Chapter 78
Chapter 78
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 78
Chapter Title: Not a Self-Deprecating Stream
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"From now on, promise me you'll drink in moderation, okay?"
"Yes... I promise...."
"Good. Then, why don't you sit here for a bit? You've worked hard, so let me give your arms a massage."
"A massage?"
Shin Ara finished her long lecture and pulled out an enticing carrot.
Unable to resist the temptation, I scurried over and hopped right onto her lap.
I hesitated for a second, wondering if I'd look like a little kid, but my arms ached from being held up so long— I desperately needed that massage.
The soft, plush sensation against my back and the refreshing knead of my arms. As expected, Shin Ara's embrace was as comfortable as a massage chair.
"Victoria, your arms are more toned than they look?"
"Really?"
"Yeah, looks like you've been working out consistently."
"Ooh."
I savored Shin Ara's signature massage while reflecting on the story I'd just heard.
Stripping away the miscellaneous details, it boiled down to me getting tangled up with some rowdy drunk in my inebriated state.
Fortunately, the only thing I'd done wrong seemed to be carelessly overdrinking.
But as someone who was basically a walking weapon, the mere fact that I hadn't been on guard for PTSD was a mistake in itself.
If I had to compare it, it was about as risky as a truck driver driving drunk.
The way Shin Ara had described yesterday's me as looking like 'John Wick' suggested she'd picked up on my dangerous side through this incident.
If I ever had to drink again, I'd need to be careful not to get wasted.
With that resolve, I decided to ignore the bottle of vodka I'd spotted in the fridge earlier.
"So, when are you planning to get back to streaming? You need to get close to the Morozova sisters."
"Hmm... I think after the holiday ends."
Of course, I'd heard that I'd consulted her about Irina and Yelena too.
I felt a little bad for making Shin Ara give me the same advice twice, but hearing her suggest bringing Yelena into the fold as a comrade put my mind at ease.
And now that I thought about it, Irina forgetting her memories actually felt like a relief.
After all, what good would it do to remember her sister's death or that horrific war?
It might even be a chance to fill her head with good memories instead of nightmares.
An Irina untouched by war and a Yelena unscarred by sacrifice. Getting close to such pure Morozova sisters didn't sound half bad.
"Yeah, rest while you can. So, shall we decide on tonight's dinner menu first? I'll show you how to use the grocery app too."
"Sure."
"But how do you usually eat around here, Victoria? You polished off all the Spam— should I order more?"
"Yeah, I like Spam because it's so easy to eat."
"Spam is a great ingredient. You pan-fry it, right?"
"No? I just scoop it out with a spoon?"
"......."
"Why? What's wrong?"
"I'll teach you Spam fried rice today."
"Oh."
Soon after, we started leisurely shopping via the grocery app.
I'd grown a bit tired of eating Spam straight from the can, so the new Spam fried rice menu piqued my interest.
As we ordered food ingredients, household items caught our eye, and adding those led to eyeing appliances too.
Just as the mounting total made me think, 'Did I overdo it?', a message popped up on screen, as if to curb unnecessary spending.
[Ttalgwi: ?Ttalgwi awake!!!!]
[Ttalgwi: ?And EMERGENCY!!!!]
It was obviously from Ttalgwi, who had just woken up.
Startled, we trimmed the cart and quickly finalized the order.
Then Ttalgwi unleashed her signature machine-gun messages with the main point.
I slid off Shin Ara's lap and read them.
[Ttalgwi: Sukka, did you go out drinking yesterday?]
[Ttalgwi: ?Your video's on the community real-time best right now!]
[Ttalgwi: You said your limit's one bottle of soju— why were you drinking vodka?!]
[Ttalgwi: The person sitting in front was your manager, right?! What the hell were they doing not stopping you!?]
"Ugh... She has no idea... I tried my best...."
"I'm, I'm sorry...."
It seemed she'd checked the community first thing upon waking and rushed to contact us.
I'd half-expected this from Ttalgwi, but I hadn't anticipated her blaming Shin Ara, so it threw me off.
This could make things worse between Shin Ara and Ttalgwi.
Thinking that, I hurriedly typed a reply.
[Me: Manager has done nothing wrong. I got wasted before she could stop me.]
[Me: And the one who took such good care of drunken me was the manager too. So if you blame her, Ttalgwi, I'll feel even worse.]
[Ttalgwi: Nooo... I wasn't really trying to say anything... ?]
[Ttalgwi: More importantly, is Sukka okay? Should we take down the community post?]
[Me: Yeah, I'm fine. Luckily, no one else's face got caught on camera besides mine. Doesn't look like it'll escalate to legal issues.]
[Me: Plus, I was planning to reveal my face soon anyway. Think of this as a teaser.]
[Ttalgwi: Ooh? You've fully adapted to streaming, Sukka!]
[Ttalgwi: Next thing you know, you'll ditch the indie label for a big corp one right after dropping the trainee tag?]
[Me: Exactly. I'm not an indie streamer anymore.]
[Me: ?]
For the first time ever, I capped it off with an emoticon.
Shin Ara seemed pleased with my defense, grinning ear to ear.
But apparently, the issue Ttalgwi had spotted on the community wasn't just one.
Even after wrapping up the drunken fiasco, her messages kept coming.
[Ttalgwi: Anyway, glad you're okay?]
[Ttalgwi: Hate to rush you, but you might need to return ASAP.]
[Ttalgwi: The full-scale war is progressing faster than expected?]
[Me: Huh? What happened?]
[Ttalgwi: Odessa's still safe, so don't worry.]
[Ttalgwi: But the German-Soviet front looks like it'll kick off sooner than thought.]
[Ttalgwi: Sending you two community links— check 'em out?]
Ttalgwi promptly sent links to community posts.
I'd thought the German-Soviet war was still far off, so this felt like a sucker punch.
Clicking the first link brought up the latest on the 'Maginot Line.'
I swallowed hard and started scrolling.
[Author: Anonymous]
[Title: French Maginot Line crumbling lololol]
(Frontline Archive full-scale war strategy map image)
German players acted all cooperative like "Let's use the Maginot Line!" but betrayed everyone lmao
French players are all piled up at the Maginot Line getting absolutely Sickle Cut Operated rn lol
Who else but Nazi Germany scum— so damn sneaky for real lololol
━ Lol sneaky's par for the course in war lol
━ France's 6-week survival campaign failed!
┗ Forget 6 weeks, won't last a week lololol
┗ Gear gap's insane ㅜㅜ
┗ They've been rolling King Tigers from the jump— how tf you block that lolol
┗ Germany's tech is numbah WOOONE!!!!
━ No black sheep picked France, right?
━ Enemy knows history so they flip the script lol
┗ Fact: Allied players used modern tech to crack Enigma codes too ㅇㅇ
┗ Cracking NPC codes? Meaningless— players just log out and blab lol
┗ Modern-ass WWII lololol
━ Western Front looks fun ㅜㅜ Pacific's total snoozefest rn ㅜㅜ
┗ At least you can eat a nuke— cheers lol
┗ Nuke-one-trick front lololol
━ No matter how players squirm, it's following history— chills ㄷㄷ
┗ Fr, troops naturally funneling to Dunkirk is wild
┗ Lol head to Dunkirk and Hitler gets dementia lol
┗ German players boutta ragequit from frustration soon lolol
┗ So what if tons of players? Commanders are NPCs lololol
[Author: Anonymous]
[Title: Stand at attention‼️ You too‼️]
(WWII Soviet enlistment poster parodied as Sukka fanart)
Sukka fanart parodying a WWII Soviet enlistment poster
※Legal roZ※ follow berlin77 ☞Ura Charge☜
Join now ☏➔ Messukki ♡in real life♡
Sukka calls! "Comrade oppas come to Odessa quick♡"
━ Wtf is this lmao
━ What the fuck lmao
━ Doesn't look legal at all lol
━ Where's the link? Where do I see it!
┗ Come to Odessa quick♡
━ Why Odessa of all places?
┗ You don't know Korean Soviet players are rallying to Odessa?
┗ Thanks to Ttalgwi and Sukka, Korean players massing in Odessa lol
━ Sukka enlistment poster drawn fire lolol
┗ Fr lol
┗ Look at our comrade Sukka so stern ㄷㄷ
━ France got rolled so Soviets next lol
━ Stand at attention! You too!
┗ Bastard... attention!
┗ Only one thing stands at attention for Sukka
┗ Erection♡
┗ Loli creeps went quiet after lawsuits but slinking back ㄷㄷ
━ Korean kids already flooding Odessa lol
┗ Joining after Ttalgwi stream lol
━ Why's my upvote look red?
┗ You're on Red Team now
┗ Join up NOW
"Uh, um...."
My head throbbed as I looked away from the posts.
I'd trusted Ttalgwi's links and clicked, only to take unexpected mental damage.
On top of that, the enlistment poster of me felt eerily familiar.
The composition and model matched the posters scattered around when I was on the Eastern Front.
Shivering at the goosebumps, Shin Ara— who had already saved the image on her smartphone— beamed beside me.
"This poster's really well done. Fanart of you, Victoria?"
"Ah, yeah... Gave me chills...."
Anyway, summing up the two posts: simple stuff.
France's Maginot Line was already breached, German-Soviet war was imminent, and Korean players were swarming Odessa.
Looked like enjoying the holiday to the end was out of the question.
Lips pursed in regret, I replied to Ttalgwi.
[Me: Starting streams again from tomorrow.]
My brief rest was over. Time to return to the Eastern Front.
Thanks to time with Shin Ara, I had no more hesitations.