Chapter 109
“Whoa. How come even your toy version is handsome? That’s not fair. And ‘sculpted’ vs. ‘shattered’? Are you crazy, human?”
What’s this?
Did something similar pop up in Tae-u’s stream chat too?
Seo-jun chuckled as he skimmed the chat.
- The guy who donated must be a total madman lololol He sent the same thing to both streams at the exact same time as if he’d planned it
- Haha as a viewer, watching two streams at once is just the basics
Ah, so someone made simultaneous donations.
That was seriously impressive quick thinking.
The time from the joke popping into someone’s head, opening two donation windows, typing the same thing, and hitting send was under twenty seconds.
‘Impressive.’
Seo-jun inwardly admired, while inspecting his avatar in the mirror.
The proportions and body were the same, but the joints had taken on a doll-like quality, and most importantly, his face had been transformed into that of a toy.
But when he shifted his gaze from the mirror and looked at Tae-u, he looked the same as his real appearance.
In other words.
“Given that I can only see that in the mirror, it must be some kind of in-game effect.”
Perhaps this game-within-a-game world was one where toys were alive and toys were the protagonists.
Meaning.
“The developer who made this game probably wanted to show that the in-game developers who entered this game-within-a-game took on the form of toys.”
- ?
- What nonsense are you spouting
- lol I understood it lololol
Seo-jun figured the mirror wasn’t just there for no reason the moment you entered.
Anyway, it was pretty amusing to see his doll version.
That aside.
“Wanna just smash this mirror?”
Tae-u had gone dark.
- Lolololol The proud viewer who kept teasing the other streamer’s chat is a true legend lololol
- Just stated facts
- Honestly, his toy avatar is pretty ugly
Hmm.
Maybe watching Tae-u’s chat would be more entertaining.
Viewers could do a split screen on Travl on their own, but it wasn’t the stream chat that the streamer himself sees.
“Hey.”
“What? Wait, everyone. Huh?”
“Let’s set up the collab properly. So I can see your channel’s chat in streamer mode too.”
“Why?”
Instead of having to open Tae-u’s stream separately on Travl, Seo-jun wanted to see the chat exactly as Tae-u saw it while streaming.
“Because that seems more fun.”
- Lolololol
- From the streamer’s perspective, it’s unbearable
- For real lol
“Hurry up and set it.”
“Fine.”
Seo-jun opened the Travl window and went into the broadcast settings.
And then he connected it to Tae-u’s stream.
Once he did, the existing viewer chat appeared on the right as usual, and Tae-u’s chat began showing on the left.
As he watched Tae-u’s chat, viewers were still teasing him.
- Quick, stand in front of the mirror
- Honestly, I envy my friend yes or yes
- How can a toy face get that smushed?
- That’s the very definition of shattered lol
Truthfully, Tae-u’s looks weren’t terrible either.
No, they were actually on the decent side.
There’s a thing called “camera massage.”
It refers to the effect where, as a person’s face appears on media, they naturally figure out how to better bring out their charms and take better care of themselves, gradually improving their appearance.
Tae-u had been streaming with a face cam for seven years.
Unless he completely gave up on his looks and used that as a strength to generate laughs, he was just a normal guy in his twenties.
He was at an age where people care a lot about their appearance, so of course the camera massage effect was bound to kick in.
So he was above average, but.
“No, everyone, it’s only natural that you’d get uglier!”
The problem was the smug-looking Seo-jun laughing beside him.
“No, how can your face get even more handsome after turning into a toy?! If you look closely, that bastard Jin Seo-jun also got uglier in his toy version compared to his real self. It’s just that he’s so handsome that you’re all mistaken about his ugly version.”
Seo-jun looked at Tae-u like he was dumb.
Tsk, tsk.
Instead of continuing to be teased, why not just take one step away from the mirror?
Seo-jun had long since admired his toy version and stepped aside from the mirror.
“Aarrrgh! No, it’s just him, okay?! Whoa. You guys should hurry up and download this game to verify it yourselves. Hurry!”
- Why would we?
- This kind of advertising is disappointing
- I guess I shouldn’t buy it. Because of you lololol
- Anyway, they say you get more handsome in toy version lololol Well, my face can’t possibly get any uglier anyway.....
- That’s kinda lololol
“Enough, come over here. Looks like they’re telling us to go that way.”
“……Fine. Everyone, I really hope you verify this. If you don’t want to buy the game, then find some app on your phone or whatever. Definitely.”
Ignoring Tae-u, Seo-jun headed toward the spot with the green circular marker.
There was another shattered mirror there.
As he reached the marker, it vanished and narration began playing.
[Damn, is this for real? We’re toys?]
[This is ridiculous.]
[What did you do! What the hell did you do, you bastard!]
[I don’t know either!]
Listening to the conversation between the characters, Seo-jun checked the next marker.
A pile of junk? A hill?
Spotting the green marker at the very top, Seo-jun gestured to Tae-u.
Meanwhile, the narration continued.
[Wait! Doesn’t this place look familiar?]
That was Seo-jun’s character speaking.
[What?]
[This junkyard feels familiar. Even the fact that all the garbage is toy-related, and the exhaust port up there too.]
[What nonsense... Huh? This place is?]
[This is the spot in our game where the protagonist revealed what he wanted to become, got judged as defective, and was discarded. Dammit. What a crazy dream.]
Seo-jun climbed up the junk pile.
There were large chunks like the box that had contained him, as well as tiny bits of debris.
“I’ll climb up now. This is the right way, right?”
This kind of game was another first for him, wasn’t it?
Dawn of the Assassins was an open-world game so you could do whatever you wanted, and For the Sake of the Hero was an online game, so Two Heads are Better was a genre Seo-jun was trying for the first time.
- Yes
- You’re doing great
- Every time he asks such basic stuff it feels so surreal lololol
- He really is a cute newbie who doesn’t know much about games
- But would he still be a cute newbie if you put a sword in his hand?
- Physical carry one-trick tsk tsk tsk Think you can get good at games like that?
- But he’s freaking amazing at it?
Seo-jun smiled as he continued climbing.
[What, is that for real?]
[Yeah. You drew it, so you’d know better.]
[Dammit. I think it’s right. We’re really inside the game? Does that even make sense?]
[Ha. What do we do?]
[What do you think! We just have to wake up from this dream!]
Finding the conversation fascinating, Seo-jun listened as he reached the peak.
Since the green marker still hadn’t disappeared, it seemed Tae-u also needed to arrive, so he decided to wait a moment.
“Anyway, I think I picked the right character, don’t you?”
[Still don’t get it? This isn’t a dream.]
[What are you talking about. I need to wake up from this dream quickly. Even in a dream, even in a toy form. Seeing your face is pure agony.]
[Fine, try waking up. Hmm... First, I need to get to the highest spot. You come too.]
[What? Why? You think I’ll listen to you? ……Hey! Let’s go together!]
From what he’d heard so far, the character Seo-jun chose was fairly rational, while Tae-u’s character...
Hmm.
Was great at denying reality.
“The narration ended here.”
Seo-jun spoke, and Tae-u complained from down below.
“Ugh. Why is my character so emotional?”
- True lololololol
- But why can’t I imagine the streamer being emotional?
- Both fit well
From the top, Seo-jun looked down at Tae-u, who was still climbing.
“When are you going to get here?”
“How should I know?”
Tae-u pulled his back foot out of the junk.
And stepped upward.
Swoosh.
Clank.
Clonk.
Then, like sand, tiny bits of trash slid down with every movement Tae-u made, and his body got dragged backward by it.
Small debris like tin cans fell with clanking sounds.
“Ah.”
Having struggled to step forward, Tae-u finally lost his balance and tumbled down.
So Tae-u began crawling up on all fours.
“Lowering your center of gravity. A good choice.”
“Could you please just stay quiet if you’re not gonna help? By the way, how did you get up so fast? You barely got stuck at all.”
“Is this hard?”
Seo-jun tilted his head.
- Tae-u just... lol don’t ask
- Why does the other streamer make everything look so easy? lololol
- He used footwork
Footwork, my ass.
Turning his head to check Tae-u’s chat, Seo-jun said,
“The path I took might’ve been different. Let me try going down to your side and back up.”
Crawling upward, Tae-u raised his head to look at Seo-jun.
“Fine. Come on down here.”
Stomp.
Stomp.
Casually minding his balance, Seo-jun strode down.
The ground beneath him shifted a little, but he never fell.
Then Seo-jun passed Tae-u and climbed back up.
Watching Seo-jun’s retreating figure as he went up again, Tae-u stared in dismay.
“Isn’t he genuinely bugged?”
- Lololololol That’s seriously amazing lolololol
- I mean, there are tightrope walkers in the world, but that other streamer is just good at everything
- Tae-u, just hurry up and climb
- Bug, my ass lolololol Now you too will finally understand how the Dawn of Assassins and For the Sake of the Hero players feel
He didn’t know it at the time, but this was just the beginning.
* * *
Tae-u arrived.
And he opened his mouth.
Naturally, a cutscene began.
[Damn. Why did we climb up here.]
[Because high places offer a good view. And this is closest to the exhaust port. Most importantly, the protagonist of our game also climbed up here.]
[I guess... that makes sense. Still, the exhaust port looks pretty high, doesn’t it?]
He looked around.
Then Seo-jun’s character spotted a hook on the junk pile, grabbed it, and gave it a strong pull.
Swoosh.
A corner smoothly slid down, and Seo-jun’s character was able to pull out a long rope.
[That is?]
[Grappling rope. Protagonist item.]
[Ah. That? But why are there two? In the game, there was only one.]
[Probably. It means us coming here wasn’t a coincidence.]
It was certainly meaningful.
Seo-jun’s character handed one grappling rope to Tae-u, then started spinning the hook.
The target: the exhaust port.
Swoosh!
But it wasn’t long enough, and the hook fell short, whipping back like a wire and rewinding around Seo-jun.
[How did... you do that? That was kind of cool.]
[It just works?]
[Really? Let me try... Hey, it works for me too? Ha. Is this really not a dream?]
[Can you drop the dream talk already? This isn’t a dream. You know that.]
[Fine. I get it. I said I get it. So what do we do now?]
[I don’t know either... However.]
[However?]
[If we want to find any clue... we’ll probably have to meet the protagonist of this game. Seeing as these ropes are still here, the game hasn’t even started yet.]
[That does make sense. It’s not like we even finished making the game.]
[…….]
[…….]
Seo-jun definitely felt that if he’d been in the same situation, he would have sought out the protagonist first too.
Or, failing that, the final boss.
But obviously the final boss would be way too far away, right?
[By the way, why did the lights suddenly turn on in this disposal area earlier?]
[That is…….]
That’s when it happened.
A main gate the size of a floodgate opened.
And a toy resembling a massive garbage compactor truck(?) rolled in with shining headlights and a roaring engine sound.
“Looks like the tutorial is starting.”
At the same time, Seo-jun’s view, which had been watching the cutscene, returned to normal.