It was a clear, quiet morning, with white clouds stretching across the sky like wispy beards.
Yet, as usual, the Soyoung apartment was bustling with activity.
Everyone was busy getting ready for school or work, each occupied with their own routines.
Even Ko Yeonju, who usually opened her shop in the afternoon, surprisingly joined them for breakfast today.
She was so busy that she was simultaneously sipping a ginseng pack through a straw tucked into her cleavage while blow-drying her hair.
Han Soyoung, watching her little stunt quietly at the table, carefully slipped a cup into the long gap between Yeonju’s breasts.
After tapping it a few times, Yeonju nodded and inserted the straw.
With a satisfied smile, she sipped her misutgaru (grain powder drink) and began pulling out some documents.
Meanwhile, Suna, watching the two with a sulky expression, tugged hard at her bright yellow collar and struggled to fit her fresh fruit juice cup into place.
The cup spun inside, spilling juice all over the tablecloth, and an angry Suna let out a sharp yell.
Her frustration wasn’t just from the sticky mess on her clothes and body—it was something deeper, something else entirely.
Seraph, wearing a wry smile, picked up Suna to soothe her and led her to the bathroom.
Nearby, Kim Hanbyul, grumbling about professors while working on a report, frowned at the heavily stained A4 sheets.
Lim Hanna barely held back a laugh as she started wiping up the spilled juice.
“Come to think of it, where’s Vivian?” Yoo Jeong, who was free from the morning chaos thanks to her training schedule, looked around and asked.
“Oh, you’re right,” Lim Hanna said, stretching her back with a puzzled look.
At that moment, Kim Soohyun, quietly eating in the corner, coughed and lowered her head.
“Thank you for the meal,” she said, carrying her half-full dishes to the kitchen.
Then, as if fleeing, she slipped into her room and closed the door behind her.
Leaning against the door at an angle, Kim Soohyun sighed deeply as she stared at the bankbook left alone on her desk.
It wasn’t that she hadn’t returned it.
She had tried.
After explaining everything and apologizing, she had taken out the bankbook.
But Vivian refused to take it.
She had looked up at Kim Soohyun with a devastated, disbelieving face, crying her eyes out.
After a long silence, she got up without a word.
Kim Soohyun still vividly remembered how Vivian had staggered past her and taken the elevator, unsteady on her feet.
“That was definitely harsh…”
Kim Soohyun was genuinely remorseful.
There’s a limit to teasing.
Normally, she would have just played around a bit, but this time, she had taken the bait and crushed her on purpose.
But since the whole point of the attack was to disrupt the broadcast, there wasn’t much to say.
No matter how much she thought about it, she was left speechless.
“I need to apologize…”
She had knocked on Vivian’s door last night, but it wasn’t opened.
Same thing in the early morning.
She could force her way in, but that would only backfire.
So she had planned to catch her at breakfast—but Vivian never showed up.
Knock knock.
“Soyun! The kids’ bus is coming!”
Just as she was about to try again, Lim Hanna’s urgent voice came from outside the door.
Kim Soohyun, who had just picked up the bankbook, swallowed hard.
First, she had to finish what she needed to do.
Evening bathed in twilight.
Vivian, having gotten up from her seat under the afternoon sun, washed up and mechanically turned on her computer.
Her daily routine was always the same.
Sleep in the morning, prepare in the afternoon, broadcast from evening until dawn, then sleep again.
It was like a Möbius strip—endlessly repeating.
Soon, Vivian started her broadcast by calling Lim Hanna to bring her food and began a mukbang.
She was hungry, having skipped breakfast and lunch, and wanted to engage viewers before moving on to the gaming segment.
HoHoKoKo2: Vivian~ You seem to be enjoying your food more than usual today. Haha.
“Really? I don’t know… Somehow, my appetite’s just better today. Hehe.”
Unexpectedly, Vivian’s expression wasn’t gloomy.
On the contrary, she looked bright.
Or rather, relieved.
She hummed softly, a faint smile playing on her lips, more lively than before.
OpOpLove: Something good happen? You look happy.
“Huh? No, no! Nothing special!”
Vivian stammered, denying it strongly.
For some reason, her nose flushed pink and her lips twitched.
At that moment, the chat window flashed gold.
『Sorry (KSH) has gifted 100,000 gold coins!』
Vivian choked on her water and burst out laughing.
Each gold coin could be exchanged for 100 won.
That meant 100,000 coins were worth a staggering 10 million won.
This was the maximum number of coins a single viewer could gift at once, and Vivian had never received such a huge single gift before.
“W-what? Sorry? One hundred thousand coins?”
Vivian was at a loss for words.
But it wasn’t over.
『Sorry (KSH) has gifted 100,000 gold coins!』
『Sorry (KSH) has gifted 100,000 gold coins!』
『Sorry (KSH) has gifted 100,000 gold coins!』
『Sorry (KSH) has gifted 100,000 gold coins!』
As the gifts kept pouring in, the chat exploded.
Reader: Look at this sneaky trick to increase capacity, tsk tsk.
『Ro Yoojin (WildBear) has left the room.』
No, this isn’t it.
YamyYamy: Crazy; that’s some next-level class.
TwoMaro: Wait, KSH? Isn’t that the sniper?
Cuma85: Yeah, that’s right. The ‘Spider Witch Vivian.’ Did she suddenly have a change of heart? Haha.
KongChanHo: Hey, Spider. What’s Kim Soohyun up to these days? She doesn’t pick up my calls.
Having received half a million coins in an instant, Vivian couldn’t hide her astonishment.
“Who is this to send so many gold coins…?”
Sorry (KSH): Sorry. I wanted to gift more, but the daily limit is 50 million won.
“No, no…”
Sorry (KSH): If it’s okay, I’ll gift again tomorrow.
With that, the viewer who had stirred up a storm left the room.
“…What’s going on?”
Vivian blinked in confusion, fork in hand.
She tilted her head for a while, then shrugged.
The rest of the broadcast went on as usual.
Nothing particularly good or bad.
Even after starting the game segment, she won and lost in turns, just like any other day.
“Ah, I could’ve won that!”
Tapping the keyboard in frustration, Vivian responded to a viewer’s “One more game!” chat and immediately started a new match.
As the game loaded and the screen changed, the chat suddenly heated up.
At first, Vivian was puzzled, but when she saw the opposing team’s name, she flinched.
There was a player named ‘Spider Witch Vivian’ playing as the Mercenary Lord.
The sniper had appeared.
OpOpLove: Here they come again, lololol.
“…”
HoHoKoKo2: So, what happened yesterday?
“Huh? It was okay… more or less…”
Vivian trailed off.
Now that she knew who the sniper was, she looked down, mumbling.
Her reaction was noticeably different from usual.
And so the match began.
At the same time—
“Phew.”
Kim Soohyun, having finally landed a successful snipe, stared at the screen, tense.
Her plan to apologize was simple yet complicated.
First, soften Vivian’s heart with a barrage of gold coin gifts.
Then, snipe her to raise the stakes.
Finally, lose the match.
This last part was crucial.
If she lost outright, Vivian’s temper would flare.
She might think it was a joke and get angry instead.
Plus, they had to avoid alerting the sharp-eyed viewers.
The key was to pretend to try hard but subtly throw the game.
“Alright…”
As the match started, Kim Soohyun controlled the Mercenary Lord and dashed toward the neutral field.
Arriving quickly, she saw Vivian slowly appear from the opposite side.
When the distance closed, she charged recklessly.
Though both had entered the neutral field, Vivian had just come out of her base, so it was a risky move.
Still, Kim Soohyun displayed near-godlike control, steadily chipping away at Vivian’s health.
As expected, Vivian transformed into a spider and began to flee swiftly.
“Good, good…”
Kim Soohyun activated her avatar and leapt into enemy territory.
She had held back a hit during the previous fight.
It was a close call, but if she kept chasing like this…
“Huh?”
Suddenly, Vivian spun around while fleeing.
She shot out webs and started fighting the Mercenary Lord head-on.
“What’s this?”
With the accumulated damage, Kim Soohyun was sure she could get the kill by just running straight.
Vivian was a skilled player; she couldn’t have miscalculated.
Clicking her tongue, Kim Soohyun hurriedly used a skill.
She deliberately aimed slightly off to avoid ruining the plan.
But a second later, the skill hit Vivian perfectly.
『Hero Mercenary Lord scored the first point against Hero Vivian!』
“?”
She had aimed off, yet it hit.
But Kim Soohyun clearly saw it.
As the Mercenary Lord raised an invisible sword, Vivian subtly moved into the strike zone.
“W-Why are you acting like this all of a sudden?”
This situation could be one of two things: either I miscalculated and failed to dodge, or…
“Damn it! What a waste!”
Watching Vivian slam her fists on the desk, Kim Soo-hyun guessed the answer.
He couldn’t imagine she’d have died on purpose, so he started preparing for the next battle.
There were still plenty of chances to die—after all, it was still early in the match.
The match ended just forty minutes after it began.
A perfectly normal duration.
But for some reason, Kim Soo-hyun was clutching his temples.
The screen flashed the words: Victory.
The mercenary lord’s stats read 34 kills / 0 deaths / 32 assists.
Meanwhile, Vivian’s stats were 7 kills / 42 deaths / 19 assists.
The plan had failed.
“This is driving me crazy.”
She had tried her best to die as much as possible.
Throughout the fight, she deliberately made mistakes dozens of times, constantly exposing weaknesses.
Normally, Vivian would have gotten at least thirty kills.
But this time, she died so awkwardly in every battle it was hard to believe.
During the final big rotation, she even blatantly exposed herself for a kill combo, but still died pointlessly.
She could have kept her distance and attacked with her signature summons, but instead, she recklessly charged in and died.
Kim Soo-hyun stared up at the ceiling, shaking his head as he looked back at the computer.
“Oh, it’s over.”
But the broadcast had already ended.
Then—
knock knock
Just as he confirmed the stream was off, a soft knock came at the door.
“Who is it?”
“…It’s me.”
The door slowly opened, revealing a quiet woman standing outside.
“Vivian?”
It was none other than Vivian herself.
“C-come in.”
Soo-hyun’s mind went blank for a moment, but he led her inside.
He hadn’t expected her to come in person.
Vivian hesitated but then timidly stepped into the room.
“Sit down. Want me to get you something to drink?”
Trying to be hospitable, Soo-hyun offered a kindness he usually wouldn’t.
“No need.”
Vivian cut him off sharply, shaking her head as she sat quietly on the edge of the bed.
Her arms were crossed, legs crossed—a bit pouty.
After a long silence, Soo-hyun, feeling awkward, finally spoke first.
“Um… Vivian. About yesterday—I really—”
“Enough.”
But Vivian interrupted before he could finish.
“Enough?”
“I didn’t come here because of that.”
“…Then?”
“…”
She fell silent again.
Soo-hyun felt suffocated inside but kept his composure.
After a few minutes, Vivian finally spoke.
“Um… remember when I asked you for help a while ago?”
“Yeah.”
“We did the joint broadcast, set the penalty…”
“Right.”
“And yesterday, I said I’d help again…”
“Of course! You wanted help with the broadcast? I’m happy to help.”
Soo-hyun jumped to conclusions and said brightly.
Vivian pouted, clearly displeased.
“That’s not what I mean…”
“…?”
“The penalty we agreed on during the joint broadcast is still valid…”
“…Wait.”
If this had been before, Soo-hyun would have snapped at her to just say it straight.
But feeling guilty, he swallowed the words lodged in his throat.
He thought it through carefully.
She didn’t come because of yesterday.
She asked for help with the broadcast, and he agreed.
They did the joint broadcast, played the game, and carried out the penalty.
And the penalty they set back then was still in effect…?
‘What does that even mean?’
Soo-hyun stared blankly at Vivian.
Seeing his expectant look, she bit her lip tightly.
“W-well…”
She slowly lowered her eyes and bowed her head deeply.
Mumbling softly, she continued.
“I… died forty-two times in the last match…”
“So?”
Her pale neck was flushed bright red.
She uncrossed her arms and placed her hands on the bed as if steadying herself.
She uncrossed her legs and nervously rubbed her feet against the floor.
Her ten fingers fidgeted, then suddenly clenched the sheet tightly.
Maybe sensing his intense gaze, Vivian lowered her head even more, avoiding eye contact.
Then she whispered.
“I… came… to… receive… the penalty…”
Though she spoke hesitantly, Soo-hyun heard her clearly.
He wasn’t stupid.
After all that, there was no way he couldn’t understand what she wanted at this hour.
“So… you came because you want to be spanked?”
“N-no!”
Vivian immediately denied it.
“I want to improve my skills… and, well, it’s for the broadcast…”
Her words said no, but her body told the truth.
More precisely, her whole attitude changed.
Her face brightened, her breath grew warmer.
Her sparkling eyes clearly showed she was hoping for something.
“Hmm…”
Soo-hyun grinned.
The apologetic look was gone, replaced by a sadistic smile.
A moment later—
“Kyaa~!”
In the dead of night, a delighted scream rang out from the room, sounding almost like pure joy.
---------------------------= Author’s Note =---------------------------
For Visual Novel Season 2, here’s how I made my choices:
B - B - B - A - A - B.
Someone posted this on the forum, so I followed it exactly—and it unlocked the hidden story.
The older sister character in the hidden story was totally my type… :)
Oh, and the Vivian side story will wrap up in the next chapter.
Hopefully, that’ll be the case. (?)