7. You're a Hacker!!!!!!!
7. You're a Hacker!!!!!!!
***
Muttering to herself out of sheer frustration, she found that at some point she’d signed up for a tweetie account and was typing in chat.
Amid the endless flood of messages, her own chat was buried and drew no attention.
Occasionally, some viewer would send her whispers full of insults, and she would fire insults right back. While she was typing away—
'Is this the fun of watching internet streams?'
The thought crossed her mind before she knew it.
Even now, comments bashing her kept piling up on the Another Level site window she had open on one side of her screen, making her blood boil.
But on the other hand, typing out chat messages picking apart the streamer called Hana one by one was actually pretty entertaining.
The streamer Hana seemed focused on the Arena and didn’t appear to see her messages, but that didn’t matter.
Maybe it was releasing stress that had piled up without her realizing it. Watching the stream was more fun than she’d expected.
"Rin. Rin. Rin. There's a viewer named Rin here, right? You've been getting on my nerves with your chat ever since the Arena started. How about giving me your Another World ID so I can see that oh-so-impressive skill of yours?"
Just as she kept typing, Hana suddenly repeated the nickname Rin over and over, and her hands froze over the keyboard.
Click.
Carefully, she moved the mouse cursor to check her own nickname in the chat window.
'Rin (rinhh)'
'Uh, um...'
Me?
No way. Isn't the ID "Rin" pretty common?
Contrary to her thoughts, the chat window began exploding with dozens of messages per second.
[lmaooooo she's really set on a public execution]
[If they don't show up when she's talking like that, it's a permanent IP ban, so they won't even be able to watch Hana's stream anymore lmaooo]
An IP ban—wasn't that the thing where they ban your regional IP so you can't even access the site at all?
Watching the chat scroll without pause, Han Serin instinctively felt that the person Hana was calling was none other than herself.
Actually, even while typing, she’d vaguely sensed that she was crossing the line more and more. The comments insulting her on Another Level were all vicious, and replying to them had made her own chat messages pretty harsh too.
"...Should I just leave?"
She thought about turning off the stream and simply fleeing the site.
The main reason she’d been typing in chat was frustration, so even if Hana invited her to the Arena, she never once thought she might lose.
But revealing a character that was practically her own self in front of 20,000 viewers made her hesitate.
She’d been holed up at home for days after falling into this world, not even going outside.
And now she was supposed to show herself in front of 20,000 people?
While she was thinking that—
"If you don't come out, I'll permanently IP-ban you from my stream and report you to tweetie headquarters as a malicious viewer so you won't even be able to watch other streams properly. I told you already. If you don't write your Another World ID in chat within the next two minutes, you'd better brace yourself."
"...Fuck."
She was taken aback by Hana’s sudden hard-line stance.
No, out of 20,000 viewers, why did it have to be her?
Even if she’d crossed the line in chat, there were others besides her. So why single her out?
All sorts of thoughts began swirling, and she wondered what to do.
If Hana permanently IP-banned her, she could just shrug it off and accept that she wouldn’t be able to watch her stream anymore.
But the malicious-viewer report.
The threat to sanction her so she couldn’t even watch other streams properly.
Those two things bothered her.
Now that she’d started enjoying internet streams, being labeled a malicious viewer weighed on her, and so did the threat of being sanctioned until she couldn’t even watch other streams properly...
'Then... wouldn’t that mean I couldn’t stream either?'
Even now, comments kept piling up on the Another Level post open on the other side of her monitor, where she’d been branded a cheater.
[fuck all of you just wait i'll turn on my stream and show you that parrying is easy as shit]
Dozens of replies had already been posted under that last comment of hers.
[turn on a stream my ass lololol the simp ran away]
[this asshole’s gonna be kicking the blankets all night lolololol]
[responding to attention-seeking dumbasses like that just makes them happy -_-]
[└ you’re responding too, dumbass lololol]
[cheaters and cheater-apologists are the same, both trash tsk tsk]
'Ah, no. That can't happen.'
She had to turn on her stream.
Getting branded an idiot by trash like that? She could already picture herself lying awake tonight, tossing and turning and fidgeting with her blanket.
Even now, she kept checking the comments on Another Level as if she were hooked on a drug. After this kind of insult and humiliation, could she really just let it go?
Biting her lip, she found herself agonizing over it.
Should she reveal her Another World character—practically her own self—in front of 20,000 people?
Or should she close the window and run, letting herself be branded a cheater?
Her indecision was settled immediately by Hana’s next words.
"Thirty seconds left, Rin. If you don't give me your Another World nickname, I'll permanently IP-ban you from my stream and report you as a malicious viewer. I'm a streamer with some pull, so I won't let this slide that easily, okay?"
Tap tap tap.
She began typing.
—My character ID is 'Rin (rinhh)', so send the invite.
The moment she entered the message and pressed Enter.
Click.
She’d gone and done it.
But she had no regrets.
Maybe she could prove to 20,000 people, right then and there, that she wasn’t a cheater. The thought even crossed her mind.
"Hey, Rin? I pressed invite, but it says you're not logged in. Are you sure you're connected?"
The streamer Hana on screen seemed to have checked my chat. After fiddling with something, she spoke with a baffled expression, and I realized my mistake and hurriedly typed.
Can you watch a stream while logged into Another World? The thought occurred to me, but that wasn’t what mattered right now.
—Ah, I'll log in right away, so please wait a few minutes.
The moment I sent that message, I activated the Another World connector.
Soon, the familiar sensation wrapped around me, and my vision darkened once again.
————————
***
Ding!
—You have sent an arena invite to user 'Rin (rinhh)'.
At the familiar sound, Hana was tense in the Colosseum.
She'd thought it was highly likely the person would just run away or, honestly, not accept. The current viewership was over 20,000—a record high—and she figured that unless someone was truly confident in their skills, they wouldn't answer her call.
But contrary to her expectations, the person actually gave their Another World nickname and logged in at the same time.
"That Rin person... actually accepted the invite."
She was still on stream, so she tried not to let it show outwardly.
[holy shit, they actually accepted?]
[lololol wow so it wasn't just bait]
[why is Hana nervous lololololololol]
[accepting the invite means they're confident lolol Hana looks like she's shaking]
'God, these damn viewers...'
Even if they could see she was nervous, would it kill them to pretend they didn't?
She was annoyed that they had to point it out.
Just as she was about to say something, another notification suddenly rang out.
Ding!
—User 'Rin (rinhh)' has accepted the arena invite.
Immediately after, a cluster of light spread across the opposite side of the Colosseum, and a single figure began to materialize.
Hana, who had been watching nervously, blinked.
"What the...?"
Hana stared blankly at the figure revealed before her and let the words slip out.
Apart from Hana's reaction, the chat window began scrolling faster than ever, as if it were about to burst.
[???????]
[what?]
[wait isn't that that character?]
[the cheater?????]
[holy shit what the hell why is she so pretty that customization is insane]
[wait is this actually real?]
And Hana was marveling so much that she couldn't even register the chat window.
The figure before her felt strangely familiar.
How should she put it? She'd definitely never seen her before, but there was a familiarity as if she'd seen her several times.
Was the character customization just incredibly realistic? Or was virtual reality simply amazing? Hana thought without realizing it.
A silver-haired woman.
Long silver hair cascading over pale skin was striking.
An appearance anyone would call beautiful. No, the customized character looked so realistic—as if she weren't Korean at all—that it seemed like she'd been modeled after some famous foreign model or actor.
A refined, elegant face. And atop it, an expressionless look.
'She'd be really pretty if she smiled.'
The appearance was so impressive that the thought came unbidden.
That cold, indifferent expression seemed to carry a strange aura, as if she had transcended the world itself.
Those unusual impressions gathered one by one, seizing her gaze as if someone had fixed her eyes on the silver-haired woman.
"Shall we start right away?"
Then the silver-haired woman's lips moved, and at the cold, beautiful voice, Hana snapped back to her senses.
With a startled expression, Hana pointed dramatically at Han Serin and shouted.
"You're the cheater!!!!"
At Hana's blatant accusation, Han Serin frowned and sighed.
"......I'm not a cheater."