Chapter 15: Rival’s Recompense (2)

“She’s just giving me a VR rig?”

Raidel’s unbelievable message made my hand holding the cup of ramen tremble slightly.

Even the most basic VR unit started at over ten million won. It wasn’t cheap gear by any means.

And yet, she wasn’t offering to lend it — she was offering to give it outright.

Sure, she said it was her old one, so it wasn’t brand new.

But—

‘Even used ones are super expensive!’

Secondhand prices were nothing to scoff at either.

You’d still have to pay several million won to get a decent machine.

For someone like me, surviving on cup ramen day by day… that kind of money felt unattainable.

“It’s… it’s probably not a scam. I think.”

The deal sounded too good to be true, and that thought immediately raised a red flag.

She said she was a streamer with 2,000 average viewers, but I didn’t have any proof of that.

I minimized the Chain Roller window and opened a browser.

“Streamer’s name was Raidel…”

She claimed she averaged 2,000 viewers. Time to fact-check.

And sure enough, it was easy to find her channel info.

Raidel.

Forest-crack streamer.

She happened to be live at that very moment, so I clicked in right away.

‘That’s… not 2,000 viewers.’

Even 2,000 would’ve been impressive. But for some reason, Raidel’s stream had over 40,000 viewers.

On-screen, the Chain Roller clear message was still visible.

And in the bottom-right corner of the screen, a cute-looking female streamer was anxiously nibbling her fingernails.

〈Wh-why hasn’t Silverhair responded yet…?〉

Her voice was filled with unease.

“Can’t blame her. I’d be flustered too if someone suddenly offered me a free VR rig.”

“What if they think it’s a scam lol”

“Honestly, if you don’t know she’s a streamer, I’d assume the same.”

‘She’s talking about me, huh.’

It was probably because of the VR thing.

And the chat wasn’t wrong.

I did think it might be a scam and came all the way to her stream just to make sure.

‘Hitting #1 in Chain Roller really has ripple effects, huh.’

She said she usually had 2,000 viewers, but now there were over 40,000.

Hitting the top rank in a currently trending game.

It made sense that this kind of big event would cause a viewer spike.

I’d watched plenty of streamers before, not just VTubers, so I quickly got a sense of what was going on.

Raidel made a frustrated face on stream.

〈I only said I’d give you my used VR unit so you wouldn’t feel pressured. I mean, offering a brand-new one out of nowhere would be weird, right?〉

“Whoa, that’s… kinda thoughtful actually.”

“Translation: new ones are too expensive so here’s my old one.”

“Still our budget-conscious Raidel lol”

₩5,000 donation from ‘Daylight’

• Honestly, even secondhand it’s still like 5 million won. What’s the complaint?

“Yeah for real, y’all need to stop nitpicking.”

“She’s giving away 5 mil won with no strings and people are whining??”

It wasn’t really something to argue over.

But with over 40,000 viewers, the chat was absolute chaos.

She said her average was 2,000. That meant roughly 38,000 were new.

Perfect conditions for trolls to run wild.

〈Alright, let’s tone it down in chat. I’m setting a 30-day follow limit for chat.〉

Even in the chaos, Raidel calmly applied follower-only chat restrictions.

Now, only viewers who had followed her for more than 30 days could speak.

A pretty clean solution.

As soon as it went into effect, the previously mud-slinging chat cleared up nicely.

〈It’s not that I’m stingy with money, okay? I just offered a used one so Silverhair wouldn’t feel guilty.〉

〈It’s not a big deal. Because of Silverhair, my stream hit 40,000 viewers. It’s just my way of saying thanks.〉

〈And like, yeah… new gear is like ten million won, so… it is a lot! But! I wanna see more of Silverhair’s gameplay!〉

〈If it helps you debut, I’d gladly invest even ten million won.〉

She thumped her chest as she said it.

Eyes unwavering, not a hint of doubt.

She said it like a joke, but it felt nothing but sincere.

‘I mean… just offering her used gear is already more than enough.’

I wasn’t shameless enough to be like, “Why not new gear though???”

Even her secondhand stuff was premium.

And leaving her hanging any longer felt wrong too.

[Silverhair: Raidel.]

[Silverhair: Sorry for the late reply. I was checking your stream.]

[Silverhair: My bad for taking so long ;;]

〈Ah! No worries, Silverhair! As long as you weren’t AFK, it’s all good.〉

Raidel exhaled a relieved sigh on stream when she saw my message.

〈Wait, so that means… you’re watching the stream now? Silverhair? Can you hear me~?〉

[Silverhair: Yeah. Feel free to talk on stream, it’s fine 😊]

The moment I said I was watching the stream,

the chat, which had calmed due to the follower limit, exploded again.

“WAIT, Silverhair’s HERE??”

“Drop the username!!”

“SILVER! HAIR! SILVER! HAIR!”

“What do you eat to get that good at games??”

“Are you chatting right now??”

I couldn’t send any messages due to the 30-day restriction either.

〈So, um… what do you think about my offer?〉

She meant the streamer debut.

Offering free VR gear — and just asking that I please start streaming.

There was no reason to say no.

I had been toying with the idea of trying out streaming anyway.

And now she was offering to cover the cost of the setup? Why would I not accept?

[Silverhair: I mean, I’m really grateful.]

[Silverhair: I don’t even know if I should accept something this expensive.]

[Silverhair: VR setups are crazy pricey ;;]

“Silverhair’s so polite lolol”

“If it were me, I’d already have the package halfway home.”

“It’s FIVE million won, I’d black out instantly.”

₩5,000 donation from ‘EmperorBlessingGod’

• If it were me, I’d take it and list it on SecondhandApp within the hour lol

“Classic mooch vibes lol”

“That’s our guy, always looking to flip a profit.”

〈No, no! Like I said earlier… because of you, so many people came to my stream.〉

〈Please don’t feel burdened at all. This is honestly just my way of saying thanks.〉

And honestly… it did make me feel less guilty.

She had a way of phrasing things that made it hard to refuse.

Like, really hard.

‘She really is a top-tier streamer, huh.’

There was no way I could say no after all that.

[Silverhair: Okay. Thank you.]

[Silverhair: In that case, I’ll gladly accept.]

“YOOOOO it’s official!!”

“👏👏👏”

“Delbung, you legend…”

“Hail Queen Delbung.”

“Wait, does this mean Silverhair’s gonna start streaming??”

“New channel WHEN?!”

〈That’s up to Silverhair, of course! No need to rush it.〉

Raidel shook her head vigorously on stream.

〈I’m not trying to force you into anything or make this a contract.〉

〈You said you wanted to stream but didn’t have the setup, so I just helped out. Seriously, don’t feel pressured.〉

〈And if you do ever wanna collab, just ping me! I’ll clear my schedule immediately.〉

〈Oh, and for the record… I’m a Laienma Master-tier player. Rarer than wild ginseng. Just sayin’.〉

“VR collab let’s GOOO”

“Are we getting a Laienma duo stream??”

“If it’s her first VR game, it’ll be her first Laienma too.”

“Whatever it is, just stream. Please.”

〈Anyway, Silverhair, if you have time later, send me your address in a private message. I’ll ship it right away.〉

---

Once Raidel’s stream ended, I poured out the cold, soggy cup ramen broth.

‘I thought I’d have to jump straight into streaming, and it made me anxious.’

But Raidel said there was no rush.

The VR gear was a gift, no strings attached — she told me not to feel pressured.

I was already considering debuting anyway, so I planned to prep soon.

More than that—

The biggest takeaway today?

That I’m not talentless at games.

Rank 1 in Chain Roller.

I didn’t beat the second place by much, but I did take first.

Well, actually… the gap was kind of huge.

I wasn’t sure exactly, but I think the actual clear time was under 30 minutes.

But the leaderboard said 4 hours 21 minutes.

Not because the game was so fun that I lost track of time or anything…

I think the recorded time was based on the host’s playtime — Raidel’s time.

I wasn’t complaining. I got the record and a free VR rig.

Click—

I scrolled through the ranking list.

Second place: 4 hours 32 minutes.

Everything below that? All over 5 hours.

“Does this really take over four hours to beat?”

Huh. Maybe for some people.

If you played it straight, maybe it would take that long. But I felt like an hour would’ve been plenty.

‘Well, it is a three-player game.’

There were probably more variables at play. They probably had their own situations.

More importantly…

I started cleaning up around my computer and got dressed.

“Huff…”

I was nervous.

Because what I was about to do—

Was way harder than clearing Chain Roller in 21 minutes.