Former Ranker's Newbie Life

Chapter 158

Kaa’ang spent a moment gauging their reactions, then, with an almost desperate look, said, “Um... I know this is a long shot, but if either of you ever have time, would you be willing to do a joint stream with me?”

People who made a living off streaming tossed around the usual “let’s collab sometime” line the same way old classmates would invite each other out for dinner. Normally, it was all empty banter, but Kaa’ang had meant every word of it.

“A collab? I would love to!” Theresa answered with a bright smile. Someone as naturally warm and outgoing as she was would never hesitate about something like that.

“Really? Thank you so much!”

However, Do-Jin didn’t answer right away and took a moment to think. In most situations, he would have turned down a collab request like this without hesitation and done it politely. In fact, even right now it technically counted as a polite refusal, since the company was probably fielding a flood of requests on his behalf and shutting them all down.

It sounds like a pain in the ass, but now I’m kinda intrigued... It could even be fun.

There was a burning curiosity that had followed him ever since his past life, when he had witnessed that bottom-of-the-barrel gameplay. Players at the top only ever encountered others at the top, so he had basically never crossed paths with anyone who lacked even the bare fundamentals.

From Do-Jin’s point of view, Kaa’ang, or more precisely the clips of her he remembered from his past life, had been pure culture shock. Watching her play had felt like watching a disaster unfold in slow motion. And now he had a chance to see it happen live, right in front of him. That alone made it worth considering, even if it was a hassle.

Maybe I should ask what she even wants to do.

Instead of giving her an answer right away, Do-Jin dragged the conversation out a little longer. She looked genuinely desperate, and he figured he could at least give her a fair shot to convince him before he told her to forget it.

“In a collab... what exactly would we be doing? I barely ever stream live and I only upload dungeon clears I record on my own, so I honestly have no idea what people even do in a collab,” he asked.

Kaa’ang had been trading polite thank-yous with Theresa, but she had been keeping one eye on Do-Jin the whole time. The moment he actually asked what they would do, her eyes lit up. She had been ready to scrape something together even if he gave her a half-assed answer. However, he had actually asked what the plan was.

“Can I sit here for a second?” Kaa’ang asked. Before he even responded, she was already sliding into the seat next to Theresa.

Do-Jin ignored it and continued, “You’re not talking about something simple like running a dungeon together, right?” The tone made it clear that if the idea was that boring, he would shut it down on the spot.

Kaa’ang shook her head fast enough to give herself whiplash. “God, no. If it was that, you would solo the whole place like a robot vacuum cleaner set loose in a dungeon, and we would be done in five minutes.”

Kaa’ang had crawled up from the very bottom as a streamer. She was a professional who had survived by grinding her way up, inch by inch. She already had every bit of content planned out for the day she finally got to collab with him. It was the kind of plan people build while daydreaming about what they would do if they ever won the lottery. Except the winning ticket was now sitting right in front of her.

“It is kind of embarrassing for me to say this,” she began. “But I am really bad at the game.”

“I kno— I mean, it is fine. Go on,” Do-Jin replied.

“I somehow dragged my level up into the 120s, but that is literally all I have. I am a complete idiot in combat. I can’t carry my weight even in Level 100 dungeons. Honestly, my level is just something my viewers and other streamers helped me grind. I barely earned any of it myself.”

“Then if you collab with me, you would just...”

“Exactly. People would shit on me again for riding another bus. So you are not gonna carry me; you are gonna coach me. The whole idea is Do-Jin’s challenge to turn a dumbass mage into a real damage dealer who can actually contribute.”

She clenched her tiny fist and kept going. “That kind of content is common enough. But a meeting like this is not common at all. You are the undisputed top of the mage class, and I am the absolute bottom of the bottom.”

They both went silent. It was impressive that someone could weaponize self-deprecation like this. Neither Do-Jin nor Theresa could say anything because agreeing would be rude and disagreeing would be a lie.

“After you teach me, I’ll run a dungeon with Theresa as my party member. Since Theresa already cleared hard dungeons with you, we can make a whole segment comparing how it goes with you versus how it goes with me. I swear this alone could make at least five MeTube videos.”

Kaa’ang was already pitching an entire content plan with Theresa on the spot as she was explaining.

“It does sound fun,” Do-Jin concluded.

“Right? Right?”

The videos aside, it just sounded fun for him. He had already decided to take it easy with gaming for a while, so trying something simple for a break didn’t sound like a bad idea. It was light content anyway, so it wasn’t like he needed to sink hours into it.

“I like it.”

“W-wait, so you would actually collab with me?”

“I’m not doing you a favor. We’re doing it together.”

“Hell yes!” Kaa’ang threw her arms up in a full victory pose.

People looked over at the commotion, but most of them were employees, so it didn’t matter much. They assumed her reactions were just wild because she was a streamer.

“What time works best for you? I’ll work my schedule around.”

Do-Jin hated pushing things back once he decided on a plan. If things got delayed, it started feeling like homework for him. So he turned to Theresa and asked, “Hey, you don’t have anything planned with Soso, right?”

“Hmm? Oh, right. We didn’t exactly plan anything before meeting.”

“Then maybe we can play for a bit and grab dinner before heading home.”

“What? That actually sounds good, but don’t tell me you’re about to—”

Theresa looked confused, but Do-Jin simply smiled at her before saying, “Kaa’ang, if you are free, should we do it now? We can stream upstairs anyway.”

“Now? Right now?”

Once Do-Jin made up his mind, his momentum hit hard enough to shock even Kaa’ang.

“W-wouldn’t it be better if we prepare properly, set things up, make an announcement, and promote it so we get the most out of the opportunity...?”

She desperately wanted to secure a proper slot. It was the kind of opportunity she couldn’t afford to waste.

“Then we can do the real one later. Today, we can just check your setup. I can’t stay long anyway. Well, unless you have something else booked today.”

“Wait a second!”

Her thoughts snapped together in an instant as she realized what this meant. They could run a small setup session today and save the full broadcast for later, which meant she could turn this into two separate streams. The second she realized her chance at hitting the jackpot had basically doubled, her heart kicked into overdrive. She shot straight out of her seat and rushed straight toward Oh Young-Sik.

“Kaa’ang, you two have been talking for quite a while. What were you discussing?”

“He said he would collab with me!”

“What?”

Even from a distance, Oh Young-Sik could see how excited she was. He had hoped for good news, but he didn’t expect this.

“I’m really sorry, but could we push today’s meeting back? You remember the content idea I mentioned before, right? The whole ‘turning Kaa’ang into a functioning human being’ project. I told him about it, and he said he would check my entire setup for me right now.”

The moment Kaa’ang finished talking, Oh Young-Sik shot up from his seat.

“A meeting? What meeting? Hold on.” He whipped out his phone and called someone immediately. “Get the stream room set up right now. LOST, two people. Yeah, we’re coming up. It’s Do-Jin and Kaa’ang. Stop wasting time asking questions and get it done. This is urgent, got it?”

The meeting didn’t matter anymore. It wasn’t like the meeting was anything serious to begin with. They were only going to sit around discussing what kind of content might be fun and what direction they could try next.

“I just told them to get everything ready so you can start streaming the moment you head upstairs.”

Oh Young-Sik gave a thumbs-up and Kaa’ang returned it with a grin. She looked quite pleased with herself.

***

Today had originally been Kaa’ang’s official day off. But the moment she suddenly went live with zero warning, her regular viewers swarmed the stream in a confused panic.

└ Uhhh what is going on?

└ Why is the streamer going live on her day off? She never misses break days.

└ Okay but free content is free content lol. Absolute win for us.

Before anyone could make sense of the situation, Kaa’ang appeared on screen.

“Hehehe.” Her smug little laugh alone was enough to set the chat on fire.

└ Okay, that laugh tells me she didn’t crash anything today.

└ How does someone piss people off only with their laugh? That should be illegal.

└ What fresh bullshit are you dragging us into this time?

└ Let me guess, another pointless thing you want to brag about.

Normally, this would’ve been the moment she snapped and cursed them out. But today, she didn’t even blink. If anything, she looked more full of herself, like she was two seconds away from floating.

“I’ve always told you that I’d become a real damage dealer, right? And to make that happen, I brought a very special guest today. Once you see who it is, you are all going to lose your shit.”

Her viewers wasted no time in firing back.

└ Give me a fucking break.

└ There isn’t a doctor who can fix you unless God himself came down from heaven to bless you with a cheat code.

└ Fine, we’ll stop roasting you for being trash. Just stop hallucinating.

└ You all bullied her to the point of insanity.

└ Enough bullshit, Miss Kaa’ang. Turn the roulette on.

Kaa’ang ignored the entire chat like it was no more than a barking Pomeranian.

“Yeah, yeah, okay, chat. Keep spamming that crap...” she replied before finally turning the camera on.

└ ???

└ ?????

└ What the actual fuck???

The chat suddenly started scrolling past three times as fast, and when they heard the greeting, everything imploded.

“Hello, this is Do-Jin.”

└ We said only God could fix her and she brought a literal fucking god?

└ Why is someone this valuable on this tiny-ass channel?

└ How the hell is Do-Jin here? It’d be less random to have the U.S. President walk in behind him.

The reactions were so juicy that her ego shot straight through the ceiling.

“See? I told you. You’d freak out. And since we have a very, very important guest today, maybe try not to act like feral animals. If you cross the line, I will personally...” Kaa’ang dragged her hand across her neck.

└ Yes ma’am. We understood.

└ We salute you.

└ We’re all extremely polite and well-behaved chatters, Kaa’ang. Always have been.

Kaa’ang narrowed her eyes like she didn’t believe a single word.

Standing beside her and witnessing all the chaos, Do-Jin decided to butt in. “Since today is just a quick check of your setup, let’s focus on that.”

“Yes!”

Neither of them bothered to log into LOST since they only needed her equipment overview. Before starting the stream, Kaa’ang had taken pictures of all her gear and organized them. She pulled up the layout now and showed it to him. However, Do-Jin’s expression hardened in real time as he stared at her disaster of a setup.