Momoji hadn't expected anything groundbreaking from Lee Chae-won—she'd already trained under some exceptional challengers before.
What she'd wanted instead was something like the handy tips Chae-won had dropped during that old stream.
Easy shortcuts. Sweet spots. The kind of lucky tricks that could fast-track her improvement in no time.
"Chaechae?"
"Yeah?"
"Why do we have to do a knife-only match?"
A knife-only match, of all things.
Once Momoji finished decking herself out in cosmetics, she and Chae-won had agreed to play a casual game instead of ranked.
She'd thought, finally, the real lessons begin! But the room they'd entered was a knife-only lobby.
[Room Title: Knife Only / No Guns / Play Nice ㄱㄱ]
Momoji tried to work it out in her head.
Maybe it's for building stable aim?
'If you practice with guns you die too fast. Maybe this is a way to train with more breathing room.'
Chae-won opened her mouth in response to Momoji's question.
"Why, you ask?"
"Yeah."
"Oh, I've done it myself—knife-only is the fastest way to grind out titles. If you put it off it just stresses you out, so it's better to knock it out early."
"...Huh?"
Titles?
What titles?
"Oh, you said you wanted to get better earlier. I was going to recommend the training route I used myself. And for that, you need to get the titles first."
"……Just to check—do the titles give you any buffs?"
"Nope. You've been saying weird things since we were buying cosmetics. If titles gave buffs, the developers would get roasted for it."
"……"
Right. That's why she asked.
The confusing logic made Momoji's head start to throb.
"S-so then, why are we going for titles…?"
"Hm? You said you wanted to get as good as me, didn't you?"
"I diiid?"
"To get the Weapon Master title, you need to rack up 300 rifle kills, 150 sniper kills, and 50 grenade kills every single day for a year. Knife is actually the easy one—you only need about 13 kills a day. That's why I recommend warming up with knife-only matches."
The moment those specific kill counts and that staggering timeframe hit her, Momoji's jaw dropped.
"Ehhh?"
Weapon what? What even is that.
And why on earth would she need to do it.
- This person is insane.
- run for your life
- FYI: Moji's average assault rifle kills per match is 14, meaning she'd need to play 21+ matches a day just to hit the daily quota.
- Weapon Master lmaooo that's 100,000 rifle kills 50,000 sniper kills 20,000 grenade kills 5,000 melee kills lmaooooooo
- Who brought a manual laborer instead of a teacher.
"A hundred thousand…? Fifty thousand? What is any of this. Okay hold on, my head hurts."
While Momoji's brain cells strained to process the situation, Chae-won said brightly:
"See this? My title. That bright red one."
"Yes… it says… Weapon Master…"
"Cool, right?"
"Huh? Yeah, yeah."
"Hehe. You can do it too, Moji."
"What?"
Why would I do that.
I don't want to. I won't. I can't.
But she couldn't just bail now without even giving it a proper shot.
Even if she was going to run, she should at least get a taste first—otherwise she'd have regrets later.
And besides…
'Why is she so happy about this? It's making me feel guilty.'
"Hehe, it took me a whole year just to get the Weapon Master title! By the time you earn it too, Diamond will be a breeze—just like it is for me."
"Wh—yeah… I guess… that's probably true?"
Well, if you had to hit 100,000 rifle kills, it'd be pretty hard not to improve along the way.
"Quick Match gives more kills per game and the fights are way more intense than ranked, so it stacks up fast. Let's warm up with a few knife rounds and then head straight to Quick Match."
"Okay…"
She answered meekly, and was in the middle of picking a melee weapon for a knife-only match she'd never played in her life, when—
[Amojioday — ₩1,000: This is insanity. Run.]
"……"
Gulp—
The donation message was right. This was insanity.
She'd been swayed by the fact that they were both girls, and look where that had gotten her.
She genuinely wanted to get closer to Chae-won—that part was real. But she hadn't signed up to be a miner hacking away at kills in some abandoned coal shaft.
'There are other tips she could give me. Like how to use the Winchester, or those rifle tutorials she used to do for her viewers.'
Why was it titles instead of any of that…
Unlike Momoji, who was growing gloomier by the second at the bleak future ahead, Chaechae had been getting progressively brighter since the shopping trip.
Why?
Is she excited because she's tormenting me?
The suspicion crept in on its own.
And then, suddenly—
"Ah—!"
Something clicked, and Momoji slapped a hand over her mouth.
'W-wait. Could it be—because of the chat autopsy?!'
She'd almost forgotten, but yes—that had definitely happened.
DuelKingChaechae had gotten caught up in one of those chat autopsies Momoji did to entertainingly deal with difficult or toxic viewers.
It made sense, given that people had been calling Chae-won a notorious sniper, and she had flooded the chat with a wall of text before—so from a streamer's perspective, it hadn't seemed like anything special.
But what about the person on the receiving end?
It probably hadn't been fun.
And if that person was DuelKingChaechae? Having witnessed her little-devil tendencies firsthand, Momoji couldn't help but be deeply suspicious of her motives.
Momoji narrowed her eyes.
"Why do you seem so happy, Chaechae? Teaching someone is a hassle, and you probably wanted to do ranked today. In a way, I'm the one who got in the way. Is there a reason?"
"Oh."
Momoji had been hoping Chae-won would let out a little snicker here and flash that signature mischievous grin.
If that happened, she could push back and either change the lesson plan or make a run for it.
But instead—
"Ah… um… was I…?"
A voice rang in her ears—clear and guileless, as if she genuinely hadn't noticed.
"I don't have many friends, so it's been a while since I played games with someone. Maybe that's why. This is going to be fun. Heh."
- oh no
- oh no
- oh…
- Moji, you can't do this to her.
- ㅠㅠㅠ
- Hang in there, Chaechae.
The chat murmured. Momoji froze.
'Is… is this where I become the villain…?'
Of course, it was hard to call it calculated—it felt too genuine.
If that voice had been acting, she should've gone into theater.
Momoji couldn't bring herself to push any further.
"…We're friends now, aren't we? Friends."
"Oh, are we? Friends… hehe. Yeah, we are!"
It was heartwarming, and they'd grown a little closer—which was nice.
"……"
Drip—
'I can't run away now…'
"Come back every day to play and get checked up on!"
"Yes…"
Trapped with no way out, committed to grinding titles whether she liked it or not, Momoji felt something trickle down her face—whether it was cold sweat or tears, she couldn't quite tell.
***
"Hey, what are you so busy with lately? You're so slow at replying to texts."
"I've been super busy. I have a lot to do."
"Studying?"
"Yeah, something like that?"
She'd made friends in the streaming world and met all kinds of viewers.
You could call it studying people and society, really.
'Or I'm playing a shooting game. Ballistics, or whatever.'
Either way, she was studying. Yep.
"I'm skipping tutoring today—want to go get some snacks?"
"Hmm…"
'I really wanted to push my ranked score up today.'
Master was right around the corner.
She was a little torn, since after school was her ranked time.
The routine had settled into a rhythm: ranked while Momoji wasn't around after school, then Quick Match together once Momoji showed up in the afternoon.
Since Momoji needed to grind titles, Chae-won had mostly stopped going for kills herself—just roaming around, softening up enemies so they were easy pickings.
Yesterday, Momoji had been over the moon because she'd gotten 30 kills in a single match for the first time.
'Heh, maybe I've got a talent for teaching.'
She wiped her nose with a little smile.
"What? Why are you smiling?"
"Hm? No reason, nothing."
She hadn't been able to hang out with Si-yeon much since the streaming started.
'I'm at Diamond 1 with 50 points right now. I'll push it later.'
Today, she'd stop by the snack shop for some tteokbokki.
"I'll treat you. Let's go."
"Wait, really?"
"Yeah, get whatever you want, Chae-won."
It absolutely wasn't because of the free tteokbokki that she'd agreed—she was doing this because she genuinely didn't want Si-yeon to feel left out.
Free tteokbokki is the best, though.
***
Lee Chae-won's account, Woniwoni, had been getting reported frequently even before she became well-known.
FPS games had the cancer of hacks lurking in them, so it was common for players to hit the report button the moment they ran into someone whose skill level they couldn't comprehend.
Back then, Woniwoni had only played Quick Match with zero ranked history, which made her a prime target for suspicion.
The game company usually stopped paying attention to that kind of routine report after a few reviews—but.
"Huh, this account has a pile of reports on it."
"Let's see. What's going on."
The team leader of Dead Zone's security team was watching over the new hire as he worked through his tasks.
"Hmm. Pay attention. Accounts with this many reports usually fall into one of four categories. One: they got sniped by a streamer or NuTuber. Two: they are a streamer themselves. Three: a high-tier player's alt account. Four: an actual hacker. That's pretty much it."
"Oh, so if there's already a review on file, I can just skip it?"
Thwack—
"Ow—"
"You idiot. What are you saying. You still have to review them all. But once you've cleared an account, set it to monthly intervals going forward. Streamers get their own separate pile. They're a bit of a special case."
"Um… how do I know if someone's a streamer?"
"There's a file with a list of the well-known ones, so reference that. If someone's not on the list but the reports make it obvious they're a public figure, search them online and add them to the list."
"Got it. Just a sec… this one's not on the list. Woniwoni?"
The new hire searched online, and a flood of results came up—Woniwoni, Lee Chae-won's trail of activity.
"Oh? Looks like someone pretty well-known? Why aren't they on the list?"
"Probably just started recently."
"You're right—says she's a female user who started streaming a week ago. Age undisclosed, estimated to be young. Wait, Diamond 1??"
"Hey, stop digging into the streamer's personal info. Do your job. Add her to the list and set her aside."
"Yes sir."
The team leader had been about to head back to his desk when he stopped in his tracks.
'Diamond 1? Female user?'
The gender ratio was overwhelmingly male to begin with, and there was a baseline physical gap too—high-tier female players were genuinely rare.
And a female streamer who'd just debuted was already high-tier?
From experience, something smelled a little off.
"Hey, new guy—pull the client data and logs for that streamer."
"Yes sir."
He wasn't particularly fond of stirring up trouble—neither from above nor on his own initiative.
The team leader waited for the results, hoping it would turn out to be nothing.
Time passed.
"Team leader, she's clean."
"Oh, yeah? Phew, thank goodness."
"Her reaction time was fast enough to be surprising, but I watched the VOD just to be safe. It was all pre-aim."
"Right, right—that settles it then. And her streamer name was… DuelKingChaechae? Anyway, add her to the streamer list."
He let out a sigh of relief and waved his hand dismissively. But the new hire wasn't leaving.
He shot him a look that said, what? Why?
"Um, well. Team leader. There's a problem."
"What?"
"This account—it's showing up as a 38-year-old male."
"…You said she was a young woman."
"That's what I thought too."
"……"
The team leader stared out the window at the distant hills.
"That's not our department. Toss it to the operations team."
"Yes sir."
And so, the account information for Woniwoni was passed along to Dead Zone's operations team.