It was a late morning, after the family had left for work, and the usual routine of the streamers, who had been up all night, was disrupted.
Even Lee Ye-eun were struggling to wake up. The large alarm clock in the room went off, and Lee Ye-eun’s body jerked as she was startled awake by the loud sound.
“Sss…”
She wiped the drool trickling from the corner of her mouth, got out of bed, and slipped on a pair of cute bunny-shaped slippers.
Her room, modified with soundproofing for streaming, had ordinary double doors designed to block noise completely. Opening these doors, she completed a quick wash and some light grooming before naturally sitting at her computer and placing her hand on the mouse.
“Oh, it’s on, it’s on!”
After checking her phone’s alarm belatedly, Ye-eun spoke to herself, a habit she developed from interacting with people online.
With the speaker volume turned up, Ye-eun launched her stream and minimized the window. She then went through her routine as a NewTube creator and streamer, checking her manager’s schedule updates, NewTube’s complex growth graphs, Twitch viewership stats, her editor’s progress, and finally, searching for her own nickname, “Ninima,” in the search bar.
This ego search was always the first thing she did in her daily routine. Although she knew it wasn’t necessarily healthy for a broadcaster to engage in such behavior, the comments were just words of encouragement or advice to her, thanks to her strong mental resilience.
“Hmm-hmm… I really am cute.”
After reading the posts about herself, Ninima pulled up her Twitch window.
“It’s Lesik… Viewers on a Monday morning… 1,200! The chat is calm, and it looks pretty organized overall.”
Ninima began a meeting in her KakaoTalk group chat with the staff responsible for her NewTube and Twitch. The topic was a collaborative stream with Chocoa and Baraa centered on a girls’ talk theme.
***
Lee Su-yeon POV
The map was Consulate, and it was already a fierce 2-2 in a best-of-five match. The final round was on defense. The blue shield icon appeared on the screen, and character selection began.
“Ugh…”
This was a critical match, one that could push her higher into the middle ranks of Diamond tier. Securing a stable position here would silence those who claimed she reached this tier by luck.
Her win rate up to now was around 60-70%, and this match was proof she could maintain such a win rate even in Diamond.
The game’s level was exceptionally high. Players were using in-game microphones more actively, avoiding careless drone pinging to keep positions hidden, and adapting to maps and scenarios with precise strategies. Reckless plays, characteristic of Platinum rank, had sharply diminished.
-Diamond playable?
“Well… It’s less fun than Platinum, but I think I focus more here. And honestly, people at this level are crazier.”
Players exploited tiny bullet holes or ridiculously narrow sightlines to shoot through, or predicted movements based solely on sound to kill enemies through walls or floors. Even after dying, all she could say was “Wow…” in response to their outlandish plays.
Naturally picking Caveira, she chatted with viewers while her teammates constructed a defensive lineup. It was reassuring that her team always tailored their composition around her gameplay, ensuring smooth teamwork.
The game began.
The site was on the first floor, a tricky spot requiring the defense of both the lobby and piano room. Since there were two sites to guard, Caveira was the sole roamer, while the rest stayed to defend the sites. Castle started setting up barricades on risky windows.
She immediately ran to the second floor instead of hiding in the basement, knowing her previous movements there were already predictable.
For several seconds, she reinforced the trapdoor on the second floor and hid in the bathroom, only to hear the sound of a drone rolling nearby. She thought she had hidden well enough to avoid detection, but the drone approached and met her gaze, its LED light blinking at her.
“Hello~”
The drone, sensing its doom, attempted to charm her with playful movements instead of fleeing.
Bzzzz—
During the remaining prep time, the drone spun, jumped, and acted like a playful puppy, wagging its “tail” to beg for survival.
-So cuteeeeeee!
Crash!
“Guess I got spotted.”
The drone shattered into wheels, its body, and internal components, but she didn’t spare it a glance as she got up from her now-exposed hiding spot.
Where should she hide next? Staying near the site to ambush incoming enemies was an option, but going down the stairs to flank them from the basement wasn’t a bad idea either. Or she could play mind games and remain on the second floor despite being discovered.
“Guess I’ll just stay here. Too lazy to move.”
After pondering for a few seconds, she shifted slightly to the side and sat down again. Moments like this, quiet and uneventful, made her wish she could tune in to Chocoa’s stream, but it was a Sunday. She sighed and twirled her gun while scrolling the mouse wheel.
“Hmm-hmm…”
Nearly a minute passed after the round started, and there was no sign of enemies coming to the second floor.
Checking the CCTV on her phone, she saw that most of the enemies were outside, having destroyed all external cameras. The internal cameras were mostly intact, and based on the sound of SR and DMR gunfire, the opposing team inadvertently countered her.
Caveira is designed for short-range assassinations, sneaking up unnoticed to deliver lethal blows with her pistol or shotgun.
“…Nothing to do…”
Jumping out from the second floor into the open would only result in her getting killed without achieving anything. Deciding there was nothing for her to do upstairs, she returned to the first-floor site.
The situation on the site wasn’t much different from hers. The defensive setup was designed to catch mistakes and force aggressive plays from the enemy, but the opponents weren’t engaging at all, opting for long-range sniping instead. Neither Caveira nor Castle were effective in this situation.
The rest of the allied operators also became useless. I moved down to the site, avoided the broken barricades in my view, hid in the piano room, and checked the status of my allies.
“They’re barely hanging on…”
In the past minute, whether they were hit a lot or not, one person had already gone to the afterlife, and the others weren’t in great health either. If time continued to pass like this, defeat was inevitable, and the only way to turn the tide in this meticulously planned scenario was through an absolute variable created by a daring play.
I had to make the bold and risky play that the enemies wanted. Either way, staying still wouldn’t change anything except my score. I had no choice but to play into the enemy’s strategy.
“One minute… twenty…”
With more than half the time gone, the enemy team began tightening their siege and moving the rest, excluding their snipers, to other positions. I moved from the piano room to the meeting room.
As I entered the meeting room, the teammate who had been guarding it all along immediately broke the trapdoor on the floor and relocated. My teammate’s new position was the 1st-floor officer stairs, the expected path of the non-sniper enemies. If they didn’t hear the movement, it was a great spot to ambush incoming enemies.
From the sound of the snipers’ guns, there was one DMR and definitely Kali’s heavy rifle. Using the shotgun, I destroyed the flowerpot neatly placed next to the door and replaced it with myself.
Up to this point, it was just a simple repositioning move. But now, I added a few tricks. While pressing W and S simultaneously, I performed a melee attack. No matter how sharp the enemy’s scope might be, the sudden appearance of something black could look like a gun or a body.
The enemies instinctively fired, and I confirmed the trajectories of Kali and the DMR, who shot from the left and right respectively. Then, stepping forward again, I aimed my pistol.
Bang!
One enemy’s head was pierced cleanly. I quickly moved my aim to the right, rotating the mouse.
Kali, using a bolt-action sniper rifle, was late to fire at me while I aimed. I caught her in my iron sights and pulled the trigger.
Bang! Crash!
My bullet and Kali’s bullet were fired simultaneously. Kali, aiming through her scope, was penetrated by my bullet, and at the same time, her bullet hit my leg. It was a meaningless grazing shot that failed to kill me in one hit.
“…Easy.”
gg gg gg gg gg gg gg gg gg gg
Win rate 70, congratulations!
If you have a 70% win rate in Diamond, isn’t that almost pro-level?
“Eh… I just don’t have enough games yet. Anyway, I’ll stop here and stream again in the evening.”
The game screen minimized, Baraa waved lightly, and the stream screen also went down. Despite the abrupt end to the stream, the regular viewers quickly exited the broadcast without lingering.
While I was snapping out the laundry and hanging it, a Discord message arrived. Based on the timing, I thought it might be Chocoa and quickly grabbed my phone, but unfortunately, it wasn’t Chocoa.
Ninima: Please call me when you have time! I have something to discuss about our collab!
“….”
I tucked my phone between my shoulder and cheek and resumed hanging the laundry while making the call.