The Hero's Streaming Life with the Saintess-Chapter 9: This Is My Personality

Faith Donation.

Money you offer to a church or temple.

But this isn’t a church or a temple. This is an internet stream.

Still, 献金—

Literally, money you offer.

[Oh wow that actually makes sense, you crazy bastard]

[Wow! That’s exactly the kind of knowledge I wanted!!!!!!]

“Anyway, if you wanna see it, you better start coughing it up.”

[SaintessFootTowel has donated 300,000 Watts!]

– If it’s not mind-blowing, I’m seriously unsubbing, wtf.

My heart warms a bit at that generous donation.

“Everyone, try not to freak out.”

I said it like I was setting up some grand reveal, then glanced at the camera with a sly grin. I started fiddling with an earring in one hand.

[Don’t smile like that;;]

[Dude's face is scary af]

[Wait... that guy’s the Hero?]

“Clip it, record it, whatever. Just keep your eyes open.”

I placed the earring in my palm. As soon as I channeled mana into it, it began to glow and grow in size. It kept growing until it turned into a weapon—

A big, pitch-black club.

“How’s that? My Holy Sword.”

I slung the club over my shoulder, flexed a finger.

[?]

[...?]

[What the hell?]

Everyone went speechless at the amazing(?) performance.

“This is my Holy Sword.”

[SaintessFootTowel has donated 10,000 Watts!]

– Bro what the fuck, how is that a sword

The chat instantly exploded.

But with all my streaming experience, I knew how to handle this.

Well—Lyla handled it for me.

“Everyone, please calm down. Let’s try not to say things we’ll regret.”

With that honey-sweet voice of hers, she started pacifying the chat, and sure enough, the chaos began to die down.

Once things were calmer, I finally spoke up.

“Sorry it wasn’t what you expected. But you gotta admit, it was surprising, right?”

[...]

[Okay yeah, that was kind of wild.]

[Wait... are there actually artifacts like that?]

It’s not some throwaway artifact you can find at any market stall.

I couldn’t help being disappointed in their cluelessness.

[But like... with that face, that build, and now he’s holding a club? Dude’s terrifying]

[What if he gets canceled later for school violence or something lmao]

No need to worry about school violence scandals.

If anything, I was the one getting hit back then—I never beat anyone up.

“Anyway, this is a divine artifact forged by dwarves over months of hammering.”

[Well duh, it’s the Hero’s weapon, of course it’s insane]

[Bet elves are gonna show up next lol]

[Wait, what about a friend who's the emperor or something?]

[I’m a returnee too and I’ve got a dragon buddy, fr]

Soon enough, they just started chatting among themselves.

Someone claimed to be a prince, another said he had five wives... classic chat nonsense.

Seeing that stream end time was coming up, I figured I should start wrapping up.

“Alright, time to...”

[OverflowingDivinePowerPouch has donated 10,000 Watts!]

– I don’t have any Hunter friends, but do artifacts like that actually exist?

[idk? First time seeing one of those]

[But seriously, that’s crazy cool]

[If you could carry your weapon like that, it’d be busted af]

[ThrowThatResignation has donated 5,000 Watts!]

– I work at a shitty little guild but I’ve never seen an artifact like that wtf

I had no idea either.

Updat𝒆d fr𝑜m freewebnøvel.com.

The only artifacts I’ve ever seen were during that sparring match with Mom.

[If this stream goes viral, the Hero’s phone is gonna blow up]

[But yeah, if it's an earring, the portability is next-level;;]

[Now every accessory the Hero wears looks like a damn artifact;;]

Hmph. It would be annoying if people started blowing up my phone like the chat said...

But are they seriously telling me nothing like this exists anywhere?

[ThrowThatResignation has donated 5,000 Watts!]

– I’ve seen retractable sword artifacts, but one that completely changes form? Never, legit.

“Hmmm...”

[Dude's gonna get nonstop calls now lol]

[Your life just popped off, bro 😂]

[Only on Day 3 of streaming and already fielding DMs from everywhere]

“Ugh... this is gonna be a pain in the ass...”

[😂😂😂😂😂]

[Totally worth the 300 bucks]

“Since I’m about to get swamped anyway... how about you all pre-pay your faith donations?”

The chat immediately turned into a flood of question marks.

Mixed in were a good amount of curses.

Still, my generous viewers insulted me and dropped some serious cash.

“Well then, I’ll end the stream here for today.”

[Bye, Hero]

[Peace out]

[Get lost]

Wrapped it up on a wholesome(?) note.

The moment I hit “end stream,” my phone rang.

“...Mom?”

“Son, you do know why I’m calling, right?”

“...”

“I know Lyla’s with you, so neither of you are going anywhere. Stay home.”

****

“...”

A phone call, like she’d been waiting for this moment.

She probably wanted to ask about the weapon I showed on stream.

And yep, I was right.

“Son... what were you thinking showing that on stream... ha...”

Honestly, I didn’t get why my parents were taking this so seriously.

It’s not like it had any destructive magic or anything. It just... changes shape. That’s it.

“You really don’t understand the scale of this, do you? Do you even know how much money gets poured into artifact research every year?”

“I... not really?”

I couldn’t even wrap my head around the number.

It was so absurd that I had no sense of scale anymore.

Even the U.S.—yeah, the U.S.—was outspending their defense budget on this.

“And that’s not even all. Do you know what kind of implications that artifact of yours has?”

We’re not even talking about practicality or portability.

The fact that it’s small means you could carry extra artifacts just in case.

...Small?

“It means you can disguise it as something harmless. # Nоvеlight # It won’t even get flagged during inspection, obviously.”

Thanks to the artifact’s compact form, it’d be easy to smuggle—

Or hide with malicious intent.

Now that I’d heard my parents out, I had to admit...

Yeah. This was kind of serious.

“People will come poking around. They’ll want to investigate that weapon of yours.”

There’d be no shortage of folks eyeing it greedily.

Some would come for it in secret.

Some might come officially.

And in the worst-case scenario... they’d come for my life.

Not that I’m scared of people coming for my life.

“There’s one way to stop all that. Just prove you’re strong enough that no one dares to touch you.”

I smiled. The smile deepened.

Simple is best.

And my mom’s solution?

It fit me better than anything.

“Sounds easy enough.”

I might have to move up the plan to hit the Gate at Mount Baekdu.

Originally, I was going to wait a while.

But thanks to the weapon I showed, I was already in the spotlight.

****

Even the next day, the buzz wouldn’t die down.

[Author: anon]

[Title: How much would an artifact like that even cost?]

[Post: (clip of ThatFreakingStrongHero) Bro, I thought he was just flexing with that earring, but turns out it’s a goddamn artifact. Gave me chills lol]

↳ No clue about the price, but what’s certain is everyone’s drooling over it.

↳ Some country might just snipe the Hero and jack his gear lol

↳ Can’t our country’s big guilds or the Association protect him?

↳ lol if a whole country’s making a move, what the hell can some guild do

↳ Still, this dude’s probably losing his mind right now

↳ If he drops the stream on Day 3, that’s an instant legendary LMAO

Of course, this wasn’t just a hot topic in some niche forum.

Clips started getting reposted all over the internet.

YouTube, Stargram, TokTalk—name a platform, it was there.

[Association: “We have no knowledge of this artifact.”]

[What’s the value of the Hero-Streamer’s artifact?]

[Black market risks? Association: “No comment.”]

Even the news had picked it up, blurring my face on screen.

And somehow, random unknown numbers kept calling me.

Whatever. Time to go live.

[ThatFreakingStrongHero: I think I’m just straight up fucked.]

Unsurprisingly, yesterday’s stream had stirred up so much attention that the viewer count skyrocketed.

It was moving so fast I could barely read chat.

[yo is this the dude? The crazy-strong Hero guy?]

[Hero my ass lmao, he just looks like a thug]

First things first—I changed chat settings so only users who’d followed for at least 2 days could comment.

That instantly filtered out the trolls and cleaned things up.

“Sigh... so many clowns in here.”

[Tbh I figured you’d be the main streamer, not the Saintess lol]

[Lmao hang in there bro]

[You’re all over the news btw]

[MOM I MADE IT ON A STREAM!!!]

[SaintessFootTowel has donated 50,000 Watts!]

– You sound stressed. Get some fried chicken or something...

Half the time that guy’s cursing at me, and now he’s showing this sweet side?

If I ever make it big as a corporate streamer, I might just send him a signed photo.

“Thanks for the comfort, man...”

[SaintessFootTowel has donated 1,000 Watts!]

– I was talking to the Saintess, dumbass. Why would I care about you?

“Oh dear~ Thank you~ I’ll eat well~”

“...”

[ThrowThatResignation has donated 30,000 Watts!]

– You sound hella busy. Are you okay?

“I’m fine. I’m unemployed, so I don’t have anywhere to be...

But yeah, I am getting a ton of random calls lately.”

[OverflowingDivinePowerPouch has donated 100,000 Watts!]

– Hero-ham... you’re still gonna keep streaming, right?

“Of course. I mean, you guys keep sending faith donations.

Wouldn’t be very Hero-like of me to take the money and dip, right?”

The viewer count wasn’t even comparable to before.

But most of the chat now came from people who’d been watching me from the start.

I’d set the minimum donation to 30,000 Watts, so even the trolls had to think twice.

[Anonymous has donated 3,000,000 Watts!]

– Are you seriously not open to selling that artifact? Or at least... letting me take a look? I’ll pay whatever you want.

It was the first massive donation I’d ever gotten.

And the donor had hidden their name, only visible to me.

And that nickname...

Was one that definitely piqued my interest.