---

Until I pressed the start button for the Sea Butterfly game, everything seemed just like usual without any remarkable quirks.

Even when the ‘Difficulty Selection Window’, which is rare for healing games, started to appear.

– Ding ding!

[Please choose the game difficulty.]

◈ Story Mode

[You will become invincible.]

[A mode for light gamers who just want to enjoy the story of the game.]

◈ Easy

[Player damage is reduced by half.]

[If you don’t take damage for a certain period, your health will fully recover.]

[A mode for casual gamers who want to feel the sense of achievement from clearing stages.]

◈ Normal

[If you don’t take damage for a certain period, your health will recover up to half.]

[A mode for passionate gamers who want to play more proactively.]

◈ Hero

[Player damage is doubled.]

[Health cannot be recovered.]

[The attacks from hostile entities become more fierce.]

[A mode for brave gamers who are confident in their controls—

– Click!

“I’m brave, so Hero!”

Without any hesitation, I chose the hardest difficulty.

Of course, I had some degree of confidence in my gaming skills.

It just felt like choosing an easier difficulty would make me seem scared.

– Haha, you screamed while playing Shirooni, but you’re so brave anyway~

– Unc— you’re the hero, right? That’s right?

– Starting off as a hero… Hmm…

– You’re going to regret it, haha!

– I can see you hitting a wall halfway and restarting on story mode.

‘Why would there be walls in a healing game?’

With that thought, I half-listened to the worries of some of the onlookers and let them fade away.

When I finally started the tutorial for Sea Butterfly, nothing seemed particularly strange.

However, unlike an FPS battle royale game with no real story like Battle Island, games with a story, like Shirooni that I played a long time ago or Sea Butterfly that I’m playing now.

“It’s Dad’s mission to rescue the Raspberry member!”

“It’s Dad’s mission to rescue the Raspberry member! Wow, she’s super cute.”

I needed to mimic the game’s dialogue with Dia’s voice before proceeding.

This was undeniably one of the charms of being a VTuber.

By incorporating the appealing voice of a VTuber into the game dialogue, the broadcast becomes even more enjoyable.

Viewers get more engrossed when playing dubbed games than they do when playing in raw.

So,

“A brave soldier like Dad will surely succeed! Now, off you go~.”

“I’m sure a brave soldier like Dad will surely succeed! Now, off you go~.”

I copied the lines that heralded the real start of the tutorial.

Since it was a line from a player’s daughter who looked to be around five or six years old, Dia’s youthful voice felt even more fitting.

From then on, I slowly progressed through the tutorial, referencing the messages that began to pop up.

Thanks to quickly getting accustomed to the ‘Wire’ controls, which are the biggest feature of Sea Butterfly, everything went smoothly.

Is that why—

– Strange, Mile was stuck on the tutorial for an hour!

– With this, maybe choosing Hero from the start was reasonable?

– Did you maybe play this beforehand, Dia?

– Can I express reasonable suspicion about this?

“This… This is my first time playing. I swear.”

– Hmm haha!

– For now, I believe you, dream.

– The fact that you know Sea Butterfly as a healing game gives off that newbie vibe, yeah.

– Dia, remember the cherry blossom tree that was behind your daughter earlier? (This message has been deleted.)

I had to take a moment to clarify Dia’s surprisingly good control skills amidst the questions from the onlookers.

Perhaps because the title of Dia’s broadcast still included the four characters for ‘healing game’, they somehow let it slide for now.

Thus, manipulating the wire attached to the player’s waist with keyboard and mouse, I navigated through several obstacles seamlessly.

Finally, when I harvested the ‘Raspberry member’ from the raspberry tree and put it into the basket.

Even when I returned to the player’s daughter and handed her the harvested raspberries.

And when I dubbed the lines of the daughter, who was happily sharing the raspberries with the player, in Dia’s voice.

“Mmm, the sweet and sour Raspberry member. So delicious~.”

“Mmm, the sweet and sour Raspberry member. So delicious~.”

I was fully immersed in the calm yet peaceful atmosphere characteristic of healing games.

‘So this is what everyone enjoys in healing games.’

But then.

When the player stepped outside for a brief hide-and-seek game with his daughter.

“Daughter. Are you all hidden?”

“Yeah! But Dad, there’s something weird in the closet.”

– Uh oh, don’t touch that!

– Oh dear.

– This is it, huh?

The serene background music that had been playing continuously since the game started suddenly cut off.

“What do you mean by weird?”

“Hmm. It says here, ‘Butterflies can’t cross the sea…’ What’s this?”

– Oh gosh!

– Sea Butterfly, whoa!

– Uh-oh-oh-oh-oh!

– A big thing is coming, a big thing is coming, a big thing is coming!

– Why hasn’t she noticed yet, haha!

Whatever the reason, a line emphasized in bold appeared on the game screen.

And almost simultaneously, the house where the player’s daughter was located.

[BOOM!!!]

– Boom boom boom!

– Art is an explosion!!

– 😭😭😭😭

– The daughter is dead 😭😭😭😭

It exploded with a tremendous fire.

The player, who had been sent flying far away by the massive explosion, collapsed.

“Uh… huh?”

The avatar of Dia froze at the unexpected and unimaginable scene.

The mouse cursor at the center of the broadcast screen also stopped dead.

Nonetheless, the Sea Butterfly continued on, eventually—

A title soaked in red appeared in the center of the streaming screen.

Not long after that, what Ha-eun saw beyond the wide monitor was—

– Whoosh—! BOOM!!

– Crackle!

– Wham—! Bang—!

“Sa-save me!”

“No, if you’re dead… you’re dead.”

The scene of the player, now turned into a vengeful spirit, massacring a mafia group single-handedly.

The loving father, who had been playing happily with his young daughter, was nowhere to be found.

“Wait… it was a healing game. What kind of healing game is this!!”

– Healing game? No way, it’s a killing game!

– Dia got tricked again.

– Started as a hero, but the daughter’s dead and now dad’s a serial killer. But hey, it’s called a healing game, haha!

– The voice vibe was something I really didn’t see coming!

– It’s been a while since I saw a pure lager newbie!

The onlookers were congratulating themselves for successfully deceiving Dia.

Meanwhile, the player continued to massacre the mafia without batting an eyelid.

Faced with the shocking reality of being completely blindsided by Dia’s actions, I seriously contemplated whether I should stop playing right there.

However, I couldn’t help but continue manipulating the keyboard and mouse to reactivate the player’s wire.

‘If I quit the game now, I’d be in trouble.’

It would be an act of what is known as “killing the vibe” to quit due to a genre misunderstanding.

If, by any chance, Dia stopped playing Sea Butterfly, my chat would undoubtedly be flooded with “me” and “lame.”

Thus, I ended up completing the entire ‘Combat Tutorial,’ which had nothing to do with healing games.

Not long ago, the player’s wire, which had only been a simple means of transportation, transformed into a powerful weapon of annihilation.

– Whoosh—!

– Wham!

– Bang! Boom!

“…Your skills haven’t diminished at all, Major. Now I finally understand who’s slaughtering those Dead Bear guys.”

The first boss, who was neatly subdued by Dia’s top-notch wire manipulation, gave a meaningful line.

For the sake of entertainment, I should have dubbed this line with Dia’s voice too, but no matter how hard I tried, the words wouldn’t come out.

In other words, it felt like an internal wound.

Or, perhaps, an even deeper immersion.

If Ha-eun usually displayed emotions at level 3, during a VTuber broadcast, the emotional intensity soared to 12, four times higher.

The emotions felt during a VTuber broadcast were incomparable to those during regular times.

As long as I only showed a bright and cheerful demeanor, I didn’t care how emotional it got.

However, in games like Shirooni, which involve horror, or in games with rapidly changing genres and atmospheres like Sea Butterfly.

“Dad! Look, all the flowers are blooming!”

“Ah, but I died, why do they keep showing up… even if it’s just in memory…”

– 😭😭😭😭

– The daughter is dead! She’s not coming back!

– What’s the deal if you start crying this early?

– Dia is sad 😭😭😭

– I’m really looking forward to the ending, haha!

– The onlookers who didn’t watch today’s broadcast will regret it later.

I was swept away by the feelings and emotions the game was transmitting, making me even more immersed in it.

There were frequent moments when I couldn’t control Dia’s emotions.

Thus, while watching the scene of the father, who lost his daughter, take step by step towards revenge.

“Reveal your identity, little one. Anyone related to Sea Butterfly will be shot on sight.”

“I-I’m not a little kid! I’m a proper lady of 18 years old—”

– Click.

“Eek! I’m sorry! I won’t talk back again!!”

At that moment when I met the strange-feeling girl, without realizing it, I suspected that at least one incident involving a girl of the same age as Ha-eun would occur.

Because she was the first friendly NPC encountered after the player’s daughter.

For some reason, the increasingly noisy atmosphere of the chat also contributed to that feeling.

However, at the very end, I had no idea I would become immersed not in the player, but in the girl.

I also never anticipated how the effects of “becoming genuinely emotional” from <Falling Together> would manifest.