Chapter 4: It’s been a month since the broadcast-5

The most major yet most minor community. Some posts appeared there.

• 17-year-old high school girl barking like a dog
  – “Is this real, wtf?”
  – Isn’t her voice cute?
  – “Her voice is cute, even though the quality is terrible. What’s her name?”
  – “I don’t know.”
  – “Who the hell is this?”
  – “Find out for me.”
• Dragon should have brought someone better, why bring a no-name like this? Is Dragon washed up now?
  – “She’s always like that.”
  – “Wasn’t Dragon known for his extreme streams?”
  – “Jealous.”

At first, it was normal.

That was to be expected—there were plenty of streamers with nice voices.

As usual, the post would get buried under a pile of others.

But this time, it wasn’t.

The video was edited and uploaded on the YouTube channels of streamers with hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

For the community users who were always hungry for content, popular streamers’ videos were a great treat, and the star of this one was none other than Liera.
Thus, posts related to Liera started pouring in.

– “Who’s this?”
– “What does she do?”

Basic questions, followed by comments like

– “She’s cute,”
– “She looks dumb,”

Then came the negative responses:

– “Dragon’s got a thing for another girl?”
“Another girl?”

7:2:1 ratio of reactions.

Just one month since starting her stream, with an average viewer count of one, Liera was more of a “hako” (a lesser-known streamer) than anything else.

Yet, this hako had shown a strong presence on the collaboration streams of top-tier popular streamers.

Whether intentional or not, it was an unusual occurrence.

Even the community users who usually dug into streamers’ pasts, looking for their downfall, found this event quite entertaining.

One hour passed since Liera became the main character in a 11-minute video uploaded by streamers like Garan, Aram, and Dragon.

The discussion surrounding her didn’t die down, but instead gained even more traction.

They weren’t just focused on the video itself.

Soon, discussions about Liera the person began to spread like wildfire, and like with any other personality, opinions diverged into different threads.

• “Liera’s YouTube is so boring.”
  “Her voice is like some cheap TV show.”
  “She just seems to be imitating other streamers.”
  “I get why she hasn’t blown up.”

Criticism.

• “She’s so cute, omg.”
  “She really barked like a dog, haha. Is this a Korean high school girl?”
  “I just told my 2nd-year high school sister to bark like that, and she beat me up.”
  “But isn’t she kind of dumb? Like, seriously.”
  “Shut up.”
  “Why are you cursing, you jerk?”

Praise.

• “So who is she? Tell me!”
  “I told you already, haha.”
  “Yeah, that’s her, haha.”

Memes.

• “Has she gotten into trouble?”
  “Look it up.”
  “Did they dig her up from some extreme stream?”
  “Is she a bully?”
  “Really?”
  “Not sure.”
  “Shut up, you jerk.”

And more…

A community that could drive anyone mad just by reading its posts.

There were posts filled with insults, as well as exaggerated praise.

And as always, the extremes fought with each other.

No, in fact, communities were places where people fought for no reason at all.

Like siblings, brothers, or sisters.

It was almost a law of nature for people to try to tear each other apart for no reason, and in that sense, calling a community a microcosm of nature wouldn’t be a strange metaphor.

The subject of the story, Liera, wasn’t even in the community, yet they were at each other’s throats.

Time passed.

After hours of fighting, six members of the community were blocked, but that wasn’t the real problem.

The real problem was something else.

Amid the constant stream of insults, someone opened the gate.

• “Liera, subscribe and like on YouTube”

“Ad blocked.”

“Armband!!! Armband!!!!!!! Work!!!”

“I posted a way to make 20,000 won easy money on my channel.”

“This ad is getting out of hand.”

A direct link to Liera’s YouTube channel.

Normally, this would have been blocked for promotional purposes, but the site administrator, known as Armband, was momentarily absent.

Out of curiosity, envy, and maybe even spite, people clicked on the link.

A massive wave was coming to Liera’s YouTube channel.

Liera’s YouTube had only 27 subscribers.

That poor number swallowed the wave coming from the gate and slowly began to grow.

30, 54, 73, 99.

Finally, 100!

If Liera had seen it, she would have been in shock, probably jumping around in excitement, thinking she needed to make a 100-subscriber celebration video.

But not yet.

The subscriber count reached the triple digits in no time, but the wave didn’t stop.

The influence of the so-called “big-name” streamers was greater than expected, and the impact of Liera’s eccentric behavior was even greater.

180, 284, 383, 490.

It didn’t stop.

In the blink of an eye, the subscriber count grew by dozens of times.

It was like a bubble that could disappear in an instant with a gust of wind, but if that bubble grew large enough, could it still hold some meaning?

The subscriber count finally reached 897 before the explosion stopped, but Liera still didn’t know.

Her phone, which hadn’t paid its fees, was disconnected from Wi-Fi, and her computer was turned off.

Even the channel owner, Liera, was unaware.

The video that had received the most views, “Subscriber 10 Celebration Video,” had been overtaken by people who came from community posts and other streamers’ videos.

Originally, the video had 87 views, 3 likes, 4 dislikes, and 4 comments.

Now, it had 2994 views, 37 likes, 26 dislikes.

And 201 comments.

No, 202.

…203.

Counting the comments became pointless.

They were growing in real-time.

• “Only until today, Naver Pay 2+++ million won giveaway.”
• “When is the stream starting? When is the stream starting? When is the stream starting?”
• “Come to my channel and I won’t give you any easy money.”
• “Is this place where they bark so much?”
• “Goddess! Goddess! Goddess! Goddess! Goddess! Goddess!”
• How many times did they offer to help just to get the straw in? …To the Dragon?
• 100-subscriber celebration video, when is it coming? Subscriber.
• “Heeung… high school girl, mama…”
• “Bboom bboom bboom~”

Chaos, just chaotic comments.

It was an inevitable situation since the community members arrived.

The wave was a wave in its own right, but this wave that came in was almost like commercial waste.

The state was not good.

Not just bad, but almost like a poisonous substance.

• “Aren’t you managing YouTube?”
• “Doesn’t seem like it.”
• “Spamming.”
• “If you come to my channel, I’ll give you 50,000 won easy money^^”

The comment section was breaking down.

Yet, there was no news from Liera.

By this point, with the mess escalating, there should have been some kind of action like blocking the comments, but everything remained quiet.

In other words, no one was there to enforce any rules, no matter how badly things went.

Everyone knew this, and the comments were slowly heading toward a disaster.

• “A filthy person who went to the Dragon for a collaboration and was a no-show.”
• “This is a lawsuit material.”
• “Disgusting bastard.”
• “How come all the videos are so boring?”
• “Haha.”
• “The videos are sloppy.”
• “Clearly, this person started watching the streamers easily. I hope they die.”

One by one, the comments crossed the line and filled the comment section with hateful speech.

Not only the comments, but the video itself started having problems.

Though the like ratio was slightly higher, now the dislike ratio was slightly higher.

It was a deliberate dislike attack.

To them, Liera was just an easy, helpless prey to torment.

Among the disgusting and filthy behavior, one comment stood out.

It was freshly posted, with more replies than the video’s total comment count.

• “Fake.”
• “Fake?”
• “Fake?!”
• “Fake, don’t cross the line.”

Liera had been invited to a collaboration but had no-showed.

With 110,000 subscribers.

The youngest member of the Dragon’s collaboration team.

A streamer who had recently garnered attention for her borderline outfits.

A streamer who would be permanently banned if she was reported again.

A walking yellow warning label and a troublemaker.

A streamer Dragon wanted to cut ties with.

NemoMi.

She appeared on Liera’s channel.

• “Good job! 🙂 Let’s do a collaboration next time!”

Another collaboration invitation was born.

The straw was firmly stuck, with no signs of stopping.

The bait that was starting to cool down was reignited.

The subscriber count didn’t change, but the reactions were much hotter.

Stronger hateful comments circulated, and stronger support fought back.

The attention was piling up to an unbearable level.

But Liera didn’t see NemoMi’s comment or the massive attention until two days later.

***

She scratched her messy hair and sniffled.

“Ugh…”

She had opened the window while cleaning and caught a cold.

“What should I do…?”

When she woke up from her illness, the world seemed strange.