'For a second there, I thought Momoji was my mom.'
The intonation? The tone? It overlapped so perfectly that I answered "Yes, ma'am" before I even knew what I was doing.
Of course, I couldn't actually say something insane like *you remind me of my mom* to a perfectly young woman in the prime of her life, so I kept my mouth shut.
"W-why did I even do that… I wasn't scolding you. Chaechae."
"Yeees."
"Something just welled up inside me and I slipped up…."
"Nah it's fine— gotta start the stream anyway— you said to turn it on."
"Ugh… I'm sorryy… talk to me normally again…!"
"I am talkin' normally."
She's not taking my side.
Once again, Momoji shatters my world.
To think the axe I trusted would bury itself in my foot not once, but twice.
Since I'd already said I was going to stream, backing out now would be a blow to my dignity, so I quietly pulled up the broadcasting software.
Stream title, let's see….
Right.
This isn't a real stream—out of consideration for our gre—at viewers, let's go with this.
[Short-stream Appreciation Day: Hiatus CCTV]
Imagine coming to watch a fun stream only to find out it's going to be short. How devastating would that be?
This way I'm double-warning them that this isn't a proper stream.
*I'm just a half-baked streamer who can only manage short streams~ and today is a hiatus CCTV broadcast~*
Hmph.
"Let's just play some games."
"Oh, you started the stream?"
"Yeep."
"Ahhh, I'm sorry! Let me make it up to you—can I buy you a cosmetic item?"
"……Cosmetics are cash shop items, though."
"Yes yes, pick whatever you want."
"Hmm, hmm. It's fine."
"Come on, don't turn it down."
As if that's enough to wash away the pain of your betrayal. Not a chan—
"Oh! What about this one? You like the Winchester, right? There's a new set that just came out. It's a Wild West set!"
W-not a chan—
"Want me to gift it? I'm adding it to the cart right now."
Well, if you insist that badly, I suppose I have no choice.
"A set's going to be expensive."
"Aw, I want to gift it to you, that's why."
"I, is it really okay to accept this. Ahem ahem."
Momoji: not guilty.
People make mistakes sometimes. It happens.
She's in a completely different category from the viewers to begin with.
They ignored my sincerity. Momoji just got caught up in something she didn't even start.
If you don't know what's going on, you might react that way. Yep, yep.
Comparing the two would actually be an insult to Momoji, now that I think about it.
"Ooooh."
I equipped the cosmetic Momoji bought me.
A cowboy-and-cowgirl set.
Fitting the frontier era concept, it came with themed character skins and matching firearms.
"Let's play right now!"
"Sure. You're fun to gift things to. Great reactions."
Now that she's become my student, Momoji has no time to waste—she absolutely has to earn that title.
So let's go.
"Go go go go."
"Oh, right, Chaechae."
"Yeah?"
"Can I get your phone number?"
"My number?"
"Yeah. Messaging through the game is such a hassle. We're friends, aren't we."
"Friends…… Yes!"
A phone number is no big deal.
But, if we're friends like Si-yeon, does that mean she'll call and text me too?
*Should I tell Momoji how old I am?*
I'd always known how old Momoji was, so being on the receiving end of formal speech felt a little awkward.
Twenty-two? Twenty-one? Something like that, I think.
*That's a seven or eight year gap.*
She probably won't make a big deal out of it when she finds out I'm in middle school.
Momoji had never shown that kind of stuffy attitude before. Probably. But you never know.
She'd already buried her axe in my foot twice. There might be a third time.
Always stay on guard.
At least she's the type to put ointment on after she does it, so there's that.
As we chatted away, a game match loaded.
"Oh, it's a Domination match?"
"Yeah, want to follow me?"
"Yep."
The moment the match started, I led Momoji straight to what's commonly known as the Marlon kill-farming spot.
Winning the Domination match? Not really my concern.
It's where I go when I want to rack up kills.
"Step on the box where I'm standing and jump over here. Then here. One more jump."
"What? Wait, you could get up there?"
"Yep yep, it's above the door so you'll always get the first shot on anyone who comes through. Some people don't even notice and just walk right under you."
"Oh, let me try!"
In ranked this might get me flamed by teammates, but this is Quick Match.
Wins and losses don't matter here.
This is a lawless wasteland of pure personal dopamine, survival of the fittest.
In my case, I was so eager to earn the Weapon Master title that I'd spent a lot of time researching the most efficient ways to rack up kills by any means necessary.
Which is how I came to memorize the most disgustingly sneaky spots on every single map.
The key to this particular spot is: *hey losers, I'm right here, come kill me if you can.*
Once you pick off a few people from that near-invincible position, they'll start lobbing grenades or pre-firing where you were standing as they come back for you.
In Quick Match where lives are cheap, it becomes: *oh? That ticks me off? You're just gonna sit there? I'll kill you.*
You could say it ignites their competitive spirit.
Tatatatang—!!
[Mojimoji♡ ︻╦╤─ LovelyJini]
"Hehe, that's 2! This spot is amazing, right? Yes, this is exactly the kind of tip I needed!"
"Moji, come over here now."
"Huh? We're not staying here?"
"Come on, come on."
A kill-farming spot isn't just one location.
Like a combo chain in a fighting game, the delicate sequencing is what matters.
"Behind this door. See the thin gap?"
"Where… oh! Yeah yeah."
"The people you just killed are going to come back fuming and spray down where you were standing. Watch through the gap, and when they show up, jump out."
"Oh… okay."
It's like bullfighting.
You dribble the enraged bull and short-circuit its rational thinking.
Make it so furious it keeps charging back.
Tangdang—!
[Mojimoji♡ ︻╦╤─ LovelyJini]
"Oh it actually worked! One of the guys from before took the bait."
"Nice. Now let's head back to the first spot."
Only one of the two who'd taken the bait came this way.
Which meant the other one had gone to the objective.
"Wait here for exactly twenty seconds."
Tick tick tick tick—
They're not coming.
Folding after only dying twice. Pathetic.
"Moji, this way."
I led Momoji through the back alleys.
Once we reached the target location, I fired a single shot at the top of a tall steel tower rising into the sky—
"Moji, see the bullet mark I just made? Press yourself against the corner of this wall, hold a grenade, and aim toward the top of that tower."
"Like this?"
"Good. Hold that position."
I checked the minimap for my teammates' positions and status.
One deep in the objective zone.
One on the outer edge.
One freshly spawned at base.
And since two enemies had fled from us, there were at least two confirmed at the objective.
There were probably others who'd run straight there from the start, so realistically they were all clustered there.
I waited calmly for the right moment.
[LovelyJini ︻╦0╤─ GorapadakDadak]
The moment I saw the kill log showing my outer teammate go down and the health bar of the one inside start dropping—
"Now! Throw it!"
"Here goes!"
The grenade Momoji threw sailed high into the air—
Arcing past the tall steel tower—
[Mojimoji♡ (💣) LovelyJini]
[Mojimoji♡ (💣) LonglivingBeetle]
[Mojimoji♡ (💣) AllPurposeVitamin]
"WHOA! How did you know?!"
"Heheh. No time to celebrate. Over here."
We quickly passed the fishing spot from earlier and moved closer to the enemy base.
It was a much sloppier hiding spot than the first one—anyone paying even a little attention would spot us—but.
The light is darkest under the lamp.
They'd just died out of nowhere.
And especially the one who'd died three times in a row without even getting a proper fight in—they were already out of their mind.
Thud thud thud—
"Here they come."
The moment I finished speaking,
Momoji cracked the enemy who'd been sprinting from base right in the back of the head.
[Mojimoji♡ ︻╦╤─ LovelyJini]
"Wow. Nice."
"Hm? Why?"
We'd killed the same person four times in a row.
[LovelyJini : you little f***ing b*tch where do you live]
"Oh wow."
"Congratulations. That's high praise, Moji. You've leveled up."
"Should I be happy about this…."
"Hey! No time to stand around! That person is now a rabid dog foaming at the mouth. Quickly, over here, over here!"
No time to just stand there.
Move!
We need more kills!
And so, until the Domination match ended, I showed Momoji a variety of spots and introduced her to the kill-farming mechanics of Quick Match.
*Heh, these are genuinely golden tips.*
"Hehe, fun, right!"
"It was fun getting all those kills, but… they seemed really, really angry…?"
"Aw, it's just a game."
Unfortunately, after dying two or three more times, the person couldn't contain their rage, unleashed a torrent of profanity, and rage-quit.
That left us at four versus five, and we won easily.
In that case, the MVP of this victory was undeniably Momoji.
And she topped the kill count too, as a bonus.
I was stretching contentedly while waiting for the next match when—
"……Chaechae."
"Yeah?"
"Um, it's nothing major. Something keeps popping up, let me just check it for a second."
Momoji hesitated before speaking up.
"Are you by any chance not looking at the stream chat?"
Hm?
"Chat? What do you mean?"
"……?"
"Who looks at chat during a CCTV stream. Ha ha. What a funny joke."
What's chat?
I don't know anything about that.
"Ready for the next match?"
"……I'll be reading chat for you, everyone."
There's no chat on a CCTV stream, ha ha ha.
***
[Title: lmaooo fat chance, turn on the stream you little—]
(Momoji character meme image)
"Turn it on."
└What an absolute queen.
└lmaooo the big dogs really are different.
└How dare you mock your sacred viewers?
└Just start the stream and see what happens.
└Got 5 alt accounts ready to go.
[But honestly, Chaechae's growth is insane when you think about it.]
How did she hit an average of 1,000 viewers in just one week?
And this girl's streams are three hours max;;
What would a version of Chaechae who actually streamed hard look like?
└Sure~ once Durihyeok comes back her viewers will get cut in half
└└Why?
└└└His fans all flocked over when the drama blew up.
└└└└Did that happen?
└└└└└Yeah. One day left.
[But what does Chaechae actually do for a living]
She said she's not full-time.
Anyone know?
└Isn't she a college student?
└Kinda feels like a high schooler.
└Can a high schooler really stream at 4 in the afternoon?
└Nah she's an elementary schooler.
└Sure she is.
└She's a college student who's too busy hanging out with her boyfriend lol
└└She said herself that she was popular enough that a sunbae a year above her confessed to her in school. Highly plausible.
└└└You actually believe that, touch grass.
[Ha, this girl's psychological warfare is something else lmao]
Calling it a "Short-stream Appreciation Day: Hiatus CCTV" lol
Fine, let's go to war today.
└What kind of stream is a "short-stream appreciation day stream"?
└Idk she's not right in the head either.
└Finally a personal screen lol
└But what if she keeps using "short stream" as an excuse not to show up?
└No way lol it's her own loss.
└She's only been streaming for a week to be fair.
[Chaechae you little s*** look at the chat look at the chat look at the chat look at the chat]
There are people in the chat. There are people in the chat. There are people in the chat. There are people in the chat. There are people in the chat. There are people in the chat.
└What on earth is happening in that room that every post coming out of it looks like this.
└Chaechae doesn't even have the chat open……
└Is someone threatening people to watch her stream? Why are they trying this hard?
└She's good at the game. And her voice is nice.
└Her voice;; lmao just go watch a face-cam streamer at that point.
[lmao the viewers can't do anything, can they?]
Spam the chat all you want—if she's not even looking at it, what exactly can you do.
I know right ㅠㅠ ffs……
└What even is a "CCTV stream." Never seen this in my life.
└A truly unhinged woman……
└My fingers hurt more from all the spamming.
[Wow Chaechae is an actual demon;;]
Did anyone just see Chaechae teaching Momoji how to play.
The gears turning in this girl's head are something else.
Never seen anyone explain Quick Match like that before. How does a human being think of all that evil stuff while playing a game.
If that happened to me I would've smashed my keyboard.
Did you hear her laugh when the other person got so mad they started swearing?
She gets a thrill out of making people lose their minds, she's genuinely unhinged.
You're all just feeding her dopamine right now.
└Ngl that last match was actually kind of creepy.
└Is that how people at Challenger level calculate everything?
└Looks genuinely insanely hard to follow. How would you even copy that.
└Guess she studies how to make people lose their temper.
[Chaechae, I'm sorry.]
I give up… please talk to us….
└Chaechae leveled up… she even turned off the donation sound.
└No way, there's no way Chaechae figured out how to do that in the settings.
└Momoji probably showed her.
└└I will never forgive you Momoji.
[hehehe Chaechae's doing a post-game review with Momoji after the match hehehe]
(Screenshot of the pitch-black DuelKingChaechae screen)
If you focus really hard you can hear Chaechae's breathing between the game sounds.
Concentrating on just the audio actually has its own little charm.
└Ew, this one's a bit creepy.
└Why does only horror content come out of this room.
└This girl said she'd do a post-game review and now she's playing with the screen off.
└Please at least show us the screen ㅠㅠ
└She says it's a hiatus broadcast so the realism is important.
└└Ah, she's doing method acting….
[Thank you thank you thank you thank you.]
I can see the game screen and I'm so happy.
So this is what communication felt like……
I finally understand, sensei.
I will never whine about short streams again.
└ffs ㅠㅠㅠ this is humiliating. We're actually kneeling?
└I refuse to give up. I will demand it with my head held high—stream longer, Kim Chae-won
└└(posting on the community board instead of in chat)
└These people genuinely make no sense, just don't watch if you don't like it;;
└└Then go listen to some raspy auntie voice
└└└Your precious Chaechae's voice is a goddess even if she's morbidly obese;;
└└└└There's no streamer who plays Dead Zone as deliciously as her.
└She said she's doing her Master promotion match tomorrow hehe
└Everyone was acting so tough and it turns out they all just got their heads caved in.
└Hah… what a stingy little tsundere of a girl……