I Have a Reason to Hate Streamers

As soon as I heard Luce’s story, I opened my friend list.

[Friend List] [Friend Requests] [Blocked List]

[System: You have 1,182 unconfirmed friend requests.]

Seems like it wasn’t long ago since I last organized this. Already piled up like this?!

Over a thousand requests. That’s why I never check friend requests.

No matter how many I delete, it never seems to go down, so ignoring it is the only option.

Recently, I’ve been in the rumor mill quite a bit.

There was that silly video incident… and just today, I felt like blowing off some steam by taking out a few streamers.

Sure, there are people who get mad when their favorite streamer gets killed.

While there are plenty of viewers who enjoy it, not everyone feels the same way.

But hey, what can you do?

Field PK is a risk we all take by playing.

There’s a reason even top-tier guilds prefer war over PK.

That’s why they stake their lives on justifying their actions and even run their own shady squads, I guess.

Sometimes karma bites back… but up until now, I’ve managed to get by.

[WeirdForest’s Elderin has sent you a friend request. Y/N]

[Declined.]

[Elderin Guardian…]
[Declined…]

[Dongtanmi…]
[Declined…]

While I was at it, I decided to delete all the useless friend requests.

I hit the decline button mechanically for a moment.

Then, I saw a request from someone I actually remembered fondly.

[San-sae has sent you a friend request. Y/N]

[Accepted.]

A halfling I met during a previous party hunt.

If I recall, she was the bard of the herbivore guild, known as “Fan #1.”

She sent a friend request, huh? I wish she’d said something.

No, she probably couldn’t even if she wanted to.

I haven’t seen San-sae since she died back then.

The people you can actually fight in the field are limited, but anyone can send a friend request.

I guess that’s why there are quite a few curious folks sending them.

It could be some shallow urge for revenge too.

Naturally, this tendency applies to whispers as well.

Unless you block them, you can hardly use the whisper feature, so I set it up to only allow messages from my party members or those on my friend list.

“Next time, I’ll just go and hunt them down. This is getting uncomfortable.”

So far, it hasn’t been too bad.

Friends I need to add will always come when I know about them.

I only need to respond to the latest requests.

But now that this has happened once, I can’t just let it slide.

If I take out a few, maybe it’ll feel less crowded?

But if it doesn’t lighten up, then there’s nothing I can do about it.

Anyway, as I kept clicking the decline button, some notable names caught my eye.

[Elderin has sent you a friend request. Y/N]

[Q Prime Traveler* has sent you a friend request. Y/N]

Elderin is the streamer I just took out today.

And Traveler is definitely someone I know—he’s got that * next to his nickname, which is like a game company verification mark.

Traveler sent the request himself, so I guess that’s fine.
But what’s up with the Elderin person? I doubt they have good feelings toward me.

After a brief moment of thought, I made my decision.

[Accepted.]

But, even after accepting, I realized…

It must have been ages ago when they sent that friend request, and there’s no guarantee they’re online right now.

[Elderin (Online) – Location: Hidden]

[San-sae (Offline) – Last seen: 5 hours ago]

[Traveler (Offline) – Last seen: 3 hours ago]

Sure enough, both San-sae and Traveler are offline.

Only Elderin, who I have no idea why they sent a request, is online.

They must have come back the moment the connection restriction lifted.

This feels a bit awkward. It’s hard to strike up a conversation.

Maybe they’ll just ask later if they find me?

Just as I shut the friend window, whispers began popping up like crazy.

[Elderin’s Whispers]

– Wow

– Wow

– Wow

– You accepted!

– Can we chat for a sec?

– It’ll be brief.

– I promise it won’t take long!

It felt like talking to a telemarketer.

I calmly adjusted the voice channel.

“Well, go on then. You’re not streaming, right?”

*

I searched the broadcasting platform but couldn’t find Elderin’s stream.

I should have checked before accepting. It’s been so long, my mind just blanked.

Guess I’m still feeling a bit under the weather. Good thing I didn’t queue up for matches.

[Elderin’s Whispers]

– I was just out gathering by myself!

– If I broadcast my gathering, it’ll make it crowded next time and be a hassle.

– There was this incident last time too…

Oh, so this is what it means to be a streamer.

Once you start listening to someone, they just open floodgates of chatter.

Weirdly, it puts my mind at ease.

At least it doesn’t seem like she has any bad feelings toward me.

I wasn’t that interested in her stories, though.

“So, what’s the reason you wanted to talk? I have a feeling our first meeting wasn’t too cheerful.”

– Oh, I don’t really care about that! It’s all good!

– Dying isn’t my first rodeo; strangely enough, I didn’t feel bad about it

– Did that sound a bit odd? I actually got curious about you, Gawol, so I sent a friend request.

– Oh, I’d like to catch the broadcast redo, too.

She didn’t feel bad about dying?

Well, that’s… possible.

There are all kinds of people in this world, after all.

I noted down in Elderin’s memo, “Someone with strange tastes.”

I’ll have to be careful not to get too close.

– Anyway! The arena phase is changing tomorrow, right?

– I heard we can spectate starting tomorrow. Would it be alright if I watched your stream?

– I won’t be alone; I’ll invite the best player I know from those I can gather.

– Maybe not as good as you, Gawol, though.

The final phase usually works with a single elimination format.

Famous as the tournament style.

However, coordinating the match schedules for over a thousand players is impossible.

So they do random matches against opponents with the same number of wins.

If it becomes impossible to keep matches going, the game company steps in to set the schedule.

In the end, you need to rack up five consecutive wins to qualify for the finals.

Watching the matches is fine, but I have no idea when and how many players will be competing.

Unless arrangements are made in advance, it’s pretty much impossible to get a broadcast of the player you want to see.

Elderin’s request must mean she wants me to inform her of the match times.

She might not be a corporate giant, but she’s not an unknown streamer either.

It’s a thankful thing for someone like me who can’t run my own broadcast.

“Well, I appreciate the offer, but I’m not sure if it’s a good idea.”

But there’s a reason I can’t just accept.

I can’t stream.

But it’s not like I can’t appear on someone else’s stream.

I’ve tried to do that before… just never got it to happen.

The reason? I had too many enemies.

– Oh, did someone else decide to stream it then?

“No, this is the first time I’m hearing this offer.”

– Then are you hesitant about being broadcast?

“That’s not it either. It’s just that anyone can spectate, so it doesn’t really need my permission.”

To target me, they need to bring in high-spec users.

I’m just a solo player, and constant conflicts would only jeopardize the guild.

But not everyone I have relations with can pull that off.

That’s why I’m fine without even a guild.

If they can’t target me easily, then it’s only natural they’ll start going after those around me.

To make money, I can’t stop working, so I have to operate solo.

This issue wouldn’t change even if I teamed up with a powerful guild or streamer.

Those guys always have ties to certain factions.

They end up cutting off connections to opposing jobs.

The end result is more harm than good.

“Besides, I’m pretty sure Elderin wouldn’t be okay. As you know, I’ve made plenty of enemies. They’ll probably come after you too.”

Saying it out loud sounds pretty silly.

The last person I killed was Elderin.

Who’s really worrying about whom here?

But I’m not into deceiving others.

I didn’t lie—using that kind of phrasing isn’t my style.

– Oh, that’s fine!

“Is it really? … Huh?”

– Isn’t it just about staying in the village?

– I can just not leave my residence.

Elderin’s response left my mind in a daze.

– After all, my focus is on collecting and decorating.

– If it’s the case, should I just completely redecorate my house?

– The current decor is from three months ago, so I should change it with the seasons, right?

– If I’m okay, can I get your permission for that?

Thinking about it, that’s true.

In this game, the life content.

Among that, the users focused on decorating and those who focus on PVP hardly overlap at all.

Other life activities can excuse it, but decorating is just a waste of time for PVP players.

If going out in the field becomes too hard, then just stay at home.

If I can’t level up my specs, I can just spend time decorating.

And while doing so, Elderin, who can run my PVP broadcast, is like the only puzzle piece in that picture.

“Uh… uh? Y… yeah…”

– Just now, you gave me the go-ahead, right?

– Then I’ll contact you again!

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