Chapter 186

As soon as the debate started, the woman’s attacks became much rougher and more straightforward than before. They were harsh enough to make anyone listening feel uncomfortable.

“Modern games have no end. In fact, that… ? The game is so addictive that many people are reportedly finding it disruptive to their daily lives. Such a game persists, causing addiction issues…”

“ has been out of service for about four years now, hasn’t it? While is set to be released soon, do you know anyone whose life is still disrupted by ?”

“I haven’t finished speaking yet. Just listen.”

“Well, I need you to say something correct for me to listen. You’re using an outdated game as an example!”

With my rebuttal, Seo Eun-sook’s face turned even redder.

Is she going to explode soon?

Despite that, Seo Eun-sook continued speaking persistently.

“The same goes for Mitubers. If they earn money by broadcasting games, they should be responsible for the people who get addicted to games from watching their broadcasts.”

She spoke as if she were targeting me.

“They don’t even pay taxes properly and show no sense of social responsibility. Their senseless behavior deserves criticism.”

The moderator stopped Seo Eun-sook from making such excessive statements. Then he looked at me and asked,

“Seo Eun-sook has just mentioned Mitubers. What are your thoughts on this, Shia? Currently, your channel’s subscriber count is…”

“Oh, it surpassed 2 million yesterday.”

“Amazing.”

“This is just the beginning. Let me respond to Seo Eun-sook’s comments.”

When people get angry, some of them just push through without presenting any evidence. That woman hasn’t changed a bit, not in the past, and not now.

Where did she even hear that Mitubers evade taxes?

Claiming that tax evasion is a problem specific to Mitubers and blaming it on games is nonsensical. That’s why it was easy to rebut.

“Which Mituber doesn’t pay taxes properly?”

“I saw it in a news article.”

“Seems like you didn’t even bring a simple news clipping. Let me ask again. If some citizens evade taxes, does that mean all citizens evade taxes?”

“I mean…”

“Yes, I haven’t finished speaking yet. When you say to feel a sense of responsibility towards society, you mean to contribute something, right? At least, I’m not someone who should hear such words from Seo Eun-sook.” ℝ𝐀ꞐՕ𐌱Ɛs̩

As I said that, I looked at the moderator, and he nodded, revealing a file with some numbers.

“I didn’t plan to use this, but this is a record of my donations so far.”

Total donations: 320 million won.

Upon seeing that amount, the woman’s face contorted. Then she tried to self-destruct.

“Are you saying all Mitubers donate just because you do? Hah, that’s ridiculous.”

The panelist next to her, who also viewed games as a disease, looked utterly deflated. It seemed like he was experiencing a so-called “wisdom time.”

When someone is that stubborn, I think it’s a disease.

“No, not all Mitubers donate just because I do. But you claimed otherwise, didn’t you?”

“You keep twisting things. Why do you keep bringing up rare cases to derail the argument…”

“You’re the one twisting things. Since earlier, you’ve been generalizing a few problematic cases and using that logic to make your point. Think about it yourself. Now I understand why the term ‘hypocrite’ exists.”

Looking back slightly, I saw even the citizen panelists nodding and smiling.

It was such an obviously hypocritical argument.

As I openly criticized her, Seo Eun-sook’s voice started trembling significantly.

The moderator quickly assessed the situation and moved on to the next topic.

“We should also discuss the game addiction tax. After WHO classified gaming addiction as a disease, our government introduced a game addiction tax. Recently, they plan to extend this tax to Korean Mitubers. What are your thoughts on this?”

Such a ridiculous justification for imposing a tax. It’s unsettling enough that game companies have to pay a game addiction tax, but now they want to tax Mitubers too?

Perhaps Seo Eun-sook thought she was an expert on this topic. She started speaking with more conviction than ever, grinding her teeth.

“It’s absolutely right. Listening to parents these days, they say their children never put down their phones. Do you know what they’re watching on those phones? They’re watching videos of Mitubers playing games. Naturally, if children are exposed to such videos from a young age, they’ll get hooked on games. Therefore, Mitubers should be held accountable for game addiction.”

Would there be more people who encounter a game first and then watch related videos, or vice versa?

Seriously, where does she come up with such ignorant and absurd logic?

Her nonsense continued.

“Do you know that the government has recently been fostering various creators, including Mitubers? The money spent by the government to nurture these creators is all taxpayers’ money. If the government has supported them at a national level, they should obviously pay the addiction tax. They gladly took the help, but now they’re avoiding their obligations.”

As I was about to respond to that ridiculous statement, the professor on our side spoke up, his voice trembling slightly with anger.

“Your logic hasn’t changed at all, Seo Eun-sook. When did the government ever support creators?”

“I saw it in the newspaper.”

“Which newspaper and what article?”

“I don’t remember exactly, but I definitely saw it.”

The professor chuckled bitterly and displayed some prepared data on the screen.

“This is a chart summarizing the budget allocated by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism to creators. As you can see, it’s quite minimal, and significant investments only started about five years ago.”

“So, aren’t the Mitubers growing based on that support…”

“The next chart shows the number of Mitubers who have received the so-called gold button for surpassing a million subscribers by year. The number had already increased significantly before the support began. Moreover, comparing the growth before and after the support started five years ago, there wasn’t a drastic increase.”

In other words, the government’s support was not linked to the growth of Mitubers.

After swiftly presenting his argument, the professor took a sip of water and sighed deeply.

“If you’re coming to a debate, please at least bring some objective data. You’re neither prepared nor willing to listen. What were you thinking when you came here?”

Oh?

That’s what I was about to say.

But it seemed the professor was quite fed up with Seo Eun-sook’s unreasonable stance. He concluded his remarks to her in a slightly emotional tone.

“Bringing down the quality of the debate with your nonsense, I feel sorry for the viewers who will watch this debate.”

“Are you done talking?”

“How dare you! According to your logic, I’m older than you! Huh?”

Isn’t watching a fight the most entertaining thing in the world?

The two of them stood up and started pointing fingers at each other, and the flustered staff rushed onto the stage to stop their fight.

The moderator, who had been watching the situation quietly like me, quickly wrapped things up.

“That concludes today’s debate. Thank you.”

What a fantastic ending.

No matter how you look at it, there couldn’t have been a more explosive ending than this.

4.

The debate, which had been full of ups and downs, ended.

Some audience members had secretly recorded Seo Eun-sook’s remarks and released parts of them on Mitube even before the debate aired.

Many people were outraged by her unchanged attitude over the years.

Later, I heard it was all planned by Sung-jae.

Thanks to him, keywords related to the debate hit the top of real-time searches, and public interest in the debate skyrocketed.

-A farce unworthy of being called a debate!

-Who was this debate even for?

-Famous streamer Shia shares her story on public TV for the first time, garnering empathy!

-Is gaming a disease?

Of course, the reporters didn’t miss the chance to feast on this. They all wrote articles about the debate, and the interest kept growing.

“You said you’d watch the debate broadcast with the viewers today, right?”

“Yeah, Sung-jae got permission from SBC.”

“That sounds fun, bro.”

“It would have been more fun if you were there! Seriously, the climax was the highlight.”

Seo Eun-sook, who constantly clashed with me, ended up self-destructing.

The sight of the professor beside me getting angry was undoubtedly the highlight of the day.

I sipped my coffee and smiled contentedly.

Jin-hyuk was also one of the beneficiaries of this debate. His name, along with mine, had climbed the ranks of real-time search keywords.

“Is it really that strong, even now, because it’s on public TV?”

“Well, public broadcasts have been around much longer than internet streams, right?”

“People our age don’t watch TV much these days.”

“True.”

“I’ll make sure to watch it later. I’m off to exercise now.”

“Alright.”

After exchanging a few light words with me, Jin-hyuk grabbed his toiletries and headed downstairs. I was relieved to see he was taking good care of himself.

Since I had already worked out in the morning, I planned to relax at home. Maybe I’d browse some online communities and search for discussions about myself.

– Title: ㅋㅋㅋ Make sure to watch it live at 8 PM today

Content: Based on videos other people uploaded on Mitube, it seems like our Evil roasted that woman all day longㅋㅋ By the way, doesn’t our Evil seem to speak really well? ㅋㅋㅋ These days, he even looks more handsome.

– Honestly, I don’t think he’s that handsome

└ㅋㅋㅋ Look in the mirror before you talk

└ㅋㅋㅋ

– He does speak wellㅇㅇ Recently, he’s even toned down his swearing to manage his image. He’s no longer “My Little Shia”

└What is “My Little Shia”?

└My own little Shia

└I wanted to keep our Evil all to myself

Most of the viewers seemed to be looking forward to it. Of course, trolls existed everywhere.

– Title: Your Evil is so uneducated

Content: Who the hell uses emotional manipulation in a debate? He has no logic at all, just trying to gain sympathy with his life storyㅇㅇ I knew he was stupid, but why did the broadcasting station even invite him?

– So which university did you graduate from?

– Author: I’m a 27th-year business major at Korea Universityㅇㅇ

└What’s your name?

└Author: Lee Shin-woo

└ㅋㅋㅋ I’m from the 25th year in business, and there’s no Lee Shin-woo in the 27th year. What kind of bullshit is this?

└ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└Let’s pin this idiot’s comment to the top for everyone to see

└Wowㅋㅋ How pathetic must you feel to fake your education onlineㅋㅋ

The world is vast, and there are all kinds of idiots.

After staring at my phone for a while, I went to the bathroom and took a refreshing shower. Then I slowly prepared for the evening’s broadcast.

Today, I only planned to watch the debate video with my viewers and chat a bit, so there wasn’t much preparation needed. Time flew by, and before I knew it, it was 7:30 PM, time to start the broadcast.

[Twipod streamer module activated]

[Set broadcast title: The Spokesperson for Gamers]

[Starting the broadcast.]

[5…… 4…… 3…… 2…… 1……!]

[Broadcasting has started.]

The broadcast began, and right on time, viewers flooded the chat with messages.

– Ahㅋㅋ I almost diedㅋㅋ I was holding my breath until you came on!

– Bro! What color underwear did you wear during the debate?

– Turn on the cam right now

– Oppa! Are you going on public TV shows now? (bounces)

– Love you, Shia

– I can’t wait to watch the debate

– ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Shia, give us a kiss

Still a bunch of crazy people.

I glanced at the chat, then turned on the cam, raising my middle finger lightly.

“Grab your popcorn, you perverts.”

I had already prepared my popcorn.

Alright, let’s enjoy the show.