Durihyeok was a streamer who averaged 6,000 to 7,000 concurrent viewers — firmly in the big-league tier.
For the regulars who watched only his channel, a full week's suspension felt like having the entire streaming scene wiped from existence.
Even among the casual viewers who drifted from stream to stream, those who'd frequently tuned into Durihyeok felt like they'd lost a channel they could always count on.
You'd think the rage over Durihyeok's one-week ban would spill over and cause trouble in other streamers' chats.
But then the sniper herself showed up in person, and the community erupted.
Peak viewership shot all the way up to 2,800.
The chat was so vicious that people were posting on the forums:
*'Isn't this going a bit too far? She's just a regular person, not even a streamer.'*
Of course, the streamer herself had refused to engage and closed the chat at the time, so she had no idea any of it was happening.
Once the trolls realized they were throwing rocks at a wall, they trickled away one by one.
The viewers who'd stuck around out of genuine curiosity about her Dead Zone skills started flooding the forums with their takes.
(Link Gallery)
[Title: Woniwoni — what the hell gave this little sh*t the nerve to go live.]
That's what I thought going in. Now I get it.
This little sh*t was trying to torture us.
Dazzles you with flashy plays, gets you thinking 'oh damn, how high can she climb?' — and then hits you with an endless barrage of alt-tab Notepad attacks so you can't even enjoy the game, just sit there with your eyes burning.
Just when your eyes are starting to adjust, she logs the hell off.
You absolute piece of sh*t lmaooo wanna throw hands?
└fr I was lying in bed with the lights off and every time she opened Notepad I flinched like I got flashbanged in real life.
└This is exactly it. World's first torture stream.
└Could at least make the font bigger, can't read a single word, my eyes are dying.
└I mean the screen's dark and Notepad is blinding white so yeah lmao.
└That little sh*t only opened chat when it was convenient for her.
└└nah that's not right, she only had Notepad open in the second half. you were blessed compared to the rest of us.
[Title: Okay but she's probably not hacking, right?]
People were saying hack this hack that so I went in to check — screen looks clean to me.
Her aim tracking is insanely fast and accurate, had me suspicious for a second.
But her POV is fully visible so… I just figured her reaction time is just genuinely insane.
Her movement is a little weird though.
What was that thing she was doing where she'd jump and slide sideways real quick?
And why does she tap left-right left-right like that every time she moves?
Super curious but this girl's Notepad communication is absolute garbage.
Ugh, getting mad again. ㅡㅡ
└lmaooo this one also got done in by the Notepad.
└the victims just keep piling up. the real winner is me for not watching.
└what do you mean 'slide sideways' you weeb.
└isn't that a wallhack or something? how does someone that good have zero losses?
└the way she's climbing undefeated she'll probably hit Master easy.
└she was just solo stomping everyone.
└pathetic watching you guys simp for the sniper smh.
└└who's simping, she's just gonna wash out on her own, we're watching because it's interesting.
Rage from the trolls.
Dopamine hits for the casuals.
Genuine curiosity from the gamers.
All kinds of reactions kept rolling in, and her name started spreading even to users who'd had no idea about the whole incident.
And so 4 PM arrived.
The dead hours before the big streamers clocked in, when there was nothing else going on.
[Title: That sniper girl went live again today]
The audacity…
└guess I'll go drop some comments.
└she is pretty good at the game though.
└oh that little sh*t is back? time to avenge the Notepad terrorism.
The people who showed up with all kinds of feelings in their hearts were met with this:
[Title: Wait… she's a girl…?]
What the — DuelKingChaechae is a girl??
└who's that?
└you know, Woniwoni. the sniper.
└her voice is insanely good wtf.
└she's a girl? isn't she like top Master tier?
└kinda sounds like a young boy though? isn't she a bit young-sounding?
└idk man her voice goes hard.
└guess I gotta go check this out. what's even going on lol.
└I forgive her ㅎ
To some, she'd been the most insufferable person alive.
But the revelation that she wasn't a *him* but a *her* threw them all into complete confusion.
***
"Ugh, this is so uncomfortable."
The headset was way too big — one little shake of her head and it felt like it'd slide right off.
The box had said something about adjustable sizing, fits everyone, blah blah blah. Yeah, right.
Condolences to the Nero PC Bang owner who got scammed.
She'd practiced an awkward little "Oh, hello everyone~" to open the stream with, but it turned out to be completely pointless.
Not wanting to go through the same explanation all over again, she went straight to Dead Zone.
For some reason, once the game was on, the insults in chat dropped off noticeably — which was at least something.
"I'm not an elementary schooler, okay."
That was the fourth time she'd had to say it.
— For a young boy his voice is actually pretty nice though.
— Hmm, the voice does sound pretty young.
— how old r u?
— it's hard to tell age from a girl's voice tbh.
— ㅎㅎ wanna play Dead Zone?
— disgusting flip-floppers. look at this attitude reversal.
— cry about it and come fight me.
*They're fighting each other again…*
The "sounds like a young boy" comment honestly stung a little.
Different gender, sure, but she'd graduated from elementary school just last year, so it wasn't entirely off.
She'd been in middle school for over half a year now, but she still had more elementary school memories than anything else.
Anyway.
Whether she was in elementary or middle school, she had no intention of revealing her age.
This game was rated 12+, so she'd made the account under her dad's ID. She'd started playing in fifth grade, and back then she'd been underage — no other option.
But beyond that, she just didn't want people to know.
*If they find out I'm young, they'll look down on me for no reason. Obviously.*
For all those reasons, her age was staying private.
"Alright, let's play. Anyone who wants to join, come on in."
Before ranked, she'd warm up with viewer participation.
Normal rooms could run 8v8 maps, which meant she could take up to 15 viewers.
She'd be granting them the honor of playing alongside a streamer!
Not even a few days ago she'd been a viewer herself, so she knew exactly how it felt.
No more getting called a sniper — let's do this the legitimate way with a proper viewer join-in session.
— what's the password?
— you have to tell us the password.
— excuse me, teacher, there's a password on the room.
— can't believe the sniper is just openly streaming now;;
— need the password urgently.
If you just let everyone rush in first-come-first-served, the desperation factor disappears.
She figured the people who'd stuck with her to the end deserved the reward.
How unfair would it be if some random who'd just dropped by snagged the spot?
"Yesterday I gave a lecture on burst-firing the Beryl. I said if you're confident with recoil control, use a certain number of shots, and if you're not, use a different number. Write down both answers and then come in~"
— ???
— how the hell would anyone know that.
— oh right I forgot to mention — that Notepad thing was impossible to read. how were we supposed to follow along when you flipped the screen in like 5 seconds.
— I didn't learn anything. teacher….
Hmph. Frauds.
The true warriors who'd been with her yesterday would know the answer.
Sure enough.
"Oh come on — then who are these people coming in right now!"
She greeted the warriors filing into the room with smug satisfaction.
Just then.
*Ding—!*
"Wh-whoa— that scared me!"
[Hyeoknaidu — ₩1,000: please, just once, could you unlock in-game chat?]
The sudden notification sound made her jump out of her skin.
— "wh-whoa" lmaooo
— that's adorable wtf
— check the in-game chat lol
— honestly who cares about the sniper thing anymore… I forgive her…
*Ugh, that scared me — oh, it's a donation alert.*
She must not have touched the settings, so the volume was probably maxed out.
But she had no idea how to adjust it…
She'd figure it out after the stream.
"In-game chat? Why?"
She'd blocked it because of all the people who'd followed her into games just to trash-talk her, but everyone here had watched her stream to the end — it should be fine to turn it back on for now.
She went into settings, unblocked it, and turned her eyes to the chat from the victors who'd made it into the room.
[hey you, go watch yesterday's VOD right now. the font on that Notepad was tiny as hell and you flipped the screen in like 5 seconds — how was anyone supposed to read that.]
[I was one of the people who stayed till the end too and that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. never open Notepad again please.]
[hearing your voice is nice… the Notepad was not.]
"Wh— wait, wait—"
No way.
That can't be right.
"Then how did you all get into the room?!"
[guessed.]
[watched the VOD and zoomed in.]
[guessed.]
[ease up on the alt-tab. my eyes hurt.]
"……"
Wait, people couldn't actually read the Notepad yesterday?
And here she'd been happily explaining away without a clue…
She'd just learned something she really didn't want to know.
"Hmph. You asked, so I explained. Fine. Got it. I just won't alt-tab then."
She made a face and hit start on the game.
***
"What — what is this. She's so freaking cute."
Momoji — Kim Na-eun — said it out loud before she could stop herself, reacting to DuelKingChaechae's sulky response.
When that voice had first come through — a girl's voice, and a distinctly sweet one at that — her brain had just stopped working and she'd sat there blankly listening.
She probably wasn't the only one.
The viewer count at that moment had been around 300.
Now it was 1,800.
Word had spread from somewhere, and the numbers just kept climbing without dropping.
The one slightly disappointing thing, if she had to name it, was that the communication wasn't as smooth as a full-time streamer's.
Since she was playing in fullscreen, she had no choice but to alt-tab every time she wanted to check chat.
Right now, though, Kim Na-eun had a reasonable suspicion that she was deliberately not looking at chat.
— please look at the chat.
— she's sulking lol.
— lmaooo is she pouting.
— she is absolutely not alt-tabbing lmao.
— ugh ㅡㅡ nobody said don't alt-tab.
— I said Notepad was the problem, not communication. please.
Before, she'd been hopping over to alt-tab excitedly every time she got a kill.
Now she hadn't pressed it once, and was busy massacring the viewer participants.
*Tatatatang—!*
[die. all of you die.]
Even the way she typed was different.
Woniwoni, who'd been quietly mowing down viewers in silence, wrapped up the round:
MVP
[Woniwoni>.⟨ : 42 kills 4 deaths]
In a room with a 100-kill goal, she'd racked up 42 of them by herself.
Unlike Quick Match or ranked where ratings were at least somewhat balanced, the enemy team's viewer participants had wildly uneven skill levels — which certainly played a part.
— taking out her frustrations on the viewers ㅠㅠ
— you can look at chat. please, Chaechae.
— the people who joined the game are the ones who started it.
— 42 kills is insane;;
— I don't think I've ever seen a girl player this good fr.
For the people who'd come to see the rumored female pro player, it was a memorable match.
One viewer, unable to hold back any longer, sent a donation.
*Ding—!*
[Hiit!]
[Chaechae'sPiggyBank — ₩10,000: ㅎㅎ could you look at chat? alt-tab is fine, it was only the Notepad that was the problem.]
[…yeah? ten thousand won? are you serious.]
And with that, the chat window finally appeared on screen.
Which meant she was reading chat again.
— hi hi.
— hey there.
— you gotta look at chat. the Notepad hurt our eyes, not the alt-tab.
— I mean I don't love the alt-tab either.
— can't be helped. couldn't you use a dual monitor setup?
[I only have one monitor. do a lot of people stream like this? is it really that inconvenient?]
— ㅎㅎ nah it's fine, can't help it.
— those streamers just don't look at chat at all while gaming.
— but you check chat mid-game so.
— it's nice that you interact while playing.
— or you could run the stream on your phone next to you.
— ㅇㅇ that's probably better, go get your phone.
More delay than checking on the computer, but definitely easier for viewers to watch.
Kim Na-eun had done the same thing when she used to stream.
But then came some muffled struggling sounds, followed by:
[um… I don't have a smartphone…]
"…!"
*Isn't it basically middle and high schoolers who've all switched to smartphones by now?*
Adults went without saying — almost everyone had one.
The cheap audio quality that clearly wasn't from a dedicated mic, the bare-bones setup, the long messages she'd typed in Momoji's chat without a single donation, and above all, that young, unpolished voice.
A student, maybe. Or someone her own age going through a rough time.
*Ding—!*
*Ding—!*
[Hiiiit! Wh-whoa, it's loud—]
[Chaechae'sPiggyBank — ₩20,000: here, take it…]
[Hyeoknalija — ₩5,000: this is the least I can do.]
— lmaooooo
— so cute lol is that an automatic reaction?
— ㅠㅠ save up and buy a smartphone.
— what is this, I suddenly feel like donating.
Whether it was the adorable reaction, or because they'd had the same thought as Kim Na-eun, donations started pouring in.