Chapter 44: Unluckiest Streamer Showdown

“Hmm, I wonder if I’ll be able to do well in today’s collab stream…”

Minseop showed a hint of anxiety.

Even before his regression, he had never done a collab.

He had seen others do it, but since he had no experience himself, he felt a little uneasy.

[Ding~]

[Time is passing. Even if you feel nervous, it’s meaningless.]

“That’s true. I already agreed to do it, so I’d better give it my all.”

Minseop was browsing the internet.

He was looking up information about “Zombie Survival.”

‘The Life-Flash skill can only show me memories from before my regression. But things are different now.’

Due to constant patches, “Zombie Survival” had changed significantly compared to when Minseop regressed.

That meant that even if he checked his memories using the Life-Flash skill, he still needed to confirm the current information.

“Roughly… so that’s how it works…”

Minseop crammed the information into his head.

He was scooping up data from the vast ocean of information known as the internet when something caught his eye.

Out of curiosity about the reaction to yesterday’s stream, he visited the “Heir of a Fallen House” section on Inven.

On the free board, he spotted a post with an odd title.

“Who’s the Unluckiest Streamer?”

It was even a poll.

The voting had already ended, with more than 5,000 participants.

“Whoa… what the heck? Why so many?”

Intrigued, Minseop clicked on the post and checked the results.

And there it was—the streamer chosen as the unluckiest, with over 4,000 votes.

“Wait, why am I number one?!”

[Ding~]

[This is a complete no-win situation, hahaha. Admit it—this is your destiny.]

At Chronos’s words, Minseop frowned.

“Don’t talk about destiny… especially you.”

Since it was coming from a god, he couldn’t help but feel uneasy at the thought that it might actually be true.

***

7 p.m. — the start time of Dogry’s stream.

The moment Dogry went live, viewers began flooding in.

[Doha – DohaDoha]

[I came straight after work!]

[I even skipped cram school for this!]

[No way I’m missing this~~~!]

The number of viewers was rapidly climbing.

Within just five minutes of starting, over 7,000 people had joined to watch.

They had come because of the announcement made earlier today.

“Hahaha, you’re not here to see me, are you?”

[Of course.]

[Move over, man.]

[Why’s there a disco ball in my face? It’s blinding.]

[Wait, is this Dogry’s channel? I think I’m in the wrong place.]

[Damn, why’d you put a spotlight up front? Move it out of the way.]

[Ju-Gaek Jeondo has donated 10,000 won.]

<Move aside, will you? You can’t just block the view.>

“Hahaha, thank you for the 10,000-won donation, Ju-Gaek Jeondo~ Got it, you’re impatient. Then let’s get straight to the main event.”

Dogry stepped aside with a snap of his fingers, revealing three men standing on the stage behind him.

[Ohhh! The brainpower monster! It’s Exitra!]

[And the CEO himself, Yudok!]

[Whoa~ Even the sword fanatic Mihuku is here…]

The chat exploded at the sight of the collab members.

The brainpower monster Exitra, Yudok—known as “the CEO” for specializing in management games—and Mihuku, the sword-obsessed player who claimed “any sword is a must-have.”

It was quite the impressive lineup.

“Alright! Let’s start with introductions. First up, Yudok!”

A spotlight shone down on Yudok.

Smiling under the light, Yudok greeted the audience.

“Hello, everyone. I’m Yudok~! This is my first collab, so I’m a bit nervous~ Anyway, my employees—you’re watching, right? If not… well, you know what to do.”

[Wow, boss…]

[Sir, you can’t throw your weight around here.]

[Abusive boss!!!]

[Wow, our team leader says the exact same thing—this is seriously giving me chills!!]

***

“And next up~ Mihuku!”

The lighting shifted, spotlighting Mihuku.

With a wide grin, as if seizing an opportunity, Mihuku said, “Hello, everyone? I’m Mihuku! Today, I want to introduce you to this sword right here.”

From who-knows-where, Mihuku pulled out a sword.

The blade was slightly wavy, shaped like flames running along its length.

“This is a sword called a flamberge, used in Western Europe during the 17th to 18th centuries. Now, the thing that makes it so amazing is that, unlike other swords, the blade is wavy. And the reason for that is…”

[Ahhh!!]

[He’s even selling stuff here?!]

[Boss! We’ve got a salesman here who works way too hard!!]

“It’s just that you all don’t yet understand the true charm of swords. Do you know why I agreed to join this collab? I did it to find people who will fall in love with swords just like I have! So, everyone! Let’s get completely intoxicated by the beauty of swords today!”

[Self-interest!!]

[This is a sashimi broadcast!!]

[Unbelievable, doing a collab just to satisfy your own desires!!]

[Whoa, shouldn’t we cut this part out?]

“Ah, hahaha…”

Dogry laughed awkwardly.

He hadn’t expected Mihuku to go about things this way.

He had seen Mihuku’s eccentric behavior in exported clips before, but seeing it in person left an even stronger impression.

His way with words was so good that Dogry almost found himself thinking, ‘Not bad.’

Dangerous.

“You all know, Mihuku has a bit of… a unique personality. When you watch his streams, you should be careful… Before you know it, even if you start out normal, you could find yourself getting sucked into the world of swords.”

Dogry gave the warning just in case.

After all, he had witnessed a few perfectly normal viewers turn into sword fanatics after watching Mihuku’s streams.

That silver tongue needed to be handled with caution.

“Alright~ and lastly! The rising star! You all know him, right? Especially those who watch my streams—you could never forget him… The brainpower monster… Exitra!”

Click!

The spotlight shifted to Exitra.

Exitra smiled faintly and said,

“Hello? I’m Exitra, ranked number one on your ‘Unluckiest’ list, and a brainpower monster. This is also my first collab, so I’m a little nervous.”

[Wow! Exitra!]

[The brainpower monster is here!]

[Oooooh!]

[LOL, number one on the unluckiest ranking]

[He’s seen the inventory, hasn’t he? LOL]

“Yeah… I happened to see it, but seriously, why am I number one? I honestly don’t understand.”

[What do you mean you don’t get it??]

[There’s even a video right under it—watch that and it’s 100% obvious.]

[No streamer is unluckier than Exitra!]

[It was close between you and Dogry, but wasn’t the vote difference over 1,000?]

[A landslide victory!!!]

“Sigh…”

“Okay, okay~ Stop bullying Exitra~ We still need to do the final introduction~ And lastly~!”

The spotlight shone brilliantly on Dogry, the host of this collab.

The lighting was even more extravagant, clearly meant to make him stand out.

“I am…”

The moment he opened his mouth, the chat exploded.

[Ugh, finally!!]

[You’re boring.]

[Can we skip this? I’m tired of Dogry’s self-intros.]

“Hey… come on, everyone…”

[Chairman has donated 10,000 won.]

<Start already, I’m bored.>

“Chairman… thank you for the 10,000 won donation. Wait! Isn’t this too much?! I planned this collab, I arranged everything, and this is the treatment I get…?”

[Chairman has donated 200,000 won.]

<I said, start.>

With such a huge donation, Dogry’s attitude flipped instantly.

It was too much money to refuse.

“Of course we should start! Who would dare to ignore such words! Alright, I’ll explain the game briefly and wrap it up. Just defend your faction’s crystal from waves of zombies until the end. If you survive, you win! That’s it! Let’s go!”

[Oh!]

[Nice and clean.]

[I like it.]

[Look at him change his tone the moment money comes in hahaha]

[That’s the way to do it~ hahaha]

[As expected from Chairman~ buying skips with cash!]

[Great mindset~ >_<!]

“But actually… that was a bit too short. I’m sorry, but for those who don’t know the game, I wrote up some notes.”

Dogry pulled out a piece of paper and held it up to the camera so everyone could see.

“You have one minute~ Just skim through it.”

[Zombie Survival]

[Objective: Defend the crystal in your faction for the set time. If you protect it for 10 minutes, the zombies disappear. Then you get a 5-minute break to prepare. After that, the zombies attack again.]

[Classes: Enhanced Human, Cyborg, Mage, Swordsman, Archer, Soldier.]

[Stages: 20 stages total; Stage 21 is the final boss.]

[Every 5 stages: Zombie wave.]

[Every 10 stages: New special zombie appears.]

[At the end of each stage: Earn gold, use it to upgrade or summon units.]

[After Stage 10: Can build a facility to summon “Special Units.”]

[After Stage 20: Can build a facility to summon a “Hero.”]

[Max units: 200 basic units, 5 special units, 1 hero.]

[Unit summoning possible at Stages 1, 10, and 20.]

“Well? Pretty good notes, right?”

He had kept it short but focused on the core points.

Even newcomers could quickly grasp the game’s flow.

—[Perfect.]

—[Very nice.]

—[Easy to understand. I like it.]

The viewers’ reactions were positive.

Dogry smiled proudly—it had been worth the effort.

“Alright, then let’s really start the game this time!”

The lights came on all at once.

It was time to begin.

“From now on, if you click the exclamation mark at the top right, you can switch to the stream of your chosen streamer. Now let’s…”

—[Wait!]

—[Dogry, aren’t you forgetting something?]

—[“Huh? Forgetting something?”]

—[Your head! Your head!!!]

“My head? Hmm… Ah!”

At the viewers’ words, Dogry nodded as if he had just remembered.

That was close.

“Exitra.”

“Yes? Me?”

“Yeah. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for this collab?”

Dogry reached up and touched his head.

Though his hair had grown a bit, it was still pretty smooth and bare.

“When you look at this head, what comes to mind?”

“Hmm, it looks strong.”

“What?”

“I think you could shave for fun if you wanted to.”

Hahahahaha

—[But he’s not wrong hahaha]

—[He’s a hobbyist head-shaver hahaha]

—[No, no, more like a hobbyist hair-remover hahaha]

Dogry clicked his tongue lightly at Exitra’s cool response.

He hadn’t expected him to fire back like that.

Pointing at Exitra, Dogry declared, “Tch… During this collab, I challenge you, Exitra, to a match!”