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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: Yesterday's Preparations
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Rewind to yesterday.
"Got something to talk about?"
"What is it, man."
Alpaca was chatting with his editor and manager, Lee Soo-han.
"The guy we're collabing with this time—he's only been streaming for two days, right? But does he really have full source material from his streams?"
It was about the collab with a new streamer.
Lee Soo-han voiced his doubts.
Rookie discovery content usually targeted streamers who were just starting to blow up.
Whether it was some competition, a collab with another creator, or any other trigger—as soon as a streamer began gaining attention.
Alpaca would invite them to his stream, boosting his own content while helping them out.
The invited streamer's viewers were mostly new ones.
And for those new viewers, he'd dig up the streamer's past exploits—easier said, their awkward early days and black history—to provide laughs and build a sense of camaraderie.
That was rookie discovery content.
The time it took for streamers to get noticed varied wildly from one to another.
But.
A streamer who'd only been broadcasting for two days? That was a first.
"But Soo-han, there's one thing you're misunderstanding."
"What's that?"
"This guy's coming on like a master's invite-only slot."
"Master's invite-only? You've never done anything like that. Wait, more than that—day two of streaming... Ah!"
Lee Soo-han clapped his hands as realization dawned.
"Some famous master just started streaming! What game's master is he?"
Alpaca let out a sigh.
If he'd just watched today's stream, he'd know the whole story.
But he couldn't expect the guy handling his YouTube management, editing, and everything else to catch every single stream.
Still.
"Assassin's Dawn - Shadows in the City."
"What? Pfft, what kind of master comes from a game like that."
Lee Soo-han hadn't skipped his streams out of busyness—he straight-up hadn't watched them.
Because he was hooked on a game called The League.
It had been years already.
"Knew you'd say that. But watch the footage, and you'll change your mind."
As Alpaca fiddled with his phone, looking like he was about to show something, Lee Soo-han snorted.
"Sheesh. Even if someone's good at an assassin game, who cares? Not watching. Not interested."
You'll have to watch it anyway when you edit.
Alpaca swallowed the retort.
"What's so fun or hard about PvE anyway? Huh? The point of those games is anyone can clear them with a little effort."
PvE—Player versus Environment. In simple terms, it meant users fighting AI. The opposite of PvP.
Alpaca had nagged him for years to try Assassin's Dawn, but Lee Soo-han always refused, saying fighting machines held zero fun.
"Whatever. So it's like a master's invite slot, got it?"
"Yeah."
"Fine, do your thing then. I gotta grind one more round."
That was when Lee Soo-han headed for his room.
"Oh, right."
Alpaca remembered something he'd almost forgotten—the real reason he'd brought up the collab in the first place.
"Can you lend the incoming streamer your capsule tomorrow?"
"What? We have spares."
Lee Soo-han turned serious.
"They specifically said it has to be yours. You just upgraded to the most expensive one. Their assimilation rate's kinda low."
"How's a master got a low assimilation rate?"
Assimilation rate.
A measure of how realistically one perceived the virtual world.
The stereotype that high assimilation meant better at capsule games was mostly—hell, almost entirely—true.
As an aside, rates over 100% existed too.
Those people dove so deep into a fantasy world more real than reality that when they surfaced from the capsule, actual reality felt alien.
Like a diver getting the bends coming up for air.
They called it fantasy dive sickness, and those afflicted typically showed insane performances in VR thanks to their sky-high assimilation rates.
Lee Soo-han pondered briefly before giving a curt reply.
"Nah. No way."
"Why not."
"You want some noob who can't even game as well as me riding my brand-new baby I barely got to use?"
Lee Soo-han was skilled enough to hold high tiers in The League even while gaming sporadically.
"Pretty sure they'd smoke you."
But objectively speaking, Alpaca knew this streamer named Jin Seo-jun would outperform him.
Not many could match those moves, even in PvE.
The problem was Lee Soo-han wouldn't even watch the footage, and even if he did, he wouldn't admit it.
Sigh. Guess I'll let him use mine.
His own capsule wasn't bad either.
No matter how obvious Seo-jun's win was, he couldn't pick a fight with his editor just to lend out a capsule.
But then, struck by Lee Soo-han's doubt, a chilling thought overtook Alpaca.
Come to think of it—with a low assimilation rate, he pulled off that play... in an ill-suited setup.
Whoa.
Then how insanely good would he be in reality?
Like a thug?
Nah, he uses a sword... Yakuza?
Alpaca's mind conjured an image of a scarred-faced man in a floral shirt wielding a cleaver.
"Hello. I'm streamer Alpaca."
Alpaca's eyes went wide as he opened the door with slightly trembling hands.
Seo-jun's face matched his VR avatar perfectly.
I figured the avatar was a face scan just tweaked like everyone else's... but it's a straight scan!
Thankfully, Seo-jun was a clean-cut, handsome young man—nothing like Alpaca's wild imaginings from last night.
He felt guilty for even thinking it.
"Yes, hello. I'm streamer Jin Seo-jun."
Meanwhile, Seo-jun was taking in the surroundings.
He was curious what a long-running streamer in his early thirties had for a studio.
"Hyung, long time no see. I'm here too."
"Tae-woo, been a while. Come on in this way."
Seo-jun shook hands with Alpaca and followed him into a spacious living room.
It looked like an ordinary home from the outside, but work and rest spaces were strictly separated.
As he and Tae-woo sat on the sofa, Alpaca headed to the kitchen for coffee, and a door opened to reveal a rough-looking man.
"Hello. I'm the editor, Lee Soo-han."
Lee Soo-han extended a hand to Seo-jun with a grin.
"I'm streamer Jin Seo-jun. Nice to meet you."
Seo-jun felt the firm grip. Power play?
"Heard your assimilation rate's low."
"Yeah."
"But you're good at the game."
"Eh, decent enough."
Lee Soo-han had checked out Seo-jun's play while making a quick collab teaser yesterday.
And surprisingly solid skills had sparked his competitive side.
Thud.
The tension broke.
Alpaca had slammed a cup down on the table.
He shot Lee Soo-han a side-eye before seating Seo-jun.
"Alright, greetings done. Let's talk stream. You see the teaser?"
Seo-jun nodded.
The collab announcement on Alpaca's fan cafe and YouTube came with a video.
Reviving Seo-jun's play in flashy glory, intercut with Alpaca's bold claims—it was short, punchy, perfect promo.
"Thanks to you, reactions are hot. With real skill, the footage pops, and it's fun to watch. Nice."
Whether those reactions were genuine would reveal itself soon enough.
"Your editor did all the work."
Lee Soo-han scratched his neck with an awkward smile at the praise.
"Haha, no. But editing it, you seemed damn good. Really only two days streaming?"
"Well, no. Better keep it secret if you can, but truth is, I played a bit a while back."
Seo-jun saw no need to hide that he'd gamed before.
"How long ago?"
"Seven years back, dabbled in The League."
Alpaca latched onto "seven years"; Lee Soo-han onto "The League."
"Good back then too? What tier?"
Light gleamed in Lee Soo-han's eyes.
Tier—an English term for rank.
In games, it denoted item grades or player levels.
"Silver."
Silver was the tier for the average masses.
"Doubt it. Can't just pick up a game after ages and be good outta nowhere."
"Well..."
Seo-jun shrugged.
Lee Soo-han conceded. If the guy said so.
But his current skills from the footage matched that level, for real.
So.
"Seo-jun, wanna spar in the Training Ground with me?"
Lee Soo-han wanted a taste.
He watched Seo-jun's reaction, eyes darting.
Seo-jun looked troubled.
Tae-woo, beside him, lit up instead.
With a meaningful smirk.
"Training Ground with Seo-jun? Why?"
"Wanna test skills."
"With him?"
"Yeah."
Hahaha!
Tae-woo burst into laughter out of nowhere.
Lee Soo-han glared, annoyed at whatever was so funny, while Alpaca looked up from his thoughts at Tae-woo.
And Seo-jun got why he was laughing.
"Hyungnim, don't do it."
"Huh?"
"Just don't, anyway. Kh-hmm."
"...?"
Tae-woo was now eyeing Seo-jun with a mischievous grin.
Seo-jun caught the meaning: Spill it?
Tae-woo was buddy-buddy with them, and even if word leaked, no proof—so Seo-jun nodded okay.
"Another secret, but if you wanna challenge him in Training Ground, just go for stage 10 instead."
Essentially, Seo-jun admitting he was Unknown.
Alpaca and Lee Soo-han's eyes widened in shock at the implication.
"F-For real...?"
"Of course."
Tae-woo whipped out his phone like he'd been waiting, played the video, and handed it to Alpaca; Lee Soo-han jumped up to watch too.
Exclamations erupted.
"Whoa."
"Oh."
"This guy's...?"
"That's Shin Ha-yeon!"
"We invited a way bigger deal than I thought."
"Suddenly this collab feels heavy."
"Didn't even get grazed?"
"Totally one-sided."
"Damn."
"That last bit's style points off the charts."
Alpaca alternated between the video and Seo-jun with newfound certainty, muttering "seven years ago" as he sank back into thought.
Lee Soo-han, video done, turned to Seo-jun.
"I'll call you hyungnim from now on."
His rival glare had flipped entirely.
"Pardon?"
"Good at games? You're hyungnim."
Seo-jun flapped his mouth in confusion.
Technically, elder treatment wouldn't be off-base either.
He swatted the cackling Kim Tae-woo. Just wanted to.
Lee Soo-han checked his watch and nudged Alpaca's shoulder.
"Hey, what're you doing. Hyungnim's stream time's coming up."
"Huh? Nothing. Alright! Let's start streaming. My capsule's over..."
"This way, hyungnim. Make yourself comfy."
Alpaca stared in disbelief as Lee Soo-han led Seo-jun to the workspace with his capsule.
Now I gotta reset the settings, you punk.
Seo-jun followed Lee Soo-han to the workspace; Alpaca sighed and headed to his streaming room.
He tweaked the capsule settings.
Grabbed drinks for the post-stream afterparty too.
His streams were improv-heavy, but prep like this? Meticulous.
Still.
Beating Shin Ha-yeon, even if AI...
Alpaca felt like he'd want to keep ties with Seo-jun after this stream.
And if he was the user he suspected...
Nah, too far.
Alpaca shook his head and climbed into the capsule.
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