Chapter 82

“I’ll explain that. Hello, Seo-jun-nim. Nice to meet you. This is our first time meeting in-game. I’m ThirdElder, the brain of the Demonic Cult.”

The young-faced man with an incongruous beard standing behind spoke to Seo-jun.

It would have been better if he’d just touched up his avatar, but compared to the other unfamiliar people behind him, he was normal enough that Seo-jun didn’t add any comment.

That monster-looking person with bare torso and orange skin was truly hard to look at with open eyes.

What kind of item did he apply to make his skin glow like that?

But all the IDs looked familiar from the chat room, didn’t they?

They were definitely normal back there.

“Hello. You’re the one who chats the most in the Demonic Cult chat room, right?”

Seo-jun bowed his head slightly in greeting.

“Haha, yes.”

“Hey. He’s the brain!”

“Be quiet.”

That Tangso guy really adapted well to the Demonic Cult after coming over from the unorthodox faction.

Impressive.

“Wait, I got distracted by Tangso-hyung for a moment, but anyway, Seo-jun-nim, do you know about the Demonic Cult’s current situation?”

Fortunately, when they got to the main topic, Tangso started listening quietly.

“No.”

“Originally, our Demonic Cult lacks rankers. The battlefield is content where user numbers have a big impact. And the game company doesn’t even dream of compensating for this. Damn MovieSoft.”

The Demonic Cult was evaluated as having overall mediocre performance.

If this were the only problem, they might have won at least once.

But the lack of users that followed due to poor performance was hard to overcome.

Regular users were fine.

But they were about 10 rankers short compared to other factions—rankers who gathered fame points like a spirit bomb.

But Seo-jun had filled that gap today.

In an amazing way, showing skill that exceeded imagination.

“The number of regular users is still a bit low, but the number of rankers has now reached an equal footing.”

ThirdElder looked at Seo-jun with renewed eyes.

For the first time, the Demonic Cult had a chance to win.

A chance brought by this streamer who had barely started the game.

A streamer who chose the Demonic Cult because of a nickname he made as a joke.

When he first heard about a streamer named Jin Seo-jun, he couldn’t have imagined such a situation would unfold.

“So you’re saying we can win?”

“Yes. The number of rankers is that important.”

Regular users couldn’t coordinate precisely unless there was a decisive situation like a final moment or a simple objective was set.

That’s why the number of regular users who participated in battlefield every single day was absurdly small compared to those who participated even once.

It was much more comfortable and fun to watch while eating popcorn and then participate together at crucial moments.

Play games occasionally when bored.

“Then you were gathered here to plan strategy?”

“Not really. We were just trying to finish the 4th match quickly and watch Seo-jun-nim’s stream, but that guy kept calling us…”

ThirdElder gestured toward Tangso with his eyes.

Ah.

What an amazing guy.

“The general framework is planned by me and someone called Brain Strategist, but it’s mostly done in the chat room.”

“Manager?”

“Brain Strategist.”

He’d heard of brain strategists.

In martial arts novels, those who handle the administration or strategy of the Demonic Cult are called brain strategists.

For orthodox factions, it’s divine strategists, wasn’t it?

But what’s with the ‘ja’?

Is it the character for ‘person (者)’?

Don’t know. ^[1]

“Haha. I see.”

Seo-jun just let it pass.

There were more than one or two things to nitpick about in For the Murim.

“Anyway, the detailed strategy will keep changing according to each battlefield situation, but we do set a general framework. For the past few years, our mindset has been to watch those guys fight and somehow aim for at least 2nd place by profiting on what we could…”

“This master came and changed the situation.”

Tangso interjected into the conversation again.

“Be quiet.”

Seo-jun said a word, but ThirdElder just ignored it and continued.

He must have adapted already.

“With Seo-jun-nim winning everything today, the situation has changed. A lot. So now, our strength is definitely Seo-jun-nim’s skill.”

“My skill?”

“Yes. As Navigator-nim said, Seo-jun-nim has top-tier skills that rarely lose. Having 14 rankers deployed to one region isn’t that burdensome. But if those 14 rankers are at a level where they absolutely win, that’s quite burdensome.”

Conversely, if he lost even once, that strength would weaken accordingly.

‘I’m confident about not losing.’

The enemy would probably have to make a choice.

Either leave him alone and find another path, or somehow try to stop him.

“Hehehehe.”

“So what are you thinking for the basic strategy?”

“Hmm, I’m wondering whether to reveal it to Seo-jun-nim.”

“Why?”

“Because I think Seo-jun-nim would definitely declare the strategy openly on stream and then say ‘try to stop this.'”

Then why did they call him here?

“……”

“Just kidding.”

Lee Dong-soo and Heavenly First Swordsman who were behind laughed.

“For now, we’re thinking of going with a power struggle, trusting in Seo-jun-nim.”

“Power struggle?”

“Yes.”

“You mean a frontal assault?”

“Exactly. You know what happens if we advance and occupy the enemy stronghold in their final rear region, right?”

Each faction’s stronghold was located at the very ends of the northeast, northwest, and south.

If they pushed in and successfully occupied that region.

“That faction gets eliminated from the battlefield.”

He knew that too.

It was a rare occurrence unless it was a really special case, but it had happened before.

“Yes. They get completely eliminated from the battlefield. Hehehehe.”

ThirdElder finished speaking and laughed heartily, even trembling slightly.

There was a hint of madness, but it was understandable.

So far, only one faction had ever been eliminated.

That’s right. It was the Demonic Cult.

“I see.”

“How about it? Actually, whatever strategy we bring, we need Seo-jun-nim’s cooperation. That’s why I asked Tangso-hyung to bring you here.”

True.

It was better to talk face-to-face like this rather than through messages.

Seo-jun shrugged and said,

“Well, I’ll follow whatever you tell me to do as much as possible. I don’t have any pressure now.”

“Ah…!”

Literally no pressure.

Whether he lost in games, failed in attack or defense positions and missed bonuses, or missed a game entirely.

It really didn’t matter.

Because his 1st place was confirmed due to having so many fame points.

“Power struggle, that sounds fun.”

He really liked the basic strategy.

The detailed parts would be coordinated daily as needed.

By them.

“Hehehe. Thank you.”

ThirdElder clenched both fists and cheered.

Does he like it that much?

* * *

The clock hands point to 12:30.

Five and a half hours had passed since Seo-jun’s stream started at 7 o’clock.

And Lee Geon-yeong, who had been sitting in his chair staring at the computer for those five and a half hours, temporarily took his hands off the keyboard and stretched his back fully.

He stretched and closed his eyes.

“Ugh.”

After doing various stretches like turning his neck, he focused on his work again.

What had he been doing for the past five and a half hours?

While watching the stream, he occasionally went to communities to downvote posts he didn’t like, and even sent links to his fellow editor Han Ji-min asking her to click them too, but he mainly spent time on editing.

Editing today’s stream footage, to be precise.

“Whew.”

A tired sound automatically came from his mouth.

Gulp gulp.

He gulped down an entire water bottle from the refrigerator, replenishing the moisture in his parched mouth before focusing on work again.

He didn’t need to rewatch the video.

He’d already checked all the editing points while watching the stream and discussed everything with Han Ji-min.

His goal was to finish editing as quickly as possible and upload the video.

The reason?

“I need to upload it as fast as possible. Before the fire dies out.”

The number of people who watched the live stream reached 160,000.

If even just 10% of them stayed up late and watched the iTube video uploaded in the early morning, that would be 16,000 views.

16,000 itself wasn’t high.

But 16,000 views right after uploading had different value.

“They say a video’s fate is half-decided within the first few hours after uploading.”

If many people watch during the first few hours, the algorithm judges this video as worth recommending and spreads more recommendations.

Therefore.

Lee Geon-yeong wanted to maintain the current spark while gaining benefits.

Four hours had passed since he properly started editing.

This wasn’t nearly enough.

“The editing points and direction were set, but it’s still hard to finish everything in 4 hours.”

About half the content was completed.

If he finished editing 3 hours from now, it might be better not to upload at all.

Because it was a time when most people would be sleeping, so there was low possibility of high view counts.

However.

He wasn’t the only one editing right now.

Ding.

[Han Ji-min: I’m done. How about you?]

Laughter escaped.

“We did it.”

They could upload the video before 1 o’clock.

[Lee Geon-yeong: I’m also finished. Let’s combine them and if it looks good, upload right away.]

The method to edit and upload today’s stream within a few hours was to have two people divide the content and edit simultaneously!

A secret technique.

[Han Ji-min: Good work. Today we’re getting ground up under our evil boss again……]

[Lee Geon-yeong: Lol. Why are you making it sound like the boss ordered this? You were the one who said it was good and we should do this right away.]

Han Ji-min handled the first part, he handled the latter part.

Time could be efficiently shortened.

If only their editing styles were similar.

And surprisingly, their editing styles were indeed similar.

“Thanks to learning a lot.”

He’d learned directly, and indirectly been influenced by watching her videos.

[Han Ji-min: I’m checking the combination and it’s smooth with no awkwardness. I’ll polish it a bit more and upload by 1 o’clock.]

[Lee Geon-yeong: Yes, good work.]

[Han Ji-min: You too.]

“Ha.”

He’d burned everything out.

Lee Geon-yeong thought.

Had he ever worked this hard on something?

At least not in the past few years when he could only avoid things without accomplishing anything.

His body was tired, but his mind was the opposite—comfortable.

And he liked this state of his much better.

‘Even if absolute time is lacking, I feel like I’ve glimpsed the lives of people who live intensely.’

All of this was thanks to the boss.

With pleasant laughter, he hummed while washing up.

After finishing preparations for bed, he lay down.

Then he browsed his phone while waiting.

“I want to see it uploaded before sleeping.”

How effective would it be?

Even veteran Han Ji-min said she didn’t know for sure.

This kind of major issue wasn’t common anywhere.

He was looking forward to it, so he wanted to confirm before sleeping.

Gradually his movements became sluggish.

Was he tired physically?

The work time wasn’t that long, but the mental fatigue was higher than usual due to intense short-term concentration.

‘I hope it goes well……’

Slowly.

His eyes closed.

Ding.

At 1 o’clock, his dark phone screen briefly lit up as a subscription notification rang.

A notification that a new video had been uploaded to Seo-jun’s channel.