Chapter 65

[Jin Seo-jun: So is it over now?]

[Han Ji-min: Yes]

[Lee Geon-yeong: Everyone sleep well]

The Seo Labor Department meeting ended like this.

Seo-jun closed the chat room and entered the community.

The reason was to check the post by streamer Navigator that he’d heard about through email.

“What’s TOP10?”

Just looking at the words themselves, he could naturally expect it to be good news, but detailed confirmation was needed.

Seo-jun entered the integrated page of Adventure, the gaming web magazine community, rather than a page focused on a single game.

Then something embedded on the right side caught his eye.

[Today’s TOP10]

“Looks like it’s a board that separately collects popular posts based on the entire community’s posts.”

Seo-jun clicked “See More” below to check more posts.

It didn’t seem to live up to its name.

They called it TOP10, but there were more than 10 posts.

“There’s talk about all kinds of games here.”

Most were games he’d heard of somewhere before.

And among them, the most overwhelming game was For the Murim.

Out of the top 50 posts, 30 posts were occupied by the For the Murim community, namely No-Honor.

“The battlefield is this big, huh.”

Of course, the timing seemed to help since there weren’t any big events overlapping with other games.

No, this was probably the biggest factor.

During LOS season, apparently all 50 posts get plastered with LOS talk.

“Is the meeting all over?”

“Yeah.”

Tae-woo burst through the door.

“Chicken’s here. Come out, man.”

He ordered well on his own without even asking what menu he wanted.

Seo-jun smiled contentedly.

“What are you looking at now? Top ten?”

“Ah, right.”

Seo-jun finally remembered the purpose of coming here and began scrolling back up from the bottom where he’d been checking the author names.

“What are you looking for? Right now most of it’s battlefield talk so it’s boring. Don’t tell me you’re looking to see if there’s anything about you?”

That’s roughly correct.

“They said it made it on here, so maybe it hit 10th place.”

“10th place? In the current situation, even major players have trouble getting there. Why, did you do something fresh again?”

“No. I just played the game normally.”

As Seo-jun scrolled up, he gradually felt something was off.

No matter how much he scrolled up, Navigator wasn’t visible.

At this rate.

“1st place? Must be this one.”

Oh.

[1st Place] [For the Murim] [Today’s battlefield. A moment that seems fake!]

It was a post written by the nickname Navigator.

Befitting 1st place, the view count and recommendation count were no joke.

“Is that you? The view count’s already over 150,000. No one can stop Navigator on the battlefield.”

Tae-woo also seemed to know Navigator.

What on earth did he write? Seo-jun clicked on the post with curiosity.

And after reading it all, Seo-jun laughed.

Appropriate clip placement and appropriate dialogue.

It was a post with excellent situation explanation.

‘Did he say he’d take it down right away if I wanted?’

From Seo-jun’s perspective, there was absolutely no reason to take down this community post.

The reaction wasn’t bad either, and it wasn’t written negatively about him.

“Hah. Did that really happen to you? Why does that user Baekho look pitiful? Kekeke.”

Tae-woo, who checked it together from the side, also laughed refreshingly.

“You really play games in unique ways. Anyway. Take a look at the comment reactions.”

“It doesn’t seem particularly unique though?”

“What?”

“Look at this.”

While scrolling down, he found a comment that fit perfectly.

-LOL Heavenly Demon villain cracked me up LMAO

└Why are you doing this?

└This is average for For the Murim

“They say it’s average.”

“……”

“……”

After a brief silence, Tae-woo shook his head.

“This is why I don’t play this game.”

Honestly.

It does make him feel a bit self-deprecating.

Just a little.

-This is the Demonic Cult!

-He really is fucking good. How did he know to pull that off?

└Because he’s the Heavenly Demon!

└Seo-jun, he’s the Heavenly Demon! Seo-jun, he’s the Heavenly Demon! Seo-jun, he’s the Heavenly Demon! Seo-jun, he’s the Heavenly Demon!

└What kind of fandom is really turning into demonic cult followers lol

└By any chance, are you also part of the 3-minute curry gang?

-Demonic Cult vs Curry Gang, my heart swells with excitement!

-If it keeps going like this, he seriously might just hit 16th place lmao

└Really possible

└Looking at how he fought Baekho, might dominate even when meeting rankers

-The stream is entertaining lol

Seeing this, Tae-woo said,

“Just how big are you planning to get! Stop growing!”

* * *

MONSTER.

The garage that served as the headquarters of the indie game development company creating a game was lighting up with overtime work.

“CEO. We got an email.”

“What email?”

“You know, that thing we directly asked the streamer. Whether he’s good at horror games.”

“Ah, that? That was fast.”

They had gone through many deliberations about recruiting streamers to put ads in.

The reason was that if this work failed, the company would end just like that.

That’s why advertising was that important.

For famous franchise games, most streamers do them on their own even without ads, and just putting in events is enough.

But they had no recognition at all.

Probably no users except for them knew that this kind of company existed and this kind of game was being made.

It’s the fate of indie games.

“So does that mean indie games have no future? That’s not it, right?”

The CEO suddenly stood up from his seat, put his hands behind his back, and paced around.

“That’s right. That what.”

He was used to the situation and gave a halfhearted answer while doing his work, not paying much attention.

“Dracula Survival?”

“Yes, that one.”

Dracula Survival.

A game with a really simple plot, but the fun was tremendous.

But the reason this game became popular was because it was fun not only to play but also to watch.

“There are many others too. Promoted through broadcasts, spread by word of mouth. More streamers play the game. More people watch.”

It’s a virtuous cycle.

“Yes yes. That’s why I’m looking for one now. We can’t modify the game any more here.”

“Right. I already asked other employees too.”

“Asked what?”

“Several people said that streamer named Seo-jun would be fine. If he’s easily scared, that’s best.”

“So. What should we do?”

“First, what did the email say?”

“He says he’s good at horror games as a streamer.”

For a streamer to be good at horror games means he gets scared a lot.

“That’s really unexpected? Is his heart unexpectedly small?”

He was definitely like a psychopath.

“Perfect fit. Currently rising. Can’t handle horror games well. Has colleagues who can create chemistry.”

“Plus, when someone who usually seems somewhat cold gets scared, it creates twice as funny a picture. Hehe. Really the optimal talent?”

It’s half decided.

“Yes. So when should we contact him? After we finish the list?”

“Let’s do it later. Right now it seems like his viewership is a bit inflated because of For the Murim. If we wait for it to drop a bit more and then make an offer, can’t we save on budget?”

“Yes.”

“After the battlefield ends later, his viewer count will probably drop somewhat. Subscriber count won’t suddenly increase overnight, and viewer count won’t increase tremendously in just a week.”

* * *

The next day.

Han Ji-min sent an email and slept soundly.

Today too, she woke up from bed with a comfortable heart.

After being fully raised up and then betrayed, rather than the financial loss, it was purely because of the sense of betrayal that even trying to sleep made her insides burn with anger, tossing and turning for hours unable to sleep properly.

Now it’s refreshing.

“Hehehe. Hehe. Hehehe.”

Han Ji-min turned on her phone while lying in bed and entered iTube.

It was her morning routine.

And that was.

[Guy who can’t just pass by pebbles lol] – 12,000 views

[Get down from there!] – 7,000 views

[Why mafia games are scary] – 5,000 views

[Save me] – 11,000 views

“Ah. So refreshing. Really. Hah.”

She couldn’t contain her laughter.

She wasn’t originally the type to feel joy from others’ misfortune, but an enemy’s misfortune is a different law.

The owner of the iTube channel whose view counts had dropped miserably was Han Ji-min’s previous employer.

A situation where the average view count that used to hit around 100,000 had dropped to one-tenth.

Since it was a channel she had built up, it might be bitter, but unexpectedly she didn’t feel that emotion at all and only felt thoroughly satisfied.

“As expected. The viewers must all feel it too.”

Though there weren’t many comments, they still seemed to give feedback with some fan sentiment.

-The editing style feels somehow not unified. It used to be clean and good before.

Han Ji-min checked other comments that this commenter had written on this channel.

-Why don’t you upload videos regularly?

-Please correct the spelling. 1:37 seconds, 2:14 seconds.

-Today’s video is boring.

They were precisely stating the reason for the drop in average view count.

“I wonder what that bitch thinks when she sees this?”

Low-quality editing in a different style from usual.

Upload schedule that used to be one per day becoming completely random.

Channel management wasn’t happening at all.

“She must have ended up like this trying to save money.”

Obvious.

The reason she fired her in the first place was also because of money.

Even though she’d never tried channel management before, tsk.

Once you fall like that, it takes a long time to get algorithm recommendations again even if you reestablish your position.

If she even reestablishes her position.

“Ugh. I should stop doing this now.”

She laughed to her heart’s content. Satisfyingly.

“Just until tomorrow.”

Right. Just until tomorrow.

“But I really didn’t expect such rapid growth. No matter how much the boss keeps creating issues.”

50,000 subscribers!

The growth trend was insane.

And above all.

[Lee Geon-yeong: I organized all yesterday’s broadcast highlights]

[Lee Geon-yeong: (File)]

[Han Ji-min: Thanks]

The work was so comfortable.

Previously, she had to make one video per day.

She had to do 1 video per day to receive much more algorithm selection.

Another editor? That was unthinkable until establishing position and generating profit.

But now.

She makes one video every two days, plus a colleague editor notes everything from thumbnails to editing points.

That doesn’t mean she’s slacking off.

Having a share of the channel literally means being the owner.

She can’t help but have an ownership mindset.

Moreover, if she can estimate how much profit the current view count alone will generate, she has no choice but to work harder!

“10-minute videos are 4 won per view.”

Roughly calculating, it’s at least 12 million won per month.

Han Ji-min’s share of that is 25%.

3 million won. And adding the basic salary of 1.5 million makes 4.5 million won.

“25% is a bit lower than when I was doing well before.”

Anyway, that heyday didn’t last more than 3 months.

In contrast, this is the first month.

“Crazy.”

She needs to grow this channel more. With all the best she can do.

“But wait. The subscriber count is weird?”

The subscriber count she’d checked the day before was definitely 50,000.

But why did she wake up to find it at 100,000!