Chapter 44: “There are too many places that come to mind.”

It was familiar for Yeram to come at this time, so I immediately made a cup of coffee and handed it to her. Of course, I took the money.

It’s a principle to receive money from customers.

Family is no exception.

“Why not just give it for free?” she said with a sigh.

“If I give it for free, you’ll get spoiled.”

“What…”

This was serious.

In a way, you could say that I’m educating Yeram on society right now.

“Hello?”

At that moment, Shin Yehwa, who had been quietly observing from the side, spoke up.

Shin Yehwa, who hadn’t spoken to me until now, must have wanted to start a conversation today.

“Hmm? Ah, you’re the older sister I work with. I see you often.”

So, Shin Yehwa and Yeram exchanged a few words, and the conversation naturally came to an end.

It seemed like they didn’t have much to talk about.

I thought there would be more conversation since Yeram greeted her so confidently, but there wasn’t.

“Well, I have to work, so I’ll drink my coffee and head home to rest.”

“Mm-hmm.”

Yeram nodded and took the coffee, heading toward an empty table.

She’d probably end up chatting with her friends until it was time to go home.

I thought that as I returned to my spot and fiddled with my phone.

“Not many customers today.”

For some reason, not many customers came today.

It wasn’t like I gained anything by having a lot of customers, but still, when there weren’t many, even as a part-timer, you’d feel a bit awkward.

Maybe the boss lady had visited the store periodically.

“Yawn.”

I yawned and logged into Red.

It was the best way to kill time.

[Efreet Gallery]

I logged into the Efreet Gallery again today and browsed through the posts.

Although checking older posts was an option, it was more efficient to check the pinned posts.

There was always a gallery member who organized the ongoing discussions and posted regular updates about any rumors.

[Author: For record-keeping, please upvote.]

[Title: Today’s Rumor Record]

[Content: 1 AM to 3 AM – Transformer rumors

3 AM to 7 AM – Side dish rumors

7 AM to 9 AM – Novel rumors

9 AM to 12 PM – Soccer rumors

12 PM to current time – Confession rumors

End.]

Hmm.

As expected, similar rumors were circulating today.

It wasn’t surprising.

There were only so many rumors to spread. It wasn’t anything special.

Thinking that, I wrote a post.

[Author: UncoveringLondon’sSecret]

[Title: I watched NextPot when I was in middle school…]

[Content: Back then, when Rimaldo used to stream, I was late to school because I was busy watching Dolgem…]

There’s something I’ve said for a long time: while I don’t particularly enjoy internet broadcasts, the one stream I consistently watched was Rimaldo’s.

That’s how much it matched my taste.

For that reason, I usually avoided joining the chat during Rimaldo’s broadcasts.

It wouldn’t feel great if pointless drama arose in Rimaldo’s stream because of me.

‘Come to think of it, should I try playing Dolgem again after a long time?’

I’m not particularly fond of card games, but since I’ve played Dolgem for a long time, it came to mind.

While lost in such trivial thoughts, ding, I received a notification that several comments had been posted.

I immediately checked the comments.

L: NextPot is legendary, lol.

N: Didn’t skipping school to watch NextPot used to be a given when we were kids?

N: What kind of lives have you people even lived?

N: These guys are the real deal, lol.

N: Is it normal to skip school just to watch internet streams…?

N: Fact: Rimaldo streamed only about seven times a month, so there weren’t even many chances to skip school.

N: Streaming just seven times a month is kind of a letdown, don’t you think?

L: Please stop mentioning Dolgem… My heart still hurts from losing in the preliminaries of that one tournament back in the day…

‘NextPot was so fun when I was younger.’

Though it’s gone now, there are still streamers on Twitch who evoke the nostalgia of that era.

I only watched Rimaldo’s streams, so I don’t know much about others, though.

With those thoughts, I put my phone down and returned to work.

“Come to think of it, my tier has gone up a lot.”

After returning home and turning on a stream as usual while gaming, I checked my tier and was surprised to see how far it had risen.

Platinum 2.

According to my viewers, reaching this tier despite just starting the game League of Legends is a sign of talent.

‘Honestly, I think so too.’

I do think that way.

But there’s no need to say it out loud.

Such comments only bring unnecessary trouble.

[Omniscient Cthulhu: Hmm, yeah, you’re right.]

[But yeah, you’ve climbed a lot.]

[Hwanhee: You’ll probably start meeting a lot of other streamers soon, lololol.]

[Why did your viewer count suddenly shoot up like this?]

[That must be the blessing of “Haehu.”]

[Haehu has been working really hard on editing lately, lol.]

[Kang Hoomin: Seems like they started putting in serious effort after seeing Dama’s comment yesterday.]

[Don’t know why they’re working so hard when they’re not even getting paid, lol.]

The reason the viewers were making such a big deal about the current viewer count was clear.

[Viewer Count: 201]

It was because the number of viewers had skyrocketed.

Here’s the translation with properly spaced paragraphs:

It was difficult to make a definitive guess as to why the viewer count had increased since there were so many possible reasons.

‘There’s Sarok, Mangming, Harin, Kang Hoomin, YouTube…’

With so many potential sources, it was hard to pinpoint why the viewers had surged.

I could only think, “It must have blown up somewhere by chance.”

“Oh, and I know you won’t listen, but I’ll say it again: don’t go causing trouble in other streams. Even if you do, don’t say anything weird. I don’t want to see you guys getting sued for no reason.”

Even if one of my viewers got sued, it wouldn’t directly affect me, but I couldn’t help but feel concerned.

That made me think of a friend.

It was back when I was in high school.

There was a quiet friend in my class who always walked around with a hunched back.

When we met, we would exchange simple greetings, but we never really had any conversations.

“We weren’t particularly close.”

By any measure of closeness, it was fair to say we weren’t close at all.

After high school, I lost contact with that friend but later heard about them by chance.

After entering university, they reportedly ran out of the orientation meeting in front of their department peers after throwing up.

It wasn’t a big story, but the friend who told me described it so vividly that it’s still etched in my memory.

It’s as if I felt the shame on their behalf.

Sigh.

Anyway, I don’t particularly enjoy seeing people I’m associated with end up in embarrassing situations.

That’s why I offered advice, even now.

[Omniscient Cthulhu: Are you worried we might get sued right now?]

[Omniscient Cthulhu: Is that why you’re warning us?]

[Why are you so sweet?]

[How sweet.]

[I’ve seen sweet girls, but this is my first time seeing such a sweet guy.]

N: User has been temporarily removed!

[Omniscient Cthulhu: Stop dividing people.]

[Hwanhee: Dividing people is kind of… not great.]

[But, honestly, it’s true.]

[Kang Hoomin: I’ve got a foolproof tip for never getting sued, lol.]

Honestly, I wouldn’t mind if that guy got sued.

Thinking about such meaningless things, I started talking about what happened today.

“-So, I was about four hours late today? I seriously thought I was done for.”

[Omniscient Cthulhu: Four hours? What the heck, lololol.]

[Omniscient Cthulhu: Unbelievable.]

[Is that even a job…?]

[Hwanhee: Was your start time 9 a.m.?]

“Huh? Wait, how did you know my start time?”

All I mentioned was that I was four hours late. How did they figure that out?

[Hwanhee: I just guessed.]

[Hwanhee: Isn’t 9 a.m. the usual start time?]

[Hwanhee: For most part-timers.]

[Omniscient Cthulhu: Makes sense.]

[If you’ve never worked a part-time job and don’t know, thumbs up lol.]

[Thumbs up lol.]

[Thumbs up, indeed.]

Well, starting at 9 a.m. does seem pretty standard.

Thinking about it that way, it’s not strange they got it right.

With those thoughts in mind, I launched League of Legends.

“Alright, let’s play one more match.”

I’ve always enjoyed going to the top lane with unusual champions, and lately, it’s been even more fun.

There’s something satisfying about countering overpowered champions with unconventional picks.

If someone brings out Aatrox, they deserve to be punished.

While playing League of Legends, I’ve never seen a champion as absurdly overpowered in healing as Aatrox.

Thinking that, I queued up for a match—

Ding!

A game was quickly found.

This time, my assigned role was top lane.

As usual, I picked a random champion, and just as the game began—

[Omniscient Cthulhu: Why is Harin over there? Lolololol.]

[Why is Harin even here?]

[Harin, hi.]

[Seeing you here, lololol.]

[You didn’t come to today’s stream, so you’ve been streaming instead, huh?]

[Hwanhee: Haha~ (meaning “Hi, Harin.”)]

Harin had been placed on the opposing team.