Today's Chicken Mukbang W 2 - Hyacinth in Bloom

Across the sea in Seoul, in a broadcasting station waiting room. A tall man strode in through the door. His top had an A4 paper attached to it with ‘Imun’ printed in large letters.

In the space cluttered with tables and chairs, there was no one except for one member. Isn’t the rehearsal soon? After looking around the empty waiting room in confusion, he approached the only member who remained at his post.

The member was laughing loudly while looking at his phone as if he found something extremely amusing. When the tall man silently ruffled the member’s stiff green hair, he turned his head with a surprised expression.

“Where did everyone else go?”

“Oh, you’re here? It’s the last episode of the show today, so everyone got excited and went to visit other waiting rooms.”

“Why didn’t you go with them?”

“I was watching something. It’s a gaming stream, want to watch it too? It’s really fun.”

The member pulled out one of his earbuds and offered it. The way his eyes sparkled more than usual seemed quite suspicious. Wondering what was going on this time, he watched silently for a few seconds, until the member, as if he couldn’t stand it anymore, turned his whole body around.

“Hyung, you like games. Since we don’t have any activities for a while, want to try playing this game with me? I’ll help you level up.”

“Hmm… what is it? I’m not really into mobile games.”

“No, it’s a PC game! It’s super famous, I guarantee you’ve heard of it at least once.”

Still suspicious, the man turned his gaze to the member’s phone. On the screen showing a live broadcast, a unique character that you’d typically see in Western games was moving around skillfully.

The control ability to narrowly avoid enemy skills while landing his own. Seeing the character move efficiently without unnecessary movements, the broadcaster seemed to be quite a skilled player.

Is it this person? He confirmed the upper body of the streamer, presumed to be male, who was busily moving his hands in the corner of the screen, and focused on the game screen again.

The live gaming broadcast was more interesting than he’d expected. Around the time he’d forgotten his initial plan to just nod along and then rest, getting absorbed in the broadcast instead, the member raised his voice in agitation.

“So, interested? If you are, let’s play together!”

“It does look fun.”

“…The fans should know the true nature of this cold man. Scamming the entire nation-!”

“Worry about yourself.”

After lightly cutting him off, he flicked the member’s forehead. “Why’d you hit me!” With a thoroughly wronged face, the member grumbled for a while, then swiveled back around in his seat. Despite making a show of being sulky, he kept glancing over, as if he hadn’t given up yet.

He had been getting bored with the games he’d been playing lately anyway. Though he didn’t particularly like team-based games, the one he’d just seen looked worth trying.

“So, what’s the name of that game?”

“Legend of Legend! Search for it quick!”

After calming down the excited member who acted as if he’d never been angry, the man went on YouTube.

As the member said, the game was quite popular. Among the endless videos appearing, he clicked on one beginner’s guide with an outstanding number of views and sat down.

[Hello everyone. This is Gangha. Today I’ll explain…]

***

Trembling with uncontrollable anger, Hajun shook his hands. Even after rubbing his eyes repeatedly, the pop-up didn’t disappear, only emitting a noble presence.

[Your account is restricted from playing for 30 days. This account has been confirmed to have engaged in verbal abuse such as swearing and aggressive language in your recent game…]

“You all saw that, right? How could this happen…”

Account suspension. A lament naturally escaped at this unbelievable reality. With his head drooped powerless, Hajun traced back the incident from a few minutes ago.

Today too, he was playing LeoLe without fail during his stream. Just as he casually secured the first kill, the enemy suddenly started picking a fight. This was something that happened occasionally while gaming.

Since he used the same nickname from his personal broadcast in LeoLe as well, players matched as teammates or enemies usually recognized him. People often habitually hurled unprovoked insults, to the point where it was fortunate if they just pretended to be friendly.

He had lightly ignored the familiar hostility and was destroying a turret when severe swearing began to fill the game chat. The person seemed extremely agitated by his lack of reaction.

He briefly warned them to refrain from cursing since he was streaming the game screen, but they simply wouldn’t listen. In the end, he had to block the chat and continue broadcasting for the sake of his viewers.

But to think the result would be account suspension. It hadn’t even been a month since he’d gathered his resolve and diligently played the game. His monitor displayed him holding his head and sighing deeply as if the ground would collapse.

– What did you say to get suspended? Even for heavy swearing, it usually just results in chat restrictions ㅠㅠ

– Seems like a buildup of reports from those idiots led to the suspension…

– Hang in there, hyung ㅠㅠㅠ There are so many psychos out there ㅠㅠㅠㅠ

– You should protest this. If you talk to the admins, they’ll lift it ㅠㅠㅠㅠ

Seeing the viewers get outraged on his behalf, his racing anger subsided a little. It can’t be helped. After taking a sip of cold water, he feigned a cheerful atmosphere.

“It’s okay, everyone. I can just play other games.”

For now, continuing the broadcast smoothly was the priority. “So, what game should we try? I’ll choose from your recommendations.” When he threw out a plausible bait in a calm voice, they put aside their indignation and began suggesting candidates one by one.

After roughly filtering through the most mentioned games, he first launched Battle Grounder. It’s been a while since I played a shooting game. Since it was a game he turned to whenever he got bored with LeoLe, it would surely improve his mood.

About an hour after starting the game. Contrary to his expectations, the gameplay was surprisingly boring. Even while killing enemies with headshots, LeoLe still flickered before his eyes.

The impact of being forcibly deprived of his favorite game seemed greater than expected. After finishing a round that even he didn’t find satisfactory, Hajun calmly spoke.

“Since it’s come to this, I’ll raise an alt account. How can I go 30 days without playing LeoLe?”

What’s the use of feeling wronged? Letting go of his resentment made him feel much better.

‘There’s no sucker like you ㅜㅜ’, ‘A pine caterpillar must eat pine needles after all lol’ Though the viewers kept grumbling, they also cheered him on. Having received their permission, there was no reason not to play LeoLe anymore.

While hastily opening LeoLe and creating a new account, Hajun suddenly stopped.

– What will you use for your nickname???

– Since it’s an alt, use something people won’t recognize as you lol

The cursor blinked quietly in the nickname input field. After momentarily having a clouded expression recalling his suspension, he typed in a nickname that came to mind. As expected, the chat was filled with mockery.

“What? What’s wrong with ‘Ganghaa’?”

– Excuse me lol You just added one more ‘a’ lol

– What’s the difference between Gangha and Ganghaa? lololol

He didn’t want to waste time unnecessarily. Ignoring their insistence to think of a different nickname, he cheerfully moved on to the tutorial.

The modest account with no premium skins or items created an illusion of playing a completely new game. But after playing one round with an excited heart, another yawn escaped.

LeoLe matched players with others of similar tiers. This meant that with an account having no game history, he could only play with people of that skill level.

Playing against beginners was easier than eating cold porridge. As he repeated one-sided victories, the broadcast end time was approaching.

“I’ll end today’s stream… for now. I think it won’t be fun for you viewers if I keep playing at this tier. I’ll bring LeoLe back after raising my alt account’s tier a bit more.”

After exchanging goodbyes with viewers expressing regret, he turned off the broadcast lights and fluorescent lights in sequence.

From now on was time purely for himself. In the dark room where only moonlight filtered in, he relied on the monitor light as he queued for another match.

The situation wasn’t much different even playing alone. Most people didn’t even know which skills to master first, making it difficult to not win.

It was so predictable that it even felt like grinding through an RPG event. After considering whether he should really protest to the administrators, he shook his head slightly.

The games the viewers had asked him to play were more varied than expected. Since he had played only LeoLe day and night for so long, it wouldn’t be bad to fulfill their requests for about a month.

In many ways, I should drop the alt account content. Despite having picked a mid champion, as soon as the game started, a teammate cheerfully ran to mid lane. This match also looked like it would be another boring game.

He definitely had no intention of raising an alt account while enduring repeated tedium. After this match, it would probably be best to take a break from LeoLe for a while.

“Now, where’s open?”

Fortunately, the other team members were heading to their assigned lanes.

ADC and support. After confirming that the bottom lane operated by two people was missing one person, Hajun moved his champion.