Chapter 30

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Translator: penny

Chapter: 30

Chapter Title: Action & Fighter is Murder to Me (3)

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At the sudden emergence of that clear, ringing voice, Ox felt his brain freeze as he frantically scanned for its owner with trembling eyes.

"What the...? There are only two female participants..."

But the voice he'd just heard didn't belong to either of them. It was a bit younger-sounding, and sweet enough to melt your heart.

A quick glance around the voice channel revealed, to his shock, that the light next to V's account had lit up.

"...Ah, yes. Go ahead and speak! Everyone, please calm down just a bit. Let's hear from the participant first!"

No way—a female user?

Honestly, judging by her mannerisms and her maniacal dive into the game, Ox had figured she was someone fairly mature. This reveal completely shattered his expectations.

The viewers expressed their shock and instantly fell silent.

Flustered as he was, this was going his way!

He knew that blindly suppressing public opinion would only spark bigger backlash, so from Ox's position, V's true identity couldn't have been more welcome.

A simple, straightforward explanation, but the chat's mood had softened dramatically compared to before.

Truth be told, it was hard to say outright, but V being a cute-voiced girl was the decisive factor.

Even in Ox's eyes, there wasn't anything worth overturning the results over. In the end, it had boiled down to public opinion and justification.

The response came off a bit salty somehow, but the frustrated viewers welcomed even that, reacting very positively.

That's when the troublesome sponsor piped up again.

This put Ox in a real bind.

Was this really worth dropping a massive donation like that just to nitpick?

As he steeled himself to make a call, V suddenly opened her mouth again, unleashing a machine-gun barrage in a thoroughly pissed-off tone.

"W-Wait a sec. What date was that?"

Ox stammered in confusion, and question marks flooded the stream chat.

"July 28th... July 28th... Holy shit, it's real?"

Incredibly, just as V said, the patch notes and announcements from those dates did mention the skills.

Meaning everything she'd said wasn't bluff—it was all true.

"This person's insane."

Ox himself was no slouch with Action & Fighter, but V was on another level entirely.

Her grumpy tone sounded adorable, like she wasn't that old, but the chat's vibe had shifted completely.

Because they'd just realized V was one of those "real deal" types people talked about.

"Uh, y-yeah, all facts. So no issue, right? The participants already acknowledged it anyway."

The amount was still absurd, but no one was backing him up anymore.

He'd swung the double-edged sword of viewer opinion recklessly, overlooking that it could turn on him.

This was the moment. As a veteran who'd built his channel without scandals, Ox knew exactly when to wrap things up.

Having waited for the perfect opening, he shook his head and firmly rejected Godumer's stance.

"We'll refund the full donation amount, no fees. Honestly, it felt forced from the start. It's disrupting the content, so sorry, but you're out."

Clean aftercare to avoid future issues.

With that, the controversy died down, leaving only the most important thing: the results.

The twelfth participant, V.

She'd already left the voice channel, but she'd swept up every eye in this Emperor Decider.

"Ehh..."

I'd poured my heart into explaining the philosophy of Puppeteer skills, but no one listened.

They just freaked out over how cute my voice was, and yeah, I expected it, but it still stung a little.

This was seriously impressive stuff. Advanced knowledge not just anyone could share...

"Sigh."

And forget the stream viewers—even the one making the biggest fuss was someone else entirely.

None other than Temu Mountain Sword God, who knew V was me.

Seeing Temu Mountain Sword God reminisce over his past comments, I chuckled while reflecting on his behavior.

Fair enough—he was one of the rowdiest in the channel, always tossing out banter at friends.

Finding out his bro was actually a girl? Yeah, that'd make anyone self-conscious.

Temu seemed to be misunderstanding something, so to help him get it, I decided to let him experience the reason firsthand.

Enlightened, Temu Mountain Sword God left to post on the channel, and I joined the ongoing Emperor Decider, wrapping up the day's stream successfully.

Final winner? Obviously me—no other contenders.

"Hm."

In the second category, I tugged heartstrings with a nostalgic old map warp bug. In the third, I swept unanimous votes from the participants.

All of them hardcore Action & Fighter players, they couldn't help but feel my greatness with every fiber of their being.

"...Time to binge the channel."

Day by day, more channel users were growing interested in me—a most welcome trend.

Having binged every post on Yi-rin Shin's channel, I casually browsed Action & Fighter Gallery and clicked on a post that caught my eye.