Ten Million Won
Ten million won...?
People were pouring in.
Less than ten minutes after I'd hit the button, the stream was already packed with forty thousand viewers.
[did you actually forget though?]
[Or you just caught flak and made up an excuse, no?]
[pfff]
[LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL]
[I]
[Rock]
[Paper]
[Scissors]
[As a member of the Baby Lily Faction, I hereby declare neutrality regarding the series of events in question]
[lmaooo fr]
[She could forget, okay? Lily was exhausted. Mm-hm, mm-hm]
[What garbage lol]
[Nope]
[🖕]
└ Yahooee has been forcibly removed from the chat.
[?]
Just like Yena had told me, I waited until the crowd settled somewhat before opening my mouth.
"Welcome, everyone."
The small black circle that served as the camera stared back at me. It was like a single eye — an eye holding the gaze of thousands of people at once. I met their eyes and bowed my head.
"I'm sorry. I forgot that I was supposed to read the donations. I sincerely apologize."
I made no excuses — nothing about being tired, nothing about how a bandit ambush had thrown me off. However you looked at it, they had given me their money, and I had taken it and walked off without so much as a glance. I held the bow for about ten seconds, then slowly lifted my head. Even with this, plenty of people probably wouldn't forgive me. But it was something that simply had to be done, so all I could do was hope for a little understanding.
And so, with a perfectly calm heart, I looked at the chat —
[NOOOOO]
[nononononono]
[it's fine]
[it's fine!!]
[🖕]
[it's fine]
[?]
[Lift your head already]
[Who the hell cursed at Lily, you punks]
[Yeah she genuinely forgot lololol]
[What more do you want from a day-one streamer lmao]
[Ugh, the hater bastards are at it again]
[Suddenly I'M the one feeling sorry lolololololol]
[She didn't read them yesterday, so she reads them today. What's the big deal lol]
[Even her apology is cute]
Rather unexpected reactions were filling the space.
"...Hm? Are you all really okay with this?"
[Yeah]
[But you gotta read them today]
[Nope? Not okay?]
[But she IS stupidly pretty]
[fr lol]
[Most of it's half a joke anyway, don't take it too seriously~]
[Yeah]
[Sweet Lily Faction;;]
[LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL]
[Honestly this is Yena's fault. If Yena signed up for the newdlebak, she should've taught Lily all this stuff. What has she even been doing?]
[fr, Yena get out here!]
[Ugh, Lily's apologizing because of Yena]
...I truly could not figure these people out.
One moment they'd be furious, and the next, endlessly forgiving. Of course, I was somewhat used to being judged like this — but the swings were far wilder than back then. In those days, once a bad image took root, it wouldn't budge until you did something weighty enough to match it. Now, a single apology had flipped public opinion like turning over a palm.
I was staring blankly for a moment, caught in that strange feeling, when Yena — who had been outside the camera's frame — suddenly popped out from behind me.
"What! Me! What about me!"
[? she was actually there??]
[?]
[?]
[Wait, she was there the whole time and just didn't tell us?]
[That was so mean of her]
[fr lol]
[Apologize]
[LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL]
Donations. Sponsorships. Whatever name you gave them, at their core they were simple: viewers who watched a stream handed money to the streamer. The streamer performed content and reactions appropriate to the amount given, and the viewers watched and enjoyed themselves. On the surface it looked like only the streamer profited, but really, it was close to a win-win arrangement.
Donations were something I knew well. After I first awakened to holy magic, I had healed the wounded across countless villages and cities, and received stipends for it. I had fended off attacks from beyond the borders, and on occasion openly revealed my station as one of the Heaven's kin. But those had always been payment for visible, direct aid. Compensation that was indirect — money given purely as payment for entertainment content — was something I was receiving for the very first time.
The donation BGM — set to the default Twitch preset — rang out around me.
A million won, right off the bat.
...Isn't that a bit much?
[LOLOLOLOLOL]
[A million as her very first donation]
[Are donations blocked right now?]
[Donations aren't going through]
[She still has to read yesterday's — if today's pile up too, Lily will be doing reactions all day lol]
[So what's the reaction gonna be? We should pick one]
[Ask Yena, go go]
[Yena doesn't really have reactions either, does she]
[fr, other than shooting down the simps, not really lol]
Reactions, huh.
What did I used to do about this, again?
"Thank you for the million won, LilyLilyLily."
I looked into the camera and gave a small, eye-curving smile.
The stream captured it perfectly: blue hair, blue eyes, and Lily's utterly pristine, crystalline face, laid bare for all to see.
Everyone always loved this one.
[Oh... holy shit]
[I'm done. It's over for me]
[???????????]
[Did I just get Charmed? Does it work through the camera??]
[Could go either way honestly]
[Reaction? What reaction?]
[Just donate~ she smiles and that's the whole show~]
[That's straight-up unfair. No, seriously, how is the character customization even legal. For real]
[Reaction not required in the slightest lolololololololol]
[Whoa, I just got lightheaded for a second]
"Are you all doing okay?"
[Y-yes? Yes... yes...]
[Yeah...]
[I'm fine. Yep. Correct. Extremely fine]
[LOLOLOL the simps have all collectively lost their minds]
[Like honestly, when she asks "are you okay" with that face, how could anyone possibly not be okay]
[fr, it'd be weirder to actually be fine]
[???]
They liked it. Good.
Glancing sideways, I caught Yena wearing an expression of pure incredulity, but I moved straight on to the next donation.
Through the early stretch, a run of donations in the hundred-thousand-to-million range came in — messages of congratulation, of wonder — until one rather peculiar one arrived.
An English-language username, the smallest possible donation amount, and a rather rude question to boot.
The so-called toxic thousand-won punch — a donation notorious for exactly this — floated up into the air with a cheerful little ding~. The viewers watching the stream, and Yena as well, all winced, curious how Lily would respond. But Lily passed over it without a flicker of feeling and moved to the next one.
"That information is not available, I'm afraid."
The English-named user's donation was promptly wiped from the air, and a new one took its place.
[Oh]
[Weirdly enough, she's already used to handling that stuff]
[Yep, instant cut~]
[LOLOLOLOLOLOL]
[Blade-sharp, Lily]
[She was auto-pruning lines that crossed the line on day one too lol not that it mattered with that many people flooding in]
[Hold on, who's doing the cutting right now while she's mid-reaction?]
[No idea~]
[Isn't Yena acting as her manager?]
The stream flowed on like water. Then, as I was checking the next donation, a BGM utterly unlike anything before it made my head snap up.
"...I'm sorry?"
T-ten million won...?