Chapter 85: New Streamer Shia (3)

Cerberus.

There were only a few reasons I remembered that guy.

Just three things.

He was very good at games, and he was very pretty.

And the last one?

“You son of a bitch!”

“Hearing you curse in your voice always makes me feel good. It’s really nice to see you again after a long time, Heo-soo. How have you been?”

“How, how do you know my real name?”

“You’ve been doing really well in China lately.”

It was because of that voice.

Cerberus, real name Kim Heo-soo.

He was a skilled player who ranked 3rd in the official PvP rankings of , and he was a user who frequently clashed with me in the game.

To briefly explain the situation back then, I had infiltrated the palace to assassinate the king of a certain kingdom as part of a quest.

At that time, the captain of the palace guard was this guy.

I think his nickname was childish, too.

Oh, right.

“Shinchang, it’s Shinchang, right? Do you remember how I teased you saying it sounded like a hot sauce name?”

“Shut, shut up!”

-LOL

-Ha. Shinchang Kim Heo-soo. Isn’t he broadcasting in China now?

-What does he broadcast in China?

-I heard he’s making a lot of money playing a famous martial arts game in China.

-He used to be a pro gamer in LOS too LOL

-He was a big shot.

Actually, this guy had an unnecessary sense of rivalry with me.

And if I remember correctly, he was around my age.

Maybe a year older than me?

He had a pretty face and a high-pitched voice.

Some viewers started making various jokes about ‘Cerberus’.

-Old girlfriend?

-He really does have a pretty face LOL.

-Did our villain use to be quite the player back in the day?

-Girls like that usually prefer guys who are better at games than them.

-What’s this? Are you cheating on Na-young?

Hmm.

Some people seemed to be under a serious misunderstanding…

Though he had a feminine fashion sense and appearance.

The truth was different.

I smirked and grasped my sword.

“He’s a guy, you crazy folks. But I’ll respect your tastes.”

Cerberus, or Kim Heo-soo, was a man.

After ended its service, he started broadcasting in Korea using his physical skills as a weapon.

He was probably quite close with Dong-su hyung.

He wasn’t in our guild, but he was a vanguard for our rival guild.

I had read an article on the internet about him making it big in Chinese broadcasting while I was in the military…

I never dreamed we’d meet like this.

He was really annoying back then, but seeing him here made me feel glad.

I smiled slightly and spoke to Heo-soo.

“Isn’t it dirt cheap to collaborate with you for 100,000 won? Wow, this is a real jackpot. I’m glad I revealed myself as Shia. To think even a big shot like you would join… Are you broadcasting right now?”

“Part-time job?”

Still as prickly as ever.

It wasn’t him who answered my question, but my viewers.

-Yes, he’s currently streaming on Hee-ya TV.

-Breaking news: Chinese big spender puts up a 10 million won mission.

-Kill Shia for 10 million won LOL.

-If it’s 10 million won, let’s be honest, let’s just rig it and pocket the money.

-Sandstorm money LOL.

Wow.

The scale in China was indeed different.

Seeing a mission worth 10 million won, the units were on a completely different level.

Wait a minute.

Now that I think about it, that guy was too arrogant.

He joined me for only 100,000 won when the mission was worth 10 million?

Is he crazy?

I gritted my teeth and glared at him.

I take back what I said about being glad to see him.

…But before that, I had to ask something.

“Split?”

“Split what?”

“I’ll lose once, so let’s split the 10 million. No, I’ll be generous and take 300,000. How about that? And I’ll pay you back 100,000. So just 200,000. Man, it’s good for both of us.”

-A money-crazy bastard LOL.

-Honestly, this is legit.

-Today’s daily wage secured LOL.

-I’ll allow exploiting Chinese money.

-A decent exploitation.

I was trying to offer a compromise.

But Heo-soo lunged at me with his spear, shouting.

“You’re talking nonsense!”

Really, he curses so well.

What should I say, there’s a peculiar charm in that high-pitched voice.

Heo-soo’s resumed attack fiercely ensnared me.

The varied and irregular attacks made it hard to even respond at first.

Clang!

The sound of our weapons clashing echoed around us.

But the more time passed, the more old memories resurfaced.

How I dodged his spear, where his weak points were.

They call this muscle memory, I guess.

I felt like my body reacted before I even thought about it.

Oh, and I remembered one more thing.

Blocking his spear with ease, I looked at Heo-soo and smirked.

“Heo-soo, do you remember?”

“What.”

“Our record in . Isn’t it interesting?”

When I brought up our past record, Heo-soo’s expression twisted unpleasantly.

Of course, it had to be like that.

Why?

Our record was.

“49 matches, 49 losses. Ha, today you’ll hit 50 losses. Keep it up, you’ll hit 100 losses soon.”

Because it was a history of me beating him unilaterally.

I grinned as nastily as I could, and Heo-soo, seeing my grin, let out a wild scream and swung his spear fiercely.

“You bastard!”

Always so cute.

6.

-Wow…

-Dark Spirit is an amazing game LOL. It even has this kind of action.

-They could just use this as the game’s intro.

-I’ve heard a lot about how well Cerberus uses the spear.

-Who is Shia, who is deflecting all of this?

-It’s just Shia being Shia LOL.

-Respect the hierarchy.

Five minutes later.

Heo-soo lay on the ground, screaming in frustration.

“Why the hell isn’t it working!”

He did seem a bit pitiful.

Unlike me, who had spent two years in the military, this guy was one of those hardcore gamers who had tried being a pro gamer and played games actively.

I could understand why he was so angry.

Of course, I didn’t empathize with his feelings.

“Didn’t you feel enough during ? Stop following me around. I don’t like guys.”

“Damn you…”

“Right, Heo-soo.”

During the days, I mostly operated in the shadows.

Due to the game’s non-tradable nature, I took requests through the internet to make cash.

A community of people known as dark gamers.

Assassinations, bus services, and so on.

Looking back, I did make quite a bit of money, but I spent all of it on Jin-hyuk’s medicine.

Unlike me, who had no choice but to delve into the dark side, Heo-soo lived the opposite life.

A guy who built a proud career in the spotlight.

I even remember he came from a well-off family.

“To be honest, hearing about you while I was in the military made me so jealous I could die.”

While gave me the nickname , this guy became a legitimate topic of conversation.

I was really envious of that.

Heo-soo frowned and asked back at my words.

“What are you talking about?”

…Yeah, what am I reminiscing about here?

I looked at the increasingly annoyed Heo-soo and let out a smirk. Then I finished with my trademark annoying tone.

“You’ve gotten worse at games since I last saw you? Hey, you haven’t even been to the military, right? Ha, once you go to the military, you’ll really become obsolete.”

“Obsolete? Have you said everything you want to?”

“Honestly, considering our gaming age, shouldn’t we be getting our dentures confiscated by now, haha.”

This is my concept.

Thanks to this incident, this concept had gained strength.

If before, my concept was ‘pretending to be a villain,’ now it had become ‘obviously being a villain.’

I placed my leg lightly on Heo-soo’s chest as he lay on the ground and nodded.

“Okay. I’ll make one last offer. I’ll let you win here, so give me 2 million won.”

“What’s with the 2 million won!”

“Didn’t you say you had a mission? I heard it’s worth about 10 million won in Korean currency. Oh, it’s nothing to you! Can’t you do that for our old times’ sake?”

“Are you crazy? Why would that be your money?”

“…Fine, I’ve compromised. Just give me 1 million won. Just 1 million.”

Ha.

This is why rich people are!

They don’t know the value of money at all!

-He said no LOL

-Stop pushing it, you bastard!

-Money-crazy bastard

-Eww, where’s this garbage smell coming from…

‘National Pride Mission Man’ has donated 1,000,000 won!

[Hey LOL I’ll give it to you, so stop pushing it.]

Oh, wow!

I didn’t expect the chairman to donate such a large amount!

As soon as that donation came through, I bowed my head towards the chairman.

“Thank you. I’ll stop pushing it!”

I need to meet up with that guy again soon…

I felt bad for not being able to see him since the last fan meeting.

While I was distracted by the donation, Heo-soo, who was pinned under my leg, made one last desperate attempt.

He grabbed my leg and started to twist his body.

Puuuuk.

But his struggle was just a final attempt.

I nodded as I drove my sword into Heo-soo’s neck.

“Congratulations on your 50th loss, sir.”

As Heo-soo received the fatal blow, his body started to dissipate.

In the meantime, he looked straight into my eyes and spoke.

“Hey.”

“What is it? I’m not in the mood to talk to you.”

“…You must come to the upcoming Korea-China platform competition.”

“Korea-China platform competition? What’s that?”

Why am I always so slow with news?

Korea-China platform competition?

There’s such a thing?

As I furrowed my brows in confusion, he sighed deeply and continued.

“You’ll get an offer too, so make sure you accept it.”

“What’s the hassle…”

“Our platform is hosting it. The prize is 100 million won. You must participate. Got it?”

Crazy.

The prize amount was shocking, but so was his nonchalant mention of 100 million won.

I smirked and nodded at his words.

“If there’s money on the line, of course, I’ll participate. Don’t worry. Thanks for the good info, Shinchang Gochujang.”

“…Phew, you’re really a consistent bastard. If I meet you next time, I’ll really chew you up…”

With those words, he logged out of the game.

A Korea-China platform competition, huh.

With a prize of 100 million won, there’s no way I’d miss it.

I mean, why don’t they tell me about things like this separately?

I’ll have to ask Sung-jae later.

With Heo-soo’s abrupt exit, all the content I had prepared for today was over.

Still, I got plenty of footage.

Thanks to Heo-soo’s participation at the end, we managed to create some spectacular action scenes.

It was a day of many gains.

After watching Heo-soo disappear, I ended the game with a light heart.

“Honestly, couldn’t he have split the 1 million won? I was really ready to let him win…”

After that, I wrapped up the broadcast by sharing various stories.

Initially, I planned to interact with the viewers, but I ended up sharing stories from the days.

It wasn’t a waste of time.

Even after the game ended, the viewer count remained above 30,000, setting a record for the most viewers on Korea’s Twipod.

In any case, my comeback broadcast was slowly coming to an end.

I had been quite nervous at the start, but in the end, it was a successful comeback.

The time had already reached the end of my planned broadcast, and after checking the time, I quickly delivered my closing remarks.

“See you tomorrow, cuties.”

-Eww.

-Just curse at us, you bastard.

-Please.

-Is he pushing this disgusting concept now?

-Please, just curse at us, bro.

Reactions like these are what’s fun.

I looked at the viewers expressing their disgust and nodded in satisfaction.

And with a long-overdue hosting to Jin-hyuk, I ended the fulfilling broadcast.

“Phew.”

I came out of the capsule and poured myself a glass of water.

…Well, at least I can make a living with broadcasting for now.

I need to save up quickly and buy a building…

Ding-ding-ding.

Just then.

As if waiting for me to finish the broadcast, my phone rang.

The caller was Sung-jae.

It’s good timing since I had something to say to him.

“Hello. Sung-jae, about the Korea-China streamer competition…”

But from the other side of the phone, I heard Sung-jae’s slightly excited voice.

-Chan-sik! This is huge! This is really huge!

Huge?

“What is it?”

-So, this…

Hearing Sung-jae’s excited voice, I listened to his story.

And a moment later.

I, too, clenched my fist and nodded.

“Really?”

The small trouble with Heo-soo was just the beginning.