Chapter 153
[‘RokaRoka’ donated 10,000 won!]
-But bro, why are you suddenly playing WoA when you normally don't? Don't tell me you're planning to enter this season's Win-It-Back too...?
“Hey, there's nothing wrong with playing a little WoA! What are you talking about? This game is so much fun.”
[Defeat]
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Heading out to stack up another trophyless streak?
-Since LoL didn't work out, nice to see you drift over to WoA.
-It's that time of year again already.
-So that's why you were even casting the WoA Spring Finals—there was an ulterior motive all along.
-You haven't been playing FIFA much lately eitherㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Are you entering as team captain again?
The man did his best to ignore the chat window, which was flooding at a frightening speed, and exited the game.
‘Han Yongcheol,’ a Letterbox streamer who broadcast a variety of games on Twisy and commanded a massive fanbase of 500,000 followers.
Normally, fighting back like fire whenever viewers deliberately got under his skin was his specialty, but it wasn't time to bring up this subject yet.
As they said, this was a game he had started completely out of the blue.
WareSoft had recently announced a revamp of World of Arseria's Nightmare Story Mode, but Han Yongcheol had returned to ranked games a week before that announcement.
There had been no balance update, it wasn't the beginning or end of a season, and no new class had appeared, so sharp-eyed viewers seemed to have already figured it out.
“I might not even enter this season's Win-It-Back, you know? I just tried it because I was bored. Bored. Wouldn't you get sick of eating pork cutlets every day and spicy pork every day?”
-Yes, yes, we know.
-I could eat that all day.
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Let's go for eight straight trophyless finishes!
-Is this already Han Yongcheol's fourth year in Win-It-Back? My heart's getting narrowerㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-If he goes trophyless in WoA too, it'll be three straight series without a title after Resonance and LoL.
└ Trophyless-achievement collectorㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Just as the viewers' sharp deduction suggested, Yongcheol had already decided to participate in the 2051 Season 2 Win-It-Back Tournament.
However, he had been asked to avoid mentioning it as much as possible until the participant reveal ceremony on May 17, so Yongcheol had to somehow draw the viewers' attention elsewhere.
Reacting to every little thing here was something only amateurs did.
He slowly held his breath and waited for the viewers to take the bait first.
[Video Share - ‘Han Yongcheol's Missing Coccyx’ shared this for 20,000!]
(NoName's Seven Fall-Deaths Highlight) - Bro, watch this person's stuff and learn something.
A highlight cut from a player's gameplay appeared through a viewer's video donation.
The screen showed a woman with magnificent blond hair mercilessly shoving a silver-armored knight off a cliff.
“This fall-death thing looks pretty fun. Should I do that for my next WoA stream?”
-Don't change the subject ㄴㄴ
-So, Yongcheol, are you entering Win-It-Back?
-You can't resist NoNameㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Noona!!!!
[‘Han Yongcheol, No. 2’ donated 10,000 won!]
-Honestly, I don't really care about fighting. If you want to go on a date with that woman, wink.
Yongcheol's gaze shifted back toward the video.
She had clearly put serious effort into her character customization, and her proportions and appearance were both outstanding.
He immediately noticed the chat's mood slowly shifting from demanding the truth from Yongcheol to praising the woman's customization, and snapped his fingers in delight.
“Wow, she really is pretty. If someone like that existed in real life, what would Win-It-Back be? I'd have filmed We Got Married with her. No, after We Got Married ended, I'd even ask her to do a drinking collab.”
He redirected all the attention over there.
Then, as soon as the video ended, the chat window blazing with comments would naturally be quelled in one stroke.
For a seven-year broadcaster who understood the structure of this kind of stream so precisely, it was an incredibly easy way out.
Han Yongcheol was known for hating and keeping his distance from We Got Married content more than anything else in the world.
Viewers who had known him for a long time would have understood what he was trying to say here.
It meant: stop paying attention to me and just admire that woman's customization.
-?
-Whatㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-NoName and We Got Marriedㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Clink clink clink clink clink
-Wee-woo! Wee-woo! Wee-woo! Wee-woo!
-You actually fell for itㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-So that's your type, bro?
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ I'm seriously disappointed.
-Legendoㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
However, instead of being quelled when the video ended, a rush of comments came pouring in three to five times faster than usual, and Yongcheol was visibly flustered.
“Why, why? Did I say something wrong? Ah, what is it!”
He furrowed his brow, stuck a finger into the rapidly rushing chat window, and stopped it.
-NoName's a second-year middle schoolerㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Wow, so it takes a second-year middle schooler to turn Han Yongcheol's heart around.
-She's fourteenㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Wow, that's even more than twice the difference.
-I'll pass that along to NoName ^^7
“Gasp!”
Realizing he'd fallen into a trap, Yongcheol immediately turned off the camera.
[‘Wicked’ donated 5,000 won!]
-NoName's a Twisy streamer tooㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Even though only a black screen was being broadcast, the viewers continued their all-out assault, covering it with strings of ‘ㅋㅋㅋㅋ’.
“Hey, you lunatic! Mentioning another streamer during a game gets you banned! You knew that and sent it anyway? And you're supposed to be my editor!”
The sender had happened to be his editor, whose nickname was Han Yongcheol's Missing Coccyx, so perhaps that was why he had let his guard down even further.
He had never imagined that the main character in the video was a streamer; he thought she was just an ordinary person.
After barely calming his pounding heart, Yongcheol composed himself and showed his face on the stream again.
“Ah, please, guys, don't do things like this. You're seriously shaving years off my life. You all know I wasn't being serious, right? And don't export this to some weird place either. Okay, got it?”
-Of course, of courseㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-This reaction is the bestㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Editor, hurry up and ban himㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
“Fuck, and all the guys who just sent those donations are banned. Go stand facing the wall for ten minutes. Editor, if you keep this up, you won't get a bonus next holiday either, you hear me?”
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Justice has been servedㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-(Editor): Bro, please, I'm sorry.
-It's already too lateㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
[‘Severe Winter Cold’ donated 5,000 won!]
-Fourteenㅋㅋㅋㅋ Honestly, if you'd succeeded with your first love, you'd probably have a daughter that age by now, right?
“No, it's not that extreme! Even so, I'm only in my early thirties. For me to have a fourteen-year-old daughter, I would've had to be in high school myself, you idiot! Huh?”
After the commotion died down, Yongcheol changed the category from WoA to Just Chatting and sensed an ominous atmosphere.
Unlike during game content, mentioning other streamers was allowed in Just Chatting, so the viewers' seal had been broken.
Having finally found a good target after such a long time, they had no intention of letting Yongcheol off easily.
Just as the malicious viewers' donations were making his mind go hazy, the ringing sound of money echoed here and there. It was a high-value donation.
[Video Share - ‘Cat Mating Is the Best’ shared this for 100,000!]
(Adela confiscating NoName's whiteboard marker)
“Sigh... Why is your nickname like that too? If it hadn't been 100,000 won, you'd be banned.”
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Fucking maliciousㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-You know exactly where the line isㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Wow, a zoophile—is this true madness?
-NoName hopping around is so cute.
-Seriously, I'm jealous. Having an NPC of your very own...
In the video, Adela had apparently been bothered by the noise NoName was making on the chalkboard, because she ran over and snatched the whiteboard marker from her hand.
“Is this person the same one from earlier? That NoName person?”
-Yep.
-She set a new World of Arseria combat-power record this time.
-She's number one in the story rankings.
-A true prodigy among prodigies among prodigies.
-They say this is her first WoA game, but I seriously can't believe itㅋㅋ
“First place? Really? Wow, she was more impressive than she looked. And is it official that she's fourteen? Did she say it herself?”
-Basically official.
-Not 15, but older than 14, so...
-She's had a steel-trap mentality forged by LoL since she was seven.
-If this isn't a prodigy, then what isㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-She's practically guaranteed to become a pro at the very least.
-But clearing the story requires more than just being good at games, doesn't it? She must be good at magic too.
└ They say she's a genius who attends an academy.
└ ㄷㄷ Does she have everything in the world? Life is unfair.
An unusual streamer could generate new content simply through her existence.
The viewers in Han Yongcheol's room began showing off the highlight clips they each had saved.
[Video Share - ‘Koros’ shared this for 10,000!]
(NoName's Sign-Off Highlight)
[replycastle, AltCoco, Sailor Uniform Miyeon, xxxlqlzx
...
Thank you for all your donations, Isabi, ymck, and Lee Jun-hyeong. That's it for today's stream.]
For roughly fifteen seconds, NoName rattled off the viewers' usernames one after another. Since the video in the donation had been sped up, it must have lasted well over a minute in reality.
Just as Yongcheol was struggling to figure out how to react—there was nothing special about it besides her cute voice—the viewers explained the situation.
-She memorized the viewers whose donation thank-yous she missed while gaming and did them all at the end of the stream.
-She's not looking at anything, either?
-She's a real monster ㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷ
-She's fucking insaneㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Why would someone with that kind of insane talent stream online...? Why...?
-NoName! NoName! NoName! NoName!
“Really? She had memorized all those usernames?”
-Yep yep yep yep yep.
-Wow.
-What an insane trickㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-The person who donated a million won got buried after their name was called just onceㅋㅋㅋ
-Whether it's a thousand won or a million, that girl reacts exactly the same...
-She doesn't even show any reaction to money. Maybe some rich kid streams as a hobby.
-Not very talkative, and it's a calm, skilled stream, so it's nice to watch before bed.
└ Calmly (while dismembering her opponent's limbs)
-I wish NoName would enter the Fall Tournament too.
-She probably can't find a team. Her tier is still too low.
└ Her mechanics are good, but watching her placement games, she might not understand macro very well yet.
“Come to think of it, even if she entered a tournament, she'd probably participate in the Fall Tournament, not Win-It-Back. The balance would be way too off from the start.”
In any case, once the tournament ended, Yongcheol would switch over to Lost Rainbow or FIFA again.
He wasn't deeply versed in WoA, but it was obvious that people like that would use their innate talent to tear through the skies above everyone else.
Offering his silent condolences to the countless Masters and Challengers who would have to face her as an enemy, he returned his attention to the stream.
* * *
[‘Jimin1039’ donated 1,000 won!]
-She turned this team fight around. So when are you playing WoA?
NoName's stream now had more viewers who had come in through WoA than viewers who had come in through LoL.
The viewers had briefly cheered when her broadcast schedule finally returned to normal after a long hiatus.
Then their lamentations poured out when NoName abandoned the WoA account on which she had even completed the placement test and played nothing but LoL.
[R - La Asteria Shuhata Phylum]
Asteria, the last survivor of the fox-eared Selena race, scattered star fragments and brought the battlefield to an end.
The woman's hair, dyed red, slowly turned white and returned to its original color.
The only blue-furred cat to survive the meteor shower's barrage was barely clinging to life.
But she did not take its life.
Drawing her long katana, Asteria poked at the cat's legs and buttocks from various angles, toying with the animal without killing it.
She had decided that delaying its death and disrupting the enemies' respawn timings would be more beneficial than killing it immediately.
“Please let me live, bro. I'm begging you.”
“Rock-paper-scissors?”
“In this body, I can only throw rock!”
“Okay, rock, paper, scissors. I won.”
“You're xx crazy, aren't you?”
[Quadra Kill!]
To prepare for the next fight over the dragon, NoName hurried back to the fortress.
[‘SongsongNadak’ donated 1,000 won!]
-NoName, please enter the WoA tournament instead of playing LoLㅠㅠㅠ Why did you abandon us and choose LoL?
“Huh? I'm entering WoA too.”
-???????
-You couldn't find a team for the Fall Tournament.
-Wait, could it be Win-It-Back instead of the Fall Tournament?
-But are you allowed to just say that?
-Are you entering both, ma'am?
-Is that even possible?
“Oh, was I supposed to keep that a secret?”
It was the moment when one of the thirty-six participants who had been shrouded in secrecy was revealed.