This was insane.
Was this place a living, breathing gold-farming factory?
[ChaechaeBowlThief — ₩3,000: Please do that fighting cheer from earlier one more time.]
"Hm? The cheer?"
- This isn't the same ㅏㅏㅏ
- You know, the one you did right before the game started.
- That's literally the same thing, are you people insane.
- It was a bit more fresh and peppy before…
"How did I do it again? Fighting! Like this?"
Two hours had passed since she'd started the stream.
When she'd first gone live, the chat had been so chaotic she'd fled straight into Dead Zone just to escape it.
But now, with nothing but a waiting room and a chat window open, the responses to her casual chatter were more than decent.
No — more than decent. Donations were raining down like hail from the sky.
Every time she fulfilled one of their little requests, money came flying in.
She did clumsy impressions at the viewers' request.
She did three-line poems.
The highest-paying and most difficult one was…
"Please buy me a cheeseburger?"
[ㅇㅇ — ₩1,000: Nope. Theed Burger. Again.]
"Ugh… please… buy me a Theed Burger…?"
- Ohhh yes.
- ㅠㅠㅠ How many should I buy you?
- LOL ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
- When are you playing Dead Zone.
- Starting today, my favorite food is cheeseburgers.
Every organ in her body, including her hands and feet, curled up in secondhand embarrassment — but as they say, human greed knows no end.
*It's not like my face is getting exposed, right? Think of it as filming a commercial.*
Just a little more suffering and the money would come pouring in.
[ㅇㅇ — ₩30,000: ㅠㅠㅠ so generous]
"Wow, thank you."
She swallowed her embarrassment and swept up the donations.
There were requests for her to sing, too.
How was she supposed to sing in the middle of a house?
"Ahem, I'll do it next time."
Si-yeon had dragged her to a karaoke place once, and she'd seemed decent enough to share with others.
The opportunity would come someday.
She pushed the gaming aside and kept up the blazing communication session (read: money collection), until—
"Oh! Look at the time."
Her parents would be getting off work soon, so she needed to wrap up.
She had to go out and greet them, and they'd fling her bedroom door open to call her for dinner.
"I'll try to come back on in the evening~"
No camera, and yet she waved both hands around excitedly as she said goodbye.
"Byeeee."
She ended the stream.
And pulled the corners of her mouth up so high they nearly touched her ears.
"Hehehe, I'm rich!"
To think there was gold farming this sweet in the world.
Streamers are the best!!
She couldn't help but whistle.
*Shall I check the fruits of my labor?*
She navigated to her personal page to see how much the donations had stacked up.
"Let me see, settlement… oh, here it is."
And then the number that appeared on screen.
[₩128,000]
YEAAHHH—
It's blinding!
The monitor's glow is shining brighter than ever today!
She'd been like this for a while now, but her cheeks simply refused to come back down.
Seeing money made all the self-loathing evaporate instantly!
*Hehe, starting today I'm eating tteokbokki every single day.*
Si-yeon was going to be so shocked when she heard this news.
She might even look at her with eyes full of admiration, watching her become an overnight millionaire.
She'd act a little smug for a bit, then pretend to cave and treat her to sundae on the side too.
"Heh."
This was so exciting.
She clicked the withdrawal button with a giddy grin.
But then.
Ding—!
[Warning: Minor members may only receive payment after completing legal guardian verification. Withdrawals are currently restricted.]
"…Huh?"
W-what?
This couldn't be right. She'd gotten Dad to verify her!
But this thing…
Something about it — the button looked completely different from when she'd gotten approval to stream.
It was like it was saying, *Did you really think it'd be that easy?*
A faint unease began to creep in.
She swallowed hard and carefully pressed the button labeled [Submit Documents].
Proof of identity.
Family relationship certificate.
Legal guardian consent form.
Legal guardian's ID.
Copy of bank account.
"Ugh…!"
The moment she saw the list, she grabbed the back of her neck.
How on earth was she supposed to gather all of that and submit it without her parents finding out?
Wait.
Hold on.
"S-so my money…?"
What was going to happen to her precious one hundred and twenty-eight thousand won?
Unable to let go, she kept clicking the withdrawal button — firmly grayed out and locked — over and over again.
Click, click, click. A hundred clicks and the screen didn't even blink.
The moment it truly sank in that there was no way around this, tears welled up all at once.
"My money… give me back my money, you stupid machine! Waaahhhh."
The donations she'd traded her dignity for were dangling right in front of her eyes, and she couldn't lay a single finger on them.
She tried yelling at the poor innocent monitor, then tried pleading with it.
Neither did anything.
***
Kim Eun-ha had barely turned on her stream when she caught wind of something completely absurd.
"What? A girl? Who? Woniwoni?"
She clicked her tongue, thinking these terrible people had now stooped to arbitrarily reassigning someone else's gender — but even so.
*…Is it actually true?*
On the off chance it was, at least that insufferable boyfriend narrative would disappear immediately.
The whole "queen bee" and "carried" stuff she could let slide.
But the boyfriend thing was absolutely unacceptable.
Every time she heard it, she felt like the engine driving her channel's growth was getting jammed up.
Without a moment's hesitation, Kim Eun-ha searched DuelKingChaechae and clicked on the most recent VOD.
And what immediately played was:
[Favorite food? Lately I've been into choco rolls. Choco rolls aren't food? What are you talking about… are you dumb.]
An unmistakably female voice.
*Oh.*
Kim Eun-ha clapped a hand over her mouth before she even realized it.
- Eun-ha. It's been a short time, but thanks for everything.
- Found her! My wife! Found her! My wife! Found her! My wife! Found her! My wife! Found her! My wife! Found her! My wife!
- Whoa, what the hell, is she a voice actress?
- Take care. Goodbye. Nice introduction.
"Hey! You people spent days doing nothing but hurling insults, and now you're saying that?! If you have any conscience at all, stay right here!"
That's what she said — but even she had to admit, it was a voice charming enough to captivate even another woman.
Soft, yet when she got excited it lit up completely, overflowing with a bright, refreshing energy.
It seemed almost youthful at first glance, but the crisp, precise pronunciation kept catching in her ears.
*This woman is the same person who's so good at Dead Zone?*
They did have a connection of sorts, when she thought about it.
If she was a fellow girl, maybe she could casually ask her to teach her some game tips?
"I wonder if she's taking students."
She was mulling it over while leisurely browsing DuelKingChaechae's channel when, right then—
New!
A new post had appeared on the board at just the right moment, and she clicked it without thinking.
[Author: DuelKingChaechae]
[Title: asdfjkl;duelkjhgf]
My streaming schedule going forward is uncertain.
Don't wait for me.
Is this even the right place to post this?
Ugh, whatever.
Someone told me to write an announcement so I wrote one.
"…? What's this."
The moment she clicked the post, a notice appeared that reeked of someone rage-quitting.
*Just a few minutes ago in the VOD she looked like the happiest person in the world.*
- You killed her…
- She ran away because she hates Eun-ha lmao
- Kim Eun-ha controversy: drove fellow streamer to quit.
Just as Kim Eun-ha was standing there completely baffled, posts about DuelKingChaechae were rapidly multiplying across the community boards.
[Title: Anyone who messes with Chaechae from now on is my enemy.]
What sniper, you absolute idiots.
Never liked the whole "destroying a civilian" thing from the start.
Did Chaechae play dirty? ✗
Did she snipe for dozens of games? ✗
Did she stream-block? ✗
Did she snipe for no reason at all? ✗
Is it a smurf ranked game? ✗
All this fuss over a measly two games.
You'd run into more streamers just playing normally.
Go ahead. Argue back.
└Isn't it possible we don't know if it was stream-blocking?
└└With that skill level? As if. She just demolished everyone herself.
└└That's fair, there was no shady play. Felt like she just killed everything in front of her.
└It was a bit much though ㅋㅋㅋㅋ leaving the actual toxic ones alone.
└Watched the Kim Eun-ha VOD, it really does look like a coincidence.
└These buffalo-brained idiots the second they find out she's a girl ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
[Title: Chaechae is cute….]
Listening to her voice and why is it so healing.
Can't she just stop playing Dead Zone and keep chatting forever.
Let's just hang out in the waiting room lol
└ㅋㅋㅋ people keep donating so she can't even play.
└you devils ㅠㅠ the way she pretends not to be embarrassed is adorable.
└her voice is just pure GOAT.
└she's so soft and gentle, I love it….
└saving my 10th clip now.
└after listening to those demons, this is paradise…
The revelation that Woniwoni was a girl had become an enormous talking point — enough to bury every previous issue about sniping and hacks.
A rare, highly skilled female player.
A feminine voice that was the complete opposite of her aggressive playstyle.
An irrepressible liveliness that couldn't be hidden.
What had started as little more than an outlet for frustration flipped in an instant, and the community hit record-breaking post speeds in anticipation of a new gallery queen's birth.
And in the middle of all that, one piece of news arrived.
[Title: Looks like Chaechae is quitting streaming?]
Title says it all.
└????
└???
└Stop messing around.
└Nonsense.
└What the hell why though?
DuelKingChaechae's grim announcement — nothing short of a bolt from the blue.
After that, debates raged on about whether this was the fastest rage-quit in history, who was to blame, and so on.
About an hour passed like that.
[Title: Wait, Chaechae just went live?]
Wait, so she's not quitting.
Phew, what a psycho, scared me for nothing — let's go~
└False alarm ㅋㅋㅋ
└What kind of person is she that the gallery ends up like this
└I should go check it out too.
└She's literally an angel I'm telling you.
└Hell yeah, today's the day.
Contrary to everyone's fears, Lee Chae-won had gone live.
But.
[Title: Angel, they said????]
But what the hell is the vibe here, where did all that freshness go.
Went to check it out out of curiosity.
You know what she says when you donate?
No-interaction Dead Zone grinding, what the hell, where's the healing.
(DuelKingChaechae stream clip)
[Don't donate. It's just noise. Watch the game.]
[Cute my ass. You're banned.]
[I don't like your username. Go change it and come back.]
[Hm? You want to interact? Viewer participation? Get in here. If you don't come in or you lose, you're banned.]
Angel my ass, you idiots.
I made eye contact and got banned.
Explain.
└ㅋㅋㅋㅋ were you the one who just got dragged into a 1v1 and got destroyed?
└ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ you were so bad lmao
└(OP) I'm Diamond okay, I went in with confidence, why is she so good
└At least the voice is still nice though.
└Ranked stream with cigarette smell vibes, on.
└ㅠ she wasn't like this earlier. come back ㅠㅠ
└Get out, fakes!! It's time for the real ones!!
└Actually thinking about it, she was completely unhinged on day one… you all got played….