Chapter 48: Battle of Wits

“Alright, that’s it for today’s stream.”

[+HurryAndLeave: That was fun. ㅋㅋ]

[BB]

[See you next time.]

[Nobody’s trying to make Yotte stay anymore. ]

[No point—he won’t stream again until tomorrow anyway. ]

[Pepe: They’ve finally learned…]

“By the way, I thought we might run into that person again, but we didn’t. I kinda had a feeling we would.”

[Really]

[+HurryAndLeave: I thought there was a chance, but oh well. ㅋㅋ]

[It’s pretty unlikely, to be honest.]

[Pepe: There are way too many battle royale players.]

[Yeah, can’t be helped. ]

Not meeting her again wasn’t disappointing.

Sure, it would’ve been funny, but the game itself was already entertaining enough.

“Alright, I’m ending the stream now.”

With that, I shut it down.

[The stream has ended!]

Yawn.

After confirming the stream had ended, I stretched and flopped onto my bed.

But before dozing off, I checked my phone.

I hadn’t been able to look at messages during the stream, but I figured it was probably from my art teacher.

[Art Teacher: Jaehun]

[Art Teacher: If you have time today, call this number (contact info)]

[Art Teacher: They want to discuss something with you.]

“Hmm.”

Honestly, I felt a little lazy about making the call.

But this was my art teacher—I couldn’t just ignore it.

‘…It’s not too late, so it should be fine.’

Ring, ring.

After a few moments, a deep male voice answered.

“Ah, who is this?”

“Hello, my art teacher told me to reach out to you…”

Since I didn’t know exactly what the job was yet, I couldn’t speak too casually.

Judging by his deep voice, he was probably an older person.

“Ah. It’s nothing complicated—I just need a drawing. We’re looking for a cute illustration to use for an event.”

“I see… but I don’t know anything about the event itself. Could you send me the details via email? It’s hard to get a clear idea just from a call.”

“Understood. I’ll send it over, and you can send me a draft when you have one.”

Click.

The call ended.

Shortly after.

Ding.

An email arrived.

The contents were simple.

Basically, the same thing he said over the phone.

“Hm.”

Lately, a lot of people had been asking for cute illustrations.

Not that I was particularly good at them.

But, oh well.

With that thought, I started sketching.

Swish, swish.

‘It’s just a draft.’

No need to put in too much effort.

If the client didn’t like it, I’d have to redo it anyway.

I quickly sketched a cute cat and sent it over.

Then.

Riiing.

The phone rang immediately.

‘Already?!’

Surprised, I answered.

“Hello?”

“Let’s go with this.”

“…You don’t want to see any other options?”

“No, this is perfect.”

“…Alright, then. I’ll finalize this illustration and send multiple angles.”

“Looking forward to it.”

Click.

The call ended.

I was slightly stunned.

In all my time doing illustrations, I’d never had a draft approved this quickly.

‘…What just happened?’

My drawing skills had definitely improved, but this fast of an approval? That was unexpected.

Still feeling a bit curious about it, I quickly finalized the illustration from multiple angles and sent it via email.

The next day.

As usual, I started my stream.

“You know, I’ve been seeing a lot of good food lately. There’s a pho place that opened in my neighborhood, and I thought about going… but, you know, going alone felt a bit awkward.”

[+HurryAndLeave: A lot of people eat pho alone, though.]

[Yeah, of all foods, pho is totally fine to eat solo. ㅋㅋ]

[Yotte’s more introverted than I thought. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

[I went to a grilled eel restaurant alone and cooked the eel myself. ㄹ]

[Pepe: Bro, you should really eat with other people. ㅋㅋ]

[Viewers: 741]

741 viewers.

Compared to before, the number was insane.

Honestly, it felt a bit overwhelming.

All I had done was sit in my room, talk about random things, and do what I wanted—yet somehow, my audience had exploded.

I figured luck played a big role in this.

There was no way I could’ve grown this much otherwise.

“Alright, let’s get started with today’s game.”

[+HurryAndLeave: What game are we playing today?]

[Yeah, what’s on the menu?]

[Kinda miss when we could vote on games. Feels unfair now. ㅠㅠ]

[Would be nice to have a poll again.]

[Pepe: Maybe he actually wants to play certain games now?]

[Yeah, it’s always best when the streamer plays what they want. ㅋㅋ]

They weren’t wrong.

These days, I actually had a lot of things I wanted to do on stream.

That’s why I hadn’t been doing polls as often.

“Today… we’re playing battle royale.”

Battle royale games were really fun.

They fit my playstyle perfectly.

That’s why I was playing for the second day in a row.

[Damn, must’ve been really fun if you’re playing it again. ㅋㅋ]

[You almost never play the same game two days straight.]

[This is hilarious. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

[+HurryAndLeave: To be fair, yesterday’s stream was amazing.]

[Alright, let’s goooo.]

[By the way, what happened with that person from yesterday?]

[Pepe: Did they send another friend request?]

“Nope. I guess they weren’t that interested in playing again? Some people are fine meeting once, but playing multiple times can feel like a hassle.”

Joking around, I launched the game.

Dundun.

By now, the background music was familiar.

As I entered the lobby.

Ding!

A friend request popped up.

From an extremely familiar name.

[XiRuiShen has sent you a friend request!]

“Hm?”

[+HurryAndLeave: What the hell? ㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

[Yukine, hi]

[User has been temporarily removed.]

[They sent a request right after you mentioned them. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

[How did they send a request as soon as you launched the game?]

[They were totally watching the stream. ㄹㄹ]

[Pepe: At this point, can we just call them by name?]

[Pepe: There’s literally no other way to refer to them.]

“Just call them ‘Guo-in’ instead. No need to mention their actual name.”

It seemed better than outright saying a streamer’s name on my stream.

[Guo-in. hi]

[Why does that sound like an actual name? ]

[+HurryAndLeave: No words.]

[You might as well just call her ‘the girl’ instead. ‘Guo-in’ is insane. ]

[Pepe: Wait… is that just ‘Chinese person’ shortened?!]

[Pepe: I cannot believe this.]

After deciding on a nickname for her, I accepted the friend request.

Considering how long she waited before sending it, she must’ve been serious about playing together.

[Friend request accepted!]

Then, moments later.

“Hiyo.”

Guo-in suddenly barged into my party uninvited.

“Huh? How did you get in? I didn’t even send an invite.”

“Oh? If you’re friends, you can join parties whenever you want.”

“…Ah.”

That explained it.

For a second, I wondered how she got in so fast—but apparently, the game had that feature.

“Anyway, why’d you send a friend request all of a sudden?”

“Come on, same reason as before. I just wanted to play together. You’re not against it, are you?”

“I don’t mind.”

“Then let’s start the next match right away!”

And just like that, we queued up for a duo match.

But first.

“You’re not eating anything right now, are you?”

I had a bad feeling.

“Oh, I’m eating Chocobi.”

“…If you eat that much, you’re gonna gain weight.”

“Nah, I don’t gain weight.”

“…A lot of people say that—and then do gain weight.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not one of them.”

Guo-in confidently spouted nonsense.

[LOOOOOOL]

[+HurryAndLeave: No, but for real, she’s always eating something.]

[And of all things, Chocobi? Respect.]

[ㄹㄹ Chocobi is legit top-tier.]

[Why are they already having a power struggle? ]

[Tbh, these kinds of standoffs are the most fun.]

“Guo-in, let’s do well this time. Don’t overextend for no reason.”

“…Guo-in? You’re not talking about me, right?”

“I am.”

“Excuse me?”

I had no further explanation to offer.

The name had already stuck.

[+HurryAndLeave: LOOOOOOL]

[Bro, what? ]

[Weren’t we just using that nickname amongst ourselves?]

[Pepe: Nah, it’s official now. She is Guo-in.]

[Guo-in <<< Lowkey fits really well. ㅋㅋ]

[THE GREAT GUO-IN.]

[Weirdly enough, the name makes her more likable. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

“Think of it as a cute nickname, so don’t hate it too much. It’s adorable—‘Guo-in’ just works.“

“It’s not cute at all.”

“Noted.”

As I was casually bantering with Guo-in.

Ding!

A match was found.