"Wait, so the avatar... is identical to the real-life form? Did it change like that during the event for the Manifestors?"
"...Yes."
"Sonia, why aren't you saying anything?!"
"I knew a bit earlier than the two of them."
-HAHAHAHAHAHA -"What the hell did you just say???????????????" -"The white-haired TS Bi-Yam nun is here ww" -"Why is this real though??" -"Is this the world where if you wish for it, it happens?? Do we just need to offer a prayer to the sky?" -"Dice and Harmonie turned into Bi-Yam too, but what the hell is going on??"
The world was full of Bi-Yams.
Of course, at this point, all the content we had discussed before the stream had gone out the window. In other words, there were things far more important than clearing the highest difficulty mission.
What was to follow was obvious. A sort of "hearing" would begin, and at the center of it stood Iris... our editor, who had recently changed her name to Baek Hye-jeong.
If things had gone as they were supposed to, we would have only known that Iris had undergone a physical change to the Serpentia class, but as I was saying this, things had clearly gone differently.
The editor, half-dazed by the attention of 2 million viewers, didn't exactly explode in a rush... but she did go a bit overboard.
So, what was the nature of her mild overreaction?
"...When did you take this photo?"
"It was a selfie I took to send to my parents, but I didn't think it would end up being shown like this..."
"Don’t lie. Anyone could tell by your expression that you were wondering how it would look when shown."
"...I guess, even if I’m bad at taking photos, it doesn’t matter if I look good, huh?"
-LOL -What the hell, really??? -That’s the Bi-Yam nun for you, haha -What the hell is going on? This is too real! -Why does her avatar look so much like her real self, haha
She had shown a selfie she had taken.
As she said, though the composition and everything was plain, it didn’t matter much since—just like in any TS transformation—if you look good, it’s all good.
For me, though, the fact that the photo was taken in one of my many bedrooms in my house was more of a concern. I had lent it to her, but I still wondered when it had been taken.
It was obvious from the picture that Iris was wearing something I provided. More specifically, it was something I wore at my house.
Honestly, it couldn't have been any other way since when I drove to her house and picked her up, what kind of clothes was she wearing?
'...What else but that absurd nun outfit?'
Though viewers seemed to want that outfit, I guessed I could keep it safely at my house, so maybe someday she’d wear it.
Of course, I never wore it, but I instinctively realized that it would fit my body perfectly. It even had a hole for the tail.
But I would never wear it.
Anyway,
"How did you know, Sonia?"
"I saw Iris-chan picking up the EMP grenade with her tail while we were entering the assembly hall through the smoke."
"And after that, she couldn’t manage her tail, and we ended up noticing it too."
"Iris... didn’t you have no intention of hiding it, huh?"
"Ugh, please stop, I’m embarrassed..."
-LOL, her ears turned red, haha -So they’re updating from the red pill to the blue pill now, haha -That’s why she’s been showing those female moves, haha -Seriously, is Iris a genius at making people mad? -Seriously, TS might just be the future hope...
Exactly.
Anyway, I didn’t participate actively in the conversation at that point. There was no point in adding more unnecessary explanations.
And Iris was about to debut solo, so she needed to get used to a lot of viewers. So, in this case, my involvement should be minimal.
Though Iris didn’t seem to agree with that. She kept glancing at me, and her tail was subtly wrapping around my arm.
There was a slight unease in her eyes, and her tail moved on its own, not quite in sync with her intentions. Early-stage Manifestors tend to have their minds and bodies out of sync.
Maybe I should fix that today.
"Ugh, stop wrapping your tail around my arm!"
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"Ah, I didn’t mean to."
"Ah, I’m so jealous... Oh wait, never mind. Iris, you didn’t hear anything."
"Well, if the tail has a tactile sensor, I guess the avatar was recalibrated, huh? I wonder why I didn’t notice that sooner."
"I guess Iris was really into her avatar from the start. It’s understandable. Even if she says it wasn’t on purpose."
-So it’s the view beam angle -Seriously, Iris has been depending on Bi-Yam, haha -Breaking news: Iris’s YouSpace channel has surpassed 400k subscribers -Didn’t it just hit 200k yesterday? LOL
I had heard a bit about this before. Was this the story?
Around six months ago, strange illustrations—possibly the model for Iris's current avatar—had been posted in our Eugene Squad chat and deleted a few times.
Anyway, the conversation continued in a different direction, and soon, Iris had revealed everything about herself, and the broadcast turned into a Q&A session about EM-level Manifestors. It didn’t take long before it became clear.
"So, are you playing in hardcore mode like Eugene now?"
"Like, can you easily lift heavy stuff? Punch harder?"
"Well, not quite that much. But I guess I’ve gotten a bit stronger compared to before..."
"Does the poison come out now?"
"..."
"No, seriously!?"
-LOL "What, isn’t original Bi-Yam supposed to not have poison??" "Most snakes have venom, though, haha" "Ah, I see now, haha" "Ah, no wonder the avatar's fangs were so long, haha"
Exactly.
Unlike Harmony and Dice, who seemed to be based on an anaconda, Iris was a completely different kind of Bi-Yam. Maybe it was the result of not being set during the design phase.
Her face, already white like flour, and her pointed ears turned bright red. As she lowered her head, I continued with the explanation.
"Given that it’s a blood-coagulating venom, I’m guessing it’s part of the viper family—probably not a cobra, but a viper... The issue is the quantity and toxicity, which have never been observed in the wild."
"...Eh?"
"Still, it’s clear that it doesn’t come out unless she consciously focuses on it, so don’t worry about dying from accidentally biting your tongue. Open your mouth for me."
"Uwaang."
"Can you all see her fangs?"
"Umm..."
-Our god is forcing open the believer’s mouth, haha -Why is everyone in Bi-Yam suddenly showing poison abilities? This feels off... -From today, the national animal of Korea is the Bi-Yam, haha -Isn’t blood-coagulating venom something you’d have to amputate if you get bitten???
Though she was about to cry from embarrassment, I gently poked her cheek with my finger and made her open her mouth.
Between her red mucous membranes, I could see the impressive length of her fangs. Within them, I could faintly see a thin, almost transparent space—resembling a tube. So that’s why it’s called "fangs."
Anyway,
"It seems like there are still plenty of questions left, so we might as well put off shooting for now, right?"
"Yes!"
"Yes!"
"Specially, I’ll work with our editor here to answer your questions, so you’d better get ready with the questions you wanted to ask."
If not today, it might never happen again.
Thinking that, I smiled and placed my hand on the editor’s head, scratching her chin with my finger. With the sound of something melting beneath me, today’s "Dark Zone" broadcast came to an end.
Of course, if we looked at it from another perspective, the talk show had just begun.
"Wow, we’re all people who’ve changed our bodies, but Iris is number one on the real-time search. I don’t know if I should congratulate her."
"Congrats, congrats. With this, Iris will probably be second in popularity after Eugene among the four EM-level Manifestors in Korea."
"...Are you teasing me, or congratulating me?"
"Don’t mind them. They talk without thinking."
And so, the usual lively combat against our editor continued—though now that they were also Manifestors, pushing them away was a bit more challenging.
Our editor, looking clueless, asked.
"How do you have such authority, Eugene?"
That question.
Of course, before I could answer, Dice and Harmony grinned and leaned in to whisper in her ears. About 10 seconds later, she reacted.
"Wha, wha, what, Emm... waahhh—! Really!?"
"...That’s the most extreme reaction I’ve seen in a while. If it gets this big, it’s almost embarrassing."
And so, one more person learned about our parents.
This was the Bi-Yam cartel.