Chapter 42

Eternal World usually undergoes a major upheaval every year.

The goal is to cleanse the user base as much as possible, so there weren’t any big changes right after the first half of the season ended.

Of course, there were minor balance patches.

But Thierry remained unchanged.

This sparked a lot of discussion.

Thierry currently has the lowest pick rate.

Romance is great, but sometimes you need to win too. If you can’t win at all, even casual players get frustrated.

So, the players of Eternal World expected Thierry to get buffed in the mid-season patch. Maybe increased skill damage, or at least some tweaks to health and defense.

But the result was complete neglect.

If it were an unpopular character, it would make sense. No money in it.

But Thierry has high skin sales. Despite having the lowest pick rate, it’s a weirdly profitable character. Given the game company’s direction, adjustments should’ve been made.

It was so strange that conspiracy theories started circulating among the players.

The conspiracy theory was, “Isn’t this all Han Yoorim’s fault?”

From my perspective, it was ridiculous.

It’s not like the game company is some notebook RPG. Why would they let a single user influence their patches…

Wait, they’ve done it before.

But this time, I didn’t do anything weird and just quietly played the game. They wouldn’t nerf or neglect Thierry just because of me.

Honestly, Thierry isn’t even that bad. They’re perfectly usable.

I also carefully read the patch notes for other characters.

It seems they thought the game was too late-game focused, so they buffed a bunch of early-game characters.

This means the snowball meta will dominate for a while.

I wanted to see how it felt, so I went into practice mode and picked one of the recently patched characters.

I tried grabbing objectives, fought the AI, and tested skill combos.

After about 10 minutes in practice mode, a question popped into my head.

If this character feels like this, how are the others?

I immediately switched characters and ran the same routine.

10 minutes passed.

I had another question.

If this character feels like this, how are the others… (to be continued).

I meticulously checked each patched character.

To get a feel for the patched objectives, I even tried them with unpatched characters…

<ㅇㅇ님이 1000원 후원>

– Turn on the stream, you idiot.

I was startled.

Turns out, donations were enabled.

It must’ve been set to turn on automatically, so I quickly switched it to manual. Privacy matters.

<ㅇㅇ님이 1000원 후원>

– Please turn on the stream and play the game.

I only changed the settings but hadn’t turned it off yet, so another donation notification played.

But how did they know I was playing without streaming?

The tone gave away their origin. I checked the community.

As soon as I clicked on a trending post in the VR Broadcasting Gallery, I saw this:

<Han Yoorim’s recent status lololol>

(A screenshot of Han Yoorim in practice mode seen through the friend list)

She’s in practice mode ㅇㅇ

– Why aren’t you streaming?

┗Looks like she’s checking the patched characters?

The first post was pretty mild.

The problem started after that.

<Is Han Yoorim new to Eternal World? lol>

(A screenshot of Han Yoorim using unpatched characters in practice mode seen through the friend list)

Why did she start testing all characters after checking the patched ones?

– How should we know, idiot?

– The objectives changed this time. Maybe she’s checking those?

┗The objective speed increased by 1, but who cares?

Turns out, my fans were feeding me real-time info. Good thing. I thought someone installed CCTV in my house.

This made solving the problem easy.

I set my game status to offline and continued practice mode.

<ㅇㅇ님이 1000원 후원>

– Open the door.

I turned off donations too.

Now I could enjoy a comfortable gaming life.

Time passed.

The sun set, and my friends in Paris were starting to wake up.

I turned on the stream.

Immediately, the chat blew up.

―――

Turn on the stream, you idiot.

Another abandonment? Another abandonment? Another abandonment? Another abandonment? Another abandonment? Another abandonment? Another abandonment?

If you’re gonna do this, just quit streaming. If you’re gonna do this, just quit streaming. If you’re gonna do this, just quit streaming.

―――

I played the unreleased “Han Yoorim” route’s true ending BGM and enjoyed the chat until the song ended, then turned on my mic.

“Hello.”

<ㅇㅇ님이 1000원 후원>

– You happy playing games all day without streaming?

“It wasn’t a game, it was practice mode.”

But that’s trivial. It’s time to brag.

I opened the VR store and showed the ranking for Resurrected Students Also Need Love.

Weekly domestic sales: 1st place.

Finally, I’ve reached a level where I can proudly call myself a game developer.

“I poured a third of my energy into making this game. Please enjoy it to the fullest.”

―――

If this is a third of your energy, what happens when you go all out?

―――

“I don’t know.”

I genuinely didn’t know. I might try it before retiring.

<고양이캣잎님이 100000원 후원>

– Are you playing Resurrected Students Also Need Love today?

“Thank you for the 100,000 won. Play Resurrected Students Also Need Love? No? Why would I play my own game on stream? I already know everything about it, so it’d be hard to react.”

It’s such an obvious point, but I guess they misunderstood. I was speechless.

The chat was speechless too.

―――

He’s right. If he hasn’t streamed his own games until now,

Did his dementia suddenly get better?

It’s dual personality. Pay attention.

―――

“I’ll add RP to…”

“I can temporarily forget the content of the game I made whenever I want.”

—

My RP is about cursing out people who act like idiots.

—

It was hard to convey my sincerity today.

<ㅇㅇ님 donated 1000원>

– Eternal World, let’s go?

“I was just about to do that.”

I turned on <Eternal World>. *Whoosh*. The glowing Challenger emblem appeared on the screen, followed by a short message.

[You have achieved Challenger in the first half of Season 7 of <Eternal World>. If you maintain Challenger in the second half, you will be entered into a prize draw.]

Curious about the prize, I asked, “What’s the prize?”

—

It changes every time. Last time, it was a 5-night, 6-day trip to Hawaii.

—

Wait, they give out stuff like that?

I was slightly surprised.

How much money do they have to throw around to use that as bait?

“How many do they give out?”

—

Based on the World Championship, they give out 10 to each of the top 4 countries’ Challengers. They also give out 10 to those below Challenger tier.

—

So that’s 20 per country, totaling around 80?

Calculating the cost, it didn’t seem like that much. Realistically, I could afford to pay that much every year.

It definitely seemed cost-effective. Whoever planned this was pretty smart.

“I guess I should aim for Challenger again this time.”

I was already planning to hit Challenger, but now I had even more motivation. My enthusiasm was overflowing.

I picked my position and started the game. *Ding*. A donation came in.

<ㅇㅇ님 donated 1000원>

– Not turning on the cam today?

“It’s not a cam, it’s a stream.”

—

Here we go again lol

First, it’s a cam, then it’s a stream, then it’s a cam, then it’s a stream, then it’s a cam, then it’s a stream, then it’s a cam, then it’s a stream.

You’re contradicting yourself, damn it.

—

It’s not a contradiction. I always speak my truth.

<고양이캣잎님 donated 100000원>

– I want to see the avatar.

“Just a moment.”

By the way, why did the avatar turn off?

It usually turns on automatically, but I must have messed with the settings yesterday while testing things.

I turned on the avatar and said, “Can you see it?”

—

Look at them doing it after 100,000원.

5-step entrance lol 5-step entrance lol 5-step entrance lol 5-step entrance lol 5-step entrance lol

—

“Looks like you can see it. The queue popped, so I’ll start the game.”

In <Eternal World>, the positions are ranked by popularity: Outer Solo, Main Carry, City Core, Scout, Support, and Guardian.

The fact that Outer Solo, which has the least impact on the game, is popular shows that position popularity is closely tied to fun. People usually like them in that order.

That’s why Guardians are called score-obsessed monsters. It’s not entirely wrong.

Anyway.

When the queue time gets too long, players inevitably get bored.

That’s why game companies put a lot of thought into it.

They either add mini-games to play while waiting or patch the game to make queues faster.

The ideal situation is having enough players to get into a game immediately, but since that’s not always possible, <Eternal World>‘s developers came up with a solution.

If the queue time exceeds the average, the game will start even if not all positions are filled.

[You have been assigned to Guardian.]

I muttered softly at the message on the screen.

“Guardian, huh.”

—

Ah

Why Guardian?

Dodge?

—

Guardians spend half the game staring at walls.

It’s not fun for the player or the viewers, so streamers usually avoid it.

That’s why other streamers would dodge in this situation.

But who am I? A super game developer, right?

I’ve been prepared for situations like this for a long time.

“Hold on. Something urgent came up.”

*Click*. I turned off the avatar.

—

The madness begins lol

You’re not about to end the stream, are you?

We were wrong. We’ll watch even if it’s Guardian, just keep the stream on.

—

I locked in my pick.

[I am the last descendant of the dragon clan, Cheon Hye-eun.]

The character was dressed in traditional Korean attire, but <Eternal World> has skins.

I selected a skin.

Hanbok, suit, gym uniform…

Black Gothloli.

As soon as I selected it, a black-haired, black-eyed little girl in black Gothloli appeared on the screen.

I turned on my avatar as well.

Then.

The stream screen showed a black Gothloli-clad avatar of ‘Han Yoorim,’ a 5th-grade elementary school student.

*Whoosh*. I covered my mouth with the fan (avatar) and said, “‘Was it you who summoned me?'”

I even changed my voice to ‘Han Yoorim.’

If the in-game is boring, you can just find fun elsewhere.

It’s easy for a super game developer.

—

This girl is insane.

—

This is the advantage of being a VTuber.

Mos, come quickly and repent for talking nonsense about why the cam wasn’t on.