📰 Breaking NewsMonster Rookie with 12,000 Lifetime Hack Suspicion Reports Signs with KM Games, Min Cheol-woo📰 Breaking NewsHack Suspicions Persist Even in Real-Time 'Handcam' Streaming Broadcast. Will Debut Match End the Controversy Surrounding Min Cheol-woo?📰 Breaking NewsKM Games Requests Restraint on Questions About Player Min Cheol-woo...📰 Breaking NewsTwitch, AfreecaTV, Chzzik, and Other Streaming Platforms Sequentially Ban 'Min Cheol-woo', 'Cheol-woo', 'SteelRain'. Why?📰 Breaking NewsSteelRain Plummets to Rock Bottom. Pro Return Possible?How the hell did my life end up like this?
Why was I, once the top prospect, now rotting in a holding cell?
I had no idea. Fuck—I really had no goddamn clue.
No matter how hard Cheol-woo racked his hungover brain, he couldn't come up with an answer.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇A debt of 100 million won. That was the legacy Cheol-woo's parents had left him and his sister before holding hands and killing themselves.
The two, who had boldly declared they were starting a business, grew distant after the 2020 pandemic hit. Three months before the COVID all-clear, they were found dead from an overdose of sleeping pills.
A rough calculation showed the debt dwarfing their assets. Cheol-woo and his sister Yuri immediately renounced the inheritance.
But they couldn't just walk away from the loan sharks under Yuri's name. What had started as a couple million had ballooned to 100 million before they knew it.
"Hey! Quit the PC bang and get a job! A job!"
"I'll become a pro gamer and pay it all off in one shot!"
"You little shit! You think I quit the Olympics for fun!?"
The moment he heard the ladle crash against something, Cheol-woo bolted out the door.
This damn hole they called home. It was a one-room where curtains stood in for walls, so gaming at home meant constant nagging—loud enough to drive him out to the streets.
"Tch... I was gonna send her that 1 million from the online tourney prize. Now she makes me not wanna."
To his sister, Cheol-woo was a game-obsessed shut-in. But he had his confidence.
Rhythm games, card games, puzzles, FPS— he'd pick one up, hit rank 1, get bored, and move on. That was his hobby.
Of course, after the family fell apart, he stuck to popular FPS games that paid out. Now he was infamous, racking up dozens of hack reports a day.
He didn't even use cheats, but enough reports triggered an auto-ban. Appeals to the devs worked, but took forever.
Cheol-woo's fix: endless new IDs. Toss the banned ones. SteelRain_1 had become SteelRain_456.
'You little shit! You think I quit the Olympics for fun!?'
"Haaah..."
The memory of his sister's scream made a sigh escape Cheol-woo's lips.
Kicked out of their home overnight, Yuri quit the national kendo team and pivoted straight to modeling to cover rent and living expenses.
If he'd picked up a part-time gig to help, the debt would've shrunk to 50 million by now.
If he didn't make pro this time, he'd quit clean and get a factory job. Cheol-woo steeled himself inwardly as he entered the PC bang.
"Alright. Rank 1. Let's do this."
The game he chose: Raiders, the FPS sweeping the globe.
Cheol-woo's talent shone in Raiders too. He sent highlight reels to pro teams, but got rejected every time.
To be precise, trainee offers poured in—but he wasn't satisfied.
Trainees competed, moved to semi-pro, then grinded from second-string to first. Even fast, it took a year.
A year was way longer than it'd take his sister to chop him up.
His demand: straight to first-string pro. No takers.
Except one.
KM Games.
A team under a small company backed by a sliver of investment from Korea's powerhouse GeumMyeong Group.
The kind you acquire if it succeeds, ditch if it flops—a classic tentacle extension.
This first-string team was a low-budget experiment. Poor results? Disband immediately. Their intent was obvious.
Cheol-woo didn't care. Paying off the debt with one contract was priority one.
From that day, he hit the PC bang daily, gunning for Raiders rank 1.
Top 10 was easy. Beyond that? Fierce resistance.
Every match pitted him against pro or semi-pro 5-stacks.
Team game nature made solo-queuing pros tough.
"Today's the last day before rank reset. Pros squatting spots are mostly offline. Win all 24 games before reset, and theoretically, rank 1 is mine."
24 straight team rank 1 wins.
25 was possible time-wise, but factored in ban time and new ID logins.
Next to impossible.
But "Whoa! Got it...!"
Cheol-woo nailed it, screenshotting rank 1 three minutes before reset.
"Sis! I signed! First-string pro! They gave a signing bonus too!"
"What!? For real?"
True to their word, KM Games signed him. Bonus: 100 million won.
Ridiculous for first-string, but enough for Yuri's loan sharks.
"Oh, and I got a girlfriend."
"Girlfriend? How old? College girl?"
"Six years older. 26. Job hunter now... not unemployed."
"Find someone else."
"Why?"
Two weeks before team launch, the manager hooked him up. Age gap and unemployment were cons.
But pretty face, big tits, chill personality—perfect for Cheol-woo's first relationship.
Despite Yuri's protests, he practically lived with her in his private dorm.
Yuri griped at first, but it faded. Cheol-woo had cleared her 50-million debt—hers by name, no obligation to help.
Hard to nag after that.
One week to league start. Team launch tomorrow.
Ahead of the big event, Cheol-woo got hammered with old buddies, stumbled back to the dorm—and she was there.
"Huh? Already? Thought you were late."
"Ugh. Might black out."
"Wanna drink light with me?"
"Sorry, sis. Gonna puke."
"I'll make it like soda."
"Nah. Don't add anything."
"Water at least? H-here."
"I'm good. Crashing. Staying up might lead to trouble. Sorry. Tomorrow morning..."
"..."
A weird vibe. Hiding something, sharp gaze.
Drunk as he was, Cheol-woo clocked it, refused the drink, and headed to bed.
Consciousness snapped off into sleep.
Semi-aware: stinging elbow pricks, a "Hold still" murmur. Dream? Who knows.
"...Open up! Open the door!"
"Ugh. What the fuck?"
He woke to pounding. Head throbbed, body ached. Elbow bruised and sore.
Who's outside? Body wouldn't move right.
Then—crunch—door lock ripped off.
"Min Cheol-woo! Come out! We know you're in there!"
"In here! Master bedroom!"
"Ugh...?"
"Search everywhere. Drawers, under mats, mattresses—every crack."
Chaos.
Thugs? No—cops in uniforms flooding in. Detectives.
Cheol-woo, still dazed, watched them ransack closets, rip wallpaper.
Then a shout from the living room.
"Found it!"
"Oh!"
"Legit? Take the tester too!"
"Confirmed. Methamphetamine."
"You punk. Loaded and doing cheap shit? Min Cheol-woo, you're under arrest. You have the right to remain silent—"
"Wh-what?"
Clink—cuffs on, Cheol-woo flailing in confusion at this bullshit.
A reporter sneaked in, snapped a pic: Cheol-woo staggering like he was high.
📰 Breaking NewsKM Games Pro Gamer Min Cheol-woo: 6kg of Drugs Found in Solo Dorm... 'Shock' (Photo) -Police raid scene. Pro gamer Min Cheol-woo captured staggering as if high.That day's exclusive.
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