Chapter 19
Chapter 19
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: Darling's Aggro Hell
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Meanwhile, while Lee Hyunwoo was hanging out in SpringSummer's room.
A war was breaking out in Darling's broadcast.
Just five minutes after going live, viewers had already surpassed 200, exceeding her daily average.
And that number kept steadily climbing as time went on.
558. 1,136. 1,597. 2,194.
A word that the malicious floaters of Koreatv—who loved scandals and drama—would eat right up.
Exposure.
Darling had uttered it, pulling in a massive wave of aggro.
And amid all that, her room title was...
This was a blatant declaration of her intent to pull every bit of aggro out there.
The floating viewers outnumbered her regular audience by twenty times over.
No way could the fixed chat firepower suppress the floater spam.
The chat was scrolling up faster than usual.
TTS voices popping off left and right.
"Stop it. There's no exposure or anything—everyone get out!"
She wasn't happy at all about the surging viewers or the coins exploding in sevens.
These weren't the kind of people who would adore her.
Darling snapped irritably.
But if they were the type to back off in shock, they wouldn't have entered her room in the first place.
The malicious floaters only got more thrilled watching her rage.
The chat firepower ramped up even more.
"Get out! All of you dry-bread bastards! Don't ruin this room! Get outttt!"
In the end, Darling's anger exploded.
Unable to contain herself, she screamed and panted heavily.
But her worked-up state just made her prime bait for the malicious floaters.
What they called a donation punch.
These malicious floaters were showing exactly what it meant to troll a Broadcaster with money.
Spending 700 won to spew malice while messing with her.
Finally, one of her hardcore fans stepped up, unable to take it anymore.
It was just what Darling had been waiting for.
Even if her mental state was off, Darling was a ten-year veteran Broadcaster.
She knew full well that brawling with malicious viewers would only hurt her.
The chat freeze function.
One of the tools Broadcasters could use when malicious viewers or aggro got out of hand.
At times like this, she could divide chat permissions by rank.
Darling set it so only Hardcore Fans and above could chat.
The chat window cleaned up in an instant.
But the malicious ones weren't out of options.
In the Koreatv system, coin donations couldn't be blocked no matter what.
Even with the chat frozen, donation messages popped up in the chat window, visible to the Broadcaster too.
And exploiting the free nickname changes, they spammed one-coin donations to chat.
"Sorry, everyone in my room. I'll be right back."
Darling chose to run.
She threw up an ad on the stream screen and stepped away.
This was called shaking off the ants.
When unwanted floaters swarmed, you kept running ads to cull the viewers.
Darling started the ad playback and left her computer.
She'd shaken off the ants, but the crazies would stick around no matter what.
And to grate on her nerves, they'd keep firing one-coin shots.
"Hyunwoo... Hyunwoo. Pick up. Hyunwoo."
Lee Ye-rin flopped onto the sofa, pulled out her smartphone, and called Lee Hyunwoo.
But as expected, it was blocked—no ringing, straight to voicemail.
Her KakaoTalk messages stayed unread too.
"Five days is too long... too long. It's long. Way too long."
Sprawled on the sofa, Lee Ye-rin kept mumbling the same thing.
Her mental breakdown had hit again.
She knew he wouldn't pick up, yet she kept repeating the same actions.
Just in case, maybe this once.
Maybe he'd unblock her for a moment.
But no such luck.
"This is all that bitch's fault."
After trying to reach Lee Hyunwoo for ages, Lee Ye-rin concluded it was all Ppangit's doing.
If not for that bitch, Hyunwoo never would've blocked her.
Without that bitch, she could've had all of Hyunwoo's love to herself.
Yeah... that bitch was the problem.
Lee Ye-rin got up.
Time to at least go see Ppangit's face.
Even if she was mid-broadcast...
Did that even matter?
"Oh, gotta grab this."
Lee Ye-rin grabbed a kitchen knife from the kitchen and stuffed it in her bag.
She really wanted to kill her, but she had no intention of actually doing it.
She wasn't smart enough for a perfect crime.
She hated Ppangit enough to kill, but she didn't want to go to prison.
Still...
You never know, right?
Might come in handy.
"Huh? Darling?"
"Hello."
The place Lee Ye-rin headed to was Koreatv headquarters.
Made perfect sense.
To hunt down an enemy, you needed their location first.
Koreatv HQ would have every Broadcaster's address on record.
For outsiders, accessing personal data inside the company was illegal and tough.
But Lee Ye-rin had no fear of breaking the law.
The only things that scared her were loneliness and isolation.
She avoided crime because prison would mean dying alone, unloved.
"Deputy Yoo Sung... no, Team Leader already?"
"Darling? No, Ye-rin?"
"Long time no see."
"Y-yeah. Long time. But what's up? Is it about the aggro from yesterday and today?"
Lee Ye-rin had come hunting for today's prey.
After ten years broadcasting, you naturally built up tons of connections at Koreatv HQ.
Among them, she'd chosen a fish once kept in her tank.
He'd since gotten a girlfriend, married, and escaped the tank.
But back then, he'd adored her, giving her his heart and soul.
And...
His eyes said those feelings hadn't fully faded.
This was usable.
"Yeah, that too. And I wanted some advice."
Use this guy to get Ppangit's address.
And if possible, Hyunwoo's too.
With that in mind, Lee Ye-rin unleashed her ingrained charm.
The man's cheeks slackened.
He knew she was a poison apple he couldn't eat, had felt it plenty in his youth...
But Lee Ye-rin's looks and coquetry were powerful enough to obliterate all reason and experience.
Lee Hyunwoo piled quests onto SpringSummer and left her broadcast.
The novelty of her first stream had worn off quickly.
All that remained was the annoyance of her shitty video quality.
Once she bought a DSLR, he'd start the real nurturing sim.
"Soo-hyun's gone live."
An alert pinged: Broadcaster Ppangit's stream had started.
"Hmm..."
Lee Hyunwoo pondered the notification.
Signing cashback deals with Broadcasters was easy.
But for transaction stability, he needed about two hours per one.
That built inner rapport, making cashback smooth.
And no one else would suspect.
Plus, he had zero intention of treating cashback like company overtime.
That'd just turn it into labor.
'Yeoujjing starts in two hours.'
Ppangit or Yeoujjing.
Yesterday, Darling had kept him from both.
Two hours here, then to Yeoujjing—simple.
But another issue held him back from deciding.
Ppangit, Yeoujjing, SpringSummer.
Three with cashback deals now.
SpringSummer's return was unknown, so to hit 100 million monthly, he needed four more Broadcasters minimum.
Thus, pick one of Ppangit or Yeoujjing.
Then scout others in the remaining time.
'Still, Yeoujjing makes more sense, right?'
Ppangit or Yeoujjing.
Deal terms identical.
So pick the one with even slight extra gain.
Yeoujjing, who offered her body; Ppangit, never met.
Pure business? Yeoujjing, obviously.
'Time to scout.'
Lee Hyunwoo had been watching Koreatv for years.
Even without interest in female cams, he'd heard names, seen faces countless times.
Plus, he'd scoured female cams the last 2-3 days, so few he hadn't seen.
Any unseen would be like SpringSummer—brand new—or back from long hiatus.
He kept scrolling down.
Amid it all, he spotted a peculiar thumbnail.