For Angler — Lee Si-hyeok — every day was the same, like a squirrel running on a wheel.
Stream, sign off, sleep, eat somewhere in between. Stream, sign off, sleep, eat somewhere in between.
You could argue that's just the life of a full-time streamer, but the problem was he'd been running that loop without a single day off.
When he crossed the two-month mark without a break, the people around him started voicing their concerns.
He was practically forced into taking time off, and ended up going to see the ocean with his family.
*I knew it. I'm more of a stay-home-and-game kind of person.*
What he brought back wasn't healing — if anything, it confirmed that "killing time" suited him better than "chilling." But hey, he'd rested, so that counted for something.
Two whole days off before his comeback. At least he got to feel that rare flutter of excitement.
"Good to see you all~ I'm back from my extended hiatus. Hey, hey."
He turned on the stream like any other day, ready to chat about the trip and maybe ease into some Dead Zone — when the chat exploded.
- This guy's the one who boosted that sniper, right?
- What's going on?
- You piece of trash, bring Hyeok back.
- ???
- Ah, they finally showed up.
- Wake up Dead Zone for protecting a toxic sniper wake up Dead Zone for protecting a toxic sniper wake up Dead Zone for protecting a toxic sniper wake up Dead Zone for protecting a toxic sniper
"Huh?"
The viewer count was climbing. The chat was seething.
He had an immediate gut feeling that something had gone very, very wrong.
"Uh… sniper…? Did something happen?"
*I take two days off and come back to this?*
He quickly switched to follower-only chat and asked his regulars to fill him in.
- Two days ago Durihyeok did a sniper stream targeting some random person and got banned for it. Now his viewers are swarming everywhere because of it.
"What? Why are they coming after me for that?"
- Because that 'random person' is Woniwoni>.< — the number one video on Angler's NuTube channel lmaooo
- Durihyeok got hit with a ToS violation ban, so public opinion got even uglier. People are saying the company protected the aggressor instead of the victim.
- lmaooo you haven't checked your NuTube comments, have you? It's a warzone over there.
"W-wait, hold on."
He frantically clicked on Woniwoni's video of the toxic guild getting schooled.
└The real problem is NuTubers who give these snipers a platform.
└god damn she was just defending herself after getting sniped and now Hyeok's the victim?? poor guy :(
└fr, famous = target.
└Dead Zone has zero content potential.
└Looks like they're friends? Is she actually good enough to get a video made about her, hmm.
└└ she's good yeah
└└ agreed lol
└└ she's good alright;; the real problem is Strawberry Yogurt being absolute trash.
*Holy.*
Between the chat explanations and the comment section disaster, he had a full picture now.
"So. Woniwoni sniped Durihyeok. Durihyeok got mad and told his viewers to snipe Woniwoni back — with prizes on the line?"
- Yep, exactly.
- Right, except the one who ended up getting banned was Durihyeok. And now you've been branded as the villain who gave a sniper a platform, so you're getting hit too.
"But how would anyone even know I'm connected to the sniper?"
He protested, indignant — but the viewer count kept ticking up in real time.
He had chat restrictions on, so no words were coming through, but all those eyes were watching him.
*Of all people to mess with, it had to be Durihyeok.*
Just look at those hyena viewers.
Durihyeok ran a loud, wild, no-filter kind of stream, and his audience had absorbed every bit of that energy. They were feral.
Ding—
[BottomFeederAngler. ₩10,000 — (Video Donation)]
— Do you want my treasure?! If you do, come and find it!! I left everything I have at that man's neck!!
"....."
*Well, he deserved the ToS ban. Though I'll give him this — he was careful enough to avoid a platform ban by keeping it off cash transactions.*
Which was why Durihyeok's Dead Zone account got a 30-day ban while his streaming platform only got a week.
Whether that counted as cunning or just plain stupid was hard to say.
"Ha, seriously…"
For a streamer, public opinion is everything.
Durihyeok had said what he wanted to say, got banned for it, and was now being treated like a martyr who stood up for justice.
Woniwoni had become the petty, toxic sniper villain.
Which probably explained why the ban was so laughably light.
"Okay, to everyone who came here — I have no connection to Woniwoni, and I don't condone sniping. If she sniped someone, that was wrong. I'm also a streamer who's suffered from stream sniping and harassment."
It involved a civilian, so he handled it as carefully and by-the-book as he could.
All he could do was pray silently that it wouldn't come to the point where he had to take down his biggest video.
***
[InnerFireBurning: Oh, there's someone famous here.]
One day after Durihyeok put a bounty on my head — or more precisely, once the clips started getting shared around — the number of people recognizing me shot up fast.
"Ughhh…!"
I'd queued into ranked and someone had actually started trolling mid-match.
I'd already survived the toxic guild's flashbang trolling, so I dragged that deadweight to a win anyway, but still.
*This is not how I wanted to get famous.*
Meanwhile, the guy who actually started the fire — Durihyeok — was being treated like some kind of martyr who sacrificed himself fighting a toxic sniper.
……Okay, yes, I did snipe him.
But this level of backlash? That's a bit much, isn't it?
I didn't troll anyone. I didn't tank my rank to get into his lobby. I was just queuing ranked anyway and opened it up for viewer participation. That's it.
What, did people think I'd have trolled if I ended up on his team? As if.
And for the record — he came after me first.
We'd gone one-for-one, and then I sniped him one more time… I'd apologize if I really had to, but…
That's so petty.
A grown adult putting prize money on a kid's head.
*Cheapskate. Absolute small-fry.*
My lip jutted out as I grumbled to myself.
Durihyeok's displaced viewers scattered in every direction, spreading clips even more aggressively.
Now they'd even invaded the small NuTube channel that occasionally posted Woniwoni highlights, and trashed the comment section.
*I'll just lay low for a while.*
I was a little rattled, honestly.
People coming at me was one thing, but… why were they going after everyone around me? I felt bad about that.
Maybe I'd blow off some steam in Dead Zone.
Or watch a stream and decompress. I was weighing my options when —
"Oh, Momoji's live."
I figured I'd drop in and backseat a little. She'd asked me to do that before and I'd been too busy to show up.
I'd made up my mind to enjoy streaming in a peaceful, Durihyeok-free world — and that resolution lasted exactly ten minutes.
Ding-!
[Anonymous Donor. ₩10,000 — Did you hear about the ban from that clip yesterday?]
"Ugh!"
Again. Again. Again.
I was hoping Momoji would shut it down by citing her no-mentioning-other-streamers rule, but the chat started saying Momoji was a victim too, and the whole thing reignited.
[Turns out Jeong Tae-yeon and I really were getting sniped back then. Apparently she's a well-known sniper.]
No I'm not!
This place is rotten with misinformation!
I had no platform to speak from, so I just seethed — then frantically yanked my keyboard toward me and typed out my frustration.
DuelKingChaechae: That probably wasn't sniping, more like coincidence? She was someone who only played Quick Match, so it'd make sense that she randomly ran into Momoji and Jeong Tae-yeon and ended up watching their streams from there.
"Phew—"
Saying my piece felt a little cathartic, at least.
But.
I shouldn't have done that.
- Wait? That ID — isn't that Woniwoni?
- ???
- That long message was just Woniwoni lmaooo
- lol she doesn't know people have been doing VOD autopsies on her in the community
- (banned viewer) give Hyeok back you piece of trash
"Oh no oh no oh no."
[Hm? Who? Woniwoni's in this chat? Which one? The long message?]
"No, please—"
I wished, desperately, that Momoji's power would miraculously go out right now.
The few seconds it took Momoji to scroll up through the chat felt like an eternity.
[Oh! Wait. DuelKing. That was Woniwoni?]
NOOOOOOO.
I slammed my forehead against my desk repeatedly.
[Hold on, I need to do a chat autopsy on DuelKingChaechae.]
I'd seen Momoji do this "autopsy" thing on stream before.
Apparently when a streamer clicks on a username, every single chat message that person has ever sent just… pops up?!
Genuinely one of the most horrifying features in existence.
*Please stop, please stop, please stop.*
My hands were trembling.
Don't do it, Momoji. Stop.
We had something good going. Don't do this to me.
[Let's see, the first message is — 'Hehe, that person seems really good. I think Angler-nim has appeared on NuTube before?' Huh? What's this? That's adorable pfft]
- lmaooooooo
- LMAOOO
- lmaooo that's hilarious
- So that was a self-introduction all along…
- That's kind of sad actually…
I was so embarrassed my face was burning and I think I actually teared up a little.
Momoji, you cruel woman.
How could you do this to me.
This is social murder.
[Everything else is just backseating. She really loves Dead Zone…]
It was my own life being discussed, so I couldn't bring myself to close the stream — but listening was agony.
Trapped in that impossible dilemma, I sat there helplessly, just listening.
After playing with me like a toy for a good while, Momoji paused thoughtfully.
[Hmm, but if I read the last message she sent — 'That probably wasn't sniping, more like coincidence? She was someone who only played Quick Match, so it'd make sense that she randomly ran into Momoji and Jeong Tae-yeon and ended up watching their streams from there.' — right?]
[I actually think that could be true. And there's some credibility to it — the autopsy confirms that the first day she ever came to my stream really was that exact day.]
"Oh?"
She's… defending me?
R-right, of course. I always trusted you, Momoji.
[What do I do with someone this pure, not even realizing her own ID just got exposed. She's probably too embarrassed to still be here.]
- Pure?
- lmaooo this is killing me
- ? Is Momoji defending a sniper right now?
- A fellow streamer can't even stream because of this, what are you even saying?
[When did I defend sniping. Get out, all of you. I said it might not have been sniping for me specifically.]
She even personally cleared out the trolls herself.
*Momoji is an angel!*
I probably couldn't use chat for a while, but I'd be back someday.
Maybe I could borrow Dad's phone and ID for a bit?
[Okay! Let's talk about something else~]
After that she switched topics entirely, and my name didn't come up again.
I closed the stream, completely drained.
I pressed both hands against my cheeks.
*Still warm.*
My hands were hot too, so it wasn't a precise measurement, but the heat was definitely there.
I let my face cool down and sat there in a daze for a bit, idly spinning my chair left and right with little squeaks.
*I wonder if every channel connected to me is in chaos like that.*
Angler's NuTube was a mess.
People had shown up in Momoji's chat too.
Probably the same for Jeong Tae-yeon.
Being a civilian meant I couldn't defend myself the way streamers could, which was frustrating — but on the flip side, being a civilian also meant I wasn't getting directly attacked.
Oh wait, actually?
I did get trolled in Dead Zone.
Anyway! When people come at me, I can just eat something good and shake it off.
But people going after everyone around me — that bothered me a little.
"Haah."
There shouldn't be any more victims now, right?
It felt like it was over, and yet —
why did I still feel so unsettled?
Like a sneeze that builds up and then just… disappears back inside.
"Ugh."
I racked my brain trying to find the source of this nagging feeling.
Tracing back through my memories, one username suddenly flashed in my mind.
"Oh—! Kim Eun-ha—!!"
*I forgot about her because her name wasn't showing up at the top of the screen!*
She'd only been in the stream for such a short time, and everything after was such a dopamine rollercoaster that her existence had completely slipped my mind.
When you thought about it, Kim Eun-ha's stream was basically where all of this started. How did I forget about her? Am I an idiot?
I quickly searched for Kim Eun-ha.
(Viewers: 220)
"Yikes."
That's way too many.
She only had 2 viewers back then.
Praying that wasn't all trolls, I clicked into Kim Eun-ha's stream.
- bring your boyfriend bring your boyfriend bring your boyfriend bring your boyfriend bring your boyfriend
- I miss Hyeok...
- bring your boyfriend bring your boyfriend bring your boyfriend bring your boyfriend bring your boyfriend
- Streamer, aren't you going to clear out the spam?
- run the queue go go, let me see what a garbage queue state looks like.
[No spamming. I'll mute instead of ban for now. Do it again and it's a ban, okay?]
"……"
She was taking the full brunt of the troll overflow.
She looked so calm it was hard to even tell how long this had been going on.
*Oh, this isn't okay.*
Other streamers had their own established fanbases — they could cut out the noise and keep going. But Kim Eun-ha was a brand-new streamer.
She wasn't in that position.
And honestly, if I had to name someone more wronged by all this than me, it was her, without question.
So deciding that I had to help Kim Eun-ha somehow — that part was easy.
"Hmm…"
But.
How do I actually fix this?
I rested my chin in my hand and thought it through.
Durihyeok's channel, suspended.
His viewers, scattered like locusts, hopping from place to place…
Were they just venting their frustration everywhere because they had nowhere else to put it?
"…Okay."
One idea came to mind for minimizing the collateral damage.
*Round them all up in one place.*
And while I'm at it, I should clear my own name too.
I have plenty to be upset about myself.
I installed a streaming software and poked around at it clumsily.
*How do you get the chat to show up on screen again?*
Hmm, no idea.
After fiddling with it for a few more minutes —
*Forget it…! Good enough!*
I gave up.
This account was going to get deleted once the dust settled anyway.
*It's not like I'm a professional streamer. I'll just delete it once the explanation's done.*
I confirmed that my desktop was showing up in the streaming software and hit go live.
And then.
Ding!
[This user requires parental consent.]
"Ugh."
Apparently minors needed parental consent to stream.
I took a slow breath in.
"Daaaaaad—!"
I ran to Dad instead of Mom, who would've asked too many questions.
I told him it was a free online lecture site.
He believed me.