Chapter 157

[‘Doratman’ donated 10,000 won!]

– Kariri is the best in the world, right?

“Really? Am I your favorite? Did you only watch me when you came home from work today? Didn’t you follow anyone else besides me? Hurry up and prove it! Prove it!”

[‘Doratman’ donated 10,000 won!]

– LOL, it’s true! I like Kariri more than my mom!

“Hmm? You like me more than your mom? That’s a lie… It must be a lie. Why did you lie to Kariri? You don’t really love me, do you? If you like Kariri more than your mom, does that mean it’s okay if Kariri kills your mom?”

[‘Doratman’ donated 1,000 won!]

– Damn it, that’s not right.

[World of Arseria Gallery]

[No one can deny Kariri’s peak][129]

(Season 47, Hako era, Kariri controversy.mp4)

[Comments]

– LOLing so hard!

– Wow, that’s crazy, LOL!

– It’s a ridiculous situation… it’s a ridiculous situation…

– She’s definitely a pure mess, LOL!

– Right after the broadcast, she’s already throwing shade at the viewers, dddddd.

– The tone when she says “damn it” is just so funny, LOL!

– She is completely different from now.

– She crosses the line like it’s nothing, wwwww.

– Upvotes 1200, downvotes 4, LOL! It’s basically a real-name system for downvotes.

– She definitely has issues, LOL!

– The sudden outburst is out of this world.

– At that time, No Name was the same grade as her, yet look at the difference, LOL!

[Honestly, who knew Kariri would crawl out into the spotlight?][80]

She was destined to disappear quietly as just another cheap model without any huge buzz.

Who could have imagined she would suddenly become famous collaborating with celebrities and even become the president of the streamers?

[Comments]

– But her energy is insane!

└ While gaming, she screams non-stop and never loses her voice; she’s a natural-born streamer!

– Hmm, is that all…?

– Even without collaborating with Kim Universe and LK, she would have made it big eventually.

– There’s a reason she succeeded without a company backing her.

└ If you watch Kariri’s 40-hour stream, you would never say such things.

└ 40 hours? Her stamina is insane.

– To be honest, her age helped her gain popularity too.

– Listening to her talk, you can tell she’s really nice and has depth.

└ “She’s nice” is just a half-hearted compliment since there’s nothing else to say.

– Is public opinion a real thing? The whole world loves Kariri now?!

└ Can you call me Honey Bee?

– Yeah, Kariri has revealed her face too~ She certified she took the blue pill~ If you’re confident, challenge other Duralens to show their faces too~

– The fact that she was once an idol trainee is just too much.

└ But why is she a VTuber? (I genuinely don’t know.)

* * *

[Kariri / Controversies and Incidents

1. Overview

2. List

2.1. Controversy over uncredited model sources

2.2. Re-Evaluation of Past Viewer Insults

…

2.15. Incident related to idol Chae Na’s death

2.16. Incident of collective information leakage in Twish Korea]

How on earth did she survive?

“You’ve had a tumultuous life, haven’t you?”

“Yeah?”

“It’s nothing.”

Huh.

I pushed the screen away and took a deep breath.

The reason I was looking up Kariri’s personal information on the Tree Wiki was obvious.

“I’m really sorry! I’m sorry, everyone!”

With his head bowed deeply, the streamer Han Yong-cheol apologized.

As an adult, he kept apologizing to the three in their twenties, a high school student, and me, an elementary school child, as everyone stepped in to stop him.

“Hey, since you got picked, you might as well aim for the win…! No Name is here too!”

“Right! We can do this…!”

Han Yong-cheol was encouraged by the words from both men and women, but they were devoid of real enthusiasm.

Metaphorically speaking, it was like boiled spinach.

“I’ll work hard…!”

Even Kariri seemed to have realized the seriousness of the situation and didn’t show the same energy as before.

The incident stemmed from the team member auction that took place about an hour earlier.

“By the way, why did you give No Name 840 points when you said you wouldn’t spend points on healers?”

“Oh, that’s because I heard from the other team captain that he would buy No Name at any price, even 850 points… Even in the mock auction… It was a pathetic excuse! I’m sorry!”

“No, I wasn’t trying to blame you; I was just curious.”

The auction, conducted with a limited resource of 1,000 points, had a simple strategy for victory.

Induce others to buy the items at high prices while getting your own for cheap.

Thus, raise the price of items you wouldn’t buy to a reasonable rate while looking for a blue ocean to select from.

Yet Han Yong-cheol completely lost in that psychological game.

I was assigned a relatively early turn.

Although the showcase result wasn’t great with 3 wins and 2 losses, I was able to make a unique record with a KDA of 134, garnering high praise despite being a healer that didn’t fit the meta.

Especially, Han Yong-cheol, who was in the Gold tier, began his auction at 920 points due to a deduction of 80 points, meaning even if he received two discarded items, he would still need to spend 300 points each for a perfect plan.

[840 points! No Name is being auctioned off for a record-high 840 points in auction history!]

[Oh no, I foresee difficulties already!]

However, Han Yong-cheol, determined to raise my price to 850 points, called the final 840 points, and the team captain, who had been bluffing in the mock auction, declared he would give up, transferring me to Yong-cheol’s team as a result.

“But oppa, you could have at least spent the remaining 80 points wisely!”

“Well, you see…”

Han Yong-cheol, unknowingly, squeezed his eyes tight.

From this point onward, I also knew because I watched the broadcast.

With only 80 points remaining, Yong-cheol had the huge task of bringing in a mid-tier player as cheaply as possible.

Yet he couldn’t bear to watch Kariri, who was valued at 40 points, go to someone else, gathering his courage to raise the bid to 50 points and successfully getting her.

With the remaining 30 points, Yong-cheol had to ultimately accept the unprecedented result of three failed auctions as he couldn’t buy anything until the auction rotated once.

“How’s everyone’s tier? Come to think of it, we didn’t even introduce ourselves.”

“I’m Kariri, a VTuber from Twish! I’m Platinum 3, and my position is tank assassin!”

“I’m Dal Tori! My job is an ice wizard, and my tier is Silver 1.”

“I’m Sim Sim Man, and I’m also a Twish variety game streamer. I most often use the claymore among the broadswords. My tier says Silver 3, but I just leveled up to Silver 2.”

There’s not a single properly functioning tank.

If even one of us were wielding a shield, the game would have been easier, but regrettably, our only tank, Kariri, couldn’t step into the front lines.

By the time my turn came for the introduction, I nodded gently.

“My job is a priest, and my tier is Platinum 1, though…”

I briefly paused and slowly looked at all five faces.

The challenges I would have to overcome in the next two weeks.

“I’m No Name, first place in the story mode of World of Arseria. Nice to meet you.”

* * *

[Streamer Gallery]

[Is this really happening? Really? Really?][97]

(Han Yong-cheol team introduction video: The Blorry)

No Name auction got wrecked, LOL! How am I supposed to win when we’ve got one Platinum, two Golds, and two Silvers? The opposing team is composed only of Gold players.

[Comments]

– The team name is hilarious, LOL! Is The Blorry actually a valid name?

└ No, it’s not ‘The Double Loli,’ but ‘The Blorry.’

└ It’s not a national broadcast, so what does it matter?

└ The parties involved agreed to it, so why is it an issue?

– I see Kariri and No Name in one shot; what a legendary moment!

– To be honest, No Name was fine, but Kariri wrecked it all at 50 points.

└ 840 points… it’s a shame, but at least they would have made it work somehow.

└ Isn’t this overly optimistic? Even in the random team showcase, we had 3 wins and 2 losses?

– Kariri is such a nuisance; the very thought of entering such a wacky character into the contest was totally selfish.

└ Just having a VTuber around makes everything exhausting, yes, yes.

[Kariri ← Reasons why this guy should be expelled immediately][19]

[I’m genuinely annoyed; I was finally looking forward to Yong-cheol escaping his no-win streak, but now…][12]

[VTuber = social evil itself, if you can relate, please upvote a bit][24]

[Can the Honey Badger group finally stop butting in? LOL][10]

[Am I the only one cheering for The Blorry at this point? Sigh][13]

“…”

“What are you looking at, Kariri?”

“Oh, No Name!”

“We agreed to drop the honorifics among ourselves.”

“Oh, right! It’s become a habit to speak formally in front of others, haha!”

Since it was day zero after forming the team, we only played one scrim.

Since it was necessary to objectively evaluate the team’s strength during the scrim, I couldn’t just leap in with a sword right from the start.

So I followed the director’s instructions and stuck strictly to the role of a priest, resulting in a performance that was hard to watch.

Game time: 16 minutes 42 seconds.

Kill score: 41 to 16.

The opposing team systematically pressured us, as if they had practiced with each other for a long time.

[Hey kids, everyone’s physicals are great! If we just tighten up our operation after the first capture battle, there’s definitely potential. Let’s prepare well going forward!]

Our assigned coach clapped and encouraged us, but he couldn’t prevent the mood from going down.

“How about it? Is the game bearable?”

“I wonder if I made a mistake participating in the tournament… No, I shouldn’t start whining; my teammates are all trying so hard! Still, we did win one match out of the three we played, right? Back at the showcase, I mean!”

Everyone logged out from the capsule, leaving just Kariri and me in the waiting room.

She seemed to be trying hard to maintain her usual cheerful expression, but it was clear that without the live camera on, Kariri’s energy was low.

“Are you joining this tournament just for fun, Kariri?”

“Just because it looked fun? But I guess not everyone is here just for the fun of it; maybe I was wrong in thinking that…”

“No, I think games should be fun too.”

Games should always be enjoyable.

Once you cease to view games as entertainment, from that moment on, games can only be torment.

After seven years of grinding in League of Legends, was that game any fun for me?

Not in the slightest.

Instead, it was like a shackle.

“Kariri, did you know? I have a goal in this tournament.”

“A goal? What is it?”

“The Total MVP awarded to the person with the most outstanding performance among the six categories.”

This was the solid reason I had decided to participate in two games.

Even if I received the MVP for one game, without knowing the real-time results in the other, there was no guarantee I’d be chosen for Total MVP.

So, a more secure way was to shine brightly in both categories to claim Total MVP.

The MVP awards only take around 2-3 minutes for acceptance speeches, but Total MVP gets a whole 10 minutes.

And I had to utilize that time.

“I’ll make sure to win the game. But I hope you enjoy it as well, Kariri.”

“Wow, No Name, you really speak so well. But honestly, I’m a bit lacking in confidence. I can play the game for as long as I want, but I don’t know how to play well.”

“Then do you want to practice together before the scrim starting tomorrow? I’ll help you out.”

“Practice together? Really?”

“Yes. Since we’ll all be doing individual practice before the scrim anyway. Let’s meet at 4 PM and practice for at least two hours.”

“Wow, awesome! So I’m the first one to practice with No Name, right?”

“No, if we are being technical about it, HyeBam was first.”

“Well, I’m the first one from World of Arseria! Yay! Thank you so much! I’ll definitely work hard to repay you! By the way, my address is 221, Seolleung-ro, Gangnam-gu, 21x-dong, 13xx-ho-”

“What are you talking about? We’re going to practice in virtual reality, you know?”

“I know, I’m just kidding, hehehe. Anyway, I’ll really practice hard. I’m going to show everyone that I didn’t put this character in for fun. You know, our viewers, who are all in Bronze and Silver, always give me a hard time! It’s so funny!”

The bright smile Kariri showed at the end made my heart feel purified just by watching.

“By the way, it feels really strange to be called ‘older sister.’ Could you say it just one more time for me, No Name?”

“No way.”

“Ehh…”