Chapter 61
Chapter 61
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 61
Chapter Title: No Intention Whatsoever of Becoming a Mom
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[Saintess Nice: Wake up~] The preliminaries for the Ias PVP tournament—nicknamed the ICK—were finally right around the corner.
All the combos and team coordination we'd prepared were finally going to see the light of day.
Oh, and just so you know, ICK isn't the official name.
It originally had a different one, but—
📰 Ias Gallery Title: Whoever named this tournament a total boomer? — Anon
— Anon 'Ias: Immortal Battlefield' isn't that some total boomer vibe? Just rip off LCK and call it ICK instead. You guys love copying shit from everywhere anyway. — Anon The dude who suggested that title, the planner who picked it, and the exec who approved it—they're all the same. — Anon ↳ Reply Devs said it themselves, but they're swamped swapping out staff rn. — Anon Even so, no time to come up with a proper title? — Anon ↳ Reply Maybe the higher-ups actually liked that title. — Anon Guess I'll just call it ICK too. Unable to overcome the unique boomer vibe of the original title, the players ended up pioneering their own new name: ICK.
I knew Ias had a pretty wide age range of players,
but if even they felt repulsed by it... yeah, the title was definitely the problem.
What did I think?
⭐ Top Comment — Saintess Nice Title: Holy shit, this tournament name is legendary. What kind of question is that.
Obviously it sucked.
Truth be told, the title didn't matter to me one bit.
The reason I entered the tournament wasn't—
Because I loved PVP content,
or to revive the dying Ias,
or to boost my stream's scale on this occasion.
My reason for entering was simple.
The Ias custom PC prize for making it to the finals.
If I could snag that PC, I'd never have to stream from this godforsaken PC bang again!
"...Sigh."
Of course, until then, I'd have no choice but to tough it out here.
[But Min-ji, you gonna keep streaming from the PC bang forever?] Truth be told, if I spent the money I'd saved from streaming so far, I could probably afford a decent streaming PC.
But,
[Sis! I want pizza today!] The weekly expenses for the orphanage kids were bigger than expected.
It started out of a vague sense of duty, just stepping into Lee Min-ji's shoes.
[Tasty?] What can I say... watching those kids gradually warm up to me started feeling oddly rewarding.
For a shitposting high-nick troll like me, feeling this way.
Maybe becoming Lee Min-ji had stirred up some maternal instincts toward them.
...Well, I'm a woman now, so it could happen.
Not that I have any intention whatsoever of becoming a mom.
Anyway.
Because of that, saving up enough for a streaming PC was always a struggle.
If my stream grew bigger, things might change, but for now, it was a pipe dream.
"Urgh... Haaah..!"
I did some light stretching to loosen up and opened the door to my personal room, which was basically my office by now.
The familiar smell, the familiar air.
Whirr!
I sat down and flicked the power button with my fingertip.
The fans whirred to life soon after, the computer breathing deeply like it was waking from a deep sleep.
While waiting for it to load, my eyes caught a small bag of snacks next to the keyboard.
[A gift for our loyal customer!] It was a bag of chocolate snacks with a fluorescent sticky note attached.
"Oh, another one."
The part-timers had started giving me these little perks pretty recently.
At first, I worried maybe one of them had a crush on me...
But seeing the female part-timer do it too washed those worries away.
[Oh, that? Boss told us to do it...] Couldn't hold back my curiosity and asked, and turns out it was the PC bang owner's orders.
Makes sense. If I were him, I'd toss a bag of snacks to a regular who shows up every day.
Especially one who doesn't just game but eats their meals here too.
[And... when you're here, more people show up— Ah, forget I said that.] Seemed like there was more to it, but that's probably just staff business.
Once I get my own PC, I won't be coming back anyway, so no need to pry.
I tore open the chocolate snack bag, chomped a big bite, and used the mouse to download streaming software.
PC bangs are great and all, but this is the downside.
Shut down the PC once, and all your custom settings vanish.
That's why I had to redo my entire stream setup every single visit. Total hassle.
'Well, that's just how PC bangs work.'
I'm the weird one for streaming from a place like this.
So who am I to blame.
[Saintess Nice: PC bang arrival] [Suha Yam: We're about to start up too, turn yours on when ready] [Eder: Prelims start at 3, right?] [Suha Yam: Yep] Glanced at the time: 2:30 PM.
Thirty minutes until prelims, but
with setup from scratch, it felt tight.
[Installation complete] Once the software downloaded, I hurriedly set everything up one by one.
Mic volume, chat window position, every little detail.
[PM | 02:51] Finally inputted the stream title, checked the time once more, and hit start.
[Saintess LIVE ON: Imㅋmortalㅋ Fieldㅋ Preㅋlims] ——
I'd posted a notice about the ICK prelims on the Saintess gallery first,
but
-Wtf why start so early today?
-? Already prelims?
-Title's way too boomer lmao
-Saintess
-Real boomer energy fml
Were Koreans just ignoring announcements as usual?
The viewers were baffled why I went live so early.
Makes sense.
The buzz around ICK among Ias players was basically—
'RPG devs wasting money on a pointless PVP tourney.'
Nothing more, nothing less.
That said, with big-name streamers like Suha joining en masse, even non-Ias players had built up some interest.
However,
[Official channel broadcast starts from finals] That one line killed any hype for prelims from the get-go.
Still, I didn't expect this level of apathy.
'Is Ias really done for?'
My goal was the PC, sure, but a dead game wouldn't help.
As a pro Ias streamer, that meant my rice bowl shattering.
No one was covering orphanage snacks or rent but me, so I had to avoid that future at all costs.
[Viewers: 159] "Ah ah— can you hear me?"
Not enough viewers yet, but I couldn't wait longer.
Today was more about focusing on the ICK prelims than streaming.
-yy
-Clear
-Hear ya
-What's today?
I only turned it on as a side thing.
"Yeah, it's the PVP tournament prelims today. Posted it on the fan community, but you guys missed it?"
-Yeah
-Host has a fan community??
-Oh prelims today huh
-No idea
As expected, tons ignored the notice.
Probably 'cause I posted on Saintess gallery,
so non-gallery viewers never saw it.
"Posted on Saintess gallery, but yeah, if you don't check it, you'd miss it."
Galleries guarantee anonymity,
so some folks avoid the toxic vibe altogether.
"I'll post on my personal channel from now on."
As a gallery addict myself, I hadn't considered that.
[Anon donated 1,000 KRW!] [That was the fan community? Thought not 'cause it's all host hate] "Ah."
Right.
Common sense-wise—
'Wanna punch Saintess's belly fat so bad'
'Upvote if host's voice is hot'
'This bitch practicing cap kicks for fanmeet'
Stuff like that as concept posts?
Yeah, weird to call it a fan community.
I'm used to it, but normies would be shocked.
Especially 'punch the belly fat'—it posts daily as concept.
If I ever do a fanmeet, guess I'll need abdominal guards.
'At least it's not a knife.'
Won't die from a fist, better than blades.
-Gallery's always just host hate anyway
-Chat here's not much different tbh..
-Y'all hate on host hard too lol
Oh, fighting again.
Lately my chat was a warzone between newbies and vets.
New inflows: 'Why so aggressive?'
Vets: 'This is how it is, gtfo noobs.'
Honestly, bigger audience is great for me.
More viewers, more cash, real growth vibes.
But I couldn't ditch the savage atmosphere.
A troll paradise where viewers and streamer shitpost freely without restraint.
That was my ideal, my shitpostopia.
[Moon Eyes: Huh? Sudden?] [Grape Candy: Ooh fun, leave it to me!] Eventually, I made some end-gallery high-nicks who watched often into mods for chat management.
-(Moon Eyes) Noob bashing + in-law shit = perma ban
-okok
-^^7
-Got it
Grape Candy seems sketchy... but Moon Eyes tries hard.
Have to trust 'em.
"Anyway, for those who missed the notice: Ias PVP prelims today."
-ok
-Guessed from title
-Eder + Saintess = finals guaranteed?
"Might not check chat much during, and donations off, so heads up."
[Anon donated 100,000 KRW!] [Turㄴ ing dona off alr?] -Wtf does that say?
-This guy's mad af
-Typos lol
-Raced here hearing donations off
I eyed the half-typed donation and tugged at my sweatpants waistband.
Let's see...
"White."
-ㅗㅜㅑ ㅗㅜㅑ ㅗㅜㅑ
-Th.. that's not showing it..
-Always white or black
Ignoring the exploding chat, I quietly DM'd Suha.
[Saintess Nice: I'm on] [Suha Yam: We're ready, hop in Discord] [PM | 02:58] Two minutes till prelims.
Time to get ready.
——
[Eder: Everyone join this DisXord channel] [Eder: Don't broadcast it on stream!] [Ias: Immortal Battlefield Official DisXord]
Clicked Eder bro's link, and there was the server with about 500 people.
Voice channels crammed on the left, tournament rules lined up in chat.
Even an idiot could tell this was participants-only.
Since Eder was team lead, ops probably sent invites his way only.
[Eder: Join voice channel 21] Ding!
Ding!
"Ah, everyone hear me?"
"Yeah, hearing you, oppa."
"Hearing you."
Right after Suha joined behind me—
Ding!
One more person entered.
GM prefix on the nick—definitely ops.
["Hello, Ias players. I'm GM Rio, handling Immortal Battlefield tournament."] 'Yup.'
["Ah, hello!"] ["Hi Rio!"] ["Before prelims, quick rules rundown—"] The GM named Rio started politely briefing the rules.
Fair play violations = forfeit,
Prelims are best-of-3 single elimination,
Teams must stay in voice channels, etc.
["Team 'Nice Squad's first prelim opponent: Team 'Our Game Lives On'."] Done with brief, straight to matches.
Friendly but oddly robotic tone.
With so few ops for all entrants, he sounded out of breath chaining rooms.
Poor guy hopping solo, but not my problem, so meh sympathy.
["Map pick first: rock-paper-scissors between team captains. I'll count in chat—throw on '1'."] [GM Rio: 3......] [GM Rio: 2......] [GM Rio: 1......] [Eder: Rock] [Soira: ㅃㅃㅃㅃㅃㅃㅃㅃㅃㅃㅃㅃㅃ] [Eder: Ah] [Soira: ㅋㅋ] [Suha Yam: Ah this...] [Saintess Nice: Captain skill gap brutal] [Suha Yam: Fr] [Eder: ...] We lost this one.