It’s not that kind of malicious broadcast

The contents of the collaboration between Lee Yena and J. Dox had been agreed upon in large and small parts.

Part 1 – Interview.

Part 2 – One-on-one.

Part 3 – Funeral.

Although it wasn’t intended, it turned out to be a trilogy, much like a grand production usually is. And similarly unintended, the small parts that had been agreed upon at the time weren’t being adhered to at all.

This deviation was due to the involvement of alcohol, making it more like Part 1.5.

“Oh, this whiskey is really good. Don’t you want to drink some, GetDevoured?”

“… I’ll drink it later. More importantly… I don’t think you have answered why you meticulously dismembered the rogue. Is it just my feeling? I haven’t even drunk, but it feels strange.”

The only fortunate aspect, for some reason, was that Lee Yena was refraining from drinking.

Had they been drinking back and forth together, their appearance on the screen would have been completely different. Naturally, the viewers’ reactions would have been far more intense—

『Hang in there… just don’t get burnt out…』

『Boss, stay strong ㅠㅠㅠㅠ』

『Wow, how red can a forehead get?』

『If it were me, I’d just chug the drink and hang my head in shame』

『Her expression is genuinely terrifying.』

『She has a look that says she wants them to bow naked in apology』

ㄴ Message temporarily blocked and deleted

『Alcohol cravings LOLOLOL』

『Her gaze is seriously insane』

『Please scold me too, noona… Please scold me too, noona… Please scold me too, noona… Please scold me too, noona…』

ㄴ Message temporarily blocked and deleted

『This is giving me PTSD from being scolded, for real』

Was it her intuition that was sharp, or was she simply lucky?

She just kept rolling her empty glass aimlessly in her hand.

“… I’ll only give you an official answer. Statistically, rogues were seeing a sharp increase in win rates. The combat time statistics for priests and archers were plummeting. Especially for priest players, the time spent in combat was being overshadowed by the time they spent dying and rejoining the fight.”

“That’s because priests, out of arrogance, only carry one survival skill. If they don’t even consider taking long-range healing, how can rogues run rampant like that? If they equip all three survival skills, they won’t die.”

“… Are you serious? If they take all three survival skills, their trait tree will become completely messed up… Oh, everyone, don’t get me wrong. At Faraday, we highly encourage and embrace creative builds. But the trait maps carry a certain philosophy and structure. Excessively twisting them could be seen as intentional trolling!”

『It’s not a suspicion, it is intentional trolling LOLOLOL』

『Three survival skills = Zero crowd control skills』

『Way to sugarcoat it』

—

『What’s the difference between not playing games and dying, teacher』

『I think that guy’s a bit drunk』

Despite having a highly dissatisfied expression, it wasn’t clear where the dissatisfaction came from.

The viewers sighed in relief, thinking, ‘At least this crazy lady is not insane enough to have a drinking broadcast with a guy she’s just met.’

However, closer fans expressed concerns, saying, ‘Why is that expression popping up again on her face?’

“……Intentional trolling……you say.”

“It means you could be suspected of it, ‘Knight of Knights’ is a team game where you have to communicate with your team while engaging in battles! Oh, by the way, we’ve gained a lot of English-speaking viewers! I see some chatting, ‘If you’re so pissed, just play as a rogue’ right as they join. The rogue is a character with a high difficulty level but offers a high return when used correctly. However, the difficulty has significantly dropped because of this person here, while the return has skyrocketed! Therefore, a nerf was necessary for overall balance… according to the official explanation. Yes.”

As several awkward adlibs containing such disharmony were exchanged precariously, the pre-agreed cue finally arrived.

Responding to J. Dox’s line stating that the nerf on the rogue was necessary as an official answer, Lee Yena retaliated by saying, ‘No, it can be sufficiently countered by using a knight with a medium or larger shield; it’s just that the operational method was underdeveloped.’

This would naturally lead to a one-on-one match, raising the tension and appealing to the fact that a well-developed rogue was actually not an unbeatable opponent—

“If a priest equips three surviving skills, a rogue with severed limbs will be crushed.”

That was the timing back then.

“……Wait, didn’t we agree not to talk like that? What did our rogue do?”

“There was no original statement that a priest couldn’t equip three survival skills either. Saying it’s of high difficulty and calling it intentional trolling. Pretending to understand the rogue well… I’m disappointed.”

“No, can’t equip… can they? Oh, maybe they can… no, I don’t think it’s possible. Look, this is just my personal opinion. Not as a developer, but as a user. I really enjoy experimenting with builds too. But equipping three survival skills is not designed to be possible. You choose the type based on the opponent’s combination, not all of them…”

“…… You can beat a rogue that has been hit with a trash patch.”

“Don’t you think your words are harsher than before…?”

“Seeing is believing, even more than hearing a hundred times, feeling is better than seeing a hundred times… It seems like it’s time for part two. How about experiencing it physically?”

Lee Yena, with a slightly hardened expression, lightly shook the VR equipment in her hand with a slight smile.

Still, her eyes were not smiling.

* * * *

『Real-time Hot Topics Ranking』

Rank 1 『Guys, isn’t this JD?』

『I entered a thumbnail of an old man gulping whisky in the Knight of Knights category on Tw*tch, which ranks 4th in overall viewers

It looks like the man sitting on the right is JD, is it right?』

– It is right? Seems like he’s doing a lot of outdoor activities since becoming the CEO.

– ㄴ Yeah, eventually he’s losing more hair. Glad my curse is working. Nerfing the rogue, my ass. Hope he loses a handful every day.

– ㄴㄴ You’re definitely going to hell.

– ㄴㄴㄴ It’s okay; there’s a partner waiting to greet me. My rogue is already in hell.

– But who’s the person on the left? A K-pop idol?

– That over there is an ATM, they say. It’s been an ATM broadcast from the start.

– No way, you’re saying that’s an ATM? Don’t bullshit me. Are you saying I got owned by a girl doing some crazy Zergling rush?

– Don’t worry, the chances of meeting a real ATM in the bronze sewer you live in are zero. You just got beaten by an overweight elementary school kid with big boobs, that’s all.

– I’m serious, you jerk. I met ATM in the diamond rank when she was raising a smurf account on the European server.

– Oh, crap, what is this? Is there finally a patch? I’m going to check it out. Is it in English?

– The translator is running.

– Good.

– I’m just looking at her chest anyway. Language doesn’t matter since I can’t hear her voice.

– If it’s a patch announcement, it should be on the official broadcast, logically speaking.

– Can they drink like that with the category set like that? Won’t they switch to Just Chatting? They shouldn’t run things biasedly just because they have a lot of viewers.

– It was originally in Just Chatting, but they just switched it because they are starting a KoK broadcast.

– But what are they doing with the KoK broadcast? Entertaining the boss duo?

– No, they said those two go to Underground.

– Really???

– By the way, what kind of broadcast is that? I don’t even understand what the combination of the two is…

– I just went in, and they say the two are fighting in the Underground.

– LOLOLOL, has JD gone nuts? They said all the Korean pros got knocked out by that crazy girl.

– Hasn’t the Korean pro scene been a mess for a while? Not just during the LoL days.

– Which country had the champion in Season 1?

– No one recognized that cheap Rogue win, right? That was just a 2-Underground build. Did the Korean team win with skill?

– And which country developed that build?

– The promotional effect is insane. It’s the number one viewer on global Tw*tch across all categories right now.

– This is R*ddit-level stuff.

– As expected of a young company, their promotional moves are quite bold.

– The company must have approved it, right?

– Haven’t you experienced it in the corporate world? Do you know how many decision-making stages there are before the boss steps in?

– But JD was already famous in the indie game community for being a stubborn jerk…

– I didn’t fully understand, but it seems like they’re talking about a custom build and just want to fight! ATM seems like such a badass.

– A custom build against a Rogue?

– They should give such a penalty, at least.

– If it’s ATM, even if she were facing a warrior, I wouldn’t bet against her.

– But why the name ATM?

– No, no, no. In Korean, she’s also known as A-Tta-Meok, and back when she was leading a run, if you bet on her winning on the betting site, it would just rain money like an ATM.

– No, no, no. Oh, back then, the odds were pretty good since she was up against pros, so it was like a money printing machine… I wonder if she’ll do it again.

* * * *

A plan is a plan.

Therefore, I had no intention of ruining it in a big way. Absolutely not. Nevertheless, it was a situation where it was impossible not to refute.

And since I had made my rebuttal in front of so many people, there was no way I couldn’t show it through action.

Really, I could only say that there was no other choice.

The number of viewers, which I fleetingly checked, reached nearly 80,000, and the chat was overwhelmingly filled with foreign languages rather than Korean… Such an opportunity, it really wouldn’t come again.

It wasn’t something to pass up and show later. The plan had changed a bit from the original, but it should be fine. Yes.

In the end, the point was that it wasn’t the rogue character that was overpowered, but rather, they were just not good at playing other characters… and nerfing the rogue would actually break the balance instead.

Nothing would change.

And… thinking about it again, it was certain. Even if I could turn back time, I wouldn’t have been able to hold back. I chose the priest, trying hard to calm my pounding heart, and meticulously assigned trait points, recalling my memory.

Though I hadn’t played it much… it was a build I had analyzed by watching replays dozens of times. Just in case I had to face that opponent again. I understood the strategy clearly.

Anti-Carry Priest.

It was the build created by my friend, who seemed to suffer the hardships of time five times more than others, whose physical abilities deteriorated rapidly with time.

… And even with those physical abilities, it enabled me to deliver an outstanding performance, with the friend leaving after just three games, laughing that it was his swan song.

A troll build…

To the CEO…, I was really thankful. I tried to endure the criticism towards rogues and even the criticism of 2-underground, but this couldn’t be overlooked.

There were no personal hard feelings. Really. But I couldn’t stay silent. This build being considered a troll build amongst so many people…

Out of respect for the original creators of the various builds I had utilized, I had no choice but to step up as a spokesperson.

“I’ll set the traits assuming it’s been nerfed. PBE would lag if accessed from Korea, so we’ll have to do it on the main server.”

“It’s okay to just go ahead.”

“…… Wouldn’t it be a disaster if I win? I may have a bit of a belly, but I even hit Master in the US Super Server?”

“It’s really okay. Really.”

Truly, it was fine. It might actually be better. The clearer I showed that an unnerfed rogue could still be countered, the more evident it would be how strange it was to balance the game by nerfing it.

And… about being a Master, yeah. Both I and that friend consistently reached that level back in the days of the Korean server.

Originally, in this realm, when talking about the “Super Server”, it referred to Korea. At the very least, it did in my previous life—and going forward, it should be the same here.

Calling the US server the Super Server.

It was just where the game was made… game companies knew nothing.