Translator: SourKimchi
The chat blew up.
-SsomyeonMaster : no way he cant see it
-SilentRoom : heard you cant read your own reading, you not like that?
-Shaiker : oh good question
Park Ji-hun stared at the monitor.
The question itself was nothing new.
A Shaman can't look into his own Fate.
It was a common enough saying.
But Ji-hun knew the truth.
It wasn't that he couldn't see it. He just chose not to.
Every time he set out to do a Spirit Reading, he simply knew.
That looking would be pointless.
"It's not that I can't see it."
In an instant the chat picked up speed again.
-agei : wait? you can see it?
-Boserk : so you know the whole future?
-Soljji : thats straight up broken isnt it
Ji-hun leaned back in his chair and went on.
"There's just no real reason to look."
-Boserk : why?
-MiniTower : if you can see it why dont you
-kmd0131 : id be checking it every day
Skimming the chat, Ji-hun answered.
"Once you know, it starts to get to you."
He tapped the edge of the desk with his fingertips and continued.
"And once it gets to you, you start moving to match it. Good news, you act on the good; bad news, you act on the bad. Do that long enough, and the path you were already on just disappears."
-SsomyeonMaster : oh yeah that tracks
-Resolve : huh now that he says it kinda makes sense
-Asenr : yeah knowing ahead of time would mess things up
"The moment you look, you end up getting dragged toward it. That's why you don't read your own."
-SilentRoom : ok this is kinda cool
-Fallout : honestly sounds about right
-Dwijibeo : yeah i buy this one
Woo-sik said with a laugh.
"Oh, you actually sound legit today."
Ji-hun cut him off flat.
"Pipe down. Cough up the Divination Fee."
-SilentRoom : no exceptions even for his bestie
-agei : skip the fee and you might get jinxed lmaooo
Grumbling, Woo-sik sent a Donation.
[Ted_Woo nim has gifted 500 Water Drops.]
-Ted_Woo : thought you were reading me for free?
Ji-hun said,
"Nothing in this world is free."
"Anyway, thanks for the reading. Wrap up the rest of the stream. I'll hit you up later."
The connection ended.
Ji-hun checked the time in the bottom-right corner of the monitor.
It was already deep into the night.
"That's it for today. See you tomorrow."
-SilentRoom : already? aww
-Minwootan : see you tomorrow
-Nenomchune : great stream today!
Ji-hun ended the broadcast right away.
A short silence settled in.
And not long after, his phone rang.
The caller ID popped up.
[Kim Woo-sik]
Ji-hun picked up at once.
***
"What's up?"
Park Ji-hun asked as he answered.
Woo-sik's voice came through right away.
"You turned off the stream, right?"
"Yeah, just now. Why?"
Woo-sik spoke carefully.
"There's something else I've been wondering about."
"I told you plenty earlier. There's more?"
"There were things I couldn't ask while you were live. With everyone watching, how am I supposed to say it?"
Woo-sik paused a beat, then went on.
"Mind if I ask a few more?"
Park Ji-hun leaned back in his chair and said,
"Go ahead."
"So, the thing is......."
Woo-sik opened up like he'd been waiting for the chance.
The questions weren't long.
Most of them were personal worries.
The kind he couldn't bring up on air.
Park Ji-hun listened, then knit his brow.
Nothing came.
Just moments ago, Visions had drifted in past the monitor screen, but now it was different.
It was quiet.
Too quiet.
"Hold on."
"What?"
Ji-hun pulled the phone from his ear and looked down at the screen.
Only his own face was faintly reflected in the black display.
"Something wrong?"
Park Ji-hun tapped his fingers on the desk before he answered.
"Yeah, it definitely doesn't work over a call."
"What doesn't?"
"The Spirit Reading."
Woo-sik asked, flustered.
"Huh, why? It doesn't work at all unless it's a stream?"
"No idea. It just won't come."
Park Ji-hun sank into thought.
A call didn't work.
Because he wasn't broadcasting.
That was when Woo-sik tossed out a question.
"Would a Private Stream do it?"
Park Ji-hun's eyes opened.
"What?"
"A Private Broadcast, I mean. Slap a password on it, just me coming in. It's still a broadcast either way."
"That could work. Want to try?"
"Let's give it a shot."
Come to think of it, it wasn't a completely absurd idea.
A Private Stream was still a broadcast, after all.
"Then set one up. Any password's fine."
"I'll go with 8282." [TL Note: "8282" reads as "ppalli-ppalli" in Korean, net shorthand for "hurry up, hurry up."]
"Got it."
Now that it had come to this, it was worth running a test.
"I'll let you know once the stream's up."
Ji-hun hung up and turned the computer he'd shut off back on.
***
Ji-hun started a Private Broadcast, then let Woo-sik know.
Before long, Woo-sik came into the stream.
Viewer count: one. Kim Woo-sik.
No chat, no Donations.
It was so quiet it almost felt awkward.
"Okay, let's try this. What are you most curious about?"
"You know that thing you said earlier."
"What."
"......Am I really going to end up marrying Hee-yeon?"
"Did something happen?"
"We actually had a pretty big fight a few days ago."
"What started it?"
"Money. She got all over me again about spending too much."
In that moment, a Vision flickered past.
Brief, but vivid.
Ji-hun's lips curved up, just slightly.
"Don't worry."
"Huh?"
"The hook's already set. Something like that won't shake her loose."
A short silence fell.
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. The two of you aren't a bond that snaps over something that small."
Woo-sik let out a sigh.
In the meantime, Ji-hun was busy turning over the sensation that had just brushed past him.
It worked.
He could do a Spirit Reading in a Private Stream too.
His mother's face suddenly came to mind.
'This means I could give Mom a reading too.'
There was no need to do it on a public broadcast anymore.
He just had to pick a day.
'When should I do Mom's Spirit Reading?'
Ji-hun was tapping the desk with his fingertips, lost in thought.
"Hey. But are my kids seriously all three boys?"
Woo-sik's voice came out half dismayed, half curious.
Ji-hun answered shortly.
"Yeah."
"Wow, that's just brutal. Shouldn't there be at least one daughter? Any way to make that happen?"
In that moment, a brief Vision flickered past.
A fancy restaurant, Woo-sik dressed to the nines, and then, the instant he rose from his chair, an embarrassing sound rang out.
Ji-hun snorted out a laugh and said,
"No can do. More to the point, looks like you've got something humiliating coming up soon. There's a Disgrace Star hanging over you."
"What? What kind of thing?"
"If you want to dodge it, go to the bathhouse and do a lap in the buff. That'll take care of it."
"Hey, you crazy bastard. How the hell is that a solution!"
"Beats me. I saw it while I was surfing the web. Anyway, I've seen everything there is to see, so I'm hanging up. I need to sleep."
Just then, Woo-sik went on, like something had occurred to him.
"Oh, hold on. You know there's a Streamer Tournament this weekend, right?"
"Nope."
"Ah, come on, I told you back when you first fired up your stream. That we'd enter together. I already filled out the entry form and turned it in."
"What?"
"You didn't forget I'm the one who sent all those Viewers your way, did you?"
Park Ji-hun went quiet for a moment.
It was true that Woo-sik had set the whole thing in motion to begin with.
And since he'd even made a promise, he couldn't very well turn down the request.
"......Fine. So when exactly is it?"
"This Saturday at five p.m. I'll send you the Discord link. While you're at it, get cozy with the other Streamers too. Everyone's curious about you."
"Got it."
"Okay. Don't be late that day."
"Sure."
The call ended.
Ji-hun shut down the Private Broadcast right after, too.
It was as he lay down in bed to sleep.
A message arrived from Woo-sik.
[Ocean Streamer Tournament]
Game : BattleAround
Starts Saturday, 5 p.m.
Discord attendance mandatory
Ji-hun looked at the message and closed his eyes.
Saturday afternoon looked like it would go by in a blur.
***
Saturday, five p.m.
Park Ji-hun fired up his stream right on schedule, then connected to the Discord link.
A moment later, a flood of voices poured in through his earphones all at once.
It was a racket.
Among the unfamiliar voices, laughter, teasing tones, and the clatter of keyboards were all tangled together.
Ji-hun double-checked the name of the Discord Room.
[Ocean Streamer Waiting Room]
That was when it happened.
"Oh, hold on a sec."
An unfamiliar man's voice came through.
"No way, is that PerpetualJobSeeker nim?"
A brief silence passed.
Right after, another voice followed.
"Oh, it really is him."
"He's even got his stream running right now."
"Whoa, I watched his stream just the other day."
"He was on the entry list, but he actually showed up."
In an instant, the attention swung toward Ji-hun.
Some were glad to see him, some were intrigued, and some smirked openly as they fished for a reaction.
"Are you here to do Spirit Readings today?"
"You're here to compete in the tournament, right?"
"I heard you're Woo-sik's friend!"
Ji-hun gave an awkward little greeting.
"Hello. I'm PerpetualJobSeeker. Looking forward to working with you all."
That one line set off a commotion in the Discord Room and the chat alike.
"Huh? He's way more polite than I expected."
"He feels different from how he is on stream."
"Ah, so talking down to people was just a Concept for when he does readings."
"Why's the way you talk so normal? I'm genuinely surprised."
-SsomyeonMaster : wow cant get used to him talking like that at all
-agei : talk how you normally do, i like that better :(
-SilentRoom : same! give us back our jobseeker!
Then Woo-sik cut in.
"This is my friend PerpetualJobSeeker. Please be good to him!"
At that, everyone started acting familiar and tossing greetings Ji-hun's way.
"You're the hottest thing on Ocean these days. I'm Croco. Nice to meet you."
"Right. Your Viewer count cleared 10,000 yesterday."
"Nice to meet you and all, but is the Spirit Reading for real? I don't buy stuff like Spirit Readings or the Four Pillars of Destiny. Isn't it all just clever talk?"
The reactions were all over the place.
Some welcomed him outright, while others didn't bother to hide their displeasure.
A few in particular seemed uneasy about the way the Discord's mood had tilted toward him ever since he'd joined.
Ji-hun read the air well enough and let it slide.
He had no intention of humoring every last one of them.
That was when a woman cut in, her tone soft.
"Oh my, hello there."
The mood, all laughter and chatter a second ago, shifted slightly.
Ji-hun listened to the voice through his earphones without a word.
It was a fairly familiar tone.
The kind of voice anyone who watched streams would have heard at least once, drenched in cutesy charm.
The number-one ranked Female Cam Streamer on Ocean.
A heavyweight Female Cam Streamer whose Viewer count breezed past the tens of thousands the moment she went live: Akasha.
She often did Collab Streams with celebrities and had turned up on variety shows and even network talk shows, a celebrity-tier influencer in all but name.
-SilentRoom : wait? akasha nim is here
-agei : love you akasha!
-Soljji : i wanna say hi to akasha too
Just then, Akasha said with a smile.
"I've been enjoying your streams! I'm curious about the Spirit Reading too, could I get one?"
Park Ji-hun answered in a flat tone.
"Come by my stream, drop 500 Water Drops, and wait your turn."
After a brief silence, the chat's mood flipped on its head in a heartbeat.