Yes, With Pleasure
I left just one final enemy standing and faced off against him. The moment I saw the kill score, I burst out laughing. Some weirdos in the gallery had been trying to snipe me with signal flares lately. As if that would work? Signal flares are my bread and butter. In regular matches, I can at least hold my own against former pros, right?
Sorry to MoovGun, but the truth is, before I started carrying a double barrel specifically to crack the skulls of troll teammates, my main weapon used to be a sniper rifle. My signature extermination combo was breaking shields with a low-magnification sniper from mid-range, then rushing in while the low-health enemy was healing and finishing them with a stun and hard kill using the weapon in my second slot.
Even so, I’ll admit MoovGun is an outstanding sniper. It was probably that time when I took cover from the guy shooting from the hill, and he landed a bullet on me the instant I did. I thought I’d dodged with the same movement, taken cover, and aimed at almost the exact same timing. But MoovGun was definitely faster. If we hadn’t been on the same team and had been aiming at each other instead, the difference was big enough that my head would’ve exploded first.
It was the same when he tried to steal my kills afterward. He’d pretend to shoot on purpose as a feint, but he was watching through his scope the whole time to see whether my bullet had actually hit the enemy or not. You really have to respect people who used to make a living as gaming pros. They’re so ridiculously good that it makes sense they earn that kind of money.
…Still, who ended up the winner in the very end? It was King, God, Emperor, Signal Flare.
"[You got lucky. I lost.]"
MoovGun told me I got lucky, but that’s nonsense. What is the identity of Signal Flare? Double barrel and smoke grenades, obviously. My specialty was sticking to enemies with the crazy acceleration zone from Crazy Shot, dropping smoke, and then popping the heads of enemies who thought they were safe inside it—thunk, thunk. And inside smoke, I could cook anyone no matter what gun I was holding. After doing nothing but that for five years, it’d be weird if I couldn’t.
So when MoovGun acted like he wanted to test me…
"[…Then could I watch you play? I’d like to invite you to our civil war once.]"
The instant fury of how dare you was joined by a brilliant idea that flashed through my mind. It had definitely started as simple reconnaissance sniping, but wasn’t there a joint stream in a few days? This was the promotional work the boss had trusted me with. Thinking I needed to make it explode properly, my mouth moved on its own.
"[Unnecessary. You will see it.]"
“? What do you mean by that?”
"[Reason. It will be shown in 60 hours.]"
Thanks to winning the bet, people’s attention was now heavily focused on me. You could tell just from the chat reactions and from MoovGun saying he wanted to invite me to the civil war. As it happened, MoovGun Crew’s civil war was starting in two days and twelve hours. Wouldn’t the people who just heard “60 hours” get curious? Was ‘MoovGunIsAFamousMomoAnti’ the same person as the one who participated that day under the nickname ‘1stGen1stAnniversarySongNovember05Release’?
Well, if they don’t pay attention it’d be a little sad, but if a lot of people gathered for the civil war broadcast, that topic was bound to come up. Did you snipe MoovGun recently or something? I planned to play dumb until the stream ended. People’s curiosity would remain unresolved and keep swelling. And in that process, if my nickname ‘1stGen 1st Anniversary Song November 5 Release’ kept getting mentioned, the related news would spread far and wide through fans’ mouths without me having to repeatedly say “It’s our 1st anniversary! Please show lots of love!”
Pretty good strategy, right? This is the kind of refined verse a six-year veteran of the meat broth scene who spent three years watching the boss can recite. …Would the boss be shocked and ask how I came up with something like this? Hehe.
To be honest, knowing exactly where enemies are inside smoke without hacks doesn’t make sense. Probably used aimbot or wallhack or something.
What’s supposed to be revealed in 60 hours lololol If you’re gonna say that much you should at least tell us before leaving, what the hell lol
*Everything below is pure brain fiction so if you refute it your words are 100% correct*
First, the guy mentioned 60 hours later. Just in case, I checked MoovGun’s broadcast schedule. He said it at 5 AM, so exactly two days later at 5 PM? That’s exactly when there’s a broadcast. It’s the MoovGun Crew civil war. Maybe the person appearing there? Well, there are tons of other broadcasts starting at that time, but I doubt he’d snipe just to mention some random other stream.
I’m curious—does Signal Flare like smoke fights? Not just preferring smoke grenades, but actually liking to spray smoke and fight inside it.
The next day in the afternoon, Cheon Do-hee—who had been busy communicating with the label staff about the 1st Generation song—received a phone call.
“You’ve been calling a lot lately, huh?”
The caller was MoovGun. After worrying all day yesterday, checking communities, and agonizing over it, he had finally found a plausible clue and come to Momo.
"[Are you EmployeeD or Signal Flare? You played a lot of games with that person, right?]"
“We did until three years ago. Why?”
"[That guy. Is he good at fighting inside smoke? Like, can he pinpoint locations just from sound and shoot?]"
Do-hee answered casually. She figured he was probably asking to balance the civil war teams.
“I’m not sure how accurate he is, but he definitely loves spraying smoke and fighting inside it. His double barrel has zero long-range response anyway. So he uses smoke to close in and then messes with them inside. That’s definitely his specialty.”
From the other end of the phone, MoovGun let out a long groan before speaking again.
"[Did that Signal Flare person used to be a pro trainee or something? Or was he actually a pro?]"
“No?”
"[But he’s that good?]"
Still, the sudden stream of praise left Do-hee feeling awkward. It sounded exactly like someone who had secretly played a game with Jia and then came back saying, “I played with that person yesterday and they were amazing.” Her mood soured for no good reason, and while she was lost in thought, MoovGun spoke again.
"[Anyway, whether it’s EmployeeD or Signal Flare. Can you ask that person to free up a bit more time in two days? I only asked for two games because I heard they were busy. Is more than that really too hard?]"
“Busy. I’m dying from how busy I am.”
"[What is the boss even doing? Hurry up and hire some staff to do the work for you.]"
“What do you know to be talking like that… Do you want to pay their salary instead?”
"[Sigh… Fine. As promised, two games it is.]"
It was true that MoovGun’s attitude had changed dramatically. Last week he had just seemed intrigued, but now he was acting like someone who had lost half his life. It was a well-known fact that if MoovGun was a streamer good at games, he was a friend-request-sending, squad-calling rainmaker who added anyone decent the moment he saw them and called them whenever he was bored. Even so, this was the first time Do-hee had seen him this disappointed.
“If you’re that sad about it, should I fill in instead?”
"[With your skills… Never mind, sorry for what I just said.]"
“Wow, you canceled that fast? Fucking hell, that was so rude?”
"[Sorry. Sorry. Hmm. Hey. Still, immediately throwing out ‘yabal’ is a bit much.]"
“Sigh.”
MoovGun ignoring Do-hee wasn’t anything new. Since he was actually much better at games, Do-hee simply let out a short sigh. But what mattered more right now was why on earth MoovGun was suddenly so busy praising Mazia. The only thing she could guess was that Mazia had secretly used a sub account to snipe him. They seemed to have played together, but if that was the only trigger… Well, Mazia was a hardcore Momo meat broth fan, after all. She had an excessively devoted fan heart toward Do-hee, so it was possible she had harbored a grudge against MoovGun like a unicorn and pulled a nasty prank by sniping him. That was why Do-hee had asked.
"[Yeah. He came to my stream around 5 AM yesterday. Not 100% sure, but there were a lot of speculative posts in the community saying it seemed like it.]"
…Why does this not sound like a lie? She couldn’t pretend she didn’t know—when she looked up the community, that nickname Jia had jokingly mentioned the other day was circulating everywhere. Do-hee let out a long groan and clutched her forehead.
“You’re sure he didn’t cause any trouble or problems on your broadcast, right?”
"[Not at all. Thanks to him the broadcast was fun. The viewers all woke up completely and were busy laughing. And I’m not certain yet. It’s just speculation. Why?]"
“Just in case…. Good, nothing happened.”
Still. No matter how quietly they played, sniping? When it was already completely exposed that she was a Parallel employee? She should have told me first, Mazia!
“Mazia.”
The person who greeted me as I headed to the boss’s office with the usual morning coffee was a pair of eyebrows slanted toward the center of her forehead. The kids who say “It’s a reward!” whenever the boss gets angry on stream would never say that if they saw her face in person. The Momo character’s eyes must be quite softened compared to the original. Fans shouldn’t see this—it’s horror.
…Anyway, why is she so angry? I answered while feeling grateful to be alive.
“Yes.”
“Yes? Don’t give me that ‘yes.’ What is this?”
“What do you mean?”
What the boss played on her phone was MoovGun’s VOD. It perfectly captured me sniping MoovGun in the early morning the day before. How did she find out? I thought I had been careful not to get caught. Of course, being shameless was my specialty, so the words that followed flowed like a clear stream.
“To think you noticed it right away. As expected of the boss’s sharp eye.”
“At least use a different nickname before you say that…. So, why did you go sniping without saying anything?”
“Ah. It was just reconnaissance. I thought I needed to experience firsthand how good he is so I could promote properly on the day.”
“Promote…?”
“Yes. If I land a hit on MoovGun during the civil war, won’t people be shocked? I even changed my nickname, so I have to get the most out of it.”
The boss thought for a moment before asking.
“Don’t tell me you sniped him because I told you to handle the promotion yourself?”
“Yes. It’s my first time doing this, so the more thorough the preparation, the better, right?”
“…So that’s what it was. No, in the first place, who in the world does reconnaissance by sniping?”
When the boss pressed me with her eyes, asking if it was really the truth, I smiled brightly to show that everything was true. The fierce boss’s sharp eyes slowly softened. Lately I’d been thinking that cuteness was justice and invincible more often, and I believed it was because I could see all these various expressions from the boss that I’d never seen before.
“Fine. Considering how much attention is focused on it, the approach itself isn’t bad. But from now on, if there’s something like that, discuss it with me first. Got it? It’s bad for my heart….”
I muttered with a pouty expression.
“But I don’t like the idea of the boss owing MoovGun anything.”
“The fact that you sniped him is already making us owe him?!”
“If anything, MoovGun is the one who owes me. Thanks to me, his early morning broadcast became insanely fun. I really kept things clean! I didn’t cause any problems either.”
“That damn vicious mindset of yours….”
Her hand shot up, so I flinched thinking it was another chestnut flick, but thankfully it was a head pat. Phew….
“……Aaaaaaaaack.”
It was a pat! It was a pat! When did it turn into a fist?!
“After you promote on MoovGun’s stream this time, you’ll basically be the face of Parallel. You know that, right? So you have to be even more careful.”
“I-is that so?”
“Of course. That was originally something I did after consulting with the promotion team, you know?”
“Ah, I see. That makes sense. I’m sorry. I just thought it was a job you entrusted to me.”
“There’s no need to be sorry. Just be careful from now on. I know you keep things clean, but there are a lot of uncomfortable people these days. It’s good that the promotion is working, but I can’t stand the thought of you getting torn apart. So please discuss everything with me first from now on, okay?”
“If they’re uncomfortable they could just change their posture….”
The boss stared at me with half-lidded eyes for a moment before speaking.
“Anyway, if any controversy breaks out, I’ll do an explanation broadcast, so keep that in mind.”
But I couldn’t accept that. The boss doing an explanation broadcast because of my mistake?
“No thanks. I’d rather do a dogeza on stream.”
The boss let out a small laugh and asked me.
“You’re going to turn on a stream by yourself?”
It’s nice to be treated cutely now that I’ve become prettier, but it seems my reliability has dropped a bit compared to before. I guess showing professionalism with this face isn’t easy. Still, I am the boss’s reliable and trustworthy errand runner. If the boss worries, I just have to talk until she stops worrying. …Honestly, as a Momo meat broth fan, I’d rather she streamed for another thirty minutes instead of worrying about me.
“If I have to, I’ll do it. What’s the big deal?”