[TS] Malicious Sniper

“Uaaaarrrgh!!!”

Thud-thud-thud-!!

Three minutes after the game ended, a loud noise erupted from Curry’s broadcast.

Curry screamed and toppled over with the chair.

For a while, Curry’s figure vanished behind the fallen chair.

I couldn’t help but chuckle at that sight and shifted my gaze to the chatroom of Curry’s broadcast.

[Hahahahahahahahahaha]

[^1/10/5^]

[^1/10/5^]

[Curry, 10 deaths is crossing the line.]

[The team leader hits the hardest.]

[Hahaha]

[Do the happy dance and apologize.]

[Ah… just ^1/10/5^]

[So funny, hahahaha.]

[Muya ho~]

[That fall is legendary, lol.]

[That just shows how annoyed you were~]

[Oh dear… how unfair it must’ve felt.]

If someone who recently discovered Curry’s channel saw that chaos, they might think, “What’s all this fuss about?”

But from the perspective of a long-time viewer, that was the real deal.

I planned to slowly enjoy Curry’s painful moments in the replay later, but for now, it was time to focus on my own broadcast.

Leaving Curry’s stream, I turned my microphone back on.

“I’m back.”

I used the excuse of needing to go to the bathroom to sneak back in.

I phrased it so that it wouldn’t lead to any misunderstandings and shifted my focus.

With the scream session over, today’s schedule was essentially done.

There was no longer a reason to continue broadcasting, so I interacted with my viewers while savoring the aftertaste of the stream.

“Are you thinking of starting Mutube?” I received a question, and well… not really.

[If you start Mutube, the money duplication bug will pop off, why not do it?]

[You’re from a rich family, what do you lack to do Mutube? lol]

[You should be grateful just for streaming.]

[But if you check out Mutube, there are tons of videos by Barcode.]

[I saw it pop up in the algorithm too.]

When I read the chat about how many videos of mine were up on Mutube, I immediately hopped online.

I typed in the Mutube URL and searched ‘Barcode’ in the site’s search bar.

Sure enough, a plethora of League of Legends gameplay videos related to ‘Barcode’ popped up in the search results.

“I never gave permission for any uploads, you know…”

[Wow~ no sense of copyright at all.]

[They should taste some fines to wake up.]

[What’s with the unedited uploads without the creator’s permission, for real? lol]

[Using the money duplication bug illegally should be penalized.]

Most of the videos were simply my broadcast content slapped together with zero edits.

Among them, a few had at least some editing, but they certainly didn’t look high quality.

To think they achieved 150,000 views without any effort at all—how good must that feel?

“Should I sue or not? Hmm…”

[If you get sued, will Barcode meet the girl for real?]

[Ah, damn, I should’ve uploaded my video too.]

[Paying the fine as a fan meeting fee doesn’t sound too bad.]

[Will she even agree to a settlement? lol]

[Info: Barcode didn’t settle with even one person in the last breathless lawsuit incident.]

[Just one red line for a one-on-one fan meeting… that’s kinda tempting?]

[Tempting, for sure lol.]

While pondering how to handle this, I soon reached a decision.

“Hey, everyone watching the stream? If those videos aren’t taken down by tomorrow…”

I leaned closer to the mic and whispered.

“I’m going to sue.”

[Whoa.]

[Whoa.]

[Hey girl, do you want to see me go crazy?]

[Heeheung…]

[Feeling like I might go insane.]

[What’s this ASMR?]

[When’s the fan meeting?]

[Yes~]

[I’ve let you know~]

[(This is a secret chat.)]

I figured this was a sufficiently strong warning.

Honestly, I didn’t really care about whether my videos were uploaded to Mutube or not.

The issue was, they were profiting off my content without my consent.

That point was so infuriating that I couldn’t just brush it off, and if they didn’t take the videos down by tomorrow, I was serious about suing.

“Uh… I think that’s all for today’s stream.”

ZzZzZzZz

[Wait, what?]

[Is there a streamer who only streams two hours a day?]

[Baba~]

[Short but impactful.]

[Obang-al.]

[Phew, Barcode got famous and lost his roots.]

“Did I lose my roots?”

I hadn’t meant to but ended up reading that annoyance aloud when it popped up in the chat.

Since I had already thrown it out there, I decided to just go with it and continued speaking softly.

“My roots were starting my stream and taking a week off afterward… I guess it wouldn’t hurt to find my roots again sometimes.”

[?]

[?]

[Which newcomer is talking about roots?]

[Did they really want to be dismembered?]

[The mindless fans might come flooding in, for real lol.]

[Barcode, you should not know about ‘roots’…]

[Phobos named Barcode streamer most likely to lose their roots.]

Upon dropping the hint about reclaiming my roots, the viewers’ reactions became heated.

If I left things as they were, the viewers proclaiming about roots might get into serious trouble.

Their fervor was sharp, and I leisurely picked my timing to sign off.

“Now I’m really going to end the stream.”

Having made a mess without cleaning up afterward, I ended the broadcast.

Ah, of course, my final words weren’t a joke— I was really planning not to turn it back on.

All the major events in the selection process had already wrapped up.

I only had to participate in the scream session, and there was no real reason to keep my broadcast going.

Finishing the stream, I dragged my exhausted body to bed.

Laying down and rewatching Curry’s broadcast would truly be the perfect end to the day.

Grrrr…

“…I didn’t eat dinner, did I?”

The sound of my empty stomach echoed in my ears.

Rising from the bed, I made my way to the living room.

Could Ji-hye be cooking? I hoped so, but alas.

Disappointingly, there was no one in the kitchen.

‘Is she taking a break?’

Given that it was a scream session with many famous streamers involved, it was clear a lot of people had gathered.

Naturally, it must’ve been harder than usual to keep up with the chat room.

Since I hadn’t specifically asked anyone to make dinner today, I couldn’t blame her if she was resting inside.

“I’m hungry…”

In recognition of all that, I indeed felt hungry.

Ultimately, Ji-hye was the person I had hired.

And as an employee, Ji-hye was supposed to prepare meals for me.

That’s why I paid her, so changing my tune suddenly would make it hard for her to refuse.

Knock, knock—

I moved to Ji-hye’s room and knocked on her door.

Usually, Ji-hye responded immediately to knocking unless she was asleep.

As I thought she was tired and had gone to bed, I was about to turn around.

Clunk—

Just as I was turning away, the door opened.

“Sis, what’s up?”

Ji-hye, calling me in a tired voice, stepped out of her room.

With dark circles under her eyes, she looked quite exhausted.

When Ji-hye got tired, she usually couldn’t fight off sleep and would drift off, just like today.

“I was going to ask for dinner, but are you busy? You look really tired.”

“Oh, that’s…”

Ji-hye didn’t respond to my question immediately.

It was quite different from her usual self, who would quickly answer any inquiry.

Her gaze kept darting away from mine as she half-opened her sleepy eyes to look at me.

“Uh… well, you see…”

After a drawn-out silence, Ji-hye finally chose to surrender the gaze-off and spoke up.

“I was editing your broadcast video.”

“Editing? Oh, were you planning to upload it to Mutube?”

“N-No, not for Mutube. Just passing the time as a hobby…”

I quietly scrutinized Ji-hye.

As if to signal her to speak her truth, I subtly glared at her, and she lowered her head to continue.

“I thought it’d be good for you to start Mutube… so I was going to ask for your permission later!”

“Ha…”

After Ji-hye spilled her genuine thoughts, I let out a sigh.

At the sight of my sigh, Ji-hye looked like a wet puppy unsure of what to do.

Having captured the desired expression on her face, I dropped the act and smiled.

“Just kidding.”

“Huh?”

“The sigh I just let out was a joke.”

“Ah… I thought I’d get scolded for acting on my own…”

Hearing that, Ji-hye appeared relieved and flashed a weak smile.

There was no way I would scold her for putting in the effort for me.

It would be more likely that I would commend her for being admirable.

“But doing it all without telling me feels a bit inappropriate…?”

“Eeek!”

The carrot and stick approach really worked in these aspects.

It wouldn’t be right to just give her treats for always following along perfectly.

Having decided on a punishment for Ji-hye over her carelessness in proceeding without mutual agreement, I assigned her the task of preparing dinner.

*

The next morning, I found myself not in my room but in Ji-hye’s.

After having breakfast prepared by Ji-hye as usual, I was about to head back to my room when Ji-hye stopped me, saying she had something to show me.

“I need your account for Mutube to get started!”

“An account under my name…? Hold on a moment.”

I paused my hand as I was about to log in with ‘Son Minwoo’s’ account.

Right now, I was officially ‘Choi Nayun,’ and using an account under ‘Son Minwoo’ could lead to problems.

To avoid any complications, I would have to create a new account under Choi Nayun’s name.

“I don’t have an account, so I’ll need to make a new one.”

“The process is simple, so you can make it quickly.”

Following Ji-hye’s words, I was able to create a new account in under a minute.

After logging into the new account, I accessed Mutube.

From there, Ji-hye, having studied ahead about Mutube, took charge of setting up the channel.

The account setup was very straightforward, and before long, a new channel named ‘Barcode’ was created.

“If we’re going to do this, wouldn’t it be better to name the channel my original nickname instead of ‘Barcode’?”

“That would indeed add more character! I’ll change it right away!”

The channel name, initially ‘Barcode,’ was modified to ‘IlilIililI’.

Seeing the new name gave it a nice touch.

At least it was better than ‘Barcode,’ so I was quite satisfied.

“Now, all that’s left is for you to mention this channel is official during your broadcasts…”

“But I won’t be streaming for a week?”

“…You just need to leave a notice.”

Did she predict my cut-off mid-sentence?

Ji-hye continued smoothly, opening a new tab to access Twitch while putting some unspoken pressure on me to leave that notice.

I logged in and accessed the previously created ‘Barcode bulletin board,’ where I’d notified about my collab with Curry.

On the Barcode bulletin board, I quickly typed out a new post.

Selecting ‘Announcement’ as the category and throwing together a title like [Official Mutube].

The content was simply ‘The official Mutube has been created.’ which I wrote down in one short sentence.

That instant, the completed announcement was uploaded to the top of the bulletin board.

“Should I upload the videos I made during my free time?”

“Uh? If you’re confident, you can upload them. Honestly, I don’t care much about Mutube.”

With the thought that I wouldn’t focus on Mutube, I gave her the green light to upload various videos she created without even laying eyes on them.

Having nothing more to attend to, I exited the room and headed upstairs.

At that point, I still had no idea.

Of the impact that setting up the Mutube channel and the videos Ji-hye had made would bring.

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