Chapter 2- Thoughts About Becoming A Streamer

Within a small hospital in a semi-developed Town in Seoul, Seon-min was just coming to.

I slowly open my eyes only to be greeted with beeping sounds and soft chatters from unknown people.

“Oh look! He’s coming to.”

I heard the doctor who was talking with my neighbor Sun-Hi, said as he turned to see me opening my eyes.

Sun-Hi also turned to me before she came up to my side and said, “It’s good that your awake, if you hadn’t woken up by now we would have had to do more AIBS(Artificial Intelligence Brain Scan) to see if there was any brain injury we missed.”

Hearing that I was likely at the hospital, I began having mini panic attacks which sent the fancy-looking heart monitors beeping uncontrollably.

Both Sun-Hi and the doctor were taken aback by the sudden alert, but before they could check to see if my body had any complications that were causing my racing heart, the door to my room swung open before a middle-aged woman dressed in all black strutted into the room.

Designer clothes, designer shoes, designer handbag, and designer glasses. From head to toe, this woman screamed extremely wealthy. Her bodyguards that could be seen through the door crack also emphasized this idea.

Seeing the appearance of this woman my heart monitors increased once again, and I groaned internally.

I absolutely do not want anything to do with this woman or anyone from his family.

Taking off her expensive glasses, this middle-aged woman glared at me before she suddenly started speaking Italian.

“Enzo, you little brat. How long were you going to hide from your aunt? Look at you, I told you it was a bad idea to live on your own but now I find you in the hospital...”

Both the doctor and Sun-Hi looked at this woman in confusion, before the doctor asked in Korean, “Um, excuse me ma'am, who are you, only visitors of the patient's family can visit him at the moment. If you aren’t…”

However, before the doctor could finish his sentence my aunt, cuts him off and said in fluent Korean, “He’s my nephew, how is he doing?”

The doctor looked confused upon hearing that, and he gave Sun-Hi a small glance before he walked over to my aunt and started talking to her about my condition.

Meanwhile, Sun-Hi turned to me and asked softly, “Are you all right?”

I frowned and replied in annoyance, “You shouldn’t have brought me to a hospital.”

As if my words had angered her, Sun-Hi looked at me in disbelief before saying, “So you would rather die than be treated at the hospital? Why are you so against coming here?”

“Her.” I simply said.

Sun-Hi turned around to look at my aunt before she turned to me and asked, “Why? She seems to care about you. And I had originally thought you couldn’t afford the medical bills, so I was talking to the doctor about taking it out of my paycheck. Though by the looks of it, your family isn’t so poor.”

Hearing that, I only remained silent since I rather not talk about my current situation.

This aunt of mine was from my Italian father’s side of the family, and ever since he was alive he wanted nothing to do with them.

I didn’t know why that was, until the day after the accident when he and my mom died. My aunt showed up and took custody of me, and it was then that I found out what made my dad avoid his family for so long, and it’s because they're an Italian mob family.

As ridiculous as it sounds it’s true. However, they weren’t like in the moves where they dealt with drugs and guns, but instead, they were more like a family that focused on gaining wealth and power. Either by owning large conglomerates and companies, or having a family member high up in the political hierarchy.

And that wasn’t just in Italy but here in South Korea and around the world.

While staying with my aunt I came to see how lavish of a lifestyle one member of this long-lost relative of mine could live. Excited I was, but then the drama that could be found in every power-hungry family like this started.

Targets of kidnap and ransom were a weekly occurrence, other family members trying to usurp each other left and right. The whole family was a chaotic mess that would have driven anyone crazy.

But the worst was when the new family head was being decided. That time shit really hit the fan, and it was one of the reason’s why my dad, who was supposedly from the main family branch being the third oldest had decided to leave all of that behind and start a family.

But separating from them was no easy feat, I knew that since that’s what I did as soon as turned eighteen, and a legal adult. Though I wasn’t like my dad who could make it on his own, instead I’m living alone and got beaten up for 300 million Won that I forgot to pay. I was even sent to the hospital, making this aunt of mine find my name in the system.

For an entire year, I avoided leaving a paper trail or having my name appear in any police or hospital systems so she wouldn’t bother finding me, but now everything was back to square one.

She and I had made an agreement that if I could survive on my own, even with my leg disability, she would leave me be, but if I couldn’t I had no choice but to live with her and become as she would call it, “a Santelli.”

‘I don’t want to return to that stressful environment, I need a job that could make enough money so I don’t have to rely on her. The money my parents left me won't last for long.’

That’s what I thought, but with my leg as bad as it is I can’t achieve what I had been spent my entire life focused on until now, Martial Arts. Before the accident that was all I could think about twenty-four-seven, but now that’s it’s ripped away from me I have nothing.

All the scholarships I got were geared towards me competing professionally, but all the universities retracted their offer after finding out I could barely walk. Papers were even published on how a genius martial artist with a bright future had turned into a cripple.

That was one of the reasons why I move away from the City to this semi-developed town where no one could recognize me.

I thought about going back to school to dive into another profession but, that requires money I don’t have. I enjoyed reading books and was an addicted reader, so I tried becoming an author of my favorite web novel genre Chinese Fantasy, but that ship sunk faster than it set sail.

I let out a sigh of frustration in my heart, as I consider whether or not it was worth it just to return to live with my aunt.

That’s when I heard the excited screams of a little kid coming from the semi-opened door.

My gaze absentmindedly wondered to see a mother and father with their child.

The kid had stopped in front of the door while staring at a clear white device in his hand.

With excitement in his voice, I heard him say, “Mommy, mommy, look! It’s streamer Grim! He’s back from his hiatus, can I have your card number to send him some Bits?!”

“What streamer Grim is back?!”

I heard the middle-aged Korean mother cry out before she unceremoniously pulled the clear white device out of her child’s hand and stared wide-eyed at the screen.

I looked at this completely confused.

I then heard the father saying while trying to pull the device from his wife’s hands, “Honey what the hell are you doing?! We need that money to pay for our three months vacation! You can’t just spend all of it on some streamer leach!!”

However, he suddenly sported a defeated expression while a wide grin appeared on his wife and child’s face.

‘Sounds like she just spent a lot of money on that streamer.’

I thought as I say the husband huffing and turning away.

Then it suddenly hit me, becoming a streamer?

‘I was busy with training my martial arts that I hadn’t touched that game ever since its launch eight years ago. I know nothing about it, much less streaming in-game. Mom had wanted to gift me a capsule from her work on my sixteenth birthday so we could play, but I kept putting it off until I eventually got angry that she was insisting that I played with her and I told her I won’t ever play the game when we were in that car. It was then the car crash happen and afterward, I wanted nothing to do with it.’

Thinking about those painful memories and regret, I felt my heart suddenly aching.

However, thoughts about the game never left my mind, and for the first time since the car crash, I was considering participating in this new Gaming Era.

‘Maybe I could even support myself financially by becoming a streamer, and avoid going back to leave with my aunt.’