Chapter 65
CHAPTER 65
[Jin Seojun: So, is it over now?]
[Han Jimin: Yep.]
[Lee Geonyeong: Good night, everyone.]
Seojun closed the chatroom and entered the community forum.
The reason was to check a post by the streamer Ark that he had heard about through email.
“What’s TOP10?”
Just from the name alone, it sounded like a good thing, but he needed to check the details.
Seojun entered not the page dedicated to a single game on the game webzine community Adventure, but the integrated main page.
Then something fixed on the right side caught his eye.
The Seodongbu meeting ended like this.
Seojun closed the chatroom and entered the community forum.
The reason was to check a post by the streamer Ark that he had heard about through email.
“What’s TOP10?”
Just from the name alone, it sounded like a good thing, but he needed to check the details.
Seojun entered not the page dedicated to a single game on the game webzine community Adventure, but the integrated main page.
Then something fixed on the right side caught his eye.
[Today’s TOP10]
“Looks like it’s a board where they gather the most popular posts from across the entire community.”
Seojun clicked “More” at the bottom to check additional posts.
It didn’t seem to live up to the name.
Even though it was called TOP10, there were clearly more than ten posts.
“There’s talk about all kinds of games.”
Most of them were games he had at least heard of before.
And among them, the overwhelmingly dominant game was For the Sake of Chivalry.
Out of the top 50 posts, 30 belonged to the For the Sake of Chivalry community—in other words, No-Hyeop.
“The battlefield’s really this huge, huh.”
Of course, it probably helped that there weren’t any major events from other games happening at the same time.
No, actually, that was probably the biggest reason.
Apparently during the Rios period, all 50 posts would be completely flooded with Rios discussions.
“The meeting finally over?”
“Yeah.”
Taewoo kicked the door open and walked in.
“The chicken’s here. Get out here, punk.”
He hadn’t even mentioned the menu, yet Taewoo had ordered perfectly on his own.
Seojun smiled in satisfaction.
“What’re you looking at? TOP10?”
“Oh, right.”
Only then did Seojun remember why he had come there in the first place. He started scrolling back up after having gone all the way down while checking the authors of the posts.
“What’re you searching for? Most of it’s just battlefield talk right now, so it’s boring. Don’t tell me you’re looking for posts about yourself?”
That was pretty close.
“They said it made it on here, so maybe it ranked 10th?”
“10th? In a situation like this, even major streamers have a hard time getting in there. What, did you pull off some crazy new stunt again?”
“No. I just played the game normally.”
As Seojun continued scrolling upward, he started to feel something was off.
No matter how much he scrolled, he couldn’t find Ark’s post.
At this rate—
“First place? Guess it’s this one.”
Oh.
[#1] [For the Sake of Chivalry] [Today’s Battlefield. The Moment Zhujak Got Grinded!]
It was a post written by someone with the nickname Ark.
True to being ranked first, the view count and recommendations were insane.
“That’s you? The views already passed 150,000. Nobody can stop Battlefield Ark.”
Taewoo also seemed familiar with Ark.
Just what had he written? Curious, Seojun clicked the post.
And after reading it all, Seojun laughed.
The clip placement was perfect, and so were the lines.
The post explained the situation extremely well.
‘Did he say he’d take it down immediately if I wanted?’
From Seojun’s perspective, there was absolutely no reason to remove the community post.
The reactions weren’t bad, and it didn’t portray him negatively either.
“Hah. Something like this happened to you? Why do I feel bad for that user Baekho? Hahahaha.”
Taewoo, who had been reading beside him, burst out laughing too.
“You really do play games in a weird way. Seriously. Anyway, check the comments.”
“I don’t think it’s really that weird though?”
“What?”
“Look at this.”
While scrolling down, Seojun found the perfect comment.
-That Heavenly Demon villain clip was freaking hilarious LOLLLLL
Why am I like this, seriously
↳ This is average for For the Sake of Chivalry.
“It says it’s average.”
“...”
“...”
What?
After a brief silence, Taewoo shook his head.
“This is exactly why I don’t play this game.”
Honestly.
It does make me feel a little self-conscious.
Just a little.
↳ Because he’s the Heavenly Demon!
↳ Seojun is the Heavenly Demon! Seojun is the Heavenly Demon! Seojun is the Heavenly Demon! Seojun is the Heavenly Demon!
What kind of fandom is this? It’s seriously turning into a demonic cult.
-Are you, by any chance, part of the 3-Minute Curry Sect too?
-Demonic Cultists vs Curry Sect, my heart’s pounding!
-At this rate, he could seriously hit rank 16 easily.
-This is the Demonic Cult!
-He really is insanely good though. How the hell did he predict and counter that?
After a brief silence, Taewoo shook his head.
“This is exactly why I don’t play this game.”
Honestly.
It does make me feel a little self-conscious.
Just a little.
↳ Because he’s the Heavenly Demon!
↳ Seojun is the Heavenly Demon! Seojun is the Heavenly Demon! Seojun is the Heavenly Demon! Seojun is the Heavenly Demon!
What kind of fandom is this? It’s seriously turning into a demonic cult.
-Are you, by any chance, part of the 3-Minute Curry Sect too?
-Demonic Cultists vs Curry Sect, my heart’s pounding!
-At this rate, he could seriously hit rank 16 easily.
-This is the Demonic Cult!
-He really is insanely good though. How the hell did he predict and counter that?
↳ Seriously totally freaking possible.
↳ If he fought Baekho like that, wouldn’t he just stomp ranked players too?
-The stream’s hilarious LOLLLLL
MONSTER.
After seeing that, Taewoo said:
“How much bigger are you planning to get?! Stop growing already!”
米米米
↳ If he fought Baekho like that, wouldn’t he just stomp ranked players too?
-The stream’s hilarious LOLLLLL
MONSTER.
After seeing that, Taewoo said:
“How much bigger are you planning to get?! Stop growing already!”
米米米
MONSTER.
After seeing that, Taewoo said:
“How much bigger are you planning to get?! Stop growing already!”
米米米
The garage that served as the headquarters of the indie game company currently developing a game was brightly lit by the glow of overtime work.
“Boss, we got a reply.”
“What reply?”
“You know, the thing where you personally asked that streamer whether he was good at horror games.”
“Oh, that? That was fast.”
They had spent a long time agonizing over which streamer to recruit for advertising.
The reason was simple: if this project failed, the company would be finished for good.
That was why advertising was so important.
For famous franchise games, even without advertisements, most streamers would play them on their own, and just holding events was enough.
But they had absolutely no recognition.
Aside from themselves, there was probably not a single user who even knew this company existed or that this game was being developed.
Such was the fate of indie games.
“So what, indie games have no future? That’s not true, right?!”
The CEO suddenly stood up, clasped his hands behind his back, and began pacing around.
“Right, that thing…”
Used to this situation already, the employee answered half-heartedly while continuing his work.
“Dracula Survival?”
“Yes, that one.”
Dracula Survival.
It was a game with an incredibly simple plot, yet it was insanely fun.
But the reason the game became such a hit wasn’t just because it was fun to play—it was also fun to watch.
“And there are tons of cases like that. The game gets promoted through streams, word of mouth spreads, more streamers start playing it, and more people watch.”
A positive cycle.
“Yeah, yeah. Which is exactly why I’m looking for people right now. We can’t really polish the game any further from here.”
“Right. I asked the other employees too, by the way.”
“And?”
“A few of them said that streamer Seojun would be a good choice. Especially if he scares easily.”
“Then… what should we do?”
“First, what did the email say?”
“He says he’s good at horror games as a streamer.”
Being good at horror games as a streamer meant he got scared easily.
“That’s honestly unexpected. So he secretly has a weak heart?”
He had seemed like a complete psychopath before.
“He’s perfect. Recently rising in popularity, terrible at horror games, and he’s got companions he can bounce off of.”
“And if someone who normally seems calm and collected gets scared, it becomes twice as entertaining. He’s seriously the ideal candidate.”
He was already half-confirmed in their minds.
“Yeah. So when should we contact him? After we finish narrowing down the list?”
“Once the battlefield event ends, his viewer count should drop a bit, right? It’s not like his subscriber count’s gonna explode overnight and his viewers will massively increase within a week or anything.”
老老米
“Let’s do it later. Right now, it feels like his viewers are inflated because of For the Sake of Chivalry. If we wait for things to cool down a little before making the offer, wouldn’t we save on budget?”
“Yes.”
“Once the battlefield event ends, his viewer count should drop a bit, right? It’s not like his subscriber count’s gonna explode overnight and his viewers will massively increase within a week or anything.”
老老米
“Let’s do it later. Right now, it feels like his viewers are inflated because of For the Sake of Chivalry. If we wait for things to cool down a little before making the offer, wouldn’t we save on budget?”
“Yes.”
The next day.
Han Jimin sent out some emails and slept like a baby.
Today as well, she woke up from bed with a peaceful heart.
Back then, after being betrayed by someone she had helped build up, the financial loss hadn’t hurt nearly as much as the sense of betrayal. Even trying to sleep made her chest burn with anger, leaving her tossing and turning for hours unable to rest properly.
But now, she felt refreshed.
“Hehehe. Heheh, hehehe.”
[You Said Go Down!] - 7K views
[Why Mafia Games Are Scary] - 5K views
[Save Me] - 11K views
Still lying in bed, Han Jimin turned on her phone and entered iTube.
It was her morning routine.
Namely—
[This Guy Seriously Can’t Ignore a Pebble LOL] - 12K views
[You Said Go Down!] - 7K views
[Why Mafia Games Are Scary] - 5K views
[Save Me] - 11K views
Still lying in bed, Han Jimin turned on her phone and entered iTube.
It was her morning routine.
Namely—
[This Guy Seriously Can’t Ignore a Pebble LOL] - 12K views
“Ah… this feels so satisfying. Seriously. Hah.”
She couldn’t stop smiling.
Normally she wasn’t the type to take joy in another person’s misfortune, but things were different when it came to an enemy’s downfall.
The owner of the iTube channel whose view counts had crashed so miserably was Han Jimin’s former employer.
A channel that used to average around 100,000 views per video had now dropped to one-tenth of that.
Since it was a channel she herself had helped grow, you’d think she would feel bitter—but unexpectedly, she felt none of that. All she felt was pure satisfaction.
“As expected. The viewers noticed too.”
There weren’t many comments, but the remaining fans still seemed to be giving sincere feedback.
Han Jimin checked the other comments that one viewer had left on the channel.
-Why are uploads so inconsistent now?
-Please fix the spelling mistakes. 1:37, 2:14.
-Today’s video wasn’t interesting.
-The editing style feels inconsistent somehow. It used to be clean and nice.
Han Jimin checked the other comments that one viewer had left on the channel.
-Why are uploads so inconsistent now?
-Please fix the spelling mistakes. 1:37, 2:14.
-Today’s video wasn’t interesting.
-The editing style feels inconsistent somehow. It used to be clean and nice.
Those comments perfectly explained why the average view count had dropped.
“I wonder what that bastard thinks when he sees this.”
Low-quality editing with a style completely different from before.
An upload schedule that had gone from one video every day to complete chaos.
The channel wasn’t being managed at all anymore.
“He probably tried to save money and ended up like this.”
It was obvious.
The whole reason he fired her in the first place had been money.
Even though he’d never managed a channel himself before. Tsk.
Once a channel falls that hard, even if it stabilizes again, it takes a long time before the algorithm starts recommending it once more.
Assuming it stabilizes at all.
“Sigh. I should stop doing this now.”
She had laughed enough. It felt refreshing.
“I’ll only do this until tomorrow.”
Yeah. Just until tomorrow.
“Still, I really didn’t expect things to grow this fast. Even if the boss keeps creating buzz nonstop.”
100,000 subscribers!
The growth rate was insane.
And above all—
[Lee Geonyeong: I organized all the highlights from yesterday’s stream.]
[Lee Geonyeong: (File)]
[Han Jimin: Thanks.]
The work was unbelievably easy now.
Back then, she used to make one video every single day.
Uploading one video daily gave much better chances of being picked up by the algorithm.
Other editors? That was unthinkable before the channel became profitable.
But now—
They were only making one video every two days, and another editor was already taking notes on thumbnails and editing points.
That didn’t mean she was slacking off.
Owning shares in the channel literally meant she was one of the owners.
There was no way she wouldn’t feel responsible for it.
Especially now that she could roughly estimate how much money these view counts would generate.
She couldn’t help but work even harder!
“A 10-minute video earns about 4 won per view…”
Even estimating roughly, that was at least 12 million won per month.
Out of that, Han Jimin’s share was 25%.
3 million won.
And adding her base salary of 1.5 million won made it 4.5 million won total.
Compared to before—
And this was only the first month.
“This is insane.”
She had to grow this channel even bigger. Do absolutely everything she could.
“Wait a second. The subscriber count looks weird.”
She was sure the subscriber count yesterday had been 50,000.
So why had it become 100,000 overnight after sleeping?!
“25% is still slightly lower than when the previous channel was at its peak, but…”
That golden age hadn’t even lasted three months anyway.
Meanwhile, this was only the first month.
“This is insane.”
She had to grow this channel even bigger. Do absolutely everything she could.
“Wait a second. The subscriber count looks weird.”
She was sure the subscriber count yesterday had been 50,000.
So why had it become 100,000 overnight after sleeping?!