[Something Huge Just Dropped!!!!]
Author: Pepe
—FRIEDE VS STK – The Showdown of the Century! STK! Are they gods? Friede! Is she a goddess? At last, the ultimate match between Warden and Friede is happening! Stay tuned to the channel!
[OO: What is this idiot saying? I actually got excited for a second.]
[nKimKkaetulLakkuEo: Huh? What’s this? What’s happening?]
[nOO: Huh? For real? The news is already up on Outven.]
[LyaSergei: Is Pepe a staff member or what?]
[nJikgutterBelt: Come to think of it, this guy’s rumors about Friede are oddly accurate… Found it! You’re the culprit!]
[Pepe: What are you saying, idiots…]
***
[Surely they won’t treat this event half-heartedly, right?]
Author: IlgwangSogeom
—It’s Friede VS Warden. Of course, with the Streamer Team and the STK Team, balance has been completely thrown out the window. Still, if we’re lucky, we might see a one-on-one duel between Warden and Friede. They’re people too, so they’d already sense the tension and go full tryhard mode, right? Haha.
[NunaEatingMidir: I’m not sure about the others, but Warden and Friede probably will.]
[Theminator: But I’m a bit uneasy since it’s not a one-on-one in the arena like with the Lotus event. What if one side backs out for some reason?]
[LAmPadu: Haha, if that happens, riots will break out immediately.]
[WashBasin: Who said that? Who suggested backing out? Kill them with the Gold Staff!]
***
[Is it just me, or does it feel like STK is getting strangely entangled with Friede lately?]
Author: yaSergei
—Even during the last Rumble, they seemed to be pushing the Lotus vs. Friede narrative hard, and now Friede is invited as a guest streamer again. Are they trying to set Friede up as the face of their franchise? If they combine STK’s name value with Friede’s popularity, it could skyrocket.
[KimKkaetulLakku: It’s true. After the Rumble finals, it feels like they’ve been clinging to Friede nonstop.]
[NunaEatingMidir: For someone like Friede, it makes sense for STK to be interested. Do they even have another streamer besides Boxer and Baker at Friede’s level?]
[DustCollectsDebt: Does Friede look like a cash cow to them?]
[Loo: She looks like gold, though?]
[nLAmPadu: Crazy bastards, lol.]
[nTheminator: Ever since Friede revealed her face, there’s been an explosion of creeps harassing her.]
[nJikgutterBelt: Seriously, Friede needs to bring on the era of mass lawsuits one of these days.]
[Loo: Well, you can’t catch everyone with the net.]
[nIlgwangSogeom: If you investigate thoroughly, you can catch anyone, my guy…]
***
A new buzz has emerged in the Soul Warfare Outven community.
It’s the event match hosted by the STK organization, plastered all over the news.
Unlike the previous Rumble tournament, this event has a condensed one-day schedule.
If it were just that, people might glance at it out of curiosity and then move on, losing interest.
In fact, it might have been mocked for hogging the news with a trivial event.
But the thumbnail image featuring me was enough to make anyone hover their mouse and click on it.
‘Ah, what is this sudden rush of heat to my face?’ It felt like I was holding hand warmers to my cheeks, radiating warmth nonstop.
My lips betrayed my embarrassment and shyness as they curled upward, and I could feel the shift in my facial muscles.
If someone could read my thoughts, it would be the kind of cringe-worthy moment that makes you want to kick the blankets in shame.
Still, as I endured my excessive embarrassment, I eventually began rationalizing it.
‘It’s silly to praise myself, but what can I do?’
“If it looks good, it’s pretty.”
Honestly, anyone would say I look pretty.
People say it’s hard to judge your own face objectively, but with this much difference, that saying feels utterly baseless.
Claiming this level of beauty is “ordinary” would actually be rude.
Anyway, putting aside thoughts about my face, I checked the reactions to the news article.
Fortunately, the responses were quite enthusiastic.
If this had happened before I was summoned to this world, how would I have felt about my face being plastered on the news for such an event?
I’d probably have been so filled with worry and anxiety that I’d lose sleep over it.
That’s what anxiety is—fretting over unresolved problems until your mind and spirit are drained.
The excessive tension would serve as a stimulant until the day of the event, but as soon as it began, the balance would collapse, and my mental state would crumble into a ridiculous mess.
Excessive attention is said to shrink one’s heart, but even when my face was plastered all over the site, I felt no particular reaction.
It’s not like I’m in a position to shy away from it.
Attention is a good thing—the more, the better.
Without it, I’m the type of person who would wither and die, like flower seeds scattered on asphalt under the scorching sun.
“Let’s see who’s participating.”
I scanned through the details of this tournament.
Although I had received the schedule earlier, I didn’t know which important streamers were on the team.
It felt odd that even the team members had kept this secret from each other.
I wondered if this was just my imagination, but it somehow felt advantageous for STK.
“Gunder, Haldir, Bisu… These are all familiar names.”
There were other streamers, but including myself, more than half of them had participated in the Rumble tournament.
It gave off the impression that they just picked the team based on Rumble participants.
Thinking about it, it made sense.
‘How many streamers have secured a spot in the highest tier?’
Looking at the list of streamers in the announcement, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed that Dayoung’s name wasn’t there.
She’s barely holding onto her Grandmaster rank, but who would’ve thought she wouldn’t be invited?
She even made it to the quarterfinals, so I thought for sure she’d make it in.
But in the end, all I could do was feel regret.
It’s not like I could wrestle with the organizers to force them to add Dayoung.
More importantly, “what should I do about today’s stream?”
“Should I skip it?”
It was a pointless rhetorical question.
‘If I started streaming now, I’d be bombarded with endless questions and wouldn’t be able to focus on the game.’
‘Otherwise, I’d end up repeating answers to the same questions with slightly different wording, like a parrot, throughout the stream.’
It would feel awkward, like I was hosting a justification broadcast.
You might say it’s no different from the post-Rumble afterparty stream, but people act more on emotion than logic, don’t they?
Rather than just skipping a stream, maybe… Yeah, it’s better to offer something new after the break.
I can’t keep milking gameplay streams forever, after all.
Come to think of it, my streaming content has been pretty monotonous.
The only somewhat unique content I’ve done was the editor competition.
‘Is there a fresher idea?’
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t come up with anything.
To be honest, I might be one of the streamers with the least input.
My streams so far have been coasting off my gaming skills.
Now that I’ve become a major streamer, it’s time to build some sophistication to match.
So… it’s time to study.
It’s nothing fancy.
I just need to gather information.
I searched on YouTube with the straightforward term, “streaming content ideas.”
“Heh, there’s a lot.”
Contrary to my initial worry that such a simple search wouldn’t yield anything useful, the results were quite diverse.
There were even entire video series organized into playlists.
“20 Tips for Small Streamer Growth,” “Interactive Content Ideas,” “Proven Ways to Succeed in Streaming,” and so on.
I didn’t know where to start, but the video lengths were daunting.
After scrolling up and down repeatedly with my mouse wheel, I ended up just closing YouTube altogether.
Yup, studying over.
I figured it’d be better to hear advice from experienced people.
I summoned everyone in the “Hero Room” channel on Alpha Code.
***
[Friede: Rise and shine, early birds!]
[Ajin: I’m up!]
[Forming: What now –]
[Pepe: What scheme are you up to now, BitcheeSehee?]
The reactions were swift and consistent as always.
[Friede: I need new streaming content ideas.]
[Forming: ??? Why?]
[Forming: -Typing a message-]
[Forming: Why don’t you just stream gameplay like usual? The tide isn’t just coming in; it’s a flood. What kind of content are you talking about?]
[Pepe: Someone’s gotten spoiled.]
[Friede: I want to try streaming with a different concept. Taking suggestions.]
[Forming: Out of nowhere like this…?]
The channel fell silent, like everyone was buffering their thoughts.
It’s not like they could conjure up ideas on the spot as if they were magical tools.
After about 30 seconds of nothing, just as I was about to start typing again…
[Ajin: V-vlog? What about that?]
[Pepe: No idea.]
Turns out, there was a magical tool in this room.
[Friede: Vlog?]
[Ajin: Y-yeah, you could film your daily life. Your fans… would probably love it.]
‘Vlog videos, huh? The explanation made it sound like a decent idea.’
[Forming: That’s not bad. Just shoot anything casually. Throw in some shots of your face, and you’re good for 20,000 viewers.]
[Pepe: Yeah, even Dayoung thinks it’s decent.]
‘If I’m going to film something, might as well do it with others.’
Filming solo with a selfie stick feels awkward.
Once the theme was set, the concept for the content quickly grew and expanded like adding flesh to a skeleton.
And so, I stealthily announced a break, and nothing in this world could stop me.