The Veteran Swordmaster’s Stream (Novel) - Chapter 65
Chapter 65
[Jin Seo-jun: So is it over now?]
[Han Ji-min: Yes.]
[Lee Geon-yeong: Good night, everyone.]
The meeting of Seodongbu ended like this.
Seo-jun closed the chatroom and entered the community.
The reason was to check the post by the streamer Bangju, which he had heard about through email.
“What is this TOP 10?”
Looking at the words themselves, he could naturally expect it to be a good thing, but detailed verification was needed.
Instead of a page dedicated to a specific game, Seo-jun entered the integrated page of the game webzine community, Adventure.
Then, something embedded on the right side caught his eye.
[Today’s TOP 10]
“It seems to be a bulletin board that separately gathers popular posts based on all the posts in the community.”
Seo-jun clicked “See More” at the bottom to check more posts.
It did not seem to live up to its name.
Although it was called the TOP 10, there were more than ten posts.
“There is talk of all kinds of games.”
Most of them were dominated by games he had heard of somewhere before.
And among them, the most overwhelming game was For Chivalry.
Out of the top 50 posts, 30 were occupied by the For Chivalry community, namely Nohyeop.
“The Battleground is so huge.”
Of course, the fact that there were no major events overlapping with other games at this time also seemed to play a part.
No, this was likely the biggest factor.
Since it was said that during the LiOS season, all 50 posts were completely plastered with LiOS talk.
“Is the meeting all over?”
“Yes.”
Tae-woo kicked the door open and came in.
“The chicken is here. Come on out, dude.”
He had ordered well on his own without even being told the menu.
Seo-jun smiled warmly.
“What are you looking at right now? The Top 10?”
“Ah, right.”
Only then did Seo-jun recall the purpose of coming here, and he began to scroll up from the bottom where he had scrolled down, checking the authors.
“What are you looking for? It’s mostly Battleground talk right now, so it’s boring. Are you looking to see if there’s any talk about you, by any chance?”
It was roughly correct.
“Since he said it got up here, I wonder if it ranked 10th.”
“10th? In a situation like this, even the major streamers have a hard time getting in there. Why, did you do something novel again?”
“No. I just played the game normally, though.”
As he scrolled up, Seo-jun gradually felt that something was unusual.
No matter how much he scrolled up, Bangju was nowhere to be seen.
If this continued.
“1st place? This must be it.”
Oh.
[1st Place] [For Chivalry] [Today’s Battleground. A moment that feels staged!]
It was a post written by the nickname Bangju.
Fitting for 1st place, the views and upvotes were no joke.
“Is it you? The views are already over 150,000. No one can stop the Bangju of the Battleground.”
Tae-woo also seemed to know Bangju.
What on earth did he write? Seo-jun clicked on the post with curiosity.
And after reading the whole thing, Seo-jun smiled.
Appropriate clip placement, and appropriate dialogue.
It was a post where the explanation of the situation was extremely well done.
‘Did he say he would take it down immediately if I wanted to?’
As Seo-jun saw it, there was absolutely no reason to take down this community post.
The response was not bad, and it did not write about him in a negative way either.
“Haha. Did something like that happen to you? Why does that user named Baekho look so pitiful? Kekeke.”
Tae-woo, who checked it together with him from the side, also laughed heartily.
“You really play games in a unique way. Anyway, check out the comments’ reactions.”
“I don’t think it’s particularly unique though?”
“What?”
“Look at this.”
As he scrolled down, he found a perfectly fitting comment.
-Hahaha, the Heavenly Demon villain was so funny, hahaha.
└Why is he doing this, seriously?
└In For Chivalry, this is the average.
“They say it’s the average.”
“……”
“……”
After a brief silence, Tae-woo shook his head.
“This is why I don’t play this game.”
Honestly.
He also felt a bit of self-loathing.
Just a tiny bit.
-This is the Demonic Sect!
-He is seriously so good. How did he know and deflect that?
└Because he is the Heavenly Demon!
└Seo-jun, he is the Heavenly Demon! Seo-jun, he is the Heavenly Demon! Seo-jun, he is the Heavenly Demon! Seo-jun, he is the Heavenly Demon!
└Why is the fandom actually becoming like Demonic Sect cultists, tsk tsk.
└By any chance, are you also from the 3-Minute Curry Squad?
-Demonic Sect Cultists vs Curry Squad, my chest becomes grand!
-If it keeps going like this, I seriously think he’ll easily hit 16th place? Hahaha.
└Seriously, totally possible.
└Seeing how he fought Baekho, I wonder if he’d crush even the rankers like noobs.
-His stream is so entertaining, hahaha.
Seeing this, Tae-woo said.
“Just how big are you trying to get! Stop growing!”
***
MONSTER.
The garage, which served as the headquarters of MONSTER, the indie game developer producing the game, was shining with the light of overtime work.
“CEO, an email has arrived.”
“What email?”
“You know, the one where we directly asked that streamer. Whether he is good at horror games.”
“Ah, that? That was fast.”
They had agonized repeatedly over casting a streamer to advertise the game.
The reason was that if this work failed, the company would end right then and there.
Therefore, advertising was just that important.
In the case of famous franchise games, most streamers would play them on their own even without advertising, and just throwing in an event would be enough, but…
They had absolutely no recognition.
Aside from themselves, there was probably no user who knew of the existence of such a company and the fact that such a game was being made.
It was the fate of indie games.
“Does that mean there is no future for indie games? That’s not the case. Isn’t that right!”
The CEO suddenly stood up, clasped his hands behind his back, and began to pace around.
“Sure. What was it again…”
He gave a half-hearted answer while doing his work, not paying much mind to the familiar situation.
“Dracula Survival?”
“Yes, that one.”
Dracula Survival.
It was a game with a really simple plot, but the fun was immense.
However, the reason this game succeeded was that it was not only fun to play, but also fun to watch.
“There are many others besides that. Getting promoted through broadcasts, spreading through word of mouth. More streamers playing the game. More people watching it.”
It was a virtuous cycle.
“Yes, yes. That’s why I’m searching right now, isn’t it? Since we can’t modify the game any further here.”
“Right. I actually asked other employees about it too.”
“And?”
“A few of them said that the streamer named Seo-jun would be good. It would be the best if he is easily scared.”
“Then, what should we do?”
“First of all, what did the email say?”
“He says he is good at horror games as a streamer.”
Being good at horror games as a streamer meant that he was easily scared.
“That’s really unexpected. Is he surprisingly faint-hearted?”
Clearly, he had been nothing short of a psychopath.
“It’s a perfect match. He’s rising recently. He’s not good at horror games. And he has a companion to show good chemistry with.”
“Besides, if someone who usually seems rather cold gets scared, it’ll make for a twice as entertaining picture. Hehe. He really is the optimal talent, isn’t he?”
It was half-confirmed.
“Yes. Then when should we contact him? Once the list is fully narrowed down?”
“Let’s do it later. Right now, it seems like his viewership is somewhat inflated because of For Chivalry. If we wait for it to die down a bit before making the proposal, wouldn’t we be able to save on the budget?”
“Yes.”
“Once the Battleground ends later, the number of viewers will go down a bit anyway. It’s not like his subscriber count will spike in just a single day, or his viewership will skyrocket in a week or anything.”
***
The next day.
Han Ji-min sent the email and slept soundly.
Today, she also woke up from bed with a peaceful mind.
Previously, after being betrayed after building up the channel from scratch, rather than the financial loss, it was solely due to the sense of betrayal that a fire would burn inside her whenever she tried to sleep, making her toss and turn for hours and unable to sleep properly.
Now, she felt refreshed.
“Hehehe. Hehe. Hehehe.”
Han Ji-min turned on her phone while lying in bed and entered ITube.
It was her morning routine.
That was, namely.
[The guy who can’t just pass by a pebble lol] – 12,000 views
[You told me to go down!] – 7,000 views
[Why the Mafia game is scary] – 5,000 views
[Save me] – 11,000 views
“Ah, this is so satisfying. Seriously. Sigh.”
She could not contain her laughter.
Originally, she was not the type to feel joy at another’s misfortune, but when it came to an enemy’s misfortune, it was a different story.
The owner of the ITube channel whose views had plummeted miserably was Han Ji-min’s former employer.
The situation was that the average views, which originally hovered around 100,000, had dropped to a tenth.
Although she might have felt bittersweet since it was a channel she had built up, unexpectedly, no such emotion arose at all, and it was solely a feeling of sheer gratification.
“As expected, the viewers must feel it too.”
Although there were few comments, it seemed they were still providing feedback with their own sense of fan loyalty.
-The editing style feels somewhat disjointed. It was neat and good before.
Han Ji-min checked other comments posted on this channel by the person who wrote the comment.
-Why aren’t you uploading videos regularly like this?
-Please correct the spelling. 1:37, 2:14.
-Today’s video isn’t fun.
They were pointing out exactly why the average views had dropped.
“What on earth is that bastard thinking when he sees this?”
The quality was also low, and the editing style was different from usual.
The upload cycle, which used to be one a day, had become erratic.
The channel was not being managed at all.
“I guess he ended up like this trying to save money.”
It was obvious.
Since the reason he fired her in the first place was also because of money.
Tsk, even though he had never even managed a channel before.
Once it plummeted like that, even if he found his footing again, it would take a long time to get recommended by the algorithm.
Though he might not even be able to find his footing.
“Sigh. I should stop doing this now too.”
She had laughed to her heart’s content. It was gratifying.
“I’ll do it just until tomorrow.”
Yes. Just until tomorrow.
“By the way, I really didn’t know it would grow this fast. Even though the boss keeps generating hype.”
50,000 subscribers!
The upward trend was crazy.
And above all.
[Lee Geon-yeong: I’ve compiled all of yesterday’s stream highlights.]
[Lee Geon-yeong: (File)]
[Han Ji-min: Thanks.]
The work was so convenient.
Previously, she had made one video a day.
Because uploading one video a day made it much more likely to be chosen by the algorithm.
Another editor? Before getting established and generating revenue, it was completely out of the question.
But now.
Not only did she make one video every two days, but her fellow editor also took notes on everything from the thumbnail to the editing points.
That did not mean she was slacking off, however.
Having a share in the channel literally meant being an owner.
It was impossible not to have a sense of ownership.
Moreover, if she could estimate how much revenue would come in from the current views alone, she had no choice but to work even harder!
“Since a 10-minute long video gets 4 won per view…”
Even with a rough calculation, it was at least 12 million won a month.
Out of that, Han Ji-min’s share was 25%.
That was 3 million won. And adding the base salary of 1.5 million, it was 4.5 million won.
“At 25%, it’s slightly lower than when things were going really well before, but…”
In any case, that heyday had not lasted for even more than three months.
In contrast, this was only the first month.
“This is crazy.”
She had to grow this channel further, doing the absolute best she could.
“But wait a second. The subscriber count is strange?”
Clearly, the subscriber count she had checked the day before was 50,000.
But why did it become 100,000 when she woke up!