Rasiane is a mage.
She has been learning the common sense of the modern world, but she's still in the process.
In that sense, regarding the opponent's rage quit—or something very close to it—I had no choice but to first stop Rasiane, who was getting up from her seat, staff already in hand.
"Calm down, Miss Rasiane. You're not planning to go for an in-person confrontation, are you?"
"That is not my intention."
I didn't know the opponent's address at all, but for some reason, I felt that if I didn't stop her now, Rasiane would immediately take that staff, open a portal, and storm into Park Gi-nam's house.
"I was merely planning to go and cast a little spell on him."
"A spell?"
"Yes. A spell. I suppose you could call it an illusion, or perhaps a dream."
Rasiane began to laugh, waving her staff.
Her previous smile had been that of someone certain of victory, but this one was no different from a wicked witch contemplating a malicious scheme.
"I was going to find him and make him have nightmares every night."
"Nightmares?"
"Yes. I would make him have a truly terrible dream. A nightmare where he plays King of Fighters 35 in his sleep, but no matter how he plays, he just keeps losing."
"...Is that possible?"
"To some extent. This spell works by tampering with the dreamer's own mind, so I wouldn't even need to set up the losing patterns. That coward's own mind will do the work for me."
"So, basically, Park Gi-nam's opponent in his dream will be himself?"
"Something like that. So, right now..."
"Stop."
I briefly grabbed Rasiane's wrist.
"First of all, how do you plan to find his location? You don't know his address."
"There is a way."
"With magic? How?"
"I could search the entire country with a reconnaissance spell. It might take some time, but I'll find him eventually."
Rasiane was more serious than I thought.
At least in her words, there was no hint of doubt that finding Park Gi-nam's real-time location was impossible.
"...The power of magic is certainly incredible, but usually when a broadcast goes sideways or a controversy erupts, the producer steps in to handle things."
"Mmm..."
"I'm also disappointed that you couldn't achieve a complete victory against Park Gi-nam and are left feeling unsatisfied, but using magic to mess with someone is a bit much."
"..."
"It's a waste of mana to use magic on a guy like that, and a waste of money for the hamburgers to replenish it."
"Ah, is that what you mean?"
At my words, Rasiane's expression, which had been hardening, softened again.
'Was she bothered by the idea of using magic to harm someone, or did she misunderstand my intention to stop her from going after Park Gi-nam?'
It was probably the latter.
In that case, as a producer, I need to teach the person who will one day debut as a VTuber how to handle people like Park Gi-nam.
"First, regarding Park Gi-nam, this move will be a powerful self-inflicted wound. He's basically self-destructed. And you're not the only one left feeling unsatisfied by this ending, Miss Rasiane. Look here."
I pulled up Park Gi-nam's live stream.
"The viewers from our stream went straight to his and are tearing him apart."
"...The chat messages are appearing and then disappearing immediately."
"He's getting triggered, so he's banning them."
The place was an absolute mess.
-Why did you run away without playing the last round? Scared?
-Why not just turn off the stream and claim a power outage?
-And to think people like this are streamers...
He had already banned numerous people because of the match-fixing accusations, and now, viewers who had been enjoying Rasiane's display of skill were furious about the rage-quit-like ending and the abrupt termination of the stream. Their messages were vanishing the moment they were typed.
"All these people are getting angry on your behalf."
"...Hmph."
After checking the contents of the rapidly scrolling chat, Rasiane made her staff disappear.
Instead of asking about the principle behind summoning it, I pointed at Park Gi-nam, whose expression was growing increasingly grim as he just kept clicking away.
"See this? He caused this mess himself, but it's gotten bigger than he can handle. He's probably thinking, 'This is hell,' but he still has to protect his pride, so he's banning everyone who comes in."
"This isn't enough."
Despite the valiant efforts of the martyrs who had come to watch Rasiane and were now being gloriously sacrificed in Park Gi-nam's stream, Rasiane's anger did not subside.
"I appreciate them being angry for me, but it's not like this person is suffering any actual harm, is he?"
"You want to cause him direct harm?"
"For starters, I'd like to cast a spell on him that makes him feel as exhausted as if he'd only slept for three hours every time he wakes up."
"..."
"Producer?"
"That much... might be okay?"
The nightmare curse was a more detailed and maddening spell than I'd imagined.
Just the right level of punishment to use on someone like Park Gi-nam.
"If I were to cast it for his entire life, maybe four hours' worth of sleep?"
"If I did that for his whole life, he might go insane from mental illness, so I could also make him have nightmares at a random probability."
"That's an incredible spell. If it's just that, it might be fine, but you don't need to waste mana on a large-scale reconnaissance just to find Park Gi-nam's location."
"You can find out where he is?"
"I can't find his exact house, but I can easily find out the area he lives in."
"Like... like how you found out he was a bully before?"
"That's right."
Click, click.
"There is a way to find out... but I don't think we need to go as far as digging up his family's graves."
I was about to check the wiki to see if his location was listed, but a new situation was unfolding on Park Gi-nam's stream.
"If I wait in front of the SNK Korea branch office, I might be able to see Park Gi-nam."
"What is this?"
Rasiane let out a hollow laugh as she watched the flustered Park Gi-nam.
"Connection terminated?"
"He got banned."
A pop-up window appeared on Park Gi-nam's game screen as he was trying to find a new opponent.
"He shouldn't have rage quit."
"Hmm..."
"What's wrong, Miss Rasiane?"
"Just a game ban..."
"Isn't enough. So, just a moment."
I picked up my phone.
"I just need to make a quick call."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
<3 minutes ago.>
-Oh no, my computer!!
"This crazy bastard."
A certain streamer watching Park Gi-nam's broadcast, the Parple 1 speedrunner ReaperAjo, felt his whole body twist in disgust at Park Gi-nam's behavior.
"He's force-quitting in the middle of a live stream?"
-Huh, what's wrong with it? Did the capture card die? That's strange.
"The guy can't even act for shit, getting completely destroyed by Miss Rasiane..."
It was infuriating.
It was infuriating to see Rasiane, who had been standing there dumbfounded after the network connection was suddenly lost, end her live stream just like that.
She wasn't just good at horror games; she was a master of fighting games, too. His savior.
Thanks to Rasiane, he had reached number one, and his paid subscribers had increased by 1.5 times in just the last few days. Thanks to Rasiane, he had become the world's number one. ReaperAjo had become her fan.
Even if she wasn't a streamer, he became a fan simply because she was so good at games.
He couldn't stand that such a person had been subjected to such unsportsmanlike conduct by a guy who deserved more than just a slap—he deserved someone showing up at his house and smacking him on the back of the head.
"Hah... Should I start streaming?"
It was his day off, but at times like this, shouldn't he turn on the stream to rage and curse along with his viewers?
It wasn't simply to gather viewers after she ended her stream and get more donations; it was his own way of dealing with the fact that someone he respected and was grateful for was being harmed by a malicious troll.
But then.
[What the hell?!]
"A ban?"
-lol
-rofl
-He got banned lmaoooo
Park Gi-nam's online network access within the game was blocked.
It was as if the game company had pinpointed a specific player and declared, "You are not allowed to play against other people." No matter how many times he tried to reconnect, network matches wouldn't start.
"The guy who accused others of match-fixing gets banned by the game company. Were they watching the stream live, too?"
ReaperAjo recalled the social media message left by the developers of Parple 1.
Though the current buzz was focused on Rasiane's fighting game skills, the Parple 1 developers' social media had once gone viral for sharing and re-posting one of Rasiane's short videos.
[SNK, you crazy bastards...! You ban me instead of that hacker?!]
"Wow... if it's come to this, he's really going off the rails."
[I'm going to the branch office! No, I'm going to the headquarters! I'll turn on the stream and go right now... huh?]
"Whoa."
ReaperAjo scrolled up the rapidly moving chat window to pause it.
Mr. Park Gi-nam
Was it a joke?
Or did someone just change their nickname to mess with him for a moment?
The nickname on a single donation that appeared amidst the fast-flowing chat was quite unusual.
Yes, we are the ones who banned you. Please check the official announcements for details.
[W-wait...! What did I...?!!]
-SNKKorea: And one last thing.
Did they not want to spend more money after making a paid donation?
-SNKKorea: From now on, Mr. Park Gi-nam is banned from participating in all tournaments hosted by our company.
Perhaps the earlier paid donation was condolence money.
"Banned from official tournaments...? Wow."
ReaperAjo.
"That's weak."
He licked his lips.
"Something more... decisive..."
Permanently banned from official tournaments?
Then he can just not participate in tournaments.
Besides, there are other fighting games-
[Hey, look here. I-]
*Beep.*
"Huh?"
The broadcast ended.
The live stream cut off, the last image being the man lunging at his chat window as if to fight it.
"This... he didn't end it himself...?"
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
"Producer. What just happened? It says the platform suspended his broadcast."
"Yeah. Looks like it."
"...What kind of magic did you use?"
"Connections."
I didn't contact the platform directly.
Not the platform...
"A while back, when my old company hosted a King of Fighters 33 tournament, I happened to exchange business cards with the chairman."
With the game company's headquarters.
"And this streaming platform was planning to host a major King of Fighters 35 tournament soon."
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