Chapter 13
A luxurious semi-large sedan glided to a stop in front of a bus stop in a relatively quiet neighborhood within Seoul.
The early-twenties young person standing there blankly, not realizing the car had come to pick her up, thought to herself, Nice car.
Yoon Juhee didn’t realize the blankly staring girl was her client either.
At 140cm tall, it was impossible to imagine the girl was an adult, let alone her guest.
No dramatic, fated encounter happened. Naturally, she simply made a phone call.
The woman at the bus stop took out her phone and answered. Their eyes finally met across the distance.
"Where are you?"
"I'm at the appointed bus stop…."
An awkward moment where they had been staring right at each other yet still missed the obvious.
"Please get in."
The call ended and Kim Haru opened the passenger-side door.
Her touch was cautious, afraid she might scratch the expensive car.
Before climbing in, she offered one last greeting to be sure.
"Hello. I'm Kim Haru, the one who streams as Broadcast Genius Kim Haru."
"I'm Yoon Juhee, Marketing Deputy at Peace Games."
Deputy Yoon Juhee took out her business card and handed it over.
They had already introduced themselves on the phone beforehand.
"You can sit in the back if you'd be more comfortable."
It was basic courtesy for a guest, but those words made Kim Haru freeze completely.
High-school graduate. Three years as a hako streamer. No proper employment history.
To Kim Haru, whose resume was practically blank paper, Deputy Yoon's consideration felt like a riddle.
Is it rude if I take the passenger seat?
Her dilemma showed so transparently on her face and in her body language that Deputy Yoon adjusted her words.
"Front or back, sit wherever you're comfortable!"
She was already half inside the car anyway.
Kim Haru decided to just take the passenger seat.
She's so cute.
Baby animals are supposed to be the cutest, but Kim Haru was an ultra-special bundle of charm that broke every normal standard.
Deputy Yoon Juhee had to fight hard to keep the motherly smile from exploding across her face.
She was still precariously in her twenties.
In the entire world, only in Korea was this age considered a little early to become a mom.
"Haru."
"Yes?"
"We have an important meeting, don't we?"
"Yes."
"It wouldn't do to show up in sweats, right?"
"I'm sorry. I don't own anything like a suit…."
No matter how little social experience she had, even Kim Haru had realized sweats were inappropriate.
But even if she suddenly needed clothes, she had no money and no one to borrow from.
And even if someone offered, no one would own a suit that fit her 140cm frame.
"This won't do. Let's stop by a clothing store and buy something quickly."
"Huh?"
"It's an important meeting. Showing up in sweats would be rude."
"But I don't have the money…."
It wasn't the kind of thing you said to a business partner you'd just met, but being forced to buy clothes when she truly had no money was a problem.
"It's fine. I'll handle it through the marketing budget."
Is that actually allowed?
To Kim Haru, who had never even visited the company entrance, it was bewildering. But for experienced Deputy Yoon Juhee, it was an easy matter.
And so Kim Haru was dragged by Deputy Yoon to a women's clothing store.
Ugh, how did it come to this.
Still, Deputy Yoon's point that sweats were unacceptable for an important meeting was hard to argue with.
"Try this on."
"Weren't we supposed to be looking at suits?"
"These days fewer places require stiff formal suits."
Yet Deputy Yoon herself was wearing a perfectly neat suit.
The ultimate office-lady look.
Kim Haru changed into the women's outfit Yoon Juhee had selected.
Yoon Juhee had been watching that adorable sight with satisfied eyes until her gaze suddenly froze, as if she'd witnessed the impossible.
"Haru?"
"Yes?"
"Where did the shoulder straps go?"
There were adhesive types in the world, sure.
But it didn't seem likely that the woman who showed up to a business meeting in sweats would be that type.
"I'm asking if you're not wearing underwear."
"Well, yeah?"
"Excuse me?"
"If there's nothing there anyway, why bother equipping armor?"
Yoon Juhee's head spun violently.
She had thought the girl was cute, but who knew she was this shameless?
Deputy Yoon hadn't been lying about the important meeting.
A minimum of forty broadcast hours per month, a ten-million-won contract fee paid in full, and a three-million-won monthly salary. To someone who wouldn't see that money for another two months, it was an incredibly attractive offer.
There were a few other clauses and benefits, but those could wait.
After all, I had already been planning to make I Am Hero my main game.
For the company itself to come knocking and offer an official partner creator contract first? There was no bigger jackpot.
But the way Deputy Yoon had acted like even higher-ups might appear had all been bait.
After scolding me that sweats were rude and buying me a whole new outfit, the meeting turned out to be just the two of us.
"Eat as much as you want. If you need anything, just say so without hesitation."
It was my first time eating proper Korean beef. I'd tried bulgogi burgers before, but this was my first proper set meal at a genuine Korean beef specialty restaurant.
My shrunken stomach felt almost resentful.
No matter how delicious it was, this tiny belly could only hold so much.
"Contact me anytime you have questions. Broadcast advice, life advice, romance advice—anything is fine."
True to her marketing-team nature, Deputy Yoon Juhee had extreme extrovert energy. She'd been acting like an older sister since earlier.
It was a bit overwhelming for an introvert like me.
I refused her offer to drive me all the way home and asked to be dropped off near the bus stop, then walked the rest of the way.
The person reflected in the building's glass windows looked completely unfamiliar.
Hoeng? Is this me?
I knew dressing up would be amazing, but this was too pretty.
Who am I?
The Peace Games official partner streamer who received a ten-million-won contract fee.
Who am I?
The game genius Kim Haru who hunts Challengers.
Who am I?
The broadcast genius Kim Haru who broke four-digit viewer counts in a single day.
I was putting on a one-person show in the middle of the street, so people kept staring.
I decided I'd better save the craziness for when I got home.
"Please stop sending me gift cards by email. I can't survive the rest of my life eating nothing but chicken, pizza, and hamburgers."
The goodwill was appreciated.
But I couldn't accept it infinitely.
I wasn't a mukbang streamer with a bottomless stomach. There was no way I could handle this many gift cards.
"Who am I? The dignified official Peace Games partner creator."
The benefits of being a partner creator were truly varied.
The most obvious was money. A contract fee plus a steady monthly salary was a given.
Using the partner account let me freely use every hero and every skin.
Even the discontinued limited editions.
And above all, there was one benefit I desperately needed.
"In other words, I now have a direct line to the game company. Anyone who stream-snipes me is getting added to the death note."
A 1:1 hotline that answered at a speed incomparable to normal customer service.
This was a benefit only official partner creators could have.
Of course, it couldn't cleanly eliminate every one of the four plagues of streaming.
But it would at least stop the blatantly insane behavior.
Like that previous abusing-team incident, for example.
"Let's create a healthy game culture. Yeah?"
"What are you talking about? When have I ever trolled?"
That day's stream flowed along very smoothly.
The partner account I'd received started with Diamond-plus MMR in placements, so after a few games I began matching with Master and Grandmaster players.
It was a measure to keep my friends from suffering horrible tragedies in Gold.
However, accounts in placement with Master MMR were extremely rare, and my queue times gradually grew longer.
It was now taking over ten minutes to start a single game.
I couldn't just sit there waiting forever, so I began my second broadcast content: shopping.
Having received a ten-million-won contract fee, even after setting aside five hundred thousand for emergency living expenses, I still had 9.5 million to spend.
In other words, it was fine to finish my streaming PC setup.
I discussed computer specs with the viewers while building the quote.
"I can't buy two 5090s."
The computer I was planning to build wasn't some supercomputer for high-end bragging.
It just needed to run every game on the market and stream it smoothly. That was enough.
But once I started planning that setup, I reached the conclusion that I'd have to change the desk too.
There was no space to put the PC and secondary monitor.
While alternating between placement matches and computer shopping, I made one fatal mistake.
Payment Completed
Would you like to view your purchase history?
I clicked to check the history without thinking, but the shopping account was linked to my main large-platform account.
As a result, one previous purchase leaked.
AAA Cup Junior Bra
I closed the window with Challenger-level reflexes, but unfortunately this world had VOD replay functions.
And the chat was already full of vicious viewers who had captured the screen.
"It's not mine. I bought it for my little sister."
That woman nagged me so much that I ended up ordering it.
Yoon Juhee.
I will never forget this grudge.
The next day, I discovered that my broadcast channel had gained eight thousand followers.
Die. Just die.
All you AAA inflows can just die.