Chapter Text
The subscriber count on the channel DemonKingOfSalvation sat at a humble, comfortable 4,051.
It was a cozy corner of the internet. Kim Dokja, the streamer in question, wasn't known for his aim. He wasn't known for his tactical genius. He was known for narrating the backstories of NPCs he was about to accidentally run over, and for his obsession with the "cooking" mechanics in games that were definitely not designed to be cooking simulators.
Tonight’s game was Star Stream Battlegrounds, a high-octane battle royale shooter where 100 players dropped onto an island to murder each other with military-grade weaponry.
Kim Dokja was currently in a small shack near the edge of the zone, holding a cast-iron frying pan.
"Okay, chat," Dokja whispered into his microphone, adjusting his headset. His avatar, a scrawny character wearing the default outfit plus a pair of angel wings he’d got from a loot box, crouched by a camping stove prop. "The goal today isn't to win. The goal is to plate a perfect fried egg before the blue zone kills us."
[Chat]:
Uriel_79: Look at him go! A culinary visionary!
Abyssal_Dragon: You’re going to die. You’re literally in the open.
Prisoner_of_Gold: Boring. Shoot someone.
"I will not shoot anyone," Dokja said, moving his mouse in small circles to simulate ‘stirring.’ "Violence begets violence. But a good breakfast begets—"
The door to the shack exploded.
Dokja yelped, his hand jerking on the mouse.
A figure stormed in through the debris. It wasn't just any player. It was a character clad in the exclusive, Tier-100 "Black King" skin—a long black coat, heavy combat boots, and a terrifying aura of jagged polygons.
It was ConqueringKing.
Even Dokja, who lived under a rock, knew who that was. Yoo Joonghyuk. The number one ranked player in the region. The man who played FPS games with the facial expression of someone attending a funeral for a sworn enemy. He was currently on a 14-game winning streak.
"Oh god," Dokja squeaked. "It's the landlord."
Joonghyuk’s character paused. He was clearly reloading his assault rifle, his health bar flickering red from a previous engagement outside. He was low. Maybe 5 HP.
Panic seized Kim Dokja. His brain short-circuited. He intended to press the ‘V’ key, which was bound to voice chat, to beg for mercy and offer an egg.
Instead, his finger slipped and hit ‘Left Click.’
CLANG.
The sound was deafening.
Dokja’s character swung the cast-iron pan in a wide, horizontal arc. It connected squarely with the side of the Black King’s head.
The legendary figure crumpled to the ground instantly. A loot box appeared where the number one player had stood.
[Kill Feed]:
DemonKingOfSalvation killed ConqueringKing (Headshot, Pan)
Silence descended on the stream.
Silence descended on the server.
Kim Dokja stared at his monitor, his mouth slightly open.
"I..." Dokja whispered. "I was just trying to flip the egg."
[Chat]:
Abyssal_Dragon: LMAOOOOOOOOOOO
Uriel_79: OH MY GOD?????
Sunfish_Hater: NO WAY. NO WAY YOU JUST DID THAT.
Secretive_Plotter [Donated 10,000 bits]: clip it.
Five miles away, in a high-tech streaming studio that cost more than Kim Dokja’s entire apartment building, Yoo Joonghyuk stared at his grey screen.
#2 / 100
The text mocked him.
Yoo Joonghyuk did not rage. He did not smash his keyboard. He simply sat there, statuesque, his eyebrows twitching once, violently.
"Rewind," he commanded his stream deck.
The VOD played back on his second monitor. He watched the replay in slow motion.
He saw himself breach the door. He saw the "noob" in the corner. He saw the swing.
"Look at the spacing," Joonghyuk muttered to his 50,000 live viewers. His voice was a deep, menacing rumble. "He waited until I was exactly within the pan’s hitbox range. He didn't panic-fire anddidn't try to run."
He paused the video frame by frame.
"He timed the swing to interrupt my reload animation. See that? The moment my magazine left the gun, he struck. That’s a 0.2-second window."
Joonghyuk leaned back in his chair, eyes narrowing.
"And the skin... default. Angel wings. He wants people to think he’s harmless."
[Chat]:
Lee_Jihye: Master, I think he just panicked lol
Kim_Namwoon: NAH BRO THAT WAS CALCULATED. LOOK AT THE WRIST FLICK.
Judge_of_Fire: THE PAN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD
Seeker_of_Truth: Is Joonghyuk... analyzing a accidental pan kill like it's the grand finals?
"It wasn't an accident," Joonghyuk said icily. He clicked on Kim Dokja’s profile.
DemonKingOfSalvation.
Level 14.
K/D ratio: 0.2.
"He’s smurfing," Joonghyuk concluded. "He’s a professional pretending to be an idiot to mock me."
Joonghyuk opened a notepad file named ENEMIES and typed a new entry at the top, bolded and underlined:
TARGET: DemonKingOfSalvation
CRIME: Humiliation via Cookware
STATUS: Hunt