The Growing Broadcast

BJ Mia is young.

She started streaming early, so the career looks respectable enough on paper, but she is only twenty-two — still quite young against three years on the air. She never really stepped out into the working world before throwing herself straight into personal broadcasting, either, and the mistakes piled up fast enough that she has already posted two apology videos.

Even so, viewers keep loving her. There is no malice in those mistakes, and they are not some hidden true self leaking out; anyone can tell. There is no ornament on her personality. The way she is honest about her own feelings shows through without pretense, and that is exactly what wins people over.

Which is why I never once thought this proposal was a trap, or that some ugly intention was tucked away inside it.

"Interesting. I don't know the full story, but anyway — what are you going to do, Hani? Accept the one-on-one? Or turn it down?"

"……."

Answering was not easy. Mia is a BJ with a rock-solid fanbase, and that blunt streak of hers is famous enough that most people would just shrug and go, well, that's Mia. I, on the other hand, am nothing but a nobody. Today is day four of my stream.

Slip once and get on Mia's viewers' bad side, and running a broadcast from here on out is going to blossom into one magnificent garden of problems.

Still, if my luck holds, this could pull in a serious amount of attention.

It was a far ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bigger piece of bait than accidentally queueing into the same game two days ago — a match Mia herself had proposed out in the open. At least two hundred and fifty viewers. No. If it went well, maybe more than three hundred might actually tune in.

As if answering that hope, a translucent window slid across my eyes.

The moment I checked the reward, my mouth — sprung loose all on its own — answered with perfect cheer.

"I'll do it."

"Ooh. That's some nerve."

"I'll do it. That match."

Chat exploded where it sat.

Today was Wednesday. It was already past ten at night, so tonight hardly counted, and we set the date three days out.

Saturday, 5 p.m.!

On the Rift, mid lane: two games first on the same champion, each of us secretly naming one champion we wanted. The last game would let us pick different champions. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠First to a hundred CS, or first blood, would settle it.

"……!"

That single line set me burning even hotter.

Even so, I needed the rest, so I decided to turn in early tonight. I always had to look after my throat, and my period had landed on the same day besides. Lucky, I suppose I should call it — I was never the heavy-flow type, and the cramps were never that severe. I got up in the morning, washed, ate something light, and took my medicine; by around lunch, only a faint ache was left. Not perfect, but beyond any comparison with yesterday.

"Good. Condition's there."

My throat was in decent shape, too. I finished lunch in a hurry and turned the stream on. They say you row when the tide comes in. Going live the instant yesterday's challenge was declared would have been best, but clinging to what's already gone is just stupid. Stream hard from now until the Saturday match, and I could make the loss back easily enough.

The moment the broadcast came up, it was obvious a lot more people had favorited the channel. The viewer count climbed fast.

The newly added mission asked for seventy fan-club members, two hundred and fifty concurrent viewers, and a thousand Water Balloons.

And then, one astonishing fact. I had assumed that once the Water Balloons came in, the mission would clear and that would be the end of it. They actually take the balloons. The six hundred from last time — gone. Not one left.

If this is how it works, what am I supposed to live on? My employment record at the company has vanished completely... stocks?

People said rechargeable batteries looked promising, so I had put about three million won into them, and the other four million was split across semiconductors, green energy, and biotech. The brokerage account was returning a miserable 2.3 percent. I had made a bit of profit on a steel company in the first half of the year, but I had plowed every won of it straight back in, so spare cash was something I basically did not have.

Break the deposits I've got, plus the installment savings, and that's about three million won. Stretch that — three months?

Rent alone was five hundred thousand a month. Water, electricity, health insurance — was what I owed getting a little steep?

"Oh? I can cancel them?"

The worry over living expenses eased, just a little. Of course, I had no intention of canceling a mission if I could help it — I wanted the points — but if money turned truly desperate, there would be no choice.

"Ah! N-no, it's not that. I ordered something online, and they called, so I was trying to cancel. Sorry for taking a call in the middle of the stream."

I hurried to settle the chat and logged into Legend of League.

Current viewers: 220. The Saturday match with BJ Mia was pulling aggro, which meant what these people cared about was Legend of League. If I wanted to hold this number, I would be playing this game all day.

Good news. I had cleared a mission before the game had even properly begun. The list refreshed with a new one: three hundred and fifty viewers. In the meantime the queue popped, and the screen shifted to champion select.

"I like the energy, everyone, I do — but please, lay off talking down the support role. It's a game we all play together. It's better when it's fun, right?"

I left the chaotic chat behind me, and the game began.

The enemy champions were so mobile that locking Jargan already left a bad taste. But we had first pick. Nothing to be done about it.

"Renektong and Elison. That's the single most famous dive pairing there is."

"Mid's a given, and bot won't be an easy gank either. Jinxon and Lula — unless I'm counterganking a fight they're already walking into, anything I force probably won't amount to much."

I had to choose carefully. If I were Challenger or Grandmaster I could do whatever I felt like and carry without a thought, but this bracket was the ceiling of my skill. I could not do everything. In that spirit, I decided to take on a little risk.

"Lucky for me, mid and top are both moving well."

I skipped the potion and bought a single pink ward. The instant the game started I sprinted for the enemy red and planted it in the bush behind the camp, then asked top to understand: I would be playing around mid and bot. That pink ward, sitting in the bush behind their red, was an apology gift of a sort. Fortunately top had locked a tank, and had the patience to match — a far cry from your typical case of Top-Lane Syndrome. The viewers grumbled that he was lacking in top-lane sensitivity.

"I'll play by shadowing Elison as much as I can. If a window opens, I'll peek at a second mid gank. Just a light one."

The game began in earnest. I took the leash on red, hit level two, and slipped straight into the bush below mid.

Leblanc was still level one. She threw W without a shred of hesitation, cleared a ranged minion, and fished for a trade with Talon in the same breath. I stepped out of the bush like I had been waiting for her, and she panicked, juking upward to get away. Plant the spear and dash in now, and she would simply recast W and blink home. I held until the distortion was about to fade, then threw the skill, hunting an airborne.

"Nice. Burned her Flash, easy as anything. That's a big advantage."

The range had been razor-close. Maybe she had read the spear-Flash combo coming — Leblanc burned Flash clean and was gone. I did not chase. I tucked a regular ward into their raptors and bent my path toward blue.

"Elison's heading for red. Leblanc's Flash is down, so if we're lucky, we might even come out ahead on the top scuttle fight."

I cleared blue and the Gromp and dinged level three. In that span Elison had gone for a top gank, but I had hammered danger pings ahead of time, and Tamkench slipped away clean. The cost was a shoved wave: if we fought for top scuttle, Renektong would arrive much, much sooner. There was no getting around it.

"I'll just give top scuttle. I already said I'd play the bottom side. I can't ask him to bleed for it any more than this."

I danger-pinged the top scuttle and pinged my path toward the bottom one. There was time to spare even after their top scuttle would be gone. Through the ward I had dropped earlier, the raptors were still sitting there, so I pinged Talon to watch himself and settled into the bush below mid.

Sure enough, Leblanc cast W to bait a trade. Talon stepped up, just a little — and in that exact window Elison came out of the bush above mid. A Flash-cocoon, sharp as a needle. It hit. Leblanc glued herself to Talon and answered with E, stacking the chain. Most of her kit was already spent. This was the timing I had been waiting for.

Every bit as keen as Elison's Flash-cocoon, my Flash-spear combo drove in heavy. W and Flash were both down, and Leblanc went airborne where she stood. Trade after trade had left her health under half, so the passive clone popped out at once. She fled in a panic. Talon did not spare his own Flash, and he finished it.

Elison's burst had left his health just as thin, but the instant Leblanc went down, Triumph procced and the health came rushing back. Elison saw it, decided not to force anything else, and escaped on Rappel.

"Talon got first blood. Mid's completely broken open."

A mission had landed. And since the game had started, two more people had joined the fan club.

Points, stacking up a little at a time. And if I won the one-on-one on Saturday on top of that?

Little by little, just like that, the broadcast was growing.