The Seongwon Meme Lives On
Han Seongwon. A man in his mid-to-late twenties with a rather grandiose name built from the Korean surname Han, the character for star, and the root character, meant to signify “become the foundation of this star.”
Unfortunately, he lost his parents young. To feed his younger siblings he started part-time jobs in his mid-teens and graduated to manual labor sites by his early twenties. Still, government subsidies and a body that never once let him fall sick kept him from living in absolute destitution. That same health gave him enough free time for his one and only hobby—gaming. The best part of the day was rushing home after work and diving straight into games until dawn. Back then no one could stop him; he gamed all day and his siblings simply had to deal with it. Looking back now, it was foolish. I should have spent more time with them. At least the eldest found a job before I died of overwork, so the family didn’t fall apart. In the end, dying from overwork was still a miserable fate. These days the only person in the world who remembers him is me.
After reincarnating I looked up my old school and everything else, but nothing remained. More than that, the celebrities and historical figures were all different, so I figured it really was another world. That’s also why I couldn’t exploit any coin events. Anyway, the reason I’m telling this story is simple.
It’s because the dead Seongwon still lives on as a meme in our stream.
“Kya, absolute Seongwon.”
Here’s how it happened. It was sometime last summer. While I was gaming, an old save file containing a character named Han Seongwon got shown on stream. Before I started streaming I had always named every male character Han Seongwon. That leftover trace slipped through. The veteran me of today would never have made the mistake, but back then I was a baby VTuber of only six months, so it happened.
For a moment I genuinely thought the dead Seongwon was going to kill the living Ahyeon. But once I verified my old Pokémon account and pulled up all the receipts, they finally believed me. It turned into a whole UFC match for a second, but the authentication cleared it up. After that, whenever I named a male character on stream I proudly used Han Seongwon. Since no one else remembered him, the least I could do was keep the name alive. These days even the viewers know it.
“Wow~ Seongwon actually won this?”
Just so we’re clear, the current Seongwon had hunted a bear. The meaningful, deeply significant name Han Seongwon had been given to the pawn in charge of combat at our settlement. Our Seongwon fights incredibly well.
“Seongwon’s got a solid body, so he’s fine.”
He really did have a solid body back then, too. Looking back, it’s almost strange he never once fell ill despite how brutally I worked him. Well, those memories are probably what turned me into the mentally tough adult I am now.
Anyway, since we have meat, shall we try butchering it?
“All right, let’s go.”
For reference, Seongwon handles combat but also cooks. With so few starting people everyone has to multitask.
“Actually I can cook pretty well myself.”
“This fucker.”
Why does it adore Seongwon but only gives me a hard time? I let out a sigh. It’s unfair, but the reincarnated Ahyeon decided to understand.
“Tech? Well, we’ll take it slow. We don’t even have food yet.”
I answered the viewers’ helpful advice without much weight. The game had only just started—what house made of stone? The guide did say wood was fine, but we didn’t have the leisure to process stone yet. The reason was simple: Seongwon was also in charge of processing. His roles were combat, cooking, transport, and processing. He was so busy he never had a spare moment.
“I’ll play safely. We’re making traps right now, see?”
For reference, the point bet was whether we would survive until the end of today’s stream. Clearing the game in one go seemed impossible even with guides, so I planned to learn the systems while playing as safely as possible. Once I got the hang of it, if it was fun I’d keep going; if it felt mediocre I’d never touch it again.
Based on what I’d seen so far…
“Hmm, it’s playable at least.”
The game was, well, playable. Time flew by. Best of all, there was no fixed story. Games are supposed to be things you create yourself. What’s the fun in just following the route the developers laid out?
“How about building the house like this? Outer walls as a square, three big main paths, and the rest filled with smaller alleys…”
We had secured food by hunting the bear, so I slowed the game speed and started designing the settlement layout. First, square walls to make dividing spaces easy, outer perimeter left empty for patrols and smooth movement. Then, to simplify traffic flow, add diagonal paths as well and…
“Oh?”
Ta-da. A canyon was born.
“Is this convergent evolution…?”
“Right? It’s kind of pretty too.”
If I cut paths exactly like a canyon and placed cafeterias and living quarters here and there in the middle, it should work. After all, the League map is one of the shapes these viewers are most familiar with. There was no way a design based on it would look bad.
“Ah, a killzone—we definitely should.”
In Pawn World invaders attack the settlement on a regular basis. A spot deliberately left open to lure enemies in is called a killzone. Normally I would have scoffed at the idea and just armed the units better, but—
“This was the tower position, right?”
Since the concept was a canyon, I began building a pretty killzone.
“How about opening the opposite side like this so they come running?”
If I made it so the enemy rushes from the red team side like in League, it would look nice.
“Ah, yes, yes.”
Well, for that I would now have to gather rocks and process them into stone. The bright side was that our Seongwon was also a transport specialist. More than combat or processing, this was where his true talent shone. Just how many bricks had he carried by now? Watching him lug stones on his back brought back old memories in waves.
“Wow, nice work.”
“No, Wayo has to focus on research.”
For reference, there was also a pawn named Wayo. He specialized in research and medical care, so he stayed shut inside his room doing nothing but research all day.
“That’s because our Wayo is a late-bloomer type.”
If Seongwon had high base stats and immediately powerful traits, Wayo had been created as a late-bloomer pawn. As a result the viewers were roasting him mercilessly. Harsh, but I could afford to let them suck a little blood from him.
“Just wait. He’s the talent who’s going to feed our whole settlement.”
“Yeah I can’t hear you~”
For reference, Wayo had the eccentric genius trait. It gave fast learning at the cost of raising the chance of mental illness. That was something that could be managed with good care…
“Go Seongwon, fighting!”
As a result, right now Seongwon had to carry the logs.
“If you give it to me I’ll deliver it to him properly.”
…Anyway, the Seongwon moms. At some point—I’m not sure when—a faction that heavily biased Seongwon had formed. In contrast, Wayo received just as much hate. Honestly, I didn’t mind. After all, Seongwon was a name I once had. Wayo was just a nickname I had used for a year. Curse Wayo all you want. Kekeke. Watching viewers who knew nothing made me laugh.
“It’s nothing. More importantly, we should start the outer wall with stone from the beginning, right?”
“Yessir.”
Pawn World starts with exactly three units. If Seongwon handled combat, cooking, processing, and transport while Wayo handled research and treatment, then the remaining pawn in charge of mining, construction, farming, and logging was Nguyen. And this guy worked ridiculously well. Maybe he was the real hidden ace?
“Fuck off.”
Not to the point of marriage. Our Wayo was going to stay shut in his room doing research… not playing League.
While I watched Seongwon and Nguyen work at accelerated speed, a message popped up.
Invaders Detected!
“Huh? Where did that come from?”
The message meant invaders were attacking, so I glanced over. Markers showing enemies swarming appeared on the map. When I had faced them earlier they hadn’t seemed that dangerous. I could just dribble them with Seongwon and kill them…
“…Why are there so many?”
After rotating the map I was momentarily speechless. Because at the edge of the map, a whole group of hostiles armed with various firearms was charging straight toward us.