[TS] Malicious Sniper

Three days had passed since I officially started streaming.

For the last three days, I had been crazily focused on broadcasting.

So much so that I was too tired to even aim for Curry.

But now, I was starting to feel my limits.

Huh? What limits, you ask?

[Streamer Barcode guarantees the freedom of cam!]

[Streamer Barcode guarantees the freedom of cam!]

[Streamer Barcode guarantees the freedom of cam!]

“Sigh…”

For some time now, those one-liners had been flooding the chat.

If it were just a tiny handful of people spamming those lines, I wouldn’t have cared much.

Surprisingly, nearly half of the viewers, over ten thousand, seemed to be flooding the chat with those messages.

The sheer firepower of the chat made it so that I couldn’t see any other messages!

Naturally, I strongly warned them that if they kept spamming chat related to the cam, they’d get banned.

But these damned viewers just banded together like a protest and continued to spam.

As time went by, seeing how united the chat had become made my temples throb.

I was just trying to fill the broadcast time and meet the participation requirements, but why was this such a hassle?

Sure, I could just ignore it, but it bugged me.

Even if I didn’t want to think about it, my eyes kept drifting towards the chat room, and I couldn’t help it.

I quickly finished the game then pulled up the chat on the broadcast screen.

I thought showing you all how difficult you were making things for me would at least simmer the uproar a bit.

[Streamer Barcode acknowledges the freedom of cam!]

[Streamer Barcode acknowledges the freedom of cam!]

[Streamer Barcode acknowledges the freedom of cam!]

Instead of diminishing, the uproar flared up even more.

At that moment, I felt a strong urge to just quit the broadcast, Platform Tournament or not.

But every time I had that thought, the irritating image of Curry popped into my mind, making my hands shake.

I was completely dumbfounded when I saw that Curry’s team mid had officially confirmed the Wandering Swordsman last night.

Even more infuriating was that all the members of the team Curry managed to recruit had impressive resumes.

Some were even familiar names, like former professional players, or well-known amateurs whose skills were on par with the pros.

What made me angrier was that all the people Curry had recruited were newcomers who hadn’t been streaming long.

I initially thought Curry picked the Wandering Swordsman because of the 50 hours of streaming time required for participation, but it turned out it wasn’t that.

No matter how I looked at it, I was clearly a better mid than the Wandering Swordsman.

What reason did Curry have for picking him over me?

We were supposed to be doing a collab stream, and yet Curry got the Wandering Swordsman instead.

No matter how many times I thought it over, there was only one answer.

Curry was avoiding me after the last collab stream.

Just based on how he reacted when I donated 100,000 won three days ago, it was clear as day.

He came up to me first, drained me for all I was worth, and just tossed me aside?

I wanted to make Curry regret choosing the Wandering Swordsman over me.

To do this, I needed to increase the value of ‘Barcode’.

I would aim for Curry in the tournament and show him the glorious rise of Barcode afterward.

I wanted to see Curry regret the past.

This was the reason I was continuing the broadcast despite the chaotic chat, and my ultimate goal.

To crush Curry, who had thrown me away.

From the start, that was my only thought.

‘For that, I need to…’

First, calmed down that annoying little riot.

Right now, public sentiment wanted my face.

I could easily solve this issue by simply adjusting the camera angle.

But if I did what they asked, it would surely bring about annoying issues later.

I didn’t want to be swayed by crazy viewers protesting.

Standing up from my chair and heading to the closet, I pulled out the props I had prepared for times like this.

After donning the props, I returned to my seat, leaned close to the microphone, and opened my mouth.

“I’ll give you what you want.”

gulp

[Seriously?]

[For real?]

[Finally!!]

[Ah… Is this what ‘independence’ is?]

[This is Liberation Day]

[Hehe…]

The fervor in the chat room, which had been so hot moments ago, suddenly cooled down.

With no more riotous messages visible, I slowly began to raise the camera angle.

[I’m losing my mind. I feel crazy.]

[Stream Master! Hurry up and raise it!]

[FBI OPEN UP!!!]

[Do you want to see me go insane?]

As the camera angle slowly climbed, the viewers’ reactions became incredibly hot.

The rush of chat messages felt so urgent, I could feel the flames!

What kind of reactions would I get when the camera was finally fully raised, I wondered.

I quickly raised the camera to the angle where my face was clearly visible.

[Whoa…]

[The goddess is… huh?]

[What the…?!]

[You raised the camera but…]

[This isn’t what we wanted, Teacher!]

[This sucks!]

“I raised the camera just the way you wanted.”

I checked my image on the broadcast screen.

In the frame, I was in a hooded sweatshirt a size too big, wearing a hat.

I also had sunglasses and a black mask, completely concealing my face.

The view of my long hair peeking out from under the hat was perfect for reminding one of a criminal.

Seeing that I had perfectly hidden my ‘self,’ I smiled with satisfaction.

Of course, they couldn’t see my smile, but it was there.

I maintained my invisible, sly smile and quietly said, “Since I’ve done what you wanted, how about we stop all mentions of ‘cam’? I’ll really ban you all.”

After my announcement, the chat room turned into absolute chaos.

After adding ‘cam’ and ‘face’ to the banned words list, the urgency diminished a bit, but…

[My lady… I’m cold… Hooh, help me…]

[Are you trying to wage war?]

[This is practically a declaration of war by the streamer.]

[Shit, should I start spamming art?]

[Do I have to bring out the dog d* art that I had sealed away…?]

[Consider this a warning, streamer.]

Sigh…

I had granted them the freedom of the cam they requested.

But they responded this way, which was just a headache.

“If I listen to you but you still act this way, I guess there’s no choice…”

I muttered to myself before shutting off the camera power.

[???]

[Hey, wait a minute!]

[You *&$#s! I told you to tone it down!]

[Sorry… Sorry… Sorry…]

[For real, these idiots have no sense of boundaries.]

[They can’t even grasp the atmosphere, these MS idiots lol.]

[So pathetic, it’s just downright embarrassing.]

[If you’re that thirsty for female streamers, why don’t you head to the continent? lol.]

As soon as I fully shut off the camera, the viewers started tearing into each other.

Maybe bickering among themselves would be better than spamming my chat.

Still, leaving things like this didn’t feel like a good choice.

“Don’t fight, okay? During the last round, I’ll do that face cam you all wanted.”

[O…]

[For real?]

[Thank you!ㅠㅠ]

[How can Barcode, who even listens to such over-the-top requests…?]

[He seems so kind, is he really a celestial being?]

[Looking at his face, he might truly be an angel.]

[But during the collab he just wrecked Curry lol.]

[Always an angel, but a devil during collabs d*…]

[A total Lucifer-level reversal charm!]

When I announced I would do a face cam for the last round, the long riot finally came to an end.

Honestly, whether or not I did a face cam didn’t really concern me, but the reason I hadn’t done it was simple.

It seemed far more interesting to do it this way than just directly doing it.

The constantly changing atmosphere in the chat was fun and satisfying.

Having calmed the angry public sentiment, I continued the broadcast.

*

If someone were to ask who the most notable streamer famous for League of Legends streaming on Twitch was, nine out of ten would pick Curry and Jericho.

Curry was a high-energy streamer with slick talking skills and clear character traits like ‘high roller’ and ‘rebel.’

Jericho, a former pro, focused on pure skill streaming, but his occasional rugged language was his charm point.

Since their streaming styles were so different, the character of each streamer’s fandom was firmly established.

If you wanted to enjoy League of Legends, you’d go to Jericho’s stream, but if you wanted to feel the fun a streamer provides, you’d go to Curry’s.

It was said that their styles were clearly distinct.

Of course, if we strictly judged pure League of Legends skill, Jericho would obviously crush Curry.

But in terms of broadcasting ability, Curry completely outclassed Jericho.

The comparison was skewed because of Jericho being a former pro, but Curry was also ranked among the top 0.1%.

As time progressed, Curry’s broadcasts, which emphasized the streamer’s charm, rapidly ascended.

On the other hand, Jericho remained stagnant, seeing little growth.

It was somewhat obvious.

Watching the same game repeatedly, a fun streamer is always better than just playing well.

It’s similar to opting to frequently visit a friendly restaurant over a rude one when ordering the same dish.

Could it be that they were constantly compared with each other?

Jericho always felt a sense of rivalry towards Curry.

He couldn’t help but feel a competitive spirit since he had always been overshadowed by the streamer Curry.

For Jericho, this Platform Tournament was an opportunity.

He saw it as a golden chance for him to step into the spotlight instead of Curry.

“Crap… What do I do?”

Jericho cursed upon hearing the news of his fellow streamer’s injury, with whom he was supposed to share the mid lane.

Feeling enraged at how his younger friend got hurt while riding a bike and being hit by a motorcycle during a reckless joyride through the back alleys.

“It’s that damn motorcycle’s fault!”

His younger friend’s injury was one issue, but the more serious problem was the lack of a mid laner.

For Jericho, who was aiming to win the Platform Tournament for a sudden rise to fame, the news of his fellow streamer’s accident was catastrophic.

First, he canceled all scrims (team matches) planned for tomorrow, falling into deep thoughts.

His younger streamer friend Ain’s injury would take more than a month to heal.

This meant he would ultimately need to find a new streamer, and that was no easy task.

All the competitive and well-known streamers were already tied up in teams.

Some had already dove into scrims, and the Platform Tournament was suddenly hot.

The streamer Jericho sought was not a Diamond 1 or Master level but someone who ranked among the top-tier and played mid lane.

Surely, could there still be a streamer who met these requirements and hadn’t joined a team yet?

The other lanes had derogatory nicknames like “rebel,” “axe-wielding maniac,” and “tool.”

But the mid lane was the only position known simply as ‘royalty’, the most crucial role in League of Legends.

Putting a Diamond 1 or Master player in that slot?

It was like declaring you were giving up on winning outright.

Jericho spent some more time searching for a streamer to replace Ain.

He went through broadcasts with a daily viewer count, sifting through them one by one.

But he found no streamer that met his criteria.

“Ugh…”

After lowering his expectations and looking for a Grandmaster mid laner instead, he discovered all of those were locked into teams too.

At this point, should he be desperate enough to recruit a Master mid laner?

If he did so, winning would pretty much be impossible.

But isn’t it better than failing to even apply and being eliminated?

While these thoughts swirled in his mind, Jericho resorted to sorting through streamer viewer counts in the League of Legends section again.

He meant to check from low to high, but accidentally clicked and sorted them from high to low.

Since most streamers with high viewer counts were already on a team, he hadn’t paid attention to any.

Yet from the corner of his eye, a stream with a particularly high viewer count that made no sense drew Jericho’s attention.

The title was just two letters—Solo Queue.

The username was ‘zxcv1234.’

Jericho recognized this streamer.

A mysterious Yone Master who had started streaming after betting against the Wandering Swordsman.

He had quickly risen to fame after collabing with Curry, now known as ‘Barcode.’

He’d even heard that he recently had an unexpected accident and became a popular stream star.

‘Could it really be this many viewers?’

Who would have thought there’d be tens of thousands watching him in broad daylight?

Jericho figured there must be a team for this streamer too, but just in case, he entered Barcode’s broadcast.

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