Dinner was a delicious curry.
A true gourmet dish, loaded with big, chunky pieces of chicken.
School lunch curry is great and all, but the kind you eat at home — that's what real curry is.
*Dad made dinner tonight for the first time in a while!*
When Mom makes curry, she always puts in pork or beef.
Chicken is the one true answer when it comes to curry, obviously.
She buried her nose in the bowl, filling her lungs with that rich, savory smell, and shoveled it in.
"Nom nom, chicken really is the best. Mmm."
"Right? Ha ha ha, see? Chae-won agrees — chicken's the way to go."
Mom, whose taste buds were clearly broken, grumbled under her breath.
"You two and your unsophisticated elementary school palates."
"Chicken tastesh better. Mmph."
"Finish chewing before you talk. What kind of young lady speaks with her mouth full?"
Two against one, and she still wouldn't admit defeat.
Pathetic.
Chae-won had gotten better at reading the room, so she kept her thoughts to herself.
It would be insane to get on the bad side of the person who does all the cooking just for the sake of one little victory.
*She promised to make tteokbokki this weekend, after all.*
Just a little while ago, she'd been sprawled across her bed like a manga protagonist who couldn't overcome their trials — crushed and miserable.
But eating something good had lifted her spirits considerably.
Even she had to wonder, *what kind of ridiculously simple creature am I?* — that's how dramatic the mood shift was.
But hey, whatever. She genuinely felt better.
That's not a bad thing, is it?
She was happily demolishing her ice cream for dessert when Dad asked:
"Chae-won, are those online lectures going well?"
"…!!"
Yikes.
She'd told Dad it was an online tutoring site to get his phone verification for her streaming account.
She'd played it off as super busy and rushed through the whole thing so he wouldn't catch on — she hadn't expected him to actually remember.
She nodded, keeping her face neutral.
"Yeah."
"Online lectures? Mom didn't know about that. You should've said something. Chae-won, do you want to go to a cram school? I can sign you up."
She shook her head side to side, vigorously.
"No no no no no."
"Is it because you're still bothered about missing two questions on last semester's finals? You don't have to do it alone — just say the word, anytime."
Oh, that's really not it.
Her conscience was poking at her.
Ow. That hurts.
She'd thought about it — about just telling her parents and getting their official consent for monetization, since she had 128,000 won sitting there waiting.
But in the end, it was still a no.
*I can't tell them.*
Forget consent — if her grades slipped because of streaming, wouldn't they take away her computer?
She gave an awkward smile, flashed a double thumbs-up, and made a quick escape to her room.
Dove straight onto the bed.
They say you'll turn into a cow if you lie down right after eating.
But sometimes, you just need to do it anyway.
She flailed her arms and legs around on the bed for a bit, then gradually went still.
*Come to think of it, I barely got to play today because of the stream.*
She'd at least wanted to climb to Diamond 2.
Hmm.
Well, she could just do it now.
It wasn't like she was short on time.
She bounced off the bed, planted herself in front of the computer, and launched Dead Zone.
"Hmmmm."
And then the dilemma hit her again.
*Should I stream?*
It was more fun to play with people watching.
Plus, she'd already written up the announcement post like she'd been asked, and she'd mentioned earlier that evening she might go live.
She decided to just turn it on without overthinking it.
Title: something like "Climbing."
Watching Momoji and other proper streamers, she'd noticed they'd wait a few minutes after going live for viewers to trickle in.
But Chae-won was barely even a streamer — she couldn't even cash out her donations yet. She was practically a viewer herself.
She had absolutely no reason to do that.
*Why did I get so flustered and excited reacting to everything earlier, anyway.*
*I'm deleting the VOD from this afternoon's stream.*
She'd filmed embarrassing commercials as a kid, but at least she got paid for those.
This was just manufacturing cringe content for free.
Ugh. Tch.
Getting annoyed all over again just thinking about it.
She grumbled to herself and jumped straight into ranked.
The first match that came up was a 5v5 Team Deathmatch — perfect for warming up, and her favorite mode.
She pulled out the Winchester (Win34), the weapon that demanded the highest level of focus.
Only two shots per magazine, but the bolt-action and reload animations could be canceled into each other — so if you nailed the timing, you could fire *pshk pshk pshk* at a surprisingly fast pace.
Getting that timing right was anything but easy, though.
In her case, she'd gone with the 20,000-won Win34 over the 30,000-won AWR when she bought her dedicated weapon, simply because she hadn't had the money.
Naturally, she'd maxed it out since then.
Which meant she'd gotten good with it, obviously.
The match started.
The moment she locked eyes with a sniper on the hill in the enemy's right flank, she snapped up her scope—
*Bang—!*
[Woniwoni>.< ︻デ═一 RustyBlade]
Then, right as she worked the bolt, she swapped to her pistol to cancel the animation and caught the rifle that popped out from the side—
*Bang—!*
[Woniwoni>.< ︻デ═一 DeadZoneIsTrash]
That's how the Winchester worked — even with just two shots, it could be played aggressively as a sniper rifle.
That had looked pretty cool, honestly.
She alt-tabbed to check if any viewers had come in.
— Thought you'd quit streaming ㅠㅠ
— Hey Chaechae.
— How'd you do that just now?
— When the enemy popped out I was sure you were dead.
— Oh she's gaming.
*Underwhelming reaction.*
Could they please appreciate the greatness of that perfectly fluid cancel?
Probably just because she'd just gone live, right?
Or maybe they didn't know enough to recognize it.
You only see what you know, after all.
"I think the Winchester is actually a really strong weapon in close-quarters chaos. If you can't handle the cancel, you're better off with the AWR — but when you're pushing solo, it's incredible."
*If they don't know, I'll just teach them!*
She explained it helpfully and everything.
— lol who even uses the Win34
— Chaechae going NuTube? Making a gear review video?
— Reviewing a gun by stomping low-tier players with mechanics… hmm….
— Why are you even running into the enemy spawn with a sniper.
These people?
Why won't they believe me?
And Diamond is not "low-tier" — that's top 5% or higher.
"The Winchester is genuinely good. I bought the dedicated weapon for it and maxed it out. Look."
She hit tab and hovered her mouse over her glorious Winchester.
[LV. Max] — the max level badge, displayed with pride.
She showed it off triumphantly.
— Oh so you're not making a NuTube video, you're just a connoisseur of bad choices;;
— The bolt cancel is way too hard. That's not a mechanic you're supposed to use.
— fr it's a weapon for people who care more about looking cool
— Honestly no cap, Win34 is a troll pick 10 times out of 10.
— If our sniper pulls out a Win34 in ranked? Start typing the insults.
— AWR ← higher damage, more ammo, faster reload. Why would you use the Win34?
"I'm telling you, it's not like that. The Winchester is better depending on the situation. The damage is the same for both if you're not hitting limbs!"
She'd literally just shown them.
If she'd been using the AWR, she would've gotten shot by that second rifle and died.
She dropped a swift smackdown on the one calling her anger cute — absolute nonsense — and continued her staredown with the chat.
*Ding—!*
[ChaechaeFootSmell — ₩3,000: Chaechae is totally right. Gaming is a disease. These kids just won't listen ㅠ How about taking a break from the game and chatting for a bit?]
"Ugh. I forgot to turn down the volume."
She thought she'd gotten used to it, but coming back after a break made the sound ear-splittingly loud again.
This useless donation — hurting her ears and nothing else.
What exactly made this better than her Duel King cards?
"Please don't donate. It's just loud and annoying. Watch the game."
Donations, get out of here. I'm not taking them.
That money will eventually be mine someday?
Don't care. It feels like something given and taken away — I don't like it. It's not like I can spend it right now anyway.
Donation alerts had been reduced to nothing more than a chat-reading function.
"Also, I don't like your username. Go change it and come back."
*Hmph. Foot smell? I scrub myself squeaky clean, thank you very much.*
Even as she finished the match, she was racking her brain over how to convince those stubborn AWR fanatics.
MVP
[Woniwoni>.<: 25 kills / 6 deaths]
She thought she'd put on a solid showing with the Winchester.
— Would've been 30 kills with the AWR.
— It's all about the aesthetics with this one.
— Gotta admit though, the way Chaechae uses it does look kinda different.
— Game's over? Can we just chat for a bit?
— Yeah chat sounds good ㅎ
These people had apparently erected a monument to stubbornness in their heads — they had zero intention of listening to her.
*Then I'll just beat it into them.*
This was a viewer-participation-friendly stream, after all.
"Chat? You want to chat? Hey, you — want to join in? If you don't show up or you lose, you're getting banned."
She clicked on a username in the chat, hovered over the ban button, opened a 1v1 lobby, and waited.
[What do I get if I win?]
The person who joined had the nerve to make demands.
"If you win, you don't get banned."
[lol sounds like you're not confident.]
Excuse me?
"What do you want?"
[yeah so just do one line from Magical Girl Lucy from Duel King.]
Huh.
What? Oh, you know Duel King.
Instant approval rating spike.
"Deal!"
How hard could a Lucy line be?
She'd literally filmed a commercial for the magic wand.
She'd collected every single Lucy card from the first domestic print run to the latest release.
She'd just never actually watched the anime.
— wait why is she excited
— I think he's trying to get her to do *that* lol
— please lose please ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
— ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ oh I can't wait.
The 1v1 match started immediately.
She went with the Winchester, obviously. She tabbed over and saw her opponent had equipped the MF5.
The intent was clear as day — pick the fastest-moving gun and bait out misses from the sniper.
Sniper rifles had long gaps between shots, and the plan was to exploit those windows.
But what had she said?
*The Winchester fires faster than you'd think once you start canceling.*
If the AWR's rhythm was:
*Bang—— Bang—— Bang——*
Then the Winchester could be pushed to:
*Bang— Bang— Bang—*
Obviously still way slower than a rifle on full auto.
But unlike the AWR, where missing a single shot in a head-on fight meant death, the Winchester gave her one extra shot to work with.
[Round 1]
She drew her knife and sprinted forward to claim position as fast as possible.
The moment she heard the crunch of footsteps, she swapped to the Winchester.
Normally, with a corner between them, the sniper would be scoping in to prepare for a rifle rush, and the rifle player would be juking back and forth to bait out the sniper's bullet — that was the textbook play.
But.
*Tap tap tap—*
She didn't hesitate. She ran straight at him.
Her opponent hadn't expected the sniper to charge first. She closed the distance and fired point-blank — *Bang—!*
[Woniwoni>.< ︻デ═一 MasterLetsGo]
*Hmm.*
Couldn't even get a shot off?
No reaction at all?
A 1v1 map was five rounds total.
Winning the first round gave a significant psychological edge going into the rest.
And once the skill gap showed itself, the rounds that followed would be even more one-sided.
Round two — same pattern, same charge, same kill.
Round three — he'd be expecting it now, probably braced and ready to counter, so she played it safe and methodical, picking off angles one by one like a proper sniper.
Round four — his mental had apparently cracked, because he charged at her himself. She was already scoped in. Kill.
Last round — she fired a few pistol shots at head level just to pressure him, and he walked right into them and died.
"Heh heh heh."
You dared to provoke me?
I put something on the line too, so you deserve what's coming.
"Reflect on your choices and try again sometime."
*Click.*
*(This viewer has been banned.)*
— AAAAAAAAAH
— Someone just died…!
— A few people getting wiped today.
— I came here because I heard this was a chill stream but it smells like blood.
— She's insanely good lmaooo
— Came here from the Dead Zone forums.
"THIS is the Winchester!"
Sadly, one match wasn't enough to earn their recognition.
She hadn't expected to enlighten these backwards-thinking people in a single round anyway.
"From now on I'm keeping a lobby open — anyone can come in. The Winchester is genuinely good, I'm telling you."
After that, she went on a five-win streak in viewer participation 1v1s.
Just when she was starting to think it was about time they acknowledged the Winchester's greatness—
[MasokSNiper: Requesting a match.]
A quiet viewer appeared.
***
[Hyeokjugari — ₩10,000: Masok, are you doing a 1v1 today? If so, would you mind doing a dojo challenge run?]
"Sorry? A dojo challenge?"
A donation had come in on a Dead Zone challenger-level gameplay stream.
— Yes, so there's another streamer — she's claiming the Winchester is the strongest weapon and taking on challengers.
"Oh, isn't that streamer in the middle of their own content? That seems a bit—"
[Hyeokjugari — ₩30,000: It's fine. She's literally just playing with whoever walks in.]
"Hmm."
*40,000 won is a lot.*
"Alright. Let's go check it out."