I Became the Main Character’s Favorite

First Broadcast

When many people refer to someone as a genius, it’s usually for complex reasons.
But among those reasons, the one that has the biggest influence is ‘proof’.

Proof of ability.
Proof of achievements.
And proof of value.
Amidst countless proofs and doubts thrown at her,
Han A-rin could answer all questions without fading.

That she was right, and would be right.
When the process and results became too numerous to count,
What she obtained was the 7th rank position, said to be attainable only by monsters among monsters.

‘I didn’t wish for this though.’
She just loved magic.
And she only paid some ‘prices’ for that magic.

Of course, since those prices were financial, monster hunting, or political battles, it makes the story a bit complicated.
The important thing was that from the moment she awakened as a hunter after her younger sibling’s death until now, she had been focusing solely on magic.
Immersing herself in magic, the only way to forget the death of her only family member, her younger sibling,

Was something that wouldn’t change in the future and she had no intention of changing it, but…
After seeing a child named Yoo Ha-eun who looked exactly like her younger sibling, all her thoughts were turned upside down.
‘… They look alike.’

Not just the face, but even the atmosphere.
So when she first saw the child named Ha-eun, she thought it was a hallucination, one of the symptoms of mana addiction.
Of course, she soon realized it wasn’t her sibling due to the tail attached behind and the small horns, but

Still, she couldn’t help but be interested.
“If it’s white hair… Ah! You’re talking about Ha-eun. Um… Ha-eun came from a biological experimentation facility, so she still has severe anxiety symptoms. That’s why there’s not much detailed information out yet.”

At first, she was scared to approach, so she asked people around about Ha-eun.
In normal cases, they would have avoided answering, but
The credibility and reputation of being ranked 7th made them answer.

The conclusion she reached after hearing all the information was that this child was not her sibling, and
Even though it wasn’t her sibling, she wanted to protect them so they wouldn’t become any more unfortunate.
‘… It’s probably vicarious satisfaction.’

Since she could no longer do anything for her dead sibling.
The darkly obsessive desire to do something for this child in place of her dead sibling.
She knew it wasn’t right to treat a person in relation to another person, but
The longing that had built up over a long time made her do so.

However, there was one big problem.
She was extremely awkward in meeting people.
There were several excuses for why, but the main reason was that her social skills had deteriorated from being buried in magic research for a long time.

So after hesitating for a while, she approached Ha-eun with the mindset of ‘anything will do’, resulting in:
“Even if that’s the case, it’s not okay for a stranger to pat someone’s head. That’s something you do when there’s trust built between people. So please stop touching me.”
A sharp refusal came flying.

Thinking she might have been too forceful, she randomly gave things that children might like, but
As Ha-eun showed no sign of lowering her guard, she was pondering what to do when someone started calling out to her.
“Hunter Han A-rin! You’re not supposed to go in there!”

Only after hearing those words did she realize she had completely ruined the first meeting, and could only shrink dejectedly.

I couldn’t hide my bewilderment as I watched Han A-rin turning into a slime in front of me.
I remember there being descriptions of Han A-rin as someone born solely to research magic, with no interest in others whatsoever.

So I couldn’t understand her barging in and showering me with gifts.
As I was thinking about how to interpret this,
I put the piece of snack Han A-rin had placed in my hand into my mouth… Ah.

‘I ate it unconsciously.’
My reason was shouting not to eat it, but
This body keeps trying to eat whatever is placed in my hand.
I glared at my hand putting the snack into my mouth again and warned it to stop, but

As if it had no intention of listening to my warning, it puts the snack in my mouth again.
Crunch crunch.
‘It’s delicious.’

Deciding to forgive it since it’s delicious, I was blinking my eyes when
Han A-rin, who had turned into a slime, recovered and started grinning.
“How is it? Is it okay?”

It’s a friendly-looking smile, but I still needed to be cautious as I didn’t know Han A-rin’s purpose yet.
I firmly held the stick-shaped snack Han A-rin had given me and spoke somewhat coldly.
“It’s delicious, but I don’t know if it’s okay.”

“B-but you’ll eat all the snacks, right?”
“Since it’s already opened, I’ll eat it inevitably.”
As I was narrowing my eyes to show I was still cautious and chewing with my mouth,
Han A-rin stared at me and carefully said,

“If you ever have any troubles, feel free to tell big sister anytime. I might not be able to solve every problem, but I can solve most problems.”
I like goodwill. But excessive goodwill should be guarded against.
Human relationships are a continuous process of addition and subtraction, so there comes a time when you have to repay someone’s goodwill.

… So I thought it was better for both parties not to accept excessive goodwill.
“I’m okay. I can do it by myself.”
So I refused.

I knew better than anyone that it was right to solve my own problems, and once you start relying on others, you keep relying on them.
It was based on the judgment that it’s better to cut off any problematic sprouts early.
“Then… if you don’t mind, would you meet with big sister occasionally? You don’t have to do anything, just eat snacks together.”

Watching Han A-rin alternating between slime and human form, I reluctantly nodded.
I don’t know the reason, but her desperate pleading tugged at my heart a bit.
I had nothing to do while receiving treatment anyway, so I decided to allow it to pass the time, and I saw the slime turning into a human and smiling brightly.

“Thank you.”
Shouldn’t I be the one thanking her?
Not quite understanding but thinking that’s fine since she’s so happy, I picked up another snack and ate it.
*
After snack time,

Han A-rin gave me a smartphone as a gift.
At first, I refused, saying I couldn’t accept something so expensive, but
Due to her saying that these days you can’t do anything without one, and threatening to cry if I didn’t accept it,
I hesitated but ended up accepting it in the end.

‘… I don’t know.’
As I was fiddling with the phone, vowing to pay back the cost later,
One somewhat strange part caught my eye.
[Connect to Mana]

What could this be?
As I looked at it, my curiosity grew, so after hesitating for a moment, I slowly pressed the icon.

Ding!

Along with a bell sound, the phrase ‘Connecting’ appeared on the phone.
Worried that pressing this might incur additional charges, I quickly tried to press the back button, but it seemed the back button didn’t work during connection, as the same screen kept repeating no matter how many times I pressed it.

‘It should be okay, right? It was an app that was installed from the beginning after all.’
Thinking that nothing too extreme would happen, I was nervously watching when
A message asking to recognize my fingerprint popped up.

‘Should I do it or not.’
Thinking it’s probably right not to do something I don’t understand well, I was about to turn off the screen when
The psychology counselor who was watching me nearby said it was ‘okay to do it’, so I changed my mind.
‘Let’s give it a try.’

These kinds of experiences accumulate and become a great help when becoming independent later.
Thinking I should experience it in advance, I pressed my fingerprint firmly, and a new window popped up.
[Congratulations! Your mana has been successfully connected. You can now write posts and comments in the Hunter Community.]

Hunter Community? Wondering what this was, I checked and saw various posts written.
[How to raise your rank? The answer is breathless front roll]
[Wait just one day and the promotion test will come!]
Unable to understand what these meant, I stared blankly before quickly scrolling past.

While reading these posts one by one might help in understanding this world, right now I wanted to look through the app overall rather than reading posts in detail.
‘There’s quite a lot of various things.’
As I saw earlier, there was a chat space where people could talk based on anonymity.
Furthermore, there were options to broadcast or upload videos.

‘So hunters do broadcasts too.’
Curious, I checked it out and saw that popular videos had view counts in the tens of millions.
As I was blinking my eyes while blankly looking at this, the counselor who had approached without me noticing said playfully,

“Does Ha-eun want to try broadcasting too? Yeah, I think Ha-eun would be a big hit if you broadcast.”
I quickly shook my head, meaning that couldn’t be possible.
The counselor looked at me with a puzzled expression and continued speaking.

“Why do you think it’s not possible? You haven’t even tried yet.”
“Well… because I can’t do things like this.”
“Can’t do? What?”

I’m not funny, I don’t have a talent for speaking well, and I’m not even good at games.
So I wanted to say it was impossible, but feeling that saying such things might build misunderstandings, I was pondering how to phrase it differently when
The counselor pressed the broadcast start button on my phone and said,

“Then shall we try once? If you really can’t do it, it was something you couldn’t do anyway so it doesn’t matter, and if it goes well, it would be good to find a new talent.”
Pressing the broadcast start button doesn’t immediately start the broadcast.
You need to give it a title and adjust the broadcast settings.

So a somewhat awkward situation unfolded, but the counselor smiled gently as usual and said,
“But you don’t need to worry too much. I’ll watch from the side and remove anything that might be problematic.”
Judging by her confidence, it seems the counselor has some ideas too.

As I was steeling my resolve, deciding to trust the counselor,
The counselor, seemingly having finished all the broadcast preparations, handed the phone back to me and said,
“Then, start!”

Seeing the bright red letters saying ‘Live’, I suddenly felt embarrassed and didn’t know what to do, when
Someone entered the broadcast and suddenly sent a message saying I was cute.
Wondering what was going on, I checked and saw the counselor turned around, busily fiddling with her phone.

Feeling grateful for her various considerations, I smiled awkwardly.
Thinking it might be good to stop around now, I was about to end the broadcast when
[User SeorinseorinIAM has joined the broadcast.]
[User RecruitingGradStudents has joined the broadcast.]
[User FamilyNameGivenName has joined the broadcast.]
:
:

Suddenly, numerous people were entering the broadcast before my eyes.