The Protagonist's Party is Too Diligent

Still, now that I’d learned how to edit, I realized we actually had a ton of footage to upload.

Not just the clips from when we went out—but also the usual streams we did regularly.

All of those videos had been saved separately.

Thanks to that—

[Eek—!]

Surprisingly, a new video had gone up on our account titled “Scream Dispenser.”

For the record, the thumbnail was a close-up of my face. Every single frame of it was me screaming in shock.

“......”

I silently stared at Mia, who was kneeling in front of me.

“How exactly... did this video come into existence?”

“W-Well, that is... Claire...”

Before I could even call her, Claire hurriedly knelt down next to Mia.

“I-I just thought it’d get a lot of views! You said it’d be good to make monetized content!”

...Okay, yes, I had said that.

“...Then who made this thumbnail?”

I pointed at the thumbnail crammed full of my shocked face. This time, Alice silently joined the others and kneeled beside Claire.

“......”

I was at a loss for words.

It wasn’t just one person responsible for this video incident—half the people I lived with were involved.

“But, uh, this video’s view count is kind of insane, isn’t it? It hasn’t even been two hours and it’s already past 100,000 views.”

That’s right. This video was performing way better than the camping vlog I’d edited and uploaded before.

Honestly, it was well-made.

The vlog had a bit of a cinematic touch, with soft music and some brief dialogue, but you could still see the rough spots in terms of camera work and editing.

But for this gaming video, fancy effects didn’t matter that much.

That doesn’t mean there wasn’t any sense of style required, though.

You had to know what parts of the long footage to trim, when to focus on the gameplay versus the streamer’s face, how to highlight the funniest moments.

Even the subtitles were placed well.

Mia was a natural when it came to studying, so she must’ve watched a lot of similar content and learned from it.

“I didn’t really... call you out to scold you, anyway.”

“Sure didn’t look like that,” Alice muttered, then quickly shut her mouth when I looked at her.

“It’s just that... if the thumbnails are too overly sensational like this, people might get sick of them later—”

I was trying to get something across, but the lukewarm stares from the other four made me give up.

Yeah, whatever I said now would just sound like excuses.

Suppressing a sigh, I said,

“...Good job. Uploading videos like this from time to time will probably help.”

“Yeah! I’m sure fitness videos will do great too!”

“And horror game clips, every now and then.”

“......”

Right... we did have workout videos too.

I had a bad feeling the next one would be called “Scream Parade” or something.

“By the way, who came up with the video title?”

“......”

At my question, Charlotte quietly walked over and knelt down as well.

...So literally everyone but me, huh?

Well, the views were good, so ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) fine.

*

Our videos started gaining views like crazy not long after uploading.

We only had five videos up so far, but aside from the “Scream” series, most had barely passed the hundred-thousand mark. The ones where I panicked playing horror games or wore tight workout gear while gaming were doing much better.

Are we famous now? Definitely not. But for content creators, those numbers were huge. I bet anyone else uploading to the platform would be dying of envy.

And it wasn’t like the growth had stopped—it was still climbing, almost scarily so.

Well, when I thought about it, we did check all the boxes for popularity.

Five pretty girls on camera. Playing games in cosplay. Uploading slice-of-life videos.

And not just pretty—we looked like foreigners. Even our names sounded foreign.

But legally, we were Korean.

That strange contradiction was guaranteed to attract attention.

Of course, we’d only ever mentioned our Korean nationality during streams.

But still—

Still—

“......”

I was now seriously contemplating an email I’d received.

Honestly, I figured TV stations might reach out someday. I even expected it to be a program featuring foreigners living in Korea.

But I didn’t expect it to happen this quickly.

“TV?!”

Claire reacted with surprise.

“It is a show, yes. It’s one that features foreigners living in Korea.”

I knew the one. It wasn’t a ratings monster, but it had some recognition.

“...Ah, I see.”

Alice nodded.

Right.

Strictly speaking, the other four were all foreigners. Not just from another country—but another world entirely. That’s how they saw themselves, too.

But that’s their perspective. Legally, they were Korean citizens.

Not naturalized. Not children of mixed nationality. Just... Korean from the start. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

But our names sounded foreign.

If we ever did something truly reckless, the goddess might go all out trying to “fix” the world and force those backstories into place. But the bigger issue was the mismatch between how people perceived us and how our records said we were.

“If a station ever invites us again, maybe we could go. But I don’t think the time is right.”

We’d been here for over two months, which was enough time to adapt to the country... but not enough to become part of it.

Besides—

“If you read here, it mentions the possibility of added ‘direction.’”

And when someone admits up front there “might be” staging involved, it’s as good as saying there will be.

“They’re supposed to be filming our everyday lives. What’s the point of adding fake drama?”

“To make it more sensational, probably.”

I explained to Alice, who was frowning deeply.

I’d read online before that some producers ask happy multicultural couples to pretend to argue just for the drama. Maybe this was the same kind of thing.

If they told us—who had never once seriously fought while living together—to fake an argument... how would that feel?

“Yeah, I’m not a fan of that.”

Claire’s scowl made our answer clear.

We wouldn’t be replying to this email.

*

But apparently, that wasn’t the only network interested in turning our daily lives into content.

And it wasn’t just broadcasters, either.

Probably because we uploaded game streams, other streamers started sending us collaboration emails.

“Still, we have no plans to do collabs right now.”

[Smart move]

[But collabs with famous streamers could boost your viewer count!]

Reactions were mixed.

Some thought we should keep doing what we’re doing unless we’re in a rush to monetize. Others said we should row the boat while the tide was high.

Just yesterday, I’d been leaning toward the latter myself.

“But it might be better to take things slow. As you all know, we’re people who came directly from Azerna. The more people dig, the more holes they’ll find.”

[lololol]

[That in-character consistency, lol]

[No but seriously, you do kinda look the part]

I didn’t lie, though.

It’s up to them whether they believe it or not.

*

In Azerna Chronicles, there were a lot of playable characters.

Even if you ignored the noble class protagonists, there were commoner class students too.

Though, I never actually got close to the commoner students. I finished the story before I had the chance.

Still, characters like Lily Baker and Lottie had a bunch of friends from the commoner group who were also usable party members.

Of course, the commoner characters barely got any screen time.

[What... is this...]

And when the game’s biggest twist hit, it was the commoners who were most shocked.

The main characters left the academy and found... nothing outside. The vibe was similar to when we stormed the Holy Nation.

Though, granted, there weren’t any giant fire pillars surrounding the Holy Nation like in this case.

[Dad... Mom...!]

The commoner students were still from relatively successful families, considering they’d gotten into the academy.

Most of them originally lived in the capital.

Lily Baker too.

On the way to the imperial palace, Lily spotted her family’s house and ran ahead. She flung the door open—

But no one was there.

[Where... where did everyone go...]

Lily collapsed to her knees, muttering in shock, while the party behind her looked on in worried silence. That’s where the scene ended.

“...That’s kind of similar to what we went through.”

“Are they saying this would’ve happened if Sylvia hadn’t acted with me?”

I responded to Alice, and she gave a little shrug.

“It’s hard to say. What happened in the game and what happened to us in real life are so different.”

Well... I guess we’ll find out as we keep playing.

Still, my in-game self and my real self feel so different.

Maybe once we get to the end of the story, we’ll finally understand why the goddess picked me.