NOVEL NEXT Chapter 65
Chapter 65
『Jin Sojun: So, is it over now?』
『Han Jimin: Yep.』
『Lee Gunyung: Goodnight everyone.』
Thus ended the meeting of the Southeast Division.
Sojun closed the chatroom and entered the community.
The reason was to check a post by the Streamer Ark he had heard about through an email.
“What is TOP10?”
At first glance, it seemed like it could be something good just judging by the words themselves, but a thorough check was necessary.
Sojun navigated not to a page specific to a game on the game webzine community Adventure, but to the main page.
Then, something caught his eye on the right.
『Today’s TOP10』
“It looks like a board that gathers the most popular posts based on the overall community entries.”
Sojun clicked “See More” below to view more posts.
The board barely lived up to its name.
Even though it was labeled TOP10, there were more than ten posts.
“There are talks about all sorts of games here.”
Most were about games he had heard of before.
And among them, the overwhelmingly discussed game was “For Justice.”
Out of the top 50 posts, 30 were occupied by the “For Justice” community, also known as “No Justice”.
“The Battlefield is this large.”
It seemed that the fact there were no major events overlapping with other games at the time played a part as well.
In fact, it was likely the biggest reason.
During the time of LoS, they said all 50 posts would be filled with LoS discussions.
“Is the meeting all over?”
“Yeah.”
Taewoo burst through the door.
“The chicken has arrived. Come out, buddy.”
Even without asking for specifics, he had ordered well.
Sojun smiled with satisfaction.
“What are you looking at now? TOP10?”
“Oh, right.”
Only then did Sojun remember his purpose for entering this place and began scrolling back up, checking for the author.
“What are you looking for? Most of the talk is about the Battlefield, so it’s not interesting. Are you perhaps searching to see if there’s anything about you?”
That was about right.
“They mentioned it made it here, so maybe it ranked 10th.”
“10th? In a situation like this, even major players find it hard to get there. Did you do something innovative again?”
“No, I just played the game normally.”
As Sojun scrolled, he felt something unusual.
No matter how much he scrolled up, the Streamer Ark did not appear.
If this continued…
“1st place? It must be this.”
Oh.
『1st』 『For Justice』 『Today’s Battlefield. A Moment Like a Phoenix!』
It was a post written by the nickname Streamer Ark.
True to its 1st place rank, the post had amassed an astounding number of views and recommendations.
“Is it you? The views have already surpassed 150,000. No one can stop the Battlefield’s Streamer Ark.”
Taewoo seemed to recognize Streamer Ark as well.
What on earth was written in it? Bursting with curiosity, Sojun clicked on the post.
After reading it all, Sojun laughed.
The clips were well placed, and the dialogues were apt.
The explanation of the situation was excellently done.
‘Streamer Ark said they would take it down if I wanted.’
In Sojun’s view, there was no reason at all to take down this community post.
The reactions were not bad, and nothing bad was written about him.
“Hah. Did such a thing happen? Why does that Baekho user seem pitiable? Hahaha.”
Taewoo, who had checked alongside him, also laughed heartily.
“You really play the game in a peculiar way. Anyway, take a look at the comment reactions.”
“It doesn’t seem particularly unusual to me, though?”
“What?”
“Look at this.”
As he scrolled down, he found a fitting comment.
-LOLOLOL The Heavenly Demon villain was hilarious LOLOLOL
└ Why is this happening, seriously?
“It says it’s the average.”
“…….”
“…….”
After a brief silence, Taewoo shook his head.
“This is why I don’t play this game.”
Honestly.
He felt a bit of self-reproach.
Just a little bit.
-This is the Demonic Cult!
-He really is amazing. How did he know to counter that?
└Because he’s the Heavenly Demon!
└Sojun, he is the Heavenly Demon! Sojun, he is the Heavenly Demon! Sojun, he is the Heavenly Demon! Sojun, he is the Heavenly Demon!
└What is this fandom turning into, like real cult followers, tsk tsk.
└Are you also part of the 3-Minute Curry Squad?
-Seeing Demonic Cult vs. Curry Squad gives me chills!
-If things keep going like this, he’ll just reach the 16th rank, seriously, hahaha.
└Totally possible
└After fighting Baekho, I wonder if he won’t just sweep through the rankers?
-He’s making the stream really fun, hahaha.
After seeing this, Taewoo said, “How much bigger do you intend to get! Stop growing already!”
* * *
MONSTER.
The headquarters of the indie game development company working on a game was aglow with the light of overtime work.
“Boss, an email just came in.”
“What email?”
“You know, the one where we asked that streamer directly if he’s good at horror games.”
“Oh, that? That was quick.”
They were constantly debating which streamer to recruit for advertisement purposes.
The reason was that if this game failed, the company would just go under.
Therefore, the advertisement was incredibly important.
For well-known franchise games, even without advertising, most streamers would cover the game, and just adding an event would suffice.
But they had no recognition at all.
Apart from themselves, no user probably knew about the existence of this company or that such a game was being developed.
It was the plight of indie games.
“So, does this mean there is no future for indie games? That’s not it. Isn’t it?”
Suddenly, the boss stood up, clasped her hands behind her back, and paced around.
“Right. What’s that thing called?”
Without paying much attention to the familiar situation, he replied without much sincerity, while continuing his work.
“Dracula Survival?”
“Yes, that’s it.”
Dracula Survival.
Despite its extremely simple plot, the game was immensely fun.
But the reason this game became popular wasn’t just that it was fun to play; it was also fun to watch.
“There are many more like it. Games get promoted through streams, word spreads, more streamers play them, and more people watch them.”
It’s a virtuous cycle.
“Yes, yes. That’s why I’ve been searching as we can’t make further changes to the game here.”
“Alright. I also asked the other employees.”
“And?”
“A few of them think that the streamer, Sojun, could be a good choice. It would be best if he’s scared easily.”
“Then. What’s the plan?”
“So what did the email say?”
“As a streamer, he’s good at horror games.”
Being good at horror games as a streamer implies that he’s easily scared.
“That’s really unexpected. Is his heart actually more delicate than it seems?”
He certainly didn’t seem to be a psychopath.
“Perfectly aligned. He’s recently gaining popularity and isn’t good with horror games. He also has companions to create good chemistry.”
“Plus, seeing someone who usually appears calm getting scared makes for double the entertainment. Haha. He’s the perfect candidate.”
It was halfway settled.
“So when should we reach out? Is the shortlist prepared?”
“Let’s do it later. It seems his viewer base is inflated due to ‘For Justice’. Reaching out after it cools down might save us budget-wise, don’t you think?”
“Yes.”
“After the Battlefield ends, the viewer numbers should drop. It’s not like his subscriber count will skyrocket in a day or his viewer base will multiply in a week.”
* * *
The next day.
Han Jimin sent the email and had a restful sleep.
Once again, she woke up with a peaceful mind in her bed today.
After nurturing it all and being betrayed, she couldn’t sleep properly for hours, tossing and turning due to the anger boiling inside her, not so much from financial loss but more from a sense of betrayal.
Now, she felt refreshed.
“Hehehe. Hehe. Hehehe.”
Han Jimin lay on her bed and turned on her phone to access iTube.
This was her morning routine.
It went like this:
『The guy who can’t ignore a pebble LOL』- 12,000 views
『Go down, I said!』- 7,000 views
『The reason Mafia games are scary』- 5,000 views
『Help me』- 11,000 views
“Ah. It feels so good. Really. Ha.”
She couldn’t hold back her laughter.
Normally, she didn’t take pleasure in others’ misfortunes, but when it came to an enemy’s misfortune, it was different.
The owner of the iTube channel, whose views had dramatically plummeted, was Han Jimin’s former employer.
Originally, the average view count used to be around 100,000, but now it had dropped to a tenth of that.
Considering she had nurtured the channel, she could have felt bitter, but unexpectedly, she felt no such emotion, just pure satisfaction.
“Indeed. It seems like the viewers can sense it too.”
Though there weren’t many comments, at least they seemed to provide feedback with some fan spirit.
“The editing style feels somehow inconsistent. It used to be nice and clean before.”
Han Jimin checked other comments left by the person on this channel.
“Why are the videos uploaded so irregularly?”
“Please correct the typos. 1:37, 2:14.”
“Today’s video isn’t fun.”
These comments clearly explained why the average view count had dropped.
“What would that guy think after seeing this?”
The usual subpar quality and a different style of editing.
Uploads that used to be regular have now become erratic.
The channel management was entirely neglected.
“Must have been to save money, right?”
It was obvious.
The reason they had let her go in the first place was because of money.
Despite never having managed a channel before, tsk.
Once fallen like that, it’d take a long time to get algorithm recommendations again, even if he managed to stabilize eventually.
He might not even regain stability.
*Sigh.*
She decided to stop this now.
She laughed her fill. It was satisfying.
“Just until tomorrow.”
Yes, only until tomorrow.
“But really, I didn’t expect it to grow this fast. Even though the boss keeps stirring up issues.”
50,000 subscribers!
The growth rate was insane.
And more importantly.
『Lee Gunyung: I’ve sorted all the stream points from yesterday.』
『Lee Gunyung: (File)』
『Han Jimin: Thanks』
The work had become too easy.
Previously, she made one video per day.
Because doing one video per day meant being more frequently chosen by the algorithm.
Another editor? It was out of the question until she settled and started making profit.
But now…
She made one video every two days, and her fellow editor took notes from the thumbnails to the editing points.
That didn’t mean she was resting.
Owning shares in the channel literally meant being an owner.
She couldn’t lack a sense of ownership.
Moreover, considering the current view counts, she could roughly gauge the revenue, motivating her to work harder!
“A 10-minute video earns 4 Korean won per view.”
Even a rough calculation meant at least 12 million won a month.
Of which, Han Jimin took a 25%.
3 million won, plus a base salary of 1.5 million, making it 4.5 million won.
“25% is a bit lower than when it was doing well.”
It was a peak period that hadn’t even lasted more than three months anyway.
In contrast, this was just the first month.
“Insane.”
She had to grow this channel further, doing her best.
“But wait. Why is the subscriber count weird?”
The subscriber count she had checked the day before was 50,000.
But why did it become 100,000 after a night’s sleep?