Chapter 43: The Three Bonds: Academic Connections, Regional Connections, and Blood Relations

The viewers were continuously flowing in.

It didn’t seem like the coordinates had been marked from any specific place.

Because when coordinates are marked, the viewers usually increase explosively.

And then, they drop off in an instant.

Since it wasn’t happening like that, it seemed that no coordinates had been marked.

[Omniscient Cthulhu: People who upload videos to YouTube]

[Omniscient Cthulhu: It’s because of that]

[Is there a place that uploads such trash videos?]

[Hwanhee: I’m cautiously wondering if uploading such videos might not be illegal…]

[It’s fun to watch the channel when I can’t watch the live stream ᄏᄏ]

[Thanks, Haewoo~]

[Haewoo is a god]

[Kang Hoomin: They sometimes edit and upload the broadcast videos on that channel too ᄏᄏ]

[It gets around 700 views, but it’s consistent]

Oh, so there was a route like that.

I had heard that streamers like Rimaldo had also gained views this way, but this wasn’t such a mainstream method, so I found it interesting and spoke up.

“Then, should I check out an edited version? It’s surprising that someone is editing my broadcasts.”

Personally, as someone who hasn’t been deeply immersed in anything, I couldn’t understand fan channels that edit and upload videos simply because they have affection for someone.

There’s no money in it.

So I was even more curious about why someone would edit and upload my broadcasts.

With that curiosity in mind, I typed ‘Haewoo’ into YouTube.

Then—

“Ah, an old song is playing.”

It seemed like one of the songs from the TV show ‘Kayo Top Ten’ that aired a long time ago.

Although I didn’t know it.

I only ever listened to hip-hop songs.

[Omniscient Cthulhu: Ah, that song is great]

[Yeah, it’s clearly a good song]

[That song is really good]

[Hwanhee: I want to love while facing each other~]

[Ugh, a bunch of old guys are here]

[Just die already, please]

[Kang Hoomin: This song keeps popping up and it’s so annoying. I don’t care about old songs.]

[Old person attacks are the best ᄏᄏ]

Scrolling down a bit more, I saw a channel called ‘Haewoo’ with around 100 subscribers.

“What, the number of my viewers and subscribers is the same.”

[Omniscient Cthulhu: There’s no bad word for fan tubes ᄂᄂᄂᄂᄂ]

[Hey, you idiot ᄏᄏᄏ]

[The manager is the worst guy here]

[No one says anything, but you keep talking alone ᄉᄇᄏᄏ]

[Hwanhee: Is that the manager?]

[Omniscient Cthulhu: Do you want to be the manager?]

[Hwanhee: I don’t think so]

Why is the channel named Haewoo?

It might have been a name chosen without much thought, but usually, people use the nicknames they always use when creating an account.

From that perspective, I wondered—

“Could there be someone named Haewoo on the broadcast?”

That seemed like a reasonable guess.

So, I decided to check it right away.

Since there weren’t many viewers, I could check the names of all the viewers in about a minute.

But—

“What, no one’s here.”

[Omniscient Cthulhu: Agh, this is harassment!]

[The manager finally lost it ᄏᄏᄏ]

[Cutting down the time ᄃ]

I had checked the viewer list with confidence, but there was no one named Haewoo.

I checked for slight variations in the name, but there was still no one who seemed suspicious.

So I gave up on searching and decided to watch the edited video instead.

Click.

I clicked on the video that had been uploaded a few days ago.

—It’s easy if you do it like this. Everyone should do it this way.

“Hm… was my voice this deep? It’s really low. It’s a bit unpleasant.”

I had often been told I had a low voice, but I didn’t expect it to come out this low on the broadcast.

I thought it would sound a bit higher.

Personally, I don’t really like my voice, so I felt a little embarrassed.

[Omniscient Cthulhu: Your voice is great]

[Omniscient Cthulhu: Stop pretending ᄂᄂᄂᄂᄂ]

[No, I’ve actually gotten excited listening to your voice many times, so please stop saying that ᄂᄂ]

Temporarily leaving the chat!

[What the hell, you pervert]

[Don’t try to boost my self-esteem in such a weird way…]

[You’re really boosting my self-esteem in the weirdest way ᄏᄏᄏ]

[Kang Hoomin: Crazy b*tch in heat.]

[Quick criticism is the best ᄏᄏ]

But in the chat, there were compliments about my voice.

There were some comments praising me in the middle, but most of them were about my voice.

‘Maybe it doesn’t sound that bad.’

I was relieved and kept watching the edited video.

A little while later—

‘…This is fun.’

The video ended.

I hadn’t expected it to be this fun.

It was sincere.

I had hardly ever skipped work before.

“It wasn’t that busy, so it wasn’t that hard. I’m fine.”

“Still, you must’ve had a hard time while I wasn’t here…”

“Next time, if you’re going to be late, please let me know.”

“Okay.”

I didn’t know how I was supposed to contact her when I overslept, but I nodded anyway.

It was entirely my fault, after all.

I kept apologizing and quickly started working.

As much as I was late, working hard was the proper thing to do.

‘I got carried away yesterday and worked too hard on the broadcast.’

Yesterday, the game had gone well, and the broadcast was fun, so I kept going until around 4 AM. That’s probably why I overslept today.

The viewers who tuned in late at night were also quite lively.

There was definitely a big difference between broadcasting at night and in the early morning.

Maybe it was the way the viewers spoke.

While thinking about such things, I was making coffee when suddenly—

‘Wait a minute.’

I remembered what had happened yesterday.

That’s when Kang Hoomin had cursed at me.

I had hurriedly left the broadcast, so I didn’t know what had happened afterward.

But I didn’t think the reactions would have been very good.

“Your coffee is ready.”

I delivered the coffee and took a short break.

During that time, I accessed ‘Red’ on my phone.

Normally, I would have gone straight to the Efreet gallery, but today there was another gallery I wanted to check out.

It was the Streamer Gallery.

This was a place where all kinds of stories about people who broadcast on Twiss would be discussed.

‘The rumors aren’t exactly good.’

The rumors weren’t great.

There had been malicious rumors that pushed one broadcaster to the edge, and there were some really bad people there, but still, I couldn’t avoid checking it out.

Since I was broadcasting on Twiss, after all.

[Streamer Gallery]

“Hm.”

I hoped there wouldn’t be too much about me.

If I was mentioned here, it wouldn’t be in a good way.

I thought that to myself and searched for posts.

The search term was Dama.

[Search term: Dama]

I hesitated a bit before clicking search—

“Ha.”

There were a lot of posts with Dama in the title.

It was dizzying.

I didn’t want there to be too many posts.

I wanted to broadcast lightly and for a long time, so I felt uneasy as I checked the post with the most comments.

[Author: ᄋᄋ (110.12)]

[Title: What are Mangming and Harin doing, messing around on a crappy broadcast?]

Content: What the hell is this Dama idiot doing, messing around on a crappy broadcast and not even turning it on? Makes me so damn mad. Ha-ha.

I was taken aback.

What had I done to deserve such baseless hatred from someone I didn’t even know?

I couldn’t believe it as I checked the comments.

L: They’re just calling him a guy, ha-ha.

L: If you’re a guy, you’ll just get all excited looking at this, ha-ha.

L: These guys are being all sneaky in the comments, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. Just write a post proudly.

N: Manggi dog, ha-ha.

N: Manggi dog sighted, ha-ha.

L: So damn sneaky, ha-ha.

N: Starting with writing a post like this is already sneaky.

N: Sneaky GOAT.

L: Don’t watch those weird male cam broadcasts, just go watch Leore instead.

N: It’s not a male cam, you idiot…

N: It’s lesbian, at least watch the broadcast before you trash-talk.

N: Seriously, Nungnung, ha-ha.

Receiving baseless hatred wasn’t new to me, but being treated like this in the Streamer Gallery was pretty absurd.

That’s why I left a comment.

Of course, I logged out first.

‘Better not post this from my main account, I don’t want to get traced back.’

It was best to block any potential risk right at the source.

With that thought, I posted a comment.

L: Hmm, yeah, sure, but at the end of the day, there’s nothing you can do.

I posted that comment very calmly, and was about to check out other posts when I felt Shin Yehwa approaching, so I hurriedly closed ‘Red’ and opened Instagram.

Since it was an app used by many normal people, it didn’t seem suspicious at all.

A moment later—

“Hmm? Jihu, you have an Instagram too?”

“Oh, yeah.”

I had actually created the account, but I never really used it.

It was just there for the sake of pretending to be a regular person.

I didn’t even really know what features it had.

I mostly used it to follow friends from university.

“Then give me your ID. I’ll follow you.”

“Okay!”

This wasn’t an awkward situation since it had happened many times in university.

Even if you weren’t very close, it was common to follow each other on Instagram.

With that in mind, I gave them my ID.

“Then I’ll follow you too.”

“Yeah.”

We completed the follow exchange.

‘I wonder what Shin Yehwa’s profile looks like.’

There was no photo of my face on my profile.

Out of curiosity, I clicked on their profile, and there were quite revealing photos.

I was surprised by the sudden exposure, but I wasn’t flustered and just glanced at the screen.

Unlike my empty profile, there were many photos.

There were pictures from trips to the beach with friends, and many photos from various travels together.