This Kind of Penalty Is Nothing
A grim, desolate fortress.
A character who looked like she carried a mountain of tragic backstory opened her eyes in the pitch darkness.
It was a Soulslike atmosphere so familiar that anything less would have felt bland and incomplete.
She skipped right past the introductory text that popped up with a bunch of blah-blah and immediately started moving her character.
Thud— thud—
The goal the organizers had set for this tournament was to defeat the third boss.
She advanced through what looked like a tutorial map and charged straight at the skeleton blocking her path.
Thwack!
Whoosh—
Thwack-thwack!
Tsk, something feels off about this…
After the combo she put some distance between them and checked the skeleton’s remaining health. It was suspicious.
The starting explanation had clearly stated that dual swords were a weapon focused on attack power.
But what she was swinging right now was closer to a toothpick.
Thud!
Thwack-thwack!
In this genre, early trash mobs were normally crushed in three or four hits at most.
Yet it took nearly ten consecutive strikes just to smash a single skeleton.
While she kept working the mouse and pouring on the sword strikes, even the donations started raising questions.
Viewers floated question marks and began debating among themselves over what was right and what was wrong.
So it wasn't just me feeling that way.
Of course, if a game aimed for ultra-hardcore from the start, even the early trash mobs could be rough.
But Peoa was the ambitious title from the domestic studio Naxon.
There was no way they would release a game that felt this sluggish for a Korean market that loved easy controls and satisfying, flashy action.
Unless the developers had bet their lives on pure artistic integrity—or were sadists who got off on watching gamers suffer.
"Something seems wrong, you know?"
She agreed with the viewers' suspicions and let out a quiet groan.
She had been holding back so it wouldn't sound like she was making excuses.
This was definitely either a broken system or a bug.
Once the fire was lit, the cuckoos hopping between other streamers' rooms started ferrying information over in real time.
Early-game magic should just be the basic spells, right? And that one-shots them?
She had just swung her toothpick ten times.
They were even saying one-handed swords—which could equip a shield—were twice as strong.
This wasn't high-risk high-reward. It was just ridiculously ultra-high-risk!
"What even is this…"
She made a dejected face and swung her swords through the empty air with a few half-hearted whooshes.
A massive bug the moment the tournament started. Absolutely incredible.
On the outside she looked like the most pitiful person in the world, fishing for sympathy, but…
This is actually great?
Inside she was cheering.
It was definitely a bug, but if she flipped her perspective and treated it as starting on hard mode, it worked out fine.
If she cleared the Act 3 boss faster than everyone else while carrying this kind of penalty?
Winning with sandbags strapped on would become a massive issue!
Before long a Pazijik operator popped into the stream with a crackle of static and explained the situation.
It was honestly impressive how they managed to mess up basic number balancing.
And they had planned a whole tournament around this, no less.
"Do I really have to switch weapons?"
Whatever. That was the game company's problem.
She tilted her head and asked in an innocent voice.
For her, this was actually a perfect chance to prove her skill for certain!
"I'll just keep using the dual swords."
When she insisted on continuing with the trash weapon, the operator panicked.
The viewers were the same.
"Doesn't matter."
The Peoa bosses were probably going to be seriously hard.
If anyone could clear them casually, they never would have held a speedrun tournament in the first place.
Under those conditions, dual swords meant she had to land at least twice as many hits as everyone else.
"If I'm allowed to use them, I'll just keep going like this!"
Yeah. A penalty like this was exactly what made it fun.
Rrrrrumble—!
The mountain-sized humanoid monster's body toppled over.
A short story cutscene followed.
She had zero interest in that, so she picked up the tumbler beside her and wet her throat.
"I have to hit so many times my fingers kind of hurt."
It had been rough.
Having to mash the mouse so hard.
The damage was trash and the hit count was sky-high—basically hard labor.
The one she had just killed was the Act 2 boss.
By tournament standards, only the final stretch remained.
"How far has everyone gotten?"
She clenched and unclenched her hands as she asked, and the cuckoos immediately started flapping around delivering info.
Apparently only two streamers were currently running dual swords.
Her and some completely unknown small-timer.
Of course that small-timer was still stuck and flailing before even reaching the Act 1 boss.
"What do you think? I'm pretty good, right?"
Judging by the situation she could afford to take it a little easier, so she decided on some head-pat time to recover her stamina!
She actually was 13, though.
Not a story she needed to pull out right now.
Later, when the timing was right, she could casually drop a few breadcrumbs—
Fanfare!
"Puh!"
She had been drinking water while reading chat when a sudden fanfare blast made her spit it out like a water cannon!
…They really needed to turn that volume down.
"Aah, now I have to wipe the keyboard."
She unplugged the keyboard USB and pulled out a wet wipe, scrubbing away with a squeaky sound, and the chat absolutely lost it over that.
She had been too startled to check the donation, but when they started talking about it she immediately pulled up the content.
A familiar nickname.
An elder viewer who had been watching since before her—back when it was the previous Yoo Serin.
That had been right when she was collabing with the two of them a lot, so the viewer had taken the break to ask like that.
So they came back.
Honestly she had forgotten about them lately.
She had known they would return to Pazijik soon, but she had been too busy managing her own stream.
Looks like they successfully re-signed and even joined the tournament.
Hmm…
A brief moment of thought.
Asking so openly was a bit of a nuisance.
Platform transfers never left a great impression with existing viewers.
And since her re-debut they had never shown any contact on stream, so viewers had to consider the possibility of a full cut-off.
Of course that wasn't actually the case, but in short it was the kind of comment that could get the room raided.
As expected, chat's reaction was hell.
If she left it alone, both of their images would get completely destroyed in her stream.
And if the big-spending chairman who occasionally dropped serious money got awkward too, that would just start a vicious cycle.
It wasn't like anyone had brought up Vol*emort in a certain wizard world.
Alright. I'll help out just this once.
This was a viewer who watched her stream consistently, after all.
She also needed to create some contact points with Mong Aji and Seol Yoonha.
There was no rule against Tas stream raids during the tournament either.
…Approaching people she had never even spoken to before was still a little awkward, though.
"Unnies, how far along are you right now?"