Someone once said that hate comments are better than being ignored.
Streamer Kim Eun-ha was living proof of whether that was actually true.
After two days of being bombarded with hate comments, her conclusion was…
*Honestly? No idea.*
Toxic viewers were still viewers, so she'd been doing her best to engage warmly, hoping to keep even a few of the hundreds who'd flooded in—
- ??? : Ugh, what is this because of that oppa!
- Can't even be decent, makes me sick
- Keep it up until our Hyeok comes back lol
- Her voice is nice though. Queen Bee title isn't for nothing
"I'm going to have to block the boyfriend jokes. I told you, we'd never even met before."
The mindless spam and insults that popped up periodically were pure venting—if anything, being ignored seemed preferable to that. But the ones who stayed to watch *and* trash-talk were at least engaging with her somehow, which meant there was hope for them yet.
In that sense, yeah, hate comments were definitely better than silence.
*But are there any normal people in that crowd…?*
She was starting to worry that only the truly unhinged ones would stick around.
Then again, she didn't have the confidence to lean into it the way Durihyeok did—riding the chaos, making it part of the show.
For two days she'd been grinding through that tension, keeping the stream going.
And just as the stress was really starting to build—
- Wait, holy shit, her boyfriend just went live.
"I don't have a boyfriend, you little—!"
She snapped back once, then caught herself.
*Wait.*
He went live?
The toxic crowd started buzzing and visibly trickling out in real time, so it wasn't a lie.
- Woniwoni>.< just went live.
- Oh, interesting? The person who got called out going live is new.
- Should we go check it out?
"Check it out? Come on, that's a bit—"
Those locusts were finally thinning out. The last thing she needed was to get tangled up with him again.
This was her chance to escape. Why would she throw that away—
*Ding!*
[HyeokTopOfHisHead: ₩50,000 — Let's watch together? Come on, you're curious too.]
"Hyeok— I mean, HyeokTopOfHisHead, thank you for the fifty thousand won. Okay, fine, let's take a quick look."
That was too much money for a small-time streamer to turn down.
And honestly, her viewers were right. She was curious.
What on earth was he thinking, walking into this fire?
*Probably to apologize, right?*
From what she'd heard secondhand, he'd apparently been sniping people on alt accounts too.
Unless he was planning to publicly own up and take responsibility, there was no real reason for a regular person to go live. If you wanted to run, you just… ran.
"The ID is DuelKingChaechae, right? Yeah, I remember that."
- yep that's the one
- Already 400 people in there. Word travels fast
- That's the internet for you~
- (viewer has been banned) He's your boyfriend, stop pretending you don't know
The stream thumbnail for DuelKingChaechae was the default Windows desktop wallpaper.
Absolutely reeked of civilian energy.
Kim Eun-ha clicked in with a faint flutter of nerves—
"It's quiet?"
Dead silence. Not a single sound.
Either the mic was off, or there wasn't one. Logically, if he was here to apologize or explain himself, he'd need a mic—so probably not the latter.
"Maybe he hasn't started yet."
Given the default wallpaper, he might still be setting up, Eun-ha figured.
But then.
A tiny mouse cursor appeared out of nowhere, poking around the screen experimentally—
Notepad opened. White. It expanded until it filled the entire screen.
[Hello?]
Text. In Notepad.
And in *very* small font.
"Hmm?"
She found herself instinctively leaning her face toward the screen to read it.
[Oh, it shows up on screen. Cool. asdfjkl;qweruiop]
DuelKingChaechae, apparently delighted by this discovery, proceeded to mash the keyboard all over the live screen.
That complete lack of tension made some viewers angry.
Others just had question marks floating over their heads.
Kim Eun-ha was firmly in the second camp.
"Do you… not have a mic?"
- can someone zoom in please
- my eyes are about to fall out
- oh my GOD manage your boyfriend
- lol;; if you're gonna apologize at least do it properly
The heat from that chat was somehow radiating over to her stream too.
"Yelling at me won't do anything… but I can at least try to zoom in on my end. Give me a second."
[I don't have a mic. I'll use Notepad. Also, the chat's moving too fast, I can't read it.]
While she zoomed in on DuelKingChaechae's screen—since he clearly wasn't going to do it himself—her own viewers appreciated it, but—
- you little sh*t where do you live
- bring hyeok back bring hyeok back bring hyeok back bring hyeok back bring hyeok back bring hyeok back bring hyeok back
- I've told you to make the font bigger 34 times now
- you sniper piece of trash, delete your account and get out
Woniwoni>.< was public enemy number one to Durihyeok's fanbase—the person who'd taken their streamer down.
Naturally, that chat was a wall-to-wall flood of spam and profanity.
Since the entire screen was being broadcast, you could see DuelKingChaechae alt-tabbing in real time to check the chat—
Then promptly hitting the X and closing it.
[Don't want to read chat.]
The streamer (?) had refused to communicate.
"Oh no…"
This wasn't the usual "pretending not to look." This was genuinely not looking. The screen itself—the one Woniwoni>.< was seeing—was the one with no chat window.
*I-is this okay? People are going to get even angrier.*
Sure enough, when Eun-ha quietly peeked at the other chat, it was absolute hell.
She shook her head and closed it too.
A one-sided broadcast had begun.
[Okay so. Um. Uh. Uhhhhhh. Hmm what do I start with.]
DuelKingChaechae seemed to be thinking it over, scribbling whatever came to mind into Notepad—then started typing in earnest.
[Oh right. That's what I wanted to say. I went live because staying quiet just lets misinformation spread and causes problems for other streamers too.]
[First of all, uh, I never sniped Momoji or Jeong Tae-yeon.]
White Notepad, filling with text. The explanation came first.
Roughly: she'd stumbled across internet streaming after running into Momoji and Jeong Tae-yeon by chance.
[I was watching other streams and scrolling down, and I saw this thing called viewer participation. Do you know what viewer participation is? Let me explain—it's content where the streamer plays games together with their viewers, basically——]
*Facepalm.*
She had to wonder if there was a single person in this angry mob who didn't know what viewer participation was—and yet here he was, explaining it in meticulous detail.
The more DuelKingChaechae transformed from uncommunicative to over-explainer—
- I couldn't take it over there so I came back here.
- Eun-ha, aren't you going to manage your boyfriend.
—the more Kim Eun-ha's viewer count climbed.
DuelKingChaechae wasn't reading chat, and the screen was a mess anyway.
Word was getting around that Eun-ha's stream was the place to be—you could actually interact, and it was way easier to watch.
[So then I ran into Durihyeok in a game. I don't have an alt account, this is my only ID, okay? I play Quick Match a lot so I'm not bad, but it was my first time doing ranked. Since it was my first time, I figured playing with someone else wouldn't be the worst idea~ That's all it was, it wasn't a snipe. And I wasn't trying to carry anyone either!]
The noticeably faster typing speed carried a quiet undercurrent of irritation.
[Obviously it's my first time ranked. You start at a low tier, and you have to climb by stomping people, that's just how it works! What, am I supposed to never play ranked? And am I a god? How was I supposed to know how well I'd do. I was nervous too, that's why I tried playing with someone. But then he goes and talks about it on stream, so obviously I got annoyed.]
"Heh…"
Her mouth fell open on its own.
Eun-ha had assumed Woniwoni>.< was here to apologize.
That's just how life works sometimes.
Even when you feel wronged, there are moments when you have to bow your head first.
The people are angry right now—so you calm them down, and then you tell your side of the story.
That was how adults communicated, Eun-ha had always thought.
But.
[I saw Durihyeok was around the same tier, so I tried viewer participation there! He started it. Talking about someone he didn't even know. We both messed up, so it's even. Call it square. Oh—I will apologize for the second viewer participation match though. That one's on me. Sorry. *bow*]
[Oh! Wait, actually. Now that I think about it. I was playing a game earlier and ran into people intentionally trolling me ㅡㅡ So that makes us even on that too. Apology cancelled.]
DuelKingChaechae, going full frontal assault.
Kim Eun-ha wept internally.
*Oh no. We're cooked.*
Viewer participation? That's not how you use that word.
That's not what it means.
DuelKingChaechae's viewer count had already crossed 2,000.
Eun-ha's stream was closing in on 1,000.
She was starting to think she hadn't grabbed a relief pitcher—she'd grabbed a living, breathing flamethrower by the hand.
***
(Link Gallery)
[Title: Okay but setting aside the chaos, isn't basically everything they said correct?]
Alt-account ranked duos are something streamers do all the time, right?
It's fine when they do it, but when a regular person does it, it's smurf stomping?
On top of that, Durihyeok was literally doing ranked duos with his editor on an alt at the same time.
And then he got stomped, threw a fit, pulled up the replay, and put a random person on blast?
Woniwoni>.< said that's literally their main account lmao. Honestly sounds pretty infuriating?
└That's bs, being upset doesn't mean you get to snipe someone
└└So streamers are allowed to publicly humiliate random people?
└└And where's the proof it was a snipe? I looked at Woniwoni's match history and every ranked game was a win. Seems more like they just ran into each other on the way up
└└ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ yeah right, like that's a coincidence. Obviously it was a snipe
└But would that really be their main account. Even at a glance it reeks of high-tier, and they're saying it's their first time ranked?
[Title: Woniwoni>.< ← this person might be hacking?]
Insanely good but only plays Quick Match? Already smells off.
Probably just waiting until it's time to ditch the account, then going out with a bang using hacks in ranked.
Getting some smurfs sniped along the way too ㅇㅇ
└Isn't that a bit of a reach.
└└This is a community board, we reach here. It's not a peer-reviewed journal.
└└The confidence is kind of impressive ngl
└Hmm, it is suspicious. And honestly the reaction time is way too fast.
└I mostly watch Challenger streams and yeah it's intense. Though if you already know the positions in advance, that reaction time might be possible?
[Title: People were saying Woniwoni>.< might be hacking so I went and analyzed the spectator highlights on NuTube out of curiosity.]
(The scene from the guild punishment stream—two-on-one with a sniper, takes one out, dodges with movement, finishes the second with a pistol.)
So in this clip, she fires one sniper shot to get the first kill, then while dodging the next guy's bullets she does something like a jump shot? Kind of?
The thing is, in Dead Zone, moving shots are basically impossible by design.
Especially jumping and shooting? The bullet spread goes crazy and hits nothing.
If you slow this part down, she does jump and shoot right at the moment of landing—
But I asked a high-tier friend about it and they said the timing is too precise.
And the side-to-side jumping movement she uses to dodge is weird too, apparently.
Said they'd genuinely never seen footwork like that before.
Might actually be hacks?
It's spectator POV, not her own screen, so it's not 100% certain.
└Is she hacking?
└Yeah I've never seen movement like that either.
└There are a few other things that seem suspicious too
└└Wait wait wait, Woniwoni>.< just went live on Dead Zone.
└└For real?
└└yep ㄱㄱ
└└Go watch and judge for yourselves
[Title: DuelKingChaechae is actually unbelievable lmaooo]
Decides chat is ugly, shuts it off, doesn't look at it once—
Then the second a cool moment happens in Dead Zone, quietly peeks at the chat window.
YOUR ENTIRE SCREEN IS VISIBLE, YOU ABSOLUTE IDIOT ㅅㅂㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Are you checking for compliments? You are so transparent lmaooo
└ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ I lost it at that part too
└genuinely thought they were insane ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└stop defending the sniper
└Isn't she hacking though?
└└Hard to say yet? Seems like she's just good.
└└Gonna have to keep dropping in until Hyeok comes back. Just wait until I catch this one slipping.