I Became a Member of My Favorite Group! - Chapter 49

After executing Ladder for exposing my dark history, I was left alone with Mountain Thief as we headed toward the beach.

When we arrived at a spot with steep cliffs, I saw a group of figures gathered in the distance.

Swish—

Since I couldn’t see their usernames from afar, I held my bow and stayed on guard.

As we got closer, their usernames started appearing above their heads.

Gasp!

It’s the members!

“Huh? Lulu!”

“Lulu-chan!”

Before I could even wave in excitement, they spotted me and welcomed me with enthusiastic voices.

• “Oh.”
• “A family reunion, lol.”
• “Looks like the others gathered early.”
• “Lulu-chan must’ve spawned really far away, lol.”

“Yeah! I wanted to meet up with the members sooner, but…!”

I felt a bit down about being the only one who spawned far away, but I quickly shook it off, thinking it’s better late than never.

Just as I was about to run over to the members…

“Lulu, I’ll be going now.”

“Huh? Y-you’re leaving?”

Mountain Thief stood up and bowed slightly as he said goodbye.

I was caught off guard by the sudden farewell.

I hadn’t even properly thanked him for helping me yet…

“Yeah, I need to go find Sung-il. I promised to leave after seeing you meet your members.”

“B-but… I want to repay you somehow.”

“Oh, it’s fine. If you’re really grateful, come visit our stream sometime.”

Mountain Thief, showing the magnanimity of a true gentleman, turned to leave.

As I watched his retreating figure, I quickly rummaged through my bag and pulled out a fully grown pumpkin.

I had luckily found it while farming in the plains earlier.

In Last, pumpkins are incredibly valuable.

Eating just one fills your hunger bar by 100, and it also slightly restores health and thirst.

It’s one of the most precious items I have.

I placed it on the ground and bowed to Mountain Thief.

“Uh, Mountain Thief… Please accept this as a token of my gratitude.”

• “Wow.”
• “She’s giving him a pumpkin, lol.”
• “That thing’s farming efficiency is insane. It’s super rare, lol.”
• “Mountain Thief hit the jackpot, lol.”
• “Just eat it yourself, Lulu-chan…”

The chat was in an uproar about me giving away such a valuable item, but the bow Mountain Thief gave me and the fact that he escorted me here made it feel insufficient.

“No, it’s fine. You should keep it, Lulu. Why would you give me something so precious…?”

“Oh, no. I can’t give something useless to a friend.”

“Huh? Friend?”

“Yeah, we’re friends now, right? Hehe…”

• “Tomodachi (friend) ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ”
• “‘I can’t give something useless to a friend.’ Wow, deep.”
• “That’s some wisdom right there…”
• “Lulu-chan, I’m crying ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ”
• “Jae-jun must be so touched, lol.”
• “This is so healing…”

Mountain Thief, who had paused at my words, bent down and picked up the pumpkin.

Then, just like before, he bowed deeply and spoke in a voice loud enough to break his mic.

“Lulu…! I’ll treasure this pumpkin forever! If you ever need help, just call me!”

“It’s fine, you can eat the pumpkin… And if you need help, Mountain Thief, call me too.”

“Sniff sniff, thank you…! This Mountain Thief will remember your kindness as I leave!”

With that, Mountain Thief left, pretending to cry.

I finally joined the members and started setting up a new base.

On the first day of this Last world, filled with betrayal and schemes, I made my first streamer friend outside the members.

At the same time, in Mountain Thief’s stream.

He hid behind a large tree and stared at the pumpkin in his hand.

Overwhelmed with emotion, his eyes stung.

“Sniff… Ah, I’m not usually this emotional…”

Da-jeong thought he was pretending to cry for the stream, but Jae-jun was genuinely holding back tears.

Da-jeong’s heartfelt words had struck a chord deep in his heart.

• “Why are you actually crying, you crazy guy? Lol.”
• “Hey, are you crying? Lol.”
• “This kid who hasn’t even lived half a century is having a midlife crisis, lol.”

[‘VillainAppearsWhenYouCry’ has donated 1,000 won.]

• “(Voice recording) Hey~ the streamer’s crying~”

The chat and donations were busy teasing him, but Jae-jun wasn’t embarrassed at all.

“No, but wasn’t that really touching? That jerk Park Sung-il has never said anything like that to me…”

• “Why are you dragging Sung-il into this…”
• “If Ladder said something like that, it’d be even weirder, lol.”
• “This guy acts like he just got dumped and found a new girlfriend, lol.”
• “Honestly, it was touching. For real.”
• “Lulu-chan is such a kind and pure soul…”

Some viewers agreed with his sentiment.

Even if it wasn’t worth crying over, he genuinely felt a warmth in his heart at that moment.

True friendship, regardless of age or gender, always moves people.

“Sigh… I really can’t bring myself to eat this pumpkin. I’ll just farm something else.”

After staring at the giant pumpkin in his hand, he put it back in his bag.

As he started farming nearby mushrooms to fill his hunger bar, which was almost empty…

Whoosh—! Thud!

“Huh?”

An arrow flew out of nowhere and lodged itself into the tree he was farming.

Then, one after another…

Whoosh— Whoosh— Whoosh—

“Huh? Huh…?!”

It wasn’t just one or two people shooting arrows.

Jae-jun’s character was turning into a porcupine from the barrage of arrows.

He tried to hide in the bushes, but it was no use.

Thud—

His character died instantly.

The enemies who had appeared in droves started looting his corpse.

“Hey, there’s a pumpkin here too!”

“Oh, a pumpkin? I’m starving, give it to me.”

“This guy’s a golden goblin, huh?”

“Nice.”

As they rummaged through his corpse, Jae-jun let out a scream that was almost a curse.

“F***!!!”

• “Lolololololololol.”
• “They just stole the pumpkin, lol.”
• “Should’ve just eaten it, lol.”
• “RIP, lol.”
• “This guy just threw away the pumpkin Lulu-chan gave him…”
• “Lulu-chan would cry ㅠㅠㅠㅠ”

It was a tragicomic episode that Da-jeong knew nothing about.

Once I joined the members, the atmosphere instantly became lively.

I thought the CEO wouldn’t participate since she’s the operator, but surprisingly, she had handed over server management to someone else and joined the game.

“Kids, I need to join another team over there, so you guys play on your own.”

“Gasp! CEO, are you abandoning us?”

“So mean…!”

• “Abandoning your team? Abandoning your team?”
• “I didn’t think CEO Kang was this cold-hearted.”
• “The Blue LUV members are being abandoned, lol.”
• “This is the CEO of Blue LUV?”

But it wasn’t that she didn’t want to play with us.

She explained that she wanted to team up with some streamer colleagues she already knew, so she’d be leaving our group.

The members and viewers were naturally upset, but I had expected this.

If the CEO stayed with us, other streamers might hesitate to attack, and that would make the stream less entertaining.

Yeah, this is the right choice.

“Alright, so the CEO will be back later, so let’s play nicely while we wait, okay?”

“Mommy! You’re not abandoning us, right…?!”

“Mommy!”

“It’s not ‘Mommy,’ it’s ‘CEO,’ you brats!”

• “Lolololololololol.”
• “Mommy, lol.”
• “Are they kids or what? Lol.”
• “Honestly, CEO Kang’s age is old enough to have kids if she got married early, lol.”

Gasp.

That’s a taboo word in front of our CEO.

Never say that our CEO is almost thirty! That’s a bad word!

If the chat’s toxic viewers don’t get banned, I might get scolded too…!

“Kids, what should we do now?”

“Shouldn’t we build a house first?”

“I didn’t farm much.”

“Me neither.”

Anyway, after the CEO left, we started figuring out how to survive.

The first thing that came to mind was building a house.

But most of the members were either busy looking for each other or had died along the way, so they didn’t have many items.

So, I decided to take out the items I had in my bag.

“Uh… I have enough materials to build a house, so maybe we should use these first.”

“Wow, our youngest, did you farm that much?”

“Hehe… A little.”

I had spawned in an area with a lot of ore and wood, so I was lucky enough to farm quite a bit.

Of course, it wouldn’t be enough to make other items like sleeping bags, but it was a start.

“Then should we build a house over there?”

“Let’s do it. We’ll leave the house to the youngest, and the rest of us can gather materials to upgrade it to a stone house.”

“There’s a lot of stone over there. I’ll go get some!”

“Unnie, me too!”

Once the division of labor was settled, Yukiko and Lilith unnie left to gather materials for the house upgrade.

I started building the house in a suitable spot.

Once the wooden house was more or less complete, I placed a storage box inside and stepped outside, where I ran into Erin.

“Lulu, what are you planning to do after building the house? Should we go explore somewhere else?”

“Ah, I’m going to make a farm.”

“A farm? For farming?”

“Yeah!”

• “Farmer Lulu, lol.”
• “Axolotl farming? That’s classy…”
• “If it’s farming, corn is the most efficient.”
• “I didn’t expect Lulu-chan to farm, lol.”

My answer seemed to surprise everyone, from Erin unnie to the viewers.

Well, it’s true that not many people focus on farming in Last.

Most people just build a house and go around killing others, but I don’t really like that.

I’d rather peacefully farm and help the members.

“Do you want me to help? Where are you planning to make the farm?”

“Ah, it’s okay. I’m going to make it up there, so it might be a bit dangerous.”

“If it’s dangerous, I should go with you. Let me know if you need anything.”

“I-I’m really fine…”

I felt a bit guilty sacrificing Erin for my own fun, but this kind of cooperation is part of the charm of Last.

I’ll just work for Erin next time, I thought, as we climbed the hill together.

Lucretia unnie stayed behind to guard the house.

“So, what are you planning to farm?”

“Hmm… I’m not sure. Corn is the most efficient, but…”

“But?”

As I answered Erin unnie’s question, I started to feel conflicted.

Honestly, corn is the most efficient crop.

It grows fast, is easy to manage, and is good for selling or eating.

But it lacks romance.

When playing games like this, you should always pursue romance.

In that sense…

“I think I’ll go with pumpkins!”

I’ll become a pumpkin farmer!

Sure, pumpkins are hard to grow and not very efficient but they’re one of the best foods in Last!

“Are you sure? The viewers are worried because pumpkins are hard to grow…”

“Yeah, I’m sure! You can’t achieve romance without a little waste.”

• “Kya~”
• “Deep wisdom, lol.”
• “Romantic Lulu.”
• “She’s just a quote machine, lol.”
• “Lulu-chan, do whatever you want!”

Hehe.

Seeing the viewers cheer me on gives me strength.

There’s nothing more motivating for a VTuber than fan support.

“I’ll grow lots of pumpkins so you, unnie, and Yukiko-chan never go hungry! Just trust me!”

“Pfft… Alright. I’ll be looking forward to it.”

Erin unnie reached out and patted my character’s head.

It felt like her hand was really on my head, and I couldn’t help but smile.

Alright!

I’ll do my best for our Blue LUV members!