Chapter 99: See you next time

I had always thought that a day like this would come.

I just didn’t expect it to be today.

My original plan was to turn on the stream and have my face dramatically appear with a “ta-da!” effect.

But when I started the stream, the camera screen wouldn’t show up.

So, I had to crawl under my desk and fumble around.

Turns out, the cables were slightly tangled.

That seemed to be the issue, which I quickly resolved.

And now, here I was—back at my computer after fixing the camera, crawling out from under my desk.

For some reason, the chat, which had been flying by at a rapid pace, had suddenly come to a halt.

‘Viewers – 15.6K.’

A lot of people had swarmed in, probably drawn by the commotion.

Wondering if the stream had crashed due to the influx, I asked,

“Is it working…? You can see me now, right?”

[What?? What?? What?? What?? What?? What?? What??]

[What am I even looking at right now??]

[Camilla? Camilla? Camilla? Camilla? Camilla? Camilla? Camilla?]

[So she really was Camilla, huh? LMAO]

[Camilla has appeared! Camilla is streaming!]

[How can a person look exactly like Camilla…?]

[She’s played so much Camilla that she became Camilla;;]

[No, this isn’t just a resemblance. She looks exactly the same.]

[Not a cosplayer—she was the real Camilla all along.]

[Unnie, you’re so pretty ㅠㅠ]

[Wakya Pya Hyuk Bang kekekekekeke]

[Anyone who said Kayak was ugly, take the L kekeke. I’ll go first.]

“Hmm.”

Watching the chat, which had suddenly regained its previous speed—or maybe even gotten faster—I swallowed lightly.

The chat had turned into a complete mess.

It was filled with cheap, attention-seeking spam, as well as ASCII art and emotes related to Camilla.

Among the chaos, there were some viewers consistently asking questions about me.

However, in the current situation, it was impossible to answer them.

It was only natural that the viewers’ reactions were far more intense than usual.

I briefly considered activating slow mode or switching to follower-only chat—features I usually didn’t use on my stream.

[You biting your lip is cute lol]

“Ah.”

Spotting that comment among the rapid scroll, I suddenly realized—I had been biting my lower lip.

It was a habit of mine, something I did unconsciously whenever I was deep in thought.

Seeing that chat message made me fully grasp the reality of what was happening—I had turned on my camera and revealed my face.

And what I was truly realizing was how burdensome it felt to have my appearance broadcast in real time.

Every little thing I did was exposed to the viewers.

How I looked when I played games.

How I bit my lip when I was thinking.

How I swallowed between lines while speaking.

All of these mundane details were being shared with the audience, whether I liked it or not.

[Your face is turning red lol]

[Stand tall, Kayak! Why didn’t you turn on the cam sooner?]

[Hmm, hmm. Yes, yes. It’s surprising, but it’s true—noona is as pretty as Camilla.]

The distance felt closer now.

The crowd’s sentiment had instantly flipped.

They were overwhelmingly supportive and positive.

But that didn’t make it any less overwhelming.

I was once again struck by the realization that turning on the camera was no simple task.

A subtle sense of respect bloomed within me for the streamers around me who broadcasted with their cameras on as a matter of course.

The pressure I was feeling now was something I had never experienced when streaming without a camera.

I had thought it was no big deal.

I figured it wasn’t like showing my face would wear me down or anything.

I thought, “Whatever, let’s just reveal it.”

And in a way, revealing my face was no big deal.

But keeping the camera on afterward—that was the slightly trickier part.

Still, it had only been about five minutes since I turned on the camera, so I couldn’t just shut it off.

“The chat is moving too fast….”

Seeing the chat filled with comments so embarrassing that I could barely bring myself to read them, I decided to apply a little restriction.

I enabled three-month follower-only mode.

On top of that, I switched to subscriber-only chat.

That way, only the people who had been watching my stream since the early days, and among them, only the most loyal subscribers, would be able to chat.

Surely, the chat wouldn’t scroll by as quickly then.

However, I quickly realized I was mistaken.

<DiFuCo has subscribed for 1 month…>

<Costa has subscribed for 1 month…>

<HappyKayakFan has subscribed for 1 month…>

The flood of subscription alerts kept pouring in.

Countless people subscribed and donated, creating a brief period of calm once the notifications settled.

What followed was a short Q&A and some casual conversation to satisfy the viewers’ curiosity.

“After helping the Fusion Gaming guys with practice, they gave me a seat ticket as a thank-you. As for the person I went with, they’re just a neighborhood friend of mine.”

Kayak, who had been flustered moments ago, now chattered away enthusiastically, as if nothing had happened.

Every so often, she would glance at the chat, and occasionally, she would turn her head away shyly.

But that only backfired.

[The streamer is friends with a kid…]

[Kayak, you don’t have any friends?]

[Look at her face—of course she has friends.]

[Kawaii move, what the heck kekekeke]

[Teacher, if you keep boiling this broth… Oh, never mind.]

[Wait, she was acting like this even when the cam was off? Kekeke. She’s actually ridiculously cute.]

[Unnie ㅠㅠ you’re so adorable.]

“Stop calling me cute. When you keep… keep posting messages like that, I can’t focus….”

But Kayak’s plea was destined to be in vain.

She still hadn’t fully grasped how chat worked.

Or rather, it wasn’t that she didn’t understand—it was more that she was flustered and had momentarily forgotten what she knew.

Viewers were naturally a mischievous bunch.

If you told them not to do something, they would only do it more.

The best way to deal with such playful antics was to react as little as possible and remain indifferent.

<Anonymous has donated 1,000 KRW!>
– Kayak wanting to obliterate all the broth-addled fools calling her cute kekeke.

“It’s not that serious, really. It’s not… Wait, what was I trying to say again?”

Kayak muttered as she rubbed her forehead once more.

Seeing her like that, the viewers once again lost their minds over how cute she was, creating yet another cycle of chaos.

She glanced at the chat, scrunched up her face, and quickly continued speaking, determined to just say what she needed to and end the stream.

“So, the Camilla cosplayer… yes, that’s me.

And… all those rumors on the gallery—they were true, huh?

Wait, what were they saying on the gallery again?”

[She’s pretending not to know kekeke]

[Ah kekeke, they were asking if you actually directed the cosplayers.]

[??? : Lenok, no, you need to be heavier and more dignified…]

[They said Kayak gave acting lessons during the cinematic reenactment kekekeke.]

[I was there watching it live, and the streamer was seriously good at acting.]

[Didn’t you see the testimony post from someone else?]

[There’s no way she didn’t see it kekeke. She’s just pretending not to out of embarrassment.]

[You should check out the ‘Camilla Lookalike Cosplayer Sighting’ post.]

With her sharp reflexes, Kayak caught sight of the messages in chat but decided to feign ignorance and swiftly moved on to the next topic.

“And as for going pro, I’m not really considering it. I’m satisfied with my current lifestyle.

Plus, I’m a Camilla one-trick. One-champ players usually have a hard time going pro.

If she gets banned, I’m pretty much useless.

Junhyeok Lee hyped me up a lot in his interview, but honestly, he was the one who revised the build—I didn’t come up with it.”

[Ah, I was hoping you’d go pro. That’s a shame.]

[ReaL kekeke, what pro? You need to stay with us and keep streaming.]

[If she goes pro, we won’t get to see her as much… T_T]

[Kayak, who got a shoutout from Junhyeok Lee, the world’s best Abyss player. She’s the GOAT.]

[The first-ever streamer to achieve this feat kekeke.]

The brief Q&A session continued.

As long as the questions didn’t invade her privacy too much, Kayak answered them without much hesitation.

“This isn’t some hearing… You guys sure have a lot of questions.

I’ll only take a few more for today.”

At a reasonable point, Kayak cut off the endless wave of questions.

The viewers were disappointed but accepted it, realizing that if she kept answering, it would never end.

With the Q&A session over, the viewers were now curious about what Kayak would do next.

Would she start playing Abyss as usual?

Or, since she already had her camera on, would she do some kind of camera-based content?

Or perhaps she would get flustered and turn off the camera entirely?

However, Kayak’s next move was none of the above.

“Mm, I think… I’ll end the stream here.

I only meant to chat a little today and then log off….”

Despair.

Mass panic.

If the chat’s reaction could be summed up in a single phrase, those words would be fitting.

But Kayak simply shook her head, unmoved by the viewers’ pleas.

“That’s it for today.

Row while the tide is high…?

Hmph, saying stuff like that won’t change my mind.”

Whether the viewers cried or raged, it didn’t matter.

With a brief farewell, Kayak mercilessly ended the stream.

Uptime: 53 minutes and 24 seconds.

The stream had over 20,000 viewers when she logged off.