The Chat Is a Battlefield
Ah... Is today my final broadcast?
Ha... Ha...
“...This is hopeless.”
The chat window rose at a speed impossible to track with the naked eye.
It felt like the zombie apocalypse had come alive.
Endless waves of zombie-like chat rushes.
Despite fighting with all their might, the managers were barely holding the line with concentrated firepower.
But it was hopeless.
Even as countless accounts were torn apart, the defense line was steadily being pushed back under the immense weight.
The chat window had become a battlefield.
Bullets flew everywhere, filled with incomprehensible screams.
Countless spam posts.
ASCII art shaped like male genitalia.
Personal attacks aimed at the hair-wheel slayer.
Endless sexual harassment comments.
Blind hatred directed at HrinHaneul.
A fourth-year streamer. Someone who had finally developed some resilience. But this was the first time she had faced such a carpet bombing.
How had this happened?
Something had gone wrong.
Why were KelInGal's filth finding the coordinates?
Tadadadak. Tadadak.
Just as soon as she connected, countless spam posts were being deleted and updated on KelInGal.
All of them were aggro aimed directly at her broadcast.
Someone had deliberately been scattering bait for thousands of goldfish.
HrinHaneul immediately understood.
Those sinister individuals were the ones behind this.
“......”
-And
She sensed it.
Perhaps this was the end of her streaming life.
***
KelInGal's vicious female fandom.
They gathered tightly around a single player and, having lost reason and logic, rained down blind explosions on any group that displeased them.
It was like a swarm of wasps that would swarm over anyone who dared to walk past their house.
And right now, HrinHaneul had been properly targeted by NineStar's vicious fandom.
The reason was that she had pulled the untouchable hair-wheel slayer into the spotlight with the goal of getting him removed from the lineup.
Although HrinHaneul had a close connection with KelInGal, she didn't know the exact fanbase of any particular player. But she instinctively knew that a vicious female fandom was targeting her.
No matter how vicious KelInGal's members were, they never launched such terror attacks without reason.
KelInGal's users were just goldfish swimming randomly according to their whims, with no intelligence at all.
When those goldfish jumped out of the water like this, it was almost always because someone secretly behind the scenes was feeding them.
And that someone was usually the vicious mega-fandom of a specific player.
Perhaps it was Ha Yunseo.
They were targeting the hair-wheel slayer, after all.
She didn't know why they held such deep hatred toward the hair-wheel slayer. But she was certain they had properly marked her as their target.
Senji-unnie had once experienced something similar, after all.
What had been the reason again?
Maybe it was because she had posted a photo with Heo Jaeyeon on Instagram.
Senji-unnie was so pretty. She couldn't stand the pink atmosphere with Heo Jaeyeon in the picture.
They were always like this. There was no point in trying to understand them.
And right now, the situation was similar to that time.
They were not showing their faces directly, but constantly dropping bait into the largest KelInGal to make countless goldfish swarm.
This dark and nauseating fighting method... It made her feel sick.
“...That's why I hate female groups.”
During her early days, HrinHaneul had once worked at a large nail art shop in a female group.
She had joined as an part-time worker handling customer service, payments, and inventory.
At first, everyone treated her kindly, so she worked comfortably.
But after only a month, she quit like she was running away.
The unnies who smiled and joked lightly with her in front suddenly began to slander her behind her back.
From tiny mistakes to mocking her very humanity.
After that, HrinHaneul developed a deep hatred toward female groups.
That was why she had been active in the male-only DC Inside community.
But this was just the beginning.
To them, this was merely the first step in a murder rampage.
Once today was over, HrinHaneul's past statements would be dug up and spread across various sites.
Out of context, they would maliciously edit innocent words to create problems.
Constantly twisting words, expanding and inflating ordinary content.
And they would keep pressuring her to explain on her live stream and YouTube.
People who had never cared about the community would search for those posts.
Most light viewers would leave without fact-checking.
Viewership would gradually decline, and the YouTube algorithm would bury her until she withered away.
And she would repeat this until she declared she was quitting YouTube.
Months, years, it didn't matter.
That was their fighting style.
HrinHaneul knew it well.
After all, one of her fellow YouTubers had ended her stream the same way.
Right beside her.
Just because she had sharply criticized a player's play.
-Current viewer count: over 19,000.
Normally this number would be celebrated with good whiskey, wine, or champagne to raise spirits.
But right now, each number in that total felt like it was crushing her body.
What should she do in this situation?
Freezing the chat window and purging the spammers was only a temporary measure.
Without addressing the root cause, the wounds would fester and rot.
The center of this storm.
The hair-wheel slayer.
Ha Yunseo.
A mentally ill person obsessed with one-on-one duels.
The curse that began in KelInGal.
If it had been as a manager, she wouldn't have been able to breathe.
Now, as a streamer, she was choking her.
-Where exactly had everything gone wrong?
“...Ah.”
...Was this karma?
A thought flashed through her mind.
Upon reflection, the one who had created this situation was none other than herself.
Even if she had maintained the dramatic negotiation as it was, this wouldn't have happened.
It was her own fault for overdoing the "completely driving her away" and getting deeply entangled with her.
If she hadn't tried to avoid the naked dogeza.
Or, if instead of promising the naked dogeza, she had just let the chat requesting neck-hanging photos and certifications go through and pressed enter.
Would the situation have been a little different?
...I don't know.
...Well, this was better than being an accessory to suicide.
...Should I cancel the special seat and post an apology notice?
...Perhaps that would be the most reasonable judgment.
Saying "I don't handle communities well so I don't know" would somehow resolve it.
Since that person called herself a fan, she might listen to her words.
...But would they really stop attacking?
Instead, they would bite harder, claiming ignorance as a crime.
With no trace of guilt, they would attack even more fiercely.
After all, they were her own fandom.
I was just an unfortunate scapegoat.
“............”
-Sob
She felt like crying.
She wasn't the kind of person who cried easily, but tears were coming.
Was her broadcast really ending?
...That was something she really didn't want.
She had worked so hard.
Really worked hard...
Slept no more than four hours, streamed and edited.
She hadn't eaten properly, and had been rushed to the ER multiple times.
...Ah. What about the editor? Well, since they're capable, they would probably move somewhere else on their own.
-Sob.
It was scary.
Scary what the old me, the me from yesterday, would say.
Scary what they would dig up from the past.
...And that the people who liked her might leave.
That... was too... terrifying to bear.
How had things turned out like this?
She had never imagined this would blow up.
She had only thought she was famous inside KelInGal.
Why did this vicious fandom hate her so much?
Why did KelInGal's users love this vicious spammer so passionately?
...I don't know.
...I don't know.
Tears were about to fall any second.
Her hands were trembling.
Her lungs and heart were trembling so much she felt like she was going crazy.
-Ah.
Yes.
Perhaps this was atonement.
A crime of cyberbullying a girl.
A crime of group bullying.
A crime of making a girl remove her clothes.
God was sending her the same situation so she could feel it.
Yes, this was divine punishment.
“......”
...For now, let's freeze the chat window.
And end the broadcast and post an apology message.
And pray that they would forgive her.
Please, let it end at this level.
Please, save me.
...It seemed there was no other way.
At that moment, a single tear fell from Kim Daeun's eyes.
-Right at that instant.
While HrinHaneul had laid everything down and was giving up all hope.
The mute icon of the hair-wheel slayer's Discord disappeared.
That clear yet seductive beautiful voice instantly blew away the heavy thoughts tormenting HrinHaneul's mind.
Light from heaven.
It was like the voice of the Messiah brushing against the ear of one who had reached the end of despair.