I’ve always thought a day like this would come.
But I never imagined today would actually be that day.
Originally, I wanted to make a grand entrance, revealing my face the moment I turned on the broadcast, but when I hit the button, the camera screen was nowhere to be found.
Thanks to that, I had to crawl under my desk and struggle a bit. It turned out the cable was a bit tangled. Once I figured that out, the problem was swiftly solved.
And now, here I was. The camera was up and running, and I had crawled out from under my desk to sit in front of my computer.
For some reason, the chat window, which had been rapidly climbing, suddenly came to a halt.
‘Number of viewers – 15.6K.’
It looked like I’d definitely drawn in some attention, since so many people had shown up. I wondered if that was why my room had crashed.
“Is it working…? Am I showing up right now?”
[What the heck? What the heck? What the heck? What the heck? What the heck? What the heck? What the heck? What the heck? What the heck?]
[What am I even looking at??]
[Camilla? Camilla? Camilla? Camilla? Camilla? Camilla? Camilla? Camilla? Camilla?]
[Wow, it really was Camilla lol]
[Camilla has appeared! Camilla is broadcasting!]
[How is a person’s face Camilla…?]
[After being Camilla for so long, she’s become Camilla herself;;]
[It’s not just similar; she looks exactly like her!]
[It’s not a cosplayer; it’s the real Camilla!]
[Older sister, you’re so pretty ㅠㅠ]
[Wakya pahuk bang lol keheh kehuk keheh bang bang lol]
[Whoever said the kayak was lame deserves a thumbs down lol, starting with me.]
“Hmm.”
I swallowed slightly while looking at the chat, which had picked up speed—actually, it was moving even quicker than before.
The chat had turned into complete chaos. It was filled with cheap spam meant to grab attention, all sorts of ASCII art related to Camilla, and a bunch of emojis.
Some people were consistently throwing questions my way, but in this situation, I couldn’t really answer them.
Of course, the viewers’ reactions were more intense than usual. I was contemplating whether to use features I never used in my broadcasts, like slow chat or follower-only chat.
[That lip-biting is cute lol]
“Ah.”
In the midst of the rapidly climbing chat, I caught one message and realized I had been biting my lip. I was lightly nibbling on my lower lip with my teeth.
It was a thing.
It was a habit I had developed for a while whenever I had something on my mind. One that I didn’t even realize I was doing.
Only after seeing that chat did I fully grasp the fact that I had turned on my cam and showed my face. What exactly did I realize? I realized that streaming my appearance in real-time was quite a burden.
Every little move I made was now exposed to the viewers. What expressions I wore while gaming, my habit of biting my lip when I was deep in thought, even those awkward moments when I swallowed while speaking—those everyday occurrences that I preferred not to share were now on full display.
[Your face is so red, lol]
[Stand straight, Kayak! Why didn’t you turn on the cam sooner?]
[Um, um, yeah, it’s surprising, but that’s the truth. Sis is as pretty as Camilla.]
The distance felt much shorter. Revealing my face had completely flipped public opinion 180 degrees, turning it very favorable. But despite that, it was undeniably a burden.
It hit me again just how not normal it was to turn on the cam. I felt a newfound respect for the nearby streamers who regularly broadcasted with their cameras on.
I hadn’t felt the pressure when I typically streamed without a cam. I thought it was no big deal; I thought, “What’s the harm in just showing my face?”
But turning it on was indeed a different matter. However, keeping the cam on after the reveal was slightly problematic.
Still, it had been… what, 5 minutes since I turned it on? I couldn’t turn it off now.
“The chat is moving too fast….”
I decided to impose a slight regulation on the chat, which was full of embarrassing comments, like a chicken instead of a pheasant.
Three-month follower chat. Plus subscriber chat.
That way, only those who had been around since the early days and the loyal subscribers would be left, so the chat wouldn’t scroll as fast as it was now.
However, I quickly had to change my mind.
[Di Fuko has subscribed for 1 month...]
[Costa has subscribed for 1 month...]
[HappilyKayakFan has subscribed for 1 month...]
It was due to the flood of subscription notifications that came pouring in.
*
After a rush of subscriptions and support from countless people, a brief moment of calm settled in.
Next, a short Q&A session and an update on my current status to clear up the viewers’ curiosities followed.
It was a response and a casual chat.
“I received a seat ticket in return for helping the Fusion Gaming folks with their practice. The person I went with is a neighborhood friend of mine.”
Kayak chattered enthusiastically as if asking when that had happened. She occasionally glanced at the chat window and sometimes turned her head shyly, but that only backfired.
[The host is friends with a kid…]
[Doesn’t Kayak have friends?]
[Look at her, how could she not have friends?]
[What’s with the kawaii moves? LOL]
[Teacher, if you keep serving us broth… No, I’m not.]
[Was this person doing this even when their camera was off? LOL, really so cute.]
[Older sister, you’re so cute!]
“Please don’t keep calling me cute. I can’t do anything because of those messages….”
However, Kayak’s wish was of a kind that wouldn’t be fulfilled. She hadn’t grasped the mechanism of the chat yet.
If anything, it was more like she had forgotten what she knew due to being flustered. The viewers were the type to do the opposite of what they were told, anyway. It was actually more effective to remain indifferent when dealing with such playful folks.
<ㅇㅇ has donated 1000 won!>
-Kayak, wanting to get rid of all the broth-loving cuties, thumbs up! LOL.
“That’s not really the case… I mean, what was I trying to say?”
Kayak said this while touching her forehead again. Those watching repeated their cute reactions, creating a vicious cycle.
She peeked at the chat window and frowned, intending to just wrap up her words quickly and end the broadcast.
“So, the cosplayer Camilla… is me, yes. So, were all those things said in the gallery true…? What was said in the gallery again?”
[This person is pretending not to know.]
[Ah, LOL, asking if it’s true that she captured cosplayers for an intense performance.]
[??? : Lennok, no, it should be more substantial and dignified…]
[I heard Kayak was directing a cinematic re-enactment while acting.]
[I was there in real-time, and the host acted really well, indeed.]
“You’re really good at acting, huh?”
“Haven’t you seen what someone else wrote in their testimony?”
“There’s no way you missed it, lol. You’re just pretending not to know because you’re embarrassed.”
“You can check out the ‘Camilla lookalike cosplayer sighting’ story.”
With her unique quick reflexes, Kayak glanced at the chat and, playing dumb, moved on to the next topic.
“And I don’t really have plans to go pro; I’m satisfied with my current life. I’m a Camilla artisan, and original one-champ players find it hard to go pro. If I get banned, I can’t even play. Lee Jun Hyuk really hyped me up in the interview, but the build I made wasn’t what he tweaked and used.”
“I was looking forward to your pro activities, but what a shame.”
“Seriously, lol. What pro? You should be with us while streaming!”
“If you go pro, we won’t get to see you like we do now…”
“Kayak, who got a shout-out from the world’s best Abyss player Lee Jun Hyuk, is just the GOAT.”
“First achievement as a streamer, whoa!”
After that, a short Q&A session continued. Kayak answered most questions without infringing too much on her privacy.
“This isn’t a hearing… You guys are really curious. For today, I’ll take questions up to this point.”
Kayak skillfully cut off the endless stream of questions at a suitable point. While the viewers felt disappointed, they secretly acknowledged it and stepped back, realizing it could go on forever.
Then the question time passed, and the viewers began to wonder what kind of moves Kayak would make next.
Would she turn on Abyss like usual? Or maybe do some content since the camera was already on? Or would she just turn off the camera, saying she’s too shy?
However, Kayak’s choice was nothing like what the viewers had expected.
“Um, I think I’ll be wrapping up… I originally planned to just chat a little and log off today…”
Despair. The Great Depression.
If you had to sum up the chat’s reaction in one word, that would fit perfectly.
But despite the viewers’ pleas, Kayak just shook her head.
“That’s it for today… ‘You don’t paddle when the tide’s in,’ right? Hmm, saying that doesn’t help.”
No matter if the viewers cried or got angry, Kayak ended the stream without hesitation, promising to see them next time.
Uptime: 53 minutes and 24 seconds.
The viewer count had just surpassed 20,000.
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