Gender Swap: The Introvert’s Broadcast

Honestly, at first, I couldn’t quite place the name.
The name “Jeong Ye-wool” sounded likable, but it was hard to immediately associate it with Omniscient Cthulhu.
So I casually responded.

[Me: Who is this?]

"Who is it?"

I had never seen this name before.
How did they get my contact info and reach out to me?
Should I block them?—I was thinking this when I got another message.

[Jeong Ye-wool: ??]
[Jeong Ye-wool: Isn’t this Dama?]
[Jeong Ye-wool: If not, I’m sorry]@@novelbin@@

“Oh.”

Only then did I connect the name to the person.

[Me: Ah, sorry]
[Me: I got confused because your name and image didn’t match, haha]

By the way, the name was really pretty.
I had never heard of anyone named "Winter" before.
It was definitely a rare name, and I thought about it as I stared at my phone.

[Jeong Ye-wool: Haha, I was freaked out]
[Jeong Ye-wool: I thought it wasn’t your contact info]
[Jeong Ye-wool: Why are you pretending you don’t know after giving it to me, lol]
[Me: Sorry, sorry]
[Me: Is that you in the profile pic?]

The profile picture showed a woman with long black hair, looking gentle, like a golden retriever.
She had the kind of face that would make someone hesitate to look away if they saw her walking down the street.

[Jeong Ye-wool: Yep]
[Jeong Ye-wool: But why don’t you have a picture?]
[Jeong Ye-wool: Why am I the only one showing my face?]

Then, out of nowhere, came a direct question.
But I responded smoothly.

[Me: (picture)]
[Me: Here]

I randomly sent one of the pictures from my gallery.
And then-

[Jeong Ye-wool: What the hell]
[Jeong Ye-wool: I asked for your face]
[Jeong Ye-wool: Why did you send a frog face?]

It seemed that the random picture I sent was of a frog.

[Me: Just imagine it as my face]
[Me: Haha]

I didn’t really plan on showing my face.
Besides, I never asked Jeong Ye-wool to show me theirs.

[Jeong Ye-wool: What the hell, a frog?]
[Jeong Ye-wool: Let me know later, then]
[Me: Okay]

It wasn’t really an official promise, but I could tell Jeong Ye-wool hadn’t had much social experience.
I felt a bit sorry for them, but I replied anyway.

[Me: I’ll send you a message before I go live tomorrow]
[Me: If you have time, come join]
[Me: If not, just have someone else take over]
[Jeong Ye-wool: Okay]
[Jeong Ye-wool: Bye]

With that, I finished talking to Jeong Ye-wool—Omniscient Cthulhu—and closed my phone.
Then, a sudden thought hit me.

‘Everyone acts like such a wild animal on the internet.’

When you see someone’s face, they’re usually a lot more normal than you expect.
I couldn’t understand why someone would act like that online with such a face.
I thought about it as I lay in bed.

“Phew.”

I’d talked to men many times before, but I’d never been this nervous.
I wasn’t someone who had never had conversations with people, and we had talked a lot, but still, this was the first time I felt so tense.
I was just relieved that I hadn’t made any mistakes and checked the name again.

[Lee Jihoo]

"That’s a nice name."

Lee Jihoo.
I had thought she was a woman working in the public sector, but now I realized most of what she had told me was a lie.
I figured it was easier to operate under the guise of being a woman if she was active on the Ifrit Gallery.

“Lee Jihoo.”

The name felt strangely familiar.
I thought about it for a while.
I had definitely heard that name before.
But after thinking about it several times, I couldn’t remember where from.

“Ugh…”

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t recall, so I sighed and logged into the Ifrit Gallery.
I wrote a post.

[Author: Omniscient Cthulhu]
[Title: Yeah, yeah, the owner of ‘Dama’s Number’ is here.]
[Content: Be jealous, everyone.]

The truth was, I hadn’t gotten her contact info.
We could only contact each other through text.

‘If I really wanted, I could get her phone number…’

But that would be an invasion of privacy.
She hadn’t even given me her number, so getting it would lead to trouble.

The next day.
As usual, I came back home, ready to start streaming.

“Oh, right.”

Now, before starting the stream, I had to contact Jeong Ye-wool first.
If the scale of my streams was still small like before, I wouldn’t have had to.
But now, the scale had grown quite a bit.
Of course, it wasn’t as big as other streamers, but—

‘For me, this is huge growth.’

It was a huge growth for me.
My viewership had increased tenfold, from twenty to two hundred.
It may sound easy, but many streamers stay stuck with just twenty viewers their whole life, so it wasn’t a number to laugh at.
Thinking about that, I sent a message.

[Me: Hey hey]
[Me: I’m about to start the stream]
[Me: Come on in]
[Me: It’s urgent]

If she couldn’t make it, I could just give the manager role to someone else on the spot.
With that thought, I immediately started the stream.

[The stream has started!]

As the notification for the stream went out, viewers began to enter.
Along with that, my phone vibrated.

[Jeong Ye-wool: Wait a sec]
[Jeong Ye-wool: I’m outside]
[Jeong Ye-wool: I’ll come in quickly]
[Jeong Ye-wool: Going going going]

Hmm, this was a little awkward.
I didn’t mean for her to rush home just to be a manager, I had meant for her to come when she had time.
So I quickly texted her back.

[Me: You don’t have to rush in]
[Me: I just meant to come when you have time]
[Me: I didn’t mean for you to come home and be a manager, lol]

After sending that, I started the stream.

“Alright, hey everyone.”

[Viewer count: 34]

In no time, I broke my previous record for peak viewers when I first started.
I thought it was a little strange, so I checked the chat.

[Kang Hoo-min: Give me your contact, give me your contact, give me your contact, give me your contact, give me your contact, give me your contact, give me your contact]
[Ao, damn, Hoo-min, you want to die?]
[First thing you do is ask for a number, lol]
[Seriously, South American? lol]
[Someone ban this guy]
[Why is there no manager today?]

It wasn’t unusual for Kang Hoo-min to flood the chat.
He was always doing things like that.
I was used to it.

“Alright, Hoo-min. Enough of the nonsense.”

[Kang Hoo-min: Nah, I don’t want to, lol]
Temporary ban applied!
[Haha]
[This is it, lol]
[Kang Hoo-min instantly banned]
[Hoo-min, take a break~ Hoo-min, take a break~ Hoo-min, take a break~ Hoo-min, take a break~ Hoo-min, take a break~]
[It’s impressive to be banned right as the stream starts]

It wasn’t the first time Hoo-min caused a stir.
Now, I just let it go.
I didn’t see him as a bad person, so I handled it with a temporary ban.

‘If he were really a troublemaker, I would have just banned him outright.’

I didn’t feel like he was causing real trouble, so I handled it this way.
It was kind of like WWE.
When Hoo-min made trouble, I responded with a temporary ban.
If he crossed the line, then it’d be UFC.

With that in mind, I heard a message come in.

[🗡️Omniscient Cthulhu: Hi hi]
[🗡️Omniscient Cthulhu: What’s this, you’re here already?]
[🗡️Omniscient Cthulhu: Why is that person on the temporary ban list?]
[The manager is surprised by Hoo-min’s troublemaking, lol]
[The troublemaking power is really high, haha]
[But it’s kind of annoying how he does it so subtly to avoid being banned…]

The manager returned.
Well, to be precise, it was Jeong Ye-wool.
Now that I knew what she looked like, it felt weird seeing her chat messages.

‘She looks like one of those pretty teachers at school.’

I thought about how it didn’t match, and then spoke up.

“Alright, let’s not mention the person who was temporarily banned and just focus on the game. I’m going for Diamond today.”

Today, I had to reach Diamond.
No one was forcing me, but I decided that for myself.

[🗡️Omniscient Cthulhu: Diamond sounds good]
[Let’s go for Diamond]
[Hwanhee: We lost a streak last time lol]
[If we didn’t have that losing streak, we’d have been Diamond by now]
[The matchmaking system is rigged, though]
[What’s rigged matchmaking?]
[Shit]
[If only these short-term guys would stay in their own area…]

With that resolution, I was about to start the game when-

Ding-

“Oh, wait a second, I’ll be there soon~”

Yeram came in with a friend.
Oh, right.
She had said she was bringing a friend.