Suspiciously Skilled with Trash-Tier Heroes
People instinctively cringe at the sight of something horrific.
Accident scenes, violence, death.
Crunch.
Especially if it's not someone else's death, but your own.
Minchokchip—this streamer named Lee Seung-hwan—sat there with his arms crossed, replaying his moment of death over and over.
Because of that, he had to watch a batter resembling himself get crushed under telekinetic force, again and again.
Soul Frame was rated for ages 15 and up, so there was no gore spraying everywhere when bodies crumpled. Still, the realistic depiction of his own limbs folding and mangling was enough to turn your stomach just looking at it.
But there was no helping it.
He was infamous online as a deranged mad movie YouTuber, known for his bizarre playstyles and psychotic editing flair. He couldn't wrap his head around whatever had just happened to him.
Finally, worn down by his obsessive determination, a grumbling voice piped up from behind.
"Hey, dude. How long are you gonna keep looping that? Let's just queue up the next game already. Don't we have editing source material to farm?"
It was Mirinae, an "ajusshi" streamer buddy who'd dropped by after ages to help Minchokchip gather footage for edits—supposedly.
He was complaining, but he kept stealing glances at Minchokchip's screen. No matter how you sliced it, his real goal seemed to be hitching a ride on a sub-account carried by a Ranker like Minchokchip.
"Just hold on a sec. I feel like I'm almost onto something."
That's why Minchokchip could push back hard.
"Onto what? I already figured it out. It's just hacks."
"Virtual reality doesn't have hacks. You could fry your brain doing that."
Mirinae scratched the back of his head and shot back.
"W-well, yeah, but what about helpers? Or maybe some external gear hooked up. Dude's getting banned soon anyway—let it go. Even Rankers lose to cheaters sometimes, right?"
"Helpers? What era are you living in? And it's not like I'm pissed just because I lost."
Minchokchip let out a deep sigh. More like, weren't helper programs a fad back when he was starting elementary school? Ajussis really were hopeless. He could practically hear the dentures clacking already.
Shaking his head, Minchokchip muttered to himself.
"Okay, I think I'm getting it now. Looping it like this, the motions are starting to click. Looks like they activated Cognitive Acceleration and crammed every skill in during that window."
"Cognitive what? The hell's that?"
But Mirinae still looked utterly lost.
Come on, memorize your skills already.
No wonder the guy was stuck in eternal Silver.
"I told you, if you wanna climb to Gold, you gotta memorize all the skills."
"Dude, there are over a hundred characters—how am I supposed to remember every single one? Look, once you hit 40, your brain turns into this foggy mess where you can't even recall if you ate breakfast until you're starving. And you're seriously expecting me to memorize skills for troll heroes like that?"
Mirinae shut his mouth after that.
Frankly... yeah, Minchokchip could kinda relate, to a point.
Minder was... well, pretty much a confirmed troll pick.
But if you looked at it objectively, no other hero had specs as blatantly OP as Minder. Full offense and defense package, plus scouting abilities? How was that not broken?
The issue was just operating it.
Because landing skills while Cognitive Acceleration is on—disabling the targeting UI—made aiming basically impossible for normal players.
...How the hell did they pull this off?
Minchokchip was genuinely curious. Purely as a YouTuber.
After smashing his head against the talent wall trying to go pro in Soul Frame, he'd pivoted to making insane mad movies by cherry-picking the craziest stunts. A playstyle this outlandish had him dying to uncover the secret.
Crack that, and he could drop another mind-blowing video full of impossible antics to shock his viewers!
Maybe some auxiliary gear?
He'd heard stories of kids frying their brains into vegetable states from sketchy mods, but solving Cognitive Acceleration with gear? Never heard of that.
If someone could crack that, they'd get hired by Soul Frame devs, not sling illegal mods on the black market.
Just to check, he pulled up the opponent's stream—left running like they were teabagging. But live streams being what they were, Cognitive Acceleration moments never showed up properly.
Just enemies exploding out of nowhere.
Obviously, since acceleration desyncs you from real-time—nothing visible on stream. But...
...wait, how'd they even type in chat?
Of course, the bigger question first: why no mic? But right now, Minchokchip had his next move locked in.
[Friend Request Sent]
Minchokchip tentatively sent the friend request.
The subscribe button... he held off on that for now.
But deep down, Minchokchip had a hunch.
This streamer? He'd be seeing a lot more of them.
Soul Frame's hatred for Minder ran deeper than I'd expected.
"Kyaak! Minder! Troll!"
"Ugh, please, please, whyyy."
"Screw this. I'm dodging, you trash pick."
Just picking Minder made proceeding with the game a nightmare.
"No mom?"
"Knew it from that Minder pick."
Pad rips were standard fare, laced with thick venom.
The second Minder showed up, teammates' mentals exploded—threatening to throw since we were doomed anyway. Dudes overflowing with that vibe.
So I told them to throw.
Of course, Team Leader Cha warned that straight-up saying it could bite me later, so I phrased it politely.
"Quit yapping and focus on the game!"
"I'm throwing. GG."
"I'm raiding your stream for real. Deadass."
"Stop spamming and play!"
Not copy-paste at all.
Every message got typed live with Cognitive Acceleration on, using a virtual keyboard via telekinesis. No way it's copy-paste.
Plus, I was actually playing properly.
Just slipping ads between orders.
Ads are everywhere these days—why not in-game too?
"Fucking psycho. Absolute madlad."
"But the calls are on point..."
"Why type calls in chat?!"
And once I showed a bit of skill...
"...What? How'd we win?"
"We weren't behind in levels, right?"
Perception flipped in an instant.
I shrugged inside my bear-head mask.
"Whoa, carry god—thanks!"
"But why pick that shit tier...?"
"He carried, that's what matters. Quit whining."
"The dude who asked if no mom is the whiner?"
"Lol?"
I ignored the bickering allies—or dead weight—and queued anew. Friend requests were piling up, but no accepts from me.
Tch, viewer count still low.
Glancing up, we were at 10 viewers now.
But those 10 were steady—real fans, not hit-and-run lurkers.
They were even chatting up a storm. For a debut streamer, 10 steady viewers was solid. No need to rush.
Viewers will climb eventually—it's just time.
I replied to the chat.
Team Leader Cha's gospel: engagement matters.
Cognitive Acceleration on, virtual keyboard out.
Tap tap click.
The chat lost it at my response.
Perfect.
Great reactions meant I was nailing the stream. In my memories, hot chat equaled hot stream.
Chats with severe profanity will be warned. Warning 1
Chats with severe profanity will be warned. Warning 2
Some misunderstanding brewing.
I explained kindly.
I grinned at the chat hype.
Diamond, huh.
Diamond tier in Soul Frame meant top-shelf.
Only the uppermost 3% of players worldwide could touch it. High Ranker was top 0.6% or so?
But settling for that? Nah.
Beyond Diamond: Ranker, High Ranker, The Hundred.
No.
At minimum, world number one.
That shit's cool.
Being the streamer who outplays Soul Frame's all-time pro number one? Pro better than pros—can't pass that up.