Something Went Wrong.

[You fucking bitch]

[What the fuck, my ears]

[?????]

"Whoa, wow. The chat..."

I was startled when I looked at the chat.

[Ah, that scared me.]

[ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

[Damn, that scared me lol]

If it were my stream, the chat would be full of every kind of profanity. You fucking bitch, you nasty whore, are you insane? Your mom's dead? That kind of fucked-up shit was what I expected.

"Th-the chat's so clean?"

"Isn't that only natural...?"

She looked at me as if to say, 'Why would you even ask that?'

I looked back at her with an expression that said I didn't understand her either.

"No...! In my stream, the chat would be calling me a fucking bitch, a nasty whore, and spewing all kinds of shit!"

"Huh? Your viewers say things like that...?"

We stared at each other, unable to understand one another.

Let's think about it. What was her stream usually like?

She wasn't masculine. No, of course she wasn't, but more precisely, she was the exact opposite of the 'clown' type.

She did soft-spoken radio streams, and even when she laughed, she didn't cackle crudely. She went 'Pfft,' 'Heh,' 'Ahaha.' In other words, she was literally built to cultivate simps.

Of course, I could do that too.

But for me, it was an act. How could a guy who used to have a dick and roll around on the floor cackling suddenly lose his dick and turn into a demure woman who covered her mouth and laughed, 'Oh-ho-ho'?

'So it really comes down to talent.'

Was there an unbridgeable gap between me, a woman now, and people born women?

I raised a hand to my cheek.

'She's right next to me, so no hitting.'

Was it impossible to cross that gap? Did I think I couldn't cross it?

No!!!!!!

It might sound ridiculous to get this worked up over a mere livestream, but I absolutely did not think that!!!!!

"Lee Jia!!!!"

Sahyang jumped in surprise and looked at me.

"P-pleased to meet you! I offer my deepest respects!!!!"

"Ah, no, that's for somewhere else! Not here!!"

She panicked and tried to get me to sit down.

I'd come up with a persona in that short time.

The label often given to empty-headed women: 'four-dimensional.'

Right, I was going to play a four-dimensional girl. No? I was going to become one.

Fortunately, one of my favorite YouTubers was a ditzy airhead, so it wasn't hard to get into character.

"Oh, is this not it? I thought they did this kind of thing on AfreecaTV."

I went outside the room.

"W-what are you trying to do...?"

She spoke toward the door, sounding uneasy.

"Greetings, boss!! Greetings!!"

I came back into the room, shouting at the top of my lungs.

Fortunately, Sahyang's room had a proper soundproof booth, so there was no need to worry about my booming voice leaking out into the rest of the house.

"Greetings— *cough*"

"Pfft."

When I couldn't hold back my secondhand embarrassment and burst out laughing, she also let out a laugh—not that demure one, but her real laugh.

If the camera had been on, it would've been quite a sight.

One of us was trying to act like a tough gangster and ended up crouched on the floor, cackling, while the other was laughing silently, barely able to breathe as she watched.

Leaving Sahyang to laugh silently behind me, I slowly stood up and leaned toward the microphone.

"Ahem. Can you hear me? We're going to pause the stream for a moment."

"D-don't pause it... pfft, heh!"

"Don't pause it? Can we even do this stream properly?"

"No, unnie! This is your fault!"

Could women just look at someone and immediately call her unnie?

I was a little surprised by what she said.

"Right......"

I quietly leaned back in my chair and looked at the screen.

"...Are you going to be quiet?"

"No?"

"Pardon?"

"Atteeention! Private Lee Jia reports! As of July 4, 2023, I have been ordered to transfer from Twitch Battalion to Sahyang Company!!!!!!! I hereby report! Salute!!!!"

It had been seven years since I was discharged, but I still couldn't forget reporting to my new unit.

Now, let's think about this. Did I make this transfer report just to keep up my quirky persona? No.

There's a famous character type in Twitch culture—or, more broadly, internet culture.

It's the 'military-veteran high school girl.'

In short, it's a suspicious woman who suspiciously knows a lot about the military and suspiciously understands men very well.

Well, maybe the definition I knew was different, but basically, she's a woman with such accurate knowledge that you'd wonder if she used to be a man who became a woman.

I dragged the keyboard over and searched for the military song from my old unit.

"Do you know~ its name~ the invincible men! The heroes of Baengma Ridge, whose glorious deeds shine so bright~!"

I recited the military song and burst out laughing.

"W-what are you doing...?"

"No, no, I was trying to do that military-veteran high school girl thing..."

"Unnie, you're not a high school girl."

"What?"

I whipped my head around and glared at her.

Let's think about it. What's the one thing women get most worked up about? Someone bringing up their age.

Actually, when I was young, I never got worked up over being called an old man or an old woman. But once you get older, you start getting worked up over it.

"Hawawa, Jia-chan is a high school girl, you know~."

"W-what's gotten into you...?"

I walked up to her and mouthed the words silently.

'Keep quiet. Or you're dead.'

"Eep."

She covered her mouth with both hands and blinked at me.

[So what are we doing now?]

"What do you think? Fucking having sex."

"Gah!"

She stared at me with her mouth hanging open, then grabbed my hand and led me out of the room.

"Ms. Jia, your stream and mine are sooo different. Our personas and our whole vibe are completely different, so it's really hard for me when you suddenly come in and act like this..."

"Ah. Was I being too much of an internet degenerate?"

"Yes!! No, I keep telling you, I'm mainstream! My viewers aren't that old. Your audience is mostly people in their mid-to-late twenties and early thirties, but mine are teenagers and people in their early twenties."

"Isn't the late teens fine, though?"

"No! I mean... once people get into their late twenties, life wears them down and they get weird, mentally. So they get a little too invested in internet streams..."

"Isn't that kind of insulting your viewers...?"

Then I suddenly remembered how long she'd been streaming.

'So it's true.'

Thinking that, I scanned her from the feet up.

"W-what's with that look?"

She noticed my gaze and hugged herself, her voice trembling.

"Oops..."

"Sigh. Anyway, go back in and finish your stream."

She let out a deep sigh and went back into the room. Sweating nervously at her changed attitude, I followed her.

"All right~ We're starting again!"

She focused on the stream in front of her and worked her energy back up, as if she'd already forgotten my earlier attempt to derail things.

#

Honestly, she was impressive.

It was almost awe-inspiring.

Streaming was all about staying focused for hours at a time. Sure, people with huge audiences didn't always have to stay focused, but that was because they had huge audiences.

In other words, the more money you had, the less focused you were on your work.

When a streamer's viewership grew, they got lazy. Whatever happened to the person who used to read every single chat message back when they were a nobody? Now you had to donate 1,000 won to get noticed, then 5,000 won as they got bigger, then 10,000 won, and so on. The bar kept getting higher.

But she was different.

Even with the chat flying by, she read every single message.

More than that, her viewers were incredibly active in chat.

They weren't just silent viewers watching in the background; they were highly engaged and actually chatting.

That was a huge advantage.

When viewers participated more in chat, the streamer's energy went up, which encouraged even more participation. It all reinforced itself, making it more likely that new viewers would stick around.

"What do you want to eat?"

I wanted to help her, even a little, so I offered to buy her a meal.

"Oh, really? BBQ just added a new item to the menu! Want to get that?"

She seemed to love food. The moment I mentioned eating, she smiled and spoke to me.

"Then let's get two whole chickens: one fried and one of the new menu item."

She looked me up and down, then tilted her head.

"...Aren't you dieting?"

"No. I just eat whatever I want."

"Come on... How do you have a figure like that? Viewers, Jia-unnie is sooo skinny, and she says she didn't diet?"

"Yep!"

She stared at me without saying a word.

Ah, now I got it.

I was a TS beauty, so the pretty-girl bonus meant I could eat as much as I wanted without gaining weight. Sahyang didn't have that bonus, so she had to diet.

Taking advantage of being a woman, I lifted the hem of her shirt and fondled her belly.

"Huh? Huh!!! W-wait a second!!"

"Aww~ Sahyang's tummy is so soft~"

I fondled her belly and tried to hug her.

Smack.

I thought she'd slapped me across the cheek.

But only the back of my hand stung. Startled, I pulled it away and stumbled backward.

She turned off her microphone and looked at me.

"...That's enough. Are you crazy?"

Something had clearly gone wrong.