Ch.149144 – The Repayment Competition

# [Open Recruitment: Seeking Influencers for 2051 Downfall Tournament/Payback Tournament Season 2]

[Prize Money: 50 million won per category, 300 million won total across 6 categories]

[Recruitment Period: Monday, April 10, 2051 ~ Until closing (separate notice)]

[Tournament Period: Late May ~ Early June]

[Games: Resonance / World of Arsheria / Legacy of Legend]

[Eligibility: Twissy or VTube streaming, tier requirements in attached tournament operation plan]

[Applications accepted via email only (dgd@letterbox.co.kr). We will notify when participant selection is complete. Thank you.]

The “Payback Tournament” (Pay What You Owe Tournament) – the largest event on Korean Twissy, sponsored by Letterbox.

A prestigious competition where current esports casters and commentators serve as broadcasters, with coaches and directors comprised of former pros who made esports history.

Despite various controversies during Season 1 in early 2051, it concluded successfully, and now the staff are eagerly recruiting participants for Season 2.

“Hmm, this is really ambiguous…”

The planning team leader at Letterbox sighed deeply while evaluating an applicant’s documents.

“What’s wrong? Did someone lie about their tier again?”

A junior colleague, approaching his one-year mark but still considered the rookie in the department, asked.

Each game had two types of tournaments:

The “Downfall Tournament” with high-tier streamers participating, and the “Payback Tournament” for streamers between Silver and low Diamond.

Most problems occurred in the latter, which used a team auction system.

It was common for players with ambiguous skills at high Diamond or Master to deliberately lower their tier.

But the team leader shook his head.

“No, that’s not it. We have a streamer who applied for two different games.”

“Two? Which ones?”

“LoL and World of Arsheria.”

“Just reject one of them. I don’t know about the Downfall Tournament, but in the Payback Tournament, people who don’t know each other might have to play together. Wouldn’t it be inconsiderate during practice?”

“That’s the thing – it’s too much of a shame to reject either one. And they applied for the Payback Tournament for World of Arsheria, not the Downfall Tournament.”

“What tier are they?”

“Unranked, but they say they’ll reach Silver or higher before the tournament.”

“Silver should be doable, right? There’s still plenty of time before the team auction.”

“That’s not the issue. Take a look yourself.”

The junior colleague pulled up a chair next to the team leader and scanned the information on the monitor.

“Whoa! Is this that person? The one who set the world record for combat power in Korea…!”

“Yep. And apparently they’re the youngest partner streamer in Twissy Korea history. I heard they’re fourteen years old.”

“Wow, so NoName is participating too. Wait, the youngest? Seriously?”

The man clicked his pen repeatedly and leaned back in his chair, deep in thought.

The reason the team leader couldn’t let go of NoName was because of her viewer demographics.

A streamer with a suspiciously high percentage of foreign viewers.

While other broadcasters had 1-2% foreign viewers, a whopping 50% of her audience was non-Korean.

This was despite the fact that she hadn’t even set up the translation interface provided by Twissy, creating a barrier where viewers had to find their own ways to understand.

The Payback Tournament’s prize pool was growing, but it was still maintained only by Letterbox and a few corporate sponsors, so new capital was needed.

And part of the team leader’s mission was to attract foreign viewers.

“But this person’s skill is definitely not Silver level.”

“Exactly! Even if everyone competes with adjusted combat power during the tournament, someone who broke records in story mode can’t possibly be just Silver!”

“With those mechanics alone, wouldn’t they reach Diamond?”

“Master too, if they play well.”

But there was no legitimate reason to reject her.

Why? Because the account she was developing was her main account.

Yet randomly accepting her would create controversy. Balance issues would be inevitable.

And story mode was completely different from team games, making it difficult to assess her actual skill level.

The man had heard that this was her first time playing World of Arsheria, which meant she likely had zero knowledge of basic operations.

But she was too big a catch to let go.

After much deliberation, the team leader showed the documents to his superior.

“Her peak viewership was 30,000? Accept her. Why are you even hesitating?”

Convinced by this overly simple logic, the team leader sent an acceptance reply.

Now whatever happens, it’s not my responsibility.

* * *

[NoName Official]

[Evolution Theory #WorldOfArsheria(5/5)]

[Best Comments]

-(19:34) Because humans save humans…! [Likes: 5.3K]

└ Ningu ningu ning~ [Likes: 5.8K]

└ Is “ningu ningu ning” out of your mind lmao

└ LMAO

└ I really didn’t see that coming hahaha

└ I can’t even with this hahaha

-She is Korean [Likes: 2.8K]

└ Ha! Yankees finally getting it?

└ NoName is truly Korea’s treasure

└ wtf is she really 14 years old?

└ That’s right! This is the terrifying power of Korean 8th graders!

-Even top academy students couldn’t compete with this lol

└ Where do all these hidden masters keep coming from? Is this the martial arts world?

└ Maybe Korean academies were the real bubble all along?

└ Altena Academy high school division just got a perfect score at the International Olympiad for the first time, stop talking nonsense

└ Are you an academy student above? Why so triggered?

“Ningu ningu ning!”

“Hey, Pyo Min-jun! Stop it! Why do you keep picking on me!”

“Sia, could you please either stop him or stop laughing? Just pick one.”

“Hahaha sorry! I don’t usually laugh much, but once I start, I can’t—pfft!”

“Yoo Si-a is the most malicious one among us, if you ask me.”

I’m starting to regret deciding to participate in the LoL Downfall Tournament with these people.

After much consideration about how to quickly build recognition, I decided to participate in all the tournaments I somewhat knew how to play.

Since my clan members from LoL were all streamers, I decided to form a team with them for the Downfall Tournament.

I also applied for the Payback Tournament in World of Arsheria without much expectation, but the acceptance came more easily than I thought.

“I’ll admit you’re going through your middle school phase. It’s the perfect age for that.”

Min-jun kept nodding.

“Just hurry up and destroy the Citadel.”

“I think we might be a little short on damage without our ADC? But hey NoName, isn’t it a bit weird? How old are you compared to me, and you’ve been speaking informally to me since we first met?”

“Ugh, that comment just sounded so boomer, right Name?”

“Sia, you go away too.”

“Awww, is Name upset? I’m sorry! Here, I’ll give you my ultimate. Grow!”

“If you’re going to do that, make me taller first.”

Rat-tat-tat-

Rat-tat-tat-

With each burst from my machine gun, the enemy citadel was riddled with holes like a beehive.

The enemies seemed indifferent to their base being destroyed, probably preparing for the next game. Their momentum had been broken long ago.

[VICTORY]

“This is too overwhelming?”

“Bro, seriously, put any random Master-tier mid in this and we’d have a shot at winning!”

Mir and Min-jun were already getting excited.

But it made sense – when facing a 5-queue of consistent Challenger players in free rank, the game’s advantage had shifted to our side without a single disadvantage.

The only randomly matched mid user scratched his head in bewilderment.

“Are you guys really entering the Downfall Tournament like this?”

“Yes! How were we?”

“The women play better than the men, how could you lose?”

The Downfall Tournament had the unique restriction of requiring at least two female streamers per team, with no tier limitations.

But Sia had maintained Challenger for years, and I had enough games under my belt to match their skill level.

With Min-jun and Mir also reaching Challenger, we had formed quite an overpowered combination.

“There are many former pros competing in the Downfall Tournament.”

“So what? How significant is it to have one Diamond lane?”

“True.”

“Then I hope you win! Oh, and NoName, I’m a huge fan! I lost about 400 points trying your mid Asteria build, but it was fun to watch.”

“Why would anyone use Asteria mid? Hey NoName, do you even know how much mess you’ve left in the LoL community? And now you’re abandoning LoL for World of Arsheria?”

“I never did that.”

“Ahhhh! That was tough.”

Sia stretched, signaling it was time to wrap up.

“NoName, can I upload today’s video to my VTube?”

“What? You were recording, Pyo Min-jun? Already planning to leech off Name’s viewers?”

“Isn’t that normal in this industry?”

“Ah! So selling other people’s personal information and almost getting canceled was also just an industry practice?”

“I told you I was scammed too! It’s so unfair.”

“Anyway, no. Our Name is precious. I won’t show her to anyone.”

“Fine, become a big corporation all by yourself. The rest of us will just stay small-time streamers forever, whatever.”

Sia wrapped her arms around me, blocking my view.

I had to endure the feeling of her pink hair constantly tickling my nose, almost making me sneeze.

Mir had already left right after the practice game for an appointment with an acquaintance, and Min-jun, left alone, didn’t seem to have much else to talk about with us and logged out after a few words.

“But what was that about almost getting canceled? Is it related to that hiatus?”

“Oh that! Ugh, I still get so angry thinking about it!”

Sia suddenly started pounding her chest and getting worked up.

“Have you heard of Bebegood? No? Anyway, those crew bastards suddenly suggested we do collabs with other female streamers. They said they’d even edit the videos for free if we gave them the footage.”

“Really?”

“Yeah! I obviously declined because I didn’t need it. But Min-jun was so flattered he was thanking them profusely, and Mir is always clueless anyway.”

Sia explained that it was later revealed that when doing collabs with female streamers, the logs from their extension programs would also be recorded in their own capsules, and the real intention was to extract personal information using hacking tools.

“Isn’t that completely psychotic? Both the buyers and sellers. I got goosebumps when I heard they could even find out home addresses.”

Unfortunately, this conversation happened during a drinking stream with our clan members, and Bebegood, not realizing their microphone was on, got permanently archived in the Triwiki controversy category.

“The weird thing is, those people were the ones who did wrong, but somehow we got caught in the blast too.”

Sia, being a woman, cautiously returned after a month, but it seems the public opinion toward Min-jun and Mir remained quite negative.

People questioned why they were denying involvement when Bebegood had made the proposal directly to them. The female streamers who were actually harmed even filed additional civil lawsuits.

In any case, the conclusion was that the mastermind, Bebegood, received criminal punishment, so it was undeniably a major controversy.

“That’s scary.”

“Exactly, so don’t do collabs with just anyone. You never know if they might find new ways to steal personal information.”

Although Twissy claimed to have established thorough preventive measures, Sia was still full of distrust.

[Whisper]

[186 unread messages]

[Kariri: I said let’s collab! COLLAB!]

“Yes, I’ll definitely keep that in mind.”

[You have blocked Kariri.]

“But didn’t you say you attend an academy? Isn’t it exam season around now? It’s late April, is it okay for you to be playing like this?”

“That’s why I’ve been taking a break from streaming.”

“…? You’re playing games right now, what does that have to do with streaming!”

“I guess so. It’s fine, I don’t really have anything more to study.”

“Wow, this is why geniuses are different…”