Chapter 21: The Collab That Shouldn’t Exist

1.

In a Seoul apartment, a woman with blue hair lay on her bed.

『Stream has ended.』

The notification glowed on her phone screen.

“The chat reactions weren’t bad.”

Muttering to herself, she scrolled and entered a community.

【Streamer Gallery】

Her brow furrowed at the name. She sighed and clicked on the pinned posts.

She’d been hurt searching her name here before, so she’d avoided it lately.

‘Not exactly thrilled to look…’

But for raw, unfiltered reactions, this was the place—devoid of pretense.

[General] This is a new one; never seen this before

[General] Totally didn’t see that coming lol

[General] Not a drama, but damn lol

She scrolled through the pinned posts. The overall sentiment was positive.

[General] This emotional manipulation is crap lol

What does it matter if you reunited after years? Just clear up the drama, you idiots lolol

Of course, there were occasional annoying posts. With so many people, it was inevitable.

– What drama, moron lol What’s there to clear up?

– It’s not manipulation, they just explained the sniping objectively?

– Is there even drama? If the parties involved say it’s fine, it’s over.

└ For real lol In Legends of Battle, streamers only get banned if they want it lol

– (OP) Since when was Streamer Gallery so empathetic? Sucking up just ‘cause they’re girls, idiots

└ Are you actually stupid? There’s no drama to clear up, so what’s your point, moron

Such posts usually got more downvotes than upvotes.

They likely hit pinned status to mock the poster.

‘Same old, same old…’

She shook her head and left the gallery. Staying longer would only hurt her.

“At least it wrapped up well.”

She lay back, staring at the ceiling.

Ding—

An alert sounded. She reached for her phone and checked the message.

“Noir?”

It was from Noir, likely an apology for the trouble caused.

[‘Noir’ has sent you a Hanwoo gift card!]

[Noir: Elena-nim! I’m so sorry for the trouble my sibling and I caused on your stream! This is an apology gift!]

“As expected.”

She chuckled and typed a reply.

[Me: No worries. Aside from a slight stream delay, I wasn’t really affected. I’ll enjoy the Hanwoo.]

[Me: (cat blowing heart emoji)]

‘Beef for the first time in a while. Usually a holiday treat.’

Despite her big-agency streamer income, Elena wasn’t big on food.

She liked tasty things but found cooking too much hassle.

She’d tried omakase with her agency once. It was delicious, but—

The upscale vibe made her feel out of place.

She preferred staying home, so going out wasn’t her thing.

She loved good food but wasn’t willing to deal with the effort. Was it even worth it?

‘Wish someone would cook for me at home, like a catering buffet.’

Ding—

As she rolled on her bed with silly thoughts, another alert came.

[Noir: Elena-nim, as an apology, my sibling wants to cook for you. Is that okay?]

Elena shot up. She’d just wished for someone to cook at her place, and now this?

[Me: Cook?]

[Noir: Yes! My sibling’s great at cooking! You won’t regret it!]

[Me: For a stream?]

She calmed her excitement, typing carefully. There were potential issues.

[Noir: No, just to treat you to a meal. It’d be great for a stream, but if you’re uncomfortable, we don’t have to!]

[Me: Streaming’s fine. The issue is, as YouTubers, we can’t show our faces.]

[Noir: That’s okay!]

“…Okay?”

She tilted her head, muttering—a habit from streaming.

What’s key in a cooking stream? The cooking process and eating.

How was that okay if they couldn’t show it?

‘How are they planning to pull this off?’

She sent the question. The reply was unexpected.

[Noir: We can cook in virtual reality!]

[Me: In VR? Is that possible?]

“Hmm.”

[Noir: There’s a program called ‘Flavor Stage.’ You can cook and taste food in it!]

[Noir: It lets you experience flavors close to reality. Not exactly the same, but close.]

First she’d heard of it.

‘That’s possible?’

Skeptical, she searched it up. Shockingly, you could cook and taste in VR.

[Me: I looked it up, and to taste anything, you need a separate ‘Flavor Link’ subscription, right?]

It wasn’t cheap—over 2 million won a month. Even ingredients weren’t free.

‘Flavor Link’ gave base points, but using them up meant buying more for ingredients.

‘Who uses this? No wonder it’s obscure.’

Only a tiny fraction used it.

‘They’re paying for this just for me?’

Elena felt uneasy. The cost was steep.

[Noir: We’ll cover ‘Flavor Link’!]

[Me: That feels like too much trouble…]

[Noir: My sibling wants to do cooking streams eventually. Think of this as practice!]

“Hmm.”

She pondered. If it was for their own streaming goals, it wasn’t just a burden on her.

‘I’m curious.’

What would VR food taste like? How good was Carrier’s cooking? Her interest piqued.

“But with that gaming skill, a cooking stream? What are they thinking?”

Elena couldn’t understand.

With Carrier’s skills, they could dominate gaming streams.

Why choose an untested VR cooking stream?

If she had that talent, she’d be gaming daily, showing off to viewers.

‘VR senses are different, so it’s not easy.’

Not her problem, though. Carrier would figure it out.

[Me: Alright, I’ll take the offer. When’s the collab?]

[Noir: Whenever’s good for you! We’re free anytime!]

[Me: (cat tilting head emoji)]

She thought for a moment.

[Me: Might as well do it when we can pull max attention. I’ve got an ad stream tomorrow, so how about two days from now?]

[Noir: Perfect! See you in two days!]

[Noir: (squirrel waving emoji)]

[Me: Cool, see you then.]

[Me: (cat waving emoji)]

Elena flopped back on her bed.

The collab was set, but she had nothing to prepare. Just show up and eat.

‘I wonder how it’ll go.’

If it worked, it could revolutionize streaming. No one had tried this before.

Inviting YouTubers to a cooking stream was huge—it widened the guest pool.

‘Not sure if it’ll be easy, though.’

—

2.

I dipped my finger in the salt and licked it. It was salty, but weaker than expected.

“What’s it like for you, Noona?”

“It’s different from the salt I know. The saltiness is way weaker.”

I nodded and checked sugar and vinegar.

“…Same.”

They had sweetness and sourness, but much fainter than in reality.

“Did we get scammed? They said it’d be almost like real taste!”

“It’s similar, just weaker. Thinking about it, it’s weird.”

Cooking in VR? If it was that good, chefs would’ve jumped on it.

No real-world limitations, perfect for practice.

But its lack of popularity meant a fatal flaw—taste.

‘In a world with realistic games, they can’t replicate taste?’

I didn’t know why, but taste must be a complex, tricky sense.

“Should we cancel the collab?”

“Elena-nim’s been so understanding. Canceling now would upset her. We can’t cause more trouble.”

“But she’ll be disappointed with this food… She seemed really excited…”

We sighed.

‘Stuck between a rock and a hard place.’

No way forward or back without causing issues. How do we fix this?

“Wait, what if…”

An idea hit me. I channeled a bit of mana through my fingertips, feeling it flow.

‘It works.’

I sent the mana into the salt and tasted it again.

The saltiness hit—strong, just like reality.

“Noona, try this.”

“Salt? Same as before, right?”

“Just try it.”

She scooped a heap of salt with a spoon.

“I bet you need this much for real salt taste.”

“Noona, wait—!”

I tried to stop her, but too late. The spoon went straight to her mouth.

She froze. Her eyes widened, and her face turned red.

“Gah—!”

Salt exploded from her mouth. I stared blankly at the scattering grains.

“Cough! Hack, cough!”

Clutching her mouth, she coughed violently, nearly collapsing before jumping up.

“Water!!!”

She grabbed a water bottle.

“Ugh…!”

“Noona, wait—!”

She chugged the water, but—

“Pfft—!”

She spat it out. The salt dissolved, amplifying the taste.

“I told you to stop…”

I shook my head. Her reaction confirmed the mana-enhanced taste worked for others too.

‘I don’t know how, but this could work.’

VR cooking streams weren’t just a pipe dream.

“Noona, get up. We need to test other flavors!”

“Cough cough…! Are you a psychopath? Can’t you see I’m dying?”

“It’s just VR.”

“…Crazy jerk. Where’s the sweet Hayul who was so nice to me!?”

“She’s dead. Get up.”

“Ugh… my life…”

Grumbling, she struggled to her feet.

“Let’s try this next.”

I grinned and pulled out capsaicin—the most intense, straightforward flavor.

“…You serious?”

“Dead serious.”

“I’m outta here…”

“Nope! You’re not going anywhere!”

Time for experiments.