Chapter 5
I’m translating the chapter directly into the required HTML format and preserving the chat/system-style passages as styled blocks where they belong.CHAPTER_TITLE: Minor Streamer
Broadcasts can turn upside down in an instant.
In most FPS games, players who use illegal programs, the so-called hacks, are treated like natural disasters.
Once people realize someone is hacking, they usually just think, Does playing like that even make the game fun? They report it and move on.
Put another way, it means there usually isn’t a normal way to catch a hacker.
Usually, that is.
What is an FPS game? A game about killing the other side.
So what does a hack in an FPS game focus on? Knowing the enemy’s position, or automatically aiming and firing at them. Those are the important parts.
"Wow, Hazy, that was insane."
"Whoa, what was that just now?"
"I just pulled the pin on the potato and didn’t throw it."
You know how grenades blow up four seconds after you pull the pin, even if you don’t throw them? I used that.
After that, the speaker went quiet again. All anyone could do was keep exclaiming in disbelief.
Whether it was the event broadcast chat or my own, the viewers were all losing their minds over my play.
It felt a little like that legendary game where a mechanical champion hid a turret fragment inside a ball of energy. I’d just run in hugging the grenade because I thought it would be dodged if I simply threw it, but somehow that had turned into a huge performance.
"Anyway! First place secured!"
"Wow, thanks for the mission money. Five million won!"
"Wow, five million won~"
"But should we make Hazy the MVP?"
Should we? Yeah, let’s do that. We didn’t really do anything anyway.
For a moment, I was happy just to be congratulated and handed five million won, but then the room suddenly settled on making me the MVP.
"Huh? Me?"
"Yes. You, Hazy."
"If you hadn’t dealt with the hacker at the end, there was no way we’d have won."
"Exactly. The mission only counts if we win, and if you hadn’t taken out the hacker, we wouldn’t have won. Hazy should be the one to take it."
But honestly, if it hadn’t been for you guys, I would’ve died in the starting village...
I couldn’t quite say that out loud, but either way, taking it all for myself felt a little too shameless.
If I had to compare it to soccer, it was like a striker who didn’t defend at all and still took the POM that really should have gone to the goalkeeper who’d suffered through the whole match, only for that striker to jog around lazily, not defend a thing, and then score the winning goal on a single counterattack.
Still, the three of them had decided to push me as MVP, so what was I supposed to do?
Fine. Then let’s do it like this.
"Then let’s split the five million won four ways too."
"Four ways?"
"Yeah. Si-a was playing too."
Of course I’d be getting paid for the event appearance, but we’d all played together as a squad and the mission had been on all of us, so I figured she should get something too.
"And out of the one million two hundred fifty thousand won each of us would get, I’ll only take one million."
"What?"
"Use the remaining two hundred fifty thousand to raffle off chicken or burgers during the event broadcast."
"I’ll take care of my own viewers separately."
"Oh, but when will the money be deposited?"
Come to think of it, I’d been throwing around promises without even knowing when the deposit would arrive. When I asked, they said they’d send it right over as a donation.
Good thing the money went in right away, so the raffle... six point two five million?
"Huh?"
"Hazy, what is it? Did something happen?"
"The full amount came through with the extra two hundred fifty thousand intact. Si-a, could you please check with the staff on-site?"
"Oh, yes, it went through properly."
What? I was still trying to make sense of the unexpected answer when Si-a went on.
"The boss is the one covering it."
"...What boss?"
"The Watch boss. He said to do the giveaway by drawing ten winners from each room, including the event broadcast?"
"So this actually went through normally?"
"Yes. And if you draw the ten winners now and send them out right away, they’ll verify it on-site, approve the payment, and send it immediately."
"Wow, that’s insane. I’ve never had anything like this while streaming on Watch."
"Me neither."
The whole thing had suddenly gotten so big that my head felt empty. What exactly was going on here?
So basically, the boss was watching the event broadcast and, feeling good about it, decided to splash out?
"Thank you, Boss! I’ll devote every ounce of my loyalty to you!"
"Pfft. The boss just heard that on-site and gave a thumbs-up right away. Looks like he liked it."
After that, we finished with a quick farewell and left the voice chat room.
"Wow, I have no idea what just happened. My head’s spinning."
"Ah, right, I should do the raffle now. They said to do it now."
As for the time limit, I wasn’t sure how long to set it, so as a temporary measure I made it twenty-four hours.
It felt better for everyone if the prize went to someone who’d been consistently watching my room, rather than someone who’d just followed one minute ago and grabbed it. From both the viewers’ perspective and mine, that didn’t feel all that great.
"All right. From now on, just type anything in chat."
Yeah. I didn’t think a day like this would come for me either. I just hoped it wouldn’t be a one-time flash and then fade out.
"Anyway, congratulations to all the winners...."
1,000,000 won
100,000 won
77,777 won
50,000 won
"Huh?"
Suddenly, mission-success amounts started pouring in.
Come to think of it, beyond the no-kill mission, there had been several other victory missions attached too.
But wait, wasn’t the no-kill mission supposed to fail?
"Thanks for hitting mission success! But why did the no-kill mission...?"
"My potato killed the hacker, didn't it?"
"Oh, really?"
So that works.
*
At the event venue after the broadcast ended.
It had been an event stream with a big moment in the middle, but because everything was handled smoothly as it went, the audience count had actually blown past expectations.
The CEO of Watch Korea was pleased to see the results exceed his forecast.
"Good work."
"Lucia, good work! You worked hard today!"
"You did well!"
"Ah, good work."
As Lucia greeted the staff who were packing up the equipment, someone walked toward her.
Maybe because the broadcast had performed even better than expected, his mouth was practically hooked to his ears.
"You worked hard today."
"Not at all. Lucia did the hard work. You did a great job."
Kim Jong-su, the CEO of Watch Korea, said that and handed Lucia several documents.
She accepted them wordlessly. Inside the envelope was a record of the total value of the gift coupons that had been given out to viewers through the raffle.
After checking the price and quantity, Lucia put them back into the envelope.
"It must have been a hassle. Thank you."
"Ah, this is the least we can do for one of our platform’s flagship streamers."
"Still."
"Then let me ask you something."
Why did you do that? That thing earlier.
At the CEO’s words, Lucia fell briefly into thought. Why had she done it?
Honestly, she couldn’t point to one single reason. She had just wanted to do it.
Right. She’d just wanted to.
'Then let’s split the five million won four ways too.'
'Four ways?'
'Yeah. Si-a was playing too.'
Whether he was just pure-hearted or simply had a very clear sense of fairness, even after she’d told him she was fine taking more because she earned several times what he did, he had still divided it equally.
If you thought about it, he should have been the one to keep it all.
It was the same in the game, too.
'Si-a, do you have a potato?
She’d expected him to at least narrow the angle with a grenade and tell the two of them to fire together, but instead he’d just pulled the pin and charged in to commit mutual destruction.
"I can’t even tell what to make of him..."
"Pardon?"
"Ah, just talking to myself."
Still, she had to answer the earlier question. Why had she done it?
Why, indeed...
"Because he’s cute."
"C-cute?"
After hearing Lucia’s answer, Kim Jong-su could only laugh.
"Wow. That’s a completely unexpected answer."
"I’m sure it is. I didn’t expect it myself."
"Lucia being the type to find someone cute, huh? If the viewers saw this, they would’ve had a field day."
"They’d just tease me about it. It’s not like it’s the first or second time, really..."
"At this point, you should just do a fake marriage stream too."
At the moment, Watch was full of fake dating content, the so-called We Got Married.
It was the kind of thing where a female streamer and a male streamer with pretty good chemistry would act like a couple and satisfy the viewers’ appetite for romance.
Of course, because it was popular, Lucia had received a lot of offers, but she had rejected every single one.
All on the excuse that it would probably be boring.
"Maybe I should?"
"Huh? Seriously?"
"Let me think about it."
Could be fun.
That was what Lucia said, but in her head there was only one word from after the game, circling again and again.
Carry.
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