Chapter 14
Han Seongwon
With the Han surname, I use the characters for “star” and “origin.”
He was a man in his mid-to-late twenties with a somewhat grandiose name meaning he was to become the foundation of this star.
Sadly, after losing his parents at a young age, he started doing odd jobs in his mid-teens to support himself and his younger siblings, and by his early twenties, he had entered the construction trade.
Still, thanks to making good use of government subsidies and being healthy enough never to end up bedridden, he wasn't dirt-poor.
That gave him plenty of time for his one real hobby: gaming.
‘We're doing yarikkiri today, right?’
His favorite time was getting home quickly after yarikkiri and gaming all day.
Back then, even his younger siblings couldn't stop him; he just played games all day.
Looking back, it was foolish.
He should have spent more time with his siblings.
Still, since his eldest younger sibling found a job before he died of overwork, the family probably wouldn't have fallen apart.
Anyway, dying from overwork was a sad thing.
Now, he's someone remembered by no one in the world but me.
After reincarnating, I looked up my old school and various other things, but they didn't exist.
More than anything, seeing that celebrities and historical figures were different convinced me it was another world.
Because of that, I couldn't even make easy money on crypto.
Anyway, the reason I'm bringing this up is...
-Seongwon up!! Seongwon up!!
-Seongwon GOATㅋㅋㅋ
-This is it.
Dead Seongwon lives on as a meme on our stream.
“Wow, Great Seongwon.”
So how did this happen...? It was sometime last summer.
While I was playing a game, an old save file with a character named Han Seongwon ended up being broadcast on stream.
Before I started streaming, I always named male characters Han Seongwon. That particular trace just happened to make it on air.
If it had happened now, with my experience, it wouldn't have been a problem, but back then I'd only been a baby VTuber for about six months, so it was a mistake.
-Who the fuck is Seongwon?
-So who the fuck is Han Seongwon???
-Seongwon?? Seongwon???
At the time, it really looked like dead Seongwon was killing living Ahyun.
But after I authenticated my old Pokémon account and brought out various other proof, they finally believed me.
Anyway, it briefly became a UFC match, but I cleared it up with proof.
After that, whenever I had to name a male character on stream, I proudly named him Han Seongwon.
Since nobody else remembers him, I have to keep using the name.
These days, the viewers know the name too, though.
“Wow~ Seongwon beat this?”
For reference, Seongwon just hunted a bear.
The meaningful, significant name Han Seongwon went to the pawn assigned to handle combat in the settlement.
Our Seongwon is fighting really well.
-His traits rolled god-tierㅋㅋㅋ
-He's fucking strongㅋㅋ
-You're going to gear him up properly, right??
“Seongwon's built sturdy, so he's fine.”
He was always sturdy back then, too.
Looking back, it's amazing he never developed some chronic illness after working himself to the bone like that.
I suppose those memories are part of why I've become such a mentally resilient adult now, though.
Anyway, now that we've caught some meat, shall we butcher it?
“All right, let's go.”
For reference, Seongwon handles combat, but he also cooks.
With so few people at the start, everyone has to do several jobs.
-Combat and cooking too, kyaㅋㅋㅋ
-Sanji's entered the gameㅋㅋ
-Damn, what a homemaker.
“I happen to be quite the cook myself.”
-??
-Who asked?
“You fucking bastards.”
Why do they dote on Seongwon but treat only me like this?
“Phew.”
It was unfair, but I decided to be understanding, as the living Ahyun.
-Hey, but you need to build the house out of stone.
-Wood makes me really nervous.
-Isn't technology development way too slow?
“Technology? Well, we can take it slow. We don't even have food.”
I answered the viewers' backseat gaming without much concern.
We'd barely started the game; why would we build a stone house already?
The guide did say to build it out of wood, but we don't have time to process stone.
That's because... Seongwon is actually in charge of processing, too.
Seongwon's jobs are combat, cooking, hauling, and processing, but he's too busy to have a spare moment.
-If a fire breaks out, we'll need to start a new settlement.
-I bet points on this.
-Please, let's just survive today.
“I'll be careful. I'm making traps right now, too, aren't I?”
For reference, today's point bet is whether we survive until the end of the stream.
Clearing it in one go seemed impossible even with a guide, so I planned to play as safely as possible while learning the game.
Once I learned the ropes, if it was fun, I'd play it again later; if it felt even a little iffy, I'd never touch it again.
-So how's the game??
-Is this game fun??
Of course, judging only by what I'd seen so far...
“Hmm, it is playable.”
The game... yeah, it's pretty playable.
Time seems to fly, too.
More than anything, I like that it doesn't have a set story.
Games should be something I make myself.
What's the fun if I just follow whatever the game company dictates?
“How about building the house like this? Make the outside a rectangle, cut three big paths through it, and make the rest smaller...”
Now that we'd hunted a bear and secured food, I slowed the game down for a moment and drew up a plan for the settlement.
First, I made the walls square to make it easy to divide the space, and left the outer perimeter open for patrols and smooth movement.
Then, to simplify movement routes, if we make straight paths diagonally too...
-Fuck, it's a canyon.
-Wow, this guy really is a Rell addict.
-That's an addiction, sir.
“Huh.”
Ta-da, a canyon appeared.
“Is this convergent evolution...?”
-???
-Convergent evolution, my assㅋㅋㅋ
-Get Rell out of your brain.
-But it kind of looks okay.
“Right? It does look kind of pretty.”
If we cut paths just like a canyon and add things like dining halls or living quarters here and there, it should work.
In the first place, Rell's map is one of the layouts most familiar to the viewers here.
There was no way something modeled after that would look bad.
-Why does it look okay...?
-A little inefficient, but it's got style.
-Should we make a killbox in the center?
“Oh, a killbox. We need one.”
In PawnWorld, raiders periodically come to attack a settlement.
A killbox is a place where you deliberately leave an opening in the settlement to lure enemies in.
Normally, I'd say, “What do we need a killbox for?” and spend more time arming the units.
“This is where the tower goes, right?”
But now that we'd built it around a canyon concept, I started designing the killbox to look nice.
“How about leaving the other side open so they come through here?”
It would look nice if we made it so the enemy ran straight in from the red team's side.
-Ohㅋㅋㅋ
-Not bad.
-It absolutely has to be stone.
-Stop chopping wood, fuck.
“Yeah, yeah.”
Well, to make that happen, I'd really have to start picking up rocks and processing them into stone blocks now.
The good thing was that our Seongwon was also a specialist hauler.
That was where Seongwon's true talent lay, more than in combat or processing.
How many bricks had he carried by now?
Watching him carry rocks on his back brought old memories vividly back to me.
“Wow, he's good.”
-Seongfather's sweating through his pantsㅠㅜㅜ
-What are the other guys doing??ㅋㅋㅋ
-Wayo, you bastard, do some work.
“Wayo has to do research.”
For reference, there was also a pawn named Wayo.
Since he was a pawn specializing in research and treatment, he stayed holed up in his room all day doing nothing but research.
-He's leeching like crazy.
-Is that bastard even researching in there, or is he playing Rell?
-Seongwon's out there hauling rocks in the blazing sun, fuck.
-Why is tech taking so long to unlock when all he does is research??
“That's because our Wayo is a late bloomer.”
If Seongwon had high base stats and traits that made him strong right away,
Wayo was made as a late-blooming pawn, so the viewers were giving him hell.
They're being too harsh. Can't we leech off him a little?
“Just wait. He's the talent who's going to feed our settlement.”
-He has the Psychopath trait; what talent?
-Just looking at him, you can tell Wayo's going to ruin the settlementㅇㅇ
“Mm-hmm, can't hear you~”
For reference, Wayo has the Eccentric Genius trait.
It's a trait that increases the chance of mental breaks in exchange for faster learning.
That's something we can handle with proper care....
“All right, Seongwon, you got this!”
As a result, Seongwon is the one who has to carry the logs for now.
-Seongfatherㅠㅜㅜ
-Can't we donate to Seongwon??
“Donate to me, and I'll make sure it gets to him.”
-ㅗㅗㅗ
-No way that's happeningㅋㅋㅋ
-You greedy bitch...
...Honestly, what a bunch of Seongwon moms.
I don't know when it started, but as you can see, there's a faction that blindly hypes Seongwon.
And by contrast, Wayo gets relentlessly flamed.
Honestly, I don't mind.
After all, Seongwon was a name that used to be me.
And Wayo is a username I've used for a year, isn't it?
Let them insult Wayo all they want.
Heh-heh.
I couldn't help laughing as I watched viewers who had no idea what was going on.
-???
-Why are you giving us that creepy little laugh??
“No, it's nothing. More importantly, we just need to line the outer wall with stone, right?”
-Yep.
-Just have Nguyen do it.
“Yup.”
There are three starting units in PawnWorld.
Of those, if Seongwon handles combat, cooking, processing, and hauling, and Wayo handles research and medicine,
there's one pawn left to handle mining, construction, farming, and logging.
His name is Nguyen, and he works incredibly hard.
Could he actually be the real hidden ace?
-This guy works like a dogㅋㅋㅋ
-Let's get Nguyen married to Wayo, shall we??
“Fuck off.”
Not that marriage would be going that far.
Our Wayo is planning to stay in his room and play Rell... I mean, do research.
-???
-Fuck you, what's wrong with Nguyen?
-Tsk, men like that are the ones you should marry.
Anyway, I was watching Seongwon and Nguyen work in fast-forward when...
[Danger!]
A warning message appeared in red lettering at the bottom right of the screen.
“Huh? Where did that come from?”
Since that message meant raiders had attacked, I took a quick look.
An indicator appeared on the map showing enemies swarming in.
They hadn't seemed all that dangerous when I'd fought them earlier.
I could just kite them with Seongwon and kill them....
“...Why are there so many?”
I briefly lost my words when I rotated the map to look.
And for good reason....
-Emergencyㅋㅋㅋ
-Wow, we're fucked?
-All right, time to start a new settlementㅋㅋ
The edge of the map I'd turned to check.
A whole group of raiders was running toward us carrying all kinds of firearms.