Netkama Punch!!!

After that, I half-listened to whatever Shin Heejae was saying, my mind entirely preoccupied with how to make him quit the game. If I really could get close to him by pulling off a proper netkama act, I started thinking about how I would take my revenge.

“Should I strip his account?”
If we got close enough, he might start asking me to do event quests or daily logins for him, and that might mean giving me access to his ID. If I got that far, I could log in and destroy every item he owned.
Considering that bastard was the master of the number one guild, he must’ve had top-tier gear.

If he lost his entire set, even Shin Heejae wouldn’t be able to keep playing. Even if he didn’t outright quit, he definitely wouldn’t survive the monthly siege wars—there were three of those every month, after all.
Acting on impulse, I clicked on Heejae’s back and selected [View Info] to check his gear.
'You do not have permission to view ‘Heejae’s’ information.'

His info was set to private. Trying to be all secretive, huh?
Still, no harm in asking—I decided to prod him a little.
[Whisper to Party/Clan Friends]
PSesam: Yo
PHeejae: ??
PSesam: What gear are you wearing?
PHeejae: What do you mean?
PSesam: I said, what are you wearing?
PHeejae: You might be shocked ㅇ.ㅇ
That cringey way of answering—so deliberately vague—already annoyed the hell out of me. But I held back, figuring I’d at least hear him out if it meant gathering intel.

A moment later, he messaged me again.
[Whisper to Party/Clan Friends]
PHeejae: Info’s open now ㅇ_ㅇ
I immediately hit [View Info] again and began checking through his gear.

[Silver Rain Wolf’s Lance +5]
“…What the hell? Not even +9? Just +5?”
Something felt off.

I had fully expected all of his gear to be maxed out with # Nоvеlight # enchants, but honestly, Heejae’s loadout looked worse than most average [Arcadia] streamers’.
Did this bastard already get hacked once or something?
Confused, I kept checking his accessories and even his title—but the best piece of equipment he had was a pair of boots. Just the boots were maxed out. Everything else was at +5… and his rings? Only +3.

[Boots of Icarus (Swift) +9]
“All that effort for movement speed, but the rest of the stats are garbage…”
Even the boots weren’t rare—they were auction house filler gear.
In short, even if I destroyed or sold off every single piece of equipment he had, the total value would barely scrape together about 500,000 won in real-world currency. For someone like me—who used to spend 1.5 million won a month decking out my main with premium gear—this setup was pathetic.

“…So this bastard… was he just a PVP-only brawler the whole time?”
As I muttered to myself, Heejae suddenly sent a message, like he could read my thoughts.
[Whisper to Party/Clan Friends]
PHeejae: I win with skill, so this setup’s more than enough LOL
PHeejae: It’s the noobs with no skill who dump cash on gear hehe ㅇ_ㅇv

“I swear to f***ing God…”
It was like he knew my past. My face flushed with rage, remembering how my high-level, luxury-geared main character got wiped by this bastard.
Shin Heejae’s entire existence was evil.
How the hell was a guy like this thriving in a pay-to-win world?
Closing the info window, I felt a crushing sense of defeat before even beginning my revenge.

“Even if I clean out his gear, he won’t even flinch…”
Worse yet, the easiest path to revenge had just been blocked.
“So my only option is… actual online dating?”

Meaning, my only path left was to go full Ttamiseul mode and squeeze his wallet dry.
But honestly, the more time I spent watching him, the more convinced I became: this guy had zero interest in anything resembling online romance. Even though he kept calling me noona, it never had that greasy, clingy feel to it—unlike that simp Yatta.
“…No. I shouldn’t jump to conclusions.”

I narrowed my eyes and stared at Heejae’s back as I slowly followed him to the dungeon entrance.
For now, I would just observe—and wait for an opening.
* * *
A week passed.

“Shin Heejae… goddammit, I hate you.”
Outside of my 10am–5:30pm job, I was basically playing [Arcadia] nonstop.
And the more time I spent in-game, the more ways I ended up connecting with that bastard.
We got on Discord. Exchanged messenger IDs.
Of course, I never used voice chat—he thought I was a girl.

But even with all that, we didn’t grow closer.
What I did learn about Shin Heejae?
He’s 21. He runs his YouTube channel without an editor.
He lives in Seoul.
But none of that came from getting close to him—anyone could figure it out by watching a few of his livestreams.

Determined to uncover some weakness, I started watching his streams regularly.
Even when fans donated real money and asked personal questions, he gave the most half-assed answers imaginable.
Like, someone asked, [Heejae-nim, do you have a job outside streaming?]
He replied, [Yeah, Nightwalker.]
Sure, it was a joke—but the more I watched, the more I realized how meticulously he guarded his privacy.

Even after over a year of streaming, not once had Shin Heejae shown his face.
Maybe I wasn’t a longtime fan, but still—I saw no thumbnails like [FACE REVEAL?] on his playlist.
Once in a while, he’d turn on a hand-cam to show his gameplay fingers—but that was it.
In fact, he acted annoyed about even doing that, like it was a nuisance.
“Bet he’s ugly as hell.”

Honestly, the way he avoided showing his face suggested he had something to hide.
I mean, we’re living in an age where even potato-faced guys are streaming without masks. If this one still refused to show anything but his hands… he probably had some serious self-image issues.
But when I teasingly called him ugly, he didn’t even get mad.
[Whisper to Party/Clan Friends]
PHeejae: is that my new nickname ㅇ_ㅇ?

Instead, he did some dumb s*** like renaming his pet to [UglyBoi♥] just to annoy me.
At this point, I was starting to get confused.
Does this bastard even see me as a girl?
Even when I wasn’t using my sharp tone, Heejae was just… oddly neutral.

“He never talks about anything outside the game… isn’t that weird if he’s interested?”
When I liked someone, even getting their number made me try to keep the convo going—didn’t matter how stupid I sounded, I just wanted to talk.
But Shin Heejae? Unless it was game mechanics or item drops, he didn’t message me at all.
Even his messenger profile was just the default bald silhouette.

“Maybe he’s one of those people who strictly separates online friends from IRL.”
It honestly felt that way.
So here’s my one-week evaluation:

He’s secretive as hell, and I still don’t know if he likes me.
Maybe Hyejin was exaggerating when she said he freaked out because I went offline for a few days.
At this rate, I wasn’t getting revenge—I was just becoming his personal heal-bot.
If it kept going like this, I would end up quitting again.
But I didn’t want to quit before even starting.

Which meant there was only one thing left to do.
“F***. Do I seriously have to make the first move?”
Gripping my head in agony, I groaned.

But the idea of acting all flirty and lovey-dovey with Heejae?
Absolutely disgusting.
Because this…
This is how we usually talked in-game:
[Whisper to Party/Clan Friends]

PHeejae: noona honestly kinda scary ㅇ.ㅇ…
PSesam: what now??
PHeejae: makes me think, “wow eyesight really does get worse with age” ㅇ_ㅇ…
PHeejae: phew… time is brutal ㅇ_ㅇ
PSesam: why the f*** are you picking a fight again??
PHeejae: when you missed those mobs coming from behind earlier…
PHeejae: I figured it must be that age-narrowed vision ㅇ.ㅇ
PSesam: dude
PHeejae: not blaming you, noona~ ㅇ_ㅇ LOL getting old is just part of lifeㅠ
PSesam: I HAD A BUFF UP YOU LITTLE SH**
PSesam: I swear if you’re not dead in 3 years I’m coming for you
PHeejae: LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL
This was our standard vibe—me raging, him laughing.
Even when I tried being mild, I ended up swearing at him.

Romance? With this dynamic? Please.
And even this kind of chat didn’t happen that often.
Heejae was the kind of bastard who didn’t waste one single minute of game time.