“Ah… of course you guys wouldn’t just let this slide, would you?”
My mistake, the fact that I’d carelessly revealed Se-na’s name, tried to divert attention from it somehow, but her name that I’d accidentally mentioned was written between the forum posts. And once the name was revealed, it took only a moment for her personal information to be exposed. Though it seemed like they were digging too deep, even then.
When I threatened them that they might get sued, at least they deleted the posts.
Everyone implicitly knew who Se-na was.
Well, how many people could there be with these two characteristics: being a Geum Taeyang and having the name Se-na? Just thinking about my mistake from yesterday made me feel like I could kick myself under the covers for about 4 months.
Still, I wasn’t just taking it lying down.
“Got you, you rascal.”
The chat in our room had been weird lately.
While it’s not like we never had such conversations before, it felt like there were noticeably more chats mentioning my love life and the people around me, and there were individuals who would derail the chat by suggesting that if a man and woman just talked on livestream, they must be dating.
It felt similar to ‘WGC.'[1]
While not exactly the same, it was similar in how they would take trivial things and push the narrative that it must be dating, ruining the chat atmosphere.
While I allowed toxic chat to some extent in our room, WGC was absolutely not allowed. Actually, neither should be allowed but… sigh.
I was uncertain at first, but by watching my broadcast replays and through anonymous tips from some viewers, I was able to identify their presence. In the replays, even in the middle of completely different conversations, they would randomly try to steer the conversation with comments like ‘so who do you like?’, ‘check the posts,’ and so on.
“Alright, even suspected WGC gets an instant ban.”
After getting hit hard yesterday, I snapped back to my senses.
This feeling that my broadcast wasn’t my own anymore. A broadcast that didn’t flow at all the way I wanted wasn’t enjoyable. It’s not like it ever went exactly as I wanted, but usually people would either read the room or at least hold back for fear of getting banned.
But the dating topic was too powerful.
It was out of control.
“If I can’t control it, I’ll destroy it all…”
Looking at the ban list after finishing the bans, it seemed like it had grown quite a lot in just one day.
It was packed full again, as much as those I had released last time.
“Should I… start the broadcast?”
Though it was a bit early, I was thinking of doing a gaming broadcast after a while, and since I had something to say, I decided to start a bit earlier.
“Hello everyone.”
[? What’s this, isn’t it morning?]
[What’s this, our hikikomori loner is streaming this early?]
[You… must have missed us?]
[Tsundere type streamer? Even better]
Even at this morning hour, many people came to watch the broadcast.
Of course, since the broadcast time was quite different from usual, there were fewer viewers than normal, but nevertheless, perhaps because there weren’t many famous broadcasters during the morning time slot, many viewers flowed into my broadcast, and in the end, about 1,700 viewers gathered as usual.
“I’m going to do a gaming broadcast today… but before that, I’ve arrested all the people who’ve been disrupting our room lately.”
[Who’s that?]
[There are too many suspicious people to know]
[…Is it me?]
[Arrest = Ban, I guess]
“I’ll write the details on Tgether.”
The content I wrote on Tgether was simple.
No chat that disrupts the flow, no over-immersive WGC.
This much should be enough for everyone to understand.
They might not know other things, but when it comes to livestreaming, they were seasoned enough to get the message with just this warning. The problem was that they were good at walking that fine line that made it tricky to justify a ban.
“Today I’m going to do a gaming broadcast after a long time.”
[OK lol I thought you just sold your computer since you haven’t done gaming broadcasts for so long lol]
[Fr with that good computer you only do cooking broadcasts and shopping broadcasts, it was killing me lol]
[But what game are you playing?]
[Since it’s been a while, shall we vote on the game? I vote for LoL]
[Is this like when you go to a Chinese restaurant and they say order whatever you want, and I say jajangmyeon?[2]]
“Hmm a vote?”
Since I hadn’t specifically decided what game to play, it seemed like not a bad suggestion.
If possible, I wanted to play a game that viewers would enjoy. That way donations would come in better too. It’s obvious, but isn’t it professional spirit to try to earn money when this is my job?
Take it or leave it.
The game was decided in an instant.
Well, I figured it would end up being LoL anyway, so I put in choices 2 and 3 just for fun.
Horror games and StarCraft, which were most mentioned by viewers, were the protagonists.
Actually, both were games I really didn’t want to play, but since I was just putting them in for fun…
“Then 1 is LoL, 2 is horror game, and 3 is… I’ll put StarCraft for now.”
[OK]
[Should we vote on Tgether?]
“Let’s do the vote on YouTube community to promote YouTube while we’re at it.”
While YouTube growth was steady, it wasn’t as explosive as the growth of Twis broadcasts or Tgether boards.
So I was casually promoting YouTube like this during my broadcast. Well, there’s nothing wrong with me promoting my own YouTube.
[Isn’t this hidden advertising?]
[Daeju-nim;; You got paid for hidden advertising, right?]
[Disappointing]
I set the voting to close in 5 minutes.
“What the heck”
The vote overwhelmingly went to horror game.
69% of the votes were for horror game, and the other two games, LoL and StarCraft, couldn’t even compete, just splitting the remaining 31% of votes between them. There was no stopping horror game’s solo run.
Maybe they forgot that 1 was LoL?
Or misheard?
“I think you guys might be confused, but 1 is LoL, 2 is horror game, and 3 is StarCraft~”
[Yeah, we know?]
[Voted correctly lol]
[Scared? Scared? Scared?]
[Oh 2 is horror game? I voted for 1 but changing to 2]
Thinking they might have been confused, I temporarily reopened voting and explained again, but instead the votes for horror game just kept climbing.
I put it in as a joke, but now faced with the crisis of having to play a horror game, I became desperate.
“But~ there aren’t any fun horror games these days~”
[Nobody said to play recent ones, play the old ones]
[I know some fun recent horror games, want recommendations?]
[Well if you’re really so scared it feels like you’ll have a heart attack… I guess there’s nothing we can do…]
[But Daeju is in his 20s, isn’t a man in his 20s supposed to be old enough to do a virgin ghost?[3] Being this scared, really… tsk tsk…]
[What do you mean old enough to do a virgin ghost wtf]
The words that gently scratched at my pride did make me feel a bit competitive. What’s the big deal about a horror game. Might as well just do it.
Since everyone wanted it anyway, there was nothing I could do. Rather, it seemed better to quickly clear a horror game with short playtime and then do other games or content.
Besides, the VR device and clothes were arriving today anyway.
“…what has a short playtime?”
[Biohazard]
[Yeah that one takes a few hours… if your aim is bad, just a few days]
[You’re naturally evil! Daeju-dan!]
[Outlast]
[That one’s short yeah]
“Outlast? Think I’ve heard of that”
It was one of the more famous horror games.
Though it had been out for a while, it still had graphics that could create fear just from looking at the trailer or photos, and above all, the idea of having to rely on camera light because the location is consistently dark throughout heightened the fear factor.
Compared to other games it wasn’t particularly long, and the game was on sale so it could be bought cheaply but…
“It seems too scary to play.”
[What kind of nonsense is this?]
[Too delicious to eat. (Looking at chicken)]
[Too safe to ride. (Looking at rides)]
[If you’re going to play a not-scary horror game, why play horror games at all]
“Ah okay, I’ll really do it. Look, I bought it.”
I made up my mind and hit purchase.
To think that I would end up spending money on a horror game. One of the things I understood least was people spending money on horror games, but here I was doing exactly that because of the broadcast.
By the way, another thing I didn’t understand was spending money on extremely spicy food. Why? Do such a thing…?
“What the, why is the download so fast”
[*Shiver* even the computer seems excited to see you play horror games ;;]
[Computer, from now on I ‘appoint’ you as an honorary Daeju-dan.]
[Not such an honorable honorary position;]
[Daeju-nim mission?]
“What mission?”
[Deduct 1000 won each time you scream or curse. Start with 100,000 won]
Starting with 100,000 won and deducting 1,000 won each time I scream or curse.
So basically, to deduct all 100,000 won I would need to curse or scream more than 100 times, but is that even possible?
“Of course I accept!”
No matter how scary the game is, it can’t be scary the entire time while playing.
And though I hate to say this about myself, compared to other streamers my speech isn’t that bad so it’s not… a broadcast where I curse often.
As for screaming, having lived in a one-room apartment for a long time, I was like someone wearing a bomb collar around their neck, not making sounds above a certain decibel level.
The goal was to keep at least 90,000 won.
Given that it’s a scary game, this was an estimated value assuming I would curse about 10 times.
[But if it gets deducted more than 100,000 won, don’t you have to pay then?]
[lololololol fr let’s at least do that much for a 100,000 won mission!]
[Come on, how can anyone curse or scream more than 100 times? lololol The game isn’t even that long?]
“… Deal! If I get deducted more than 100,000 won, I’ll give gift certificates worth that amount to whoever set the mission.”
[Oh lololol]
[Gift certificates nice]
“No matter how much of a scaredy-cat I am, there’s no way I’d 100 times-“
The game turned on and the main screen appeared.
The game title was written in an obviously scary font, and an eerie BGM was already playing.
“Fuck…”
[-1000]
[Come on, at least try to hold back a little lololololol]
[We haven’t even started yet?]
[Daeju can’t help it~]
* * *
(End of Chapter)
T/N:
- “WGC” (우결충) – Short for “We Got Married-chung”. “We Got Married” was a Korean reality show where celebrities pretended to be married couples. WGC refers to fans who obsessively ship people together, similar to how Western fans might be called “shippers” but here with a more negative connotation.
- “Jajangmyeon” – A Korean-Chinese noodle dish with black bean sauce, often used as an example of a basic/standard order.
- The joke about “doing a virgin ghost” is a play on Korean horror movie tropes where female ghosts are often portrayed as vengeful virgins.
