Chapter 9
I tied a scrap of cloth I’d gotten as junk loot around a log and poured monster oil over it.
"Ignite!"
With a crackle, sparks flew, and the log burst into flames.
"Mages really do have it easy."
My experience went up, but maybe because of the level penalty, it only increased by 50%.
'Even if the point is to take your time and enjoy the content, this is too much.'
Monsters were swarming all around us, and the party's average level was 6.
On top of that, the monsters nearby were at least level 13.
Of course, there was a way to deal with an environment like this.
"This is embarrassing."
"Aw, it's cute!"
Because it came with the condition that I had to wear cute cat ears on my head.
The cat ears twitched wildly with my emotions. Even though my avatar had a beautiful girl's face—unlike my old, fucking hideous one—it was still incredibly embarrassing.
"Nya-nya~"
Soran leaned her face toward me, curled her hands like a cat, and looked at the camera.
"Jia, you do nya-nya too~"
"..."
I just stared at her.
"Do nya-nya~"
"Why should I?"
Ding-
I heard a 10,000-won donation come in.
"Ah, ten thousand won... Ha, ten thousand won. Ha..."
I really didn't want to do it.
I twisted my face and clenched my fist.
"N-nya, nya-nya."
"Sahyang, you do nya-nya too~"
"Nya-nya~! Jia, you do nya-nya too~ Not 'nya-nya.' Nya-nya~"
Fuck.
Was this what it meant to be a pro streamer? Did those two have no shame at all, not even a shred of embarrassment? Or was it because they weren't real faces, just custom characters?
'Am I still stuck as Lee Jiho, a Korean guy...'
I could dance the damn Zero Two, but I just couldn't act cute.
"Nya..."
"Nya?"
"Nya-nya..."
Then Sahyang and Soran leaned their faces toward me.
"Hmm~ I can't hear what you're saying at all. Soran, could you hear what Jia said?"
"Hmm... N-Niagara Falls?"
"Hmm, I think I heard something else. N... n... banana?!"
"N-nya, nya-nya!!!!"
My cringe tolerance was at its limit, so I hurriedly acted cute and brought the whole thing to an end.
"Ooh~ Nya-nya! Then I'll give you a mission! I'll give Jia 100,000 won, so add 'nya-nya' to the end of every sentence!"
Soran grabbed my shoulder and said.
A chill ran down my spine.
What was this? Were they trying to intimidate me? Did they think my whole persona of hating weird cutesy behavior was hurting their donations?
"N-no..."
"And another 100,000 won!"
"I'll do it."
The new PC I wanted to buy was going to cost 3.5 million won.
Those fucking graphics card bastards had jacked up the prices so much that the total was looking insane.
"You'll do it?"
"I-I'll do it, nya~"
Fuck. This is the kind of shit I have to put up with to make a living.
"Jia-nya~ How long until we reach the main quest, nya?"
"We just have to walk ten more minutes, nya. But why are you talking like that, Sahyang-nya?"
"I got a mission too, nya~ It's worth 300,000 won, nya~"
Soran clicked her tongue and looked at the camera.
"Won't anyone send me a mission...?"
A few minutes later, she let out a squeal, seemingly having received a mission.
'I'd heard being a streamer was grueling, but... this is even more fucking awful than I expected.'
Still, as long as I got paid, it was all good.
Before long, we entered the main quest area, a place known as the 'Meeting Plaza.'
#
Eid Chronicle was basically played either solo or in a party.
It was online, but unlike a conventional multiplayer game, you couldn't freely meet other people.
Even so, they'd set aside a space for newbie players who hadn't managed to gather other people beforehand.
That was the Meeting Plaza.
Characters with unfamiliar custom appearances chatted and sent each other friend requests.
You could invite other players here and bring them to your own server.
So players looking to invite others, or a lone player looking to join another server, often showed up here.
"It's Sahyang!"
A major streamer showing up in such a niche game was quite an event. An influx of new players would revive the game's economy, and a larger game budget would make it easier to hold events.
"I'm a fan!!"
Several players opened their inventories and competed to give her presents.
"Ahaha, I appreciate the thought. But I'd like to take my time and enjoy this game for now... Sorry!"
Soran was also a fairly popular mid-tier streamer, and people flocked over to her.
'...'
I had 200 viewers. That seemed suspiciously high to me.
Even if I was riding their coattails, was it really that easy to get 200 viewers? If just wandering around the internet got you that many, female streamers would be busting their asses to make clips.
As expected, most of my viewers were just bots. My actual viewer count was around 50.
'I should report this. I knew something was weird about having so many.'
A stream nobody cared about. Earlier, my viewer count had definitely been in the 300s, but now I was barely in the 50s.
"Jia?"
At the sound of someone calling me, I turned and saw a character looking at me.
"Oh, Sam-ban!"
Sam-ban, who'd even donated to me, gave my shoulder a pat.
"You made it. I've been enjoying your stream!"
Of course, I didn't watch Sam-ban that often, but I'd spent two days watching Sam-ban's YouTube videos to study the character Ivan, so I felt like I already knew Sam-ban a little.
"I can't believe I'm seeing you here. This is so strange."
"Ahaha, really? I've been watching you since you started going around as an internet meme, and you're funnier than I expected."
I laughed as I joked with Sam-ban.
"Oh, right, you can trade here, can't you? I'd like to give you some Ivan-related items... How about using them later when you fight a boss or something?"
"Oh! So they're recommended items? Let's go!"
I smiled brightly and followed Sam-ban.
#
"Sam-ban, what made you start playing Ivan?"
"Like I mentioned on YouTube, um, how should I put it? I guess I play Ivan because he's really stylish and his playstyle is so unconventional."
"Hmm, I see."
"What about you, Jia?"
"Didn't you watch my YouTube video?"
"Ahaha, of course I did. Didn't you say it was for the romance?"
"That's right."
Then Sam-ban turned to look at me and scratched his head with an awkward expression.
"Well... They say we're not allowed to do this here. Could we go a little farther in?"
"All right."
I followed Sam-ban farther inside.
We went so deep that the voices of the people around us sounded muffled, and I could barely hear anything except the occasional shout. Sam-ban turned to me and smiled.
"It's quiet."
"Yeah. Quiet enough that no one would know if someone died."
I immediately pulled out a knife, pointed it at Sam-ban, and shoved him toward the wall.
"Urk?!"
I pressed the blade close to his throat and forced his neck toward it.
"J-Jia?"
"If you were Sam-ban, you'd have instinctively drawn your sword to block me. I've done my homework. If you're going to disguise yourself as a rogue, you need to study more."
One of the rogue's skills: 'Disguise'
Using Disguise turned you into a monster or another player.
In fights with monsters, it could be used to lose aggro or confuse the monsters' target priority.
But things worked differently in the Meeting Plaza.
Scamming. This fucking awful practice happened even in a cozy game like this.
People copied the appearance of another famous player and used that player's fame to scam people out of money before running off. Others chatted someone up, then used the rogue skill Steal to take their items.
Of course, I'd done my homework.
"Hand over the money, you fucking bastard."
Some time later, Soran and Sahyang came looking for me.
"Huh? What's that in your hand?"
I looked at Soran while holding up the bundle in my hand.
"Spoils."
In a back alley deep within the Meeting Plaza, a man was grinding his teeth after having his armor and valuable items taken from him.
'Hey, I had my stream turned off for a bit, but I had recording on, okay? Your level's pretty high too. Should I post this on the internet? If you don't want that, hand over everything you have.'
He'd been robbed of almost everything he owned and was now face-down on the ground, sobbing.
Grit-
"U...gh...u...!!"
It was burned into his mind: the devil, and that devil's vile grin.
The more he recalled her face as she looked down at him with that wicked grin, the more his desire for revenge swelled.
"N...s...mm...gh!!!!"
No one could have known what kind of figure the rogue Lee Jia had dealt with a few minutes earlier would become in the future.
But that was far in the future. For now, he was vermin.
"Hey, mister. Are you okay?"
"Ah, I'm fine..."
When he turned his head, he saw two people who looked vaguely familiar.
"When are you going to pay back the money you borrowed from me a few months ago~? I filed a report, and they gave me your nickname."
"Uh... yes?"
The two smiled brightly and pulled weapons from their bags.
"They say if you commit a crime, you get punished. That's how the world works. You understand?"
He looked at them with trembling eyes.
"Now we're going to punish you, so take it without complaint."
"W-wait a minute!!!"
The next day, a post appeared on a gaming site.
A rumor spread that there was a ghost NPC in the Meeting Plaza who let out bloodcurdling screams.