Chapter 56: Systematization.

I wanted to accept as many café membership requests as possible, but realistically, that wasn’t feasible.

Right now, there was only one person managing the café.

Sure, handling things at the current scale wasn’t too difficult, but if the number of members suddenly skyrocketed, it would become overwhelming.

It was better to regulate the growth properly.

I didn’t want the café turning into a mess later on.

“I’ll be accepting applications for five minutes. If I leave it open too long, it’ll be too much to go through.”

[+HurryAndLeave: LOL.]

[Yeah, it’s better to keep it short.]

[If you take too long, things could get out of hand.]

[Pepe: Just let in the verified ones.]

[Pepe: I don’t want to deal with weirdos in here.]

That was a good point, so I started filtering out the weird ones first.

For example.

[CEX]

“Permanent ban.”

People who put stuff like that in their application reason.

Not funny.

Not clever.

I asked for a reason, and that’s what they went with?

[+HurryAndLeave: LOLLLLL.]

[Yeah, instant ban is the right call.]

[This is hilarious though LOL.]

[Dude just threw that in out of nowhere…]

[Imagine wanting it that badly. I kinda get it, honestly.]

[What do you mean you get it, SB LOL.]

[Pepe: No time, let’s move on to the next one.]

Shaking my head, I quickly moved to the next applicant.

[I frequently watch Yott’s live streams, and I’d love to engage with the community in the café. If you accept my request, I’ll be an active participant!]

A textbook-perfect response.

The kind you’d expect to see in a job application or something.

And for that reason… it didn’t really stand out.

“Hmm… I’ll put this one on hold for now.”

[+HurryAndLeave: ?]

[???]

[That was a normal application, though?]

[What’s the issue LOL.]

[Why is this one on hold?]

[Pepe: Is it because it’s too boring?]

[Oooh, yeah, that makes sense.]

“They’re fine, but… there’s no wit. I feel like a bit of humor would make the café a more enjoyable place.”

It was a simple reason.

The café was meant to be fun, and if someone too bland was actively participating, it might kill the vibe.

[Unbelievable LOL.]

[So the guy who was being too entertaining got permabanned instantly, huh?]

[+HurryAndLeave: It’s just his personal preference, that’s all.]

[Nothing we can do about it LOL.]

[If he wants to ban, he bans.]

[Pepe: Good. I like this.]

Even the moderator seemed to agree.

From their perspective, having interesting people in the café would make moderation easier, too.

Thinking that, I continued reviewing membership applications one by one.

[Uhh… budadadadadadadaat pururururuk.]

“…Yeah, I might have to ban this Twis account too.”

Normally, I’d just let things slide, but this was too much.

For the sake of my viewers’ eye health, I had to ban them.

Leaving them unchecked could lead to a sudden flood of disturbing images in the café later.

[+HurryAndLeave: LOL.]

[Yeah, just ban them immediately.]

[I did not come here to see that kind of stuff…]

[Seriously, that kind of thing is disgusting LOL.]

[Pepe: So we’ve accepted about five people now?]

[005 members.]

Man, this was exhausting.

I’d been reviewing applications for nearly 30 minutes, and I’d only let in five people.

As I was wondering how to handle this.

A great idea popped into my head.

‘It’s never good to concentrate too much power in one person’s hands.’

So, I decided to give the moderator café admin privileges as well.

Pepe had been handling moderation just fine so far, but with more people joining, managing everything alone would become difficult.

And judging by how they handled things on stream, I figured they’d do a good job.

“Alright, I think we’ll stop accepting applications for today. If we keep going, this stream will never end.”

[+HurryAndLeave: Oh, nice.]

[Yeah, let’s just check the poll already.]

[Reore GG, Reore GG, Reore GG.]

[Pepe: So you’re just adding five more members and calling it?]

[Looks like only five made it LOL.]

[This is really an elite club.]

[Unbelievable.]

“I’m going to leave the rest of the membership approvals to the mod and the original café admin. I’ve been watching their chat messages for a while, and they’ve always been funny, so I think they’ll do a good job.”

And I meant that.

I usually remembered the nicknames of regular viewers, and those two had never once sent a dull message.

Their chat was always entertaining.

[+HurryAndLeave: Heh.]

[Pepe: Heh.]

[These two are solid picks, honestly.]

[Compared to some of the real freaks in chat, they’re pretty normal LOL.]

[Yeah, some of the others aren’t even human at this point.]

[LOL.]

With that, the café membership issue was settled. Now, it was time to check the poll results.

“Alright, let’s see the survey results.”

Which option had the highest votes today?

Curious, I revealed the final poll.

“Oh… This one came in first place.”

[+HurryAndLeave: Ah.]

[+HurryAndLeave: Sigh…]

[Damn LOL.]

[Reore it is.]

[Let’s go Reore! Let’s go Reore! Let’s go Reore! Let’s go Reore! Let’s go Reore!]

[Who the hell picked this…?]

[Pepe: Reore is fun, stop forcing a negative take.]

[Why is it always Reore, man…]

It seemed like everyone had collectively decided on Reore today.

Or maybe it was just because I hadn’t played it in a while, so they all voted for it.

“Alright, just a heads-up—I might suck since it’s been a while. Bear with me.”

I set expectations low on purpose.

With Reore, if you didn’t play regularly, your skills would tank.

After throwing in that disclaimer, I launched the game.

[+HurryAndLeave: Reore… this is rough.]

[Mod, just accept your fate, lol.]

[No matter how much you complain, he’s not switching games.]

[Pepe: This is hilarious LOL.]

[Reore is fun, why do y’all hate it so much? LOL.]

As I was wondering which role to play today.

Ding!

A friend request popped up.

Ever since I started streaming, I had been getting random friend requests here and there, so I casually glanced at the username.

But then.

“Huh?”

[XiRuishen has sent you a friend request!]

A familiar username appeared.

[??]

[Huh, what the—?]

[Isn’t that that person?]

[Pepe: What’s going on?]

[+HurryAndLeave: How did they even find you?]

[They must’ve used the eye of their heart LOL.]

[O]

I hadn’t expected a friend request on Reore.

Feeling a little caught off guard, I accepted it.

I needed to check if it was really that person.

[Me: Hey,]

[Me: Are you the same person from the battle royale game?]

“…It’s got to be Guo-in.”

I mean, how many people in the world would use such a ridiculous username?

If it wasn’t them, then it had to be nobody.

And just as I was thinking that—

Ding!

[XiRuishen has invited you to a party!]

Guo-in had invited me.

At this point, I was sure.

It was definitely the same person I met in the battle royale game.

[+HurryAndLeave: Guo-in LOL.]

[Meeting here again, huh?]

[Too funny.]

[Why are they following you all the way to Reore?]

[Pepe: You should join and talk in voice chat.]

The fact that we were even crossing paths on Reore was absurd.

Feeling a mix of amusement and exasperation, I accepted the invite.

And the moment I did.

An incredibly familiar voice came through.

“Mmm, this kinda sucks.”

The voice was so recognizable that I couldn’t help but smile.

“Guo-in?”

“Ah, hey there.”

“…Why’d you invite me all of a sudden?”

“Dunno, just randomly thought of you.”

They just happened to randomly think of me and send a friend request right when I launched Reore?

A truly suspicious and cunning scheme.

But whatever.

I decided to believe them.

It wasn’t like they had any bad intentions.

“Since we’re here, wanna play a match? I’ve got time.”

“Ooh, let’s go.”

“What role are you playing?”

“Uh… I can play any position.”

“Hmm…”

A lie.

They had lied instantly after opening their mouth.

Finding it ridiculous, I assigned them a role myself.

“Alright, then go support.”

“Eh? I don’t know how to play support.”

“…Didn’t you just say you could play any position?”

“Ah.”

[+HurryAndLeave: LOLLLLL.]

[What kind of checkmate was that? LOL.]

[As expected of Yott, master of checkmates.]

[Damn, got stuck with the most boring role just like that.]

[Pepe: By the way, isn’t Guo-in eating again? Somebody say something.]

[Pepe: This person is always snacking.]

Now that they mentioned it, I could hear chewing sounds.

Just how much money did they have to be constantly eating like this?

Curious, I asked.

“What are you eating this time?”

And after a brief pause.

I received a shocking answer.