Chapter 51 : Advertising (2)

The appearance of real people in games isn’t particularly unusual.
Games sometimes feature real individuals through collaborations or agreements with companies, sometimes for limited-time events.

Moreover, Yena’s game is a territory war game where historically existent figures are virtually summoned.
So even if a currently living person appears, it could easily be dismissed as a coincidence.

*Still, this was quite unexpected.
What are the odds of someone I know appearing among so many people?

And a streamer, no less?
I searched various streaming sites, wondering if Minotaur was broadcasting, but only saw [ Search Results: None ].

Judging by Yena’s chat, I wasn’t the only one taken aback; everyone seemed frozen.
Yena doesn’t know who Minotaur is, but she’s generally aware of him from my stories.
Still, who would have thought it was the same person?

That heavy figure sits atop a pinnacle of future technology.
One wonders how much weight that extra-large chair must bear, with flesh bulging from the sides, unable to contain him.

Similarly, the face, overflowing with flesh. Even with the barely discernible eyes, nose, and mouth, the expression is one of utter arrogance.
Only the eyebrows, stretched to their limits, give a vague indication of where the eyes are.

Greasy hair that looks like it’s never seen water and the same clothes as our last encounter. Whoever designed this character truly captured the real thing.

Finally, the grand highlight – his expression.
Just like during his last outburst, he wears a serious yet haughty look, brimming with an unknown confidence.
It’s all somewhat obscured by the layers of fat, but still.

“This game launched today; I didn’t know they had characters like this.”

– Are they that confident? Putting a real guy in the game?
– But isn’t he, and aren’t we, kind of the same?
– I’m not the only one who thinks so.

Contrary to my expectations of chaos following Minotaur’s appearance, the chat showed a surprising reaction.
Usually, in this stream—no, from what I’ve observed this past week—these viewers go crazy over any mention of men.

Sexual harassment is standard, and they’re always busy weaving their own fantasies. But there are barely any comments like ‘I’m dying!’ or similar reactions?

This is an era where people go wild over 200kg individuals reciting a few lines on TV. But an actual man makes a special appearance in a game, albeit as an avatar, and there are no cheers? Instead, an awkward atmosphere hangs in the air.

“Ah… Is that so? Let’s stop this.”

As if sensing the general discomfort, Yena fixed the screen on the character summoning window, bringing the camera closer to her face.
I thought she was unconcerned about how she looked, being a cam girl, but it occurred to me there was no reason for her to be.

She scrunched up her face and began speaking provocatively.
The camera was so zoomed in that viewers could only see her furrowed brow.
Minotaur’s avatar, standing alone in the summoning window, looked… a little pathetic.

“I get it… your level… It’s so low, it makes me want to die.”

– I know it’s admitting defeat, but am I the only one getting annoyed by him?
– Sigh… What am I going to do about marriage?
– The fact you’re watching streams all day and still thinking about marriage is the real legend.
– Lol, do you hear crying? Open the door, your parents are weeping from another world.
– Rich?
– Rich?
– Rich?
– Sorry. My bad.

I’d considered them a bit narcissistic, but seeing this confirms it.
They love me enough to change their values. I chuckle a little, despite no one being around to see it.
If anyone caught me like this, I’d be too embarrassed to go outside for a while.

Yena’s viewers also frequent my stream. In fact, it’s almost all of them, so they’re practically a subset of my audience.
Meaning they’re somewhat accustomed to me.

Although they lack the courage to face me directly, and even if they did, they’d probably faint before saying anything. They’ve become somewhat used to me in this short week.
After spending all their time on MeTube and forums, obsessing over clips and memes from my stream, they can hardly be satisfied with ordinary people now.

They’re spoiled, sure, but also a bit pitiful.
From what I’ve gathered, men who act like me don’t really exist.
Apparently, Minotaur’s reactions were normal, even gentler than the average man.

Anyway, thanks to the viewers’ sudden wave of self-loathing and fear for the future, Yena remained silent for about five minutes, forgetting her advertising lines.
She seemed to try waving her hands and cracking bad jokes to lighten the mood, but the atmosphere was the most dismal I’d ever seen, even without any hateful spam in chat.

“Hey!!!!”

Yena’s shout broke the miserable silence.
With a resolute expression, she began yelling at the camera, thumping her chest as if performing a sacred ritual.

“I, Choi Yena!! With you all as my witnesses, I swear here and now that I will remain a virgin for the rest of my life, as I always have!”

She made such a serious vow about something so pointless.
It was as if she was saying, ‘I’m just like you, so feel free to charge forward without worry.’

Perhaps her eyes, a little more moist than usual, made it all the more relatable, as the dead silent chat erupted once more.

– She swore a virgin’s oath!
– The oath of eternal loneliness and despair!
– Ah lol, she’s one of us lol
– Oh ho! Not bad, Yena-san!

I don’t understand why they place so much faith in an empty promise.
Empty promises were common among female streamers in my original world.
Since they haven’t experienced otherwise, they can’t really tell the difference, but I guess it’s fine as long as things calmed down?

“Anyway, back to the game! If I remember correctly, isn’t this the guy WooSeok mentioned on his stream? The one who rides around in high-tech gear?”

As Yena continued the ad, examining the character’s SD model, I got a good look at his character.
I still wonder if he actually collaborated on this, but the uncanny resemblance was amazing.
The gameplay might be a bust, but the design isn’t.

With the mood somewhat lifted, the viewers were behaving and following along.
They posted comments like [ Wow! ], [ Cool character! ], and [ Looks really fun! ], either to appease the sponsors or because any man is a man, their hearts crying out in primal desire.

TriangularPantiesVsSquarePantiesYena donated 100,000 won!
– I like WooSeok, but sometimes this kind of wild man is nice… I want to pour steak sauce on that belly and lick it…

A generous donation of 100,000 won, but the viewer was swiftly banned.
It made me briefly reconsider if they were all just starved beasts with inflated egos.

Yena continued with the remaining nine pulls with heightened enthusiasm, but perhaps beginner’s luck was over. No more 6-stars appeared.
Only Minotaur remained, silently gracing her hero roster.

Thanks to the needlessly good graphics, his character was significantly larger than the others, to the point that his presence obscured other characters in the roster.
Yet, his abilities were too good to remove him.

He’s also the only male character in the game, so removing him might incur the viewers’ wrath.
However weak he might have become, there’s no need to reject a male character.

ConvenienceStoreBlacklistYena donated 1,000 won!
– Yena, check your viewer count.

“Huh? Suddenly?”

80,000 viewers.
In this era of no language barriers, the broadcasting market is larger than I’d imagined.
Word spread like wildfire, drawing in a crowd potentially exceeding my average viewership.

People from all over the world flocked to see a playable male character in a game. Even across different time zones!

– Our twisted desires unite us.
– This is the first time a sponsored stream has drawn this many viewers, right?
– Yena is hopeless in many ways.
– “I will remain a virgin” in front of all these people lol.

Yena, seemingly unaware of the massive audience, turned crimson and abruptly shut off the camera.
[ NO SIGNAL ] filled the screen, and she became a streamer who didn’t stream the sponsored game, despite taking the sponsorship.

“Okay… Stream’s back on!”

I still wondered why Minotaur collaborated with this game, but Yena praising the map’s beauty on a black screen amused me, so I put the thought aside.
I’ll call Yulia later and ask her about it.