Chapter 28

Lee Geon-yeong groggily woke up from sleep.

It was noon.

When he pulled back the curtains, bright sunlight flooded into the dark room.

Out of habit, he grabbed his phone with no messages and opened iTube.

He scrolled down, found nothing interesting to watch, and closed it.

Then he opened iTube again.

Scrolled down.

Finding no thumbnails that caught his interest, he closed it again.

“Mmm.”

After fiddling with his phone on the bed for about 10 minutes like this, he went to his desk.

He turned on his computer from sleep mode and opened Travel.

His username was Public Toilet Brick Theft King.

He turned on the stream of a streamer he always watched around this time and went to get something to drink.

Gulp gulp.

“Hmm. Food… I won’t eat.”

Lee Geon-yeong decided to skip lunch.

Though it was more like breakfast than lunch, really.

He had no appetite.

Cooking was too much trouble too.

After washing up and halfheartedly cleaning the house, he returned to his room and closed the door.

Then he sat in front of his computer.

‘I can’t keep living like this.’

It had already been two years.

Since he’d started living as a shut-in.

He used to be moderately outgoing, had decent social skills, and quite a few friends.

But starting in his second year of high school, he was bullied at the art academy he attended for college entrance exams, lost his confidence, gave up on the college entrance exam and regular tests, and ran away.

After that.

He didn’t want to meet friends anymore.

He felt too pathetic, and if he met people, they’d see him like this.

He felt comfortable staying in his room.

Maybe it actually suited him pretty well.

Watching streams and browsing the internet, the day passed in an instant and the sky grew dark.

It was natural since he woke up late, but the night sky without sunlight made people even more depressed.

Lee Geon-yeong prepared dinner.

Just taking out a few frozen dumplings and putting them in the air fryer. Done.

‘Lucky I have no appetite. Hehe.’

Tomorrow would probably be another day just like today.

He felt sorry toward his parents who sent him living expenses.

Parents who silently supported him even after their son failed at entrance exams and retaking them.

But he hadn’t failed.

He hadn’t even been able to try.

Because he was afraid of failure.

“Haaa.”

Lee Geon-yeong let out a deep sigh.

“I’m trash.”

He didn’t waste money.

Since he just stayed in his room anyway, after this lifestyle continued for several months, he had no reason to spend money except for minimum living expenses.

But he was wasting something more important than that.

Time.

He knew it too.

“I want to change…”

Really.

He felt like he might die from how pathetic he was.

But he had no strength to change.

That’s when he heard the streamer’s voice from the computer.

[I’m currently looking for an editor, so if any viewers want to edit my videos, take any of my gameplay videos…]

It was about looking for an editor.

The streamer who said this was named Jin Seo-jun.

A streamer who’d been broadcasting for less than a week.

Thinking about how someone had just started and was already succeeding and making iTube content made him feel strangely envious.

The streamer was the complete opposite of him.

Outstanding talent and a somewhat annoying, confident personality.

‘I used to be like that too.’

But the talent he’d mistakenly thought he had when he was young disappeared like an illusion as he grew up. After failing and hiding, only a reclusive loner remained.

[Alright then, bye bye for real!]

The broadcast ended.

Like a beginner streamer who hadn’t even set up an ending screen, a dark screen appeared.

His face was reflected in the monitor.

He stared blankly at the pupils reflected in the monitor and muttered.

“Editor. Should I… try it once?”

Maybe he needed something to challenge himself with.

As if possessed, he began browsing the internet and looking into video editing.

During the time he would normally browse Travel looking for other streams.

* * *

The next day, he was still editing videos.

“I’ll do this like this, and the shortcut key is…”

The desire to improve while learning something.

It was an emotion he felt after a long time.

The corners of his mouth lifted.

It was fun. It felt like he had become useful.

“I’ll do it like this here… Is there a way to add other effects? I should look it up.”

The whole day passed while editing.

Time felt like it passed faster than before, but today the flow of time didn’t feel empty.

And he seemed to have some talent for it too.

Lee Geon-yeong wanted to escape from this shitty version of himself and try doing proper work.

Editing work even seemed to suit his aptitude.

‘Now that I’ve uploaded the video, if I write an email…’

It would work.

His hand came off the mouse.

Lee Geon-yeong’s eyes wavered for a moment.

Then he closed the email window, grabbed his phone, jumped onto the bed, and opened iTube.

‘I did a lot today, so I should do it tomorrow.’

He hummed as he returned to normal like that.

And the next day, he postponed sending the email.

And the next day too.

The day after that was the same.

Before he knew it, five days had passed since he’d pushed thoughts about video editing out of his head.

He thought as he deleted the editing program.

‘It wouldn’t have worked anyway…’

Negative thoughts rationalized his escape.

Would a video made after just one day of learning pass?

No.

Then there’s no point in sending it since it won’t work anyway.

It’s meaningless.

Giving up is comfortable.

* * *

[Going to catch the Queen today.]

The stream turned on.

“Hello everyone.”

-Hi

-Hello hello

-Hello~

Over the past week, the viewer count hadn’t grown and had actually dropped.

This was a weak point that Tae-woo, MovieSoft, and Seo-jun had all expected.

Among the viewers at the time, some came to see Seo-jun, but many people were looking for him to see Seo-jun’s skills.

Even so, there was a reason Seo-jun accepted MovieSoft’s proposal.

‘Core audience.’

This refers to the viewer base that continues watching because they like the streamer regardless of the broadcast content.

Seo-jun had been building this core audience over the past week, albeit shallowly.

He couldn’t always defeat a Ruler when playing games.

And it hadn’t dropped as much as expected.

‘When I caught the Tower Master, it was 3,000 people.’

Yesterday’s broadcast was 2,300 people.

A much higher number than expected.

-Queen is ez pz lol just go for it

-The originator of hack-and-slash is different

-How is the streamer the originator? Assassin’s Dawn wasn’t just this series

-If you’re good, you’re the originator. Even restaurants are originals if the food’s good

-True lol

[‘Rigged Dice’ donated 10,000 won!]

[Hello! I’m thinking about starting Assassin’s Dawn after watching you, how is it?]

“Ah, thank you for the 10,000 won donation. This game is fun. And totally easy. Just follow what I do.”

It hadn’t been deposited yet, but MovieSoft was an advertiser.

So he gave them some lip service.

-Lol don’t listen to that

-If you buy it to do hack-and-slash, you’ll 100% regret it lol but I recommend buying it

-Streamer you devil

-Please buy Assassin’s Dawn

-Reminds me of how he did nothing but scam people during that strategy broadcast a few days ago

Is this not right?

Whatever, it’s fine.

“Well, anyway.”

Seo-jun was currently in the lobby.

“Wait, before starting the game, I have something to say.”

Seo-jun had discovered through viewer search that Brick Theft King was there.

-What is it?

-Major announcement?

-It’s not like you have a girlfriend or something, right?

-He’s going to donate all the money he’s earned so far. It must have been a difficult decision, but we respect and support that decision.

Seo-jun ignored the stream-of-consciousness chat and opened a window.

It was the application video that Brick Theft King had uploaded to iTube!

“Brick Theft King who’s currently watching the stream? Is this really you?”

-How can someone have a username like Public lol Toilet lol Brick lol Theft King lol

-Lol

-Could there really be two people in the world with that kind of username?

-Why are all the usernames in this stream like this

“I left comments on the video and contacted you through your Travel ID, but you didn’t check. I have something to talk about, so please check your messages.”

The quality of the video Seo-jun saw the day before was exactly to his liking.

It wasn’t because special effects were used well or editor-specific techniques were included.

The reason was sense and cleanliness.

As expected of a viewer who watched all the live streams, Brick Theft King didn’t miss the fun points of the video and picked them out precisely, polishing them cleanly.

“I don’t know why you didn’t send an email, but I’d like to have a serious conversation.”

-Oh! Looking for an editor?

-Play the video

-But why did you make it public instead of private lol

-Want to see it

“The video? You guys can watch it yourselves.”

Seo-jun said this with the intention of boosting the video’s view count while he was at it.

-The introduction is hilarious

-Lol

-I’m going to look it up right now

[This is an editor application video for streamer Seo-jun.

Hello! Hyung! I’ve never properly learned editing, but I’m confident I’ll work hard!

All I have is time. Hehe I’m unemployed.

Also, since this is my first video, I can keep improving!

A growth-type editor. Isn’t this totally amazing?

If you need verification, please contact me! I’ll try editing other things too.]

-The TMI is amazing lol

-So you were unemployed, Brick Theft King!

-If you weren’t unemployed, why would you steal public toilet bricks lol

-Even unemployed people don’t do that. I know because I’m unemployed lol

* * *

“Ah shit. Embarrassing!”

Lee Geon-yeong ruffled his hair with both hands and then punched his thigh with his fist.

“Why is that public!”

The sentences he’d carelessly written in the video description.

And the embarrassing username he couldn’t proudly say anywhere.

Plus the first editing attempt.

It was a triple set of embarrassment.

“How did he find it? The view count was low too.”

He hurriedly went to iTube and made the video private.

-Lol the video went down instantly lol

-Damn

-Theft King were you watching lol

-Lmao forced humiliation play

-Obviously uploaded it wrong

[Oh. Was it uploaded wrong? Oh no… I don’t know anything about that. Anyway, check the comments and contact me.]

-You killed the Theft King, Seo-jun! You killed the Theft King, Seo-jun! You killed the Theft King, Seo-jun!

-He committed social suicide

-This is the fault of whoever uploaded it publicly lol

-True lol unemployed guy

Lee Geon-yeong closed the Travel comments window.

But he couldn’t close the streaming screen.

He just closed the broadcast screen.

“Ugh! Embarrassing.”

After calming his startled heart, Lee Geon-yeong carefully played the video he’d made private.

Even though he’d taken down the video because he was scared and flustered that many people could see it, he thought there must be a reason Seo-jun mentioned it on the broadcast.

“Right, since I’ve been caught anyway, let me see if he left any words…”

Lee Geon-yeong’s muttering stopped.

[Jin Seo-jun][20 hours ago]

[Wow, this was a video made after just one day of learning? Your talent is amazing. I don’t know why you didn’t send an email, but I want to work with you, Brick Theft King. If you’re interested, please contact me.]

He stared at the screen—no, the comment—with a complex expression.

His eyes reddened.

Silence continued for a while.

Finally, he muttered in a slightly trembling voice.

“I roughly… expected it to be something like this…”

Haaa.

After letting out a deep sigh, he looked up at the ceiling.

That comfortable prison-like ceiling he sometimes looked up at while lying in bed using his phone looked different.

It definitely wasn’t because his eyes were moist.

“…”

He replayed the video he’d edited several times.

“It was my first day learning, so even I can see it’s a mess, but talent is…”

He was being self-deprecating.

But at the same time, he was laughing more refreshingly than anyone.

A sense of liberation.

Like finding an exit after being trapped in a maze.

“Alright, let’s try it once.”

Talent.

A streamer more outstanding than anyone had said he had talent and wanted to work with him.

“If he’s trying to exploit me with unpaid work and just said anything, hyung or whatever, I really won’t let it slide. If there’s controversy, only he loses.”

He began writing an email with trembling hands.