Chapter 114: Fierce Negotiations (1)

"Bubblegum and Almond will become characters in the game."

Ju-Hyeok was so shocked that he had to ask again, "As a character? So you're saying Almond will come out as an in-game character?"

"That's right."

Manager Oh put up another hologram that displayed a short figure. It was a depiction of Bubblegum, a 3D character with a bubble-like belly and a cute expression.

"What do you think? It's great, right? Since we have the bio-codes these days, the 3D scan takes care of the rest. If we give the okay, they can make it right away."

Sang-Hyeon continued to nod instinctively.

'Wow...'

It was a normal case for streamers to be released as characters when they grew bigger in the industry. However, most cases were exclusive to indie games. It was rare for a company as big as Fantasia to release characters based on streamers.

'This is incredible.'

Almond had to keep from smiling after discovering how great the advertisement would be. He couldn't imagine how Ju-Hyeok was feeling knowing how much that guy loved money.

“Huff,”?

Ju-Hyeok was holding his breath to keep a calm expression. He tried to turn and look at Manager Oh, but his eyes were glued to Bubblegum's hologram, as was Sang-Hyeon.

Bubblegum's hologram waddled out from the machine. Sang-Hyeon placed his finger on it as if he was petting a stray cat.

Bzzt.

A minor static occurred. There were no other effects to it yet.

"There's no touch interactions available yet. Once it's complete, it'll be possible. These days, lots of mobile games support hologram AR as well, so we need to make sure to meet those needs," Manager Oh further explained while their eyes were glued on the hologram.

"

Ah

, s-sorry, while you were explaining…" Ju-Hyeok apologized, embarrassed because he was distracted.

"No, it's alright. Experiencing this is part of the explanation too."

Clap.

Manager Oh clapped and moved on to the next subject.

"Should we talk about money?"

It was time for the main subject.

Knock. Knock.

"Manager Oh, the ad people are here."

Fantasia's employees finally arrived.

"

Ah

, they came just in time. Tell them to come in."

***

Two employees from Fantasia entered. One was a supervisor and the other was an assistant. It looked like they had no power, but were just here as mere representation for the contract. The supervisor was the first to name a price.

"The price is this."

After seeing the amount, Sang-Hyeon and Ju-Hyeok became speechless.

'This much?'

'Only this much?'

Ironically, the two were speechless for opposite reasons. In Sang-Hyeon's head, it was a big amount. So for him...

"Honestly, I can't deny that I'm disappointed with the amount after reading over the contract."

Ju-Hyeok seemed like an insane person to him.

'They're giving 20 million won.'

He was shocked by Ju-Hyeok, but kept it to himself. Judging from the atmosphere, the negotiations had begun. This wasn't the time to display emotions.

'He must have a plan.'

Sang-Hyeon stared at the others.

Ju-Hyeok stared at Fantasia's supervisor, but there was a touch of coldness that made it seem like he was angry.

It could have been taken as rude or aggressive, but this was the basics of negotiation. It was a game of push and pull.

Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeon were used to working with each other. Sang-Hyeon knew Ju-Hyeok's approach and kept calm despite the aggression.

"

Hmm...

20 million won isn't a small amount for you, Almond. Why do you think that?" Fantasia's people asked in response.

They skipped Manager Oh and Ju-Hyeok and went straight to Almond. Since he looked kind and innocent, they thought he was the easiest target.

Manager Oh just observed the situation as if it were entertaining. He was curious how they were going to negotiate.

Ju-Hyeok interrupted by speaking up, "Well, first—"

He got his pen out and put it beside the contract as if he planned to do so. Then, the Fantasia staff dryly coughed to cut him off.

"Kumph."

They glanced at him as if to say,

'We weren't asking you.'

"What's wrong? Is there something more you want to say?"

Ju-Hyeok retaliated by inferring whatever they had to ask Almond was the same as asking himself.

"

Ah

, no, nothing. My neck is dry. That's why. Continue."

Fierce negotiations were already starting to begin. Manager Oh formed a smile as this was beyond his expectations.

Fantasia panicked because the duo was about to fight back stronger than they expected. However, the staff didn’t lose their cool yet.

Those two were simply a streamer and a manager. How well could they negotiate? Fantasia was in charge of the advertisement and had no reason to back down...

These were likely the reasons why they could keep their cool. It was up to Ju-Hyeok to crush those reasons one by one.

Ju-Hyeok picked up his pen as if he was holding a knife.

"This contract has a period of three months."

The part Ju-Hyeok circled did say the contract was for three months.

"And over here."

The next section his pen pointed at was the characterization portion. This contract tried to utilize Almond as an advertisement model and character, all in one agreement. This was Ju-Hyeok's opening.

"There's no separate period stated for the characterization. That means it's included in the three month period... but it doesn't make sense because the character will be used until the game shuts down.

"That's right."

Fantasia couldn't disagree because a character couldn't be deleted during the game.

"That means this contract can be viewed as indefinite for now. The amount offered is much too low considering the duration."

The amount offered needed to be higher for the time period given. This was Ju-Hyeok's main point.

"20 million won is the highest amount Almond can currently receive. This is calculated from his subscriber count, his live viewership, etc."

Fantasia wasn't backing down either. They had their standards and acted accordingly. It was the first trick big corporations always used to counter the offer. However, Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeon were aware that they wouldn't be in this negotiation in the first place if there was no way to change the standard. Ju-Hyeok dug into their defenses.

"It's probably the best you can do as a short-term contract. But if we're talking about long-term, doesn't the standard change as well?"

"No. Whether it's short or long-term, the contract will remain the same."

"... How is it the same if the duration is different?"

It was like a ping-pong rally.

Tang!

Ju-Hyeok hit the ball and the opponent received it.

𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Tang!

"What we're trying to say is that we offered with the long-term duration in mind already."

"Are you saying Almond's best price is 20 million won as a long-term model?"

"More or less. By our standards, yes."

Tang!

Fantasia was able to hit back the difficult questions as well. The rally was getting quicker and more intense. Sang-Hyeon's eyes were fixated on their lips.

"How do you guys come to your standards?"

"YouTube subscriber count and average viewership. We can't specifically reveal everything that happens internally."

"Almond's subscriber count is 50,000, but his views reach around 300,000. For his stream, he gets around 7000-8000 weekly. Was this all factored in as well?"

"No one uses the most recent week as their range. At least a month of data is factored in. If that's the case, even 3000-4000 is a stretch. That's the current reality for Almond."

Was there a hint in that? Ju-Hyeok slowly smiled.

"Current? Right, that's the current reality."

"...?"

Fantasia's supervisor and assistant both stared at each other in confusion. Did they say something wrong?

"I'm not sure how long this game will go for, but it'll go on for at least five years."

"That's right."

"Then let's think about it. Do you know what to do if you're sure a stock is going to go up five times in five years?"

"..."

They were silent.

It was a tricky question, but Ju-Hyeok pushed further.

"If you know it'll go up by five times, it's the same thing as increasing by five times now because everyone will buy it for that price. That means the stock will go up by five times. The market won't wait five years for them. If the future is secured, it affects the current price as well."

"... Are you saying Almond will grow five times bigger in five years?"

"Five times is insulting. He'll be ten times bigger."

"You sound too full of yourself."

The two were reaching their peak. Manager Oh's smile disappeared and Sang-Hyeon prepared to chime in as well.

Chak.

However, Ju-Hyeok refused to back down and took out his data.

"I'm not being full of myself."

It was graphs and data of Almond's viewership and increasing subscriber count. All charts pointed upwards. There were even comparisons with other rising stars in the industry, but Almond topped the charts.

"Doesn't this graph tell you? How far he'll go?"

"Didn't we tell you we already factored that in?"

"Is that so? Did you factor this in? In this graph, where he's growing exponentially..."

Ju-Hyeok marked the low and highest points of the graph with his pen and drew a line. Then he pinpointed the middle of the line and wrote,

‘Fantasia's offer.’

"So you're saying you're simply averaging the start and end to give a price? That's not right. This is the right way."

He drew another line pointing upwards on the graph. He was drawing the line for the future. It was similar to the existing data and somewhere on the line he wrote,

'Market price.'

"This is how to calculate the market price."

"Isn't that graph just made up?"

"No, it's not. It's the future. The future is not just made up. It's something that'll inevitably happen and we always factor that in."

Manager Oh wiped the sweat off his forehead. Sang-Hyeon sat still too and waited for Ju-Hyeok.

Ju-Hyeok would push them further and deliver the finishing blow. Just then, he placed the finishing touches.

"Fantasia's stocks are higher than Ahsung, right?"

"... That's correct."

"Is that because Fantasia is currently bigger than Ahsung?"

"..."

They weren't sure how big Ahsung was, but Ju-Hyeok knew. He was working there a month ago.

"By profit, Ahsung has much more. Look at this."

Fantasia was a big and trendy company, but they were lacking compared to the traditional mogul Ahsung.

"... I see."

"But why is Fantasia's stock higher?"

"Probably because people expect big things from them?"

"And why do people expect that?"

"..."

They didn't respond. No, they couldn't. They realized that they were deep in the trap already. If they resisted further, they'd only be hurt more.

"The future. The expectation of their future! Fantasia may be smaller than Ahsung for now, but their stock is higher because their future seems brighter."

Fantasia's employees felt like they were in a checkmate. If they denied Ju-Hyeok, they were insulting their own company.

"Fantasia is a company where they sell the future and investors choose to invest in that. We just want to do the same thing."

Clap, clap, clap.

Manager Oh clapped beside them. The monologue impressed even him, but that didn't matter.

'Now what are they going to say?'

Sang-Hyeon stared at the two employees. After the two whispered to each other, the supervisor sighed deeply.

"Sigh."

He slowly took out a tablet and crossed a line through the original contract.

Swipe.

[Amount:?20,000,000?KRW]

Sang-Hyeon and Ju-Hyeok met eyes with them and smirked with broad smiles on their faces.