A Hidden Master
“It’s the same game, so why does it look so smooth? Is this just how it is when you spectate?”
Dead Zone streamer Angler kept exclaiming in awe as he watched Woniwoni’s play.
It had started as one of those toxic guild-spectating videos that unfolded on pure impulse.
He’d come because four people were in the same room and thought he’d watch for a bit.
And just then, those four were bullying one person!
He’d been thrilled at the idea of milking it for a YouTube title like, “Toxic Guild Goes Too Far! Innocent Players Are Dropping Left and Right!”
But instead of seeing the victim get crushed, he ended up recording a scene where the victim, with absurd map awareness and insane mechanics, shook them off and stole the win.
That alone had already been satisfyingly satisfying.
But then.
The four who got matched against Woniwoni in the next round were now getting pummeled from the opposite side.
Bangbae-dongMadBat — 2 Kills, 7 Deaths
IllIIlIllI — 2 Kills, 6 Deaths
YourBoySucksAtGames — 3 Kills, 6 Deaths
MomI’mNotHacking — 5 Kills, 8 Deaths
All four of them were being beaten senseless and posting over-death stats across the board.
And Woniwoni, who was driving the knife in without mercy, was sitting at 15 kills and 2 deaths.
Is this an alt?
Otherwise, it would be unnatural for an account with no ranked history to toy with four Master-tier players like this.
The chat was overflowing with mockery as they watched those guys get helplessly shredded, but from the perspective of Angler, who was also in Master, their skill didn’t actually look that bad.
Games are relative, after all. Compared to someone else, you can seem clumsy, sure—but judging by their reaction speed and quick decision-making, they were anything but frauds.
“No, no, Master tier is good… ‘neither here nor there’ and ‘awkward tier’ are not the same thing. No, seriously. I’m not defending toxic players or anything.”
He’d come to roast the bad-mannered users, but since they were getting beaten all day long and happened to be in the same Master tier, he could almost feel sorry for them.
“Wow, who is this person? I think they might really be a Challenger alt. There’s no record at all.”
While the chat was busy arguing over whether Woniwoni was “actually skilled” or “just facing trash,”
“Oh, all four of them are moving at once. Right now Woniwoni’s standing in a spot that’s open from every direction, so if they rush him all at once, he can’t block it.”
In a relaxed quick match, it was a position that could happen plenty of times.
But if the enemy team was actually communicating, it was the worst possible placement.
Woniwoni was crossing a window-lined corridor with openings in front, behind, left, and right.
He got complacent because he was dominating the gunfights!
Angler was certain this time that Woniwoni had made a mistake.
He figured he’d die, then come back during the respawn wait and recompose himself—
But instead—
“Huh?!”
Bang—!
He boldly surged forward with a sniper rifle, cleaning up the rifle user straight ahead first, then spun around in one fluid motion.
Swiftly swapping between pistol and sniper, he canceled the reload animation.
And then, immediately—bang!
After taking down two of them, the remaining pair almost simultaneously climbed in through the windows on either side.
Unfortunately, there was only a single round left in Woniwoni’s sniper magazine.
Bang—!!
He dragged his aim over with that ghostlike precision again and planted the shot squarely into one of the two window-climbers.
Still, it didn’t look like he’d be able to avoid death.
In truth, the fact that he’d taken three of the four with someone just popping up beside him was humiliation enough for the enemy.
Just when everyone had accepted that Woniwoni was definitely going to die—
“Ah, that’s as far as it goes— huh—?!”
Woniwoni instantly pulled out a pistol instead of the sniper, took a bizarre, jump-heavy step, and dodged the first shot from the last survivor.
Bang bang—!
He cleanly escaped the crisis by piercing the enemy’s skull with a pistol.
“Uh, excuse me? What the hell, seriously?”
The kind of play that drew instant, unfiltered praise.
It was the sort of moment people often called a god-tier play from a fallen legend.
“What kind of movement was that? He was literally jumping all over the place.”
The game was already totally wrecked anyway, so instead of just watching, Angler desperately wanted to rewind and watch that scene again.
As a gamer, it felt like he’d just witnessed something unknown and thrilling—a strange sort of high.
“I-I really want to see this person’s personal screen… Ah, spectating has its limits, that’s a shame. I want to know both their perspective and the victim’s.”
By then Woniwoni had racked up 22 kills and 3 deaths.
From that point on, it was just a massacre show for bad-mannered players.
“Their reaction speed is practically beastly, isn’t it? Whether they’re holding an angle or breaking through, they always shoot first. Wow, seriously, who is this? Definitely a Challenger.”
Until the match ended, the praise for the mysterious player kept going.
It had started with forced hype meant for a video upload, but by now it was mixed with genuine admiration.
Before long, time passed, the team deathmatch reached its full 100 kills, and Woniwoni alone had recorded 35 of them.
“If you think about it, isn’t this some famous person?”
Like Angler had said, everyone was convinced it had to be an alt account.
Dead Zone’s main content revolved around ranked matches and guild wars.
Strictly speaking, there were guild ranking matches and individual ranking matches.
Top guilds often recruited users with high personal rankings.
And since most of those top guilds also tended to stream,
if this was a Challenger-tier player, it was highly likely someone had heard the name at least once.
“Hm….”
Angler knew that too well, which was why—
“Ha, who is it? Hard to tell just from the play. I’ll ask a Challenger friend I know.”
He smoothly changed the content and kept the stream going with a new angle: Finding out Woniwoni’s identity!
***
“Ehehe, that was fun.”
It had been a rare day of full-focus gaming.
I even got to toss one last jab before running off.
I couldn’t tell whether they even reacted, since their chat activity had already dropped off hard in-game, but the one who lands the final hit is the winner, right?
Whether it was in the match itself or in chat, I’d won completely, and I was relaxing with a satisfied grin when—
Friend Requests +42
Out of nowhere, friend requests started pouring in a few minutes ago.
“What the….”
Were those guys’ friends from earlier?
Maybe they’d reached out in a group because they couldn’t beat me in skill.
They really do have a lot of friends….
So that’s why they were all hanging around in a group of four—they must be popular kids.
Maybe they’d called in friends one by one.
I went into settings and immediately blocked friend requests.
That should have been the end of it.
Gift Box +55
“Eek.”
Most of it was cheap junk I had no use for, but the intent behind it was terrifying.
How mad do you have to be to send gifts at someone?
It was a method I couldn’t even begin to imagine.
Gifts to your enemy?
I’d be too stingy to waste even a hundred won.
Unless I had hundreds of millions sitting in my bank account….
Ah! Wait a second!
Then those guys were rich too… and popular too…?
W-what is this? I’m the one who won, so why do I feel like the loser?
With a pointless pout, I went into the gift box and hit collect all.
It was given to me, so there was no reason not to use it.
I’d just count it as loot.
Just in case, I also checked the sender IDs one by one.
Huh? None of their names are here?
SubscribeToAngTube, WhoAreYouSirNoReally, AcceptMyFriendRequest, and so on.
Not a single one had a sane name.
Changing their nicknames just to keep pestering me—what a grudge.
“Hik.”
Did I mess with the wrong people…?
AngTube? Was that the YouTube channel of the toxic guild leader?
Just in case, I searched for it on YouTube, but all that came up was a channel about raising parrots.
Gift reception was blocked too.
So that’s why a feature like this exists. It must be anti-terror protection.
My heart was pounding a little, so I went into a casual knife-only room and calmed my startled nerves.
“Let’s go farm the title.”
I only had a few grenade kills left.
Because of the unexpected interference, title farming took one more day.
After that, I lived in melee-only rooms for a while longer, trying to earn the final piece of the Weapon Master title: the Sword Master title.
Then a week passed.
It was during lunch, when I was all sleepy and nodding off.
“Hey, hey, do you know Woniwoni?”
“Who’s that? A Challenger?”
“No, just a pub-stomping monster, but the style is insane.”
“Pfft… dude, I could pub-stomp too if I went into quick play.”
“Seriously, just trust me and watch the highlights. It’s a whole different level—a god of pub-stomping, I’m telling you.”
“Uh, what is it, Woniwoni? Is this the one?”
Ears perked up.
“…?”
Did I hear that wrong?
It sounded like a name I knew had just been mentioned….
I swallowed the drool that had nearly slipped out while dozing and focused hard on the source of the voices.
“Oh, shit, what is this?”
“Right? I don’t know about skill, but the rush is insane.”
“Couldn’t even Challenger players do this in quick play?”
“But according to other users, there’s a high chance Woniwoni here is also a Challenger alt.”
“Isn’t there a personal screen? It’s all spectating.”
Damn.
My sleep vanished instantly, and I shifted positions to lie flat on the desk.
Wait, surely they’re not talking about me…?
A very familiar nickname was being tossed around by boys I wasn’t close to at all.
If I’d been an extrovert, I would’ve sprinted over and shouted, “That’s me! Wanna be gaming buddies?”
But these were the kind of guys who’d avert their eyes and get awkward the second they saw me.
For someone like me, a soul with strong loner DNA, they were a difficult crowd.
F-first I need to check for myself.
Not at school.
My phone wasn’t even a smartphone, so I couldn’t watch YouTube on it.
And I don’t want to borrow Se-yeon’s phone just to leave search history behind.
In the end, I just jittered my legs through the rest of class.
“Goodbye, everyone!!”
I raced home at the speed of light and searched my Dead Zone ID on YouTube.
[Woniwoni Downtown Highlights]
[Woniwoni Sniper Compilation]
[Weapon Master Woniwoni’s 40-Kill Hard-Carry]
“Ugh?”
They actually showed up?
The moment I searched, I was staring at thumbnails that blatantly displayed my nickname and character.
It looked like someone had spectated my play and uploaded it….
Why me?
I’m not that much of a big deal, am I?
I was born a casual gamer, so even in my previous life I mostly messed around in quick play, and the only reason I ever touched ranked was because I got curious and pushed to Master once.
Sure, I did it with a high win rate, but there had definitely been a wall at some point, and since it was just a game I played to unwind, I never pushed that hard.
My reaction speed has gotten a little better… but for it to be broadcast like some pro gamer’s personal screen…?
There were about seven highlight videos in total, so it wasn’t like I’d become some gigantic celebrity or anything.
“Whoa, what’s this?”
The star of the video with nearly 200,000 views seemed to be me, after all.