Chapter 104

Park Hyuk-soo’s face instantly turned pale as if he was caught off guard.

Tae-woo, who had just entered, had no idea what was going on but said he’d go order drinks first.

“Uh, um…”

Seeing Park Hyuk-soo just repeating “uh,” Seo-jun smiled.

Saying he wouldn’t sign the contract was just a joke.

He’d kept it secret as a surprise for so long that he thought he’d play a little prank too.

“Seo-jun-nim, please reconsider just once! We only have 3 days left!”

Who told you to contact me so late?

It seemed like they’d waited for his viewer count to drop and ended up with such a tight schedule, and this was minor revenge for hiding the collaboration partner as a “surprise.”

His judgment had been correct.

If the collaboration partner was Tae-woo, there was really no reason to refuse.

He’d never done a collaboration stream before.

Many people already knew they were friends from the after-party with Alpaca.

“Please reconsider just once! Did something happen? Did you two fight?”

The expression “this isn’t going well” appeared on his face.

“I’m joking. Nothing happened.”

Only then did Park Hyuk-soo let out a deep sigh.

And he muttered in a small voice, which Seo-jun’s excellent hearing caught.

“I thought we couldn’t catch the bull market…”

Bull market?

What bull market is he suddenly talking about?

“Hello. I’m streamer Kim Tae-woo. I’m really sorry for being late.”

“It’s fine.”

Tae-woo brought the drinks and sat down.

Unlike Seo-jun, who found meeting for business a bit awkward, Tae-woo didn’t seem particularly flustered.

And.

Tae-woo whispered in his ear.

“What are you doing here?”

“I got recruited too?”

“Ah. But why did they schedule a meeting with both of us?”

Hmm.

This guy definitely forgot it was a 2-player co-op game.

At first, he’d jokingly said he wouldn’t do it, but now he really felt like they shouldn’t do it together…

Just then, Tae-woo seemed to realize something he’d forgotten belatedly, his eyes widening before he spoke in an embarrassed voice.

“Haha… just kidding.”

Who would believe that?

Tae-woo is a streamer who belongs to MCN.

So he doesn’t have to worry much about advertisements.

The MCN handles all the condition negotiations and summarizes the advertising content for him.

The convenience of just listening, making a judgment, and then doing what they tell you to do—that’s exactly why you join MCN.

Even so, forgetting whether a game was 2-player or 1-player was a bit…

As always, he wondered how this guy had been a streamer for 7 years.

Maybe being a streamer is an easy job?

“So what’s the game’s story?”

Park Hyuk-soo started the basic explanation again for the late-arriving Tae-woo.

And.

“So you want the two of us to play a 2-player co-op game?”

“Yes. There’s also another team of streamers who will be playing on the same day.”

“Hmm. No competition with that team?”

“Huh? Why would there be competition?”

“It would be fun to bet on who clears it first.”

“Haha…”

“So who’s the other team? If it’s someone I know, then maybe…”

Park Hyuk-soo hastily spoke up.

“Well, competition might be good publicity for us, but wouldn’t the effect not be that significant?”

Right. Their goal is promotion. He mustn’t forget that.

If you compete and rush to clear it quickly, it’s not easy to show all the game’s charm.

Park Hyuk-soo had to prevent this at all costs.

“It would depend on who it is, but you’re probably right.”

“Then why…”

“Because it’s a guaranteed win. Hehe. You know this guy’s skills.”

Tae-woo trusted Seo-jun.

Sigh.

The same sighing expression appeared on Park Hyuk-soo’s face again.

He looks tired.

“Haha…”

“I’m kidding. Anyway, it sounds fun.”

“Well… that’s a relief.”

Seeing him already looking completely drained, Seo-jun suddenly felt bad about the prank he’d pulled earlier.

“Anyway, back to the topic. The theme of our game’s first chapter is horror. Fortunately, Seo-jun-nim said you’re easily scared, right?”

“Huh?”

“Huh?”

* * *

One mountain after another.

His head was starting to throb.

Park Hyuk-soo suddenly missed his company’s CEO.

CEO.

I think we’re screwed.

For real.

“It’s our fault.”

“…”

“Writing the email in a confusing way, not catching the weird part and not confirming it, scheduling everything too tightly—it’s all our fault…”

“Hey. It’s not like you’ve done this kind of work before.”

Tae-woo’s consolation made Park Hyuk-soo sigh even deeper.

“You’re doing well for your first time.”

Really?

“You chose me and him. That alone means you’ve done everything.”

Park Hyuk-soo let out another big sigh.

He can’t feel fear at all. He can’t feel it to that degree!

If it were someone else, he could brush it off as showing off, but this streamer had never shown off even once until now.

Looking at his past broadcast history, everything he said sounded absurd at first, but in the end, he was a streamer who only spoke the truth.

He didn’t seem like the type to show off about something like this either.

Most importantly, the mistake of writing the email wrong was clearly his fault.

He should have emphasized “as a streamer” or asked it completely differently.

Sigh.

After letting out another earth-shattering sigh, Park Hyuk-soo slapped both his cheeks with his palms.

Anyway.

They could back out now if they wanted to, but it would be hard to find another alternative.

He had prepared other candidates, but would they accept?

With only 3 days—no, now 2 days and 8 hours left in the schedule?

‘Think positive. It could actually be good.’

Right.

The other team definitely consists of streamers who get scared easily by horror.

Maybe having each team show different reactions could create a better picture?

Park Hyuk-soo, having finished rationalizing somehow, got a spark back in his eyes.

Then he said.

“Let me make a quick phone call.”

“Sure.”

Come to think of it, he didn’t need to decide this anyway!

That was the reason for the spark in his eyes.

About 30 minutes later, Park Hyuk-soo finished his call and sat back down.

“We’re good to go.”

“You’re proceeding as planned?”

Seo-jun asked.

“Yes. It shouldn’t be too bad.”

Since they couldn’t change it anyway, they’d just push forward.

This was the team’s decision.

Park Hyuk-soo handed Seo-jun and Tae-woo the contracts with the conditions he’d mentioned earlier.

“The conditions are streaming for at least 4 hours on the game’s release day and uploading 2 videos to iTube within a week.”

“Yes, that matches.”

“Confirmed.”

The meeting fortunately wrapped up well.

Actually, he wasn’t sure if it wrapped up well.

Everything would be determined by the results.

Whether they caught the bull market, got delisted, or broke through the previous high!

“Finally, there’s something good to decide in advance. Usually in co-op games, the roles are divided between someone who provides support and someone who directly performs the mechanics.”

Especially in 2-player co-op games.

“So it would be good to decide in advance who will provide support.”

The roles change fairly between chapters, but they don’t change within a chapter.

But it doesn’t really matter.

They made the role distinction, but co-op games usually don’t require one person to do significantly more or harder work than the other.

“Oh? I should handle the mechanics. Seo-jun, you do support.”

“Why? I’m better at it.”

Park Hyuk-soo listened to their conversation and nodded in agreement.

No one would be better than that streamer.

“What are you talking about… that’s true though. Right. You are better. But usually the person who’s better at support should take that role to make the game easier.”

“I don’t mind if it’s difficult.”

“I mind though.”

As the atmosphere seemed like a fight might break out, Park Hyuk-soo spoke up to clear the misunderstanding.

“Even if it’s called support, the importance or difficulty isn’t lower or higher. It really doesn’t matter. So…”

Seo-jun said.

“See? So you do support.”

“No way.”

Hmm.

Are they misunderstanding something?

Park Hyuk-soo asked them a question.

“But why are you both refusing to do support?”

“Just because?”

“He said he wants to do it.”

The first answer was Tae-woo’s and the second was Seo-jun’s.

Ah.

I see.

Park Hyuk-soo smiled brightly.

‘Will this advertisement work out?’

He could see his company’s delisting right before his eyes.

Please let it work out.

* * *

The next day.

[Generating Level 10 AI.]

Training Hall.

In the virtual world, a woman summoned a Level 10 AI.

Only those who had defeated the Level 9 AI were qualified to fight the Level 10 AI.

So it was obvious that the woman’s skills were excellent.

However.

If you knew the woman’s identity, you’d agree that simply calling her excellent was far too insufficient to describe her.

Shin Ha-yeon.

An early-era pro gamer who won the world championship three consecutive times and reclaimed the throne last year, though she unfortunately took second place this year.

Early-era pro gamers refers to players who had existed since the tournaments began 6 years ago.

And players who had survived from the early era until now were treated as legends.

Six years might be a short period.

So it might seem strange that surviving that period earned you legendary status.

However, the number of people in the early era was really small.

In other words, over the past 6 years, the virtual reality market had explosively grown from having really few people to becoming a social phenomenon.

Overwhelming growth.

The talent pool and promising players increasing exponentially every year.

How many pro gamers retired, unable to withstand that new wave?

That’s why people call those who survived from the beginning legends.

Among them, Shin Ha-yeon is an icon who conquered 4 out of the past 6 tournaments.

And now she stood before the Level 10 AI.

[Jin Seo-jun]

The one who had stolen the position of the Level 10 AI that she had held for the past few years was a streamer who hadn’t started that long ago.

Shin Ha-yeon knew the true identity of that streamer.

“Almost done? Or not?”

She tilted her head in thought, then gripped her sword properly.

“Fighting again should bring back memories.”

Shin Ha-yeon slowly leaned forward, then suddenly charged.

The duel began.

Sword clashed with sword.

She attempted every possible attack.

Going through how the AI had responded before, one by one, the AI’s health gradually decreased from 20.

In contrast, Shin Ha-yeon’s health hadn’t dropped at all.

She had long surpassed the AI’s level.

The reason she still hadn’t reclaimed the Level 10 AI position.

Shin Ha-yeon’s sword tip stopped in front of the AI’s neck.

[Remaining Health: 1]

“This isn’t the real thing anyway.”

There was no point in winning.

She shook her head and stopped the game without finishing it.

“I’ve seen all the patterns I can with this. One more time at the end?”

While deep in thought, a message notification appeared in the corner of her vision.

[Baek Do-yul: Hey.]

Baek Do-yul.

One of the guys who took this year’s championship.

Naturally, Shin Ha-yeon’s brow furrowed.

[Shin Ha-yeon: ?]

[Baek Do-yul: Some streamer took a game title that only I had.]

[Baek Do-yul: But I thought you might be interested too.]

Shin Ha-yeon looked back and forth between the AI stopped in front of her and the message, then sent a reply.

[Shin Ha-yeon: Not interested.]