Chapter 116: Just Chatting (1)

Sang-Hyeon slapped Ju-Hyeok's back on their way out of Punk's office.

"Good job. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have thought of raising the price."

"

Hmph.

As long as you know."

Ju-Hyeok formed a smug smile. Sang-Hyeon wanted to punch him, but he let it slide since Ju-Hyeok actually did something good for once. Instead, they decided to happily talk about money.

"How much do you think they're going to raise it?"

"The ad?

Hmm...

I think the maximum will be an extra ten million won."

"Really? So thirty million won?"

"Yeah."

A thirty million won advertisement pay sounded unbelievable. It was odd to witness ten million won being negotiated, let alone discussing it. These numbers were only tossed around when discussing a company’s money unrelated to paychecks.

"Yeah. If we get thirty million won, I'd be really glad."

Sang-Hyeon smiled while imagining happy thoughts.

"Anyways, it's not time for us to smile."

"Why?"

"Because we need to start looking for a new game."

"Ah."

Their previous discussion was about how it was time to start looking for a new game after

Battle Large.

"I thought we decided last time already."

"We're going with that? But you know that game is risky for variety gamers like you, especially early on, right?"

"Yeah," Sang-Hyeon nodded.

Even without experiencing it first-hand, he could tell it was dangerous in terms of business. It was like a restaurant resetting its menu.

"We have to come up with a strategy. Before then, we need to stay quiet."

"What should I do in today's stream? Should I try it?"

"Today?"

Ju-Hyeok rubbed his chin.

"Today's not a bad timing because of Ji-Ah's video... but we're not sure how to transition yet. I'm going to talk to Bubblegum's manager first... and see if we can utilize the collaboration with him..."

Ju-Hyeok wanted to find a better strategy before the stream began. Sang-Hyeon nodded and understood the situation.

***

After they arrived home, the two lay down and took a nap. They were tired from the tight schedule since early morning. The first one to wake up was Sang-Hyeon.

𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

"Hmm."

He got up to stretch and tried to wake up his mind. Then, he sent a text to Ji-Ah.

It was to compliment her about the video she uploaded. He waited a bit for the message to be read, but it wasn't seen even after ten minutes.

'Is she sleeping?'

She probably stayed up all night considering how she made all those videos at once.

Sang-Hyeon took out a sports drink from the fridge to quench his thirst.

Gulp. Gulp.

The cold drink slid down his throat and woke his mind up. Naturally, the capsule came into view.

'... It's 3 P.M.'

It was too early to stream. He streamed early during his journey to Diamond, but he decided not to ever since then. He was concerned for his health and the lack of content.

"Hmm..."

However, Sang-Hyeon kept staring at the capsule. Ju-Hyeok was asleep anyway.

'Should I turn it on just for a light run?'

When he first started streaming without Ju-Hyeok, he only had four viewers. Even so, it was fun for him. He felt a lot more carefree compared to now.

'I keep thinking about those days.'

He finished his stream with Bubblegum and even reached Diamond. This was his break period, but he wanted to stream. Not for work, but simply out of joy.

He couldn't stream freely because he now had at least 7000-8000 viewers. However, he still wanted to stream.

'If content is the problem, I can probably get by with just chatting.'

Sang-Hyeon headed into the capsule with that thought.

Chiiik—?

As he pressed the button, the lid opened and the pressure released. He crouched, went inside, and booted up the streaming program as he normally would.

[The stream will begin in 5 seconds.]

He remembered when he felt nervous reading that message.

'Anyway, it's been a while since I've turned on a stream for no reason.'

Since he started streaming, he only ever started a stream with a specific objective. Maybe that was the reason he felt nervous, but he felt good now.

He thought chatting with his viewers without a plan and discussing what game to play next would be fun.

[The stream is starting!]

The stream began.

— ???

— Wow, nice! 3 PM stream!

— The best way to spend 3 PM.

— Ohohoho

— AlHa!

— Oh it's not a bug? AL Ha!

— Ahahahaha!

— Almond Hi (AlHa)

A good amount of viewers gathered despite the sudden stream. These viewers were Almond's most passionate fans and were often the first to arrive in his streams.

Almond read the chat carefully as he listened to the intro music. He normally read most chats, but he would focus more on communication today.

Did he feel thankful after seeing the advertisement offer?

He didn't know why. Almond truly enjoyed communicating with his fans. His parents weren't around and he had no friends before he met Ju-Hyeok. He wasn't even aware that he thought of them as his friends.

"Hi, Treevy!"

After the intro music finished, Almond's face appeared.

— Wowww

— AlHa!

— Oppa! You're so good-looking today too!

— Kya! You're killing me!

— Almond! Almond! Almond! Almond!

— Kya

— Alhahahaha!

— AlHa!

Swiff.

The chat scrolled up much quicker than it usually did.

[RubySword has donated 1000 won.]

[Are you playing Battle Large today too?]

As always, RubySword was the first to start the line of donations.

"

Ah

, today..."

Almond scratched his head. He didn't plan on playing Battle Large. He was starting to look for a new game. There was a game he decided on, but now wasn’t the time to reveal it.

"I'm not sure what to do yet."

— ?!

— What the

— ????

— ???

"What should I do?"

— Why are you asking us that?

— What's going on?!

— Why did you start the stream??

— Why did you start so early? LOL

— Hahaha no way

— Oppa, let's talk!

"

Ah

, right. Talk. I turned on the stream because I wanted to talk."

— Suddenly?

— Why the sudden transition?

— No way

— For real?

— Almond's going to talk to us!?

[EggPlant has donated 3000 won.]

[This is an ad, right?]

The second donation was suspicious of Almond's stream being an advertisement.

“Pfft,”

Almond couldn't help but laugh.

— Is he laughing because he's caught red-handed?

— LOL! Another ad??

— Which one is it this time?!

— You tricked me! This was an ad!

"Thank you EggPlant. But no, this isn't an ad."

[NoWay has donated 10,000 won.]

[I'm scared there's going to be a kimchi stew sign that comes out from the back.]

— LOL

— Can't believe you

— Hahaha

— Nine thousand year old hell…?

— Man, a nightmare

Almond had never just chatted with his viewers, except when he did the kimchi stew mukbang. He usually read the chat well, but never for the sole purpose of communicating with his viewers.

"Wow, I can't believe you guys don't believe me. Like I said, it's not an ad. But if there's another fun ad like that, I'm going to probably do it again."

Almond started talking without a concept or speech in mind as if he were talking to his friends.

"Is there an ad that might seem fun?"

Almond started naturally talking to them. They were starting to communicate.

— A capitalism slave... don't streamers usually ask what games to play?

— Main job: ads, Secondary job: Games

— LOL

— I liked the kimchi stew AD. It's better than playing games all day.

[ImmaPeanut has donated 10,000 won.]

[Oppa, since you have a good figure, maybe a fashion ad!?]

"Thank you, Peanut. I did get some offers for some fashion apparel, but I’m not going to do it since they asked if they could put up all sorts of banners.”

— Oh wow, he has his own philosophy.

— I mean, yeah, it does make it look cheap.

[PoongPoong has donated 10,000 won.]

[Tell us about streaming with Bubblegum!!]

‘Ah, right.’

Almond realized after the donation that the first time he did a communication stream was after his experience with Fantasia. He thought talking about the collaboration stream was a good idea because many people were curious.

"

Ah

, yes. Should I talk about that next time too?

Hmm...

"

Almond squinted and looked closely at the chat.

'The chat is so fast.'

It was hard for him to read the chat because it was so quick. This usually only occurred when he pulled off a super play.

What was going on? Almond checked the view count. He didn't care about it much after seeing it was around eight thousand.

"!?"

[Current Viewers: 15k]

Surprisingly, he reached another new record. For some reason, he had more viewers than his stream with Bubblegum.

"Why are there 15,000 people watching this stream right now?"

— LOL For real!

— Even he's surprised.

— Hahahaha

He wouldn't normally mention the viewer count, but he couldn't help himself this time. How were there more people watching him now than during his road to Diamond?

"I might have a gift for... communicating."

— That ain't it.

— It's because of your new YouTube video!

— Oppa, show us your YouTube video reaction! You were so cool!!!

— I'm from YouTube. Please wake up.

— There are a lot of foreigners here too.

"

Ah

, I see. It's because of the new record."

Almond scratched his head in embarrassment.

Now that he thought about it, the video of him beating JeonJaPa's record was uploaded to YouTube. Lots of people gathered because those who only watched YouTube just found out about the record being broken today.

As expected, there was a donation that was looking for this moment.

Bam! Bababam!

[Fantasia_Official has donated a whopping 500,000 won!]

[Let's do an interview for breaking JeonJaPa's record right now! (Yu Ha-Yeon is on standby!)]

— Wow! 500,000 won!

— Kya, you're proving yourself with the amount!

— I feel the sincerity!

— Paying in advance!?

— Wow, Yu Ha-Yeon?

— Noonaaaaa

— Let's do it! Boss, please!

'Uh, what the? Fantasia?'

An interview with Fantasia? He wondered if it was real, but it seemed like the real deal judging from the donation amount and the user.

'I'm doing an ad for them anyways.'

Since an interviewer was also on standby, there was no reason for him to deny his sponsored company.

Almond slowly nodded.

"Thank you for the 500,000 won Fantasia. Then, should we do it?"