Streamer Crazy About Slaughter - Chapter 28

“That’s a fascinating nickname.”

After that comment, I had no intention of revealing my nickname.

Since Lin was soon to be me, it felt pointless to tell her now, and more than anything, I had no desire to meet the woman named Sua in front of me any longer.

So, while I was pondering what other nicknames might exist as an excuse to mumble something,

I noticed Sua staring at me with a peculiar expression.

Her lips frequently parted as if she had something to say.

“…Is that it?”

Then she cautiously opened her mouth. She looked as if she expected me to say more.

“Does the nickname Plea have another meaning?”

However, the indifferent way Serin asked made Sua eventually turn her gaze away from Serin, looking disappointed.

‘I’m still far from it.’

Still, it had been over a year since I began streaming as a Twitch streamer, and it had been long since I surpassed a million subscribers on YouTube.

So I thought that Serin, being a user of Another World, would recognize my nickname the moment I said it.

I was pondering how I would respond if Serin recognized me, only to realize I was counting my chickens before they hatched.

Suddenly, an idea popped into Sua’s mind.

Though it was something I usually wouldn’t say, I thought Serin might know this.

“Serin, do you happen to know someone called Crazy Girl…?”

At Sua’s words, Serin momentarily doubted her ears.

“Crazy Girl…?”

With a look that seemed to question what I meant, Sua appeared slightly flustered as she continued.

“Yes… I was wondering if you knew about a user called Crazy Girl.”

“Can you create a nickname like Crazy Girl in Another World?”

Serin spoke with an air of curiosity, and I quickly shook my head.

“Oh, no. It’s not a problem if you don’t know.”

Though I didn’t actually know if such a nickname existed, I just shook my head.

From what I just saw, it was clear that she knew nothing regarding me.

Serin, who had been looking at Sua with a puzzled expression, also started to feel a familiar sensation late.

‘Crazy Girl…’

At first, I thought it was a curse word, but seeing her ask, it seemed there indeed was a user by that name.

It felt oddly familiar.

I thought I might have seen it fleetingly on the Another Level site…

“And my nickname is Kalua.”

I quietly offered my phone to Sua as the video ended and slowly spoke.

It was the name of a character from a novel I used to read.

“Kalua… Quite a unique nickname. Kal, Lu, and A, right?”

She asked, deliberately pausing to confirm, and I nodded slightly.

“Yes. The Kalua you just pronounced is correct.”

After that, watching Sua murmur Kalua several times, I realized I might have gotten entangled with her.

The woman who mentioned bond or fate. To be honest, those words didn’t resonate at all with me.

After wandering aimlessly in the game world for no reason and suddenly living in this world now.

For someone like me to talk about bond or fate…

It felt completely out of the question.

Serin gradually decided it was time to leave.

“Sua? I think I should be going soon.”

“Oh, yes. I’m really sorry today, Serin. And I’ll send you a friend request in Another World, so you have to accept it!?”

Emphasizing the word “have to,” I felt a pang of guilt seeing her like that.

“…Yes, I’ll accept if you send a friend request. And I think I might log into Another World late this evening.”

I cheekily made a promise I wouldn’t keep and slowly got up from my seat.

Looking at Sua, who stood up beside me, I felt a strange sensation.

It seemed that she had trembled like a sinner only until we entered the café. Now she looked quite composed.

People can change their attitudes so freely, I thought.

Looking back, it was somewhat comedic to think that she chased after me just because I was similar to a game character we met for the first time today.

‘…How much do you love games?’

Her concern about me, talking about a stalker so suddenly, and her passionate talk about Another World seemed, in some sense, innocent.

‘Now I feel a bit guilty.’

The more I thought about it, the more I wondered if I should have just revealed myself as Lin. I felt that way a bit late.

“I’ll see you next time.”

The water had already been spilled. It felt too late to turn back, so I stood up to say goodbye.

After all, we probably wouldn’t see each other again after today.

“Yes. Then, Serin, you must absolutely log into Another World!?”

Seeing her emphasize “must,” my conscience was pricked again.

“Yes. I will log in today.”

Of course, with another nickname.

Thus, I parted ways with Sua, saying things I didn’t really mean.

I felt that passing connections like this wouldn’t mean much, but I also realized anew.

I was likely a villain.

“There’s no way a nickname like Kalua actually exists.”

I only threw it around casually, thinking it was a name and not something commonly used, so I never thought someone would use it.

With that, I headed straight home.

***

With an excited heart, Sua logged into Another World. She first thought of the woman she had met today and sent her a friend invitation.

– ‘Kalua’ does not exist in the user database.

“…?”

However, for some reason, only a hologram stating that there was no user information decorated her view.

‘This must be right.’

Indeed, after hearing the nickname, I had purposely asked again to avoid confusion.

Therefore, the nickname she told me should be correct since I had said it several times aloud right there and couldn’t have misremembered it.

– ‘Kalua’ does not exist in the user database.

– ‘Killua’ does…

No matter how many times I tried typing it differently, only the hologram stating that the user did not exist blocked her view.

“What the…”

Continuing to blankly input the ID, Sua felt a question arise.

‘What’s going on?’

Why does it say there’s no such user?

Thoughts she never expected flooded her mind.

Could it be that she was so immersed in Another World that she was hallucinating?

The user named Lin who was currently trending might actually be a stalker.

Or perhaps the possibility of a character named Kalua being deleted.

There was also the chance that Serin accidentally misinformed me about the nickname, and etc…

It was a flurry of thoughts.

After parting ways in the café, she simply spent her time gathering information at a PC café. After killing time and having dinner, she arrived home at 7 PM.

After changing her clothes and taking a quick shower, she logged into Another World right away, which was where Sua was now.

Then suddenly, she hit upon a possibility.

Maybe she just needed to enter it in English.

– A friend request has been sent to user ‘KALUA’.

“Uh, it worked.”

Since Serin spoke in Korean and didn’t even provide the spelling when asked, I had assumed it was a Korean nickname.

Well, it would indeed be strange for a nickname like Kalua to be a Korean ID.

Really… It would have been nice if she had just told me the spelling from the start.

– User ‘KALUA’ has accepted your friend request.

Not long after, a whisper arrived.

[Who?]

[It’s me. Me. Plea, Yoon Sua.]

[Plea?]

[No, we met at the café today.]

[Really… Is it Plea?]

[Yes, yes. That’s me.]

While replying to the whisper, Sua felt her heart flutter.

What would happen if they recognized me? I was already looking forward to how someone I met by chance, who happened to be a player of the game, would react.

However, 30 minutes later, it was almost time for her usual streaming, so regretfully, she couldn’t continue the conversation.

[Sorry, but I might have difficulty replying to whispers for a few hours.]

Considering they didn’t seem to know her, it was likely that they were a light user.

So when she was about to speak indirectly…

[Yes. You’re going to start streaming soon, right, Plea?]

The sudden sound of the whisper caught Sua off guard and made her hand stop moving as she manipulated the hologram.

“…?”

How did they know she was streaming?

When she met them today, they didn’t even know her nickname, Plea.

An overwhelming sense of discord washed over her.

She felt goosebumps running down her arms without her realizing it.

Amid the rush of unfamiliar feelings she struggled to describe flowing through her, Sua stared blankly, her lips moving.

“This person… no way.”

Quickly, she hit the friend delete button and added ‘KALUA’ to her block list.

It felt like a shiver crept all over her body.

The realization that someone who wasn’t an acquaintance pretended to be that person. Even more so, it was absurd that they approached her pretending to be friendly while acknowledging her.

Slowly gathering herself, Sua momentarily recalled her memory.

How Lin looked captivated while watching her video, and how she didn’t seem to feel any discomfort while looking at a character so similar.

Plus, how she reacted in daze when called a stalker.

Telling her not to worry too much and that she could protect herself…

As those memories surfaced one by one, Sua eventually came to a single conclusion.

‘Lin.’

In the end, ‘Han Serin’ was Lin.

Thinking back to Serin’s words that she wasn’t Lin initially, I wondered why I had believed that so naively.

Perhaps at that moment, when she realized she was being followed, she was so scared that she couldn’t even think straight.

Though she had said it was fine in front of me, did she mean to make fun of me for being the one who had stalked her?

“No, this person is really a villain…”

Even if there were rumors about the user Lin being a villain or character controversies in a Newtube video, I had brushed it off. But directly experiencing it was something else.

It certainly was wrong for me to have followed her initially, but… she had said it was okay.

‘She really did say that…’

The more I thought about it, the more I felt a sense of betrayal.

I had thought she was a good person, someone I could communicate with, and wanted to treat Serin well in Another World.

But then…

“How can a person be so villainous…”

Feeling like I was being played, I wondered if I should just let this slide.

At least I wanted the user named Lin to accept my friend request.

I wanted to have another conversation with her.

There were only 20 minutes left before the broadcast started.

“…Seriously.”

With a sigh, as Sua prepared for the broadcast, a certain phrase suddenly popped into her mind.

‘A villain must face a villain.’

It was something that the ‘Gosu’ who belonged to the same challenger tier as me would blurt out habitually.