Chapter 27 : Eligibility

“Ugh…”

Waking up, I reached for the water bottle.

I was extremely thirsty, probably because I had a restless night.

Gulp…..gulp….

After quenching my thirst, I recalled the situation just before ending the broadcast yesterday.

While stretching, the camera angle tilted upwards, exposing my face. Or at least, I wasn’t sure if my face was fully exposed.

Since I didn’t set up a replay, there was no video left.

It was also the end of the broadcast, so many people were leaving.

The worrying part was that the camera angle was pointing at my face.

“Sigh…”

It’s a headache.

I wondered if my face photo had been plastered on streamer-related community sites.

It would be fortunate if only my face was posted, but if a full-body photo was uploaded, it would be more troublesome.

Even as a man, I had a nearly perfect body as a woman.

Especially since yesterday, I was only wearing a sleeveless top and a thin cardigan.

If I had known, I would have just worn a hoodie.

I regretted wearing a sleeveless top just for comfort yesterday.

I went to the bathroom, washed my face quickly, and returned to my room.

The smartphone, which felt light, now felt heavier than a brick on the street.

Was it really right to check the community?

I could just ignore it and stop streaming altogether.

Despite denying it my mind, I was already accessing the community on LoL.

I didn’t have to look, but I was too curious to resist.

Had my face really been revealed?

If it had, what was the reaction?

Unable to resist my curiosity, I accessed the community.

Ignoring all the general posts, I filtered only the ‘concept posts’ with multiple recommendations.

Then, numerous concept posts appeared, and my eyes were drawn to the title of the latest post at the top.

Title: Do you think Barcode is super pretty? Give a thumbs up if you agree!

“Gulp-”

So, it was plastered.

Oddly, confirming it like this completely erased the anxiety that had been clouding my mind.

Just like spilled water can’t be gathered back, I decided to accept it and clicked on the post.

Content: [Photo] Starting with me lol

The post contained a single photo.

Long hair mixed with black and red.

The red hair, getting darker towards the ends, stood out against the dark background.

Seeing my hair sticking out in all directions because I didn’t tidy it up after washing, I felt embarrassed.

The red irises reminiscent of rubies and the brownish eyes felt mysterious.

Contrary to those mysterious eyes, the dark circles below were all too real.

I still wasn’t used to seeing my decadent look with just one dark circle.

Fortunately, there was only a face photo, and no other photos.

Even after checking other concept posts, there were no posts with photos of my body.

Returning to the first post, I scrolled down to check the comments.

[Total Comments 792]

Wow

LeoriMaster: Heung… Noona, I’m dying…

This post is not fake, I hit the like button 230,000 times

GeumgangsanTiger: Not only is her skill Challenger level, but her looks are too

This is true

Ho1o1o1o, GeumgangsanTiger’s recognition is legit lol

GeumgangsanTiger: Why are you being crazy, you b*tch

Cried while hitting the like button a hundred times

Did Curry enjoy being abused by such a noona alone?

So I’m converting Harcas to ASCII art, Curry’s dead today

Are you gay… Don’t you know someone got caught last time?

OmnivorousJindoDog: This guy will have a court date with Curry lol

Milkman: But is she Korean? Is she wearing lenses?

There were too many comments to read them all.

Still, the reaction didn’t seem bad.

Honestly, I thought there would be hate comments because of my attitude during the collab.

But there wasn’t much about the collab, and most comments were about my appearance.

I was definitely anxious before checking.

But now that I confirmed it, I didn’t feel much.

I wasn’t going to stream much anyway, so there was no need to worry.

Even if my face was revealed, it wasn’t a big deal.

Unless the company suddenly broke the confidentiality agreement and did something crazy.

There was no way Choi Nayeon’s personal information would be exposed.

I didn’t use social media or participate in community activities anyway.

So, I sat at my desk and turned on the computer.

A big problem arose.

A very big problem.

Usually, Curry streams in the evening.

Until then, I spend my time playing various games.

But the games I played recently were all boring.

LoL wasn’t fun anymore since it was preseason with no points to earn.

The main RPG I played announced a major update, but it hadn’t been updated for a while.

From my perspective, having played both games to the fullest, they were no longer entertainment but chores.

Tired of only playing games, I switched accounts to find a streamer to snipe.

There were people streaming LoL in the morning, but their tiers were too low.

I couldn’t snipe them, and even if there were streamers in the Diamond tier, their audiences were too small.

Sniping a small streamer with only ten viewers wouldn’t get any reaction.

No streamers to snipe, no gameplay or walkthrough to watch.

And I didn’t feel like playing games.

Ah, I’m bored.

Isn’t there any perfect streamer to snipe?

Just then, a notification popped up.

[RoninSwordsman00 is live: Climbing to Challenger 1]

The notification that Ronin Swordsman’s stream was live arrived.

Seeing the notification, I smiled and entered Ronin Swordsman’s stream.

[Live]

[Current viewers – 1320]

Since our bet, Ronin Swordsman had consistently streamed.

Maybe thanks to that, over 1300 viewers had joined in just 2 minutes since the stream started.

[Hello, Ronin Swordsman]

[Good morning, Swordsman]

[The title looks interesting, I’m looking forward to today’s stream]

[A morning stream, how romantic, lol]

“…I can’t get used to this chat.”

Each chat message seemed strange.

It felt like being in a room full of young old-timers, the kind who act older than their age.

It was the perfect atmosphere for some peer jokes, but not a chat room I wanted to stay in for long.

I waited for Ronin Swordsman to arrive.

Soon, his voice came through.

“Testing, testing, can you hear me?”

[We hear you]

[lol, these days it’s trendy to say ‘mic test,’ Swordsman]

[He’s been consumed by his persona lol]

[With that level of dedication, maybe he’s the real deal lol]

[Turns out he was the real deal lol]

As more people joined, the chat room’s atmosphere, which felt like a senior center, started to revive.

If the peppermint scent had been any stronger, it might have decided to leave.

“Today, I’ll be climbing to 1000 Challenger points, which I couldn’t do yesterday.”

Ronin Swordsman’s score, after losing nine times to me during our bet, was now close to 900 points.

If he had lost ten times to me, he would have dropped to Grandmaster. How many games did he play in a day?

More than anything, I was amazed by Ronin Swordsman’s dedication to playing ranked games so diligently, even in the preseason.

Logging in with my main Barcode account, I queued for a match around the same time as Ronin Swordsman.

“Why do you play ranked so hard in the preseason, Ronin Swordsman? Well, I just want to raise my score. No particular reason.”

“How high do you plan to climb? Personally, I hope to reach 1500 points. It will be tough, but I don’t want to give up.”

Ronin Swordsman didn’t say anything during the queue in his first stream.

But now, he naturally interacted with viewers’ questions as if he was used to it.

[Current viewers – 3205]

Ronin Swordsman’s viewers had surpassed 3200.

While checking the viewer count, I noticed my match was found, and shortly after, Ronin Swordsman’s match was found too.

At this time, the chance of sniping in the Challenger tier was higher than failing.

Successfully sniping, I watched Ronin Swordsman’s stream during the ban phase.

“Oh, by the way, I heard there’s going to be a platform battle in early December.”

[yes correctly said]

[Are they battling against another platform? I saw the announcement early this morning.]

[Last time, they divided it into ground and sky levels, but this time it’s only a sky-level competition, right?]

[They’re selecting platform representatives through a tournament.]

[You’re a skilled player with a romantic touch, Swordsman. Surely you received a scout offer.]

What are they talking about?

I checked Twitch’s announcements.

Indeed, the announcement stated that a battle between the internet streaming platforms Twitch and Paprika was scheduled for early December.

Unlike the previous battle, which was divided into ground and sky levels, this one consisted solely of a sky-level tournament. Moreover, the tournament was hosted with support from Riot Games Korea, so the prize money was enormous.

Not that it was much money to me.

“Curry-nim did offer me a spot. He asked if I could take the mid position on the team he was forming.”

“What?”

I couldn’t help but blurt out in surprise at Ronin Swordsman’s words.

He offered Ronin Swordsman instead of Barcode, who is basically a perfect superior alternative?

I’ve given Curry a hard time, sure.

But there were times I felt sorry for him, so I supported him often.

Curry couldn’t possibly think Barcode and Nayeon Queen were the same person.

The only reason Curry chose Ronin Swordsman over Barcode was the collaboration we did yesterday.

Sure, I gave him a hard time during the collaboration.

But thanks to me, Curry got another boost in popularity.

And now he’s doing this.

After all I’ve done.

He should have offered it to me first, but he asked Ronin Swordsman instead.

Even if Curry had asked me, I would have politely declined.

But seeing Ronin Swordsman receive the offer and not me made me feel petty.

The mischievous heart from that time stirred awake from its deep slumber.

First, I picked Yone in the pick phase and checked the ‘eligibility requirements’ in the announcement.

The minimum requirement to apply for the platform battle was over 50 hours of streaming time.

There was one month until the platform battle.

Streaming more than 50 hours within that month?

For a wealthy unemployed person like me, that was an easy task.

[zxcv1234 is live: Solo Queue]

I hurriedly started my stream.

To snipe the insolent Curry who chose Ronin Swordsman over me.