I Have Reasons to Hate Streamers

I quite enjoy the combat in this game.

A world that implements reality almost perfectly.

The system drawn in diverse colors enhances the taste of combat, and the enemy before me exudes killing intent without the slightest hesitation.

What I love is the coolness emanating from a well-honed blade, and the clear sound of true swords clashing.

The thrill of deflecting an enemy’s attack by a hair’s breadth has captivated me in this world.

And this pleasure of cutting off the opponent’s breath.

It felt like my brain was getting intoxicated by the drugs it was pumping out.

[You have won! You have gained 18 points.]

[You have achieved a 9-win streak. The longer you maintain your win streak, the more points you can earn.]

[Current record: 9 wins 0 losses]

If I play a few more rounds like this, it seemed I could enter the safe zone stably.

Looking at the community reactions, the point deduction for losses seems larger than expected.

It seemed difficult to gain points if you couldn’t maintain a winning streak.

Conversely, if you could stack up many consecutive wins, there was no need to play hundreds of rounds.

It’s enough to just maintain a safe position while checking the daily trend.

Come to think of it, even when competing for rankings in ranked games, there were rarely cases of score cutoffs skyrocketing.

I thought I’d have to focus solely on the preliminaries when the second preliminary started, but now I have some time to spare.

It wasn’t difficult to stack up victories because matchmaking was regardless of tier.

Maybe it’s a result of considering the time burden on pro gamers.

Was the participation rate lower than what the developers anticipated?

Anyway, it wasn’t a bad thing for me either.

“At this rate, I should be able to balance this with work.”

[Exchange Notification: 1 Sky Scout’s Arrowhead has been sold for 15,000,000 Gold.]

[Exchange Notification: 1 Blue-White Crystal Ore has been sold for 22,000,000 Gold.]

[Exchange Notification: 1 Terribly Sour Lemon has been…]

I was just starting to worry deeply about money issues.

InBl is an RPG game.

According to the setting, the goal of the game is to find the ‘Infinite Abyss’ somewhere on the continent.

They say it was named after the first person who saw the abyss said something like ‘an endless blackness spread out’… I’m not sure.

Honestly, the naming sense is poor.

It feels like the lower ranks somehow packaged the name that the developer-turned-CEO pushed for.

Anyway, I’m not a pro gamer who only needs to be good in ranked game environments.

Rather, it’s close to the opposite.

Since most of my income comes from siege guilds, grimy fights in the field are my homeland, so to speak.

For someone like me, having good specs was essential.

In RPG games, equipment is also part of one’s skill.

When the announced patch comes in, I’ll need to switch to even better equipment than now.

As I always need to maintain high-end specs, the money going out is a considerable amount.

I have some money saved up, but spending a large sum is never pleasant.

It would be good to earn now since I don’t know what will happen from the finals.

[You have won! You have gained 17 points.]

[You have achieved a 10-win streak. The longer you maintain…]

[vs DongjakStationAgent]

“…Hm?”

I thought it felt strangely familiar, and it turns out I met someone I know in the last match.

As expected, text started appearing in the chat window.

I had set all chats from unknown people to be hidden, so this meant it was someone on my friend list.

I question whether it’s right to call this person a friend, though.

[Whisper from DongjakStationAgent]

– Oh my, what a surprise

– So you really did participate in the Arena

– I thought you weren’t interested in these kinds of competitions

– Why aren’t you answering?

Well, I don’t necessarily need to reply.

It’s not like we have a good relationship that warrants friendly conversation.

DongjakStationAgent was a member of the ‘SSA’ guild.

SSA was a guild too weak to be called large-scale, but oddly strong to be called mid-tier.

They were characterized by an aggression that made even the hostile users in the siege scene stick out their tongues.

Among them, if one took on the role of persistently checking the opponent guild members – well, there’s no need to explicitly state their personality and quality.

The reason for keeping them on my friend list was mostly for business purposes.

You could say it’s like the relationship between a contract killer and a hired thug. Sometimes we fight each other, but occasionally we collaborate…

– I saw that. The KimchiNinja video.

– I didn’t know you were into that.

“Where are you now? I’ll come right away. Want to see each other’s faces after a long time?”

– Ten-ren finally answers

I clearly asked for their location, so why aren’t they answering?

 Am I that easy to mess with?

It might be time for a pecking order reminder after a long while.

Anyway, killing and being killed among guys like us isn’t such a big deal.

‘Offending one’s feelings’ is a sufficient, even exemplary motive for murder.

– It’s a joke, so calm down for now

“I’m calm. So where are you? I won’t come. Really. I swear on my balls.”

– You don’t have balls, you crazy bitch

– Now you’re openly deceiving

That’s disappointing. I used to have them, you know.

When pledged between men, it used to be as good as a token of trust.

Of course, I never pledged with the intention of keeping the promise.

Take them if you can.

If you can beat me holding a wooden sword, that is.

…There was a time when I could say such things.

– Hey, but this is good timing. Do you have any free time in your schedule?

– I just checked and it seems like you can comfortably fill Arena points

– Let’s do one job together

My brow furrowed at DongjakStation’s words.

 The words came out reflexively, without going through thought.

“No.”

– Why? Got a lot of work these days?

“What you just said is from a movie I like. To put that line in your dirty mouth. This is a grave insult. I’m offended.”

– Ah, you rotten bitch, really

* * *

Though I said that, I eventually decided to listen to the proposal before making a decision.

The reason was that there was too much money at stake to refuse.

At a glance, the content of the request didn’t seem bad either.

– I know your tendencies, so I won’t ask you to join field fights

– It’s not like you’d do it even if I asked, right?

“You know well. I don’t intend to get too deeply involved in that scene.”

Basically, I don’t often accept requests to participate in sieges or wars.

If I side with one faction, it’s hard to increase my price, and if I go back and forth between sides like a bat, I become a thorn in their eyes

This game has wars between guilds, so the bond within guilds is quite strong.

When you’re being harassed and a guild member drops what they’re doing to come help, it’s bound to be heartwarming.

If you belong to the same guild, you’re accepted as a colleague or comrade from the start.

Naturally, the stronger the emotional immersion, the stronger the hostility formed.

If I get too excited and incur hatred, things could get troublesome in the future.

In terms of sales, it’s most profitable to just show off my presence occasionally in battlefields where going wild won’t cause problems.

But I can make exceptions if the request conditions are good.

– You just need to farm with our youngest member

– Items from hunting will be distributed the same as normal party hunting, and of course, this is separate from the compensation

“What if hostile checkers come?”

– The request condition is up to the first combat response. But if the youngest doesn’t die, we’ll add 2,000 more.

There are occasional jobs like this.

Party hunting carried out to secure justification when wanting to intervene in conflicts between other guilds.

Parties are an essential content in MMORPGs.

But it’s impossible to fill all parties from within the guild, and among the party members gathered this way, there could be members from guilds at war.

If they get harassed during hunting by an enemy guild, this could be used as a pretext for other party members to declare war.

It’s like covering your eyes and saying “you can’t see me”, but… surprisingly, justification played an important role even in in-game wars.

Preventing community preservation, preventing guild member departure, internal cohesion.

There are reasons for going through all this trouble.

“So what are you planning to do that you’re doing this? Just to be clear, if I feel even slightly uncomfortable, I’ll quit immediately.”

Of course, in that case, I won’t return the advance payment.

In this field, you can’t unconditionally trust the client.

It’s not like I’ve only almost been backstabbed once or twice.

Moreover, I’ve even fought against DongjakStation as enemies a few times.

We both do this for money, but that’s precisely why I can’t trust them.

They’re the type who could betray me anytime depending on the situation.

The reason I can keep running long-term despite being called malicious all the time is because of this caution.

Nothing in this world is easy.

– There’s a streamer called Dongmicham, do you know them?

“I might have seen the name once or twice. Never watched their stream.”

– You don’t need to. They do low-quality broadcasts. I heard their content is taking screenshots of people’s crotches?

“Good heavens. I can’t believe it.”

My mouth couldn’t close from the shock.

DongjakStation seemed surprised by my reaction.

– Why are you surprised by this? Are there only a few weirdos in this field?

“No, not that. I can’t believe the words ‘low-quality’ came out of your mouth.”

– Can I pass this request to someone else?

“Sorry. Go on.”