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I got scammed.

A double-chocolate-cookie scam, of all things.

How many double-chocolate cookies did I give out, and how great was the atmosphere that day?

And yet the viewer count dropped this much just because I took two weeks off....

“Where did everyone go….”

-Did you really think viewers wouldn't drop??

-Two weeks is basically game over..

-Sorry, but who are you?

-It's back-to-school season, that's why

-Is this the dead stream??

It took me a moment to panic.

Looking at the chat, though, I could see why.

Come to think of it, it was back-to-school season.

Even though everyone acted like unemployed NEET shut-ins, they had secretly been going to school and all.

In that situation, a two-week stream break... even I could see it was enough to make viewers leave.

“Mreee….”

-Blank..

-Is this place open for business..?

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Looking at it that way, it's amazing that around 150 remain, and they'll gradually return with time.

Still, the shock from seeing the number won't go away.

Anyway, that's that....

“First of all, welcome….”

-Yeah, nice to meet you for the first time

-It is nice to see youㅋㅋ

It was nice to see them again after two weeks.

**

“Did you all have a good time while I was gone?”

I had taken the occasional break during streams before.

But this was my first break this long, so I asked the viewers.

-I watched Haega's streamㅇㅇ

-Just lazed around~~

-What do you do that you can take two weeks off??

“Me? I went through hell and back, enough to squeeze the tears right out of me.”

The viewers really had no idea how hard I'd worked before coming back, did they?

I went all the way to Paris for Fashion Week and made a new friend... Hmm, actually, it would be weird for them to imagine that.

-What was it??

-So what did you do

-If there's no proof, what does that make it??

“Ah, I have all the proof right here.”

It wasn't the first time people had failed to appreciate my hard work.

Knowing they'd say that, I'd prepared in advance.

-?? Proof?

-Did you at least take pictures on your business trip

-No souvenirs?

“Look at this.”

I said it proudly as I opened two internet windows.

Right on my LoL account.

The match histories of my Emerald 3 main and Platinum 4 smurf were displayed.

“You can see the match history, right? I haven't played a single game.”

Match histories with not even one game of the usual ARAM recorded over roughly two weeks.

-???

-Damn, they really quit cold turkeyㅋㅋ

-Maybe they have more smurfs??

“What a hurtful thing to say. It means I was that busy.”

-Hmm.. okay

-So what did you do??

“I worked. Work. Business.”

Literally, I'd gone away to do work befitting my main profession.

So despite taking two weeks off, I had nothing to be ashamed of.

-Then what is your j-o-b??

-Guess they'll play LoL today;;

-Rell's reign of terror, fuck;;

“Hmm….”

Anyway, after briefly proving how hard I'd worked,

I fell into thought as I watched the chat.

Honestly, I'd assumed that once I got home, I'd play Rell like crazy.

After all, hadn't I been in Paris suppressing my desire to play?

So I'd even imagined becoming a lonely solo-queue warrior, climbing all the way to Diamond, then touching Master and getting embroiled in controversy over accusations of boosting or hacking.

“I'm not sure.”

-???

-You're not playing LoL?

Tsk, I just don't feel like it.

For a day or two, or even a week, I'd kept thinking about the Rift.

But after not playing for about two weeks, I'd passed some kind of tipping point instead.

“I don't really feel like it….”

-??

-For real??

-The sun's going to rise in the southㅋㅋ

Is this how viewers who ditch you feel?

Time can make you quit even a ten-year-old relationship with Rell.

Let alone a VTuber stream, a fleeting connection. They must leave without a trace of regret.

Drip, drip—I looked at the chat with eyes full of regret.

-?

-What are you looking at

It felt strange not to see the usernames that had always been in the chat.

Still, had the number really not dropped as much as I'd expected?

A lot of people had left, but quite a few had still come to see me despite the two-week break.

“You all know I really cherish you, right?”

-?? All of a sudden?

-Still won't join the cafeㅋㅋ

“Ah, while we're at it, let's check the cafe.”

I'd forgotten, but seeing the chat reminded me.

Two weeks should've been enough time for some posts to pile up, right?

-??

-?

-Huh?

-That place is fucking dead~

“Would a shop owner stop coming to work just because the store went under?”

It was a thoroughly dead cafe, just as chat said.

But if the owner abandons a shop because business is bad, even a shop that could have succeeded will fail.

-Whoa, look at all that dust

-The post activityㅋㅋㅋ

So, despite viewers mocking me, I resolutely entered the cafe where tumbleweeds were blowing.

[Wayo double-chocolate cookie proof]

“Oh, there's a proof post.”

Still, it wasn't as empty as I'd expected.

The recent double-chocolate-cookie extortion had paid off.

-They're posting proof on that dead board

-If you still haven't tried a double-chocolate cookie, upvoteㅋㅋ

-Damn, I should've gotten one

“I'll do it again sometime, so don't be too disappointed.”

I soothed the disappointed viewers and read the proof post.

Starting with a photo of the neatly packaged cookies, the proof post was closer to a review.

It said, roughly, that the packaging was thoughtful and they were surprisingly tasty, and so on.

All in all, it was a review full of praise.

-Lame;;

-Why did you package them properly?

“What, should I have smashed them up before sending them?”

Come to think of it.

I had been busy preparing to leave the country, so Aseong had done half of it.

Aseong was good at packaging too; maybe they really had a knack for it.

For reference, Aseong was now attending college as a freshman.

They'd become a proper college student while I was away on my business trip.

So I hadn't forgotten Aseong's present for this trip.

They nearly died of happiness when I gave them the clothes I'd bought in Paris.

They were fairly expensive clothes for a college student, so they'd at least help Aseong look cool.

Anyway, enough thinking about Aseong; I continued reading the backlog of cafe posts.

“Goodness—there's so much to read. Didn't that take way too long?”

Once I finished reading the posts, quite a bit of time had passed.

As expected, even a dead cafe could be satisfying to read after posts had piled up for weeks....

-??

-I finished it in 30 minutes, though?

-The post activity is seriouslyㅋㅋㅋ

“Ahem.”

…Thirty minutes is a long time, okay.

There were some funny posts too, so it was entertaining to read.

Tsk, still, if only they'd posted a balance game or an anime flame war.

How fun it would be to latch onto one and keep going?

If they'd posted something like "Build a pro Rell team with ten won" or "An anime tier list chosen by normies," we could've talked about it for a whole hour combined.

What a shame.

“Did you all see this? It's an anime tier list chosen by normies.”

-???

-Wait, what is that?

-Get rid of that eyesore;;

-I'll give you One Piece, Naruto, and Bleachㅋㅋ

Disappointed, I looked it up myself and showed it to the viewers while thinking about the cafe.

Was there truly no way to save our cafe?

I may not have many other ambitions, but I do have a bit of a thing for our fan cafe.

Because isn't it a community for our viewers alone?

“What do you think? Would you be satisfied if we changed it like this?”

-Phew, approved;;

-This works

-Hmm.. I'm not sure;

-Even so, it's still One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach...

If we think of the viewers as friends, the fan cafe was basically a group chat. Surely it would be more fun if it were active.

Of course, personal friendships were prohibited.

-So what are we doing now??

-It's about time to play a game

-Wanna do the roulette from last time again?

Anyway, now that I'd looked through the cafe and held an anime flame war, it was time to play a game.

More noticeably, I could see the chat's message rate had dropped.

I could feel it even now, but it'd be even more obvious once the Just Chatting wanderers left, right?

Sob, I hadn't realized how painful a two-week break would be.

I hadn't planned on explosive growth, but it hurt to see the viewers I'd gradually built up disappear.

“Instead of roulette... I'm going to try to reach an ending in the PawnWorld DLC we played last time.”

For reference, today's game was PawnWorld, which I'd played before.

Since I wasn't in the mood for LoL, I planned to start a new colony in PawnWorld.

…Back then, the viewers had made such a fuss asking when I'd play it again.

Now that it was gone, I missed it.

-Kya, PawnWorld

-This is the stuffㅋㅋ

-The PawnWorld fanatics are excitedㅋㅋ;

…Were all the people who'd made such a fuss back then here?

Come to think of it, there didn't seem to be any streamers playing PawnWorld right now.

It may have been popular once, but the fad had ended by now.

There was nowhere for my PawnWorld hounds to go for a walk.

Thinking that was a blessing in its own way, I launched the game.

-PawnWorld is fine, I guessㅇㅇ

-We'll allow it for today

-All right~ time for a walkㅋㅋ

-Better than LoL

Even though I was replaying a game, the reaction was surprisingly good.

Come to think of it, the people here were the ones who'd waited two weeks for me, weren't they?

They'd probably be happy no matter what I did.

Thinking that made a corner of my heart ache.

You little bastards... Pretending otherwise, you were all hopeless simps after all....

Even after I started the game, the viewer count didn't drop much.

I'd been seriously worried when I saw 150.

They were a high-quality audience, packed with solid, genuine gentlemen and almost none of the phantom Just Chatting wanderers.

They were like snow crabs in winter.

Sure, about 100 fewer than before the break, but so what?

It wasn't as if I could do anything about it in the first place.

Even if there had been unavoidable circumstances, viewers had left because I'd abandoned the stream.

This was a problem I had to fix by streaming steadily and drawing them back in.

There was no shortcut, so I shook off my regret and....

[ㅇㅇ, thank you for the 1,000-won donation!]

Wayo, aren't you joining the huge server opening this time?

They say it's the biggest server ever

-??

-Ah, that

-Can Wayo even join?ㅋㅋ

-They don't accept small fry~~

“Uh, um.”

-??

-?

-Are you going to?

-?

Ah. As it happened.

[Pingping~ Aren't you joining this time?]

[(Application form)]

[You only have to fill in a few lines~]

…Apparently, I'd received a message about it after returning to Korea.