The Grind for Maternal Love

Haram's stream had been running since early morning again today. Lately her broadcasts started at the crack of dawn and kept going until late at night, locked onto a single activity the entire time.

Throughout her recent streams, what Mizuame Akari had been doing was literally just mining. The moment she started Minecraft she would dive straight into the ground and never come back out, like a woman possessed. At this point the only people she'd actually met were Yeon-a and the guide staff—exactly two people.

The reason was obvious.

"To bring my little daughter here… haaam… ugh… this is the only way. Excluding gambling, it's the fastest way to build up assets."

Haram held up thirty diamonds, the exact amount needed for an invitation ticket.

"Eheheh… all done."

She spoke as if every last drop of energy had been wrung out of her. Feeling her shoulders screaming with tension, she ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠shifted her gaze to the chat window. The viewers were openly in awe.

They knew Haram's usual skill level, so the reactions poured in. She gave a small smile and flashed a V sign at the camera.

"Th-this… this is maternal love. Maternal love."

Haram turned on her translator and spoke with a proud little smile. Another donation immediately flew in.

The viewer asked why she hadn't just killed thirty bosses instead. Haram paused for a second, then broke into a bright smile.

"Want to watch me retry infinitely?"

The creepy expression, the creepy line, and the creepy translation. Viewers from all three countries shivered in pure terror and began showering her choice to mine with endless praise. Even mining for diamonds had taken forever thanks to her narrow field of view, falling into lava, and getting chased by monsters. Asking her to kill bosses on top of that would clearly be too much. After all, no one knew better than Haram herself that her control wasn't good enough to take down a boss.

While Haram basked in pride, the viewers thought to themselves that they simply couldn't bring themselves to tell her the truth. Hard mode, which guaranteed diamond drops, allowed team participation—you could literally get carried. And Kits had already taken that route.

"Everyone! This Tachibana Kits is about to use the glorious first invitation ticket!!"

She was preparing to use that honorable first invite.

Today, like always, I was streaming.

"…Hellloooo…."

The moment I came on, everyone jumped in asking whether I'd congratulated Haram and Yeon-a yet. I shyly shook my head.

"Ah… not yet…."

I still hadn't picked out the right words. Since the two of them wanted to keep this connection going for a long time, I wanted to do it properly. So the days had been spent carefully choosing congratulatory messages. It did feel a bit late, though.

"…What should we do today…?"

Donations exploded in an instant. I looked at the chat with slightly startled eyes. The chat was still full of people arguing about what game I should play. Watching them, I timidly raised my voice.

"S-stop…! I'll decide…! Ouch… I bit my tongue."

The metallic taste of blood filled my mouth. It hurt a little, but I opened my eyes again and looked at the chat. The fight had been perfectly mediated.

Seeing the chat finally calm down, I felt a small surge of pride. I guess I really am a pro streamer now. At the same time, a big worry hit me. What on earth should today's content be?

EoW… honestly felt too hard. There were way too many people who hated it, and it wasn't fun unless I was playing with friends. Minecraft, on the other hand, I genuinely wanted to play right now. Call it a childhood deficiency. Out of all the countless things I'd missed out on, this was one of them, so I wanted to try it immediately.

In that case, shouldn't I just follow my heart? If I explained the situation, the earthworms would understand.

'Sorry to the earthworms who wanted EoW…'

Muttering to myself, I cleared my throat and told them what I'd decided for today's content.

"I-I'm set…!"

Even now the earthworms were still going back and forth between Minecraft and EoW. Looking at them, I opened my mouth.

"Umm… when I was little, M-Minecraft was… really popular among my friends…"

The painful memories of those childhood days. While everyone else played because their parents bought it for them, I couldn't do anything. Whether it was because I was too young or because of the sorrow that kept trying to burst out, I had suppressed everything with fear. I wanted to wash those memories away.

"…I wanted to try it… so badly."

I closed my eyes as I spoke, then peeked at the chat with one eye. The earthworms were sobbing.

The whole stream was crying. And in the middle of it, I was the only one smiling brightly.

"Yay… I'm so excited… thank you everyone."

Truly meaning it, I hummed a little tune and moved the mouse to the Minecraft purchase page. I almost exposed my payment information in the process, but Yuna quickly warned me and I managed to avoid disaster.

"Th-that was dangerous… thank you, Witch-nim."

Everyone was praising Yuna. After a few twists and turns, I finally finished buying Minecraft, downloaded it, and about five minutes later—

"…Survival… difficulty on e-easy."

It wasn't the friendly server, but my heart still started pounding. I tried to calm my fluttering excitement and get ready to begin my Minecraft journey. Right at that moment—

"Eh…?!"

Was there some conspiracy among the popular kids to drag me in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and kill me? An invitation to the Minecraft server had just flown in from Yeon-a.