Streamer Crazy About Slaughter - Chapter 88
—
Time.
It is the most equitable thing given to every person and holds an important value that is hard to exchange for anything else.
For some, every minute and second is immensely precious, while others may waste time without any meaning.
There are people who spend time flowing along with it, and there are even those who find it hard to endure simply watching time pass by.
Thus, numerous people have different ways of spending their time, and the meaning attributed to time varies greatly from person to person.
From the moment of birth, throughout life, and even in d*ath, nothing is equal in the life of an ordinary person.
It could be said that time alone is the most equitable thing.
That is why time is often referred to as gold.
Yes.
Time is said to be gold.
……
“…Is this a lie?”
Serin blankly uttered words as she tried to deny the reality she was facing.
So what exactly is my time right now?
The dark shadow of evening was slowly spreading, dimly illuminating the interior while gradually enlarging its pitch-black shadow.
At this moment, only the bright light from the smartphone screen was illuminating the space.
It was the time for the gloomy twilight to settle, while at the same time, the dazzling lights of the city were shining in various colors, seemingly heralding the beginning of a splendid night.
“Ha…”
While blankly staring at the colorful cityscape outside the room, a wry smile escaped her.
Then, unable to believe it, she checked the date again.
—August 4th. Wednesday.
8:04 PM.
“No.”
Does this even make sense?
‘Did I just sleep for 20 hours?’
The last time she checked was clearly around midnight when she sent a congratulatory email along with a contract form to two editors.
She had been holding onto her consciousness to finish it, so while she couldn’t be completely sure, she distinctly remembered it being that way.
Habitually, she tousled her hair and stretched her arms wide.
Raising her arms through her white hair, she clasped her hands together.
Thunk.
Drop.
As she stretched and loosened her body, a frustrated voice slipped out unknowingly.
“Haah, I don’t know! Just…”
She wondered if it was okay to let a whole day slip by like this.
She clearly had no memory of taking a break.
She had merely woken up from sleep.
That was all it took for a day to be erased.
While rising from her seat, she felt an extreme hunger.
“…Let’s just order delivery.”
With that, she sat back down and began to browse a delivery app.
Since late-night eateries generally had a decline in food quality, she had to order quickly before the popular restaurants closed.
Tick.
Tick.
As soon as she placed the order, the delivery notification sounded.
*
——
[Order Confirmation Notice]
Thank you for your order. Your valuable order has been received and is expected to arrive in about 80 minutes.
——
*
Checking the notification without much thought, she was taken aback and immediately canceled the order.
“No way, are you crazy?”
80 minutes for delivery?
I wondered what day it was that the orders were piling up and quickly placed another order at a different restaurant.
—Thank you for your order. Your valuable order has been successfully received and will arrive in about 40 minutes…
‘40 minutes…’
She was so hungry that even that felt hard to wait for.
How many hours had it been since she was last full? She pondered blankly as she went out to the living room.
Clack.
Drip.
The sound of water pouring from the water dispenser striking the cup echoed through the air.
Glug.
Glug.
After taking a sip of water from the cup, she pressed the cold water button again.
Drinking the icy cold water felt like it was waking her up a bit.
“From now on… let’s really take it easy on the schedule.”
Thinking again, when she first started broadcasting, she had inadvertently set far too many schedules. With so much to think about and handle, she felt that her already crumbling body was rotting even more in real-time.
Even just now.
She clenched her hand and opened it again, feeling no strength at all.
“…”
It might be partly due to her extreme hunger, but she thought her fists looked stronger than this.
Then she tore off a piece of seaweed from the table and shoved it into her mouth.
Chew.
As she voraciously devoured the seaweed, reminiscent of some actor in a faint memory, she suddenly felt her situation deeply wretched.
Her reflection in the luxurious glass table was visible. As she stared at that image, she couldn’t help but chuckle in disbelief.
A woman eating seaweed, her silver hair messy.
It looked so foreign, it was almost bizarre.
“No… You have 2.7 billion in your account.”
Muttering that absentmindedly, she continued to eat the seaweed.
Being unexpectedly put on hold made it surprisingly comfortable not having to turn on the broadcast tomorrow.
“…It might not be a hobby.”
When she first started, she certainly didn’t take streaming that seriously, but at some point, she began to feel genuinely invested.
She naturally tried to keep her broadcasting times, and when viewers asked her to stream longer, she tried to accommodate them.
Moreover, she was busy preparing broadcasting content even dividing it into Part 1 and Part 2.
She was sincerely dedicated to broadcasting.
In fact, since the beginning of her first broadcast, different from her initial thoughts, Sua had helped a lot with the setup, so maybe she unconsciously thought she had to take it seriously.
Also, just yesterday, she even recruited an editor to upload videos on her YouTube channel, which was even below her level as a streamer.
Clearly, she was attempting to handle too much in a short time. Like someone chased by work, she was leading a schedule that was quite hectic.
Thinking like that, she shoved more seaweed into her mouth.
Chew.
Being maddeningly hungry made even just a piece of seaweed taste delicious.
Then, glancing around, she spotted the rice cooker.
However, it turned out there was no rice inside that cooker.
Having only been eating takeout every day without cooking herself, there was certainly no cooked rice to be found.
‘There are instant rice packets, though…’
Though she saw the instant rice tucked in the corner, she didn’t particularly feel like tearing that open.
“Still… I need to eat what I ordered.”
……
Ding.
As she heard the text notification, she quickly went out to grab the delivery food left at the door.
As she brought the food in and set it in front of the PC, her mouth started watering.
Today’s meal was galbi jjim.
Opening the packaging, the beautiful colors already signaled it was worth its expensive price.
Glug.
She picked up a large chunk of meat with her chopsticks and brought it straight to her mouth.
Munch.
“Ah.”
She didn’t want to waste the moment, so immediately brought another piece of meat to her mouth.
Biting into the meat clinging to the bone, she could distinctly taste the unique flavor of the meat along with its rich seasoning, bringing her pure happiness.
30 hours of hunger, combined with the generous portion of the restaurant’s galbi jjim.
As she checked the seemingly never-ending meat, she involuntarily smiled, feeling even better.
Even after eating several pieces of meat, it felt like the portion wasn’t decreasing at all.
“Ah, this is really happiness…”
As she transferred the leftover bones into the bowl she brought over, she concentrated solely on relishing the galbi jjim.
……
After about 10 minutes, without even touching the PC she had turned on, she was devoted to eating galbi jjim, yet only about half of it was gone, and there was still a lot left.
People can be really fickle… although her stomach wasn’t extremely full, now that it was somewhat satisfied, it didn’t taste as delicious as it did at first.
“I’m bored…”
Taking a sip of the cola that arrived with the galbi jjim, she moved the mouse and opened the streaming platform.
On the left side, the follow list showed Plea and Hana, both women currently live streaming.
She thought watching their streams would provide some reasonable entertainment, but it didn’t appeal to her much at this moment.
And given her current stalled situation, she worried that getting involved with them might cause an inconvenience.
So, while scrolling to find another stream.
Without any reason, her mouse hovered over the ‘Sort’ option at the top right.
She simply wanted to see something different.
—Sort by: Number of Viewers (Lowest First)
The sorting option she pressed without particular thought.
But the results displayed on the screen were beyond her expectations.
“Wow.”
She involuntarily gasped in awe yet felt somewhat cautious.
Streams with 0 or 1 viewer were numerous to the point they couldn’t be considered few.
As she scrolled down, she wondered just how many streamers there were.
Scrolling with the mouse wheel seemed endless, leading her to get annoyed and use a shortcut instead.
The shortcut above the arrow keys on the keyboard.
She pressed ‘End’ to swiftly navigate the screen.
“…”
Watching, her mind began to feel unsettled.
Even as she continued to turn the screens, streams with only 1 viewer seemed endless.
Not just in the dozens, but it seemed like there were hundreds of streams with only 1 viewer.
“So many low viewer streamers.”
It felt strange, and it reminded her of Sua unnecessarily.
From that first unpleasant encounter to now, it was surprising how she had built a connection with Sua. Moreover, the very reason she started streaming was due to Sua’s encouragement.
She began streaming out of a desire to have at least some social standing.
It was indeed a stroke of luck to have received several thousand viewers from her very first broadcast thanks to Sua.
Truthfully, she wouldn’t have been streaming if she had been involved in a community that had so many low-viewer streamers… but it undoubtedly meant that her start was significant.
“…I really was lucky.”
Perhaps because of that, streams with only 1 viewer made her reluctant to even click on them.
Rather than thinking about whether the particular streamer was good or bad, she felt like if she watched it, she would have to engage in a 1:1 conversation with that person.
It seemed burdensome, so she simply continued to scroll past without clicking on any streams.
Not long after, the next stream had 2 viewers.
3 viewers.
4 viewers.
Gradually the number grew, and she felt a fresh sense of nostalgia watching it.
“…Being a streamer is, in fact.”
It might be an extreme job.
She unknowingly thought that while simultaneously feeling a sense of relief.
After that, she merely checked the streamers’ nicknames and titles, continuing to turn the screens.
Once the viewer count exceeded 10, she found it fascinating how the viewer numbers were increasing relatively quickly.
Suddenly, Serin’s hand, scrolling through the screen, halted.
—[The Last Broadcast of a Low-Viewer Streamer]
Kim Ha-yoon.
“…No way?”
She pressed the stream, almost reflexively, despite hoping it wasn’t true.