Chapter 114: How a Cam Whore Survives the Apocalypse
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 114: How a Cam Whore Survives the Apocalypse
Lee Yu-ri was an internet broadcaster.
In her youth, she had trained to be an idol, actually debuting and promoting for a brief period.
She wasn't incredibly famous, but she had performed on music show stages—just about that level of idol activity.
She was pretty, and her breasts were naturally quite ample without any plastic surgery, so her agency had high expectations for her when she debuted.
Though she couldn't sing, she was often told she would be popular because of her beautiful dance lines.
In fact, some people had even become her fans during her trainee days before her official debut.
But that was as far as it went.
She had at least one hit song that people would recognize if she sang it, but they never had another big breakthrough. Her agency wasn't very large either, so their promotions fizzled out and eventually ended.
She became just another dime-a-dozen, unemployed former idol.
However, Lee Yu-ri did not give up.
Even before her debut, she believed she had a natural talent for broadcasting, occasionally hosting secret internet streams or social media lives. Deciding to make the most of her background, she transitioned fully into internet broadcasting.
It turned out to be a much better fit.
The title of "former idol" gave her a significant advantage whenever she turned on her stream. While women as pretty as or prettier than her were a dime a dozen in the entertainment industry, it was a different story here.
In the world of internet broadcasting, where most relied heavily on filters and lighting, her natural looks placed her in the top 0.01%.
On top of that, she was a "former celebrity."
With that single label, her haughty personality became a premium trait, driving up her value.
"Thanks for the donation, Oppa. Didn't you say today was payday? What's this? Did you hide some emergency cash from me?"
There were plenty of suckers who actually enjoyed having their pockets picked through this kind of "sincere" gold-digging.
Maintaining a remarkably high viewer count for a female streamer, she raked in far more money than she ever did during her idol days.
It wasn't hard.
Compared to the days when she struggled to survive in the cutthroat idol trainee market, this was honestly too easy.
Show a little skin, dance a little, banter a little.
There was a path in adult broadcasting, but Lee Yu-ri deliberately avoided it.
Why go through the trouble of stripping completely and wasting emotional energy on filthy chat messages?
If anything, men preferred women who didn't look cheap.
It wasn't exactly high-class either, but she excelled at the push-and-pull of giving them just enough hope.
Lee Yu-ri had a real knack for that.
She made 100 million, 200 million won a month.
By the time she had been streaming for about eight years, she had become a veteran in the industry, a household name whenever female streamers were mentioned.
Money?
Unfortunately, she hadn't saved any.
Easy come, easy go.
She bought luxury goods and lived in an apartment with expensive monthly rent.
With half of her income taken by taxes and her reckless spending habits, the money flowed out as fast as it came in.
By the time she came to her senses at the age of twenty-eight, as her male followers began drifting away to younger, prettier female streamers, it was already too late.
The stocks she had invested in to grow what little money she had left plummeted further into the abyss day by day.
Is it really time to transition to adult broadcasting?
But her pride wouldn't allow it. Just as she was lost on what to do—
The incident occurred.
Lee Yu-ri thought she was lucky.
While everyone else was fighting zombies, she turned on her stream.
– Huh? Yul2, how did you turn on your stream?
– Oh! She's streaming.
– Is this live?
– Wow... streaming even in this mess lol
"You guys are watching the stream too. In times like this, we have to band together and get through it~"
– Still, seeing Yul2 gives me strength.
– Today was really hard.
"Aww, poor babies... Let me comfort you."
As long as the internet worked, it was only natural that she could stream.
Donations poured in even more than usual, and a massive crowd of viewers flocked to her stream.
At first, they didn't realize the world had ended.
They thought it was just a passing disaster.
People watched streams as a way to kill time while holed up in their homes.
It was great at first.
But as time passed and she realized that money was slowly becoming meaningless,
Lee Yu-ri realized that her Mode was incredibly useful.
"Everyone, I haven't eaten a single meal today. Can you donate some Coins?"
– Can we donate Coins too?
"It's my Mode, so I can receive donations in Coins."
Although the other party had to agree to it, she could receive donations in the form of Coins or various items while streaming.
She didn't know the exact mechanism behind how the Coins or items donated by her viewers reached her, but when they actually donated Coins, they were credited to her.
When they sent items, they materialized right before her eyes.
Naturally, this included food and rations.
Thus, she had no reason to go outside.
The 23rd floor of a luxury apartment with a monthly rent of 9 million won.
Even when she heard the sounds of zombies wandering outside her tightly shut door, it wasn't a problem.
They couldn't get in anyway.
As long as she didn't go out, she was in no danger.
By staying holed up inside her home and streaming, she survived.
But even that had its limits.
At some point, the water was cut off.
The bathroom began to smell, and trash started piling up inside the house. That was when the real problems began.
There was also a limit to how much trash she could dispose of outside.
Since zombies didn't roam around twenty-four hours a day, she managed a temporary fix by quickly opening the door and tossing the trash into the hallway, but that, too, piled up quickly.
But more than that, the fundamental problem arose after the electricity went out.
She was now in a situation where she couldn't even stream.
Her Mode only had meaning if she could stream.
There were still people willing to donate even in the zombie apocalypse, and they were essentially her lifeline, but now even that had been cut off.
Fortunately, though, before the power went out, she had been introduced to something called the "Paradise Membership."
One of her viewers had consistently told her about it.
They said she could purchase food and even have it delivered.
But Lee Yu-ri hadn't paid much attention to it.
Why would I pay Coins to order delivery?
It was true that she had started accepting Coin donations because of the "Paradise Membership."
Back then, it wasn't called the Paradise Membership, but she had needed Coins because she heard they were selling food at some park. Later, she heard that it had evolved into the Paradise Membership.
However, after she started receiving Coin donations, she also received food donations, so she had no reason to pay Coins to sign up for it.
While it wasn't luxurious, if she rationed it, she received enough to survive.
That was why she only remembered it now, after her streams had been cut off.
She signed up for the Paradise Membership.
Fortunately, she had a decent amount of Coins left over from donations.
It was fascinating that she could order food delivery just by clicking on the system messages appearing before her eyes.
Although the delivery fee was quite a burden, Lee Yu-ri used the Coins she had saved up to order a large batch of food and water all at once.
Since the delivery didn't come all the way up to the 23rd floor, she had to go down and fetch it herself, but she somehow managed to bring it up safely through sheer luck.
Looking back, she must have been completely out of her mind.
Driven solely by the desperate urge to survive, she had played a game of wits with the few zombies around, groaning under the weight with her low Stamina.
Of course, it was only possible because the amount she ordered was small.
Naturally, it didn't last long.
Lee Yu-ri realized instinctively.
If I stay here, I'll die.
That was when Membership Level 3 caught her eye.
"200 Coins..."
She had about 350 Coins in her possession.
A very large amount for someone who only relied on donations.
It's only for a week, but they provide housing...
If I can stream from a place with electricity, can I make 200 Coins in a week?
Lee Yu-ri finally made up her mind.
Let's make this work, somehow.
And so, she paid for Membership Level 3.
Once the payment went through, a message arrived.
It told her to gather at a specific set of coordinates.
When she arrived, about twenty people were gathered, murmuring to one another with serious expressions.
From what she could gather, they were saying that in about ten days, there would be a highly dangerous five-day period, so they were handing out ten days' worth of food.
The welfare here is actually pretty good, she thought.
She had seen many posts on the Paradise Gallery saying they wouldn't sign up because 200 Coins was a waste.
This is actually decent.
As she stood there satisfied, a man asked her,
"Who are you?"
"I'm Lee Yu-ri."
The man smiled and asked back,
"The cam whore?"
"..."
It was a word she had heard everywhere.
In chat rooms, on online communities.
But this was the first time she had heard it to her face.
Lee Yu-ri felt wronged.
She had never actually sold her body.
Of course, she knew that the standard for that was highly subjective and differed between ordinary people and active streamers.
She knew what real "cam whores" in adult broadcasting did.
Stripping completely was just the baseline, along with various other acts.
Compared to that, wearing slightly revealing clothes and dancing wasn't enough to make her a cam whore.
She wanted to argue, but she couldn't.
At the very least, she had a reason for coming here.
Paying 200 Coins and turning on her stream had required a massive leap of faith on her part.
So, she smiled and said,
"Yes. That's right. The cam whore."
She thought she was lucky.