the same time, I waved my tail toward the drone cam.
"Goodnight to all of you."
The cam turned off.
And—
Goodnight, indeed.
The nearly 500,000 viewers were all thrown out of Vyan’s embrace.
It was the same old routine.
tyfc