Chapter 49
This was a game I'd already definitely lost the bet in, even if I came in first.
Since I wanted to at least survive to the end, I held the mouse out to Mom.
“Can I do it?”
Mom, who had come to give me fruit and unexpectedly found herself playing a game, took the mouse.
The dubious look on her face suggested she was flustered.
-?? Who is that?
-It's Daemoney, long time no seeㅋㅋㅋ
-Daemoneyㄷㄷ
-Is that Daemoney??
For the record, I merely muted the voice chat quietly.
But her voice was broadcast on stream, so a few viewers who recognized her welcomed her appearance.
To be fair, she'd occasionally appeared by voice back in the early days of the stream.
“It's okay. I'm in last place anyway.”
Actually, having someone play on my behalf like this obviously wasn't allowed.
But since I was in last place anyway, a little pair of training wheels should be fine, right?
And it's not like I'd called in a professional stand-in; my mom, who'd just brought me fruit, was filling in for one game.
“Mm-hmm… More importantly, is this an art museum?”
At that, Mom pondered for a moment, then took an interest in the art museum on-screen.
“Oh, yes, it is.”
Come to think of it, Mom liked art museums, too, didn't she?
As it happened, Ms. Han Seonghwa was one of Mom's acquaintances.
That was where they'd met, after all.
Anyway, Mom seemed to lose her apprehension once she realized it was an art museum and grew curious.
“You paint yourself to match the surroundings and hide.”
“Really?”
“Yep, yep. I think you can hide by sticking onto this painting.”
-???
-What the hell are you making your mother-in-law doㅋㅋ
-Is Mother-in-law good at drawing?
“Want to give it a try?”
Saying that, I went over and attached myself to a nearby painting.
If this had been me before the previous game, I never would've thought of hiding in a place like this… but whatever. There was an expert here.
“Can I paint over it?”
“Yep, yep.”
Mom must have found the game mechanics interesting too, because she dabbed some paint onto her brush.
“Let's see….”
Maybe it was because she worked on a tablet these days. She filled in the colors with practiced ease.
-??
-?
-What the hell??
“It's been a while since I did this.”
“Have you done it before?”
“When I was a student~”
As one would expect of an art-school graduate, she skillfully filled in the character's body with paint.
She even covered the slightly curved areas and made them look as natural as possible—her experience clearly showed.
-??
-Is this even possible??
-Her skill is at a professional level?
No wonder the viewers were flustered.
Well, it made sense….
‘Because she really is a professional.’
She really was a professional who had worked as an art instructor at an academy.
Though she was a full-time housewife now….
“Is this enough?”
-ㄷㄷㄷㄷ
-What the hell
-What does your mother do for a living??
“She draws a bit as a hobby.”
After all, she wrote children's books as a side job.
Was she still technically active?
**
Our family of four lived on the outskirts of Gyeonggi Province, near Seoul.
Of the four of us, three were economically active, excluding Aseong, a college student who was a money-guzzling black hole.
The eldest daughter, a model, had bought the house we currently lived in.
Dad paid the living expenses.
Mom, who was a homemaker while also writing children's books as a side job, handled the occasional dining-out expenses and paid tithes.
Well, that was only 10 percent of the royalties bringing in a few hundred thousand won a month—
‘Isn't that kind of a loophole?’
‘Hey, you and your father believe, don't you? I'm the one who practices it.’
Whenever I asked, feeling a little guilty, Mom always answered without hesitation.
‘Hmm, that is true.’
It was hard to argue when I thought about it, so I never said much.
Anyway, as befitted a mother who mainly made children's religious stories, particularly Protestant ones,
her drawing skills were outstanding.
This was evidence of that.
“Where's Wayo?”
“Wow, did Wayo-nim draw this?”
“You didn't use some kind of tool, did you?”
The Light of the World[1853]
A painting by William Holman Hunt,
it depicted Jesus knocking on a door overgrown with foliage,
and Mom had blended me perfectly into the lantern he was holding.
Unless you noticed the curves where I was attached to the wall, I was nearly impossible to spot.
-What is this, for realㅋㅋ
-Whoa, wow
-Is Mother-in-law a professional??
Despite being a painting right out in the open passageway, Haebin, the seeker, still hadn't found me.
“Heh, hehe.”
I lightly tapped Mom and showed her the chat, and she gave an uncharacteristically bashful smile.
“Do you like it?”
“Hmm? No?”
-Kyaa
-Daemoneyㄷㄷ
-ㅗㅑ
-Her voice sounds young
-Give us your mother-in-law, daughterㅠㅠ
“Don't look at that.”
I casually covered the chat window.
Whew, there's no type of chat they won't send.
Anyway.
“Where the hell are you!”
“I really can't find you.”
“Wayo-nim, why didn't you do that from the start?”
Haebin had skillfully caught everyone else, but the game ended with the seeker never finding me.
“Well, the thing is….”
Now that the game was over, I told them the truth.
I'd done it openly on stream in the first place, so some of them might already have known.
Why wouldn't a word without feet travel a thousand li?
Humans are creatures who can't stand having something only they know; their mouths itch to share it.
So the modern cuckoo, faster than a word without feet, must have already flown.
“Huh, your mother?”
“What? Your mother did that?”
In any case, everyone was surprised when I told them it was my mom.
“Hello~ I'm Wayo's mom.”
“Oh… hello.”
-Wamomㄷㄷ
-Mother, please scold Wayo for us
-This family is full of talented peopleㅋㅋ
Technically, she'd played for me, but no one really had anything to say about my mom doing it for me.
The result of the bet hadn't changed in the first place.
Sure enough, even after adding up the scores, I was still in last place.
“Mom, you can go now.”
Now that the bet was over,
I gave Mom her marching orders.
No, it's not like I wanted to kick her out like this.
-Can't we have Wamom as a guest for Part 2??
-Don't order your mother-in-law around
The viewers had started making such a fuss.
Did they like Mom's voice?
They'd freaked out when it was Aseong.
“Hmm? Okay~”
Still, Mom didn't seem particularly interested in the stream and left without hesitation.
Phew….
I was the one who'd put her to work, but the viewers' stronger-than-expected interest had me a little nervous.
If she'd stayed too long and let something slip, I could've been in trouble.
You know, something like an embarrassing incident from childhood.
As an expert at taking jobs away from child models, I'd made quite a few kids cry, so just a few slips from Mom could ruin my genius Wayo persona.
Anyway….
“Wayo-nim, are you ready?”
“Ugh—thanks for the subscription gift.”
……Since I'd lost, I had to give out subscription gifts, right?
Argh, my money.
“Ugh….”
-They're really reluctantㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-You rich bastard;;
-Throw some in our chat too
It was even more painful because I had to give them out after losing the bet,
so I paid, hands trembling.
Next after-party, we absolutely had to play a game I was good at.
No wonder the game was chosen by majority vote; clearly, the experienced players had plotted to steamroll the beginners.
“All right, good work, everyone.”
“That was fun today!”
Even after playing Metcha Paint,
we played five-man ranked flex and chatted, making the group stream quite long.
That made sense, since we'd just achieved the feat of placing second in the tournament, hadn't we?
The team atmosphere was good, and above all, connections made through a tournament didn't last long.
Judging by the lineup, aside from Haebin, none of us were people who often collabed, so this was effectively our last group collab.
“See you later, then!”
“Captain, do you have to pick us again next time?”
Since everyone knew that, we spent a long time at the after-party venting our regrets before saying goodbye.
“Ah, that was fun. Right?”
-For real, for real
-Let's collab more often, fuck
-If we'd played the tournament as much as we played ranked todayㅋㅋㅋ
-Do you have plans for another collab?
“Plans? Well, if our paths cross, we'll meet again.”
They'd all been streaming for a long time and planned to keep doing so.
If I interacted with the world more actively, wouldn't we run into each other?
“Ah, I do have a collab planned.”
Of course, there was one person among them I'd separately made plans to collab with.
-For real??
-Who are you doing it with?
“I'll bring Haeganom along and use him as a bullet shield.”
Saying that, I turned on LEx.
I should drag Haeganom and Yeongukno to LEx soon and use them as bullet shields, shouldn't I?
-Ahㅋㅋㅋ
-Fuck, instead of helping the newbies
-Are you even human??
“They aren't even newbies, are they? Besides, you're supposed to throw them off a cliff and raise them that way.”
What's the point of giving a hungry person a fish? You have to teach them how to fish.
A hand-them-a-fish education was never going to suit someone as beastly as Wayo in the first place.
Anyway.
“All right, let's go make some money first.”
The collab was over and LEx was running, so I continued streaming alone.
Near the end of the stream,
I noticed one side effect of today's collab.
“How long are you going to keep looking for my mom?”
-'Forever'
-Bring her backㅇㅇ
-Wayo, this could be a huge opportunity
The thing was—
they kept looking for my mom, even when I was playing LEx earlier.
These bastards, why did they like someone else's mom so much?
“An opportunity, my ass.”
-?
-No, seriously
-Let's just bring her on tomorrowㅇㅇ
-As a guestㄱㄱ
No, more importantly.
These people were mistaken about one thing.
“Guys.”
-Yeah?
-Why?
-Don't talk to me unless you're bringing my mother-in-law back
“But I'm taking tomorrow off.”
-?
-??
-No, why the fuck
A guest? I wouldn't even be around tomorrow.
I wouldn't even be here tomorrow, either.
“I have plans.”
Since it was a break from work, I should take care of some overdue appointments too, shouldn't I?
**
Back when I was deep into a wuxia game,
there had been something called the Dragon-Phoenix Assembly.
It was an event where the promising MZ-generation disciples of each sect gathered to socialize,
and even Han Seongwon, the Haenam Sect's sole hope, had attended and taken the lowest seat.
I suddenly remembered that gathering, which I'd once disrupted right before becoming the greatest martial artist under heaven.
“In Paris this time….”
“Has anyone here appeared on Kim PD's variety show? I got an offer—what do you think….”
When I opened the door, I saw all kinds of young, attractive men and women.
These MZ punks sure have flashy hair colors.
On top of that, the fact that they all sat ramrod straight, as if they were martial-arts masters, was another reason they reminded me of the Dragon-Phoenix Assembly.
Well, the only difference from the scene in the game was….
“When did you get here?”
“What, Ahyeon is here?”
“I thought you said you weren’t coming, unnie?”
Unlike Han Seongwon, who had sat in a corner without getting any attention,
when I entered, most of the men and women stood up from their seats.
“Sit.”
You bastards, it was still nice to see you after so long.