Chapter 8: The YouTuber can’t play the game.

–This won’t do, this won’t do, this won’t do, this won’t do.
–Get ready for a rude awakening, get ready for a rude awakening, get ready for a rude awakening.
–She’s really bad lol.
–Such confidence with this skill?
–Talent my ass

The chaotically rising chat messages pierced my heart like thorns.
It was like ridicule… no, it was openly ridicule.
Normally, I would have retorted.
But now, I couldn’t.

“Ugh…”
Because those words.
Were all true.

‘No, what is this.’
I couldn’t accept the reality.
This was a game I had watched endlessly on streams.
It clearly looked easy when watching.
But when I actually played it, it was a completely different game.

“This… something’s strange…”

–Suddenly?
–Upon controversy, ‘it’s strange.’
–It is strange.
–Your aim is strange;

“No, aren’t these people using hacks? Bullets are flying from where I can’t see them?”

–We’ve decided to call that a gun game.
–That’s just a normal user’s level.
–You do get matched with good players.
–For a first-timer, yeah yeah.
–I think Lucy is the one using hacks!
–Terrible hacks

My blood pressure rose at the overtly provoking chat, but I had to swallow my words because I had already spoken.
Not only that, but I had no time to look at the chat.
I busily moved the keyboard and mouse.

My character moved according to my controls.
A gun was visible in the corner of a house.
A familiar name revived dormant memories.
This was a good gun.
I quickly switched weapons and reloaded.
And then, watched my surroundings.
Okay.

“There’s no one around… huh?”
I thought the area was clear, but I spotted a figure turning a corner in the distance.
It seemed they were looting, just like me.
However, the difference was that they hadn’t spotted me.
If they had, they would have shot already.
I smiled slyly.

“Hehehe.”
Gotcha.
Even though I had seized an opportunity, the chat window remained the same.

–Lucy Lucy…
–I don’t think that’s it.
–Should we just camp?
–No no, this is catchable.
–If you can’t catch this, you’re not human lol.
–Do you see Lucy as human??

So arrogant.
I felt a strong urge to deflate their arrogance.
My record so far was 0 kills, 3 deaths.
I hadn’t even gotten 1 kill in 3 games.
But conversely, it meant the expectations for me had also lowered.
This one kill would be an excellent turning point.
I stiffened my expression, moved quietly.

Turning the corner, I saw a door.
He must have gone inside.
Carefully moving to the window, I succeeded in spotting my target.
As expected, he was looting.
His intense focus on eating, unaware of the predator’s presence, was just like a herbivore.

“Alright, just watch. I’ll show you how I catch him.”
Confidence surged again.
I spoke boldly, then relaxed my sitting posture and aimed at the opponent.
Now all I had to do was shoot.
I could already imagine myself bragging to the viewers.

‘See? This is how you play Battle Survival.’
It was sweet just imagining it.
However, unfortunately, the imagination remained a fantasy.
The moment I fired, the first shot hit, but the screen shook, and I couldn’t finish him off.
My aim had jumped.

I hurriedly tried to continue aiming, but the opponent’s reaction was faster.
His gun barrel pointed at me.
And with a spew of fire, my screen went dark.

<90th Place>
[Oh dear! Chicken slipped away!]

A cold message, immortalizing my pathetic performance.

“Uh…”
I could only let out a despondent sigh.
Lateness shame washed over me.
It was a regrettable play, even to me.

–Wow lol wow lol
–She lost this???
–I didn’t expect this… lol.
–Wow.. her aim, seriously;;
–The screen shaking was so cute lol.
–At least she doesn’t seem to have talent, yeah yeah.

I stared at the chat window with lifeless eyes, then silently pressed restart.
I hadn’t realized it, but I must have been quite persistent.
I couldn’t just lose like this and move on.

“…I will definitely get chicken today.”
I just haven’t warmed up yet.
Yes, that must be it.

Surely, I can get chicken at least once?

The ‘surely’ became a reality and tormented me.
The result of 10 consecutive games was utterly disastrous.

<95th Place>
[When you don’t like the results, revising your strategy is also an option!]

<75th Place>
[How about paying for chicken?]

<68th Place>
[Are your controls poor? Try using the training ground before starting the game!]
…
…

One fortunate thing, perhaps, was that it didn’t take too long.
Since I died so quickly, the turnover rate of games was fast.
It was strange.
When I watched it on streams, one game seemed so long.

–Ah…
–Hmm…
–Oh dear.
–I can’t watch this, it’s too pathetic.
–Too cruel.

The people who were initially excited whenever I died gradually changed their stance and started cheering me on at some point.
For some reason, that hurt even more.
Anyway.
In the end, I had to admit it.

“It seems I have no gaming talent…”

–You just realized… ahem. No, never mind.
–Well, it’s okay to be bad at something.
–But she really seems to have no gaming talent; she’s unique among bad gamers;;
–Lucy, just draw.
–Ah, you’re good at other things lol.
–Are you going to stop gaming?

“No. I can’t give up on my dream of being a good gaming VTuber like this. Please watch my growth.”

–Growth?
–Such a modest dream.
–But it seems impossible to achieve;;
–Does being a VTuber mean you have to be good at games too?
–She’s a female streamer, not a male one, so it’s okay if she’s bad at games.
–If a male streamer did this, they’d already be getting cussed out lol.
–It seems hard to keep ramming her head into public matches.
–Practice in the training ground?

Having teased and satisfied themselves, many opinions now offered comfort.
That was a good thing, but… it wasn’t the picture I wanted.

‘I wanted to go for an image of being good at everything.’
Fitting for the weight of being the first VTuber.
Bringing new technology at this point, and doing a drawing stream, was good.
Well, it was too late now.
Such an image wasn’t easy either.
But I wouldn’t give up.

Wouldn’t I improve if I kept doing it?
Among the VTubers I knew, there were cases where they established themselves as good gamers through effort.

‘There’s nothing that can’t be achieved if you keep honing your skills.’
I let out a small sigh and clenched my fists.
It was then I resolved to emulate her.

Ding!

[Mission – Basics of Broadcasting]
–Battle Survival is one of the most popular games in internet broadcasting! Let’s uphold your pride as a VTuber!

[Objective]
·Get chicken once (0/1)
·Achieve 10 kills (0/10)
·Achieve 20 assists (0/20)

[Reward]
·Tracking Aim Lv.1

The status window I had seen before appeared again.
I involuntarily raised my voice.

“Huh?”

–???
–Why?
–You scared me.
–Did a bug come out?

“Ah, it’s nothing.”

I brushed off the puzzled viewers and focused my gaze on it.
The first thing that came to mind was a question.

‘It kept appearing?’
I had forgotten about it since it hadn’t appeared after that day.
I didn’t know the principle, but it hadn’t disappeared after all.

I stared at the status window as if to devour it.
This time, the content was focused on games.
The phrase “It accurately grasped your desire” from the very beginning reappeared.
It seemed to have judged that gaming skill was also important for succeeding as a VTuber.

‘It wouldn’t hurt to have it, though.’
After a moment of contemplation, I relaxed my expression and smiled faintly.
I still didn’t know why it was appearing, but a good thing was a good thing.
In fact, I wasn’t even curious.
The important thing was that I was going to practice anyway, and coincidentally, the content overlapped.

There was no need to stop what I was already planning to do, right?
Having objectives made practicing easier.

“Is there a lot to learn at the training ground?”

–Hmm… no no.
–It’s just targets and mock battles, that’s all.
–It’s easy to adjust sensitivity, though.
–Other than improving aim accuracy, well… yeah.

“Then I won’t go out of my way. I think it’s better to just play public matches…”

–Ah;;
–Hmm…
–Let’s just stop.
–Boring.
–You only die.

Unlike when I started the game, the chat window was flooded with ‘no no’.
It was natural.
While there were games where the stream became entertaining when the streamer was bad, FPS wasn’t one of them.
If you’re bad, you literally just die, so there’s no way it’s fun.
Battle royale genres were a bit different, but the gist was similar.

“Then this time, instead of solo, I’ll try duo.”
A streamer couldn’t insist only on what they liked.
Recalling my goal, I suggested an alternative, and the viewers brightened.

–Oh, random duo?
–Then it might be watchable.
–Filling the audio makes it fun.
–Solo was too hard.
–It’d be legendary if she gets paired with a pro lol.

If pure FPS wasn’t working, then I just needed to add new fun.
One could see how much major streamers milked a single content.

–But isn’t that rude to your teammate then??
–Ah
–Thank goodness it’s not ranked;;
–Lucy, we can’t protect you.

“Aren’t you being too negative? My teammate might be worse than me, you know.”
Leaving the chaotic chat window behind, a queue was soon found.
After the loading finished, I spawned in the waiting area.

I immediately ran to my teammate and threw punches.

Thump thump thump!
My teammate reacted to the most definite greeting.

“Ah, ah. Hello. Do you have a mic?”
Many gamers didn’t have mics.
In that sense, I had already passed the acceptable mark.
Of course, like a normal person, the audio quality wasn’t great.

“Yes, hello. Let’s do our best.”
“Um…”

You can’t spit in the face of kindness.
Perhaps considering that I might be a burden, he accepted kindly, and he was momentarily speechless.

“…Excuse me?”
“Are you a woman?”

He asked if I had gone to the bathroom, then his voice came back with a slightly higher tension.
He seemed quite surprised.
It was understandable, as women were rare in public matches.
And even more so in the past.

“How do I look?”

“Your voice… it’s really good.”

“Yes. You asked something obvious.”

“I’ve never seen a woman in a public match before. Are you a MyTuber, by any chance?”

“No. I’m just someone who likes games.”

Saying that, I glanced at the chat window.

–Lying without even wetting her lips ㄷㄷ.
–Scary woman..
–Lucy’s voice is good though.
–Are you ashamed of streaming?!
–The avatar is a bit embarrassing though..

–[Lucy] : No, it’s a fact.
–[Lucy] : I’m not doing MyTube yet.

Tap tap tap.
I quickly refuted and spoke cautiously.

“But I just started today.”
“Ah. You’re a beginner.”

“Yes. Are you good?”
“Not very good… but, I’m not bad.”

A faint confidence could be felt in the man’s voice.
He seemed to be at least not a beginner.
Good.

“Wow. Then please teach me.”
Indeed, one-on-one lessons were the best.