Flexing in Real Time
Once the atmosphere of the stream had warmed up nicely, she chose an interview as our first joint content. Her eyes curved into crescent moons as she smiled.
“The most frequently asked question... the Chairman’s job! Seriously! What on earth do you do to have so much money?”
My job. I had already expected this question. The chat was scrolling past at lightning speed with all kinds of wild guesses. Without much thought, I tossed out the answer I had prepared in advance, wearing a harmless smile.
“I’m a landlord.”
“Crazy.”
She blinked blankly, utterly dumbfounded, unable to find her words.
• ?
• ???
• His job is a landlord lolololol
• Did I hear that right?
• Holy shit lmao
• The streamer is having an existential crisis lololol
• He said it so casually that I didn't even realize how crazy it was for a second, wtf;
I was perfectly confident. After all, there wasn't a single shred of falsehood in my words. In reality, the monthly rent rolling in from the properties under my name easily exceeded hundreds of millions of won.
“How old are you?”
“I’m twenty-five. Same age as you, Suming, right?”
“Seriously, twenty-five? Is it even possible to be a landlord at that age?”
I shrugged. It wasn't like I could say, ‘I went around lying, and then it became reality!’ I just had to be shameless. I stared back at her with an innocent, naive expression, as if asking what the problem was. I felt like my ability to brazenly bluff was improving by leaps and bounds every day.
“This makes no sense...” she muttered like someone who had lost her soul.
The chat room was also in utter chaos. It was scrolling so fast that it was impossible to keep up with the naked eye.
“Here's a slightly personal question! How did you first find my stream?”
“I first stumbled upon it a long time ago, back when you were playing Epic of Seven a lot.”
“Right? You've been watching since the early days of my stream! No wonder your nickname felt so familiar.”
• Epic of Seven lol, there really was a time like that...
• As expected of a loyal subject
• What's Epic of Seven?
• It's a game called Epic of Seven. It was doing really well, but then it went down the drain with pay-to-win microtransactions lol
• Is that game still running?
• Yeah, it's a dead game lol
• Epic of Seven's illustrations were top-tier though, lmao
• Hot Potato was always famous for dedicating his life to Epic of Seven lolol
A dead game? The guy who dedicated his life to that "dead game" was sitting right here. But the reality was that I couldn't openly refute those words. It really was a game that had rotted to its core, thanks to a development team notorious for being "newbie cutters."
“So, are you still playing that game?”
“What do you mean 'still'? I'm playing it until the servers shut down.”
“That trash game?”
Realizing her slip of the tongue, she gasped and covered her mouth, stealing glances at me. Her exaggerated reaction made me chuckle in spite of myself.
“Haha, but you know what?”
“What?”
“If you spend enough money, there's no game more fun than this one.”
“Wow... so obnoxious...”
In truth, I was confident that if you excluded its insane business model, the graphics and gameplay of Epic of Seven could easily rival any other game out there. Of course, it was currently treated as a dead game due to its predatory microtransactions and tier-gating, but to me, it was undoubtedly the game of my life. I had been so serious about Epic of Seven that I had even taken out loans, scraping together every single penny I had, just to dump it all into digital pixels.
• Just how much did he dump into Epic of Seven? Whoa...
• Didn't he spend at least ten grand?
• Looking at his usual donation scale, it's probably at least a hundred grand.
Just then, those chats caught my eye. Suming must have spotted them too, as she immediately locked her gaze onto the screen and read them aloud.
“How much did you dump into Epic of Seven... Yeah, I'm curious too. How much did you actually spend?”
“Hmm. It's hard to say off the top of my head. But I think I spent about thirty million won just this month.”
“*Choke.*”
In the past, I would have meticulously planned my spending, mapping out the most efficient routes to participate in the weekly rotating events. But calculating efficiency like a miser was pointless now; the money I spent on the game was mere pocket change to the current me. I used to shiver with sheer ecstasy watching my in-game currency rise endlessly as if I had activated a cheat code. Isn't this exactly what money is for?
• 30 million in a month? No proof, no truth.
• The guy drops 10 million every time he visits, you think he can't spend 30 million on a game?
• Mod, ban the trolls, holy shit.
• He's just talking out of his ass lol. Show us the receipts then.
• Did he just come on stream to flex his wealth? So transparent.
• The chat is totally ruined;; where did these trolls crawl out from?
• The stream link just got posted on the main page lolololol.
A storm brewed in the already overflowing chat room. It seemed the link to our joint stream had been heavily publicized. The chat was scrolling so fast that it was starting to lag. As trolls flooded in with overwhelming numbers, the chat room was instantly devastated.
“The trolls are at it again. Eat this and get lost.”
Click. With a few practiced clicks, she froze the chat, restricting it so that only viewers who had been subscribed for at least a week could type. Yet, a few skeptical comments still managed to slip through.
Proof? That's easy enough. Stepping up and showing proof directly would be a solid counter rather than backing down. However, if I did that, it would be hard to shake off the unlikable image of someone who had only come on stream to show off. In situations like this, there was one solution that never failed.
Found it.
I opened the App Store's purchase history tab and found the densely packed Epic of Seven transaction records. This should be enough. I handed my phone over to her as she sat beside me, staring blankly.
“What is this?”
“Ahem. My Epic of Seven purchase history for this month.”
“Is it okay to show this to the viewers?”
When I smiled and nodded, she quickly scrolled down the screen.
“Oh my god, guys. It's real.”
She held the phone screen right up to the camera.
• Whoa, look at how packed that list is lololol
• Where did all the people demanding proof go?
• He really knows how to spend lolol
• I wish he'd stop flexing so much though, whew;
• If you're jealous, you know what to do lolol
• It is a bit annoying though lol, is it just me?
• Just you lol, stop projecting your inferiority complex.
It was exactly as I had expected. If you don't show proof, you get cursed out for lying; if you do show proof, you get cursed out for being an obnoxious show-off. It was a literal dilemma.
“You guys asked for proof, and now that he showed it, you're calling it flexing? Guys, let's cut it out, okay?”
Suming tried to yell at them in her usual "tough older sister" persona, but it only backfired. In this case, the solution was simple.
“Suming.”
“Yes? Just ignore the chat! They've always got a few screws loose...”
“No, it's not that. I have a proposal.”
“A proposal?”
She tilted her head, looking utterly bewildered. I smirked. The perfect way to shatter this dilemma. It was none other than...
“I'm going to treat all the viewers today.”
Today, just like any other day, I sat down after finishing my daily routine and turned on a stream. Whose stream should I watch today? I scanned the list of currently live broadcasts.
“Suming is still live.”
Among the female streamers I had been enjoying lately was one named Suming. Her content mainly focused on gaming and chatting, but she had recently shot up to the big leagues after her "no-stream-end roulette" content blew up on YouTube. Not too long ago, she had hit the jackpot with another massive no-stream-end challenge.
“Pfft, she still has eleven days left before she can end the stream.”
A chuckle escaped my lips as I looked at the no-stream-end schedule written in the stream announcement. On the day the roulette was spinning, a viewer named Hot Potato had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and spun the wheel with a whopping ten million won. Suming's weeping and screaming were still vivid in my mind. The clip from that day had become a massive meme, exported to every corner of the internet.
Naturally, people's attention began to shift toward the big-time donor, Hot Potato. Rumors about him floated around like urban legends—how he dropped a minimum of ten million won whenever he showed up, and even a review post from a female community user who claimed to have met him in person. As the days went by, the rumors only grew wilder.
Crazy. That guy was always like this. Couldn't he just say hello in the chat? It was as if he had money to burn, attaching a massive donation to every single message. When the donation went off in the quiet stream, Suming jumped up and shoved her face right into the camera. Her hilarious reaction made me burst into a silly grin.
The email she sent? What's that? I didn't know what it was, but seeing the streamer blink in speechless shock, there was definitely something going on. Was something big coming?
“Oh my god! No way! Of course, of course it's possible for me!”
“Do you know whose fault it is that I still have eleven days left of this no-stream-end?! But are you really coming?”
As they continued their private conversation, the chat room was flooded with question marks. Naturally, I joined in as well.
• ??
• What is it?
• ?
• Is he asking for a refund?
• Lmao, a refund? No way lolol
“No, guys, listen. Honestly, you were all curious about the Chairman too, weren't you?”
“So I just sent a joint stream proposal, thinking 'might as well shoot my shot'...”
“Oh, a joint stream?”
A joint stream with the legendary Hot Potato at a time like this? As expected of Suming. Was she a streaming genius? Most of the chat reacted with awe. The slow-moving chat was suddenly on the verge of exploding as a fresh piece of gossip about Hot Potato dropped.
A hundred thousand won just to type a single line of chat. I was so envious. Just how rich did someone have to be to do that?
“Holy shit...”
One million won. That was half of my monthly salary. He just donated that massive sum like he was discarding a useless game item, all for a single line of chat. Honestly, it made my stomach turn a bit, but the envy was far greater. What on earth did he do? Was he running a business? A trust fund baby? As time passed, the questions surrounding him only grew larger.
“Kyaaaaah!!! The Chairman donated one million won!!!”
“I will pledge my eternal loyalty, Chairmaaaan!!!”
“Sal-uuuute!!!”
Whoa, she startled me. Watching her scream like a lion while headbanging was like watching a death metal concert. The wind pressure from her wildly spinning hair sent items on her desk tumbling down. It was a scene straight out of comedy hell, impossible to watch without laughing.
• lolololol
• LMAO
• She's a literal clown at this point, holy shit lololol
• Ah, I totally lost it lololol
• As an active metal band vocalist, I still have a long way to go.
• A cool 1 million won donation; the Chairman's class is insane, whoa
• Lmao holy shit lololol
• Isn't her neck going to snap at this rate? lolol
• That rock spirit is killer lololol
As expected. Hot Potato was incredibly likable.