Playing the Game I'd Been Waiting For.
Playing the Game I'd Been Waiting For.
We took the elevator up to the 40th floor, and two Hanseong bodyguards in suits were standing there.
Maybe they were partners who always worked together—I'd been seeing their faces a lot lately.
"Oh... we meet again."
"Yes, Miss Si-yoon."
The bodyguards greeted me with smiles. When I waved at them, they lit up like they'd just joined a fan club.
I led Da-yeon, who was busy saying her hellos, into the pool area.
Once we were inside, the bodyguards changed into swimsuits and began keeping watch inside the pool area.
They moved around, centering their watch on Da-yeon. Seeing their solid builds and the scars here and there, they'd clearly seen more real action than I would've guessed. They were checking everything meticulously, looking ready to get in the water themselves.
"Seems like they're being awfully thorough."
"Still, it's our job, so it can't be helped. Ahaha..."
Even with two bodyguards standing inside the pool area, the only other person using the pool at this hour besides the two of us was that schoolgirl doing laps.
Da-yeon went up to the girl, who was focused on her swimming, and said hello.
"Hello~"
The girl looked happy as Da-yeon greeted her.
"Hey! Came swimming again today?"
"Yeah!"
Da-yeon was doing her pre-swim stretches, and the girl, with only her face poking out of the water, chatted with her.
"Da-yeon, you're so pretty~"
"Thank you!"
The two were having a warm, friendly conversation. Leaving Da-yeon to her warm-up exercises, I slipped into the water with a clean motion.
Like a fish back in water, I swam around, and the schoolgirl watched me.
"Wow... she's really good..."
Da-yeon had gotten into the water at some point and splashed her way over to the girl.
"Why do you practice swimming?"
"Me? I do it for exercise~ They say swimming makes your figure prettier~"
"It makes your figure prettier?"
"Totally~ You get a killer body and mesmerize all the guys~"
"!!!"
Da-yeon's eyes went round as she stared at the schoolgirl.
Then, when I stayed underwater too long, the girl started worrying.
"Si-yoon... isn't she staying under a little too long?"
"Si-yoon's a mermaid princess, so she's fine."
I was sitting at the bottom of the pool, looking out at the Han River through the glass wall.
'Hah... a river view. Absolutely insane.'
When I was underwater, my ears felt plugged and the sound disappeared, making it seem as though time had stopped. Even the sunset viewed from below the surface created a scene that was hard to put into words.
I stared at the glass wall, then lay down spread-eagle on the bottom. When I looked up at the ceiling, Da-yeon and the schoolgirl were floating on the surface, looking down at me.
'...?'
They were talking to each other at the surface. I lightly kicked off the bottom and surfaced.
The moment I came up, they were both staring at me, completely unable to hide their shock.
"...? What's wrong?"
The schoolgirl was even more stunned that I wasn't even out of breath.
"Oh my god... Si-yoon, how long can you hold your breath?"
"I've never timed it."
Honestly, no matter how I thought about it, my lung capacity was phenomenal. Holding my breath for around five minutes had become easy.
"".....""
I spent time teaching them to swim as I watched Da-yeon enjoy herself...
Before bed, I lay in Dad's arms looking at my phone. I was watching Sheen, an American Maple Leaf streamer, as he sold off his items at clearance prices because he planned to raise another character.
"Oh?!"
The streamer Sheen was on the same server as me. I shot upright in bed, and my dad looked over at me.
"Sweetie, you're not asleep... what's up?"
"Dad, he's doing a fire sale on items right now, I have to buy them!"
Dodging Dad's attempts to send me back to bed, I dashed down to the workroom on the first floor. I turned on the computer and immediately sent a submission to Sheen about his clearance sale.
-Hello, I'm Prince Siyu.
I had been peacefully hunting pigs in Beginner Village when a user named 'Passing Bystander' stole my spot. My character was weak, so I couldn't resist at all and had to endure their abuse... If you let me buy your remaining items, Sheen, I swear on my life in Maple Leaf that I'll track that user down, wreck them, film the whole thing, and turn it into great Neotube content for you. I've attached a screenshot of what happened. Please contact me.
My submission was posted almost immediately and reached Sheen. Watching the stream, I saw him reading it before he sent my character an in-game chat request.
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(Sheen) - Are you the person who sent in that story?
(Prince Siyu) - Sigh... thank you for picking me. This brings me one step closer to my revenge.
(Sheen) - Before that... are you able to buy my items?
(Prince Siyu) - I studied the game as much as I could in the short time I had, and I spent a ton of real money too—all to get revenge on that bastard.
(Sheen) - Oh... would you be able to do a voice call?
(Prince Siyu) - I'm... pretty young... and I'm sneaking onto the computer, so Dad will scold me if he catches me... I actually jumped out of bed to come here...
(Sheen) - Well... the whole point of this segment is to talk to whoever I sell the items to in exchange for giving them a discount...
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Suddenly, Sheen put an item valued at about '500,000 won' in cash into the trade window and started talking again.
(Sheen) - If you do the call, I'll give you this for free to start us off.
Without a word, I sent the voice chat room ID to Sheen's manager via whisper.
"Hel...lo?"
The moment the viewers realized from my voice that I was a little girl, they went wild.
-"Hey~ A promise is a promise, so accept the item first and we'll get started, okay?"
I'd told him I couldn't get caught by my dad, so I deliberately kept my voice down.
"Sigh... thank you..."
The viewers responded well to my pitiful voice.
-"So, tell me more about that story of yours."
I started telling Sheen my sob story.
"When I was level 30, someone stole my hunting spot, so I typed a question mark, right? Then out of nowhere... they started calling me a pathetic noob... telling me to get lost..."
I began acting to get the items even cheaper. Hearing my tearful voice, everyone felt sorry for me and started searching for the user. Behind me, Dad met my eyes and shook his head.
"....."
My dad's eyes met mine, he gave me a look of pure disgust, then abruptly turned and went back to his room.
-"Hello?"
Pushing aside my embarrassment, I answered.
"...Yes?"
-"The story seems legit... but have you ever talked to me on Discord before?"
"No?"
-"Then why does your voice sound so familiar?"
"....."
When I stayed silent, dead air filled the stream, and Sheen spoke again.
-"Okay... I'll give you a way better deal. Are there items you want?"
"Kind of a lot, actually..."
-"For the segment, I can only discount them to one-fifth of the price..."
I nodded and put up the maximum amount of gold a character could hold.
"I... really saved up a lot for revenge, so at twenty percent I could technically buy everything... but I'd feel too guilty buying all of it that cheaply. Could I just buy as much as the gold I've put up will cover...?"
The maximum gold one character can hold was worth roughly 10 million won in cash.
-"...Wow... you've saved up... a lot?"
"Seriously... I'm too young to spend real money... I earned it by working hard at trading..."
-"How old are you?"
"I'm 12."
-"...That's impressive..."
I hid the fact that I was 8. With a voice like this at 8, it'd be way too easy to guess who I really was. Even now, I half expected him to ask if my dad was Kim Ji-ho.
I picked out Sheen's items one by one, and Sheen put them up in the trade window, telling me the price of each one.
"Seriously... thank you so much..."
-"You gonna keep watching my streams?"
"As long as I don't quit the game, of course!"
I burned through 10 million won worth of gold right on the spot.
-"Usually when I sell to one person like this... the viewers go nuts, you know?"
"I know that too!"
-"Oh yeah? Good... so, can you do the intro voice just once?"
"Yep."
-"Aannd~ go!"
"Watch it on Neotube instead of live, and don't skip the ads."
I'd said it as a joke, but the response was pretty good.
-"Oh? That's good! This segment will be three episodes, so I'll use it for just those three!"
"Yep! Thank you so much~!"
-"Yeah, yeah~ have fun in Maple Leaf!"
"Yep!"
I bought twelve items, some for as little as one-seventh of their current market price. I turned off the computer and headed upstairs to the second floor, where Dad was.
My dad was waiting for me.
"I made six times what I paid, on average..."
"What? Six times? Wasn't what you'd already earned before more than enough?"
"Yeah, but... it still wasn't enough to get perfect revenge..."
That night, I fell asleep in my dad's arms, dreaming sweet dreams of getting my revenge.
-Who the hell are you people!!!
My level was 240, fifteen levels lower than 'Passing Bystander's,' but my damage was another story. I was dealing over ten billion damage; even monsters above my level died from a single graze. Once I took control of the map, 'Passing Bystander' fled, and I followed them around repeating only, 'My spot.'
"Hey! Take over."
Ji-hoon's gear was set up too, and he was dealing damage in the billions—enough to kill any monster with a single graze.
-"Ahahahahaha, Boss! I am truly happy!"
"Yeah... enjoy it... this... is what true victory means!"
When the two of us were on the same map, 'Passing Bystander' spoke up.
-Are you two that...
I carefully checked that my dad wasn't behind me and typed.
-Loser, acting tough, lololol. GTFO—this is my spot, dumb@ss.
-...You...
Our revenge wasn't over, and we were more than happy to become dirty pieces of shit ourselves. 'Passing Bystander' started running around to avoid us, and we chased them across every map, basking in pure happiness.
Time passed, and when I lay down to sleep, my dad, who usually finished his work in the workroom and came upstairs, didn't come up.
Rubbing my eyes, I went over to him.
"Dad, why are you still awake...?"
"Hm? Si-yoon, you weren't asleep?"
"Yeah."
My dad was laughing like a total creep, messing with 'Passing Bystander.'
-F*ck off already!!!
Time passed, and the user called 'Passing Bystander' ended up changing their nickname without anyone knowing. Just like I'd promised, I sent Sheen all the videos of my revenge up to that point.