The Chat's Wrath
At first, the viewers were overflowing with confidence.
???: “If one more chat asking me to tell you something pops up, I’m ending the stream.”
But contrary to their expectations, Seong-a kept ending her streams in under thirty seconds for two straight weeks. The once-confident viewers gradually grew exhausted.
Please come back… We were wrong…
In the rare moments when clean chats appeared and the stream lasted more than ten minutes, it felt like heaven.
Before watching: You think I’ll believe that? lolololol
After watching: Holy shit, is this for real?????
But that heaven didn’t last long.
I thought it was a guy so I wrote futanari… I’m not getting sued, right…?
As soon as the controversy died down, a new one immediately followed.
The chat window had gone completely insane. For some strange reason, every single message was demanding an explanation.
“What am I supposed to explain? I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Yes. A hacker? Me?”
It was ridiculous. They were demanding an explanation for a hack she had never used from a person she had never even heard of.
One viewer sent a link through a donation. Since she was curious, she clicked it. The post was filled with reasons why she was suspected of hacking, written like a thesis, and every single comment was just “upvote.”
‘What kind of nonsense is this…?’
She couldn’t believe someone would actually post something like this, and she was disappointed in the viewers who believed such a pathetic article.
“Everyone, do you actually believe this? I’m disappointed.”
Among the viewers watching the stream, people who had been PK’d started appearing. The chat window once again turned into complete chaos. It was filled with demands for explanations and requests to return items stolen through PK. The viewer count, which had stalled at five thousand, began climbing again.
‘Ugh, my head hurts…’
The aggression in the chat was getting worse. The atmosphere she had barely managed to steer in her favor was crumbling. In times like this, actions spoke louder than words. She moved the camera to show her mouse and keyboard.
“Then come on in. I’ll take you all on.”
But the viewers showed no intention of joining. She didn’t particularly want to do it either, but if she was going to survive as a streamer, clearing up the hacking accusations was absolutely necessary.
‘Tsk, how am I supposed to explain this?’
No matter how much she thought about it, no solution came to mind. It seemed better to just end the stream. Right then, a donation that felt like salvation arrived.
Rona clasped her hands together and begged.
“I beg you. I beg you. Please, at least let me talk to you on the phone…”
“Shut up. We haven’t had any new viewers lately and I’m worried. This is the only way to bring in traffic.”
Besides, the way she sounded so confident made it seem unlikely she was actually a hacker. Since she had spent a hundred thousand won, she could only hope it would work.
About two minutes later, a chat appeared.
“Yes! Of course!”
Free donations didn’t matter. She quickly muted her mic, added her as a friend on the game messenger app ‘Deek,’ and started a call.
“Hello.”
『Yes, hello.』
‘Whoa, her voice is amazing…’
It was completely different from what she had imagined. The sweet, beautiful voice was like an angel’s lullaby.
‘Ah, right. That’s not what’s important right now.’
Rona shook her head vigorously to snap out of it.
‘Get a grip…!’
The person she was currently talking to was the one who had thrown both the streaming world and the gaming world into complete chaos. She absolutely could not show any weakness.
“I turned off my mic just in case. What should we do?”
『Then please keep your mic off for now. We don’t know what kind of misunderstanding might arise.』
It was a reasonable request. She would have done the same.
『How exactly are you planning to help me?』
As soon as the main topic came up, Rona smiled as brightly as possible and gave the answer she had prepared in advance.
“It’s simple. You come to my house and show me your gameplay.”
“My gameplay?”
From her tone, it seemed she was uncomfortable with the idea of coming to her house. It made sense since she was a new streamer.
“Don’t worry. If it’s because of your face, I’ll set it up so only the game screen is visible.”
『…….』
For some reason, there was no reply. Growing anxious, Rona poured out every persuasive argument she could think of—that she was an S-rank Awakener, that she had over ten thousand regular viewers, and that she could definitely help.
『Hmm, alright. When should we meet?』
After thirty minutes of passionate persuasion, she finally got a positive answer. It was the first time Rona, an S-rank, had to sweat this much to convince someone.
“Then let’s do it on this date.”
The two of them set the date and time for the joint stream. Rona was already excited. She wanted to know exactly what had happened to cause all of this.
“Hello.”
The promised joint stream day arrived, and I reached Rona’s house.
“…….”
Rona stared intently at my face. It looked like she wanted to ask something.
“Um…”
“Ah! Yes. Nice to meet you. Your face is exactly like your character model… No, you’re even prettier in real life!”
I was genuinely surprised when I saw her face. As an S-rank hunter, I had met many female streamers and celebrities, but I had never seen anyone this beautiful. Honestly, I had thought she was pretty even when she was on half-cam, but her face deserved to be called “beautiful” rather than just “pretty.”
We shook hands and entered the soundproof booth. Once inside, Rona started asking me questions.
“Did you bring a VR device? If not, I can lend you one.”
“I play on computer?”
“Computer?”
Rona looked shocked. She couldn’t believe there were still people who played on computers.
‘She said she was a fortune teller, right?’
It was hard to believe someone could play like that on a computer. Her rank hadn’t been revealed, but since she said the odds were ten percent, she was probably around C-rank.
“What’s your real name? Seong-a? Or Ha-im?”
“Ah, my real name is Lee Sung-a.”
How could even her name be so pretty? On top of that, my eyes unconsciously kept drifting toward her chest.
“…….”
“……?”
For some reason, I felt like I had lost.
“Since I’m younger, I’ll call you Seong-a unni. You can speak casually to me too.”
“R-right, Rona…”
I was startled when she suddenly started speaking casually. Her social skills were incredible. Plus, being called “unni” felt incredibly strange.
“Should I lend you my VR device? Everyone uses VR these days. Playing on computer just makes people keep suspecting you of hacking.”
“Really?”
A world where people played games with VR devices. The world really had improved. Since I was curious, I decided to try it.
Before turning on the stream, we went into the game to test it out.
‘Whoa…’
Playing with a VR device was completely different from using a computer. It really felt like I had entered the game. The way the NPCs moved and the countless users interacted with each other like they were having real conversations was fascinating. So this was new technology?
“B-by the way, how did you end up choosing that username?”
“……?”
Rona spoke shyly. When I looked up, I saw my username. Yeah, “GochuwangLeeHa-im” was pretty weird for a girl. It was embarrassing, but I had to be honest.
“It’s my little sister’s name. I chose it to piss her off.”
“Your little sister? What a coincidence! My friend has the same name!”
“Really?”
I didn’t know who it was, but I felt bad for her. Having a name like that was unfortunate.
“What’s your little sister like, unni?”
Rona looked genuinely curious about my sister.
‘What she’s like…’
We had been apart for a long time so I didn’t know much, but there was one thing I could say with confidence.
“She’s annoying. She awakened as A-rank and won’t even give up any spam.”
‘Wait, A-rank Awakener?’
Could there be two A-rank Awakeners with the same name? Something felt off.
“This might sound weird, but do you have a general address…?”
“I live in Seoul.”
“……!”
Rona looked shocked.
The person she thought was an oppa was actually a girl?