A Parade of Big Names
HanRiverRamen:Wait, what? lol What just happened?
BongcheonFireFist:Chaerin, Croco, Doyun, and even Akasha? This is insane.
SoftCheese:It's goosebumps seeing other streamers line up too.
FrogKing:At this rate, actual celebrities are going to start lining up.
NeonSign:I'm so curious about Akasha's shamanic reading.
FactChecker:Wow, haha. Now he's even casting big-name streamers.
FactChecker:You should've made it a bit less obvious.
ChickenBox:Do Akasha's reading first!
RainbowSign:Is Akasha actually getting a reading today?
Park Jihun furrowed his brow as he watched the chat scroll by at breakneck speed. Once word got out that big-name streamers had dropped by to donate Water Droplets, their fanbases flooded in all at once. In an instant, the scale of his stream had reached a whole new level.
"Quiet," he commanded.
The chat froze at his brief, cold word.
"Just because you're famous doesn't mean you get to cut the line on my stream."
The chat immediately erupted again.
MuteRoom:Oh, yes! This is what I'm talking about!
BongcheonFireFist:As expected, a fair stream.
FactChecker:Fair, my ass lol. He's just milking it for content.
NeonSign:But still, it's Akasha we're talking about.
Daenari:Please read Akasha first!
SoftCheese:I'm so curious about Akasha's reading T_T
It was at that moment.
Akasha:He said he's going in order. Please stop.
With Akasha herself stepping in, the rowdy chat finally began to settle down.
SummonMaster:Everyone else is waiting in line!
VanillaAddict:Well said, Akasha.
Ertel:No exceptions for streamers on this channel.
MuteRoom:The streamer herself is waiting patiently, but her fans are the ones throwing a fit.
FrogKing:Those guys are just trolls, don't mind them.
Park Jihun scanned the reservation list displayed in the top-right corner of his monitor. Right at the very top was a familiar name.
Fact Checker
It was the very user who had been making the most noise in the chat for a while now.
When did he even donate?
It seemed the guy had donated his Water Droplets a long time ago and had been waiting for his turn.
At that moment, a brief vision flashed before Jihun's eyes.
A cramped goshiwon room. Multiple monitors glowed with a pale blue light in the darkness. A man with an unshaven, scruffy face sat crookedly in his chair, furiously tapping away at his keyboard. His eyes gleamed with an obsessive intensity, like someone determined to tear off another person's mask. A snicker escaped his twisted lips.
Jihun silently pulled his gaze away. Scrolling all the way down the list, he saw Chaerin, Doyun, Croco, and Akasha lined up one after another. He checked the viewer count.
Viewer Count: 23,121
It was far higher than usual. Word had spread that major streamers were watching, drawing in a massive crowd all at once.
MuteRoom:That bastard FactChecker booked a slot even though he doesn't even believe in this lol
FrogKing:Why even line up for a reading if you're gonna act like that? lmao
Ertel:He's a notorious troll who roams around streaming forums picking fights on every channel.
FactChecker:Why did I line up?
FactChecker:Because if it's fake, I have to expose it.
FactChecker:Verifying the facts is my job, after all.
Jihun opened his mouth.
"Next up is Fact Checker. You're on."
A moment later, the Discord connection chime rang. After a brief burst of static, a man's voice came through.
"Hello there."
Jihun stared at the monitor in silence. The man's voice was surprisingly calm—so clean and polite that it felt unnatural.
"It's truly fascinating," the man chuckled. "People these days are so easily fooled, aren't they?"
The chat immediately reacted.
MuteRoom:His tone is obnoxious right from the start.
FrogKing:The fact that his voice sounds normal makes it even more annoying.
Ertel:Guys like him always pretend to be the only rational ones.
NeonSign:Who's easily fooled?
Unbothered, the man continued.
"So, I did a little digging."
Jihun remained silent, as if daring him to say whatever he wanted.
"Usernames. Most people use the same handle across different platforms, right? Because of that, once you catch one thread, everything else unravels. Did you know that?"
The chat's reaction instantly split.
SoftCheese:Huh?
BongcheonFireFist:Did he actually find something?
ChickenBox:Why is he setting the mood like that? What is he trying to say?
RainbowSign:Let's just listen for now.
The man snickered.
"Well, it's nothing too crazy, just did a bit of manual searching."
"..."
"Study cafes, job seeker forums, online communities... A little digging, and things just started popping up."
Jihun asked flatly,
"And?"
The man replied, as if he had been waiting for this exact prompt.
"Up until just a month ago, you were just an ordinary job seeker, weren't you?"
The chat momentarily froze.
SummonMaster:Huh? He was originally a job seeker?
SoftCheese:I mean, his nickname is Perpetual Job Seeker, but he was actually one until a month ago?
VanillaAddict:Okay, that is a bit out of nowhere lol
dak2114:Is he lying?
The man continued, his voice clear and confident, likely having glanced at the chat.
"People don't know any better, so they get fooled. But I just can't stand by and watch this kind of thing happen."
"..."
"The facts. They must be revealed."
Jihun let out a short, dry laugh. It was a chuckle of pure disbelief. Leaning back in his chair, he asked,
"Is that all you managed to find out about me?"
"What?"
"That I was a job seeker? Sure, you're right. I was a job seeker once."
He hadn't chosen the alias Perpetual Job Seeker for nothing.
"So, your conclusion is that I'm a fraud? Is that it?"
The man shot back instantly.
"Then how does someone who was preparing for employment just yesterday suddenly become a legendary shaman overnight? Who would believe that? Isn't it much more plausible that a jobless loser gave up, put on a shaman act, and started scamming people for money?"
"You," Jihun said.
His voice was ice-cold.
"You're unemployed, yet you told your family you go to Seoul National University?"
"...!"
The breathing on the other end of the Discord call grew faint. The chat erupted.
FrogKing:Huh? He's not an SNU student, but unemployed?
VanillaAddict:What? Was it a lie?
Jihun didn't stop.
"You do know that forging official documents is a criminal offense, right? Your mother has no idea. She was so proud of you she burst into tears."
The man's breathing turned ragged.
"What... what kind of bullshit are you...!"
Yet Jihun's voice remained perfectly calm.
"Every time your mother calls, you get anxious and snap at her. You're constantly terrified she might call the university to double-check."
The man shrieked defensively.
"Do you have proof? Do you have proof?!"
"You should know the answer to that better than anyone. Your lies don't stop at just one or two. Want me to keep going?"
"..."
"A guy who digs up other people's lives in the name of finding the 'facts'..."
Jihun delivered the final blow.
"Turns out his own life was a complete lie."
Silence fell over the Discord call. The sharp, articulate voice from moments ago vanished as if it had never existed. Only the sound of ragged, heavy breathing filtered through the mic.
Without a single change in his expression, Jihun spoke.
"If you have nothing left to say, get lost."
The man couldn't answer immediately.
"N-no... That's not true..."
His voice was completely different now. The smug arrogance he had used to look down on others was entirely gone.
FrogKing:It's hilarious how he's suddenly stuttering lol
NeonSign:Looks like he really lied about getting into SNU.
RainbowSign:Why is FactChecker so quiet all of a sudden?
ChickenBox:He finally met his match lmao
The man muttered.
"This... this makes no sense..."
"Forging the acceptance letter."
The man's breathing grew audibly harsher.
"Deceiving your mother, who works the dawn markets just to pay for your rent and living expenses."
Jihun added one more thing.
"Are you going to deny all of that too? You remember how much your mother cried when she heard you got in, don't you? That's why you can't say a word to her."
"H-how... you must have dug into my background! But how? I never told anyone..."
Jihun's sharp, all-seeing gaze pierced through the screen.
"I see everything."
At that moment, the man disconnected from Discord.
The chat completely lost its mind.
MuteRoom:lol Did he just run away because he was scared?
dak2114:Wait, it ends just like that?
Whistle:FactChecker needs to change his name starting today lol
Softie:Fact Checker my ass, he's just a fake college student lmao
RoseBlade:This is definitely going to be immortalized online, holy crap
Jihun watched the chat scroll past relentlessly. The messages accusing him of being a fraud and a fake had vanished without a trace.
The consultations continued without pause. Jihun went through the remaining reservations one by one, giving each person their shamanic reading. With every reading, the chat erupted in a mix of sheer terror and donation alerts.
"...Wow. He completely strips away their innermost secrets," Chaerin muttered, looking pale.
Doyun and Croco stared at the screen in stunned silence.
The other streamers remaining in the Discord call had also grown quiet, simply watching the broadcast. Having just witnessed the complete demolition of Fact Checker, none of them dared to speak up easily.
It was only when dawn began to break that Jihun finally concluded his stream.
"That's all for today."
The chat flooded with disappointed messages.
MuteRoom:Is it over already?
FrogKing:FactChecker running away with his tail between his legs was the funniest thing today lol
GreatDemon:He's already been immortalized on the streamer forums lmao
Jihun briefly scanned the chat before shutting down the stream. He leaned back in his chair, slowly catching his breath, when his phone began to vibrate.
It was Usik.
"Hey," Usik said, his voice buzzing with excitement the moment Jihun picked up.
"What's up?"
"You didn't know tomorrow is payout day, did you?"
"Huh? Tomorrow is payout day?"
He had completely lost track of the date.
"If you go to your creator dashboard, it'll show how much you're getting tomorrow. It's only for half a month, so it won't be crazy high. Maybe around five million won? Go check."
Jihun immediately opened his admin page. The settlement details for his earnings over the past two weeks appeared on the screen. Even after deducting the platform fees and taxes, the remaining balance was...
Jihun took a sharp breath as he stared at the figure.
"...Is this real?"
Usik asked urgently,
"How much is it?"
Jihun muttered, his eyes locked on the screen.
"Fifteen million won."
"...Holy shit."