Are You Trying to Buy Me with Money?
Most people who play FPS games religiously copy-paste their exact settings even when they hop on a PC bang. Aim sensitivity especially is priority number one—if you don't tweak it, you just can't settle down. Sure, the hardware's different, but if you're landing nothing but headshots without adjusting anything, that's not just god-tier aim. That's straight-up cheating.
On top of that, Do-hee had one more setting she always fiddled with: voice chat. Battle Coliseum is a game where team communication matters, so voice chat is enabled by default. But for the sake of her mental health, she usually turned off incoming voices. And since she was playing on an alt account today, she muted her own voice too. In the process, she naturally ended up muting team audio as well… which led to the current situation.
Right after Jia wiped out an entire enemy squad, a little speaker icon started blinking next to her ID. Voice chat was on.
“Hey. Your voice chat is enabled.”
“Oops. Guess I didn't turn off the mic.”
“You had one job.”
Jia had been so eager to jump into the game and start shooting that she'd skipped all the voice settings entirely. Plus, her smaller hands made the mouse feel awkward, and she was hyper-focused on carrying the team. She genuinely hadn't realized her voice was broadcasting.
At least she was using an alt account, so the damage was limited. The worst kinds of trolls always used similar nicknames, so when Do-hee read out loud the username TopPriorityForFireFestivalGuestKimDeokbae, she couldn't help but let out a dry laugh.
“You really do have an insane talent for usernames.”
“I have to make them good so no one catches on.”
“Catches on to what?”
When Jia suddenly went quiet after speaking so smoothly, Do-hee glanced over. The girl was sneaking peeks at her while pretending to be totally focused on the game. But Do-hee was a streamer with 1.6 million subscribers. She knew exactly how to play along with viewers' pranks—and how to flip the script and tease them right back.
“Catches on to what? If you don't tell me, I'm not playing with you anymore.”
“This is technically a trade secret, so I really shouldn't…”
“Trade secret my ass. How many alt accounts do you even have?”
Jia scratched her temple, then made a big decision. If she could keep playing games with Do-hee like friends, it wouldn't matter if she could never use any of her carefully crafted alts again.
“Twelve.”
The number made Do-hee genuinely shocked. Each package cost thirty thousand won. Even with discounts, twelve of them would easily exceed a hundred and fifty thousand won.
“Twelve?! Did you seriously buy that many packages?”
“Yes. You need them if you want to farm accounts.”
“…You're something else. Truly impressive, Mazia.”
“Thank you.”
“That wasn't a compliment…”
But who was really to blame for all that spending? No one but Do-hee herself. It would be so much better if Jia used that money on food to fatten herself up a little.
The guy was using that TopPriorityForFireFestivalGuestKimDeokbae name like a pro. Honestly, he deserved to get destroyed. Anyway, I'm genuinely curious—is this a signal flare? Can the Mooncheol brothers please show up?
When SignalFlare uses that TopPriorityForFireFestivalGuestKimDeokbae gun, he always jumps to widen the head angle first. It's easier to hit heads when you take the high ground. But he never jumps forward—he always turns about forty degrees left or right. Your video does exactly that.
Up to this point you might think it's nothing, but there's one more piece of evidence. There's a rumor that SignalFlare became Momo's manager. It never got confirmed so it died down, but if it's true, then everything lines up perfectly.
Boss = Momo
Floor-sweeping wave = the ultimate Momo clip below
Every time SignalFlare snipes, it forces the floor-sweeping wave to open (ultimate_momo.ntube)
Plus, you can barely hear the other person's voice in the video. Probably Momo. My Momo-soup senses say it's about 91.5% accurate. Anyway, that's all I know. Gotta go watch Momo VODs so no questions pls bye
Playing with a troll after so long was a total rollercoaster. Despair, joy, despair, joy—an endless cycle of mental warfare. The mastermind behind the chaos went home with a blissful, enlightened expression, but the victim, Cheon Do-hee, still had a throbbing headache the next morning.
Of course, it wasn't just from how dizzying the game itself had been.
‘There really are way too many people with unnecessary talent these days.’
After some self-proclaimed sage posted that analysis, the fire that started in the Battle Coliseum gallery had spread all the way to the Momo gallery.
What? She thought her alt account would keep her safe?
Do-hee cursed her own carelessness yesterday when she'd brushed it off because she was tired.
One single casual comment from Jia had united the entire community. Of course it was all just speculation, so they could have simply ignored it. But when the pressure kept coming, even Do-hee couldn't stay comfortable.
If it had been directed at her, she could have handled it. But Jia was a civilian. She'd already made her stance crystal clear by coldly rejecting the debut offer that had been thrown out as a joke. This was something Momo had to bear alone.
‘No need to tell Jia about this.’
That's what she had thought.
But the crisis came faster than expected.
After yesterday's content ended, she'd wrapped up the stream cleanly without any extra chatter, planning to turn the follow-up stories into Part 1 before the main broadcast in the evening. But the moment she started, missions began pouring in and the money piled up. In just thirty minutes, it broke five hundred thousand won. Whether the rumor had spread naturally or Rain's dedicated fans were working overtime, by the one-hour mark the amount had skyrocketed.
Do a perfect Rain voice impression and chat with her on voice — 1,420,000 clouds
It had evolved into the kind of massive donation that normally only appeared after Rain streamed a full eight hours in one day. Even Rain herself seemed shocked by the amount; her messages were full of panic.
The amount was still climbing in real time. Rain was trying her best to ignore it and focus on interacting with chat, but her eyes kept darting to the mission counter, which only excited the viewers into donating even more.
The funny thing was that while streamer Momo was worried about the pressure this would put on Mazia, the businesswoman Cheon Do-hee inside her head was shouting that this was the perfect opportunity.
It was definitely a chance to amplify viewer curiosity—including new influxes—and funnel all that attention toward Rain. After all, Jia was a regular office worker. She had no intention of appearing on stream properly. If she just showed up occasionally as the Rain voice-impression master, it would be like slapping a rocket booster on Rain's explosive growth.
It didn't even have to be every few weeks. Even if it was only once every two or three months after thoroughly teasing the viewers, it would still be huge.
‘……Hmm.’
The problem was that once you gave them an inch, Jia's debut might stop being optional and become mandatory. People always want to see more after the first time. The rarer and harder to see a character is, the more exponentially the demand grows.
And on top of perfect impressions, she could sing at a high level too? It would be weird if viewers didn't have a meltdown.
Wasn't that exactly what happened with Do-hee's close friend Taro? Back when they formed the MomoTaro duo and gained massive popularity, Taro's debut process had been the same.
Unlike with Taro, the moment Jia revealed her voice, there was one more piece of fuel that would turn the fire into an inferno.
The fact that she was SignalFlare—the notorious troll sniper who had been the subject of endless bait in both the Momo gallery and Parallel gallery.
There were plenty of trolls. But a troll who did perfect impressions and had an adorable real voice? That was rare. With the Momo gallery already completely hooked on the bait, if this fact came out during today's stream, the ripple effect would be impossible to predict.
There were simply too many variables for the future development. Do-hee had no choice but to hesitate.
‘If I get swept up in the atmosphere, her debut will basically become inevitable.’
Of course, even if Jia suddenly debuted, it wasn't like they couldn't handle it. They could just hire someone to take over her current duties. Help her with a clean handover. Train her properly like the others and put her up on the stage of broadcasting.
But the most important thing was that Jia herself had no desire to do it. That was why Cheon Do-hee's worries could only grow deeper….
Vrrrr. Vrrrrrr.
Do-hee picked up her vibrating phone from the desk.
“….She always knows exactly when things get noisy because of her, like some kind of ghost.”
Speak of the tiger and it appears. It was Mazia.
“Yeah, Jia. What's up?”
She hadn't expected the tiger that appeared to say something like that.
…Don't you know that if you keep showing up, you'll have to debut? You said you had no intention of becoming a VTuber?
But if you looked closely at Jia's seemingly contradictory behavior, the reason became clear.
It was all because of the request Do-hee—as the boss—had made before the first generation debuted.
When she entrusted the first generation to Jia, what had she said? That the kids were still inexperienced and there would be many things they'd need help with. That Jia should do everything she could, but if she wasn't sure whether she should get involved, she should ask Do-hee.
In other words, appearing on stream to smooth things over fell under Jia's definition of “helping Rain.” So she'd contacted Do-hee in the middle of heading to work, asking if now was the time for her to step in.
Do-hee explained what she was worried about.
“It definitely won't end with just one appearance. You know that better than anyone since you're a troll yourself.”
Jia answered without hesitation.