It’s not that kind of malicious broadcast

Chapter 66 – If You Could Call it Talent

Cool water poured down over my body as if beating it. There’s rarely anything as refreshing as washing off the stiffness from alcohol and gaming with cold water. I wouldn’t go as far as to say I drink just for this… but still.

It feels good to wash away not only the grime from the body but also the mental residue. It’s been so long since I’ve been this engrossed in ranked games just to raise my points.

In the past… the last time must have been when I was trying to reach Challenger and pass the professional team tryouts, playing ranked for 15 hours a day.

Not a fond memory. Perhaps because of those memories, my obsession with ranked points has significantly diminished. With eyes closed, I let the vigorous stream of water hit my head. The feeling of water running down my long hair is now quite familiar.

I felt my mind clearing up a bit. It was a somewhat impulsive, and booze-fueled, declaration to climb to Challenger. But it was fun in its own way. The extra income… wasn’t bad either.

My stream of thoughts naturally returned to Revan, with whom I had just spoken. I never intended to wield the fact that he had an alternate account as a weakness. I wasn’t even sure if that counted as a weakness.

After all, having an alternate account in and of itself isn’t a crime. The problem arises when someone pretends to be a newbie and mocks the valuable newcomers, driving them away.

But thinking about it that way… he didn’t really do anything wrong, so why deny it when it would obviously get found out? That’s what piques anyone’s curiosity further. Any old-timer or veteran player would’ve done the same. Probably.

Did Season 1 players from the previous world also have such an innocent vibe? I can’t quite recall.

The fact that KoK has been reigning supreme in Korea since Season 1, and the sudden transition to VR gaming… there are so many differences that there’s no point in comparing them by digging through memories of my past life.

Turning off the shower and roughly wringing out the water from my hair, I wrapped a towel around myself.

After drying off, I sat back down at my desk with a can of beer. On the monitor, just by chance, a replay of my first encounter with Revan was playing.

“Challenger? Next.”

Geez. The video title by the channel owner is a bit… embarrassing. Maybe I should ask them to change it…

In the video, the warrior with the username ‘Revanovski’ was falling with a dying scream.

Come to think of it, including our attempts to clash at rank, we’ve met four times. Excluding Ark, he’s probably the broadcaster I’ve run into the most. I never thought I’d get so involved with a Warrior player—but it wasn’t bad.

He seemed like an interesting person. His reactions were enjoyable, too.

At that time… when he was wandering back and forth in front of the chest without saying anything in the game, it was a bit disappointing.

But witnessing him again today, I realized he must have been focused on hiding his identity then. His skills also seemed subpar compared to usual. Perhaps he was overly excited.

Maybe he did that intentionally to hide his identity. I’m not sure why he went to such lengths to conceal his identity…

Should I ask?

I clicked on Revan’s Discourse ID, where the green circle was still lit.

『CravingWarmAmericano: Hello, build-Shaving Revan-nim.』

『CravingWarmAmericano: I just have one question, if that’s okay.』

A minute passed without a reply, except for several instances of the message ‘Revan is typing…’ appearing and disappearing.

『Revan: Yes』

Ah, there it is.

『CravingWarmAmericano: When you defended me the other day in normal selection,』

『CravingWarmAmericano: was hiding your identity perhaps for the sake of,』

『CravingWarmAmericano: dramatically revealing at the end that you are a Challenger and roaring,』

『CravingWarmAmericano: ‘I am actually a Challenger?’』

*

The message ‘Revan is typing…’ appeared and disappeared several times.

『Revan: … You are not streaming right now, are you?』

Feeling a sense of readiness to understand even if angered by an uncoordinated content-related question, I checked the broadcast to confirm—

As expected, Lee Yena’s broadcast was still merely playing G-tube videos.

Well, I guess that’s not too surprising. It’s not even her own G-tube but a FanTube, just playing on the broadcast—

『CravingWarmAmericano: Yes, I’m taking a bit more of a break.』

『CravingWarmAmericano: The viewers seem happy reviewing now…』

Naturally, I cast my gaze at the chat window beside me.

There were people spamming fire emojis, others spamming the ASCII art of a rogue’s face and daggers, people chatting about ‘When’s sis coming,’ or those making eyebrow-raising sexual harassment remarks…

But the most striking was someone leaving a short chat every minute: ‘0 minutes out of 60 have passed. Still holding on.’

I definitely didn’t want to know what that person intended to do when the 60 minutes were up. The chat resembled a boiling pot ready to overflow.

If the broadcaster didn’t come back soon to lower the heat, the whole kitchen would surely become a mess.

『Revan: You’re talking about GetDevoured-nim’s viewers, right? The ones spamming fire emojis right now?』

『CravingWarmAmericano: It’s a culture.』

She responded immediately. While Revan was genuinely curious whether her viewers also regarded this as a cultural norm—

Watching the chaotic chat, it almost seemed as if they were indeed enjoying the broadcaster’s absence as a part of their culture, leaving him with nothing more to say.

『CravingWarmAmericano: So… did I guess right?』

If he stayed silent, looking at the chat, she quickly prodded for a response. A cat filled with innocent curiosity suddenly popped into Revan’s mind.

A cat that knocks over household items out of curiosity, a cat that drops a dish to see what happens—such a troublesome… no, curious cat.

Revan felt like he was starting to understand what kind of person Lee Yena was. She was a natural troublemaker. Worse when she acted purely out of curiosity rather than with any malicious intent.

It was as if she embodied the saying that sheer genius can’t be matched by effort. He thought simply about the experience of witnessing a person who naturally exemplified that you can’t beat talent with hard work.

This was something he had never wanted to know.

『Revan: … No.』

『CravingWarmAmericano: That’s a pity』

He thought he understood what she meant by “pity”, even though he wished he didn’t.

『CravingWarmAmericano: I’ll guess again next time』

『CravingWarmAmericano: I have to go back to streaming now』

『Revan: No, really, there’s nothing to guess』

Despite Revan’s attempt to urgently stop her from resuming the broadcast, her Discourse ID had already changed to yellow, indicating she was away.

No reply came back.

*

It was a satisfying and refreshing break.

“Ah. Ah. Were you all reviewing well?”

As soon as I turned on the microphone and greeted them, the speed at which the small dots in the chat moved increased by several times.

I wondered if this was something I had become accustomed to. Even in the minimized chat, I felt I could roughly gauge the flow, but—

I felt a slight urge to expand the chat window.

During the last review session, seeing them all getting along so well was heartwarming, and I now wanted to see them playing like that even for a moment.

But—I had to resist. This time, I resolved to only look at the chat after achieving Challenger as a rogue.

I can’t check an oven by opening it before the food inside is fully cooked. They were probably answering that the review was going well. Yeah.

-ㅇㅇ has donated 1,000 won!-

【You crazy woman, why are you playing a FanTube video for an hour instead of creating your own G-tube channel, you moron】

… That’s a rather weird donation. But perhaps that donation opened the floodgates, as several more donations about G-tube followed.

“I’ll think about G-tube… next time. I don’t have any experience with video editing.”

I hadn’t really thought about starting a G-tube channel.

Next time… Perhaps, next time.

For now, my only thought was on climbing the ranks. The thought of reaching heights I had never seen before made me a little excited.

“Shall we start again?”

.

.

.

One hour into the rank climb.

I had smoothly added two consecutive wins and was now stepping into the upper tiers of Master rank. However, I was increasingly encountering what could be considered the fated adversaries of broadcasters.

『(All)ArcDevoursGetDevoured(Warrior): I’m a fan』

『(All)TurnOnGetDevourdStream(Holy Knight): Who’s streaming?』

『(All)ArkOotKillHim(Holy Knight): Right, seems like someone is streaming』

It was expected. As the tier rises, the number of players decreases sharply, making the likelihood of being in the same queue higher.

Still… there were more than she anticipated.

Hmm—

“There’s a lot of viewer participation. For proper participation, please end the broadcast.”

『(All)ArcDevoursGetDevoured(Warrior): But… if you do that, we won’t hear your voice…』

『(All)TurnOnGetDevourdStream(Holy Knight): Okay, I turned it off~』

『(All)ArkOotKillHim(Holy Knight): Everyone, sniping is bad』

『(All)KoreanProudSniperKim(Mage): Hm… is it really that bad?』

Even without turning on my voice, responses quickly appeared in the chat as if they were waiting for it. They weren’t even trying to hide it.

Interesting.

I rolled my shoulders in a full circle and stretched my neck.

To be honest, I liked this kind of game.

It gave me a sense of immunity regarding in-game play, a feeling of freedom, in a sense.