Chapter 85

MONSTER.

The indie game development company that had marked streamer Seo-jun as their advertising model was in a meeting today as well.

Just the two of them.

The topic of this meeting was streamer Seo-jun, whose value had kept rising until he’d hit 18,000 viewers.

“Listen carefully.”

“Yes.”

“Do you know what a bull market is?”

“A bull market?”

“That’s right.”

Why is a bull market suddenly coming up?

Employee Park Hyuk-soo!

They say small and medium companies usually run on the CEO’s one-man show.

In his opinion, his CEO felt more like a friendly neighborhood unemployed guy.

The type who knows a lot about everything but doesn’t have expertise in any particular field.

Actually, that wasn’t true. When it came to games, his abilities were outstanding.

That’s probably why he’d saved up a lot of money at his previous company before starting his own.

Still, the feeling he had right now was,

‘What kind of nonsense is our great CEO about to spout this time?’

The reason he kept dragging him into meetings like this wasn’t anything else.

It was just that the other employees were apparently a bit difficult for him to deal with.

According to the CEO.

‘Sigh.’

Even though things operated in such a haphazard way, their attitude toward this project was genuine.

“What’s a bull market?”

“Haven’t you tried stocks?”

“No.”

“Hmm. These days you need to do stocks to make money.”

“That kind of gaslighting doesn’t work on me. Originally assets repeat rises and falls, and what you just mentioned is typical gaslighting that comes out during bull periods.”

“What? You know quite a bit.”

“No, I don’t know anything.”

“……”

“……”

“Anyway, listen carefully. A bull market.”

“Yes.”

“A bull market is when wherever I buy becomes the peak.”

“Oh.”

It sounded like something you’d say after losing a lot of money.

Has he been caught at peaks often?

“Like you said, asset markets repeat rises and falls.”

“So what?”

“Then right now, is this streamer at his peak or not?”

So this is what he wanted to say.

“18,000 viewers. He’s mid-tier. Pretty high among mid-tier too.”

“Right.”

“His streaming period hasn’t been long.”

“Exactly.”

“Even his current viewers only flocked there because of the special content called the battlefield. Before that it was 3-4 thousand.”

“Correct. So what about this?”

A bubble.

Right, it’s foam.

Once the battlefield ends, it’ll definitely deflate again.

Everyone knows this.

“Well, everything so far was just joking around. Anyway, speaking seriously, wouldn’t it be better to contact him when his viewer count is lower?”

“If we contact him now, it’ll definitely be a bit expensive.”

The streamer probably wouldn’t think of those 18,000 people as his actual viewers either.

But still, he’d obviously ask for more than when his viewer count was 10,000.

Valuing yourself highly like that isn’t wrong.

That’s why they were also timing things as much as possible.

If his live viewer count dropped below 10,000, the cost savings could be quite significant.

“If we save money well, we could target one more team.”

“You should have made a contract from the beginning…”

This was what he thought while watching the streamer who kept mysteriously hitting the daily limit.

Should have grabbed him at the start.

“That… I have nothing to say. I was trying to find a better method…”

He had to be cautious.

If this game failed, it would be straight to bankruptcy.

“Ah. There’s one problem.”

“What is it?”

“The battlefield ends and our game opens a little later, but what if the bubble doesn’t burst by then?”

The battlefield.

And LOS a few weeks later.

Due to scheduling, to avoid having attention stolen elsewhere, releasing after the battlefield ended was an inevitable choice.

Otherwise they’d have to wait about another month, and payroll was tight.

And naturally, there would be many competitors targeting that same timing.

So advertising became even more important.

“Nah, no way.”

“Are there any more attention-grabbing events in the battlefield?”

“Well, you never know how topics will be created. But going forward, things like yesterday’s 12-win streak definitely won’t happen again.”

“That was way too legendary.”

“Watching that made me want to grab him even more.”

“There really is something amazing about him. He creates topics wherever he goes.”

“Please let our game also…”

“Anyway, there won’t be more, right?”

“Probably. Even just today, he’ll lose a lot of viewers.”

“Yes.”

“Oh. He’s starting his stream now. Let’s see how many show up.”

Suddenly Park Hyuk-soo had this thought.

The CEO said that wherever he buys becomes the peak.

Then, since the CEO decided not to buy now, doesn’t that mean it’s not the peak?

Originally in bull markets, don’t you meet the real peak when you regret not buying then and finally jump in?

‘No way. That can’t be right. This is clearly the peak.’

Park Hyuk-soo shook his head vigorously and brushed away the ominous thought.

For reference, he too had some experience losing money in stocks.

* * *

“Hello, everyone.”

Seo-jun changed the camera angle in the lobby to face him and greeted them.

“Yes. What did I do today? Just went to class and attended lectures. Is streaming a hobby?”

To be honest, he was enjoying it like a hobby.

It suited him so well and was so fun.

But he was aware that this was work.

Of course, streamers need to be comfortable first.

Otherwise viewers notice everything and get uncomfortable, then stop watching.

In that sense, teasing viewers or being teased by them is professional behavior.

‘So. Streaming really was my calling?’

It’s chilling.

He’d always been watching Tae-woo thinking ‘what’s wrong with that idiot,’ but the work that idiot did turned out to be his calling.

“Ah. If it’s not a hobby, please stream for more than 10 hours? What professional attitude. 10 hours a day is overwork.”

-That’s technically true but we don’t care about that

-Do you know why you’re a viewer? Because you don’t work

-Over?work Don’t?know

-Just work, streamer

-Health is always second to streaming. Please keep that in mind.

Hmm.

Will he never see the heartwarming sight of people telling him to take care of his health?

“Sigh. Oh. A lot of people came today.”

7,000 viewers.

It was steadily rising, but he didn’t know how high it would go.

Even 7-year veteran Tae-woo said he couldn’t predict it because the things Seo-jun had done were so exceptional.

Though it would inevitably be lower than yesterday.

-Ah lol what else would you watch if not this?

-The streamer is really a master who was hidden in the wilds lol

-It’s so ridiculously good

-The Demonic Cult is really going to win!

-Meanwhile there are still people with vain dreams

-Anyway, the battlefield should be super entertaining to watch from now on

The viewer count gradually increased and eventually surpassed 10,000.

He wasn’t obsessing over it, but it felt pretty good.

“Alright.”

Time to start now.

“Everyone, thanks to my winning streak yesterday, my fame points increased a bit, you know?”

Yesterday’s game contribution only applied to the first 4 matches, so there wasn’t much difference.

But fame points were different.

-A bit isn’t accurate lol

-It was legendary for real

-I watched it on Navigator’s stream and got chills

-The true Heavenly Demon

From today, the fame points he’d accumulated would be applied.

“Now for others to get first place, they’d have to win over 10 times each while I win once, you know?”

Even though few people probably didn’t know this, Seo-jun kindly explained.

The reason was bragging… no, it wasn’t.

“Anyway, my first place is basically confirmed. You agree, right?”

-Yes

-Frustrating but can’t help it

-I acknowledge defeat

-Already the best under heaven

-Viewers, sign here! The streamer is the best under heaven!

If he lost every remaining match, that might be different.

There are many unimaginably absurd things that happen in the world.

Even so, Seo-jun could bet everything that he absolutely wouldn’t fail to win a single match.

“So. The magical girl is off the table now, right? Hehe.”

Seo-jun smiled with genuine joy.

No matter how much he believed in himself, the world is full of variables, and if luck went bad, couldn’t things go wrong?

But now, no matter how badly things went wrong, the possibility of falling into the water was basically nonexistent.

‘I underestimated the viewers too much.’

He never expected those kinds of penalties to come up, and even less that they’d be selected.

-Damn

-Ah lol this won’t work

-Seriously disappointing but if you can do 12 wins in a row, got to accept it

-You can see he’s serious so I’ll let it slide~

-How hard he must have worked

Good thing they’re accepting it.

Of course, even if they didn’t accept it, nothing would change.

And he could see quite a few viewers who didn’t know what he was talking about.

-But what are you talking about?

-What magical girl?

-New viewers lol cute

-Hurry up and catch up, watch the highlights

[‘Magical Girl’ donated 20,000 won!]

[travel-clip]

-So there was this backstory

-No wonder he was grinding so desperately

-LOL

-It was a fight with everything on the line LMAO

The clip was perfectly timed and people understood immediately.

And once one donation popped off, other donations followed at good timing.

[‘Last Stream’ donated 100,000 won!]

[Viewer fee!]

[‘Just’ donated 30,000 won!]

[Not scared of martial arts or cooperation but scared of penalty punishments LMAO]

[‘Yesterday’ donated 40,000 won!]

[You did end the stream too quickly though]

.

.

.

He hadn’t done a review or after-party stream the previous day, so considering the aftermath, he hadn’t received that many donations.

But as if they’d been waiting, they graciously sent donations.

“Everyone. Thank you for the donations. Anyway, the penalty is over with this. Now let’s go in.”

For the Murim started and the background instantly folded and unfolded.

Countless users appeared.

Seo-jun switched to a private channel and opened the battlefield interface to check his fame points.

[Fame Points: 72,637]

-Solid!

-The Demonic Cult’s hope

-Him alone worth 14 people, insane lol

-I saw FtMCommunity yesterday and it was hilarious that the Demonic Cult actually has a chance to win lol

-This year’s Demonic Cult is different!

-Not loser cult but top cult lol

-Call them top cult, not loser cult

-Trying to avoid magical girl led to the Demonic Cult looking like they’ll win LOL

-But the orthodox faction will still win, you know?

Seo-jun, who had been reading the chat, looked away to check the time.

6:57 PM.

The battlefield opens in 3 minutes.

Today’s game was a standard 4v4 territory control.

However, since it showed which regions the rankers were playing games in, it wasn’t entirely standard.

“The orthodox faction will win? I wonder about that.”

He counted down the time.

2 minutes left.

-Then who’s going to win

-Even if you carry, your teammates are a bit…

-Don’t underestimate the unorthodox faction

1 minute.

-Now the places the streamer defends will be hard to break through

-Just go around

-Why attack the Demonic Cult anyway? It’s obvious they’ll be last place, just leave them alone~

-So where are you going today?

“Today? I’m going toward the orthodox faction.”

Seo-jun pointed to where the Demonic Cult and orthodox faction bordered on the map.

30 seconds.

-So you’re defending? Or attacking?

-Did you even plan a strategy?

-Those guys would be excited about their first chance to win and probably did plan something lol

-But the streamer will still do whatever he wants lol the only hope getting smashed

-LOL

-Viewers not listening to anything shows he’s full of potential lol

-Whose side is everyone even on!

“Cooperation? Well, I might or might not. I’ll do what I want.”

It was a bluff.

10 seconds.

“The Demonic Cult leadership in tears.”

No matter how much Seo-jun had matched the number of rankers, people were busy mocking them.

Because the Demonic Cult had never won once.

“Well then.”

Finally, 7 o’clock arrived.

“Today let’s go hunt the orthodox faction.”

The orthodox faction border.

Seo-jun chose to attack for the first time.