Season 4: Chapter 163. The Birth of the Great Lord (3)

The first public premiere of Cheese Village had ended. The total view count from the live debut alone reached 220,000 views.

“Wow...”

PD Jang and his production staff huddled together, eyes wide in disbelief.

“This is way higher than the first episode!”

The first episode had reached around 50,000 views during its premiere, which was already an impressive number for the official Cheese channel. But this? Even if one removed the Cheese Official label, only top-tier YouTube creators could achieve 220,000 live viewers.

“Over 100,000 in minutes... It’s up to 220,000 already!”

From the very start, the episode carried explosive momentum. Only the biggest streams usually saw these numbers.

[#15 Trending – All Categories]

The video was now climbing the global trending board. No one knew exactly how YouTube’s algorithm worked, but the industry’s best guess was clear. It prioritized real-time surges of traffic over total views. And this premiere had detonated like a bomb.

“Wait, is this the overall category ranking?!”

“

Whoa...!

”

The staff buzzed with excitement. Within the gaming category, it had already cracked the top five.

“Guess episode one really built some momentum, huh?”

“That’s not it.”

Tap, tap.

Producer Park Oh-Hoon pointed at the thumbnail on screen. “Just look at this. Even the thumbnail is brighter.”

The thumbnail featured Almond’s smiling face. They hadn’t used his chibi

Survival Craft

avatar, but intentionally included his real face. Rather than using Donuts again, they wanted to show the episode’s true star. That decision clearly paid off.

— Came for the handsome guy on the thumbnail, got 2-heads-tall pixels instead...

└ Same LMAO

└ Literally 2D now

— Big-head Almond! I’ll bite that head off!

└ Bro, chill

└ HAHAHAHA

An avalanche of comments matched the surge in views. Thousands poured in by the minute. A new top comment had already taken over as well.

— This place, too, will soon become fertile...

└ HAHAHAHA

└ Fertile with views!

└ The Lord’s blessing!

└ What does that even mean??

The meme hadn’t even appeared in the video yet, but veteran viewers were already spreading it. First-time watchers were understandably confused. The best comments tended to be written by those already in on the inside jokes.

— The viewers came as quickly as the Nonghyup Union when they were trying to sell the potatoes.

└ LOL

— I flew here like one of the Lord’s arrows.

— Title says Birth of the Great Lord. I haven’t even watched yet, but I’m already hyped.

The top comments all belonged to long-time viewers as newcomers caught up.

— Wait, why’s he suddenly a Farmer King??

└ HAHAHAHA what is going on

— Acorn Jelly keeps yelling weird stuff... what’s that about?

└ He’s the conspiracy guy, ignore him lmao

— I need the next episode ASAP

└ Same. What is even happening??

The preview clip at the end had hooked everyone. They rarely included previews at all. Producer Park Oh-Hoon had conceived that idea.

“

Ooooh...

” The staff turned toward him in admiration.

“

Heh.

” Park lifted his chin smugly.

“Don’t get cocky,” PD Jang muttered and scrolled through the rest of the comments.

— The whole anomaly thing had me crying. Paprika really lost it.

— Full-on Almond special. Absolutely hilarious.

— Wait, is this the same Almond who headshotted people for 100,000 won in Kingdom Age? My chest is swelling with pride.

— Sorry, I’m old. This guy is that ex-archer from the National Team, right? Yu Sang-Hyeon? He seems... different now. His head’s also way bigger.

└ Sir, please stop watching. It’ll only hurt more from here.

└ LOL his “personality changed”

└ It’s just roleplay, maybe??

└ “His head got bigger” bruh

The comment section became a chaotic battlefield of memes, confusion, and admiration as the views skyrocketed.

PD Jang leaned back, running a hand through his hair, and sighed. “Well... whatever. The numbers are good.”

A grin spread across every staff member’s face.

“Not good enough for bonuses, though. How about a team dinner instead?”

“

Ugh

, not the all-you-can-eat place again!”

“It’s bang for buck though!”

“

Arghhh!

”

***

Even Cheese headquarters noticed the new episode's explosive popularity.

“The viewership trend for the latest episode looks very strong.”

It became a topic in the morning meeting.

“Episode Two, titled

The Birth of the Great Lord

, is the story Almond came up with...”

As the presentation continued, the contrast in their expressions grew sharper. Two managers, Joo Ok-Ji and Go Ah-Sung, had pushed to recruit Almond and even raised the budget.

“

Ha!

”

“

Heh-heh.

”

Their noses practically grew like Pinocchio’s, high and proud. Meanwhile, Park Dong-Ryeol and Oh Jin-Hyeok, who had opposed the idea, avoided meeting anyone’s gaze.

“Currently, the video has surpassed five hundred thousand views with over five thousand comments. The response is excellent.”

The sharp divide in their expressions persisted until the report on Episode Two ended. Listening to it all was Cheese’s CEO, Choi Da-Hee.

“

Hmm.

” Even she had to nod in acknowledgment. “Almond really pulled it off this time.”

Her gaze automatically shifted to Team Leader Joo.

“I heard you were the one who strongly insisted on bringing him in? Good work.”

‘Yes!’

Under the table, Joo Ok-Ji clenched her fist in delight. The CEO rarely offered such open praise.

“What we prepared wasn’t bad, but Almond gave it a bold twist. That made the content far more entertaining.”

The rivalry between Paprika and Cheese had taken an unexpected turn, but that was a sandbox game’s charm. The players shaped the world. In a way, Almond was enjoying that sandbox the most as it was meant to be enjoyed.

“We’re only halfway through, so keep at it until the end of the project. Now, how’s the preparation for the platform competition?”

The meeting moved on to the next topic.

“Yes, we’re coordinating smoothly with Paprika. The event will likely be

LIL Survival

, and the server host will be...”

***

“

Yaaawn...

” Ji-Ah woke up after spending another night editing videos.

She scratched her head and stared at the computer still running beside her bed.

“

Ugh...

I should’ve turned it off.”

Her computer had been acting up lately, so leaving it on made her nervous. On the side of the monitor, the analytics graph still ticked upward. The video remained on a steady climb after going live.

“Huh?”

It had been a slow, steady incline until...

Pop.

The graph suddenly spiked and shot off the chart. Subscriber growth, which had been consistent, had also...

Pop.

Everything had skyrocketed. Blinking the sleep away from her eyes, Ji-Ah wondered if she was hallucinating.

[Subscribers: 1,280,000]

Almond’s channel had just passed 1.2 million after the

Civil Empire

world championship. Even during

Ghostwo Busters

, it had plateaued around one million. When Cheese Village began, wasn’t it around 1.21 million?

That meant they had gained 70,000 new subscribers.

“Seventy thousand?!”

After a channel reached a million subscribers, gaining that many at once was nearly impossible. Something external had to be driving it.

Ji-Ah quickly realized what it was. Sure enough, episode two had been uploaded. Right on the thumbnail was Almond’s face. The second episode of the massive collaborative project, featuring all major streamers, was titled

The Birth of the Great Lord

.

“Wow.”

It was a meteoric rise, different from the world championship. Back then, Almond had been the only well-known figure. The event itself had been niche and unexpectedly gained popularity thanks to the

Fake National Team

series and Joseon’s narrative.

Cheese Village was different. It had been a blockbuster from the start. A big-money platform like Jaber bankrolled the massive production, and Cheese brought it to life. Now, Almond had become the main character.

It was like being known in Hollywood because of a Korean film versus starring in a Hollywood blockbuster. Almond had become the latter. Even if this series didn’t hit the same view counts as the world championship, its prestige within the streaming community was unmatched.

The entire mainstream audience was watching. Of course, subscribers would flood in.

“Honestly, I saw this coming.” Ji-Ah smirked and opened her video folder.

No one felt Almond’s impact on Cheese Village more than her. Ji-Ah still had so much footage to edit for their channel. She already sensed that Cheese would need to produce a special Almond-focused episode. Seeing it happen in real time felt surreal.

[Cheese Craft EP.2 – The Birth of the Great Lord]

[930,000 views]

[#5 on Trending Videos]

“The video is performing insanely well. As expected from PD Jang... He pulled it off after all.”

Usually, official uploads received fewer views than individual channels. That had been the case for episode one, but episode two could potentially break that pattern. The momentum was unreal, and all that traffic was being funneled straight to Almond’s channel.

— Gotta rewatch it from Almond’s POV lol

— The Farmer King LOL! What even is this?

— It’s already up on Almond’s personal channel lol

— I recognize all these faces, classic Nut Squad!

— I checked Almond’s stream... this dude’s playing a different game. I only watch farming and fishing streams and had no clue lol

“

Hehe.

” Ji-Ah smiled as she scrolled through the comments.

Then, she glanced back at her overflowing folder of raw footage.

“When am I ever going to finish all this?”

For once, she hoped that Almond wouldn’t cause any chaos today.

“He’s probably conquered everything by now. Maybe we’ll finally get some peace.”

In her mind, the farming alliance was already in shambles. Zelo was awaiting execution, and the traitor era had ended. All that was left was King Sejong[1]’s coronation, or so she thought.

Ding!

[Almond has started streaming.]

Finally, Almond went live again.

1. The fourth ruler of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea. Known for establishing the Korean alphabet used today. ☜