Chapter 97: How nice it would have been

2%

A number that reminds me of a famous ion beverage.

Exactly 2% was left.

And if you ask what had only 2% remaining, it was my phone battery—just 2% left.

It was right after I had dinner with Si-hyun and returned home. By then, my phone was already flooded with messages and missed calls. Even in real time, contacts kept reaching out to me.

No wonder my phone felt hot—it wasn’t just overheating.

I checked my phone belatedly and saw the countless missed calls. I thought about calling back to ask what was going on, but I stopped myself.

If this many people were trying to contact me, it had to be something serious. But at that moment, I was strangely exhausted.

I had taken a deep nap on the bus ride home, and after walking Si-hyun back and breathing in the night air on my way home, I finally started to feel clear-headed.

With the feeling of tackling overdue homework, I began to assess the situation.

It didn’t take long to figure out what was happening. Just from the texts my ever-helpful contacts sent me, I could already piece together the picture in my mind.

Yushia, Kim Jae joon, Ririyang, Han Kang, Hakchu, Limetack, and even Nicang, whom I hadn’t spoken to in a while…

How did they all find out about something I didn’t even know myself so quickly and reach out to me?

I guess that’s what it means to be professional streamers.

No matter how fast I’ve been growing, experience isn’t something you can ignore. There’s a reason veteran soldiers look down on newly commissioned officers.

Not that I’m calling myself an officer or anything.

One thought after another kept chaining together.

This happened often, but today was different.

This was a form of avoidance.

Since I didn’t have a clear solution to this situation, I kept indulging in random thoughts to distract myself.

Like how Camilla is beautiful, and since Camilla is me, that means I’m beautiful too…

“Hmm.”

I shook my head from side to side.

I kept getting distracted.

I needed to come up with a response quickly—just spacing out like this wasn’t going to get me anywhere.

After getting a general grasp of the situation from my contacts’ messages, I decided to check Abyss Gallery to get a deeper understanding of the incident.

Real-time trending gallery

-1 Abyss Gallery

Abyss Gallery, which often attracted a lot of people, was once again at the top of the trending list.

Somehow, it didn’t feel right.

Maybe I was being paranoid, but I had a strong feeling they were talking about me over there.

‘Well, f*ck.’

Bad premonitions never miss.

Looking at the list of trending posts, nearly all of them had the name “Kayak” in the title.

With a small sigh, I started reading them one by one from the bottom up.

Since Abyss Gallery mainly discussed topics related to Abyss, today’s main subject was, of course, the match between Fusion Gaming and Optimum.

People had already been heatedly discussing the match for hours leading up to the start.

They were calling each other dogs or spies, just like those die-hard sports fans from my previous world.

At this point, everything seemed fine.

Idiots can entertain themselves just by being in each other’s company, and these fools looked like they were having a great time.

But Kayak’s name started appearing on the next page.

Based on the content of the posts, it happened when Fusion Gaming surprised everyone by picking Camilla.

One post jokingly claimed that Kayak had influenced even professional gaming teams.

Since it was more humorous than serious, the comments were mostly filled with things like “Ah lmao, makes sense.”

What was even funnier were the later comments saying things like “Mark this post for the archives” or “How the hell did you know?”

Judging by the timestamps, this was after Jun-hyuk’s interview.

The real problematic posts were on the following pages.

These were also written after Jun-hyuk’s interview, speculating whether Kayak was about to debut as a pro, talking about the “cute kid in the audience,” and mentioning the “Camilla-lookalike cosplayer from the broadcast.”

And ultimately, they all led to one post:

“Why the Camilla-lookalike cosplayer is actually Kayak.eu”

I wasn’t sure why the conclusion suddenly jumped to that, but isn’t that how bait works?

It keeps changing.

I just felt a little disappointed that this situation turned out the same way.

[Camilla-Looking Cosplayer Being Kayak.eu]

This is a brain dump of my own headcanon, but it seemed plausible enough to write it down ᄋᄋ.

Don’t take it too seriously—just consider it as a possibility.

First, today was Kayak’s day off.

But for some reason, she turned down Riri’s invitation to hang out.

The Camilla that Junhyuk wrote today was clearly influenced by Kayak’s style from the build itself.

The gallery users were unsure at first, but an interview just confirmed it as official.

That means Kayak helped Fusion Gaming practice.

I don’t know when she did it, but she definitely helped out.

From Fusion Gaming’s perspective, they probably wanted to return the favor.

They could’ve thanked her personally, but the most common way for a team to show gratitude is with game tickets—especially opening match tickets.

Hard-to-get seats, and the Camilla cosplayer just happened to be in the Fusion staff section.

The cosplay group’s seats and the Camilla cosplayer’s seat were far apart.

Even that alone is suspicious, but there’s more.

“Are you seriously linking this together just because her day off coincided with the match and she sat in the staff section?”

For those people, here’s the rest:

– “It’s crazy that someone looks that much like Camilla, and they just happen to be Kayak? That’s way too convenient.”

– “Isn’t it more plausible because it’s Kayak? It makes more sense for Kayak to resemble Camilla than for some random person to look like her.”

– “Both are ridiculous. Pure copium.”

– “I’m a Kayak fan, but this is too much.”

– “It actually makes sense? This reminds me—I was at the venue. The Camilla cosplayer’s voice sounded a lot like Kayak’s when I heard her at the photo zone.”

– “Seriously, you thirsty degenerates. Making up fantasies about a faceless streamer just because you wish she looked like Camilla. Pathetic wankers ᄏᄏ. What next? Her hand shape? Her seat? Her day off just happens to line up? You just want your precious streamer to be as hot as Camilla, huh? F*cking delusional.”

– “Why are you so mad?”

– “But… if she was that pretty, she would’ve done a face reveal by now.”

– “Maybe she’s keeping it private for personal reasons.”

– “You’re already doxxing her by pulling this crap ᄏᄏ.”

The comments section of this highly debated post was on fire.

People were fiercely arguing over whether Kayak was actually attractive or not.

The comments were so long that scrolling felt endless.

I wasn’t a stranger to gallery debates, but it felt weird being the subject of one.

It was… a mix of emotions.

A bit cringy, a little creepy, and slightly infuriating?

I guess it was complicated.

I closed the gallery and set my phone down.

I’d already pieced together all the bait, so there was no point in reading more pointless posts.

To sum up, there were two major topics of debate.

First, the more complicated one—the Kayak pro gamer rumors.

Specifically, whether Kayak would debut as a pro, when she crossed paths with Fusion Gaming’s players, and other random discussions about her potential involvement in the pro scene.

The second was about the Camilla cosplayer caught on the broadcast camera being me.

Hmm… calling it a controversy made it sound like I did something wrong.

Let’s just call it bait instead.

I hadn’t even known I was caught on camera.

The puzzle pieces were finally clicking into place.

So that’s why people had been staring.

During the break between the first and second matches, I had gone to the restroom.

When I came back, I patted Siyeon’s head as she excitedly waved her placard.

That exact moment was broadcasted on the gallery, perfectly captured.

Even the part where I turned my head and stared directly at the camera.

Back then, I’d felt an odd sense of unease and instinctively glanced at the camera.

I guess you could call it Camilla’s sharp instincts.

I even spotted the camera’s gaze, which wasn’t easy to notice in person.

I regretted not realizing it sooner, but only for a moment.

Even if I had, it’s not like I would’ve covered my face or anything.

I felt both worried and oddly resigned.

Maybe because I’d anticipated this outcome the moment I decided to go out.

My emotions were all over the place.

Like they say, a woman’s heart is like a reed—it sways easily.

I couldn’t figure out what I wanted or how I truly felt.

The one saving grace was that only the footage from the broadcast camera was circulating online.

The photos from the photo zone with Siyeon, where I was taking pictures with the other cosplayers, only existed in written posts.

There were no visual records.

I had asked people to avoid capturing me in their shots and to blur my face if they uploaded any, but I knew full well that plenty of people didn’t respect that.

I was just lucky.

If not, I wouldn’t be sitting here so calmly.

I’d be suffering from both doxxing and unbearable embarrassment.

I could already imagine seeing posts like,

‘ᄏᄏ Look at Kayak getting all in character. So cute ᄏᄏ’

while I buried myself under my blanket in shame.

Anyway, now that things had come to this…

Should I stream or not?

Was it finally time for my handcam, which I’d only used for gameplay, to fulfill its true purpose?

Wouldn’t it be nice if every decision in life could be answered with a simple yes or no?

Late at night, I sat in front of my powered-off computer, lost in thought.