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As always, Namgung Sanwol, the veteran variety game streamer, was grinding away at his broadcast. Today, however, Namgung Ho was having a rough time of it.

"Ack! I dodged that! I clearly dodged it! How did that hit me?!"

"What?! Hey! Don't you dare touch the age topic!"

He had been playing Shadow Soul 3 nonstop from the very moment of its release — a game he'd been eagerly anticipating — and aside from the tutorial boss, he hadn't felled a single one.

"Ugh... isn't this entry way too hard?"

Sure, the series had always been famous for its punishing difficulty, but wasn't this going too far? Namgung Ho had actually beaten the second game through sheer stubbornness, which only made the sting sharper this time around.

Especially this part.

"No! Look, the boss being hard is one thing! But I can't find my way around the map!"

A boss was guaranteed to fall eventually if you just threw enough time at it. The map, on the other hand, remained an eternal mystery. Just a while ago, he'd backtracked to the same spot six times.

"Haa... if only the navigation weren't so punishing, I'd be onto the next area's boss by now..."

Four hours of relentless, break-free play, and he was still stuck in the first zone after the tutorial. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠What did that say?

"...Excuse me?"

What nonsense was this? The trailer alone had showcased well over ten bosses, and the studio's own estimated playtime was thirty-plus hours.

"Don't mess with me."

He'd seen her mechanics in Roze's game-rehab clips on YouTube, so he knew she was good. But this was a different beast entirely. Even if she'd one-shot every boss she met — like he'd just said, the navigation alone made it impossible.

"You've said something very suspicious, so I'm going to have to time you out—"

W-wait, what?

I-I've spent four hours stuck in the first zone. Four hours...? The most memorable first-clear time in my entire gaming career was six hours. And she did it in four?

"A v-video donation! Send the clip right now!"

He rushed to enable the video donation feature, practically begging his viewers to hurry. Honestly, his gut told him to just open Roze's stream directly — but that would be rude, so he held himself back. He'd already caused a nuisance once before; a second offense was absolutely out of the question!

The moment the donation arrived, he frantically hit play. The clip's title read: [Roze Clears Dragon First Try].

The dragon?! In ONE try?!

He watched, stunned, and there on screen stood Roze's character, facing down a dragon the size of a mountain.

Huh?! That dragon is the trailer's poster boss?!

[This company really loves dragons, huh. They show up every single time.]

Her usual deadpan voice drifted through, and on screen Roze's character rolled to dodge a breath attack. Then she charged straight at the dragon — and suddenly began rolling wildly to the right!

What is she DOING?!

She'd just pulled off an evasion he'd needed fifty tries to even land once! Bewildered by the incomprehensible movement, he glanced at Roze's webcam avatar.

...Why does she look exactly the same as always?

Not a flicker of hesitation — just calmly playing the game. That unshakable composure inspired a trust beyond words.

KWA-BOOOOM!

"Holy...!"

If she hadn't rolled right then, that AoE would have killed her. Having dodged by the thinnest of margins, Roze's character closed in on the dragon and began landing strikes.

Wow... how many retries did it take to time those windows that precisely?

Wait. Retries?

Hit by the sudden question, he checked the clip title again.

[Roze Clears Dragon First Try].

"F-First try... didn't you say...?"

Half in disbelief and half wondering if it could actually be true, he asked the chat.

"This was... a first try...?"

As Roze dismantled every pattern and chipped away at the dragon's health, her character brought the beast down before he'd even noticed.

[By the way, I wonder what dragon meat tastes like. Reptile, probably?]

And with that parting line, the clip ended.

"Wow... I mean... just..."

"No! Hold on! Fine, I get that she beat the dragon! But! You said it was a FIRST CLEAR!"

Yes, yes, that dragon was the trailer's poster boss, and the later bosses would be even worse — he got it!

But how could anyone confirm a full clear already?!

When the second video donation arrived moments later, he immediately hit play.

[And that's a wrap!]

The instant the video started, the ending credits began to roll, and there was Roze collecting her mission prize.

"Huh?"

Developer?

And there it was — the game studio itself donating a full ten million KRW directly to her.

"Wow... it was all real..."

[I appreciate it, but that's still profanity.]

...Consistent to the very end, as always.

He occasionally watched Roze's streams, so he knew profanity was banned by her rules. But the developer was a foreigner who probably didn't know the rules — and it was ten million KRW. Couldn't she let that slide?

That sense of absurdity evaporated with the very next scene.

[Hey. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Developer.]

Is she doing a reaction bit?

Right, of course. Even for a streamer famously allergic to reactions, ten million KRW deserved at least—

[Easy.]

They say your mind goes white when you hear something you never could have predicted.

...That's me right now.

...I couldn't even clear the first zone in four hours.

He prayed, from the bottom of his heart, that the studio would treat Roze as the exception and keep making sequels.

Roze's first clear blew up exactly as expected, dominating the conversation everywhere.

For every positive reaction, of course, negative ones existed as well.

But then, just posted, came a thread capable of silencing every last one of these negative takes.

The ensuing brawl only finally ended — with Roze's victory — after the studio posted an official notice stating that no trace of illegal programs had been found in her account.

"Th-this apartment...! The truth is...! It's really not that great! The sunlight barely comes in! And at night you can hear drunk people outside! So...! I'm so sorry...!"

This was my landlord — the type who, midway through showing me the place, would suddenly blurt out an honest confession of all its flaws while unable to even meet my eyes.

That made the fourth one today to start with a sales pitch and end with the cold, hard truth, hadn't it?

...Apartment hunting is genuinely exhausting.