Chapter 157
[‘Doratman’ donated 10,000 won!]
-Kariri's the best thing in the world, isn't she?
“Really? I’m your favorite? Did you come home after work today and watch only me? You didn’t follow anyone else, did you? Hurry up and prove ittttt! I said prove ittttttttt!”
[‘Doratman’ donated 10,000 won!]
-ㅋㅋㅋ It’s true! I like Kariri more than my mom!
“Huh? You like me more than your mom? That’s a lie... It’s obviously a lie. Why did you lie to Kariri? So you don’t actually love me? If you like Kariri more than your mom, would you be okay with Kariri killing her?”
[‘Doratman’ donated 1,000 won!]
-You fucking bitch, that’s not okay
<World of Arseria Gallery>
[Kariri’s undisputed prime][129]
(Kariri controversy from her days as a tiny streamer in Season 47.mp4)
[Comments]
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Wow, she’s fucking nutsㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-What a braindead bitch... what a braindead bitch...
-She’s a genuine menhera, holy shitㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-She immediately hit a viewer with a family insult ㄷㄷㄷㄷ
-The tone she used to say “you fucking bitch” in response to a donation is fucking hilariousㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-She’s completely different now
-She crossed every line like it was a jump rope wwww
-1,200 upvotes, 4 downvotesㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Basically a real-name reveal for the downvoters
-She definitely has some serious mental issuesㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Her instant rage is on an Andromeda-level, absolutely insane
-She was the same age as NoName back then, both in eighth grade, yet look at the differenceㅋㅋㅋㅋ
[Who would’ve thought Kariri would make it into the mainstream][80]
She was destined to quietly fade away as some mediocre small-time VTuber after picking up an ordinary cheap model.
Who could’ve imagined she’d suddenly become famous by collabing with broadcast-network celebrities and even become the empress of streaming?
[Comments]
-Her energy is insane, though
└ She screams nonstop while gaming and her voice has never once given out. She’s a born entertainer.
-Hmm, was she really that good...?
-Even without the Kim Woo-joo and LK collabs, she was bound to break out eventually.
-There’s a reason she succeeded on her own without a company behind her.
└ Exactly. Watch Kariri stream for 40 straight hours and you won’t be saying stuff like that.
└ Forty hours? Her stamina’s insane.
-Honestly, being young played a part in her getting popular too.
-When you hear her talk, she’s actually a really nice kid, and mature for her age.
└ “She’s a nice kid” is what people say when they have to squeeze out something because there’s nothing else to praise.
-Is this public opinion for real? The whole world is a Kariri stan;;
└ Could you call us Honeybees instead?
-Yeah, Kariri even showed her real face~ She proved she’s a blue-pill person~ If the other dullahans are so confident, tell them to show their faces too~
-The fact that she used to be an idol trainee alone puts her in the top tier.
└ Then why is she a VTuber? (genuinely asking)
* * *
[Kariri/Controversies and Incidents
1. Overview
2. List
2.1. Controversy Over Failing to Credit Model Source
2.2. Controversy Over Resurfacing Her Past Viewer Family Insults
...
2.15. Involvement in Idol Chena’s Death
2.16. Involvement in the Twitch Korea Mass Personal Information Leak]
How on earth did she survive all that?
“You’ve led quite a turbulent life.”
“Huh?”
“Nothing.”
Phewww.
I moved the screen aside and let out a deep sigh.
The reason I had gone out of my way to look up Kariri’s personal details on TreeWiki was obvious.
“I’m truly sorry! I’m sorry, everyone!”
Streamer Han Yongcheol bowed deeply and apologized to us.
When a grown man kept apologizing to three people in their twenties, one high schooler, and me, an elementary schooler, everyone stepped in to stop him.
“Aw, hyung, we’ve got a team now, so we should aim for the championship...! NoName’s here too!”
“That’s right! We can do this...!”
The words from the man and woman encouraging Han Yongcheol carried absolutely no conviction.
If I had to compare it to food, they were like spinach boiled to death.
“I’ll do my best...!”
Perhaps Kariri had realized how serious the situation was, because she wasn’t showing the same energy as before.
To understand how this incident began, you had to watch the team auction that had taken place about an hour earlier.
“But, hyung Yongcheol, you said you weren’t going to spend points on a healer, so why did you go out of your way to buy NoName for 840 points...?”
“Ah, I heard intel that the captain of the team next to us was going to buy NoName no matter what, up to 850 points... Even in the mock auction... It was a pathetic excuse! I’m sorry!”
“No, I’m not trying to blame you. I was just curious.”
The winning strategy in an auction held with the limited resource of 1,000 points was simple.
Encourage everyone else to buy the lots at inflated prices while buying your own cheaply, and you win.
In other words, bid up lots you had no intention of buying to a suitable price, then find an uncontested bargain for yourself and recruit from there.
And Han Yongcheol had lost that battle of wits completely.
I had been assigned a relatively early position in the order.
Although the showcase results hadn’t been particularly impressive at 3 wins and 2 losses, I had earned a KDA of 134, an unprecedented record in Win-It-Back history, and was therefore highly valued despite being a healer unsuited to the meta.
Han Yongcheol, who was in Gold tier, had received an adjustment and started with 920 points after an 80-point deduction, so even if he got two unsold lots, the perfect plan would have been to spend 300 points on each.
[840 points! NoName has been sold for 840 points, the highest price in Win-It-Back history!]
[Ah, it looks like we can already anticipate some difficulties!]
But Han Yongcheol, who had resolved from the outset to drive my price all the way to 850 points, called out the final 840-point bid, and when the neighboring captain who had been bluffing in the mock auctions announced he was dropping out, I went straight to Yongcheol’s team.
“But oppa, you could’ve used the remaining 80 points well!”
“Well, you see...”
Han Yongcheol squeezed his eyes shut before he knew it.
From this point on, I knew what had happened because I had watched the broadcast too.
With only 80 points left, Yongcheol had been given the formidable task of bringing in mid-tier players as cheaply as possible.
But when he couldn’t stand by and watch Kariri, a Platinum player, get sold to someone for a mere 40 points, Yongcheol summoned his last bit of courage, raised it to 50 points, and got her.
With his remaining 30 points, Yongcheol couldn’t buy anyone until the auction made another full round, so he had no choice but to accept the unprecedented result of three unsold lots.
“What tiers is everyone? Come to think of it, we haven’t even introduced ourselves.”
“I’m Kariri, a VTuber on Twitch! I’m Platinum 3, and I play a tank assassin!”
Because Kariri, a lot everyone avoided, was now the second-highest-tier member of our team after me, an absurd situation that wasn’t funny at all, everyone grew solemn.
“All right, yes! Let’s do our best for the next two weeks, all right! I’m Han Yongcheol, a Twitch streamer. I’m here aiming to win this Win-It-Back!”
Yongcheol boomed in a loud voice. As captain, he was trying to raise the mood with a sense of responsibility.
With the mood somewhat less tense than before, the other three also summoned the courage to introduce themselves.
“I’m Brownie, and I play variety games on VTube Live. I’m Gold 4, and I use a Zweihander.”
“I’m Daltori! My class is Ice Mage, and I’m Silver 1.”
“I’m Boredguy, and I’m also a variety-game streamer on Twitch. Among the broadswords, I’ve been using a claymore the most lately. It says I’m Silver 3, but I climbed to Silver 2 this time.”
We didn’t have a proper tank at all.
If even one of us had been carrying a shield, the game would have been easier, but unfortunately, our team’s only tank, Kariri, had a class that couldn’t go on the front line.
When the self-introduction turn passed to me, I gave a quiet nod.
“My class is Priest, and although my tier is Platinum 1...”
I paused slightly and slowly looked around at all five of them.
The obstacle I would have to overcome over the next two weeks.
“I’m NoName, the number-one World of Arseria story-mode player. It’s a pleasure to work with you.”
* * *
<Streamers Gallery>
[Even after all this? Even after all this? Even afteeeeeeer all thiiiiiiiiis?][97]
(Han Yongcheol team introduction video: The Blorli)
NoName got completely screwed over in the auctionㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Seriously, how are they supposed to win with one Plat, two Golds, and two Silvers? There are teams made up entirely of Gold, Plat, and Diamond players.
[Comments]
-That team nameㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Is “Double Loli” actually allowed?
└ Hey, it’s not “Double Loli,” it’s “The Blorli.”
└ It’s not like this is broadcast TV, so who cares?
└ The people involved consented, so what’s the problem?
-Seeing Kariri and NoName together in one shot is legendary
-Honestly, NoName was fine, but Kariri ruined everything by going for 50 points.
└ The 840 points... were a waste, admittedly, but she was worth paying for.
└ Isn’t that way too much praise? They went 3–2 even in the showcase with randomly assembled teams.
-Kariri is such a burden. Entering an entertainment character in a tournament in the first place was fucking selfish.
└ She’s just obsessed with farming VTube content, yeah. The kind of person who’d be exhausting to have around.
[Kariri ← Reasons this bitch needs to be kicked out immediately][19]
[I’m so fucking annoyed. I was looking forward to Yongcheol finally escaping his trophyless streak][12]
[VTubers = social evil itself; upvote if you agree][24]
[I wish that honey-badger bitch would stop butting in alreadyㅋㅋㅋㅋ][10]
[Am I the only one cheering for The Blorli at this point? Sigh][13]
“...”
“What are you looking at, Kariri?”
“Oh, NoName!”
“We said we’d drop the formalities with each other.”
“Oh, right, we did! I’m just used to speaking formally in front of other people, hehe.”
Since it was day zero after the team was formed, we only played one scrim each.
Since these scrims were meant solely to objectively assess the team’s strength, I couldn’t exactly draw my sword and run wild from the start.
So I strictly stuck to my role as a priest, as the coach ordered, and the result was painful to watch.
Game time: 16 minutes 42 seconds.
Kill score: 41 to 16.
The opposing team had systematically pressured us, as if they had been coordinating with one another for a long time.
[Guys, everyone’s mechanics are good! Once we polish our first capture and our macro, we have plenty of potential. Let’s prepare well from here on out!]
The coach assigned to our team clapped and encouraged us, but he couldn’t stop the mood from sinking.
“So? How was the game? Was it manageable?”
“I’m kind of wondering if I joined Win-It-Back for nothing... No, I shouldn’t start whining already, right? Everyone on the team is trying their best! Besides, we did win one of the three games we played together, didn’t we? Back in the showcase!”
Everyone logged out of their capsules, leaving only Kariri and me in the waiting room.
She seemed to be trying to maintain her usual sunny image, but without the broadcast camera running, Kariri wasn’t particularly energetic.
“Kariri, what made you decide to enter this tournament?”
“It just looked fun? I guess everyone isn’t doing this just for fun, so maybe I was wrong...?”
“No, I think games should be fun too.”
Games should always be fun.
Once you can no longer see a game as entertainment, it can only be painful from that moment on.
Had the League I played during those years of desperately surviving by cashing out gold really been entertainment to me?
Not at all.
If anything, it had been no different from shackles.
“Kariri, do you know what? I have a goal in this tournament.”
“A goal? What is it, what is it?”
“The Total MVP, awarded to whoever puts on the best performance across the six events.”
This was why I had made up my mind to participate in two games.
Even if I won Game MVP in only one of them, there was no guarantee I would be chosen as Total MVP because I wouldn’t know what was happening live in the other games.
So the surest way was to hard-carry conspicuously in both events and win the Total MVP.
A Game MVP’s acceptance speech was only about two or three minutes, but the Total MVP got a full ten minutes.
And I had to make use of that time.
“I’ll make sure we win the games. In exchange, I want you to enjoy yourself, Kariri.”
“Hweee, NoName, you’re really good at making what you say sound cool. But honestly, I’m not very confident. I can play games for as long as you want, but I don’t know how to be good at them.”
“Then do you want to collab with me before scrims starting tomorrow? I’ll help you practice.”
“Collab? Really?”
“Yeah. We practice on our own before scrims anyway. It’d be good to meet at four and practice for two hours each day.”
“Uwee, awesome! Then I’ll be your first collab partner, right?”
“No, technically Hyebam was first.”
“But I’m your first in WoA! Kyaaah, thank you so much, seriously! I’ll work hard and repay you, okay! By the way, my home address is 221 Seonreung-ro, Gangnam-gu, Building 21x, Unit 13xx-”
“What are you talking about? We mean collabing in virtual reality, don’t we?”
“I know, I’m joking, hehe. Anyway, I’ll practice a lot for real. I’ll show everyone that I didn’t put this character in the lineup as a joke. Even our viewers, who are Bronze/Silver/Gold themselves, keep giving me crap and only blaming me! It’s killing me!”
Kariri’s sunny smile at the end made me feel as though my heart was being cleansed just by looking at it.
“But it feels so awkward being called ‘unnie,’ you know? Name-jjang, could you call me unnie one more time?”
“No.”
“Hieeeng.”