Chapter 18
Sizzle!
Beef was placed on the hot grill.
Garlic, mushrooms, green onions, and kimchi filled the empty spaces on the grill.
Sizzle, sizzle.
The juices thickened and bubbled, making delicious sounds as they cooked.
“I’m hungry. This looks delicious,” Taewoo said, sitting next to Seojun.
Seojun nodded in agreement.
Seojun always felt especially hungry after logging out of virtual reality.
‘Usually, you gain weight during your senior year of high school.’
This is because mental activities like studying surprisingly burn fewer calories.
Even if you use your brain intensively, you only burn about 1.5 kcal per minute, whereas even light walking burns 4 kcal per minute.
Intense exercise can burn up to 10 kcal, but because exam students feel like they’re expending a lot of energy, they end up eating more than they burn.
‘Virtual reality is the opposite.’
Even though it’s a mental activity, it doesn’t have the same high perceived calorie burn as studying, so most people don’t feel intense hunger like Seojun does.
Seojun thought his severe hunger might be due to his low assimilation rate.
People with a high assimilation rate don’t feel tired even after spending all day in virtual reality.
It means their brains are well-suited to virtual reality and use energy efficiently.
So Seojun inevitably used a lot of energy.
He felt that streaming in the real world was much easier.
“Hello, everyone,” Taewoo said, waving at the streaming camera set up at the end of the table.
-Taewoo
-That looks so delicious.
-I’m drooling.
-Give me some meat too.
They each looked at the chat on their phones.
The current viewer count was in the mid-20,000s.
At peak times, the viewer count briefly exceeded 30,000, as Alpaca had mentioned.
This meant they had hit it big.
Currently, the Travel broadcast category was changed to a mukbang (eating show).
All that was left was to chat casually, eat, and then wrap up.
-Is that why today’s stream is canceled?
-Taewoo, finish eating and start streaming again. Health comes second to streaming.
-Taewoo
-Why are you there?
Chat messages from people who seemed to be Taewoo’s viewers started coming in.
Since he was also a mid-tier streamer, it was clear that many of the 20,000 viewers were his fans.
Alpaca flipped the meat and spoke.
“Why is Taewoo here? I also found it interesting how relationships work. It turns out he’s a close friend of Seojun’s. This collaboration offer came through Taewoo.”
-Oh?
-Taewoo, if you had such a cool friend, you should’ve brought him on your stream sooner, lol.
-For real, lol.
“That’s right. I brought him into the world of streaming,” Taewoo said, trying to put his hand on Seojun’s shoulder, but Seojun blocked it.
-Stunned, lol.
-That’s fascinating. How did you guys meet?
Seojun answered, “We met in high school and became close friends. After graduating, we lived together…”
But the reaction was unusual.
-Woh lolol
-ㅁㅊWhat? That person living with you is Seojun?” Hahaha
Viewers who knew Taewoo were laughing heartily, while those who didn’t were curious about why they were laughing.
The other three also turned their heads toward Taewoo.
“?? What’s this?”
“Why are only you guys laughing?”
Taewoo seemed momentarily flustered.
“Guys, it’s not that funny, right? Haha. Hey, our stream viewers, try to be a bit more perceptive.”
[‘No Way’ made a generous donation of 1,000 won! – travel clip]
A video donation was activated.
Shortened to “Yongdo,” it was a donation form that showed a clip from iTube that had no copyright issues.
The clip sent by the viewer was from Taewoo.
The video started playing, and Taewoo began speaking.
[Guys, I mentioned that I live with a friend, right? This friend is usually very calm and mature, but sometimes they do such bizarre things that you’d wonder if it’s the same person.]
In the video, Taewoo appeared to have just started the broadcast.
[Yeah, yeah, the one where they scrubbed their phone with soap. No kidding. But what they did yesterday was… I did a long broadcast yesterday.]
Alpaca and Lee Su-han looked at Seojun this time, wondering if such events had really happened.
[So, after ending the broadcast, I thought the capsule was too hot and that I needed to keep the cooler on, so I asked them to cool the capsule while I took a shower.]
[When I came out, I saw them squatting next to the capsule, fanning it with a serious expression. Haha. No, guys, this is not a prank, it’s real. They could have used a fan instead, but they didn’t.]
– Is this real? Hahaha
– Are they insane?
– This completely clears up any doubts about the donation scam.
– Just don’t touch anything. Hahaha
– Breaking news: Lee Su-han went to check if his capsule was broken.
– There are many more legendary stories. Hahaha
Seojun, while firmly stepping on Taewoo’s foot under the table, calmly picked up a well-cooked piece of meat.
“Tsk. Eat quickly.”
Seojun listened to Taewoo and Alpaca’s stories about the difficulties of being a streamer, as well as Alpaca and Lee Su-han’s success stories.
It turns out that Lee Su-han was an early viewer of Alpaca’s channel.
At that time, Alpaca didn’t have the money to hire an editor and had just created the channel and left it unattended.
Alpaca was once a small streamer with only about 100 live viewers. That was his past.
Lee Su-han saw potential in Alpaca and suggested they grow the iTube channel together.
At that time, Lee Su-han was a highly regarded editor in his company.
Due to the nature of capsule games, which allow viewers a free view but are visually complex, skilled editors who could handle this well were rare.
Even though Lee Su-han now earns much more from sharing iTube revenue with Alpaca than he did at his company, it was considered a high-risk decision at the time.
Fortunately, the addition of an editor helped Alpaca’s YouTube channel grow, which, in turn, increased live viewership.
“An editor, huh.”
Lee Su-han told Seojun that if he couldn’t find an editor, he would personally edit Seojun’s videos.
Returning home, Seojun took a beer can and went out to the veranda to clear his mind.
He could see the plum tree he had planted from the veranda.
Seojun imagined the plum tree blooming with beautiful red flowers and swept the cold floor of the veranda with his hand.
It felt like the day he first met his mentor.
Although it wasn’t an extremely good memory, it strangely made him feel calm.
“Hmm. What should I do?”
Seojun is currently pondering over iTube.
The people he met today naturally assumed that Seojun would start iTube, as it is a must for anyone wanting to succeed as a streamer.
However.
Seojun’s plan was to enter and win the Rios tournament and then quit streaming once he got the capsule.
That was his initial intention.
The problem is.
Streaming is fun.
Playing games with people is enjoyable.
Watching his gameplay, reacting in various ways, teasing each other, and having fun together.
It’s enjoyable.
Sssst.
Clink.
Seojun opened a can of beer and drank it greedily.
Then, he looked outside calmly and said.
“Was I lonely?”
Perhaps he was.
Remembering a past life is like having a hometown you long for but cannot return to.
“What should I do?”
It was a day of deep thoughts.
At times like this, a simple solution is best.
“I should go to the gym for the first time in a while.”
He needed to move his body.
Lee Dong-su was a key player on a famous professional gaming team.
He woke up early and arrived at a gym frequented by celebrities.
His team had achieved a commendable, if not outstanding, second place in the recent world championship.
However, in the world of sports, if you’re not first, it means nothing.
The coach gave each player drastic special training instructions to prepare for the next year.
Lee Dong-su’s special training involved learning about real-world combat.
“And also doing some physical training.”
The team found a gym through inquiries that guaranteed privacy while also training fighters.
Of course, it wasn’t anything particularly special.
The people exercising went about their routines quietly, and the athletes, though noisy, were friendly.
“Dong-su, you’re here? Go run on the treadmill.”
The gym manager looked down at Dong-su.
He was very tall and muscular, with a rough appearance.
“Not again, manager? Today too?”
“Yes. This is not virtual reality, so your physical strength needs to be solid first.”
Dong-su was unhappy with that comment.
Even though he had only been coming here for two weeks.
“But isn’t it a bit much to only focus on the basics and physical training?”
He could no longer tolerate this treatment.
He was a professional.
A professional from the world’s second-strongest gaming team.
Although there’s a difference between virtual and real worlds, someone with his skill level should be adept at handling physical training as well.
In blunt terms, isn’t it the job of professionals to adapt to all the varying physical specs in games?
### English Translation
—
“You want to learn proper real-world combat, right? Okay?”
The manager scoffed.
Then, as if placating a bothersome child, he waved his hand dismissively and said.
“Alright, alright. Just spar a bit today. So hurry up and run on the treadmill.”
“Great! Can I choose my sparring partner?”
“Sure. Anyway, you won’t be able to beat them all.”
Huff, puff.
Dong-su started running with even more enthusiasm than usual.
At 18 years old.
He had dropped out of school and was living as an exceptional professional athlete, but fundamentally, he was a vigorous high school student.
‘Bring it on.’
His opponent today was likely a fighter, but he was confident he could win.
Recently, he felt like his body had been improving rapidly from his workouts.
He began scanning the people around him while running, thinking about who would be the best to fight first.
‘As long as there’s not too much of a weight class difference…’
At that moment.
The door to the gym opened, and someone who looked remarkably like the streamer he saw yesterday walked in.
A ridiculously good-looking face.
Not just similar, it was him.
The streamer whom his team member had made a fuss about, and whom Dong-su had seen briefly in a clip.
‘He wasn’t that great, though.’
Thanks to his close older teammate, he knew more about Seojun, the streamer, than he wanted to.
‘His face is exactly like his avatar. Wasn’t he just a small-time streamer three days ago? How did he end up here?’
Anyway, it didn’t matter.
He seemed friendly from how he greeted the manager.
And he didn’t look particularly muscular.
‘Perfect.’
He would be just right as Dong-su’s first sparring partner.
