The Hero's Streaming Life with the Saintess-Chapter 68: This is getting bigger than I expected.

Just as I was about to wrap up the stream, a donation came in.

From a username I’d never seen before.

[Someone has donated 10,000 watts!]

I’m truly sorry. At first, I just followed what everyone else was doing. I never imagined the post I made would blow up like this, and I genuinely regret it. I’m so sorry to my family too. I’m currently job hunting, and I’m terrified of how this might affect my future. Please, if you could show me mercy, I promise to live the rest of my life cautiously and properly. Once again, I sincerely apologize. I beg you, Hunter-nim, to show your great generosity and accept my heartfelt apology.

The second I saw it, I felt disgusted.

I didn’t even bother reading it properly.

[Bro get this pity party shit outta here!!!!!]

[Suddenly sorry because you're getting sued, huh? LOL pathetic]

[Like, why even have laws if you can just "sorry" your way outta everything?]

I opened the private message window for the donor — who was clearly one of the haters.

"Hey. Do you even know me?"

[Someone: ...]

"You go to the same school as me or something?"

[Someone: No, sir...]

I didn’t want to exchange another word.

Anyway, even if you forgave people like this, they'd just pull the same shit again later.

"This donation’s getting refunded through PajiZik, so don’t get any ideas.

And don’t ever pull crap like this again."

[Someone: Yes, I’ve learned my lesson from this... I’ll never do it again...]

[???]

[Is the Hero actually going soft??]

[You're not seriously forgiving this, right?]

[Someone: Hero-nim, so does that mean you'll drop the lawsuit?]

I ignored it and closed the private message window.

The viewers who’d been eagerly hoping for a public execution were going nuts.

"What are you guys even talking about?"

[?]

[It sounded kinda like you were forgiving him just now...]

[Wait, you're not... right?]

I immediately contacted PajiZik’s partner-only customer service and filed a refund request.

And I permanently banned that donor.

"An apology’s an apology.

But if you fuck up, you still gotta pay for it, right?"

****

A dark, musty-smelling room.

Inside, a woman was nervously biting her nails.

Things were spiraling out of control.

"There’s no way he’ll actually sue, right? He’s a famous guy.

It’s probably just for image management..."

She sat there, sneering at the world through her monitor, hiding in the shadows of anonymity, tapping her keyboard.

She got drunk on the feeling that she was controlling the world.

Just for fun, out of habit, fueled by jealousy and anger she couldn’t even explain.

"Fuck... Everyone else does it. I’m not the only one...

Just writing a few posts — is it really that big a deal?"

Not once had she ever considered that her words might actually hurt someone.

Or rather, she'd never bothered to ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) think about it.

Why should she care if it’s not her own wound?

"What do I do now...?"

Because now, that famous Hunter was actually suing.

He’d already hired lawyers and was collecting evidence live from his viewers.

"I deleted everything though... I double-checked and cleaned up all my comments too..."

But even as fear gnawed at her, real reflection never came.

"Fucking hell... why the hell did it have to be me..."

And the reason she posted those things?

Nothing complicated.

Seeing Hunters on the news — successful, famous, rich — made her jealous.

That was it.

People doing better than her, loved by many — she hated them more.

The better they were, the more she wanted to tear them down.

"Ha... How much would a settlement even cost?"

Her computer screen was already flooded with case law and legal codes.

"Wait... am I the only one freaking out?"

She turned on her phone and opened a group chat on a messenger app.

A whole bunch of "perpetrators" like her were gathered there.

Seriously, suing just because an S-Rank got some mean comments?

Can’t he just be the bigger person and let it go?

Motherfucker’s rich, why’s he being such a petty bitch?

Even now, they couldn’t admit fault — they only whined about how the world was unfair to them.

"He... He said if we snitched, we might get some leniency, right?"

Why had they all gathered there in the first place?

Because someone had offered them money to post.

And the one who recruited them finally answered in the chat.

Don’t worry, guys. Celebs always bluff about lawsuits, then quietly drop it.

Especially an S-Rank — like he’s really gonna sue over something so petty?

Even if he does, he’ll settle fast.

Right?

Hey, when are we getting paid for writing those posts...?

"I didn’t do anything wrong.

I just posted because they promised money.

The one who ordered it is the real criminal, right?"

tap tap tap...

Hiding behind her mask of anonymity, the woman was sending something to Song Hun’s email.

But she wasn’t the only one thinking that way.

****

Change always starts from the smallest crack.

Non-public conference room at the Seoul Government Complex.

Key figures of the national government were sitting in silence, their expressions sharp and serious.

"...This isn’t just some petty online trolling incident."

One of them cautiously opened their mouth and placed a thick file on the table.

The reason for the heavy atmosphere?

Someone had already visited this place earlier.

"This isn't some dumb joke on an internet forum.

It’s the organized spread of false information and defamation targeting an S-Rank Hunter —

a national strategic asset."

The data projected onto the screen showed an overwhelming amount of twisted, false posts targeting Song Hun.

A clear pattern, systematic and deliberate, emerged from the analysis.

"If, due to this false smear campaign, he becomes mentally worn down, and chooses to emigrate or stop working..."

Silence fell over the room.

This wasn’t just a small incident anymore.

Every single S-Rank Hunter represented a piece of a nation's power.

"Song Hun, his lover Lyla, and his mother Geum Hyejeong."

Three S-Rank Hunters were involved in a single case.

"There’s no precedent for this. An S-Rank Hunter losing their public function because of malicious rumors?

It’s the first time since the establishment of the Republic of Korea’s Hunter system."

"Leniency? Fines? Suspended sentences?"

Everyone shook their heads at the same time.

"Not this time. If we hand down another half-assed, slap-on-the-wrist ruling..."

They imagined what would happen if that were the case.

It was obvious public support would plummet.

And what if the worst happened — and the country lost three S-Ranks all at once?

"This needs to be made an example of."

They ran the numbers in their heads and reached a decision.

"So the haters who got sued this time..."

"Yeah, unfortunately for them, they’ll have to become examples."

The room fell into heavy silence, broken only by the sound of someone sipping water.

And then, coldly, someone spoke.

"The value of people who pull shit like that can’t even be compared to an S-Rank Hunter."

What had been written for fun, out of petty spite, or for a quick buck was now coming back like a massive boomerang.

"Since they were already warned... we have to deal with this properly."

Temporary spokesperson for communicating with the legal team.

I regularly dropped by my lawyer’s office to get status updates.

"Holy shit... there’s a lot, huh?"

"Yes, well, you are a public figure, Client..."

"There’s still more coming in, right?"

"Yes. And actually, we’re getting reports from people claiming to be insiders too.

But there’s something odd we noticed..."

"Something odd?"

It was that some people were claiming they got paid to post.

If it were just one or two, we might’ve brushed it off — but there were a lot of them making the same claim.

"Most of them are the ones who wrote the posts directly, huh?"

"Yes.

So, we’re thinking... maybe this was an organized posting campaign, with payment involved."

"People who hate me so much they'd pay for this..."

It was a weird, hard-to-explain feeling.

This wasn’t some full-on terror plot to kill me, or a high-level scheme with fabricated evidence to bury me.

No, it was way more low-tier.

Just petty framing.

'If they were trying to kill me, I’d be blaming the remnants of the cartel.

If they were trying to fake evidence and erase me, I'd be suspecting China.'

"Also, we did some digging with additional help...

Looks like they took cash payments only — no digital traces."

"Thorough bastards."

"Yes.

So now, we're planning to interview the so-called insiders in person.

And one more thing..."

Even though we were alone in the office, the lawyer leaned in closer, lowering his voice carefully.

"Client...

What I’m about to tell you cannot leave this room."

Why the hell’s he acting so serious all of a sudden?

I nodded.

He let out a slow breath and bowed his head even lower.

"Someone from inside the judiciary...

wants to unofficially provide you with information."

The government getting involved... over some hate comments?

"This thing’s snowballing way bigger than expected."

I tilted my head, and the lawyer, looking relieved, continued.

"You see... hate comments can cause way more damage than people think.

If you — an S-Rank Hunter — get seriously hurt by this and stop working, or even emigrate...

The country would suffer a massive loss."

Not that it really hurt me.

My mental toughness was way too solid to get wounded over something like this.

"Hey, if they wanna help, I’m all for it."

Ding!

"Oh, looks like something just arrived."

The lawyer opened his laptop and started reading slowly.

"Huh?"

He tilted his head, reading deeper, and then looked up at me.

"Have you ever had any issues with a civic organization?"

"What?

A civic group?"

This wasn’t just catching small fish anymore.

This was a big one.