A Satisfying Stream, and Don't You Dare Call Me a Sucker

Those were the posts stuck to the viewer board on my streaming site.

Apparently my thoughts, and the things I'd said out loud, hadn't sat right with the audience. A few of them did come around, of course.

I could see both sides.

If someone had come at me like that over an ordinary item, I would've ignored them no matter how much money I had. And yet I'd said what I said, and gone through with the exchange—which meant Ellen's Tears was tempting enough to justify it. Honestly, I wanted to name my own price and buy the thing on the spot, auction be damned. If I hadn't been live, I might have done exactly that.

But I'm an attention whore, through and through. A streamer who feeds on people watching.

Sure, this broadcast is mine, and I've got the spine to kill it the second it stops being fun. Even so, a streamer sitting on an average of a hundred thousand viewers owes the room at least a bare minimum of responsibility.

I had a plan of my own.

"You're really going to buy it?"

After I shut the stream off and finished converting the cash, I contacted Lim Sarang from inside Haven. She got the message at once and came to find me. I nodded at the worry in her voice.

"I wanted to ask first whether the price is even reasonable."

"Hmm."

The worry on her face turned serious at the question.

"Shall we go somewhere quiet to talk?"

"Sure."

It wasn't a conversation for the street, so Lim Sarang and I headed for a café nearby—one with private rooms.

"..."

"..."

The four-cut photo booth pictures we'd taken not long ago came back to me.

"Ahem."

"Ah. First, what I know. The most recent comparable piece—a level 40 five-star ring with similar options—traded for around eighteen billion."

"Oh!"

She'd broken the mood to hand me something useful, and I couldn't help the little sound of admiration. I'd only meant to ask her opinion. A high-level user, a ranker, someone who surely had connections, and a mage on top of that. From where she stood, was this worth buying even if it felt like getting thoroughly fleeced?

What she gave me instead was objective information.

"It was a deal between acquaintances, so it probably didn't get around much. The seller seems to have known anyway, judging by the twenty-billion ask."

"Hmm. He just looked like some uncle hard up for cash."

"You mean Taegeuk? He isn't now, but only a year ago he ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was rank one among mages."

"No way."

So that uncle had been that kind of uncle. To my eyes he'd simply looked charismatic, and the moment money came up, nothing but an old man stuffed with stubbornness and greed.

"Anyway, if you factor in how rare the listing is, the way I see it..."

Lim Sarang drew her pretty brows together.

"I called the options similar, but honestly, even the base options differ quite a bit between level 40 and level 1."

She waved a hand through the empty air, then looked at me.

"I sent you a picture. Want to see?"

"Yeah."

I pressed the message in front of me, and a photo of an item popped up.

"Whoa."

"This one's private, so I'd rather only you saw it, Siwoo."

"Obviously. Wow. So items like this exist."

"It's basically ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠an endgame item. It dropped from the highest-level five-star content that can currently be cleared."

I'd assumed the gap between item levels wouldn't be all that wide. Other people had said the same. Looking at this, they were wrong. A level 1 piece wasn't something you'd have to throw away later, but set beside level 40, the difference was unmistakable.

"The base options are already a line short, and the special option numbers are in a completely different league."

"Yes. That's why I want to talk you out of it."

Lim Sarang was a player too.

"This is selfish of me, but... if I stick my neck out and say it, once item prices climb to something abnormal, the flippers start running wild."

Her honest feelings came through.

"Of course, that's also why people trade among acquaintances. Sellers still want the best price they can get, so they sound out every user who can actually afford it. Taegeuk is probably feeling out others besides you."

Stories from a higher world that I, having only just started, knew nothing about. Interesting.

"Some people pay to enjoy the game. Plenty of others invest to make money on the spread. Those people stay close to expensive items, push the market up, and sell to whoever actually needs them."

"So if I buy above that price, that becomes the baseline for what they'll try to charge from now on?"

"They already know you're going to buy, Siwoo. They'll pick it up from the seller no matter the cost, then turn around and sell it to you for several times as much."

"Hmm."

She was right. Me buying an item I need, however much money it takes, isn't a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠problem in itself. The bastards who then treat that number as the standard and come try to stick a straw in me—that's a different story.

"I don't think I'm holding off because I'm worried about everyone else's prices."

"No, of course not. It's just what I think."

Lim Sarang was allowed to say that. Not because we'd grown close. She'd given me information I couldn't easily see, and let me learn the objective price I actually wanted. That much, she had the right to say. Hearing it, and judging it, was my problem anyway.

"Then how about this."

I sat with it for a long while. Putting a brain I usually left idle to work made my head ache, but I sketched out a scenario of my own.

"That's not bad. But are you sure you're all right doing it this way?"

"Sarang."

"Yes?"

"Why do you think they call a sucker a sucker?"

"Well..."

A deal is relative. Seller and buyer. When you're trading something with a fixed price, it doesn't matter. In a negotiation, if one side walks away with all the profit, people usually say the other side got caught as the sucker. This case was exactly that.

And if it ran the other way?

"If I take a huge loss, but I'm the one volunteering to be the sucker, that's a flex."

The reason people—the viewers—get even angrier than I do, and try to stop me, when they watch me get played is simple. It isn't even their money. So why? Because they project. Because it could happen to them too. They slip into my seat as the buyer and burn at the sight of the other side's brazen markup.

So how was I supposed to fix it? Simple.

"I'm going to make this a deal I'm doing because I want to."

"...I hope it works out."

I couldn't be sure it would succeed, and failure carried a risk of its own: I wouldn't get to buy Ellen's Tears. I'd already been thinking of it as mine, so that would sting quite a bit—but apparently the broadcast had gotten a little more fun. I could tell from how much I was worrying about the viewers' mood, and about a sucker image that would stick around for a long time.

First, I turned the stream on.

"I got a little advice."

Once the broadcast was up and a decent number of viewers had filtered in, I said it straight.

"I heard a level 40 five-star item for mages traded recently for around eighteen billion."

"Some of you already know, I see."

Only a tiny handful of the chat seemed to know. Most of them looked clueless.

"The options are way better than Ellen's Tears, and the price was eighteen billion. I'm guessing the seller of Ellen's Tears called twenty billion because they were thinking about how there's no other listing. And if their luck is good, a bidding war might break out, which is probably why they put it up as an auction."

I set the mood, just enough. Doing it this way was definitely more of a hassle, but it was fun too. From Taegeuk's side, this might simply be the process of claiming a right that was obviously his, and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I'd understood that part well enough that I'd been ready to buy without making a fuss. After hearing Lim Sarang out, and seeing how the viewers reacted, a thought hit me. Do I even have to?

Did I really need to understand that man's situation? The picture of me getting played felt worse than anything. If this was how I could buy it cheap, there was no reason not to.

"I'll be honest. Yesterday I converted a hundred billion in cash."

Roughly two hundred forty billion in Haven money had landed in my account. I showed them that, and said it.

"Ellen's Tears: twelve billion. I will not buy above that price. I'm obviously not joining the auction either. Someone else might buy it. I don't care."

A hard line. Then I offered the alternative.

"An offer, to whoever's holding the Lich King's Soul Pouch. I'll pay double what you bought it for. Sell it to me."

"I, Kim Siwoo, declare this in front of a hundred thousand viewers."

The reaction ran hot, and a smile drew itself at the corner of my mouth.

Yeah. Now this is sex.

Maybe soaking up this many people's attention and pulling my attention-whore act was something even money couldn't buy—more than landing a single endgame item.

People roaring. A few chats climbing up through the noise.

Guess I'm with the fuck off crowd myself. Not really sure what the difference is. They're into it, though, so that's enough.

The forums exploded all over again.