“Well… I’m not sure either if you ask me…”
[ㄲㅂ]
[Then please send a KakaoTalk message to start the broadcast.]
[Why do these guys come into someone else’s room and do this?]
[Just like the owner, ㅇㅇ]
[Mollu’s group is really annoying;]
[Everyone leave~]
[It’s all because Mollu isn’t starting the broadcast, ㅇㅇ]
Hehe, the girl who laughed foolishly spoke with a worried expression.
“Since she’s a very elusive person, I don’t have her KakaoTalk, only Discord. But wouldn’t it be rude to bother her while she’s resting?”
[Exactly, ㅋㅋ why are you asking someone you’re not close to for favors]
[Leaving a notice like that is more rude]
[Anyway, they’ll just be lounging around without anything to do]
The streamer Ryu-a was experiencing unexpected troubles during the broadcast.
She was a rookie streamer who had just started, with an average viewer count barely over a hundred.
Every day she saw the same viewers, the same chats, and the same repetitive broadcasting repertoire.
Due to the lack of new viewers and her small stable audience, Ryu-a sometimes felt bored, but she had adapted to it and was beginning to feel a sense of stability.
That balance was shattered overnight.
Specifically, it changed drastically after a recent tournament.
The viewer count suddenly jumped to four figures.
She was busy trying to manage the influx of viewers who said they were impressed by Jackie’s team performance.
What were these ruffians who came flooding in?
They say that when a locust swarm passes, nothing is left behind.
Mollu the ketchup thief from Lotteria, Mollu who slapped Oh Dae-sik, Ulsan elementary school grandmother’s washcloth hoarding villain Mollu…
It took no time at all for these fearsome-named individuals to occupy the broadcast.
Moltugi. Ryu-a thought it was a wonderfully named title, though she didn’t know who came up with it.
“I’ve left a message for now… but I don’t know if she’ll see it.”
The words of her father, who said there would be no negotiations with terrorists, came to mind.
Nodding in response to her father’s words while eating rice, the daughter did not inherit her father’s conviction.
But the terrorists who occupied her broadcast did not leave even after having their demands met.
Ryu-a, who aimed for a clean broadcast that anyone could watch, realized how high and difficult her goals were.
She could see the existing viewers being overtaken in real-time.
It was no wonder the big corporations prohibited mentioning other streamers.
It became unclear whether she was in Ryu-a’s room or in Mollu’s waiting room.
She, as a new streamer, did not realize that she should have taken a hard stance from the beginning.
Uncertain about what she was saying, Ryu-a resumed the broadcast as originally planned.
“The game we’re going to play today is… a famous game, right? I brought it to try it out myself. Dragon Lord!”
[Sudden?]
[ㅋㅋ It’s cute how flustered she is.]
[Again with Dragon Lord;;]
[I can already see her dying a horrid death.]
[How many tries do you expect?]
“Isn’t it a given I won’t get through in less than 100 tries, haha…”
Ryu-a waited for the game to load, awkwardly laughing.
As the fearsome eyes of the dragon, sharply torn vertically, turned toward her, she felt an inexplicable urge to shrink back despite it being just a game graphic.
Dragon Lord, a game produced by a famous game company, attracted people’s attention in an instant with just the pre-released videos.
Streamers waited to play the game as if it were a grand release.
However, Dragon Lord was notorious for its cruel difficulty.
Commonly referred to as a “souls-like” game, it boasted challenging controls and enemy AI patterns in a third-person action RPG.
Even skilled streamers known for being great gamers often found themselves struggling with souls-like games, making it a sort of combat power meter that distinguished talented players from untalented ones.
Ryu-a didn’t expect much.
She was well aware that her own physical skills weren’t that great.
She had felt this even more acutely lately because of the tournament.
But the success of the broadcast didn’t necessarily correlate with high physical skills.
In fact, there were quite a number of people who preferred and got excited about frustrating and comical gameplay.
The existing fanbase of Ryu-a, around a hundred people, certainly enjoyed that kind of content.
One variable was the influx of these Moltugi who had come in.
“Ugh…”
Ryu-a groaned as she watched her character die on the floor.
She managed to complete the tutorial and get through the early sections without any issues, but now she faced a wall.
Balak, the giant monster, described by the community and other streamers as the “newbie crusher” or “threshing machine,” was the mid-boss.
He had attack motions too difficult for beginners to react to. His health bar was alarmingly high, and he possessed unique techniques that allowed only evasion, making it impossible to guard.
For Ryu-a, a complete novice who had never encountered a souls-like game before, he was too overwhelming to face.
[ㅋㅋ She’s so bad.]
[It really stinks of a newbie;]
[The undeniable stench of a newbie… Can’t hide it.]
[Seriously, how can she even do that?]
[Grind it hard, grind it hard.]
[Just laugh it off, for real.]
[For real, just laugh it off.]
“Ugh… Please wait a moment, I’ll definitely catch that guy.”
Unlike the usual slow-paced chats that would comfort Ryu-a, the rapidly moving chat was mostly filled with criticism and ridicule.
The growing pains she had to experience as her broadcast expanded, whether quickly or slowly.
For the first time in a while, Ryu-a felt anger and played the game with ‘determination.’
But even with that, nothing changed.
Was Balak merely named the newbie crusher for no reason? That title was not mere bluster.
Instead, the more emotions she poured into it, the more frustrated and exhausted she became.
“This guy has no patterns? The first ones I met had distinct patterns…”
[Watch closely; the motions are fast, but there are definitely patterns, ㅇㅇ.]
[How many hits have you taken until now, and you still haven’t figured out the pattern?]
[But, can you even react knowing the pattern?]
[Let’s see the strategy guide, go go.]
“The strategy guide feels like looking at an answer sheet…”
[You’ve got some strange stubbornness, ㅋㅋㅋㅋ.]
[You haven’t taken enough hits yet.]
[What’s up with that?]
[Just too full of yourself.]
“I’m sorry… I’ll look at the strategy guide.”
Faced with the sharp reactions of the viewers, Ryu-a shrank back and diligently read the strategy guide someone had sent her.
It had some effect.
Marginally.
It was better than before, but the persistent issues remained unsolved.
She was still not equipped to deal with Balak.
“Uh, is there, like, a video for this? It’s hard to follow just with text and pictures…”
[The game just came out a few hours ago, how could there be one, ㅋㅋㅋㅋ.]
[This is the fault of the game company, ㅇㅇ why is there no beginner’s guide?]
[Shall we just wait until tomorrow?]
< Dongtan Level 1 Ultra Mollu has donated 10,000 won! >
-Just skip this kid and proceed with the story; it’s not like you have to catch him.
Someone offered a compromise to Ryu-a, who was cutely scratching her head.
It was indeed true that Balak was not an essential boss to defeat.
The story could progress smoothly, and the ending could be reached without defeating him.
“But then I won’t see the true ending…”
However, the path branched there.
Whether she defeated Balak or not would change the protagonist’s journey.
She had read somewhere that to achieve the true ending, it was necessary to defeat Balak, albeit she did not know for sure to prevent spoilers.
With a stubborn but senseless headbutt, Ryu-a started her charge.
With every attempt leading to her death against Balak, she persisted in her challenges.
Even while the viewers found it boring, they gradually began to root for her.
Nevertheless, doubts arose about whether she could clear this section within today.
[That’s not how you do it.]
Someone’s message appeared as Ryu-a took a brief break out of frustration.
She saw the message written in an exasperated tone from someone giving advice.
[When Balak puts his hand on his sword, he’s going to swing horizontally, so roll out of the way immediately.]
[When he buries his sword in the ground, go to one side, then go to the other side and deal damage.]
[If it seems possible, try mixing in some parries too.]
The chatroom began to stir as more people noticed the change.
The viewers, who had registered with malicious usernames claiming to be “fan nicknames,” flooded the chat with excitement, and the previously unregulated chatroom quickly descended into chaos.
[Give me that sword, I’ll slice everything up.]
Among it all, Ryu-a saw ‘her’ message and quickly handed over the sword.
The one who suppressed the viewers showing abnormal affection towards her.
A person who jokingly claimed to have ten million fans, Mollu, had appeared.
As she swung her sword, the chatroom cleared up as if nothing had happened.
Seeing her heroic appearance, Ryu-a swallowed hard and asked.
“Um, Mollu…? Could you show me how to beat Balak?”
Due to being appointed as a manager, her chat stood out distinctly and was displayed nonchalantly.
[I’ll start my broadcast.]
[Please check out my stream for a bit.]
“Yes, teacher…”
Ryu-a realized once again why Mollu was referred to as the teacher.
