Chapter 13
Chapter 13
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: It's Not a Self-Deprecating Stream
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“Let's call it a day.”
“Ooh! Yep! Thanks for your hard work! Then I'll head to Frontline Archive to review!”
“Why are you so excited about that?”
“......No such thing!”
I made plans with Ttalgwi for next time and logged out right away.
Thanks to the several hours of focused training, her form had become pretty decent.
Soon, the lid of the coffin opened, and the real world came into view.
I'd braced myself for darkness since the sun would have set, but to my surprise, the room was brightly lit.
Just then, I heard a presence and looked toward the kitchen. There was a woman wearing an apron, humming to herself.
The clattering sounds and delicious smells. It was Shin Ara's back, as we'd promised to have dinner together.
“Ah! You logged out? Dinner's almost ready, so just wait a bit!”
“Yeah... but when did you get here?”
“Hehe. When Sukka was beating Ttalgwi with the buttstock? Sorry if I came in without asking and it bothered you. I was worried you'd feel anxious logging out...”
“No. I'm glad you came. Thanks to you, Shin Ara, I felt relieved.”
“You still won't call me unnie...”
I struggled out of the coffin and headed to the kitchen.
Standing on tiptoes to peer over Shin Ara's shoulder, I saw meat sizzling temptingly.
She'd said pork neck, but it was clearly pork belly no matter who looked.
I showed my gratitude for Shin Ara's kindness by wiping my mouth.
“Looks delicious.”
“I made the green onion salad too? Can you eat that?”
“Yeah. I'm not picky. But how much did all this cost?”
“Don't worry about the money. I'm treating you again this time.”
“No way. Then I'd have to call you unnie. This time, I want to treat you.”
“......Just don't tell me how much it was.”
“......I'll put 100,000 won in your bag.”
“Aaah! I said it's fine!”
I ignored her desperate cry and slipped the money into her bag.
I hadn't checked how much living expenses I had right now, but there was plenty in the coffin.
Victoria must not have left debts behind if she'd left money like this.
Of course, it might be all the money she had, but I didn't want to hoard it while freeloading off Shin Ara.
“Damn... I have plenty of money...”
“You should save that money for yourself, Shin Ara.”
“Hmph. People without friends or lovers have no reason to spend money anyway?”
“Then we're the same. I have no reason to spend either.”
Soon, Shin Ara finished cooking and started setting the table.
Her duck-lip pout sticking out suggested she was sulking for not hearing "unnie."
Of course, calling Shin Ara "unnie" wasn't hard.
It was just that even saying it once might make me depend on her more, which scared me.
After all, hadn't I felt relieved the moment I logged out and saw her?
I'd already come to see her as a comrade, but getting closer would only make it harder on me.
The more you open your heart, the bigger the void when you lose them.
I never wanted to feel that horrific sense of loss again.
“Shall we eat?”
“Yeah. Thanks for preparing it. I'll dig in.”
Dinner started with Shin Ara's bright smile.
The menu was leftover kimchi stew from yesterday and perfectly grilled pork belly.
It was incomparable to the canned meat from the battlefield.
I hid my emotional tears in a lettuce wrap and devoured the food.
“But how was the game? It looked okay.”
“Mmph?”
“Hehe. Look at those puffed cheeks. You played a lot, so eat slowly.”
As I turned into a chipmunk, Shin Ara asked about what happened earlier.
Her gentle, natural question reminded me of her job as a psychological counselor.
I swallowed the food in my mouth and recalled the memories.
My little island, Maria. The peaceful, beautiful scenery there filled my mind.
“Hmm... It was fun, I think. The laid-back island vibe appealed to me more than reality. If you hadn't been here when I logged out, Shin Ara, I might've gotten depressed. I might've even logged back in to escape reality again.”
“Uh... That's happy and worrying at the same time. But I'm glad it wasn't scary.”
“Yeah. It wasn't a bad experience. If I'm feeling okay tomorrow, I'll log in again. I want to turn that island into Jeju Island. Cover it in citrus trees.”
“Huhu. That sounds really fun. What about Ttalgwi? She seems like a good person?”
I reflexively took a sip of water at the follow-up question.
The blonde, pretty streamer, Ttalgwi. Thinking of her face made me feel stifled.
Not that I remembered her as a bad person.
She was just too inexperienced to be a comrade I'd take to the battlefield.
“She seems to think war is just a game. She definitely wouldn't last an hour in real combat. She doesn't get that you have to kill the enemy to survive.”
“Uh... But shouldn't you understand that, Sukka? She hasn't been possessed like you. She'll see war as just a game.”
“Oh, right... But games and war are the same... Die and you lose, lose and it's over... I don't want to see people I know die...”
“Ah... So that's why you trained her so hard? You wanted her to not die in the game?”
“Yeah... But thinking back, I was too rude... She and her viewers are probably cursing me out right now...”
Remembering how arrogant and clueless I'd been, regret hit me late.
I'd taught her thinking it'd help, but I hadn't considered her feelings at all.
Even an FPS expert streamer would hate being over-immersed like that.
Teaching someone as a crazy bitch from the start might've been wrong.
“Hehe... I don't think so?”
But Shin Ara didn't seem to think that.
When I gave her a what-do-you-mean look, she fiddled with her smartphone for a bit before continuing.
“You'll know when you see this.”
I set down the lettuce I'd been picking at.
Then I wiped my hands and took her smartphone.
An internet broadcast was on the screen.
It was Ttalgwi's stream, the one I'd been with just moments ago.
《Did you see that?! This is textbook close-quarters combat from Sukka-nim, you punks!》
『LOL this worksㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ』
『One-shot instructor is insaneㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ』
『Wtf is Sukka's dealㅋㅋㅋㅋ She turned Ttalgwi humanㅋㅋㅋㅋ』
《Confirming the kill like it's habit!!!!》
『ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋPsychoㅋ』
『Using what she learned so wellㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ』
『LOL Tell her corpse mannersㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ』
【User ㅇㅇ donated 1,000 coins!】
〔10,000 coins per kill with the combat knife?〕
《Knife mission?! Okay! Hold on! I'll show you exactly what I learned!》
『You got this?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ』
『You only learned dying to knivesㅋㅋㅋ』
『ㄹㅇ If she pulls this off, instructor certifiedㅋㅋㅋ』
“Uh...”
The stream's vibe was completely different from what I'd expected.
Ttalgwi, playing Frontline Archive, was busy praising me, and the viewers were agreeing with her.
She even followed the combat style I'd taught her well.
In front of me, she'd only hesitated, but against other players, she was ruthless.
Of course, she still had many careless moves that looked risky.
But back in her home turf, Ttalgwi wasn't as weak as I'd thought.
Knowing I'd helped her eased my gloomy mood a bit.
I smiled faintly as I watched the censored combat stream for a while.
《What?! How do you even die to a knife!!》
Of course, my face soured at the scene where she died pointlessly for donation money.
“How about it? Was Sukka getting hated like you thought?”
“No. They all loved it. Thanks for showing me on purpose.”
I answered more brightly and handed the smartphone back to Shin Ara.
She said to wait a sec and fiddled with it again.
She must have something else to show me.
Thinking that, I waited quietly, and she handed it back with a smile.
“Look at this too. I checked earlier—no one hates Sukka.”
What appeared was posts from the 'Frontline Archive Gallery.'
Bad memories surfaced, so I made a skeptical face, but Shin Ara urged me to read, even scooting next to me.
If she was pushing this hard, there must be a good reason.
Gathering courage, I started reading the posts following her finger.
[Author: ㅇㅇ]
[Title: Smash the heads of the idiots calling Sukka a cheater]
(Sukka clip hunting pheasants and rabbits in Maria)
This is the shot accuracy in a no-cheat healing game
Anyone still calling this cheating is blind or brainless
One clip blew away all cheater suspicions—totally fell for her
━ Isn't that theoretically possible?
┗ Theory bro appears again lolㅋㅋㅋ
┗ Then you do it, psychoㅋㅋㅋ
━ ㄹㅇ Convinced no cheat after seeing this
━ And it's not a shotgun, bolt-action rifle tooㄷㄷ
━ But Maria has no cheats confirmed?
┗ Healing game, no one uses cheats? No demand, so no devs make 'em? Can't use even if you want?
┗ Could be her own cheat;;
┗ Crazy?
┗ Just aggro, don't feed it
━ Perfect debunking that crushes cheater noobs' heads imo
┗ Agreed, from now on Frontline Archive cheat suspicions debunked with rabbits and pheasants
━ Totally fell for her... Want her as daughter and wife...
┗ Bro?
┗ Hey? That's my wife?
[Author: ㅇㅇ]
[Title: Guess Sukka really is a war victim]
Saw her stream today—confirmed she's a war victimㄷㄷ
Character looked vaguely exotic, turns out she really lived in Russia or something
Trauma from Russian war, so pitifulㅜㅜ
Apologize if you accused her of faking panic
━ But victim or perpetrator? Could've been a soldier fighting?
┗ Wtf? Soldiers automatically perpetrators? Everyone but war starters are victims
┗ Her combat looks trained thoㄷㄷ
┗ Liked FPS before war... Combat from FPS games probably...
┗ Ttalgwi said 2k hours, called newbie lolㅋㅋ FPS vet makes senseㅋㅋ
━ But Sukka never said she's Russianㅋㅋ Watch your mouthsㅋㅋ
┗ ㄹㅇ These half-assed detectives gonna stir shit
┗ Don't dig into sides
┗ But relaxing with Mosin-Nagant screams Soviet?ㅋㅋㅋ
┗ Lol sit don't standㅋㅋㅋ
┗ Sit down! You too!
━ No need to fake for viewers anywayㅋㅋ Camo cream off, she's fkn gorgeousㅋㅋ
┗ ㄹㅇ Russian doll beauty melted me
┗ Matryoshka?
┗ Psycho that's the endless nesting dollㅋㅋ
┗ True Russian traditional dollㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
[Author: ㅇㅇ]
[Title: Sukka's just fkn cute]
(Sukka photo relaxing with Mosin-Nagant)
Didn't notice in Frontline Archive but no camo cream = adorableㅋㅋㅋ
Face alone makes controversies irrelevantㅋㅋㅋㅋ
━ Yeah~ heavy makeup~
┗ She said just blemish removal
┗ Who believes thatㅋㅋㅋㅋ
┗ Auntie... customization starts from real face... Don't hate cuz original looks young/pretty...
┗ I'm a dude?
━ Fact: That face gets 100% customization pass
┗ ㄹㅇ Think custom like that is easyㅋㅋㅋ
┗ Even VTuber tier topㅋㅋㅋ
┗ Probably rlly pretty irl too
━ But looks too young? Short, middle schooler vibeㄷㄷ
┗ That's the appeal?
┗ Farm or slender?
┗ Sloooowㅋㅋ
“Sukka. Let's pretend we didn't see the last post.”
“Yeah... Better that way...”
I nodded, looking at the goosebumps on my arms.
I didn't even want to react to comments that felt like praise or mockery.
Still, the previous posts weren't bad at all.
Seeing everyone believe and defend me made me pretty happy.
“Sukka's responses worked perfectly, I guess. Everyone's dropping suspicions and being cautious.”
“Thanks to your advice, Shin Ara.”
Even the controversies around me had mostly cleared up.
Cheat suspicions, sniping suspicions, faking suspicions—all faded after the collab with Ttalgwi.
I should thank Ttalgwi later.
As I thought that and smiled faintly, Shin Ara, browsing the gallery, widened her eyes like she'd found something fun.
“Huh? I was curious about this too!”
“What is it?”
I peered into the smartphone following Shin Ara's gaze.
Another post about Sukka was up.
[Author: ㅇㅇ]
[Title: But what did Sukka say to Ttalgwi?]
Ttalgwi wasn't getting it so she said something foreign
Like "Bling Sukka?" or whatever tf that means?
━ Fucking bitch
┗ Why curse outta nowhere psycho
┗ No... "Blin Sukka" means "fuck bitch"...
┗ Wtf
┗ So Sukka means bitch?
┗ Yeah bitch dog bitch etc search "Сука"
┗ You calling our Sukka bitch?
┗ No psychos Sukka literally means bitchㅋㅋㅋㅋ
┗ How's a streamer named bitchㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
“Uh...”
Shin Ara finished reading with a blank look.
She quietly set the smartphone down and picked up more pork belly.
Feeling like I'd sinned for no reason, my shoulders hunched.
As I poked at the pork belly, Shin Ara awkwardly smiled and fed me a wrap.
“V-Victoria. It'll get cold if you don't eat. I'll make you one.”
“Ah, yeah... Thanks...”
Shin Ara, who'd called me Sukka moments ago.
She started calling me Victoria again.