Nothing but a flood of insults. It startled me so much I just closed the chat.
Well, I hadn't explained myself yet, so I guess that's fair. Sure.
Or so I thought—but when I snuck a peek after the explanation, it was pretty much the same.
If anything, people seemed even angrier?
Why, though?
I'm the one who got wronged here!
"Ugh…."
That said, if I ended the stream right now, it'd basically be like gathering a crowd, riling them up even more, and then unleashing them again—so I decided to keep them around for now.
Separately, I was just the tiniest bit (?) sulky, so I'd stopped communicating through the notepad too.
What should I do, I thought, and then moved my mouse.
What else is there for me to do?
Might as well play Dead Zone.
I'd launched the stream in a hurry, so there was no mic, but the game was all that needed to show anyway.
And besides, it's not like anyone was listening to me.
"Hmph."
I sat there in a huff and queued into a Quick Match like usual to warm up.
The number of users recognizing me had spiked so sharply that I'd blocked in-game chat too.
I didn't pay attention to anything else and just buried myself in the game.
[Victory!]
MVP
[Woniwoni>.< — 29 Kills / 4 Deaths]
'I played pretty well that round.'
Only after it ended did it suddenly hit me that I was still live.
Click—
I checked the chat for the first time in a while.
- Gotta admit, she's insanely good
- Wonder what rank her main account is
- That K/D ratio is actually insane wtf
- Quick Match is all noob stomping tho, full of newbies
- MMR looks high there tho
"Hm?"
It felt like I'd stumbled upon people whispering among themselves.
"I… did play pretty well, didn't I? Heh."
Getting recognized like that, and my mood was already starting to melt away.
I wanted to show them more.
'Viewers probably prefer watching ranked, right?'
Seeing how every streamer only plays ranked, that's definitely the case.
My current rank: Platinum 1, 80 points.
Frozen right where it was—right after I'd dragged Durihyeok down just before his Diamond promotion.
'Alright! Let's do ranked!'
Everyone does rank-climbing streams, don't they?
And so began the rank-climbing stream.
First match, and I got targeted—not by a viewer join-in, but by an actual griefer.
On the enemy team I could understand. But it was my own teammate trolling.
The game started and he just sat in the corner of base, slashing the air with his knife. Swish, swish.
His ID said it all: "HyeoksToeNailFungus."
I wrote off the lost cause and played the game four-versus-five.
Might've been fine in Team Deathmatch, but this was Domination—every single player's positioning mattered.
I preferred everyone moving together straight to the objective, but—
[Follow me!]
[Follow me!]
[Declined.]
[Declined.]
"Oh, come on."
My teammates kept rejecting my pings, so I ended up moving separately.
I was wondering what they were doing—then I checked the map and saw them hunting for kill spots near the objective.
'So they've written off this round and are just protecting their K/D?'
Not something you'd ever see in Quick Match, where everyone just mindlessly rushes in.
So this is what makes ranked interesting.
I decided to keep trying for the objective on my own.
Even if it doesn't work out, I can't just give up.
But I'd have to make the most of those sneaky teammates.
I hid along one of the routes to the objective and watched my teammates' movements on the map.
Waiting until at least one enemy got baited over there and had their attention pulled away.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
After about twenty seconds of staying still, gunfire rang out.
'Now!'
I moved quickly toward the objective.
There'd already be enemies who'd gotten there first, so I lobbed a grenade deep into the objective, right into the bait spot.
BOOM—!
[Woniwoni>.< (💣) CherryBlossomNori]
I took position inside and braced for the enemies that would come pouring in.
'They'll definitely throw a grenade in first, just like I did.'
If you're sitting in the bait spot like the guy who just died, there's no dodging it.
Instead, I'd use the pillar in the center.
Soon, footsteps came from outside.
Tink— clatter clatter clatter—
Two grenades came flying in one after another.
If you line yourself up perfectly behind the pillar relative to the grenade, the game registers it as a dodge.
BANG—!
I moved fast and dodged the first one.
For the second, I positioned myself with zero margin for error—grenade, pillar, and me in a perfect straight line.
BANG—!
Two grenades came in, but the footsteps were messy and overlapping—more than two people.
Then the enemy team appeared at the entrance.
'Three of them.'
Just me alone in the objective, and three of them had swarmed in.
Hugging the only cover—the pillar—
I kept shuffling left and right, trading shots back and forth.
One of the guys who'd been shooting from a distance must've decided I was out of ammo, because he lunged deep inside—
MF5
[8/30]
'I've still got eight rounds!'
Rat-tat-tat-tat—!
[Woniwoni>.< ╓╦═─ LovelyJini]
Used seven of those eight rounds to take him down.
Then, as the other two followed their teammate's bold rush in, I carefully lined up the one who'd taken a sloppy position—and with the last round, a deliberate—bang—!
[Woniwoni>.< ╓╦═─ (HEAD) NiNamchinDurihyeok]
Instantly swapped to my knife, circled around the pillar, and drove it in.
[Woniwoni>.< -I═> WalWalWalWalWalWal]
[Triple Kill—!]
Took down three in an instant and held the objective.
To save reload time, I dropped my gun and picked up one from the enemy team.
Then I jumped up fast and cut off more enemies moving in to regroup.
Back and forth.
All over the map.
I racked up nine solo kills on the objective until my health hit zero—
[On my way!]
[On my way!]
Only then did my teammates start trickling into the objective one by one.
During the brief moment I was dead—
Click—
Alt-tab to switch screens.
- Holy sh*t
- Turn off the stream you f*cking lunatic turn off the stream you f*cking lunatic turn off the stream you f*cking lunatic turn off the stream you f*cking lunatic
- I literally just lost it?? how did you do that
- Thought she was definitely dead when the ammo ran out
- One bullet headshot;;
- This girl's actually cracked?
- Look at these disgusting teammates lmaooo joining up now that it looks like a win.
"Hehe."
There's a stream delay, so—
After pulling off something sick, checking the chat means the reaction timing lines up perfectly.
'Is this why people stream?'
Seeing chat explode over my plays felt genuinely fun.
I got pumped up and played even harder.
It didn't feel like a four-versus-five at all—I just completely dominated.
MVP
[Woniwoni>.< : 30 Kills / 9 Deaths]
"Heheh."
Huh, streaming's not so bad!
Kill someone, alt-tab.
Pull off a superplay, alt-tab.
Win, alt-tab.
Breezed through the Diamond promotion series three wins and zero losses, and climbed up to Diamond 4.
[Ta-da! Promoted!]
I opened the notepad for the first time in a while to show off.
- ta-da my ass
- going up so easily… our Hyeok though…
- and you're still saying this isn't a smurf? lol
- be honest what's your actual rank you're insanely good
- how did you do that Winchester reload cancel earlier?
- the gameplay is absolutely filthy fr
- stop alt-tabbing ffs
About three hours had passed since I started playing, and the chat was definitely less vicious than before.
I almost cried earlier, I'm telling you….
The viewer count had dropped to 800, which probably meant the toxic ones had left rather than everyone suddenly becoming nicer.
Whatever.
Tap tap tap tap—
[The Winchester only holds 2 bullets, but the reload is fast. Cancel it and it's even faster. As soon as the animation for loading the bullet finishes, swap to your pistol—then back to the Winchester. Just a heads-up though, if your timing's off, you're better off not doing it at all.]
I spotted the question in chat and typed out an answer.
'There are a lot of decent viewers too.'
Seems like they had a lot of questions about my plays.
"Ahem, ahem."
My shoulders were practically lifting on their own.
If I'd had a mic, I could've explained things kindly while playing.
What a shame.
'Hmm… is there any way to get a mic?'
There wouldn't be one at home, so today was out.
After some deliberation, I made an important decision.
'Instead of watching chat, I should be explaining things to my viewers!'
Starting next round, I'd sacrifice my precious "watch viewer reactions" time for their sake.
Up until now, whenever I did something, I'd alt-tab to check chat.
'From now on, I'll open the notepad and explain instead.'
Explaining the reasoning behind my plays mid-game while also watching chat reactions—there just wasn't enough time for both.
So, as sad as it was to miss the flood of hype—
I chose what my viewers would enjoy more.
If I'm going to stream, I'm a streamer.
Gotta cater to what the viewers want.
"Hmm-hm-hmm~"
A little hum just slipped out.
***
"Bye~ See you all tomorrow! Good night!"
Momoji—Kim Na-eun—ended her stream and faceplanted onto her bed.
Live streaming meant something could blow up every single day, so nothing was really surprising anymore.
She'd thought she was getting more and more used to it as her experience piled up, but…
'N-nothing bad will happen, right?'
Now that she herself was caught up in an incident, her hands and feet were trembling.
Momoji was feeling a considerable amount of anxiety about something happening so close to her.
Originally, Momoji—just like Jeong Tae-yeon—had been a streamer who clearly fell on the victim's side of things.
She could have stayed completely uninvolved in this whole mess.
But her mouth had gotten ahead of her.
— Hm? I actually think it might not be targeted at me?
Too honest. Too hasty.
That was the thought she'd had after going through DuelKingChaechae's chat history, and she'd just blurted it straight out.
Honesty isn't a crime, but—
The problem, if there was one, was that she hadn't accounted for the rage of viewers who were furious over Durihyeok's ban.
[(New) What do you know, defending a griefer? Because of you, some innocent—]
[(New) If you don't have eyes, keep your mouth sh—]
[(New) Did you eat common sense for breakfast or—]
[(New) I'mgonnastalkandtargetyouforeverI'mgonnastalkandtargetyouforeverI'mgonnastalkandtargetyouforever—]
The result: an endless downpour of hate mail.
'But the chat history was just too innocent.'
Genuinely, from start to finish, nothing but Dead Zone talk.
And the very first message was literally self-promotion.
'Either someone pretty old, or someone very young.'
Maybe one of the two?
Or maybe neither. Who knows.
"Haah."
'Should I switch to followers-only chat for a while?'
Durihyeok's ban had six more days to go.
It could get worse, so she might have to do that for about a week.
Momoji picked up her phone and opened Link.
There was one thing she needed to check right now.
'DuelKingChaechae said she was going live, right?'
A notification had popped up mid-stream, so she'd remembered it.
What on earth was she thinking, walking straight into this hellfire herself?
She couldn't stand not knowing.
"Huh? Wait, she's still live?"
Viewer count: 700.
She must've been streaming for quite a while by now?
Momoji had assumed she'd be done by now and was going to watch the VOD—but she was still live.
The thumbnail looked like Dead Zone.
She clicked in—
- what the hell is this, a lecture?
- certified eyeball assault stream
- interact with us you piece of sh*t
- PUT THE NOTEPAD AWAY YOU ABSOLUTE MANIAAAC
- please just show the game screen i'm begging you i'm sorry
- i'm out of here too ffs
"Excuse me?"
No voice coming through, so clearly no mic.
And chat was screaming in absolute rage.
Momoji's confusion about why everyone was acting like this was resolved before long.
Bang—!
[Woniwoni>.< ▄︻┻┳━一 Kilimanjaro]
She killed an enemy—
And then the Dead Zone screen vanished, replaced by a white notepad.
[Just now, the enemy was a sniper so I was waiting. That's why I deliberately showed them my barrel. From their perspective, they'd think—oh, the opponent has a sniper!—and keep their scope close to the wall. Then I step out long instead of short and break their aim. Easy, right? It's a mind game.]
Her typing was so fast—tap tap tap tap—Korean text filled the notepad in an instant—
And then. Alt-tab.
Back to the game screen.
"Wh-what? What did she write?"
The text was tiny and she'd typed it and gone back to gaming in the blink of an eye, so Momoji had absolutely no idea what it said.
Then she killed another enemy—
[That one I just peeked because I had a feeling someone was there!]
She wrote something on the white notepad—
Then back to the game.
On infinite repeat.
Every time she got a kill or needed to explain something.
At the fastest, the screen was switching every five seconds; at the slowest, every ten.
"So she's just capturing her computer screen and broadcasting it live…."
Meaning the stream itself was literally DuelKingChaechae's point of view.
Which meant she wasn't looking at chat at all.
Now Momoji finally understood why the viewers were losing their minds.
The toxic ones had probably all rage-quit long ago.
'So the normal people who just wanted to watch her play are the ones getting tortured….'
She thought: what kind of unhinged person does this.