The Christmas Donation War

Christmas morning. Everyone else had the day off, but for Kim Taeyoung it was nothing special. He was a man of leisure all three hundred and sixty-five days of the year, and a rich idler had not a care in the world. So today, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠same as always, he switched on KoreaTV around lunch.

None of the BJs in his favorites were live. Most of the women he sponsored didn't start until three in the afternoon, because Taeyoung burned through his nights and only surfaced around then. Thanks to that, there was nothing to watch.

Myangmyang's at three. Yeoning's at five. Still a long way off.

KakaoTalk held messages from nearly twenty BJs, hosts from KoreaTV and BambooTV alike. The ones who had given him their contact wrote almost every day, and on a broadcast day, without fail.

He checked only the ones he was particularly fond of. The earliest stream belonged to Heo Myangmyang, and even that was still about two hours away.

With nothing else for it, he went looking for a new BJ. Maybe because it was Christmas, plenty of sexy female cams were already live even at one o'clock, and the one that caught his eye wore a sexy Santa outfit. What should he make her do today? Turning it over, Kim Taeyoung stepped into her room.

Entrance Ten Thousand. By now it was his widely known signature art, and his arrival set the viewers buzzing.

On KoreaTV just then, there was no whale who spent so freely or fired so hot. He was the whale who showed you what it meant to throw money around like water. Any room he visited exploded with reactions, and the viewers had no ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠choice but to take a liking to him.

Talk went around—money-vomiting boss, coin-bug—but most viewers hardly ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cared what the internet communities thought. If a whale showed up and sprayed cash, that was plenty.

“Kyaaaaa! Coin God oppa! Thank you! Thank you so much! And thank you for coming to my room. I'm so, so grateful you'd grace a shabby little place like this!”

Danbi stood and bent at the waist. Exactly seventy degrees—the female-cam bow. Her breasts swayed, baring the cleft between them.

The moment he fired ten thousand, the rankings shifted with it. And there on the donation board was a nickname he was seeing for the first time, and yet it felt familiar.

Bulgom? The man he'd met at the restaurant yesterday? It might be, and it might not. Kim Taeyoung didn't much care. So what if it was him, and so what if it wasn't. All he had to do was watch the BJ and enjoy himself.

“I'll start with the reaction. You like whatever they're best at, right?”

Word about a whale had a way of spreading fast. His signature Entrance Ten Thousand, and the habit of demanding their proudest reaction the moment he'd played it, were already common knowledge among the female cams.

Danbi had daydreamed about what she would do if Coin God ever found her room, and the daydream paid off. She started the music at once. The screen split into three.

Sure of her figure, she had chosen the track they called Kick Drum Bass—Queen Bee. On KoreaTV she wouldn't be classed among the especially large-chested; this was a place thick with D-cups and up. Even so, the shape was pretty, the waist narrow, and the line of her hips fell in a graceful curve. She shook herself hard to the furious beat.

Danbi finished the Kick Drum Bass with a delighted face and turned a bright smile on the cam.

“Oppa, how was I?”

After a big donation, a stretch of talk was only natural, and of course that talk gathered around whoever had spent the most. But before the talk could even finish, someone cut in.

“I'm confident in every sexy dance. Ah! Bulgom oppa, thank you for ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the ten thousand! A hundred and twenty draws? Augh. That's gonna take a while. Coin God oppa, just a second. I'll finish the draws and then we can talk.”

Heh. Look at this bastard. There was an unspoken rule among whales: when someone else had donated big, you didn't cut in. He'd only learned it after becoming a whale himself. Competing like this gained a whale nothing. This was something you did for fun, and all you bought was a lighter wallet and none of the fun.

He'd heard, though, that a few of them enjoyed crushing whales and mid-donors with raw spending power. This one seemed to be that sort. Kim Taeyoung smiled a wicked smile.

A Shield Donation. A way of sponsoring steeped in KoreaTV's long tradition. Moon Balloons existed so a viewer could set a BJ a reaction or a mission, but some of those missions a BJ simply did not want to do. That was when a Shield Donation protected her. If viewer A fired a thousand and demanded an unwanted mission, and viewer B fired a thousand and one, she didn't have to carry it out.

“Ah? C-Coin God oppa, thank you for the ten thousand and one. But a Shield Donation? Um... d-do draws count for a Shield Donation too?”

Faced with a situation she'd never met, Danbi scratched her head. A Shield Donation against a draw? She'd never even heard of such a thing. Whatever it was, something was about to happen on her broadcast.

“Bulgom oppa... th-that's... what am I supposed to do? I've never been in a situation like this. I don't know.”

Bulgom folded at a mere twenty thousand. More than that, it really did seem to be the man from yesterday. Whoever he was calling a whore was clearly Hwayeon.

“N-no. Oppas, don't fight. Why are you fighting? Stop fighting.”

Money coming in was good. But this couldn't turn into a one-time thing. Danbi had been around long enough to know a fight between whales would hurt the broadcast. The more whales, the better.

If two of them fought, one would stop coming, no question, and then she was the only one who lost. She tried desperately to stop the fight between Coin God and Bulgom. But she was the one taking the money, and she had no power to restrain the whales.

Kim Taeyoung wrung him dry with money. Against sponsorship that huge, the man couldn't so much as raise a guard. He simply got taken apart.

The viewers acknowledged Coin God's victory. They had no choice. After twenty thousand, Bulgom hadn't been able to fire another Moon Balloon.

In the end he reached for his last resort. It was the worst move he could have made.

“Ahh, oppaaa. Why are you doing this to meee. I don't know! I'm leaving! Sorry, Bulgom oppa. I'm sorry to you too, Coin oppa. I'll do the reactions for what I got today on the next stream. Please, please come to the next one.”

The mention of ending the broadcast threw the viewers into an uproar. From Danbi's side, though, it was a choice she couldn't avoid. A shrimp jammed between a calf whale and Moby Dick. She was in no position to pick one of them and ban the other. End the room now and she'd catch some abuse from the viewers, but that was something she'd have to swallow. Dance with real spirit once later, and their favor would swing back.

“Ha. Damn it.”

The sudden end irritated Kim Taeyoung a little too. Even with plenty of money, scattering it for nothing stung. That bastard Bulgom. He hadn't liked him from the first moment he saw him.

The year-end party's in three days.

The man had said he was a member of the whale club as well, so the odds were high he'd show. Kim Taeyoung decided to make a few preparations. If the bastard ran his mouth there, he'd smash him on the spot.

He woke the sleeping Hwayeon and got what he wanted on Bulgom. The man, she said, was a president running a small company. He had a core technology of his own, so revenue ran high for the size of the staff. The place to aim was set. If he acted up at the whale club, Taeyoung would destroy him. That was settled.

And then it was time for Heo Myangmyang to go live. Having switched from cooking YouTuber to all-around game BJ, she was finding her footing well enough, and no wonder. A Legal Loli was a market where demand never ran short and supply was desperately thin.

He entered the moment she turned the broadcast on.

“Chairman Coin God! Thank you for the ten thousand the second you walked in today, too!”

On stream, Heo Myangmyang was careful to call him Chairman every time. She stood and gave a little bow, and before long viewers started pouring in. Back when she only did cooking broadcasts, her average had been thirty or forty. Now merely turning the stream on brought in over a hundred. All of it was thanks to Kim Taeyoung.