Streamer Crazy About Slaughter - Chapter 9

***

Newtuber.

In 2031, it was considered a high-ranking occupation in South Korea.

As such, there were plenty of high-income earners, and people of all ages and genders could challenge themselves to become Newtubers without any conditions. If one could succeed, they could achieve great wealth, and even now, there were countless people attempting it in real-time.

For quite some time, there had been talk about it being a red ocean, that while it was easy to start, it was difficult to gain popularity.

Still, every year, hundreds or thousands of people succeeded as Newtubers.

And now, there was a woman who was intensely staring at a video of another woman on her monitor, diligently taking notes in her notebook as if she were conducting research.

Her long, unkempt hair, and her eyes, darkened by fatigue. The state of her messy room, which hadn’t been cleaned properly in days, spoke volumes.

Each of these details showed she was living a shut-in life, yet the woman remained entranced, staring at the monitor.

Suddenly, the woman muttered in a tired voice.

“The answer is this…”

The virtual reality device for the trending game, Another World, was too expensive for her to consider buying until now. But after watching the video she was currently fixated on, she had made up her mind to purchase it.

It hadn’t even been 10 hours since the video was posted, and it had already garnered 2 million views—it felt so unfair.

It wasn’t even intentional; it was merely a video that someone had recorded and uploaded. That was all it was.

Yet, despite the reality that the video she had worked hard to create, after sleepless nights studying content, barely reached a thousand views.

Someone else was boasting 2 million views with just a single gameplay video.

Comments poured in, even suggesting they would support her if she started broadcasting, or that they would subscribe immediately.

Even with the video surrounded by negative controversy over whether it was hacked or not, the sheer attractiveness of the character appearing in the video drew those comments.

The woman was biting her nails with an anxious expression, or repeatedly biting her own lips.

“…If it’s a character, I can style it.”

The name of the woman who was already rewinding the video dozens of times was Kim Ha-yoon.

As a newtuber with 623 subscribers on her personal channel, she was a low-tier newtuber who had just spent most of her savings on purchasing the Another World capsule connection device.

And now, she was endlessly replaying the video to analyze the reasons for its success.

It might have been a coincidence or due to YouTube’s algorithm that the video gained popularity, but typically such a phenomenon wouldn’t happen by chance.

Ha-yoon was able to point out a few key points broadly.

First point: Overwhelmingly beautiful appearance that attracts attention.

Someone must have styled it. To dismiss it as mere creation, the beauty was too much like an in-game character.

It was as if the appearance was that of a foreign model or actress brought directly into the game.

Ha-yoon decided to replicate every aspect of that character once she started the game.

Second point: Skill.

Although she didn’t usually know much about games, she occasionally kept an eye on videos related to ‘Another World.’

The graphics were too exceptional to simply be called a game, and the interactions, such as hunting or dueling, provided visual artistry on their own.

Looking through the comments, she noticed that the opponent seemed to be a user notorious for being difficult to fight against, yet the player in the video had allowed not even a single attack.

“…If I try hard… can I do it too?”

Ha-yoon muttered with a blank expression while continuing to watch the video repeatedly.

Dodging projectiles with just a tilt of her head from close range appeared swift on the video.

Yet, the character in the video seemed to evade them as if it were aware of them, shooting away like a beam of light.

Watching that made Ha-yoon’s thoughts drift into the belief of ‘I probably can’t do it…’

***

“Hack.”

A term for hacking programs in games. Commonly referred to as hacks, they are sometimes called “unauthorized programs” or “third-party programs” in various game texts.

The root of all evil in online games.

A target of hatred in and of itself.

“…?”

Reading the phrases listed on the wiki confirmed the meaning I knew.

[That guy is really getting schooled; whether it’s hack-related or not doesn’t matter, lol.]

[Why did they write it so openly?]

[Did they get banned?]

[Another World processes things super quickly, so of course, they would have gotten banned.]

But what were these comments I was seeing?

“I’m hacked?”

While satisfying my hunger, I was browsing websites looking for information about Another World and ultimately stumbled upon several large communities.

Then, I casually clicked on a popular post at the top, only to find an ironic mention of “me” within it.

Well, to be precise, I appeared in the video attached to that post.

It seemed the author of the post was the PK user who initially attacked me, writing content that painted me as a hacker.

At first, I laughed in disbelief while reading it, but after looking at the comments, my expression gradually hardened.

Every one of them suggested that I was indeed a hacker.

Wondering if perhaps the concept of a hack I understood was different in this world, I searched for the term and confirmed that the ‘hack’ I knew was indeed the same.

Before falling into the world of Black Ark, how many times had I been driven out of games I enjoyed due to hackers?

By the time I got to the point of not even looking at FPS games anymore, I had become so terrified of them.

Yet, “…What did I even do?”

As I was caught in the situation of being labeled a hacker, I felt a surge of anger.

And rightfully so, each and every comment was outrageous.

The techniques like parrying or dodging attacks; beyond that, comments critiquing my appearance or blatant s*xual harassment, as well as numerous attacks against the hacking users, flooded the posts.

I gritted my teeth, a slight grinding sound echoing in the air.

Among those, some comments made me feel insulted to the point where killing intent surged within me.

I hadn’t seen anyone dare to talk down in front of me in the world of Black Ark for years.

Observing how those people hide behind the anonymity of the community and the chaos they caused while commenting, just reading them alone made my bl**d boil.

While thinking they thought I was a hacker was one thing, why did those worthless bastards engage in s*xual harassment?

Those comments were undoubtedly directed at the character appearing in the video, but since that character looked exactly like me, it felt as if they were directly addressing me.

Unintentionally, I registered on that community site and began to refute those comments.

Having felt awkward typing on a keyboard after living in another world for years, I now typed at an incredible speed as if it were second nature.

[Not a hack, okay? It’s not that hard to do that.]

[These trash people feeling s*xual desire for game characters, lol, amazing.]

[What the hell, dude, how is that impossible?]

[If someone’s holding a bow or ranged weapon, just being aware of their aiming will make the path clear; if you can’t predict that, then you’re the fool.]

[If it were a hack, they would have been banned; why can’t you think it might not be? Is your head just for decoration?]

With heat rising to my face, I found myself responding to comments and felt it was rather childish.

While engaging with the various comments, I suddenly turned my head toward the Another World connection device in my room.

“Surely I’m not. I haven’t been banned… right?”

I removed my hands from the keyboard and briefly logged into Another World.

With the familiar sensation surrounding me as the game started, I could only let out a sigh of relief after confirming everything was fine.

Everything was normal. There were no bans on the character.

Of course, the game company wouldn’t take any drastic actions.

Returning to my PC to check the community, I found dozens of replies to my comment that had been made in the meantime.

Among them was a phrase I couldn’t comprehend.

[Parrying isn’t hard like the video? What can you even say in the comments? I’m a challenger in Arena tier, you idiot, lol.]

[That our hacker sucking on broth is going on about s*xual desire and whatnot, just lol.]

[What kind of ridiculous nerd are you? Predicting based on the bow or g*n pointed at you? You’re just babbling nonsense with your pathetic knowledge.]

[Only that person in the video knows whether they’ve been banned; who are you to talk about it like you know? This is just funny, for real, lol.]

There was nothing but hateful comments clearly intended to anger me.

And along the way, there was a term that I found perplexing.

“A hacker sucking on broth…?”

Broth. What could that mean? I opened a new tab to search for the term and found myself stunned.

It referred to people who blindly follow female idols or female internet streamers.

It seems it was used to describe those who unconditionally defend female streamers, but I let out a hollow laugh.

Having never even watched internet streams, why should I have to hear such things?

Or rather, I’ve turned into a woman now; why on earth would I be following women?

“Ah, really dammit.”

Without even noticing, a curse slipped from my lips.

Among the over a thousand comments, there were virtually none that reflected my sentiment.

Well, to be specific, there were some, but they were all comments I didn’t want to read.

Comments questioning what a female character’s looks were like or claiming they would forgive me for having such looks; that sort of nonsense irritated me even further.

Posting a response to the barrage of primarily negative comments, I realized that doing so was utterly meaningless.

In a keyboard battle, it was basically hopeless if you were outnumbered.

It felt like I was fighting hundreds of people by myself, akin to battling hundreds of invisible ghosts.

Moreover, it felt as if the comments I had posted had backfired. Those replying began mocking me as if they were in a frenzy.

[You say it’s easy to parry, right? But then how can I show every detail, d*mn it.]

[If you’re upset, why don’t you just broadcast it to prove it, lol.]

[Just look at this dumbass who is shooting nonsense in the comments, must be a troll.]

[Even those who are just trolling are idiots, but the guy trying to refute it so seriously is the biggest fool.]

I trembled just from continually reading the comments.

Bang.

“…”

Crash!

As I typed, my hands shook, and I mistakenly hit the keyboard.

Then I ended up asking about broadcasting or something like that.

[Broadcasting? How do you do that?]

[Do I have to explain everything to you? What are you, a handless idiot?]

Bang!

“Seriously…”

With rising anger and nowhere to vent it, I hastily opened another tab to search for how to broadcast.

Yet, the constantly flowing comments caught my eye.

The comments acted like a drug, pulling my attention.

I knew that they would only be trash comments, yet oddly, I felt compelled to check them.

[Doesn’t he have hands? Can’t he just search and find out for himself, lol.]

[Why do they reply so foolishly? That person is really funny, lol.]

[I can tell they’re tier iron and can’t break free from the depths, just a loser, lol.]

[You guys just wait, I’m seriously going to broadcast and show you how easy parrying is!]