Chapter 66
Chapter 66
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 66
Chapter Title: Karma
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Karma refers to all the actions that arise from the thoughts and behaviors a person harbors in their heart.
And karmic retribution is the result that comes back from those actions.
Karma is the cause, and karmic retribution is the resulting effect.
Just as cause and effect chain endlessly together, accumulated karma will inevitably return someday.
Good deeds bring good rewards,
evil deeds ultimately bring fitting punishment.
Karmic retribution is, in the end, a price that will surely arrive one day—a judgment one cannot escape.
I too have piled up no small amount of karma throughout my life.
I visited an orphanage where children abandoned by their parents gathered, once a week, to soothe their pain,
and though it wasn't much, I steadily donated a portion of my earnings.
And above all, to ensure the gallery folks no longer suffered from those hate images,
I consistently built up their immunity.
All the good karma I've accumulated has returned to me as positive retribution up until now.
In streaming, I met Suha Yam—a senior colleague and mentor—and received tremendous help from her,
and thanks to all sorts of good luck, my channel has grown enough to at least keep the lights on.
Of course, negative retribution will inevitably come back someday too.
The ugly, cringe-worthy blunder I committed yesterday.
The karmic retribution for that very act—
💬 Live Chat — Viewer But seriously, that was so cringe, Saintess Nice... — Viewer Our Saintess Nice did great with the cymbals~ pat pat ㅜㅜ — Viewer Delete and dip lololol delete and dip lolololol — Viewer Saintess Nice, there's a summary post of your exploits on the Ias gallery!! — Viewer Eh, wasn't that deleted? — Viewer Who deleted it lol for real —had just come crashing back to me right now.
Clutching my throbbing head, I racked my brain for how to respond to the flood of chats.
'...Should I just play dumb and say it wasn't me?'
The gallery was an anonymous community.
Even if someone posted with my high nick, there was no proof it was actually me.
So... if I denied it, they had no way to prove otherwise—
Slap!
💬 Live Chat — Viewer What is this? What the hell? — Viewer This bitch slapping her own thigh again? — Viewer Mic's still on, huh — Viewer Don't ignore chat, bitch lololol — Viewer But why's donate off? What an idiotic thought...!
'You crazy bitch... Get your head straight!'
They'd already dug into my gallery log and knew for sure that it was me—Saintess Nice herself—who wrote that post.
If I'd blurted out 'That wasn't me?' without thinking—
'Ugh...'
Just imagining it sent chills down my spine; a horrific future was surely waiting.
Clutching my stinging cheek, I frantically spun my brain.
Since the slap sound had broadcast live, the viewers already knew I was there.
💬 Live Chat — Viewer Hey turn the mic on quick— — Viewer We didn't get bell nuked again, did we...? — Viewer Why'd you run away? — Viewer Saintess Nice, you embarrassed? lol If I didn't want an outright rebellion in the chat, I needed to come up with a plan fast and keep the stream going.
In the end, the response I chose was—
"Hello, everyone."
'I'm gonna act like nothing happened, so please just let it slide. I'm begging you, okay?'
—that.
Of course, as expected—
💬 Live Chat — Viewer lololololololol — Viewer Not running away, top-tier move approved — Viewer Saintess Nice lololol "The weather's nice today, cool breeze blowing—not bad at all."
💬 Live Chat — Viewer What the hell even happened — Viewer Sulking 'cause we didn't praise you? — Viewer Pfft.. pf.. lol It fell on deaf ears.
You rotten lot.
"Sigh..."
💬 Live Chat — Viewer (She's still bitching...) — Viewer The sigh lolololol — Viewer Contempt flip-off — Viewer (Anyone could mess up logoff) Yeah. I was the idiot for expecting anything.
These guys who curse and sexually harass me at every opportunity—they weren't gonna miss a massive bait like this.
Honestly, even I'd do the same as a viewer.
Which is why what I did yesterday was truly idiotic and pathetic.
So now I had to somehow salvage this mess.
"Everyone, I have no idea what you all want to hear from me, but..."
...Talking about 'salvaging' was kinda funny, really.
What the viewers wanted was to drag out my screw-up from yesterday for mockery,
and fill up on dopamine watching me squirm in embarrassment.
And the only way to end this was to take the mockery head-on.
It wasn't salvaging—it was just tanking.
'Well... this is my karma, I guess...'
Teasing others and getting a kick out of their reactions.
That's something I did to viewers all the time.
So yeah, this situation was fitting retribution.
"Probably 'cause of that post that went up on the community last night, right?"
Beating around the bush would just drag it out, letting the mockery pile up even more.
💬 Live Chat — Viewer Ooh — Viewer Big one incoming lololol — Viewer O~ Straight to it ⭐ Top Comment — Viewer God tier) Frontal assault ㄷㄷ "I'll get straight to the point—that was..."
If you're gonna get hit, make it quick and hard.
That was the survival strategy I'd learned from taking the most punches from Pastor Kim back at the orphanage.
"Yeah, that was me."
💬 Live Chat — Viewer lolololololololololololololol — Viewer Finally confessing — Viewer So cringe — Viewer Why delete? Why delete? Why delete? — Viewer Pfft.. pf pfft.. I could feel my face heating up.
No mirror nearby, but it was probably beet red.
"So... yeah, I forgot to log out too..."
Still, I didn't stop talking.
It was a desperate push to end this faster.
"So I deleted the post late... but someone had screenshotted it..."
💬 Live Chat — Viewer lolololololol — Viewer (Fuck why screenshot that shit fr) — Viewer Le—gend — Viewer Floater handles the big stuff for real — Viewer Floater launched a massive bomb The silver lining: by keeping my mouth moving nonstop, the embarrassment was starting to fade bit by bit.
...But there was one problem.
"I did it so... well.. but you guys are all just focused on the instrument..."
In its place, for some reason, a wave of grievance welled up.
💬 Live Chat — Viewer She's actually sulking lololololol — Viewer Uh... sorry — Viewer Why's she so cute today? — Viewer Was this bitch always this character? — Viewer No, if she was we'd have clocked it right away you newbies should've known Thanks to that, my voice got misty, and even that became fresh fodder for teasing.
After enduring that agonizing time,
I finally managed to explain every dumb thing I'd done yesterday.
...Of course, that didn't mean it was over.
💬 Live Chat — Viewer Got it, I'll praise you every day from now on — Viewer This bitch knows how to wring juice out of us... — Viewer Thought she was squeezing juice for a sec — Viewer lolololololololololol — Viewer Suddenly raging hard?? Wtf?? ...I know I messed up, okay?
At least wrap up the teasing in like 10 minutes, yeah?
That's my plea.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Making my hopes dashed, the viewers' roasting went on for a full hour.
My mental state was already shattered...
no, dragged around like a half-dead ragdoll corpse.
"Stooop... enough... stop teasing alreaady..."
The one saving grace—
💬 Live Chat — Viewer Ok, stopping the teasing — Viewer This bitch might pull out tactical nukes again — Viewer This is peak timing lol — Viewer Any more and she'd brain-break —was that they knew when to quit, stopping right before I lost it completely.
A bit longer and I might've actually cried and hit end stream.
"...Thank you... really..."
The moment they said they'd stop, a single tear rolled down my cheek.
How long had it been since I'd felt genuine gratitude toward someone?
It was like thanking the people who'd just beaten me senseless with, 'Thanks for not killing me.'
Whatever it looked like, right now I didn't care at all.
💬 Live Chat — Viewer Her defense is weaker than expected — Viewer No more cockiness from now on fr lol — Viewer Ah, feels so refreshing Ridiculous, but whatever.
They were finally gonna end this painful ordeal.
I could swear, that last hour was the most agonizing, grueling moment of my life.
"I'll never forget this kindness, everyone."
This humiliation—I'll pay it back someday.
💬 Live Chat — Viewer Yeah — Viewer Try cockiness again and see lol — Viewer So what's on for today? Sharpening my knife inwardly, I decided to just run a normal stream for today.
"Today..."
Something I'd been mulling since last night—
No matter how well I did, the praise never came because of my image problem.
To Ias players, I was just 'that crazy bitch who pulls crazy stunts'—nothing more, nothing less.
So even if I pulled off something amazing, 'Whoa, crazy bitch' always came before 'Whoa, she's good.'
That was the issue.
I didn't really get why they saw me that way, but I had no intention of carrying that stigma forever.
'Not that I'm gonna explain or anything.'
They say clearing a false accusation takes way more effort than getting slapped with one.
Rather than that boring, preachy process, better to reinvent my image.
As an unknown, hidden expert player no one's heard of...!
In RPGs, being a 'pro' basically meant—
Just having super high levels and whale-ing hard on cash shop.
"I'm gonna... run enhancements!"
Having sweetly taken the retribution for my bad karma.
Now it was time for good karma's reward.
💬 Live Chat — Viewer Ooh — Viewer Finally? — Viewer Wasn't the boss a gold farmer? — Viewer Come to think of it, her gear's been stuck — Viewer Thought she was selling rice lol — Viewer Wasn't... a gold farmer? — Viewer En—hance ◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ There are three main ways to grow a character in Ias.
First, gather resources and enhance gear,
second, equip accessories that match your specs,
and last, set gems to boost skill damage or cut cooldowns.
Of those, I picked the first method.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Anonymous donated 1,000 won!] [You've saved up quite the gold] "I've never used it once up till now."
Up to now, I'd hoarded the gold from playing without spending much.
Not for any particular reason.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Anonymous donated 1,000 won!] [You were gonna gold farm] "No, I wasn't?"
...I'd saved it for the worst-case scenario, as gold farm backup.
If the stream got banned again or whatever, I'd need rent money at least.
"All for content! Going for enhancement dragon balls today!"
Of course, no need to tell viewers the truth.
💬 Live Chat — Viewer Oh lol — Viewer Preparedness GOAT — Viewer How much is all that? ㄷㄷ — Viewer What day is it? Dopamine heaven Nice that the hoard could be stream content too—not bad.
"No more preamble—let's roll!"
[One-Handed Sword +12] Ias enhancements were a marathon of slamming into absurdly low success rates dozens of times.
Each failure fills the 'Master Craftsman's Spirit' ceiling gauge a bit,
and only when it's full do you get a guaranteed success.
Ideally, succeed before it fills up completely.
"Eh, enhancement level's low still, so this should stick quick."
Clang clang clang!
Boom!
Hoping for success on the first try is just too greedy.
Clang clang clang!
Boom!
"Next~"
Clang clang clang!
Boom!
Clang clang!
Boom!
"You little sh—"
Clang clang clang!
Boom!
"Yaaaah!"
Clang clang clang!
Boom!
...
Boom!
"Ah, fucking balls."
[Master Craftsman's Spirit 100%] 💬 Live Chat — Viewer lolololololololololololololol — Viewer Ceiling ON — Viewer Ceiling right off the bat?? — Viewer Already feeling good, Saintess Nice! First enhancement hits ceiling?
Something feels off...
Just my imagination, right?