The Debt-Repaying Game
I had simply slaughtered the boxes without mercy, so why?
Why, though — why on earth… I was in shock. Why would you keep boxes? You throw them out right away.
"Why do people keep boxes?"
A question-mark bomb hit me in response. Had I done something wrong? Flustered, I scratched my cheek. No matter how hard I thought about it, I had no idea. Absolutely none.
"When I unbox a phone… of course I throw the box away. I tossed mine the second I bought it. What even is this. Why would you keep those? You just throw them out."
In my entire life, I had never once collected a box. The product itself is the main thing… isn't having that enough?
Our house doesn't keep that kind of stuff. Mom always said to throw out the trash on time… no exceptions. We throw everything out.
"Ah… I see. I throw them all away…"
I'd already shredded every box — what was I supposed to do now? A sudden wave of embarrassment hit me. They were already smashed beyond any hope of recovery. This was not a tape-and-fix situation. Not even close.
"I'll try keeping them next time… Anyway, I already opened it. What am I going to play, you ask? That game… the debt-repaying game."
"I really wanted to play that!! Let me tell you. I want that dumb-looking parrot and that ostrich. Ah!! And that chicken too. I've gotten into bird types lately. Oh, and sparrows… is that right? I'm collecting every single bird. Ehehe."
Honestly, back when Animal Crossing was huge and everyone said cats were the most popular, I just didn't get it. What's so great about them? People pay real money for that? Why?
I'd understand once I played it myself. A little late, sure — but better late than never!!
"Uh… dude? What do you mean breeding with miae is possible? Dude…?"
I had never once in my life even conceived of a thought like that… total culture shock. How does a person even arrive at that idea? No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get there.
Clearly just a lunatic.
"Understood… moving on."
I said I was moving on, but the afterimage still lingered in my head. There really were a lot of weird people out there.
I created an account and linked my bank. This much I could handle on my own. With how much I'd whale'd before, you think I couldn't do this?
A different problem cropped up. I had no idea how to output the console screen to the stream.
"I have a capture card, okay? I connected it. I have OBS too. You're watching the stream right now, aren't you!!"
I'd done exactly what I was told. Connect the console to the capture card, send it through OBS.
"Uh… it works?"
Oh. I just hadn't plugged the cable in properly…!! Hehe… massively awkward.
"Ehehe… I didn't plug the cable in right… sooorry… Shall we play now? I'm buying it right away. No burn-in period — I'm buying the game immediately."
I launched into the mad rush of purchasing the game. Buy it, install it, no hesitation, straight into the deep end. That should satisfy them, right?
Oh!! This is it… this is the one.
"Uh… who are these guys? Doesn't it usually start in a taxi? Wow… they're so cute. For real. Ah… my name is…?"
"Uh… Seona… eugh…"
The most agonizing stretch of time had arrived. I was just going to slap any nickname on and move on. Why were they so invested?
I dry-washed my face and stared blankly at the game.
"Jjang-hyung… Jjang-hyeong… Seona-noona… ugh… Furry Seona… Just Seona."
Picking a nickname was genuinely hard. I never knew what to do. No matter how much I fretted over it, I never solved it.
Just… stick to my guns.
"I'll go with Seona."
I set the nickname to 'Seona'. Next, birthday… December 5th… character with the cool bob and cute eyes. Black hair. Done.
Next I picked an island and started the game.
"It appeared!! He's here!! Tom Nook. This is the guy who makes you pay back money, right? Wow… I never thought I'd actually see him. This is so funny. You have to pay back the debt. Wow…!!"
He was the one I'd wanted to see most. I'd really wanted to see him. Always going on about paying back money. Ehehe. The way he talks all copper-copper is so funny. Seeing him for real was weirdly moving.
"Tom Nook is always lending people money and telling them to pay it back. Ehehe."
I was so eager to pay off the debt that my hands wouldn't stop moving. Just like that, I kept playing for over seventeen hours. It was so fun that I powered through the sleepiness and the hunger.
Mom occasionally restocked me with fruit, and I filled my stomach with that.
"Today… I have to pay off all the money."
I'd only meant to clear the debt, but that Tom Nook bastard was vicious beyond measure. Right around when I paid everything off, he'd suggest expanding the house, and then this idiot would go "Yay!!" and rack up more debt, trapped in an infinite loop of frenzied debt repayment.
"Almost paid it all off… probably… yeah. Yep. That's right."
I said it while chewing pineapple.
Humans are a resilient life-form. Greater than any other creature. The very fact that humans made gods in their own image is proof of how incredible we are.
And so I played for twenty-eight hours straight, paid off every last bell, and finished the interior too.
Viewers kept dropping in with praise: "Whoa. She's still playing?" "When does she end stream?" "She actually finished all of that, insane."
I'd always thought of myself as someone without grit. But no. I was incredible. Someone worthy of praise.
I did it. My head was spinning and I was dizzy, but I did it.
Yeah… I did it!! I finished everything.
"Everyone… a whole day just went by… I'm so sleepy…"
Past the fifteen-hour mark I'd been so exhausted I kept nodding off, and then suddenly adrenaline exploded through my body and I felt refreshed. Sleep fled completely — a bizarre experience.
Enduring and enduring again… Seona, you're amazing.
"I don't think I can come on tomorrow… probably… Anyway… I'm heading out."
"Clear? No… that thing… I'm going to do that…"
The words wouldn't come out properly. That… that what. Viewer house visits. I couldn't remember the name. Whatever it was called.
"I'm going to do that. The… looking at viewers' houses…!! Ah. House tours. I'll do it when I remember. Everyone… you saw a Korean's true grit, right? Alright, I'm out."
I bought the game — I had to milk every last drop of value from it. I'd probably keep playing. But right now I couldn't explain the whats and hows and whys of anything. I didn't have the brainpower. I just needed to crawl into my blanket as fast as possible.
Ah, I need to brush my teeth before bed… brushing teeth. Right.
After ending the stream, I dragged my wrecked body off to brush my teeth.
When I woke up, a collab offer had come in on Discord.
I checked what game it was for.
It wasn't a game.
Some kind of debate? They wanted to do VR content… why me of all people?
Who sent it? Master M? Hmm… I was torn.
I wasn't great at debate-type stuff.
What were the topics? Whether men and women can be just friends? No. From an omniscient juice-extractor's perspective, the people getting paid for juice dare to claim that? This was genuinely infuriating. Completely absurd.
Next one? If you win the lottery jackpot, do you end stream or not.
You don't. Big-agency VTubers make more than lottery money. This is just sour grapes from people who know they'll never make it at a big agency. Sour grapes!!
Anything else? If you could only drink one? Soju vs beer? Ugh… you shouldn't drink either. What are you doing? Alcohol is nothing but harm. Just don't drink.
There were way too many things I wanted to refute.
I huffed and puffed and accepted.
I was going to dismantle every single one of these. I couldn't hold it in.
"I'll do it. Master M… I'll do it right away. I'm so mad I have to. When are we doing this?"
I'll refute every point, one by one. I'll grind it all into paste. No mercy.
Six? It was… three right now. Perfect timing.
"Sounds good. Let's do it right away. Who all is coming? Just the two of us?"
I talked while clacking away at the keyboard. Streaming had given me one bad habit — I typed while speaking. Even in situations where I didn't need to say anything out loud, I ended up talking.
Occupational hazard. Occupational hazard.
Master M was incredible. She'd prepped this whole content idea by herself? Wow… I needed to learn from that. I was going to learn properly. Muahaha!!
"Is there anything I need to bring?"
If it was on a VR channel, I still didn't have a 3D model… what now? Should I buy something real quick?
Hmm… a character.
I went into the VR channel character shop and browsed the models. The one I'd used before… I was tired of it. I was going to use something new.
I searched for something new, then gave up and just put on YouTube.
Since I was collabing with Master M this time, I watched her YouTube as a shout-out.
I saw something called Ring Fit, and the sounds she made were no joke. It was that intense? She was making these suggestive moans… as someone who'd actually done personal training, I found it hard to understand.
Ab workouts were not the kind of exercise that made you let out sultry moans after just a couple of reps. Absolutely not.
This was… forced. Forced. One hundred percent. My eyes and ears couldn't be fooled.
So it was a juice-extraction service, then. Did she think I wouldn't notice? Instantly dismantled.
But I wouldn't say it out loud. We were in the same industry — how could I? I had to pretend not to notice and move on. I was a grown-up Seona now!! Haha.
So this was another way to extract juice!! Yeah, that's right!!
However.
Listening to those moans put me in juice-extractor mode. When someone just blatantly spat out suggestive sounds like that, the authenticity tanked. You know what I mean? If I were the juice, I'd feel put off instead.
Did she think this would actually work? She was treating me like too much of an idiot. It was way too forced.
Ha, I was going to have to help her out.
Leave it to me, Master M — I'll help you!! I'll help you make the juice-extractors fall for you without any of that ick factor!!
I'll help you extract it with real authenticity!! Muahahaha!!
Master M might ask.
How, exactly?
Then I'd say it proudly.
We'll figure it out together!!
I didn't know either. Ehehe. I meant we should study it together!!