Chapter 23: Editor Recruitment (1)

Rumble rumble.

The sound of the train going from work to home could be heard.

“Sigh.”

Seo Ji-Ah hated this noise. She hated having to follow the tide of the train. It would be better if the wave took her to the wide ocean.

— The exit is on your left. The exit is on your left.

A different tide swept her away as soon as that one ended.

“Let me get out!”

“Would you move?”

“I’m passing by.”

Suits and ties brushed past her as she arrived in her neighborhood at Hoogye station. Some people called this little town within Seoul a slum, but she had been born here.

“I’m home.”

Ji-Ah said her usual greeting when she arrived home, but no one answered.

Thump.

She sat in front of her computer and tossed her bag to the side. Then she grabbed a handful of almonds in front of her, threw them into her mouth, and gulped it down with a glass of water.

After swallowing everything, she headed to the Treevy website. She scrolled through her follow list and clicked one. This channel recently caught her interest and the streamer had the same name as her frequent meal, Almond.

‘Just in time.’

Her pretty lips formed a smile. It was the happiest face she made the entire day.

Her only pleasure during the day was to watch Almond’s stream after work. She didn’t mind donating half her salary to support her pleasure in this new hobby.

Money existed to buy happiness anyways. Spending on this satisfied her more than buying luxury items.

Almond began to move around on the screen.

‘What a weird quest.’

Lady Emilia assigned a mission to infiltrate the castle. Almond readily accepted the impossible task and also intended to complete it. It seemed like he didn’t accept it purely for entertainment purposes.

‘Are you really planning to beat it?’

Almond climbed the castle walls after skillfully taking down two guards.

“...”

Ji-Ah became entranced and continued to watch the stream. The face cam on the bottom right corner distracted her, but Almond’s streams were definitely about the gameplay.

— Paang!

Ji-Ah subconsciously clapped when his arrow defeated the last soldier.

‘Wow!’

Almond rapidly fired his arrows like a minigun and shattered the castle lord’s armor. Ji-Ah shouted from the top of her lungs.

“Woooah!”

Tappity tap.

She quickly began typing to donate.

‘Should I donate 100,000 won?’

RubySword, who gave a 100,000 won mission, briefly popped up in her head.

‘Let’s do 300,000 won.’

She didn’t want to lose to anyone for Almond’s donations.

— Alright, now let’s go and see Lady Emilia’s shocked face… huh?

Almond’s eyes bulged out.

She focused on the face cam on the bottom right. Sang-Hyeon’s expression looked quite innocent and honest.

‘I wonder what kind of reaction he’s going to do.’

This reaction already satisfied Seo Ji-Ah, but the Almond she knew would do more.

Almond froze for a moment and looked at his chat.

— A whopping 300,000 won! Thank you so much SeoJiAh! But the name seems really familiar…

He scratched his head.

Ji-Ah’s lips slowly formed a smile as she watched him.

“He remembers.”

She muttered to herself in satisfaction when Almond read a good idea from the chat.

— Ending the stream with a somersault… good idea!

The chat room went wild with that statement. People asked who said it and they poked fun at each other. Of course, none of it contained any malice.

They all played around like close friends. The atmosphere remained light-hearted and playful. Ji-Ah liked how the chat always felt like that.

— Bye Treevy!

Almond raised his arms and somersaulted when an arrow pierced his head.

He accomplished another impressive act, but the Treevy viewers busily laughed.

“

Pfft…

so cute.”

Even Ji-Ah laughed along with them. What came next was even funnier.

— Huh?

Almond respawned at the same place and the stream continued.

— It seemed like I didn’t disconnect because I did the optimization.

Then he manually turned off the game.

“

Hahaha

, does he

have?

to turn the stream off?”

Ji-Ah burst into laughter and the viewers did the same at what just happened.

— He still ended the stream LOL

— I guess he couldn’t end the stream with a somersault after all.

— Oh well.

— LOL

— It was time to end it anyways.

— Haha this guy.

Ji-Ah also typed in the chat while shedding tears.

‘This is fun.’

She only felt more enjoyment instead of feeling like she wasted a ton of money. She may have spent 300,000 won, but seeing this kind of reaction felt worth it. If the purpose of making money was happiness, then this truly accomplished that goal.

‘Let me clip what just happened.’

Now, she returned to her main job.

Ji-Ah took multiple clips of Almond’s video and made another montage. She opened a folder and listened to numerous music files one by one. Then she picked the background music that suited it best.

‘These are for the company, but they’re just samples. Anyone can use them…’

Ji-Ah justified it to herself and focused on her work. Her eyes sparkled and a hint of excitement began to build.

‘This is going to be a big one.’

The video she made last time seemed inadequate in comparison. This video would be outstanding. It had a clear storyline and the video’s aesthetic was far superior to her previous efforts. Plus, Almond showed an even better shooting performance than last time. His sudden growth felt like such a mystery.

‘The montage has evolved as well.’

Ji-Ah shoved some more almonds into her mouth and began moving her mouse.

***

“Phew!”

Sang-Hyeon got up and brushed his wet hair to the side. He wiped himself with the towel he already prepared on the side beforehand.

“I guess I don’t disconnect from dying anymore…”

The result of his new trick surprised him, but the viewers reassured him. It was a 300,000 won reaction, so it needed to satisfy them.

“A 300,000 won donation… I wonder who that was?”

‘SeoJiAh…’

The name sounded familiar.

“Ah.”

Sang-Hyeon finally remembered as he sat in front of his computer.

‘AlmondFanSeoJiAh.’

That fan made the incredible montage of him.

‘I think she also donated 1 million won…’

She had been the one who also donated 1 million won when he streamed with Acorn Jelly.

‘I think it’s a girl. It feels a little overbearing.’

The message said he was good-looking and the name belonged to a girl. That amount of affection was a little much for Sang-Hyeon.

She seemed young, but spent so much on a streamer.

‘Am I out of touch?’

Sang-Hyeon scratched his head and moved on. He thought she was probably rich or something.

How would he work as a streamer from now on if he felt this way whenever he received money from strangers?

‘Look at the time…’

It was already 2 AM after his evening stream.

He lightly cleaned himself and headed to bed.

‘Let me see.’

Browsing KAF became his new routine before going to bed. It was the easiest way to see how people reacted to him.

[Almond 300,000 won reaction.gif]

He saw a post with that title. It had a ton of comments as well.

— LOL

— What’s going to happen when a 1 mil donation hits?

— Is he going to upload a video of him smashing the capsule?

└

Almond, do whatever you want! Break the capsule! Break it!

— He’s crazy… like, actually crazy….

└

LOL for real. Maybe he hit his head somersaulting.

└

I think he’s pretty fit, beyond being able to shoot well. A somersault in the capsule is still pretty difficult to do.

└

Easier than irl.

└

No, there was a b-boy dancer who said it’s even more difficult in capsules. It requires different techniques.?

— Ah frick, I missed today’s stream. I just got up…

└

LOL

└

Day 1s wake-up time: 2 AM.

Even Sang-Hyeon smirked at the comments. The internet had many amusing and weird people. That also kept it interesting though.

[Even arrows work if it’s like this.gif]

Another popular post contained such a title.

It depicted the scene of him defeating the castle lord. This gif repeatedly showed his arrows hitting the same spot and shattering the armor.

— Holy shit.

— LOL

— He hit the same spot over and over?

└

I did some research and apparently you have to hit the exact same spot repeatedly or it’s impossible.

└

Yeah, it’s not a mechanic the developers intended for. The physics of the game made it possible.

— I have no words.

— How does that make sense?

— An archery gold medalist probably couldn’t even do it.

This post also had tons of praise for Almond. Countless other posts about Almond floated around. Most of them became quite popular and showed Almond’s growing popularity.

“I like this.”

Sang-Hyeon felt satisfied with all their reactions. Being popular in a small community still made him popular. He felt good and proud about slowly finding his place as a streamer.

‘I should sleep.’

He closed his eyes with a faint smile. His phone screen turned off and no traces of light remained in his room.

***

Sang-Hyeon woke up the next day to a phone call.

“Ugh…”

‘Who is it…’

However, Sang-Hyeon swallowed his words when he saw that it came from Ju-Hyeok. That guy probably called him for a good reason.

“Hey… what’s up?”

“Were you sleeping?”

“Of course, do you not sleep?”

“I’m so good at it that I can do it with my eyes closed.”

Beep.

Sang-Hyeon straight-up hung up the phone.

Bzzt…

His phone buzzed around ten more times before he picked it up again.

“I’m sorry.”

“As long as you know.”

“There’s a problem.”

“What is it?”

“You know the person who uploaded the montage? Seo Ji-Ah.”

“Yeah.”

“That person doesn’t read the comments at all. I don’t know what she’s doing…”

“Comments? You tried to contact her using the comment section?”

“We have no other information. The only way to contact her right now is through the comments.”

“How about messaging her on Treevy?”

“She’s on private, so I can’t.”

They encountered a tricky situation.

“I think it’s going to take a little bit of time. Maybe I can say something next time when she’s watching my stream.”

“That’s a little risky… but okay for now.”

Beep.

Sang-Hyeon scratched his head after hanging up.

‘Let’s think about this slowly.’

Sang-Hyeon thought to himself as he cleaned his room. Today was garbage day, so he left the house to throw away all his trash.

Ding.?

AlmondFanSeoJiAh uploaded a new montage video on her channel.