A Basement-Dwelling Loser, the Inquisitor

[Rene]

[Hello]

[Talk | 1353 viewers | 00:52:38]

─For real, if Rene says so, then it’s true.

─You’re right, so let’s stop and talk about something else, okay?

─From now on, if someone says they’re broadcasting, they should pretend to be using a bot.

─Rene Punch! Rene Punch! Rene Punch! Rene Punch! Rene Punch!

It took a long time for the Rebongi to acknowledge that my method wasn’t wrong.

“I’m glad to see you all acknowledging your mistakes…”

─You bitch!

─Ah.

─Holding back my cursing MAX.

─Damn that girl…

Of course, there were still Rebongi who refused to acknowledge their misjudgments… but in the end, I proved it with results.

However, I had turned on the broadcast to clarify things, to reveal the truth…

Now that I’ve revealed I’m a woman, what should I do next?

I could choose to end the broadcast, but with so many people gathered, I wanted to do something more.

“Um… everyone? Anyway, now that it’s been revealed that I’m a woman, don’t you have any other questions…?”

Nothing comes to mind immediately, but if I keep the conversation going like this, maybe something will come to me?

─At 21, do you live with your parents?

Looking at the chat window while thinking that way, that question caught my eye.

“No, I live alone. I’m an orphan.”

─?

─That’s just wow.

I answered without thinking.

★

“Well then, I’ll end it here for today. Bye~.”

─TB.

─See you, sis.

─Catch you tomorrow.

With that final remark, Tuni ended the broadcast.

What came next was a wave of mental fatigue.

Leaning back against the plush cushions of my gaming chair, Tuni quietly stared at the ceiling.

“I’m tired…”

Tuni was obviously a small-time streamer in the industry.

It was rare to have more than 50 average viewers.

When the stream was on, I would memorize the usernames of all the viewers who came.

Of course, every major company streamer starts as a small-time streamer, but for Tuni, who had been a small-timer for over three years, that was just a deception.

“Sigh…”

I loved talking to people. I enjoyed capturing people’s attention.

That’s why I started streaming.

And when I first began, I was confident that I would succeed.

With my pure appearance and rough personality, plus my lively nature.

Thanks to those three attributes, I was popular with both boys and girls at school.

I thought that if I showcased these traits, I’d do well in the internet broadcasting scene too, but unfortunately, such personality types were quite common among streamers.

In the end, I remained a small-time streamer for over three years.

When I had the most viewers, it was when Rene was embroiled in the nuclear controversy, leading her viewers to come to my stream, so there’s no need to explain further.

“Frustrating.”

Why is it that no matter how hard I work, nothing changes?

Such negative emotions began to engulf Tuni’s thoughts.

In the past, she didn’t have these thoughts even when her viewers were low.

But recently, after shutting off the stream, she found herself irritated about everything.

Even when contacting friends, she was sharp-tongued, and she clenched her teeth over minor issues.

Fortunately, that side of her didn’t show during the broadcast, which proved that her three years of experience were not in vain.

However, inside, the heat was building up.

If I left things as they were, it was only a matter of time before it all burst out during the broadcast.

“Why am I…?”

So why do these negative feelings keep piling up?

Tuni already knew the cause.

“Phew…”

The recommended streams on the streaming site prominently featured the name ‘Rene.’

Upon seeing that name, Tuni frowned again.

She already knew.

Rene wasn’t at fault in any of this.

She simply streamed, and the viewers liked her broadcast.

But still, questions arose in Tuni’s mind.

“Why is it not me?”

Taking a break from streaming for the most ridiculous reasons and having no proper reactions while gaming—why is her broadcast more popular than mine?

For over three years, Tuni had poured everything into her streams.

In her effort to make them entertaining and to ensure her viewers had a good time.

Yet, she was still a small-time streamer, while a big company had begun to recognize Rene.

Inferiority struck Tuni hard.

It was nonsensical to resent someone innocent like Rene.

Rene was the first streamer acquaintance Tuni ever made.

No matter how unpleasant their first meeting was, she wanted to cherish her.

[Inquisition Officer: (Picture)]

[Inquisition Officer: Tuni, what should we do in a situation like this?]

Even now, as Rene’s broadcast had become much larger than Tuni’s, she still leaned on Tuni whenever there were issues.

Tuni knew that she shouldn’t let her inferiority and resentment spill over to someone like her… but as she faced the increasingly higher walls of reality, she couldn’t help but seek someone to blame.

She lived in a good house. Surely saying she was broke was a lie?

If she turned on her camera, she likely would have had many more viewers than now; it must be deliberate that she acts this way, knowing everything.

Is she doing this to mock the other small-time streamers who work hard? Is it a deception?

Her life must be easy to be able to be like that.

With looks like hers and living in such a nice house since she was 20.

Some people work their fingers to the bone, but still get nowhere…

Tuni loathed herself for harboring such malice against Rene, but unfortunately, the inferiority burning inside her was stronger than her self-reproach.

“…Sigh.”

With that heavy sigh, Tuni clicked on Rene’s broadcast thumbnail.

It wasn’t just for the pretense of learning from a rising streamer, but rather to find any flaws to nitpick in her heart.

That was the only way to alleviate some of this inferiority.

[Um… everyone? Now that it’s been revealed that I’m a woman, don’t you have any other questions…?]

“Ah, she mentioned she got caught for being a woman.”

While broadcasting, Tuni spoke her own habitual monologue, crossing her legs.

Now that the clarification was done, was she planning to move on to another topic?

As Tuni was trying to infer what Rene was thinking…

[No, I live alone. I’m an orphan.]

Those words flowed out during the broadcast.

“…Huh?”

What does that even mean?

Even though it wasn’t a conversation with Rene, Tuni almost blurted out a question.

After hearing Rene’s words, she pictured what her house must look like.

Rene’s house was spacious.

It was far too large for someone living alone.

At least enough space for three people.

So Tuni naturally assumed Rene lived with her family.

Now that she said she was Korean, she figured she must have moved to Korea to live with them.

But looking back at it now… even though Rene’s house was indeed spacious, there were no signs of other people’s belongings at all.

There wasn’t a single trace of another person to be saying she lived with family.

─?

─That’s crazy.

The atmosphere in the chat window quickly turned frosty at that sudden bombshell.

[Huh? Why is everyone reacting like that?]

But Rene seemed perplexed, as if she couldn’t figure out what the problem was at all.

As if… she was far too used to it.

─Is that for real?

─Is it a joke?

─If Rene’s just making weird comments, then that’s highly upvoted, lol…

[…Ah, now that I think about it, I haven’t talked about my family before.]

She didn’t deny those recently playful remarks from the Rebongi.

Rather, she began her story, seeming to understand the audience’s reactions.

[Well, since the topic came up, shall I share a bit about my story…?]

─You don’t have to if it’s tough…

[It’s not that hard. It’s just an old story… so…]

Even though viewers hinted that she didn’t have to share, Rene calmly continued her tale.

[To put it accurately, I’m not an orphan. It’s just that I didn’t have anyone called ‘parents.’ I couldn’t go to school properly. It was natural not to get enough food… and then I ended up running away from home because I felt I was really going to die.]

─Whoa, that escalated quickly.

─What the… I thought the vibe was good until just a moment ago…

[Then I was taken in by a facility… um, I’ll skip this part. There are a lot of unbelievable stories.]

─Can’t you give us a summary, please?

─What the hell happened?

[Summary? Hmm… I got hurt a lot. There were many instances of running around. It was quite a treacherous journey, to put it that way. I almost died several times… so I’ll just skip to that. It’s hard to explain…]

Rene’s voice was tranquil.

Unlike a tone that creates deception, it was the opposite—an aura so familiar that it felt close to resignation.

─No way.

─Is this real;

─I’m sorry for everything until now, Rene…

─Are you still hurt from your wounds?

[Huh? What is there to apologize for? I’m okay. My injuries have all healed properly… Anyway, that’s when someone started supporting me? A guardian? That person thought I had been through a lot… um, they bequeathed me this house as a keepsake… and that’s how I came to Korea, got Korean citizenship… and started streaming… and so it is.]

─That’s your house?

[Yes. They transferred it to my name.]

─Then you really don’t need to do broadcasts.

─Must be rich…

[Um… I also thought that at first. But just having a house in my name doesn’t mean I can just live off it forever….]

─Then why did you become a streamer, of all things?

[Uh, um… I’m kinda a hikikomori? So that’s part of it… but honestly, before I started, I was looking for part-time jobs… and such.]

An awkward chuckle.

And Tuni knew well what that laughter meant.

[But… nothing worked out…. Hehe…]

The kind of laughter that comes when nothing changes no matter how hard one tries.

The laughter that resonates the most when Tuni contacted her family after a year of streaming, remaining in the same stagnant situation.

[Because I’m a foreigner without any experience, and my personality is like this… no one would hire me. That’s why I started streaming. I thought it’d be nice if I could at least earn a little pocket money…].

It dawned on Tuni then.

Rene was just someone who had been living earnestly within her own bounds.

Although the paths they took were different, the effort to survive wasn’t.

If anything, to say they were going in different directions was wrong.

Rene was in a situation where she could only take wrong paths.

“…No way.”

Thinking about it like that, Rene’s efforts must have been at a level beyond Tuni’s grasp.

If what Rene said was true… it meant she had endured unimagined hardships, all alone since childhood.

Rene, having lost family and friends, living in a foreign land now, was in a world entirely different from Tuni, who had family support and friends in her hometown.

The thought that she harbored inferiority towards someone like her, secretly blaming her for her circumstances.

Even after the scale of her broadcast expanded, she still leaned on this person.

“How could she have had nobody to rely on like that…?”

After finishing watching Rene’s broadcast, Tuni hung her head in self-reproach.

“I really feel like an idiot…”

★

[Tuni: If you have any hard times in the future, please tell me.]

[Tuni: I’ll be sure to help you.]

[Inquisition Officer: Huh?]

[Inquisition Officer: Oh.]

[Inquisition Officer: You’re already helping all the time.]

[Inquisition Officer: Thank you.]

[Tuni: No problem…]