Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 74: Confession 'Uh oh... what do I do?'
My mind went blank.
I just stared at the landlady, blinking in the surreal situation.
'Why is she looking at me like that...?'
I was sure I was about to get scolded, but that wasn't the atmosphere at all.
Her eyes were filled with moisture, as if she were about to burst into tears at any moment.
An expression of pity and sympathy.
And... guilt?
"Eh...?"
"Oh, Do-hee..."
"I'm so sorry... Hic, sob, sob!!!"
And then, she suddenly pulled me, still sitting naked on the floor, into an embrace and burst into tears.
'What is this situation?'
I hadn't even said anything yet...
It felt like... finding your long-lost childhood sweetheart working as a cheap prostitute in a back alley.
The problem was that I was the cheap prostitute here, but anyway, she seemed genuinely heartbroken for me.
'What kind of misunderstanding is this?'
I needed to hear her out.
But first, I had to get some clothes on...
*
A little while later, after calming her down, we sat at the living room table to talk. Instead of sitting across from me, she sat right beside me, holding both of my hands tightly.
"I never knew your desire for revenge was so strong you'd go this far, Do-hee..."
"Huh? Revenge...?"
What was she talking about all of a sudden? She couldn't possibly know about my past life...
"It's okay, Do-hee. You can tell me. You want to get revenge on the Ohsung Group, don't you?"
"...?"
It seemed there was some information I wasn't aware of.
In times like these, it was best to keep my mouth shut.
"The eldest son of the Ohsung Group... So it's true... you suffered something unspeakable at the hands of that bastard... It's okay, you don't have to say anything."
She hugged me again, her face full of apology.
Our ample chests pressed against each other like steamed buns.
'Whoa, her breasts are... No, that's not what's important. Where on earth did she get that information?'
The eldest son of the Ohsung Group had been identified as the perpetrator...
Had the results of the police investigation come out?
I traced back my memories.
The first place I woke up was a garbage dump in the city. Of course, it wouldn't be a landfill in the middle of Seoul, but likely a waste collection facility.
And the clue: the eldest son of the Ohsung Group.
For the record, the Ohsung Group and the Ohsung Guild, one of the great guilds, were technically separate entities.
The Ohsung Guild was just one of the many affiliates under the Ohsung Group, like Ohsung Electronics, Ohsung Energy, and Ohsung Construction.
Of course, it was powerful enough that calling it a mere affiliate felt like an understatement, but the eldest son of the Ohsung Group wasn't even an Awakened, so it was highly likely he had little to do with the Ohsung Guild.
'So they must have investigated it to the end...'
The pieces of the puzzle were slowly coming together.
Was the original owner of my body... kidnapped, raped, and then murdered by the eldest son of the Ohsung Group?
No, I didn't have any concrete information yet.
Just because my soul entered a dead person's body, would some chemical reaction change my fingerprints and DNA?
And they weren't idiots. There was no way they would just hand over a body to a waste collection company...
'Or are they just idiots?'
I couldn't rule out that possibility, but I set it aside for now.
The important thing was that the police investigation had progressed to a certain point, realized the culprit was the eldest son of the Ohsung Group, and then stopped. And both the police and the landlady here knew about it.
'This... this could be my justification.'
I felt a little sorry for the original owner of this body, but this fact could be used to land a major blow on the Ohsung Group later.
If I used this justification to screw over the Ohsung Group, its affiliate, the Ohsung Guild, would likely step in.
And that was what I was aiming for. To provoke a great guild, get attacked, and use that as a pretext for revenge.
For now, they would be wary of public opinion, but they would start making their move as time passed.
'If the original owner of the body is out there somewhere, she might even be happy about it...'
In any case, I had no intention of denying it right now.
I felt bad for the landlady, but since she had already misunderstood on her own that I was climbing the Tower dreaming of revenge against the Ohsung Group, there was no need for me to make excuses.
"But Do-hee... you don't have to do those kinds of broadcasts anymore... No, never mind... I'm so sorry, hic..."
It seemed she misunderstood that I was blinded by revenge, trying to attract attention and make money through lewd broadcasts.
'No, that's a misunderstanding... Hmm... Wait, she's kind of right, isn't she?'
The broadcasts had unavoidably become lewd, but I was the one maintaining this concept.
If I hated the sexual harassment, I could have just banned everyone long ago, but I was the one letting it happen.
Of course, it wasn't that I liked being sexually harassed. But if you asked if I hated it... well, do I?
Honestly, I wasn't sure myself.
What was certain was that it didn't really affect me. The shame I felt wasn't the same sense of disgust and humiliation that ordinary women feel when they're sexually harassed.
To use a male analogy, it was more like the embarrassment of doing a ridiculous dance.
Add to that the thrill from the crowd's cheers and the strange pleasure derived from the shame, and even that negative feeling seemed to vanish.
My mental fortitude was also a factor.
In my past life, I was close to being overpowered, but I wasn't an omnipotent god.
I had lost dozens, even hundreds, of comrades right before my eyes.
Friends I was close with, people I had shared friendship and love with inside the Tower, were torn to shreds, eaten alive, and blown to bits in front of me.
It wasn't that it didn't hurt.
But as I grew accustomed to death, I started to think that as long as you weren't dead, you were alive and well, and I learned to move on.
So even when viewers passed around my sex videos and made fun of me, my first thought was, 'Hey, at least I'm alive, right?'
Above all, the broadcasting itself was more fun than I expected.
In my past life, I lived thinking I wasn't cut out for the stage, but now that I was broadcasting and receiving attention, it was fun.
The cheers, the recognition, the praise from people felt good.
'And I think I might have some masochistic tendencies.'
Of course, setting aside all those minor reasons, the biggest reason was...
Sex just felt too damn good. That was the main thing.
The feeling of a dick probing deep inside my pussy, the sensation of it thudding against my cervix... it was indescribably good.
Being forcibly held down, pinned beneath a man, and moaning... it was a thrilling, chilling experience that filled and satisfied something deep inside me.
I admit it.
I'm already addicted to sex, addicted to being raped.
But it's not a bad addiction like drugs. In the first place, I don't really feel the urge to do it until I'm pounced on.
There are no withdrawal symptoms, it obviously doesn't negatively affect my broadcasts, and it's overflowing with benefits like increased stats and donations.
If I were to act like an open prostitute, everyone would treat me like a low-class whore and look down on me, but so far, most people seem to think, 'It's a situation she can't help.'
Of course, my true fans seem to have already figured it out, but at least to the public, my image is something like 'a "girl crush" type of female Awakened who keeps climbing the Tower without a care, even after being raped.'
So there was no reason to abandon my current broadcasting style, nor did I want to.
"..."
As I was lost in thought and said nothing, the landlady just held me without a word.
"Do-hee... From now on, don't do those kinds of broadcasts. I'll help you..."
I felt a little bad for her, but I had no intention of changing my broadcasting style.
'I need to buy equipment...'
But I couldn't just tell her I was a pervert who secretly enjoyed stripping naked, prostrating myself, and being sexually harassed...
'Wait, why can't I just tell her?'
Deceiving people with lies was something I hated most. Of course, I thought white lies were acceptable, but a bad thing was a bad thing.
And...
Wouldn't it be okay to have at least one person to share my secret with? From the moment she caught me broadcasting, she would oppose it unless I explained myself properly.
If I continued broadcasting against her wishes, I could get kicked out of the house.
If I got kicked out of this safe and comfortable house, I wouldn't be able to sleep peacefully and might run into trouble.
Gulp...
I prepared myself, took a deep breath, and slowly opened my mouth.
"I'm... doing this because I like it."
I'd said it.
My precious secret that only I knew.
'Is this why people go to confession? I feel like a weight has been lifted.'
"Do-hee, what did you say...?"
I looked into her wavering eyes and spoke.
"Becoming an Awakened, doing lewd broadcasts, it's all because I wanted to. Of course, I'm not broadcasting and climbing the Tower just to do those things. But I definitely don't hate it. In fact, it would be more accurate to say I... enjoy it. I know you'll think I'm strange for saying this, but I'm not forcing myself to do lewd broadcasts while hiding my true feelings."
That was right. I had never once been angry while broadcasting.
I'd been embarrassed, and I'd even looked down on the viewers with pity, but I'd never been angry, furious, or felt wronged. I'd been angry at the Tower a few times, but that wasn't because of the broadcast.
'Maybe those perverted gentlemen and I just clicked?'
"Do-hee, is... is that really true?"
After hearing my words, she seemed to mull them over for a moment before asking again.
"Ahem... Y-Yes, it is. I enjoy it to some extent. Most of my viewers are men, so they're perverts, but they're all on my side. It's a little embarrassing, but I find a certain kind of joy in it."
Her reaction to my words was...
"Oh... Do-hee... thank goodness."
Surprisingly, she didn't look at me strangely or criticize me.
Even after I confessed my perverted, secret tastes, she just hugged me tightly.
"I thought you were being forced to do those things... It's okay. As long as you're okay with it, it's not something to be ashamed of... It's okay, Do-hee..."
"I-It's okay?"
"Yes, thank goodness. I was just misunderstanding..."
'She's right that it's a misunderstanding... but I probably don't need to tell her that the source of my revenge isn't the eldest son of the Ohsung Group, but all the great guilds.'
I knew the landlady was a kind person, but I never imagined she would be this accepting.
Her problem wasn't that I was doing adult broadcasts, but that I was being forced to do them.
It seemed that if I truly wanted it, if I was truly happy doing it, she would allow anything.
'I should have just told her from the start...'
I felt even more sorry for having desperately tried to hide it because I was worried about her.
I never expected there to be someone in the world who could embrace everything, with a heart as big as her chest size.
And after speaking so frankly and getting her approval, I felt a weight lift from my shoulders, and I felt relieved.
I had felt a little guilty for lying about running an online shopping mall, afraid of getting caught... but even now, she didn't ask about the lie, as if she already understood why I had done it.
"But Do-hee. Just promise me this one thing."
This time, she grabbed my shoulders with a slightly firm expression.
It was a look that said she could understand everything else, but she couldn't compromise on this.
"Yes? What is it?"
"Well... I was watching your past broadcasts... and you don't have a manager, do you? That's why there are so many people crossing the line in the chat!"
"Ah... about that..."
True, Pantheon TV's AI was good, but since I didn't actively moderate, there were a lot of people who pushed the boundaries with their comments.
"I'll do it for you, Do-hee! Make me your manager!"
"You...?"
"And it must be hard handling everything by yourself, right? I'll help you! I'll help you with your broadcasts, Do-hee!!"
It's... going to turn out like this?
Is it okay to have my landlady as my manager?
"Um... having you manage the chat directly might be a little..."
I could see the future with perfect clarity.
A future where the landlady gets flamed by all the fapping anons for banning them left and right.
This was for her sake, not the viewers'. I couldn't let her do it.
As I was about to refuse, she said,
"Hm? Oh, no. I won't be doing it myself. I'll have the security guards who watch your stream instead of the CCTVs do it."
'So that's how she found out. A security guard must have gotten caught watching my stream...'
Well, that was a relief.
A security guard who was already one of my viewers would probably only ban the ones who truly crossed the line.
"Do-hee, since it's come to this, I'll manage your broadcasts. You know... like an MCN? The kind of agency that a lot of streamers join. What do you think?"
Management...
It was true that I was being flooded with requests for advertisements, TV appearances, and interviews. I had turned them down for now because I didn't have the time, but...
'I should accept the ad deals. Mhmm...'
But there was a reason I hadn't joined an MCN until now.
"I'm sorry, but I'll have to refuse that offer."
"Huh...? Do-hee?"
"I don't think an MCN is the right fit for me..."
"...??"
"Let's start a guild together instead."
"Uh...?"
Once I cleared the 20th floor, I could become a guild master and create my own guild.
'It's about time I built a stable power base.'
I learned in my past life that there's a limit to what you can do alone.
And just in time, someone with plenty of money, plenty of time, a pre-existing power base to some extent, and an endlessly favorable attitude towards me had just fallen into my lap.
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