Chapter 4: The Big League and a Suicide Grenade

My brain froze for a second at the arrival of a titan.

I checked the donation window, and the donor’s nickname was indeed Lucia.

‘Lucia donated to me? Why?’

Who is Lucia?

A top-tier streamer, battling for the number one or two spot on Watch Korea.
With stunning looks that landed her a girl group trainee gig through street casting, a bold personality, and gaming skills that outshine most guys, she’s a mega-star with over 1.5 million YouTube subscribers.

[Luha]

[What’s a VIP doing here?]

[Why’s someone so grand visiting this humble stream?]

[Sudden Discord? Sudden Discord? Sudden Discord?]

[Why’s the streamer not on Discord yet?]

“It’s really Lucia.
What brings such a VIP to my little stream… I’ll hop on Discord.”

Still reeling from what was happening, I joined Discord through the invite link Lucia sent via private message.

Looking at the participant names in the channel, I saw a bunch of big-name streamers’ Discord tags.
But why am I here? What do they want with me?

Swallowing my curiosity, I found Lucia in the voice chat and joined, turning on my mic.

“Can you hear me?”

“Yes! Loud and clear! Sorry for interrupting your stream!”

[Wow, her voice is amazing.]

[Hearing Lucia after your voice is like a cleanse.]

[My sister doesn’t sound like that—different species?]

[Luha Luha]

“I know it’s rude to barge in like this, but I had to reach out.”

“No worries. My mental was shot from missions anyway, so I was about to take a break.”

“Before we go on, can I ask for one thing? I’m in the middle of an event hosted by Watch Korea.”

“Sure, that’s fine.”

Of course.
No way a titan like her would call me on Discord without a reason.
Lucia hesitated a bit before continuing.

“There’s a funding mission for a new Watch feature during this event stream. The mission is to win a squad game with random streamers.”

“Got it.”

Funding missions, a feature coming in the next update, let multiple viewers pool money for a single mission.
Before, one person could only set one mission, leading to a mess of duplicate missions. Watch took the feedback and introduced this new system.

“You were the last one picked for the squad.”

“Really? Me?”

[Bro, you’ve made it.]

[YouTube clip incoming LOL.]

[Finally seeing the light?]

[What event brings Lucia here?]

[By the way, the other two members are YoonRed and KillerSniper. Straight-up legends.]

I couldn’t tell if this was a dream or reality.
A squad game with two top FPS streamers and Watch’s undisputed giant?

‘Even if we lose, this is YouTube material.’

“If you’ve got time, could you play a couple of squad games with us?”

“Absolutely. I just flopped a win and I’m back in the lobby.”

“Great! Send me your nickname and code via Watch DM, and I’ll add you right away!”

I sent my nickname and code through the same chat the invite came from, and the friend request came through instantly.
After accepting the party invite, a decked-out character appeared next to mine.

“Since some viewers might not know you, could you introduce yourself?”

“Sure.”

Now that I think about it, being called “streamer” so much made me a bit shy about sharing my nickname.
It felt like when I first started streaming, but I opened my mouth to introduce myself.

“Hello, Watch event viewers! I’m Hazy, the guy from the two-game chicken clip you might’ve seen on Shorts. Nice to meet you!”

My chat was laughing, saying my voice was trembling.
I greeted the event stream viewers, but I hadn’t opened their chat window, so I pulled it up on my sub-monitor.

[Oh, that guy.]

[The legend clip star?]

[LOLOLOLOL.]

[Where’s Red and Kills?]

[Mission money’s still climbing.]

I was a bit worried I’d get reactions like “Who’s this nobody?” or “Bring the big names already,” but thankfully, the vibe was welcoming, which put me at ease.

Speaking of the event chat, I noticed some talk about mission money and checked the stream.

At the top of the mission window was a lone win mission.
The amount… ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hundred thousand… ten million?
Two in front of ten million?

“Thanks for the intro! The mission is a squad win, funded by all of you.”

The mission prize was a whopping 20 million won!

After seeing that amount, I couldn’t hear anything else.
It’s not like this happens every day, but the sheer scale hit me hard.

It was probably a mix of factors: a platform event, the firepower of Lucia’s fanbase, and maybe some sponsor groups…

No, no need to overthink. I was just jealous.
Even knowing she doesn’t earn that daily, I was jealous.

“If we win, the three of us, excluding me, will split 5 million won each, and the remaining 5 million goes to the MVP we choose!”

At Lucia’s words, the event chat sped up like crazy.
Not just Lucia’s fans but random viewers were shocked by the amount.

[No way you’re getting MVP~]

[With Kills and Red, it’s basically a bus.]

[Not just a bus, it’s a limousine LOLOL.]

[One ex-pro, one current pro, former teammates. How do you stop that? LOLOL.]

[Didn’t Lucia hit ranker once, even if barely?]

[Just be a level 4 backpack.]

My chat was saying not to drag the others down and just carry ammo or health items for them.

That’s a good idea. Let’s do it.

“Hello, I’m YoonRed, ex-pro turned streamer.”

“Yo! I’m KillerSniper, YoonRed’s slave for the day.”

Red, is that true?

I lost a bet today, so I’m his slave for the day.

Not long after, the two introduced themselves, followed by some light banter.
They’d played a bet game before joining, and YoonRed won by a hair, making KillerSniper his “slave” for the day.

“You two, I’m a huge fan.
When I started BattleSky, I watched your videos after stream to practice my aim.”

“Oh! I saw your two-game chicken clip.”

“I saw it on Shorts—following that guy had me shaking.”

Chatting with the two who helped me settle into BattleSky, Lucia spoke up about starting the game.

“Alright, time to get to the mission, yeah?”

“Yup, let’s go.”

The start was smooth.
We all landed in the same spot, but while I was slowly looting, the other three wiped out everyone else.

“Footsteps on the first floor.”

“Got ‘em! Red, someone’s behind the wall ahead!”

“Got it!”

Amid a storm of gunfire, kill logs popped up, and soon the in-game sounds went quiet.

“Three teams dropped here?”

“One guy grabbed a car and ran as soon as he landed.”

“…This bus has a smooth ride.”

My comment made all three burst out laughing through my earphones.
I’m serious, though.
Is there a comfier party than this? I don’t think so.

“Level 3 bag here.”

“Oh, thanks!”

After some time, we finished looting, grabbed a car, and headed into the shrinking play zone.

“Should we hold the ridge?”

“Or take an inner spot… no, ridge might be better?”

“Let’s hold the ridge, see how the zone shrinks, and decide?”

But there was one big problem.

“Professors… you’re moving too fast…”

All three burst out laughing again.
I’m serious, it’s too fast!
Do they just glance at the map and see everything?

Thinking they were getting ahead, Red explained.

“Holding the ridge is like having natural cover, right?
It’s near the zone’s edge, so no one’s coming from behind.”

“So, use the ridge as a barricade, hide, and move based on the zone’s shrink?”

“Exactly! You catch on quick.
With a bit of polish, Hazy, you could be pretty good.”

Tang!

A single shot rang out from afar, followed by a scream through the speakers.
Red fell out of our car.

“They hit that?”

“Two cars behind us! Just leave me and take the ridge.”

As he spoke, a kill log confirmed Red was run over by a car.
That’s gotta feel unfair.

But Red, unfazed, kept giving orders.

“The zone’s shrinking, looks like we can stay on the ridge.”

“Should we check again?”

“Two at 135.”

Tang! Tang! Tang!

Taang!

The second I heard the call, gunfire erupted beside me.

Two confirmed kill logs popped up instantly.

Fourteen players left.

The zone was still wide, but a lot of people must’ve died fighting in prime looting spots.

“Gunfire over there…”

One, two… kill logs kept popping up with the sound of gunfire.

“That’s a hacker.”

“Wasn’t that the same ID sniping you?”

“Yup.”

Red answered Kills.
The kill log showed the name “shangdi.”

“What’s that in Chinese?”

“Shangdi? Some One Piece fan?”

“Wait, they’re coming.”

After racking up kills like crazy, only four players remained.
Seeing them come straight for us, it had to be a hacker.

“Can we take them?”

“Gotta try.”

Tang!

“Holy crap.”

The kill log showed Kills, not the hacker.

“Definitely a hacker. Swapped positions the second they saw me.”

“Only way is to blow up their car together.”

With the hacker almost in our faces, the only option was to destroy their car.

“Sia, you got a grenade?”

“I’ve got one.”

“Pass it to me.”

As the hacker got caught on a rock and swerved, I took the grenade.

Click. The pin-pulling sound rang out.
Every viewer, the three streamers, and even the hacker probably had no idea what I was about to do.

I started sprinting with the grenade pin pulled.
Counting seconds in my head, I crested the hill and saw the hacker’s car slowing down, with them jumping out.

“Die!”

I jumped toward the hacker from the hill, and my character died mid-air.

Boom!*

The grenade I dropped upon dying exploded, killing the hacker.

In reality, it wouldn’t work like this, but in the game, an unpinned grenade explodes after a delay—a kamikaze tactic.

[Winner winner! Chicken dinner tonight!]

With the speakers dead silent, I stared at the victory message on the screen and said one word.

“Carry.”