In the end, the trial ended in a mess due to the argument between Komari and Maru (?), and before the next trial could begin, another person had lost their life to my fangs.
Grr, scary, isn't it?
Werewolves rip people apart.
As a result, only the three of us remained—me, Komari, and Maru.
Just now, in the trial, the two who had been sharpening their knives at each other, accusing each other of being the werewolf, were at it again.
Normally, they should have ganged up on me, leading to a human victory.
But thanks to my Silence ability, I had already slipped out of the circle of suspicion.
[I guarantee it. The moment you see the results later, the first thing out of your mouth will be ‘Oh, f*.’]**
[Whether I believe it or not doesn’t matter in the end. It’s all up to Gia unnie’s decision. Unnie, Maru unnie is the werewolf. Trust me. We even streamed together before, remember?]
[Hey! I’m streaming with you right now too!!]
[Oh? Then I’ve already collabed twice with Gia unnie, so that means we’re closer, right?]
[Agh, Mari, you... wow! Just, wow! No, I—ugh! WOW!]
— LOL
— LMAO
— I can't stop laughing, help
— I’m laughing so hard I think I might die
Watching everything unfold exactly as I had intended, an old concern suddenly resurfaced in my mind.
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I had been debating how to run the monthly review content, and this kind of conversational format—could it be the breakthrough I needed?
When I was just helping Ronze, I had simply gone along with the flow.
But once he was confirmed as the werewolf and got wrapped up in the trial, I was on my own.
I had to survive, no matter what.
And to prove my innocence, I used every trick at my disposal.
The result? Even though I ended up using my Silence ability and voice mimicry to impersonate Maru...
I succeeded. I managed to steer the conversation on stream exactly the way I wanted.
"A mask, huh...."
I’ve always found it difficult to speak first.
And doing so on a live stream is even harder.
To me, it feels like making a public speech.
Standing before a huge audience and declaring, This is what I think!
But I think a lot of people feel the same way.
I’ve noticed that when people speak, they often use phrases like “My friend said this...” as a kind of shield.
Because they’re afraid of the stones of rebuttal that might get thrown at them if they openly express their own thoughts.
And among all types of streams, review content is one of the toughest.
It’s basically me stepping up as Parallel’s representative and saying, This was the most fun thing this month!
I’m just an ordinary employee who gets paid by the CEO.
Yet I’m supposed to freely express my opinions on a review show?
And worse—those opinions could be misinterpreted as Parallel’s or even the CEO’s stance?
If the boss were there, she could step in and correct things or draw a clear line.
But doing it alone? That’s terrifying.
Sure, my promotional segment during the Silent Civil War event was official, but that was just a simple task—join a game, show a video, and that’s it.
A full-fledged review show on Parallel’s official channel is a completely different level.
With an official channel, expectations are much higher.
...But if I avoided difficult tasks just because they were hard, would I have been able to support the CEO in so many ways up until now?
I never expected to get a breakthrough idea while playing a game.
But all I needed was a change in perspective.
If I hate throwing out topics myself...
If I struggle to openly share my opinions...
Then I just need to make the viewers do it for me.
Just like I tricked Komari by mimicking Maru’s voice...
I can draw out review topics by letting viewers say, “I thought this scene was fun!” instead.
In other words, I could use chat messages, donation notes, fan cafe posts—every bit of content viewers put out as the basis for the review show’s topics.
That way, even if I’m alone, it would feel like someone else had already kicked off the discussion, and I’d just be responding.
I suddenly felt grateful that Parallel had such a strong fanbase.
Wherever I looked online, Puddles were talking, giving their opinions, sharing their thoughts.
All I had to do was watch, pick them up, and present them.
"And today’s discussion topic is... this!"
There would definitely be people who’d love it.
Imagine if a comment you barely remembered posting suddenly popped up on a stream with a shout-out—it’d feel great, right?
There are even donors who send money just to hear a streamer say their username.
So if I acknowledged them like that, people would definitely enjoy it.
It’s a bit of a unique case, but personally, I even felt happy when the CEO got so pissed off that she yelled, “You f**ing flare gun bastard!”* at me.
"Guess I got lucky."
I had never played with Maru before, and yet I ended up participating in a collab naturally.
At first, everyone was coming at me so aggressively that it was overwhelming.
But in the end, it led to something good.
I should look out for her a bit more when we go on that trip next week.
More than anything, I feel a little bad for absolutely wrecking her with my trick today....
Even now, the two of them were arguing so intensely that they were making full use of the five-minute trial timer.
[Komari, I seriously didn’t expect this from you! I’m not talking to you anymore!!]
[Unnie, you’re not mad about the game, are you?]
[Who said I was mad?! I’m just not talking to you until this round is over! Unlike you, I don’t just stubbornly refuse to listen!!]
[Ohhh~ Sure. But we all know that when the results come out, you’ll just laugh and go, ‘Ah, you got me~’ Why? Because you’re the werewolf.]
Even if they were exaggerating a bit for entertainment, these two frequently butted heads over T and F issues.
Sometimes, their fights even seemed genuinely serious, so I figured I should step in before it went too far.
"Alright, you two. Let’s calm down. I’ve made up my mind."
I voted for Maru, murmuring with a hint of regret.
"Goodbye, Maru."
Komari burst into laughter, but her amusement didn’t last long.
[See, Gia unnie! I knew you’d trust me! Maru unnie really was the werewolf—...]
Maru’s character was cast into the deep, bottomless well in the center of the village.
A high-pitched scream rang out—one of the default female character voices.
Then, the screen darkened, and the game’s result screen appeared.
{{ The werewolves have led the village to ruin!! }}
{{ Werewolves: Ronze (Predator), Magia (Silent One) }}
A victory for the werewolves.
The moment the results were revealed, the chat exploded with reactions.
[Holy sh— holy sh— HOLY SH—]
[No way, this is insane. WOW!!]
[Komari overthought this and ended up losing.]
[Magia! I believed in you!! The werewolves always win!!]
[I was holding my breath watching this, damn.]
[Wait, Magia, that voice mimicry—? It was too perfect?!]
— KYAAAAAAAAAAAAA
— LEGENDARY LOL
— This is the best Silent One play ever LMAO
— This is how you play Silent! This is Magia!!
As the viewers and eliminated players finished their loud chatter, naturally, it was time for Komari and Maru’s reactions.
[No, wait... Oh. No way. Gia unnie, what the hell...? You said you were a newbie! I totally fell for it...! When did you even prepare the voice mod?!]
I hadn’t prepared anything, really.
I was just lucky that the poor sound quality of the in-game voice chat added to the effect.
But before I could explain, Maru cut in.
[Hey!! I TOLD YOU SO!! Seriously, Komari, you—ugh!!]
[No, come on. Let’s be real, unnie, you just completely sucked at convincing people...?]
[Oh, so now it’s my fault. I kept yelling that I was right, but you didn’t even pretend to listen!]
[Yeah, because just screaming something doesn’t magically make it true? You have to use logic to persuade people.]
[Boo! Boo! Komari, you’re so pathetic! BOOOOO!!]
* * *
After that, I played a few more rounds in different roles, but nothing had the same impact as when I was the Silent One.
People were naturally more suspicious of me now.
Every round started with, “Gia, you’re not the Silent One again, are you?” and I kept getting targeted early on.
Not that I minded.
I got what I wanted out of this, and playing a supporting role for the others wasn’t bad either.
I felt pretty satisfied with how the collab turned out, so after the stream ended, I messaged Ronze to thank him.
"Thanks for accepting the invite, Ronze. I had a great time."
[No, no, thank you. This was a goldmine for YouTube clips. I legit feel like I just made my whole monthly allowance from this one stream.]
"Haha, I don’t think it was that big a deal..."
I chuckled awkwardly, scratching the back of my head.
[Anyway, if you ever have time again, drop by. Once the tournament starts, I’ll be swamped, but until then, I’ll be doing more collabs like this. You should come and talk more about Parallel too. People are really curious about it lately.]
As a fan of Parallel, Ronze’s words carried weight, so I made a mental note.
If viewers were still this curious about things, then the official announcements weren’t giving them enough information.
Since I was an insider at the company, I wasn’t always in sync with what the audience wanted to know.
Moments like this were my chance to pick up what was missing.
"Got it. I’ll talk to the boss about it when I get back. Anything else on your mind? I know you watch a lot of Parallel’s streams, so is there anything you’ve been missing? Something you’d like to see more of?"
[Hmm... Honestly, nothing in particular. Between the first-anniversary song release, the 3D showcase, the pre-show, and the concert, I’ve been having such a blast that I kind of just want to rest now.]
"Yeah, I get that. I’ve been feeling a bit drained too."
[Yeah, yeah. But I bet this will last, what, two weeks at most? With the second-gen auditions coming up, it won’t be long before people start asking, ‘Why aren’t you doing this? What about that?’ again.]
He had a point.
I also estimated that people’s cooldown period would last about two weeks.
Specifically, right after the anniversary trip the girls were taking next week.
Once they were back, they’d have to start running again at full speed.
Now that they had 3D avatars, there were so many new things they could do.
Ronze seemed to be expecting more, though...
[Are you gonna play Naore again? If you come up with any weird builds, you should show them off on stream. If they’re good, you might see them sneak into tournaments.]
"Not sure if I’ll play anything other than Apolla, but... I’ll keep it in mind."
[Appreciate it.]
With that, the call ended.
I left the Crunchy Chatroom that I’d joined just for the collab.
Stretch~
Glancing at the clock, I saw it was already 10 PM.
I ended up leaving work late, but it was worth it.
I figured I’d stop by downstairs, help Seung-yeon with her tasks, and grab some fish cakes on my way home.
I reached for the power button on my streaming PC, but—
Bzzzt—
Incoming call: Maru
A second call from Maru, the one who had invited me to today’s collab.
I picked up immediately, thinking it must be urgent, and then—
[Hic... Sniff... Sob... Hic...]
Emergency.
Maru City was flooding.