Chapter 18
Sleep wouldn't come.
It was usually like that whenever I slept somewhere unfamiliar.
I'd lived with insomnia even in my previous life, but I'd never found it inconvenient.
“I thought you'd disappeared somewhere again. Did you leave the bed and sleep in the capsule?”
Professor Cheon asked as he handed me toast spread with strawberry jam.
“The capsule is more comfortable...”
The mysterious object inside the unidentified box was none other than a virtual-reality capsule.
Judging by its worn appearance, he'd apparently kept an old one instead of throwing it away.
“I have to go to work until the end of this week, so I'm sorry I can't stay with you. I'll be back by dinner at the latest, so would delivery food be all right for lunch?”
“I like delivery food.”
I'd never gotten to try it at the orphanage. I was curious about how it tasted.
Professor Cheon repeatedly apologized that the university was so far from his home before leaving the house.
He really didn't need to go out of his way to mention my rabbit-ear pajamas, though.
Even after he left, I slowly savored the toast he'd made for me and was able to eat breakfast for the first time in a very long while.
‘What am I really going to do now?’
My time had suddenly become completely free.
Winter vacation wasn't over, so I didn't have to go to school, either.
I had no reason to stream desperately to earn money. Or should I at least earn enough for my potions, since I felt bad relying on him for everything?
I swam through wave after wave of thoughts, then decided to search for delivery food when I thought of it.
‘Chicken, pizza, tteokbokki, naengmyeon... kimchi-pizza-tang?’
There were foods that had once been familiar, as well as foods with names I couldn't make heads or tails of.
I wasn't planning to order anything yet, but I entered the card number into the AI to find out in advance how to place an order.
[Sehan Card entered: This card has already been registered.]
[Owner verification in progress: NoName confirmed.]
Nothing special happened simply because it recognized me as Professor Cheon Gyu-jin's family.
Just as I thought that,
[The Korea Mana Power Corporation has sent a bill to NoName. Please pay by the due date.
Billing purpose: Writing an unauthorized emergency 3rd-circle spell
Amount due: 481,738 won
Payment deadline: 2051/01/31
For inquiries regarding the bill, please contact the billing company. +More]
A text message that made my blood run cold had been sent to me.
“W... What is this...?”
For a moment, I wondered if it was a phishing message, but the format and official verification mark quickly dispelled my doubts.
With trembling hands, I checked the detailed bill.
[Detailed bill for the 3rd-Circle transmutation array ‘Lithography’ and the use of three multi-spells]
It was the magic I'd once demonstrated for Arin.
I'd heard that using second-circle or higher magic at school required a usage fee, but because I could manipulate mana without any particular restrictions, I'd mistakenly thought that only certain spells incurred charges.
When an amount of nearly five hundred thousand won was thrust before me, my vision went dark.
‘Since today is Monday the 23rd... They want me to pay by next Tuesday?’
Where was I supposed to get that kind of money?
‘Ah...!’
The card Professor Cheon had given me.
Or had the government decided that I was capable of paying?
But I couldn't bring myself to use a card he'd given me to buy nothing more than lunch to pay such an enormous bill.
“No, I have to earn it somehow.”
Put your brain to work, Name. What good is having a clever head if you don't use it?
Since I was still a minor, I obviously couldn't borrow from loan sharks. I had a particularly terrible history with them and didn't want anything to do with them.
Then streaming was the only option, but the problem was that even on a good day, I earned less than fifty thousand won.
Even if I worked for eight full days, four hundred thousand won would still leave me far short.
‘But I don't have any other way.’
The secondhand capsule where I'd spent the night shimmered in my sight.
What a twisted fate.
Without even giving myself time to think, I climbed into the capsule.
* * *
[Donation Goal: ₩500,000 (0%)]
-Hi hi
-Hi, streamer
-Why is this person's nickname blank? What do we call them?
-So we just call them streamer.
“Hello.”
-Why didn't you start the stream yesterday?
-You suddenly ended it for no reason, too.
-But what's with the donation goal? lolㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Gasp
-500k incoming lol
-Is the streamer short on money?
“Yes.”
-Guess they have rent to pay
-Maybe they caught a disease where they'll die if they don't smoke forty packs right now
-Are cigarettes over ten thousand won a pack these days?
-Yeah;;
“I have to pay it by next week.”
-Ah-ha
-But we don't have any money
-For real lol
“You could say it's urgent.”
['DivingIsMyHobby' donated 1,000 won!]
-Streamer, will you play games too?
[Donation Goal: ₩1,000 / ₩500,000 (0.2%)]
-The streamer just got stars in their eyes at the donation window lol
-You're earning peanuts; when are you ever going to fill it?
“I'll consider it.”
['SaveTheGradStudent' donated 1,000 won!]
-Guess you don't really like games?
“Yes.”
-Isn't this when grad students are supposed to be working?
-It's vacation.
-Since when do grad students get vacations?
-Even if there's no vacation, I have time to watch the stream;;
-If you're not going to play games on Twitch, what are you even streaming for?
This was a little difficult.
Clearly, as the viewers said, playing games was an essential rite of passage for anyone streaming on Twitch.
The proportion of Just Chatting streams was overwhelmingly lower than on other platforms.
It was too late to switch platforms now...
So this time, I decided to trust the wisdom of the crowd.
Like contestants on a TV quiz show using the Ask the Audience lifeline.
“What would you pay me to do?”
-This person isn't even trying to hide that they're asking for money lolㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-The streamer is usually pretty no-filter
-Play a game
-If you play Resonance, even a nobody like you could pull fifty viewers.
It wasn't much help.
So this time, I decided to use my connections.
[WhenHyejiBecomesNight – In Game 2:31:54]
[(Outgoing)WhenHyejiBecomesNight: How can I make a lot of money through streaming?]
I sent a message to the only person currently online in my friends list.
Maybe she was in-game and couldn't respond.
But unexpectedly, she replied very quickly.
Enough to even leave the game she was playing.
[WhenHyejiBecomesNight – Waiting Room 2:32:08]
[WhenHyejiBecomesNight: What the hell? Were you hacked?]
[WhenHyejiBecomesNight: No, that can't be it. What is this...? Wait... You suddenly went dark for half a year, and now you're talking about streaming?]
“I need money urgently.”
[WhenHyejiBecomesNight: If it's not too much, I'll lend it to you.]
“It's because I don't want to accept help from someone else.”
[WhenHyejiBecomesNight: What's that notification sound? Are you streaming right now?]
[WhenHyejiBecomesNight: Wait a minute. Hide the stream and invite me to the waiting room.]
“I'll hide the screen for a moment, so please bear with me.”
[NoName – Waiting Room 00:08:17]
A small, drab three-pyeong room.
[WhenHyejiBecomesNight accepted your invitation]
[Moving to NoName's Waiting Room]
Before long, a circular summoning array unfolded.
“Hey!”
A woman with a fluttering pink ponytail grabbed my shoulders and shook me violently.
“You disappeared without even logging in! And then you just left us that weird message!”
Her nickname was ‘WhenHyejiBecomesNight.’
Her name was Yusia.
A top-tier player who used an alt account to charm various male streamers.
But none of that mattered; she was simply a precious clan member to me.
Even when I couldn't speak or move, she was someone precious who simply stayed by my side.
“I'm back. Sorry I couldn't contact you.”
“So you decided to drop the whole persona? Good thinking, our Name!”
“It's not Name, Sia. It's Name. NoName.”
“You want me to call you Name?”
“Yeah. That's my name.”
“Okay, whatever.”
Sia took it lightly. She probably thought everything I said was a joke, too.
“I had so much I wanted to ask you. For one thing, where have you been all this time, and why are you only logging into VR now?”
She asked while fiddling with my hair. She stroked it and twirled it around her finger. They were habits she always had when meeting me.
“A lot happened. I went to school and found a home.”
“You were still a student? I had a feeling you were young. Pyo Min-jun was always dying to slander you by calling you an old man, you know?”
“I don't really care.”
“That sounds like you. But what did you mean about needing money?”
“I used magic recklessly. They said I have to pay a usage fee...”
“Exactly how much?”
“About 481,738 won.”
“What on earth did you do?”
Sia was planning to continue the conversation with me sitting on her lap.
My shoulders were lifted lightly, my body rising into the air before settling into her embrace.
“So you need to make money, right? Then want to duo with me and climb the ranks? There's nothing better for making money than reaching a tier. You're still Bronze, after all.”
“Will people pay for that?”
“If I simulcast it through my account, we'll have enough viewers. I needed to find an excuse to make my comeback anyway. But I want to keep talking with you while we play. Is that okay?”
“That's fine. As long as it's nothing too personal.”
“Great! Strike while the iron's hot, so we're starting today, okay? I'm going to turn on my stream right now and announce the collab, so go tell your viewers, too. I'll send the co-stream request at one after lunch. No backing out!”
The mischievous pink-haired girl said her piece and vanished from the waiting room with a poof.
Sia had always been like this. She also seemed unusually high-energy today.
A game...
Rather than thinking of it as a game, I thought it would be easier to stream if I treated it like going on a date with her. I'd have to brainwash myself into it, at least.
“I'm back.”
-All the viewers have already left
-Did you meet up with a real-life friend? Or just a gaming buddy?
-So what are we doing now? (Seriously, I don't know)
“We're doing a LoL collab today. I don't know if you know her, but with ‘WhenHyejiBecomesNight.’ We might try to climb all the way to Master together.”
-????
-The Hye-Bam I know?
-What bullshit are you spouting now? lol
-A stream suspiciously designed to bait people
Public sentiment is bad. Apparently, I'd been wrong.
“Then... Grandmaster? Challenger?”