Eriri and Ruri were free at the moment as well. When they received the message Ichin sent, they immediately launched the game and joined the voice channel.
As soon as Eriri entered, she asked, "You're streaming? Why didn't you get Utaha and Yukino to play with you?"
"They're discussing the renovation plans for the villa," Ichin replied. "No time for games—and they don't really play Apex anyway. Umiko's here too, and she brought Aoba and Nene along. Eriri, you'd better be careful—don't get insta-killed the moment you run into them."
"Ridiculous, no way!" Eriri shot back. "I've been grinding hard lately, you know!"
Hearing that, Ichin turned to Gokou Ruri. "Ruri, is that true?"
"Mm. Eriri really has been practicing for a while. She's improved quite a bit."
While the three of them were chatting, Ichin didn't mute the stream. Glancing at the scrolling comments, he smiled and said, "Alright, everyone's here now. On my side, my two teammates are from my company—one artist and one programmer. There's also another squad led by Apex's main programmer. They've been consistently top fifty for the last two seasons, so viewers, be careful."
The moment a big shot was mentioned, the spectators who hadn't joined the match yet grew excited.
As for those already waiting in the room, they were basically numb.
Most of them were just casual players—Silver or Gold at best. Going head-on against pros like that? That sounded brutal.
Of course, there were also a few who thought they might try their luck, play it safe, and see if they could find a chance to ambush the big shots and take them down.
Reality, however, proved that "stealing a kill" was far from easy.
Ichin's squad got sandwiched by three teams from front and back during the second ring. In the end, they were wiped out, but they didn't mind. They simply switched to watching Umiko's team fight.
In terms of coordination, Umiko and Nene had always queued together. Aoba played a bit less, but she had trained up to a decent level as well. The three of them handled the fights with ease.
In the end, relying on the two shotguns in Umiko's and Aoba's hands, plus all kinds of grenades carried by Nene, the trio hid in a corner at first. Once the other two teams started fighting each other, they suddenly jumped in, finished things cleanly, and secured the win.
"Nice!! That was awesome!"
Seeing Umiko's team successfully take first place, Ichin clapped happily.
Stretching lazily, he checked the time—it was only around eight o'clock, still early. Naturally, he planned to keep going, and the viewers didn't want the viewer matches to end so soon either.
He opened a new room, invited Umiko and the others in, and released the room password again. In less than ten seconds, all twenty squads were filled once more.
"You guys are really fast. All of you just camping the screen, huh?"
That also showed just how passionate the players were about the game. He had only announced that he would be streaming today—he hadn't even said he'd be playing Apex. The actual activity was decided after the stream started.
And yet, the moment he opened a viewer room, it filled instantly. The player base spoke for itself.
Sure, it couldn't quite compare to CS:GO's popularity, but that Valorant game developed by Riot really couldn't hold a candle to Apex in terms of player numbers.
(T/N: I'm not sure about that bro, I vote for Valo, definitely not bcoz I spent a little money on skins, hmph!)
"Alright, everyone's ready. Let's start."
Just as he clicked Start, the bedroom door opened.
Just like during previous streams, Utaha came in with a plate of cut fruit.
"Here, Ichin, have some fruit."
"Mm, just put it there." He pointed to an empty spot on the desk, selected Bloodhound, and asked, "Done discussing the renovation plan?"
"How could it be that fast? We just talked a bit. Tomorrow we're planning to go to Haruno's place together and have a designer from her company come take a look on site. Then we'll figure things out slowly—there's plenty of time anyway."
"Alright, you decide then. As long as you don't turn the entire bedroom pink, I'm fine."
Utaha rolled her eyes, reached out and pinched a lock of Ichin's hair, and said irritably, "You just want to slack off. And you know perfectly well I'm not that fond of pink—so what's the point of saying that? But really… you're leaving the design completely to me?"
"Of course. You're the lady of the house, aren't you? It's only natural for you to design our marital home. Go wild with it—ah, we're in-game. I'm jumping now."
Utaha nodded and didn't disturb him further. She turned and left the bedroom, heading to the living room to watch TV with Yukino.
Although the viewers already knew Ichin had bought a house, they hadn't expected it to be their marital home already.
After landing and starting to loot, Ichin glanced at his secondary screen and said, "Isn't a marital home pretty normal? Oh right, I don't think I mentioned this publicly before. When I went home for the New Year, Utaha and I already registered our marriage."
As he spoke, he raised his hand and showed the ring on his finger.
"See? Wedding ring. As for the ceremony, we're planning to hold it after we graduate from university."
In an instant, the chat exploded with countless jealous, lemon-sucking comments, mixed with plenty of congratulatory messages.
Ichin thanked those who offered their blessings, then naturally poked fun at the jealous ones as well.
"If you don't want to eat dog food, then go find a girlfriend yourselves. Oh right—by the way, what's the general age range of my viewers? Mostly students, or more people who've already graduated and started working?"
After thinking for a moment, Ichin had his character hide in a corner and started an age-range poll in the stream.
Under 18, college students, and working adults—three options.
After sending out the poll, he followed Eriri and Ruri toward the next area. His gear was terrible right now: an R-301 with only a level-one magazine, no other attachments at all, and his sidearm had barely any ammo.
When Ichin caught up, Eriri—who was waiting behind some cover—said, "Ichin, Ichin! I see a squad looting ahead. I'll go harass them and flush them out. You and Ruri intercept!"
"Sure, give it a try. There aren't any other squads nearby."
Ichin had no problem with that. Eriri was playing Wraith this time—perfect for harassment and escaping.
"Alright, here I go—Eriri, move out!"
With that, Eriri crept forward with her R-99.
A few seconds later, gunfire rang out. Three people came running out of the small building ahead, their shields cracking with visible effects.
"Blue armor, blue armor! All blue armor!"
Eriri's excited, urgent voice rang out—and at the same time, Ichin and Ruri instantly raised their guns and took aim!
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