Chapter 25: # Viewers’ messages log (1)

「Chat Bot: Registration Number 8-612 Han Gyeoul. You have entered the chat room of your broadcast. You currently have the message filter function enabled. Messages that contain no meaningful content or have been posted multiple times or those from users who have been reported by multiple viewers or whom you have blocked will not be displayed in this log. You may change this setting through the Control AI.」

「ymROCKs: He’s here!」

「US-ROK Alliance: HEEEEEY!」

「Han Gyeoul (Host): Hello, everyone.」

「PrincessCattitude: Hoi~ :3 Thx for the awesome stream, Oppa!!!」

「urmom: sup」

「Han Gyeoul (Host): Hello PrincessCattitude, urmom. Thank you all for coming.」

「updawg: BJ!!! You asshole!!!」

「SnowyFox: ?」

「Blackcoke: HOW!」

「Mustafar: DARE!」

「Phisherman: YEAH!」

「Jarapapa: wtf XD」

「A Likeable Bird: u idiots can’t even get that right lmao」

「SnowyFox: ?」

「updawg: What the fuck is wrong with you!!!」

「Han Gyeoul (Host): What’s the matter?」

「updawg: When the hell r u gonna play some ggames?」*

「Han Gyeoul (Host): Ggame? Do you mean game? Do you want me to play another game? If that’s the case, then I’m sorry but I’m already playing 「Days After Apocalypse」 and I don’t plan to play any other games for now. But if you tell me which game you want me to play, I’ll consider playing it later.」

「Blackcoke: lol look at him, he’s so innocent.」

「chiliconcarne: Innocent my ass, you old farts.」

「updawg: Do u srsly not know what ggame is? You know, the thing that’s good for both men and women.」

「Han Gyeoul (Host): ..You mean physical intercourse?」

「MURD3R: Yes! Why did u ignore me?」

「Han Gyeoul (Host): Huh?」

「MURD3R: Those one thousand stars I offered you for the quest, that was my everything! But you just rejected it without even considering it.. What’s wrong with you?! 」

「Han Gyeoul (Host): Oh..」

「MURD3R: That one hundred thousand won was half of what I had left in my bank account after paying my rent, insurance, installments, and all my other monthly bills.. I dunno about you, but that was a fortune to me! You know, I’m just a poor little guy in his late thirties who just wanted to fill the void of being forever alone, but you.. you just had to do that, didn’t you?」

「SnowyFox: ..」

「MalWart: He’s right! You should be ashamed of yourself! T^T」

「Han Gyeoul (Host): Umm.. I refused your quest not because you didn’t offer enough stars. It was just that.. I thought I wouldn’t be able to immerse myself in the game if I had done that. I really didn’t know I’d offend someone by rejecting it. I’m very sorry. 」

「Dumchit: Well that’s your own business, not ours. If you’re getting paid by running this stream, I think you should listen to your viewers.」

「pp224: Oh, you think you can just boss the streamer around because you’ve stuck some money in his ass? Well, guess what? A streamer is not your personal whore. He has every right to reject the requests he doesn’t like. Besides, do you have any idea of how many streamers got screwed because of this? I’m not gonna just sit and watch you trolls ruin another channel, so if you don’t like this stream then just fuck off」

「gremer: ikr ppl dun aprisiate dat dey r watchin dis 4 free if ur bord y dun u just giv urself a bj」

「Han Gyeoul: ?」

「SnowyFox: ?」

「Chat Bot: Activating the auto-translation function for the message of the user ‘gremer’.」

「Chat Bot: Translation failure: Unable to find a matching language. Attempting to update the translation engine.」

「Chat Bot: Update failure: Unable to find new updates. User’s manual translation is recommended.」

「Dumchit: What the hell is he saying?」

「FuckActiveX: He’s basically telling you to stop what u’re doing.」

「Pprplz: Yeah, I agree with them too. I don’t want this stream to disappear. I’m sick of watching those star whores ditching the story and having sex every so often.」

「NoMemesForUrNickname: Hey, I just want you to know that whatever you do I’ll be rooting for ya!」

[NoMemesForUrNickname donated 100 stars.]

「Han Gyeoul (Host): Thank you so much. It’s really reassuring to know that there are a lot of people supporting the choice I made.」

「Soup4sluts: I see why u didn’t want to have sex with that girl, but even so, a thousand stars is not a small amount of money. I’m surprised how u could reject it just like that.」

[Soup4sluts donated 5 stars.]historical

[FuckActiveX donated 10 stars.]

[SnowyFox donated 100 stars.]

# Journal, Page 45, Camp Roberts

I was told that I would be conferred decorations sometime soon. A Bronze Star Medal and a Valor Device, two decorations that are often awarded together when a soldier achieves outstanding military exploits on the battlefield.

The U.S. government classified the giant monsters I defeated as variant mutants and named them 「Grumble」. Several encounters with these mutants were simultaneously reported from the contaminated area, but I was the only one who managed to kill them with just bullets and grenades. The rest had to be dealt with attack helicopters and tanks. This was the information I got from the public information officer.

The public information officer, who came all the way from Washington for the conferment ceremony, always had a gas mask on his face. It seemed like he was extremely apprehensive of coming into the west side of the blockade.

The badges weren’t the only thing he brought. Along with the president’s handwritten letter, he also offered me a U.S. citizenship. He also said I could get a field promotion and become an officer under only one condition—a pledge of allegiance to the United States.

And understandably, I said yes to his offer. I had been planning to become part of the U.S. military ever since I accepted the volunteer soldier position. Thus, the conferment ceremony was held at the same time as the promotion ceremony.

I was congratulated by my fellow soldiers after the ceremony. Lieutenant Capstone, while congratulating me for my promotion, told me some of his thoughts about why the ceremony took place so quickly.

My role as a volunteer soldier in this camp used to have a sole purpose: to be a walking billboard for the refugees to see. However, things have changed because of the severe damage caused by Grumbles. A great deal of confusion has been surging among not only people in the contaminated areas but also those in safe areas. And the higher-up’s response to calm these people down was spreading a story of a hero. The typical story of a soldier saving his fellow soldiers from grave danger, leading to a happy ending.

Quite a few people looked dissatisfied with my promotion. One was, obviously, Captain Magath. When he saw me in a full dress uniform with an insignia, I saw him pulling a face almost immediately. It’d be weird if he didn’t get mad when I, a lowlife, took care of the Grumble that made him run away with his tail tucked between his legs. Although he used the fact that several other commanders had also been defeated as self-justification, his public image was damaged and he earned a bad reputation. That he is a commander that abandons his soldiers.

Not that he had much of a reputation to lose anyway.

Other than him, some refugees were also giving me surly looks. All of them had signs that indicated their belonging to certain factions.

Though it’s still too early to be optimistic about the future, this should at least make things harder for other factions to pull off any stunts against us. This way, I’ll be admitted and recognized as a leader more wholeheartedly.

# Executive Order 9066, Camp Roberts (1)

The dress uniform had been added to Gyeoul’s repertoire, but he still chose to wear his combat uniform. In terms of functionality, the dress uniform was better than the combat uniform due to it providing a small boost to leadership-type skills, but he thought it didn’t suit him.

Gyeoul was offered to stay at the officers’ billet. Although the fact that he’d be living in the same building as Captain Magath bothered him, in order to get acquainted with other officers, he accepted the offer. He needed to pave a way to join hands with someone with great power in case the camp, or the States, fell.

“Yo, Mr. Shavetail, where are you going?”

A soldier hopping on one foot with a crutch approached him, giving the boy a sloppy salute with a small smirk on his face. It was Sergeant Cohen.

Nowadays, the soldiers’ attitude towards Gyeoul was generally similar to this. It wasn’t a malicious expression of disapproval, but a mixture of admiration towards the boy’s great achievement at his young age and mischievous affection.

“I was ordered to form a volunteer platoon. I’m thinking of taking volunteers from the refugees.”

No matter how impressive Gyeoul’s achievement was, Gyeoul was still an outsider, so his promotion was not without complications. The military command had offered Gyeoul to execute a trial operation with a platoon composed of only refugees.

It may seem like discrimination, but it was actually a privilege for Gyeoul. It was because he had full authority to choose the members for the platoon. The selected refugees would be treated just as how Gyeoul had been before being promoted to Second Lieutenant, so given the poor conditions the refugees were in, there would be plenty of refugees wanting to join the platoon.

“Do you want me to keep your company, sir?” The sergeant asked with a devious-looking grin.

“What do you mean?”

“I may not be smart enough to go to Harvard, but I do know a thing or two about people in the slums. ‘Cos I too was once one of them. Anyway, from what I can tell, most of the people in there don’t exactly seem to be fond of you, and if you just walk in there all by yourself, I’m pretty sure you’ll end up getting killed. And, you know, since we used to be comrades, I can’t just watch you walk into that hell on your own, you know what I mean, sir?”

Gyeoul let out a few chuckles before answering.

“Thank you for the offer, but I’m fine. You think I’m still a child, but I’m not. I don’t need an adult’s help. You just look after yourself.”

“Oh really? Then why do I smell baby oil?”

“I know, right? I thought I heard a grown man crying over the radio, but it must’ve been a baby.”

Sergeant Cohen then began to laugh out loud before extending his fist in front of him. Gyeoul, in return, bumped his fist against Cohen’s.

No matter how close the virtual reality was to reality, these aspects were too unrealistic for the boy. There couldn’t possibly be this many good people in the real world. After sending Cohen away, Gyeoul headed toward the refugee area with light steps.