Chapter 20
1.
The viewers begged me to do something else, but in the end, I kept practicing my aim until it was time for the scrim.
“Ah, hello….”
Ten minutes before the scrim started, I joined the voice chat where my teammates had gathered. Having met them once yesterday made me feel a little more at ease.
[Welcome!]
[Hiiii!]
Momoru and Harumong, the Girly Duo, greeted me warmly. They were such cheerful people, even after all the insults I’d hurled at them.
‘Though they could be trash-talking me behind my back….’
Remembering what I’d seen in the anonymous chat room, I couldn’t let my guard down completely. They were the kind of people who hid daggers behind their innocent smiles.
[Welcome, Bullet-nim.]
Aura-nim was the next to return my greeting.
“Ah, my love, my light, my darkness, my life, my joy, my sorrow, my solace, my soul…!”
Her voice was as elegant as ever today. Maybe behind that voice was a beautiful woman to match it?
[Cut the bullshit, please.]
“Yes.”
[Hey, you practiced your aim for, what, seven hours? And didn’t interact with your viewers at all? Are you actually insane?]
The unbearably childish voice interrupted my quiet worship. It was Heukrangi.
“…What?”
[You actually lost over a thousand viewers, I heard? You murderous bitch…! Mass-murdering bitch…! You alligator snapping turtle of a bitch…!]
“You lost over a thousand viewers too, Heukrangi-nim, from that foul-mouthed controversy.”
[You fucking bitch.]
Honestly, she was unbearably childish. There was probably a short, baby-faced person sitting behind that voice. I was sure of it.
「802 viewers……」
Sure enough, when I checked the viewer count, quite a lot of people had dropped off. But honestly, I was kind of pleased.
“Th-this is enough. With 802, I’m still the s-second-highest-ranked person here… Heh heh… Momoru, overtaken…! Harumong… overtaken…! Heukrangi, overtaken-overtaken-oveeeertaken…! Come heeere—!”
[Why is mine the only one you drag out?]
“Wouldn’t you know that better than anyone…?”
[Hmph.]
“Huh?”
Normally, I should’ve heard “You fucking bitch” by now. Then I would’ve smiled with satisfaction. But what was that sneer?
‘No way…’
I felt anxiety crawl up my back. I hurried over to Heukrangi’s stream.
「1,462 viewers……」
“Eek!?”
I couldn’t help but jump in surprise. She had nearly 1,500 viewers!
“Wh-when did you grow this much…?”
[While you were using aim practice as an excuse to purge your viewers, I opened my big ol’ mouth and gobbled them right up. Wahahaha!]
“G-give me back my viewers…!”
[Why are they your viewers?]
“Y-you bitch…!”
[Wahahahaha! So this is what it feels like. It’s great getting insulted, isn’t it~?]
[My viewers went up too.]
[Mine too!]
When I checked, Momoru and Harumong’s viewer counts had gone up by about two or three hundred each. If you thought about it, maybe I’d had a little something to do with that, too.
“Mm. Well… good for you.”
[Huh? Why aren’t you insulting them, you bitch?]
“A-actually… I did insult you, but I didn’t mean anything by it… I-I’m the one who was trying to get rid of my viewers.”
I shrugged.
“I-I’m happy with things as they are.”
Maybe later, but this was just about as much as I could handle right now. It was only my second day streaming, and I already had 800 viewers. That was an unbelievable success as it was.
“The viewers who were supposed to scatter and disappear ended up going to my teammates instead… so you could say this worked out even better.”
[Bullet-nim…!]
[Ah, my light, my love, my darkness…! You truly are pure light! We believe in you…! Bullet-nim…!]
The Girly Duo worshipped me in deeply moved voices.
[What am I supposed to do if you say that after I’ve been teasing you?]
Heukrangi, on the other hand, sounded a little awkward. I could sense a little guilt, too.
“Y-you’re a piece of trash….”
[You bitch. This is all part of your plan, isn’t it?]
“Y-you were the one happily gobbling them up right beside me… D-didn’t you know eating just anything you find can give you a stomachache…?”
[You’re ruthless now that they’re not your viewers anymore… You bitch….]
-For real lol
-‘Just anything’ lmaooo
-But they used to watch you;;
“Traitors must die…!”
I muttered solemnly.
“Ah, A-Aura-nim, did your viewer count go up too…?”
[Me? Yes. Mine went up by over a thousand compared to yesterday.]
“Then… I guess the other people’s viewers didn’t increase because of me….”
I’d been feeling pretty smug, but when I added up everyone’s new viewers, they far outnumbered the people who’d originally been watching my stream.
[No, that’s not it. Our team’s viewership increased overall because your… hack scandal drew a lot of attention, and our scrim win rate shot up at the same time.]
[So, when you think about it, we can say it’s thanks to you, Bullet-nim. You drew people’s attention and interest toward our team.]
“I-is that so?”
[Yes. So you can be smug about it.]
[Then let’s all thank Bullet-nim!]
[Thanks, Bullet!]
[Bullet, I’ll enjoy eating~]
“Uh, okay….”
I felt… kind of weird. Maybe a little embarrassed.
-“I’ll enjoy eating” lmao
-It feels like they’re teasing a total loser, so the PTSD is kicking in…
-After she sent burgers, it feels like they’re finally acknowledging her, so it’s a weird feeling…
-For real;; It’s kinda weird…
The viewers seemed to be feeling something similar to me.
“I-if you’re grateful… c-could you gift me some subscriptions…?”
Might as well cash in while I had the chance.
***
My teammates gifted me a total of 100 subscriptions. Thanks to that, a whopping one-eighth of my viewers now had subscription badges.
-Damn lol
-What a deal lol
-This is so good lol
-Sex lol
-But not having a sub badge is kinda lame ㅇㅅㅇ;;
-For real;;
“I-I’ll try to get a subscription badge ready as soon as possible… and emotes, too….”
It’d be a shame to receive gifted subscriptions without having either of those.
[Wait, you don’t even have a subscription badge or emotes?]
Heukrangi pointed it out in surprise.
“Uh, no?”
[You really haven’t even got the basics, huh?]
“H-how am I supposed to, when I’m broke…? I spent all my money getting ready to stream and setting up my virtual avatar…!”
[A virtual avatar? What are you talking about, Bullet-bullet? This is the real me.]
“Yes.”
[God, that reaction sucks….]
Heukrangi grumbled.
[All right, let’s stop chatting now.]
Once again, Aura clapped her hands to draw our attention.
[We have another scrim today. We’re up against the ‘Tuna Can’ team. Does anyone know them?]
Silence fell among us.
-Brrr, awkward~
-Nobody knows them…
-You don’t know Tuna Can!?
-You don’t know Tuna Can!?
“…I-is Tuna Can a famous team?”
[If you mean famous as streamers, not really. But their team has a 64% scrim win rate.]
“Th-they’re not stat-padders, are they?”
[What’s a stat-padder?]
“A-a stat-padding loser… They might be keeping their scrim win rate up by beating only weak teams.”
Aura paused for a moment to choose her words, then spoke.
[Well, that’s a little harsh, but you’re right.]
“I-I am?”
[Yes. They’re known for mostly scrimming weak teams, so their nickname is the Weak-Team Detector.]
“Th-the Weak-Team Detector… If they asked us for a scrim, that means…!”
[They consider us a weak team.]
“S-still, I’m glad they consider us a team….”
I sighed in relief.
-Lmaoooo
-That’s true…
-We’ve been a team in name only until now ㅇㅇ;
-At least they think we’re weak…
[Bullet-nim.]
“Yes….”
[Unlike the teams we’ve faced so far, Tuna Can won’t be easy. They’re known for stomping weaker teams and for being good at barrier fights.]
“Barrier fights….”
Barrier fights.
It was a formation where a defensive hero stood at the front with an energy barrier raised, while the tank and support heroes pressed close behind, pushing and pulling the front line.
Until the DPS managed to force an opening or an ultimate charged, both sides just chipped away at each other’s barriers.
It was slow and frustrating, but it also demanded intense concentration. The first side to make a mistake lost. That was what made it so suffocating.
‘This is what low-tier players like us struggle with most.’
Because low-tier games didn’t really require this kind of formation or patience.
That was probably why Tuna Can had earned the nickname Weak-Team Detector. They were a team that demanded the textbook formation low-tier players were least familiar with and found most difficult.
Of course, you didn’t have to answer a textbook formation with another textbook formation. But honestly, at our level, it wouldn’t be easy to break through their solid defense.
[Hmm….]
My teammates all looked uncomfortable after hearing my explanation. That made sense, since I’d just been saying a lot of discouraging things.
[So there’s a good chance we’ll lose…?]
“No.”
I shook my head firmly at Heukrangi’s question.
[Why? By your own account, it doesn’t sound like we’re good at that kind of textbook formation.]
[Is there a way we can win!?]
[Really!?]
The Girly Duo got all worked up.
“There is.”
[How?]
“Because Aura-nim’s team has me…! That means we can win…!”
[Ah, right….]
[Hmm… Well, it’s true we’ve been winning thanks to you, Bullet-nim. But this time might be tough.]
“We’ll find out when we face them. We’ll see who’s really better…!”
The Tuna Can team seemed to think we were a bunch of scrubs, but there were two things they hadn’t considered.
The first was that, since I’d taken over as the team’s main shot-caller, the team had completely changed.
And the second was….
[Aim Assist - Lv.2]
My aim had improved another level from before.
‘You’re dead…!’
I quietly curled the corners of my mouth upward.
2.
[Hehehe, you’re dead… Heehee….]
At the sound of Bullet’s sinister giggling in her ear, Heukrangi wrinkled her nose.
“What’s with her?”
[Let her enjoy herself. Maybe something good happened.]