Chapter 6: Dogry’s Doomed Wager

“Hi hi~ Everyone~ Hello hello~ It’s your cutie~ Dogry here! Ppuing!”

—[Doha~ (short for Dogry, hi~)]

—[Dooooha~!]

—[Ugh, my eyes and ears… A sucker punch right from the start? Seriously?]

Streamer Dogry.

He was a variety game streamer who played all kinds of games and had over 3,000 viewers—basically a big-name streamer.

Dogry was known for his incredible reflexes and gameplay skills, especially in RPGs and FPS games.

Apparently, he had won or placed second in several tournaments and was even considered a contender in streamer competitions.

—[OGM today?]

—[What are we playing today?]

“Ah~ Today, I’m going to play Heir of a Fallen House again. I haven’t touched it in a while because I’ve been playing other games, so I figured it’s time to get back into it.”

Dogry, too, had been playing Heir of a Fallen House.

His aptitude was Merchant.

Unlike other aptitudes, Merchants didn’t engage in much combat, but the joy of making money had its own charm.

It didn’t offer the same kind of heart-pounding action, but being a Merchant had its own unique kind of fun.

—[I saw a streamer from another community playing that game too.]

—[Heir of a Fallen House is super popular.]

“It really is. Every streamer I know is playing it.”

—[Yeah, but that streamer? Already ruined. LOL.]

“Why’s that?”

—[They picked Spirit Summoner as their aptitude.]

—[Spirit Summoner… Oh, that job…]

—[“Trust-and-avoid” class—Trust us and avoid Spirit Summoner.]

—[You pick that and it’s instant unsubscribe.]

—[I’m pretty sure I can hear their viewers screaming from here!]

In Heir of a Fallen House, Spirit Summoner had a terrible reputation.

If a streamer picked Spirit Summoner, viewers would immediately tune out.

No one wanted to watch a trainwreck.

Viewers loved satisfying wins, not frustrating slogs.

That’s why streamers never chose Spirit Summoner.

“Ah, Spirit Summoner… I tried that class once myself.”

Dogry had a unique tendency.

He liked choosing trash-tier classes—the ones nobody else played.

In other games, too, he had a habit of picking the most unpopular options.

You could say he enjoyed taking on hard challenges.

Even in FPS games, he insisted on using the notoriously bad M16.

He even had a nickname because of it.

—[We tried so hard to stop him… But he’s a trash gourmet.]

—[…]

—[Dogry, the man who only plays garbage-tier jobs…]

But even Spirit Summoner was too much, even for his garbage connoisseur taste.

“Still, I did pretty well that time, didn’t I?”

—[Oh sure, you barely cleared the tutorial after ten tries, and then dropped the game after a few days.]

—[Even the trash gourmet gave up on that class!? Ppooshung ppa-shung!?!]

“…Tch.”

Even Dogry, the guy who loved bad classes, couldn’t endure Spirit Summoner.

It was beyond trash.

Unredeemable garbage.

“I didn’t quit because I wanted to. It was that bad. And it’s not just me—every streamer I know tried it, suffered, and gave up too!”

—[Ah~ the excuses begin.]

—[Look at him refusing to take responsibility.]

—[So pathetic—Trash-ry, Trash-ry~ (short for ‘Pathetic Dogry’)]

“No, seriously! I bet that person won’t even get past the tutorial! I only managed it after ten tries because it was me! Anyone else? No chance.”

Dogry sounded completely confident.

That only fired up the viewers even more.

They smelled an opportunity.

—[What if that streamer clears the tutorial, though?]

“No way. They won’t.”

He smiled confidently.

He was very full of himself.

But viewers hated seeing streamers acting smug.

What they truly wanted was a streamer’s pain, suffering, screaming, and rage.

Smugness? Instant turn-off.

[Chairman has donated 10,000 won.]

<Then how about a bet?>

A big spender had entered the chat—a whale-tier viewer.

The chat instantly exploded.

—[Oooh! Put Trash-ry in his place!]

—[Dogry getting cocky! So annoying!]

—[OOOOOH!!!]

—[Go to hell!!]

“Hahaha, your reactions are hilarious. But ‘go to hell’ is a bit much, don’t you think…?”

[User ‘1Day1Ban’ has been banned by a moderator.]

—[Shaking…]

—[Instant ban?! That’s so trashy!]

—[Ugh, such a tyrant!]

“Hahaha~ Everyone, please keep the chat clean~ But Chairman, what kind of bet did you have in mind?”

[Chairman has donated 10,000 won.]

<You said that person can’t clear the tutorial. So if they do, what will you do?>

“Pfft—I’m telling you, they won’t clear it. But fine! If they do succeed, I’ll shave my head. You guys know how much I love my hair, right?”

Oho~ Now that’s a statement.

—[Wow, he’s lost it.]

—[Are you insane, human??]

—[Clipped! No backing out now!]

—[Wait—is that real hair or VR hair?]

“Come on, obviously my real hair. What’s the point of betting virtual hair?”

—[Wow, he’s lost it.]

—[Are you insane, human??]

—[Clipped! No backing out now!]

—[Wait—is that real hair or VR hair?]

“I’ll shave it live on cam! And FYI~ I’ve even got clippers at home.”

—[LOL]

—[OMG why do you even own clippers? LOL]

—[Why is that a thing in your house?]

—[Wait—you guys don’t have clippers? Doesn’t everyone own one??]

—[No, you weirdo. That’s not normal.]

‘Was he really confident?’

Dogry came out bold.

“How is it? Pretty good, right?”

[Chairman has donated 10,000 won.]

<Call. If he clears it, I’ll shave my head. If he fails, I’ll donate 200,000 won. But since it’s his first time, give him 3 tries. Call?>

“Call! Of course I’ll do it!”

Dogry accepted the bet.

He was confident.

‘No way that’s happening.’

Clear the tutorial as a Spirit Summoner in three tries?

There was no way.

Even he, who prided himself on his physical skill, barely cleared it after ten tries.

No newbie could clear it in three attempts.

[Chairman has donated 20,000 won.]

<Call, no handicaps.>

“Hahaha, of course! Oh Chairman~ You just wanted to give me some pocket money, huh? You could’ve just handed it over instead of going through all this trouble~ Puhahaha!!”

Dogry burst out laughing.

He was so smug, it was like the tip of his nose could pierce the sky.

“Alright, alright~ Enough chit-chat~ Let’s get to the game now! The result? Well~ we already know what’s coming~ It’s a foregone conclusion~”

He leisurely started the game.

But he had no idea.

No idea about the misfortune that was about to befall him.

***

Exitra had already figured out his aptitude.

The red light was for Salamander, this blue light was Undine… green was Sylph, and brown was Gnome? Hmm.

“Hmm… not bad.”

Exitra looked over the spirits.

They had been summoned using the basic skill “Low-tier Spirit Summon,” the foundation for any Spirit Summoner.

“If I can summon up to twenty of them, that’s crazy good, right? I could just overwhelm everything with numbers in the early game.”

—[They say the one who’s been beaten takes the beating best.]

—[If you’re good at taking hits, doesn’t that just make you a masochist? lolol]

—[Well, you won’t know until you try lol]

The viewers weren’t exactly optimistic.

If you could really bulldoze through with sheer numbers, everyone would be doing it.

But there was a reason no one picked this class.

“Aside from these, there are even more spirits I can summon.”

Exitra continued checking things out.

He opened the skill window.

Only one skill was listed—Low-tier Spirit Summon.

It was bare-bones for now, but as the game progressed, the list would eventually be filled out.

“If I click this, I can see the names of the other spirits too, right?”

He tapped the list next to the skill.

The list showed all the spirits he was currently able to summon.

“That’s quite a lot.”

—[Time to collect them all~]

—[What’s the point? You can’t summon most of them anyway…]

That was true.

The list had a bunch of names, but they were color-coded.

White names meant he could summon them immediately.

Black names meant he needed to fulfill specific conditions first.

“Still…”

Exitra scanned the list.

There was a chance to randomly summon rare spirits at the start of the game.

Some of the names were white.

‘Blood, Wood, Prison… and…!’

He could summon five special spirits.

Not bad at all.

And it felt good too.

There was a thrill to collecting spirits.

It scratched that collector’s itch.

Eventually, he’d probably need to set out on a proper journey just to gather them all.

“Alright, let’s try moving them.”

He tried moving the spirits one by one.

He could speak commands aloud, but there was no need to.

Just thinking the command was enough to control them.

“Wow, if spirits like this existed in real life, they’d be so useful. Just a Salamander and you’d never need a lighter again.”

—[lol every Spirit Summoner streamer says that at least once lol]

—[If you had a lightning spirit, wireless charging would be easy!]

—[But seriously, are you really sticking with Spirit Summoner?]

“Of course. Once a man makes a decision, he’s gotta stick with it!”

Exitra clenched his fist with determination.

Maybe it was because he picked Spirit Summoner as his aptitude?

His viewership had dropped slightly.

He’d started with around 100 viewers.

Now only 70 remained.

They had started leaving the moment he chose Spirit Summoner.

They were afraid of a slow, frustrating viewing experience and bailed early.

And with so many other good streams out there, no one was going to sit through a boring one.

‘It’s fine for now.’

Even if a few left, he didn’t mind.

He wasn’t focused on the present—he was looking toward the future.

‘They’ll come back soon enough.’

Exitra’s eyes gleamed.

He continued the stream, chatting with viewers and testing the spirits’ abilities.

Spirits didn’t have any free will.

That meant he had to give them every single command—how to act, when to attack, where to strike, how to position—all of it.

It was all manual.

That’s what made it so difficult.

He had to dodge enemy attacks with his body while simultaneously giving precise instructions to the spirits.

It wasn’t easy.

He had to juggle two to four different thoughts at the same time.

And if he messed up the commands, the spirits might accidentally attack him instead.

There were too many things to manage.

‘It’s giving me a headache… but I’ve got to get used to it.’

He had to control the spirits more precisely and more intricately.

He had to align their movement patterns with their attacks.

That alone was a huge mental challenge.

‘Spirit Summoner isn’t a physical class. It’s all about the brain. You have to split your thoughts and control multiple things at once.’

Only by doing that could he fully unlock the class’s potential.

***

‘How much time had passed?’

It wasn’t easy at first.

He made plenty of mistakes, issued wrong commands over and over.

But Exitra didn’t give up.

He kept practicing, and eventually, he saw some results.

‘I’m starting to get used to it.’

But “getting used to it” wasn’t enough.

He was aiming much higher.

He didn’t just want to get used to it—he had to master it completely.

—[Ugh, I’m out. This is too boring.]

—[Training arcs are the worst… yawn~]

—[Is this the Hyperbolic Time Chamber or something? You’ve trapped me! I will escape, mark my words!]

—[Do you know why Itachi was so strong?! Because he dipped out!! Shoo shoo shoo!!]

Viewers continued to drop.

Training segments were always the dullest.

But it couldn’t be helped.

To win the heir competition, he had to get as proficient as possible.

‘Even if I lose viewers now, I’ll earn them back later…’

Exitra stayed positive, focusing on controlling the spirits.

And before long, something changed for him.

Ding~

[You look so cool when you’re completely focused! Here’s a skill you’ll need.]

[Skill ‘Multitasking’ has been acquired.]