The Streamer, Huh
While I was holed up in a private duel room, grinding away for the melee-weapon title, I guess a few things had happened.
...That really is my ID.
For now, the likely source of the trouble was a YouTube video by that person called Angler.
Dead Zone had come out when I was around fifth grade, so it had been about two years now.
With the game fighting for the top spot among domestic online titles and the YouTube boom happening at the same time, the popularity of Dead Zone streamers had shot up as well.
Because of that, most streamers were running YouTube on the side, too...
Two hundred thousand views in six days?
There were even five hundred comments attached.
The video had been from a week ago, when I’d run into trouble with those Strawberry Yogurt guild bastards.
“Whoa, that’s cool. So this is what it looks like from spectator view?”
Because of the spectating delay, it wasn’t live, but I could still roam around the map freely and watch.
Watching my character dart around so briskly while someone else narrated it was... how should I put it?
“Heheh, that’s embarrassing.”
The praise just kept pouring in.
I’m not that good~ Stop it~ Stop it~
I couldn’t hide the corners of my mouth from curling up.
I really had been on point that day.
It was a match where I’d been baited with taunts, so I’d focused harder than usual, and it was a relief the result had turned out well.
If it had gone the other way, I probably would’ve ended up as some pitiful victim number one for bad-mannered guild scum.
Ah! Wait, then the gifts I got back then weren’t from the Strawberry Yogurt guys, but from Angler’s fans?
So there was no need to feel insecure about having no friends compared to those creeps!
Ahem.
The gifts from that awkward day could be used without feeling weird about them now.
I watched the twenty-minute edited video all the way through, then moved the mouse down to the comments.
— The character’s snapping around like crazy. How fast is that mouse movement?
— Great movement. Smooth, too.
— Kinda feels like hacks, though.
— Wow, that’s insane.
— At 12:20, you can see his body was leaning the other way. Looks like he just caught him on reaction.
└ Yeah, seriously, what the hell.
└ Watching it in third-person is a shame. If this were from first-person, he could farm highlight clips forever.
“Heh.”
There were a few comments here and there saying that even just a Grandmaster player in a quick match would be stomping beginners, but...
Most people seemed to like my play.
Maybe because I started out with brain-off, pure fun mode?
I was used to a reckless, full-throttle style, so whether I had a sniper rifle or a rifle in my hands, I always had the habit of pushing forward.
That meant I had to react quickly in every split second.
And before I knew it, I’d gotten addicted to the thrill of life and death riding on a single instant of choice.
Skill aside, it definitely had more spectacle than playing safely.
Maybe that was why people had enjoyed watching my clips?
I clicked every video with my name in it, not just Angler’s edit but all the others that had been uploaded in sequence.
While watching, I’d think, Oh, I’m kinda cracked!!
Then I’d read the comments and mentally correct myself with, No, this is wrong. Charging in is the safer decision, actually.
When the last video ended, I clicked my tongue.
“Tsk. That’s the end, huh.”
Did I maybe have a little attention-seeker in me after all?
It made my heart flutter when other people mentioned me, and I didn’t exactly hate it.
That said, I still didn’t want to step up and make a show of myself. I’d rather just sit back and eat whatever others served me.
After the viewing was done, I logged into Dead Zone.
The first thing that greeted me was...
Weapon Master (Woniwoni>.<)
“Yes!”
My hard-earned title achievement.
I could finally wear Weapon Master in front of my ID with pride.
How many people had I actually seen while playing the game?
There probably weren’t many who had the Weapon Master title equipped.
Hmph! My shoulders rose with delight.
Then I’ve gotta go show this off right away!
I clicked quick match immediately.
[Waiting...]
As always, quick match had a small enough population that I had to sit in queue for a while.
After about two minutes, I got assigned to a Team Deathmatch map and was wondering what gun to use when...
“Huh?”
Wait, me??
One of the enemy players had greeted me in chat as if they knew me.
I was that famous?
“Hey, I only appeared in a few YouTube videos. Hah, well, this is something.”
I’m not a streamer, just a regular person.
If you go to YouTube and look up Angler, there’s a video with two hundred thousand views, and I’m in that one.
“Hee.”
I couldn’t bring myself to type that in chat, so I just muttered to myself. But if I ignored them outright, they might call me rude.
Should I at least say hi?
Tap, tap, tap—
As soon as I finished typing, I hit enter.
Right after my greeting, the guy who’d spoken up first replied.
“……”
It wasn’t me?
My face started heating up.
Someone hand me a mouse hole.
I really don’t want to play in this room anymore....
Apparently there were two streamers on the enemy team.
Greeting people is just, like, a normal thing... It’s not bad. It’s not embarrassing. Yeah, yeah... But they should’ve called me by name from the start, why make it confusing, geez. And why don’t they answer when I greet them?
Thanks to that, I’d just become a polite young man who always says hello well.
My pursed lips and narrowed eyes drifted toward their nicknames.
“I thought you were good with a sniper? Why are you using a rifle?”
“Momoji... I’m good at anything I do. And in Team Deathmatch, it’s easier to rack up kills with a rifle than with a sniper.”
“Is that so? Why does that sound so unconvincing?”
“Heh, heh. This is my specialty, you know. I may be a bit of a doofus in other places, but in Dead Zone, I’m different.”
Despite Jeong Taeyeon’s repeated assurances, Momozi kept looking at him with suspicion.
And she had reason to. The two of them had first become friends while teaming up in a general gaming tournament.
Back then, Jeong Taeyeon had displayed catastrophic gaming skills and recorded finish after finish after finish, crashing out again and again in embarrassing fashion.
The two of them had written history with three straight last-place finishes, ending the tournament amid laughter and mockery.
“Hmm, weird. People who peak in one game usually do pretty well in others too...”
When they’d first been paired on the same team, Momozi had actually been happy, because Jeong Taeyeon was said to be a former Challenger in Dead Zone, even if he’d only dabbled in it.
That expectation had ended in betrayal, but still, she’d gained a new connection, so in the end it was a happy ending.
“What! Chat says Jeong Taeyeon is a Challenger who farmed empty lobbies! Is that true?”
“Ban that malicious chatter immediately. Right now I’m only Grandmaster, but our guild is ranked second. My sniper skill is heavenly-level, okay?”
“...Chat says the only reason you got into the guild was because of your popularity.”
“That’s slander.”
Though Momozi teased Jeong Taeyeon, it was only for the sake of entertainment.
She didn’t mean any of it seriously.
How good is a Grandmaster, anyway?
To a Platinum player, Grandmaster and Challenger were both beings from beyond the heavens.
Her heart was already pounding because she wanted to see his play as soon as possible.
After getting through a long queue, they were about to enter the match when Jeong Taeyeon finished setting up and turned back to Momozi.
“If I carry you, will you call me oppa from now on?”
At Jeong Taeyeon’s greasy line, she shook her head.
“Persistent, aren’t you? You really want to hear oppa that badly?”
“What! What’s wrong with that? What’s so bad about oppa? I’m older, and you’re a girl, and I’m a guy!”
“Oh, so I look like a girl to you...?”
“Hey! W-wait! Stop assassinating me! I’m just asking for the proper title!”
Giggling, Momozi went on.
“If I place first overall this round, including the enemy team, I’ll treat you like an oppa from now on.”
“Huh? Really? Oppa trusts that Momozi wouldn’t lie?!”
“Yep. But what if you can’t?”
“Huh?”
While Jeong Taeyeon was still getting flustered, she slipped the condition in.
“If you don’t get first place, I’ll just stop using honorifics. From then on, you’re just Taeyeon.”
“That’s a huge loss for me when I’m seven years older.”
“Sounds like you’re not confident?”
“What? Hah! Seriously?”
“Don’t go changing the story afterward. From now on, every time you see me, you’re calling me oppa. This is the land of proper manners, you know.”
“Yesss~ yesss~”
Judging from chat’s reaction, I could sort of tell who had the advantage.
He is my oppa, technically.
She just refused to call him that because he kept demanding it, and it irritated her.
It was nothing major, so Momozi had added a tiny little bet to make the stream more fun.
[The operation has begun. Eliminate the enemy and survive!]
“It’s started.”
“I’m being serious this round. I’m going full tryhard, so you handle yourself.”
“Yes, yes.”
Unlike Jeong Taeyeon, who sprinted forward with excitement, Momozi planned to stay safe near the friendly base and stand up and crouch down while watching the situation.
“Okay, let’s see from here.”
She hopped up onto a box, and sure enough, she could see Jeong Taeyeon charging ahead with fierce momentum.
“Oh. He really doesn’t hold back, huh? Guess this is his job.”
Momozi’s gaze flicked once to the back of Jeong Taeyeon’s head.
Then once to chat.
And in that one brief second, as her eyes wandered away—
Bang—!!
“Eep!”
“Eh?”
The first casualty had been born.
“Hahahahaha, what was that? You ran off all confident and then—”
“Ahem. I didn’t expect someone to be waiting.”
Even the second death was still treated as just an accident.
That was a common thing in FPS games.
Everyone had the same ammo and the same health, so even a master could get hit by a stray bullet.
But then...
Bang—!!
“Ha, that bastard’s been hiding in the same damn hole the whole time.”
“Hmm?”
0 kills, 3 deaths.
The question marks started drifting through the air.
“If I take that guy out, our team will have it way easier. There’s this filthy sniper camping over there. Hold on, I’m switching to my own sniper.”
“Oh, a sniper battle! Can I watch on stream?”
“Yeah, go ahead.”
Momozi immediately searched for Jeong Taeyeon’s name and went over to his broadcast.
The other side had already stacked up nine solo kills, so he was clearly pretty good.
“Let’s watch this high-level fight from a personal screen, shall we? It’s my first time seeing a really good sniper’s viewpoint.”
With expectations high, she focused on Jeong Taeyeon’s screen.
According to other people and Jeong Taeyeon himself, there were hardly any real masters in quick match.
So it was a good place to practice without pressure.
But there’s no way he loses, right?
He had already died three times, but those were with a rifle.
Jeong Taeyeon swapped weapons, then quickly vaulted over the terrain and took position.
He crouched and stood, scanning the enemy line.
In other words, he was peeking.
After repeating that several times...
“Whoa, that guy’s still there? He never changes position. That hole must be his home or something.”
Click—!
He aimed through the scope, then dropped it, then raised it again.
He kept bobbing in and out, going back and forth, engaging in a battle of nerves with Woniwoni>.<, who kept appearing and disappearing from the hole.
“You’re dead.”
At the end of the tense standoff, their sights met exactly.
Bang—!!
One shot rang out.
“...What the fuck?”
Jeong Taeyeon became 0 kills, 4 deaths.