Chapter 12

It was an incident that happened on the third day of broadcasting.

"Hold on a second. Let me eat."

"Today's meal is something super super delicious!"

Since the hand cam was already on for the game, all I had to do was move the food into frame. Simple.

"It's water rice with kimchi!"

A bowl of rice mixed with water and a single serving of cabbage kimchi. The chat went absolutely wild over my humble meal.

"Did you know that donation payouts only get processed two months later?"

"Can't a person eat water rice with kimchi? Why are you all reacting like this? I usually eat properly, you know. I have pasta all the time."

"If you prepare pasta right, it's as cheap as instant noodles. It's not an expensive food. Don't buy it outside."

"No, like I said earlier, I can't withdraw the donation money for another two months. But thank you so much for the ten thousand films!"

"I wasn't one of those resting youths, okay? I worked hard at something but it just didn't work out."

"Okay, okay. Just wait a moment."

"Good point."

I'd been feeling the terror of Dae-jeo-bang-bu plenty lately. Cyber-stalking was just as serious. I created an email with an ID I had never used before and posted it in the stream.

Emails flooded in right away. Three whole chickens, five burger sets, one large pizza. That alone was easily over a hundred thousand won in value.

"I'll make sure to enjoy all the gift cards you sent starting with my next meals."

"I can't just throw away what I'm already eating. That would be wasteful."

A streamer is basically a king of the nation. When the people get angry, you have to soothe them. With no choice, I ordered chicken.

"I ordered chicken so everyone please calm down."

The thirty minutes before the chicken arrived felt too long to start a game with no guarantee of finishing and too long to do nothing. The viewers were dying to know what kind of life led to eating water rice with kimchi.

I wasn't the type to enjoy telling sob stories, but...

"It's pretty common, honestly. I worked hard at something but it didn't work out. I wasn't confident enough to take on two jobs at once, so I just cut back on expenses. Did you know that instant noodles are legally required to contain essential nutrients? So if you just eat ramen, you can actually maintain decent health?"

They were the ones who asked me to talk, yet they reacted like they were having seizures. Well, they weren't a single hive mind. Each person had their own thoughts.

"Wait, they really have gift cards for everything these days. A red ginseng gift card? Isn't that a bit much?"

The fantastic gift card parade was starting to feel heavy, so I decided it was time to change the mood.

"Stop, stop. That's enough. Do you think I'll be eating delivery every day for two months? Things were tough before, but now that so many of you are watching me, I've succeeded. It's a good thing. It's lucky."

Whoops. I'd been wording everything so carefully and slipped up at the very end.

"No way. If a girl this good at games was streaming, the world wouldn't have left her alone, right?"

The chat accepted it quickly. Good. For now, I had to keep hiding the fact that I'd been a three-year hako. They all had their suspicions, but there was no hard proof. The bastards who had sniped me, harassed me, and gaslit me—if I got too excited and started growling about how I'd been stream-sniped, spreading the story everywhere, they'd just quietly disappear. I had to gather the full story, collect evidence, and bite them all at once.

I used to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠think I had zero talent or interest in just-chatting streams where you shoot the breeze with viewers. But seeing thousands of people react one by one, all trying so hard to get me to read their messages, it felt... kind of nice. If I compared it to school, it was like being the class clown who had to tell funny stories to get a reaction—which would be exhausting—but instead I was the center of the class, the one everyone wanted to impress and get attention from. That felt pretty good.

Thirty minutes later the chicken arrived. I set it up nicely in the hand cam frame. And then—

By the way, I only managed to eat three pieces of chicken. It was natural for a manly man to finish a whole chicken alone, but since I was no longer a manly man, my body was like this now.

"I'll treasure every piece and not waste any, so please don't get too mad."

She said she filled up on water rice! Even though I was just sitting in my room staring at a monitor, it felt like I was in the middle ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of a busy market. It was kind of fun.

Peace Games, the developer and operator of the game I Am Hero. Marketing Deputy Yoon Juhee was watching Kim Haru's stream.

She wiped away tears after seeing the water rice and listening to the life stories. To think someone still lived like that in this day and age. Of course, if she had a proper job it wouldn't have come to this. But even setting that aside, if she'd had decent parents, such an extreme diet would never have happened. A tragic family situation seemed likely.

I should offer a bigger signing bonus.

Kim Haru had shown dazzling skill, and Peace Games moved quickly. They decided to offer her a partner streamer contract. The deal was that she would fill a certain number of I Am Hero streaming hours per month in exchange for a salary. Unlike donation payouts that took two months, the contract included a signing bonus she could use right away.

And instead of a café, we should meet at a barbecue place.

At first glance she'd just looked thin and small, but now malnutrition seemed like a real possibility. Yoon Juhee called Kim Haru and changed their meeting place from a café to a Korean barbecue restaurant.