With so many Dead Zone streamers out there, the skill gap between them was pretty massive.
The Challenger-tier streams had this focused, clean intensity to them—satisfying to watch.
The lower-tier ones made you want to backseat every five seconds, but they were loud and chaotic in a fun way.
All interesting in their own right, but…
Personally, I just couldn't get into Challenger streams.
Sure, the gameplay and mouse movement were smooth and easy on the eyes, but those streamers barely talked—too busy concentrating—and they almost never looked at chat.
*If that's how it's gonna be, I might as well just look up highlights on NuTube. Hmph.*
If I type in chat and get nothing back, it's basically the same as talking to my own notepad.
Naturally, my follow list ended up filling with streamers who actually engaged with their viewers.
I was happily channel-hopping today when—
"Hmm…. That's not how you do the prone-cancel."
*Tap tap tap—*
I'd just left one little tip for a struggling newbie, and—
[Get lost, you backseat-gaming little—]
"Ow."
That stung.
I'd very kindly explained that the key to the prone-cancel movement wasn't the prone key but the crouch key, and that what they'd just done was basically stand up after lying down and shooting like a confused soldier—so please try again—and then—
*— You have been forcibly removed —*
"…Tch."
That was genuinely useful advice, and they're gonna be petty about it?
Fine. Plenty of other streams.
This time I spotted a poor girl barely clinging to the bottom of Gold, so I jumped right in.
[AAAARGH! Stop sniping me! At least don't give yourself away first!]
"Whoa."
A lion's roar the moment I entered.
This had the makings of something great.
I lurked and watched for a bit, and the situation became clear soon enough.
By the nature of the game, the tier range with the widest player population was Bronze, Silver, and Gold.
Which meant those were also the tiers where streamers got sniped the most.
*Is sniping actually fun…?*
Thinking back to when I'd run into Momoji and Jeong Tae-yeon, yeah, it had been pretty fun.
The streamer's reaction afterward had been priceless.
Back then, some viewers had suspected it was a snipe.
So I'd assumed sniping was just universally bad.
But—
-lmaooooooo
-The heat legend has arrived
-This is not your place. Go back where you came from.
-Falling~ down to that floor~ let's go home~
The viewers here seemed to love it?
So there's good sniping and bad sniping?
No idea what the difference is.
Judging by how the streamer was absolutely losing it, it seemed like only the viewers were having fun, though.
*I want to do that.*
Looks like a blast.
Sadly, I couldn't snipe anyone with my account.
Quick Match, maybe—but I'd never touched ranked, so I had no tier.
*Should I start playing ranked?*
For the first time ever, I found myself actually interested in ranked matches.
"Oh, she died."
Right on cue, the streamer got eliminated.
I should leave her a little something to help with her suffering.
DuelKingChaechae: hey, you gotta play assuming there's a sniper watching. don't stay in one spot too long—factor in the delay and move somewhere new every 3 to 5 seconds max. that's also why i'd recommend switching from sniper to rifle so you can keep moving. also watching you snipe, it's basically lottery shots, so rifle would genuinely be better for you.
I finished typing my carefully crafted message and hit send.
-oof that's a wall of text
-wall of text costs 10,000 won minimum
-lmaooooo
-wait this kinda looks like a public roasting? lol
[Huh? What's going on with chat? What the—what is this. What? Lottery shots? You wanna die? You, get out.]
*— You have been forcibly removed —*
Oh come on.
"How am I supposed to explain it without writing a lot?!"
Use a donation to say it?
I'd need to be getting paid for this, not the other way around.
My lips puckered into a pout.
……Where's a middle schooler supposed to get money for that.
I just want to join in too.
Momoji always read everything I wrote.
Never discriminated against me for being broke.
Momoji's the best.
Feeling a little dejected, I dragged the stream list down with a flick.
Unlike the lively chaos at the top, the viewer counts dropped off sharply the further down you went.
There were still a lot of streamers down here, though.
Like past-me.
Well, not quite like me—they all had at least one viewer. At least one.
God, how terrible was my stream back then.
Scrolling through the lower end, I noticed a word that kept appearing in stream titles.
"Viewer participation?"
That word: viewer participation.
What was that?
I knew what a midday snack was, but this—
Everyone had it in their title, which was both a little weird and genuinely curious, so I kept scrolling until—
(Streamer – Kim Eun-ha)
Viewers: 2.
DuelKingChaechae: hello there.
I clicked on the username that reminded me of Eunha Kindergarten and typed in chat.
[Oh! Ah, hello! A new face…! Welcome!! Do you like Dead Zone?]
Huh.
What's with the royal treatment.
I was happy she actually read my chat, but—
*This is a little intense.*
Probably because she had no viewers and wanted to hold onto anyone she could get, right?
DuelKingChaechae: hey what's viewer participation?
Better ask what I came to ask and make my exit.
[Viewer participation? Haha, it's short for viewer join-in session. Want to try it?]
Viewer join-in session?
What's that?
[I usually do ranked duo viewer participation. What's your tier? I'm Silver!]
Oh. She wants to duo ranked?
So it's like a legal snipe?
"Should I?"
I'd been thinking about trying ranked anyway.
Might be fun to do it together.
First, let me ask politely.
DuelKingChaechae: i've never played a single ranked match. is that okay? i'm not bad though!
[What? Oh… really? Are you a newbie? Hmm… Okay! Let's do it. Oh! But I should've mentioned this earlier—if you want to use a mic too, it starts at 5,000 won. No mic is fine, right?]
5,000 won could buy me a gut-busting amount of tteokbokki.
Not a chance.
Besides, I didn't even have a mic.
DuelKingChaechae: i don't have a mic. let's just go.
[Okie dokie. Send me your ID!]
"My ID?"
Oh, hold on a second.
Can I use the Woniwoni account?
I'd been playing as Woniwoni in Momoji's stream while keeping it hidden.
Hmmmm.
I thought it over with the same gravity I'd give to checking the school lunch menu.
"Whatever!"
I decided to just go for it.
There were only three viewers here including me, and the other two weren't even chatting.
There was no way word would spread.
I wanted to try this viewer participation thing—this legal snipe—right here, right now.
DuelKingChaechae: my id is Woniwoni>.<
[Sure~ I'll send you a friend request~ Oh wait. You're not a newbie, are you? Something's giving off major vibes here…?]
The crimson Weapon Master title and maxed-out signature weapon.
Anyone could see that wasn't a newbie.
That's why I said I wasn't bad.
[Wha… your K/D ratio… what is this?]
DuelKingChaechae: i'm pretty good! just never played ranked!
[That's why I asked. Is this a smurf account?]
DuelKingChaechae: nope. this is my only account.
[Really? Hmm… did you grind the K/D…? Okay, fine. Let's just play a round and see. My username is LinkEunha]
*This is gonna be fun.*
If my fuzzy past-life memories were right, the last time I'd played ranked was right before I quit—I'd done it out of boredom when I had nothing else to do.
I liked solo play, but once I climbed to the higher tiers, people kept pushing me to use a mic.
So I quit on the spot.
"Ooh, it's starting."
Unlike back then, Dead Zone was in its golden age right now, and watching all these streams had me genuinely pumped.
["Eliminate all enemies and reclaim the base!"]
My first ranked placement match was my favorite mode: Team Deathmatch.
Unlike Quick Match's 8v8 with 100 kills, ranked was 5v5 with a 70-kill limit.
"What should I run."
The map was Bunker Hill.
The terrain here was tight and narrow, so a rifle made more sense than a sniper.
Fewer enemies than 8v8, so I wanted something hard-hitting.
Less about fighting crowds, more about winning every single 1v1.
In that case.
Let's go with this.
*Cha-chak—!*
The man's gun, the Beryl N62.
The highest recoil of any assault rifle in Dead Zone, but nothing came close to it in raw power.
Where other guns needed five shots, the Beryl could drop someone in three or four.
[Go Chaechae! Let's win this!]
DuelKingChaechae: yep.
I typed one last message during the wait and turned my focus back to the game.
*Thud—*
The moment it started, I went left toward the entrance.
Bunker Hill had two entry points per team.
The red team's side had one wide-open entrance and one with a bit of cover.
*Ping—!*
Human psychology being what it was, people tended to pick the one with cover.
And this wasn't a tier where anyone was running complex mind games.
I pulled the pin on a grenade.
*5, 4, 3, 2, 1… now!*
Launched it high into the air.
The target: the side path that opened up when you pushed through using that cover.
The timing was perfect for catching someone who'd advanced cautiously.
[Woniwoni>.< (💣) Victory is ours!]
[Woniwoni>.< (💣) Lover로로]
"Nice."
Got two of them.
Took out two of five—time to push fast.
I sprinted down the now-empty side path and slipped through without a single shot fired against me.
As I got closer to the enemy's side, I slowed from a run to careful footsteps.
*Crunch—*
I dashed instantly toward the sound of footsteps.
*Rat-tat-tat—!*
[Woniwoni>.< ︻╦0╤─ StarInTheMaking]
One down.
The gunfire would've given away my position to the rest of them.
Normally you'd fall back at this point, but—
*Thump, thump, thump—*
With the mindset that I win every gunfight.
I pushed forward, bold and steady.
The moment I came face to face with someone nervously scanning left and right, I fired.
[Woniwoni>.< ︻╦0╤─ CyberSoldier]
The instant I dropped him, an enemy burst out from right behind me.
They must've been together.
He'd practically predicted my position and came in already shooting, so he fired before I did—but—
*Prone and crouch.*
The prone-cancel—minimize the hit zone—
*Rat-tat-tat—!!*
[Woniwoni>.< ︻╦0╤─ LinkSmerDurihyeok]
"Hnngh!"
That felt amazing!
I wiped the whole squad with one magazine, then ducked into cover to reload.
Now it was about time for the ones I'd killed first to respawn.
Being this close to the enemy base, they'd probably come charging out like mad.
When you're riled up, your vision narrows and your aim gets sloppy.
*Should I push even further instead of retreating? If I manage to hide right there, I could absolutely destroy their mental.*
I crept quietly and crouched behind cover near the enemy base, listening.
*Crunch, crunch—*
Footsteps, coming soon.
Unfortunately, the first two I'd killed had gone out a different way.
But someone who had no idea I was hiding there dropped right in front of me, and I snatched them up.
*Bang—!*
[Woniwoni>.< ︻╦0╤─ (HEAD)LinkSmerDurihyeok]
I'd made noise, so after that I just charged sideways.
*Rat-tat-tat—!*
[Woniwoni>.< ︻╦0╤─ CyberSoldier]
"Hnnnngh. Die, all of you. Heh."
This is so fun.
***
Rookie streamer Kim Eun-ha was very, very flustered.
Like most streamers, Kim Eun-ha had simply tried to ride the Dead Zone wave and maybe blow up a little.
Until a moment ago, she'd had a grand total of three viewers.
Her own computer, her smartphone, and the one viewer who'd asked what viewer participation meant.
A suspicious viewer with an absurdly high Quick Match K/D who claimed to have never played ranked.
But did that matter to a small-time streamer who treasured every single viewer?
"Ha ha… what do I do…."
[Woniwoni>.< — 32 kills, 3 deaths]
The viewer she'd accepted for her ranked duo viewer participation session was putting on a performance that was clearly in a different league entirely.
Was that Kim Eun-ha's fault?
Not really.
She hadn't known. What could she do?
The account owner had said they'd never played ranked. And there was genuinely no ranked history on record, so even the game company couldn't flag it—it was a perfectly legitimate match.
So what was the problem?
-is this the duo-bus restaurant is this the duo-bus restaurant is this the duo-bus restaurant is this the duo-bus restaurant is this the duo-bus restaurant is this the duo-bus restaurant
-lmaooo came from another stream. nice gameplay. not you though.
-hey you little queen bee. wanna die?
-DurihyeokHardcoreFansPleaseDon'tDoThisHereㅠㅠDurihyeokHardcoreFansPleaseDon'tDoThisHereㅠㅠDurihyeokHardcoreFansPleaseDon'tDoThisHereㅠㅠ
"Uh… uh. Oh, h-hello?"
The problem was that the opposing team had a streamer on it too.