Chapter 114

Stream, the game distribution platform and subsidiary of Surface, was a massive corporation that held 30% of the global game distribution market.

However, despite their scale, they weren’t receiving particularly favorable reviews.

The reason was that they had been perpetual runners-up.

First place was Crown, which devoured 55% of the distribution market.

Crown was the traditional powerhouse of the game distribution market.

From the PC era onward, Crown had completely dominated the PC gaming market at one point through their devious strategy of offering 50% to 90% discounts at every opportunity, opening the wallets of users who didn’t even play games.

And they were recognized as the most successful transformation among existing companies in adapting to the paradigm shift of virtual reality.

While companies from other sectors lost market share to Surface’s subsidiaries, Crown proudly maintained their position as the industry leader. It was a well-deserved assessment.

A section manager at Stream Korea, the perpetual runner-up, was polishing up a report.

“Lost again this time.”

Surface was an absolute company that monopolized the virtual reality market.

With overwhelming technological prowess, capital, and the advantage of being the first mover, they had effortlessly pushed aside traditional powerhouses.

However, they couldn’t devour every market.

“Ah, I wish our parent company would just prevent games from being made if they don’t distribute through Stream.”

That would never happen.

Interfering with fair competition would result in getting hit with antitrust lawsuits from courts around the world.

The company would be torn apart and lose significant influence.

From Surface’s perspective, it would be like getting hit by a speeding truck while trying to pick up loose change from the street.

In that case, it was much better to just leave Stream alone and turn a blind eye.

“So we’re basically like an abandoned child.”

That didn’t mean Stream was lacking in any way.

Even if it was an abandoned child, a parent was still a parent, and their parent was a conglomerate.

Therefore, globally, Stream was fighting to steal Crown’s market share with at least no shortage of funding.

South Korea was one of the regions with the best performance.

Crown’s market share in Korea was 45%.

Stream held 40%.

Just a 5% difference.

“I want to win.”

Game distribution platforms compete through exclusive titles that can only be purchased through their platform.

Exclusive titles have the most direct impact on platform market share.

“Who makes better, more entertaining games, supports them better, releases them, and promotes them harder.”

That’s how they secure users and continue releasing more games to keep them using their platform.

This was their job, and the section manager genuinely loved his work.

He was someone who truly loved games.

That’s why he believed distribution companies had a responsibility to help developers attempt various experiments for the sake of industry development.

And he had been working that way.

“But the results haven’t been particularly great.”

The company had plenty of money and a high reinvestment ratio, so he could support various game companies with his approach.

But ultimately, to prove his method was correct, he needed to beat Crown and show results, and the performance so far, including the work that was released a week ago, hadn’t been that impressive.

“MONSTER was releasing today.”

The game Two Heads are Better, for which he had secured budget after countless meetings and persuasion.

Now that it had reached the point of release, all he could do was purely hope for success.

That’s when the phone rang, and the section manager made a face like he didn’t want to deal with it as he pondered.

Should he answer?

Or not?

[Crown Assistant Manager Kim]

It was his college classmate and friend who worked at the competing company Crown.

Sigh.

“Hello?”

-Oh, Seung-cheol, how are things going lately?

He’s asking even though he obviously knows.

“Haha. Well, so-so? You guys did pretty well with what came out a week ago. Congratulations.”

-Oh that? I was involved in that project from the planning stage all the way to the end. Hahaha. Couldn’t miss this Super Week.

Super Week, yeah right.

It was just an empty period with no topics after the battlefield ended, which happened to be when packaged games sold best.

What his friend brought during that period were just predictably decent games that would sell moderately well.

“Is that so? Congratulations.”

-Yeah. If this goes well, I might get promoted to manager.

His stomach felt slightly queasy.

-I also saw the game your company released today. A 2-player cooperative game? Wouldn’t 2 players create quite a barrier?

Those were the concerns his boss had voiced and the reason for rejecting support that came from his friend’s mouth.

-Plus the beginning mixes in horror elements. Hmm. Seems ambiguous.

How did he find that out?

The tutorial had just barely ended since it had been released.

He must have done background research.

It was a natural thing to do.

Actually, he and his friend had been clashing in their thinking since college days.

But working in the same industry doing the same job had maximized those differences.

“The game turned out well. You’ll see when you play it.”

-I know. It’s something you picked after all. But you know as well as I do that artistic merit and commercial success often go separate ways. You need to get promoted to assistant manager quickly too. It’s not an industry that’s been stagnant for long, so promotions happen fast, but you can’t stay at section manager forever.

He’s giving unsolicited advice now.

-I’ve been hearing that your evaluation has been a bit risky lately? You don’t fail often, but you don’t hit any home runs either.

The section manager muttered internally.

What an annoying bastard.

His friend belonged to the “playing it safe is the best approach” school.

That’s why they clashed.

-Well, it’s not really my place to say, but I started 2 years later than you and I’m sorry for getting promoted to assistant manager first.

Yeah right, like he’s sorry.

“Yeah, yeah. So why did you call?”

-I saw you were advertising, and I wanted to congratulate you on landing that streamer.

Ah.

The section manager realized why his friend had called at that moment.

He called to pick a fight because he lost that streamer.

“Thanks.”

-Yeah. I heard the amount was almost at maximum. Was there any other secret to landing them?

“Nothing. He just said it looked fun.”

If a post about a topic you’re not interested in reaches the top ten on the gaming community Adventure, regular users can just ignore it.

But industry insiders are different.

They have to examine every single post that appears on Adventure to track trends.

That’s why no one would know better than them about the appearance of an incredible talent.

Well, maybe the users of For the Murim would know just as well?

The section manager smiled slightly as he spoke.

“You guys wanted to get that streamer too.”

-Oh? Well…

“I heard you guys also matched the amount to the maximum.”

For reference, the section manager had also done background research on his friend.

-That’s true. But we didn’t bid higher. Getting a streamer doesn’t guarantee anything. You know that, right?

He definitely called to say this.

It was annoyingly true.

A streamer being able to generate buzz doesn’t mean they can save a game—that’s nearly impossible.

Advertising through streamers is only for raising awareness.

For a game to be a hit, it needs to become a hot topic.

And a game becoming a hot topic and getting people talking about it is, in industry terms, something that comes from heaven.

In other words.

-Getting a good streamer doesn’t guarantee a hit game, does it? If that were the case, major corporation streamers would have income multiplied several times over. Hehe. Right?

What his friend was saying was this,

You got that streamer?

But that doesn’t really mean anything.

This way, the loser who failed to get Seo-jun had definitely come for some consolation victory.

The section manager also finished his own consolation victory.

“Yeah. Let’s grab a meal sometime.”

-Sure. I’ll hang up.

The two ended the call in typical Korean fashion.

A meal promise? Like hell.

“Ah.”

He glanced at his watch and started wrapping up to leave.

He actually had a meal appointment.

“Speaking of which, Crown has been paying special attention to streamers lately. Is it because of that?”

He’d heard they were preparing something like a partner program for game companies where streamers couldn’t play competing companies’ (Stream’s) exclusive titles for a certain period in exchange for starting new releases earlier or receiving various support.

Regardless of whether streamers could create hits or not, the streaming market had grown enormously and was definitely a market that needed to be secured, so Stream would also jump in.

If that’s the case, would streamer acquisition competition become fierce in the future?

Thinking he wasn’t sure yet, he called the CEO of development company MONSTER.

“Hello?”

-Ah, Section Manager. I’ll arrive at the company shortly.

“Haha. Take your time, CEO. By the way, how’s the game’s reception? You’re watching the advertising stream, right? I just finished work so I couldn’t keep track.”

-Yes, um. It seems just average so far.

“Haha. Don’t worry too much though.”

Average wasn’t good.

Most games get buried without becoming a topic. Averagely.

However.

The section manager smiled slightly.

They had something they believed in.

Namely, this game’s highlight.

The chase sequence.

“It’ll do well. After all…”

That chase sequence was truly, truly terrifying.

-I’m not too worried either. The Heavenly Demon will handle it somehow.

Ah.

So he wasn’t believing in the game but something else.

Joining a demonic cult, huh.

He was slightly disappointed.

“Hahaha… Then I’ll see you in a bit.”

For reference, he was formerly.

A player of a great orthodox sect.

* * *

Seo-jun spoke nonchalantly.

“Well, they’re not doing anything and just leaving.”

The bizarrely shaped doll that had been watching them through the gap had disappeared without a sound at some point.

The exact appearance couldn’t be determined.

It had brought its face so close that light couldn’t enter properly.

That aside.

Seo-jun turned his gaze to stare directly at Tae-woo.

“So how long is this guy going to stay like this?”

Meanwhile, Tae-woo remained completely motionless as he thought.

I’m screwed.

This was the first word that came to Tae-woo’s mind when his brain resumed functioning 30 seconds after being momentarily paralyzed.

The next word was this:

I let my guard down.

The horror element the development company mentioned was in Chapter 1, and what he thought was no big deal was probably the tutorial.

When people are too shocked, they say you freeze up and can’t even scream, right?

Tae-woo deeply experienced this statement today, and as a result.

-Hello?

-What are you doing?

-This guy seems frozen lol

-This bastard made a quiet “hup!” sound and got scared the moment the doll appeared. I heard it clearly lol

-Could it be he’s easily frightened?

-Thinking about it, this guy has never played horror games. Let’s ask the boss to confirm

The viewers deduced the situation like solving a puzzle.

And Seo-jun was grinning as he watched with an expression of anticipation for what excuse he might make.

Tae-woo’s eyes rolled around, avoiding Seo-jun’s gaze.

Damn.

What excuse could he possibly make here?

His heart was still pounding.

Unable to find words, Tae-woo continued to remain frozen, so Seo-jun struck first.

“Ah, is this a horror game? The game company did say the first chapter would have a somewhat horror atmosphere.”

-Aha

-Horror flavor added? Even better

-Oh, the streamer’s horror game!

-Is the streamer easily scared by any chance?

“I’m not particularly afraid, but someone else seems different?”

“…What are you talking about.”

Tae-woo barely squeezed out words and moved his body.

But perhaps because his body had been so tense and was now relaxing, Tae-woo just collapsed right there.

Thud.

-HAHAHAHA

-Is your body creaking?

-More than creaking, he just fell over LMAO

-How scared were you exactly! LOL

Now it really couldn’t be undone, could it?

And most importantly, Chapter 1 was just the beginning, so the future looked bleak.

Even so.

“I said that’s not it.”

If he admitted it now, he might have to play even more horror games in the future, so Tae-woo stubbornly insisted.

-What’s not what?

-We’re putting horror games in all future punishments lol you scaredy-cat

-LOL Getting startled? Admitted. Freezing up? Admitted. But legs giving out? Not admitted lol

-You’re done for from now on lol

Of course, nobody believed him.

Tae-woo despairingly rubbed his face as he imagined the future.

How much would he be dragged into these things in the future?

And how scary would they be?

That was the most worrying part.

No, suddenly jumping out like that is seriously insanely scary!

“Hey, if you’re this easily scared, why did you even take this advertisement?”

Now he’s treating it as half-established fact.

Tae-woo eventually gave up and confessed.

“I didn’t know! I didn’t know it would be this scary!”

-Scaredy-cat lol

-Coward lmao

-I didn’t know it would be this liberating so early!

-There are two holes, you know lol

Seo-jun had a good laugh with the viewers for a while.

“So, is your heart okay?”

“It’s not that bad.”

“Then, want to go first?”

The only place they could go forward was the dark passage straight ahead.

They had already confirmed that they couldn’t enter the interior through the wire mesh.

“No.”

“Then want to check that empty box I found over there?”

“No, I’m not looking at that either.”

The chat window was flooded with “Scared?”

“No, if something else jumps out, I’ll really die of a heart attack. No. I just don’t need to look because there’s no point.”

I see.

Seo-jun had another good laugh with the viewers before moving forward.

[What was that thing earlier?]

[I don’t know. Isn’t this the factory manager?]

[What? No matter how poorly it was visible, was that doll really that scary-looking? I didn’t draw it like that.]

[You just didn’t finish drawing it.]

[That’s because you kept telling me to redraw it.]

Summarizing the conversation so far.

“The two protagonists of this game can basically be seen as Tae-woo 1 and Tae-woo 2.”

Developers who couldn’t find their center and constantly fought, eventually failing.

They had come into the unfinished game to pay for their karma.

“The empty spaces seem to be filled differently from what they had planned.”

Tae-woo walked along hunched over while Seo-jun leisurely chatted with viewers as they walked down the passage.

Eventually, something appeared from beyond the dark shadows.