All while I'd been holed up in the melee room grinding for the Weapon Master title.
'…That's definitely my ID.'
The source of the problem appeared to be some NuTube video by a person called Angler.
Dead Zone launched when I was around fifth grade.
So about two years ago.
It was neck and neck with another game for the top spot in the domestic online gaming scene, and with the NuTube boom happening at the same time, Dead Zone streamers had exploded in popularity.
Which meant most streamers were running NuTube channels on the side, and yet——
'200K views in six days?'
There were 500 comments, too.
The video was from a week ago, back when I'd had that run-in with the Strawberry Yogurt guild.
"Ooh, interesting. So this is what it looks like from the spectator view?"
Because of the spectator delay it wasn't real-time, but you could roam the map freely and watch everything unfold.
[Here she goes! She's going to do a short brake here, right? Wait?! Nope! She just blew straight past it. Man, the mind games are insane.]
Watching my own character zip around with such purpose, narrated through someone else's mouth — how do I put this.
"Heheh, I'm a little embarrassed."
The compliments just kept coming.
'Oh stop, I'm not that good~ Don't~ Don't~'
I couldn't hide the way the corners of my mouth kept curling up.
Even I had to admit I played well that day.
It was a match with something to prove, so I'd focused harder than I had in a while — and thankfully it paid off.
If it had gone the other way, I probably would've ended up as Victim No. 1 of a toxic guild's highlight reel.
'Oh! Wait — so the gifts that came in back then weren't from the Strawberry Yogurt guys at all. They were from Angler's fans?'
I didn't need to feel insecure about having no friends just because of those jerks!
Ahem, ahem.
Well. Those gifts I'd felt weird about could now be used without a second thought.
I watched the twenty-minute edited video straight through, then moved my mouse down to the comments.
— The character just snaps around so fast. How quick is her mouse?
— Good movement. Smooth.
— Kinda looks like hacks tbh.
— Damn, she's cracked.
— 12:20 look here, her body was already leaning the other way, she just reacted and caught him
└ Oh damn you're right lol
└ It's a shame we're seeing this in third person. If we had her POV it'd be an endless highlight factory.
"Heheh."
There were a few comments here and there saying that even a Grandmaster would stomp Quick Match lobbies, but the majority were genuinely enjoying my gameplay.
'Maybe because I started out just turning my brain off and having fun?'
I'd gotten so used to the mindless charge-forward style that whether I had a sniper or a rifle in hand, I had this habit of pushing ahead anyway.
Which meant I had to react fast in the moment, every moment.
And somewhere along the way I'd reached the point where I actually enjoyed the thrill of life-or-death decisions in a split second.
Skill aside — it was definitely more entertaining to watch than playing it safe.
Maybe that's why people found the spectator footage fun.
Beyond Angler's edited video, I clicked through every other video that had my name in it, one by one.
Watching, I'd think, 'Oh, I'm actually pretty good!!'
Then reading the comments, I'd think, 'Hmm, no. Pushing forward was clearly the safer call there,' and silently argue back.
When the last video ended, I clicked my tongue.
"Tch, that's all of them."
Do I have a bit of an attention-seeking streak?
Having people talk about me made my heart flutter — and honestly, it wasn't exactly unpleasant.
That said, I didn't want to go out of my way to seek it out. I just wanted to sit back and enjoy whatever came to me on its own.
Once the browsing session was over, I logged into Dead Zone.
The first thing I saw when I got in:
[Weapon Master] (Woniwoni>.<)
"Yes!"
My hard-earned title achievement, finally complete.
I could now proudly display Weapon Master right in front of my ID.
How many times had I even seen it on someone else while playing?
Practically nobody ran around with the Weapon Master title.
Hmph! My shoulders rose with a swell of pride.
'Alright, time to go show it off!'
I clicked Quick Match immediately.
[Searching for match…]
As always, Quick Match had a thin player pool, so I had to sit in the queue.
About two minutes passed.
I got assigned to a Team Deathmatch map and was mulling over which gun to use when:
[FlyingChair: Oh, we've got someone famous here lol.]
"Huh?"
Wait, me??
Someone on the enemy team had sent a chat message acknowledging me.
Am I really that well-known?
"Pfft, I've only shown up in a handful of NuTube channels. Haha, goodness me."
[GoWhaleHunting: Who is it, who? Is there a streamer? What's their name. heyheyhey]
It's not a streamer, actually. Just a regular person.
There's this NuTuber called Angler, and if you look up the video with 200K views, I'm in it.
"Hehe."
I couldn't bring myself to type that out, so I just muttered it to myself — but completely ignoring them would make me look rude.
'Maybe just a quick hello?'
Tap tap tap—
I finished typing and hit Enter.
[Woniwoni>.<: Hello! Nice to meet you.]
Right after my greeting, the person who'd recognized me replied.
[FlyingChair: We've got two Link smurfs on our team. Jeong Tae-yeon and Momoji lol]
[GoWhaleHunting: MOM I'M ON A STREAM!!!]
"……"
It wasn't me?
My face started to feel warm.
I wanted a hole to crawl into.
There was absolutely no way I could play in this lobby now….
Turns out there were two streamers on the enemy team.
'Saying hello is just… a normal thing to do, right? Nothing wrong with it. Nothing embarrassing about it. Yeah, yeah… But why didn't they just say their names from the start, so confusing. And why aren't they even responding to my greeting?'
Thanks to all of this, I had simply become a very polite, well-mannered young person who says hello to strangers.
My lips pressed into a pout, eyes narrowing as they drifted toward their nicknames.
***
[Stream Title: I'm gonna become a Dead Zone pro! with Jeong Tae-yeon (NOT a girl lmaooo)]
(Streamer: Momoji) — (Viewers: 3,203)
Momoji, the no-cam streamer, had been playing Dead Zone for about a month now.
As a five-year veteran variety game streamer, her solid all-around talent meant she'd picked it up fast — she was already sitting at Platinum tier.
Wanting to climb higher, she'd planned an online coaching session as a content piece.
The streamer she'd invited: Jeong Tae-yeon.
Before the actual lesson began, the two of them queued into Quick Match to show off the teacher's skills.
"Didn't you say you were good with the sniper? Why are you picking up a rifle?"
"Moji… I'm good with anything. And in Team Deathmatch, a rifle gets you more kills than a sniper, you know."
"Really? I'm not feeling very reassured right now."
"Ha, this is my main game, okay? I might be a mess everywhere else, but Dead Zone is different."
Despite Jeong Tae-yeon's repeated assurances, Momoji kept eyeing him with suspicion.
And for good reason — the two of them had first gotten close while teaming up at a variety game tournament.
Back then, Jeong Tae-yeon had put on a catastrophically bad performance. Eliminated early. Eliminated early. Eliminated early.
They'd written history together with three consecutive last-place finishes, wrapping up the tournament to a chorus of mockery.
"Hmm, that's weird. Usually people who've hit the ceiling in one game tend to do decently in others…."
When they'd first been assigned to the same team, Momoji had been thrilled to hear that Jeong Tae-yeon had been a Challenger in Dead Zone — even if it was just a casual thing for him.
That hope had ended in betrayal, but still — a happy ending in the sense that she'd made a new connection.
— Aging curve….
— Fun fact: Jeong Tae-yeon is a 10-year FPS veteran who snagged Challenger back when Dead Zone first launched and the servers were empty.
— Hey!! Stop with the facts!
— lmaooo
"What! Chat says Jeong Tae-yeon's Challenger was a smurf run! Is that actually true?"
"Whoever said that is getting banned, that's slander. I may only be Grandmaster now, but our guild is ranked second. My sniper is god-tier, I'm telling you."
"…Chat says you only got into the guild because of your popularity."
"Lies and slander."
Even though Momoji was giving Jeong Tae-yeon a hard time, it was all just playful ribbing for the stream — she didn't actually mean it.
'How good is a Grandmaster, really?'
To a Platinum player, Grandmaster and Challenger were both beings from another dimension.
She was so eager to see him play that her heart was already racing.
After a long wait in the queue, they were finally about to load in when Jeong Tae-yeon finished his setup and turned to Momoji.
"If I carry this game, you start calling me oppa, deal?"
Momoji shook her head at the greasy line.
"You never give up, do you. You want to hear oppa that badly?"
"What! Is that wrong? What's wrong with oppa? I'm older than you. You're a girl and I'm a guy!"
"Oh, so you can tell I'm a girl…?"
"Hey! Sto— Stop! Cease the assassination! I'm simply requesting a proper form of address!"
— Jeong Tae-yeon, please check your email immediately.
— oppa-obsessed lmaooo
— The sheer determination to hear it at least once….
— lmaooooooo
— The age gap is… you can't call him uncle, right?
Momoji snickered and continued.
"If you finish this match with the highest kills overall — including the enemy team — I'll treat you like an oppa from now on."
"Huh? For real? Oppa trusts that Moji doesn't lie?!"
"Yep. But what happens if you don't?"
"Huh?"
While Jeong Tae-yeon was caught off guard, she slipped in the condition.
"If you don't get first place, I'm just going to drop the formalities, okay? From that point on, you're just Tae-yeon."
"I'm seven years older than you, that's a massive loss for me."
"Sounds like you're not confident."
"What? Ha! Unbelievable."
— Triggered.
— lmaooooo
— Objectively speaking, Jeong Tae-yeon has the advantage though.
— lmaooooooooooo
"Don't go back on your word when it's over. Every time you see me, you call me oppa without fail. This is a country of Eastern propriety, after all."
"Sure, sure~"
Judging by the chat's reaction, it was pretty easy to tell who had the upper hand.
'Technically he is my oppa anyway.'
She just refused to say it because he kept pestering her about it and it got on her nerves.
It wasn't a big deal either way, so Momoji had added a little side bet just to spice up the stream.
[Mission start. Eliminate the enemy and survive!]
"We're in."
"I'm taking this seriously, just so you know. Full tryhard mode — you're on your own."
"Sure, sure."
Unlike Jeong Tae-yeon, who sprinted forward with enthusiasm, Momoji stayed back near the friendly base, crouching and standing up repeatedly to get a read on the situation.
"Heave-ho! Let me get a look from up here."
She hopped up onto a box, and from there she could see Jeong Tae-yeon charging ahead with reckless confidence.
"Oh. He really does go in without hesitation. Guess his main game really is different."
Momoji's eyes flicked to the back of Jeong Tae-yeon's head once.
Then to the chat once.
In that brief one-second glance away—
Bang—!!
[Woniwoni>.< ▄︻┻┳━一 mynameistaeyon]
"Ugh!"
"Huh?"
The first casualty had been born.
"Hahahahaha, what? You ran in so confidently."
"Ahem, ahem. I didn't expect anyone to be waiting there…."
— lmaooooooo
— Race has started~
— lmao pathetic
— Cut! Take two!
Everyone cracked up at Jeong Tae-yeon's death.
The mood was warm and cheerful, everyone laughing at the classic variety-show energy — and then:
Bang—!!
[Woniwoni>.< ▄︻┻┳━一 mynameistaeyon]
"Wha — why do I keep dying…?"
"Excuse me. What exactly are you doing over there, sensei?"
Even the second death was still written off as a fluke.
It happened in FPS games. Everyone had the same magazine and the same health bar — even the best players could catch a stray bullet.
But then.
Bang—!!
[Woniwoni>.< ▄︻┻┳━一 mynameistaeyon]
"Ha, that little rat's been camping the same spot the whole time. Guess that corner is home."
"Hmm?"
Zero kills, three deaths.
Question marks were starting to float through the air.
"I need to take that guy out — our team will have a much easier time without him. There's one guy just sniping away like a pest. Hold on, let me switch to sniper."
"Oh, sniper duel! Can I spectate your stream?"
"Yeah, go ahead."
— His pride is wounded lmaooo
— Let's watch ㄱㄱ
— Time for a massacre?
— Huh? That enemy ID looks familiar.
Momoji immediately searched Jeong Tae-yeon's name and pulled up his stream.
The opponent had already racked up nine kills solo — whoever it was, they were no joke.
"Let's watch the pros fight from their POV, shall we? I've never seen a good sniper's screen before."
She tuned in to Jeong Tae-yeon's stream with high expectations.
According to both the chat and Jeong Tae-yeon himself, Quick Match was basically devoid of skilled players.
So it should be easy practice, supposedly.
'But surely he won't actually lose, right?'
He'd already died three times, sure — but that was with a rifle.
Jeong Tae-yeon swapped his weapon and quickly vaulted over the terrain to find a position.
He crouched and stood, crouched and stood, scanning the enemy side.
The classic peek.
After a few repetitions of that:
"Wow, that guy's still there? Hasn't moved at all. Must really love that corner."
Click—!
He scoped in, then out.
Scoped in, then out.
A back-and-forth psychological standoff with Woniwoni, who kept appearing and disappearing from that corner.
"You're dead."
At the end of the tense standoff, the moment their crosshairs met—
Bang—!!
A single shot rang out.
[Woniwoni>.< ▄︻┻┳━一 mynameistaeyon]
"…What the f*ck?"
Jeong Tae-yeon was now at zero kills, four deaths.