The One Meant to Succeed, Succeeds
In the end, we dragged things out until Si-a, who had completely broken down, finally came to her senses, and then we ended the broadcast right away.
No matter how I looked at it, I needed to change the nickname. At this rate, the viewers would be having fun, sure, but I doubted we’d be able to do any of the content we’d originally planned.
We couldn’t let the broadcast get thrown off track. We’d better reserve names like Yeobo for only once in a while.
"Hazy, why are you spacing out?"
"Huh?"
"You’re not secretly watching Si-a’s stream on your second monitor, are you?"
"What? You were really watching my stream?"
"Ah, no, I wasn’t!"
While I was lost in other thoughts for a moment, Red-hyung and Killer Sniper teased me. What were we doing now?
Obviously, squad practice. I had no idea how time was moving so fast. I went to sleep after ending the stream, woke up, and before I knew it we were already on for tournament practice.
It felt like time was only racing for me. Was that just my imagination?
"At this rate, I think we need someone to stick with Hazy."
"Let Si-a stick with him."
"Me? Seriously?"
"Yeah, let’s do that. Si-a’s the closest."
"Si-a, stick with Hazy, clear out the little houses along the way, and then meet us at the pinged spot later."
"Got it!"
"…Yes."
Because she’d dropped badly in the wrong place while still half out of her mind, Si-a came over to back me up.
In the end, it was still a squad, but now it had become something like the two of us looting as a duo, then meeting back up at the ping. A strange little situation.
"The parachute didn’t open when I dropped here earlier."
"Then let’s loot a little more loosely. There’s a car right up ahead."
"Right. There’s a level-three bag and a level-three vest here, Si-a."
"Look at you, already taking care of me."
"Ah, my side’s getting cold over here. Red-hyung, there’s a level-three helmet here."
"...The hyungs are taking care of you too."
"But the tone and the vibe are different!"
"What do you mean, openly spoi—"
"Hazy! There’s a level-three helmet here!"
I’d been about to lecture the viewers for pestering us about who was spoiling whom, but if she was going to spoil me like that, what was I supposed to do, Si-a...? Of course, I happily picked up the level-three helmet.
"The car’s behind the village. Let’s go around back."
"You want to loop around? Or just take the lower road straight through?"
"Let’s loop around. Wouldn’t it be better to stop by the factory beside us and loot a bit more on the way?"
"That works too."
"A mission? Red-hyung, is it okay if I take it?"
"I don’t mind, but I’d rather you avoid missions that’ll interfere with your play."
"That’s what he says."
Maybe because missions that could interfere with the game were a bit much, the hyung added that caveat. Fair enough. Come to think of it, this was still tournament practice, so overly wild missions would be a pain. I was thinking that when I checked the mission that had just come in….
"Hey, isn’t the mission name a little too much? Breaking Si-a?"
"Isn’t that just your stream’s viewers being malicious?"
"I think that might be right."
"Hazy, ban everyone who put that mission on you."
But if I did that, the mission money was going up too fast.
The ten-thousand-won mission had shot up to sixty thousand in an instant. That’s some insane firepower. So that’s why people say fake-marriage streams make money.
"It’s already over sixty thousand."
"How much was it at first?"
"Ten thousand."
"Wow, that really is fast. Huh? Red-hyung, over by the ridge, do you see someone beside the rock?"
"Yeah, I saw them. Let’s go catch them."
"Let’s go~"
The mission money surged from sixty thousand to eighty thousand in the blink of an eye.
I was starting to think maybe all I had to do was endure Si-a once, and that would be the end of it.
"Hazy, I got a mission too."
"What is it?"
"...Thirty hundred thousand if I break you."
"I’m broken. Waaaah~"
As I said that, I pulled out my gun and spun around while firing in every direction, and both Si-a and the viewers burst out laughing.
"Ah, that’s hilarious. Anyway, you’re admitting you’re broken, huh?"
"Thank you for the 300,000 won!"
"But why does our mission amount keep rising?"
"How did it get to 120,000 won for something like that?"
As soon as I said 120,000 won, another 30,000 won was added. One hundred and fifty thousand? To break Si-a once?
Was this actually a profitable deal?
"Hazy."
"Yeah?"
"Want to see how high it’ll go?"
"What? The mission money?"
Yeah. One hundred and fifty thousand was too cheap.
What did that mean? Was she saying it was too cheap for her to feel embarrassed? Or just that the price was too low for some action? Whatever her intention, I had absolutely no intention of doing it for 150,000 won.
While watching the mission money slowly rise like that, we finished looting the factory. All that was left was to get in the car and head over to the ping Red-hyung had set.
"What’s it at now?"
"Now? Uh…."
"250,000 won?"
"Tell me when it hits 300,000. I want to break too."
"If it’s staged, what can you do about it?"
"Right! What can you do about it!"
When I said that to tease the viewers who were getting worked up, Si-a jumped in to back me up.
But thanks to me, Si-a had an easy time completing the mission, so wasn’t it only fair that she suffered a little?
Before long, the mission amount crossed 290,000 won and hit 300,000.
"Si-a. The mission money hit 300,000 won."
"Really? Then…."
"But taking it just like that feels wrong."
"Huh?"
"Still, it’s mission money the viewers scraped together little by little and put down for us. In that case, shouldn’t we pay a fair price for their wish?"
"A fair price?"
"Yeah. What do you think, jagiya?"
Right. It was money the viewers had bled for, so how could I try to cheap out like that? If you try to get away with something cheap, it comes back to bite you.
This was all for your sake, Si-a. Seriously, where else was there a streamer who thought this hard about their fake-marriage partner?
As I thought that, I touched my mouth with my hand. Huh, my lips were curling up. Good thing I didn’t have the cam on.
"H-hey, Hazy, you’re seriously—!"
"Whoa, Si-a, drive! Drive! The car’s flipping!"
"Whoa, that car almost flipped."
Since I’d gone and left the in-game driving to Si-a, if things had gone wrong, we might’ve rolled the car over and ended up walking the rest of the way.
Luckily the car didn’t flip, but our health had dropped quite a bit, and the vehicle’s durability was already badly damaged.
"Who told you to suddenly call me by a nickname?"
"But the mission succeeded, didn’t it?"
Anyway, we’d made it near the ping Red-hyung had set, but strangely enough, he was nowhere to be seen.
"Hyung, where ar—"
"Wow, this drama’s getting good."
"I think I finally understand why middle-aged women can’t quit weekend dramas."
"...Why are both of them dead?"
"We went over to catch the people on the ridge earlier and died."
"That’s nothing to brag about!"
No wonder it had been so quiet. Apparently they’d spotted enemies on the ridge earlier, gone after them, and died on the spot.
But if you were dead, why were you just sitting there? You should at least tell us something!
"How am I supposed to stop a drama halfway through?"
"Is there a next episode? Hurry up. I’m in a rush."
"...Can we still win?"
"No clue. That was Red-hyung who said that."
"...Red-hyung. You said we could win."
"I don’t know about first place, but I think we’ll get the couples’ award?"
"There’s something like that?"
"As if."
"Ha…."
In the end, it had started as a squad game, but as we played, it turned into just Si-a and me in a duo.
Still, we somehow kept it together, and before long there were only five people left besides Si-a and me.
"I’ve got the left side. Watch the person by the tree on the right."
"Got him! So that means there’s only one left?"
"Yeah. He’s at the tree straight ahead. The zone’s on our side anyway, so the opponent has to come in, and—"
"He’s coming!"
"Ta-dat! Tatat!"
"We won!"
"It was so hard with only the two of us left in a squad…."
"If you really want to assign blame, I think it was Hazy who split off alone at the start."
"Red-hyung. I think you might be right."
We’d won, but it was a mess.
Can we really win the tournament?
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